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Thoughts on The Last Jedi

The ongoing Star Wars phenomena is a funny old beast isn’t it? The now perennial retelling of what is effectively a formulaic cosmic western has become embedded in our cultural psyche the way few other comparative works of low art ever have. 

As a result, each new installment risks undermining what, for some, is a lifetime of warm memories and shared associations. So much has been invested in these characters over the last four decades that we each have a very personal relationship with them and the universe they inhabit.

The latest vision of this universe, conjured by Rian Johnson in The Last Jedi, is lauded by critics but ridiculed by fans. Many object to how previously held ‘truths’ about that universe appear to have been disregarded or downright contradicted. There is a suggestion the new film’s deliberate attempt to “kill the past” has not, as intended, opened up new opportunities for Star Wars to expand in the future but instead served to undermine that which made the saga so rewarding in the first place.

I can certainly understand why some fans have felt cheated or let down, and there are elements of this ‘ripping up of the script’ which jarred with my own image of what Star Wars “should” be. Yet, I have no great argument with the director’s wish to expand and evolve the possibilities for future episodes. It is a necessary if dangerous tightrope to cross.

Where I believe The Last Jedi fails - and I do believe that despite wonderful individual moments it does fail - is in the nuts and bolts of the storytelling.

The first and best example of this comes in an early scene during the opening space battle. At the height of a fraught and otherwise engaging set piece, Oscar Issac’s pilot Poe Dameron breaks off from the fleet to communicate with the First Order’s General Hux played by Donal Gleeson. 

Poe pretends he can’t hear Hux as he spits his self aggrandising threats to end the resistance and instead fabricates what to all intents and purposes is the kind of voicemail message someone might leave for a friend. This is supposed to be comic, self aware, but in my case it only served to take me out of the drama, juxtaposed as it is with the quite tragic circumstances unfolding around them.

Hux should be a threatening and sinister character but with his authority undermined, he becomes a hapless figure of fun, and so loses his significance to the narrative. As if to reiterate this point, later in the film he is seen literally repeating the orders of Kylo Ren as if he is nothing but a sheep. Again, this is intended to be funny but it makes one wonder what purpose Hux’s character really served at all?

Characters on both sides are toyed with unapologetically in the name of ‘fun’ or ‘innovation’ and then discarded without a care in the world. Most notably one, who having been the source of one of The Force Awakens greatest mysteries, exits proceedings before we ever come to understand his history, nor his motivation.

Other bugbears include a plot point that sees two characters breaking away from the main narrative to visit a casino planet in search of a master codebreaker. It’s a fair enough invention but on reaching said planet, our heroes don’t even meet the person they’ve flown halfway across the galaxy to find. Instead they settle on rescuing an unknown prisoner who just happens to tell them he can do the job as well. Who is this person? Why is he there? Why on earth would he agree to help them? And, most incredulously, why on earth would our heroes believe him in the first place?

None of this is revealed, instead we are treated to a superfluous chase sequence and an incongruous political treatise on the morality of the planet’s dwellers selling weapons to both the First Order and the Resistance. It’s the very definition of ‘all over the place’.   

Perhaps we should look to Disney for the reason behind all this confusion but if it’s Johnson’s decision alone, it seems incredibly self indulgent.

All of this nonsense is a crying shame, because there are moments of genuine drama in the film, particularly in the Kylo Ren, Rey and Luke Skywalker dynamic. Adam Driver as Ren is the star of the show and the sexually charged interactions between him and Rey are genuinely interesting and engaging (at least until Rey makes a thunderously thudding request for a half naked Ren to put on a shirt and save her blushes).

The one word that sprung to mind as I left the cinema was ‘overwrought’. The Last Jedi is like dough that has had all its elasticity kneaded out of it. It’s not that the dialogue clunks the same way as in the prequels - although sometimes it comes perilously close - it’s more that its too tryhard, too knowing for its own good. Nobody likes a smart arse but here the wisecrackery, which only lightly peppered previous installments, is pushed front of stage. That would be perfectly fine if it wasn’t so clearly to the story’s detriment.

Where the obviously mixed reception to The Last Jedi leaves Star Wars as a franchise is at this stage unclear. I doubt, as some diehard fans suggest, there is any need for doom laden prophecies of its demise but wherever and however the saga decides to explore its subject matter going forwards, the story telling will need to be more focused and more purposeful than this to keep my interest piqued.