Warning, there are spoilers in this review. Please wait until you have seen The Last Jedi before you read this.
I went to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi feeling pretty confident that it would be good. This latest chapter in the (hopefully) neverending Star Wars saga was directed by Rian Johnson, who also did the superb Looper and The Brothers Bloom--the latter being one of my favorite films, and not just because Rachel Weisz co-stars in it. I was hoping Johnson could deliver a new Star Wars film with this sequel that would be more satisfying by simply not being another stealth remake--like what the last third of The Force Awakens turned into (don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed that film, though).
But, having now seen it, I can say that The Last Jedi was far more than satisfying. It was magnificent.
The great thing about The Last Jedi is that Rian Johnson takes whatever preconceptions the viewer has and flips them right over. Just when you think a character or a scene is going to go the way you predicted, Johnson does a sharp turn in another direction, which makes it even better than you had originally thought. A perfect example of this is when Rey hands Luke the light saber (in a resolution to a scene that we’ve been waiting to see for over two years) Luke merely tosses it over his shoulder without a second thought, making this the first moment of The last Jedi that made me laugh out loud.
The other times I laughed was nearly every scene that had a Porg in it. These odd little birds that nest all over the Millennium Falcon manage to be cute and endearing without drawing the kind of psychotic rage that the Ewoks, or Jar Jar Binks, evoked. And just for managing to pull that feat off, Johnson deserves kudos.
But there’s far more here than Porgs. Picking up right after The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi sees the Resistance fleeing for its life with the evil First Order in hot pursuit. Denied the safety reflex of losing their enemies by sailing off into hyperspace, the Resistance fleet is constantly being hounded and picked off by the vastly larger and superior First Order fleet, who can easily track them wherever they go. (It was bittersweet watching the late, great Carrie Fisher playing Leia for the last time in these scenes.)
And what sets The last Jedi apart is that Johnson is not afraid to show us a darker, bleaker Star Wars universe--one that’s not strictly black and white--in which not everything goes as planned for our heroes, who are proven to be not always infallible. This is another great example of throwing the audience’s expectations to one side, and because of this, the stakes are much higher, and the suspense is even greater.
But the moment that truly shocked me in a pleasant way was the scene in Snoke’s throne room, where a captured Rey (Daisy Ridley, who’s fantastic here) is brought before Snoke (Andy Serkis) by Kylo Renn (the always marvelous Adam Driver). The fact that they take down Snoke was shocking enough, but the battle that followed, with Rey and Kylo teaming up against the throne room guards, was enthralling to watch. Even after revealing a stunning plot twist, Johnson still manages to keep the suspense going in the best way possible. And setting up Kylo as the new leader of the First Order creates many interesting possibilities down the road.
Even at the climax--which initially looks like it’s going to be a remake of the battle scene on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back--Johnson once again pulls the rug out from under our expectations, giving us a genuinely thrilling confrontation between both sides that could well serve as the finale to the entire Star Wars film saga. In spite of a darker tone and main characters with feet of clay, The Last Jedi soars very highly as one of the best films in the saga that still manages to present a great message: never lose hope. The Disney Overlords have given Rian Johnson free reign to create his own Star Wars trilogy, which I thought was a damn smart move. More Star Wars is always a good thing, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Johnson’s take on it. --SF
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