4-STAR WARS
'Jedi' a Force to be reckoned with
I F 2015’s “The Force Awakens” was a righting of wrongs, burying the memory of those dreadful prequel films, then “The Last Jedi” is the new “Star Wars” trilogy fully coming into its own.
Director Rian Johnson (“Looper”) has fashioned a grand and heartfelt epic with something for everyone, whether you’re here for the new heroes, such as Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega), or the old ones (welcome back, Mark Hamill!), or just for the X-wing dogfights; whether you’re in need of some rousing inspiration, or longing for one last visit with Carrie Fisher, the series’ beloved Princess Leia, who died last year.
What’s more, Johnson has done this all with a middle film, the heaviest lift in any trilogy. While there are elements nodding to “The Empire Strikes Back” — the second and best of the original three — “The Last Jedi” is no copycat. In its most daring moments, it even tweaks a few series tropes, updating them with a decidedly populist kick.
As in “Empire,” there’s a large swath of plot devoted to the meeting of a reclusive Jedi master and an aspiring student. Luke Skywalker (Hamill) has become the cranky hermit, Rey his cocky supplicant.
Hamill, often written off as a weak link in the old series, gives a wonderfully melancholy performance: weary, haunted and unwilling to accept the mantle of “legend” that Rey wants to bestow on him.
The tiny green island he calls home is almost a character all its own, populated with a range of alien creatures. Chief among them are porgs, huge-eyed and oftoutraged shore birds that make a good argument for the strategic use of top-notch special effects. They are — sorry, “Return of the Jedi” loyalists — the anti-Ewoks, in a good way.
Petulant First Order leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), wearing the facial scars of his “Force Awakens” duel with Rey, continues his quest for domination via the Force, with the occasional temper tantrum. Driver and Domhnall Gleeson, as General Hux, his second-in-command, are a perfectly pitched terrible two, genuinely scary (Driver’s glare does seem as if it could move inanimate objects) and amusingly inept.
Kylo and Rey unwittingly connect again and again, moving toward an unavoidable confrontation spurred by the Voldemortlike Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). Watching these two face off is a thrill, one about which I can say no more.
A fundamental problem plagues all “Star Wars” movies, which is that the overarching story is one of scrappy rebels being endlessly chased around the galaxy by bad guys with more funds and better tech.
Johnson can’t escape this repetitive cycle: The Resistance mounts an attack, the First Order fires back, Resistance retreats, First Order rubs its hands together evilly and plots its next, bigger response. Thankfully, the cast is so likable and the action so well-shot, you don’t mind too much. Pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), aided by his droid pal BB-8, hatches one daring, harebrained scheme after another, only to be smacked down by an evolving rebel matriarchy. Alongside Fisher’s General Leia, Laura Dern is resplendent in violet hair as the steel-nerved Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo.
Former stormtrooper Finn, meanwhile, is on a code-breaking mission that teams him with rebel engineer Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) on a trip to “a terrible place, filled with the worst people in the galaxy.” This is a long-running galactic dive bar joke (recall Mos Eisley of “A New Hope”), but the twist here is that it’s a gilded casino packed with high-rolling weapons dealers.
Finn and Rose’s wild chase through a glittering ballroom on the backs of liberated racing beasts points to Johnson’s class-conscious take on the rebel cause. They also intersect with a shifty codebreaker (Benicio del Toro, too briefly) and, apparently, Princes William and Harry in stormtrooper cameos.
It’s a lot of story for even 150 minutes, which never felt long to me. The details are exquisite. A battle in a desert layered with crimson-colored salt is a visually arresting (and PG-13) nod to the bloody reality of warfare; countless emotional reunions and reveals had me reaching for the Kleenex.
Sure, it’s just a space Western, but “Star Wars” is one of our most popular modern mythologies. Johnson respects that. He’s infused the storyline with new energy and artistry, and I can’t wait to see it again.