The Last Jedi: These are not the tropes you’re looking for
Yes, the were gorgeous visuals and some good character development. But the thing I loved the most about The Last Jedi is how it flew spaceships — in some cases quite literally — through so many stereotypes and movie tropes.
Sure, there will be spoilers. But the movie came out over a month ago, what have you been waiting for?
Let’s begin with the visuals, because I really think they were fantastic. My favorite scenes: Rey and Kylo Ren fighting against Snoke’s Guards in the Supreme Leader’s red throne room, and then the speeders leaving red trails on white background during the battle of Crait (pictured in the lower half of the cover image above). Lots of bright red indeed made some eye candy which I thoroughly enjoyed.
On the characters, I finally got to understand Kylo Ren. During Force Awakens I thought of him as a lame excuse for “the new Vader”, his personality wasn’t neither commanding nor fearsome. But now I get it. After seeing the tensions between him, Rey and Luke— their struggles between the light and the darkness— it made them all three feel a lot more like real people.
The thing I loved the most, however, was the relentless takedown by the movie of so many common stereotypes.
Take the character of Poe, the cocky and impulsive hero. He (because it’s usually a he) is eager to take down the bad guys, even against the orders of his own superiors because, obviously, he knows better. You’ve seen him in lots of action movies, eventually saving the day and gaining the recognition that all along he rightfully deserved.
In the Last Jedi, however, his actions are exposed for what they are: reckless and not completely thought out. Poe is still a good guy, he has good intentions and “his heart is in the right place”. Both General Leia Organa and Vice Admiral Holdo recognize the leadership potential in him, but he’s not there yet. And that’s a story worth telling too.
Rey herself also breaks another long held myth in the history of story-telling. She is not “the one” destined from birth and by lineage to become the savior. The unglamorous but startling revelation that her parents are in fact “nobody” makes her — unlike, say, Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker (or, well, even Jesus Christ) — the owner of her own destiny. This is a story we so much need to hear.
Another trope I’m cheerfully glad they subverted was, when Rey and Kylo Ren fought together, having at some point one of them (usually the woman) getting into trouble and needing to be rescued by the other (usually the man). In this case it was Kylo Ren who found himself restrained by one of the guards. But Rey didn’t just run off to save him. Instead she helped him to get hold of a lightsaber, thus allowing him to save himself. How’s that for treating each other as capable equals?
Now, I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the arc with Rose and Finn. How the script sent them off to a “pointless” mission which, after going through so many loops and hoops, failed and led nowhere. And every time I read that word my reaction is: “It’s not pointless, that was the point!!” Didn’t you hear Yoda’s teaching? — The greatest teacher, failure is.
In part thanks to Hollywood we’ve gotten to believe that, no matter how unlikely the chances are, if your intentions are good then you should always succeed (or you didn’t try hard enough!). I’ve longed for a movie brave enough to pull this off: make the heroes go through the journey, make them put the effort in, really try hard, make them reach the goal and, right in the last minute, make them fail. Because, you know what, that fucking happens.
The thought that I got to see this, not in some independent film but an installment from one of the most commercially successful movie franchises, is mind blowing.
Then we have DJ following the trope — just like Lando or even Han Solo — of that selfish and self-centered character who, deep inside, actually has an altruistic “heart of gold”. Except that, well, he doesn’t. DJ really is just that cynic and amoral; he was quick to sell out Rose and Finn when that became convenient to him. He also drops the most thought provoking piece of moral philosophy in the film by pointing out how both the “good” and the “bad” sides of the conflict help to enrich unscrupulous arms dealers who, in turn, keep fueling the war.
There is also the overused “heroic sacrifice” where a character decides to give up their life to save the day, often by kamikaze-style crashing into something. You’ve seen it in Independence Day, in Armageddon, in Guardians of the Galaxy, in Mad Max: Fury Road, in Spider-Man 2 and 3, and then again in Independence Day: Resurgence. In the Last Jedi it’s Finn who, in a hot-blooded move, decides to sacrifice himself by crashing his speeder into the First Order’s battering ram cannon. But not this time, Rose saves us from being inflicted by this trope again literally flying her own speeder though it.
You could argue that both Vice-Admiral Holdo and Luke Skywalker did each play the “heroic sacrifice” trope. And you would be right. But, unlike Finn’s, both of their decisions were a lot more calculated, not rushed, and at least to me neither did feel as clichéd. Also slicing the Raddus through the Supremacy at light speed — and the ensuing 10 seconds of full silence — looked absolutely stunning, so worthy use of the trope in my books.
Finally, one last thing I really loved about the movie was its diverse and inclusive cast, front-lined by Kelly Marie Tran (Rose), John Boyega (Finn), Daisy Ridley (Rey) and Oscar Isaac (Poe). Particularly on gender balance I was happy to see women everywhere: in leadership positions, as rank and file pilots and fighters, amongst the “good” and the “bad” sides, both as protagonists and random people walking in the background.
Although not fully there yet — only 25% of the cast and 40% of character’s screen time were female — the Last Jedi crushes another stereotype about the kinds of films that audiences want to see by being both the most gender balanced Star Wars movie in history and the highest grossing film of 2017.
I know that not everybody shared my love for this movie. Although generally enjoyed by movie goers at large, a vocal fraction of fans have been loudly ranting on how much they hated it. After reading many of their comments and opinions, however, I came to one conclusion: If you didn’t like this movie, I’m actually kind of glad that you didn’t.
Because people tend to hate it for the same reasons I loved it: the breaking of so many preconceived expectations. Assumptions people used to make on how the world is supposed to look and to function (both in and out of the theater) are no longer holding true. Maybe it’s time to start revising yours.
Feminist score: 😁
