Star Wars Episode VII- The Last Jedi...Once Was More Than Enough

 

 

I’ve only watched The Last Jedi once...once.

That was enough.

And this is from someone who has probably watched Star Wars, A New Hope over two hundred times. Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi a ton.

I went into it with cautious optimism after The Force Awakens. The new characters had potential, most of the old ones were back, and there was still room for the story to go somewhere meaningful. What we got instead was a film that felt less like a continuation and more like a deliberate demolition job at best, at worst a lecture.

Characters make decisions that exist primarily to serve the plot rather than growing out of who they are. Long-standing figures are diminished, sometimes for a punchline, sometimes for a thematic point that never quite lands. The tone swings from broad comedy to grim self-seriousness without much control. Trying to be Marvel too much there?

By the time the credits rolled I was left with the clear sense that the movie was more interested in subverting expectations than in telling a coherent Star Wars story.

I’ve rewatched the original trilogy many times. I’ve gone back to the prequels, Rogue One, and Solo. I’ve never felt the slightest urge to put The Last Jedi on again. Once was sufficient to know it doesn’t work for me. I'd watch the Holiday Special again or Ewoks, Battle for Endor before this...

It sits at the absolute bottom of my personal ranking of Star Wars films, and the gap between it and the next-lowest entry is not small: Attack of the Clones has real problems: stiff dialogue, awkward romance, some clunky plotting; but it still feels like Star Wars. It still has weight. The Last Jedi often feels like it’s actively arguing with the audience about what Star Wars is allowed to be, and the argument is not a persuasive one or that you're "wrong" for not agreeing.

And I don't buy for one minute that Rian Johnson is the fan he claims to be when it comes to Star Wars. Normally I wouldn't fan police anyone, like what you want to I always say. In this case though he had an active hand at crafting Star Wars, that deserves all the commentary it gets and then some.

And no Rian, your movie is NOT in the same league as Empire Strikes Back no matter how much you try to retroactively change your choices.  

I’m not interested in re-litigating every scene or every online battle that followed its release. The casino sequence (waste of time/pointless), the Holdo maneuver (break the in-universe much?), the treatment of Luke (I was never the biggest Luke fan anyway), the way certain character arcs simply evaporate: others have gone over those pieces in exhaustive detail. The point that sealed it for me in The Last Jedi? Fuel. You read that right, fuel. Its never been much of a thing in Star Wars and suddenly the entire flimsy plot hinges on it?

Get the hell outta here with that.

Then there is the places where they could have made truly great choice like Finn engaging in self sacrifice? NOPE! "Gotcha!!!" with subverting expectations, to which my eyes nearly rolled out of my skull.  

For me all of this is simpler: the movie sucks. It left a bad taste the first time and that taste never went away. Some films improve with a second look. This one doesn’t deserve a second look. You may like it and that's fine. But for me? Once was more than enough.

To head off the "old man Star Wars takes?" To be clear, if someone likes TLJ, more power to them. Its simply not for me. This has nothing to do with ruining my childhood either. Its simply I found it lacking.

There it is, the absolute worst Star Wars in my opinion. 

As a footnote, eagle eye readers will note I did not link directly to the Last Jedi...that's not an accident. I also deliberately left it off the post labels. Did I tell you how much I actively dislike this "movie?"