COPN Volume 7: Movie Review of The Last Jedi - Spoiler Ridden Gushing Fan Girl Edition
Well, I had to, didn’t I?
*Spoilers ahead.*
I’ll level with you. Star Wars is a saga which has dominated the span of my life as a movie goer. I’m of a generation young enough to have been introduced to the Star Wars universe when the mysterious episodes IV, V, VI still boiled with potential for prequels, and old enough to have lived through enjoying said prequels only to grow up and realize something deeply wrong with those films (i.e. they sucked). I spent my teen years in love with Han Solo, then Luke Skywalker, then Ewan McGregor’s Obi-wan Kenobi. I never had any use for the extended universe books because Star Wars were movies, damnit, so I could not generate enthusiasm for published fan-fiction. I got weepy at the trailer for The Force Awakens, and walked out of it renewed in my love for lightsabers and x-wings and didn’t give a fig over its slavish devotion to the same plot shape as A New Hope. So to say I anticipated The Last Jedi with a drooling enthusiasm bordering on mania is no exaggeration. The adult, professional story-teller in me came away impressed with how adeptly the movie managed to withstand the enormous pressure of having to follow up The Force Awakens. The drooling fan girl left giddy over what is, I can confidently say, my favorite installment in the franchise so far.
There was so much to love as a life-long fan. New critters and scenic locations. Jokes a plenty, and magnificently choreographed saber battles. But all this is pretty window dressing without having characters to root for, despise, or watch amidst the throes of the exquisite agony of conflicted feeling. And boy oh boy, did The Last Jedi deliver on that front with both the new cast and the old standbys from the original trilogy. They’re all so good I want to cover more of them than I should in a blog post, but it’s Star Wars, so to hell with it. In an infinitesimal nod to keeping this a semi-respectable length, I’ll only analyze my top four character arcs. Here goes this week’s post into combination “listicle” and “movie-review”-dom.
1. Leia
My fiery princess turned general. Kudos to the trailer for effectively snowing me into thinking because of Carrie Fischer’s death, she’d be sidelined and written out for convenience. Instead, we get Leia overseeing The Resistance’s escape attempt with recognizable Leia spunk and matured grace of an older woman. Pick on Poe the fly-boy, but be moved by the gravity of the losses incurred in conflict. Watching Leia sag with remorse over the lost fighters on her view screen immediately cast me back to the first film where as a young woman Leia watched the original battle against the Death Star. How many lives has she seen lain down for a cause, and yet she still retains her belief that rebellion is necessary? This is the second such conflict she’s helped helm. The depth achieved in such little screen time is a credit to both Carey Fischer and the writing that managed to convey so much in so little space.
2. Poe Dameron
Speaking of fly-boys, while I enjoyed Poe for his breath of screen time in Force Awakens, I never would have thought the character could achieve depth. He was charming, handsome, quippy, and fun. That was fine. Poe didn’t need to be deep for me to find him entertaining. But The Last Jedi had the audacity to ask, “Do you love this guy for the wrong reasons? Are his charm and skill flaws? Might they fuel a problematic little ego?” And the result was marvelous. Oscar Isaac managed to portray this side-step into complication without losing the likeability that marked him in the first film. Instead the character keeps the audience wondering whether he is an arrogant little brat who deserves to be humbled and checked, or if he’s actually in the right and braver than his seemingly short-sighted superiors. Poe, of all random side characters, ends up an excellent lens for questioning the nature of leadership. It’s an intelligent arc that pays off beautifully in the latter half of the film.
3. Luke Skywalker
I’m not in the “Luke is whiney” camp. He is, but I don’t hate him for it. When I was younger, I related to him in A New Hope where he’s the teenager who wants to get out of the flea-speck planet, two friends, and tiny family fish-bowl that was Tattooine. I mourned with him when Obi-wan died, and I was as annoyed as he when Han’s self-serving mercenary streak impeded Luke’s heroic vision of rescuing Princess Leia. He frustrated me in Empire Strike’s Back with his stubborn refusal to do anything Yoda said and his unfounded self-confidence, but I couldn’t blame him for wanting to rush off to rescue his friends or avenge his mentor by confronting Vader. And Return of the Jedi was his magnum opus. He’d finally mastered his powers, and evinced a maturity unseen in the previous films, so I was emotionally wrecked when the Emperor so deftly manipulated him. I love Luke Skywalker, and so I was PIIIIIIISSSSSED when he got two seconds of soundless screen time at the end of The Force Awakens. Hooray for The Last Jedi, they more than made up for it. In true Skywalker fashion, he spent the film dragging my loyalties all over the galaxy. One minute fantastically hilarious old-fart-recluse, stubbornly refusing to help Rey. One minute self-loathing depress-fest over his failures with Ben Solo. The payoff in his self-sacrifice and unadulterated badassery in stalling Kylo Ren for the sake of The Resistance had me equally elated and devastated. I’m sure plenty of fans are upset at his portrayal and fate in The Last Jedi, but my expectations were far surpassed by the film’s handling of him, so I’m a happy little Luke fan. *sobs hysterically into a pillow*
4. Kylo Ren
Adam freaking Driver, people. Despite the popularity of the “Emo Kylo Ren” meme that has come to dominate most people’s (maybe just millennial Tumblr users) vision of the character, I’ve been a fan of this sniveling murderous toadling as a villain. Sure, he lacks the menace of Vader or Darth Maul, but what he lacks in scare factor, he makes up for in complexity, and The Last Jedi did an excellent job of exploiting the seeds planted in The Force Awakens. In that film, he confidently strides the galaxy, sure of his power and righteously convinced he’ll put down The Resistance with barely a flick of his saber. The Last Jedi finds him an emotional wreck after murdering his father. We watch him struggle to maintain the course he’s chosen by being unable to follow through and commit the same act towards his mother. He turns his failure into a motivating hatred toward Snoke, while simultaneously clinging to a timely mental connection to Rey. Their scenes have a strangely confessional quality that is riveting. It’s almost as if he sees her as a way to jettison his past and accept himself as the monster he’s becoming, IF he can convince her to join him on his dark path. It’s a surprising and effective move on the film's part to complicate Rey’s vision of him as the heartless murderer of Han Solo. Adam Driver manages to drag us into his corner, whether we hate him or not, by whole heartedly embracing the fact he’s playing an angry child with super powers who uses those powers without compunction to get exactly what he thinks he wants. When in the final battle he screams at the sight of the Millennium Falcon, “Blast that hunk of junk out of the sky!” I wanted to applaud for the sheer emotional truth of that moment out of Kylo. The little shit is utterly fascinating to watch.
Overall, the film may is not absolutely perfect, as no film is. I cringed a bit at some of the goofy humor and silliness out of some of the creatures because I found it reminiscent of the dumber aspects of the hideous prequel films. But the character work was so strong, I can forgive it. I forgave Return of the Jedi for the Ewoks (though I do love Wicket). I tolerate Jar Jar Binks as a narrative trope. I even put up with Hayden Christensen’s decision not to use realistic inflection as Anakin because his speech pattern ends up mimicking James Earl Jones’ when the damn Vader mask goes on. (I challenge all haters to listen to Vader with Christensen’s cadence in your head. You’ll never hear him the same). So I’ll deal with the hideous casino sequence and whatever the hell it is Benicio Del Toro did with his character because, hell, it’s Star Wars, and ultimately, it’s supposed to be fun. That it can be moving and fun, is the joy of the franchise. I loved it.
