Critiquing The Last Jedi
Separating the problems from the nitpicks
Spoilers Ahead
Look, I know we’re all taking this movie discussion thing a bit too seriously, especially when it comes to Star Wars.
Our expectations are blown way out of proportion from what they should be, but also require Star Wars to fit into that narrow box of what we remember as “real Star Wars”.
That brings me to the criticism and praise getting thrown around for The Last Jedi over the past month. It feels like some folks are misunderstanding why The Last Jedi felt “off” to so many of us. Those who loved the movie top to bottom — first of all, I’m jealous — don’t seem to understand exactly why people in my boat didn’t entirely click with it.
For me, The Last Jedi was not a bad film by any means. It has some of my favorite scenes of the entire series, such as Luke’s finale. The visuals are incredible on both the island and Crait. Whenever I was watching the relationship between Kylo, Rey, Snoke, and Luke unfold, I was gripped. The Resistance plotline containing Finn, Poe, and the rest of the characters, though…just didn’t do much for me.
It wasn’t a train wreck; I didn’t get hung up on Superman Leia or the “retroactive plot hole” of using a hyperspace jump as a missile. But there are complaints one can have with movies that go beyond moments and come down to the execution of the basic ideas of the script. To me, it boils down to three major pieces.
1. Poe, Holdo, and Forced Drama
Holdo comes out of nowhere, but is supposed to be one of the top leaders of the Resistance and close friends with Leia. So, yeah, the audience is manipulated into not trusting her and siding with Poe. As we now know, it’s a trick by the movie, and we find out by the end that Holdo had everyone’s survival in mind. But it felt like just that, a trick. She didn’t make an impression as an actual character. She existed solely as a plot device to show Poe’s failure due to hotheadedness, which left her sacrifice feeling hollow.
2. Finn, Rose, and Hammering Home the Message
Unlike what many say, Finn and Rose’s adventure was not a waste due to nothing being accomplished. I didn’t think Canto Bight “didn’t feel like Star Wars” or single-handedly ruined the movie’s pacing. The film, however, treated Rose’s character as essentially perfect. And when the movie wants us to get behind her sentiments and actions, I often ended up rolling my eyes. If we walk through her actions in order, she:
- loses her sister right away, and is preventing Resistance fighters from fleeing the Rattus. She is both sympathetic and devoted.
- shows Finn how corrupt the whole operation behind Canto Bight is, helps the slave children, and frees the fathiers. She desires to helps others above all, always does the right thing, and shows Finn how to properly view the world.
- is willing to give DJ her necklace, and saves Finn from sacrificing himself for the Resistance base. Her line in this moment sums up my feelings on their entire arc: “We won’t win this war by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love”. Groan.
This last moment baffled me more than anything. Even ignoring how her ship managed to-catch-up-to-his-which-was-further-ahead-and-at max-speed-to-knock-it-out-of-the-way-but-there-I-go-nitpicking the whole concept still falls flat. Finn was attempting to save what he loves. He found a new family with the Resistance, and without knowing that Luke was about to show up, he saw no other path to saving the remaining rebels.
Also, I’m pretty sure fighting the First Order and defeating them is how all these Star Wars movies go. The movie attempts multiple times to convince the audience of this message: that we have to save each other with love to create a better tomorrow. Here it stumbles because of underwhelming character developments relying on ham-fisted plotlines.
3. Really, we’re doing Empire versus scrappy band of Rebels again?
My final, more overarching complaint with The Last Jedi was just how pointless it all feels. After the triumph of the Rebellion in the original trilogy, they founded a republic that decided to immediately disband most of their military presence, and did not check to see if the Imperial remnants were rearming and perhaps building a bullshit superweapon that can blow up multiple planets from anywhere in the galaxy.
So now we’re back to the First Order controlling everything, from the looks of it, and the Resistance members are literally referred to as “rebels” once again. Unlike the original trilogy, though, the First Order characters aren’t imposing. They don’t feel like a legitimate threat, subjugating the galaxy the way Vader and the Empire did. Kylo, while an interesting character, is still a brat who keeps losing. Hux is his Starscream, and Snoke is…well…
I cannot be betrayed! I cannot be beaten!
The state of the galaxy doesn’t drive any of the drama; compare that to a galaxy torn apart by the Clone Wars, or a Rebellion desperately fighting to save the galaxy from the clutches of a despotic Empire. Here, we see nothing of the impact the Empire, its aftermath, or a new Republic had on the galaxy. We barely even see races from the previous six films. The world of Star Wars in these sequel movies appears frustratingly narrow, and after the sense of scale and wonder the prior movies continually formed, these new ones feel unnecessarily held back in an attempt to channel the classic trilogy.
All of these elements combined to make me view those plotlines as superfluous and boring. The world of Star Wars doesn’t feel new and exciting, but rather tired and stagnant. I know that Rian and other Lucasfilm collaborators have plenty of ideas that could take the Star Wars franchise in compelling directions. But this movie didn’t deliver on that in all the ways I’d have wanted.
…But I still think I liked it overall?
With that said, I thought that Rian’s treatment of the Force, especially the scenes with Luke, Yoda, and Rey, were all handled smartly and did expand the mythology of the Force in a unique, fresh way. Contrast those scenes with the tired Empire-versus-Rebels story, and you can see why I kept begging the film to cut back to the island in its first half.
I’m glad that The Last Jedi could take chances, push the Force and its users in unexpected directions, and take risks on ideas from a single writer/director. It didn’t play out as well as I’d hoped, but that’s okay! I’m not angry, I don’t want Episode VIII wiped from canon or anything. But criticizing people’s nitpicks misses the point I and others are trying to get at: the movie didn’t fully work, and I don’t want to see Empire versus Rebels anymore.
Last month, I wrote a blog post wishing Lucasfilm to take chances and push their creative boundaries to make Star Wars exciting again. I think The Last Jedi was a good first step in some regards, and I hope that they keep at it. Like they did with the Marvel films, I think Disney will find their groove with this property too. But please, don’t take Marvel’s jokes next time.
