Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

After being very impressed with the Force Awakens and liking Rogue One, there were high hopes that Episode 8 would continue to good work but sadly this is a big disappointment and comes close to undoing all the great work that J.J. Abrams did in Episode Seven. The film sees Luke Skywalker return after his blink and you’ll miss it cameo at the end of the last film. He is basically living as a hermit on an island and Rey is trying to bring him back. It was good to have Mark Hamill back and was the best thing in this film. I thought that Skywalker’s reluctance to coming back was quite smart and helped build up to his big scene with Kylo Ren.

The main problem is the structure of the film. It feels like it is going at half speed. I thought that the whole casino scene was thrown in to give Poe something to do. Poe was one of the driving forces in Force Awakens but is given next to nothing to do. Then there is the Rose character who just seems such a wasted opportunity. She always seemed like a sulky teenager who whines quite a lot and is thrown into the centre of this story without really doing anything to deserve it. Also I thought that Snode was suppose to be the new Emperor and yet was killed off in this film which seems stupid to me.

This was the last film that Carrie Fisher did before she died. Episode Eight came out just a week or so before she passed and it gives her scenes a new meaning. There is one shot where she is floating through space and I know that some people would be annoyed by this anyway but even if she hadn’t passed away I would still like this scene because in this whole film I thought she was fantastic in the entire movie.

The Last Jedi is a disappointing film. I think that because Force Awakens was such a good film this seems quite dull in parts which for a Star Wars film is not a good thing. I think the fault of this has to lay at Rian Johnson’s door who has decided to pretty much do his own thing without paying any attention to what J.J. Abrams did in Force Awakens.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

I’ve never been a big fan of Agatha Christie or her work. It’s not that I think they are terrible but I’ve never read the books and only seen brief parts of mainly Poirot played in the UK by David Suchet. However a big screen version of Murder on the Orient Express was something that I needed to see.

The opening scene sees Poirot solving a crime and the way that he does it is very good and sprinkled with good humour. I think this does a good job of showing people new to the character what they can expect. It’s simple and brief. Soon the film progresses to the train where the lions share of the movie is set.

As Poirot, Kenneth Branagh is very good. He manages the humour and shows the characteristics that are part of the character but I was never aware that he had been in love. That moustache is outrageous and I spent quite a bit of time watching the moustache instead of paying attention to what was going on.

This film has an all star cast which is normally a dangerous thing but if you have ever seen the Poirot TV version, each episode usually has one or two big names or people that would go on to become big names. This was the first thing I saw Daisy Ridley in since Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In fact a month after this film was released, The Last Jedi was released in cinemas. She’s not the best person in this film but I thought there was a nice air of mystery surrounding her character. It was weird to see Johnny Depp in something other than a Pirates film. He’s gone off the boil in recent years but I thought that he was quite good in this despite meeting an unfortunate end early on in the film. Then there is Judi Dench and Olivia Coleman amongst others. Quite frankly, you could do a review just on the performances but I’m not going to do that. Just to say that all the big names deserve their place in the film and no one lets the side down.

As for the big reveal, I didn’t see it coming. As I said at the beginning of the review, I have never read the books and had never seen this story adapted on TV or film so had no idea and when I discovered it was pretty much everyone, I thought it was quite clever. The reason why they did it I thought was a bit convoluted and managing to get them all on the train had the same problem, but I didn’t mind and thought is still worked well. Poirot’s final speech as he is leaving the train was superbly done by Branagh and showed that even though they had got away with it, they hadn’t really go away with it as they would have to live with it forever.

It’s a beautifully looking film. From the very beginning, its clear that care and attention has been paid what we are seeing. Whilst the action is on the train, Branagh makes great use of a relatively confined space and when the story breaks out of the train on a few occasions, the snow surrounding the train is a great visual. There is one shot which is overhead and shows people going from one room to another and it worked really well and showed how you could keep momentum when you haven’t got much room.

The film ends with Poirot being needed on the Nile leading to another film which comes out at the end of 2020 and I am really looking forward to it. Murder on the Orient Express is a beautifully looking film with a great cast and a solid mystery. Even if you know who did it, you can still marvel in what you are seeing and that is the key to a good film. Murder on the Orient Express may not be everyones cup of tea but I think if you like a mystery then you should enjoy this.