Two years ago, we were graced with the beginning of a new era of Star Wars movies. While a lot of people pawned it off as a “remake” of A New Hope, I personally loved The Force Awakens.
Last year, we were given Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which wasn’t exactly a new chapter as it was a filler movie. Once again, we had the opposing views from people who loved it, and those who thought it was rather mediocre. As for my opinion, I wasn’t a huge fan.
Last night, The Last Jedi made its way into theaters. I gotta say, this is probably the most polarizing film in the entire franchise. For every single Star Wars movie that’s been released, I found that there was always one opinion that was the majority. With The Last Jedi, I think that the fanbase is evenly split. Some people loved it, others hated it – but there’s no real majority here. While most professional critics apparently loved it, the fans think otherwise. What’s my opinion on the matter? I really enjoyed it, but I’m honestly not sure if I liked it as much as The Force Awakens.
With that being said, I’m going to give my full, fair, honest review. Like I did with TFA, the first page will be as non-spoilery as possible. The second page will be spoiler-heavy. Readers beware…
Now, let’s get this review started!
First up: the visuals. One of the things I admired about The Force Awakens was the absolutely stunning imagery. Ever since the first trailer dropped, I couldn’t stop rambling about how amazing the movie looked. We live in a time where we can do wondrous things with computers, and yet people still complain about “obvious” CGI. I didn’t think anything was wrong with The Last Jedi‘s use of it, especially when you compare it to a majority of other big-budget movies out now (Superman’s mustache says ‘hello’). We didn’t get to experience a bunch of new planets in this movie, but we DID get to see some awesome shots in space, including a few hyperspace scenes that were pretty impressive (despite only lasting a few seconds). The CGI characters were handled properly as well; though, the porgs looked a little too cartoony. But come on, how can you stay mad at this little guy?
Which brings me to my next point: the characters. One of my biggest complaints about Rogue One was the fact that I didn’t care about most of the characters (aside from Darth Vader). They were all just people on screen to me. Space-fillers. In The Last Jedi, I didn’t encounter that problem. Even the most minor ‘main’ character (I won’t reveal much, but he’s played by Benicio Del Toro) had more personality than the entire cast of Rogue One.
But most of the credit goes to the man himself: Mark Hamill. His performance was absolutely amazing this time around, and you can tell that he went back and seriously studied Alec Guinness‘s performance as Obi-Wan in A New Hope to help him prepare for his similar role in this movie. It’s crazy to think that he is roughly the same age Guinness was when he played Kenobi. But that’s besides the point. The main thing is that Hamill was awesome as Luke, and after not hearing him speak a word since Return of the Jedi, his reintroduction was a breath of fresh air.
If you know me, you understand my hatred for Kylo Ren in the last installment. I hated him more than Jesse Eisenberg‘s portrayal of Lex Luthor. This whiny brat was supposed to be a badass Sith lord? Sure, he had a moment or two, but overall, he was incredibly whiny and too much of a brat. In The Last Jedi, though, Kylo becomes more of a boss. Why couldn’t he always be like this? We didn’t need the Hot Topic employee with daddy issues; we needed an unhinged, psychopathic badass, and that’s what we got. Bravo, Adam Driver!
I have to give some credit to General Leia as well. After Carrie Fisher‘s unfortunate passing, many fans, including myself, wondered how the film would honor Fisher and her character. I’m happy to say that Lucasfilms, Disney, and the rest of the powers that be definitely showed the proper respects to our fallen hero. Stick around for the mid-credit tribute to Fisher, which may make you shed a tear.
Now to talk about the plot. I’ll be very careful about reviewing the story without giving too much away, but there’s no way for me to give a fair review without spoiling it. So if you haven’t seen the movie yet, I apologize if my analysis of the plot seems a little too vague. I swear I’m doing it for your own good!
After The Force Awakens, people wondered if The Last Jedi was going to be a carbon copy of The Empire Strikes Back. Well, the good news is that it’s not. There are indeed many homages to the original trilogy, but the story is nowhere near similar. It’s almost like the movie intentionally tries to go in the opposite direction of Empire. There will be a moment where you think something familiar will happen, but then, it’s a complete turnaround. I feel like director Rian Johnson and his crew rewatched the original trilogy and thought “Okay, so this happened, now how can we deliberately avoid it as much as possible?” Does that all make sense? Sorry if it doesn’t. I’ll explain more in depth on the next page when I can get spoilery.
There’s one part of the story that I was not too fond of, and it involved Finn, BB-8, and a new character named Rose. This entire segment eats up about a half-hour of the film and seemed to only exist merely to pad the run time. When I realized what was happening, I almost rolled my eyes and said, “Well, this is going to take a while.”
I believe this was the longest Star Wars movie to date, and it really does feel that way. I don’t understand why movies feel like they have to be longer to be good. There are ways to get the point across within two hours. There were several moments where I felt like The Last Jedi could’ve ended, but it just kept going. In fact, there was one scene that I thought was the big climax, and it turns out it was barely halfway through the movie! But I guess that’s a good thing since I didn’t have to look at my watch and think “How much longer?”
My final verdict: I liked the movie a lot. But I can understand (to an extent) why some people wouldn’t enjoy it as much. However, I’m sure I can refute most claims about why it was “bad”. Again, that will all be discussed on the spoiler-heavy next page, so if you want to know more, then click on to the next section of this article.
If you’re reading this, then you have either A) seen The Last Jedi and are ready to see a spoiler-filled review, or B) have NOT seen The Last Jedi and are ready to see a spoiler-filled review. Either way, you’re getting a spoiler-filled review. This is your last warning.
As I mentioned on the last page, The Last Jedi does not totally mimic the plot of The Empire Strikes Back, as many people feared. In reality, it borrows elements from Empire (as well as Return of the Jedi) and finds a way to circumvent old, tired cliches and predictable plot points, but unfortunately, it still falls victim to a few of those same issues.
The story begins with Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) leading a band of Resistance fighters on an assault on the First Order’s fleet, including a massive ship known as the Dreadnought. During the fight, Poe goes against General Leia’s orders and, while his team is successful in neutralizing the fleet, he is ultimately responsible for the death of most of the fighters, leading to his demotion.
I didn’t really like Poe in The Force Awakens. He didn’t stand out as a remarkable character to me (though he seemed to be a major hit with the tween/Tumblr fandom who’s convinced that he’s Finn’s soulmate). In this movie, he finally had real development that dignified him as a solid character with a purpose. But don’t be fooled. He isn’t this rebel with a cause who gets away with his “play by nobody’s rules” attitude. He’s reprimanded numerous times and faces severe penalties, proving that the “go in with guns a-blazing” attitude doesn’t fly anymore, especially under the command of General Leia and her successor, Admiral Holdo (more on that in a bit).
After the Resistance fleet jumps to hyperspace, they think they’ve made it scot-free. But wait – the First Order has tracked them through hyperspace, a seemingly impossible feat. A small troop of TIE fighters makes their way to the main Resistance ship and fires on the main bridge, killing most of the leadership, including our beloved Admiral Ackbar and General Leia herself.
When this happened, I felt many things all at once. At first, I was slightly disappointed that the movie followed such a predictable path of killing off Leia. Then, I was even more disappointed at how quickly they moved past her death. Remember how it was when Han Solo died? The Force Awakens hit you hard with that. The Last Jedi had one shot of Leia being sucked out of the ship, and then we’re back to the rest of the cast. The General deserved much more than that!
This is when things got weird, and I think this may have been the main turning point for many fans where they started to either really enjoy the film, or really hate it. Leia, using some unknown Force power, manages to survive the trip into space and floats her way back to the ship before falling into a coma. This plot point has many fans divided, and to be honest, it comes off a bit cheesy at first. But let’s be real: is Leia floating through space really that outrageous compared to the other stuff we’ve seen Jedi/Sith do? The Jedi Mind Trick, the Force Ghosts, the ability to sense people across galaxies. Leia’s little Force Space Walk, albeit strange at first, is not a big deal. At least we’re not getting another midichlorians explanation. Ugh…
With Leia in a coma, the Resistance is now led by Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern), an officer who has a history fighting under the General and doesn’t tolerate any insubordination, especially from Poe. Holdo orders the Resistance fleet to continue on its main course while the First Order slowly follows.
I feel bad for Holdo. She’s one of those characters who you despise in the beginning because you think she’s an incompetent coward who will lead the Resistance to its defeat. Then you discover she’s actually one of the biggest heroes in the story (more on that later).
Let’s jump to the other side of the galaxy. Remember how The Force Awakens ended with that epic shot of Rey handing the lightsaber to the stoic hermit Luke Skywalker, leaving the fate of both characters ambiguous? Well, The Last Jedi picks up almost immediately after, with Luke taking the lightsaber… and then casually tossing it over his shoulder.
Think about it: Luke has been in solitude for years, and the first human he interacts with hands him a relic that signifies his entire history… and he throws it away like it’s an empty soda can. How can you not appreciate the movie for handling a cliche and predictable concept so well? There was no heartfelt reunion. There was no Luke staring at the lightsaber like it was his own baby. There was just an old man tired of everything and wanting to disassociate himself with the world that fell apart. I love it.
As you can guess, Rey has sought out Luke to train her in the ways of the Force. Here is where the movie unfortunately falls prey to the same cliches it was trying to avoid. Did anyone else guess what happened next? Luke doesn’t want to train Rey. Then she reveals what Kylo Ren and the First Order have done and that she needs to stop him, with or without Luke’s help. Then Luke agrees to help her. It’s all very straightforward and predictable, which is a bit disappointing, but at least we’re spared some drawn-out conflict to pad the movie run time (well, with Luke and Rey; wait until we get back to the Resistance fleet).
During Rey’s training, she discovers the main cause for Luke’s exile. We all know that Luke attempted to train Ben Solo/Kylo Ren and he turned to the Dark Side, but what REALLY happened? According to Luke, Kylo was corrupted and attacked Luke before defecting to the First Order. Later on, Kylo manages to Force-connect with Rey and share his own account of what happened, which is that Luke tried to kill Kylo in his sleep for one reason or another, causing the padawan to fight back in defense and leave the island. When Rey confronts Luke about this, he admits that it’s a little of Column A and a little of Column B. Luke sensed that Kylo was already corrupted by Supreme Leader Snoke and that he needed to be stopped before it was too late (basically, he was doing what Obi-Wan should’ve done to Anakin back during Revenge of the Sith). The second after he turns on his lightsaber to kill the sleeping Kylo, he immediately regains his senses and shuts it off, realizing that he needs to work harder to bring Kylo back to the light. Unfortunately, Kylo wakes up and sees a crazy old hermit looming over him with a laser sword and goes on the defensive, bringing the temple down on him and then escaping.
I wasn’t surprised by this big revelation. I expected a major plot twist about their training. Like what if Luke actually was evil and had been corrupted by the Dark Side? I can’t fault the movie for that. It’s my own fault for trying so hard to guess what was coming.
Rey leaves the island to go confront Kylo in the hopes of turning him back to the Light Side. Luke goes to the island’s Jedi Temple to destroy it and the Jedi Texts within, when he’s confronted by… YODA’S FORCE GHOST! Out of all the surprises in this movie, this was the most welcome. It’s been years since we’ve seen our favorite little green Jedi Master (and even longer since we saw him in puppet form). The best part of this was that Frank Oz himself returned to voice the character!
Yoda’s role is short-lived, as he uses his post-death-Force-powers to call down lightning to destroy the temple while also telling Luke that failure is the greatest lesson. Thanks, Yoda. I needed that.
The only thing that I was upset about with Yoda’s moment was that the theater didn’t erupt into massive applause when he appeared (I mean, my theater lost its mind during Ackbar’s cameo in The Force Awakens).
Time to go back to the Resistance, where the heroes are still being pursued by the First Order fleet. Finn, now awake from his coma from the previous movie, tries to sneak off the ship so he can go find Rey. Along the way, he’s stopped by Rose, a young Resistance maintenance worker who worships Finn for turning against the First Order to help the cause. The two team up (along with BB-8) after discovering that the villains are using a prototype tracker to follow the Resistance through hyperspace, and that the only way to stop them is to break the code leading to the ship’s tracking system. They briefly converse with Maz Kanata and learn of a codebreaker living on the nearby planet of Canto Bight. The three venture to one of the planet’s casinos to find the codebreaker, but are thrown in jail instead, where they share a cell with Benicio Del Toro.
I’ll give you a second to process all that. Seems like a mess, right? Yeah, I thought so too. When I heard Maz say Finn and Rose had to go to the casino to find a codebreaker, I thought, “Oh, here’s a sub-plot that should take a good half-hour to an hour. I hope it’s worth it.” Well, it is and it isn’t. See, Del Toro’s character, DJ, just happens to be one of the only other people in the galaxy with the codebreaking skills they need. I won’t even comment on the odds…
This entire subplot could’ve been avoided, and many people think it SHOULD have been because it didn’t add anything to the main plot, but I partially disagree. If it wasn’t for this scene, we never would’ve gotten development from Rose (which reminds me, isn’t it a little weird I didn’t see her make an appearance in any of the trailers? She’s a pretty prominent character; why didn’t she get acknowledged?). Rose reveals how she loathes the type of people in the casino because they make a huge profit off the war (especially when it comes to selling the First Order its weapons), while people like her are forced into lives of servitude and treated like garbage. Really makes you think, doesn’t it?
Finn, Rose, BB-8, and DJ escape the planet and break into the First Order’s main ship. They predictably get captured and are taken before Captain Phasma (yes, she’s back), who reveals that DJ not only betrayed them, but also revealed something important about the Resistance.
Back on the Resistance ship, Poe stages a mutiny against Holdo after she orders the transport ships to be deployed with the remaining survivors (the ships had no shields, so they were easy targets for the First Order’s cannons). Leia wakes from her coma and stuns Poe, and later on reveals to him the real plan behind the exodus. The First Order was concentrating its fire on the main Resistance ship, so it never would’ve noticed the tiny transports escaping to an old Rebel base on an adjacent planet. Holdo remains behind to pilot the main ship while everyone else evacuates. But of course, good ol’ DJ revealed the plan to the First Order, and the villains begin their assault on the transports. Holdo selflessly sacrifices herself by piloting her ship into lightspeed directly toward the enemy flagship, tearing it in half.
With the enemy ship in ruins, Finn, Rose, and BB-8 make their way to an escape pod, but not before we get a showdown between Finn and Captain Phasma (and after an awesome scene where BB-8 commandeers an AT-ST and goes to town on a small army of stormtroopers). Phasma is defeated rather easily, and dies after calling Finn “scum” or something.
I’ve heard complaints about Phasma being wasted (both in this movie and in The Force Awakens), and while it would’ve been great to see her with a more prominent role, you can’t say she was wasted when Boba Fett (her clear parallel in the original trilogy) barely got a shot off during his brief appearance. At least Phasma went out like a champ this time around.
While all this is going on, Rey has gone to the First Order’s ship to confront Kylo with hopes of turning him. The two meet in the main throne room in front of Supreme Leader Snoke/Darth Sidious Part 2. Was anyone else expecting Snoke to be a giant like he was in the hologram in The Force Awakens? Oh, well. Turns out he’s just regular sized. A bit of a letdown, but it’s Andy Serkis‘s voice, so let’s call it a wash. Oh, and the CGI used for Snoke was perfect. In fact, I’m honestly not sure if it was CGI or just really good makeup. He looked fantastic!
Sorry, rambling. Anyway, Snoke steals the lightsaber from Rey and places it on his throne while ordering Kylo to execute Rey. You think he’s about to do it, but then you notice that there may be a glimmer of hope in his eyes. With a little hand-wave, Kylo twists the lightsaber toward Snoke and slices him in half, putting an end to the evil Sith Master.
Here is where people REALLY started to diverge on their opinions of the movie. All these complaints about Snoke being killed off so easily. Does absolutely nobody remember how Sidious was picked up and thrown down a shaft? His death was no more significant than Snoke, and he had just as much development. All we knew about Snoke and Sidious (not including the prequels) was that they were evil dudes pulling the strings on their Darth apprentices.
In one of the best scenes in the movie, Kylo and Rey team up to fight off Snoke’s royal guard. This is one of the things that makes the new movies so great. Remember how awkward and clunky the lightsaber fights were in the original trilogy? With advancements in technology (and choreography), we can finally experience the true badassness of the Jedi. I could watch this fight scene over and over and over again (much like the fight in The Force Awakens between Rey, Finn, and Kylo).
After that awesome scene, Rey and Kylo seem to arrive on friendly terms, but with one catch. Rey wants Kylo to join her on the Light Side so they can take down the First Order, while Kylo wants Rey to join him on the Dark Side so they can rule the galaxy together. The two end up in a struggle over the lightsaber, and eventually tear it apart. Rey escapes, and Kylo tells the First Order that she killed Snoke and that he is the new Supreme Leader. I can’t wait to see this come back and bite him in the ass in the future movies. How much do you want to bet that Episode IX will end with the First Order turning on Kylo and him fighting off an army of his own troops? You heard it here first!
Rey, Finn, Rose, and the rest of the main good characters meet at the Rebel base, where they prepare a defense against an upcoming assault. The First Order uses Death Star technology to build a laser-powered battering ram to break into the base. All hope seems lost, but then, the personification of hope himself arrives: Luke Skywalker! After a brief interaction with his sister (and a cute wink to C-3P0), Luke goes out to confront the enemy army. Kylo’s not falling for any Jedi Mind Tricks and orders a barrage of cannon fire against the lone Jedi. Want to guess what happens next? Luke pulls a Neo and walks out of the crater like it was nothing (while nonchalantly dusting his cloak off). Kylo leaves his ship and goes to confront Luke. This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The big showdown between Master Luke and Kylo Ren. How epic will this battle be?!
Sorry, folks. No lightsaber fight to be had. As it turns out, Luke was still on his secluded island. He was creating a Force-projection to make it seem like he was actually at the battle in hopes of stalling the First Order long enough so the Resistance fighters could sneak away. Luke gives a final farewell, and then disappears.
Were you pissed? Of course you were. We’ve been waiting for years to see Luke throw down and show the true power of a Jedi Master. Instead, we see him pull a Joker-esque trick as a means of distraction. And then he actually dies! Many people feel cheated (just like with Snoke), but I feel like it was an original way to end the chapter. Not everything has to be all “pew pew!” and “light sword battles!” Sometimes, you gotta win with your mind instead of your fists. Isn’t the Jedi code about avoiding violence unless necessary? Yoda’s fight scene in Attack of the Clones was eye-candy, but it completely went against what the Jedi stood for. Luke proved himself a real Jedi Master with his tactic. You wanted the movies to stick close to Star Wars lore? Well, there you have it.
Also, I saw people moaning about how Luke’s Force-projection power was strictly a Sith power “according to canon”. Where in the movies was that explained? I may very well have missed it, but if you’re referring to books, comics, video games, or what-have-you, well, they were dismissed as non-canon when the new movies came out. Sorry, it’s something you have to live with.
There’s so much more I can say about The Last Jedi, but I think I’ve hammered the point home. It was a great movie, but the divisive opinions are understandable. I think it’s worth seeing in theaters, especially IMAX. Many will tell you to just Redbox it. Either way, I think if you’re a true Star Wars fan, you should definitely see it. Just make sure you’re forming your own opinion and not regurgitating something you saw on a comment thread.
Have you seen The Last Jedi yet? Was it everything you hoped for and more? Or was it a dud? Let us know what you think on Facebook or Twitter!