Mixed feelings on this one. It was a passable enough film, and there were some moments of greatness but it also felt more muddled in tone than the previous instalment and less watchable overall.
Noticeably, there were attempts at broad comedy which felt clunky, obvious and out of place. It just didn’t work for me. I knew we were in trouble in this department during the early “gag” in which Poe was pretending he couldn’t hear Hux which completely vanquished any sense of threat or tension. It was like taking a fun Han Solo type moment and magnifying it from homage to pastiche. This isn’t
Spaceballs, for God’s sake, but that’s how it felt. It perhaps speaks volumes that Ade Edmonson -
the Ade Edmonson - was the
straight man in this scene.
On that subject, Wikipedia suggests there were an awful lot of small roles, cameos and walk-ons for various celebs and high profile type people (the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex appeared as Stormtroopers, along with Gary Barlow). I couldn’t help wondering if there was just a bit too much larking round on set, distracting from what should have been the priority of making a quality film.
I spent ages trying to work out which familiar-looking middle-aged lady was playing Vice-Admiral Holdo. It seemed obvious she was an actress who’d been known for…
something decades earlier, but I couldn’t quite place her. It became distracting as I kept thinking I had it then realised I hadn’t. Along the way, I’d confused her with Annie Brackett from
Halloween, the
Black Market Baby girl from
Dallas and even JR’s secretary Sly. Turns out she was the one from
Jurassic Park (who I was convinced was Steven Spielberg’s wife in real life, but it seems I was wrong about
that as well).
The most tedious new character was DJ. Benicio Del Torres was emoting like billy-o to give off Jeff Goldblum type energy, managing the impressive feat of being not only supremely annoying but also rather dull. Most unforgivable was the stammer, which seemed to be there for no other reason other than to add quirk. Because, apparently, speech impediments are fair game.
It was by no means all bad news.
Luke’s scenes were great, and I enjoyed the atmospheric scenes on the dark and moody island on which he was self-exiled. Yes - it was very obviously a rip-off of Yoda’s introductory story from
Empire, but it was also a logical thing for him to pass on The Force in the same way.
Likewise, Kylo turning on Snoke felt like an ersatz version of Vader killing The Emperor in
Return Of The Jedi, but this, too had its own logic and I didn’t hate it.
Daisy Ridley seemed to have less screen time, which is a good thing considering I found her a lot less likeable here than in the previous film. I really like new character Rose, who filled that gap of plucky young heroine.
It was particularly great to see Yoda and, given Luke nearing the end of his life, it made perfect sense for him to appear to Luke in this context. Those CGI bird/owl type things were cute as well.
The business-as-usual stuff helped sell the film. Threepio’s flapping about remains enjoyable. Leia, too. She seemed to have a bit more presence here than in the previous film, which is a good thing. And the dedication to her at the end brought a little lump to my throat.
