Star Wars:
The Last Jedi (2017)
Review
And so it begins. From the salty ashes of the old, rises a
new fight. Welcome everyone to the review of the part which killed them all. Yeah,
as you might’ve guessed- spoiler alert. And also, it did kill them all. Which
is kind of odd for a movie which is supposed to be the middle part of a trilogy.
Usually we don’t see any new beginnings or endings sprouting
through halfway a journey but to say it did not make things more interesting
and worth looking forward to a strange final part would be unjust. Yet, I must
say this wasn’t one of the stronger stories told in the realm of far far away.
There were quite a few head scratchers and not in a good way but the thrill of
action does outshine them. That is to say, most of the time. Let’s go over the
fires and the fishes (large ones) one by one.
The story
The story
was a bit refreshing considering what we are used to in a regular star-wars
setup. We usually focus on the rebels trying to look for a way to outsmart the
first order and end them or atleast land a big blow. All the while, the first
order tries to annihilate whatever’s left of the rebellion fleet and hunt them down at all
costs while reaffirming their stronghold over the galaxy. From the previous
movie, we already had an idea that Rey was headed to Luke’s hideout in order to
receive her Jedi training which mostly held true.
The film
opens with an intense space battle where the First order has found the rebel
base and they need to run away as soon as they can. But Poe Dameron tries to
fight them head on and destroy a big executor. The rebels succeed in doing so
and even in timely evacuation but incur heavy casualties. Finn comes back to
life and is somewhat stressed out about it. Meanwhile Rey confronts Luke
Skywalker on planet Aaahck-to. Things don’t go as planned (who would’ve
thought) and Luke refuses to be of any help and just wants to sit back, enjoy
his endless vacation and die comfortably when the time comes in 30-40 years or
so. Pretty neat, huh? While the rebels are actively tracked by the empire (does
it even matter what we call it?). Soon they run out of fuel and find themselves
right in the clutches of evil (whatever). And yeah, Supreme Leader Snoke’s
there amongst them too. Maybe he didn’t wanna watch it on screen far away at a
safe distance so he decided to come as close as he can to watch it (on a screen).
So we have
set stage for some Battlestar Galactica type evasion but it’s just a hundred
times mellow. Throw in a coup d'état amongst the rebellion fleet while Leia is
out of commission. Finn and Rose’s (a delightfully new childish addition) side
quest to find the master codebreaker. Rey’s makeshift training by the grumpy
old man skywalker is also happening on the side too.
All in all,
a great new way for a star wars movie to branch out its stories and then
converge at the end instead of having a streamlined structure. But all of it
seems somewhat half-hearted as the viewer never finds itself much invested in
any of the story arc. It does have some unexpected moments to keep you hooked
and surprises which are genuinely good but some things are predictable and
illogical too.
The characters
This part
introduced some great characters and some not so. We have, DJ- played by
Benicio Del Toro, a master codebreaker who can even hack into First Order
security systems without alerting them but is a self-centered non-believer
who turns tail at the first sign of trouble. Another one is Rose Tico played by
Kelly Marie Tran, a plumber/engineer who works in the unpopular sectors of the
rebel mother-ship. She’s also got a way more cool sister who sadly dies during
Poe’s reckless hit and destroy plan. One major downer is the big reveal, Luke
Skywalker himself. This time we see a rather unfamiliar side of Luke. One that
many fans might not agree with; one that is neither heroic nor inspiring. We
find Luke in isolation, pretty much doing nothing. When Rey appears, well he
still does pretty much nothing. Some shots of Rey and Luke on that island might even remind some people of Samwise and Frodo at Mount Doom. Luke's only contribution is just the clever way he
pisses off Ben Solo aka Kylo at the end. Finn was pretty much a prop just to
flash around and help introduce side characters, otherwise holding little to no
significance on the overall events of the main storyline. Even Rey seems to
care less about him. Which finally brings us to Rey and Kylo. One could argue
that this movie had a dual lead with those two last force sensitive youngsters.
This time we saw a bond develop between them, quite literally. But Ben suddenly
going soft was something hard to swallow considering how at the end of the last
movie he killed the much fan favourite and long standing signature character of
the series, his own dad, Han Solo. Though at the end, it is satisfying to know
that he continues the First Order’s vision whether the Supreme Leader wishes so
or not. My personal favourite appearance in the whole movie was Yoda (duh!).
Yoda is as sassy as ever and it is such a pleasure to watch him treat Luke as
his young padawan again. Another noteworthy point is how Yoda is created just
like he was in the original trilogy. The makers have used CGI to recreate the
same effect as that puppet-ty Yoda from back in the 80’s, unlike the total
computer redux as in the prequel trilogy. Its like the present makers want to
maintain as much distance as they can from the disastrous prequels. And yeah,
the Porgs (smaller, cuter, less useful version of ewoks) are a very delightful
addition too.
The music
Usually in
terms of music, there isn’t much difference in a trilogy of movies like star
wars. The original score by John Williams still work well. Other sounds,
however meticulously crafted, don’t really stand out in our grand space opera
saga. The Porgs, millennium falcon, warships, lightsabers, rebel fleet, throat
hugs (force choke), chases through fields, etc. are all at their best. But if
you’re looking for some other striking melody to give life to a new sort of
adventure then you’d probably be let down.
The presentation
The
direction and cinematography is good but nothing incredibly extraordinary. The
build-ups aren’t all that profound and the emotional connect with any character
is almost negligible. The twists and turns are equal amount surprising yet
predictable. In the acting department, Domhall Gleeson as General Hux (hugs)
and Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Haldo do a great job with their subtlety and the
dubious nature of the characters. Either one is hard to trust and still an
integral part of the whole setup on both sides. Others are just pretty much the
same as they are always. It’s nice to see Mark Hamill play a grumpy old
anti-hero-ish Jedi convincingly enough but poor character design lets the plot
down.
The Verdict
All in all,
a vanilla experience. It depends on you, really. If you like this flavour then
fine and if you don’t then you still won’t be disappointed but probably won’t
enjoy yourself much. And because we have a new Star Wars installment coming out almost
every year as spin offs and whatnot, so there’s not much sentimental value for
a single mid part of a trilogy for now. Although, it did have a minor
obligation to live up to the benchmark of the Empire Strikes Back and more so to the Force Awakens but it successfully severed the ties with both of them in both
good and bad ways. But after all is said, the movie is still a pretty good
addition to the space samurai saga and is definitely destined to win hearts of
fans all around the globe.
Where is Lando Calrissian?
And the author was again late so he had to skip one show to reach on time for the next one.
Watch the video and see how far we've come from Spy Kids 3-D.
