Jedi Follies – Star Wars: The Last Jedi [2017]

This is the spoiler-filled “review.”

The Empire Strikes Back is often considered to be the best of The Star Wars Saga of films playing mostly on the unpredictability of the plot. It starts with the Rebel Forces hiding out on an Icy planet and the Empire comes a-knocking. From there, the rebels are mostly on the run, specifically the Millennium Falcon. Our main hero, Luke Skywalker, in the meantime heads off to some unknown region of space to begin his Jedi Training with Yoda.

Essentially, as viewers, we have no idea where anything is heading. I had some issue with time dilation (how long was Lukes training vs how long was the Empire pursuing The Falcon?), but the surprises within the story itself proved stronger than the minor plot holes. This was more a character piece featuring our heroes under great stress and we see what comes out of it, and it works.

While Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens follows the original 1977 Star Wars closely in terms of plot, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi seems to have its roots in The Empire Strikes Back. We have the Resistance Forces abandoning their current base with The First Order dogged in their pursuit, pretty much throughout the movie. Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley) goes off to find Luke (Mark Hamill) and gets some training in the ways of The Force. Again, there’s something of a time dilation going on. How long was Rey’s training vs the pursuit of the Resistance fighters who apparently have a few hours before they run out of fuel. The issue of time is factored with Rey’s Force visions with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), more or less establishing the time frame for the story.

Then, I just fall back to the trope that this is Space-Fantasy, and not Science Fiction per se. After all, it’s all set “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” which is no different from “Once upon a time in a faraway land…”

One thing The Last Jedi has going for it is the unpredictably factor although it is clear where some of the characters were heading, particularly with Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) and Finn (John Boyega). They are tested in their stories to become greater than who they were at where they started, as is Rey but to a lesser degree. Poe has to come to terms with being more than just a fighter and become a leader while Finn has to find his place and understand what it means to be in the fight. Rey’s encounters with Ren leads to a plot from The Return of The Jedi, where she thinks she can turn Ren the way Luke turned Vader at the end.. In a way, writer / director Rian Johnson has put the two movies together and spun out something wholly unexpected. By the end, you really have to wonder where the story will go from here, not just with what happens in the movie, but also due to external circumstances, particularly the passing of Carrie Fisher. In that, Leia is now immortal.

Under Johnson’s direction, the Star Wars universe is expanded even more, and not all of it works… at least not for me. The Acht-To scenes pay several tributes to the works that have come before. As Yoda hid out on Dagobah, supposedly where a Dark Lord fell, it’s quite likely the same reason why Luke hid out on Acht-To (that ‘dark place’ Rey goes in, similar to Luke’s encounter at the tree on Dagobah) and why Snoke (Andy Serkis) could not detect him – and that’s aside from Luke having shut himself off from the Force. Thank goodness for the elimination of the midi-chlorian stuff.

The Canto Bight scenes felt very uneven to me. We seldom see such opulence on display within The Star Wars universe, particularly on film. Such elements are often associated more with grandeur, staying close to large halls and flowing gowns depicting royalty mostly seen in the prequel trilogy, not counting that side trip into the city depths and that crazy bar in Episode II – Attack of The Clones. Despite my gripes, I understand the setting to establish the character of Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) and her view on the universe, mostly for Finn’s benefit. Still, it feels like a massive diversion just to pad out the run-time for the movie because ultimately, nothing they do serves the story save to get them onto Snoke’s ship, The Supremacy. If Rose, the tech, was that little bit smarter, working with Finn, who could know his way around the security systems, they wouldn’t need a ‘slicer’ and still get onto The Supremacy anyway. Speaking of which… only one ship had hyperspace tracking? Do individual ships have individual hyperspace signals to track? That could have been solved by having the remaining ships head off in separate directions. And did anyone else think that hyperspace tracking device looked like an overly large Flux Capacitor?

And for as much as production design goes, Snoke’s “throne room” feels like some overly large empty set with a red backdrop. Sure, that red is carried throughout the film as some theme (effective in the Crait battle), but the large empty space feels more distracting than imposing, or an inspired setting for a major lightsaber duel. It felt like watching a stage performance, not that the stars didn’t make use of the space and the opportunities it presented.

Ultimately, Johnson does churn out an exciting and entertaining chapter to the saga, the only directer who also has a sole writing credit beyond the original creator, George Lucas. His take on the Star Wars universe is a little controversial for the choices he’s made but it works for what it is, serving the characters as needed if not entirely the story. The surprises go in several direction and while there isn’t one quite as spell-binding as the big one in The Empire Strikes Back, it is really a matter of perspective. As Obi-Wan eloquently put it, “What I’ve told you is the truth, from a certain point of view.”

Something to keep in mind as certain information is traded back and forth. The payoff for some of these have to come in the next movie. We can only hope.

Also: cheers for the return of the muppet!! And the musical callbacks John Williams used in the score (Astroid Belt music from Empire and Leia’s theme for the tribute at the end, and more.)

Rating: **** /5

Directed by Rian Johnson

Stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Issacs,, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Andy Serkis, Billie Lourd with Benicio Del Toro and Laura Dern

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