Star Wars: The Last Jedi goes where no Star Wars movie has gone before
You thought they wouldn’t go there, but The Last Jedi goes there and beyond.
Warning: This review is spoiler-free, but if you want to go into The Last Jedi completely fresh — which I highly recommend — you should stop reading now.
If Star Wars: The Force Awakens sparked the fire for a flagging franchise, The Last Jedi throws fireworks into the flame. It gives Star Wars a surprising jolt in the arm and reinvigorates the series — this is not the original trilogy, nor the bloated prequels, and that’s largely a good thing.
The Last Jedi achieves this mostly by going further than you think it would go. It asks questions of its characters and their universe that are surprisingly more thoughtful and shocking than you’d expect from a Disney tentpole. That makes The Last Jedi a genuinely thrilling movie, a rarity in cinematic universes where nobody is really allowed to be in mortal danger.
The movie also validates many of the perceived sins of The Force Awakens, including a standout performance from Adam Driver. While Daisy Ridley shines as Rey, The Last Jedi is mostly Kylo Ren’s movie, and if you didn’t like Driver in his first outing as the emo Sith Lord, The Last Jedi may change your mind. Kelly Marie Tran provides much-needed heart as supporting character Rose Tico, and can I say how awesome it is that the new Star Wars universe is now such a richly diverse one.
Writer and director Rian Johnson deserves kudos for taking risk with Star Wars lore, but at parts it does feel like he goes right to the edge but doesn’t step off it. Some characters achieve their catharsis, others not quite — and it would be spoiling the movie to say more, so I won’t. One only hopes that the characters’ unresolved threads are setting up for bigger upsets in the following movie.
And while the main story has the best scenes — including the best lightsaber battle ever — the subplot feels like so much padding, and certain key twists beg believability. The Last Jedi has problems, but it’s largely forgiven because the movie manages to evoke the wonder, mystery and hope that has always suffused the best of Star Wars. It isn’t a perfect movie, but it is a very good one.
P.S. A final shout-out to director of photography Steve Yedlin. As fellow DoP Dan Mindel did for The Force Awakens, Yedlin creates stunning visuals for The Last Jedi. There are so many instantly iconic frames in this movie I just want to hang up in an art gallery — not something I thought I’d ever say about a Star Wars movie.
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