Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Three or four years after the destruction and shut down of the Jurassic World theme park on Isla Nubar, Claire Dearing and Owen Grady must team up to save the remaining dinosaurs from a long-dormant volcano that is now on the brink of erupting and destroying the island. Assistance to save the dinosaurs comes from an unlikely source - Benjamin Lockwood, the partner of John Hammond who helped create the original Jurassic Park 20+ years earlier. While the rescue mission is underway, a scheme to sell the dinosaurs to the highest bidder and also to turn them into the ultimate weapon of war is put into motion.

As mentioned in my previous review of Jurassic World, I predicted that this long-running series had to make some drastic changes in order to not run out of steam and die. Well, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does manage to change course from the stereotypical "breaking out from the park and wreaking havoc", but not in a good way. If you've read my review of the last Transformers movie, then you'll know I usually can turn my brain off and just enjoy a movie despite having really stupid storylines or crap acting, etc. I tried, I really tried to with Fallen Kingdom, but for me it just wasn't enough this time around for me to enjoy the movie. It's extremely predictable - there's a major plot bomb (which I won't spoil here) that gets dropped about halfway through that I saw coming a mile away - and even the scenes where there was dino-on-dino action didn't do anything for me. Also, there are subplot points such as the aforementioned bombshell, where it seemed like the story didn't know what to do with it so the audience is told about it and then the rest of the subplot goes nowhere. 

It's true, I've never had the fondness for this series like practically every single person in my generation who grew up seeing Jurassic Park as a kid (I never saw it myself until I was about 21-23 years old). Still, I did like the original enough to be decently excited when Jurassic World, and now Fallen Kingdom came out. I'm sure die-hard fans of the Jurassic Park/World series are going to love the heck out of this, but unfortunately it did nothing for me. It's undoubtedly one of the worst to come out this year for me.

A Quiet Place

472 days after a devastating apocalyptic-level attack by unknown alien creatures who seem to have the ability to hear sounds at an alarmingly astute level, Lee and Evelyn Abbott, along with their two kids, have carved out a nearly completely silent life trying to survive the invasion. No one knows exactly how to defeat the creatures, and so humanity has been wiped out save for a few survivors like the Abbotts. Lee and his family succeed in surviving for quite awhile until it's discovered that Evelyn is pregnant. Once the gravity of the situation hits the family, they do everything they can to ensure the safety and survival of the family, including the unborn child.

I normally can't really stand horror (with a few notable exceptions), yet I found A Quiet Place to be a pretty brilliant idea turned into an almost equally brilliant end product using sound - or rather, the lack of it - as a means to ramp up the uneasiness and intrigue of having to live in a post-apocalypic world ravaged by aliens. In the end it turned out to be more suspense rather than true horror. This could have been just another Independence Day, Signs, or War of the Worlds, but it ends up separating itself from those by inviting the audience to actually care for the characters we see onscreen. Where the others are mostly all about the spectacle of the action scenes, A Quiet Place allows us to gain a peek into the lives of one family and how they are dealing with the devastating situation around them. It lets us actually see the raw emotions, the stress and brokenness, and even the forgiveness of a major transgression, as well as how strong the bond of a family can be. While the movie as a whole was more suspenseful than horror, I found myself legitimately full-blown scared for the safety of each of the characters due to the depth of the characters and the story. I also loved how they included the aspect of the daughter being deaf and having to use a cochlear implant; not only from a perspective of having included a character with a disability, but it also created an interesting plot device during the climax of the movie. The girl, Millicent Simmonds, is also legitimately deaf since birth from a medication overdose, so to see someone acting onscreen with an actual disability made me happy having a disability myself.

While A Quiet Place without a doubt will remain on my top 10 of the year, it's not without it's problems. There's some continuity issues, such as it's kind of unclear whether Evelyn becomes pregnant before or after the invasion, so it's hard not to wonder why anyone would be crazy enough to bring a newborn into a world such as this. It certainly creates a good level of suspense in how the family will survive, but on a realistic level it's kind of confusing. It also seems there's some 'director's discretion' when it comes to how perceptive the aliens are to sound, as well as how quickly they react to said sound. Again, it's not enough to make me dislike the film any less, but it just happened to be something I noticed while watching.

A Quiet Place is a dang good movie, and one which I would highly recommend, even to some like me who might not have looked into it due to the previews looking like the movie was more horror than suspense.

The Incredibles 2

Despite the Parr family (Bob/Mr. Incredible, Helen/Elastigirl, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack) diving head first and fully accepting their roles as superheroes, they are still in violation of the law which made superheroes - known as "supers" - illegal. When the city is under attack by a villain known as the Underminer, the Parr family still jumps at the chance to do the right thing and save the city. Unfortunately their efforts are unsuccessful, so they are imprisoned until a mysterious new benefactor  by the name of Winston Deaver and his sister Evelyn secures their release and make Bob and Helen a proposition. In order to overturn the law making supers illegal, Winston and Evelyn propose a campaign to bring supers back into the public eye. This campaign, however, has a catch - the Deaver siblings only want Helen/Elastigirl as the face of the campaign. Bob/Mr. Incredible is annoyed at first, but reluctantly agrees to turn into a stay-at-home dad while his wife tries to sway the public in their favor. Both Bob and Helen, along with each of their children try to make the best of the situation until a new enemy who goes by the name of Screenslaver attacks the city.

The first The Incredibles movie is by far one of the best Pixar movies to date, not only as an entertaining kids superhero movie, but one with fantastic messages about the importance of family and sticking together. Incredibles 2 is no different in that regards, but story-wise it did kind of seem at times to be the same as the original, just Helen/Elastigirl in place of Bob/Mr. Incredible. I'm not sure now who owns the rights to Marvel's Fantastic 4 franchise, if it's still Fox or now Disney/Marvel, but either way they really need to watch both of the Incredibles movies as they are the perfect example of what a Fantastic 4 movie SHOULD be. They are both a perfect balance of superhero action and a film about family. Other than the story, Incredibles 2 is more intense and action-packed than the first (as far as I can remember, anyways, it has been awhile since I've seen the original). With the characters, there's so many new characters that it felt like we didn't really get a great chance to know them, and on top of that despite the switch from Bob to Helen being in the spotlight this time around, it didn't seem like there was that much growth from the first movie for the Parr family and Lucius Best/Frozone. Even Edna Mode, one of the best parts of the original, only get maybe 3-4 scenes in the entire movie. I know this is a kids movie, and the target audience ultimately doesn't really care, but the villain reveal was a little too obvious to me. Jack-Jack, however, was by far the best and funniest part of the movie.

All that said, Incredibles 2 is definitely worth the 14 years of waiting. I'd say it's not exactly on par with the original, but it comes very close for me. Kids and adults alike will surely enjoy it as much as the original 14 years ago.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Face/Off

Since the death of his son, FBI agent Sean Archer has been trying to capture the man responsible - terrorist Castor Troy. Sean finally gets a breakthrough when he corners Castor at a local airport. In the process of trying to arrest Castor, Sean finds out there's a bomb in L.A., but then the plane Castor's on crashes, and as a result he gets put into a coma. In order to find out where the bomb is before time runs out, Sean Archer undergoes an unusual surgery to physically become Castor Troy in order to entice Castor's brother to reveal the location of the bomb. Complications arise when the real Castor Troy wakes up from his coma and undergoes his own surgery to physically become Sean Archer, and so begins a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.

I've seen a lot of movies with outrageous plot lines, but I think it's safe to say I've not seen very many like Face/Off. It's basically the epitome of mid-to-late '90's action cheese - but in a great way. When I heard what the story was, and that Nicolas Cage and John Travolta were the leads, I was hoping for some Nicolas Cage "NOT THE BEES!" moments. I was not disappointed in that regards. Cage is wild, hilarious, and a heck of a lot of fun as Castor Troy. John Travolta as Sean Archer is a bit more subdued, but is no less interesting. I loved watching each of them try to play as each other's characters. I do wish Travolta, when undercover as Castor, had gone a bit crazier in his performance, but even with what we got it was still great.

If you want realistic action and events, then Face/Off really isn't the movie for you. *Slight spoilers* early in the movie we see that there is 236 hours left until the bomb explodes, but then after the initial surgery the clock shows 216 hours. There's no way someone could realistically recover from such a major surgery in that short of a time. Personally, I can forgive the outrageousness of the plot, and ultimately the movie as a whole, because it's such a fun movie.

I don't know why it's taken me this long to finally see it, but I'm glad I did.

Deadpool 2

After finding (and brutally murdering) the man responsible for turning him into the fast-healing mutant that he is now, Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, decides it's time to hang up the blades...at least for a little while...and settle down with his fiancé Vanessa. At the same time a member of the X-Men, Colossus, is trying to get him to turn legit and join the X-Men team. Thing is, Deadpool's not a team player, nor does he consider himself a good guy. He keeps trying to resist Colossus' recruitment efforts, and does a good job of it until Deadpool comes across a young mutant by the name of Russell who Deadpool has to save from being assassinated by a mutant from the future named Cable. Deadpool must then team up with Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and a group of random mutants (and a normal guy named Peter) in order to save the kid.

As usual with the character of Deadpool, and in keeping with the (mostly irreverent) tone of the first movie, Deadpool 2 is filled to the brim with the classic 4th wall breaking, sarcastic, and vulgar at times humor. For once though, Deadpool 2 is actually one of the few sequels which builds on - and then exceeds - the original. Deadpool 2 actually had me doubled over laughing far more often and harder than I ever did while watching the original. I can't give *too* much away, but one specific scene that had me laughing the most was what I'll dub "the Winnie-the-Pooh sequence". I honestly don't think I've laughed that hard in a recent comedy in quite awhile. The cast was all around brilliant, and I'd have to say I prefer Josh Brolin as Cable over his role as Thanos in the main Marvel franchise. Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool is still perfectly cast, same for Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Zazie Beetz as Domino, and TJ Miller as Weasel. I thought Julian Dennison was good as Russell, but towards the end his character got to be kind of annoying to me, though I blame the writing for that one. There are a couple jokes towards the end of the movie (no spoilers) that did feel like they were stretched out a bit too thin for them to continue being funny, but that didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the movie. Another thing I appreciated was the pacing of the movie. It felt like it was more evenly paced than the original was.

Just like my original review of the first Deadpool, I advise extreme caution when letting younger kids see it. This is *not* your typical Marvel movie like Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man or Black Panther. It's far more violent, and the humor is far more crass. I highly suggest parents screen this before you let your kids see it.

Tag

Every year during the month of May since they were kids, five highly competitive friends (Hogan 'Hoagie' Malloy, Bob Callahan, Randy 'Chilli' Cilliano, Kevin Sable, and Jerry Pierce) gear up for a no-holds-barred game of tag -- risking just about everything from their necks, their jobs to their relationships to take one another down. This time, the game coincides with the wedding of Jerry, the only undefeated player. What should be an easy target soon becomes an all-out war as he knows they're coming to get him.

Tag is a pretty fun little movie overall, but even though it's a comedy I didn't find myself laughing as much or as hard as I would've liked. A lot of the jokes fell flat for me. Some of the ones that didn't work for me had to do with one of the group voicing their hope that the wife of another in the group had a miscarriage (among other things). That seemed more harsh than funny. Probably the one thing, or rather, person, that did make me laugh the most was Isla Fisher as Anna Malloy. She gets a bit too excited when it comes to the game, and other than her husband Hogan, is the one that takes things almost too far sometimes when the game is in session every year.

I did appreciate the positive theme/message of friendship, and not taking those relationships for granted - especially one that has lasted since elementary or middle school. It reminded me of a friendship or two like that for me, which I'm grateful for.

Tag isn't the best movie of the year - though I doubt it will end up being the worst - but it's worth seeing at least once while still in theaters. It is rated R though, so this isn't suited for the younger crowd.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY - Trading Places

Mortimer and Randolph Duke, millionaire brothers who own a commodities brokerage firm have made a life of making bets of random things. Their latest bet involves proving once and for all whether someone is a product of their environment, or if one could adapt to their surroundings. In order to do this, they work behind the scenes to influence the financial downfall of a snobbish broker at their firm named Louis Winthorpe III, and for a bum living on the streets named Billy Ray Valentine to take his place. What ensues is a hilarious affair that also has some pretty interesting messages regarding humanity, economic status, and racial bias.

If Trading Places had been the first Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd movie I'd ever seen, I could probably have predicted that both of these two men would have a great career in store for each of them. Both of them had me rolling with laughter whenever they were onscreen. I didn't read too much about it until I sat down and watched it, but I was surprised at the number of cameos throughout the movie. It was cool to see Frank Oz, the puppeteer responsible for several Muppet characters, Yoda, and Sesame Street characters. It took me several minutes to realize Jim Belushi makes an appearance as a New Year's Eve partier dressed in a monkey suit. Seeing Arleen Sorkin, the voice of Harley Quinn in the animated Justice League cartoon (one of my personal favorites), was unexpected and cool to see as well.

I did find it pretty interesting how Trading Places, while a comedy, had some things to say about economic status and racial bias. The two brothers, within the terms of their bet, believed that Louis - a white man who has never known what it means to be poor - would turn to crime due to his sudden financial windfall and Billy Ray -an African American living on the streets - wouldn't be able to become a respectable citizen when presented with more wealth and status than he ever dreamed of. This type of switching positions story has been done countless times - from Trading Places to Freaky  Friday - but where most times a story like this is simply played for laughs, nothing more, nothing less, Trading Places puts an emphasis on how it doesn't matter what background one comes from, what matters is character. Louis comes to learn that money isn't all it's cracked up to be, and Billy Ray continues to be the same wisecracking good man he was prior to the bet. I thought that was pretty cool.

Now, I must extend caution when watching Trading Places. It IS rated R, and because of this there are a few rather unnecessary scenes of topless women, in the context of simply changing clothes, as well as being drunk in the middle of a party. Hearing one of the Duke brothers drop the 'N' word randomly during a conversation, as well as a couple racist jokes was kind of jarring, yet at the same time not all that unexpected given the context of the story.

Despite that, however, I thought Trading Places was hilarious, and I'm glad I finally took the chance to sit down and watch it.

Star Wars EpisodeVIII: The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi, if anything, has proven to be one heck of a polarizing movie. I saw it opening night, and my initial reaction was a mix of awe & wonder, with a little bit of shock & disappointment thrown in. My first instinct was to put The Last Jedi within the top 3 or 5 of the entire Star Wars saga. Coming out of the theater, I had the same sort of feelings I had when I saw A New Hope for the first time.

After mulling it over for a few days, some thoughts have changed. Overall, it's not a bad film. It's certainly not to the level of The Phantom Menace or The Attack of the Clones (which each have their own redeeming values in my book, but miss the mark in reaching their full potential as being great movies). In fact, I would consider The Last Jedi to be the second best in the franchise. To fully give my own review, I am going to address some of the other arguments people have made saying why they thought it's a bad film, as well as give my own thoughts about what was done right or wrong.


1. Force Powers - I was really happy to see the extent in which Force powers were explored. It was cool to see the beginning of more powerful Force abilities in The Force Awakens when we witnessed Kylo Ren stop a blaster bolt in mid-air & simply hold it there while talking to another character. Up until that point, we had never witnessed (as far as the movies are concerned) anything more than Force Push/Pull, Darth Vader blocking a blaster bolt with his outstretched hand on Bespin, Mind Control and Force Lightning. It was cool to see the mind-linking ability between Kylo Ren and Rey, as well as a more advanced version of Force Lightning. The coolest ability was manifested in the form of Force projection, when Luke projected his own image across the entire galaxy in the confrontation with Kylo Ren. One thing I (mostly) don't understand is the backlash that a scene involving Leia is receiving after a section of her ship is blown up, and the audience watches her become unconscious and floating in space, only to wake up and pull herself with the Force toward her ship and get back onboard. If one is coming from a point of view where the CGI looks a little bit unpolished, then I can understand the distaste for that scene. I can somewhat agree, yet can look past the CGI, but I understand where you're coming from. If, however, your problem is something along the lines of "How is Leia able to survive in space" or "How does Leia have Force abilities now", then I have a couple things to say. First off, this is a story involving space wizards with the ability to manipulate just about everything with their mind/connection with the Force. That's basically the premise of what makes this story fantasy. Logic doesn't necessarily belong here, at least when discussing this particular aspect of the series. Not to mention, if we dive deeper into Star Wars lore, in not just the movies, but the books and video games as well, there are certain abilities described which make surviving in space for a grand total of maybe 5 minutes seem entirely feasible. For instance, there is a character named Darth Sion. Seen in the video game Knights of the Old Republic II, Scion has the ability to achieve immortality by channeling his anger to basically hold his broken and decaying body together so he cannot officially die. There are other various abilities such as the ability to destroy entire worlds by drawing in Force energy to oneself, and the ability to transfer one's essence to anyone or anything, as well as other minor abilities like creating a Force "Bubble" to use as a shield in the middle of a battle.

In regards to Leia specifically, most people I've talked to who wonder how she was able to achieve that feat in The Last Jedi forget two things : A) Leia is a Skywalker, and it was established in Return of the Jedi that she has the ability to channel the Force like Luke and Darth Vader; and B) It's been 30 years between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. It's not beyond the realm of possibility to believe that she received some training (though not enough to become a full-fledged Jedi Master) from Luke to have some basic Force abilities. My one and only critique of that scene specifically is this: I believe it should have been the way Leia passes away, because it was a powerfully breathtaking scene which could have served as the perfect opportunity to stir up emotions in the audience from the death of a beloved character. If there needed to be a scene where we see her use the Force in a way not previously established, then the set up could have been handled better.

2. Character Progression - I've read people's arguments about how there wasn't any character progression from The Force Awakens. I'd beg to differ in that regards...sort of. If we're talking about Snoke and Captain Phasma, then yes, there wasn't much in terms of character growth - we don't learn anything new about their background(s), they seem to only be there to further the main characters (Rey, Kylo, Finn and Poe) story arcs. Though I'd argue that's not a bad thing. However Rey, Kylo, Finn and Poe all have their own levels of character growth throughout The Last Jedi.

                                  A) Kylo Ren - So many people (myself included the very first time I watched The Force Awakens) considered him to be not much more than a whiny brat who didn't seem like he would ever become a true force (ha) to be reckoned with. After watching The Last Jedi, I went back and rewatched The Force Awakens and I can better appreciate Adam Driver's portrayal as Kylo Ren. I've actually come to the conclusion of Kylo being a Dark Side version of Luke in his youth - brash, impulsive, always basing his decisions on his feelings rather than thinking things through. Luke was the same way when he left in the middle of his training with Yoda to go save his friends who were in trouble, or when he was on Tatooine with Obi-wan Kenobi and he rushed home despite Kenobi's warnings to his aunt and uncle when he realized the Empire was led straight to their doorstep in the search for R2-D2 and C-3PO. That being said you can see throughout the movie how Kylo Ren comes to realize how he's being manipulated by Snoke, and when he kills off Snoke and offers Rey a chance to join him, I found it easy to see his complete downfall to the Dark Side. He finally has nothing holding him back from his quest for power and influence, and following in the footsteps of his grandfather Darth Vader. People also need to remember that this is only the second movie in the trilogy. There's still plenty of time to grow even more.

                                  B) Snoke - In terms of learning his backstory, there's not much there. However, I'd argue that that's exactly the point of his character. He's not there to to become the "big bad". He's there to help push Kylo Ren's character in the direction he needs to go to become the true villain of the new trilogy. As mentioned above in the Force Abilities section of this review, it was cool to see some of the extent of his own abilities. Seeing how little he's in the story though, sure, it would be interesting to see more of him whether it be his background (how he came into power, why was he such a threat to Luke and the Resistance, etc.) or just simply advancing his story from what it was in The Force Awakens. If anything, I would've wanted one final fight between either Snoke/Rey or Snoke/Luke and kill him off then. Yet, I'm ok with how his character arc was handled. Despite The Last Jedi having a runtime of almost 3 hours, I can see how it would probably have been too much at once to give more information on Snoke and Phasma, while also trying to bring to a close the classic characters of Luke, Leia and Han at the same time and further the story of Rey, Poe and Finn.

                                  C) Rey - Rey is, if anything, the one character I was hoping to get the most growth. There was some growth there, but it doesn't come in the way one might expect. As established through her conversation with Han Solo when she and Finn first meet him, Luke is seen as this sort of mythical, almost god-like individual who has amazing abilities and has done some amazing feats. When she finally meets Luke, she realizes just how human & fallible he really is. In essence, the meeting pretty much confirms the old saying "Never meet your heroes". Unfortunately, either I need to watch TLJ again and pay closer attention to her story arc, or something, because I didn't see much growth in her as I would've hoped. Also, in her defense: I rewatched The Force Awakens after I watched The Last Jedi, and I *still* don't get where everyone is saying Rey is just a SJW "perfect" character with no flaws. In her first flight in the Millennium Falcon as she and Finn are running away from the First Order, she crashes several times into the ground as well as the walls of the remains of old Star Destroyers on the planet. She does have some skill in self defense, but she is still beaten and taken hostage her first time facing Kylo Ren on Takodana. Fast forward to TLJ, and she's gotten better in her fighting style, as well as flying. And yet, I was really hoping for some significant progression in her understanding of the Force and how it relates to the conflict between the Light Side and the Dark, as well as her own growing power. ***EDIT*** I saw TLJ again, and I noticed a bit more in how she comes to understand the Force and the Light/Dark conflict. I didn't catch this the first time around, but she saves the Jedi sacred texts before Luke could destroy them and any other traces of the Jedi. I'm confident we will see even more growth into a full-fledged Jedi Master once Episode IX comes out. As far as her parentage, I was ok with her being a nobody. With so many theories thrown about on who she was related to, I think having her not being related to anyone special was one of the only good routes. Had she been the child of a former Jedi, or someone equally well known within the Star Wars universe, the reveal would've been unfulfilling and empty. On the surface it might seem anti-climactic, but it's still one of the only good routes. Also, in regards to her fighting style/proficiency again, she still has a lot to learn as she gets beaten pretty easily in her sparring match with Luke until in anger she Force grabs Luke's old lightsaber and almost attacks him with it.

                                 D) Poe - Poe is another character who's growth is subtle, but it's still there. All throughout TFA, we see how he's kind of a Han Solo-esque character - a hotshot who thinks with his ability to fly and blow things up rather than strategically, as a leader should. In TLJ, he starts off the same way, staying behind against orders to blow up a Star Destroyer instead of helping the escape to fight another day. It's because of this Leia demotes him, and he has to learn how to both gain that trust back, and to become a true leader for the Resistance. This lesson is solidified when his mutinous actions and going behind his superiors' backs to formulate a backup plan almost gets the Resistance annihilated. When his plan ultimately fails, and he realizes what Leia, Holdo, and the other Resistance leaders had in mind on the planet Crait, he gets a reality check of the damage his previous actions could have ultimately caused. His transformation to leader is solidified when he formulates a plan to escape the First Order on Crait, everyone looks to Leia for confirmation, and she says "What are you looking at me for?" and gets the group to follow Poe to safety.

                                  E) Finn - I think Finn's drawn the shortest straw in terms of overall character growth. He isn't given much to do outside of hoping to see Rey again and caring for her safety - whether it be out of romantic interest or simple camaraderie built from their experiences running from the First Order together. However, the (now infamous) Canto Bight sequence presented an opportunity to show Finn's character in a way not seen since the opening scene of The Force Awakens. If you recall, the opening scene of TFA showed Finn as a Storm Trooper hesitate to obey an order by Kylo Ren to murder innocent villagers on the planet Jakku. He goes into a little bit of his backstory with Rey later on, stating how he was taken from his family at a young age and raised to become a soldier for the First Order. However, it's not until his, uh, misadventure with Rose on Canto Bight that he fully understands just what it means to be a part of the Resistance fighting against the tyranny of the First Order. Some saw the events on Canto Bight simply as a way to inject SJW problems into the movie. Personally, I'm not one of those people. Like the Leia space scene, the scene on Canto Bight could have been less on the nose, but after seeing TLJ multiple times I have a greater appreciation for it.

                                  F) Phasma - Phasma's the one character I would agree that should have been handled better in both TFA and TLJ. She unfortunately gets the Boba Fett-esque treatment in both movies. I was never expecting her to be the main villain, but I was hoping to see her actually be a villain. The one fight scene she gets in TLJ was too short to have much (if any) impact on the story or any of characters.

                                G) Luke Skywalker - there have been a LOT of complaints that Luke's character has been destroyed, that he wouldn't have left his friends behind during a conflict (never mind that he technically did that when he left in search of Yoda, and then left Yoda in the middle of his training when he wasn't ready because his friends were in danger), he wouldn't have intentionally cut himself off from the Force, etc. I'm with a lot of these people in that I do wish we had seen Luke actually be in battle and be with his sister Leia, Han and Chewbacca. After seeing TLJ several times, however, I've come to appreciate his story arc. As mentioned above in Kylo Ren's description, Luke's always been the 'thinking with his heart and not with his brain' type of person. He's also one who takes failure far too personally (something I can relate to) and painfully. The timeline is slightly confusing, but some have argued about plot holes within the story as to why Luke is missing. In TFA, it's said he went searching for the first Jedi Temple. In TLJ, Luke's description of Kylo's fall to the dark side made me wonder if his search for the first Jedi Temple began, and then a short period after is when Kylo completed his fall to the dark side and burned Luke's new Jedi Academy. It's when this happens that Luke decides to just disappear after he finds the temple. I doubt he would have left the map to find him and the temple if he intended from the beginning to disappear. It's somewhat implied during a couple of conversations with Rey that Luke let the stories about him get to his head, and so he felt like he was invincible and that he had to live up to the stories. When that happens, Luke overestimates Kylo Ren (then known as Ben Solo) and his descent into the dark, as well as the magnitude of Snoke's influence. When Luke finally realizes how bad it's been is when he makes the drastic decision to end Ben's life and save everyone from harm. Yet just like when he makes the same decision when he attacks Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi out of pure anger when Vader threatens Leia, that feeling is only for a moment before he realizes his mistake, but unlike his confrontation with Darth Vader, by then it's too late. It's not until the end where Luke realizes what he must do, and confronts Kylo Ren in order to set things right for his mistakes. After watching the entire series straight through and then rewatching The Last Jedi, I don't really get how any of Luke's actions were out of character.

3. Story-wise, TLJ at its core is simply a giant space chase set almost immediately after the events of TFA. What I personally don't get is how a lot of people complained there wasn't much story, that a long chase through space was boring, etc. when Mad Max: Fury Road from a couple years ago has basically the exact same premise  - though it's set in the desert  - with even less of a story to go along with it, and yet that was widely praised while TLJ was divisive. I don't get how one can love a movie for almost the exact same reasons for hating a similar movie. Could TLJ's story have been crafted better? Sure, I can think of several ways in which the story could have gone. That being said, what we got instead wasn't bad in and of itself.

It took me several viewings to really appreciate The Last Jedi and this new trilogy as a whole, but in the end I'm excited where Episode IX is going to lead, as well as future movies within the Star Wars universe. Not to mention, I still consider The Last Jedi as the second best installment of the entire franchise.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Sometimes even our best laid plans don't go exactly how we wanted them to. Han's got big plans - plans to blast off his home planet of Corellia with his girlfriend Qi'ra and become a pilot in order to explore the galaxy. In order to do that, he has to escape his indentured servitude on Corellia and attempt to join the Galactic Empire as a pilot. Good enough plan, but he and Qi'ra are almost caught trying to escape, and are separated in the attempt. Han makes a promise to return for Qi'ra, and makes his way into the Empire's service as a pilot. But even that doesn't go as planned, as he's eventually kicked out of the Imperial Flight Academy and thrust on the ground in the middle of the war. During one major battle Han comes across a smuggler/criminal named Tobias Beckett who eventually takes Han under his wing and brings him along for a major job - to smuggle an unstable substance named coaxium by doing the infamous Kessel Run.

I'm a bit disappointed that Solo: A Star Wars Story isn't doing so well at the box office, because it's really quite fun.  It probably wasn't a good idea to release it just a few months after the divisive The Last Jedi (which I personally loved), but either way I loved it. For me, it was fun to see events referenced throughout the original trilogy - the Sabacc game in which Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon, how Han and Chewbacca meet, and of course the infamous Kessel Run. As with Rogue One, I thought the throwbacks/easter egg references to other parts of the larger Star Wars universe was handled very well, not so 'in your face' like in The Force Awakens. They were mostly more of the 'blink and you'll miss it' type. Alden Ehrenreich did pretty well as a young Han Solo with the material he was given. I wasn't expecting the rough-around-the-edges sarcastic smuggler we see in the original trilogy, but there were frequent glimpses of the Han Solo fans love throughout the movie. Donald Glover was perfectly cast as a young Lando Calrissian. He nailed the suave, playboy smuggler type we first meet in Empire Strikes Back. Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke did well with their respective roles as well, though I didn't really come around to enjoy their characters as much as I would have liked. It seemed more like they were just filler characters in order to move Han Solo to become the smuggler fans know and love, instead of characters of real substance. With Emilia's character as Qi'ra, I'm hoping that changes if/when there's a sequel to Solo, as there's a scene towards the end with a fantastic cameo which alludes to there being more to the story. I won't be the one to spoil the cameo if you haven't seen it, but I was both kind of surprised and very happy with it.

Overall, Solo's not the best of the new Star Wars movies, but personally I haven't seen a bad Star Wars movie from Disney yet. I hope that trend continues.