Director: Rian Johnson
Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher
Have I Seen It Before?: Oh, yes…
Did I like it?: Well, that is the big question, isn’t it? The moment I take a position on whether this movie is terrific, or the worst thing that ever happened to the series, that defines me as not only a critic, but a purveyor of human morality. Honestly, some of you out in the world make having any kind of opinion about movies an absolute chore, sometimes.
With that being said:
I adore The Last Jedi.
There, I said it. If you need to leave these reviews, now is the time.
Okay, now that the rest of them are gone, let’s really talk about this one. It is a fundamentally odd film, and that’s what makes it certainly in top three of the whole series for me. There may be moments where it is number one. Ranking them beyond that is insane, the internet. Honestly, did we think we would ever get such an idiosyncratic film when George sold Lucasfilm to Disney?
Every frame of which is interesting to look at, from the throne room of Snoke (Andy Serkis) through the salty wastelands of Crait, I’m never not interested in what the film is showing me. To drill down further on Crait, at first blush, the film looks snowy, not unlike the ice planet Hoth from Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Then, the sheen of salt around the land breaks apart to reveal the red below the surface. The planet bleeds. I’ve never seen that before, and neither have you.
Some might complain about some of the characterizations of the film. I find those arguments usually disjointed, although I suppose I could see how people might view Luke’s story in the film as a little counter to what we understood about the character in previous films. For me, Skywalker’s decision to cut himself off from both the rest of the galaxy and The Force itself is the film’s secret weapon. The notion that a classic Joseph Campbell-esque hero would ever have a crisis of faith is so powerful that I am immediately annoyed by anyone who is put off by that element of the film. Our heroes are supposed to inspire us to reach for the best part of ourselves, and the notion that such a character could lose their way and find it again means that there is more hope for all of us than we may have previously assumed.
Now, I’m not blindly enamored of the film. I have one beef with the movie that can’t be waived away simply as a matter of taste. Incidentally, it is the same complaint I will have with my forthcoming review of Star Wars – Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), just in case you were wondering if I was going to arbitrarily be pro-J.J. or pro-Rian.
There’s not enough Lupita Nyong’o in it. As The Rise of Skywalker has exactly the same problem, and more pointedly so, I may save my elaboration for that review.
But seriously, if you’ve got Nyong’o in your film, it’s important you do everything to maximize how much you have.