Meanwhile, Rey remains the character most likely to carry on the Jedi tradition, having piloted the Millennium Falcon to the remote island where Luke is hiding, although he proves a far more reluctant teacher than Yoda ever was. 2 in command, Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, and save-the-day sisters Paige (Veronica Ngo) and Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), who each get significant moments to shine.
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Rest assured, there is a lot of Leia in “The Last Jedi.” In fact, in a franchise that has always been progressive about representation, the women basically run the show this time around, which is arguably the best thing about a movie that introduces a purple-coiffed Laura Dern as the endangered ship’s No.
Even more than last summer’s “Dunkirk,” this movie is about the honor and sacrifice of a successful retreat, which isn’t nearly as dramatic as an underdog offensive.įollowing the destruction of the evil First Order’s Starkiller Base, and with Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker in self-imposed retirement in “the most unfindable place in the galaxy,” the Resistance is spearheaded by Princess Leia, played by the late Carrie Fisher, whose entire performance is overshadowed by the actress’s premature death (she should be a figure of empowering female leadership, not tragedy). By contrast, “The Last Jedi” opens and closes with scenes of Resistance bases under siege, in between which the movie’s central concern is the dwindling fuel level on a carrier ship under slow-motion pursuit by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis, who for the first time in his career probably would have been just as effective playing the character without the benefit of motion capture). Say what you will about Lucas’ clunky, uneven prequels, but they covered a ton of story ground. It’s as if Johnson’s assignment was to extend the franchise without changing anything fundamental, which is closer to the way classic television and vintage James Bond movies operate than anything George Lucas ever served up. Rather, despite the success of “The Last Jedi” at supplying jaw-dropping visuals and a hall-of-fame-worthy lightsaber battle, audiences could presumably skip this film and show up for Episode IX without experiencing the slightest confusion as to what happened in the interim. But Johnson was either strong enough or weak enough to adapt to such pressures, and the result is the longest and least essential chapter in the series. If anything, it demonstrates just how effective supervising producer Kathleen Kennedy and the forces that oversee this now Disney-owned property are at molding their individual directors’ visions into supporting a unified corporate aesthetic - a process that chewed up and spat out helmers such as Colin Trevorrow, Gareth Edwards, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. To the extent that “The Force Awakens” was essentially a heightened reboot of “A New Hope,” recycling many of the 1977 original’s thrills in fresh form with a mostly new cast, this latest chapter was positioned as the new trilogy’s “The Empire Strikes Back” - which is to say, a darker, more serious chapter (commonly regarded as the series’ best) that deepens the underlying mythology, shapes its emerging hero (originally Luke Skywalker, now Daisy Ridley’s Force-strong Rey), sets up an epic cliff-hanger and introduces a few big twists into the equation, including a whopping paternity surprise.Īs it turns out, although “The Last Jedi” meets a relatively high standard for franchise filmmaking, Johnson’s effort is ultimately a disappointment.
Written and directed by Rian Johnson, a Sundance alum who established his serious-filmmaker bona fides with his 2005 indie debut, “Brick,” before graduating to young Christopher Nolan territory via the relatively big-budget sci-fi movie “Looper,” Episode VIII seemed to have everything going for it.
But in the case of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” that seemed like an actual possibility. Surely, all “Star Wars” fans hope each new installment will be the best ever. SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains mild spoilers for “ Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
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