http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/star-wars-the-last-jedi

"George Lucas was right with his 2005 claim (later reversed) that there wouldn’t be an Episode VII because there was no more story to tell. Filmmakers can bring back Han, Luke, and Leia but that doesn’t mean there’s a compelling narrative for them."

"For this post-Lucas trilogy, the stakes seem smaller, the villains less intimidating, and the story too familiar. Every new movie gives us additional planets but, with the last two films, the far, far away galaxy seems to be shrinking."

i was struck by how it all feels so SMALL. in the original trilogy the galaxy felt vast, packed full of strange sights and creatures

in the new movies, it somehow doesn't feel like much exists aside from the characters we follow

it really loses something in that

@alyx i think a lot of that has to do with the fact that most of the action takes place on board ships

empire was a bit the same way except it had lando calrissian and cloud city to help expand it a bit. the casino planet tries to do that but does feel very limited in comparison

fwiw i think the ending (for me at least) pointed to a very expansive galaxy and a world far beyond the immediate cast. i hope they make good on that in the next movie or even the next trilogy

@ebeth good points.

the empire parallels are many. i actually groaned at the opening crawl because, like, it was 90% describing ESB, and we just came off the previous film brazenly aping ANH.

but the film was decent. i enjoyed it more than TFA.

i think it's tragic to lose carrie fisher when we did; she played a major role in this story, and i just read she was originally intended to bottom-line IX. leia's become my favorite character. what a loss.

i also felt luke was shortchanged, not the major player i wanted him to be in this trilogy

@alyx RIP carrie fisher, drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra

there were absolutely parts of luke's characterization i was not a fan of on in this one but i'm also sort of glad they've kept this theme of the older characters passing the torch. i love them all so much but the last thing i want is to have them hanging around so much that it ends up feeling forced (no pun intended )