I’ve been a lifelong Star Wars fan, ever since I saw A New Hope as a kid. My family still has a large collection of Star Wars LEGO sets. Somewhere in a box are several discarded Star Wars Halloween costumes, ranging from Princess Amidala to Obi Wan Kenobi.
I was pleasantly surprised by The Force Awakens in 2015. It wasn’t my favorite Star Wars movie, but it was still a million times better than any of the prequels. Suffice to say, both my expectations and my excitement were high going in to see The Last Jedi opening weekend.
Was I disappointed? Sort of. Let me explain. Warning: spoilers ahead.
To begin, there are many things to like, even love, about The Last Jedi. The cast, ranging from newcomer Kelly Marie Tran to household names such as Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, remains strong. The first time I saw the late Fisher on screen, I felt myself getting teary, and despite all the “Mark Hamill can’t act” jokes I had heard leading up to the film’s release, I thought he delivered a strong performance as the troubled Luke Skywalker.
This is the most diverse Star Wars movie ever. Kelly Marie Tran, who plays Rose, has said in interviews that “there [was] one [moment] where John and I were filming a scene and, as soon as we finished the shot, he turned to me and said, ‘We’re making history.’” Tran is the first female Asian-American actress to star in a Star Wars film. It’s a sign of how white and male the movie industry is that the fact that there are scenes of just her and John Boyega is something to be lauded.
There were many gorgeous visuals, from the isolated island where Luke trains Rey to Snoke’s imposing red-colored command room. The movie also abounded with plot twists, which not even the most inventive fans had predicted online. A strong theme that runs throughout the movie is that one doesn’t need to come from someplace special to be special, which I loved.
But despite a strong final act, the movie lagged in the middle. At two hours and 35 minutes, The Last Jedi is the longest Star Wars movie ever, and it shows. While the longer run-time allows for more character development than normally allowed in a blockbuster film, the pacing is also strange and some scenes feel out of place.
Threads, such as the rich people making money off selling weapons to both the Resistance and to Snoke (leader of the First Order, who the Resistance is fighting against), are brought up only to be dropped minutes later.
The main conflict revolves around how the Resistance is being tracked by Snoke, and is therefore flying just out of range of Snoke’s cannons as their fuel slowly runs out. Finn (Boyega), Rose (Tran), and Poe (Oscar Isaac) spend most of the movie struggle to figure out how to break the tracker.
However, much of this tension is made void. When they finally do solve the problem, it is with a solution that could have been made much earlier in the movie, saving both a whole lot of lives and time. The solution is so clear, in fact, that I was distracted from the action on the screen to wonder at the gaping plot holes that prevented them from doing this sooner.
Finally, there were moments where I felt like The Last Jedi couldn’t decide between whether it was a Star Wars movie or the latest Marvel space caper. While the thumping of the iconic theme music as the introduction played made me shiver, the movie opens with a quippy sequence between space pilot Poe Dameron and General Hux that felt straight out of Guardians of the Galaxy.
With rumors that the next movie of this new Disney Star Wars empire, a Han Solo origin pic, is a disaster, I am left a strange mixture of excited and worried for Episode 9.
