The First Order Strikes Back, but not in the way you may expect

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2017)

Over the years I have written several reviews, and adapted almost each of them one or two times over the years, because I find that how I experience a movie can change from year to year, and even from day to day. I am quite envious of people who can grasp a movie in one sitting, because that is something that rarely happens with me. Having seen The Last Jedi on its opening day, I am pretty certain that I am going to revisit it a few times, and that my opinion (and that of many other fans) will probably change over the years.
I always prefer to write my reviews without spoilers, but I soon found out that this is impossible if I want to make a proper appraisal. I'll admit, I am in two minds about this movie, and the fans also seem divided, judging by some harsh reviews. But I also acknowledge that there is more than meets the eye here, and that I (we) may not be able to fully grasp TLJ until this sequel trilogy is completed in another 2 years.

Let me start out with the biggest compliments that I can give: TLJ is really the Empire Strikes Back of the third trilogy. It is bold, it is dark; it takes risks and dares to venture into dark terrain. This may be the least crowd-pleasing blockbuster since a long time, perhaps even for years to come. There is spectacle and substance, and although there are plenty of visual and narrative nods to the original trilogy, it is mostly referencing instead of rehashing. There is a sense of familiarity, but it is nowhere near the (highly entertaining) nostalgia recycling machine that was The Force Awakens, where Han's death was the only big gamble.
TLJ opens with an epic space battle that is both funny and dramatic, and gives Poe Dameron and BB-8, two of our fine new heroes in the saga, ample time to shine and add some levity to a movie that becomes less cheerful over time. Like in Empire Strikes Back, we the find our heroes being chased by evil, and divided into two camps: one is trying to learn the ways of the Force from an old master, whereas the rest (not surprisingly, a quite racially diverse group) are desperately trying to stay out of baddies' hands, and some make a side-tour while they're at it. It's a set-up familiar from ESB and it works, as it takes some pleasant turns to the left where ESB went to the right. We learn that Luke is far from the brave Jedi who we remember; he has become desillusioned as he himself may have been partially to blame for the Dark Side's return. His redemption arc with him taking responsibility and accepting his place in the Force in the touching finale is easily one of the best elements in the film, not to mention his funny yet melancholic encounter with Yoda (although reusing that old puppet really felt unnecessarily retro amidst all those CGI porgs).
Some story elements are less easily defined. Finn's subplot where he and his new sidekick end up in a place where the real victims of the conflict can be found initially felt like a cheap jab at the weapons industry, which only strays from the main plot. However, the finale suggests that this subplot is much more important than we thought, and will play out in the next film. A lot in this movie feels like set-up for the main course, rather than plot evolution in its own right.
There are more elements in the film of which the merit is somewhat ambiguous to me. Director Rian Johnson (Looper, Breaking Bad) is no stranger to down-beat plot developments, and the scene where the Resistance transports are butchered one by one was one of the most agonizing scenes in the entire saga. Johnson also dares to present unexpected outcomes that we may not like, such as that Kylo Ren may be beyond redemption, the truth about Rey's parentage, and that all old wisdom about the Force is futile in the end. You could call it nihilistic and say that in the end, most of what happened in the film and what has been discovered was all for nothing. As much as I criticized TFA for playing things safe, I have to admit it was all good fun and with instant satisfaction, whereas we derive very little of that from this movie. But perhaps it is all part of a larger theme, that despite our best efforts, failure is sometimes inevitable (and can be the best teacher, as Yoda says), and that maybe the past must die in favor of the future. In that respect, in its uncompromising brutality, the only recent fantasy movie that comes close is Wolverine's Logan.
And with every risk, there is always the question of whether it pays off. And to be frank, some simply don't. The most glaring example would be Supreme Leader Snoke, who was once introduced as this mysterious, incredibly powerful force, feared by the First Order and Resistance alike; a man whose backstory would be of great importance. Alas, Johnson simply sacrifices Snoke (whose Force powers should have seen this coming BTW) in order to make Ben Solo seem less whimpy. You can hate the prequels (I like them) but Anakin and the Emperor got plenty of exposition, so that we can finally understand who they are and where they came from. Maz Kenata would have been a great source of some necessary exposition, but she is criminally underused in a whimsical cameo that fails to be funny. And Captain Phasma, one of the coolest things introduced in the previous movie, should have made Finn even more miserable this time, so that he could get his revenge and a worthy battle in the final installment. But instead, all we get is a lame death after a fight that barely lasts 5 minutes. It's as if Johnson did not know what to do with the legacy of J.J. Abrams, and simply chose to toss these figures aside for cheap shock value.
There are more things that simply don't work. There is nothing wrong with a running time of 150 minutes, but one hour of Luke moping around being uncooperative gets boring at one point. Silly humor and annoying creatures don't really help make it more bearable, so some tighter editing here and there would have been welcome. The final battle really doesn't amount to anything more than a Hoth-throwback where Finn can learn a cheesy lesson about saving things we love. Also, it seems as if someone organized an overacting contest, and Domnhall Gleeson was the only one to receive the memo. But at least his character gets something substantial to do, which we can't say of Benicio del Toro and Laura Dern, who are introduced as potentially interesting but ultimately served off as mere plot devices.
But despite everything, I still love TLJ for its strong points, and perhaps for how it will hold up in the future. I remember not really liking ESB either, until I saw Return of the Jedi. Maybe TLJ is also a movie we cannot fully appreciate until after the fact, when we may retroactively appreciate it as a dark but essential link that tied the new trilogy together.