Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Dir: Rian Johnson

2017

***

I was disappointed with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and lost interest in the franchise. I reassessed everything, after being an obsessive my whole life. It probably wasn’t as bad as all that but anticipation is a funny thing. I never in a million years thought Luke, Leia and Han would ever return, I thought Return of the Jedi was the end and even though I always wanted more, deep down I knew that those much-loved characters were probably best left dancing with the Ewoks at the never-ending treehouse party on Endor. The prequels were authentic only in that they were created by George Lucas. I watched them, I didn’t hate them but they felt far far away from the galaxy far far away that I had fallen in love with as a child. They did however end rather well, leading up to a New Hope nicely. I was happy to call it a day from there really but thrilled when The Force Awakens was announced. The thing that got me was that, after many years of saying he categorically would never ever return, Harrison Ford signed on. Brilliant I thought, until The Force Awakens came out and it was clear Ford still had no enthusiasm for the franchise and left as quickly as he had returned. I didn’t want to watch a Star Wars film without Han Solo, so I had no real interest in the series from then on. However, 2016’s Rouge One blew me away. It was both new and authentic and it seemed that franchise still had life in it. I suddenly had no expectations and went into The Last Jedi with as open a mind as I could possibly have. Both Looper and Brick were overrated films but Rian Johnson is a good director and a brilliant writer. I still think he was an odd choice for episode eight but he brought a lot of good to the table. He also brought strange, questionable and down-right awful for dessert. There are things about The Last Jedi that I loved. I loved that Johnson went out to undo all of what I disliked about The Force Awakens. He took pretty much ever character in a different direction than where they were headed and turned the franchises formula on its head. He had to, The Force Awakens was a copy of A New Hope and everyone knew it. However, in taking the characters in a new direction he also made a few of them utterly redundant and added new ones that the film/franchise really didn’t need. The first 40 minutes of The Last Jedi are seriously boring. I didn’t connect with it and had very little interest. My popcorn was left uneaten. Then something happened. Something unexpected, and while I’m not sure that it was a very Star Wars thing that happened, unexpected is good. This certain something involved Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia. The film went fantasy where it should have stayed sci-fi, I don’t think it worked at all and yet I think I loved it anyway. Maybe because they did something interesting with Leia, unlike The Force Awakens. It is more than likely that I liked this scene because it was Carrie Fisher’s last film and it felt like an awesome tribute – even though it was obviously made before she died. I still don’t know what to make of it but it certainly reeled me back into the film. Rian Johnson was suddenly calling out the shots and doing things his way and I respected that. He wrote certain scenes that were so ‘Star Wars’ that I was left wondering why we had waited until the tenth Star Wars film to see them. Before anyone corrects me, this is the tenth Star Wars film as I always include Star Wars Holiday Special. I don’t count the Ewok films though, I’m not completely insane. I digress. Rian Johnson was definitely on to something with his script, the only problem (and it is quite a big problem) is that it often felt like he was writing it as he was filming it. It felt incredibly disjointed at times, like the finished film wasn’t at all what it was initially meant to be. I have seen interviews with the cast since its release and they haven’t convinced me that they liked it either, which doesn’t surprise me. So much of The Force Awakens is wiped away, you have to wonder where on earth this trilogy is going and if they actually know themselves. Why, after seeing so many franchises fail, would you start a trilogy of films without knowing how it is going to end? Carrie Fisher died after this film was completed, so that cannot be an excuse. The Last Jedi doesn’t feel like part of the series, which could be a good or a bad thing. Rouge One wasn’t part of the series and was a good thing, I can’t help but feel The Last Jedi is somewhat of a disturbance in the force. Lucky a certain character tells us half way through the film not to worry about it, a character I generally agree with, so worry about it I did not. It’s a shame Leia, Luke and Han never saw each other again as a threesome but I’m over it. It is time to put nostalgia to one side as it was stifling the future. The future of Star Wars doesn’t feature Leia or Han, which is a hard pill to swallow, but the newer characters have enough in them to keep me interested, they just need to get rid of some of the more cartoonish characters and understand where humour fits into the franchise. Rian Johnson’s comedic input left a lot to be desired, Disney need to know that the MCU humour works in the MCU only and not in Star Wars, which has its own establish sense of humour. I hated the frog people, I hated the very ‘prequel’ styled casino scene, I hated the poor attempts at humour, I thought the newer characters were forgotten, the continuity was some of the worst I have ever seen and the editing is shocking. This is also not the Luke or Leia I know and love but, well done for doing something completely different, it needed to happen, plus the hyper-speed scene, the Leia scene and the 'oh my god I'm seven years old again' scene were ace. However, maybe now we can put all the negativity behind us and make a great Star Wars film? Shame it had to wait until the third film in the trilogy but better late than never (fingers crossed). The Last Jedi scrapped the barrel but pulled it back in the end but the franchise is on its last warning for sure. Admiral Ackbar and Nien Nunb deserved better but for now, life goes on.