A BOy. A girl. A Balance.

"Something inside of me has always been there,
and now it's awake"
 
I am of course talking about Star Wars: The Last Jedi. You all know how much of a Star Wars fan I am, and how strong the Force is in my family. Or if you need reminding:

I have 6 lightsabers in my house: one for each family member and I, personally, have 2 heehee (it's only right considering I'm a Certified Jedi Knight after all) I've passed down the knowledge of the Force to my younglings and they seem to take it in stride and outdo me hahaha

Andrew and I got to go see Last Jedi this week before it released, which first off IS SO STINKING COOL! As we watched it, I couldn't help but wish we'd been able to bring the kids with us. We knew how much they'd love to see it! We'll just take them on a family date night sometime to see it.
 
The Last Jedi was so well written! Andrew and I kept quoting things or remarking on how well Rian Johnson spun his tale and kept so many of the best elements of Star Wars whilst adding more depth and complexities to these new characters. The relationships in this movie are just incredible. The effects are seamless. I mean really, if I didn't know they were special effects I wouldn't have known. They looked natural and made the First Order all that more formidable. The new planets we visited and got to know better were just stunning. At one point I leaned over to Andrew and said "Isn't this just so pretty!?" The cinematography was spectacular and I enjoyed seeing all of the new and wondrous things we hadn't seen in the galaxy yet.
 
The music!  Oh my heart the music! John Wiliams strikes again with his genius and mastery of sound! Andrew really enjoyed the use of NO SOUND in a few places and felt it added to the overall feel of the film.
 
Daisy Ridley shines in the film and as I watched it, it made me want to just jump up and follow whatever my heart said I needed to do! I cried more than a few tears to see my favorite princess-turned-General Leia Organa on screen for probably the last time. Her character has developed such depth and she's stronger than ever, broke my heart to know that we won't see her again.
 
The new characters of Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) and Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) were amazing! It felt like they had always been part of this story. Dern's characters shines as she finds her place among the Resistance, and Rose makes the perfect teammate for Finn as they go on their mission.

I will say one thing I LOVED about this movie: They put strong, powerful women at the front! AND Rian wrote that BEFORE all of the Hollywood drama surfaced! This just proved to me that there are good men out there that understand the power that women have AND how much young girls NEED to see powerful women as lead roles in movies. As our heroes strive to find the balance needed to fight the First Order, and Rey struggles to know "[her] place in all this" we go on an amazing
adventure worthy of the Jedi and Sith of the past.