The Last Jedi leaves lots of questions

I’m going to type a sentence that I haven’t had to say out loud or think in my head for more than a decade. It breaks my heart, but I have sat with these feelings for a day now and they haven’t changed, so here it goes.

Guys, the new Star Wars movie isn’t very good.

I hate typing that. I hate feeling like that. It’s melodramatic for sure, but I imagine this is how having to tell your best friend that their kid is a drug addict feels.

There are a lot of problems with The Last Jedi, and I am going to cover as many of them as I can without spoiling anything. Let’s start by just listing the most basic storyline for each of the major characters.

Rey (Daisy Ridley) - Trying to talk Luke Skywalker into joining the Resistance and teaching her to use the Force.

Fin (John Boyega) - Trying to find a legendary codebreaker that can disable the First Order’s new weapon.

Poe (Oscar Isaac) - Flying, blowing things up.

Leia (Carrie Fisher RIP) - Trying to find a new home planet for her fighters

Luke (Mark Hamill) - Trying not to be Luke Skywalker

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) - Trying to take fight off the light inside of him and become the heir to Darth Vader.

General Hux (Domhnall Gleason) - Screaming

That’s a lot! And none of those are really B plots in the movie. So, obviously there is a ton going on in The Last Jedi, and yet nothing really seems to be going on.

The brilliance of not only The Empire Strikes Back, but of so many great “part two” movies through out the Hollywood trilogy culture is that particular entry’s freedom to tell a story. Part one has to introduce you to new characters in a new world. Part three has to tie everything up in a neat little bow.

The Last Jedi feels more like a cog in the machine of the new trilogy than it does meaty story. The movie exists to get Luke involved and get every character to the next step they need to take in order for the trilogy to get the finale we all hope for.

Reviewing this movie is harder than I thought, because to tell you what doesn’t work, I have to spoil A LOT! I don’t want to do that. Everyone deserves to go into a new Star Wars movie with a clean slate. So here is what I will say.

When The Force Awakens ended, all of us Star Wars geeks walked out of the theater with two huge questions. Not only do those questions not get answered in The Last Jedi, but it’s almost as if writer/director Rian Johnson goes out of his way to make you feel dumb for putting any time into trying to answer those questions.

On top of that, this movie is monotonous. Look, I acknowledge The Force Awakens wasn’t breaking any new ground, but it was so much fun. It offered a new generation of fans their own Star Wars heroes. It gave us 30-somethings a satisfying answer to what the old gang is up to now, and, more importantly, it introduced new characters and elements that told you there is a story of how we got from Return of the Jedi to where we are now. I didn’t feel any of that watching The Last Jedi.

I am going to invoke Star Wars blasphemy here. Some of the diversions and new planets we visit in The Last Jedi feel like the cheap toy and video game world-building done in the prequels. They serve no other purpose. Only this time around it’s also building out elements for a new theme park land Disney will open in 2019.

Now look, it’s Star Wars. It’s not all bad. You’re going to hear a lot of complaining about the porgs. They are cute little seal/owl/puppy hybrids that populate Luke’s new island home. People will call them the new ewoks. Some that have their heads stuck a little further up their behinds will call them the new Jar Jar. Admittedly they are dumb and exist to move stuffed animals at your local Disney Store, but I found them delightful! Maybe Johnson went to the porg well a time or two too many, but they always made me laugh.

I also left the theater encouraged by the new direction of Kylo Ren, in that he now has some direction. Again, no spoilers, but his angle from The Force Awakens couldn’t sustain itself much longer.

Finally, I really enjoyed some of the visual choices made in The Last Jedi. You may have noticed this at the end of The Force Awakens, but I just rewatched it before going to see The Last Jedi, so it really jumped out to me. You’ll notice how pretty Rey is in this movie. It isn’t part of an effort to make her sexier. It is the difference between being homeless/living in the shell of an old AT AT in a dessert and having an actual home or community of people that care about you. Think about it like the difference just having a place to shower makes. Poe looks older and more tired, the effects of a life constantly on the run. Visually, Rian Johnson and his team put great effort into making sure the visual effects of time and circumstance in this world are obvious.

Despite this particular disappointment, I still have faith. Hell, it’s a Star Wars movie. I am going to see it again in the theater, possibly multiple times. I will buy it when it comes out on Blu-ray. Maybe over time I’ll find more to like about The Last Jedi, but my immediate reaction isn’t an overwhelmingly positive one.