- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- When The Force Awakens arrived in theaters a few years ago, it felt like the spirit of the original Star Wars trilogy had finally been resurrected. The film's characters, settings, music, direction, and even scene transitions came across as completely natural extensions of the original movies, and indeed the biggest knock against The Force Awakens is that its plot and characters hewed a little too close to the source material. The new sequel, Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi, also manages to recapture a Star Wars experience. Specifically, it reminds me of seeing The Phantom Menace for the first time and silently wondering whether or not I could walk out halfway through.
- Actually, that's not quite fair. If pressed, possibly by an Imperial interrogation droid, I would admit that The Last Jedi is probably better than The Phantom Menace, at least in terms of its acting. Series veterans Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, John Boyega, Carrie Fisher, and Oscar Isaac all deliver good performances, as do new arrivals Kelly Marie Tran and Laura Dern. The voices of Gwendoline Christie, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, and Frank Oz are also fine as voices hidden behind masks, both CGI and real. (Sadly, Domhnall Gleeson and Benicio del Toro, both excellent in other films, do not earn spots on the list of decent performances. They were both just annoying.)
- The abridged version of the plot: fledgling Jedi Rey (Ridley) sortof trains with Luke Skywalker (Hamill) while the Resistance kindof flees the New Order. As this rather limited set of events drags on for over two hours, the question of Rey's mysterious parentage is answered satisfactorily. The questions of what drove Kylo Ren (Driver) to betray Luke or whether Finn (Boyega) will recover from his severe injuries are answered stupidly. Still other lingering issues, such as the origins of Supreme Leader Snoke (Serkis) or how Maz Kanata (Nyong'o) ended up with Luke's lightsaber, are completely ignored. Emblematic of the film's approach to storytelling is a scene in which Luke and the ethereal Yoda (Oz) set the sacred Jedi texts on fire. I'm sure they intended the book burning scene as an act of revolution, but ummm...not the fascist symbolism you're looking for...you can go about your business...please move along.
- When the The Last Jedi does stumble upon an interesting idea, which admittedly happens a few times, it unfailingly botches the delivery. The film wants to promote the notion that women such as General Leia (Fisher) and Vice Admiral Holdo (Dern) are more sensibly cautious leaders than their male counterparts, but it does so by blowing Admiral Ackbar into the vacuum of space and transforming the previously likable Poe Dameron (Isaac) into an aggressive bonehead. It wants to take stands against war profiteering, animal cruelty, and income inequality, but crams all of those subthemes into a side trip to the most forgettable planet in the Star Wars universe. The Last Jedi even wants to argue that wars aren't won by mythical all-powerful heroes, but makes sure that Luke Skywalker is the only man in the universe who can prevent the New Order from destroying the Resistance.
- The thing that surprised me most about The Last Jedi, however, was how painfully unexciting this movie was. Say what you want about the other seven films, but the previous creative teams all invented at least a few exhilarating scenes and fantastic locations. In this film, the space battles are dull, the lightsaber fights disorienting, and the chase scenes predictable. Although Luke's island hideaway (inherited from The Force Awakens) is undeniably beautiful, the other locations are completely uninspired. At times, I found myself even losing track of where various important characters were, which is a problem I've never had with any other Star Wars movie. I'd even go so far as to claim that the film's only truly memorable moment arrives near the end, when Luke proves he's still strong with the Force in a clever riff on A Fistful of Dollars. A friend tried to convince me that The Last Jedi is a subtle attempt to create the opposite of The Empire Strikes Back, and I think he's got a point. You know what the opposite of a great movie is?
