The first half of this review will reveal no specific spoilers. I will offer a warning and then a page break before I get into specifics situations. However, I will generally address the tone and plot devices in the beginning of this review. If you do not want any sort of preconceived notion before seeing the film, I suggest you to do not read this review. Sound fair? Okay, let’s go …
The Force Awakens got everything just right. It introduced new, charismatic characters while allowing the established favorites to shine. It utilized an action-packed pace while jumping from location to location to location as it revealed a plot that tickled our fancy in all the right — albeit familiar — ways. It gave us spaceship chases involving, well, our favorite spaceships, lightsaber duels, witty banter, and real emotional stakes. It focused on old relationships rekindling, new relationships bonding, and teased future relationships to come. Best of all? It set the scene for major revelations. What would Luke Skywalker’s role be in this story? Who are Rey’s parents? Is Kylo Ren as evil as he would like us to believe? Will Poe and Finn be the best new duo in Star Wars lore? Will Captain Phasma have a defining moment? How do Leia and Chewbacca move on after Han Solo’s death? And just who is this Supreme Leader Snoke? At the end of The Force Awakens, I not only felt extremely satisfied, but genuinely excited to discover all of these things with the next installment.
If I could choose one word to describe The Last Jedi, it would be “anticlimactic.”
The Last Jedi starts off with a bang, but then just kind of fizzles and fizzles and then disappears. I actually found myself a little bored for quite a bit of this movie, which is something I thought I would NEVER say about a Star Wars film. There’s so much talking. Soooo much talking. But nothing is really ever happening — nothing that felt substantial, at least.
And when something monumental did seem to be happening, it quickly turned out to be nothing. It fizzled, like I said. The Last Jedi would raise out hopes time and time again only to laugh in our face and run away. It got a bit offensive, honestly.
Perhaps the greatest offense of all? It did not get me excited at all for the next episode. Just the opposite. Again, I won’t get into specifics in this space, but The Last Jedi seemed intent to crush every cool thing The Force Awakens teased while leaving us with nothing to replace our anticipation. The Force Awakens had me counting down the days until the next installment. The Last Jedi left me ambivalent and, frankly, disappointed.
Want to know exactly why I feel this way? Scroll past the below image and keep reading …
Spoilers coming in …
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Let’s run through my long list of grievances …
Kylo Ren – Is he good or evil? Is he a plant by the Resistance? Is that why he had such difficulty killing his father? Is that how he got overpowered by a novice, the great new hope of the Resistance? Yeah, he’s evil. Or, at least, that’s what they tell us. Because, you know, they mostly tell us stuff in this movie. I really don’t buy him as this supremely evil person. Worst of all? He wore his mask for maybe five minutes. Kylo Ren with the mask and voice? Awesome. Could watch him all day. Kylo Ren without the mask? No thanks. Adam Driver’s face does not scream the kind of evil they would like us to believe. Exactly the opposite.
Leia – Spent most of her time talking. They showed us an amazing display of the Force. Then she fell into a coma. Then she talked some more. Then she faded into the background.
Finn – Virtually no interaction with Poe or Rey, which, I think, were the crowning moments of The Force Awakens. No background revelations. He’s honestly not in the movie much at all. On a mission to accomplish a goal that seemed forced. No longer the fish out of water trying to make good. Just kind of there.
Captain Phasma – Showed up for about three minutes near the end of the movie. Fell down a hole. On the plus side, we learned one of her eyes is blue. Yes, that’s sarcasm.
Poe – In quite a bit of the movie, but now depicted as a mutinous, trigger-happy lunkhead. No longer the selfless, hotshot pilot with awesome one-liners. Now spends most of his time questioning leadership as he’s apparently being groomed to be the next leader of the Resistance.
Chewbacca – In maybe two total minutes of the movie. Does not address his dead partner at all.
Supreme Leader Snoke – Killed in perhaps the most anticlimactic fashion in the history of movies. Absolutely nothing revealed about his past. We never find out who he is, where he’s from, or even if he’s Jedi, Sith, or something else. Why did I care about this guy again? Why did they put so much effort into making me care about this guy?
Rey – Given virtually nothing to do as she spends most of the movie on Luke’s island being ignored. No real “heroic” moments to speak of other than moving some rocks. Has one cool lightsaber fight that proved pointless. Got to see Finn for the first time with only five minutes left in the movie. Oh, and her parents? Apparently, they were nobody. Just sold her off as a slave. They wasted so much potential with Rey’s character. So much potential.
Luke Skywalker – Return Of the Jedi gave us perhaps the perfect sendoff for Luke Skywalker. He rescued his friends. He made things right with Yoda. He got closure from Obi-Wan Kenobi. He turned his father, the supposedly irredeemable Darth Vader, back to the good side. He got to see all three of his father figures reunited in peace and harmony as the Empire fell at last. If you bring him back for The Last Jedi, you damn well better outdo Return Of the Jedi. They didn’t. He spends most of his time actively trying to ignore Rey, being cranky with Rey, or being sarcastic with Rey. He does not train her as a Jedi at all beyond a philosophical lecture about the Force. However, at the end of the movie, he makes his lone stand against The First Order. Kylo Ren faces him one-on-one. We’re prepared for an epic lightsaber battle as Luke stalls so his sister and her Resistance can escape. Perhaps he’ll gain a grand death, one that will make movie-history. Or maybe he survives to team up with his sister and lead the Resistance for the next movie? Nope. He evades Kylo Ren’s attacks, and then it’s revealed he’s simply an astral projection of the Force, an illusion. He wasn’t really even there at all. The real Luke is sitting on a rock, sweating, back on his island. And after his friends escape, he falls off the rock. And then he gets back on the rock. And then he dies. So, yeah, that felt like a slap in the face.
Those are just the highlights of my disappointment, by the way. I could go on and on. But I won’t. The creative minds behind The Last Jedi seemed to take into account everything we loved about A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, The Return Of the Jedi, and The Force Awakens, and then do the exact opposite. I don’t understand this rationale at all.
(Did you enjoy this review? Check out Scott William Foley’s short stories HERE!)
SCOTT WILLIAM FOLEY 