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I have spent a lot of time thinking about Star Wars: The Last Jedi. One metric I’ve heard for knowing that you’ve watched a great movie is, it compels you to think about it. The more you think about it, the more it rewards you for thinking about it. The Last Jedi certainly does have those moments that create that positive feedback loop. To not mince words, The Last Jedi has some of the strongest and most meaningful character and plot moments of any Star Wars film. And then, there are the moments that make me scratch my head and say, “Why did you do that? No seriously, why did you think that would work?”
I don’t think I’m alone in my internal conflict. This movie has become a touchstone of an enormous conflict on the Internet. I was about to say “conflict within the fandom,” but the scope of the conflict has transcended just the fandom or even just the casual fans of the franchise. There are very few corners of the Internet where the Star Wars: Episode 8 civil war hasn’t reached. If anything, this confirms to me that this film is controversial, perhaps on purpose, which explains the extraordinary amount of thinking time and mental effort I have exerted in an attempt to quantify my feelings for this film.
Previously on Star Wars: A Love Letter to Fans
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I grew up watching the original Star Wars trilogy. A lot. It was a huge part of my childhood. I was an energetic boy with a short attention span, so it wasn’t unusual for me to start a movie and then leave for fifteen or twenty minutes – no doubt reenacting some of my favorite moments – and then coming back and continuing my watch. It wasn’t until I was in junior high that I could truthfully say that I had seen the entire original trilogy all the way through. But I sure did start watching them a bunch, and I knew most moments of every film at a young age.
When I first heard that Disney had purchased the franchise, I was beyond skeptical. The last new Star Wars I had seen was Revenge of the Sith – which did nothing for me at all and felt like a massive letdown – and a few Clone Wars cartoons. Up to that point, nothing that I had seen measured up to my enjoyment of the original trilogy. My expectations were pretty low, but I tried to be optimistic. The selection of J.J. Abrams gave me reasons for some mild optimism – I liked Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek, but I did agree that his aesthetic was much better suited to a Star Wars franchise film.
Without going into too much of a sidebar review of The Force Awakens, I loved it. It felt like Star Wars again – the good Star Wars. I’ve heard people describe The Force Awakens as “a love letter to fans of the original trilogy.” The only criticism that really stood out was that they had played it really safe with The Force Awakens. The plot was a more modern rehash of A New Hope with just a touch of innovation and variation here and there. But frankly, that criticism seemed so paltry and so weak compared to how good The Force Awakens was, I really didn’t care about the recycled elements of A New Hope. If Episode 8 was a mere duplication of The Empire Strikes Back, I would feel a stronger negative reaction, but I had reason for a new hope (if you’ll pardon the pun). Star Wars seemed to be going in the right direction again. Even just watching the last teaser trailer for The Force Awakens – which I will share below – gives me goosebumps, and the movie exceeded my expectations and hopes for it in every way.
One last note worth mentioning is, I didn’t participate in a lot of the Episode 8 speculations. I didn’t think Rey’s parentage was going to be anything we could predict. They still had two movies to tell their story; a lot can happen. I also suspected that no easy answer for Rey’s parentage would prove to be true. I expected Episode 8 to have surprises and twists… but I could never have predicted what we got.
A Drastic Turn Towards Innovation
Clearly, Disney and LucasFilm was paying attention to the criticisms of The Force Awakens, that it was too derivative of the past. I think that the same calculation was made that I mentioned earlier: they were walking a tightrope with the sequel. The greatest risk they could take was staying the same and repeating The Empire Strikes Back. I’m sure that when Rian Johnson was hired as the director for Episode 8, he was given one prime directive: do not kill the franchise by playing it safe. Innovate. Take risks. Do something different.
I see no inherent problem with that storytelling decision. As I said, if Episode 8 merely repeated The Empire Strikes Back, Disney would lose a lot of the goodwill with their fan base, me included. Every film franchise experiences this struggle. If you play it too safe, you alienate people who would see your film as an uninspired cash grab. But most films don’t take risks because there is a comfort zone to most people’s entertainment. Going too far beyond that comfort zone is going to have the same effect as playing it too safe.
That brings us to Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi. Fundamentally, I think that Rian Johnson took the Star Wars mythos and made a calculation: if Episode 8 is going to choose between being possibly too safe or too risky, it will err on the “too risky” side. As a result, The Last Jedi makes a lot of risky changes with the Star Wars franchise formula. In some places, it goes so far as to almost deface the original canon films. (Some say it does, but I’m not willing to go that far… not yet, anyway.) I’m glad I didn’t participate in the pre-Episode 8 speculations when one of Luke’s first lines of dialogue is, “This isn’t going to go the way you think.” That’s essentially the cornerstone for the entire film. Almost every decision made in the film seems geared toward making sure that, however you thought this movie would unfold, it would foil your expectations.
Again, I do not categorically think that that was a bad decision. But I do think that when we come to the raging controversy around this film, it’s important to set the stage in this way. They do a lot to try to foil audience expectations. At the beginning of this post, I said that this film has some really strong moments and some really weak moments. What’s amazing is, sometimes those moments are back-to-back – from one really strong moment to one really weak moment in a few seconds. Very usually, both the strong and weak moment are an innovation or a twist on the Star Wars formula. It just so happens that one innovation works really well and the other innovation falls flat. It’s all part of the balancing act that this movie is attempting – being innovative enough to be interesting, but also safe enough that the fan base isn’t alienated.
There’s So Much To Talk About – And We Will
So, having written so much about the fundamentals and background of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, you probably think I’m close to done, right? Well… not so much. I really have spent so much time trying to think about this film – what works, what doesn’t work, why it doesn’t work – and the controversies around this film are so huge and ongoing, I’ve decided that The Last Jedi is going to be a recurring topic on conversation for me. I want to try to examine this film from every angle – the themes, the plot, the characters, the controversies. I’m calling it “The Last Jedi Monologues.” I’m afraid this will turn into the length of a thesis, but I’ll do my best to keep it short.
I apologize if that sounds completely unappealing to you. I just can’t help myself. This movie made me do it.
At the risk of starting the flame war proper, what did you think of The Last Jedi? What about The Force Awakens?
SDG,
Paladin Sioni
The Art of Geek 