Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Movie Review

[Warning: Spoilers ahead! And some f-bombs!]

I originally wanted to do a big Christmas special to go after my Arthur Christmas review, but with the huge premiere of the newest Star Wars movie and its mixed reviews I knew I had to look at The Last Jedi. After watching it I walked out with mixed thoughts myself. There were some great moments in the film, but also some big problems with the movie. We had some references and reuses of plot points from the original trilogy (Empire Strikes Back AND The Return of the Jedi), but also some new content that fit in with the Star Wars mythology. In the end I can’t clearly say if it’s bad or good from just a simple summary, it needs a full analysis for me and others to decide on how to rate the film. So let’s begin!

The Conflict

So the film begins with the Resistance fleeing the First Order with a planet evacuation, which is fitting since the Resistance just blew up the Star Killer station and lost a lot of their soldiers. The Resistance escapes successfully at first, but are soon surprised by the sudden appearance of the First Order. With little fuel in their engines, the Resistance stops a few of the main First Order ships, but are on a time limit before they run out of fuel and all the resistance is wiped out. Additionally, Finn (John Boyega) and a new character, Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), discover that the First Order have a way of tracking ships through lightspeed, which I find a neat piece of development. With this realization they are advised by the Yoda-like character from the first movie, Maz Kanata, of a codebreaker who can disable this tracking system.

While those two are searching for this codebreaker we get a start to some of the first problems of the film: Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) is having authority problems with Leia and her second in command, Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern), after him successful destruction of a big First Order ship at the cost of all the Resistance’s bombers. He finds it a total success while ignoring to back out while Leia finds it more of a loss than win with how many fighters they lost. With this setup we see Poe treated like a disobedient kid by Leia and Holdo, who act like condescending mother figures by continually holding back information on the plan. It’s like these two were trying to teach Poe a lesson about command, but that’s not really something to focus on when Poe could lead, and does lead, a mutiny against Holdo after Leia is put out of commission.

Now this moment with Leia is definitely the worst part of the film for me because it leads to one of the stupidest fake deaths in media. Sit down for this everyone, you’re going to need it. So the command center of the main Resistance ship is destroyed and Leia is thrown into space. We see her and her other dead companions floating in space and we see body start to freeze and be effected by the effects of space. But then we see her, clearly dead, come back to life and use the force to pull her into the hole of the ship where she gets put back into a safe zone with air. Now it’s not the fact that Carrie Fisher dying last year isn’t the problem, nor is her using the force because she is the daughter of Anakin Skywalker and it is canon that Luke does teach her a bit of the force after the end of The Return of the Jedi. It’s the obvious fact that being thrown into space with no air to breath almost instantly kills people. So what the hell brought her back to life and gave her the strength to use the force to get back into the ship?! I saw that scene in the theater with a friend and when it finished I looked at my friend and mouthed to him, “FUCKING BULLSHIT!!! THAT WAS SUCH FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!” It almost made me give up on this film. But then we got the saving grace.

Luke Skywalker

Mark Hamill, reprising his role as Luke Skywalker, is the actor that makes this film so memorable and worth watching. He’s not the upbeat and strong man we had in the original trilogy, but an old, grumpy man who has cut himself off from the Force. I was so enraptured to see Mark Hamill back on screen it both surprised and made me laugh to see him perform his first action of the film: Throwing the lightsaber Rey (Daisy Ridley) hands to him over head like he doesn’t care anymore about being a Jedi. We learn from him throughout the film that he, in a ways, brought about the rise of Kylo Ren when he saw the darkness in Kylo/ Ben Solo’s heart and almost kills him, but just when he decides not to is when Ben Solo wakes up to see Luke over him with a lit lightsaber. This gets trapped while Ben kills the rest of Luke’s apprentices, leading to Luke giving up on being a Jedi master and going into exile.

We see him in his life alone (with the island’s caretakers and the Porgs), catching fish, milking weird aliens (surprised those nipples didn’t get censored), and fixing his shelter, all without the Force. It feels odd for a Jedi not using the Force at all, but seeing how he treats Rey and her pleas for help just makes this lack of Force powers seems fitting, making us worry for Luke and his wellbeing while also hoping he’ll get over his past mistakes and come back as the hero we’ve known him as. But here’s the thing, he tells Rey that he’s not that grand of a Jedi; he’s no messiah, he’s no hero who can instantly turn to the tide, he’s just a Jedi, a Jedi who failed as a teacher and let his students die and one other turn to the dark side. His recognition of his mistakes and his self-conflict over getting over the past or staying alone makes him, hands down, the best character of the film. I mean, you watch him long enough you will start to tear up or try to hug something to comfort when he says he only lives on this island so he can die. It’s just incredible acting, especially when returning to a longtime favorite character!

Now eventually he does relent and teach Rey some of his Jedi ways after R2D2 shows the video footage used to convince Obi Wan Kenobi to help out the Rebels in the original trilogy. That was a great way to convince Luke to train Rey, as it felt so similar to how Obi Wan got back helping the Rebellion and reminds Luke of his past and his previous actions that saved a galaxy. The training isn’t much, but in a ways it’s a great reinvention/ closer look at the force. It was so mysterious in the original trilogy and when this older Luke explains it, there was some more to it that felt new and refreshing. We even see some original Jedi books dating back from the early days of the Jedi Order, something I was so hoping to see more of. At one moment though during the explanation, when he was explaining the Force to Rey, I thought Luke was going to say it was all Midichlorians. My god this film would be a complete pile of shit if he did. We don’t need any prequel logic in this new trilogy. But back to the training, we also get a lightsaber training and see something similar to the cave on Dagobah that was filled with the dark side on the island. That introduction was very, very creepy, with black/ dead seaweed leading into a dark hole. I got a jump scare during this introduction, with its creepy music and talk on how it was filled with the dark side was just perfect.

The reveal of a dark side cavern on this island leads to a very interesting revelation for Rey. When she goes into this dark place we are greeted with… an endless mirror sequence. It doesn’t seem very dark side at all and what Rey is hinted at in this place is that her parents are literal nobodies, just two parents who were just random people who gave her up for something simple like drinking water. That can’t be right though, it was hyped so much in the last film over where she came from and who her parents were, they just can’t be nobodies. I was honestly expecting more from this, like Rey getting her first temptation to the dark side since in the last movie she got a strong, sudden taste of the power with the Force. I thought with this sudden power in her hands and this influence of the dark side would start to turn her into a Sith Lord. At the end of this trip to the cave though Luke ends her training and lets her go so he can go back to being grumpy and alone.

Eventually he does somewhat get over the past and assist the Resistance, but not before he goes to burn the Jedi books and has a talk with his old master, Yoda, with Frank Oz returning as the original voice. Yoda was another great character in the film, as not only did they get his original voice actor to voice him, but despite being CGI he looks and moves like his puppet self from the original trilogy. Yoda gives some great words of wisdom to Luke during one of his darkest moments in the film, telling him how every successive generation becomes what the old generation is, but better. If trained right, the apprentices of any art, including the Jedi, will become better than their masters. This does give Luke the edge to push him enough that he wants to get back into the fight and battle the dark side once more. Sadly though this all takes a while due to one of the movie’s most recognized and iffy parts of the film.

The Casino

Almost everyone I’ve seen talk about this film agree in that the side-story with Finn and Rose at the casino planet is boring and unnecessary. In my opinion they definitely could have removed it from the film and new scenes that reworked the story so Finn and Rose had a subplot that felt more interesting. Whenever this story came back on screen I thought, “Ah come on! I don’t want to watch this.” But to be fair when I first saw this new world on screen I was intrigued, since this was a community of all rich inhabitants. We had a few rich characters in the Star Wars series like Jaba the Hut and Lando Calrissian, but this was a whole city of rich people. The scenery was also pretty lively and unique, making it look just like a rich city would look live, down to the fancy horse-dog alien stadium. Too bad though the story in this city was dull, with Finn and Rose using social commentary to explain to the audience how all this wealth comes from weapon dealers selling to both the First Order and the Resistance. It could have been made interesting, but watching it was hardly entertaining, making this all feel completely pointless.

Their attempt in procuring the specific codebreaker recommended to them by Maz eventually fails, resulting in them escaping from the city. It might be pretty cool, but with how boring this setting and side story already was this escape scene was… meh. Their trip was not in vain though was Finn and Rose do find a codebreaker to help them, a strange man named DJ. This character, like this subplot, is in the middle/ lower end of the spectrum. The creators tried to make him quirky with a strange, off-beat stutter, along with a backstory and motivation that is never explained. He just shows up and is supposedly the one to help save the day. It reminds me of the Scavengers in The Walking Dead, you just suddenly throw your trust into a random stranger. And in the end Finn and Rose’s attempt to stop the First Order fails as DJ betrays them once they sneak into the main First Order ship.

Rey, Kylo Ren, and Snoke

With Luke done with his training of Rey, she heads off to find Kylo Ren and try to turn him back to the light side. She get captured and we get properly introduced into supreme leader Snoke, who oddly looks more like a disfigured playboy manager than a Sith Lord. His throne room is rather strange as well, having lots of empty space and red walls that blend too much with his royal guards. Granted it’s not terrible, but it definitely doesn’t feel like a throne room on Star Wars would look like. That or it’s his smoking jacket making it all so weird. Despite his dress attrire, Snoke does have epic Force powers and we see him use them like a master Sith Lord, but he also does a lot of things similar to Palpatine/ the Emperor from the Return of the Jedi, including showing the Resistance about to be destroyed, letting the hero go free of her handcuffs, and tell them that their Sith apprentice is forever theirs. And yes, just like Darth Vader, Kylo Ren kills his master after all of these are done. We get no backstory or any story at all for Snoke. No how he rose as a Sith Lord, no how he corrupted Kylo Ren, or even how he started the First Order. Just this scene and he’s dead. He’s not the only wasted potential in this film, but we’ll get to that later.

After all this we get Rey and Kylo Ren fighting off the royal guards, who are, in all honestly, easily defeated. And then we get a scene I really felt should have been done differently. We see Kylo Ren offer Rey the chance to join him in ruling the galaxy and once more telling Rey that her parents were nobodies. She rejects him and they have a force battle that results in an explosion of Luke’s old lightsaber. Personally I would have had Rey join Kylo Ren because with how suddenly Rey has gotten power of her own, her fascination with Kylo Ren, and her temptation of the dark side I feel it would this would be the path Rey would go down. Rouge One almost went that way, but was denied because of Disney. I was really hoping for something new and intriguing because we’ve seen the good always reject evil for so long it would feel fresh to have good get tempted into evil. Maybe later on Rey could be tempted to be good again, but having her be on the dark side for a while would be awesome! Ah well, we got what we got and it’s not all bad, I just personally feel it could better in this other direction.

The Final Battle

Now, while Rey, Kylo Ren, and Snoke are talking, we see Finn and Rose captured and the return of an old friend: Captain Phasma, played by Gwendoline Christie. Both are about to be horribly executed when we get one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in the Star Wars franchise: A light speed crash. When the last members of the Resistance make a break for a nearby Resistance base Holdo takes control of the empty main ship and crashes it into the Snoke’s unique and colossal ship, cutting it in half in a beautiful, over-the-top epic way that made me say, “OH MY GOD, they jumped the shark!!!” That scene alone was worth the price of admission. After that strike the main ship starts to fall apart, with Finn facing off against Phasma while Rose and BB-8 make a break for an escape vehicle. Sadly though we lose Phasma, putting an end to the talent of an actor who plays one of my all-time favorite female characters in digital media, Brienne of Tarth. Overall, this finale scene on the huge ship end with lots of action, but we lose some great potential.

After that we move to the planet below, Crait, where we see a recreation of the opening of The Empire Strikes Back, complete with AT-ATs and a base that is being broken into. There is a final stand to keep the First Order away while the Resistance makes a desperate call to any allies in the outer rim. Unfortunately there is no response and all is doomed, especially when Rose saves Finn from sacrificing himself to stop a laser battering ram from blowing up the massive base doors. But then comes Skywalker, walking out onto the field of battle after giving his sister a heartfelt goodbye. This final standoff starts with a huge laugh with Skywalker surviving an absolute storm of laser blasts from the whole First Order, followed by him brushing his shoulder off like it was nothing. Then we get a fantastically choreographed fight between Luke and Kylo Ren. We see Luke being a badass, blocking and dodging Kylo Ren’s furious frenzy of slashes like a master Jedi would. And then comes the big twist: LUKE WAS JUST AN ILLUSION! He was back on that island using an illusion of himself to buy the Resistance enough time to get away! This was definitely an appealing reveal as it shows the Force is capable of doing even more than we originally thought. Sadly this power also is so strong that Luke’s use of it takes the rest of his life, causing him to fade away and most likely become a spirit to join his father and teachers.

With this final distraction the remaining members of the Resistance escape on the Millennium Falcon and they jump to lightspeed to escape the First Order. Before the credits though we do see a last little hint at the future. Back on the casino planet we see a lone slave boy with a ring of the Resistance left behind by Rose. He’s sweeping the floors with a broom that he might have used to force to pull to his hand while he stares up at the stars above him. I’m pretty damn sure this is hinting at the idea that there are definitely going to be more Jedi than Rey in the future and that Rey will most likely be the next Jedi master. I don’t know if she’d do well as a teacher considering how bland of a character she is, but she’s a Mary Sue she can do whatever she wants no problem.

Overall Analysis

If you walk out of the theater after watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi and say to yourself, “I don’t know how I feel on this film,” then you’re not alone. This was such an interesting movie in the series, with some great moments, but also with some big problems. Some of the big problems really pull people out of the movie and say that it makes the movie bomb badly and the good parts don’t stand out as much because of them. Some might say that is the same for many movies, but this is Star Wars, one of the most well-known and popular franchises in history. The casino scenes especially felt so out of place in the Star Wars universe that it just didn’t fit in the movie and took viewers out of the film. That plus those scenes and elements from previous films coming back in this film makes it feel less original.

Not just that, but with what’s going on with Mark Hamill and his talks on how this isn’t what Luke would really do, there’s some controversy. To be honest I can agree with Mark Hamill some, as Luke was definitely a go-getter who fought for what he wanted and to protect others, so seeing more of that would be awesome. However, great and memorable characters have certain flaws to them that make them feel human and this version of Luke had those flaws. He was grumpy, wanted to be alone, and felt very responsible for his actions to the point he wanted to be alone to die instead of get involved so no more Jedi could be corrupted. He is anti-messiah in this film, showing the dangers of putting somebody up so high while having a story that makes us feel he is still the awesome Jedi we saw from the original series. Along with some of the great advancements in the Star Wars mythos, we get a movie that challenges us, makes us wonder over some of the scenes of the movie and question what can come next to Star Wars. It’s not fantastic and it’s certainly not bad, but it’s 100% worth watching. I give Star Wars: The Last Jedi a 7 out of 10!

Also, the Porgs were dumb. Served no purpose to the film, moved like bad animatronics when they weren’t far away CGI, and were just there for silly comedy. Screw the Porgs!