By Dru Barcelo
After a straining two year grace period since the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the intrepid, intergalactic heroes from far far away have returned to kindle the spark of hope that they have ignited.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi picks up shortly after The Force Awakens with the dwindling Resistance, led fearlessly by General Leia Organa (the now late Carrie Fisher), locked in an arms battle with the First Order. This battle serves as one of two threads that director Rian Johnson’s film follows for a fully indulging two and a half hour run time.
From beginning to end, the plotline stays true to the nature of conflict and having to choose a side, a theme prevalent throughout the series. However, it is especially so in this installment of the trilogy, being that it is the second and therefore middle installment, where the sides must be chosen.
Johnson does a superb job of keeping the audience on their heels, the audience left fathoming if either Rey or Kylo Ren could really pull the other to their side. There is a connection that is built by both of the characters struggle to find themselves, to justify and rectify their pasts as they follow their paths of training.
This brink blurs the lines of which side is just, so much so that the characters come together to triumph over a common evil, only to find themselves even farther from one another as the movie progressed to its latter half.
But the character develop isn’t exclusive to the main protagonist and antagonist. The secondary characters like Finn, Poe and Rose all undergo transformations to find their true selves in the midst of the war. The balance between the hope of the rebellion and the utter destruction by the galactic ships going on provides a constant pendulum that builds the excitement up for the audience.
These transformations act as the story telling device, the switch from scene to scene gives the movie a steady flow, making room for easy and deliberate transition shots.
Beyond the storytelling devices, the films cinematography is exquisite, the lightsaber duels in particular. The engagements are so fluid and borderline natural that it builds on the already treading tension as lightsabers clash and cling on to one another, the glare of the blade illuminating their holders eyes.
The theme of balance is also used to an extremity with these engagements with one side never always having the advantage.
To top off the brilliant storytelling and fluid cinematography, the film appears flat out gorgeous with the level of CGI and special effects that were implemented into the film given its budget. All these factors coincide, making it a tremendous feat in the franchises installment.
