Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Directed by:
Rian JohnsonScreenplay:
Rian JohnsonCinematography:
Steve YedlinComposer:
John WilliamsCast:
Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Domhnall Gleeson, Benicio Del Toro, Andy Serkis, Laura Dern (more)VOD (4)
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In Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past. (Walt Disney US)
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A few spoiler-ish remarks on the facts contributing to my opinion that The Last Jedi is the best episode of the Star Wars series (a hair better than The Empire Strikes Back, which this film – like other parts of the saga – in many ways mirrors or even boldly revises): 1) Both films interweave three central conflicts – intergenerational, class and between the light and dark sides of the force (all dialogue scenes between Kylo and Rey as well as the dialogue Rey carries on with herself). Eager young heroes make rash decisions, which generally end badly for them. If they had listened to their older and more experienced masters, they could have avoided some complications. However, generational change is unavoidable. Therefore, it is a matter of whether the young rebels entirely reject or take inspiration from the teachings of their predecessors. The ability to be an inspiration to the younger generation is decisive for the storyline with enslaved children on the planet Canto Bight. In order for the bourgeoisie to enjoy themselves, someone has to work. The final scene indicates that this exploitation may be the impetus for a class revolution. 2) Luke explains to his apprentice that the force does not come only from inside a Jedi, but is founded on balance with the world around him. An example of a person who has achieved harmony with nature is Luke himself, who can get by with the gifts that the island offers him (there is a good reason for the maligned milking scene; it serves as more than just a comical aside). Later, we twice witness how listening to nature saves the heroes’ lives – Finn and Rose escape from Canto Bight thanks to ungulates resembling a horse-llama hybrid, the last insurgents find their way out of the cave thanks to arctic (crystalline) foxes. 3) The film repeatedly and intentionally does not fulfil our expectations and does not build myths, but instead casts doubt on and demolishes them; it does not play according to the rules that the previous episodes followed, thanks to which it is a very stimulating viewing experience. The film does not allow us only to passively watch it and tick off “mandatory items”. Jedi training is terminated prematurely; the expedition to Canto Bight ends in fiasco (though the gifting of the ring to the boy will probably play out in a significant way in the next episode); the main nemesis dies much sooner than you would expect; with the exception of the initial action sequence, the good guys find themselves on the defensive, almost constantly running away from someone and trying to save lives, which is fully in accordance with the motto of the eighth episode – it does not make sense to fight what we hate, but to save what we love. 4) The whole thing looks incredibly good. It is obvious that the filmmakers cared deeply about the compositions, and put a lot of thought into the choice of lenses, the size of the shots and the colour contrasts (how they play with red and white at the end is breathtaking). In short, compared to other franchise genre movies, the camera work here not only fulfils a practical function, but it lays claim to an Oscar nomination with almost every shot. 5) The Last Jedi is truly funny and truly sombre (where neither aspect outweighs the other and the transitions between them are very natural) and, especially in the second half, one wonderful scene follows another, making the film an incredible emotional ride. 90%
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Star Wars: The Last Jedi is good or even excellent in its constituent elements, very progressive in its concepts and ambitions in the context of the saga, but unbalanced, rushed and half-baked as a whole. If episode five illustrated how jumping between plans should look while building a single overarching atmosphere, it is in this respect that episode eight, which vehemently plunders the fifth instalment in terms of style and motifs, fails the most. And that’s a shame, because its storylines demystifying heroism and the canon of the series itself, with Jedi knights at the fore, have tremendous power. But the film never lets them fully develop, as it has to abruptly return to some other storyline or recall that, as Disney’s cash cow, it has to quickly lighten the atmosphere with a wisecrack. Added to that, there are paradoxically a number of needless underdeveloped elements that detract from the viewer’s immersion in the film and encourage doubt and ridicule, so rather than a coherent work, they make a great breeding ground for parodies and fanfiction (though that can be a means of working with the audience and the brand). While the preceding The Force Awakens was a well-oiled rollercoaster, The Last Jedi is a larger colossus, but it wobbles and rattles that much more and the wheels come off. Paradoxically, the new characters had much more space and more effectively got under the viewers’ skin in the preceding episode, whereas the eighth film, though in many ways fleshing out those characters and letting them go in their own, new direction, ends up putting them in an even greater shadow of the iconic characters of the series. Despite all of the positives and new things found in the eighth episode, nothing remains other than to keep an eye out for the ninth one, where, for example, the series could finally go in an utterly new direction, as the eighth film has already cleared out the motifs and iconic sets of the fifth and sixth episodes combined.
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Before the barren debate on the "Disney is fucking up Star Wars" begins, hand on heart, Lucas often proved to be a born businessman during key decisions rather than a devoted and immaculate author of space films. I am therefore putting aside cute stuffed animals and galactic races. If anyone blamed Abrams for not having the courage, they could hardly use the same argument against Rian Johnson. He wrote the busiest score in three voices, each arching a slightly different arc. We have the classic space battle, the battle between light and darkness (which rages inside the heroes) and also the side "heist" storyline, which is supposed to add lightness to both dramatic arcs. In the end, most of the problems are with this storyline, because it doesn't work completely as a stimulant (it starts a little hurriedly, the Dubrovnik action evokes the difficult times of Lucas's prequels in certain things, and the whole thing gets going through Benicio Del Toro's excellent entry into the canon). It's not about codes and infiltrations. It is about the Force, the ancestral curse, loneliness and a surprising bond between the sides. The film is driven by Adam Driver, the most complex villain on the scene, whom Johnson has created with love. And, of course, Mark Hamill. Part seven was a solo for Solo, whilst part eight is a tribute to Luke and a daring discussion about the ideas of the Jedi Knights. Compared to Abrams, Rian Johnson has a better gift for iconic moments; he is able to paint canvases that are etched in the retina for SW fans. He also has an extraordinary talent for working with the original SW as a holy scripture, and he adds new and surprising accents to the individual parts. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a film woven from several average, a number of good and several exceptional scenes and takes full advantage of the previous excavation towards a new generation of heroes and stories. If someone came to me now and told me that I had just seen the best SW from the Empire... I wouldn't argue with him. And waited for the next screenings. There's a lot to discover! P. S. This is also the best biopic of Slavoj Žižek in this and the adjacent galaxies.
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Well, it was good, but probably not essential. Rian Johnson goes in a slightly different direction than Episode VII and so far I like it. It's darker, more personal, and it's not nearly as easy to determine who's good and who's bad. It's a shame though that only a few characters get this interesting treatment, because then it's all the more obvious that there are a lot of other kinda extra characters. Their charisma and even their own little backstories aren't very interesting or important, and even this time around I didn't feel the same way about Star Wars that I did with the original trilogy. On the other hand, the effort to go a different route and the courage to be grittier and meaner towards the heroes pays off, because it shows that Star Wars could offer more than just spectacular and perfectly done blockbuster entertainment in the future. But it's probably still going to be a while.
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Rogue One thrilled me because it took a bold detour, ditched the Force and showed war as something that hurts like hell. The Last Jedi, on the other hand, brings Star Wars back to its roots, to the legacy of the fifth episode. Whether it's the locations (the white planet), the Force is palpable here (unlike the Abrams film), the layout of the Force of Good and the Force of Evil overlap (the main characters doubt themselves and the meaning of the Force) and in general it's an massive improvement over the seventh episode. Whether it's the treatment of the characters (Kylo Ren is finally a charismatic badass and not a teenage brat from Hogwarts who looked like he just had his magic wand stolen as in Abrams’s film), the script, which is convoluted and interesting enough to make you look forward to every scene (I consider Rey's training and her search for herself on the desert island with Luke to be the best thing this franchise has ever offered), and finally, the humor that so graced the old trilogy. That’s how it should be! So to conclude: for me, after The Empire Strikes Back, this is clearly the best entry into the Star Wars universe.
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