Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – This Is Not The Film You’re Looking For

Star Wars: The Force Awakens kicked off the Sequel Trilogy and many proclaimed the movie has returned Star Wars back to form. Though the plot of the movie is literally the same as A New Hope, The Force Awakens invoked mysticism of the characters and plot elements and raised numerous unanswered questions that would hopefully be answered in the next installment. Star Wars: The Last Jedi follows directly after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and though the film attempts to hurl the Star Wars franchise into newer territory, the Last Jedi is a visually stunning spectacle that managed to undermine everything established in The Force Awakens and does great deal of disservice to our legacy characters.

Rey – Overpowered?

One of the biggest gripes I had with The Force Awakens was that Rey was insanely good at just about everything. She beat Kylo Ren, an experienced Force user, with no Force/lightsaber training, performed a Jedi mind trick with ease, flew the Millennium Falcon with little trouble, and managed to stop Kylo Ren from probing her mind. We were introduced to the mystery of Rey’s parents and her strength with the Force, neither of which are addressed in The Last Jedi. A relatively short passage of time occurs between films and Rey is even more overpowered than ever, receiving absolutely no training from Luke and she bests him (a Jedi Master!) in combat with no explanation as to how she is so strong with the Force. Luke in the Original Trilogy started off as a farm boy who has no knowledge of the Force until Obi-Wan teaches him about it. He received training by Yoda and failed miserably at combating Darth Vader, losing a hand and his lightsaber in the process. By the time of Return of the Jedi, Luke is established as being an experienced Force user who constructed a new lightsaber and is able to perform Jedi mind tricks. Rey, on the other hand, shows no signs of struggle and easily manages to lift boulders by the end of the film (Luke struggled to even concentrate and lift a small amount of rocks when training with Yoda). The film offers no attempt to address Rey’s Force strength and we’re left with having to accept she’s strong for no reason. Had there been a much longer passage of time between films, then it would be a bit more acceptable. However, her unanswered strength in the Force further solidifies the fact that she is overpowered. Rian Johnson has set her overpowered nature in stone and doesn’t leave much room for her character to grow and develop in Episode IX. All that we can expect for Episode IX is another showdown between Kylo Ren and Rey and it’s obvious that Rey will win.

Finn & Rose – The Canto Bight Tales

Finn was established in The Force Awakens as a former First Order Stormtrooper that became disillusioned with the First Order and decides to flee, getting as far away from the First Order as possible. Finn decides to stop running away when Rey gets captured by Kylo Ren, overcoming his fears and decides to take charge in rescuing her. He even directly battles Kylo Ren at the end, though he is easily defeated and severely injured. His character (and his arc) is tossed aside in The Last Jedi, delegated to being just a side character of no importance to the film’s plot. Finn is paired up with Rose (who’s just as bad as Jar Jar Binks) and go on a mission to Canto Bight to look for a master codebreaker to disable the First Order’s hyperspace tracker. The Canto Bight segment is easily the worst portion of the film that drives the pacing to a screeching halt, offers nothing of importance to the overall plot and results in no actual payoff. Finn and Rose conveniently find a hacker (DJ) when jailed for a parking ticket and manage to escape, freeing numerous abused horse-like animals in the process but leaving the slave children behind. When on board Snoke’s flagship, they are caught by the First Order and DJ reveals he tipped the First Order to save his own skin and for a monetary reward (So unexpected!). Finn battles with Captain Phasma, who is quickly discarded and they steal a transport to Crait. During the Battle of Crait, Finn is given a tremendous moment to shine as a hero when he decides to sacrifice himself by flying the vessel directly into the Death Star-like battering ram, but is pushed out of the way by Rose who delivers a cringe-worthy line of “saving what we love.” This moment will forever solidify Rose as the worst Star Wars character and steals Finn’s moment of glory. His sacrifice would have given Finn a solid character arc from a cowardly First Order deserter to being a heroic figure who gave his life to save others. Rose’s idiotic choice could have resulted in the First Order wiping out the Resistance and she will always be remembered as the character that managed to be worse than Jar Jar Binks.

Poe v Holdo – Dawn of the SJW

Poe Dameron is an exceptionally skilled pilot that planned a calculated attack on the First Order Dreadnought and though his plan to destroy the Dreadnought resulted in numerous Resistance casualties, Poe is successful at destroying the Dreadnought, but is immediately demoted by General Organa (Leia) and command is given to Vice Admiral Holdo (Purple Haired SJW). Poe knew the risks of war and deemed it necessary at the moment to destroy the Dreadnought and had he not acted on his gut instinct, the Resistance would have been completely obliterated. Instead, he is treated like he’s a bumbling idiot and Holdo refused to even notify Poe of the plan with the escape pods. It honestly feels as if this film has an SJW/Feminist agenda that strongly attempts to make the male characters (Poe, Hux, Kylo Ren, etc.) as nothing but idiots and elevates the women to a level of superiority. Politics will always have a place in the Star Wars franchise (the Prequels were built upon a politically driven foundation), but not in this shape or form. Even though Poe’s plan of destroying the Dreadnought was successful and allowed for the Resistance to escape, he is seen as unhinged and acting out of line by Holdo, never once acknowledging Poe for his heroic action of practically saving the Resistance. Poe is denied the opportunity of being the heroic figure, but it was perfectly acceptable for Holdo to sacrifice herself by flying the Resistance cruiser through Snoke’s ship. Holdo did nothing memorable to deserve a heroic sacrifice and it’s absolutely disgraceful that Poe’s character is painted as this unhinged, reckless pilot who is made out to be an idiot for his actions. Poe deserved a much better character progression in this film. As for Holdo, she was placed in this film for the sake of having a woman be in charge for no apparent reason other than to drive the fact that the man (Poe) is an “idiot” and the woman (Holdo) is the “superior, intelligent figure.”

Snoke – In The End, It Doesn’t Matter

Supreme Leader Snoke was set up to be the mastermind pulling the strings of the First Order and the next main villain after Palpatine. He is portrayed as a mysterious, disfigured individual who’s strong with the Force and swayed Ben Solo to the Dark Side. In The Last Jedi, he is seen dressed in golden robes in a red throne room and his royal Praetorian Guards protecting him. He displays a tremendous amount of strength in the Force by conjuring Force lighting directly into the ground and sending Kylo Ren flying back and suspending Rey in the air in an intensely painful Force grip. He even was able to merge the minds of Kylo Ren and Rey together across the galaxy using the Force. He was set up to be this figure who’s just as powerful and intimidating as Palpatine. But alas, Snoke is immediately discarded in the film and dies in a very unsatisfying manner. Who he is, where he came from and how he rose to power no longer matter: He’s just an extremely powerful and disfigured individual with no provided background information. Snoke decides it’s smart to place Luke’s lightsaber on the throne’s arm rest and continues to taunt and insult Kylo Ren with Rey on the floor. He orders Kylo Ren to kill Rey and gloats that he knows what Kylo Ren is thinking. However, Kylo Ren slowly moves Luke’s lightsaber towards Snoke with the Force (How Snoke or none of the Praetorian Guards notice is beyond comprehension). He then ignites the lightsaber, which impales Snoke and is then cut in half, the top half of his body tumbling to the floor. His death also puts the numerous fan theories to death. Snoke no longer matters.

Kylo Ren – Still Throwing Tantrums

One of the best aspects of the film is not Luke Skywalker: it’s Kylo Ren. Right off from the start, Kylo Ren is insulted and scolded by Snoke, which causes Kylo Ren to leave the throne room and smash his mask into pieces. Kylo Ren is still shown to struggle with the Dark Side and when the opportunity comes to blow up the command bridge Leia is on, he hesitates and decides against killing his own mother. Kylo Ren seemed to solidify his status as a villain in The Force Awakens when he killed Han Solo and in this film, he questions his own intentions and through his Force communication with Rey, the idea that Kylo Ren could be redeemed is brought into question. It’s a very interesting idea seeing Kylo Ren possibly turning back to the Light Side. The team-up between Rey and Kylo Ren was also another well-done idea that showed Rey realizing that she could possibly bring Kylo Ren back to the Light. Rey decides to see Kylo Ren in an attempt to turn him away from the Dark Side, then it’s revealed that Snoke manipulated the Force between them to lure Rey to him. After Kylo Ren kills Snoke with Luke’s lightsaber, Rey and Kylo Ren team up with each other and take on the Praetorian Guards in one of the greatest combat sequences in all of Star Wars. Kylo Ren is able to easily defeat many of the Praetorian Guards and when it seems that Kylo Ren will turn away from the Dark Side, he asks Rey to join him by his side. Disillusioned by the fact that Kylo Ren just wanted to overthrow Snoke and assume leadership of the First Order, Rey and Kylo Ren engage in battle and destroy Luke’s lightsaber in the process. The idea of establishing Kylo Ren as the main villain of the Sequel Trilogy is quite intriguing and allows for more room to develop Kylo Ren into the ultimate villain, though it came at the cost of killing off Snoke. Overall, Kylo Ren is a very solid character with a more defined vision of being the leader of the First Order.

Leia Organa-Skywalker – I’m Mary Poppins, Y’all!

Sadly, this film marks Carrie Fisher’s final film appearance due to her death in late 2016. It was great to see more Leia in this film, though her role is largely downplayed and does not get a moment to shine like Luke and Han. Leia has been shown in past films to be Force-sensitive, but the way this film portrays her Force abilities is beyond terrible. After the command ship’s bridge is blown up, Leia gets sucked out into the vacuum of space and is assumed to be dead. However, she opens her eyes and is shown to have actually survived. She reaches out her hand and proceeds to literally fly towards the main Resistance cruiser that makes her Mary Poppins in space. We all knew Leia was Force-sensitive, but the way her Force abilities were portrayed was executed horribly. No one talks about or brings up Leia surviving while in space and Leia herself doesn’t even speak about it at all for the remainder of the film. She is hospitalized on the ship and command is then given not to Poe, but to Vice Admiral Purple Hair. Prior to her Mary Poppins moment, Leia berates Poe for his successful plan in destroying the Dreadnought and demotes him on the spot. Why is Leia so upset over Poe’s plan? Poe knew the risks in launching the attack and his plan resulted in the destruction of the Dreadnought and possibly killed thousands of First Order members. Leia and Holdo seemed to just team up on Poe, labeling him an idiot for launching a successful attack. Despite these issues, Leia should have been the one to fly the cruiser directly through Snoke’s flagship, it would have been the honorable way to send off Leia, allowing her to have a truly shining moment. Her Mary Poppins Force moment absolutely defies how the Force works. With the death of Carrie Fisher, her final performance as Leia ends on a quite dim note and she deserved a much better send-off.

Luke Skywalker – This Isn’t The Jedi You’re Looking For

After the cliffhanger of Rey handing Luke his blue lightsaber on Ahch-To, the fan base was eager with joy on what direction the story will go with the reveal of Luke Skywalker. Luke holds his original lightsaber and has a look of mixed emotions, then the unexpected happens: Luke throws the lightsaber over his shoulder and storms off. What should have been an epic moment in Star Wars history was turned into a moment for a cheap laugh. I take this scene as a metaphor for The Last Jedi: J.J. Abrams handing over The Force Awakens to Rian Johnson, who proceeds to throw out just about everything established in The Force Awakens for the sake of being “different” just because. Though I praise Mark Hamill’s epic performance as Luke Skywalker and honestly love Luke’s portrayal, the direction they placed for Luke was severely underwhelming. Luke reveals he traveled to Ahch-To for the sole purpose of wanting to die, which goes against what Han said about him seeking out the first Jedi Temple. So what was the point of the map in the previous film if he didn’t want to be found? Then in a flashback, he actually considered killing his own nephew at night by creepily sneaking into his hut and probing his mind, then discovers a lot of darkness and corruption by Snoke. So instead of confronting his nephew during the day, he considers killing him in his sleep? This is the same Luke that sensed the good in his father Darth Vader and personally went on a mission to bring his father back to the Light, of which he ultimately succeeds. Yet, because he probed Ben Solo’s mind and saw darkness, Luke deemed it necessary to just flat-out murder his nephew? This felt extremely out of character for Luke to even consider doing such a thing. This is also the same Luke that went out of his way to save the Rebellion, fought alongside the Rebellion, and played a major role in the Empire’s defeat. Then in this Sequel Trilogy, he gives up and lives in isolation after the massacre of his Jedi Academy, doesn’t seem to care at all about the rising threat of the First Order, and shuts himself off from the Force. Later in the movie, he has a change of heart and appears on Crait, walking directly towards the army of AT-M6s, AT-ATs, and AT-STs. He and Kylo Ren duel, though Luke doesn’t swing his lightsaber once and simply dodges all of Kylo Ren’s hits. Kylo Ren impales and slices Luke, but nothing happens and in a “twist”, Luke is revealed to be Force projecting himself and did not leave Ahch-To at all. He fades away from the battle, leaving behind a furious Kylo Ren. At the end of the film, Luke stumbles over on the rocks he was sitting on and looks out into the horizon, sees two suns (reminiscent of A New Hope) and dies, becoming one with the Force. Though I praise the idea of using a Force projection, it does a great disservice to Luke Skywalker’s character and undermines his character’s growth from the Original Trilogy. Luke should have physically appeared on Crait and demonstrated his vast strength in the Force by easily destroying the artillery and engaging in a fierce duel with Kylo Ren, but ultimately loses and is struck down by his nephew. That would have given tremendous emotional depth to Luke and be a showcase on how far along Luke has grown with the Force.

Other Bad Moments In The Last Jedi

Like all Star Wars films, The Last Jedi features a lot of flaws and some very questionable moments that don’t do this movie any justice:

• Humor has a place in Star Wars, but not to the point of distorting the tone of the film, making it seem like a Marvel film (ex. Poe trolling Hux at the beginning of the film was cringe-worthy and feels out-of-place).
• General Hux was honestly a sinister figure in The Force Awakens. He is turned into a complete incompetent fool in this film and is oblivious to the fact he’s being prank called by Poe.
• Captain Phasma was again underutilized and despite putting up a strong fight against Finn, she is quickly killed off. What was the point of bringing back Phasma?
• Canto Bight killed the pacing of the film and resulted in no beneficial pay-off to the movie’s overall plot.
• Rose preaches about the rich being bad people for selling weapons to the First Order and feels the need to preach about the abuse the race animals face, yet offers no sympathy at all to the slave children.
• The final scene featuring the young slave child using the Force to pull the broom gives the idea that anyone can use the Force with no training whatsoever.
• Luke doesn’t seem to react at all when he learns of Han Solo’s death.
• No Knights of Ren in this film, not even a mention or any clue as to their whereabouts.

Other Great Moments In The Last Jedi

Despite the numerous issues that plague this film, The Last Jedi features a lot of great moments that truly shine:

• The opening scene and subsequent assault on the Dreadnought was very action-packed and felt like a true Star Wars film
• The final battle on Crait, though highly reminiscent of the Battle of Hoth, was phenomenal and the idea of using a Death Star-like battering ram was well-executed.
• Snoke’s throne room battle between the Praetorian Guards against Rey and Kylo Ren is honestly one of the greatest battles in all of Star Wars. It was well-choreographed, tense, and demonstrated how powerful a team Rey and Kylo Ren make.
• Finn and Captain Phasma’s battle was spectacular and seeing Phasma deflect a blaster shot with her armor was amazing.
• Rey and Kylo Ren’s Force communication added much needed development to both characters and added a layer of depth to their own motivations.
• Luke’s interactions with Rey were well-done, especially when Rey literally reaches her hand out to the Force, Luke plays along and brushes a leaf against her hand.
• Chewbacca feasting on a Porg and a group of Porgs look at him with fear in their eyes.
• Luke seeing R2-D2 on board the Millennium Falcon and R2-D2 plays the original message by Leia.
• Yoda’s appearance as a Force ghost and knocking some sense into Luke.
• Holdo flying the Resistance cruiser through hyperspace at Snoke’s flagship, resulting in the destruction of numerous First Order ships.
• Luke confronting the First Order on Crait, of which Kylo Ren orders them to fire at Luke with all their artillery. Luke walks out of the smoke undamaged and dusts his shoulder off.

Closing Comments

Despite the film having moments of greatness scattered throughout its runtime, The Last Jedi is heavy on flaws that are magnified as the film progresses. The film seems to take the quote “Let the past die, kill it if you have to” to heart and literally kills the history of what’s came before, especially The Force Awakens. Just about everything established in The Force Awakens is simply swept under the rug. The end of the film places the Resistance back to the same state the Rebellion was at in A New Hope. Why is this new trilogy just simply repeating the past? Though Rian Johnson is a fantastic director, he simply does not work for Star Wars and proves with The Last Jedi he has no understanding of how Star Wars works, especially with regards to the Force. The Force is treated more like a superpower that anyone can attain with no training required. The Last Jedi is far from being the worst Star Wars film, but is still far from being the best. J.J. Abrams is slated to return to the franchise to direct Episode IX and will attempt to fix the mess that Rian Johnson left behind with this new trilogy. Help us, J.J. Abrams. You’re our only hope.

Rating: 6/10