Just a Whole Lot of Fun

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2018)

I still vividly remember watching the beginning of the first Star Wars movie as the introductory words scrolled up the screen. And then, as the underbelly of the spaceship came into view, a chill went up my spine. I was mesmerized by the details as the ship grew bigger and bigger until it's form filled the entire screen. Then the story kicked in and I was hooked forever on the ongoing battle between good and evil and the wonderful cast of characters engaged in the Force.
That was more than 40 years ago and here we are today watching number 8 in the nine-part Star Wars trilogy of trilogies. The characters have aged, just as I have, and there is at least one new generation, just as I have one or two children, and a step-granddaughter. But the story is still the same and the movie still delivers the same wonderful combination of fear and hope that our uncertain future will turn out OK because people will, eventually, gain the courage to use the Force for good instead of evil.
Of course, my generation is dying off now. Carrie Fisher, who never really had any other roles than that of Princess Leia, died shortly after filming for this movie ended - it was her last performance. And Mark Hamill, as Luke Skywalker, has also aged, returning in this and the previous movie, The Force Awakens, as a wise and much more powerful Jedi, but one who isn't all that happy about having to awaken from decades of isolation. His role in Last Jedi is, of course, critical and helps give continuity to the whole enterprise.
But let's face it, neither Hamill nor Fisher qualify as outstanding actors. They were cast in the originals as unknowns and they readily adapted to their newfound roles. They became famous, and probably rich, because of those early movies, but neither of them went on to any other great performances and neither of them ever received any Oscar nominations.
The same fate probably lies for the next generation of Star Wars heroes, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Adam Driver, who all give fine performances as the current heroes and villains. Ridley's role as Rey is a welcome contrast to Princess Leia, showing that gender differences, even in action and science fiction films, is changing in favor of greater equality. All three of these characters were in the last episode, The Force Awakens released in 2015, but since that time, each of them have managed to appear in only one other major film and, like Hamill and Fisher, none of them have yet been nominated for an Oscar. That they are young is, of course, one of the reasons, but the Academy has nominated younger people, and there are plenty of nominees who are around their age and moving up the Hollywood ladder quickly.
So one conclusion is that Star Wars actors just aren't great actors, and there may be some truth to that. But I also think that there is an inherent, and perhaps necessary bias against movies in the science fiction or fantasy genre. This bias arises because of the increased difficulty of 'suspending disbelief'. It is relatively easy to imagine what the world was like in Europe of the 1960s, the setting for All the Money in the World. But it is another several degrees of difficulty to imagine what a world is like 'a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away'.
And so, several things happen when we watch one of these movies. We pay much more attention to what our senses (primarily sight and sound) are telling us because we need to pay attention to all the details we can in order to build our understanding of this new world. That means, also, I think, that we tend to appreciate simpler story lines and more obvious characters. There isn't room for really complex characters with difficult emotional sequences because we aren't even sure what our own emotional reactions are to worlds that are so new and different.
Star Wars movies succeed, I think, because the concepts are so simple and basic - they truly are about the fight between good and evil at a very basic level. The moral clarity is strikingly obvious and is part of what makes these movies so much fun. The acting, directing, and writing aren't Oscar-level performances, because they don't have to be in order to give us a good time (and sell tickets!).
The writing and directing story on this movie illustrates what I mean. The Star Wars saga was started, 40 years ago, by George Lucas, and he retained a strong interest in the story line through the first trilogy and into the prequel trilogy. So he had a pretty firm idea of what the story line would be over the time and space of nine movies (a trilogy of trilogies). However, as happens to many huge and ambitious projects, he eventually lost control and when the franchise was sold to Disney, they basically granted full creativity rights to each new production team.
With this iteration in the cycle, number eight, they gave full creative control to Rian Johnson, who as writer and director was able to determine the direction of the movie. It is said that he wasn't even required to consult the writer and director of the previous film in order to see what his vision of the story line was supposed to be - he had full control and he took it.
So what is Johnson's history? Well, not much! He has never been nominated for an Oscar and his filmography, as writer and director, points to only one major film, Looper from 2012. He is also noted for Brick and Brothers Bloom, neither of which have I ever heard of. Looper is an interesting movie, but is of the sci-fi genre and received only modest recognition among the sci-fi award circuit. This is not to say that Johnson is a bad writer or director, but it does show that he isn't mainstream, so his creative direction is not going to give this movie an edge in the awards circuit. (He also brought the cinematographer and film editor from Looper to work on this movie.)
In the end, then, these kinds of movies are rewarded for how they please the senses. And this Star Wars was nominated in four categories, all 'below the line'. those categories all had to do with what we see and hear and how those characteristics contribute to our understanding of how the Star Wars world works; how the reality is created. And in that area, the movie has some outstanding credentials.
The Visual Effects team is noted for work on dozens of important science fiction and fantasy movies. Members of the team received Oscar nominations for previous Star Wars Movies as well as the Dark Knight, and they won Visual Effects Oscars for Golden Compass, Babe, and Inception. These people know how to create stunning visual worlds and make convincing representations of how they operate.
The Sound Department includes artists who received Oscar nominations for either Sound Editing or Sound Mixing that include previous Star Wars movies, as well as Wall-E, There Will be Blood, Benjamin Button, Social Network, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fight Club, King Kong, the Hobbit trilogies, Pirates of the Caribbean series, Never Cry Wolf, Skyfall, and War Horse. They won Oscars in one or both of these categories for The Lord of The Rings movies, Bourne Ultimatum, and the English Patient. In short, this team knows how to create the sounds that help define the alternative universe as real and plausible.
Finally, the soundtrack for a movie goes a long way to helping us define our emotional reaction. Music can help build tension, or it can soothe our soul - it can send us deep into fear, or give us hope. And who did they get to do the original music for this movie, than John Williams, who has provided the soundtracks for most, if not all of the Star Wars movies, including creating the original theme for the music of the first one. Williams is possibly the most awarded artist in the entire film industry with more than fifty nominations for original music spanning a time period of more than 50 years! (His first nomination was for Valley of the Dolls, in 1967.). He has won the Oscar for original music for the first Star Wars movie, as well as Schindler's List, E.T., Jaws, and Fiddler on the Roof. This man knows how to compose movie music.
Despite these four nominations in the important technical art categories, The Last Jedi failed to win a single award. To Star Wars fans, however, I'm not sure that matters a whole lot - I know it doesn't for me. If the primary purpose of a movie is to be a fun experience, then The Last Jedi wins for sure.