My Own Little World

After having seen The Last Jedi three times, I finally have some concrete thoughts about the film. My overall positive impression of the film has not changed, but there are some things I have begun to notice that I’d like to share with you. Two of the three things I'm sharing here are going to seem harshly negative, and while they are more or less blemishes and might detract from the film, they don't  WARNING: spoilers for The Last Jedi follow. Please do yourself a favor and don’t spoil this movie for yourself. It is far better if you know nothing going into it for the first time. But really though: don’t spoil this movie for yourself. I knew nothing going in, and that made a lot of what happens in the film impact me that much more; if you want my spoiler-free thoughts on the film, you can find them here . Anyway, here’s my observations. Anytime after the first viewing, this film drags. I didn’t notice The Last Jedi ’s length the first time I watched it that mu...

Because of the complexity of The Last Jedi and how interwoven the film’s quality is with its major plot points, I am going to treat this a bit differently and more shortly than my normal reviews. After I watch this film a second or third time, I will publish a much longer spoiler-filled review; this is more of a first impressions post than anything, and I promise there will be ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS in the words that follow. I have never reacted to a film like I have The Last Jedi . I have never been so shocked by the way a film’s plot has progressed or by how one single movie can take the lore of an entire franchise as deep and rich as Star Wars and make you ask questions about its central core. I want to make one thing very clear, though: I still don’t know how I feel about this film. There’s too much for me to process after just one viewing for me to give it a specific score, and if you see it I bet you will feel the same way. So much happens in this film, and while that...

There are times when I will be watching a film, really enjoying it, and suddenly feeling like something is off. I often cannot put my finger on what exactly the flaw is, but because I can’t put my finger on it I dismiss it and still say the movie is good. There are other times, however, when after talking with other people about the film, I understand exactly what the flaw is. Watching Murder on the Orient Express was one of those experiences. I love myself a good old-school mystery in the vein of Hitchcock films like To Catch a Thief , and my prior experiences with star and director Kenneth Branagh (in particular his four-hour unabridged adaptation of Hamlet ) as well as the rest of this star-studded cast made me very excited to see this film. I didn’t expect a fantastic film, but I was secretly hoping that it would revitalize this largely dead genre. Unfortunately, Murder has one really big flaw that makes it largely forgettable: it doesn’t know how to balance knowledge ...

If you want the too long, didn't read version of this review, here it is: I just saw The Force Awakens again on Friday after seeing it Thursday night.  Like, this movie is seriously that good. And just to be clear, I was going to have no problems saying The Force Awakens was just good, decent, or even terrible if I thought so. But this movie is seriously incredible. I've never wanted to see a film more in my entire life. I've never pre-ordered tickets for any film except this one. I've never had higher expectations walking into a theater and had them fulfilled like this. This review is going to be very different from my normal style. Usually, I break up the components of a film and talk about them individually. While I’m still going to do that to a certain extent, I’m more so going to talk about this separately as a fan and a critic because it will allow me to collect my thoughts more easily.  As a Star Wars fan, watching this film excited m...