Early Reactions to Star Wars: The Last Jedi Hold Tantalizing Hints About the Movie

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is finally, finally here on Thursday, but some lucky people got to see its world premiere over the weekend, so we can live vicariously through them, for now. Details are light at this point, which is a good thing, but the early impressions are in, and they’re about as positive as you’d expect.

It’s hard to discern from these reactions whether the movie actually lives up to “the best Star Wars movie since Empire,” although depending on who you ask, that might just mean it has to be better than Return of the Jedi or The Force Awakens. (Apologies to the “prequels weren’t actually that bad” crowd.) But there are other non-plot details to be gleaned from the buzz we’ve seen so far, which are guaranteed to stoke the fires of your rampant speculation.

Beyond all the general gushing about the movie being great, here are a few interesting tidbits:

It’s not all that much like The Empire Strikes Back.

Both being the second installments in a trilogy and (so far, anyway) seeming to carry a darker tone than their predecessors (not to mention our hero having tracked down a lone, aging Jedi for training) have drawn surface-level comparisons between Last Jedi and Empire, but that’s apparently about as far as the comparison goes. It definitely sounds like this movie is … not going to go how you think.

It also sounds like the 2.5-hour runtime is going to afford us a broader view of the Star Wars universe and what it’s like to live there (with enough wit to balance out all that extra weight):

It will also, in a way I have to believe is partially related to that, as well as to Luke’s sentiment that the Jedi must end, likely change the way we think about Star Wars:

Most importantly, it sounds like the characters we love are going to really get their due:

But perhaps even more pressing for fans right now was another through-line in the impressions: You’re going to want to avoid spoilers as much as possible for this one. Good luck out there on the internet this week. May the Force be with you.

(image: Disney/Lucasfilm)

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Dan Van Winkle

Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.

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