STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI
A thrilling space epic whose mystical worldview overwhelms its heroic heart.
Should You Watch It?
This is a polished, exciting blockbuster with great characters, touching moments, comedy, action, jeopardy, conflict, and tension. Its heroes fight for freedom, oppose totalitarian evil, and try to bring a conflicted villain back toward the light. Those are real strengths.
But the movie’s spiritual framework is the larger issue. It promotes meditation, astral projection, levitation, magical thinking, mind over matter, and other New Age, Hindu, pantheistic, and occult ideas. The film’s references to God, prayer, love, and saving souls are positive but undeveloped beside those messages.
The movie is also too long by about 15 minutes and follows too many plotlines. Even so, its four-star entertainment quality cannot overcome the worldview concerns. For your family, the practical answer is to skip it and choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESThe totalitarian First Order attacks the Resistance rebel base, forcing the rebels into a desperate escape. Meanwhile, Rey travels to a remote island to convince the disillusioned Luke Skywalker to train her in the ways of the Force.
As the First Order tracks the remaining rebel fleet, Finn and Captain Poe Dameron search for a way to disable the tracking device. At the same time, Rey discovers she can communicate through the Force with Kylo Ren, who wants to draw her toward the Dark Side.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is highly entertaining filmmaking despite its serious flaws. The movie has great characters, touching moments, comedy, action, jeopardy, conflict, and tension. It is a crowd-pleasing science-fiction blockbuster with rousing, uplifting moments and lots of heroic derring-do.
The main craft problem is its structure. The movie follows too many plotlines, sometimes shifting among four different subplots. Multiple endings also slow the resolution, making the film slightly too long. Still, the script is described as one of the better STAR WARS scripts, and the movie should elicit more than a couple of cheers.
The Worldview
The film exalts courage, freedom, resistance to totalitarian evil, and the hope that a conflicted bad person might repent and return to the light. It also includes a positive reference to God, an urging toward prayer, brief talk about saving souls, and themes of love.
Those elements are overwhelmed by the film’s strong New Age, Hindu, pantheistic, and occult worldview. The Force becomes a vehicle for meditation, astral projection, levitation, ontological nominalism, magical thinking, and mind over matter. At one major moment, Luke Skywalker assumes the “lotus” position and levitates while using the Force, presenting a Hindu-style spiritual image. The movie also contains brief implied anti-capitalism, along with gambling, stealing, brief moral relativism, and implied slavery that is rebuked.
The film’s longing for salvation and redemption points toward a need it does not answer biblically. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Very strong, lightly mixed or syncretistic New Age, mystical pagan worldview promoting false Hindu, pantheistic and occult practices of meditation, astral projection, levitation, ontological nominalism, magical thinking, and mind over matter (at one major moment, Luke Skywalker levitates while assuming the “lotus” position, like some sort of bogus Hindu yogi) that overwhelm the movie’s moral, redemptive elements, which include a character says “God speed,” a character urges prayer and brief talk about saving souls and which promote fighting for freedom, for re-establishing a republic and against totalitarian evil, as well as trying to get a conflicted bad guy to repent and turn back toward the light, plus brief implied anti-capitalism.
Foul Language
Six relatively light obscenities (mostly “d” and “h” words).
Violence
Almost constant action violence includes battles and explosions in space, battles on two different planets, two heroes destroy a casino resort by riding through it while sitting atop large alien animals used for racing, duels between people wielding lightsabers and lightsaber whips, and laser battles between soldiers and rebels.
Sex
No sex scenes.
Nudity
Upper male nudity in one or two scenes.
Alcohol Use
Background alcohol use in scenes set in a gambling casino.
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs.
Miscellaneous Immorality
Gambling at a casino resort, stealing, brief moral relativism, implied slavery but rebuked.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Why should Christians consider the philosophical, spiritual, and political messages in movies that may attract huge audiences?
Romans 12:2 · Philippians 4:8The film presents mystical practices as a source of power. How can your family distinguish spiritual truth from spiritual counterfeits?
1 John 4:1 · Acts 17:11The story includes characters fighting for freedom and trying to bring a conflicted person back toward the light. What do justice, repentance, and real spiritual change look like?
Micah 6:8 · 2 Corinthians 7:10How can Christians use movies with non-Christian messages to point others toward the joy, love, hope, justice, and salvation found in Jesus Christ?
1 Peter 3:15 · Colossians 4:5–6The Final Word
This is a four-star adventure with heroic characters and rousing moments, but its strong mystical worldview overwhelms its positive themes. Because the spiritual cost is too high for family viewing, our answer is SKIP IT. For better options, see.
