Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I enjoy Star Wars, but it has never been a fandom I follow loyally. My brother is the Star Wars fanatic in my family. He eagerly awaits all the film releases and gets upset if I decide to wait until the Star Wars crowds die down before watching the films. (True story!)

Now that I live in New York and my brother can't get upset I barely got around to watching the film. This story has nothing to do with the rest of the review other than I find it funny because I'm an annoying little sister and what kind of sister would I be if I didn't do a good job of annoying my brother?

Anyway, there are many good things about the eighth installment of the franchise. In The Force Awakens we were introduced to Rey (Daisy Ridley) who is a female drawn to the force which is awesome to see. The film ended with Rey returning Luke's (Mark Hamill) lightsaber to Luke after he left to go into hiding. This film picks up where the other left off, with Rey trying to get Luke to train her and join the fight the rebels are fighting. He is reluctant to do either as his previous venture of mentoring ended in failure. I enjoyed that twist as the previous Jedi masters were all confident mentors.

Luke's previous student was his nephew Ben Solo who later turned into Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Kylo Ren killed his father Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in the previous installment. Luke has just learned this news and as he sees similarities between Rey and Ben he refuses to train her as he is now scared of what can be accomplished with such natural power.

It is interesting to see Rey take on what was Luke's role in "A New Hope" and see Luke remember once again that he must take on Obi-Wan Kenobi's role. There are other parallels as well.

Luke like Obi-Wan also blames himself for his student's corruption as Kylo Ren takes on what was essentially Anakin Skywalker's role in the prequels. Kylo, like Anakin, destroyed the temple where he was being trained and the students who decided not to join him were killed.

Luke reluctantly teaches Rey a bit about the force. He tells her that it is the energy found everywhere that binds everything together. He gets scared when Rey is seemingly drawn to the darkness residing in the island way too quickly. He sees so much of Ben in her that he cannot continue the training.

Luke is not a great mentor, but there are hints that Rey possesses everything she needs to be a great Jedi master even if she has no formal training. I am curious to see how the next film will handle Rey's  storyline and continue to see how she grows. I am also curious to see where Kylo Ren's storyline goes. Hopefully we will get to see their storylines unfold with more interesting villains to face than the ones found in this film.