I really love that everyone has mutually agreed to not spoil
new Star Wars movies so
that anyone who can’t see it on opening weekend can have the chance to keep the
experience fresh, but the downside is that for reviewers like me, it becomes hard
to know what and what not to discuss, leaving us left with only vague terms to
work with. And it’s hard for some people to judge it on its own merits instead
of a piece of the biggest mythos in cinema. (Look, I love Star Wars, but the fans can be some of the most finicky people on
the planet. They’re like Metallica fans; for a group that claims to love
something, they sure do spend an awful lot of time complaining about it.) In
the case of the new trilogy, people were worried that since The Force Awakens was an admittedly played-too-safe
retread of the first movie, then that would mean The Last Jedi would just be a carbon copy of The Empire Strikes Back. But since the new trilogy is essentially a
meta-narrative about a new generation inheriting the legacy of the older one,
it seems like it the first would be proving that they were right for the job,
so they can branch off and do their own thing later down the line, and with The Last Jedi, I think they succeeded in
that regard.
Our story follows the Resistance in their continuing battle
against the First Order. With their number dwindling and fuel running low, a
new general (Laura Dern) is put in charge after General Leia (Carrie Fisher) is
indisposed. When Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) realize her plan
is going to get everyone killed, they scheme to break into the First Order’s
main warship and disarm their tracking device, so that the Resistance can get to
safety. Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley) finds Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and unsuccessfully
tries to convince him to come out of hiding, join the Resistance and teach her
the ways of the Force. While that’s happening, she and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) fight
each other through a psychic connection, and she tries to find out why he
turned to the Dark Side and what drove Luke into exile in the first place.
While The Last Jedi
doesn’t lean so heavily on callbacks to the original as The Force Awakens did, I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few
moments of déjà vu. We have another Jedi traveling to a distant planet seeking
the mentorship of an old master, another space chase of a single ship being
pursued by an entire fleet, another big confrontation with a fleet of AT-AT Walkers
on an ice planet, another lightsaber duel between a former master and
apprentice, and a conflict that bears a striking resemblance to the climax of Return of the Jedi. But director Rian
Johnson (Brick, Looper, two of the
best episodes of Breaking Bad) manages
to tweak them in a way that makes them an asset rather than a liability. There
are moments where you expect something to go a certain way, and it veers in the
opposite direction. A light is shone on certain themes that are never explored
in full like the classist undertones of the Jedi lineage or some of the messed-up
things about the Jedi that were conveniently swept under the rug. Two
characters on opposite sides of the war who have parallel conflicts and come to
similar conclusions, but take different approaches. One looks back at his past
failures with a jaundiced eye and concludes that it would be best to let it all
wither away, while the other feels the need to actively destroy all traces of
it in order to make way for the new. If The
Force Awakens was about nostalgia for the original trilogy, then this is an
anti-nostalgia about heroes letting you down and resenting the past in a way
that could be read as a giant middle finger to a fanbase that spent the last 30
years bellyaching over every little thing that doesn’t make perfect logical sense
in a series about space wizards.
The story is more character focused, with each getting at
least one defining, show-stealing moment. Carrie Fisher is wonderful as the
older, battle hardened Leia, with one moment in particular that left me and the
rest of the audience speechless. (You’ll know it when you see it.) It’s going
to be interesting to see how they handle this character after Fisher’s passing
earlier this year. Mark Hamill also brings his A-game, bringing a gravitas to
Luke that wasn’t there in the original trilogy. But the most-improved award has
to go to Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. One of the biggest complaints about him in The Force Awakens was that he was just a
whiny emo Darth Vader wannabe, but his newfound attitude and the reveal of what
made him turn to the Dark Side gives more weight to his actions, culminating
pretty early with the literal and symbolic destruction of the facade he’s been putting
up until this point.
It isn’t all smooth sailing, though. The story doesn’t necessarily
follow a three-act structure, and this is both a boon and a burden. This is especially
noticeable in one sequence that drags on for longer than it needed to and doesn’t
pay off as well as the other plots do. Plus there’s one character who was built
up in the first movie who gets unceremoniously offed, and I kind of wished they
established who exactly this guy was beforehead.
There's plenty that I haven't gotten into over fear of spoiler, but bottom line, Star
Wars: The Last Jedi has its rough patches but is a worthy installment of
the franchise. Is it perfect? Hell no. Does it have problems? Of course. Were
they enough to ruin the experience? Not for me, at least. The predictability doesn’t
get in the way of enjoyability. It’s like the Millennium Falcon: it’s flawed
and threatens to fall apart, but it ultimately comes through and even manages
to pull off a few neat tricks.
8/10
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