I finally got around to seeing the latest installment of the Star Wars saga. I didn’t want to make the same mistake as last year: I’d promised each of my kids that I’d go see Rogue One with them and due to schedules and school, I had to see it three times. I liked it but it was definitely not worth paying theater admission three times.
My family is littered with Star Wars aficionados and their reactions to The Last Jedi have been mixed. Some have loved it, some hated it.
Josie, Katie, Zack and I went in with open minds.
As the credits rolled, I tried to decide whether the awesome, cool parts outweighed the stupid, pointless parts. It’s kind of perfect, since a theme of the whole story was balance. I didn’t love the movie but I enjoyed it.
I’m writing this assuming all Star Wars fans have already seen it, so lots of spoilers ahead.
One criticism I’d heard was that Leia suddenly exhibits Master Jedi abilities. I wasn’t worried: we’ve known since The Return of the Jedi that she had the makings of a great Jedi. However, what she does in this movie caused my daughter Katie to say “I don’t think the writer understands how space works.”
Another criticism I’d heard was that Luke behaves contrary to his character. Well, no he doesn’t. He behaves like a real human, who has worked his entire life toward what he thought was right, only to see all his efforts utterly fail. Sorry kids but that’s how humans work. We get old and tired. As we age, we see farther than we could in our youth and things that seemed flat take on three dimensions. Think of the moon. Being young is like standing on the earth, looking up at a moon that looks like a flat, bright disc. Being old is like being an astronaut, orbiting the moon and seeing that it's actually a barren globe, whose light is an illusion, a reflection of some other, greater truth.
It’s painful to learn that you never win the fight against evil; it always comes right back in another form. If all your efforts have failed, maybe you’d better rethink your tactics. That’s all Luke really does: he takes the time he never did as a young man, to ponder what it means to be a Jedi and his understanding of what the Force is. In a way, Luke’s dilemma demonstrates where The Force, as a religion, is totally lame. So, it binds all things together…So what? Do only the Jedi live on after death? If so, why not join the First Order or the Empire and grub for all the power and wealth possible? Luke is finally asking "Why?" and The Force has no answer.
I’m kind of surprised that I had not heard any criticism of why Ben Solo turned into Kylo Ren.
I woke up one night at the Jedi school and there was Uncle Luke, standing over me with this weird look on his face and I knew he was there to kill me.
OMG I HOPE he was there to kill you! That just smacks of so much creepy weirdness I can’t even think.
I’m curious as to how, after defeating the Empire, Luke, Leia &company managed to lose the entire galaxy again. In a single generation. I suspect they implemented socialism. Luke’s repudiation of everything makes more sense all the time.
I really enjoyed the psychic connection between Rey and Ren. Lots of chemistry there.
My only beef with the movie is that it was too long and not only because so much of it served no purpose: why were Fin and Rose in that casino city for so damn long? What was the point of their escape on ‘horse’ back? Chase scenes are boring filler under most circumstances but even without all the McGuffins, this movie just takes too long to get where it’s going. For instance, why did it take Laura Dern until half her transport fleet had been annihilated before remembering that she could jump to light speed right through the enemy headquarters? I thought of that immediately and I’ve had exactly no training in military history, strategy or battle tactics. As a bad ass move, it didn’t need the ten minute build up.
The scenes on Luke’s rock between him and Rey (and Ren) went on forever. I’m pretty sure he didn’t whine to Yoda while sequestered on Dagobah for nearly as many screen minutes. And his scene in the cave, facing Darth Vader, accomplished the exact same thing as Rey in the hall of mirrors, in a fraction of the time.
In addition to the pointless escape attempt, the scene where the Resistance rides to take out the battering ram also went on far too long. One cool shot of that fleet of what I can only call the worst designed unipeds I’ve ever seen, cutting up the red salt desert would have been great. Three shots of the interminably slow progress of those things was too much. Did they top out at ten miles an hour? And I’m sorry but Rosie’s little speech as she passed out in Fin’s arms was about as coherent and profound as a fortune cookie.
“Instead of fighting what we hate, we need to save what we love.”
That’s what he was trying to do, you moron.
Good thing no one was on board to ‘love’ Laura Dern or the whole resistance would’ve been dead already.
This movie could have been much tighter.
I blame The Lord of the Rings. That trilogy came out with each movie clocking in at over three hours and then they released extended versions that are even better! Hollywood seems to have taken only the lesson that audiences will sit through a very long movie without realizing that TLOR is a huge tale with dozens of main characters and tons of detail, none of which is superfluous. It’s not long just to be long. The Last Jedi could put out a distended version (with lots of scenes deleted!) and it would be a better movie.
But most of it I really liked! I liked the characters and the dialogue that felt like ad libs. I liked how Lukehas followed his two mentors, Obi Wan and Yoda, into exile. I like that he saw some things clearly and didn’t hesitate to correct the two young whipper snappers who tried to tell him how it was. “Every word you just said was wrong.”
At least neither Rey nor Ren retreated to a safe space in the face of such aggression; they fired up their light sabers. I think their complicated relationship is fascinating and fun.
I loved the scene where Rey and Ren fought together, repeating the dynamic of Vader killing the Emperor for Luke. They want to be on the same side but can’t agree on which side that should be. Plus, the light saber fighting was great!
I loved the way Luke chose to fight at the end. I have to admit: they got me. I expected something that didn’t happen and didn’t see what was coming until it did. That was great. One of my favorite lines was Hux asking Ren, after his attack on Luke, “do you think you got him?”
I could have done with a little less (a lot less) of the close-ups of people staring into the sunset. We get it.
I have no plans to see it again in the theater and at the moment, no plans to buy it. But I will concede that this one could grow on me. I mean, it was no Attack of the Clones. Ugh, I had to see that one in the theater three times, too, and it got worse with each viewing.
I will watch The Last Jedi again and I’ll probably like it even more. As of today, on a scale of 1 to 10, where Attack of the Clones is a 1 and Serenity is a 10, I give The Last Jedi a 6.
Okay, maybe a 7.