Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Anuj & A — 17 Jan 2018

If we perhaps can agree about anything about Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi, it's that Director/Writer Rian Johnson really did craft a film that is nearly impossible to review well spoiler free. So, this is not the spoiler-free review you were looking for. Beautiful, made bold character choices, and pulled from all aspects of the lore to push Star Wars to a new level and finally make the series feel like grander than its mythology since Revenge of the Sith. Though at times the film can struggle a bit with pacing, losing some of its "sense of urgency" because of how many story arcs it's trying to complete, The Last Jedi is a true "breath of fresh-air" for 21st century cinema.

In today's cinema space it is risky, incredibly risky to try to make a film that does something different and does something new. Especially in a world where a film like The Force Awakens, which made close to a billion dollars domestically, found much of its success through playing it safe and attempting to make something that the audience would find familiar and nostalgic. It's even more dangerous attempting to elaborate on specific elements of a beloved franchise especially ones that many viewers have come to conclude are "unchanging" or "without nuance". For example, many viewers might've summized that the Jedi have only ever been presented as the Pure Heroes of the Star Wars universe. Making it feel downright blasphemous to insinuate anything different or, going purely off what we've been shown previously, a lot of fans may have concluded that the force is only strong enough to lift rocks, X-Wings, Lightsabers, or shoot lightning out of one's fingertips. Meaning that if a force wielder were to say use it to fly through outer space or cast their astra-form across the galaxy that that would be ludicrous. But even for someone like me, someone who fully believes that the Prequels have already demonstrated just how fallible and nuanced the Jedi were or that the television series The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels have already shown us just how powerful the Force could be. I would still applaud the aforementioned creative choices found in The Last Jedi, why? Because without a willingness to make decisions like them we would have never gotten a film as weird, risky, bold, and brilliant as "The Empire Strikes Back".

We would have never gone to Hoth, but instead returned to Tatooine, the Death Star instead of Cloud City, hung out with ghost Obi-Wan instead of Yoda, and gotten to know Wedge Antilles more instead of being introduced to Lando Calrissian. And writers would have never ever revealed that the most evil villain in all of the galaxy is actually our heroes Dad. If those risks weren't taken, those new places not explored, and those new ideas never presented- we would have lost, storytelling would have lost. The filmmakers merely struggling to recreate what was once fresh, exciting, and new only to discover in the recycling it had lost much of its brilliance and enchantment.

With that said, it is not simply enough to do something different for the sake of "doing something different". Especially if that somehow unjustifiably a story, an idea, or a character of their established essence. Which is what made, in my opinion, nearly every twist and turn in Rian Johnson's "The Last Jedi" so incredibly wonderful.

Let's start by looking at which of those angles worked best, every blessed scene between Kylo Ren and Rey from nowhere. Honestly, ever since Kylo Ren removed his helmet in "The Force Awakens" revealing himself to be nothing more than a petulant boy who desperately longed for the same kind of control, power, respect, and attention that he believed his Grandfather had once possessed, I loved that character. A love and empathy that only grew watching this film - each time he was insulted by Snoke, unbalanced after the death of his father, conflicted whether or not to destroy his mother and incrementally more unsure each time he connected with Rey. To watch that relationship build to the point in Snoke's throne room where he felt compelled to hold out his hand to Rey, begging her to join him, It really was just a perfect climactic moment for that character [Kylo Ren] in this film as it more wholly revealed his brokenness, confusion, evil, and as Luke described it, his youthful fear. In that moment, we saw that he was still that same scared boy that Luke has stood over with his ignited green Lightsaber, desperately reaching out for what had been denied him his entire life from his parents and then his master. That being accepting, sincere, loving and lasting connection to others and that is what made it so appropriate that it was Rey that he held his hand out to. This girl who also longed to be seen as valuable and worth returning to. Which is part of what made this films reveal that her parents were nobodies so much more than just a "surprise twist". No, Johnson was using a specific narrative development and character choice to make a statement one that perfectly connected to the rest of the film because in a lot of ways this film really was about the passing of the baton from the past to the present. The old to the new, the known to the unknown, and as such it made complete sense that we were no longer following just the Skywalker bloodline through Ben Solo, but also following this girl who had no connection to the story whatsoever that we'd followed for the last seven films. Nope, not Luke's daughter, no Obi Wan's granddaughter, and not Anakin re-incarnate. Just a girl from nowhere just as "insignificant" as that little boy with the broom on Canto Bight.

The yin-yang between Kylo Ren and Rey represents one of the more intriguing elements of The Last Jedi - it's a concrete embodiment of the Dark Side/Light Side conflict that we haven't previously seen in the movies and offers the possibility of differing paths existing for each character. Rey hints at seeing a future in which Ren stands with the forces of Light; conversely, Ren envisions a darker road for Rey. Meanwhile, Luke is haunted by his perceived failings and all these years later, he still grapples with his own impure tendencies.

When The Last Jedi focuses on these characters and their stories, it's on solid ground. Without question, the best scenes in The Last Jedi feature Mark Hamill and Johnson makes sure that Luke is given his due. He's not a secondary player thrown onto the screen to stoke the fires of nostalgia. He has a major part to play in the way things evolve and nothing that Johnson accomplishes over the course of this movie undoes any of Luke's monumental legacy.

Characters weren't the only thing Rian Johnson handled well in his Star Wars film. Though he also assembled some exhilarating action sequences and, in this day and age of special effects extravaganzas, it's rather easy for a director to turn over an entire action sequence to his pre-visualization team asking them to come up with a number of really cool shots with you will then attempt to assemble later in the final edit. That, however, did not seem to be the case with "The Last Jedi's" aerial dogfights. The opening sequence especially with intergalactic bombers was particularly well handled, possessing a beautiful ab and flow, climax and catharsis. I also must take a moment to praise Rian Johnson's camerawork, which in a lot of ways was rather different to what we'd seen in previous Star Wars films. This director absolutely loves the close-ups which he used to brilliant ends really accenting key emotional moments, as well as highlighting the emotional landscape of his characters faces. Which isn't the say Mr. Johnson doesn't know how to compose a beautiful establishing shot of an environment or an immaculate wide shot of a lightsaber battle. As he proved in the films climatic moment, the resolution to the "will the resistance escape?" question; An immaculate, silent, utterly breathtaking moment. One where you could hear an entire audience gasp and hold their breath. As what usually is some massive computer-generated explosive climatic bang is traded off for a silent, swift, bold, and painful sacrifice. A moment in film that I believe will truly stand out in time. Understated and beautiful, almost like it came right out of the epic anime Cowboy Bebop. A true cinematic moment that magnificently sets apart Rian Johnson's film from every tentpole that has been released for the better part of the last two decades.

The Last Jedi does its job even if it takes longer than is necessary to do it. But nothing about Star Wars is ever that simple because every frame gets studied, parsed, and dissected by a passionate fandom. At the end of the day I really, really, really loved "The Last Jedi". It loved Star Wars enough not to simply try and repeat what had come previously and it loved me as a fan enough to give me something new and fresh to fall in love with. It is disheartening than to hear criticisms like "Porgs were only invented to sell toys" or "This entire franchise is just the product of consumerism" or "Entertainment needs have pushed this story so far beyond its prime it's not even funny.". It's not that those opinions are wrong or even bad to voice, but when they're blasted out into the echo chamber of the internet - it, unfortunately, stops good real discussion in its tracks. Dismissing completely the idea that maybe, just maybe, the filmmakers behind this film are endeavoring to simply, powerfully and cohesively use this story, these characters, and these creatures, yes even Porgs, to say something, Something to the old generation and something to the new generation. Perhaps then maybe instead of thinking "where do we go from here?" we should take a step back, and just breathe, enjoying the fact that the sky, nay, the stars are the limit!