Directed by: Rian Johnson
Written by: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill
IMDb Link
The Last Jedi is at once definitively Star Wars and yet subversive enough to feel unique in the pantheon, taking the mythos that The Force Awakens made us all fall in love with again and tackling it with new energy form new direcxtions.
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The film opens with an incredible space battle, which briefly and intentionally stalls before moving at a breakneck blitz. Rian Johnson's directorial skill is on display in full force here, as Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac)whips between targets so close to the edge of death that you're forced to remain at the edge of your seat, unsure whether or not death will come for him at any given moment, so emotionally powerful despite how little we know of Poe. The film then moves at a constant march, centred mostly around the last resistance cruiser housing most of the main characters, as it is forced to keep moving by a dogged First Order fleet, its dwindling fuel ever a reminder of impending doom. It's a simple and incredibly effective sense of foreboding, the slowly drains the hope from the movie and circumstances become all the more bleak, and it contrasts well with the pure kinetic energy of its opener. It's quintessential space opera, going through an emotional roller coaster withing five minutes.
Meanwhile, Rey (Ridley) seeks out Luke Skywalker (Hamill) so that he might restore the Jedi Order, reviving hope in the Republic, and in her. We learn more of the fall of the Jedi Order under Luke's watch, the doubts that play in his mind and keep him from returning for fear of setting another monster like Kylo Ren (Driver) on the galaxy; Hamill slips back in to the role seamlessly, and his inevitable but hard-won reluctant tutelage of Rey reveals so much about how the character has changed without needing to say much about it. Ridley is also excellent as Rey, now much more mired in personal conflict, as the driving force behind her character in The Force Awakens is now properly tackled head-on.
The visuals in the film are fantastic, with constant images of red, white, black and grey colour impose themselves over particular characters or scenes, light shifts constantly and intentionally to reinforce the embattled nature of the characters, and the camera whips about to keep the audience right in the middle of its heart-pounding action. The style communicates so much emotional weight without needing much context; doubling down on its visual metaphor to breathtaking effect. Likewise, the sound of the movie is a strong mixture of old and new, of moving symphonies and that recall the originals or the occasional obvious but satisfying inclusion of the Imperial March. It toes the line between the obvious and the surprising.
This can be said for the whole movie: without getting in to detail, one of the strengths of The Last Jedi is its self-awareness, an understanding of everything that is expected of it and the fact that everything that is expected of it is old hat. With this keen knowledge, the film navigates its story by sometimes moving in directions that are unexpected, not necessarily surprising but still different enough to feel unique. The film knows that much of what it does is inevitable, but it doesn't resign itself to what it has to do, playing the part of the struggle to keep you just that much in doubt of what will happen next.
While I could sing praises of the film all day, the film does have a few minor issues with pacing in its second act, which feels unnecessarily drawn out and the events of which only comes back around to being significant at the film's final moments. There's also the nature of some deus ex machinas and plot contrivances that seem unnecessary, one in particular being a spoiler so I won't detail it here; however, in one case Finn (John Boyega) and newcomer Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) try and fail to find a codebreaker, but after failing just run in to a codebreaker that can do the job they need. It's a strange and unnecessary addition, and while just about anything in this movie can be explained with "The Force" it doesn't mean that that explanation is always satisfying. These are, however, minor factors that are ultimately dwarfed by the film's successes.
The Short Version: The Last Jedi is raw drama and kinetic energy, rarely stumbling as it draws itself out across the entire spectrum of emotion. It inspires awe and foreboding or blood-shrieking tension as easily as it does its precious few breaths of humorous fresh air, and gives equal meaning to both, balancing a complex mixture of feelings with excellence in its execution, causing all minor quibbles to pale in comparison.
Rating: 9/10
Published December 14th, 2017
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