I know Star Wars: The Last Jedi is strife with controversy. I have seen the social media posts calling it great and an absolute disaster. I have seen the comments calling for it to be torn from the annals of time and others who claim it is the best Star Wars movie to date. And, yet, here I’m wading into the fray.The short version is this is a good movie if you allow yourself to get past what people are saying based on events and attitude outside of the movie. I went in trying to remove so many of those notions and found I wasn’t able to do it. I even drafted a review based on my experience. Then, I got involved in a conversation with a dedicated fan of the Star Wars Universe.
For some this might mean an immediate falling out, or an immediate approval—one extreme or the other. But, I felt alright talking this over with them because they are a person who has read every one of the books before the rights were sold to Disney. This is a person who hated the idea of what was presented by the studio about how they were moving forward. Here is a person who after seeing the first, gave a little. Then seeing the second disliked the treatment of the older canon. And came away from this movie with a new appreciation. I had to know why. There statements made me take another look at what I saw and how it fit with the earlier movies.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a bridge in the middle of a trilogy, which is a bridge to the new storyline. Both those means there is usually going to be a lot of forced and seemingly arbitrary conditions used to keep the story moving forward. I felt this way about the movie when it was done. I found plot holes, it to be long, and the ending to be drawn out. Then the conversation.
Going back I found we’re given a movie doing what the first movie started—it’s paying homage to the original series. Like The Force Awakens is a remake of A New Hope, The Last Jedi is a retelling of The Empire Strikes Back. It isn’t as obvious to those of us (me) who are not as immersed in the story, but once a few points were brought to my attention, I can see the respects being paid.
Using that viewpoint as the basis changed the way I perceived the movie. Here is a movie serving multiple purposes.
First, The Last Jediis a bridge from the introduction to the conclusion of a trilogy. Not an enviable spot to begin with because there is still setup being done, new characters need to be introduced, and you also need to create a standalone story.
Next, this trilogy is a bridge from the original story and characters to the new. Here, again, you have to deal with the concepts of what has gone before and connect them to what is going to happen later.
On these first two points, The Last Jedi delivers.
The last major point is paying homage to the original. This is what I was missing because I was so focused on getting across the bridges to see what is on the horizon.I saw the connection between the character arcs, like between Luke and Rey. I missed the grander vision of how the movie’s storyline was formatted to match with the presentation of the original. This included how the time felt like it was moving at different paces for the different character stories, or how the ending seemed to go on as each of the arcs were being wrapped up individually, instead of in one grand finale. But, it was there in the original and carefully recreated.
Along with the tribute to the older movies there was great new material about the universe and those living in it. Being part of the geek community I hear stories, even if I don’t get to read them all. I found not everything I had heard about from the books has been abandoned. The production is carefully selecting what they are going to use. This happens with every movie based on a book or short story.
A great example is the scene with the sith lord. In that scene they did a great job of portraying the ability of reading and masking thoughts for the progression of an apprentice to a master. They also did a wonderful portrayal of the battle of wills. They created visual effects for things written that would have looked pretty stupid in a movie.
The visual effects are one of the things setting this franchise apart from the beginning. In The Last Jedi we are not disappointed. There are new races, gadgets, equipment introduced. Throughout the movie there are added features (Easter eggs?) in the background people are going to go and watch the movie again to see what they missed behind the action.
Overall
The Last Jedi is a fun filled story of a fantastic adventure taking place in space. Sit back, relax, enjoy the ride, and take in the scenery.
The characters are developing more depth.
There are differences between the first movies and these to leave with some anticipation of not only how they are going to pay tribute to the past, but what are they going to do with the future.
I give Star Wars: The Last Jedi 4 out of 5.
If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.
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