Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Movie Review (Minor Spoilers)

*Note: 'Minor Spoilers' refers to basic plot detail, and information revealed in trailers and other publicly available knowledge, but no actual plot specifics. Continue reading at your own risk.*

It's time for us to take a deep breath and a step back and consider that perhaps bringing Star Wars back wasn't a good idea.

Think about it for a second. Upon revising, 2015's The Force Awakens is a serviceable but ultimately masturbatory affair, and the less said about 2016's Rouge One, the better. I look at Star Wars as a whole, sitting here typing out my review for The Last Jedi, and trying really hard not to be depressed about one of my favorite movie series being strung out like a stuck pig.

I said long ago that Star Wars can do nothing to me. I said that Star Wars means nothing to me anymore and anything that happens will not effect me in any meaningful way anymore. I still mean that, but goddamn does it hurt to see Star Wars now. Sweaty nerds complaining about plot holes, faux intellectuals trying to give writing advice, and of course, prequel apologists sucking the dick of Disney for giving them more toys to play with no matter the sacrifice to quality.

I purposefully did not see The Last Jedi on opening night to avoid those losers. In any case, my hopes for The Last Jedi were simple: make me not hate Star Wars again. Make me give a shit about these characters, and for god sake, forge your own path. Make a movie that doesn't recycle the plot of a previous film again. That's all. And you couldn't even really manage that could you?

So let's start with the narrative. The New Order is chasing down The Rebellion (still called rebels even though you were supposedly in power are ya?) and the rebels are running out of both time and resources and are now searching for a new base to set up operations. Meanwhile, Rey meets up with Luke Skywalker on a remote island in the hopes that she can be trained in the ways of a jedi and be of some use to the rebellion.

I'm not going to mince words here, while the above premise sounds like it would make for a strong movie, the execution of it all is a straight up mess. Not band mind you, just messy and unfocused. The narrative is a shell of the plot of Empire Strikes Back, something I was hoping they would avoid and go for something more original. However, where The Force Awakens used the entire plot structure, plot points and narrative tissue of A New Hope in order to re-establish Star Wars into the broader culture, The Last Jedi uses its borrowed narrative as a shell to incorporate its own broader ideas. The Last Jedi relies very heavily on its own meta narrative: that tearing down the traditional ideas and broader themes in Star Wars as a whole is a good thing. As such, characters you may have enjoyed in the Force Awakens grow as characters by having their reveals and respective arcs being more about failure and being unexpected rather than actually being anything substantial.

I'm trying really hard not to spoil anything, but suffice to say that the plot twists and reveals are more about the meta narrative then they are the actual narrative. Personally, I think it's a great choice, especially considering the minutia of what is revealed. Looking at it from a whole, on the other hand, the movie is a structural nightmare. While it is a two and a half hour long movie, it doesn't feel its length until the final act, where the film essentially ends, then says “nope, we go for another 30 minutes at least. Here's another act.” It may not seem like a big deal for this movie to have too much of itself, but with the plot already being scattered across multiple characters, locations, and events, the chaotic structure steadies itself at the finale, only to drag itself out for what feels like the length of another film.

Again, in avoiding spoilers I'll say that characters continue to be likable and have decent arcs that properly build them up. Good, no surprise there. The only character who sticks out like a sore thumb is Rose. Rose as a character really only exists so she can have a particular moment at a particular location, and while that's all well and good, she becomes a deal breaker for me because of two things. The first is another spoiler close to the end of the film (you'll know it when you see it) that is so absurdly stupid I almost thought it was a joke. The second is that Po is left with nothing to really do for the entire movie. Po was such an afterthought during The Force Awakens and I was hoping for him to get a bit more screen time. It seems like a nitpick, but I feel its justified considering that access screen time gets spent on Finn and Rose's lack luster adventure. Speaking of Finn and Rose's adventure, I call it lack luster, but I understand the message behind it, and I just wish the writing was a bit more streamlined and consistent. It's in this scene that Rose delivers one of the most cringe-worthy lines in the whole film.

Returning veterans Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher are fantastic as always and the particular angle taken with Mark Hamill was especially well done. I know it took a ton to get Mark Hamill back in the franchise but at least he looks like he is actually trying and not just being a pissy old man cameo ala Bill Murray.

I really want to like The Last Jedi but thinking over it, the chaotic plot and unfocused direction make it a horribly flawed film. On the other hand, I actually kind of like this more than The Force Awakens. There's some great special effects, some great cinematography, and more than enough great characters. The humor is less in-your-face and reference focused like The Force Awakens, and more importantly, The Last Jedi feels like a flawed movie made by an individual rather than its squeaky-clean, market-focused predecessor. But that doesn't make it a good movie, just a flawed one. I think the discourse surrounding The Last Jedi has been absolutely cancerous. Too many people are focused on the movie needing to be either the second coming of christ or final horseman of the apocalypse, and as a result neither side can see the movie for what it is: ok. Just ok. Mediocre. Slightly above average, if that.

I enjoyed it, but if a more straight forward movie is your kind of thing, you may want to skip it.

6/10

(but if it was less messy, it would be a 7)