Director: Rian Johnson
Writer: Rian Johnson
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Frank Oz, Lupita Nyong'o
Runtime: 152 mins.
2017
Spoilers throughout, though this was the second largest opening weekend of all time so I guess you've seen it?
I'm going to start by establishing some crucial context, because I'm about to be combative and I want folks to understand exactly how I mean to be combative.
A primary role of the critic is to provide a perspective and a platform that allows people to further engage and play with the art they consume. The role of the critic is NOT to decide whether a piece of art is good or bad. Any critic who believes this about himself (and I say "himself" because the ones who believe this tend to be men) is full of shit. Nobody should ever presume to tell you that your experience is wrong. Yet despite the inherent subjectivity of art, I maintain that it's not all relative. What this means is that we can have substantial discussions not only about our own experience, but about whether a work of art works or doesn't work within the context of itself. So basically, I would be a fool to ever suggest that someone should or shouldn't like something, but I could disagree about an argument they put forward concerning how the movie functions.
Which brings us to the explosive cultural phenomena shitstorm the recent release of Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. You've probably noticed that The Last Jedi has been widely divisive in a totally different way than its predecessor. The responses to The Force Awakens tended to fall into two categories: effusive praise and shrugging acceptance (of which I fell in the latter). But The Last Jedi has caused a stunning outpouring of hate, buffeted by an equal and opposite outpouring of love.
To play my hand, I liked The Last Jedi. A lot. Probably more than any Star Wars movie since Empire. And yet I very soon discovered that the internets have been aflood with fans expressing hatred, anger, disgust, sadness, and crushing disappointment. It reached epidemic proportions when fans expressed their ire by descending upon Rotten Tomatoes to torpedo the film's score, currently at 93% for critics and 55% for audiences. This swing of 38 percentage points is not unheard of. The unprecedented part is that for a blockbuster like Star Wars, the disparity between audiences and critics always goes in the opposite direction. So what's going on here?
To discover so many experiences so different than mine for a movie I assumed would be met with near universal praise is a whiplash experience. As stated above, the wrong thing to do in this situation would be to dig in my heels and say that the movie is good and that everyone should like it. Rather, the thing to do is investigate, listen, and try to fit everyone's arguments into my own schema of understanding. What I've discovered--what so many folks have discovered--is upsetting.
Before I make my claim I want to mention that I had serious problems with the film as well. Of the three central plotlines in the film, one (Rey + Luke + Kylo) is tremendous. The other, that of Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) straining at the reins of command under General Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) is quite good and fully functional, albeit somewhat familiar. The real shame is the third plot, pointlessly spawned from the second plot to give Finn (John Boyega) and newcomer Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) something pointless to do. It's a lazy MacGuffin hunt that doesn't even deign to have an effect on the larger plot. It seems to exist purely to screw with the pacing and inflate the runtime.
There's also a truly embarrassing scene in which Lupita Nyong'o's Maz Kanata Skypes into a scene just so that she can be in the movie.
Yet the complaints I've seen have a fundamentally different tenor than my own. They center around aspects of the film that I found to be highlights: mature storytelling decisions that serve to progress rather than regress the Star Wars saga. A great many of them also feature more than a whiff of sexism. In the way that The Force Awakens more or less pleased everyone by being insubstantial, I'm afraid The Last Jedi pissed people off by being more substantial than they were ready for.
A mentor once told me that if you receive strong reactions to something you've made, either positive or negative, that means you've made something real and should continue down that path. I reflect on that a lot. In addition to descending on Rotten Tomatoes en masse, franchise fans have been very vocal about picking fights. My favorite film critic put up a few tweets praising the dramatic structure and themes of The Last Jedi and has been receiving responses like this:
"I think the take away from Last Jedi is that men are weak minded, stupid, unethical cowards and women are flawless and good at everything, even without training...so don't question them."
"The fact that you wont even reply to the fair criticism of your so called fan base proves it. Ill keep it short, WHO PAID YOU? oh wait Johnsons.. and via proxy Disney. Mark my words Disney Will pay for this."
Ugh.
So what is it, exactly, that has folks so riled up? I'm afraid it has to do with writer/director Johnson's aggressive commentary against nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. Last year I wrote a piece about the cultish culture surrounding Star Wars, and it feels even more pertinent now. There are many men who don't want pesky woke things like diverse representation and progressive notions to get smeared all over their beloved Star Wars. This stunted fan ethos comes roaring back with increased fervor every time, say, a black man gets cast as Stephen King's Gunslinger, or a group of talented women get cast as the new Ghostbusters. This trend is a microcosm of the wider alt-right fascist groundswell. These [predominantly white] men see the world changing around them, and they are afraid that their holy cultural properties will be pried away from them. As the Jedi training tells us, fear turns so quickly to anger and hate.
And you know what? They're absolutely right. Their world is finished, and we will pry it away from them, because we have realized all the ways that it is flawed, toxic, and destructive.
Maybe you think I'm reaching by connecting these dots. I swear to you that I've seen a lot of takes on this movie in the past several days, and every single one of the negative takes have been from men. All of the women who have expressed their thoughts have been very positive. I know this isn't a universal truth, but we are talking about unignorable trends here.
So if you are one of the folks who had a strong negative reaction to The Last Jedi and you made it this far, I implore you to examine yourself. Examine your feelings, reasons, and arguments. Was The Last Jedi just not your thing? Totally cool. Do you think I underestimate its flaws? Maybe, and I'd love to hear your argument! Do you think it ruined Star Wars? Then listen--if there's even a chance that you're upset about something else, something about the film's message and manifestation of that message, you need to figure that out. And stop taking it out on critics and creatives.
Here's my guide through the main arguments I've seen cropping up again and again surrounding The Last Jedi:
To those who didn't appreciate Snoke dying before we learned anything about him:
My personal preferences in art tend towards subversion and bold choices, so I adored this twist. Beyond the shock value, it is one of the most cogent storytelling moments in the film. Ben's decision here is a tremendous milestone in the journey he has been on since Episode VII, and it throws into stark relief the disparate ways that he and Rey go about discarding the past.
Besides, Snoke was a garbage character with no discernible personality and a terrible design. It seems like people wanted Snoke to be New Emperor, but Johnson adding more complexity to Ben while simultaneously slotting him into the primary antagonist role is a far braver and more generative choice. If you want more Palpatine you could just go back and watch Episode III.
To those who didn't like the reveal of Rey's parentage:
This is a telling complaint. The Star Wars saga has always been wish fulfillment about the amazing powers of a select few elites. The Last Jedi discards this fixation with royalty and genealogy in one fell swoop. Rey is not only a remarkable woman, but one whose powers didn't come from a man. I cannot think of anything more inspiring to young people right now, especially ones who are feeling powerless in the face of a regime that doesn't care about them.
And enough about how Rey hasn't received enough training to do what she does. Luke went toe to toe with Vader and he had, what, a week of training? The Force works in mysterious ways, folks.
To those who didn't like the cheeky humor:
Uhhh have you seen a Star Wars movie? As Someone Online pointed out, R2-D2 and C-3PO are doing crappy vaudeville throughout the entirety of the first six movies. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that The Last Jedi was the funniest blockbuster of the year, but it's very much on par with the other Star Warses.
To those who thought Disney shoved the porgs in for marketing purposes:
Again, have you seen a Star Wars movie?
Also, Chewbacca literally kills, skins, and nearly eats a porg. The film seems to feel the same way you do about hack merchandising.
To those who thought there should be more porgs:
Fair.
To those who are angry that all the men in the movie are portrayed negatively:
This is frankly a sexist complaint. The Last Jedi, among its other aspirations, has a lot to say about toxic masculinity. But what it doesn't say is that men are inherently toxic. The film's airtight dramatic structure sees to it that the men who make headstrong, foolhardy decisions have substantial character arcs that bring them to places of greater maturity. Poe learns to consider factors beyond his own furious hubris. Finn learns that self-destruction is not the answer. Luke learns to work through his feelings of crushing guilt, and he cements his place as a legendary hero in the process. For a much more detailed and insightful exploration of these themes, check out this excellent article by Kayti Burt.
The Last Jedi loves its men. It just hates the patriarchy.
- - -
So as not to wallow in negativity, we'd best end on a positive note. The Last Jedi is a piece of surprising depth for the franchise it issues from, as well as the blockbuster model that same franchise spawned. If its only merit were Rey's arc of learning that her power is her own, the film would be worth it. Fortunately, Johnson and cinematographer Steve Yedlin have crafted a visually stellar picture. Captain Holdo's act of heroism is a cinematic moment unlike anything I've seen this year; Johnson and co. are constantly taking full advantage of the possibilities that this kind of movie affords them. The combat, be it hand to hand or spacecraft, is always clear, always gripping, and always rooted in story and character. There's nothing quite like seeing a tattered Rebellion force attacking a massive Imperial onslaught using rickety sandskimmers that can't even make it off the ground, kicking up red dust as they go like some grand spirographic heart rate monitor. It is a perfect Star Wars moment.
Although it's far from his best work (for that I refer you to the sci-fi masterpiece Looper), I am pleased with what Johnson has accomplished within the most daunting and institutionalized franchise in existence. His writing is inspiring and uncompromising throughout. I do believe that the film's reputation, already mostly positive, will improve in time. People hated Empire when it came out, after all.
4 / 5 BLOBS
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