Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the eighth episode in the Star Wars franchise and takes place directly after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It all starts with the First Order gaining even more power over the Rebellion, and the First Order has finally gained whereabouts on the dying Rebellion. Meanwhile, Rey attempts to make Luke Skywalker, who happens to be the last Jedi alive, to teach her the ways of the Force and become a Jedi, in order to help the Rebellion win the war. Luke is reluctant at first, due to the fact that his training with Ben Solo went so badly, but after R2D2 helps to convince Luke by reminding him of his memories of Obi Wan-Kanobi, Luke is set on teaching Rey the ways of the Jedi. However, while Rey begins her training, Kylo Ren and General Hux lead an all-out assault against the Rebellion, in hopes of ending them once and for all. 
 Star Wars: The Last Jedi has drastic highs and catastrophic lows that help to make the viewer's experience an odd one. There is more character development, some good actions scenes, and there are definitely some entertainment gained from watching Jedis show off their superiorness, but the movie doesn't really add that much suspense or intensity to the franchise. Most of the plot is more than fairly predictable, and even the few thrilling twists that are sprinkled throughout aren't that shocking. The movie tries to be this dramatic, action-packed film that is able to inspire a new sense of enjoyment in the Star Wars franchise, but the movie isn't quite able to accomplish this. 

 Star Wars: The Last Jedi has a fairly good beginning that starts things off nicely, but some of the moments in this beginning contradict with certain moments that exist later on. The middle of the movie is fine, not great, and parts of it begin to get sort of redundant and slightly boring, unappealing. The ending of the movie is by far the best part, without even the slightest hint of doubt, and this is where there are a few enjoyable moments that are carefully thought through and are witty. Another issue with the movie is the not cohesive tone. Parts of the movie are light and high-spirited, and other parts are much darker and grimmer. Even though a few jokes could help an otherwise dark movie, this is not the case with this one. Star Wars: The Last Jedi goes from being quintessential fairy tale-like tone to being dark, apocalyptic-like, which does nothing but confuse watchers. 

 Star Wars: The Last Jedi also falls into the trap of having their characters directly state the movie's themes, instead of elucidating it with the characters' actions. In fact, some characters have long monologues thats only purpose is to inform the audience of themes, which is something that viewers shouldn't need to be done. This movie also fails to truly make the main character of the movie truly shine out as the one star, seeing as Rey's role really isn't that important to the outcome of the movie. Now, her role could be better suited in the inevitable movies that will follow, but in this one, she is really nothing more than a sub-major character. 

 With all of that mind, the movie does have incredibly vivid visual effects that capture the science fiction-esque that the Star Wars movie conjure up all too perfectly. These superb special effects are repeatedly called on, and they do not disappoint. Mark Hamill is spectacular as an older Luke Skywalker, and because of him, the movie feels much more connected to the original trilogy, which is an absolute benefit for avid, dedicated fans. 

 Although a majority of critics found the movie enticing, viewers were oddly not on the same page. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a fantastic 91%, but a weak 72% of Google users liked the movie, which is actually terribly low, considering that typically around a minimum of 80% of users like any given movie. Because of this, perhaps it is safe to say that the enjoyment from the movie widely varies from watcher. However, even J.J. Abrams, who happens to be somebody who had a great influence on the movie, is doing his best to course correct the franchise with Episode IX, meaning he realizes that the most recent movies have not been nearly as good as he would have hoped. 

 Star Wars: The Last Jedi certainly isn't perfect and is nowhere near the same level that the original three movies were on, but it does a somewhat good job of furthering along the franchise and setting up future movies for more success, but this potential future success caused this one to not be the greatest by a long shot. The movie is definitely worth watching for Star Wars fans, but for those who haven't already invested previous time in the franchise, this is definitely not the place to start.