Star Wars - Episode VIII:
The Last Jedi (2017)

Director: Rian Johnson
Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver

Synopsis:
The embattled Resistance is on the run from the First Order while Rey seeks to bring Luke Skywalker out of his self-imposed exile.

Impressions:
After having been bowled over by Episode VII and pleasantly surprised by the quality of Rogue One, I've been in rather good spirits waiting for the next entry in the Sequel Trilogy. I was there opening night, even if it meant I was stranded until the trains started running again a couple hours after the movie ended. My initial impressions were positive but more mixed than my reception for Episode VII. Maybe raised expectations had something to do with it. I was pretty well bottomed out with the franchise two years ago. I can still remember that voice in my head back in '99 that not all was right, even if I didn't fully break down and admit my dissatisfaction with the prequels for years. I could've just gone forward and written this review based on those initial impressions, but I wanted to stew on it a bit and give it a second watch to see if I what I felt held true. While it's still early, this appears to be a fairly divisive entry, critically praised but getting a more mixed reception from audiences. Let's dig into my take on the whole thing.

Let's start with the good. Pretty much anything involving Rey and Luke was gold. I took a shine to Rey early on and I arguably like her even more now. Daisy Ridley brings a lot of charm to the role. I also like how this eager young optimist clashes with the broken-down Luke. Mark Hamill does a great job of delivering Luke's range: regret, fear, and a lot of snark. I also like the character arc they're building for Poe. I was hoping for more with him and this movie delivers. The deconstruction of the military maverick archetype is also clever. And let's not forget our villain. Kylo Ren is a lot more unbalanced here and the development of his relationship with Rey is one of my favorite parts of the film. Also, this movie makes some bold moves with the story and I have to give Rian Johnson credit for being ballsy.

Now for some of the not so good. While there's some good humor to be had (and some great funny moments to be honest), there are also jokes that don't quite work so well. It's not as bad as some of the cringeworthy "comedy" from the prequels, but it veers in that direction. On that note, the section of Finn's arc on Canto Bight was the weakest part of the story, actually feeling rather prequelesque. The message they were trying to deliver there was rather heavy-handed. Also, while I generally liked Benicio del Toro's character, I don't know if giving him a stammer as a character quirk was the wisest choice. Also, I wasn't a big fan of the Porgs. I have a feeling they'll basically be the new Ewoks. Only I never minded Ewoks. Well, at least they're not Gungans.

A lot of people criticized Episode VII for taking too much after A New Hope. You're bound to notice that this movie takes a lot of cues not only from The Empire Strikes Back but from Return of the Jedi as well. I'm tempted to joke that now that they've mined the OT, Episode IX can be a completely original story. Actually, I don't mind that history rhymes as it were and I feel that both this as well as its predecessor are enough their own stories, but clearly not everyone sees it the same way.

On a related note, I continue to feel that the soundtrack relies a bit too much on samplings from the OT. I of course love the OT's music and I can understand the reasons for using the music as a bridge as much as the characters and story elements, but it leaves the Sequel Trilogy with less of its own identity. I paid closer attention for new tracks on my second viewing. Rose's theme, as featured prominently in "The Rebellion Reborn", can perhaps rightfully be considered the signature track of the film and it has a nice upbeat feel that helps offset the often dire circumstances in the story. Also, why I may have found the Canto Bight section of the story weak, the casino's theme really sells the setting. I've also come to appreciate Rey and Kylo Ren's themes more as emblematic tracks of the Sequel Trilogy. I suppose I should just accept that in the music, as in the story, the Sequel Trilogy is something that grows out of the OT and is less of its own thing as the PT was.

You might think that the somewhat mixed feelings I had on my initial viewing would grow into a sharper divide upon seeing it again, but actually the opposite was true. I came out of the theater feeling more satisfied overall. I still liked Episode VII more, but what this movie does well, it does very well, enough to make you feel generous about its missteps. If you were dead-set against the last movie, this one isn't likely to convert you, but for me, I'm happy overall and looking forward to seeing how the story's brought to a conclusion in two years.

Rating:
Own It

You saw the conflict in my initial review. I should have known something was wrong when I had to go right back to the theaters to watch the movie a second time to try and sort out my feelings. Although I decided that I felt more positive than negative in the end, there was something about this movie that gnawed at me as time went on, I recognized this phenomenon. The same thing happened with Metroid: The Other M. The game was controversial in its handling of the main character among other things and while I wasn't 100% on board, I initially sided with my positive feelings, holding on to what was good and downplaying the bad. However, the faults burrowed deeper and deeper into my consciousness and I started thinking of ways to fix the narrative, salvaging what was worthwhile and recasting what didn't work to make it more acceptable. I almost feel like I should write my fix fic just to get it out of my head. It's that lovely experience all over again. Stewing on this, spiced with the shenanigans of people associated with the movie, have changed the tint of my view. I still mostly stand by what I've said before, but my conclusions have changed a little.

Let's start with the overall story. If you've read my blog posts speculating on how the Sequel Trilogy will unfold, you'll see that I've put more thought into the worldbuilding than the writers of these movies. JJ Abrams had no plans for the questions posed by Episode VII, part of his notorious "mystery box" approach to storytelling, so when Rian Johnson came to take the helm, he had to make things up himself, seemingly in a committee effort with the largely inexperienced members of the Lucasfilm Story Group. (You'll hear a different story these days, but I'm not going to let them get away with trying to exploit people's short memories to make themselves look better.) While it's true that the original saga was not as fully formed or well-planned as George Lucas often liked to portray it, there was an overarching vision and even if the details changed, there was continuity that bound the original films. The Expanded Universe wasn't perfect by any means, but a lot of care and attention was paid to the different tiers of canon. Nothing of the sort can be said of the current era. I was far more generous than some about Episode VII because I was expecting more going on under the hood. Episode VIII demonstrates that I was gravely mistaken. You can't write an epic without a plan. The narrative will fall apart and that's exactly what we see happen here. The sheer lack of thought put into the setting could fill a book, but to keep things brief, I'll just say that the greater implications for the universe were either not considered or not considered enough.

The way the narrative falls apart is bad enough, but it's the mishandling of the characters that really sticks in my craw. Some opponents of the Sequel Trilogy just flat-out hate the new characters. I don't, but I feel their potential is wasted. I've made a lot of excuses for Rey. I like her as a character and I like Daisy Ridley's portrayal of her, but she'll never get out from the shadow of the accusations that she's a Mary Sue. The problem is that the story's always giving her soft pitches. If she had to really struggle for what she got, I think you'd find more people in her corner. The RLM review notes that in what should be the emotional nadir for the character she's gleefully taking potshots at TIE Fighters. Imagine, if you would, during the fight with the Praetorians, instead of just getting scratched on the arm, she was actually grievously (though not mortally) wounded. The filmmakers actually had to erase one of the knives of the twin-bladed Praetorian because there was no plausible way he wouldn't have shanked her. Well, imagine if he did. Imagine her teetering on the edge of life and death when Kylo Ren makes his offer for her to join him. Imagine her still fighting back, just narrowly getting away, then when it comes time to bail out the Resistance, instead of being all whoops and smiles, she's grimly trying to keep it together through sheer force of will. She went to face Snoke half-cocked and there should be consequences for it, just like what happened to Luke when he rushed off to fight Vader and ended up short a hand and having his soul torn to shreds after learning the object of all his hatred is the very father whose shadow he's been chasing after all his life. The problem isn't that Rey's a girl. The problem is that the writers don't think she can handle a man's challenge. It's the soft bigotry of low expectations and all Lucasfilm's harping on discontented fans exposes the real problem.

While I thought Mark Hamill did good with what he was given, on reflection I agree that justice wasn't done to the character of Luke Skywalker (though Hamill was apparently slapped with enough cash to walk back his criticism). It's just part of the problem of exploiting the Original Trilogy for nostalgia while not really understanding what made it so resonant. One of the things that made the OT superior to the PT was the actors' ability to challenge George. Frankly, when Mark Hamill told Rian Johnson he fundamentally disagreed with everything that was done with his character, Johnson should've asked him, "Well, how would you do it?" As a director, you are supposed to be in charge, but at times some of the best turns in film come from the actors taking the reins. Of course, too loose of direction and things can spiral out of control. It didn't have to be all one vision or the other, but a compromise surely would've played far better.

Finn... Poor Finn... He was completely shafted in this movie. There was a lot that could've been done with his character, possibly even more than Rey. He didn't have to be a Force-adept, but if he was, that could've been interesting and it probably would've benefitted Rey's journey. He was someone who had only known the life of a First Order conscript and only wanted to get out of Dodge, if it wasn't for Rey. Rey's the only reason he went to Starkiller Base. Yes, he likes Poe but he understands as a fellow military man that Poe has his duty and he's not going to get in the way of that. What derailed poor Finn. Rose. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to just blindly hate on the character as some do, but I've come to increasingly dislike her for what she did to Finn. I don't mind the awkward ugly duckling grease monkey all starry-eyed from Resistance propaganda or even her personal philosophy as it stands, though I disagree with it. What I really don't like is that she gets validated, much as with Admiral Holdo, but we'll get to her in a minute. Besides the fact that the Canto Bight sequence is execrable, as bad if not worse than some of the gut-wrenching turns from the Prequels, it presents the dumb idea that empty gestures in the name of your ideology are worth more than action that actually does something. (Yeah, those Fathiers were almost certainly rounded up right after Finn and Rose left with DJ. That's making it matter. >_> ) It's much worse at the end, where Finn is about to sacrifice himself to stop the Battering Ram Cannon. I didn't mind that we had an interplay of the theme of Poe trying to come to terms with what sacrifices are worth making as a leader and Finn making the personal decision to throw everything away for the good of others. Finn's potential had largely been wrecked, so saving what was left of the Resistance would at least be a fitting send-off. Then comes Rose, who could've easily killed both herself and Finn if we were in a universe that cared about physics. (You really don't want to care too much about physics in the Star Wars universe, though.) "That's how we're gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love." Clearly her comrades in the Resistance don't fall under that label because the cannon fires to kill God only knows how many of them when it breaches the door. You don't win wars by saving people, though, except insofar as you're saving forces for the fight later and the population base that supports your ability to fight. Anyway, as I said, I don't mind her having bad philosophy, but the fact that it's presented as being right and how it massively damages Finn's characterization really irks me. Also, as to how all this got started, Finn, to my knowledge, was never formally a part of the Resistance. He never signed any contract or swore any oath, so Rose hauling him off as a "deserter" is wrong from the get-go.

Next up is Poe. Poe doesn't get it quite as bad as Finn, but he still has a bad time of it. I still stand by the fact that I didn't mind playing with the military maverick archetype and posing questions about what sacrifices are worth making, particularly as it sets up his arc of developing as a leader. While losing the bomber squadron was costly, if he hadn't gone forward with the plan to take out the dreadnought, the Raddus would've been dusted and we'd all get to go home early. (Because I really liked Captain Canady, I probably would've been fine with that outcome.) We'll ignore how dumb those bombers were, flying cows that make Y-Wings look graceful, or the fact that torpedoes would've made infinitely more sense that bomb payloads that (somehow) fall down in outer space. It's not a problem that Leia feels that conserving their numbers is more important. Conflict is good in a story. The answer doesn't need to be clear-cut either. Make the audience think a little. If it was just Leia and Poe wrangling with each other in a strategical vs. tactical argument, it probably would've been fine, but then Leia got spaced and we get Holdo. Much like Rose, the character settings aren't what I have a problem with. I have a problem with her being presented as right. She shows up in an evening gown and with purple hair, snidely looking down her nose at Poe, who is well-regarded squadron leader (as evidenced by how easily he was able to muster up his mutiny). Now, I've heard that the bomber squadron that was lost was under her command. Well, we never learn this in the movie. I've also heard that she was keeping a lid on things for fear of First Order spies in the ranks. Again, nothing to support this in the film. Now, there's nothing wrong with having a Neidermeyer. God knows there are enough of them in the military. It doesn't even have to be all bad. Consider Captain Sobel from Band of Brothers. Utterly incompetent as a field commander and petty against junior officers like Lieutenant Winters, so bad that several NCOs were ready to risk a firing squad to formally protest him as CO, etc. However, as a training officer he did his job right and as much as the guys hated him, they later acknowledged that his training probably saved their lives. So Holdo's a protege of Leia's like Poe, a bit of a bunny ears lawyer. She can get things done but is terrible with people (unless you manage to wade through her nonsense and realize her strengths for what they are). Maybe she's even a little jealous of Poe, the new favorite Leia's fostering, someone who has the charisma she lacks, only she's able to take Leia's lessons on strategic thinking to heart, unlike the more short-sighted Poe. They struggle with each other, yet both of them learn to set their pride aside and work together for the good of the Resistance as a complementary pair. That's how you sell a character like Holdo if you want the audience to actually be on her side. (Alternatively, there'd be nothing wrong with presenting her as a pupil of Leia's gone astray, but we know the current crop at Lucasfilm would never allow a high-ranking female officer to be bad at her job, at least not deliberately.) Holdo's mismanagement pushes Poe to desperation, which ultimately spoils her plan. Had she actually treated Poe with a smidgeon of respect, things wouldn't have played out as they had. (This isn't necessarily wrong from a storytelling perspective either, but the problem is that she's the one Leia characterizes as "doing what's right".) And, while as visually striking as the Holdo Maneuver is, it pokes massive holes in everything we know about space combat in the franchise. Why didn't the Rebels crash hyperspace craft into the Death Star? Why didn't the Resistance just wreck the First Order fleet with several of their ships to cover their escape? Why didn't Holdo just take out the PeacemillionSupremacy the moment the transports came under fire? (For that matter, why did they need to leave a human at the helm of ships that were being abandoned? What happened to sacrifices you couldn't afford?) I've seen some efforts to explain it that are successful to varying degrees, but it may be another case of fans putting more thought into it than the writers.

DJ is a cool guy, but his presence in the same cell as Finn and Rose is a little too contrived. Now, if he had been, say, a First Order agent who was dispatched to Canto Bight after the FO picked up the call to Maz, that might've been something. Who knows? JJ could still write that one in (though I doubt we'll be seeing DJ in Episode IX).

I was forgiving of Episode VII reusing story beats from Episode IV, citing the Lucasian notion of a saga "rhyming", but I'm feeling less generous of Episode VIII being a mishmash of Episodes V and VI, especially given how much more poorly the material is handled. I've also been kinder than perhaps I should about the score not making nearly as much of an impact as the Original or Prequel Trilogies. I'm inclined to cut John Williams some slack, though. The man's getting close to 90 and has composed some of the most iconic tracks in cinema. They can't all be golden.

Oh, and I've changed my mind about Porgs. I friggin' hate them. They're worse than Gungans. That's right. I said it. Still, if some kids like the daggone things, more power to 'em.

Yes, this comes off as a massive rant by a jilted fanboy, maybe not quite so acerbic as what we were seeing when the film first came out, but it is what it is. It took me years to stop being an apologist for the Prequel Trilogy and I'll credit the fine people at nuLucasfilm for not only shortening the release window for the movies but also cutting down the time it takes moderates to turn on them. Brava.

I still say give it a watch. I still think the good is quite good, but the bad is so bad it's been turning in my gut all this time. Maybe it can serve as a lesson. Isn't one of the messages of the film that failure is one of the best teachers? Only if you learn from that failure.

Rating:
50/50