Spoiler Filled Thoughts On The Last Jedi (And Why It Disappointed Me)

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE LAST JEDI (2017)

I’m ready for a second viewing of The Last Jedi. It may be one of those movies I appreciate more on a repeat watch. In my review of it (click here to read it!), I didn’t delve into spoilers, as that’s unfair on people who are reading the review but haven’t seen the film. Now, however, it’s time to dive straight into spoiler territory to understand why I disliked the film. Not only for the reader, but for myself as well. Sometimes, you take a dislike to something without knowing why. Not only that, but a lot of the criticism of people who hated The Last Jedi has centred on a few things. People’s legitimate criticisms have been undermined by the film’s defenders. I’ll take a look at those along the way as well.

Luke Skywalker isn’t the man he used to be

First of all, let’s examine some of the reasons people don’t like The Last Jedi. For example, Luke Skywalker seems to be a different character in The Last Jedi to the one he was in the original trilogy. He’s bitter, angry, and appears to have given up hope in the Force and saving the galaxy from the First Order. Luke is the hero of the original trilogy, but he’s certainly no hero here. If that’s what you’re expecting, then prepare to be disappointed. But over a period of thirty years, people will change. People point to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, and their actions after Episode III. Didn’t they give up hope after Palpatine killed most of the Jedi and took over the Republic? Well, yes, from a certain point of view. But I never felt like they had given up from the way their characters were portrayed in A New Hope/The Empire Strikes Back. This Luke Skywalker has given up.

Luke Skywalker is just another grumpy and morally grey middle aged man…the kind we see on TV all the time!

That’s not a problem, really. But would Luke Skywalker even think about killing someone? He was tempted to kill Kylo Ren because he felt the Dark Side in Ren. Is that the Luke we know and love? At that point, he wasn’t the bitter and angry man we meet in The Last Jedi. To me, it felt like an forced attempt to add a bit of grey to the light/dark divide of Star Wars. I can understand why some people were disappointed/disgusted with Luke’s new character. But I went along with it. This also ties in with Rey’s Jedi training…which doesn’t consist of much at all. For me, the poor structure of the film was the main reason the Luke/Rey storyline didn’t work. The film’s focus was blurred, meaning we didn’t get nearly as much out of the Luke/Rey storyline as we should have.

Leia learns to use the Force to glide through space

Another classic Star Wars character was also the centre of fan’s ire: Princess Leia. She’s blown out of a ship and looks like she’s about to die. By using the Force, she moves herself out of space death and back into the ship (where Poe opens the airlock without being sucked out into space himself!). I have no problem with this scene on the surface. It’s entirely plausible she could have used the Force to move herself. However, it looked plain silly. I was on the verge of tears as I saw Leia close to death, but struggled to hold my laughter as she glided through space. I’m not able to propose a better way of filming/editing that scene, of course. But I shouldn’t have been laughing at such a scene.

Not only that, but side-lining Leia gave the floor to Vice Admiral Holdo, who ended up sacrificing herself to save the Resistance. Wouldn’t that have been a much more emotional moment if it was Leia sacrificing herself to save the Resistance? Holdo was a pretty dull character (even Laura Dern looked bored for much of her screen time). Allegedly The Last Jedi wanted to break with the past of Star Wars. Wouldn’t killing off Luke and Leia in the same film have accomplished with great effect?

Rey’s parents are…common thieves!

Other revelations in The Last Jedi were also ruined by poor presentation. Rey’s parentage was the subject of millions of fan theories since The Force Awakens hit the cinema screens. Was she a Kenobi? Was she a Skywalker? It turns out she was the child of lowlife parents. I have no problem with that on the surface. Never mind that Luke’s original blue lightsabre gave Rey visions and snippets of dialogue from Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. But it’s revealed when Kylo Ren tells Rey that she’s always known the identity of her parents. Oh, it’s that simple, is it? It’s not as if the mystery of her parents was downplayed in The Force Awakens. It was quite a big thing. In The Last Jedi, it’s dealt with in a throwaway line.

Think back to when Darth Vader reveals he’s Luke’s dad. It’s built up after a lightsabre fight, and Vader slowly leads Luke into the revelation. Luke reacts with disgust and denial and throws himself to certain death. Rey squeezes a few tears out of her eyes and everyone moves on. And Luke’s parentage wasn’t even brought up in A New Hope! It wasn’t even built up!

It turns that Snoke is…Oh wait, it doesn’t matter who he is!

Maybe Snoke used the new Force Power of Force Hologram…and he’s not actually dead at all…but who cares now?

The similar fan obsession about Snoke’s identity also led to disappointment with The Last Jedi. We don’t learn anything about him, and he’s sliced in half by Kylo Ren in a scene strikingly similar to the Emperor/Vader/Luke threeway in Return of the Jedi. It’s another example of Rian Johnson offering up a very similar situation but trying to shock us by twisting the ending. It’s true, we never learn anything about The Emperor in the original trilogy. He only appears in two films as well. My problem isn’t with the fact that we don’t learn that Snoke is Darth Plageuis, or Jar Jar Binks, or Mace Windu. My problem is that killing the BIG BAD made The Last Jedi feel like the final part of the trilogy, rather than the middle part. It left me with little excitement for the next instalment (also, what was the point of using motion capture for Snoke? He barely moves out of his chair!).

Not only that, but we don’t learn any more about the Resistance or the First Order. Why are the Resistance called the Resistance? Do they have anything to do with the Republic? Have the First Order filled the void that they left by destroying the Republic’s home planets in The Force Awakens? How were the First Order affected by the loss of Starkiller Base? And why are they still so powerful in The Last Jedi? Now, I know that after the loss of the Death Star in A New Hope the Empire were still strong enough to outnumber the Rebellion and fund a second Death Star. But they were the Empire and ruled the galaxy! We hardly know anything about the First Order (or the Resistance).

I, among many Star Wars fans, wanted something different after The Force Awakens. That was basically a remake of A New Hope. We complained and wanted something different. We were given something different and we still complain. You can’t please all of the people all of the time. But in its striving to be different and “kill the past,” as Kylo Ren says, The Last Jedi stutters and stumbles during its overly long duration. By killing off Snoke, making Luke a bitter old man, and devoted a long chunk of the running time to alien horses running through a casino, all of the potentially potent themes of The Last Jedi are either lost in the mess or shoved down your throat. There are legitimate criticisms about The Last Jedi that don’t involve disappointment about Snoke’s identity or Rey’s parentage. I’ll admit the film was brave. But it was also bloated, poorly structured and meandering.

Leave your thoughts/comments below!

Click here for my review of The Last Jedi (2017)