The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
A bit out of balance
New ‘Star Wars’ trilogy’s middle chapter, ‘The Last Jedi’ is thrilling and funny — and chock full of moments for fans — but it’s also long and clunky
The Force is … medium-strong with this one. ¶ You find yourself waiting — fairly deep into the two-anda-half-hour running time of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” — for this second film in the “Star Wars” “sequel trilogy” to grab you by Force-chokehold and never let go. ¶ After all, this movie continues the story started in the very well-received and quite-exciting “The Force Awakens” in 2015. ¶ After all, this movie is written and directed by the very talented Rian Johnson. ¶ And after all, this movie would finally deliver a big slice of Luke Skywalker, played, as he was in 1977’s “Star Wars” and its two sequels, by Mark Hamill. (As you know unless you’ve absolutely avoided this Disney-powered relaunch of the “Star Wars” franchise, the master Jedi appeared only in the tantalizing final seconds of “The Force Awakens” and said not one word.) ¶ “The Last Jedi” does grab you, increasingly tight as it soars toward its conclusion, but never quite as tightly as you’d hope. It’s just too long and just a bit clunky to be considered an all-out thrill ride.
That said, it is thrilling at times. And funny. And dramatic. And very “Star Wars.” The Disney folks, as they have with “The Force Awakens” and last year’s solid stand-alone prequel film, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” want reviewers to give away scant details about what viewers will encounter in “The Last Jedi.”
But know this: Luke is anything but thrilled that this mysterious girl, Rey (Daisy Ridley), has arrived on his peaceful island of solitude and revealed she possesses his old lightsaber.
She wants to be trained as a Jedi and to pull him back into the fight against evil, now represented by The First Order. He, on the other hand, wants to be left alone. (Hey, as he points out to her early on, if he’d wanted to be part of some galactic adventure, would he have run away to some almost-off-the-map planet?)
Meanwhile, the rebellious Resistance has its hands full with The First Order, the latter pursuing and outnumbering the former.
If that weren’t enough, conflict boils inside the Resistance, with ace X-Wing pilot Commander Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) clashing with the big boss woman, General Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher), and later with another higher-up portrayed by Laura Dern, a newcomer to the saga.
And what of Stormtrooper-turned-hero Finn (John Boyega), whom we last saw unconscious after his lightsaber fight with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)? He awakens, of course, and wonders where Rey is before being paired up with another new character, a Resistance mechanic named Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), for an adventure that may prove vital to the survival of the increasingly small fighting force.
Viewers also meet a new character portrayed by Benicio Del Toro, at, of all places, a casino — where Johnson pays off a nice gag with stilladorable ball droid BB-8.
However, as should be obvious from the preview footage, “The Last Jedi” focuses on two dynamics: Rey and Luke; and Rey and Kylo — the former Ben Solo, son of Leia and Harrison Ford’s murdered-by-his-offspring Han Solo.
On Ahch-To, home of Luke’s island home, the master Jedi will give into Rey’s desire to be trained. He does so despite great reservation due to her obviously great power, the same kind of power he encountered when training Ben.
As for Rey and Kylo, they represent two sides of the same Force-powerful coin — and are linked to the point where they can speak to each other across the stars. This will lead — and, again, it’s obvious from the previews — to a potentially deadly meeting between Rey and Kylo’s master, First Order Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis, returning in another motion-captured performance).
Johnson, who deserves all the credit he gets for work that includes “The Brothers Bloom” (2008) and “Looper” (2012), brings a lot of filmmaking talent to the “Star Wars” franchise. “The Last Jedi” is chock full of nice little touches from Johnson, especially small-butrewarding character moments.
And it should not go unnoticed that this feels like its own movie. While “The Force Awakens” appropriately gets slammed for being a new version of the aforementioned 1977 film, this is no rehash of 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back,” the second film in the original trilogy. That said, there are parallels, from the early First Order attack of a Resistance base in mid-evacuation to an attempt to lure Rey to the dark side of the Force, which even includes an offer of co-galaxy ruling.
Johnson, though, isn’t afraid to defy a few expectations. He’s willing to break a few galactic eggs along the way to making this space omelet, which is commendable.
On the other hand, you can pick at some of Johnson’s story choices, which we won’t go into in the interests of not spoiling. But it’s hard to say he made the best use of one character in particular.
“The Last Jedi” also suffers from the loss of Han, Ford being such a delightful presence in “The Force Awakens.” Hamill is borderline-terrific in spots and gives a good performance throughout the film, but his character — at this point in the Skywalker family saga, anyway — offers far fewer fun moments. There certainly are some, however.
Ridley is, again, fantastic. It’s so easy to root for Rey, and you will fear what will become of the heroine as the dark side pulls at her.
And Driver is better here than he was the first go-round, Kylo being put through the emotional wringer by his mentor, Snoke, early on and making certain choices because of it. Ultimately, though, Johnson asks a bit too much of his actor late in the film.
And, just perhaps, the auteur asks a bit too much of his audience. “The Last Jedi,” as “Star Wars” movies tend to do, jumps from place to place to place and among several groups of characters. That we never spend that long experiencing any one thing hurts the film’s flow.
Whereas “The Force Awakens” felt a little too fast, “The Last Jedi” stays around a little too long.
There are twists and turns, to be sure. Is there an “Empire”-like bombshell? We’re not saying. Know that at least one question that has preoccupied those with their minds stuck in a galaxy far, far away will be answered.
But will you like that answer?
Disney will close out this trilogy in 2019 with a yetto-be-titled ninth episode in the saga. After the events of “The Last Jedi,” aka “Episode VIII,” it’s a little harder to see what that will entail.
That’s Johnson’s greatest ‘Jedi’ mind trick.
“The Last Jedi” also suffers from the loss of Han, Harrison Ford being such a delightful presence in “The Force Awakens.”