By: C.M Edwards
The new year has come and gone, the shadows of yester-year are slowly fading and giving way for the shadows of tomorrow. But if any at all remain it is the large shadow left by the most anticipated movie of 2017, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Met with such divided reviews not seen since the likes of justice league dawned on theatres a few months before; while most are outraged at their mishandling off classic Star Wars characters, others criticize a lazy “traffic stop” plot line. But is that really The Last Jedi’s problem? Or is there something larger, much more important that the film abandons? After several viewings of the film, I find myself in the same position at the ending after taking in the entirety of the story and taking a step back to play it over in my head and I always ask the same question. a question that I’ve never asked myself at the end off any Star Wars film, not even the prequel trilogy. But to my surprise there I was wondering; did anything really happen?
Yes, Rey delivered the light saber of Darth Vader to Luke and yes there was one of the most magnificent visuals of the destruction of a star destroyer fleet in existence, and yes the rebel alliance survived to fight another day; but those were all things that we knew were going to happen. We knew Rey found Luke Skywalker, we knew the rebel alliance was going to be alright, and we knew that the space battles were going to be amazing in this day in age. But what about the things we didn’t know? What about the things we did know, that didn’t change?Since the dawn of the original Star Wars movie when A New Hope warped into theaters on May 25th 1977 and the gargantuan universe that followed in the years to come, one thing has always stayed present. Whether it be the films, the television shows, the comics, or the novels; what came before the new age Star Wars trilogy that made the old films stand out, even over most films of today was the risk.
Star Wars was a franchise that was never afraid to push the boundaries of story telling; in Star Wars anything could happen: A villain could be a father, a Padawan could be a traitor, or a farm boy could save the galaxy. The story of Star Wars is riddled with moments that took leaps and bounds with characters that left lasting impressions across generations. The lack of such leaps and bounds crossing over from The Force Awakens over to The Last Jedi would explain the unsatisfied empty feeling I was left with at the end of the movie.
On several occasions, The Last Jedi had real opportunities to turn the franchise on its head, to take a different turn than its predecessors and spark a new path for the films. But unfortunately, behind the fancy space battles, re-washed love interest subplot, and basic shock grabs attempting to be passed off as real character defining moments; The Last Jedi seems to ignore every chance it gets to be different, to be better, and to be memorable. Starting with the main character, from the initial trailer it is teased that Rey’s place in the galactic play that has become her life is caught in the balance, and now with the help of Luke Skywalker she will find her place. However it is also teased that a possible rift between the two could sway Rey into a path much like Kylo Ren and send her toward the dark side of the force making Luke twice the failure.
In the film, Luke’s betrayal of Kylo Ren forces Rey right into his arms and the two meet on equal terms and end up together at the top of the world with the entire horizon in front of them filled with endless possibilities; they take out Supreme Leader Snoke and his royal guard and come to a crossroads. Should Rey join Kylo? Should Kylo join Rey? Should Kylo and Rey let go off the past and begin something new? something stronger than the light or the dark? No. Instead, they take no step in any direction and keep their feet firmly planted in the same position they were when the story started; alone, lost, and unsure of where they belong. There was no progression, Rey did not halfheartedly join the dark side in an effort to find some way of making sense of all that has happened to her, nor did she sway Kylo to come back to the light like Luke also failed to do.
Not even Kylo changed, he did not redeem himself for the death of his father or the betrayal of the code of the Jedi, and he didn’t push himself any deeper into the dark side of the force than he was revealed to be in already. On both sides, both characters were forced to stand still when given a blatant opportunity to move forward for better or worse. This was a real opportunity, a true gift of storytelling where not only could you make a lasting impression on the audience but to the franchise as well. The right decision here could have sparked an entirely new wave of films, let alone a shift in the status quo of Star Wars.
As much as I wish I could say that was the only time The Last Jedi dropped the ball, sadly that would be a lie. While subconsciously hammering and wrapping up open ended plot lines, there are several times The Last Jedi instead of making a choice, decides instead to play it safe. Another instance of this would be the complete disregard for Finn as a character. No shoehorned love plot can change the fact that while Finn may have been a little underdeveloped at the end of the force awakened, he had quite the path in front of him after crossing lightsabers with Kylo Ren in order to protect Rey. Finn could have woken up with a new outlook on life, a new ambition, or at the very least a set of morals that he feels he needs to now follow now that he has made the decision to become a rebel.
Having played a major part in destroying Starkiller base and helping the rebellion get a leg up against the first order, you would think that he would take a stronger postion in the grand scheme of things. But instead, Finn’s returns almost completely to his cowardice ways. After he awakens from his medical coma, a brief reconnect with Poe to understand what is going on, Finn immediately decides he needs to escape in order to make sure Rey is ok. This leads him directly into the arms of Rose Tico, a character strictly introduced to make Finn seem more interesting, without him actually being more interesting at all.
Being honest, out of the newly introduced characters in the recent Star Wars trilogy Finn had the most room to grow. There is so little known about him that he could be anything; he could be a general of the resistance in the making, the last son of cloud city, or even the second half of the two best fighter pilots of the resistance with his partner (romantically or not) Poe Dameron. But Finn, fn-2187, received the ultimate slap in the face and not only was disregarded as a integral character like he was in The Force Awakens, he was placed in a pointless, flawed and meritless side quest story line where he re-learned lessons he had already been taught. The thought process alone that led to this being a good idea bewilders me to no end. It is as if the Director had never seen The Force Awakened, or while viewing payed no attention to the person of color beside the fair skinned Daisy Ridley.
Finally, the twisted shut off neet that was Luke Skywalker was a complete and udder insult to the character in every way shape and form. I am not against the portrayal of Luke, from a story stand point how they reintroduced Luke and the story reveal that came with him which made very much sense on why he would exile himself and remove himself from the chess board not just for his failure, but for his betrayal of his own student and becoming once again what the Jedi always become, Judge, Jury, and Executioner.
But it was his climax that ruined the film for me. When the chips are down, the wolves are at the door, there is no hope. Kylo Ren is now in charge of the first order having slain Supreme Leader Snoke, The last remnant of the rebellion is pinned up in a baron, abandoned base with little to no defenses or modes of escape. This is it, this is where the light that is the rebel alliance dies. But no, The hope returns when Luke Skywalker enters, greeting his sister after so many years apart, so many things to say, so many things to understand but for now the priority is the impending doom of the rebels. Luke sets out to face and armed fleet of hopeless odds alone.
The most phenomenal scene in the movie is Luke Skywalker, the true last Jedi staring down several all-terrain megacalibur sixs’ and a slew of cruisers that have all their artillery aimed at him. A barrage of laser fire and missile drops wouldn’t even leave a scratch as the tension ramped up for the final fight. Even when Kylo decides to descend from his white castle and face Luke himself I was ready, as much as I would have loved to see a Luke Skywalker newly connected to the force and supercharged because of it pick up and entire fleet and crush them into scrap metal I understand that nothing could beat a final lightsaber battle between a teacher and his student. But that isn’t what we got. We didn’t even get a percentage of that; all we got was a decoy.
After a series of exchanges where Kylo couldn’t even land a hit on Luke, it is revealed that Luke hasn’t even left the island. And a even heavier slap to the face, that after reconnecting himself to the force and using it to distract the first order so that the rebel alliance have a chance to escape that the stress it takes on his body to simply force image himself to the battlefield is too much for him, and he dies.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Had it not been for the stunning scene of a rebel ship slamming into a star destroyer head first at light speed, the entire film would have fell so flat that even George Lucas himself would have shook his head in disagreement. If there was ever a moment in which a pay-off was warranted over a build up across two films showing how time repeats itself but in a fractured mirror. A padawan betrayed his master and turned to the dark side; not because he fell due to the charms of the dark side but because he was pushed by his own masters distrust. And how do you tie this story up? With a hologram, a few nice cgi dodges, and a “see you around kid”. On my second viewing of that scene I had to watch Rogue one just to get the taste of that scene out of my mouth. And of course after bouncing my disagreement with this decision off of friends and fans alike, I was met with the “He couldn’t get off the planet if he wanted to, he didn’t have a ship or a droid”. Which along with all the other weak story telling in this film was a simple fix that when Rey left to save Kylo R2D2 stayed behind.
Not only does this “decision” completely avoid any type of risk at all, it removes it from the equation all together. Luke cant die because he’s no there (but he does anyway), the alliance isn’t on the run anymore because Kylo isn’t even thinking about them. And it was during the second viewing of this movie where I asked myself “did anything really happen in this movie? Did Rey change? No. Did Kylo change? No. Did Finn change? No. Did the balance shift between the first order and the rebel alliance? No. did the movie accomplish anything? No. Absolutely nothing happened in this movie, where apparently everything happened.
When a company like Bioware can create episode, after episode of content for their MMO that they launched over seven years ago that is filled with deep engaging story, amazing lore and Easter eggs and a powerful over all performance filled with plenty of risk and reward accompanied by breathtaking visual animated trailers that don’t even last longer than 8 minutes give me more satisfaction than a two-hour and thirty five minute movie I had to pay ten dollars to see, something is definitely wrong. And I know that making movies and writing scripts is hard, I’m in the business of trying to do it myself. But this movie was nearly a complete waste of time and probably shouldn’t have been made at all.
Twitter: @ScriptWrtiter01
Facebook: Charles Michael Edwards
Website: CMEdwards94.wixsite.com/cm-edwards
