By Camille Yost

It was no surprise that it only took two weeks for Star Wars: The Last Jedi to become the highest-grossing film of 2017. The forty-year-old franchise brought in approximately $1.265 billion, on par with The Force Awakens that brought in $2.066 billion. Although it was a huge hit with the critics, the fans were not as pleased.

Some of the disappointment centers around the fact that the film was too long by twenty minutes, contained a time-wasting trip to a space-casino and killed off yet another iconic character. Hamill himself stated that “this isn’t my Star Wars” because Star Wars is a film dedicated to its fans and this one didn’t please the fans. On Rotten Tomatoes the fan-critic divide is displayed with a 91 percent critical score versus the audience’s 51 percent.

A Tustin High Star Wars fan Rafael Moreno sides with his fellow fans and states, “It was a drawn out movie that ruined a lot of what Star Wars is…I can see why critics would say it was a good movie because it showed the shades of good, bad and different struggles; however, it just wasn’t Star Wars.”

Like many fans The Last Jedi to Moreno was not a Star Wars movie. Fans wanted to continue to watch the fight between dark versus light, rather than “moral relativism”. As a fan myself, I can understand where both the critics and the fans are coming from; however, I was not disappointed with the film. Despite the time-wasting scenes, there were some scenes that I found to be exceptional.  Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) teaming up against Snoke, Yoda lecturing Luke (Mark Hamill), and the telepathic connection between Rey and Kylo Ren were some of the greatest scenes of the film. Rather than a simple good versus evil plot, Kylo Ren creates a struggle between light and dark that makes for a more complex character and story. I am looking forward to what Episode 9 will bring to the trilogy, but until then the Han Solo based movie, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” will be released on May 25, 2018.