Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review
This doesn’t go the way you think and that’s why it’s a masterpiece
SPOILERS! WATCH THE LAST JEDI YOU MUST. THIS REVIEW YOU CAN THEN READ.
Introduction: A New Hope
The Last Jedi is the movie I needed. It’s a new take on Star Wars. It is at once a Star Wars movie through and through as well as doing something different that fans aren’t perhaps accustomed to.
Twitter has been ablaze over the weekend with many hot takes on the movie. From fans who said they hated the movie to fans who said they loved it. It has a low audience score on Rotten Tomatoes in comparison to the high critics score.
The film has received an A cinemascore and has seen solid reviews from the general public on IMDB yet the prevailing wind on Twitter is that the film is a disappointment.
I’m not going to use this review as a means of arguing that anyone is wrong for thinking what they think. That’s not what makes democratic societies good. Everyone is free to have an opinion and, perhaps more importantly, to have that opinion heard and valued as part of the discussion by others.
What I will do is break down what I loved about the film and touch on some of the stuff that I didn’t. It’s quite possible that this film taking risks and stepping outside of the Star Wars saga’s comfort zone is what pissed some people off.
While I loved the fact that the film stood on its own as opposed to recycling plot points from earlier films, I can see how this might be a big step to take for some. I have seen the film twice since its release, a fact that makes writing this review easier in more ways than one.
Part One: War!
Upon viewing the film at the midnight showing I was taken aback by the hype, the emotion and the sheer volume of story that takes place in its two and a half hour running time. It hadn’t sunk in yet. I didn’t even feel comfortable giving a Twitter review because the film hadn’t had a chance to fully decant in my mind.
Unlike The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi isn’t an easy movie to digest. It’s a complex clockwork piece of a film that rewards multiple viewings which is why, upon seeing the film a second time I started to realise what it was doing right.
Where at first scenes like Canto Bight and the opening dialogue between Hux and Poe felt like strained comedic beats, the second viewing gave them a new light. The casino city felt less like it was being played for laughs and more like the hollow, materialistic war profiteering that was driving the character of Rose.
The interaction between Hux and Poe at the start served not only the character of Poe but also the story setting the tone for the film to come. While I do feel that it undercut the character of Hux by making him the butt of a joke it did feel in character for Poe and seemed to build on the “who talks first” dialogue from the start of The Force Awakens.
The opening space battle felt as though it had a tension not present in many of the previous Star Wars films. It recalled the genius editing of the final act of Jedi that blended the three storylines within the film into one cohesive narrative. From Poe driving the attack on the First Order Dreadnaught to the eventual sacrifice made by Paige (more on that later), the whole scene felt rich with visually stunning storytelling. Watching Poe whip his X-Wing around to blast away the cannons was new in a way that felt richly engrained in the saga. The fact that BB8 was the chosen character to utter the famous “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” line is genius.
The scenes with Finn and Rose felt warm and complex in a way I hadn’t seen since Empire. Like Leia and Han’s romance in that film, their storyline was built on their differing perspectives. Rose was a woman born of slavery, born out of war profiteers and First Order weapon makers dehumanising her and her sister to make themselves rich.
Her sisters sacrifice at the start of the film and Roses’ infallible dedication to the Resistance makes her an interesting counterpoint to Finn, a character who saw war at the start of The Force Awakens and wanted no part of it. He tries to run multiple times in both films but it is only because of the people around him that he loves, Poe, Rey, Rose, that he keeps on going.
The fact that he only fought Kylo in the Force Awakens because he needed to save Rey meant he hadn’t really joined the fight yet but by pairing him with someone like Rose, Finn began a to understand the machinations that work beneath the First Order and began to understand what had happened to him.
For Finn, Rose was a mirror reflecting back his own loss, the life stole from him by the First Order. She was someone whose life had been stolen by the First Order who wanted to fight back and so was Finn. Poe gave Finn identity. Rey gave Finn a reason to fight. Rose gave Finn purpose.
For Finn, Rose was a mirror reflecting back his own loss, the life stole from him by the First Order.
The scene where Finn is about to sacrifice himself to save the Resistance made me tear up the second time I saw the film. I knew he survived but it was the realisation that he now understood the true nature of the First Order that hit me. In The Force Awakens he was scared. In The Last Jedi he was angry.
Rose saved him out of love and the beauty of that final line she gives about fighting to save what you love made her character and her importance to the saga all the more prominent. Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran played this relationship beautifully. Their knowing looks to each other during moments of levity to their escape from Canto Bight made their relationship feel like a metaphor for the Resistance. While the First Order fight out of hate and anger, the Resistance fight out of love.
The whole arc of both Finn and Rose is emblematic of the people in the Resistance. Its an insight we missed in the Original Trilogy because our sole focus was on the core characters and as a result the Rebellion wasn’t ever fully fleshed out. While Boyega is excellent once again I want to give particular credit to Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose. From her introduction as grieving Finn groupie to the depth she lends the character in the scenes on Canto Bight, she brings a complexity to the character that only serves to elevate her importance.
This brings me onto Poe and his place in the film. Once again Oscar Issac is charming, witty and roguish, bringing the Han Solo that this film missed on account of his demise in the Force Awakens. He spends a majority of the film at logger heads with new character, Admiral Holdo, played by Laura Dern. At first glance she felt out of place. Her first appearance on screen came during a somewhat awkward speech to the Resistance after Leia (more on her later) is in a coma.
The speech didn’t feel quite as awkward the second time round because I realised what it was doing. What may seem like awkwardness is actually Holdo holding back information. Poe is the kind of man who plays his hand too early. He gets what he thinks is a good draw and then lays his cards out too soon. Holdo doesn’t do that and that made their interaction all the more interesting.
Poe vs. Holdo made up the better part of the Battlestar Galactica-esque sequences where the Resistance were attempting to out run the First Order. His insistence that they must try and escape and her patient, considered approach to submarine warfare made the depth of military prowess in the Resistance more prominent.
Her ultimate sacrifice is both emotionally heartfelt and visually stunning in a way we haven’t seen in Star Wars. Previous Star Wars movies have given us sacrifice, sometimes huge sacrifice but none have delivered it in a way that is so meaningful. She cuts the First Order in half literally.
This is an example of The Last Jedi taking a risk where other Star Wars movies might have played it safe. Where The Force Awakens has Rey triumph over Kylo in its climax, The Last Jedi shows the only way to escape is by sacrifice and even that doesn’t yield total escape.
At many times The Last Jedi felt like a blend of Return of the Jedi and Empire. It takes the darkness, the philosophy that runs through the veins of Empire and blends it with the spectacular warfare of Jedi. The Resistance feels like an extension of the Rebellion. It feels like their hope against all odds attitude is what is propelling them forward not a never ending parade of ships and troops.
Part Two: Princess, General, Legend
This brings me onto Leia. Carrie Fisher is Leia in this movie in a way she hadn’t quite achieved in The Force Awakens. She didn’t have a great deal to do in the first of the new trilogy but here she is the core of the movie. She is the face of the Resistance not just its leader. She is the heart of the Resistance not just one of its generals.
Fisher gives a performance that feels rich with humanity in the same way she had in Empire and Jedi. In Empire she felt like a deft military strategist who had a warmth behind her eyes in each scene. This warmth returns in The Last Jedi in a way that made it feel all the more like real Star Wars. She gives a line that felt so quintessentially Leia in the latter half of the film that made me tear up knowing we’d never get to see her play the role again.
The film serves her well for the most part giving her storyline a depth that I found worked well. Seeing her use the Force for the first time was cool if a little goofy in practice but her reunion with Luke and her scenes with Poe made her character shine.
The movie does, however, prove that Fisher’s DNA runs deep within the saga and that her spirit will forever be a part of Star Wars and its quest to keep the hope alive.
The “permission to jump in an X-Wing and blow stuff up” exchange felt like it might have been taken straight out of an unused scene between Leia and Han in Empire. Understanding that she has been learning and understanding the Force as a general makes her character more rich and layered. She chose not to follow Luke and train to become a Jedi because she was bound by a duty instilled in her by her step-father and mother.
Leia is a character that is emblematic of the hope that sits at the heart of the Resistance and the fact that we won’t ever get to see Carrie Fisher as the character again is a tragedy. The movie does, however, prove that Fisher’s DNA runs deep within the saga and that her spirit will forever be a part of Star Wars and its quest to keep the hope alive.
Part Three: Do or do not, there is no try
On the subject of hope, or the lack there of, brings me onto my favourite part of the film. Luke Skywalker. He was bound up in every decision and plot mechanism in The Force Awakens but never uttered a line. In the Last Jedi he is equally, if not more important.
While Luke doesn’t drive the plot in the way he did in the previous film, he sits at the core of both Kylo and Rey’s journeys. Aside from some strange comedic beats (not a fan of the blue milk scene) and a few knowing winks to camera, Luke’s storyline was perfectly executed.
His character has retreated from the world and has lost all hope. He failed his apprentice and nephew and feels an immeasurable guilt for what he has done and as a result has shut himself away from the world.
He agrees, reluctantly, to offer Rey three lessons. The first is the truth about the Force. True balance exists when the Force isn’t being manipulated by the Dark or the Light. Lesson two is an education in the Jedi’s failings throughout history.
Lesson three doesn’t seem to be something he taught to Rey knowingly. Lesson three was delivered in Luke’s actions. Luke had given up on Kylo in a way that Rey hadn’t. He had lost hope where she hadn’t. Her scenes with Kylo where she begins to understand the Force and what she can do play as complex conversations about the nature of good and evil.
She believes that no one is evil at birth and that evil is embedded into them by indoctrination. As a result Rey feels she can save Kylo from Snoak and for a moment it felt like she might. Then she learns that Kylo has outgrown his teacher in the same way she has. Much like Luke learned lessons from the failings in Yoda and Obi Wan allowing him to defeat the Emperor and turn back Vader, Rey has learned from Luke’s failings.
There are multiple moments in the film that feel particularly Star Wars but the most Star Wars moment of all had to be the conversation between Luke and Force ghost Yoda. The scene felt rich in thematic content speaking to ideas of fathers and sons, masters and apprentices that sit at the core of the whole saga.
Seeing a puppeteer perform Yoda back was as tearjerking as anything else in the film.
Seeing a puppeteer perform Yoda back was as tearjerking as anything else in the film. The whole scene felt like an extension of the conversations in both Jedi and Empire in a way that deepened Luke’s character. Yoda’s line about apprentices outgrowing their masters felt like it reverberated through the saga back to the Prequels when Anakin was first discovered on Tatooine.
Kylo Ren vs. Force Luke felt earned. The movie had built the confrontation from the various stories presented to Rey by both Luke and Kylo. Kylo’s ultimate feeling of having been betrayed by his master has manifested in anger just as Luke’s guilt at creating the monster he has become. Aside from the shoulder brush, which felt like a wink too far, the scene is amongst the saga’s greatest. From the stark image of the red salt planet of Crait (home to an all time great battle) to the shots of Luke holding a lightsaber in a similar manner to his mentor, Obi Wan, the whole scene felt like a blend of the Original Trilogy and the modern sensibilities of the newer trilogy.
Part Four: The Force binds us
I’ve talked at length about the storytelling at work in The Last Jedi and how much it accomplishes without losing its sense of pace and narrative tension but the sheer craft on show throughout all aspects of the film is nothing short of spectacular. From the cinematography to the creature design, this is a studio firing on all cylinders.
John Williams, the eternal lord and saviour of film composition and the best musician of the modern age is once again back with a symphony the is equal parts reverence and innovation. Rey’s theme, the force theme, Yoda’s theme and the Luke and Leia theme from Jedi all get a run out in this eighth masterwork from a true legend.
The new design’s blend together the best of the Original Trilogy whist also pushing the saga off in a new direction. This is pretty much sums up the work done by The Last Jedi. It’s like a caring, gentle hand pushing the saga into a brave new direction.
Part Five: Let the past die, kill it if you have to
Kylo Ren’s mantra for the new Dark side era post Sith is one that closely resembles Rian Johnsons attitude to his new Star Wars opus. He has let the past die. In the case of Luke, he has killed it. The difference here is in their differing attitudes to what new thing should take its place.
Where Ren believes that the galaxy should bend the knee to him and that would usher a new era of peace into his Dark side modded galaxy, Johnson believes in the power of hope. He subverted expectations at every turn. Rey’s parents aren’t Luke or Obi Wan, they are nobody. It’s a twist on the classic “I am your father” reveal that flips it in the opposite direction.
Where that iconic reveal basically wrote Luke into the history of the galaxy without his consent, the Rey parentage reveal opens up Rey to write herself into history. She isn’t bound to do good by blood. She serves the light and will undoubtedly move the Jedi forward out of her own goodness and that makes her infinitely more interesting.
Kylo and Rey are polar opposites making the romantic tension between them a new idea in the Star Wars saga. The moment we watch as Kylo cuts his master in half with a lightsaber he has so coveted over the past two movies is as shocking as it is preordained. Their conversations through the movie show he is wrestling with guilt and with the pull of the Light side (a new twist again, being tempted to the light) so his ultimate betrayal of Snoak was foreshadowed.
What wasn’t perhaps so obvious was that he would continue down an even darker path. Seeing Rey and Kylo battle Snoak’s guards will rank amongst the coolest, most stunning moments in the saga but the reveal that he killed Snoak to rule himself is a twist upon a twist.
Ultimately this movie is like Kylo Ren. It wants us to move on past the old and into the new. It tells us that this change won’t be easy and that it will hurt. It offers us symmetry and poetry in its closing of old arcs and offers us potential and drama in its opening of new ones. Rey and the motley crew of Rebels flying away on the most important ship in the Rebellion seems poetic in itself. Yes, the franchise has moved on, but all this newness still comes in an outfit you’re familiar with. It’s ending isn’t as dark as Empire but it isn’t as hopeful as Jedi or A New Hope. Our heroes are battered, bruised, homeless, our villains are stronger, angrier and themselves scarred but it is the hope filling the galaxy that sets out the new path for the franchise.
I could talk for days about the complexities of the film and where I think the storytelling was executed brilliantly. I could even talk at length about the moments where the humour didn’t work or where performance beats fell flat but it wouldn’t matter. I loved this movie because it brought a smile to my face and warmth to my heart.
Like George Lucas said; “its like stanzas of a poem, it rhymes.”
The Last Jedi answered some questions and created others in their place. It will give rise to speculation over the coming years and will undoubtedly be a hard act to follow come Episode 9. Its a new breed of Star Wars film and one that makes me very excited for the future.
What I didn’t like was vastly outweighed by what I loved. From Yoda’s return to Leia using the Force to Rey and Kylo’s stand against Snoak, the film gave me what I wanted and somethings I didn’t know I wanted. Seeing an old, bearded Luke watching the twin suns of Ach-to set felt like a perfect ending to a character wrapping his arc in a circle back to where he began. Like George Lucas said; “its like stanzas of a poem, it rhymes.”
