Movie Review: 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

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

Written and Directed by: Rian Johnson

Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Anthony Daniels, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, Frank Oz

Luke Skywalker: What do you know about the Force? 

Rey: It's a power that Jedi have that lets them control people and... make things float. 

Luke Skywalker: Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong.

On December 15, 2017, almost two years after director J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered and over 40 years after Star Wars: A New Hope kicked off the sprawling Skywalker saga, Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm released writer-director Rian Johnson's epic space-fantasy Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Set three decades after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the film is the second entry of the Sequel Trilogy and the eighth in what is called the "Main Saga." 

Starring a cast led by original Star Wars lead actors Mark Hamill and the late Carrie Fisher, The Last Jedi picks up the story immediately where The Force Awakens left off. 

As the traditional title crawl tells us: 

The FIRST ORDER reigns. Having decimated the peaceful Republic, Supreme Leader Snoke now deploys his merciless legions to seize military control of the galaxy.

Only General Leia Organa's band of RESISTANCE fighters stand against the rising tyranny, certain that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker will return and restore a spark of hope to the fight.

But the Resistance has been exposed. As the First Order speeds toward the Rebel base, the brave heroes mount a desperate escape....

It is a dark time for the Resistance. Although Starkiller Base has been destroyed due to the daring of X-wing fighter hero Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega), Force-wielding scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley), and others, the First Order has discovered their secret base on D'qar.  

Now, as the First Order forces under the command of Gen. Armitage Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) arrive, the freedom fighters led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) are evacuating from D'qar. 

In a desperate (and ill-advised) effort to buy time for the evacuating Resistance fleet, Poe leads a group of slow and ungainly bombers in an attack against the First Order's mighty Dreadnaught. The attack succeeds - but at the cost of every ship  and crew member of Cobalt Squadron. Considering that the Resistance is a small isolated fighting force and that its covert sponsor, the New Republic, was decimated by Starkiller Base, this Pyrrhic victory does not sit well with Leia Organa. She demotes her protégé Poe from Commander to Captain to teach him to be more disciplined and curb his desire to be a "hero."

The new rebellion's efforts to escape from Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis and top-notch CGI work from Industrial Light and Magic) are intercut with Rey's efforts to convince a sad and withdrawn Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)  to help the Resistance and to train her as a Jedi.

Luke Skywalker: Why did you think I chose the hardest location to find in the entire galaxy? I came to this island to die.

Rey is a resourceful and optimistic young woman with incredible potential in the Force, but Luke's disillusion and guilt over his failure to see the darkness in his nephew Ben (Adam Driver) are obstacles that even she can't overcome. She is aware that Ben, who calls himself Kylo Ren and serves Snoke as the new incarnation of his grandfather, Darth Vader, was seduced by the Dark Side. She even saw him murder his own father, Han Solo, in the bowels of Starkiller Base. To her, Ben/Kylo Ren is a monster. Yet, she feels that he can be turned back to the light.

Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi, like Irvin Kershner's The Empire Strikes Back, is the second act of a three-act drama. As such, it serves to flesh out the new cast  of characters introduced in The Force Awakens and put them all in situations that will test their mettle. Here, the Rey/Finn/BB-8 trio that coalesced on Jakku in Episode VII is split up. Rey has gone to the watery planet Ach-To to find the self-exiled last Jedi. Meanwhile, ex-stormtrooper Finn is forced to decide which path to take when he accompanies the idealistic Resistance mechanic Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) on a daring mission that will help the small band of rebels escape from the dreaded First Order. 

There's a galaxy's worth of new characters, situations, and plot twists in this, the ninth live action feature film in the 41-year-old Star Wars series, including interpersonal conflict within the Resistance military that was inspired by the style and dark vibe of the Ronald D. Moore reboot of Battlestar Galactica,  Rose and Finn's dealings with a roguish scoundrel named DJ (Benicio Del Toro), and the return of a certain diminutive Jedi Master. I won't delve into these in great detail in case you have not seen this movie; suffice it to say that despite the flak shot at The Last Jedi by a vocal group of disenchanted fans, The Last Jedi is definitely worth watching.

With a running time of two hours and 32 minutes, The Last Jedi is the longest of the Star Wars films yet released. Yet, Rian Johnson keeps viewers glued to their seats by giving all of the characters enough screen time and interesting things to do. He and his team, which includes sound designer Matthew Wood, production designer Rick Heinrichs, costume designer Michael Kaplan, a platoon's worth of art designers, and composer John Williams (still the Jedi Grand Master of Star Wars music at 86!) have made a film with the most attention lavished on color and composition in the saga in over 30 years. Not even the Gavin Bouquet-designed Prequels set in the decadent-yet-decaying years before the fall of the Old Republic look as good as The Last Jedi.

Take, for instance, Snoke's throne room in the Mega-class Star Destroyer Supremacy, the First Order's mobile capital. Where Emperor Palpatine's throne room on the Death Star II was stark and utilitarian, the First Order's mysterious overlord holds court in a palatial room done in bright scarlet tones that match the color of his Praetorian Guards. Snoke, whose origins still remain an enigma, also eschews' the Emperor's black zeyd-cloth hooded Sith robes.  In his inner sanctum, Supreme Leader Snoke is clad in gaudy gold-colored robes that reflect his ego, his overconfidence in his own mastery of the Force, and his position as top dog in the First Order hierarchy.

I've watched The Last Jedi three times so far, and I have to say it's an enjoyable film, both as a Star Wars franchise entry and a standalone film-watching experience. It has beautiful visuals, compelling characters, and a story full of unexpected plot twists mixed in with tips of the hat to the stories that have come before.