'The Last Jedi' Is A Good Star Wars Movie And I'm Tired Of Pretending Otherwise

Yes I've decided to poke this particular bear.

So, those of you who read my blog will know that I recently re-reviewed 'The Rise of Skywalker' and I had a lot of negative things to say. I do not hold a lot of love for that movie, and I think one of the main reasons why is because I like it's direct predecessor so damn much.

The problem is, liking 'The Last Jedi' is...complicated. Not just because a very, VERY vocal segment of the fandom outright despise this film (to what some might call a ridiculous degree), but because it's a good movie that has some frustratingly dumb stuff in it.

As I mentioned in my re-review of TRoS, I've been wrapping up a hell of a Star Wars binge recently, and I was very excited to rewatch this movie in particular; it had been a while, and after spending so much time watching every other film and thinking about how TRoS does the franchise so dirty, I was curious how I would feel given that this is the most divisive film of the bunch. Imagine my surprise when I found myself enjoying the movie even more than on previous watches. As I've come to accept, and calm down on, the very real flaws in this movie, I've also come to enjoy its good aspects even more.

See to me, this movie FEELS like a Star Wars movie, and that doesn't mean "this movie follows all of the tropes I expect from a Star Wars movie because it's all Star Wars has done since 'Return of the Jedi'". No, I mean that this movie feels like the Star Wars that George Lucas introduced us to in 1977; something fresh and exciting, albeit something that's now working within the confines of an established franchise. I am firmly of the belief that this is the actual best Star Wars film since 'Empire', I'm dead serious about that, but before I can say why, I have to talk about why I think this film gets so much undeserved scorn.

One thing I've noticed is that Star Wars fans have this bad habit of putting the Star Wars films up on a pedestal. You guys know me, you know I'm probably one of the biggest Star Wars fans on this Earth. I can quote just about every movie beginning to end, but if you asked me, gun to my head, which of the pre-Disney Star Wars films are honest to goodness GOOD MOVIES, I'd say episodes 4 and 5 and...that's about it. 'The Rise of Skywalker' might be the movie that personally gets under my skin the most, but it's far from the only bad film in the franchise, heck it probably isn't even objectively the worst. Star Wars movies are dumb, goofy space adventures, and every single movie (yes, even the classics) has mistakes, and silliness, and dumb stuff that doesn't make any sense (and I've got the proof, believe me, I have watched the movies A LOT), and 'The Last Jedi' is no different in this regard. Like, imagine if Star Wars fans picked apart these sequences as much as they pick apart every scene in the new media:

They'd call this bad stunt work/choreo and talk shit on the entire sequence because of it. Multiple videos with obnoxious thumbnails would break down every second of this.

They'd call this an unnecessary flourish, post on forums about it for weeks and say that this movie doesn't understand Jedi duels.

I don't even know where to start with this one. This was so awful. How can anyone look at this and tell me the fight scenes in the sequels are worse? No way, man.

They'd ask why Mace Windu didn't take that 3 second opening to just kill Palpatine while he was busy making funny faces. Both actors would get hate on social media for a scene this goofy.

But they don't do that, because they can overlook the dumb stuff and have fun, and I think it would help them to approach the new content with that same mindset. Look at these gifs and tell me these movies aren't goofy as hell. But please, tell me more about how 'The Last Jedi' has the worst fights in the franchise because you saw that Corridor Crew video where they discuss the throne room scene

Now this is not to say that people who criticize this movie don't have a leg to stand on, they absolutely do! I've said many times before that there are things in this movie that just straight up don't work. What I'm saying is that if we're going to criticize a Star Wars movie, we have to criticize it in the same context as the other Star Wars movies, because 'The Last Jedi' has the same dumb stuff in it that literally every other Star Wars movie has (well, except for TRoS which had its own special brand of nonsense).

Anyway, let's take some time to pretend 'The Rise of Skywalker' doesn't exist, and enjoy the things that make this the last truly good Star Wars movie...

Kylo Ren: Let's start off in the same fashion as my TRoS review; with my favorite character from the trilogy.

Kylo Ren is a great character. He's an unhinged, unpredictable, loose cannon of a Sith, and I love that his character arc keeps me guessing at every turn in this movie. Kylo gives us something the Star Wars films post-'Return of the Jedi' were sorely lacking; a GOOD VILLAIN. A villain with personality, and character traits, and motives. And yes, I do mean villain, because before TRoS came around and flipped the script for no reason, Kylo Ren was going to end this trilogy as the villain, as he should have.

The character arc for Ren in this movie is just so damn good, and it's because of two major factors; Rian Johnson is a smart writer, and Adam Driver is a great actor. After 'The Force Awakens', a lot of people complained that Kylo Ren was just "a whiney baby" and that he shouldn't have been beaten by a girl who'd never held a lightsaber (ignoring the fact that Rey can fight and that Ren got shot with the "people exploder 9000" that is the Wookie Bowcaster right before the fight), but instead shoehorning in a bad explanation (*cough* JJ ABRAMS *cough*), Johnson makes his failings a part of his character evolution. We see his character change because of these things; his need for victory turns from explosive, directionless anger to a focused fury and desire for control. Not only are his increasingly short fuse and his obviously bruised ego natural and logical progressions following the events of TFA, but they also help to increase the impact of the moments where his humanity and his inner conflict shows through, and it helps that Adam Driver absolutely dominates every scene that he's in.

But the cleverest bit is that while he does change because of these failures, he doesn't grow, he doesn't learn from them, and in the end, this causes his defeat (learning from failure is the theme of the movie after all). He's fueled by anger and hate, and every bad decision he makes just leads to more bad decisions; even on the edge of victory, his rage blinds him to Luke's obvious illusion, causing him to make a fool of himself in front of his new subordinates and allowing the rebellion to live to fight another day. This makes Kylo Ren feel like a true Sith, I mean ripped right from 'Knights of the Old Republic', which leads me to believe that Rian Johnson has a better understanding of the Star Wars universe than people give him credit for; Sith are basically defined by a lust for power, self-aggrandizement and insecurity.

Rey: Rey is not a Mary Sue, we're just gonna get that out of the way right off the bat. She just isn't, not by definition and not by the connotative meaning that was popularized amongst the more insecure of Star Wars fans. She's a Jedi, like every other main character, and she's good at stuff, just like every other main character. I don't want to see any more novella-length comments about how she's overpowered just because she can win fights and fly ships, she's the main character in a Star Wars movie for fucks sake.

I've mentioned in a couple previous blog posts how much I like Rey's arc in this movie, I love that her arc was designed to throw us off balance; not only do we expect Rey to be related to someone powerful, we also expect her to save the day by bringing Luke back into the Resistance, and we expect her to turn Ren from the dark side to help fight against the villainous Snoke, but Johnson turns all of this on its head. Johnson uses our preconceived notions of how a Star Wars film should play out to subvert our expectations in a way that makes the story more exciting. Now the Force can be strong in anybody! Now anybody can be a hero of the Rebellion, not just someone everybody already knows! Now villains can have their own story arcs! Imagine a Star Wars movie where Rey is just Obi-Wan's secret daughter, or, heaven forbid, Palpatine's granddaughter (can you imagine?), and how utterly disappointing that would be for her character. The whole point of Rey's arc in this movie is coming to terms with who you are, that you don't have to be someone to be special. She's just a random person who's strong in the Force, and who got swept up into the galactic conflict. What separates her from others isn't that she's related to anyone powerful, it's not that she's an incredibly charismatic leader, and it's not that she's some kind of chosen one, it's that she wants to make a difference for the better, and she just so happens to have the power to make it happen.

How this wasn't enough of a character for JJ and crew is simply beyond me. Rey is the daughter of filthy junk traders as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and this is a minor thing, but I really like how Daisey Ridley plays Rey as a less-refined Jedi duelist, much more of a scrapper. That's a nice touch.

Luke: Look, I've spoken at length about Luke too much at this point. His arc is good, it's great, it might be one of my favorite in Star Wars. Seeing overpowered, OG extended universe Luke would have been boring and predictable and I'm glad that we got something fresh for him. However, there is one thing about Luke that still comes up that I have to discuss; the scene where he confronts young Ben, because this scene has been WILDLY misrepresented by people who hate this movie. The common argument they make is a simple one; Luke wouldn't kill a youngling, and this argument is true (as the movie itself points out, for those keeping score), but it also...isn't what happens in the film.

What happens is that Luke, having sensed darkness in Ben (who is, for the record, practically a grown-ass man at this point, not a youngling), peers into Ben's mind while he's asleep. In doing so, he sees "death, destruction, and the end of everything [he] loves", and for the briefest of moments he thinks he could put a stop to it before he comes to his senses and realizes he could never do such a thing, but it's too late, as Ben wakes up to find his master standing over him with his lightsaber ignited, giving him a final push towards the dark side. It's important to note here that Luke wasn't just about to haphazardly slaughter a child, as you might imply from angry Youtubers, but was thinking of preemptively stopping mass destruction on a galactic scale which is...not unreasonable. This isn't even remotely similar to Luke's relationship with Vader, as these same people like to imply; Luke uses his relationship with Vader to attempt to save his father and defeat the Emperor, but in this case he sees an opportunity to stop a Vader from ever happening in the first place which, again, is a pretty reasonable thing to consider when the fate of the literal galaxy is at stake.

The Technical Stuff: I don't think it's too far off to say that this is the best looking of the mainline Star Wars films, it looks really, really great. I'm not sure what exactly about it looks so much different, it's a hard thing to put my finger on. I can definitely say that the shot composition/cinematography is truly excellent, with some shots in this film being among the best in the franchise. The CGI is also composited extremely well for the most part, and the abundance of practical effects helps the sets feel so real compared to a lot of other blockbuster films these days.

Likewise, the action is excellent. Obviously there's some rough choreography in the throne room scene (which I think is a side effect of them just having too many people to fight, they should have trimmed it down), but aside from that I'd say the action scenes in this film are the best in this trilogy. The lightspeed kamikaze is really great, the battle of Crait is tense and exciting (right up until Rose is forced to have one of the most awkward scenes in the franchise), the throne room fight is still cool and you know it, and despite what a lot of people say, I think the opening battle with the bombers is really neat. I honestly struggle to figure out what it is people don't like about this scene, is it because the strategy of running the slow bombers right at the enemy ship with just light fighter protection is bad? Is it because Hux doesn't intervene while the dreadnought is destroyed? Because I've always taken those things to kinda be the point; Poe is making a rash, strategically unsound decision because he's a hothead and he thinks this is being heroic, and Hux is an overconfident man-child with too much power and no idea what to do with it.

I'm also a big fan of the simple story: Rey must hurry to try and bring Luke back into the fold as the Resistance desperately tries to outrun a massive First Order fleet. Star Wars stuff ensues. I feel like I say this all the time, but I wish more movies would just keep things simple, and this movie...kinda does that (we'll get into some of the issues with this later, though).

Moving On:

I've spoken at length in previous articles about the aspects of this movie that don't work, but I'll cover them briefly here for a couple of reasons; one, I want to be fair, balance in all things and whatnot, and two, I've actually calmed down a bit on some of the bad stuff in this movie and I'd like to talk about them in a new light.

I'll do my best to keep these brief...

Poe: As I mentioned in my trilogy review, Poe's arc is perfectly fine, but it isn't informed well by his relationship with Admiral Holdo. His arc makes sense in theory, you can see what it's going for and I think it gets there in the end, but the middle portion is muddled by Holdo's confusing strategy. Poe is never framed as being wrong because we don't understand what Holdo is going for, so instead of reading like Poe being a hothead, we get a series of scenes in which Poe's anger and eventual mutiny seem justified from our perspective. It's strange, because with her plan being such a massive risk, it would seem reasonable for him to be angry or fearful, heck, a high-risk plan that he's fearful about could be a great character moment for him seeing as HE lead a high risk plan that got others killed earlier in the film. His arc isn't bad, it's just not executed perfectly.

Finn: Finn is done a little bit dirty by this movie, but now that I have a little perspective (TRoS), I can say that at least he still has some kind of purpose here. While his arc is a bit of a retread, depending on how you view his arc in the previous film, I don't dislike his time on screen nearly as much as when I first viewed the film. While I still don't particularly love the Canto Bight sequence, as I re-watched it recently, I had to admit to myself that if I were a kid watching that sequence I'd probably be having a blast, so I can't be too upset. It's Star Wars after all. Unfortunately, his scenes are bogged down by the awkwardness that is...

Rose: This is pretty rough, but Rose's character just isn't realized well in this film. I don't have a problem with her character in theory, but teaching Finn that war is bad should not have been her purpose in this story. Finn should know that, and their combined arc should be about doing something with that information. It feels like a huge missed opportunity to have these two go on a wild goose chase instead of trying to build a resistance movement up from the downtrodden of the galaxy, since we're told a couple of times throughout the movie that the Resistance is dwindling. You wouldn't even have to change much about the way the film plays out to make this happen, which I think is the most damning thing I can say about their role.

Considering how little impact these two characters have on the events of the film, it's just confusing to me that they aren't doing something that seems like a no-brainer. If I were to make a serious change to this movie, it would be to remove Canto Bight entirely:

Rose and Finn go on an adventure to a nearby planet ruled by the First Order (instead of Canto Bight), looking for help. They never end up on Snoke's destroyer, becoming stuck on the planet and starting a revolt using their combined knowledge of how terrible the First Order is to rally the population. Poe and Holdo's arcs play out the same way because nothing about the Finn/Rose side story actually changes it, and the Resistance ends up on this planet to aid the people, showing that they'll do anything to help, even if it puts them at great risk, helping to fight back against the Order. Finn still duels Phasma (but on the planet), Snoke's ship still goes boom while the transports escape, Rey still swoops in to blow up some Tie Fighters on the Falcon, Luke still shows up, big final showdown, the end. It took me three minutes to come up with that, and while I'm no screenwriter, I feel like this not only makes Finn and Rose more necessary to the plot (and gives them something to actually do), but helps to make the galactic resistance movement feel so much more real.

Little Things (Multi-layer Compliment Sandwich Style):

- That scene where Rey practices with the Lightsaber is really cool and shows us that she knows how to handle a weapon (because for some people, being a Jedi and growing up on a planet where she literally had to fight to survive wasn't a strong enough implication that she could fight).

- The scene where Luke throws the Lightsaber over his shoulder was not executed well. I get the intent behind it (the Lightsaber is a symbol of Luke's past and he's refusing the call to action, and on a more meta level Rian Johnson wants to say to the audience that unhealthy reverence of the iconography from the earlier films isn't what Star Wars needs going forward), but they had to know this would rub fans the wrong way at first glance.

- The Yoda scene is probably one of my top 3 Star Wars scenes. Goddam is it great.

- I like Benicio Del Toro's weird character but his story doesn't really pan out in a way that matters.

- Finn getting his comeback fight against Phasma was a really cool character moment.

- That said, having her remain a constant antagonist for him probably would have been better...

- I like that this movie has scenes where characters just TALK to each other in a way that isn't solely for moving the plot forward, because this is something that the other two films in this trilogy are SORELY LACKING.

- This is more a problem with all 3 movies, but the jokes range from ok to not very good, and I think they really should have reigned them in. Humor is much better when it happens organically, and I'd say only a handful of the jokes land for me in this one.

- I like that the Resistance is hanging by a thread in this movie. While the next film totally drops the ball on the whole galactic conflict front, this movie at least feels suitably desperate for our heroes.

- Despite the fact that I've calmed down on the scenes quite a bit, the Canto Bight sequence is still the weakest part of this movie by far and I wish it was different.

- The way this movie mystifies the Force again feels so refreshing after an entire trilogy where it was just used as a weapon or a plot device.

- The pacing in the first half of the film is a little rough; the scenes feel great when it's Rey and Luke on the island but the scenes with the Resistance sometimes feel like they're just trying to get to the finish line.

- The fact that Luke beats Kylo Ren without killing him, without even landing a blow is just...*chefs kiss*. "A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack" - Yoda.

Alright, I think this is plenty long enough...

So, in case the review didn't make it clear, this movie is complicated. While it has more than a handful of genuine, undeniable flaws, and I do think there is room for improvement on certain aspects of the film, it also has some of my favorite moments in the entire franchise. I think this is why it's so high on my list of favorite Star Wars films; because every Star Wars movie has flaws and dumb stuff, the high points of this movie really stand out to me.

If you have a poor opinion of this movie, I have a bit of a crazy recommendation for you: Watch it again, but as part of a franchise marathon. Go the whole nine yards, and watch this film with a fresh perspective, I think you'll be surprised how much you enjoy it...or at least, how much you don't hate it.