The Last Jedi Revisited

I’ve avoided rewatching The Last Jedi for two years. The reason is simple — there are two camps on opposite sides of this movie. The Star Wars fanboys who thought this movie was such an affront to the Star Wars canon that they waged an online campaign to drag the ratings down, and the Rian Johnson stans who were amazed at the themes and visuals presented in the movie. The former would have you believe this is the worst Star Wars movie (it’s not) and the latter would have you believe this is Empire Strikes Back with a social conscience (it’s not). Anyone caught in the middle gets attacked by both. Anyway, here’s my review nobody asked for and neither side will like.

The Takeaways

1. This is better on rewatch than the initial viewing. The Bury The Past theme is better contextualized on a second viewing. The visuals are superb and the story line isn’t bad. It is longer than it needs to be and the connection between the trilogy’s two star-crossed leads (lovers? relatives? Soul mates?) works well enough. There are a couple mistakes that are too big to be ignored, but overall, this is isn’t a bad movie.
2. Rey is not properly lifted in this movie. Look, I realize this is Kylo Ren’s movie but she’s the primary reason The Force Awakens ascended so high. No trilogy was going to repeat the luck of introducing pop culture icons Han Solo and Darth Vader in a single movie but Rey was every bit the equal of Leia and Luke. It was a risk to throw her on an island, literally, in the second chapter. The duality of her conventional Jedi training with Luke and her exploration of new Force capabilities with Kylo was messy and left me feeling that both of those arcs could have been better.
3. The Last Jedi includes an uncomfortable truth — Mark Hamill as Luke and Carrie Fisher as Leia hold The Last Jedi back, from both a story arc perspective and from an acting perspective. Let’s start with the first. Luke spends half the film on an island with the trilogy’s star and plays third wheel to Rey and Kylo for almost the entirety of that half. If you’re looking for the Jedi fanboys’ unspoken critique of Johnson’s navigation, look no further. On the other side of the galaxy, Leia’s stewardship of the Resistance is unflattering. She’s like Lady Olenna without the wit. Johnson has the perfect opportunity to truly bury the past and raise up Vice Admiral Holdo (more on her later) and he does neither. Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher are incredibly accomplished in the film industry. From an acting perspective, they were both in their performance primes 40 years ago and, outside of Star Wars, neither has excelled as a movie actor. The film’s writer (Johnson) puts them too central to the story and the film’s director (again, Johnson) is too handcuffed to get the most out of them at this point in their career.

Things I liked

1. The Visuals. The final 45 minutes are so beautifully shot that even if the movie didn’t land, it’s worth watching again.
2. Kylo Ren. Adam Driver delivers. His storyline moves. You feel his teen angst, even if he is a mass murderer. I am interested to see where Kylo and Rey go from here¹.
3. Rey’s Parentage Reveal². The sequel trilogy was going to feel tired if Rey’s parentage reveal traced a direct lineage back to the original trilogy. In the same way Luke was traumatized by the Vader reveal and Kylo is burdened by his parental baggage and expectations, Rey’s struggle with self-worth is a reflection of coming from nowhere and nobody. Rey becoming the hero without being a descendant of a fabled Sith or Jedi would be a stronger message than whatever Johnson was trying to say on Canto Bright.

Things I didn’t Like

1. Snoke sucks. There’s no way around this. I’m not sure what kind of Lord of the Rings binge watches led to this character but launch him back to Middle Earth. The Rule of Two for Sith lords creates a challenging tight rope for Star Wars storytellers. You really can’t miss on a Sith lord. Unfortunately, Snoke is less interesting than his predecessors. It should have meant something when Snoke perished, but it didn’t. Good riddance but now the creative team needs to invent a real villain for the third installment³.
2. The loss of Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) was unnecessary and can’t be recovered. She was a force of personality and played well against Poe’s machismo. Dern’s Holdo had a freshness and vigor lacking in the Resistance leadership. The storytellers had the better solution, let Leia kamikaze and have Holdo guide the Resistance moving forward, staring them in the face and couldn’t figure it out. Star Wars feature films have been lacking a natural, human connection between a man and a woman since 1983, achieved it with Isaac and Dern and then killed her off 20 minutes later. What a waste.
3. I like the added capability of Force connections between Kylo and Rey. But the scenes of the two of them talking was underwhelming. Was it how it was shot? Or how it was acted? I’m not sure. It just didn’t work for me.

Easter Eggs and Nitpicks

1. The first hour is better than I remembered. I remember it being a little slow in the middle the first time around but it moved better the second time. Reminder: mood can be important during any watch party.
2. Canto Bright, the new casino planet is pretty interesting but the morality play around it is heavy handed. Eat the rich is fine as a theme but this movie was already long enough. Show us the stable boys and move on.
3. Luke’s force projections were an interesting choice. Feels like there could have been better uses for it but it did save The Resistance in the end.
4. It’s nice to see Laura Dern on film or on stage at any point. REST IN POWER VADM AMILYN HOLDO!

The Last Jedi is not worthy of the hatred spewed at it. It takes more risks than The Force Awakens but can’t deliver on all its attempts. The misses on Leia, Luke, Holdo and Snoke are too much to overlook.

After acquiring Star Wars IP for over $4B, Disney needed small victories to grow the franchise. The Force Awakens delivered just that. It wasn’t a home run artistically but delivered the franchise-friendly single Disney needed at the time. The Last Jedi came to bat with more power but got thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.

Footnotes

1. We do find out. Unfortunately, it’s in Rise of Skywalker, which I never plan on watching again.
2. We learn in Rise of Skywalker that Rey’s parentage reveal in Last Jedi was not accurate. Still, I enjoyed it in the chronological moment and it did feel like the right move.
3. Or recycle the villain from the first trilogies. Rise of Skywalker…ahyiyi.