Tom Jolliffe looks at the continuing impact of The Last Jedi and the false notion that it’s too different from Star Wars canon…
So here we are. 7 months on and I still see, on a daily basis, and with my phone, social media profiles all recommending I click on articles about how divisive The Last Jedi was. Irony alert, I’m about to launch into another piece on the matter. Well strap yourselves in peeps. It’s ANOTHER The Last Jedi article.
Here’s my issue: Throughout the backlash and indeed a large part of the praise, toward Rian Johnson, it’s almost constantly suggested the success (or indeed failure) of the film is because of how wildly different the film is and because of how unexpected the avenues he takes established characters and ideals down. I’ve seen words like groundbreaking or genre-defying used. On the flipside I’ve seen people pour scorn on what they felt was aggressively un-Star Wars. Really?
I look at The Last Jedi and I see absolutely nothing in it that hasn’t been done in previous Star Wars films, bar perhaps some occasionally forced Marvel style humour. I don’t like The Last Jedi. I don’t hate The Last Jedi. I put my critical cap on and I look at a near three hour film that I don’t judge on Star Wars checklists but on story, characters, etc. It’s a better than average blockbuster. Nothing more, nothing less. ‘But Luke Skywalker spends the whole movie grumpily moping around on a remote planet he’s been hiding in, having lost faith in the Jedi ways and unwilling to teach a young upstart.’ No, that doesn’t sound familiar at all does it? That’s the most controversial gripe the rabid haters of the film had. ‘Luke wouldn’t do that!’ As if they somehow claim ownership of the character. No you don’t! Sorry. In fact, Jedi’s buggering off into hiding to live like hermits is pretty routine. Ask Obi-Wan and Yoda.
‘Buggered off I did. Find me do not.’
What of Kylo Ren? He’s basically doing the Anakin routine again. There’s honestly not a single story element that I’ve not seen in the first 6 already. Sure, as an overall piece the film veered a lot from where J.J. Abrams was going but it’s not to do with being off canon, or being un-Star Wars, it’s to do with a haphazard and poorly conceived approach to this new trilogy which began with photocopying A New Hope. To an extent, masses, large chunks of The Last Jedi are indeed a photocopy of Empire Strikes Back, without the impeccable delivery and an overriding sense of it having an overriding destination that you feel will be finished in the final piece.
I’m all for people liking the film because they find it enjoyable, or disliking it because they don’t. However, this idea it’s somehow either wonderfully or hideously different from the ‘Star Wars’ way is just wildly wide of the mark. It’s so by the numbers, ticking off an array of Star Wars tropes from the tropes checklist, it’s untrue and that is of course, fully warranted because it’s a Star Wars film. It does Star Wars things. Great but let’s be clear, it follows formula to a tee. I scratch my head in bewilderment at piece upon piece, moan upon moan, that people think it doesn’t.
No, the main issues with The Last Jedi for me were a lack of continuity in vision from one director to the next. They switched between directors in the original trilogy and while each film had its own unique feeling, there was still a sense of continuity. To me it seemed like Johnson had little appreciation for Snoke as a potential villain, and didn’t really know what to do with Poe, or Finn. Whilst he sadly did not really progress Rey or Ren to much beyond where they were by the end of The Force Awakens. It’s not Anti-Star Wars, not at all. It is massively flawed. Long, labouring, lacking in memorable set pieces (aside from one choice Lightsaber fight that services fans with an overt nod to Return of The Jedi).
I’m not going to descend into some sort of Rian Johnson tirade. As a filmmaker I like his previous works. I just think the weight of Star Wars is a heavy burden and he’s crammed too many ideas into his film, and too many that seem to suggest a lack of interest in certain things Abrams had set up (like Snoke for example). The fact is, it isn’t the content that was too different, it was the delivery of the content. Luke moping on an Island. The entire film in Force Awakens is a quest to find Luke. The entire film in The Last Jedi is spent trying to coax him, unsuccessfully off a planet. The fact is, whilst he finds some semblance of peace, Luke’s arc goes nowhere. Yes, I get that’s annoying. It just takes far too long to get from A to B with Luke’s development in The Last Jedi. The Empire Strikes Back as an example doesn’t mess around in establishing Yoda, and giving him an arc, which is ultimately to enable the central character do something. Luke doesn’t really do much for Rey at all. That’s not anti-Star Wars, it’s just poor development.
Another source of grimacing ire was the subplot which saw Finn and Rose go off on a side mission with ‘lame’ elements that slowed the film down. You know…kind of like Han, Leia and the Ewoks in Return Of The Jedi. The much maligned Rose (in some interweb corners for some grotesquely minded reasons) and Finn just slow the film down. Kelly Marie Tran is diversity casting at its worst because it’s not about her coming in and being given something interesting to do for no other reason than her being a good actress. She’s been cast to preach saccharinely written dialogue promoting peace and love. The cynic in me sees it as the hand of Disney. Yes it’s great to finally see an East Asian actor cast in a major Star Wars role, but what’s not so great is near politicising said role with an inclusivity agenda at the expense of giving Tran the interesting character she deserves. Quite rightly people found the character annoying. Quite wrongly however, some hideous gits decided to berate her ethnicity and personally attack her for someone elses poor writing and a studios agenda. In addition, Finn’s lack of any development in this just makes him feel increasingly more like a token person of colour. Open out your castings. Craft interesting characters and cast entirely on merit. Star Wars, like most blockbusters does need to mix it up, but do it right. Diversity casting is not a marketing exercise. Still. The notion of side missions bogging down the films has happened before under the watchful eye of George Lucas. That’s not new.
A major aspect in the reaction to The Last Jedi upon release also ties in with the marketing. All the early critical responses, no doubt carefully picked, billed it as this fresh, invigorating and new entity within Star Wars canon. That will have no doubt played some part in stoking the ire of Star Wars super fans who went in expecting far more and didn’t enjoy it. Whilst they rebelled against the critical consensus that this was a near master work, what they did seem to take from those initial responses was that aspect that this was somehow defiantly different. As I say, the film is not. Every element is same old, same old, it’s just the construction, structuring and delivery was hugely flawed. I honestly didn’t spot anything ‘new’ and ‘fresh’ in this. Nor did I think Johnson somehow starved fans of ‘appeasing’ moments. The film is loaded, like every Disney SW film, with fan service. Far too much is being picked over, for what is essentially nothing more than an okay blockbuster.
Tom Jolliffe
