Much like Luke Skywalker himself, I’m called back to my old quests. I spent the past few months, away from my wheelhouse, writing articles for The Borgen Project. This path opened a lot of doors for me, and opened my heart in surprising ways. My research on poverty found complexities in the simple, and discovered both good, and evil, in unexpected places. Yet my heart will always belong to Star Wars.
It is I, C-3PO. You probably don’t recognize me because I replaced my red arm, for some reason.
I started out dismissive towards Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Yet it only took me a few re-watches until I loved and adored the movie. I still have mixed feelings on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But I found a lot to like when I saw it a week ago. So why try to fight it? My Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Review and Analysis is that it’s FUCKING AMAZING.
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This analysis excludes the first act of the movie, which is shaky and slapsticky and plodding and almost embarrassing. The Last Jedi is not perfect. I, stubborn and slightly illogical, still think Return of the Jedi is a better movie. Nothing will surpass Episode VI for me until a new Star Wars episode makes me cry. But yes, the last 2/3rds of Episode VIII: The Last Jedi are such an engrossing, madcap adventure, equal parts hopeful and cynical, that no weak start can keep it from being great. You may think you’ve got Star Wars mapped out at this point. This film will reignite excitement over the incoming flood of Star Wars films from an ever-expanding empire. If you hated how much the previous two movies borrowed from the original trilogy… well, Disney’s at least smarter about ripping off George Lucas here.
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In a weird way, Episode VIII’s triumphs not only undermine Episode VII and Rogue One, but the entire franchise in general. Rampant, massive spoilers abound after the porg.
Here’s the best way to summarize this movie: everything you thought would happen in Episodes IX-IXC, The Last Jedi covers. This includes, but is not limited to: an attempt to redeem Kylo Ren, Rey’s parentage, and the death of Supreme Leader Snoke. Between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, there’s hardly anything left from the originals to rip off, excepting an asteroid field chase and a Stormtrooper bumping his head on a door. This is what I mean by “smart” ripping off. All this movie’s homages happen in surprising order, and happen quick. You won’t have much time to complain about retreads before The Last Jedi throws in a new joke, or a genuinely uncertain cliffhanger. Rey, Kylo, and Snoke reenact the climactic Jedi-Sith showdown from Episode VI in about 10 minutes. Including Snoke’s death at the hands of his apprentice! I never cared much for Supreme Leader as a villain, but wasn’t the last movie building up a mystery to where he came from and who he is? I suppose there’s no shortage of evil assholes hoping to rule the galaxy, as the last year in politics should tell you.
That anti-climax is only one of several ways that The Last Jedi cheapens The Force Awakens. Maybe this is fanboy nitpicking, but its weird not having multi-year gaps between episodes. Poe Dameron flies his X-Wing and trades yuks with General Hux as if he didn’t undergo a major battle the other day. On the same note, Hux is taking the destruction of Starkiller Base well, as if it happened, I don’t know, years ago. When the newer characters reunite, it’s a moment befitting a long separation as opposed to a few trying days.
Were you worried they’d kill off Leia for cheap emotional manipulation? Don’t worry, you get your cheap emotional manipulation anyways! She survives drowning in moonlight, but is strangled by tastelessness. Yeah, the first half-hour of The Last Jedi is not good.
Funnily enough, when it comes to referencing the past, Episode VII is the more inspired retread. The Force Awakens, in a strange way, is about Luke’s redemption. Imagine you’re a Jedi Master in exile, moping on an island surrounded by reminders of your failures. Then a girl strong with the Force hands you a long-lost artifact from your darkest moment. There’d be confusion, you’d get upset, but one message would be clear: The Force has more to teach me. Episode VII tells of the Force conspiring to awaken Luke to his new calling, ending with the perfect capstone to that story.
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That’s what I used to think. Then Episode VIII revisits that scene and undercuts it with a joke that’s actually pretty funny, and would’ve been funnier if the previous space battle wasn’t stuffed with lame quips and silly antics. Then we spend most of the first act filling in characters about what happened in Episode VII. And convincing Luke to do the thing we knew he’d do by the time the credits rolled on The Force Awakens.
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I like how The Last Jedi challenges the previous Star Wars movies in a way that has us reconfirm our faith in them, pitting us against our own nostalgia. I also like it when they shoot all the big lasers.
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For all its faults, The Force Awakens revisited A New Hope with both love and insight. The Last Jedi is such an inspired creation (and a great one!) that the moments where it retreads come off as shallow and, worse, boring. There’s a spooky cave in this backwater planet, wonder what dreamlike imagery that will lead to. A charismatic ally turns traitor to save his own skin, wow, it’s almost like it’s meaningful to a different subplot. Luke sacrifices himself, even though it’s set up so that he DOESN’T have to sacrifice himself, because that’s what happens in these Star Wars movies right? Poetry, couplets, rhyming. Oh hey, a reenactment of the best part of Episode VI in 10 minutes that makes the whole thing a joke. A reenactment that tells this potentially interesting villain he’s a boring Emperor rip-off and we know his apprentice will kill him in the end, so why did anyone care for that story in the first place? You can’t borrow what was good from previous movies if you’re not even interested in why they worked. Star Wars, even A New Hope, isn’t so original with plot. But ultimately, I’ll take “let’s not reinvent the wheel” over “let’s get this over with” any day.
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So what did I love about this movie? In short: the arcs. All the characters, and the core concepts of Star Wars, get pushed to their breaking point. The Last Jedi blows up every conceit you thought was safe, like a great sequel should. Poe struggles with humility as his past mistakes become lethal, and his leaders seem poised to make worse ones. Luke struggles with personal failures and struggles to tell Rey that imitating him won’t save anyone. As empires and rebellions crumble, we learn the real powers in the galaxy are the corporations bringing guns to the star wars. And HOLY SHIT, this film read my mind, because it acknowledges that the Jedi from the prequels were a vanity-blinded race of dogmatists who deserved their end and could never balance the Force by staring at bacteria! I hope my complaints about retreads and time gaps don’t fool you. I want to scream about how good this movie is to the stars. Yoda comes back in a scene that brings not only nostalgia, but some more genuine wisdom to a movie that’s already insightful. The humor improves by bounds to become giddy and character-revealing in the last 2/3rds of the movie. The tension visibly builds as the Resistance’s forces whittle down, until the whole organization can fit inside the Millennium Falcon. I know there are other great moments I’m leaving out here, and more great moments to find when I see this again.
I’ll be damned if The Last Jedi hadn’t become subversive with its characters. I wish I could talk more about Admiral Holdo, seriously, you guys, there’s SO MUCH GOOD in this movie.
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Here’s why The Last Jedi left me hopeful and joyous while Rogue One left me empty. The crew of Rogue One only faced Stormtroopers who were still pushovers, and a planet killer that would only last a few more days. As this new movie puts it (paraphrased), those who only hope when they see the sun will never make it through the night. Whereas the entire saga is a space opera, Rouge One is a paperback thriller. You read/watch it, enjoy the suspense it constructs, see it tie up every loose end, then never think about it again. The greatest threat to the characters of The Last Jedi isn’t The Dark Side, but cynicism. It’s a problem a writer can’t escape no matter how many prophecies or lightsabers they put in a story. It’s a problem that only empathy and true living in each audience member can solve. Rogue One is an academic speech on hope, and The Last Jedi is an actual STORY about hope. You, audience member, will never have to steal plans for a superweapon. But you will have to fight unjust economic systems, the realization that you’re a nobody in a long line of nobodies, and, most importantly, your own insecurities large and small. I like working for The Borgen Project, but they, and I, will have to face the long-term consequences of using corporations to solve poverty. Episode VIII helped me contend with that dilemma.
Also a first: the first time someone says the word “ass” in Star Wars. That’s one change I didn’t need.
Rogue One is an ok movie that supplements and adds dimensions to greater works. In contrast, The Last Jedi’s fantastic destruction and reconstruction of the entire franchise is great in the context of Star Wars movies. But Episode VIII jars with the story before it, to say nothing of what comes next. Am I nostalgia-blinded, frustrated that great art challenged my views on Episode VII? That The Last Jedi blew up everything before it, while still giving us generous helpings of what happened in the originals? Like Luke, we need to look at the flaws in our past and learn. But unlike Kylo, we don’t need to tear this past down. There are several great, new ideas in Episode VII (a Stormtrooper removes his helmet, Rey wants to stay home instead of leave, Kylo see the light side as seductive). I’m sad that all these threads got dropped in the follow-up. Director Rian Johnson went on his own heedless path here, which makes him more appropriate a successor to George Lucas than anybody else. The hopeful and slightly-manipulative kid at the end teaches us that ideas behind stories are more important than the details of stories. The Last Jedi has so many great ideas in it, it’s almost selfish in how it implements them. And if they make more episodes like this (hell, even ones that tear down Episode VIII), then I’m guaranteed to watch them until their, and my, end.
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