Why I loved the Last Jedi – hibernation sickness and all
January 2018
Alastair Clark
SPOILER ALERT – if you have not seen the film and want to see it fresh then please stop reading.
Let me take you back to May 19th 2005. In a few weeks’ time university will be over and real life will begin. But for one amazing moment, my friends and I gather with hundreds of others to cram into the cinema. Today is not just any day, it’s the day of (what I thought at the time) was the final ever Star Wars film and as I looked upon the Darth Vaders, the Jedi and all the others dressed in fancy costume in the audience, I couldn’t have been happier.
A couple of hours later and I shout out “That’s it! That’s the best film of the lot!” I can’t wait to come back and see it again the next day. I meant it then and I do today. I’m an anomaly. My favourite Star Wars film is Revenge of the Sith.
Which brings me to today. A few weeks ago at a midnight showing the Jedi were back, the applause was loud and the audience was engaged throughout. I walked out with my girlfriend and she said “that’s the best film of the lot”, and she meant it.
This isn’t a defence of what is, without doubt, the most divisive Start Wars film yet – and having now seen it three times, I understand why. This is an exploration of what was, for me, a cinematic experience unrivalled in 2017 and a new chapter that tore up the established Star Wars narrative… in a good way.
Alastair Clark
SPOILER ALERT – if you have not seen the film and want to see it fresh then please stop reading.
Let me take you back to May 19th 2005. In a few weeks’ time university will be over and real life will begin. But for one amazing moment, my friends and I gather with hundreds of others to cram into the cinema. Today is not just any day, it’s the day of (what I thought at the time) was the final ever Star Wars film and as I looked upon the Darth Vaders, the Jedi and all the others dressed in fancy costume in the audience, I couldn’t have been happier.
A couple of hours later and I shout out “That’s it! That’s the best film of the lot!” I can’t wait to come back and see it again the next day. I meant it then and I do today. I’m an anomaly. My favourite Star Wars film is Revenge of the Sith.
Which brings me to today. A few weeks ago at a midnight showing the Jedi were back, the applause was loud and the audience was engaged throughout. I walked out with my girlfriend and she said “that’s the best film of the lot”, and she meant it.
This isn’t a defence of what is, without doubt, the most divisive Start Wars film yet – and having now seen it three times, I understand why. This is an exploration of what was, for me, a cinematic experience unrivalled in 2017 and a new chapter that tore up the established Star Wars narrative… in a good way.
I respect JJ Abrms as a director and loved his work on the first Stark Trek film. But if you watch the Wrath of Khan and then Star Trek Into Darkness or a New Hope followed by The Force Awakens you start to question his ability to move the story on. His storytelling is often limited and in my view when considered, exposed as a rehash of previous ideas.
There was in my opinion a freshness to The Last Jedi that we did not see in the Force Awakens. Now that’s not to say I don’t agree with previous reviewers highlighting the glaring similarities between The Last Jedi and Return of the Jedi & Empire Strikes Back, but I am much more concerned about similarities with another story set in space. In November last year, director Rian Johnson said in Rolling Stone that there was “some influence from the 2000s reboot of Battlestar Galactica.” I would go further and say the plot line from first episode of the first season of Battlestar Galactica ‘33’ is, in essence, the heart of The Last Jedi. |
People seemed to love The Force Awakens when it came out but I didn’t like it because I felt it was essentially making a ‘greatest hits’ version of a Star Wars movie. Whilst Abrams deserves credit for introducing a compelling group of new characters, compared with The Last Jedi, The Force Awakens doesn’t move the story forward. It’s more of a sop, designed to bring alienated Star Wars fans who hated the prequels back into the fold. Abrams set it up, but it is Johnson knocks it down – taking it forward with superior style and substance. Even if it’s not quite to everyone’s taste!
Much of the storytelling owes its intricacy to Johnson’s work on TV’s Breaking Bad. There are points where the writers appear to have miscalculated or made an outright terrible decision, but you quickly realise it was a setup for another payoff that lands harder because you briefly doubted…
This determination to create confusion, to keep you on your toes yet move towards inevitability, is in the DNA of The Last Jedi down to the level of scenes and shots. How many Star Destroyers, TIE fighters, Imperial Walkers and explanations of The Force have we seen? Johnson manages to find a way to present the technology, mythology and imagery in a way that makes it feel new, or at least new-ish, and for that he should be applauded.
The original script for The Last Jedi had about 160 sets in it, when George Lucas visited Pinewood he asked director Rian Johnson, ‘Why are you building all these sets?’" Lucas was not impressed with the homage to his classic techniques, simply seeing the time wasted when technology was now available which is something I agree with.
Much of the storytelling owes its intricacy to Johnson’s work on TV’s Breaking Bad. There are points where the writers appear to have miscalculated or made an outright terrible decision, but you quickly realise it was a setup for another payoff that lands harder because you briefly doubted…
This determination to create confusion, to keep you on your toes yet move towards inevitability, is in the DNA of The Last Jedi down to the level of scenes and shots. How many Star Destroyers, TIE fighters, Imperial Walkers and explanations of The Force have we seen? Johnson manages to find a way to present the technology, mythology and imagery in a way that makes it feel new, or at least new-ish, and for that he should be applauded.
The original script for The Last Jedi had about 160 sets in it, when George Lucas visited Pinewood he asked director Rian Johnson, ‘Why are you building all these sets?’" Lucas was not impressed with the homage to his classic techniques, simply seeing the time wasted when technology was now available which is something I agree with.
Now, whether or not you are team Johnson or team Lucas doesn’t really matter as in The Last Jedi there is far greater attention paid to colour and composition than ever before. The cinematography is nothing short of stunning, and the blend of practical effects and CGI beautifully capture the essence of the original trilogy, while still adding a tasteful dose of modern sparkle. Snoke’s throne room is visually stunning and the final battle, set on Crait, a salt planet whose flat white surfaces are scarred by shades of crimson; almost as if the battlefield itself is bleeding, is a beautiful piece of conceptual artistry. The thought, creativity and execution of the action sequences is something to behold.
|
The lightsaber battles in the original trilogy are clunky most of the time, and those in the prequels, while pretty, were choreographed when Matrix style wire action scenes were in vogue and so can be for some overly acrobatic. However, the fight between Rey, Kylo Ren, and the Elite Praetorian Guard is incredible. The combination of the rawness of battle with some stunning CGI makes it one of the grittiest Star Wars battles I’ve ever witnessed.
The Star Wars films have always incorporated elements of humour, but their success has varied to a great degree. For the most part, the jokes in the original trilogy are timeless, free from the restraints of any particular era or any established cannon. Meanwhile, the prequels… well, let’s just leave it at Jar Jar Binks. However, The Last Jedi, for all its action is actually a genuinely funny movie. Whilst others may have found it forced, I loved General Hux’s opening scene, and the audiences I have been with did too. I laughed more during this film than any other and whilst that is obviously subjective, I firmly believe Star Wars is a film which is more enjoyable to watch with a fully participating and active audience. One of the great joys in going to midnight showing is the applause at the start and the cheering at the end. These are the hard core fans and in the showing I attended the jokes went down perfectly.
Rian Johnson took unparalleled risks with The Last Jedi, and perhaps the biggest of them was giving fans the opposite of what they expected, transcending their preconceived notions about the Star Wars franchise. Who are Rey’s parents? Doesn’t matter, they’re nobodies. Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? Doesn’t matter, he’s dead now.
But take a moment to digest those two scenes alone (if you haven’t listened to the last podcast on this site I would encourage you to do so as Alex and Dave discuss Rey’s parentage). I am convinced that what they said will still turn out to be true and The Last Jedi did nothing for me other than to confirm there is more to Rey, and all will be revealed in the next episode. So what if her parents are nobodies? That doesn’t stop her grandfather being Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is a film full of misdirection and, the middle part of trilogy, it is not meant to provide answers but move the series along to its conclusion, which brings me on to Snoke.
For those who complain that Snoke was killed off too soon, I would remind you that Darth Maul had very little screen time in the Phantom Menace and his story was explained in the Clone Wars and Rebels. The same can be said of by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. Star Wars has a long tradition of developing and broadening characters’ back stories through cannon adjacent to the main trilogies. This year Rebels is in its last series and has moved at double episode pace before its winter break. It has long being speculated, and I expect, that we may be seeing Snoke appear in some form in the second half.
And that’s before we talk about what could be the ultimate twist of The Last Jedi. Is Snoke really dead?
In the Star Wars Visual Dictionary it says “Though his name is known throughout the galaxy and his reputation as the Supreme Leader of the First Order precedes him, few have actually ever seen Snoke in the flesh. He obscures himself with distance, save for a select few who can contact him directly. Even under such circumstances, Snoke disguises his true nature. Whatever frailties have broken his body are dwarfed by the immense size at which he typically projects his form."
There are hints to suggest that Snoke’s powers of manipulation and perception could have allowed him to fool both Kylo Ren and Rey into thinking they’ve killed him, when he is actually still alive and well. For such a Force-sensitive being to not notice a lightsaber moving minutes after he had looked into everything Rey’s mind could tell him seemed implausible to me. That was until we saw that Luke could use never before seen powers of astral projection to cross the galaxy.
But we see Snoke’s dead body, so that can’t be right… well why can’t it? Remember Han’s dice from the Millennium Falcon that Luke gave to Leia? That object clearly had weight, and appeared real, so why couldn’t Snoke’s body appear to those who saw him in the throne room?
I think we haven’t heard the last of Snoke in this trilogy and thanks to an official Lucasfilm magazine called “The Souvenir Guide to the Movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi” we already know that “Snoke has trained Kylo Ren and at least one other apprentice.”
But what does it mean? Well, the most obvious explanation is that Snoke is old. And that, sometime in his long life, he trained someone else who was strong in the Force and that person amounted to nothing or died. That’s the most likely scenario. However, he obviously had a history before we met him in The Force Awakens and it would make sense that Kylo Ren wasn’t his first apprentice as he rose to prominence in the First Order.
Could there be another apprentice lurking somewhere? A person Snoke cast to the side when he realised how strong Ben Solo is? Someone who is now off in the Outer Rim? Or are the Knights of Ren just considered apprentices as well? There are a number of different possibilities, all pure speculation until we know for sure. But it feels like no matter what the answer, the fact this piece of information was specifically called out means there probably is one. Or will be.
Which leads me to my final point on Snoke, what will replace Rebels? it seems highly unlikely that Disney will not keep up the momentum of the animated series. Could Snoke and the First Order be the focus of any new cartoon? It’s speculation, but with this many loose ends, it kind of makes sense.
The Star Wars films have always incorporated elements of humour, but their success has varied to a great degree. For the most part, the jokes in the original trilogy are timeless, free from the restraints of any particular era or any established cannon. Meanwhile, the prequels… well, let’s just leave it at Jar Jar Binks. However, The Last Jedi, for all its action is actually a genuinely funny movie. Whilst others may have found it forced, I loved General Hux’s opening scene, and the audiences I have been with did too. I laughed more during this film than any other and whilst that is obviously subjective, I firmly believe Star Wars is a film which is more enjoyable to watch with a fully participating and active audience. One of the great joys in going to midnight showing is the applause at the start and the cheering at the end. These are the hard core fans and in the showing I attended the jokes went down perfectly.
Rian Johnson took unparalleled risks with The Last Jedi, and perhaps the biggest of them was giving fans the opposite of what they expected, transcending their preconceived notions about the Star Wars franchise. Who are Rey’s parents? Doesn’t matter, they’re nobodies. Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? Doesn’t matter, he’s dead now.
But take a moment to digest those two scenes alone (if you haven’t listened to the last podcast on this site I would encourage you to do so as Alex and Dave discuss Rey’s parentage). I am convinced that what they said will still turn out to be true and The Last Jedi did nothing for me other than to confirm there is more to Rey, and all will be revealed in the next episode. So what if her parents are nobodies? That doesn’t stop her grandfather being Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is a film full of misdirection and, the middle part of trilogy, it is not meant to provide answers but move the series along to its conclusion, which brings me on to Snoke.
For those who complain that Snoke was killed off too soon, I would remind you that Darth Maul had very little screen time in the Phantom Menace and his story was explained in the Clone Wars and Rebels. The same can be said of by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. Star Wars has a long tradition of developing and broadening characters’ back stories through cannon adjacent to the main trilogies. This year Rebels is in its last series and has moved at double episode pace before its winter break. It has long being speculated, and I expect, that we may be seeing Snoke appear in some form in the second half.
And that’s before we talk about what could be the ultimate twist of The Last Jedi. Is Snoke really dead?
In the Star Wars Visual Dictionary it says “Though his name is known throughout the galaxy and his reputation as the Supreme Leader of the First Order precedes him, few have actually ever seen Snoke in the flesh. He obscures himself with distance, save for a select few who can contact him directly. Even under such circumstances, Snoke disguises his true nature. Whatever frailties have broken his body are dwarfed by the immense size at which he typically projects his form."
There are hints to suggest that Snoke’s powers of manipulation and perception could have allowed him to fool both Kylo Ren and Rey into thinking they’ve killed him, when he is actually still alive and well. For such a Force-sensitive being to not notice a lightsaber moving minutes after he had looked into everything Rey’s mind could tell him seemed implausible to me. That was until we saw that Luke could use never before seen powers of astral projection to cross the galaxy.
But we see Snoke’s dead body, so that can’t be right… well why can’t it? Remember Han’s dice from the Millennium Falcon that Luke gave to Leia? That object clearly had weight, and appeared real, so why couldn’t Snoke’s body appear to those who saw him in the throne room?
I think we haven’t heard the last of Snoke in this trilogy and thanks to an official Lucasfilm magazine called “The Souvenir Guide to the Movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi” we already know that “Snoke has trained Kylo Ren and at least one other apprentice.”
But what does it mean? Well, the most obvious explanation is that Snoke is old. And that, sometime in his long life, he trained someone else who was strong in the Force and that person amounted to nothing or died. That’s the most likely scenario. However, he obviously had a history before we met him in The Force Awakens and it would make sense that Kylo Ren wasn’t his first apprentice as he rose to prominence in the First Order.
Could there be another apprentice lurking somewhere? A person Snoke cast to the side when he realised how strong Ben Solo is? Someone who is now off in the Outer Rim? Or are the Knights of Ren just considered apprentices as well? There are a number of different possibilities, all pure speculation until we know for sure. But it feels like no matter what the answer, the fact this piece of information was specifically called out means there probably is one. Or will be.
Which leads me to my final point on Snoke, what will replace Rebels? it seems highly unlikely that Disney will not keep up the momentum of the animated series. Could Snoke and the First Order be the focus of any new cartoon? It’s speculation, but with this many loose ends, it kind of makes sense.
For me, the most intriguing heroes are the ones who are flawed, not the ones who are godlike. In The Last Jedi, Poe Dameron’s recklessness directly results in the death of several Resistance pilots right at the start of the film. Finn and Rose’s decision to trust DJ indirectly results in the First Order firing at the escape pods fleeing from the Raddus. In fact, DJ also reveals that the very same war profiteers supplying ships to the First Order are also equipping the Resistance. And Luke? He went into a self-imposed exile after nearly murdering his nephew in his sleep.
The point is, these characters aren’t perfect. They’re deep, complex individuals and for some, that’s problematic. But at the end of the day, the Star Wars saga’s overarching theme of hope is far less compelling if there isn’t anyone or anything challenging the purity of those with hope. |
Admittedly, some of Johnson’s creative decisions are controversial, such as that Leia scene and if any of them bothered you, that’s understandable. However, nothing else Johnson could have done would have lived up to the expectations of fans who spent the last two years creating theories and deciding exactly what they wanted to see. Ignoring these expectations was a smart decision that led to a genuinely unpredictable and great film.
As I said earlier, The Last Jedi is by no means flawless. In fact during an interview with Vanity Fair Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself, recalled a conversation with Johnson, who said “I at one point had to say to Rian, I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character.” This is a film where even the main cast disagreed with the director’s choices. There are places where the film can’t figure out how to get the characters to where it needs them to be and just sort of shrugs and says, “And then this happened, now let’s get on with it”.
But I for one am glad Revenge of the Sith wasn’t the last Star Wars film and that the saga has continued. The Last Jedi is a brilliant film because it takes the traditional Star Wars story mould and breaks it, through several crucial twists that create one different whole. By time the film is over, the galaxy has its latest, best hope for peace, and we, the audience, have a film that could redefine what it means to be a Star Wars movie.
The burning down of the previous Star Wars mythology to make way for the new one is difficult for many fans to accept and I suspect that the decision to do so was every bit as much a financial and marketing decision by Disney as it was a creative one. However, this approach means that we may see Star Wars taken to some interesting places in the future, designed for the next generation of fans.
But in the meantime, you should probably see Star Wars: The Last Jedi again whilst it still in the cinemas as you might be surprised how you view it second, third, fourth or seventh time around.
Let us know your thoughts on Twitter and #mtfbwy
As I said earlier, The Last Jedi is by no means flawless. In fact during an interview with Vanity Fair Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself, recalled a conversation with Johnson, who said “I at one point had to say to Rian, I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character.” This is a film where even the main cast disagreed with the director’s choices. There are places where the film can’t figure out how to get the characters to where it needs them to be and just sort of shrugs and says, “And then this happened, now let’s get on with it”.
But I for one am glad Revenge of the Sith wasn’t the last Star Wars film and that the saga has continued. The Last Jedi is a brilliant film because it takes the traditional Star Wars story mould and breaks it, through several crucial twists that create one different whole. By time the film is over, the galaxy has its latest, best hope for peace, and we, the audience, have a film that could redefine what it means to be a Star Wars movie.
The burning down of the previous Star Wars mythology to make way for the new one is difficult for many fans to accept and I suspect that the decision to do so was every bit as much a financial and marketing decision by Disney as it was a creative one. However, this approach means that we may see Star Wars taken to some interesting places in the future, designed for the next generation of fans.
But in the meantime, you should probably see Star Wars: The Last Jedi again whilst it still in the cinemas as you might be surprised how you view it second, third, fourth or seventh time around.
Let us know your thoughts on Twitter and #mtfbwy