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First, huge props to our regular film reviewer Darius who sent in his formal review thoughts earlier today here.
What I’m doing here is a lot less formal than my usual reviews and kind of a little free association as well as opening up the disqus space below for any discussion folks may want to have with it here on the site. But let’s be extra clear. EVERYTHING HERE IS A SPOILER. Don’t read if you haven’t seen the film.
What I’ll preface any dialogue with is that for me the Star Wars franchise as a whole kind of exists outside of the normal framing for me. When I’ve been asked what my favorite films are, especially on the end of year basis where a new film in the franchise has come out, I’ll say “X” but will mention that these films are on a whole other category. This year, for example, Blade Runner 2049 is likely to be my top film. But Star Wars: The Last Jedi is something that will supersede it but not be on the list.
Because these films make me fucking emotional.
Context: It’s 1978 and I’m in Boston as a seven-year-old kid seeing the film with my parents. My father, a huge science fiction fan from way back in the day that grew up on Asimov and the Lensman books, was lost within the first minute of the film. Which is exactly when I said “I need to go to the bathroom.” Which meant I no longer existed to my father at that moment. On the screen at that time was something never before scene and never since replicated I think for many. It’s hard to really put that out in a way that makes sense but there are events that are once in a life time things. In the years since I’ve bonded with my kids as they’ve seen the new films and all that. They have their own important films but the original Star Wars, for better or worse, changed many things in many sectors, something that hasn’t been replicated since – though many have tried.
At the start of The Force Awakens
At the start of Rogue One
And at the start of The Last Jedi
I welled up. And sitting next to my mother, who only gets out for these films in the theater now, she was doing the same. These things have meaning. More so for me in some ways because I’m enmeshed in all the mythology through the books, comics, games, etc. But those things all build toward the big piece with the films. And this film has that extra meaning for many – my daughter included – because of Carrie Fisher and what was lost there. So there’s a lot of weight going into a film like that and I know, I absolutely know, that I cannot critique it in the same way. Instead, I find myself looking at various pieces and breaking it down, and going from there.
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© Lucasfilm
Like pretty much every other film in the franchise, The Last Jedi is not perfect. There are some issues to be had here with pacing and it does some weird things. Enough so that the first half of the film just felt a bit jarring for me, particularly with the heightened use of humor that felt out of place. But that’s also part of the point. With this film, Rian Johnson was tasked with taking a huge property and essentially deconstructing it so that it can move forward. This is the end of the Jedi in a lot of ways but it’s also drawing things to a close for a lot more than that. And for a lot of fans that’s going to be difficult to get past because they’re so wedded to it. I find it less of an issue because I’ve been through so many reboots and de/re-constructions of properties over the years – especially in comics – that I can still thrill to the original and enjoy what’s going on from here. Johnson’s definitely been the most fascinating choice for these blockbusters and what he’s done here is just fantastic, though I suspect it’ll take multiple viewings to really grasp aspects of it and see the bigger picture as we barrel toward the end of the Skywalker saga, with Kylo Ren being the ended result of a “dynastic” storyline that shows just how things fall apart as time goes on.
My biggest issue is just the timing of things as it’s laid out in a bad way, where it takes place not long after The Force Awakens and we have Rey off training for several days at the least while the bulk of the main storyline takes place over the course of a day after escaping from where the Resistance was set up previously. Running those alongside each other is a natural choice as Rey and Luke’s material is quieter and more personal but it didn’t fit within the tension going on back with the remnants of the fleet. Which itself just felt kind of weird in that this is all that’s left so quickly, but also that it was dealt with so awkwardly in how it’s whittled down further and further. Honestly, a lot of writers/directors just don’t know how to do space opera anymore because there’s too much science/strategy fact that people try to apply to it that makes you shake your head. There were so many other ways to deal with the Resistance that it just boggles.
But it did lead to some fun scenes. I liked the addition of Rose and what she presents in trying to change things up so quickly for Finn, pushing him in directions that he didn’t expect even if Rey would likely be the same if she had been there. Rose is probably the most human of them all in a way, her emotions out plain and simple but not blunt and problematic. You felt her loss, you felt her anger and even her shame over Finn, and you see her pride in him as he realized that he can’t keep running and has to step up. It’s what made her sacrifice toward the end work so well. I’m glad she didn’t end up dead because that would just be a whole mess of issues there that are best avoided. She’s a great addition to the franchise and one of the most sympathetic characters that feels like she really inhabits this world.
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© Lucasfilm
I also really loved the use of Crait here with what it presented. This is an area where those who enjoy the expanded works got a lot more out of it (and not just those Battlefront 2 players like myself that are thrilling at playing this level). Crait has a big history behind it in the recent Princess Leia book focusing on her discovery of the Rebellion pre-ANH and Crait was one of the first Rebel bases that her father had set up. Leia coming back to here when the Resistance is at its lowest is hugely symbolic and important and worth more than the line or two given about the location. But it’s also just strikingly beautiful in a way that helps to expand on the franchise as we’ve been through the usual repetition such as with The Force Awakens. The originals and prequels did a good job of expansion with worlds and types and Rogue One threw a lot of worlds at us but TFA was made to show the long time fans that they understood what fans wanted after the prequels. Which is why I love that The Last Jedi is basically deconstructing it and offering up a lot of new things.
Less successful was the inclusion of Amilyn Holdo from the Princess Leia book as played by Laura Dern here. It’s clear that the two things exist separately and we only get a glimmer of the Holdo from the book era toward the end. She’s a wonderful component of the book as one of the first people Leia told about the Rebellion in its nascent stages (which plays alongside when Rebels is unfolding mostly) and with it all leading into Rogue One and A New Hope there’s a lot of things going on back then. The two of them serving in the junior legislature on Coruscant and then involved in the Rebellion and eventually what came after and then the Resistance means they have a really long and deep relationship to draw on. That’s hard to just “insert” into the film and I know it did not connect well for most. She’s a difficult character to get a read and handle on in the film but my eldest daughter who read the book along with me felt like it connected more, along with Crait, even if we wanted more of the Holdo personality we read in the book.
The side trip to the casino world was fun but that factors into my problem with the closing window of time to do anything as it just didn’t feel right, too tense and too rushed. And the casino didn’t have the kind of craziness that it could and should have – though I loved the little nod to the cantina song played differently within it. This place could have been its own arc and it left me wanting a lot more of Benicio del Toro’s character. I love that actor and he brought a great kind of quirkiness to things here that has me hoping he’s in the next one. Part of that is because during the third act when he turns on Finn and Rose I kept expecting some of his mannerisms to indicate that he setup an out amid all of this to try and buy time. But this is wonderfully subverted, the rogue with a heart of gold that Han was, and instead he’s just a rogue looking to line his own pockets. There’s a lot that I hope is done with the character in the expanded side of things.
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© Lucasfilm
There are two key areas to the film where I want very different things from as well that are explored in the second-ish act. The first is that we have Ben making it clear who Rey’s parents are and there’s no room to say otherwise, much to the dashing of the hopes of many fans (and yes, I’m one that wanted some sort of Kenobi connection). The truth here is simple and coming from Ben as he does it is fantastic, a further peeling away of masks like his own so that the truth of the characters is laid bare. Yes, it’d be fun for a connection there and there were many ways to read possibilities. But it’s made so starkly clear here that I’m glad they left no ambiguity. On the flip side, I’m incredibly frustrated with how Snoke was dealt with. The sequence itself is well done with how they deal with him but I really hope we explore where he came from in the expanded side because, well, it’s important to me. That’s an area where fans of the books have had more room to speculate but this doesn’t answer anything unlike Rey’s parentage. And Snoke, as the leader of the First Order, should have more background than the nothing that we got.
The entire Luke and Rey side of the film is interesting and it works because, with the greater truth revealed about what happened with his academy, you completely understand just how broken he’d become and why he separated himself from the Force and the Jedi in general. This ties into a variant of what we saw in the second Darth Vader comic with his vow and what he’s doing and there’s a good concept being worked there as he’s trying to atone in his own way rather than make things worse. This storyline with Rey and Luke is definitely too compressed to really hit the emotional aspects it needs but what sells it is Mark Hamill. Right from that opening scene, picking up where we were before in TFA, he’s essentially placed into a combined role of Yoda and Obi-wan here. There’s humor to him that’s reminsicent of his first meeting with Yoda and we also have that wonderful sequence with Artoo where the recording Leia made back in ANH for Obi-wan is played again and he’s reminded that he has to go and save the princess once more. Hamill conveys so much in these scenes through body language, facial expressions, and the sharpness of dialogue that it really does dominate.
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© Lucasfilm
But for my money it’s his role in the third act that cements my love of this film for real and true. His arrival and brief dialogue with Leia, and her understanding where she’s basically saying that they’re all to blame for what Ben has become is perfect. Luke has taken so much of it on in the pain of it all when it’s more than just him, it was Han and Leia as well and Ben himself. There’s no singular point of failure here but there’s also acceptance that Ben has to be stopped because they know the cost of it all after all that they’ve been through. So when we do get that big scene with him confronting Kylo it’s something that long time fans have wanted since forever. We’ve had farm boy know-nothing Luke playing at Jedi. We’ve had the struggling Luke learning and looking toward the future. We’ve had him fighting back his anger after learning more of the truth and trying to find the good in his father. And we’ve seen him retreat completely into himself
But here, in these final minutes, we see the gifted and natural Jedi that in some ways I don’t think we even saw in the prequels. In just those few minutes, those few moves, that confidence and grin that he exudes with the cut of his hair and beard, the glimmer in his eyes, this is the Luke I had imagined decades ago seeing at this stage that I never thought would be made. And it was wonderful.
I’ve seen the original Star Wars a billion times, half of it in theaters with multiple viewings from re-releases as well, and I regularly put on the films on a playlist in the background while working and doing things around the house. These characters are ingrained in me and have much meaning to my life, something that moves me in a way very little other entertainment does. The Last Jedi is a much-needed installment that looks to shed the past, change how it’s being approached, and set a new course for the future as it readies to bring the Skywalker saga to a close. I can’t wait to see what’s next and I can’t wait to revisit this installment again and again and again.
