‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Review Round-Up: Rian Johnson Delivers In A Huge Way
After a two year wait,Star Wars: The Last Jedifinally arrives in theaters this week. How does writer/directorRian Johnson’s sequel measure up to what’s come before in a galaxy far, far away? you’re able to read our review from Josh Spiegelright here, Peter Sciretta wrote his ownextended spoiler-free review, and Chris Evangelista has a spoiler review coming soon, but in the meantime, check out our huge round-up ofStar Wars The Last Jedireviews to find out what the rest of the critical community thinks.
Before we get started, Rotten Tomatoes points out that the movie is currently the highest ratedStar Warsfilm of all time, sitting at 96% on the Tomatometer:
Star Wars:#TheLastJediis currently the highest rated#StarWarsmovie at 96% on the#Tomatometer, with 83 reviews, presented by@Verizonpic.twitter.com/96UuB501QA
— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes)August 23, 2025
Now let’s kick things off with an excerptfrom the home team. /Film’s Josh Spiegel saysThe Last Jediis the bestStar Warsmovie sinceThe Empire Strikes Back, and he praises Rian Johnson’s writing choices as a big part of the reason for its success:
The Last Jediis at its best when it aims to upend expectations. Rey’s desire to get answers from Luke is quickly thrown into disarray as it becomes clear how he’s become used to isolation over time, as punishment for his past misdeeds. But even in early moments like when the Resistance tries to pull a fast one on the First Order, Johnson proves most adept at poking holes in any perceived self-seriousness in this sometimes operatic franchise. Even without the series' constant source of quips (Han Solo),The Last Jediis disarmingly funny even as it depicts dark, intense situations.
And while the rest of this article will largely be pulling out positive quotes from various outlets (it’s not our fault most people liked it!), Peter Debruge’s review atVarietystands out as the most negative I’ve seen so far. (Warning: the full review contains a significant spoiler forThe Last Jedi, although this excerpt does not. We just want to warn anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet that if you head to Variety to read the full piece, you’re going to have a big moment spoiled for you.)
As it turns out, although “The Last Jedi” meets a relatively high standard for franchise filmmaking, Johnson’s effort is ultimately a disappointment. If anything, it demonstrates just how effective supervising producer Kathleen Kennedy and the forces that oversee this now Disney-owned property are at molding their individual directors' visions into supporting a unified corporate aesthetic — a process that chewed up and spat out helmers such as Colin Trevorrow, Gareth Edwards, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. But Johnson was either strong enough or weak enough to adapt to such pressures, and the result is the longest and least essential chapter in the series.
Even Variety’s negative review is peppered with compliments! That alone says something about the quality of this film.
Our old pal Germain Lussier atio9speaks to some of the reasons you keep seeing people refer to the movie as “surprising” and “different”:
…parts of the film are very funny—like, almost too funny. The humor can, at times, feel overboard from what we’re used to inStar Wars.And yet it works. Then there are parts of the film that are incredibly weird and almost surreal—moments that seem more fit for an avant-garde movie. But they work too, because the very nature ofStar Warsis that anything is possible. From scene to scene Johnson is basically saying, “Look, if we can have talking slugs, laser swords, and lightspeed, why can’t I dothis?” And then he does it.
Thankfully, all that quirk and surprise never comes at the expense of spectacle, andThe Last Jedihas plenty of it. Epic lightsaber fights, huge space battles, one-on-one duels—there’s rarely a moment when something amazing isn’t happening onscreen. And yet, thatStar Warsiconography is always punctuated with Johnson’s personality. John Williams' excellent score can be soaring on the soundtrack, or some familiar setting or ship can show up, and Johnson still manages to put his own unique spin on it.
Uproxx’sMike Ryan also wonders if the movie’s comedic moments may be too much for some fans, but reminds us that the original trilogy had its fair share of humor as well:
Manohla Dargis’s review atThe New York Timesgets to the heart of something I haven’t been able to put into words myself since seeing the film – that Johnson actually seemed to have a good time making the movie, and that comes across in the film itself:
Mr. Johnson can make you forget about those issues as well as the franchise’s insistent obligations; it also seems like he had a good time at work. He brings lightness to his banter, visual flair (not simply bleeding-edge special effects) to the design, and narrative savvy to Rey and Kylo Ren’s relationship. Mr. Johnson’s use of deep red is characteristic of how he turns ideas into images, most vividly with a set that looks like something Vincente Minnelli might have dreamed up for a Flash Gordon musical with Gene Kelly. When that set becomes the backdrop to a viscerally exciting fight, all the red abruptly evokes the spilled blood that this otherwise squeaky clean series insistently elides.
Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson, who still enjoyed the movie quite a bit, points out what some (myself included) see as one of the movie’s flaws – that the story sometimes feels a bit unbalanced in terms of the journeys of its characters:
Alyssa Wilkinson atVoxdraws the distinction thatThe Last Jedidoesn’t just feel like a well-madeStar Warsmovie, it feels like a well-made movie, period:
There are images in this movie that provoke awe and delight, and creatures that feel lifted out of half-remembered childhood dreams. And though it briefly appears to lose steam in the middle, that’s short-lived, with a third act harboring sequences that feel like a maestro conducting a concerto the size of the cosmos.
There is catharsis aplenty, something theStar Warsmovies are designed for, encouraging us to cheer when our favorite characters show up on screen and letting us thrill to the chases and the romance and the vistas and the explosions and the lightsaber battles. (This installment has one of the most purely perfect lightsaber battles the series has yielded thus far.) But as written and directed by Rian Johnson,The Last Jedidoesn’t just feel like a well-executedStar Warsmovie — it feels like a well-executedmovie, period, one that keeps its eye on the relationships between characters, and how they communicate with one another, in addition to the bigger picture.
Glen Weldon atNPRpraises the film for introducing some shades of grey into the proceedings:
The other thing Johnson introduces is something the variousStar Warsoffshoots (novels, games, animated series, etc.) have explored, but that has been assiduously kept out of the main series' simple, rigorously Manichean, Dark Side vs. Light Side infrastructure: grayscale. There is a welcome attempt, inThe Last Jedi, to depict characters and their motivations in less stark and increasingly nuanced terms. This is both smart and inevitable, for a franchise that’s hung around long enough for its themes and plot-beats to become as pervasive as these have. Yes, sure: Joseph Campbell, monomyth, Good and Evil, blah blah blah. These filmsdorequire a stark, easily apprehensible symbolic underpinning — but they also need to work asfilms, and that means having characters whose every choice we won’t see coming, whose behaviors are not dictated by the color of their space-couture. InThe Force Awakens, Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren was evil, but (we were told, repeatedly) conflicted; here, he’s conflicted, but evil — and this time we see and feel him struggle. (When he’s not lashing out at underlings, or elevators — long story — Driver’s Ren is amusingly albeit chillingly understated; he’s your Bad Space Boyfriend, forever space-gaslighting you.)
One of the things I was the most worried about heading into the movie was Mark Hamill’s performance as Luke Skywalker. I’ve seen Hamill in some bad movies in the years betweenReturn of the Jediand now, and honestly didn’t love his work in the original trilogy. But as Jason Guerrasio says in his review atBusiness Insider, Hamill is up to the task here:
Hamill’s return as Skywalker does not disappoint, either. The master Jedi has tried to block himself entirely from the legendary life he once lived, and the tipping point was Skywalker’s failure to train Ren (aka Ben Solo). This is explained to Rey by both Skywalker and Ren, with Johnson cleverly using a “Rashomon”-like storytelling style to do it.
And this isn’t the only time in the movie when Johnson uses the feel of classic Asian cinema to influence his storytelling. The sections that involve Skywalker’s story have the feel of old samurai movies, with Luke as the elderly teacher who has nothing left in his life but the past, and the knowledge of his craft, neither of which he wants anymore.
ScreenCrush’s Matt Singer also has nice things to say about Hamill’s work in the film:
It’s also very clear that this series has never had a director as good with actors as Johnson. Hamill’s performance inThe Last Jedimay be the best in anyStar Warsmovie. Audiences barely got to see Luke Skywalker inThe Force Awakens, but he’s front and center throughoutThe Last Jedi.Years of mistakes have hardened the hero we once knew, along with Hamill’s features, although Luke’s humanity sneaks through in beautiful close-ups that linger on his moist eyes as he talks about Han Solo or reconnects with his old pal R2-D2 for the first time in decades. The fall of Luke Skywalker, and the way Hamill plays this spoiled icon of youthful heroism, is exactly what makes these newStar Warsspecial. There’s a lot of fantasy and fiction in these films. But what time has done to Hamill’s face, and the way his idealism has given way to something sadder and more realistic, couldn’t be faked with special effects. It requires the wisdom of age.
Carrie Fisher’s performance is much better than in her comparatively limited appearance inThe Force Awakens, and Alan Cerny fromComingSoonhones in on some reasons why:
No less compelling is Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa, wracked with guilt and grief over the death of Han Solo and the monster her son, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, has become. Leia, through all her pain and struggle, still must make the hard choices that will push the Resistance forward. The loss of Carrie Fisher last year fills many of her scenes with sadness and melancholy, and there will be many tears shed over her work here, no doubt. But this is also some of the strongest work she’s ever done in the character. She shows us all what true leadership is, the risks and heartbreak that are involved, and Fisher reminds us all of how great an actress she was when she was given good material. Rian Johnson gives both Luke and Leia the proper attention and respect, and it’s not just based on nostalgia for their other Star Wars films, either. Hamill and Fisher are given rich opportunities to explore Luke and Leia in unexpected, rich emotional ways.
Matt Miller’s review atEsquiremakes an especially good point that I hadn’t considered before: in a franchise that’s kind of always been geared toward children, this movie feels like aStar Warsmovie for adults:
So here is Rey, lightsaber in hand, ready to bring the hero back to save the day. But it doesn’t always work that way. A Luke struggles with the Jedi, Rey is trying to figure out who she is and her place in this fight. It’s not necessarily good or bad; it’s what she feels is right. While these are more demanding concepts than kids might be equipped to deal with, this is theStar Warsthat adults deserve—one that deals with human emotions more complex than those found in the binary world of a storybook.
Ira Madison III atThe Daily BeastcallsThe Last Jedithe bestStar Warsmovie in decades, and believes it bodes well for the future:
As the film hurtles toward its conclusion (but not before several dizzying climaxes come to fruition), you might be left wondering where the series will go next. Our characters aren’t left in the kind of mortal danger that their predecessors were in theirEmpire Strikes Backcliffhangers, they’re instead faced with psychological dilemmas — and it makes for a new, exciting foray into what it means to be trapped in this endless war of light and dark. Johnson has already been tapped to create a newStar Warstrilogy in the coming years, off the predicted success of this film. It seems that for the near future, amid the lightsaber battles and love triangles among the stars, we can also look forward to science-fiction that looks into its characters' souls just as much as it speeds toward galaxies far, far away.
I saw the film at a press screening last night, and was shocked at the sheer amount ofmovieJohnson was able to make here. The amount of stuff that happens in this film is astronomical. It’s going to take fans weeks to fully digest the implications and consequences of everything that goes down in this story, and while it does feel like a second entry in a trilogy, it leaves things is a fascinating place – for both the heroes and villains – and changes our perception of what aStar Warsfilm can be in fundamental ways. This is definitely a movie fans will want to see more than once.
