SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
Watching The Last Jedi has made me sit down and think about movies, storytelling, George Lucas, Disney, and my own viewing experience, which I suppose means that this is A Good Movie. My buddy Dave calls this the best Star Wars movie ever made, beating out his previous favorite, The Empire Strikes Back. There's a case for that. There's also a case of attaching the same labels to it as we did The Force Awakens - that it is a fan film, that the corporate stamp of Disney is evident in the weaving plot points of the movie. So it seems that opinion of it is diverging into good and bad directions, but there's a lot to unpack in this movie, and a lot to unpack in me and my expectations as I watched it.
First, I'd like to address subplots, and, for lack of better word, sub-themes. There were three sub-themes that wrapped up nicely, each with a moral lesson contained within, wrapped up with a bow on it. The first was Poe Dameron's learning to be a leader, which was a subplot throughout the movie. The second was the revelation that casino planet was attended by gun sellers. The third is the sentiment that "the Resistance can come from anywhere".
I can imagine the writing committee sitting down and saying, "Okay, let's give Poe some character development." Which they did. Which, in any other movie, is a perfect example of it and very welcome. It's never really happened so blatantly in a Star Wars movie before. In George Lucas-era Star Wars movies, things just happened. Han, Luke, and Leia had convictions and strength of character before they even got into trouble. I feel that this is specific to Star Wars movies due to the way that George Lucas wrote the original movies; they were an attempt to relive the Flash Gordon serials of his youth, as well as mixing elements of the Hero's Journey into the mix. In fact, it was almost solely focused on such elements. Every side character - from Boba Fett to Wedge Antilles and even to Lando Calrissian - were two-dimensional, and this is not necessarily a criticism. It remained focused on the events that were happening, and that was the crux of the excitement of the serial - will the rebels destroy the Death Star? Just like the serials, they were given enough interesting traits to let the audience know they were good guys, and then they were sent out on their adventures. Good was good and evil was evil. Now, contrast this with a movie laden with sub-themes. If George Lucas had written this movie, Poe and Vice Admiral Holdo's role would have been greatly reduced, or at least made more black and white. Holdo might have been irredeemably cowardly, or there might not have been a conflict at all. The moral of this subplot, as good as the message is, just wouldn't have been in a Star Wars movie.
The second and third subplots are the same. The moral messages - that selling weapons to both sides is wrong, and that the Resistance can be anyone - are additions that might not have been there in earlier movies. (I keep envisioning Remy the Rat in an X-Wing jumpsuit, but instead of saying anyone can cook, he says anyone can rebel.)
One has to understand what one is looking at when going into a Star Wars movie. It used to be a serialized joyride of narrow focus, but now it has been infused with extras, like a TV show needing to fill time. It's different. Regarding what Disney has done to Marvel, I see that it is formulaic. It is a better experience in that the movies are more efficient in their storytelling, going from beat to beat expertly. I can almost imagine the mathematical formulas underneath which calculate exactly how long to spend on any one scene. However, like all intellectual properties that have been acquired - from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings to the voice of Kermit the Frog to anything whose original author has passed on - it is never the same. One can put a moral meaning onto this indefinite life extension, calling it evil or greedy. If we dislike Disney for extending copyright indefinitely, how can we not say that this Star Wars, out of the hands of its original creator, is also a bad thing? Except that the movie is good. It's very good.
Second, let's look at what's happening to the old guard. Each one of them is being cleared away - first Han, then Luke, and probably Leia in the third movie. (I thought Leia might die in this one, but no, her scenes for Episode IX have already been filmed, and she was very important to this movie anyway and it would be strange to have her die now.) Again, it seemed like the writers sat down and said, "We are going to kill off the old folks one per movie." And of course they won't dispose of the droids or Chewbacca, because they are just costumes that anyone can inhabit.
Of course these old folks might want a good send-off. Harrison Ford wanted Han dead. Mark Hamill might have wanted Luke to stick around, but his death was done very well, so he has very little to complain about. I, on the other hand, wanted Luke to stick around. Leia too, but of course that cannot happen now. I called it months ago; I said that they're just finding ways to kill all the old people off. The Hero's Journey always contains the "Death of the Teacher", so I knew it would come. I had some hope that these movies would be less of a retread of the original trilogy, but that hope was dashed. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi have many, many repeated notes of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Homage or not, the copy-paste of many plot elements was groan-inducing. I remember audibly groaning and shaking my head at the opening crawl of The Last Jedi. Oh, look, the Resistance is trying to escape from the First Order. Now some characters are going to a swanky, clean place for what seems like a relatively safe time, but they get into trouble. A Jedi is training on a distant planet but leaves in order to save her friends. They escape at the last minute on the Millenium Falcon. So, knowing all of this, I knew Luke was going to die. The only surprise was that he died in this one and not asleep in his bed in the next one.
Third, I half-cynically see where Disney wants to go with Star Wars. Anyone can resist! The children at the end of the movie represent us. They represent the Disneyland-attending public who is going to flip out at the opening of Star Wars - Galaxy's Edge in 2019. The near-subliminal insistence of immersion at the end of the movie lines up with what they are trying to do in the parks. In short, you take on the role of a Resistance spy (or First Order agent), and your experiences within Star Wars land will be tailored to your choices. Before, feeling a connection to a character was because of projecting yourself onto that character, but now being in the Star Wars universe as your own character is taking on as much verisimilitude as Disney can muster. Again, this approach is new on this broad of a scale. Self-insertion used to be the bailiwick of roleplaying, video games, and bad fan fiction. Now it is mainstream.
Fourth, many lines and plot points in the movie were very meta. Everything in the movie was a reflection on some modern issue. Poe's subplot was apparently an attack on "mansplaining". Rey's lineage was shown to be devoid of any spoiler-laden connections, and Kylo Ren says to her, "You are nothing, but not to me." This is something the writers could very well be saying out of their mouths. Similarly, Luke (and the writers) say to Rey (the audience), "This is not going to go the way you think." Even the aforementioned subplots - the evils of gun selling, and that anyone can resist - seem as much like Sunday morning sermons as plot points in a movie. Yes, I know that sci-fi is supposed to do this sort of thing (Star Trek TV episodes did this very well), but has Star Wars ever been a vehicle for morality? That's not to say that characters were not moral; the heroes have always been so. But never before has it preached its morality this strongly, and never before have characters changed their mind about issues before. Yes, it reflects modern times and the need for modern people to change their mind about present-day issues. As important as this is, I still feel that something fundamental about Star Wars has changed as a result.
So did I like the movie? Yes, immensely so. Is better than The Empire Strikes Back (and therefore, according to Dave, the best ever)? To address this, I need to explain why I like Star Wars better than The Empire Strikes Back. In case you didn't know, popular consensus usually rates The Empire Strikes Back as the best Star Wars movie of all time. Contrarian that I am, I have always said that the first movie was the best. The Last Jedi has made clear to me why I have done so. The first movie was the essence of Star Wars. In it, George Lucas packed his story, his messages, his hopes and dreams. He thought that this movie might be his only chance to explore these concepts, and so wrapped it up in a complete package and spent years polishing it, just in case. In contrast, with the Empire Strikes Back, we have an expert director, a cast and crew settling into their roles, and an engine hitting on all cylinders. The modern movies are similar; "hitting on all cylinders" doesn't even begin to describe the well-oiled machine that is Disney. Star Wars was heart, Empire was technicality. Star Wars was Disneyland, Empire was Disney World. If you ever looked at Disneyland and knew why it was better than Disney World, even though it was smaller and older, then you know why I love Star Wars more than The Empire Strikes Back or The Last Jedi. For someone to say that The Last Jedi was the best demonstrates to me what they look for in a Star Wars movie, and it reminds me what I see in the first one.
I'm aware this makes me a snob, similar to people who rabidly insist that old black and white movies are worth watching, when in reality they sometimes bore me to tears. What makes people attach themselves to old, technically inferior iterations of a thing? Familiarity? In the words of Maz Kanata, "A good question for another time."
I'd definitely place The Last Jedi very high. Would I place it 2nd of all time on my list, surpassing The Empire Strikes Back? Quite possibly. But the title of "Greatest Star Wars Movie of All Time" depends on what you are looking for in a Star Wars movie. I fell in love with its simple, serial nature. Now that George Lucas has sold the franchise off, I don't think we're going to see that again. It took two Disney-led movies for me to finally see it. I'll highly enjoy the new movies, but with knowledge that they are what they are.
PS: It seems to me that "Anyone can resist", which I have already compared to Ratatouille's "anyone can cook", also seemed to follow a John Lasseter formula: make a moral the sole crux of the movie. Not that good triumphs over evil (though it does that in the movie also), but that the moral is the most important point of the movie. It reminded me of Meet The Robinsons, Lasseter's first movie under the Disney label. (Although who knows how much more of that we're going to get after his scandal.)
