Matt Reviews - Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

WARNING: SPOILERS

Like, so many SPOILERS, dude

Christmas came early this year, and Rian Johnson gave us the greatest gift of all: a sequel to The Force Awakens that’s not just a remake of The Empire Strikes Back.

Following the events of the previous movie, Rey (Daisy Ridley) has tracked down Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), and she must convince the jaded Jedi Knight to join her cause and realize there is still good in his fallen apprentice and nephew Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Meanwhile, the villainous First Order rises in power. As Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) buts heads with Resistance Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern), he hatches a plan with Finn (John Boyega) and newcomer Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) to take down the First Order, which takes them to an intergalactic casino and into the ranks of the First Order itself.

Okay, there were a lot of awesome scenes in this movie, so before I get into the pros and cons of the film, I just want to show appreciation to some of my favorite scenes.

Luke callously throwing away his father’s lightsaber after we’ve waited two years to see how he’d respond to Rey handing it to him. Leia using the Force to save herself from death. Rey visiting the Dark Side pit, and all of the trippy imagery that comes with it. Yoda’s ghost visiting Luke. Admiral Holdo sacrificing herself by ramming Snoke’s ship at lightspeed. Luke channeling a Force projection from across the galaxy to face his nephew and give Leia Han’s dice (which is one of the few movie scenes to actually make me cry in a theater.) And my favorite scene: Kylo getting the upper hand on Snoke, killing him in his hubris, and then teaming up with Rey to fight off Snoke’s samurai guards, in one of the best lightsaber battles in the entire franchise.

Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s actually review this movie.

The movie has a lot of themes that work really well with the narrative, as well as a metatextual commentary on the franchise. One of the big ones is letting go of the past. This phrase mainly comes from Kylo, as he’s struggling to let go of his family and who he is so that he can be fully immersed in the power of the Dark Side. But this message also rings true for several of the other characters. Rey is obsessed with finding out who she is, even willing to tap into the Dark Side to find answers. It’s only when she learns that she quite literally comes from nothing can she let go of who she was and start focusing on who she’s going to be. Luke is also heavily weighed down by the past, specifically his failure of his nephew that led him straight to the First Order. But he eventually learns to forgive himself, and the Rebel hero Luke Skywalker is back. The old ways of the Force are left behind, with the deaths of Luke Skywalker and Snoke, who represent the Jedi and (presumably) the Sith. The paragons of the Force are now the apprentices, who are willing to cast aside the old ways of the Jedi and the Sith for something new. The franchise as a whole is even learning to let go of the past. By this movie, Han and Luke are both dead, and Leia is probably not far behind them considering Carrie Fisher’s passing, so this leaves the Star Wars saga almost entirely in the hands of our new main characters. And of course, this movie branched off into a new direction for the Star Wars saga, unlike The Force Awakens, which was more concerned with giving us something familiar to get us back into Star Wars before trying something new.

Disney's live action remake of Up looks weird.

Morality is also something tackled in this movie, and so many characters in this movie have layers. This theme is brilliantly explained when Benecio del Toro’s character reveals to Finn that the “bad guy” that he stole his ship from designed weapons for the Resistance as well as the First Order. It’s kind of a heavy, realistic subject matter to tackle in a Star Wars movie, but it fits for diving into the morality of war. Of course, this “shades of gray” theme is seen in a lot of our characters. Previous Star Wars movies made the Force to be a very “good vs evil” or “light vs dark” conflict, but Luke explains there’s so much more than that. Luke himself is a very morally gray character, as seen in his backstory where his brief consideration to kill his nephew over fear of his power led him to become Kylo Ren. Luke isn’t the hero he used to be, but he’s also not a complete villain either. Rey and Kylo both have the opposing sides of the Force within them. Rey is a good guy, yet she’s more open to seeing the benefits of the Dark Side. Kylo is a bad guy, yet he’s conflicted, and even offers to throw off the labels of the First Order to build something else with Rey. These two characters show just what I want from this new trilogy. It’s not just light vs dark, it’s something new, showing that the Force is more than just labels like “Jedi” and “Sith”.

Everyone puts in a great performance in this movie, but I feel special mention has to go to Mark Hamill. He is at his best in this movie, and this is a man who has expertly played the definitive version of the Joker for over twenty years. He’s a broken man at this point in his life. He’s closed off, yet vulnerable. We see his pain, his fear, his regrets, his sorrow. And it’s not just in his words, it’s in his actions, in his face. He can seamlessly switch between serious and snarky at a moment’s notice. It’s a wildly different character than what Hamill’s used to playing, but it’s still recognizably Luke Skywalker. Carrie Fisher is also acting her ass off in this movie, playing a powerhouse general who basically steals any scene she’s in. It’s a real shame she’s not going to be in the next one, but I’m glad she’s able to go out on such a high note.

How are the new characters? For the most part, they all pretty fine. The best one of the bunch is Rose. She’s plucky, yet she’s got a sad backstory. She’s vulnerable enough to cry over her sister’s death, yet she’s strong enough to be willing to nearly sacrifice herself to save Finn. Kelly Marie Tran has such good chemistry with everyone she interacts with that she seamlessly fits into the clique of the rest of the main characters we already know. Moving on to other characters, Admiral Holdo is fine, but she’s not as fleshed out as she could be. But her sacrifice was pretty awesome, so I guess she’s cool in my book. Benecio del Toro’s character (who I guess is named DJ) gets some cool lines, but he’s probably the weakest here. Maybe he’ll have more to do if he’s in the next movie. Also, what is up with his random occasional stutter? Does that ever get explained?

While the new characters certainly get some love, Captain Phasma still gets the freaking shaft. Even after they made an entire novel and a comic book miniseries based around her, she still gets barely any screentime and is apparently killed after one fight scene – her first on screen fight scene in the franchise, mind. There’s been so much potential for this character wasted that I’m wondering if they gave her own book and comic series as a preemptive apology for not doing more with her in the movies. All I’m saying is Episode IX better be titled Revenge of Phasma or I’m gonna be pissed.

"Buy our toys!"

 I feel like the Porgs need to be mentioned, since they were a massive part of the marketing. The Porgs are the Minions of this movie: cute little highly marketable characters who exist for comic relief and to make all the girls in the audience go “Awwww”. I compared them to the Minions, but that’s a bit unfair to the Porgs. They’re fine for the role they serve. They never overstay their welcome, and they’re okay comic relief for the most part. They’re not annoying like Jar Jar, but never become integral to the story like the Ewoks. They’re just kind of…there.

The movie plays with the audience’s expectations of things and in the process, winds up taking a lot of risks that I think pay off. A lot of the questions fans had after seeing The Force Awakens get answered, but not in the way anyone would think. What’s Luke’s first response after Rey hands him his old lightsaber? He chucks it into the ocean in disgust. Who is Snoke, and what are his plans? Doesn’t matter, because Kylo Ren kills him off and usurps his position. Who are Rey’s parents? Junkies who sold Rey for drinking money. That last one is especially brilliant because it takes away a lot of the Mary Sue qualities that people complained about in Rey. She’s not a Skywalker or a Kenobi or a part of anything bigger. She’s quite literally a nobody, but it’s through her actions that she’s able to become a part of something bigger. It shows that in this galaxy, you don’t necessarily have to come from greatness to achieve greatness. Admittedly, I’m a little disappointed that due to Snoke’s death, we probably won’t be learning much more about him, but it was done in such a beautiful way that I can’t be mad. Plus, they might do an expanded universe novel on him or something.

There’s a lot of new stuff with the Force in this movie, and it’s all really cool. Rey and Kylo can communicate through some sort of “Force link” set up by Snoke, and Luke is powerful enough with the Force to project an astral image of himself from across the galaxy. They’re new abilities (though they could have shown up in the old expanded universe), and they all fit in naturally with the pre-existing Force abilities. Also, that scene of Rey searching for answers in the Dark Side pit – with all of the mirror-Reys – has beautifully trippy imagery straight out of Doctor Strange. Rian Johnson brought a heavy dose of mysticism back to Star Wars and the Force and I’m in love with it.

Alright, I’ve talked a lot about the pros, let’s discuss the cons. The film feels like it goes on for a bit longer than it should have. Kylo’s betrayal of Snoke and the subsequent fight alongside Rey was the high point of the film for me, and it was the moment that the entire theater erupted into applause. It almost feels like the movie could have ended not long after that, since it felt so much like the emotionally charged climax. But after that, we’ve still got the final battle on Crait and Luke’s sacrifice to deal with. This is still good stuff, but for me, it didn’t get much better than that aforementioned fight scene, and the last third of the film felt like it dragged a little bit due to the placement of such an awesome scene.

Also, the timetable the film sets up is a problem. Poe mentions at one point that the Resistance ship has eighteen hours of fuel left and can’t jump to lightspeed, which is why Finn and Rose need to go on their mission. However, while all this is going on, Rey’s having her training with Luke, and it’s clear that days have passed in her storyline. I guess you could argue that time could move differently on Ach-To, or Rey’s story and the rest of the movie are on slightly different timetables, but it definitely feels like more than eighteen hours have passed in this story.

You'll always be our princess, general.

Is this a perfect Star Wars movie? No. Did I like it better than The Force Awakens? Yes, mostly because of how different and new it felt compared to that one. It had so many heart-pounding awesome moments that didn’t rely on nostalgia that it’s hard for me not to feel something for it. Do I think it’s the best one since Empire Strikes Back? Yes, but Empire is still much better. Will it be remembered as one of the best Star Wars movies? I certainly hope so. Ideally, I hope that ten years down the road, when Rian Johnson’s other Star Wars trilogy is underway, people use this movie as comparison. “This movie’s the best one since The Last Jedi.”

The best part of this movie is how I have no idea where the saga is going from here. At the end of The Force Awakens, I had a general idea of what Episode VIII would be: Rey trains with Luke, and we get some continuation of Kylo’s internal struggle. At the end of this movie, I don’t have an inkling as to what Episode IX will be about. And I love that. We’re in new and uncharted territory, and I couldn’t be more excited. The only theory I have so far is that Episode IX should start with Leia’s funeral, in a quick and tactful way to deal with Carrie Fisher’s death.

Also, maybe Phasma comes back all crispy from the explosion looking for revenge, since she’s supposed to a survivor and all, yet that cool part of her character is only on the expanded universe. (Sorry. Much like the planet Crait, I’m salty.)

People seem to be pretty split on this movie, and I can see why. It’s a lot to take in in one movie. It takes a lot of risks with the sage, and it results in being quite a different Star Wars movie than what we’re used to. For what it’s worth, I really liked it for those reasons. It’s one of those movies that I feel may need a second viewing for some to really get a reading on it, and I may need to go back again to really solidify my feelings on it. But for right now, Star Wars is definitely back on top again.

Oh, and the cinematography and visuals are stunning. Don’t know if I mentioned that in this review somewhere.

Absolute eye candy.

Final verdict: 8.5/10

So has anyone heard how Ferdinand is doing at the box office? Also, how come there’s always some half-baked kids movie trying to go up against the latest Star Wars movie?