Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi is the second installment in the third trilogy of nine mainstream Star Wars movies that started back in 1977 with Episode IV: A New Hope. Back then, there was no such thing as CGI or 3D. So filmmaker George Lucas invented technology to make his vision come to life. His films were groundbreaking and laid the foundation for some of the greatest advances in cinema. Episodes IV, V, and VI were movies that changed how movies are made. They were ahead of their time and still hold up forty years later. In 1999, Lucas went back to tell us how it all began with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. CGI technology had come a long way, but it wasn't perfect. For his original trilogy, Lucas invented new technology to create what he saw in his mind. He received heavy criticism for Episode I as he seemed instead to settle for what technology was available at the time. He listened to the critics and scaled it back for Episode III, but it still lacked what made the original trilogy so special. In 2015, JJ Abrams and Disney joined forces (pun intended) to release Episode VII: The Force Awakens and it was the perfect blend of technology versus actual characters and actual props. Episode VIII continues Rey's (Daisy Ridley) Jedi training with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).
In my preview post, I spent much of the post drawing parallels between the 7 existing Star Wars movies. There are so many similarities between the plots, the twists, the characters, the scenes. I'll skip most of that, but restate my comparisons between Episode II and Episode V since Episode VIII is the second in the trilogy as well.
In
Episode II, Anakin's training is progressing rapidly. It is revealed
that Senator Palpatin is really the dark Sith Lord they've been looking
for and he begins to tempt Anakin with the power of the dark side.
During a battle with Count Dooku, Anakin loses his hand. The movie ends
with Anakin's arm and prosthetic hand around Padme (Natalie Portman)
with C3PO and R2-D2 at their side. In Episode V, Luke's training is
progressing rapidly. It is revealed the Darth Vader is actually Luke's
father as he begins to try to seduce Luke to the dark side. During a
battle with Vader, Luke loses his hand. The movie ends with Luke's arm
and prosthetic hand around Leah (Carrie Fisher) with C3PO and
R2-D2 at their side. Both movies begin to take a darker turn from their
lighter predecessor preparing us for the darkest third installment of
Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith. Ironically, the original
working title for Episode VI was Revenge of the Jedi, but Lucas changed
it to Return because a Jedi does not seek revenge. That is a
characteristic of the dark side, hence Revenge of the Sith.
So, if history repeated itself a third time, there should have been some similarities in the newly released Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi.
Rey's training should progress rapidly, and it does. There should be a surprising
reveal, but there really wasn't. The previews lead us to believe there could be some darkness in
Luke, but there isn't. It's more of his whiny self blaming himself for the fall of the Jedi and hoping his own isolation and death would bring an end to the Jedi. It could also have been in the revealing of who the holographic dark
lord Snoke really is. Well, we do get to see Snoke up close and personal, but we still don't know who he really is or where he came from. Kylo Ren will grow more powerful as he is
increasingly agitated with the struggle inside himself. That is definitely true. It will be
darker than Episode VII: The Force Awakens, but not nearly as dark as
Episode IX will be in two more years. It was certainly darker than its predecessor, but only time will tell what Episode IX has in store for us.
So this movie did not exactly follow the previous trilogy formulas of similarity. In fact, The Last Jedi's epic 2 hour and 44 minute adventure had elements of both second and third installments. Rey advances her training with Luke and faces her own demons. No one loses their hand in this movie like Anakin did in Attack of the Clones or like Luke did in Empire Strikes Back. And there really was no dramatic reveal. Yes, we find out who Rey's parents are, but after years of build-up and anticipation, the reveal from Kylo Ren is anti-climactic at best, if what he said is true. And we are given no reason to doubt the veracity of his claim. But that still doesn't explain Rey's connection with Luke and the force. We are also introduced to a new Han Solo type character. While Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) are imprisoned looking for the master hacker, fellow inmate DJ (Benicio Del Toro) helps them escape and vows to assist them in their mission for the right price. He later turns on them for his own freedom and a handsome payoff. He's a much more suitable Han character than Jar Jar Binks was apparently supposed to represent.
But The Last Jedi also had many elements of Episodes III and VI. Kylo Ren takes Rey to Supreme Leader Snoke in cuffs, each hoping to turn the other to their side of the force. Snoke sits confidently in his chair taunting Rey with her lightsaber at his side while the fleeing Rebel forces are under attack from the Galactic Empire.
I did take issue with a few things in the movie. I didn't care for all the "connection" scenes between Rey and Kylo Ren. Luke had a similar connection with Darth Vader, but this took it to almost an annoying level. I didn't care for Leah's "powers" that came out of nowhere. We were given a glimpse of her abilities in Empire Strikes Back when she feels Luke's whereabouts in Cloud City, and Yoda promises there is another hope for the Jedi referring to Leah and Luke says the force is in her, but we see none of it in Return of the Jedi or The Force Awakens. Also, actress Carrie Fisher sadly passed away before the film's release, but her character completed The Last Jedi which means it will have to be addressed in Episode IX. And I didn't care for Luke's trick against Kylo Ren.
JJ Abrams did not direct The Last Jedi,
but handed over the reigns to a fairly new director Rian Johnson
who's most notable works are a few episodes of Breaking Bad and the
Sci-Fi movie Looper. But, from the previews, Johnson looked like he was
more than up for the challenge. Unfortunately, I did feel that a bit of the JJ balance of CGI to real-life was sacrificed in this second installment. It was still leagues ahead of Episodes I-III, but not as flawless as Episode VII. Supreme Leader Snoke was animated with the same facial recognition technology as Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes and Avatar. It was good. But his disfigured face and mastery of the dark side were supposed to be menacing. I honestly found the Emperor from Episodes V and VI to be more scary and that was done purely through makeup. It looked like his animation wasn't limited to his face and hands, but included his clothes. For some reason, we can do hair, water, explosions really well, but clothes still elude animators when striving for undetectable perfection.
I gave Episode VII a rare perfect 5
Star rating so I expected the same perfection giving a 5 Star follow-up prediction for Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. I thought most of the animation was fantastic. It was a great story and thoroughly entertaining. I'm glad I saw it in the theatre and it was worth the money. I know I'll be owning it, but I am dropping my rating to 4 Stars. So, what movie will be on my mind next? We shall see.
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