Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Medicore-lorians

Each new entry in the pop-culture behemoth that is the Star Wars film franchise comes with the heaped expectation to match or improve upon those which came before. For Star Wars: The Last Jedi things have been no different. After the monumental financial success of J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens – the first episode in the space opera’s third trilogy – director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper) and his team had it all to do with the added pressure of a release that marked the series’ 40th anniversary.

Perhaps the occasion did adversely affect those involved because The Last Jedi, while it fits the bill as an all action blockbuster and will no doubt please the casual viewer, attempts to do too much in some areas and not enough in others, failing to even remotely equal the quality of George Lucas and co’s original efforts.

Things pick up more or less as they were left in Awakens as we join Rey (Daisy Ridley) on her quest to understand what has happened to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and learn about the force, while Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Issac) and the rebellion resistance try to drum up support in their fight against the evil First Order.

Though the blueprint is very similar to The Empire Strikes Back, it’s obvious Johnson took note of the main criticism of The Force Awakens, which was that it was merely a carbonite copy of A New Hope. Whereas Abrams did play it safe in many respects, Johnson has decided to flip things around, much to the film’s detriment.

The director is clearly trying to keep things fresh and original but at times only for the sake of keeping the audience guessing and in doing so jeopardises the cohesion of the story. Without spoiling too much, in one scene a key character who has been integral since the previous episode is suddenly made dispensable, purely for shock factor. Possibly constituting an amateurish attempt at creating an ‘I am your father’ type plot twist, it’s a moment that completely draws us out of the move: its sole aim to illicit a reaction in those watching. This will appeal to the Youtube generation no doubt, but it also cheapens the film immensely. You almost expect some moron to pop onto the screen saying ‘it’s just a prank bro!’

Nesting beside these unpredictable moments in the script is the utterly predictable, especially regarding the hero characters never coming to harm despite the hapless storm-troopers or resistance fighters being blown to smithereens around them. This is a Star Wars movie after all so its difficult to get too pent up with a lack of realism, but the problem is not so much this lack of realism as a lack of any real peril in the film. There is no Vader or Palpatine and the supposed ‘villain’ of the piece gets foiled again and again. Where is the danger? Where is the conflict? The biggest issue at one point is a rebel cruiser running out of fuel. Hell, the final frames of the film are so upbeat they may as well have been lifted from the Ewok party at the end of episode 6. There are characters who die, but these are only bit part, crow-barred in to provide disneyfied, sickly, slo-mo examples of self-sacrifice to distinguish who the goodies are, a la Rogue One.

This mangled tone extends to Daisy Ridley’s character Rey, who was easily the best thing about Awakens, but here becomes just an overpowered plot device. Her interplay with Luke makes for a fun section of the running time, yet provides a diluted form of the master and apprentice dynamic between Luke and Yoda of yesteryear. In the end, despite the importance placed upon the rebels locating Skywalker at the end of the last film, the character is not really needed apart from to explain to Rey why Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) gone went bad. But perhaps not as bad as we thought. But perhaps who really cares?

Hamill, who reportedly had issues with the script, plays Luke more or less as himself this time. It does work to the extent that the character has been living on an isolated island with only frog nuns for company and as such has turned a bit kooky. However, it’s a bit of a kick in the space cow udders to have such a revered protagonist reduced in such a fashion. Hamill does get his mic drop moment as does Carrie Fisher, who’s untimely death occurred during post production. But you also get the sense that they, like Harrison Ford before them, are eager to hand over the saber shaped baton to the next gen, which is a shame because for many they are what made the franchise great.

There are a few positives. The set pieces are visually spectacular and the production design is staggering, but unfortunately the core of the film is essentially missing. There is very little soul in The Last Jedi. Slapdash and haphazard, the force is certainly not strong with this one.

Still, at the very least we can all feel good, warm and fuzzy about watching alien donkeys getting freed.

High expectations indeed.