Too Artistic For Its Own Good

Rating: 4/10 (8 May 2019)

Two years later I'm still finding reasons to bring up The Last Jedi in conversation. Whether it's to make a joke or to laugh at the movie's expense or to discuss why we didn't like it. It somehow keeps coming back. I wasn't sure why it did. I wasn't even clear on what it was I didn't like about this movie. But now I finally have the words to discuss it.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the second installment of a confused trilogy that constantly reminds you of its predecessors and tries to convince you why they are better than them. It takes the rules that have been established over the past six, no, seven movies (plus the spinoffs and TV series) and rewrites them in an attempt to be artistic and meaningful. What we get instead is a misguided sequel that doesn't know where to go and instead is so focused on subverting expectations that they forget what makes this series so meaningful.
It's fine to change things. It's completely okay to add things that the director thinks make sense in order to make the film more interesting. The Last Jedi tries this, but completely falls on it's face and as a result invalidates the rules of the films that came before it. The Force is a very mysterious power, and it makes sense to introduce new abilities we've never seen before. But this movie takes it a step too far by introducing force powers that make the previous movies make much less sense. For example, in every other form of Star Wars media we have never seen a lightsaber be ignited with the force. Whenever a lightsaber is ignited, its user is holding it. If the user drops it, it deactivates. That's how lightsabers used to work. But in this movie they completely eliminate that by giving Kylo Ren the ability to activate Rey's lightsaber from across the room. Which raises the question that if they have the ability to turn on and off lightsabers with the force, then there is no reason that they aren't using it in combat. There's no reason that Darth Vader, who keep in mind was seen as one of the most powerful force users of all time, couldn't have turned Luke's lightsaber off mid battle and kill him. There is no reason that the Jedi aren't turning each others lightsabers on and off mid battle in order to gain the advantage. This one scene sacrifices one of the most important rules of the Star Wars universe in order to surprise the audience.
You could argue that the Jedi use the force to maintain their lightsabers during battle, and would prevent each other from turning them off in battle. However, this is not the case. If it were the case, then there is absolutely no way that Finn could have ignited the lightsaber in The Force Awakens. He ignites it not once, but twice. You can't even argue that Finn is proficient in the Force because 1) he has never been trained, and 2) even if he was he would still be no match for a force user like Kylo Ren who could easily overpower him. In the end this scene only serves to further the plot, and disregards the rules of the universe to make it happen.
This isn't the only scene that is guilty of this, either. The one that comes to mind first is the light speed ramming scene. This scene, too, invalidates the rules of the universe in order to further the plot (and look really damn cool). If this technology can be weaponized, then why haven't they used it before? Why didn't the Rebel Alliance ram their biggest cruiser into the Death Star if it would have minimized the risk to the Rebels? It just doesn't make sense. There was a simple solution to this: just do something else. Maybe it doesn't look as cool, but is it really worth making the entire Star Wars universe make less sense in order to make a cool looking visual? I don't think so.
Subverting an audience's expectations is not always a good thing. If a movie does it successfully then it can be really effective. The Last Jedi does not do it successfully. It instead takes very rapid twists and turns that are often unnecessary, and it instead makes you feel a bit seasick. It feels like this movie keeps changing its mind as it goes along. Finn and Rose go on a quest to find the "master codebreaker" to shut down the First Order's hyperspace trackers. But it then changes its mind and has them go with a fugitive who claims to be just as good. Later when they are about to break in, it turns out that the fugitive was ACTUALLY working for the First Order and he led them into a trap. That would be fine, but of course it's executed terribly. Never mind the fact that they go with the fugitive instead of the actual professional, the First Order was COUNTING on them to accidentally run into this guy. How convenient for them, right? Would it not have made more sense for them to have just found the person they were looking for in the first place and have them be the double agent? It would have made this whole exchange feel much more deliberate rather than just having the main characters "accidentalying" their way into their trap.
But I digress. I believe in giving credit where credit is due. There are good things about this movie that deserve recognition. The visual effects, cinematography, sound design, acting (for the most part), and music are all amazing. Unlike the prequels, the visual effects are convincing and beautiful. There are some really beautiful scenes, too. Especially the final fight in Snoke's throne room. Lightsabers are satisfying to see, and the sound design for them is beautiful. And while not all the actors are great, there are quite a few that stand out. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's serviceable. And of course, as always, the music is absolutely stunning. Music has always been the strong suit of Star Wars, and this movie is no exception.
The visual effects, music, and all of those other things are phenomenal. So it's such a shame that those things are forced to carry the entire weight of a movie because of an under performing script. I don't hate Star Wars because of this movie. I don't even hate this movie. It's mostly just a big disappointment, especially for Star Wars fans. I didn't get what I wanted out of it, and I don't know what Abrams is going to do to fix the mess that this movie created. Hopefully I'll be able to look past this movie's problems and enjoy the future installments, but I don't have high hopes anymore.
Thank you for reading.