Star Wars: The Last Jedi - My Thoughts on some aspects of the film.
At the outset, I am going to say that I enjoyed this film very much, and there will be spoilers here, so read on at your own peril.
As the film opens, we find that the Resistance (previously known as the Rebel Alliance) is rapidly being wiped out by the First Order (previously known as the Galactic Empire). In the previous film, The Force Awakens, Rey found Luke Skywalker on the planet Ahch-To where he is living in self-imposed exile. She is asking him to return to help with the fight and to train her in the ways of the Force as a Jedi. This is the setting for the much anticipated eighth part of the saga.
This post is not so much a review, it is more of a gathering of my thoughts, both positive and negative. I have read posts that have presented both sides of the argument for and against this film and I figured that I might as well weigh in too. So take it for what it is worth and try to remember, it is, after all, just a movie.
At the end of The Force Awakens, there were a couple of questions that I had on my mind. After giving it some thought, I had two theories about the characters Rey and Snoke. First I thought that it would turn out that Rey was the daughter of Luke Skywalker. I thought that some of the evidence that pointed to this included how she, while trapped on Jakku, had a Rebel Alliance pilot helmet and a doll dressed in an X-Wing pilot’s flight suit. I also thought that Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the First Order was the resurrected Darth Vader, either in spirit, or in person. The reason for this was mainly for the scars that seemed to be in common with Anakin’s scars from Return of the Jedi. Well, both of my theories were wholly inaccurate as Rey turns out to be nothing more than an abandoned child left behind by uncaring parents (that is also dependent on whether we can believe what Rey was told by Kylo Ren). Snoke has no real background revealed in the film and remains a mysterious figure who arose to power because of his command of the dark side of the Force. I am thinking that in the new novels currently being published, and also being touted as the new canon for the expanded universe, we are going to get the backstory on these two and many other characters as time goes on. I am not, in the least, upset that my theories were wrong.
I was somewhat upset by Luke Skywalker after my first viewing of the film. However, after the second viewing, I had a better understanding of the situation. In the original trilogy, Luke was the most optimistic, hopeful character one could ask for. All he wanted out of life was to be a part of something that was bigger than him. Thanks to Obi-Wan, instead of going to the Empire Academy, he wound up becoming a member of the Rebel Alliance and accomplished a great many things resulting finally in the downfall of Emperor Palpatine and the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Luke’s character in Last Jedi is a complete opposite of who he once was. He is a bitter old hermit who seems to be full of regret and anger. It was sad to see how he had almost become the anti-hero. On the other hand, I can see how he might have gone down the path of bitterness when looking at his failures. Luke was strong with the Force, although he didn’t know it, but because of his lineage, Obi-Wan knew it and made him his padawan learner. While Obi-Wan did give him some training, it turned out to be more of making Luke aware that he had abilities rather than any hard training. When Luke sought training from Yoda, it also was cut short because Luke felt obligated to save his associates at Bespin. Now, as we know, Jedi training is a lifelong study not only in the art of fighting, but in academics and philosophy as well. As a result, Luke took a quick path in his training, missing much of the philosophy of the Jedi. All of this was not Luke’s fault, but rather because of the desperate situation facing the Alliance to end the tyranny of Palpatine and restore liberty to the galaxy. With this in mind, Luke decides he will bring back the Jedi by training a new generation of students, and it leads to his biggest failure and the reason for his self-imposed exile. He is given his nephew, Ben Solo, to train in the ways of the Jedi. Son of Han and Leia, Ben is a descendant of Anakin Skywalker, who himself was seduced by the dark side. There was always a danger that Luke himself would fall to the dark side if he gave into his inner hatred of the Empire and the anger he was given to. It would seem that Ben Solo, was even more possessed by hatred and anger which caused Luke to even consider killing the son of his best friend and his sister. So, it would seem that Luke feels that he would do far more harm than good and decides to sequester himself and stay out of the picture altogether. He has become a conflicted and sad shadow of his former self. I first felt that he had become a coward, hiding away on a remote world only to let his sister lead the fight for freedom. Later I came to understand that he is not cowardly, but has convinced himself that any further involvement would only lead to disaster. He believes this so deeply that, whether we agree or not, it is the reality.
Luke is considered to be the last, best hope for the survival of the Resistance. While Luke himself doesn’t agree, he finally redeems himself in the end by providing a smokescreen for the ragtag remnants of the Resistance to escape and maybe fight another day. His self-imposed exile had made him into somewhat of a legend, but, in the end he is nothing but a man who has to reconcile his accomplishments against his failures as he fades out of existence. Luke’s passing is also a passing of the torch to the new generation of Star Wars fans. It will be interesting to see how this future unfolds. The old is now over as it has overlapped with what is new and the franchise will move forward with new heroes and ideas. One of those new ideas is the First Order under the leadership of Kylo Ren.
Speaking of Kylo Ren, here is one sad and messed up man. He is one of the most powerful villains in the Star Wars franchise but that isn’t enough for him. He wants to emulate his grandfather, Darth Vader. In Force Awakens, he runs his father, Han Solo through with a lightsaber and, while he hesitates himself, seems perfectly content with having his mother’s command ship attacked by TIE Fighters putting her at risk. At the same time, Ren is in telepathic contact with Rey and he tries diligently and unsuccessfully to talk her into joining him on the dark side. At the same time, Ren seems to be more influenced by Rey than anything. Ren is a very conflicted character who has started down a dark path, and there would seem to be no turning back.
Kylo Ren, or as I have come to refer to him as “Emo” Ren (yes, I understand that the term Emo refers to a sub-genre of Punk Rock music and has been misused for a long time, I am using the vernacular as it is commonly defined by today’s teens and young adults). Here is a man, all dressed in black with a very dark personality to match, all in the name of trying to impress his Supreme Leader, but never quite hitting the mark. Ren seems caught in the middle between being evil and good, and could fall either way given the right circumstances. That is, until he steps up and kills Snoke! I didn’t think Ren had it in him, but he makes himself the Supreme Leader, a role that seemed destined to be given to General Hux. Instead, leadership falls on Ren, who is given to fits of rage and episodes of melancholy. What kind of leader will he be? It is hard to say, but judging from how he was portrayed in Last Jedi, I am thinking that he will not be a great one. His conflicted, almost bi-polar instability may be of great detriment to the First Order, and there is always the question of whether Rey can turn him away from the Dark Side.
Rey herself is an interesting character to me for numerous reasons. One of those is that I can identify with her personally when thinking back to a scene from Force Awakens. As Rey went about her business on Jakku, collecting old parts and selling them for her subsistence, there is a scene in which she looks across a cleaning vat and sees an old woman cleaning parts to sell. I can imagine that she was terrified that one day, she would find herself in the same position. At that moment, she realizes that she must find a way to better herself and become someone who could make a difference. I, myself had the same realization when I was working at a gas station with a man who was 70 years old and had no hope of retiring from a nothing job. That is the moment when I decided to go to college and get a degree, but that’s a story for another time. In the case of Rey, while she wanted to be a part of something bigger than herself, she was also reluctant to leave Jakku because she was holding vigil for her parents. Well, Rey found herself thrust into a position that allowed her to test her mettle, and so far she has been well up to the task. During her young life, she has learned to be strong and independent and that has taken her quite far. When you add her apparent natural ability to channel the Force, she would seem to be unstoppable. She is very sure of herself and quite admirable and I look forward to her future development in the franchise.
As I said at the beginning of this article, I love this film, however it is not without its flaws and disappointments. As far as I am concerned, the biggest disappointment was the humor as it appeared in Last Jedi. Every film in the franchise contains humor that adds much to the story and provides a little comic relief to the intense moments. Up until now, the humor has always been more subtle and part of a character’s personality. Last Jedi is different because the humor seemed more forced and over pronounced. It was as though the script and the director were reaching for the laughs. This is an unforgivable flaw that I had to work hard to overlook lest the film would have been ruined for me (I felt this once before when I saw The Phantom Menace). The entire scene with Poe Dameron taunting General Hux is a prime example of this kind of humor. While it might seem hilarious on the surface, that particular scene took a very strong character and made him look like a buffoon. Remember that speech given by Hux in Force Awakens? The one just before the First Order fired the planet killing weapon at Coruscant that wiped out all traces of the Imperial government. That speech sent chills down my spine and served to make me see Hux as a formidable individual. What happened in Last Jedi made Hux look like an idiot as Poe talked trash to him and Hux bought into it. It is very sad to see a character like Hux get nerfed so badly that he may never recover.
And while I am thinking of characters that were badly nerfed, what of Poe? Here’s a character that appeared in Force Awakens as an amazing pilot and trusted high ranking officer as well as a confidant to General Skywalker herself. In Last Jedi, he appears to be an insubordinate maverick who believes he can just disobey orders whenever it suits him. But he doesn’t just stop at insubordination, he goes to the level of treason when he openly defies the commander who takes over when Leah is incapacitated! In doing that, Poe seemed to be more of a threat to his own people than the First Order ever did. His actions would only serve to kill what little morale was left in the Resistance movement where he should have been leading by example, even if he did disagree with the lawful command of Leah’s replacement, Vice Admiral Holdo. If this is the Poe we are going to get in future installments of Star Wars films, my vote is to drum him out of the service and maroon him on an out of the way planet. 
While any movie will have plot holes and inconsistencies, one was pointed out to me by a friend whom I respect and admire. She said that “it ruined her entire childhood,” but I took this very much as a tongue-in-cheek remark because I know she is not that superficial. It was a slow night at the writers meeting I was attending when my turn came up to read what I had written. I read the first page or so of this post. A discussion broke out about the film and my friend said that she thought it strange that when Luke disappeared, his mechanical hand also disappeared. She thought this unusual since it was not a part of him. As I thought about this I found that I was in agreement with her. Why would his robe stay behind while his prosthetic went with him into wherever Yoda went when he moved on leaving his cane and robe behind? And when Obi-Wan was dispatched by Vader, his robe and lightsaber were likewise left behind. After Luke defeated Vader and dragged him to the shuttle in Return of the Jedi, we knew that a lot of what was left of Vader was “more machine than man” as Obi-Wan informed Luke. We all saw what happened to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan severed Anakin’s legs, and he was badly burned on Mustafar, not to mention that Luke had also severed Vader’s hand in Return of the Jedi. Yet, when Anakin appeared with Yoda and Obi-Wan before the closing credits of Episode VI, he was whole again and restored. Now to me, this is a very small plot hole, or perhaps an oversight, but nonetheless, it is something to be considered.
In any case, there is no shortage of fandom opinion, mostly negative, and much of it is vulgar. Hatred for Last Jedi can be found everywhere, and even more for Disney and for the president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy. I am not going to point out where it can be found on the internet as it is everywhere. On the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, the current numbers are, to me at least, very weird. Right now, as I am writing this, the critics give Last Jedi a 91% approval rating while at the same time, only 49% of audience respondents liked the film. Wikipedia reports that the film has grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, so someone must be liking it. Those who don’t are saying that they are through with Star Wars altogether and will not be returning for further installments claiming that Disney has effectively killed the franchise. One such person is a friend of mine that was so incensed by the movie that he posted nearly every day for two weeks about all of the things he hated and the reasons he would no longer be a fan. That’s a lot of hurt.
Personally, I do not understand why fandom feels the need to not only hate something that they do not have control over, and then try to convince others to go along with their point of view, as if they need to be validated for their feelings. If you are one of those that didn’t like Last Jedi, I am quite okay with that. Go ahead and hate all you want, rant all you want, and threaten to never again watch another Star Wars movie. It’s all good; no one dragged you to the theater to see it, and no one will drag you there to see the next one, but I will go on record now saying that I am sure you will actually be in the audience for whatever comes next. You’ll pay your admission, grab a popcorn and soda, and go in with the expectation that you are going to hate what you are about to see. You’ll do this because you need something to gripe about. Even if it is a perfect film, you’re still going to find something that rubbed you the wrong way, and you’re going to blow it way out of proportion. Further, you’re going to go on Facebook and try to convince others that you are right, and you may even find a few others that agree with you. And when you fail to convince everyone that you are right, you’re going to call them names and ridicule them because they didn’t see the same flaws you did, and you’ll troll others trying to pick your little fights with them. All of this because perhaps you have nothing else to look forward to in your life than nitpicking an entertainment.
I have said before, fandom is insane.
But I don’t care, I loved The Last Jedi, and I know that I will enjoy whatever is next. See, it is all a matter of perspective. Love it or hate it, but at the end of the day, it’s just a movie. At any rate, what we have seen is a resetting of the saga. The torch (or lightsaber) has been passed to a new generation and I am excited to see what is coming next.
Well, there it is…
May the Force be with you…
Qapla’!
Edited by Benjamin Arrowood
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