Another Star Wars movie? Ok, let's do
this. 2015's Episode VII: The Force Awakens was pretty good, a
healthy slab of light-hearted fun. Can The Last Jedi keep up
the exciting pace and build upon the new stories set up by its
predecessor?
Short answer: not really.
So the story is that the Resistance
leadership is on the run from the First Order's fleet and Rey has to
convince the hermit Luke Skywalker to help fight the badguys, as well
as teach her in the ways of the Force of course. It's a story that
accomplishes surprisingly little in spite of its two-and-a-half hour
run time. This is partially due to the fact that about three-quarters
of The Last Jedi is a ripoff/remake of The Empire Strikes
Back. Seriously. Without getting too much into spoilers here's a
brief list of things lifted straight off of Episode V:
- the majority of the film involves the insurgent leadership fleeing from an empire's fleet after evacuating their base,
- a group of heroes travel to a luxurious city to seek help in getting away from the badguy fleet,
- a submerged x-wing just outside an old Jedi master's hut,
- the wannabe Jedi apprentice enters a trippy cave of evil, and
- an old Jedi master refusing to train a young wannabe but giving in after having a chat with his ghost pal.
For cryin' out loud, they even redid
the Battle of Hoth! Except this time TLJ tries reassuring us that it
isn't Hoth by having one random character go out of his way to remark
that the white powdery stuff on the ground is salt, not snow. That
makes it totally different, OK?! What's more, the series has mostly
dropped the “resistance” label in favour of “rebels” – who
now use the original trilogy's Rebel Alliance symbol. So yeah, the
sequel trilogy is pretty much just straight remaking the original
trilogy at this point.
And could they at least be bothered to
give this remake a good plot? Side characters come and go with little
to no explanation: Paige Tico just shows up and we're already
supposed to care about her whereas Benicio Del Toro's character
inexplicably disappears from the film. In fact, Finn's whole
subplot/adventure pretty much goes nowhere, seemingly just to set up
a fight scene at the end. The film has not one, but two climaxes
which could have been combined into one to save some run time, just
sayin'. And to cap it all off, there's a scene in which a main
character survives a near-death experience in what is without a doubt
the stupidest and cheesiest moment in any Star Wars movie –
including the prequels! I don't want to give away too much, but this
one particular scene is so hokey that I half-expected Han Solo's
ghost to pop up on screen and say, “Hey, audience. You believe in
______, right? Then why don't you clap your hands and help [him/her]
out!”
Some of these plot problems seem to be
symptomatic of the Disney-fication of Star Wars; everything is
frustratingly kid-friendly. Everything that happens in this film is
explained in the most basic possible terms as if this was every
character's first day in the Resistance navy. No detail is too small
to clarify, no audience member too dumb. There's also a bunch of
lame, forced humour reminiscent of the prequel trilogy. The only
difference is that instead of bumbling droids, we've got General Hux
and a bunch of CG Furbies (because Furbies are definitely something
the world needed to be reminded of).
Speaking of Disney, the SJW force is
strong with the Last Jedi. Did anyone else find it kind of odd
that almost all of the Resistance's commanding officers are human
females? Normally this wouldn't bother me too much if it weren't for
one character: Vice Admiral Holdo, played by Laura Dern. This
purple-haired (seriously), t-shirt dress-clad character looks like
she belongs in some sort of coming-of-age drama, not an action movie
like Star Wars. She doesn't even have a badass English accent
to lend her role some gravitas. I miss Mon Mothma.
The rest of the characters are a mixed
bag. Some, like Supreme Leader Snoke and Rose Tico are dull and not
so interesting. However we do get to learn a lot more about Kylo Ren,
perhaps the most engaging figure in this new trilogy. Additionally
Mark Hamill's performance as Luke Skywalker is much more intense and
nuanced than you may expect.
The visuals of The Last Jedi are
also of varying quality. There's a bunch of good-looking shots. The
set design is top-notch and includes a lot of splashes of red. But
remember in my Force Awakens review when I claimed that the
promise of more practical effects over CG effects was a lie? I stand
by that, and things on the FX front haven't changed much in TLJ.
While the CG isn't bad (except on animals), some authentic
tangibleness would be more greatly appreciated.
In conclusion, The Last Jedi isn't
a bad film; the fight scenes are excellent, the scoring is nice, and
some of the characters are stimulating enough. Unfortunately the plot
is an undercooked mess and the lack of originality is staggering. I
fully understand why TLJ is getting so much hate from the fandom, but
when considering the film's tone and presentation I'm beginning to
think that this sequel trilogy is a set of Star Wars films that was
simply made for a different type of audience in mind.
But at least we got to see where green
milk comes from.
Grade:
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