So, I’ve delayed doing this blog post for a while, mostly to let the hate settle down for this movie….
So here goes. There will be SPOILERS, so you have been warned.
Have you seen the movie? Are you sure you want to continue?
Now with that out of the way. We can begin.
Let me start out by saying that I liked this movie. The direction it took, how it changed the characters from where they were expected to be and how they expected to go. It was something new within the Star Wars universe but still very distinctly Star Wars. Having said that I can enjoy, and like, a movie but still have issues with parts of it here and there. Unlike some exaggerations I’ve seen around the Internet since it’s release it does not “ruin Star Wars” as a franchise. To illustrate that I’ll ask you a couple of questions. Does it delete the previous movies from your DVD\Bluray shelf? Are your digital versions no longer available? Do you not still have the enjoyment and nostalgia that the previous movies, particularly the original trilogy, provide?
The answer to all of that, is of course not. It doesn’t, and it can’t. So keep that in mind as you decide whether you dislike the movie but judge it based on this new trilogy set and not as part of the entire saga. The new saga, as shown more so in this movie, but also with The Force Awakens two years ago is moving past the Skywalker family saga—as it should and needs to in order to survive.
Having said that, I think Disney and Lucasfilm’s schedule surrounding these films needs to be looked at. A movie every year will just cause nothing but franchise fatigue within the fans. But that’s a different blog post in itself really. So let’s stay on topic with the review. Firstly what I didn’t like. There was two main parts.
Finn, Rose, and Canto Bight:
This sequence seems to me to be the most out of place sequence in the film. To me it detracts from the rest of the story. It also seems to be the one sequence that I’ve seen in other posts that I generally agree with.
From a writing perspective, it feels to me that Rian Johnson wrote himself into a bit of a corner when it came to setting this scene up. From the moment Snoke’s Star Destroyer emerges from hyperspace the rebels are trapped. Rian seems to have gotten to that part in the script and then suddenly realised he can’t get the Rebels to where they need to be to move the story forward. So he’s thrown in a random, off side, sequence to move it along. While it does accomplish that, it does it very heavy handedly steering the plot by way of force rather than naturally letting it flow.
Now, having said that, should the deleted scenes (reportedly there are a load including whole sequences) resolve that issue of feeling jammed in there, then I will take back what I said. But as it stands, in the theatrical version, it feels forced in there.
One thing I feel they should have done is arranged it slightly differently with a surprise cameo that they kept secret. It would have been completely nostalgic, and nothing of substance, but it would have given people a little something extra in that scene. This is how I re-wrote the start of the Canto Bight scene. It’s only short, as all the dialog is the same as the movie. (apologies as wordpress doesn’t do script formatting that I’m aware of).
INT: Casino
Rose and Finn enter, and look around for the code breaker. The see multiple people. Each one different but not wearing the lapelle.
The fix on the breast piece of one suit, and see the flower lapelle and look at the guys face.
BB8 rolls up to a drunk gambler who attempts to put coins into him and gets angry, slapping the droid, when nothing happens.
BB8 rolls away with the money rattling.
REVEAL: LANDO CALRISSIAN, SMILING as he rolls the dice along the table.
LANDO (to his companion who pulls at his shoulder): Little busy here, love.”
He rolls the dice and the crowd cheers at the result.
Guards come after Rose and Finn. The commotion scares people away and they get arrested.
Story continues as per the movie.
The story in this instance isn’t changed, but the scene gives the audience something that would otherwise not be there. Given the entire scene is set indoors, it is conceivable that with Lucasfilm’s known level of secrecy over Star Wars they could have done this without revealing that Billy De Williams was in the movie. Rian Johnson has come out recently to explain why Lando isn’t in the film, which equates to his character would never turn on Finn and Rose the way Benecio’s character does. But my way above doesn’t have him in that role. Benecio’s character is still there, and Lando is pretty much just a one shot for the film. But it gives the audience something—more so if Lucasfilm managed to keep the cameo secret until the premiere date.
Poe and Holdo
So, the next thing I need to mention is the dynamic between Poe Dameron and Holdo (played by Laura Dern). I have no qualms with Dern’s performance, nor Oscar Isaacs, but this whole setup is a bit lazy, especially in terms of writing. The whole case of her not telling him the plan is just conflict for conflicts sake. It doesn’t get you anywhere, except to make the characters seem unlikeable.
Although, I do suspect another reason behind this, which is also lazy. It leads into the whole Canto Bight situation. It’s Poe that convinces Rose and Finn to make the jump to the, out of place, Canto Bight sequence. Had Holdo just let Poe in on the secret of what they were doing then Poe wouldn’t have had the pair go through the whole Canto Bight plan. The sequence would never have been needed, and you would have a tighter story structure throughout.
Of course, this leads into Holdo’s eventual sacrifice to protect the fleet. Overall, this was a brilliant sequence. The lightspeed jump into Snoke’s Star Destroyer splitting it into pieces. Perfect. Along with the removal of sound for the shot which just added to the scene and made it stand out out of the whole of the movie. I haven’t seen Rebels, but I’ve been told that it sets up this in the last season of that. So a nice tie back.
There are people I’ve seen ask why the Rebels haven’t done this before. Well, probably because when the originals were made in the 70’s it wasn’t thought about that much. You can’t retro-actively add a possibility to a previous movie. It was mentioned as a possibility, if you look at it that way, by Han Solo in the original movie when he says to Luke, “Travelling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, boy. Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that would end your trip real quick, wouldn’t it”
So it was brought up as a dangerous option, and one that the Rebels wouldn’t have had the man power or ships to risk doing.
The Last Jedi is the Rebels in their last desperate stretch to survive. A no option scenario.
But Holdo does wait too long before she actually does the jump. Before you ask why they don’t have a droid do it rather than risk lives, a droid is a computer. It wouldn’t be able to change it’s calculations for anything less than a safe jump. If it was programmed in anyway to do a potential suicide jump, it could make a mistake when doing regular hyperspace travels and wouldn’t be a worthwhile form of transport.
Finn and Rose – Characters
As characters these two are ok. They are passable, but they are given almost nothing to do within The Last Jedi that means anything of significance. Rose is out for her sister, who dies within the first attack to take down the Destroyer. But while she has a bit to do, it’s nothing of consequence. Anything done with Rose or Finn fails—which can be argued is the theme of the movie. Not everything works, and you can’t win everything. But it leaves their characters lacking. I never really got used to Finn in The Force Awakens, even there I don’t think he was a good fit. He was mostly just forced in. But I like Rose, Kelly Marie Tran brings an excited level of enthusiasm to the franchise and the Rebels in general. One of the ones who still believes, she basically is the “spark of hope” that they mention throughout the movie. The enthusiasm is shown on screen.
As for “that kiss” at the end and people seemingly up in arms over the random love connection that came from nowhere, I didn’t see it that way. That seemed to me like Rose telling Finn that sacrifice is not what differentiates the Rebels from the First Order, it’s their compassion. Their love. If you watch, the kiss is a peck. It’s very quick, and there’s not really feeling there beyond what I said above. It also looks like Finn is surprised, and I’ve been wondering if John Boyega wasn’t aware that Kelly Marie Tran was going to do that. It seemed like John was surprised as a person, rather than an actor. I could be wrong but it’s how I see that scene.
Carrie Fisher
What can I say about Carrie. Our beloved General, gone to early at the end of 2016. I didn’t have much of an issue with the bridge scene where she gets blasted from the bridge. In fact, in theatre the first time I clasped my hand across my mouth in shock thinking that they had killed her off already barely 30 minutes into the movie. I think more of what throws people off in the recovery of this scene, is the CGI of her moving back onboard. I don’t think it’s fully up to scratch and could have been done better. Maybe a better angle, I don’t know. There is precedent for what Leia did with the force in previous canon. Sometime before Revenge of the Sith released when books tried to cover Anakin’s rise, he protected himself in a similar way from the lava. So the ability is not new, like many claim.
But I loved all of Carrie’s scenes. The power and feeling she brought to the role was commanding when it needed to be, and gentle at the other times. Her reunion with Luke at the end was perfect (even if it did reveal that he wasn’t really there). The connection was there. The emotion of the scene. Just powerful.
Goodbye General. You’re part of the force now.
Rey and Kylo
Now we come to the main pair. (and I say that as the main characters not as a coupling like some people seem to be wishing for online. Oi no). The connection between Rey and Kylo’s minds, by what turned out to be Snoke was played perfectly. It brought them together, while seemingly keeping them apart on both sides of the force. Rey felt much stronger of a character in this episode. She went head first into Snoke, and got almost broken until Kylo killed him. A move which some seem to think was Rey turning him, but if you watch what’s happening he’s just using the opportunity to take power for himself as shown by what happens with Hux after the battle in the throne room. For anyone reading this that still wonders why Snoke didn’t see it happening, it’s because it’s shown that he turned his own crossblade lightsaber at the same time as he turns the one beside Snoke. I’ve seen ‘theories’ trying to figure out why he didn’t see it, and some of them are as far out as Rey’s parents theories from TFA. He turned both lightsabers. Remember, the simplest solution is usually the right one.
Speaking of simple solutions, all that theorising everyone did about Rey’s parents? Gone. As announced in this movie, they are nobody. While yes, it was said by Kylo and he could have had that image planted by Snoke, currently as it stands they are nobody. They aren’t important. I’ve seen this be used online as a way to say “Rian just threw away everything JJ setup” But he actually didn’t. He didn’t actually setup anything with Rey’s parents. He had a couple of bits of dialog saying who is this girl, and my parents are coming back for me. That’s it. Most of it was from Rey’s own thoughts; and as someone “left” you would think your parents are important or coming back for you. Just psychology.
Do you know what? I’m fine with this explanation, and I hope JJ doesn’t undo it in episode 9.
Having Rey come from no-one echoes Kylo (or Ben’s) lineage from the Skywalker bloodline. It’s the yin and yang, the balance of the force. One side vs the other. Prophesied bloodline vs nothing. They balance each other, and I believe that is what Rian is trying to show in The Last Jedi.
Supreme Leader Snoke
That leads me onto Snoke, as we thought, the big bad of the new trilogy. Well that doesn’t appear to be. It seems like they’re going with Kylo—which makes sense. As I said above, the trilogy appears to be about the balance of the force (as was the original) and how that plays out between Rey and Kylo in the final episode of the trilogy. A lot of people seem to be complaining that we got no history of his background. Well, when the Emperor showed up in Empire Strikes Back we had not backstory on him. It wasn’t until the prequels were released much later that the Emperors backstory of being Chancellor was shown.
So why does Snoke need to be explained now? As Yoda says, Patience, you must have patience.
Luke Skywalker
Which leads me onto the the story of Luke Skywalker. The man, the myth, the legend. But which is it? Within movie universe, as well as real life. There seems to have been this mythology and legend setup surround Luke Skywalker. In the movies, he’s known as the guy who brought down the deathstar and defeated the Emperor and his Sith apprentice. In real life, fans have attributed him as Jedi Master, and somehow made him all powerful. He’s never shown that, across any canon source. The movies show him as someone who jumps in before he thinks, as shown in Empire when Yoda tries to convince him to finish his training. Then again in Jedi when volunteers for Han’s expedition team to the forest moon of Endor. He’s never shown to be that powerful with the force, otherwise he would have beaten the Emperor and Vader more easily. The force has always been a struggle for him. So what Rian Johnson has done here, has de-constructed the myth and shown fans the man. It’s a bold choice, and one that I applaud him for. The first opening you see of him when he takes the lightsaber from Rey and throws it over his shoulder was perfect. It’s a symbolised way of Luke saying exactly what Kylo says, for a different reason, near the end of the movie: “let the past die”.
Luke knows he failed with Kylo. He was ashamed because he thought that with the hindsight of what Yoda and Obi Wan did he wouldn’t fall into the same traps—but he did. As he says in the movie, it was Jedi hubris that led to their downfall, and it was hubris that lead to his. It pulled the character arc of what we were seeing in the original movies straight through from inexperienced, and eager farmboy who jumps in without thinking, to a Jedi who now knows what happened and why he failed. Luke even says that the Jedi fell because they couldn’t see things coming because of their own hubris and way of thinking.
It’s Yoda, again, in this movie that pushes him further back into what he was and forces his scene at the end where he confronts Kylo. In this scene, Rian masterfully shows you Luke Skywalker the legend, to both audience members and Rebel survivors, while at the same time showing Luke the man. Once again it shows Luke taking all of his strength to project himself to Kylo using the force, which is why he fades out into the force at the end. Masterful move. (although I do wonder why we don’t see his metal hand fall, but that’s a minor nitpick).
Overall, Rian Johnson has shown, the audience and the remaining Rebels in the movie, both versions of Luke Skywalker. While he is just a man, both the man and the legend can exist at the same time. They are not a mutually exclusive idea. It’s a bold way of showing us.
That was probably a little longer than I wanted to go, but those are my thoughts on the movie and the franchise. I’m really interested to see where episode 9 is going to go, I would love to know what the original plan for Leia was seeing as 9 was going to be her movie originally, and I really hope that JJ doesn’t overwrite what Rian has done in this movie and that the new trilogy comes together with all it’s pieces tied up.
So, did you see the movie? Did you enjoy it? Did you not? Feel free to discuss it but don’t argue. We are all fans.
May the force be with you.
In memorium, Carrie Fisher. Our General.
Dreaming Screenwriter 