STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI
Eighth Wonder
Analysis, criticism, evaluation… A Jedi craves not these things. But we’re doing it anyway.
released OUT NOW! 12a | 152 minutes Director rian Johnson Cast Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, adam driver, daisy ridley, John Boyega
There’s a line from one of The Last Jedi’s trailers where Luke Skywalker assures someone, “This is not going to go the way you think!” Little did we know he was talking about the movie itself as much as giving a warning to another character.
Because whatever you were expecting from Episode VIII, chances are that writer/director Rian Johnson’s film is not it. While unmistakably part of the Star Wars universe, it also goes to places the franchise has never been before, a movie that delights in subverting your preconceptions about that galaxy far, far away, and then spinning them off in entirely new directions. In purely storytelling terms this is the freshest and most exhilarating Star Wars has felt since The Empire Strikes Back – in fact, The Last Jedi may be even more adventurous than the film that still defines how to make the filling in a space opera sandwich.
While The Force Awakens was effectively a retread of A New Hope, The Last Jedi doesn’t try to echo the beats of The Empire Strikes Back, aside from the fact that it doesn’t need to worry too much about beginnings and ends. Sure, there are nods to Episode V – the ground assault on Crait looks rather like the Battle of Hoth; Rey has a vision in a cave – but there are just as many elements lovingly plucked from other movies in the franchise. (When the Millennium Falcon flies into the middle of a planet that’s strangely reminiscent of the Death Star II’s innards, even John Williams’s score is a direct lift from Return Of The Jedi.)
Whereas years (and even the odd decade) have traditionally passed between Episodes, The Last Jedi picks up exactly where its predecessor left off. That means Rey is busy handing a lightsaber over to Luke Skywalker on Ahch-To, and more pressingly, the Resistance is on the run from the First Order, who’ve tracked down their secret base on D’Qar.
While the pre-release buzz focused primarily on Luke and Rey’s Force-play on a remote island, it’s actually the Resistance’s plight that provides the narrative thrust for the movie. Thought the Rebels had it tough after doing a runner from Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back? That was a cakewalk compared to what faces Leia, Poe Dameron and co, who – with just a few hundred survivors and a tiny fleet of ships – must evade the might of the First Order navy, without the crutch of the (now obliterated) Republic to fall back on. The relentless pursuit is as much Battlestar Galactica as Star Wars, as the remaining Resistors contend with dwindling resources (rarely a problem in the “magic” Star Wars universe), chinks in the chain of command, and the deaths of key figures in the Resistance.
Meanwhile, the Jedi Knight Rey finds on Ahch-To is not the saviour of the galaxy she expected to meet. If Han Solo in The Force Awakens was essentially a more grizzled, grumpier version of the original space pirate, this Luke Skywalker is a total about-turn, a man utterly
Luke is reduced to a bitter husk of a man
broken by what’s happened in the decades since he brought his dad back from the Dark Side. It’s incredibly brave storytelling from Johnson, reducing one of cinema’s greatest wide-eyed heroes into a bitter husk of a man who has no interest in living up to the legend. However, it’s a choice that pays off spectacularly, as you’re constantly trying to guess if he’s still good, gone bad, or simply indifferent.
It’s unusually textured, ambiguous territory for Star Wars, where we’re used to our heroes/ villains having utter conviction in their actions being the right/ wrong thing to do. In this greyer take on Force politics, even Luke Skywalker, venerable veteran of the Jedi Order, is conflicted – it’s an elegant exploration of that old Star Wars mantra that the truths we believe in tend to depend on a certain point of view.
Indeed, one of the most satisfying things about the more fractured universe of The Last Jedi is that you never know what anyone will do next. Nominal protagonist and antagonist Rey and Kylo Ren, for example, are like a yin and yang of the Force, completely in balance, their fates surprisingly intertwined. Yet when they make decisions, they never feel absolute, with redemptions and falls from grace seemingly just around the corner.
Even with the fate of the galaxy at stake (and never has the threat level felt greater), The Last Jedi never loses sight of the fact that it’s about the people at the centre of the conflict. Star Wars has been character-driven before, but it’s arguably never been more comfortable telling the stories of the people involved. As a result, the main pyrotechnics are not the visuals or the set-pieces – while The Last Jedi looks glorious and is packed with punch-the-air moments, it’s arguably less spectacular than The Force Awakens or Rogue One – but the interplay between its brilliant cast.
That’s despite having more lead roles than previous Star Wars
movie. Remarkably, Johnson finds solid storylines for most of them – a mission to casino planet Canto Bight for some; a journey inside the soul for others – and notably, shares out a lot of really funny lines to put this up among the most quotable movies in the franchise. Even the Porgs, the puffin-like species who’ve become a merchandising phenomenon, are used sparingly and to impressively comic effect.
With Poe, Kylo Ren, General Hux and Finn among the standouts in a strong returning ensemble, it’s only really Maz Kanata and Captain Phasma who feel underused – by the time the latter makes a belated appearance, you’re likely to have forgotten she’s in the movie. Of the newcomers, meanwhile, Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico is the breakout, the seemingly ordinary Resistance mechanic who becomes a hero, and forms a charming double act with Finn. It’s a shame that neither Laura Dern (as a Resistance admiral) or Benicio del Toro (as the criminal DJ) don’t get a little more to do.
The Last Jedi isn’t quite the universe-shattering classic it sometimes threatens to be – with so much of it set on spaceships we get to see precious little of the brave new worlds that makes Star Wars at its best so memorable; the final act goes on too long, as if Johnson had just too many ideas to cram in; and one character’s too-close-encounter with outer space dallies so closely with implausibility it threatens to destabilise everything around it.
But for ambition, character development and invention, The Last Jedi is close to flawless. It shows the Force being used as it’s never been used before, has political themes that feel more relevant than ever (totalitarian regimes are old hat in Star Wars, but human and animal rights are now in the mix as well), and there’s not even a hint of a moon-sized superweapon. (If only they’d resisted the urge to visit a desert planet, albeit one with spectacular plumes of red dust.)
Despite spending much of its run time erring towards the dark side, The Last Jedi never loses sight of a sense of hope, that a corner could be turned at any time, and its conclusion (which could arguably be a satisfying end to the saga in itself ) leaves the Star Wars galaxy in a state of flux unlike any we’ve seen before on the big screen – forcing JJ Abrams’s Episode IX into what has to be new territory.
If The Force Awakens was the Star Wars movie we needed – a retread of past glories that showed Lucasfilm still knows how to do Star Wars in the 21st century – The Last Jedi is the Star Wars film we wanted. A brave, original and fun trip to that galaxy far, far away. Richard Edwards
Edgar Wright and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards both have cameos as members of the Resistance.