Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Logan G — 27 Dec 2017

"The Last Jedi" was crushingly nihilistic. This review will focus on that aspect.

I learned that since Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm and rejection of Lucas, there has been no master plan for the new trilogy nor its ancillary projects. Rather, Disney's Kathleen Kennedy has been constructing a multi-billion dollar write-around, with each successive writer/director told to do as they liked, with no regard for continuity, only to be fired mid-stride if she didn't like what they were up to. Abrams did what he does and constructed a mystery box out of "The Force Awakens", questions without answers à la "Lost". Now, Rian Johnson, using Kylo Ren as his personal stand-in, has deconstructed and demolished that box and has built nothing at all to replace it.

SPOILERS.

The Last Jedi, Luke, once the New Hope, gave up hope.

Luke tossed his father's lightsaber over his shoulder, a discarded totem, stripped naked of its significance. All that excitement fans built up over it? A foolish waste of time.

Various characters worked valiantly in numerous side-plots, none of which amounted to anything much but loss, destruction, and contrition. Benitio del Toro's Lando Calrissian reveals that playing both sides is the most profitable move.

Kylo Ren furiously smashed his mask, a tribute to Darth Vader, when Emperor Snoke derided the atavism as silly and useless.

Snoke, himself, was shabbily cut in half without dignity. After all, he too embodied a useless regression. A used-up trope.

Rey's past? Meaningless. She descends into the Dark Side's Oceanic Asshole and finds only herself.

Rey, already amazing at everything, had nothing at all to learn from Luke Skywalker. The ancient and sacred Jedi temple was burned to the ground. By Yoda. BY YODA!

Rey, with her easy, matchless abilities, seemingly has nothing to prod her forward nor hold her back other than whim. Nothing she might do could surprise us.

Just as he failed Han, Luke didn't show up for his sister. He didn't try to save his nephew. He Force-Phoned it in.

Equally zero sum, Kylo Ren's struggle was pointless as he blasted and blew up Luke's ghostly image. Kylo Ren represented Rian Johnson, while Luke represented the director's frustration with trying to untangle 40 years of Star Wars lore.

Now, Luke Skywalker is dead. Too tough for lasers but too inconvenient, irrelevant, and politically obsolete to carry on, with a penstroke, Luke has died of fatigue, his body disintegrated, his empty robes blown off into the winds over the endless oceans of a lost planet.

Han Solo is dead. Even the discarded ghosts of his gold dice have evaporated.

In a bitterly ironic twist, Leia is still alive, but it lends cold comfort.

"The Last Jedi" takes a treasure chest with seven movies' worth of content in it, dumps it in the dirt, shows us the empty bottom, and jokes about it.

We're supposed to admire how clever that is, while not questioning what we are to do with these empty boxes. Mark Hamill's solution has been to warn fans that it's only a movie. Don't take it too seriously. Don't be such a nerd. You're too old for fairy tales.

Kylo Ren's mission to kill the past is complete.

I didn't like it.