On Second Thought and Viewing…
Some follow-up thoughts on ‘The Last Jedi’
Warning: Spoilers about The Last Jedi lay ahead. If you've not seen the movie yet, do not read this post yet. Revisit it afterwards. Also, you should probably read my first take first.And there I was, sitting in a theater, about to fall asleep to a Star Wars movie. The shame.
To be fair, I was pretty severely jet lagged. And this was my second time in two weeks seeing the film. Still, this was The Last Jedi, the film with the second best opening weekend of all time. I wanted to see it again. I felt like I needed to see it again — because my first impression was a little lackluster.
I persevered through that second showing. And now I feel like I have a better sense of the film. It’s not that The Last Jedi is a bad movie — not by any means — it’s that the first half is simply pretty boring.
Okay, I should make a key clarification: the opening sequence is great. Very Rogue One.¹ Even the Poe-on-hold gag is humorous. Once that scene ends though, things slow to a crawl. And they don’t pick back up really until Rey and Kylo enter Snoke’s chamber.
How much do things slow? Well, an entire key plot point is built around the fact that the Resistance can’t jump to hyperspace, so they must “outrun” the First Order ever… so… slowly… while General Hux orders his forces to wait them out. It’s like that one steamroller scene in Austin Powers. And it lasts for nearly an hour.²
But that’s not even the real issue.
I’ll say it: the scenes with Rey on Luke’s island are tedious. This is undoubtedly exacerbated by the fact that the shot of Luke and Rey which ended The Force Awakens could not have produced more fanfare. Luke was back! On some beautiful mystical Jedi island! And Rey was handing him his old lightsaber!!!
[CUT TO THE LAST JEDI]
…which he immediately chucks into the ocean. Which seems like a near perfect metaphor for what director Rian Johnson wanted to do with his take on Star Wars. Challenge assumptions; nothing should be considered sacred…
Fine.
But then we’re whisked away to Canto Bight. You know, the casino planet. On their literal boondoggle, Finn and Rose accomplish nothing beyond finding Benecio del Toro’s character who, at best, is miscast. And at worst is just a weak shadow of a character meant to parallel the Lando Calrissian betrayal in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s obvious what is going to happen from the moment they meet him. But far worse is that unlike Lando, there’s no history between the characters (nor are there any Lando-style sleazy/cheesy moves). The whole thing is just an aside for a plot point that could have been solved any number of other ways. Or could have been cut entirely.³
Also, we get the 2017 version of pod racing. On alien horses. Wake me up when it’s over, except really in this case. This two hour and thirty-two minute movie could have easily been two hours, if not less, with some restraint.
And Yet…
All that said, the second half of The Last Jedi is pretty great. As soon as Rey enters Snoke’s chamber, I woke right up.
While I wish we got more of Snoke — or, at the very least, his backstory — this entire scene is fantastic. The (again literal) twist that Kylo pulls off is masterful. When Rey’s hand darts up to grab her lightsaber, you cannot help but get chills. Then that fight…
This kicks off a fast-paced, high-intensity Star Wars that is just about the opposite of the first half.
Now, maybe you could argue that the slow build of the first half sets the stage for the second half flurry. But again, there’s no reason why this movie should be as long as it is. For as much as J.J. Abrams got criticized for The Force Awakens being too much like the original Star Wars, clearly Johnson wanted to get his Empire homages in there as well. And we all must bear witness.
Further, it sure seems like Johnson set out with the notion of what he wanted to do with his film, the first film in this new trilogy be damned. He’s basically said as much. And so we get a lot of Johnson undoing what Abrams did in Force and doing so in a way that’s almost like that game where one person starts a story and then another person picks up where it left off and makes a quick dismissal of key points in order to go on their own tangent.⁴ Except here, the dismissals weren’t so quick…⁵
You can certainly argue that Abrams does too much of his typical “mystery box” trope in The Force Awakens, but that doesn’t mean Johnson should just crush those boxes without revealing what’s inside.
Once Johnson has dismantled Abrams’ movie and paid his own respects to the franchise, only then do we get a really good Star Wars film. One that ranks with the best of the canon. Unfortunately, it’s about an hour in. Perhaps everything before that point, save the opening, should have been cut. A 90 minute Star Wars? One mustn’t be afraid to make the jump to hyperspace…
¹ With a hint of that one (good) scene in Alien: Covenant…
² A much better way to do such a plot point would be to do exactly what Battlestar Galactica did with “33” — the second episode of the rebooted series (first true episode after the opening pilot), which is fantastic.
³ Though one has to assume we’ll see del Toro again, for better or worse.
⁴ Again, Luke chucking his lightsaber…
⁵ Also, major party foul. Especially when that original storyteller is now going to be wrapping things up…
