Review: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

Warning: May Contain Spoilers!

The Last Jedi

The new, and much anticipated, Star Wars movie has finally been released. Two years after The Force Awakens we finally have an eighth entry into the mainline Star Wars movies. Before going ahead I have tried to avoid spoilers to the best of my abilities but there may be some present. 

Plot

Shortly after the events of The Force Awakens Rey (Daisy Ridley) hopes to be trained by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who has disconnected himself from the Force after a traumatic event years prior. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa (the late great Carrie Fischer), are close to being destroyed by the First Order under Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), which prompts Po Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to send Finn (John Boyega) and engineer Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) to find a way to save them. After his battle with Rey in the prior movie Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is facing an inner turmoil which creates a Force-link with Rey whom she wishes to rescue from the Dark side of the Force. I really enjoyed the plot and preferred it to The Force Awakens. I fundamentally disagree with some of the criticisms in regards to the plot which have been put forward by 'fanboys'. The main reason is the apparent shift in character of Luke Skywalker abandoning his friends and the Force. I thought it was an inventive move and not too out of his character (it was an impulsive choice and he did very impulsive choices in the Original Trilogy). People seem to forget that characters can change over medium, after all Luke has turned to the Dark side several times in the comics, and trauma can irreparably change someone's character. Personally, I saw a connection between Anakin's fall and Luke's fall: both had very lofty dreams, both were destined to bring balance to the Force, their own impulsiveness created a wrong decision which shattered their dreams, everything they once knew crumbled around them, and they fell from the Light (Luke becoming disconnected and Anakin falling to the Dark). Throughout the EU the Jedi have always been portrayed as being deeply, and inherently flawed, and I feel this is just one aspect which they've decided to adapt.

Overall, I would say that the plot is good. Bar some overly cheesy lines the dialogue was well written, and the last shot in the movie I felt was a bit too cheesy as well. One problem I did have was the handling of Snoke. Albeit this was partly my own fault and that of other fans: we hyped up Snoke beyond belief. However, the screenwriters should have recognized the hype, and you don't include a new Sith Lord on the magnitude of a new Palpatine and you don't go and do what they did. Other than that I did enjoy the plot. It felt like its own thing and was actually a sequel compared to The Force Awakens. 

Effects

Luckily The Last Jedi follows the trend of The Force Awakens and Rouge One where they mix practical effects with CGI. After over twenty years of CGI you can definitely tell which is CGI and which is practical effects so not all the effects are of the same quality. Due to the blending of effect styles this helps make the CGI seem much better than it actually is. At times I was wondering is what I am looking at computer generated, or is it a practical effect? For the most part the effects are phenomenal and makes it feel far more real compared to say the prequels, Kong: Skull Island, or Jurassic World which were mainly CGI so felt very artificial at times. There is a good example of how they blend the two effect styles together. A Force Ghost does appear which blends them together and it looks really good. Especially when they do this the effects are really good. Not all effects are at such a high standard though. The ice dogs on the salt planet seem very out of place, especially as animal effects were done much better earlier on in the movie. If they had merged practical and CGI together they could have looked better. However, the effects and CGI were overall good in this movie.

Acting

The acting was good. Of course Carrie Fischer and Mark Hamill are seasoned and excellent actors so they did a flawless job. Although Mark Hamill didn't like the apparent change in character he played in anyway in an extremely good way. The newer actors are good as well. Daisy Ridley was good and I felt Adam Driver really improved his acting from the first film. I think with him spending the majority of this movie without his helmet really improved his confidence on screen. In particular his acting with Daisy Ridley was really good. Personally, I could just have watched the movie where it just followed John Boyega. He is extremely talented and charismatic, and it made me want to just see him all the time. Easily the best new actor in the movie.

World
Like Rouge One I felt that The Last Jedi felt truly part of the Star Wars universe. This movie actually bothers to show the repercussions of the events of the prior film in a realistic way. Although Empire remains my favorite entry into the series, and one of my top ten movies of all time, I was bothered by the fact that there seemed to be no immediate repercussions for the destruction of the Death Star and Alderaan. In The Last Jedi the First Order immediately retaliates for the destruction of Starkiller Base and people aligned with the Resistance choose not to assist them due to fear of the First Order. Yes their prime weapon has been destroyed but they wiped out the Republic and seemed to be unfazed by Starkiller Base's destruction. With the exception of the ice dogs I felt all the animals shown in the movie felt part of the Star Wars universe. One particular detail which I liked was how a reptilian tail could be seen breaking the water as Rey and Skywalker was talking; no one made a deal out of it which grounds the unseen creature in that universe's reality. It felt like someone in Cornwall or Orkney seeing a basking shark near the surface. Canto Bight I thought was really fitting with the Star Wars universe. The casino where unrepentant capitalistic arms dealers spent their blood money watching child slaves ride animals in races using their profits from selling arms to the First Order seemed straight out of the EU or now Canon comics. It felt like a Mos Eisley for the Galaxy's elite. I do like how in both this movie and Rouge One they show the darker side to the Resistance/Rebellion with them buying arms from the same people who supply the First Order. One issue I did have was Laura Dern's character saying 'God speed'; in the Star Wars universe 'Maker' is more commonly used. Finally, I want to talk about the Force in this movie. How Luke, Rey, and another character uses the Light side, as well as the depiction of the Dark, is phenomenally done. It felt a natural part of how the Force is used in the Star Wars universe.

Conclusion
As you can probably tell I really enjoyed this movie. Although I prefer Empire and Rouge One I did really enjoy this one. I thought it was better than The Force Awakens but being better than A New Hope is debatable, and I would have to rewatch all the movies to decide which order I would place The Last Jedi. I felt this was a fitting last movie for Carrie Fischer who tragically passed away a year ago. She had two stunning moments which gave her, and Leia, the respect which an actor of her caliber deserved. For good effects and acting but for some questionable choices done throughout the movie in would give The Last Jedi an 8/10.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review. Did you agree with me or completely disagree? I would love to hear your opinions, positive and negative, about The Last Jedi. For future blog updates please see either our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Normally I don't announce the topic of next week's post but this week I shall: I'll be discussing how I would bring Deadpool, the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the MCU. Thanks for reading and may the Force be with you.

Review: Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

Warning: Spoilers

The Killing Joke

One of the most controversial Batman stories was adapted into an animated film which saw a limited worldwide release on Monday. I am a huge Batman fan and despite the controversial nature of the comic The Killing Joke is one of my favorite Batman stories. Hence, I was fairly excited to see this film. Like always this review contains spoilers so please skip to the conclusion where I give my final verdict if you don't want any spoilers. Before I start though most of my opinions concerning The Killing Joke can be found in my Comics Explained which I did for this story if you are interested in reading it.

Plot

Unexpectedly this film does not only use the story of the comic. Instead it starts off with another story depicting Batgirl, (Tara Strong), and Batman, (Kevin Conroy), trying to take down a narcissistic mobster, (Maury Sterling), who has a perverse fascination about Batgirl. Following this is the actual The Killing Joke story, (please see here). Overall the plot of the film is very good. The second half is a direct adaptation of the story so it builds on what originally worked while the first half I feel could have worked as a standalone story. The pacing of both halves is done very well so this allowed the plot to not feel rushed, as well as both halves not feeling rushed as well. The Joker's song when showing Gordon images of a tortured Barbara was done very well also and it epitomizes the Joker; singing happily and cheerfully about the darkest of things imaginable. Although, I felt that the second half was stronger than the first, but that does not mean that the first half was bad.  

The first half I originally thought was just filler to pad out the film, unlike The Dark Knight Returns or The Long Halloween The Killing Joke is a somewhat shorter story, until the second half started. It served as a good way to build up to the overall theme of the story: can we bring ourselves back from the darkness. It delves much with Batgirl finding the strength not to permanently harm, or even kill, a sadistic sociopath who has been fantasizing about her and wants to make her his own. It very much helps set up the second half effectively which deals with not giving in to our own anger. I particularly liked the mobster who Batgirl wants to take down, Paris, and I could easily imagine him being one of the Bat family mobster villains like Black Mask. However, there were some things that I was not happy with. Largely the Bat sex. I shall talk more about this because to me and many others it seemed to ruin the first half.

For those who weren't aware Batman and Batgirl have sex and throughout the story it plays with sexual tension which Batgirl feels for Batman. I hated this aspect of the story. I have a feeling that Brian Azzarello thought that exploring a relationship between Batman and Batgirl this would create a bigger impact for the second half. As a comic book fan and a huge Batman and Batgirl fan I felt this was a complete misrepresentation of the characters, and from what people are saying on the internet I am not alone. I always felt Batman was like a father figure for Batgirl rather than a romantic interest and this could easily have been shown by the film. To me it would have been much better if Batman's protectiveness over Batgirl and her rebelling against him was meant to represent a father wanting to protect his daughter and a daughter wanting to show her father that she can do these things. Batman mentioning not giving in to the darkness could have worked into this as well. A scene in the second half has the Batcomputer which shows an image of a dying Robin. In the story Death in the Family the Joker beats to death Jason Todd who was the second Robin which Batman sees as his greatest failure. I felt maybe they could have used this and have Batman's protectiveness being about the fear of losing a daughter just as he lost a son. Thanks to this Bat sex issue it really messed up the first half of the story.

Voice Acting

Mark Hamill aka the Joker

One of the best things about the movie is the voice acting. The actors who voiced their characters in the DC Animated Universe reprise their roles in this movie. Kevin Conroy is by far my favorite Batman and he brings back that good performance in this movie. Tara Strong is back as Batgirl and she is really good as well. I find Strong's work to always be good and this is no exception. John DiMaggio, (Jake the Dog from Adventure Time and Bender from Futurama), is in this and I did not know until the credits, and he does a good job here also. However, all this is overshadowed by one actor: Mark Hamill. Hamill reprises his role as the Joker and he steals the show. He is once again fantastic and literally everything about him is done well. In this role he captures everything that makes the Joker: happy about doing the most evil things possible, suddenly going into a psychotic rage, then laughing immediately after the rage, singing gleefully about dying children and going insane, and all with a perverse charm. I had goose bumps when he gave the famous 'One Bad Day' monologue. He steals the show without a doubt. The joke he says at the end actually got laughs from some people at the end despite the dire atmosphere which shows his good performance. In his final performance as the Joker he definitely solidifies himself as the best Joker.

Animation

Both good, like this, and poor at times

The animation is a mixed bag. At times, such as the shot above, it is very well done very good animation. There's two times where it really stands out: one when the Batmobile pulls an armored car from a truck and another when the Joker's admiring his amusement park. During the final fight between the Joker and Batman it is really well done and the quick paced editing really adds to the effect. I particularly like how they've made it resemble the DC Animated Universe animation style which is a nice throwback. However, at times the animation is poor and the editing choppy. There's only one point when it stands out, when Batman is entering Arkham Asylum, but periodically throughout the film the animation quality drops as well as the frames per second. It is noticeable and it is really offputting, especially when it is really good at other times of the movie. As the budget of the film is only around US $ 3.5 million I have a feeling they purposefully gave the more important scenes the better animation which is a shame. It really wrecks the rest of the movie that some scenes has far better editing and animation. Although for just three and a half million it does have good animation and it is far better than Norm of the North with a budget around six times that of The Killing Joke. Although, I was a bit disappointed that they left out the two beams of light and one turning off that was at the end of the comic, (which started the theory that Batman killed the Joker), but that might just be me as it is my favorite panel in the comic.

Music

The music is phenomenal. Most Batman movies have good music and this one is no exception. As said earlier the Joker's song is really good and the use of a Broadway type song is very imaginative and fits very well with the Joker's personality. During the last fight as well it is very tense which adds to an already tense scene making a thrilling experience. From a technical standpoint this is the best part of the film. Nothing more to be said of it. 

Documentaries

The movie had two short documentaries with it: one before about Mark Hamill as the Joker and one after about the music. Both were good although I preferred the first one. It starts with Hamill in 1976 being cast as Luke Skywalker, then up to the 1990s when he became the Joker, then in 2008/9 when he reprised his role in Batman: Arkham Asylum and then 2016 with this movie. It was a good homage to the best Joker in my opinion.

References

Like all comic book movies it contains some references to the wider DC universe although with this one it is mostly limited to the Batman comics. John DiMaggio appeared who played the Joker, very well as well, in Batman: Under the Red Hood. Two Face also has a brief cameo when Batman arrives at the asylum where his scarred side is clawing at the front of his cell. Finally, on the Batcomputer there are several references to famous Joker stories including Death in the Family as a beaten Robin can be seen as well as referencing the Joker's very first appearance in one part of the screen.

Conclusion

With good animation at times, good voice acting, phenomenal work from Hamill and good music but thanks to bad editing at times, some poor animation, a weaker first half and that unforgivable Bat sex scene I shall give Batman: The Killing Joke a 7.1/10. Not as good as Under the Red Hood or The Dark Knight Returns and I doubt Alan Moore would be happy with it, but it is a good film regardless which I feel any DC fan will enjoy. Thanks for reading and please feel free to give me your own opinions on the movie.

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