In this spoiler-filled review, I will analyze The Last Jedi and respond to some of the critique against the film. For my spoiler-free review (like you haven't already seen the movie), click here.
Overall, this movie presents a conundrum. Most critics seemed to love the movie, while most fans hated it. Well -- certain fans. It seems that those who have dived into the whole Star Wars universe (read the books, seen the cartoon series, frequented the fan boards) tend to hate the movie, while those like me who saw just the movies and stayed away from the other media tend to enjoy the movie.
This reminds me of The Empire Strikes Back when it first came out to mixed reviews. It was definitely not my favorite movie at the time, and I resisted the whole "you are my father" thing for at least a couple years after that. That was a twist I didn't want to accept. But now, that movie is at the top of my favorite Star Wars movies, as all fans know that you're supposed to say this. When Return of the Jedi came out, it solidified Empire and demonstrated what made it so great.
Episode IX could very well have the same effect on The Last Jedi. Only time will tell.
When analyzed as a standalone movie in terms of plot, character development, musical score, cinematography, etc., The Last Jedi turns out to be a great movie.
Plot: It's simple to follow; a lot happens in a short amount of time; it follows a classical drama formula; several classical techniques are used such as the Rashomon effect (the differing memories of Luke waking up Kylo) not used in any other Star Wars film.
Character development: This is severely lacking in the first six movies. In the prequel trilogy, you get a little with Anakin and Obi-wan, but it doesn't feel organic. In the original trilogy, there is development mostly for Luke, a little bit for Darth Vader, Leia, and Han Solo, but practically none for anyone else. In The Last Jedi, we see development for Rey, Kylo, Luke, Poe, Finn, and a tiny bit for Leia. Hux also provides comic relief.
Musical score: I think absolutely nobody complains about John Williams' work. As always, he continues hitting each cue perfectly, either foreshadowing or reminiscing with the proper leitmotifs.
Cinematography: Again, I think hardly anyone complains. This movie gives us, hands down, the best fight scenes of all Star Wars movies, amazing special effects, and moving scenery. The only exception is some bad CGI in relation to animating living characters -- something was off with Snoke's body movements, and some creatures on Luke's planet looked fake.
Where I agree with the die-hard Star Wars fans:
The new type of humor didn't fit. In the opening scene where Poe is ribbing Hux, it felt like I was watching Guardians of the Galaxy. And Luke throwing away his light saber just seemed to make it worse. That was not too much removed from this spoof I saw just before the movie came out.
At the end of The Force Awakens, we see a view of the island from different angles, and it appears to be empty except for Luke and Rey, but all of a sudden there are animals and a race of caretakers? Well, this one doesn't bother me too much in hindsight, but at the time, it really caught me off guard.
Admiral Holdo was very stupid in not revealing the whole plot to Poe, though I'll talk more on that shortly.
I did not appreciate the political statement coming from the visit to the casino planet.
There were indeed too many twists in the movie. Twists are usually good, but the event of Finn and Rose failing to acquire the flower man combined with them ultimately being caught in the end was disappointing to me -- at least one twist too many.
How ever, there were so many fun things happening in the movie. A few responses to criticisms:
"This is not my Luke Skywalker": I respect Mark Hamill, who's come a long way from whiny teenager to nefarious Joker. But he's still an actor, not a writer. He did say that he would act as asked to act, and he did his job well.
The weaknesses and strengths shown to us in The Last Jedi are consistent with his character in the original trilogy, and even enhance his character. He had tried to raise the Jedi back to what they were before. Disaster ensued, and he decided humans weren't meant to use the force and cuts himself off. By the end of the movie, he learns that he was wrong. He realizes there is hope in Rey. He ultimately decides to show one last awesome demonstration of the force and saves the day. (Bonus: you can hear the Whilhelm scream embedded in the light-saber sounds when Kylo first charges Luke.)
Any other plot alternative would seem inorganic after what had already been established in The Force Awakens: "I'm the most awesome Jedi Master but I'm just going to hide out here on this island -- yeah -- look at all these boulders floating around me and I won't lift a finger to stop the First Order!"
Leia Poppins: yeah, I love that term, but this is actually one of the more believable developments. In a sense, it's necessary plotwise, as it allows for both the scene of Kylo not being to push the button to destroy his mother, then watching her die, and the later scene of Leia saying goodbye to Luke before he dies. But could Leia actually pull of this cool Jedi trick? All she would have to do is survive long enough in space (a "regular" human can stay conscious about 15 seconds), and then use the force to pull herself toward the spaceship with a little help from Newton's third law of motion, a technique already used in Episode II. Of course, coming back into the ship without ejecting everyone else into space would be an issue, but they conveniently did not show that part. I am in the vast minority for having enjoyed that scene.
"This movie throws away everything from the earlier movies": Well, I will admit that very little of the force vision Rey experiences in The Force Awakens makes it into The Last Jedi. For example, we don't see the Knights of Ren. But we still have another movie left to see, and that looked like a towards-the-end scene anyway, or a flashback of them killing Luke's followers.
Though, we did see a spaceship crumble, like in Rey's vision.
Other than that, I see a natural flow of events from one movie to the next. In The Force Awakens, most of the Republic was destroyed by the big gun, so we're left with a small group of rebels who are evacuating after their last attack. Meanwhile, Rey continues to reach out to Luke. While certain developments are contrary to what many fans expected, from a technical standpoint, there really aren't many contradictions to what has been established in the past.
"Why didn't Hux just light-speed one of his ships around to the other side of the rebel fleet?": It's so easy to criticize Hux's decision in hind-sight, but from a military analysis, his decision seems sound. He had no knowledge of a hidden planet. He knew that if the rebels jumped, they would trace them and destroy them. There appeared to be no escape.
And finally ... there's Holdo's decisions. On a second viewing, I noticed three major exchanges between her and Poe. One was when Poe first approached her. At that point, it was perfectly understandable that she should withhold information from him. He was insubordinate, and did not have proper clearance. She didn't trust him, and thus chose not to reveal the plan.
There was another point when Poe went to her to describe the Finn plan (which was already in progress if I remember correctly). It seems like this would have been the perfect time for Holdo to tell Poe what was happening, but even then it seemed reasonable that she could make the stupid decision not to tell him out of her pride. It was dumb of her, and she ended up paying the price.
The third exchange was after she and Leia stops the mutiny and she finally reveals the plan. Stupid on her part, but worked for the writers in developing Poe's character. Yeah ... I wish they could have done that a little differently, but this isn't much different than any other plot hole in all the other movies.
There is much, much more that I'm leaving out, but this all goes to show how much fun debate this movie has kindled. Sure, it disappointed many fans, but there are still many fans that enjoyed it. I hope that the ninth installment will help us come to understand The Last Jedi, and that it will rise to its proper place in the movie Star Wars universe.
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