The Force is strong with this one . . .
Starring: Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher
Director: Rian Johnson
The Plot: The First Order have seized control of the galaxy and located the base of the Resistance, led by General Leia (Fisher). Faced with new technology that can track them through hyperspace, the Rebels find themselves in what seems like a hopeless pursuit as they flee. While Poe Dameron, Finn and newcomer Rose try a desperate plan to disable the First Order's tracking system, Rey (Ridley) has finally found Luke Skywalker (Hamill) and seeks his help - she shares a Force connection with Kylo Ren (Driver), and believes he can be turned back to the Light, but Luke has vowed never to train another Jedi again . . .
Review: I've held off posting my review of The Last Jedi until now for two reasons: firstly because I wanted to see it a second time, and secondly because I'm going to spoil the fuck out of it. If you haven't seen it yet, and plan to, trust me when I say now is the time to stop reading (but come back when you have, yeah?). I first saw it on opening day, and while I really enjoyed it I found there were a number of flaws and what I considered to be odd moments or choices that I didn't like. After a second viewing, however, I found I was able to appreciate some of those choices more and I can say, hand on heart, that this is an excellent film and I believe it's one of the best Star Wars films to date.
Now, if you've been keeping up with any of the reaction to the film on the internet, you'll know that to say it's been divided is an understatement. Despite widespread glowing critical acclaim, the reaction from fans has been split right down the middle: half absolutely loved it, praising the story and the performances, while the other half have completely hated it, denouncing director/writer Rian Johnson and the actions/portrayals of the characters, particularly Luke, and the humour. I think that a lot of the people who hated it had certain expectations for this film, a preconceived view of what was going to happen, and got angry when it didn't. I think basically a lot of people expected this to be a second version of The Empire Strikes Back, as The Force Awakens was to A New Hope. It isn't. I'm a big fan of Rian Johnson, as he's previously brought us two amazing films in 2005's Brick and 2012's Looper, and he had one hell of a difficult job here: the weight of taking the reigns of the biggest film franchise ever aside, this is a long film (it clocks in at two and a half hours) that has to juggle a lot of different story threads. As I've mentioned, after a second viewing I think for the most part he's nailed it, but there's still a few things that I didn't like. I'm going to go ahead and talk about those first.
SPOILERS, my young padawan.
So, while this is high fantasy and not really something that should bother you, I found the main "background" story thread of the Rebels being pursued by the First Order to be a bit . . . silly. It basically amounts to a car chase in space, where the Rebels cars are just fast enough to stay ahead of the First Order. While you ultimately find out why this plays out the way it does, you have to wonder why, since they know where the Rebels are, the First Order don't just jump a few ships to hyperspace somewhere else, then jump them back ahead of the Rebels in a kind of galactic pincer movement? Also, why would only the one ship be using their special tracking technology? That just seemed like an excuse for the next point on my list . . .
I didn't like the whole plot thread with Finn and Rose pursuing a codebreaker on the casino planet. While I loved those two characters together (I'll talk about that later), I found this whole sequence to be long and convoluted. It seemed to just exist to try and get the message across that there are wealthy people profiting from the war, and I found it a little bit jarring that, after being told that there was only one codebreaker who could possibly get them onto Snoke's ship to disable the tracker, they just happen to run into another one (a stuttering Benecio Del Toro, whose performance I liked) who can do it? Please.
Speaking of Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the First Order and powerful Sith Lord . . . dead. Yep, he gets cut down by Kylo Ren in what was a genuinely shocking moment. Now, this is one of the moments that after a second viewing I was able to appreciate more, as it's an extremely effective moment in the transformation of Kylo, but it's still annoying that we don't learn anything about this mysterious figure who is clearly incredibly powerful with the Dark Side - we see him throwing Rey around and torturing her with Force powers easily. Unless his back story is revealed in Episode 9, we'll never know who he really was, where he came from or how he became so powerful, and that's a real shame.
In another moment that I've been able appreciate more the second time around, but am still unsure about, is the "reveal" of Rey's parents. I say "reveal" because . . . we really don't know yet. Kylo Ren tells Rey that her parents were no-one special ("They were filthy junk traders. Sold you off for drinking money. You come from nothing. You're nothing. But not to me.") and he's clearly trying to use it to turn Rey. It's another extremely effective moment in the journey of her character, as she overcomes the impact of this revelation to reject Kylo and remain with the Light, but we still don't know if it's the truth. After the lengths that The Force Awakens went to suggest at some connection to the Skywalker lineage for Rey (I mean come on, why else would Luke's lightsaber call out to her?) it will be disappointing if this is the true reveal. We'll have to wait and see.
Some other small niggles:
SPOILERS, my young padawan.
So, while this is high fantasy and not really something that should bother you, I found the main "background" story thread of the Rebels being pursued by the First Order to be a bit . . . silly. It basically amounts to a car chase in space, where the Rebels cars are just fast enough to stay ahead of the First Order. While you ultimately find out why this plays out the way it does, you have to wonder why, since they know where the Rebels are, the First Order don't just jump a few ships to hyperspace somewhere else, then jump them back ahead of the Rebels in a kind of galactic pincer movement? Also, why would only the one ship be using their special tracking technology? That just seemed like an excuse for the next point on my list . . .
I didn't like the whole plot thread with Finn and Rose pursuing a codebreaker on the casino planet. While I loved those two characters together (I'll talk about that later), I found this whole sequence to be long and convoluted. It seemed to just exist to try and get the message across that there are wealthy people profiting from the war, and I found it a little bit jarring that, after being told that there was only one codebreaker who could possibly get them onto Snoke's ship to disable the tracker, they just happen to run into another one (a stuttering Benecio Del Toro, whose performance I liked) who can do it? Please.
Speaking of Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the First Order and powerful Sith Lord . . . dead. Yep, he gets cut down by Kylo Ren in what was a genuinely shocking moment. Now, this is one of the moments that after a second viewing I was able to appreciate more, as it's an extremely effective moment in the transformation of Kylo, but it's still annoying that we don't learn anything about this mysterious figure who is clearly incredibly powerful with the Dark Side - we see him throwing Rey around and torturing her with Force powers easily. Unless his back story is revealed in Episode 9, we'll never know who he really was, where he came from or how he became so powerful, and that's a real shame.
In another moment that I've been able appreciate more the second time around, but am still unsure about, is the "reveal" of Rey's parents. I say "reveal" because . . . we really don't know yet. Kylo Ren tells Rey that her parents were no-one special ("They were filthy junk traders. Sold you off for drinking money. You come from nothing. You're nothing. But not to me.") and he's clearly trying to use it to turn Rey. It's another extremely effective moment in the journey of her character, as she overcomes the impact of this revelation to reject Kylo and remain with the Light, but we still don't know if it's the truth. After the lengths that The Force Awakens went to suggest at some connection to the Skywalker lineage for Rey (I mean come on, why else would Luke's lightsaber call out to her?) it will be disappointing if this is the true reveal. We'll have to wait and see.
Some other small niggles:
- In one of the moments that's really divided fans, we see Leia using the Force to survive being blown out of a spaceship and pull herself back in. I thought this was wonderful, as we've seen Leia's connection to the Force before via her communicating with Luke, but with the sad death of Carrie Fisher we're now never going to find out how or when Leia gained this ability or what else she was capable of
- Captain Phasma is the Boba Fett of this new trilogy, as while the character looks amazing she's literally useless. She has one bad-ass moment here when Rose shoots at her and the bolt zings off Phasma's armour, Phasma not giving a single fuck as it does, but that's it. I hope that the character survives and has a more effective role in Episode 9, as I like the idea of her being the main antagonist for Finn, but who knows.
- I really didn't need to see Luke milk a four-titted alien and then drink it. Yes, that happens.
Now, onto the good stuff!
I loved the journeys of Luke, Rey and Kylo Ren in this film. I particularly enjoyed Luke's, and I think this is Mark Hamill's best performance to date in anything he's done. Luke is not a Yoda figure here, not the wise old Jedi Master ready to train Rey and teach her everything she needs to know. He's utterly broken, so full of guilt over his part in Kylo's turn to the Dark Side that he's not only exiled himself to the island of Ahch-To to die but also closed himself off from the Force itself. This leads to some very effective moments, such as him worriedly asking Chewie "Where's Han?" It's only through a wonderfully emotional scene where R2-D2 plays him the original recording of Leia from A New Hope that he agrees to teach Rey about the Force and the Jedi, but even then he's scared at Rey's display of power and how she's drawn to an area of the island strong with the Dark Side. I liked how he tries to teach Rey that the Force belongs to no-one and the importance of balance, but most of all I liked how, even as an old man with all of his experience, he's still learning - it's through a final lesson from Yoda (in wonderful scene where the old Jedi Master reappears as a Force ghost once more, voiced and puppeted by Frank Oz) that Luke is able to accept his failure and understand its importance.
This all leads to an astonishing sequence at the climax of the film where, in what I felt was a fitting ending for the character and gave me goosebumps, Luke displays a phenomenal amount of Force power and projects himself across the galaxy to face Kylo Ren and the advancing First Order army. We're treated to a glorious vision of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, fully robed and armed with his lightsaber in a display of what could have been. After an emotional meeting with Leia, he tricks Kylo long enough for the Rebels to escape, and in doing so destroys himself. His final moment, sitting facing twin suns as his body fades away just like Obi-Wan and Yoda did before, is a beautiful moment of cinematography.
This all leads to an astonishing sequence at the climax of the film where, in what I felt was a fitting ending for the character and gave me goosebumps, Luke displays a phenomenal amount of Force power and projects himself across the galaxy to face Kylo Ren and the advancing First Order army. We're treated to a glorious vision of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, fully robed and armed with his lightsaber in a display of what could have been. After an emotional meeting with Leia, he tricks Kylo long enough for the Rebels to escape, and in doing so destroys himself. His final moment, sitting facing twin suns as his body fades away just like Obi-Wan and Yoda did before, is a beautiful moment of cinematography.
Rey and Kylo's journeys are intertwined and extremely effective. Sharing a connection via the Force (which, we learn, is Snoke's doing), both believe that they can turn each other but neither can see where the other is headed: Kylo, broken down and belittled by Snoke for his failure, is building his hatred for his master to the point of his violent betrayal, which finally erases any conflict in him for killing Han and seals his full turn to the Dark; Rey, on the other hand, comes to realise that she doesn't need to be taught what her place is or to know who her parents were to do what's right - she knows that Kylo's path is the evil one and rejects it. She didn't need to be taught how to use a lightsaber, or use the Force, and she will be the last Jedi. I thought this was all excellent.
I've already mentioned Rose and Finn. Rose, a new character, was the beating heart of this film for me and played wonderfully by Kelly Marie Tran. I loved her character and how well she worked with Finn - she begins as basically a nobody, an engineer on the Rebel ship ("I'm behind pipes all day") who sees Finn as one of the famous heroes. Finn doesn't think he's worthy to be included amongst them, but it's through their journey together that he learns the really important part of what they're fighting for, and that he is worthy to be a hero. I already talked about how I didn't like the actual long sequence in the story that they go on, but it didn't prevent the characters from being extremely effective together. They spark off of each other well, and there's even a romantic seed placed between them at the end which I thought was very fitting. I hope to see more of them both together (and with Poe, who they also work well with) in the next instalment.
There's some truly fantastic cinematography on display throughout the film. As well as some individual shots, such as Luke's aforementioned departure or a moment where he's framed perfectly against the entire advancing First Order, the space battles are some of the best of the saga so far. The opening sequence is thrilling, and features Poe doing a handbrake turn in his X-Wing, and towards the end there's a wonderful sequence with Rey and Chewie in the Millennium Falcon taking on a bunch of TIE fighters over and through the planet Crait, all choreographed to that incredible Star Wars theme music. The must jaw-dropping visual moment however, is when new character Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) sacrifices herself and the Rebel main cruiser by going to lightspeed through Snoke's ship, splitting the behemoth vessel in two and decimating the Star Destroyers following it. It's truly astonishing.
Some other positive moments:
- Rey and Kylo Ren's lightsaber battle against Snoke's Praetorian Guard is thrilling, and includes two incredible moments when Rey fluidly drops her lightsaber and then catches it with her other hand to take out her opponent's legs, and then throws it to Kylo who ignites it through a guard's fucking eye. This was probably the most metal moment of the film.
- There's a wonderful little moment where, on Ahch-To, Rey stands beneath the Falcon while it rains and smiles and stretches her hand out to feel it, a small reminder that her character has been living on a desert planet her entire life and is still finding joy in her new surroundings.
- Porgs! You really don't have to worry about these furry little crosses between birds and rabbits. They're only used sparingly throughout the film for brief moments of light relief, and they're very funny. They most certainly are not the Jar Jar Binks of the new trilogy.
- Speaking of funny, yes the film does have its funny moments, but unlike many I didn't feel that it was too much. Watching the film a second time, the funny moments really didn't seem as frequent and the film is still overall incredibly serious and dark in tone. The moments of comedy were brief breaks and didn't feel overused to me.
And so overall? This is an incredible Star Wars film. Ultimately I'm just one opinion - there are still parts of it that I wasn't fond of, but overall I absolutely loved it. As with all things, your opinion will vary, but if you've seen the film and didn't like it, I really encourage you to see it a second time like I did as you may find yourself appreciating it more.
For me personally, the third act of this film is pure magic. From the reappearance of Yoda, to Rey and Kylo's confrontation with Snoke and the ensuing lightsaber battle, to Luke's reunion with Leia, his incredible display of Force power and demise, to Rose and Finn's moment in the battle on the salt flats of Crait, to the Falcon's battle with the TIE fighters and then Rey's display of the Force. It's everything you could ever want from a Star Wars film, and there are few series like it that connect with so many people in the way that it does.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Despite some flaws and odd choices in terms of story, this is a truly excellent film and one of the most exciting and well-made Star Wars films to date. Visually superb throughout, with great performances from Mark Hamill particularly, the third act of the film is so magical that it more than makes up for the issues present and delivers an experience that few other films can. Absolutely essential viewing.
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