Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Itstarted I — 23 Dec 2017

I am all for defying peoples expectations and having twists you don't see coming. When you rely heavily on nostalgia like The Force Awakens and then basically tell the audience to forget all that nostalgia for The Last Jedi, it sends mixed messages. When you build up and hint at things but then use that buildup and hype for throwaway gags and continuous misdirections its hard to find any real cohesion in the narrative of the film.

There is a lot of good ideas and creative visuals but when it comes to worldbuilding and character growth the direction of the film seems to go nowhere. Poe's growth seems forced and only leaves you wondering why Holdo was unwilling to explain herself or command authority rather than talk about Hope or throw Poe's mistakes in his face. We get hype and buildup for Snoke only to get more backstory, conflict, and resolution from a new character like Rose... and Finn is there too I guess. Why go to a casino planet to find a space hacker when you have R2D2 and C3PO two characters who have been known to get into imperial ships? Rey kicks Luke's ass but then, later on, he is powerful enough to astral project himself onto another planet. Why astral project at all if your gonna die anyways its Obi Wan's death just with more steps! The new planet presented for the final battle is an uninspired backdrop that seems like we're just on the other side of Starkiller base from the previous film.

The moral lecturing in the film goes nowhere. Poe must learn he doesn't need to be trigger happy all the time but ultimately is justified when the enemy ship fires at the escape pods. In Canto Bight, we learn and see nothing about war profiteering until after leaving the planet but were supposed to connect gambling and aristocracy to it. Are we supposed to think saving the life of a space deer is more important than saving child slaves? Rey learns nothing is special about her parents (unless explained in the next film), nothing is generally special about her being so powerful (unless explained in the next film). Kylo Ren still acts like a child throwing tantrums. Is this supposed to mean that Luke, Snoke, nothing from the past is worth saving or legitimate because two children, Kylo and Rey know better?

While some of these ideas are intriguing the lack of real information on the evolution of the force or why Rey is so powerful and the continuous "gotcha" nature of subverting the expectations people had based on the hype and mystery we got in Force Awakens will leave you wondering if any questions presented in this film get answered in the next film at all or will it also be just another film trying to subvert expectations? Many characters were wasted. Finn and Phasma are spent twiddling their thumbs until it's their turn on stage. C3PO and R2D2 are just there, Admiral Ackbar's death seems kind of blink and you miss it.

Some people might say that it is because of nostalgia that these criticisms are invalid or don't hold much weight, however, if you have been watching the films, the animated series and Disney themselves keep feeding the hype that all this has some sort of canon to it and then you tell us in the film to just forget all that it really makes the whole thing feel like there is no point in caring at all when you can just get rid of the past every time you start a new trilogy, kill it if you have to, as they say.