DECEMBER 22 — Two weeks ago, I speculated about what Star Wars: The Last Jedi would be like.
While I wasn’t falling all over myself in terms of expectations, I certainly was not expecting to be disappointed on this massive scale!
Before I continue, I should hope that the “spoiler filled review” part of the headline is fair warning to readers to stop reading if they do not want their viewing of the movie spoiled.
So why was The Last Jedi such a disappointment to me? If I had to sum it up in a sentence, because it simply was such a big departure from the original Star Wars spirit.
Let us begin with the main story thread: The Resistance (formerly known as the Alliance or the Rebellion) is facing an existential threat from the First Order. They are going to escape through a hyperspace jump.
Right off the bat, this already reminded me of The Empire Strikes Back where the same situation occurred at the start of the movie.
This already soured me a bit, given that Star Wars: The Force Awakens seemed to be a magnified version of Star Wars (retitled to Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope).
However, it was a satisfying beginning thanks to Poe Dameron’s bold move against the empire. I must say though, the prank-like demeanour of Poe along with the comical response of the First Order admiral seemed out of place.
Perhaps the most interesting thread in this movie is that of Rey and her quest to bring back the legendary Luke Skywalker to assist the Resistance.
Like in The Force Awakens, a hero from the original trilogy, Han Solo, makes a welcome return. However, while Han was his old lovable rogue-ish self, albeit much older, Luke was not himself anymore.
One could argue that 30 years have passed and thus he had changed but I think the core personality change could not be justified.
Luke had become disillusioned with the Jedi, believing that their time is over. This was all due to his own failure at establishing a new Jedi temple.
Does one man’s failure equal to the failure of an entire system? Some people may think so but not Luke! Luke had all the while established himself as a selfless individual who sacrificed himself for the greater good.
In Return of the Jedi, he surrendered himself so the rebels would not be detected. It certainly seemed out of character for him to dismiss the Jedi simply because of his own failures.
Next, let’s consider Snoke, the Sith Lord. In The Force Awakens, he only appeared as a hologram but in The Last Jedi, he is there in the flesh.
Despite fans’ countless theories about his origins, he was simply reduced to Kylo Ren’s moment of triumph. Kylo used an opportune moment to slice Snoke in half!
One may argue that this has happened before with Palpatine but I would say that this move was a complete letdown to the fandom! Snoke would have been the perfect device to provide some sort of bigger plot twist instead of being dismissed completely.
One of my pet peeves with the Star Wars prequels (Episodes 1-3 from 1999-2005) was the introduction of the “midi-chlorian”, the biological basis for the Force. It was a clunky, unwelcome addition to the Star Wars lore and was dispatched after Episode 1.
In The Last Jedi, we have another ill-fitting addition in the form of the Jedi’s ancient books! What are these books and why had the Jedi temple on Coruscant not ever mentioned them?
This is a major change to the Jedi lore and in the end, the books were decimated by Yoda who came back as a Force-ghost. For this mess alone, old-time fans like myself should simply abandon Star Wars!
In the climatic end in which I thought Finn would sacrifice himself, instead we find Luke Force projecting himself to buy the Resistance some time to escape. This was meant to be a Sixth Sense type surprise but fell flat on its face.
From Luke’s initial visit to Leia, one could already guess that he was not there in person. He looked 20 years younger, for a start! He did not make any marks on the salt based planet while Kylo Ren did.
If there was no comment made about the marks (in another context), it may have worked. Sadly, it was made too obvious and I could only manage a “yawn” when the big reveal came.
The Last Jedi could have been so much more meaningful. Perhaps I am clinging too strongly to the original trilogy that I cannot tolerate any change?
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
