First off, if you are reading this, thank you. I know this movie gets a lot of hate, and deservedly so, but I believe it gets hate for the completely wrong reasons. I know people love this movie, I know even more people don’t care for it. Some people have taken their feelings too far by attacking the actors who played in the movie and that is ridiculous. I thought Holdo, Rose, and DJ were all great additions to the franchise. They just deserved a better story.
Here is what I believe.
Movies are not meant to be suggestive. They are written by either a single person, or a team who all agree on the story. To them the story is what it is, set in stone, black and white like ink on paper. To them character motive is not a mystery, it’s a fact. We perceive them to be open to interpretation because we all view the world differently, but the fact is we just do not have all the information. Which brings me to this review. The reason it has taken me so long, I know almost a year, is because I wanted to be prepared with as much information as I could get. Obviously, I do not know Mr. Johnson and do not know what was going through his mind when he wrote Last Jedi, but after going back and reading every interview, reading loads of tweets, watching the movie with the commentary on, and reading the book. I feel like I have the gist of what he was going for and what went wrong.
The biggest problem with The Last Jedi is the story. Rian Johnsons need to be different and drive to make sure no one knew what was going to happen killed this movie. He has a different view of what makes for an enjoyable movie. He likes and makes pretty downer movies. He likes shock and pushing the boundaries. That is not a bad thing at all but doesn’t really mesh well with the 8th story in a series. If Last Jedi had been made completely separate from the Skywalker saga it would’ve had problems but not nearly as many as it does being episode 8. It would still have some plot holes but would not worthy of such harsh criticisms.
In one interview he shows us that he does not understand what makes a moment powerful and enjoyable. Talking with Cinemablend Johnson gave us his take on the, I am your father moment. “I was thinking, what’s the most powerful answer to that question? Powerful meaning: what’s the hardest thing that Rey could hear? I think back to that ‘I am your father’ moment with Vader and Luke and the reason I think that lands is not because it is a surprise or a twist but because it was the hardest thing Luke and thus the audience could hear at that moment.” This quote proves he does not know what makes a moment dynamic or interesting. It wasn’t painful to hear, it was awesome! It opened up the story to whole new levels. There was more story here. More to everything going on that the audience didn’t know, and boy did we want to know. Every one saw Return of the Jedi to know what was happening next. Where were they going? They made the prequel movies based on “I am your father”. I love the prequels by the way. It was not hard to hear it was great and enjoyable.
Every other Star Wars movie made the universe bigger in some way. They added characters we love. They made you wonder what was coming next. Some of them had so much story going on they made comics, cartoons, and other movies to add to the story. Last Jedi did nothing to add to the story. In fact it only subtracted. Everything that Force Awakens built Last Jedi tore asunder. Who is Snoke? Doesn’t matter. How far of a reach does the first order have? No idea, they just seem obsessed with a relatively small resistance. How large is the resistance? About 30 people and getting smaller. Who is Rey? Nobody. As a matter of fact the universe at large seems to be doing just fine. Last Jedi made it seem like the First Order and the Resistance are just 2 bickering groups of children who each wanna run the playground. No one wants to join the First Order and no one wants to help the resistance. Now the movie says this is because the universe has no hope. This makes no sense. In the last movie they destroyed the First Orders Starkiller base. Wiping out lord only knows how many of the First Orders soldiers. How did that not spark hope? Last Jedi wants us to believe that the story of Luke coming back will spark hope but why would it? He “shows up” and is gone immediately. Most people will believe the First Order killed him. Why wouldn’t they? He was “there” and never seen again. How does this bring hope? The First Order killed the Last Jedi as far as the universe is concerned, and that brings about more hope than destroying the Starkiller Base? That makes no sense. It is unfortunate but I am not looking forward to episode 9. The Last Jedi made the universe too narrow and small. Like many I don’t really care what happens next. The only Star Wars movie to completely destroy what was accomplished in the preceding movie like this was Ewoks: Battle for Endor. Which is the only movie I rank lower than Last Jedi.
Now here are the 3 main problems with The Last Jedi, Mary Poppins, Rey, and Luke. There are plot holes and problems with the story but these three issues are what make the movie a tragedy. If you are still reading this I hope you understand I don’t want you to have the impression I have given up on Star Wars. I am excited for more clone wars, I can’t wait for Resistance, and whatever Jon Favreau is working on is bound to be gold. After Last Jedi however, I believe this trilogy to be broken. I hope Abrams can prove me wrong. Now back to the problems.
Mary Poppins
Ok, I love Leia. She is a strong, fun, vibrant character that adds to the story rather than subtracts. Let’s face it, her mother gets it from her and not the other way around. Leia showing sensitivity to the Force is nothing new. She felt it when Han died. She felt it when Kylo decided not to make the killing blow. If they wanted to show her being strong in the Force she could have reached out and gotten the shots to miss. She could have sensed what was coming and used the Force to save her and Akbar. If the story needed her knocked out she could have passed out from the effort. Other options should have been found because the Mary Poppins moment is just plain awful. First off the explosion should have killed her. It did knock her out and into space. No one, not Luke, Palpatine, or Rey could survive being knocked out and sent into space. A fully awake person can only survive for 15 seconds in space without dying, Force or no Force. Not only was she blown out, into space, unconscious, but that ship was moving away from the First Order. By the time she was awake again, that ship should have been miles away. There had to be a better way to construct that whole scene. Akbar and Leia deserved better.
Rey
I love Rey. I thought she was great in the Force Awakens. I have no problem with a female protagonist, or female Jedi. I was thrilled with her in the first movie. She was fun, hopeful, and fierce. I did not mind that she was inexplicably strong in the Force. Stronger than anyone with no training in the whole series. She was too much fun to watch to care. Her being able to understand Wookie was out of left field but hey who doesn’t want to know what Chewy is saying. At the end of Awakens she was interesting. Where was she going? How strong would she be once she received real training? It also left us all wondering, who is she?
Abrams planted that seed hard in Force Awakens. She asks BB-8 who they are and he replies “classified” to which she responds “me to, big secret.” Later Maz asks who she is and Han looks at her knowingly. There is something going on there. Now, this could be changed in episode 9 but as of now she’s nobody. Johnson tells us it’s for our own good. He wants to show that a Jedi can come from anywhere, but is that a lesson any Star Wars fan actually needs? It’s actually been done before. Many times. Luke and Anakin were nobodies from a desert planet. The Clone Wars introduce us to tons of Jedi that come from many different places. Ezra is another orphan Jedi that came from a planet just like Tatooine. Jedi coming from low places is not something new at all.
Now why do we care about her parents? As I said before, they set that ground work. If they had not made it such a mystery then we would not be so interested. People want to know who Anakin’s parents are but they’re not fuming that we never found out. The prequels didn’t make a big deal about it. His mother was a slave and his dad was no one apparently. Awakens made us curious. This is the series that was built on “I am your Father.” So we want to know the protagonist’s parents are. Especially when they make it a big deal out of it. No one cares who Ahsoka, Lando, or Padme’s parents are. That’s because they aren’t the star. Making Rey no one was just uninteresting. It was the easy way out. If one can’t come up with a clever answer in a story, one will give no answer at all.
Maybe it will be fixed in the next movie, maybe not. It’s kind of a moot point now. The other problem with Rey in the Last Jedi is Rian made her stupid. I mean actually dumb. She forgives Kylo way too quickly for killing Han, wounding Finn, and trying to kill her. He is a monster. A lonely misunderstood monster. Oh my. Even if she sensed that there was good in him, it was at least equally likely that Kylo was just trying to trick her. She willingly went off to meet him with Snoke. How stupid can you be? It wasn’t like Luke when he went off to save his friends. She went, to the First Order, to Snoke’s ship, on the hope that the guy who tried to kill her two days ago would help her, do what destroy the whole First Order by themselves? She’s an idiot. When Luke asked her to reach out, how stupid to you have to be to think a leaf batting you is the Force? If she wasn’t a Mary Sue before, she is after the Last Jedi. I hate saying that but it’s true. Luke gave her no training whatsoever and now she can lift boulders like they’re nothing. She was able to match Kylo in power breaking the lightsaber. Luke at least got a few hours of actual training and even then he couldn’t lift the ship. I hope Abrams can make her interesting again. She was awesome once.
Luke
We have waited so long to see Luke Skywalker back in action and this is what we get. A bitter, weak coward that Mark Hamill clearly didn’t want to play. Let’s start off with where we left Luke off in Force Awakens. The whole movie was Leia and the resistance trying to find him so he could help them. The whole movie was about finding Luke Skywalker because he was the last hope. The First Order was obsessed with finding him as well, fearing what he might do if he came back.
Luke was clearly a strong hero to the resistance and fearful threat to the First Order. Rian had the task of coming up with a reason for Luke being on that island and clearly being stuck simply wasn’t good enough. So why was Luke on the island hiding from his responsibilities? He thought about killing his nephew who turned out to be a murdering psychopath. So, rather than pick himself up and correct his mistake he runs off and leaves his sister and friends to deal with it alone.
Now, some people point out that he is just following in the footsteps of Obi-Wan and Yoda. Well that just doesn’t make sense. Obi-wan was a fugitive who went into hiding to watch over Luke. Yoda went into hiding and exile because he failed to stop the Emperor. He failed to see the signs, he failed to spot the corruption, and he failed to kill the Sith. That is a good reason to get depressed and walk away. Luke’s reasoning for running away is just not strong enough. If Kylo and his knights had killed all the younglings and Luke went mad and killed several of the knights and almost killed Kylo, almost given into rage instead of justice that might have made more sense to go away. It would be a better reason for Kylo’s rage. Has anyone else noticed he walks with a limp? I honestly thought we would find out Luke chopped his leg off. Even if none of that works. What if he just went to get more Jedi knowledge and got stuck? His x-wing got struck by lightning or something. It just makes no sense that Luke would leave his family behind. He got his butt kicked by his evil nephew and ran off.
Now, onto his whole theory about stopping the Sith. How arrogant does he have to be to think that if he stops training Jedi there will be no more? Someone had to be the first. It’s certainly not stopping the Sith. He left two out there to train whomever. That’s the kind of thinking that leads to Voldemort. Letting Force sensitive people grow up with no help is just going to cause trouble. If he wants the Jedi to end, that’s fine.
Change what it means to be a Jedi. It was obviously not perfect. Jedi are too emotionally distant to function effectively and Sith are the opposite. Maybe meet in the middle? Balance? That is the only thing the movie got right. Luke finds the balance and can draw power from there. He finds the balance, and in a deleted scene teaches Rey that she should act to protect people even though a true Jedi would not. He is the Last Jedi, he can change what it means to be a Jedi, which is what he decides by the end of the movie. He clearly knows the right thing to do he’s just hiding behind fear and that’s just not Luke. He knows that the Jedi teachings are wrong but is bound to them anyway? Why? Who is left to disagree with him? It would make way more sense if he came to that realization and was just unable to return. Some might say that he does return, but he doesn’t. Not really. He lets Rey go off alone, once again failing to protect someone. He could’ve left with her. He could have come back and done something. When he does show back up to “save” everyone, it’s just dumb luck that they get away. They were just lucky that Rey was able to move all the rocks at the back of the cave and that she happened to be there at all. He causes the first order to stop for a few minutes, dies, and floats away.
Here lies Luke Skywalker. Death by Effort. That would be his literal epitaph. Effort killed Luke Skywalker. The First Order is still there. He didn’t kill anyone. They’re just as strong as ever, lacking competent leadership sure but they’re still strong. People have been praising Luke’s final act as being the height of the Jedi code. He is being passive as he always strived to be. This is a flawed theory. The evidence they give that Luke is a pacifist is when Luke refuses to kill Vader or the Emperor. He throws his lightsaber away refusing to kill someone. How brave. How Jedi. Ok, Luke in that very movie killed at least 10 people. What he is actually doing is refusing to give into the darkside. He will not give into the anger and rage that would lead him into killing two seemingly unarmed old guys. If he struck them down in anger he would be giving in and that is not Luke Skywalker. He is not a passive wuss. He will and does fight evil, but not out of hate. Johnson has recently agreed through tweets that he views Luke as a pacifist. It is just one more part of the original trilogy that he misinterprets. I like flawed characters, and we gets lots of them in movies. They are made by their rise and fall, their struggles and failures. The better the story, the better the character. Rian’s reasoning here was just plain weak and from a clearly warped perspective of the character.
I wish Mark had refused to make this movie. It would’ve been rewritten. They could’ve made it without Johnson but not without Mark. To Mark’s credit though, he is a good man who is a team player. He just played for the wrong team on this one. At Least he admits it.
Now let’s face it. We could pick this movie apart even further. The casino scene. The weird fact that the resistance thought they could just float away from the ship completely unnoticed by a fleet that was looking right at them. How it was just a complete rip off of Empire. Why does no one mention that it is as much a rip off of Empire as Awakens was of New Hope? The whole movie being a rather slow chase scene and on and on. The less said about lightspeed tracking vs. Finn, the former Stormtrooper, having an implant in him the better. On the other hand now that I have ranted I would like to talk about the few positives the movie had. I loved the porgs. I mean they were adorable. I really enjoyed Rose and her sister. I hate that people are blaming her for a poorly written movie. She was one of the best parts. Holdo was great as well. I wish they had kept her around. That would’ve been a much better way for Akbar to go out and we would still have Holdo. Luke found the balance of the Force. He was not really able to pass it on but he found it. DJ was a very interesting character. I don’t know where they could use him again but he was fun. Hux is still a great character. This movie didn’t add or subtract from him, he’s still good. As usual the acting and casting was fantastic. I really hope Abrams is able to give the Skywalker saga a decent send off so we can move on to more Star Wars movies away from this series. He’s got his work cut out for him now.