Review - Star Wars: The Last Jedi

          It’s that time of year again...and no, I don’t mean Christmas time. I mean it’s time for Disney to once again bestow us with another entry in the Star Wars saga. It’s actually kind of surreal to think that this will be my third review of a new Star Wars film. What started merely as a fun little activity in the summer of 2015, this blog, has actually evolved into a more serious project over the past two and a half years. I wasn’t sure whether or not I would actually continue with it as a larger endeavor - I merely intended it to fill the void after I graduated from the Philosophy program at San Diego State. The fact that I continue to write for it is certainly a testament to something, I’m just not sure what - either I (foolishly?) believe that the blog has actually been somewhat successful that I am looking to expand it further, or I still have that same feeling that something is missing that I had after I graduated, to which the blog is the only reprieve. In either case, it has now been with me through quite an interesting number of adventures, and has seen the highs and lows of the world since the summer of 2015. Among the highs were the releases of The Force Awakens in December of 2015 and Rogue One in December of 2016, a tradition that continues this December with the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
          Star Wars is a franchise that, at this point, shouldn’t really need much of an introduction to English-speakers (unless, of course, you have been living under a rock you’re whole life). It is the epic space opera set in a galaxy far, far away, pitting the forces of good and evil against each other in a retelling of the classic “hero’s journey” tale illustrated in a world of advanced science fiction, complete with laser blasters, massive space ships, starfighter dogfights, bizarre aliens, wise sages, intimidating villains, and underdog heroes. Ever since George Lucas created it’s first entry in 1977 (later dubbed A New Hope), the Star Wars world has been immensely popular, spawning two follow-ups to the original film (The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), a prequel trilogy roughly two decades later (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith), a Christmas special somewhere in between A New Hope and Empire, the seemingly endless stream of increasingly bizarre merchandise (like the R2-D2 bikini), and perhaps the most obnoxious thing of all, the largest corpus of self-insert fan fiction the world has ever seen. In 2012, after several years of relative silence and an otherwise low-profile, the Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm and the distribution rights for any subsequent Star Wars production, announcing the creation of yet another trilogy and once again bringing Star Wars to the forefront. The first entry in this new sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens, was released in December of 2015, which brings us to where we are now, with the second entry of this new trilogy, The Last Jedi. Directed by Rian Johnson (of Looper fame), The Last Jedi picks up more or less immediately where The Force Awakens left off, telling the story of the young Rey as she finally finds Jedi master Luke Skywalker in isolation on the sacred planet of Ahch-To while the ragtag Resistance is relentlessly pursued by the authoritarian First Order. What ensues is an emotional story of soul-searching on the part of Rey and Kylo Ren, Luke struggling to reconcile his “cranky old hermit” lifestyle with his reputation as the legendary Jedi warrior that defeated Darth Vader and the Empire, and the importance of hope in the face of impossible odds as the Resistance is slowly picked apart by the First Order.
          In the simplest sense, I can say that The Last Jedi was good, easily better than many other science fiction entries from earlier this year. However, I confess that my deeper feelings about it were much more ambivalent, at least initially. I walked out of the theater sure that I enjoyed it, but I quickly found myself questioning whether or not I should have enjoyed it. After all, The Last Jedi is a Star Wars film, so it would be reasonable for me to hold it up to the precedent set by The Force Awakens and the original trilogy (I hesitate to say that the prequel trilogy contributed to setting the Star Wars bar so high insofar as the prequel trilogy was really only good at showcasing an overabundance of CGI). It wouldn’t really be accurate to assess The Last Jedi in a vacuum - while it is important for any work of fiction to hit all of the fundamentals of basic storytelling, The Last Jedi has the added burden of properly situating itself in the Star Wars mythos that has preceded it. Perhaps it is in this sense that my attitude towards it was initially ambivalent - as a work of fiction, The Last Jedi delivers in pretty much every regard, with intriguing characters, great rising action and falling action, imaginative landscapes, cool special effects, and a rather compelling story that even provides a degree of social commentary. However, as a work of fiction in the Star Wars universe, The Last Jedi took several liberties with the direction of the saga, and it’s not entirely clear yet whether or not this new direction is for the better. Still, after meditating on it for a couple of days, I’ve concluded that The Last Jedi is definitely worth seeing, maybe even twice, and that it can be applauded for its bravery in taking some risks with what is otherwise a rather rigid franchise. The only caveat that I would add would be a large “WARNING” sign over the new direction the series is going in - filmmakers should take heed not to sacrifice the artistic integrity and imagination of the series in order to maximize capital gains for any corporate shills at Disney.
          As is typical with my reviews, I’ll start with what The Last Jedi does well. Much of the acting in the film deserves praise. Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley, in particular, bring an on-screen dynamic that had yet to be seen in the Star Wars universe (or virtually any other film this year, for that matter). Throughout the course of the film, the range of emotions that Rey and Kylo Ren display towards each other was large and varied, starting with sheer anger and animosity, but quickly fluctuating between trust, mistrust, curiosity, and perhaps most interestingly, what can be interpreted as a kind of romantic desire. For example, the scene in which in which Rey and Kylo Ren touch hands face-to-face in her hut on Ahch-To only to be interrupted by an angry Luke Skywalker is very reminiscent of an upset father walking in on his young daughter with her forbidden boyfriend after he climbed in through her window on a dark and stormy night. There is also the brief exchange between Rey and Kylo Ren in the elevator on their way to take Rey to Snoke in which Ridley speaks a number of her character’s lines in semi-seductive half-whispers, timid susurrations with hints of both desire and anxiety. Driver also does a great job of embracing the “monster” moniker that Kylo Ren is all-to-often labeled with while simultaneously portraying Ren’s struggle against his insecurities, making Kylo Ren appear more tragic and pitiful than downright vile, more akin to the Phantom of the Opera or Quasimodo than to Voldemort or Claudius. And of course, any review of The Last Jedi wouldn’t be complete without discussing Mark Hamill’s return as Luke Skywalker. It was very interesting to see Hamill return to the spotlight once again, as an actor who notoriously stayed out of it after Return of the Jedi, unlike his Star Wars cohort Harrison Ford. After all, Hamill’s most famous role after Luke Skywalker is lending his voice to the Joker in almost all of the animated iterations of the classic Batman villain since the Emmy-winning animated series from the 90s. As such, one may be forgiven for wondering whether or not Hamill could adequately revive the character after defeating Darth Vader decades ago. Fortunately, all such reservations were wholly misplaced, as Hamill seems to bring the same passion that he had for Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy. Luke wears his emotions on his sleeve, which can be gauged in his facial expressions alone. For example, in the ending scene of The Force Awakens, after Rey walks up the stone steps and presents him with Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, he gives her a look that easily conveys “Who are you and where did you get that?” without actually using any words. On Ahch-To, after milking what can best be described as an alien space-cow-giraffe and taking a drink of raw, blue space-milk, he looks at a semi-disgusted Rey with an expression of “yeah, I just did that”. And despite his old age and his newfound pessimism towards the Jedi and the Force, we still see hints of the naive farm boy from Tatooine when Yoda appears yet again to give him one more lesson on the importance of failure.
          Beyond the great performance of many of the actors, Rian Johnson brought a new artistic style to the film that sets it apart from other installments in the saga, clearly distinguishing The Last Jedi from J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens. I believe the style of Abrams’ previous installment in the saga can best be described as “traditional”, with a more or less linear montage of events culminating in the temporary defeat of Kylo Ren and the destruction of Starkiller Base. This is certainly not a bad thing - it was very reminiscent of the original trilogy, imaginative in content but straightforward in delivery. Johnson, on the other hand, experiments a little bit with a new way of portraying events. For example, during the scene where Rey is tapping into the Force while meditating on Ahch-To with Luke observing, we are presented with a fresh illustration of the Force, in which vibrant life sprouts out of the soil and blooms while death, decay, and rot feed it from below. Cute little Porgs are killed off by the turbulent wrath of the ocean while the Caretakers of Ahch-To tend to the verdant hillside of the island in tranquility. That whole montage had a very National Geographic feel to it, showcasing both the beauty and ferocity of nature, something also yet unseen in the Star Wars universe, which really served to illustrate the Force as a truly metaphysical thing, something that transcends the mundane concepts of “good”, “evil”, “light side”, and “dark side” (and, fortunately, Midichlorians). This same artistic flourish is also evident in the scene in which Rey descends into the dark cave and stares into the mirror rock, her reflection quickly expanding into many fractals and warping her perception of reality. The whole effect appeared like a mild drug trip, an Escher-esque foreshadowing of the truth that Rey is looking for. It reminded me a lot of the MCU’s Doctor Strange, which also presented itself as if many of the effects were done after having ingested some kind of mind-altering substance (which should be construed as a compliment for The Last Jedi, considering that I think Doctor Strange is one of the best entries in the MCU partly because of these kinds of effects). I earlier mentioned that Johnson takes several liberties with the The Last Jedi that really set it apart from other entries in the Star Wars saga, and such artistic flare is one of those ways in which I think the series has been oriented for the better. We weren’t simply told what the Force is - we were shown what the Force is (to the extent that one could see it). We weren’t simply told that her lack of knowledge about her lineage is tearing Rey apart - we were shown the character having to confront this by looking in the mirror.
          But alas, like The Force Awakens and Rogue One before it, there were several points that caused me to raise an eyebrow and lead me to think that perhaps we were being a little too ambitious with the scope of this project. Perhaps the biggest thing that stood out to me was the prospect that The Last Jedi might be so overloaded with characters that we are supposed to care about that we actually end up caring about very few of them. Prior to the film’s release, Laura Dern’s role as Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo of the Resistance was given a considerable degree of hype and attention. Despite this, though, Holdo actually seemed like one of the most ineffectual characters in the film, and was killed off almost as soon as she was introduced. After a surprise attack on the Resistance fleet, Leia is jettisoned into space, but manages to rescue herself through one of the most cringe-worthy demonstrations of the Force in history before falling into a brief coma. During that interim, Holdo assumes command of the Resistance fleet and...doesn’t do much after that. She apparently continues to fly the fleet in a straight line to an abandoned Rebel base on the planet Crait without telling anyone about her plan, which inadvertently results in the world’s worst mutiny against her by Poe Dameron. Holdo eventually sacrifices herself to damage Snoke’s ship, the Supremacy, but this essentially renders Holdo’s point in the film as a grandiose Kamikaze character. And, like in The Force Awakens, Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma again has very little screen time, despite her growing cult following. After Finn and Rose Tico (another questionable character), get caught trying to carry out a poorly planned sabotage mission aboard the Supremacy, Phasma quickly appears to order their execution. Fortunately for Finn and Rose, it’s around this moment that Holdo goes full Kamikaze and crashes into the Supremacy, disrupting the execution. A brawl between Finn and Phasma ensues which culminates in Phasma falling into the flaming wreckage of Snoke’s ship. It’s a pity because, as the first noteworthy female villain in the Star Wars universe, and a particularly ruthless one at that, Phasma had the potential to be outright scary. I can envision Phasma leading very bloody ground campaigns against Resistance strongholds or forcefully subjugating defenseless towns to the will of the First Order in a manner similar to the apocalyptic vision of the future at the beginning of Terminator 2. But no, instead we have to limit her screen time to a grand total of about 15 minutes across both films and then throw her into a fire. Also, speaking of Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico, one can be forgiven for being a little lost on what the point of this character actually is. Rose starts out as a lowly maintenance worker aboard the Resistance flagship, but then is quickly recruited as an agent for a sabotage mission (of all people), and ultimately finds herself piloting a speeder headfirst into a line of advancing First Order walkers, only to crash into Finn and foil the only means of stopping the First Order from gaining entrance to the Crait base. One can’t help but feel that Rose is at the center of a number of bad ideas, a point that even Admiral Holdo hints at when Poe eventually reveals the haphazard sabotage plan to her.
          Lastly, an important point should be made about the direction in which Disney and Rian Johnson aim to take the series. This is not so much a criticism as it is a warning, a premonition of great peril that will hopefully be acknowledged. Throughout The Last Jedi, we are continuously presented with a message that can best be summarized with the phrase “let go of the past”, a principle that seems to underlie many of the events in the film and drive several of the characters’ behavior. This principle underlies Luke’s ominous dictum that “the Jedi must end”. It’s metaphorically illustrated when the film kills off Admiral Ackbar, Supreme Leader Snoke, Captain Phasma, and of course Luke Skywalker. It’s present in one of the most profound scenes in the film when Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber is split in two. Kylo Ren offers Rey a place by his side as a kind of consort or empress with whom to rule the Galaxy - all she has to do is “let the past die”. Even Yoda gets a piece of this history-erasing action when he zaps the ancient Jedi tree on Ahch-To with a lightning bolt, like Zeus smiting the Titans from high Olympus. It’s fairly clear what the aim is with all of this: The Last Jedi seeks to undo many of our preconceived notions about the Force, about who the important characters are, about the extent to which they are important, about what constitutes a good story in the Star Wars universe, and about Star Wars in general. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though. The Galaxy is a vast place, with many planets in the Outer Rim largely uncharted, many stories untold, and the potential for a mythology and understanding of the Force greater than even the Jedi foresaw. In one sense, it would be a great waste of potential for Disney to leave these stories untapped. However, in another sense (and this is the warning I have mentioned), it would do a great injustice to the series to quickly and haphazardly produce a whole bunch of films that wear the Star Wars title, but sacrifice all of the series’ artistic, imaginative, and dramatic appeal simply for the sake of cashing in on the brand name. We have seen this happen with other franchises - Warner Bros., for example, decided to eschew conventional character development or world building and jump straight into a film adaptation of the Justice League. The end result was an massively silly punch-up involving characters that we cared very little about. So far, I don’t think we have any indication that this is happening with Star Wars, but looking ahead to what Disney is rumored to have planned for the series, the more cynical among us may rightfully feel uneasy about the future. A Han Solo spinoff, Solo: A Star Wars Story, is planned for release in 2018, Episode IX of the main saga is set to release in 2019, Rian Johnson was recently given control over a whole new trilogy that is supposed to be totally unrelated to anything that we have seen from the Star Wars universe before, and now that Disney has acquired 20th Century Fox, they are rumored to be working on an online streaming service to compete with Hulu and Netflix that will supposedly feature a new Star Wars series. There is nothing wrong with any of this prima facie, but the speed with which all of this is happening may lead one to wonder whether or not certain important details are being overlooked.
         All in all, go see Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It’s a new take on the Star Wars universe that, while having several questionable scenes, should at least be lauded for daring to be different in the first place. It’s not perfect, but in this day and age, an age of CGI superhero overload and shitty remake after shitty remake, The Last Jedi does what many recent science fiction films fail to do and return to the principles of basic storytelling and character development. What is perhaps most interesting is that it actually evokes feelings of both hope and hesitation as it orients the series in a new direction, an unknown future in a world in which recent attempts at innovation have fallen flat. It’s also a nice way to close out the 2017 cinematic year, a year that had a handful of diamonds, such as Alien: Covenant, Dunkirk, It, and The Last Jedi, in the rough of such abysmal titles as The Mummy and Justice League. Still, I will say that 2017 was a larger success than 2016, insofar as 2016 had almost no great titles and in fact plagued us with the likes of The 5th Wave and the Ghostbusters reboot.