Usual warning, my reviews are not spoiler free so if that is a problem turn back now and come back after you watch.
So I managed to get to my viewing of the Last Jedi fairly free of all the hubbub and speculation. I did see one of the trailers a couple of times thanks to seeing Thor: Ragnarok a couple of times. However, I have to say that similar to the Force awakens the late trailers still did not give away to much. In fact, they tried to actively throw you off the scent of the movie itself.
Since I started writing this the second week box office totals have hit. And boy howdy was it a doozy. After opening big the Last Jedi has has an epic fizzle at the box office underway. Either everyone decided staying home with family was more important than the movies or this was a swing and a miss of pretty serious proportions. 69% drop off in 1 week. OUCH.
So what happened?
I will get in to more details below but my theory is that they tried to be 'half pregnant'. By which I mean that Rian Johnson made a few daring calls in trying to make this its own film and not just the inevitable consequence of Fan expectations... but also tried to hit enough of the 'fan beats' to try and have it both ways. The result is... jarring in places.
My biggest complaint about The Force Awakens was it was very slavish to fan expectations in that it was mostly a re-heated re-hash of what we had seen before. Just bigger, faster and snazzier looking with some new faces. Fun yes... surprinsing... no. My biggest hope for the Last Jedi was that they would eschew the expected and swing for the fences in pulling off what Empire (And Star Wars before it of course) did. Not copy Empire mind you... but in the sense of how Empire took the story to a different place and defied expectations.
Many people forget what a ground breaking movie Star Wars was. While at its heart it was a bog standard 'hero's journey' tale.... its presentation based on the expectations of movies at the time was nothing short of astonishing. It was NOT what you were expecting.
Then they follow it up with Empire. What you thought you knew to expect was shattered again. No epic space battle. A lot of mumbo jumbo with a Frank Oz puppet in a swamp, a plot twist that shocked everyone and a rather small scale ending that was major setback for our plucky band of rebels. A lost hand, a frozen scoundrel and big bad Daddy Darth. I mean jeebus. Not one, but two cinematic bolts from the blue. Shame Lucas didn't complete the hat trick with ROTJ. Don't care what he said but I think he caved to the, at the time, howl of dismay at Empire not just being more of what he had launched in 1977. So we got Ewoks... but I digress. Of course over time, at least among most serious fans I know, Empire has become seen as the best of the original 3 Star Wars films. I still wonder what Lucas would have done for his final piece of the original trilogy if Empire had been received better out of the gate.
Fast forward to making the Last Jedi and I have no doubt Disney could have played 'paint by numbers' and simply emulated Empire's beats wholesale and what just happened at the box office would not have happened. Fans were mostly expecting a darker moodier more contemplative follow on. After all it is what is expected. There are probably a few executives wishing that is what they had done about now as well. I sincerely hope that doesn't influence what is coming for the final installment.
Final warning on spoilers.
The Good:
Rey handing Luke the lightsaber only to have him casually toss it away.
The Bad:
Having Rey just go fetch it. This is what I mean by being daring, but only daring so much. This kind of acts as a template going forward. The implications of what may have followed if Luke's rejection of the saber had been followed through on are fascinating in terms of where the story may have gone.
The Good:
Calling Poe on the carpet for defying orders and getting all the bombers killed even though ultimately they succeeded in knocking out the big bad ship.
The Bad:
Not making it stick. Worse yet... effectively having his mutiny backed instead of him getting an immediate smack down when he tried. This wasn't as bad as say Kirk's demotion in the second re-boot Star Trek that didn't even last until he got back to a ship. I mean Leia did after all stun him to end his mutiny. But in the end there seem to be no consequences for not 1 but 2 major, costly mistakes. Also, I am not much for hitting folks over the head with the obvious. But a more obvious call out that the ultimate reason Admiral Holdo's plan to sneak everyone away failed was directly because of Poe's action with sending Rose and Finn off to find the "Uber Slicer" was probably called for. Hell, drum him out of the resistance as a not so subtle excising of old star wars thinking with regards to "jump in a ship and blow stuff up". Doesn't mean we have to lose him as a character, but it would certainly mean that character would have to grow in unexpected ways.
The Good:
Benicio Del Torro's scoundrel character. I don't like how they got to his character. But the bit about selling to good and bad alike, and his ultimate betrayal provides some solid foundations on which to base the whole damn story. What is the resistance. What is rebellion?
The Bad:
Why talk about a morass of galactic 'grey' ethics at all if you are not getting into any of the wheres and whys that got us from the supposed New Republic that arose after the Last Jedi to a resistance led by Leia WHILE IT STILL EXISTED before the Last order blasted it out of existence with its super duper planet mcGuffin gun. The implication is that something was rotten at the core of both the New Republic and the First Order.
The Good:
Luke's rejection of the Jedi Order. Rejection of the force itself. Yoda's agreement that the force is about more than what is in some musty old books and a 1000 generations of Jedi Lore. Rey has all that she needs. This implies a return to the purity of the originals. Good vs Evil. But also hints at the notion that while the universe is in harmony with itself, the Jedi along with the Sith... or Light and Dark side wielders of the force are equally to blame for causing the unbalance that leads to either side having an advantage. Trying to balance the force ala Jedi vs Sith is the very source of the problem to begin with.
The Bad:
Having force ghost Yoda to kick him back on track. That said I am mixed about this one. Luke's return to the force is something that ultimately I like. But I am betrayed by my fandom on this I suspect. Deep at heart I want the skyhopper womp rat bombing teenaged punk who shaped the face of the galaxy within days of being introduced to the force to step up and assume his mantle of bad assery many bequeathed him in our imagined continued existence of Luke Skywalker post ROTJ. But that is the same part of me that was a kid with the mass market figurine granting his charge god mode powers. This is perhaps the single worst(best?) example of where the movie tried to have it both ways. I think it would have been better off playing to the expectations from the get go rather than playing coy about it. Or take the hard path and carry through with the notion that Luke's rejection of the force is the way it has to be. That Rey is simply headed towards continuing the never ending cycle if she does as he did. To have balance is to not have Jedi or Sith (Light and Dark) in the first place. Oh the horror... we might not be able to guess how the hell that would work because it is.... new. New might not be Star Wars. But then... if Lucas hadn't done something new to begin with we would have Star Wars to begin with now would we? Brain Cramp...
(update: I missed the shot of the Jedi Texts in the Falcon where Rey stashed them... I class this as the bad side similar to the others above. Blow up the myth of Jedi superiority only save the holy texts? Not only is Luke kicked back onto track as a Jedi... the source of the Jedi order knowledge is saved after all. Choose a side. I think either could be a good way to tell the story, but this constant back and forth was really the only thing I found I didn't care for overall.
Ok... the weeble wobbles aside.
The Good:
However we got there. Luke striding out alone to face the full might of the First Order ground assault force is everything BadAss you could want from the "Last Jedi" as a simple fantasy moment. As is the reveal of it being him projecting his presence vs actually being there to buy them time to escape. This scene is on the track of servicing Fan expectations whole heartedly (The lone Jedi with a laser sword indeed) While still having a good twist (it was just a projection). I don't think it has a place in the movie that is star wars in the tradition of breaking the cinematic mold and expectations. It is perfect in playing to expectations.
The passing on of Luke and Snoke. Good bad or indifferent, this was absolutely necessary. It clears the board for the final installment in a way we have yet to see. Two Hero's Journey's coming to their conclusion. Or Hero and Anti-Hero if you will. We never saw a crack in Vader's resolve until he tossed the Emperor down an exhaust shaft (or whatever the hell it was). Anakin... well that was like watching Titanic. We knew where it was going to go. In Kylo we see strife and struggle in both movies so far. Before we see that strife being squashed by his resolve. A 3rd times the charm redemption would be a cop out I think. What is the unexpected path? What is the payoff? As for the two.... Luke hurts but better to see him go out on such a high note than over stay his welcome.... if he hadn't already to be honest. Raw Milk chugging... talk about a "don't meet your hero's" moment? Of course he isn't gone as short of Mark Hamill biting it before filming he will be back as a Force Ghost. Snoke didn't gel. To make matters worse there was a serious spell breaking uncanny valley moment when he walked off the throne where if he had any chance we me they lost it with that gaffe. Full CG characters are getting closer, and Star Wars has a history of pushing it on non-human prime characters. I like to see the effort but all in all Snoke just didn't play well in my opinion. Better rid of him to clear the air.
Rose and her martyred "we barely even got to know her" sister. The celebration of the unheralded of the Galaxy far far away represented in these characters is awesome. However, I grant it took me a few beats to embrace Rose. I blame her introduction that seemed to set her up as a very stereotypical "not gorgeous" female comic foil "wafer thin" (said in the precise head waiter tones of John Cleese in a Monty Python skit) character for Finn. Instead her character makes him come off "Wafer Thin".
Rey's vision trip. Bit literal perhaps... but I think there was no better way to extend a middle finger to the sensationalistic fan theories of Rey's parentage (in which I dabbled a bit myself I must admit). They grind it in later if you missed it with a straight up statement from Kylo that Rey's parents are of no importance to who she is. Rey is Rey. She is not defined by her Lineage as Leia and Luke were. As Kylo Ren\ Ben Solo still is. This is new territory for a central force figure in Star Wars and it opens things up for the future. I imagine more than a little of the let down in the box office stems from not following through on all the buildup the Force Awakens put on a reveal of Rey's past. Sometimes you have to break eggs to get the omelet and all that.
Holdo's sacrifice. Pity nobody is clairvoyant. Instead of Holdo heading to her doom there could have been a passing of the torch to Holdo from Leia as a fierce strong female leader and Leia goes out with a bang. I think Laura Dern did well with what she had. Sucks that we will not get some more of the fierce Purple haired Admiral.
No more gratuitous borderline 4th wall breaking baiting of the prequels gaffes. Goes back to just ignoring them like you do your racist uncle at Thanksgiving. You can't change the past so just get on with making the future.
Kylo and Rey's enemy of my enemy light saber fight with the Emperor's guards. Of course we don't think that is what is happening at the time. They carefully play it so that you think this is sealing their partnership for the light. Or perhaps in the midst of the fight you caught yourself wondering what the heck that would leave for a 3rd movie.
The So So:
The Dreadnaught and Snokes ships. Enough with the introduce some silly massive thing to make the already silly massive things look puny gag. Still... cool ships. Almost enough to make me want to do a second viewing to check them out in 3d.
As much as I love Holdo's sacrifice, I can't ignore the problematic universe conundrum it introduced. Why wouldn't you have hyper drive based munitions? Even if it isn't 'practical' at scale for
The fetch the slicer tangent mission with Finn and Rose. I think the concept of that story line could have played out just as well from inside the resistance fleet. Hell instead of a magic slicer to turn off the McGuffin tracking wizdoodle we instead focused on a way to get Finn on the ship to turn more 'lost first order' troops to his side. That he is the only one who could question the rightness of following the first order is silly. An attempt to sow seeds of rebellion in the heart of the enemy could have setup and interesting arc. No turning of Finn, but Finn turns Phasma and the storm troopers away from the first order rule? A redemption of the old republic military that was suborned by the Emperor?
The Bad:
Again with the poor payoff for Phasma. What it is with Star Wars pissing away good villans? Bobba Fett wheeze out, Darth Maul gone WAAAAAY to quickly and never replaced by any big bad even close in the prequels. Now we have the chrome domed Gwendolyn Christie just begging to be a meaningful story arc and we get..... an eye as she falls into fire after a pretty WTF fight? Leader of the storm troopers bested by weak stomached former janitor without any help from the force or other characters? Similar to the Snoke uncanny valley moments it is a serious momentum and suspension of disbelief breaker in the story. Of course... her armor deflected blaster fire. She could still be alive... with an eye patch. Ooooooooo Gwendolyn Christie with an eye patch leading up to an even more spectacular non-payoff in the last flick?
Porgs. Oh who am I kidding. They are cute. But seriously.... WTF was with the flying calico penguins (said as Benedict Cumberbatch failing to correctly say penguin)? I think they just over stayed their welcome for me. Have the hilarious moment with Chewy getting guilted out of eating his Porg on a stick by the sickeningly cute merchandising units and put them back in the background of the island instead of in the cockpit of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.
The.... WTF:
I don't know what these were. Perhaps time will tell.
The crazy old hermit routine of Luke while he goes about "not training" Rey is a complete head scratcher in hindsight. Was it an attempt to mimic Yoda's "To old to complete the training... yes to old" resistance before giving in To Obi-Wan's ethereal cajoling" moment? Is it an extended.... Ok so Luke has been living alone for a while and gone native... montage? If the goal was to bring Rey to some higher understanding of oneness with the force then they didn't follow through on that either. Yoda pops in for a longer version of Ben Cajoling him to convince Luke to take the poor girl under his wing after all. And we are left with a more abridged sequence of training than Luke got on Degobah before rushing off to find out who his Father was. Not to mention a true WTF is how do these timelines gel? How long was Rey there? Is Rigorous save the universe Jedi training always just a matter of a couple of days and a brush with a dark place that sends you on surrealistic trips? Yes I know I complain about not leaving enough mystery while demanding explanations. I suppose my point here is there has to be a balance... and it is a balance the film is often casting about for rather clumsily.
So... Force Ghost Yoda calls down the lightning on the Jedi super secret heritage collection which creates a troubling inconsistency in the heretofore established nature that Force Ghosts are passive entities that can talk with people but not directly influence the universe. In terms of introducing serious universe logical inconsistencies this is right up there with Trans Warp distance no limitation transporting in Star Trek take 2. Does this mean Luke can still influence things in the story to come? Why didn't Yoda\Obi-Wan\Qui-Gon do more before?
This is not so much a WTF as it is I just haven't decided yet. Luke's tragic flaw\moment of weakness in contemplating the first strike murder of his Nephew. Much like I think the whole mystery around how Vader was turned to the dark side was left best as an exercise for the viewer. So to I think they could have left this shrouded in mystery. It is one of the few times these new films has fallen prey to the very mistakes it so likes to berate the prequels for. That said... as far as reveals go of why someone would go hide from the universe for 30 years it wasn't a bad concept. But not sure it convinces me of why he would abandon the cause of the Republic/Resistance etc...
Conclusion.
I liked the movie. Need to see it a couple more times but I think I like it more than the Force awakens and that was a pretty fun movie, flaws and all. But as I alluded to in the begining I feel like I am being bounced between two visions of what the film was going to be. In one most of the Star Wars holy of holies are cast aside for a deeper meta understanding of the force and what is driving the conflicts of the universe. It is dark. It is disheartening. It is Lord Fouls Bane territory for those familiar with Stephen R Donaldson's masochist opus The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It would have been a painful eye opening Star Wars re-invents itself again moment.... but it may have flopped Blade Runner hard... and then stuck around for ever.... or just sunk the whole series beyond reviving (though who are we kidding... start the clock on the Star Wars Reboot count down). The other was a fluff resuscitated zombie shell of Empire with current wiz bang effects and fan boy super Jedi Kewl pew pew marketing monster. It was odd switching gears back and forth but there were some damn good bits to go with the WTF just happened moments.
Stay tuned for the surprise teaser trailer in this summers infinity war for the cross over you have all be waiting for where the Galaxy far far away and a long time ago joins up with the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Space, the final Frontier crew for the infinity war times the square root of negative 2.
I kid........ I hope.
