Second to Last

Now that we've seen Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), we're up to date on released Star Wars movies. We no longer fear spoilers.

Out of all the Star Wars movies, this is one. It has enormous scope, juggling several plots - or one plot and several subplots. Basically, the remaining Resistance are fleeing from the First Order, when Dameron Poe, Oscar Isaac, decides to lead a bombing attack on their dreadnought. This starts with a cute scene where he calls General Domhnall Gleeson then pretends he can't hear him. He keeps saying, "Should I hold? I'll hold", while Gleeson gets madder and madder. Of course, it's a stall, to get the bombers in range. Sadly, although they damage the dreadnought, they lose most of their ships. Now all they can do is run - and the First Order has a tracking device on them, and they are running out of fuel.

Also, General Organa, our beloved Leia, gets sucked out of the bridge into space, which has got to hurt.

Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley) is trying to get Luke (Mark Hamill) to train her and join the fight himself. But he's old and embittered because he let his student and partner Rylo Kenny (Adam Driver) go to the dark side.

Meanwhile, back in space, Poe, Finn (John Boyega) and new character enter: Rose (Kellie Marie Tran) go AWOL on a side quest to a casino planet. This is basically an extended James Bond riff, featuring Benicio del Toro as a raffish thief.

But here's the odd thing about this movie: everything Poe does either fails or works only marginally. Meanwhile, Laura Dern, as Vice Admiral Holdon, has been quietly getting things done while General Organa is unavailable. I think this is done subtly, but maybe I just don't pick things up very quickly.

So, I guess the next movie will be the last movie in the last trilogy, so after that we will hear no more about that galaxy long long ago and far away. Unless, against all odds, they try to milk the franchise to death. If they do, I'll probably watch.