STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (2017) - A metanarrative view on the Star Wars franchise

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is a 2017 space epic film written and directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran, and a whole lot of Porgs. The movie takes place where 2015's The Force Awakens left off, with Rey seeking training from the legendary Luke Skywalker while General Leia Organa and her Resistance fighters try to escape the clutches of the First Order. Throughout the film, we see both Rey and Kylo Ren struggle with the light and dark sides as they deal with their pasts and relationships with their masters.

This film is an interesting one--come out as the most divisive Star Wars movie yet (yes, even more so than the prequels)--with at the time of this review a 93% critic score and 55% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. You either think it's the best since Empire Strikes Back or you think Rian Johnson murdered your childhood and is an even worse abomination than the prequels. There is even an active petition to remove The Last Jedi from official canon. Yeah.

While I wasn't as... zealous... as others, I was a bit mixed about the movie when I first walked out of the theater as well, and had to spend a long time thinking about the movie and assessing how much I liked it. And I found that the more I thought about it, the more I loved it.

The metanarrative, AKA why a lot of people are hating

The movie first and foremost is pretty obviously greatly inspired by The Empire Strikes Back, although not nearly to the extent that The Force Awakens was to A New Hope. However, unlike Force Awakens which was played as an homage to A New Hope, this movie feels much more like a direct commentary on and subversion of the audience's own expectations, and this is the primary sore spot for a lot of people who hated this movie. This often don't go the way you expect and people who have been theory crafting for years can get very put off by this. I can confidently say that I had a lot of theories going into this movie and all but one of them were proven to be completely wrong.

What makes it work so well in this movie however, is that it ties directly into the film's themes of failures and letting go of one's past. Nearly every major character in The Last Jedi has to deal with their own faults and/or their own pasts, whether it be Luke's failure to raise Kylo Ren as a Jedi, Rey's inability to come in terms with her parents' abandonment, or Kylo's relationship with his previous and current masters. And just as these characters have to learn to let go of their own preconceived notions of who they are, so must we as the audience let go of our own preconceived notions of what the movie will be.

There are many callbacks and references to the original trilogy, and even to the prequel trilogy, but nearly each one will be subverted to completely mess with our expectations. Certain characters will act in ways you don't expect and certain plot points aren't going to go the way you think, and you could either love that or hate that.

But let's get onto the movie itself.

The Characters

Rey, Kylo Ren, and Luke Skywalker are clearly the central characters this time around, and it's utterly fantastic. All three are very well acted (especially Mark Hamill as a confused and conflicted Luke) and have very interesting character arcs that deeply interweave together in often unexpected ways. Rey and Kylo in particular have several moments in the movie where they are able to simply talk to each other and try to understand one another, each constantly trying to get the other to join their side not through violence but through understanding.

Kelly Marie Tran as Rose is not only

the first Vietnamese actress in Star Wars,

but also the first major female POC character.

Say what you want about the series itself,

but their recent movies have been doing

very well to add diversity to the previously

white-dominated cast.

Poe and Finn, along with newcomer Rose, have a relative backseat in the story, but do play a large role in contributing to the overall theme of the movie. Here is where there are some definite problems in the movie, and while Poe, Finn, and Rose's plotlines serve a great deal thematically and do well to develop them as characters, it does come at the expense of the plot with some serious pacing issues in the second act of the film. Poe's plot thread is a bit of a contrivance and ultimately happens because grown ass adults in the middle of a battle couldn't be bothered to talk things out. Finn and Rose's plot thread, while doing well to world-build, ultimately drags on way longer than it should have and feels like a side story DLC stitched onto the main one.

Leia is played wonderfully by the late Carrie Fisher in her last role, but I felt that the film might have lost out on a great opportunity to for her send off, but that's just me. Captain Phasma returns to reck shyt up (yay!) but instead becomes almost as useless as she was in the last movie (boo...). Benicio del Toro plays a cameo role as codebreaker DJ, ultimately in a role that's entertaining but about as forgettable as half the cast of Rogue One.

The Story

There really isn't anything I can say about The Last Jedi's story that wasn't covered in the metanarrative section and isn't a spoiler, so I'm just going to talk about the parts of the story that didn't work.

Canto Blight is what can be unanimously agreed upon as the movie's lowest point. It's long, it's boring, it plays relatively little in the overall narrative, and it shouldn't have lasted more than ten minutes, tops. For people who've already seen the movie, this is the casino royale/Gold Saucer planet and you know that it really dragged on. It's good for showing us (for the first time in Star Wars history actually) what the Resistance are fighting for and that this isn't a strict good vs. evil fight. There are people on the side lines who are affected by the actions of the heroes and villains, whether positively or negatively.

There are also a couple plot holes that are best ignored for the sake of the movie. Grown ass people in here don't seem capable of communicating with one another very well, Poe Dameron's actions are scolded but don't seem to have any real lasting consequences, and Rey's training with Luke seems to take place over the course of weeks whereas the main storyline seemed to take place over the span of a few hours. I think they could've easily gone Dunkirk's route and had these two plot threads occur over different timelines and eventually converge, but oh well. 

What does work is the oppressive atmosphere that the First Order constantly exude and the sheer desperation of the Resistance. This really is the first Star Wars movie that feels like a Star WARS movie, if you know what I mean, and you really do feel like the Resistance are in a really terrible shape by the end of the movie.

Cinematography and Music

Words are insufficient of describing the visuals and music of The Last Jedi. If there's one thing that everyone can agree was amazing it would be these. John Williams provides some truly amazing scores, with my personal standouts being Rey's theme, the March of the Resistance, Luke's/the Force theme, and the Millennium Falcon theme. Personal opinion, but I honestly do not understand how people can say Hans Zimmer is the greatest composer of our time when John Williams still lives.

Visuals range from well done to absolutely gorgeous. Canto Blight's planet was pretty drab and a bit too Earth-like, but the beach shot was beautiful. The stark, industrial red of Snoke's throne room and his Praetorian Guard was very visually distinct and a great contrast with the grounded and natural setting of Luke's planet Ahch-To.

And don't get me started on the hyperdrive scene. You'll know it when you see it. My God, it's like for a few seconds Stanley Kubrick was allowed behind the camera.

Random thoughts (SPOILERS!!)

• Luke Skywalker being an asshole hermit who wants nothing to do with the force is a fantastic character moment. So many fans are raging against this because they wanted the Luke of the comics and the books, the hero of Return of the Jedi, the one true Jedi. But this is one of my favorite parts of the movie because it allows us to see more dimensions into Luke's character. He's not perfect; he's flawed, makes mistakes, and can't handle the burden of dealing with those very mistakes. Luke in this movie had way more layers and personality than the Luke of the original trilogy ever did.
• Rey's parent reveal was perfect. Back when The Force Awakens was released and everyone was arguing over whether or not she was a Skywalker or a Solo or a Kenobi, I just really wanted her to be a nobody. And I was so pleasantly surprised when that turned out to be the case, because it shows us that you don't have to be a big somebody or the son of a big somebody in order to be a hero. Even a nobody like her, a speck of dust with no place in the story, can change the galaxy.
• Kylo Ren's character arc was fantastic. Fans again were outraged that we never got answers to the mystery behind Snoke, but honestly when was that ever an important plot point? And no, I don't think Snoke will come back because that would undermine the major character development that Kylo Ren had undergone. Either way, he's easily becoming one of my favorite villains of all time.
• Finn and Rose didn't cut it for me. Funnily enough, it seemed like Finn wasn't too into it either so we'll see how it goes.
• Why wasn't Leia the one who stayed behind and rammed the Resistance cruiser into the Star Destroyer? It's already an amazing moment and would have been the perfect way to send Leia off. Otherwise, I have no idea how they're going to explain her disappearance in the next movie.
• Every scene of Luke training Rey was great and I really, really wish more time was spent with them together. When Kylo Ren called her out on her daddy issues and how she sought father figures in Han Solo and Luke, it didn't really make sense to me on the latter. More time together could have fixed that.
• Force Awakens: BB-8 is such a cute little mini R2-D2.
  Last Jedi: BB-8 MACHINE GUN ON YO ASS BITCH
• Rey and Kylo Ren vs. the Praetorian Guard was really great. Fantastic action scene that I wish lasted longer.
• Luke vs. Kylo Ren by contrast was sorely lacking, and I really do wish there was more here. This could have been a very strong and emotionally driven fight, like the Luke vs. Darth Vader fights.
• But Luke turning out to be a force illusion (?) was a great moment as well.
• Leia using the force was an awesome moment, but honestly floating herself back to safety is a little campy. But I can dig it.
• Luke's death. Ah jeez, I really felt something there. I was a bit underwhelmed with Wolverine's death in Logan, but this was just absolutely perfect.
• The barn boy looking up at the night sky, holding his broom like a light saber. AH I REALLY FELT SOMETHING THERE.

Final Verdict

The Last Jedi is probably not for everyone. If you are a diehard fan who is not open to new and interesting subversions of classic tropes, you'll probably have a bad time. If you think you'll be bothered by a lengthy subplot that leads almost nowhere, you'll probably have a bad time. Star Wars isn't art. It's a series of movie blockbusters, and that's it. And this movie has a lot of flaws. There are pacing issues, there are plot contrivances, and some characters deserved better than what they ultimately got. The Last Jedi isn't supposed to be perfect and it isn't supposed to appeal to everyone. It's literally a movie about disappointment and failure and how people deal with that.

But let's not forget that The Empire Strikes Back had a very mixed reception when it was released, and now forty years later it's widely regarded as the best in the series and one of the greatest movies of all time. It really makes me wonder how people will look back on The Last Jedi.

Score: A-