Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Blu-ray

Film: It's a good time to be a Star Wars fan. For starters, there's a new movie every year for some time to come, there's more and better merchandising, and even a live action TV series has been announced. Despite this ever-expanding offering, which includes novels and games, it's always a special experience when the Lucasfilm logo appears on the screen, followed by the words, "Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away...". It's an experience that fans look forward to for months, accompanied by a sense of anticipation that will hopefully be fulfilled once again this time around.

Then it may well happen that this expectation is too great to be fulfilled. So little things that you might not even notice otherwise become real spoilers and everything that isn't absolutely perfect might be criticized a bit too much. Especially for real fans - and I would definitely call myself one - it's hard to keep the necessary objectivity. And that's exactly the reason why I would call Star Wars: The Last Jedi a very good, even great Star Wars movie in places, but one that leaves you feeling strangely unsatisfied in some places.

The story isn't really deep. The First Order under their supreme leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) is becoming more and more powerful and spreading more and more throughout the galaxy, while the New Republic is being pushed out more and more. Only a small group of rebels, led by Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), has so far been able to stand firm against Snoke and his forces - always hoping that Rey (Daisy Ridley) will be able to find Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and convince him to join the fight and bring new hope to the galaxy. But time is running out, with the First Order hot on the heels of the few remaining New Republic ships. While Rey tries to lure the last Jedi out of his self-imposed isolation, Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) set about implementing a dangerous plan to escape Snoke after all and build a new rebel alliance.

More should not be revealed in any case, because in the course of the film there are some small, but also big surprises that should not be spoiled for any viewer. Therefore, better straight to the point: why does the film leave a somewhat disappointing impression in places?! J.J. Abrams was criticized by some fans for the fact that his movie had too few own ideas to offer and basically retold the story of the original trilogy. While this criticism isn't entirely unfounded, at least in places, it's also why The Force Awakens was so successful: unlike the unloved prequels, Abrams' film spread a warm blanket of nostalgia over fans and gave them exactly what they've been craving for so many years.

Rian Johnson now has the slightly more difficult task of both satisfying those fan needs as well and taking it in a new direction. This film is even more of a passing of the baton to the next generation than its predecessor. Johnson tries his hand at mixing the old with the new and unfortunately doesn't always hit exactly the right note. When he succeeds, it makes for some pretty great moments. Mark Hamill is just great and even Carrie Fisher, who passed away a few months ago, still delivers some truly wonderful scenes. But it's not just the old houses, the newcomers - most notably Daisy Ridley as Rey and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren - play really well too.

This helps cover up some dramaturgical flaws very well. But in some scenes, neither the great effects nor the good actors help. Especially when it comes to humor, but also in a scene that is very emotional in itself, the tone doesn't quite want to match what Star Wars is about in itself. And also a scene on a casino planet doesn't really convince, because it doesn't contribute much to the story, but is way too long. To elaborate on all that would mean to give away too much - especially regarding the implied emotional moment. This can be said, though: These points of criticism do stand out very clearly from time to time and perhaps also tarnish the overall impression a tiny bit. But objectively they are not really serious enough to really disturb the enjoyment of the film in the long run.

It's also quite clear that the positives clearly outnumber the negatives. There are two or three scenes that can confidently be counted among the highlights of the entire series. And also the fact that Johnson perfectly succeeds in two scenes in particular to play with the expectation of the fans, only to then take a completely unexpected direction, easily outweighs many of the weaknesses. If the very last, really unnecessary scene had been left out, the actually perfect finale would have additionally pulled some things out. But with this short epilogue sequence, the audience is once again reminded that the film is not quite the masterpiece that many had hoped for. A feast for fans, Star Wars: The Last Jedi has become nonetheless.

And that's exactly why the bottom line is: Absolutely worth seeing! One can already be curious about how J.J. Abrams will bring this trilogy to a conclusion in two years! May the force be with him.

Picture + Sound: The Blu-ray offers the film in exactly the quality one might expect: the picture is absolutely clean and has a very high level of image sharpness, which is especially evident in the brighter shots. The 2D version is also pleasing with a nice depth to the image, and colors and black levels are very well matched. The audio is present in a very powerful Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 mix, which is able to reach its full potential especially during scenes like the battle on Crait or the opening space battle. Very good!

Extras: Here the Blu-ray can really score. Because the bonus material is really great! It starts off with an audio commentary by Rian Johnson that is worth listening to. You can tell from the commentary how much passion he put into the film. And even if fans don't like all of his creative decisions, it's still very interesting to learn about the intentions behind them. So the commentary is absolutely worth listening to, and not just for fans who really like the movie.

Continue with 14 cut scenes, which can optionally be viewed with an explanatory commentary. (approx. 23:32 min.). An alternate cut opening and a very amusing scene on the island Luke has retreated to are the highlights of this collection. Otherwise, scenes with Finn and Rose dominate the action. Worth seeing, even if the effects weren't finished.

The best extra on the bonus disc follows: The 91-minute documentary The Director and the Jedi. This very high quality produced documentary features lots of great footage from the making of the film, while also being delightfully honest, such as when it talks about how Mark Hamill wasn't at all pleased with how Rian Johnson developed the character of Luke Skywalker. A really great documentary that can be highly recommended to every Star Wars fan.

There are other short documentaries dealing with the balance of power (approx. 10:14 mins), the creation of the space battle (approx. 14:20 mins), supreme leader Snoke (approx. 5:37 mins), and the showdown on Crait (approx. 12:54 mins). The final extra then features Andy Serkis' motion capture performance before he was then transformed into Snoke on the computer (approx. 5:46 mins). Nice to see his performance fully appreciated in this way.

Conclusion: Yes, Star Wars: The Last Jedi has some flaws. Some really glaring ones at that. But the film also has some really great moments to offer, through which many of the weaknesses are compensated. The Blu-ray convinces with a very good picture and sound quality and has a lot of really good extras to offer - first and foremost an excellent making of documentary. Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp