Star Wars: The Last Jedi contains too many subplots

Overall story of The Last Jedi falls short of expectations

While many enjoyed “The Last Jedi,” I heard just as many people express their disappointment.

When I finally was able to go watch it for myself, mixed feelings arose while I watched the movie play.

“The Last Jedi” starts with the jets chasing each other because of the ongoing war and reminded me too much of “Revenge of the Sith” (2005).

What I did appreciate are the moments when “A New Hope” music theme echoed while Luke Skywalker was training Rey about the jedi mindset and the beliefs about the world, especially in how The Force moves.

I heard it so many times that I believe it was meant to set the tone for the movie yet in a number of aspects, the plot falls short of what it could have accomplished.

What it all boils down to is the subject of the story and I felt like “The Last Jedi” played off the previous movies instead of finding its own contribution to the whole series.

Like Yoda, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) hides out and Rey (Daisy Ridley) must convince him to train him like he did to Yoda so many years ago. I understand that director Rian Johnson was trying to tie in connections, but at the same time, the plot needed to advance and I felt like it never did.

Many times the plot could have gone deeper and darker, it fell short instead. The power of a darker plot would have had more of a force over its audience.

The set-up of the story structure in “Revenge of the Sith” was well played out, especially in light of Palpatine manipulating Anakin’s emotions and his fears in his wish to protect Padme.

“The Last Jedi” has so many subplots that lack closure and a main focus is out of the question: Kylo’s spiritual battle warring inside him that emerges when he destroys Snoke (Andy Serkis), Poe (Oscar Isaac) attempting to take charge of the Resistance, and the romance unfolding between Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran).

As a side note, there are touching times in what feels like the few moments we have with Leia (Carrie Fischer).

While she tends to have a voice as a leader because she is the first female jedi, she speaks more gently and softly than she has in her other Star Wars movies which gives her a commanding presence in a sense.

As much as we the audience dread her death, we knew she was not well and when there were several close calls, I held my breath and speculated whether or not the director had killed her off.

I also wonder if it stirred with the audience as much as me since it calls into question of are we mourning for Leia or Carrie Fischer, or both?

Ultimately, I still don’t know what to think about “The Last Jedi” though I thoroughly tried to give it a careful thought before I wrote anything.

The psychic connection between Kylo and Rey is pretty cool and another new element to the story but the tension between them did not feel like it strengthened.

It surprised me that after Kylo and Rey teamed up and fought against Snoke that Kylo still chose the dark side because that is where the hope lies, in that the Jedi will resurrect to full resistance again.

I anticipated some parts of the movie would pick up, especially when Kylo and Rey touched hands and that Kylo would join the Jedi but then the entire movie would have lacked substance because of what would seem like an easy choice.

It would have been more real had Rey chosen the dark side. It would have given the audience a reason to look forward to another movie and continuation of the story.

As it is, I don’t know what I should expect in the ninth episode but I am still willing to hold out hope that perhaps the disjointed stories will come together later.