It was about 6 p.m. when Mark and I, very naively, went to buy tickets for a 7:15 showing of The Last Jedi. It was sold out. So were the next three showings. We deliberated and decided, what the heck, who needs sleep? and bought tickets for a 10:45 showing that night. Having got it in our heads that we were going to see the newest Star Wars movie that day, we weren't about to postpone the experience any more than necessary.
That was a week ago. It's taken me a while to be sure what I think.
So yep, I've seen it. It's hard to be at all concise about my thoughts and feelings and reactions, which were and still are multitudinous. There will be a few minor spoilers, but the big reveals aren't really what I'm here to talk about.
I'll start by saying that it's not a bad movie. It has its strengths and weaknesses. But I'm not sure if it's a great Star Wars movie. If The Force Awakens felt like Star Wars ripping off Star Wars, this felt . . . well, at times, nothing like Star Wars at all.
All the familiar elements are there: lightsabers, space battles, droids and the Force, and all the characters (who survived TFA, which is to say, all but one) are present. But The Last Jedi also contained a lot that is unfamiliar, and not always to its benefit.
The story is new and original, for which I'm grateful. Broad story arcs may have been inspired by The Empire Strikes Back, but there is no plot rehashing here. (I was also glad, though it's a trifling detail, to learn that Supreme Leader Snoke is a pretty normal-sized person; his previous enormous holographic projections had me worried.) I have no gripes with the plot, no disappointment about any reveals or lack thereof -- I came to the movie ready to entertain any new plot that emerged. For the most part the plot didn't disappoint me.
But execution is important, and it's what separates a good movie from a great one. And some of the execution of The Last Jedi wasn't great.
Most glaring of all in my mind, this movie has a sense of humor that doesn't feel authentic to the Star Wars universe. There have always been humorous quips and amusing banter in this galaxy, and even extended comical sequences (Yoda is hilarious and absurd when Luke first meets him on Dagobah, until he's ready to reveal his true identity), but there was a certain sophistication to the jokes because they relied on interpersonal dynamics and character quirks, not on contriving situations to get a laugh from the audience.
Rian Johnson fishes for laughs when Rey asks Kylo Ren to put a shirt on in a scene where she should have much bigger things on her mind; with a slapstick moment where the efforts of several very earnest (if ridiculous-looking) aliens are foiled (I just felt bad for them); and when BB-8 tells a very confused Poe that Finn is naked and leaking, prompting Poe to ask, basically, "are you drunk, bro?" The desired chuckles will be elicited, but these moments are tonally awkward in a movie that is willing, in some scenes, to commit to being dark and emotional. I like some light moments to even out the darkness, but this movie wants to go both very light and very dark (and while I wish I was talking about the Force, I'm not). The dry wit that has always been a Star Wars hallmark has been traded in for the broad comedy popularized by the Marvel movies. I am an ardent fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I'm not excited to see its sense of humor sneaking into the galaxy far away.
The story is new and original, for which I'm grateful. Broad story arcs may have been inspired by The Empire Strikes Back, but there is no plot rehashing here. (I was also glad, though it's a trifling detail, to learn that Supreme Leader Snoke is a pretty normal-sized person; his previous enormous holographic projections had me worried.) I have no gripes with the plot, no disappointment about any reveals or lack thereof -- I came to the movie ready to entertain any new plot that emerged. For the most part the plot didn't disappoint me.
But execution is important, and it's what separates a good movie from a great one. And some of the execution of The Last Jedi wasn't great.
Most glaring of all in my mind, this movie has a sense of humor that doesn't feel authentic to the Star Wars universe. There have always been humorous quips and amusing banter in this galaxy, and even extended comical sequences (Yoda is hilarious and absurd when Luke first meets him on Dagobah, until he's ready to reveal his true identity), but there was a certain sophistication to the jokes because they relied on interpersonal dynamics and character quirks, not on contriving situations to get a laugh from the audience.
Rian Johnson fishes for laughs when Rey asks Kylo Ren to put a shirt on in a scene where she should have much bigger things on her mind; with a slapstick moment where the efforts of several very earnest (if ridiculous-looking) aliens are foiled (I just felt bad for them); and when BB-8 tells a very confused Poe that Finn is naked and leaking, prompting Poe to ask, basically, "are you drunk, bro?" The desired chuckles will be elicited, but these moments are tonally awkward in a movie that is willing, in some scenes, to commit to being dark and emotional. I like some light moments to even out the darkness, but this movie wants to go both very light and very dark (and while I wish I was talking about the Force, I'm not). The dry wit that has always been a Star Wars hallmark has been traded in for the broad comedy popularized by the Marvel movies. I am an ardent fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I'm not excited to see its sense of humor sneaking into the galaxy far away.
Visually, The Last Jedi veers off in its own direction. The original trilogy was made in the seventies and early eighties, and is visually very much of that time. The prequel trilogy incorporated elements of that visual style while introducing more color and some of the aesthetics of its own time. Episode seven, which wore its love for the original trilogy on its sleeve, had a seventies throwback feel, and that more gritty look (made ever so slightly smoother by modern cinematography and special effects) was one of my favorite things about that movie. The story may not have been fresh, but the look didn't have to be, and it put me instantly back into the Star Wars universe.
The Last Jedi looks a lot slicker, a lot shinier. There are a lot of creatures and sequences that rely heavily on CGI. The color red is huge in this movie (to paraphrase Rey in TFA, I didn't know there was so much red in the whole Star Wars galaxy) except with one character who's more into purple -- as a hair color, that is -- and looks like she might have sneaked in from Guardians of the Galaxy or the capitol of The Hunger Games. And the camera loves to get close to the characters' faces. If those faces weren't the ones that populated the last movie, the two movies wouldn't look alike at all.
The Last Jedi looks a lot slicker, a lot shinier. There are a lot of creatures and sequences that rely heavily on CGI. The color red is huge in this movie (to paraphrase Rey in TFA, I didn't know there was so much red in the whole Star Wars galaxy) except with one character who's more into purple -- as a hair color, that is -- and looks like she might have sneaked in from Guardians of the Galaxy or the capitol of The Hunger Games. And the camera loves to get close to the characters' faces. If those faces weren't the ones that populated the last movie, the two movies wouldn't look alike at all.
This movie doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's the eighth in a much-loved series, and its main problem is that it doesn't feel like it belongs in that series. The case could be made that this new trilogy should be judged apart from the other two and considered its own entity, and I'd be perfectly willing to accept that premise, but it doesn't make The Last Jedi seem any less of an anomaly. The Force Awakens was a love letter to the original trilogy, and this sequel looks, sounds and moves like an entirely different beast.
So this is the other side of that coin, if not a different coin altogether. J. J. Abrams gave us something so much like A New Hope that it seemed all originality was lost. Rian Johnson has given us something so off the rails that it's hard to see the Star Wars under all the . . . well . . . whatever that was.
At first I came away from this movie feeling jaded; I'd found the straw that broke the camel's back. I would swear off new movies built on the backs of old favorites. And it truly may be time to recognize that sequels, prequels and reboots, while they feed our nostalgia and give us what we think we want (and can make metric crap tons of money, a large if lurking motivation), aren't truly the path to great cinema. But with some time to reflect, I have to admit that it's unfair to pin all of that on one Star Wars movie.
After buying our tickets to that late (but by no means the latest) showing, Mark and I went home to fill the intervening time by watching The Force Awakens again, for the first time since it was in theaters. If we hadn't literally finished the one and gone directly to the other, maybe I wouldn't have reacted so strongly. It is disappointing to come away feeling that The Last Jedi doesn't fit seamlessly into the puzzle, but I have lots of biases and emotion (and fifteen years of Star Wars fandom) coloring my view (red, in this case).
Ultimately, it's time that will tell how episode eight holds up. I'll have to see it again myself before I'm sure of anything.
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