Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) by Cristian D — 05 Feb 2018

Of all the many franchises that I love and have supported no matter what part of the globe they're from, each have one thing in common: they have one or more entries that either make it, or break it. They have at least one or more that end up taking risks and pushing it in newer directions one would not think it would go. Having been a lifelong fan of the Star Wars franchise ever since I was five and having grown up with the original trilogy, I've always noticed that from a nostalgic point of view that every movie, while noticeably flawed, always manages to bring some integrity to the table and always instills a sense of anticipation for what's to come. This generalization even includes the prequels (1 & 2 more specifically). The hopes that those two offered were admittedly small, but there nonetheless.

I could even say the same for Episode VII and Rogue One. Aside from the fact that Episode VII is an almost total rehash of Episode IV and that Rogue One had issues with pacing and interesting characters, I enjoyed the both of them for what they were. Though, I ended up enjoying Rogue One more so than VII even though I could tell that its purpose was to quench my thirst until The Last Jedi came out. Now that the time has arrived and I've seen it, I can only say one thing: this movie is one of those movies that truly disappointed the hell out of me.

It's safe for me to say that it was too much for me to hope for that I would enjoy the newest entry in the modern trilogy. It felt much more like a soulless cash grab with quasi-subliminal political statements wrapped up in a lifeless caricature that totally goes against almost everything the originals stood up for. Before I get to all of my main gripes with this movie I am going to talk about what I liked about The Last Jedi. First of all, the movie is very visually inspired. The special effects are phenomenal and the cinematography is truly amazing. Being a technologically groundbreaking franchise one would expect no less, especially how it's been handled since the prequel trilogy. While the action scenes may be total rip-offs of the original trilogy with a few new twists here and there, they are fun to watch. It's great to see Mark Hamill back in action as an older version of Luke Skywalker and Carrie Fisher (God rest her soul) is still great to see as Princess Leia. The movie is a visual marvel and the production quality is great. Many fans these days love the technology behind these movies and I would be lying if I didn't say that fans of the originals loved the same thing as well even though it's a different manifestation of the same thing. One's CG, while the other is props, costumes, puppetry, and the like. But, I digress. The music is also fantastic and memorable. That is where my praise ends.

Now before I begin my review of this movie I'm going to forewarn anybody who is reading this that there will be spoilers in this review. So if one is interested, but hasn't yet seen this movie, I will advise you to stop reading right now.

The story of Episode VIII picks up right where Episode VII left off. After the destruction of the Starkiller Base at the end of the last movie the remnants of the First Order led by General Hux and under the command of Snoke launch an all out assault on the Resistance fighters during an evacuation. As ace pilot Poe Cameron leads a group of bombers on a mission to destroy one of the ensuing Star Destroyers to buy Leia and the fleeing Resistance fighters some time he later gets demoted by Leia for acting recklessly. As the Resistance flees from the pursuing of the First Order, mutiny ensues between Poe and Leia's associate Admiral Holdo, Finn is revived from his catatonic state and is given a mission to figure out how to infiltrate the First Order and disable its tracking device for the fleeing cruiser. Meanwhile, Rey meets up with Luke on Ahch-To in hopes of learning the ways of the Force and honing her untapped potential of being a Jedi.

Disillusioned with his past failure with Kylo Ren, Luke shuns her proposal and says that he wishes to remain behind to die along with what remains of the Jedi Order. This is only one of many red flags that I'll elaborate more on later. After a while, Luke finally decides to teach her, but his training only encompasses her using the Force powers that she somehow already has to become one with its energy. He gives her none of the formal training that he was given over the course of Episode V, but yet she was able to pull it off effortlessly in the span of a few days. During the course of her stay, Rey talks with Kylo Ren telepathically who later reveals why he turned to the dark side and why Luke had failed him.

After Rey bests Luke in a stick fight, Luke tells Rey that he once tried to kill his padowan Kylo Ren while he was sleeping based on a vague premonition that he foresaw of his nephew turning to the dark side and that he could sense the darkness taking him over because apparently Snoke got to Ren first. This drove Ren mad and caused him to burn down Luke's Jedi School and turn. Thus, creating Kylo Ren. After Rey leaves, Luke decides to burn down the temple along with the Jedi documents, but is beaten to the punch by the Jedi spirit of Yoda who then informs him that everything in those now destroyed documents are nothing that Rey doesn't already know.

Anyone who is familiar with Luke's profound character arch from Episodes V & VI should see the red flag in that synopsis alone. First of all, if Luke got someone like Darth Vader to turn back and the darkness was just starting to take over Ren in its infancy, what was stopping him from just simply talking to his nephew before he completely turned? He admitted that he would not kill his father, nor fight him, so what made his nephew so special? Second, how did Snoke find out about Kylo Ren? How did they meet in the first place? How did the two ever strike a deal in the first place? If Kylo Ren is supposed to be this all-powerful Jedi that Snoke foresaw, then how come Rey outclassed him if she had no formal training in the Jedi arts, much less if she went through no character arch that I know of that warrants her to have such experiences? I know that she is proficient in using a bow staff, but even then that's a bit different in using a lightsaber. Also, on the topic how was she able to outclass Luke, who went through years of training in the Jedi arts, when her training was only a matter of days?

After all of the speculation and the fan-theories that were floating around about Rey's origins we finally do figure out who her parents were and it turns out that they were just simply merchants that left her on Jakku. Thus leaving her to fend for herself and rendering her entire character utterly worthless. Just some special entitled case that is able to do everything and know everything she does just because she can.

As Finn goes on his mission with BB-8 and Rose Tico, they meet a hacker named DJ who helps them break out of the Casino Bight's prison due to a failure to pay a parking ticket. They infiltrate Snoke's ship and disable the tracking device only to be captured by Captain Phasma and betrayed by DJ. As the Resistance continues to escape from Snoke's dreadnaught, Rey is then taken to meet Snoke by Kylo Ren and is forced to witness the destruction of the fleeing Resistance transports. A scene that is incredibly reminiscent of Episode VI. As Kylo Ren is put up to the task of executing Rey, he is constantly taunted into going through with the motion by Snoke only for Snoke to be killed off by Rey's lightsaber through the use of Ren's force powers.

After BB-8 hijacks an AT-ST walker and uses it Finn and Rose are thus freed and Finn fights Captain Plasma for a short time only for Plasma to fall to her apparent death in a fashion similar to Bobba Fett falling into the Dune Sea. As the Resistance fighters are jettisoned from the main transport after a now conscious Leia stuns Poe, Holdo decides to stay behind and lightspeed kamikaze the main transport ship into Snoke's Star Destroyer in an admittedly good shot, thus dying a martyr.

The Resistance fighters then land on the planet Crait and take refuge in an abandoned Rebel Base. After Kylo usurps authority over the New Order after the death of Snoke he and General Hux launch an attack on the Resistance with AT-AT walkers in a battle that is an almost exact rehash of the Hoth battle in Episode V. The Order plan to use a giant cannon to blast through the main gate and overtake the remainder of the Resistance fighters, but as Finn is about to sacrifice himself to protect them he then thwarted by Rose who later justifies her course of action by giving a very out of place character moral one would almost expect to find in the Gundam franchise. "It's not about killing those that you hate, it's about saving the ones you love.".

After she dies, Luke shows up and confronts Kylo Ren in a duel similar to DBZ and the Matrix only for Kylo to find out that he's been fighting a force projection of Luke the whole time while Rey evacuates the Resistance with the Millennium Falcon. But not after she effortlessly uses her force powers to lift a massive amount of boulders that are blocking their path to escape. After Luke's projection disappears, he then vanishes with the Force on Ahch-To and the Resistance prepares to rise again with the help of Leia.

The absolute biggest gripes with this movie are all of the ret-cons and inconsistencies. Luke's character is completely wrong and the many of the character motivations are all over the place, make no sense, and-on Holdo's part-incredibly vague and scripted.

First case is Leia's survival out in the vacuum of space after being blasted out of the ship's bridge. She uses the Force to float like Mary Poppins back to the ship, knocks on the door, and is taken in by Poe and crew without question of what just happened. I know that she's a Skywalker and is hinted to be Force sensitive in Episodes V & VI, but when was she ever taught to harness her power? Why was that area not depressurized and how come nobody questions what happened?

Another thing is Holdo. If she had a plan to go to Crait being aware a temporary haven for the fighters still exists, why didn't she and Leia just tell Poe her plan from the get-go and not risk a pointless mutiny? Her plan of outrunning the Order until they run out of fuel has no weight to it and when Poe offers a better plan he is then pushed to the side and everyone sides with Holdo, even though she got half the crew killed.

Another is that we never get any back-story on Snoke. We know that he is extremely powerful and can use the Force in many ways unfathomable, but why did they just kill him off in one of the simplest moves ever? On the subject of the Force, how come one the kids in Casino Blight is able to freely use the Force to grab a broom after Finn and Rose free the tamed space horses wrecking havoc that the kids are forced to fix, but not free the enslaved kids?

If there is one thing that every Star Wars movie has in common: it's that every character works for what he/she has and goes through a series of character arcs in the process. This movie and The Force Awakens do not. While I could forgive The Force Awakens for this fact since it was the start of the new trilogy, The Last Jedi never bothered to do what Episode V did for the original trilogy. Which was, give the characters depth by making them encounter challenges that shape them into what we're supposed to remember them as.

Episode VIII feels too much like hollowed out filler that almost totally rehashes assets from Episodes V and VI more in an effort to deliver needless diversity over telling a truly memorable and captivating story. While one could argue that it was that way with Rogue One and The Force Awakens, I would say that those movies did well for what they had to work with. Rogue One may not have been the most necessary of plot for a Star Wars movie and did feature a diverse cast with a female lead, but at least it didn't focus so much on that aspect at the expense of delivering an entertaining time.

I don't know what Marvel was thinking when they hired PC SJW writers to write stories for them when it came down to their comics, but much like them Disney is going to learn that when one hires people that have no respect for lore, fans, hate the characters that they create, the stories that they write, and values pushing an agenda over telling a captivating plot that'll transcend the test of time all one's asking for is disaster. I've heard for a long period of time that Hollywood is so fresh out of ideas that they will latch onto just about anything that seems like a good one even if it's a pointless sequel or half-baked remake of something made decades ago. There's nothing wrong with looking to old stuff for inspiration, much less making a female lead character. But one has to do it in a manner that offers something of integrity to the table and make a character that everyone can relate to regardless of gender, race, or walk of life.

Star Wars has never been without its share of imperfections and that's okay. What these people seem to be forgetting when writing Rey is that it's always the flaws of the character that drive the audience to establish a connection with the story. There is no way that one can relate to someone that goes through barely anything and succumbs to the epidemic of the entitled mindset that plagues this generation of having everything just handed over. Given everything that's happened in this movie, I don't see anything else they can work with in Episode 9. Considering the fact that there was no payoff to anything in this movie, I think that the likelihood of me seeing the next installment is very slim.