Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Well, Marvel officially has conquered everything, it would seem. If The Last Jedi is any indication, the superhero juggernaut has eclipsed even Star Wars, the arguable patient zero for modern blockbusters and nerd culture, as the biggest influencer of film today. For, you see, this eighth episode in the space saga practically is a Marvel movie.

No, none of the Avengers show up, but it’s got its sister Disney franchise’s constant banter and humor punctuating every moment, even the serious ones. It also goes to bright and colorful worlds with zany alien beings more reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor: Ragnarok than the dirty, lived-in aesthetic of the franchise previously. All that’s missing is a post-credits teaser and George Lucas goofily popping in like Stan Lee.

The film picks up immediately after The Force Awakens. The Force-sensitive Rey (Daisy Ridley) has tracked down the aging Jedi Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), only to discover that he’s a disillusioned old cuss instead of the legendary hero the galaxy knows. Meanwhile, the remaining fleet of the Resistance attempts to make a daring escape from the evil First Order. First Order defector Finn (John Boyega) and Resistance fighter Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) make an escape from the escape to find help (this makes sense when you see it, I promise). While this is all going on, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) confronts his inner conflict about which side he’s on.

The narrative is rather narrow in scope this time around. There are some unexpected and original story touches that are inspired, including a subtle political bent that adds some greater resonance to the whole thing. The focus, though, isn’t so much the larger conflict, but the smaller moments, where the characters get to shine. We get some gripping and moving turns from both the new players and the old, particularly the late Carrie Fisher, whose scenes are rendered emotionally wrenching by circumstance. At times, this the best writing in the saga since The Empire Strikes Back.

But mostly, the movie plays like Return of the Jedi, in that some great, captivating story turns and character moments are cluttered alongside goofball slapstick and kiddie stuff. Thankfully, those space Furbies the Porgs aren’t as pervasive as the Ewoks or Jar Jar Binks, and that Marvel-esque humorous tone mostly serves the picture well. However, at two-and-a-half hours, it goes on rather long, and is so overstuffed that it drags quite a bit in the middle. About 20 minutes could have been shaved and it would have been of no lower quality. Also, the prolonged escape plotline that frames the whole narrative starts to strain believability the longer it goes on.

But, these are trifles, not fatal flaws. It’s the big moments that stick with the viewer, and The Last Jedi’s got those in spades. There are some fantastic battles as well as heavy emotion. That last act especially—looking at first like a retread of Empire’s walker battle before building and building into something awesomely thrilling and gorgeous to look at—is terrific, ranking alongside classic Empire's snow battle and the Death Star trench run in the original. The final scene is even damn near a tearjerker. Yes, it’s just as much the series congratulating itself for having so many fans as it is expressive of the storyline's themes, but man, does it play.

Up to this point, the Disney-helmed Star Wars films have been more about nostalgic fan service (the last half-hour of Rogue One, and pretty much all of The Force Awakens). The Last Jedi hasn’t completely shed that; indeed, there are a few moments that are just crowd-pleasing applause moments, rather than necessary to the narrative. However, there’s much to like. True, much of it comes from aping the successful Marvel formula, but there's also stuff that's exciting and new.