Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Spoiler Filled Review/Thoughts

NOTE:  This Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi contains SPOILERS.  If you are looking for a Spoiler-Free review, see HERE.  So if you're looking to avoid spoilers, please go no further.  This is your only warning.  




The Last Jedi is a BIG movie.  It's filled with a large number of what one might call "Hell Yeah!" moments, to the point where some of them feel like they should be part of the movie's climax (Finn vs Phasma, Rey and Ren vs Snoke's guard, to give two).  It has no fewer than three main plotlines that the movie keeps going back and forth between and keeps our new power trio (who becomes a power quartet) apart for the bulk of the movie. 

This does make the movie feel pretty epic, despite the (thankful) lack of a superweapon (unless you're counting the dreadnoughts).  And again, the acting is terrific.  Between the new actors and the old (especially Mark Hamill, who takes a very different version of Luke Skywalker and makes it work) make the best of the writing, even when that writing sometimes feels cheesy, which well..this is Star Wars, we should expect that.  Incidentally, that's part of the reason why this review will focus very very little about the action scenes - they're typically excellent, as you'd expect from Star Wars movies, without being stand-out (the closest I guess it the Ren-Rey battle vs the guards again) so they're not really worth mentioning. 

Still, as I mentioned in the spoiler-free review, while this movie feels epic at time and definitely feels like Star Wars, it is very different from the prior 7 Star Wars movies in that it seems very much in going for themes of symbolism throughout and in its ending.  Obviously the easiest way this is demonstrated is in how the movie ends: the Resistance is reduced to a force small enough to fit onboard the Falcon, but in their escape they have provided hope and a "spark" for a greater resistance movement to spring up, as symbolized by the kids on Canto Bight.  Whereas Empire Strikes Back ends with the Rebellion on the retreat but still intact, TLJ ends with the Resistance beaten in every way but their spirit.  That's something very different than Star Wars has done before, and I'm not sure how Episode 9 is going to be able to conclude the trilogy with the Resistance so practically beaten. 

Similarly, there is the theme is about how things can be dark and grey in even beautiful things, as shown in the original visit to Canto Bight, where Rose explains why she hates the place to Finn and in the Thief character (played by Del Toro, but I'm not sure he ever actually is named in the film) explaining how a weapon's dealer supports both sides.  Similarly, we have that in Luke's explanation of the Force and the appeal of the Dark Side location on the planet.  There have been attempts before to make Star Wars less black and white, but the creative team has always pushed back against such talk.  I should add that even TLJ doesn't go all the way with this theme, as Kylo vs Luke is pretty clearly evil vs good at the end. 

Still, it mostly works.  Rey's plotline is excellent throughout and while I'm not convinced they'll stick with it, I like the fact that her parentage is revealed to be utterly normal - for her to be a hero not due to a bloodline is something this franchise desperately needed and works as a nice contrast with Ren being the villain as the last member of the Skywalker bloodline (I really hope this isn't a fake out, since it's not like Ren is the most trustworthy character).  Rey's character - the person drawn to power but who wants to believe in something more, whether that be in her parents or just in the general good - is extremely strong, helped along by Daisy Ridley portraying her really really well. 

Poe's storyline is also very different - we've yet to have a non-Jedi character have to learn not to be rash and a hothead (Han being a rash hot-headed character was treated more as a virtue in the original trilogy), which is basically his arc here.  Minor complaint here though: except for drama, there's no reason why Admiral Holdo is keeping her plan secret from anybody ever given in the film.  It's a good reasonable plan!  So why not announce to the crew: "There's a planet with an abandoned Rebel base we can hide out in within travel distance, so we're going to try to get as close as we can then board cloaked transports in order to sneak out there."  It would've kept hope alive better than keeping silent, and there's never a suggestion of a spy in the Resistance that could ruin the plan.  Still, Poe is an excellent character who has a pretty solid character arc in this film.

Finn and Rose's arc on the other hand.....has some problems.  To stay positive at the start: I liked Rose a lot.  She's a fun new character and I guess love interest for Finn (where they're going with romance between the main characters in Episode 9 will be interesting) and I'm excited to see more of her going forward.  But well, their plot winds up being completely pointless.  Canto Bight is introduced so quickly, talked about why it's bad with some exposition very quickly, and then quickly left after one action sequence.  If not for adding to the symbolic theme and the ending, it could've been removed entirely without any problems.  The same is true with their infiltration of the dreadnought - disabling the tracker turns out to be made completely irrelevant thanks to Holdo's plan, and hell even their attempt to destroy the cannon attacking the Crait base turns out for naught.  You can do plot twists that negate whole prior parts of a movie in a way that works, but in a movie that is this long and feels it, it's kind of irritating, and I suspect this will especially be the case on rewatches where you know that going in.  I kept waiting for Rey to meet up with this duo as they escaped the dreadnought, but Rey instead....off screen somehow rendezvouses with the Falcon (Kind of wonder if there's a cut scene there that'll show up on the DVD)? 

Really - and not to say this movie is bad - this movie could in large part be labeled "Aborted Arc" the movie.  Finn and Rose are sent to Canto Bight to recruit a specific codebreaker....they find him once, don't talk to him, and then never try to go after him again.  Del Toro's character is a codebreaker with uncertain morals who might have a heart of gold when he gives Rose back her necklace....except he betrayed them and is never seen again!  Poe's mutiny lasts for one scene before being stopped completely!  Rey is tempted by the new dark side cave, goes into it and.....sees nothing!  Snoke's ultimate evil motives! Leia demonstrates control of the force to survive the initial explosion, and then is in a coma for the rest of the movie until the end! (To be fair on that last one, it's very possible she had a larger role in the middle of the movie, which had to be cut out due to Carrie Fisher's death).  Hell, Luke hints again that Ren might have other force users he took from his trainees (presumably the "Knights of Ren" who've been referenced outside the film) and yet they never show up.  Again, on a first viewing these things aren't that bothersome, but I suspect on a rewatch I'm going to be frustrating seeing these plots come up when I know they're going nowhere. 

The same could also be said mind you of several characters included the film - both Phasma and Maz Kanata were promised by the filmmakers to have more significant roles, and both have glorified cameos which are total wastes of their actors.  At this point Phasma basically seems to be the movie's attempt at creating a new Boba Fett - a super minor character who looks cool who has some reason to be an antagonist to one of the main characters - and it's shamelessly transparent.  I have no idea why Maz is in this movie for 5 seconds either. 

Still, the character arc I'm most ambivalent about is Kylo Ren's.  The story is very unclear about what is happening to him, at first setting him up as again being conflicted, both in his refusal to finish off his mother and his conversations with Rey, only to have Snoke then claim that he created the confusion in Ren's heart as a bait to get Rey.  I'm guessing the movie wants us to believe that latter part to be true, and that by the time Rey gets to Snoke's chamber, Ren's heart is completely black? (Snoke reading Ren's feelings works perfectly if you consider Ren to be turned to the dark side completely, but wanting power for himself ala classic Sith apprentices).  TFA suggested that Ren had taken the final steps toward being irredeemable and it was a bit of whiplash to see Ren showing doubt here for the first half of the movie and then whiplash again to see him again acting irredeemable later on.  Adam Driver plays him excellently - in a lesser actor's hands, this would work terribly - but I don't know, I suspect I'll be unclear on my feelings of this arc until we see the finale in Episode 9.  This whole thing isn't helped by Snoke being just an inscrutable evil force user who dies before actually doing anything - I suspect we're not done with him in the movies, or at least I hope we're not, as he's such a random bland antagonist otherwise.

Again, I LIKED this movie.  It's a very solid movie and fun Star Wars in a way that hasn't been done before.  I think it's probably better than TFA, though it shares a lot of the same weaknesses.  Is it Empire Strike Back quality?  Absolutely not (compare in Empire, every character arc goes somewhere, there's great action, dialogue, and it's nearly a half hour shorter).  But it's a good movie and worthy addition to the Star Wars canon.