Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi: It's No Empire, But It'll Do

It's finally here, you guys! After two long years of waiting, we're finally getting Star Wars: Episode VIII. I am by no means a super fan of Star Wars. In fact, growing up, I thought the movies were just meh. I'd only seen them a handful of times by the time The Force Awakens came out. However, this past year, I did sit down and watch all of them in order 1-7, with Rogue One tossed in between. I finally understand why the superfans, and hell, even just fans of this franchise exist. It's spectacular. The original trilogy stands true and one of the best film trilogies of all time and the prequel trilogy stands as just about the worst. All these new three can try to do is not piss off the majority of fans and elevate the game past the prequels (not difficult to achieve) and it should go swimmingly. However, in the hours I've spent since seeing the newest film, I've done a lot of reading of reviews; not by critics, but by superfans. And I can tell you that they may be the best worst fans in the history of film. They all have "unique" ideas of where the movie should go, and when it doesn't-- worst Star Wars film ever made. They were all very pissed off that The Force Awakens was pretty much a carbon copy of A New Hope. Now, it seems, they're pissed off because (among several other reasons) The Last Jedi isn't anything like The Empire Strikes Back. The series is evolving, yet when the story seems to be heading in a new changing direction, they're mad because "that's not Star Wars", but when you give them a paint-by-numbers Star Wars film: "they're not giving us anything new." Star Wars fans are the absolute worst. So, if you fancy yourself a casual Star Wars fan, I would say this-- you're going to like The Last Jedi.

If you haven't seen the film yet I wouldn't advise reading any further as I'm going to spoil some major elements of the plot (something I don't normally do, but in this case I must). In preparation for this film I intentionally avoided reading or researching anything about the film. I didn't watch the trailers unless they came on before a movie I was already going to see and at that point I shut my brain off from trying to analyze anything too hard for fear of accidentally spoiling anything for myself. But now that we've all seen it, we can skip the whole "Ryan gives us a plot synopsis" part of the review. So, let's just say, everyone is where you expect them to be. Rey is on the island planet with Luke attempting to get him back to help the Resistance fight the First Order. Kylo Ren is still brooding and trying to appease his master, Supreme Leader Snoke. Poe and Finn are fighting along side Princess General Leia to ward off First Order ships and Han Solo is still dead as shit. This is where a majority of the characters remain for most of the film. One of the things that generally irks me about sequels is they split up the characters. I hate it when we watch an original movie with characters developing chemistry and going on adventures together, then in the sequel split them all up to go on their own adventures, totally bastardizing the already established relationships we've come to love and enjoy. As far as The Last Jedi is concerned, it didn't bother me. As much as I wanted to see Rey and Finn develop their relationship further and battle the First Order even more... I loved watching Rey with Luke. I loved watching Poe and Finn get extra scenes together. Hell, I even (mostly) loved Finn go on a side-adventure with new badass character Rose (Kelly Marie Tran). The characters do get split up in the film, but for once it worked.

I had a feeling we were going to get something a little bit ballsy and different from The Last Jedi because any of you who criticize The Force Awakens for being too similar in plot to A New Hope, we can all agree that The Last Jedi is no regurgitation of The Empire Strikes Back. Director Rian Johnson (one of my favorite directors) came on board with the intention to take the film to new heights and give us change in the story of Star Wars. He could've easily kept Rey with Luke training her just as Yoda did with him. Most of us wanted this training, but, again it would've wound up just like Empire. While away, the First Order could be pummeling the Resistance and rising in power until it looks like there is absolutely no hope left. And while we do know that the First Order is up the Resistance's ass for most of the film, it doesn't end in despair like Empire. The film has a lot of dark, but it ends with hope. Snoke could've started using Kylo Ren in a more sinister way a la Vader and the Emperor. And while he does do this, there's the clever (and damn surprising) death of Snoke so Ren can rise to power (but more on that later). All of these elements have been given clever twists and turns in structure and weight as far as furthering the story. It's different. It's new. And a lot of it is quite surprising. What I thoroughly respect and appreciate about a director like Johnson, is that he was able to take a franchise that is now in its 8th film (9th if you count Rogue One) and still surprise us. Structurally, a lot of Star Wars just kind of repeats itself and there were moments in The Last Jedi where members of our packed theater (myself included) were exclaiming, during multiple occasions, "oh shit!" This makes for a wonderful movie-going experience. The Last Jedi didn't take us on the journey I expected, and from what I've read, it doesn't take us to the places that most superfans expected either. I loved this aspect about the film... the superfans did not apparently.

The film is also beautifully shot. It never ceases to amaze me the creativity put into creating new worlds in the Star Wars universe. The climactic battle on the "mineral planet" where the red earth has been covered in salt and underneath the surface are shimmering red crystal caves. The Falcon chase scene zipping in and out of these caves was awe-inspiring. After Ren kills Snoke and he and Rey join together to fight the minions in the room gave me chills. The emphasis on the moment when Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) jumps to hyperspace and tears through the enemy ship was jaw-droppingly fantastic. By eliminating all sound in that one moment, Johnson shows what a capable director he is by being able to emphasize these poignant scenes. This is the work of a director who is someone truly in tune with what direction Star Wars needs to go, as well as what makes a great film (if you haven't seen any of Johnson's previous work I strongly urge you to seek out Brick, The Brothers Bloom, and Looper). The performances were also top notch. I found Rey to be a bit annoying in The Force Awakens. It could've been the writing of the character or Daisy Ridley's performance and acting choices. Whatever the case, it has been fixed, toned down, and she gives a remarkable performance. John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Laura Dern, hell everyone in the film turns in solid performances that really lend to the high quality of the film. However, it's a surprising turn by Mark Hamill that really shines through. His crusty (yet still whiny young Luke) old guy Luke is the perfect mentor for Rey. He's not trying to be Obi-Wan or Yoda or anyone we've seen in previous films. He's still Luke. And Hamill has never been better.

Now, the film is not without its faults. There are some glaring problems with both the script and the story that keep popping up in my head whenever I think about how much I enjoyed the film. The first, and most common grievance with the film that I've read online is that this film has been Disney-fied too much. There are "too many cuddly creatures" and too many "jokes that aren't funny" and an overall goofy feel to the movie that should've gone a lot darker. I agree with some of these complaints, as it does feel Disney may or may not have interjected some of their family-friendlyness into the script in order to appease ALL the fans, but I didn't think most of these inserts were over-extended and run into the ground. Nothing in this film was any more "goofy" than Return of the Jedi. And these moments of levity are something you can giggle at or just ignore. It's not like they're overtly in your face Jar Jar Binks style. As far as the jokes go, I'd say a little more than half of them land and only a couple of them are truly cringe-worthy (Finn should never have called Phasma "chrome dome" ugh). Again, nothing bad enough to label the movie as the "worst Star Wars ever". No, what I had my issues with were dialogue-related. I've followed Rian Johnson's career as a writer/director and I know what kind of writer he is. He's very poetic and methodical and never spoon-feeds his audience. Yet, a lot of the dialogue in The Last Jedi was very unnecessary and plot-explanatory. Like serious in-your-face explanatory. For example, when Luke shows up at the end and approaches the First Order's battle droids, Poe looking through the binoculars actually goes: "It's Luke Skywalker. And he's going to fight Kylo Ren alone." Like, duh! We can see that! The worst offender of this type of unnecessary plot explanations is Rose's character. I really like her as a character and I think she will fit in nicely with the series, but nearly all her lines are like this. That kind of beginner-screenwriter type stuff definitely didn't feel like Johnson's caliber of writing and was what I assume a little bit of Disney interjection. The best moments with Rose are the moments when she's reflecting on her sister through her necklace. There's no dialogue there and we get more from her character's silence than we do when she's speaking.

Other issues I have come either from set-ups that pay off weakly, or don't pay off at all. First of all, and I hadn't even thought about this after seeing the movie until it was brought up to me, but we begin almost immediately after The Force Awakens ends. Hell, we see Rey hand over the lightsaber to Luke again. So, if we're right there... why aren't we given a Han Solo funeral? It's like everyone has already moved on and his death, in the scope of time in the movie, JUST HAPPENED. Then, there's an entire side plot about Finn and Rose trying to find a codebreaker on the casino planet to hack into the system of a First Order ship... and it doesn't really ever pay off. In fact, Benecio Del Toro's character, as entertaining as he is, doesn't seem to contribute much to the overall story of the movie and if this side-plot was cut from the movie, other than developing the character of Rose, the story doesn't change much at all. And finally, there's the built-up Finn and Phasma confrontation. Yes, it does happen. No, it isn't great. Phasma is decked out in chrome Stormtrooper gear and Finn has been waiting to get a shot at her since the previous movie and their fight is quite anti-climactic-- a couple of hits and she falls down a shaft into the fire (seriously, everyone dies down a shaft in Star Wars). So, there are quite a few discrepancies with The Last Jedi and I would argue that there is more in this film that I disliked than I did in The Force Awakens. More elements of this film stood out to me as not up to par, yet I genuinely believe that I liked this film better than The Force Awakens. In the fleeting moments of "bad"... yeah, it's bad and it sticks out like a sore thumb. But it's so few and far between that when the "good" happens... it's so incredibly good that it overshadows the bad by a lot.

Now, to address a couple of elephants in the room. After a few days of reflection, there are moments in this film that have severely angered people that I've come to terms with. First is floating Leia. I didn't particularly like it, and I don't necessarily understand it... but I accept it. As unrealistic as it seems, it was such a deliberate choice made by Johnson that, even if we're just supposed to accept it's "the Force", I accept it. Something in Star Wars canon has set this up in the past and allowed her to survive space (unharmed) and it wasn't just done by accident. It was methodically thought out and decided upon, and even if I don't understand it... I accept it.

Then there's Snoke. A lot of people are upset that he was built up so much to be this insanely evil force of destruction and conflict and was killed instantly. I loved this choice. It was unexpected and keeps the story away from a reflection of Emperor/Vader territory. The film was never about Snoke's evil. It's about Kylo Ren's. Snoke was a red herring in the grand scheme of the story and his death was necessary for Kylo to take full form of the dark side he has succumbed to. It bugs me that we still don't know the back story of Snoke. Like he's this old, decrepit ancient evil... yet, where does he come from? Why wasn't he involved with the Sith back when Luke was a kid? He's set up to be shrouded in mystery during The Force Awakens, yet this film doesn't really address any of our lingering questions about him and chances are we'll never get the answers. But, because it shaped the character of Kylo Ren that we've actually been following and watch develop, I'm okay with this too. Also, think about this-- in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi... we knew NOTHING about Darth Sidious. Nothing. And yet, it didn't make him any less evil. It didn't make his death any less awesome. So why is everyone all up in arms over the mystery of Snoke?

Rey's parents are nobodies. This is great. All the speculation about her magical origins and she's come from nothing! Thematically this is great. It's underwhelming, but what actual explanation would be better that everyone would love?

Finally, Skywalker's death. Loved it. Those complaining that they wanted to see the strongest Jedi of all time finally do battle and blah blah blah... that's not Luke. Luke projected himself across the galaxy to save lives, not to kill. He showed that he is the strongest Jedi and then physically became one with the force. This might be the best death of any Star Wars character to date. It felt legitimately earned.

Love it or hate it, The Last Jedi is its own entity. It takes the feel of Star Wars and it's leading the story some place new. I, for one, am very excited to continue on this journey. Until then, I will probably be seeing The Last Jedi four or five more times in theaters. Because, come on, how many times in our lifetime have we been able to watch a Star Wars movie in theaters on the big screen? Thanks again, Movie Pass!

B