Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Fans have made "Star Wars" into more than just a film franchise. When you go to see the latest film, it is an event. If Hollywood is the NFL, "Star Wars" has been labeled as the Superbowl. After seeing "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi", I felt it would be enjoyable for hard-core fans because the studio took their familiarity into account. One of the reasons why the prequels were rejected by many fans is that moviegoers were used to the blockbuster era unlike in the 70's and early 80's. Lucasfilm and Disney know the hype they have to live up to & the familiarity of their audience and I believe the filmmakers succeeded in using that hype against the fans. The problem is that didn't sit too well with the same small group of overly vocal "fans" online. For me, it was nice to watch a film where the plot was unpredictable but still respectful of the source material. I was thinking "The Last Jedi" would have a lot of comparisons with "The Empire Strikes Back". The movie starts out that way but goes in an original direction thankfully. There are comparisons to be sure but not excessively. The special effects, humor and acting are also noteworthy. I have tried to write this spoiler-free but it is hard to applaud the filmmakers while being completely sensitive to those who have yet to see the show. I therefore will speak only in vague terms but that doesn't mean something could be spoiled.

The opening music directly following the main title score sounds a lot like the music preceding the reveal of the star destroyer in "A New Hope". I liked that. For the first time in a "Star Wars" film, the story is picked up right where it left off in the previous film. There has always been at least a three-year passage of time between installments but "The Last Jedi" takes place right after the destruction of the Starkiller Base and continues the scene where Rey holds out Anakin's lightsaber to his aged son. The rise of the First Order is how I thought the Empire would arise in the prequel trilogy. Snoke destroys the Republic from the outside instead of from the inside like Palpatine. As mentioned, there are a few comparisons to "The Empire Strikes Back" in "The Last Jedi". Rey's original mentor that started her hero's journey has passed on so she seeks out a new mentor, just as Luke shifted mentors from Obi-wan to Yoda. Luke found himself in Obi-wan's shoes when he failed Ben Solo and presently, he will not even consider himself as the next Yoda. Furthermore, he feels that as the last Jedi if he cuts himself off from what's happening in the galaxy, he will not further contribute to the rise of the Sith that he helped initiate. Even though the Ahch-To scenes were filmed during pre-production by the way, they don't feel out of place compared to the rest of the movie, as is sometimes the case. Another comparison with "Episode V" is that Rey leaves Luke before she is truly ready to face the dark side. This leads to the appearance of a classic character (I was so glad the original actor came back to reprise the role). The first time I saw this movie, I thought this cameo was a work of CGI and so I was pleasantly surprized to find out it wasn't. Rey also enters a cave just like Luke did and it is at this point where Rey's hair is let down. I believe it to be symbolic of her journey as she has now entered a "larger world". Just like Anakin and Luke in their second films, Rey is dressed in darker clothing and she made this costume change at the end of "The Force Awakens". It also represents her growing knowledge and experience. I enjoyed the use of sound during the conversations between Rey and Kylo Ren. Those were powerful scenes as a result. Another noteworthy use of filmmaking was that the cross fades used at the end of "The Empire Strikes Back" to cut between Luke and Vader have been reprised for another parent/child relationship in "The Last Jedi". It was quite an affective callback. Kylo Ren continues to make the same mistakes as his grandfather before him. Once again, in failing to live up to Vader's legacy, he actually begins to emulate Vader. Kylo Ren thinks he is doing something good by making his own path but he fails to see that it is a dark path. Attachment is not the Jedi way but Kylo Ren, like Anakin, comes up with his own interpretation of that law. Both characters only see the letter of the law and fail to understand & follow the spirit of that law. Before "The Force Awakens", we thought Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber was lost on Bespin. What happens to it in "The Last Jedi" is tragic but it is symbolic of what happens to the Resistance by the end of "Episode VIII". I still hope we get an answer of how Maz found the saber. We are shown a new Jedi trick in this film but thankfully, it is in keeping with what inspired George Lucas when he invented the concept of the Force. He drew upon religion and also mysticism in his writing so this new Jedi power is conceivable in this universe. I did enjoy when the Force and the story of this saga was a lot simpler in the original trilogy but if a franchise doesn't grow, it won't survive. I have heard some fans expressing two opposing views: either that the franchise is no longer respecting its origins or that the franchise is still stagnant. The fact that these two opposing viewpoints exist causes me to question the validity of both. The level of humor also bothered some but I was also thankful for it in "The Last Jedi". Learning the origin of blue milk for example pleasantly disturbed me. It's like visiting a slaughterhouse as opposed to a dairy farm. When we first hear about Canto Bight's reputation, we are expecting yet another Mos Eisley or Takodana cantina scene so what we get is a nice twist.

The title of this movie created speculation that the Jedi were truly going to become extinct. That's what many fans became afraid of preceding the release of this film. After seeing the film, they couldn't understand why Luke would just walk away from his duty as a Jedi Master. I guess die-hard fans have become so passionate that they have forgotten the source material as well as what was revealed in "The Force Awakens". Firstly, as Yoda said in "Return of the Jedi": "When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be." I myself interpreted the title of "Episode VIII" to mean "The Last Jedi up to this point". Kylo Ren has turned to the dark side and Rey is untrained. Luke is the last Jedi in the galaxy and it even says so in the opening crawl for "The Force Awakens". Many fans made a mountain out of a molehill when watching the trailer and heard the line, "It's time for the Jedi to end". These days, trailers and previews can be watched online innumerable times and can be microscopically dissected by hard-core fans. You shouldn't make a big deal out of what you see in a trailer. The filmmakers expected this level of scrutiny, hence the amount of story elements that were left out of the marketing. Lucasfilm knows the hype they are up against so it would make sense that they would use this against fans. In another example from the trailer, they edited two clips together of Kylo Ren and Ray that aren't in the same scene in the actual film. This is a testament to the intelligence of the marketing department and the skill of the editors because this concluding moment of the trailer fooled quite a lot of people. I also laugh at how fans forgot that both Obi-wan and Yodi went into exile after their failings. Why are they so surprised to find Luke doing the same thing? Mark Hamill himself was against this direction that his character took and while he knows this character almost better than everyone, I respect the risk that writer/director Rian Johnson took. I reiterate that a franchise must grow or it won't survive. Considering that over thirty years have passed since the events of "Return of the Jedi", it makes perfect sense that Luke underwent a dramatic change during that time. That is the same amount of time between nine year old Anakin and Darth Vader in "A New Hope". When you go to see "The Last Jedi" itself, the filmmakers continue to play on the audience's fears. Is someone important going to die? They also play with the audience anticipating the plot. Who is Rey's family? Who is Snoke? Any hard-core fans upset by the revelations in "The Last Jedi" have no reason to be upset in my opinion. You can't be let down by a plot twist that you didn't see coming, even if it didn't satisfy you. Don't you want to be surprised? If hard-core fans still feel let down, it is because they made the same mistakes with the prequel trilogy and haven't learned their lesson. When you create too much hype for yourself, there is nothing the filmmakers can do to satisfy it. I personally don't mind what we learn about Rey's and Snoke's origins. Just because our jaws dropped back in 1980 with the line "I am your father", we don't have to experience it with every movie. We would get tired of that after awhile. We should just be content with the revelation of Kylo Ren as Ben Solo. The submerged X-wing on Ahch-To is yet another plot point meant to throw off the many smart audience members during the climax. Speaking of the climax, it also plays tribute to "The Empire Strikes Back" except the Battle of Hoth took place at the start of the show where as the Battle of Crait happens at the end. This creates the needed originality among other decisions made.

Despite Mark Hamill's voice acting skills, he reprised the role pretty straightforward in that the voice of an elderly Luke Skywalker is still very reminiscent of what we heard in "Episode VI". Despite his reservations with the story, he still delievered a convincing performance. It is very fitting that Leia Organa is Carrie Fisher's final feature film performance. The filmmakers could have done re-shoots after her passing so as to give her character a noble end. The original script gave them that chance. Considering that they didn't take it, I am curious as to what Lucasfilm is going to do with Leia for "Episode IX". They could digitally recreate this character for the next movie, seeing as how they did that for "Rogue One", but that feels a little inappropriate. This is another plot point that fans took issue with because of Leia's ability to use the Force. I say again that thirty or so years is more than enough time for anyone to learn to do what Leia did. Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are really taking their characters to new levels and that is awesome. The same can be said for Oscar Issac but he has already proven himself a talented actor in other films. In "The Force Awakens", Andy Serkis' performance was pretty imperceptible but that was mostly because Snoke was only seen via hologram. In "The Last Jedi", we see Snoke in the flesh and this time I could see Serkis' smile and bits of his voice in the performance of the Supreme Leader. The experienced motion capture actor still gave us a great villain that was both evocative of and unique from Palpatine. The special effects were also amazing with Snoke's photorealism. It was nice to see Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro in this sequel. "Episode VIII" marks the first time Chewbacca is completely performed by someone other than Peter Mayhew. Both he and Joonas Suotamo took turns on "The Force Awakens" but for "The Last Jedi", Mayhew took on the role of a consultant. The cameos for this film include Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy and two royals. We know that Prince Harry and Prince William were stormtroopers and I am predicting they were the ones with the cuffs. The only other film by director Rian Johnson that I am familiar with is "Looper" but I never saw it. Despite this, he crafted something that is on par with the preceding "Star Wars" films in my opinion.

Theater websites were once again overloaded with the ticket sales for "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi" but not to the extent of when "The Force Awakens" was about to be released. "The Last Jedi" is longest "Star Wars" movie to date but that was okay by me because just when I thought the film was over, we got an extension in the climax. Seeing this film in IMAX was a treat but I would have to say that "The Force Awakens" was a bit better. Considering how ingrained this film franchise is in pop culture, it is smart how Lucasfilm and Disney attempted to use that to entertain this obsessive fan base. Even if it didn't work perfectly, I blame that on those moviegoers who idolize these movies. If the die-hards can't calm themselves down, they will never be satisfied. "The Last Jedi" garnished the usual Oscar nominations of Best Musical Score, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. I would have preferred the film to win for most of those awards but for once, I liked the special effects more in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". Funny enough, not "Star Wars", "Guardians 2" or even my prediction of "War for the Planet of the Apes" walked away with the Visual Effects Oscar. That disappointed me. In all three trilogies of "Star Wars", the second films are where the plot thickens but the filmmakers made sure to not replicate "The Empire Strikes Back" completely. There were laughs, dramatic moments and impressive visual effects. Director J. J. Abrams will return for Episode IX and that excites me. I am also interested in seeing how Ron Howard does with "Solo".

4 Stars out of 5