Star Wars: The Phantom Johnson

Rating: 2/10 (26 March 2018)

Last Jedi
It was 1977 when the world first met a young, wide eyed boy named Luke Skywalker who set out on a galactic adventure. In the intervening decades the character and his accompanying franchise have become a cultural landmark. Star Wars became an event that crossed generation with parents showing the original trilogy (OT) to their kids, who then went as families to see the later prequels (PT). Then those kids grew up, showed their children the OT and the PT before taking their whole family to see 2015's Episode 7 - The Force Awakens. Awakens went on to reinvigorate the film universe as well as being the single biggest box office hit in history. This was achieved by J.J. Abrams' steadfast dedication to recreating the feel of the OT with limited CGI, expansive and various practical effects and the inclusion of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. Knowing that across the generations audiences wanted to see Luke the most, J.J. teased us all with a silent 30 second appearance at Awakens end as Rey found him in isolation on an island, extended his family lightsabre to him before cutting to black.
After initial excitement died down, some began to suggest that perhaps J.J. had gone too far in trying to recreate the feel of the OT by almost making a remake of a New Hope. The parallels are obvious and numerous - a secret is hidden in a droid on a dessert planet that is closely followed by a galactic army led by mysterious elder force wielder and his young, black clad and mask wearing apprentice. On the dessert planet, the droid meets a down on their luck, good hearted person who wants to help the droid complete its mission, dragging them in to the larger galactic conflict between the forces of evil and its resistance. Then, meeting an older mentor who reveals the reality of the force and the Jedi, the group board the Millennium Falcon, visit an alien populated drinking hole before taking on a giant space laser to save the rebels on which the young hero sees their new mentor stuck down.
In the place of Luke, we had Rey with an accompanying mystery as to her parentage and what led to her being abandoned on the dust bowl of Jakku. On the Dark Side of things, we had Kylo Ren, son of Han Solo, who betrayed Luke many years ago and aligned with the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke. Han Solo himself was the glue that held together much of Awakens bridging the gap between the generations of fans and films. Harrison Ford managed to recapture his character, albeit more wizened than before, earning a mostly decent send off from the franchise. Going in to the Last Jedi J.J. had managed to re-establish the universe, introduce a plethora of new characters while respecting the original films and characters. There were many intriguing questions left hanging at the end, who is Rey? How is she so powerful? Who is Snoke? Where did he come from? What happened between Luke and Ren that sent him to exile? Will Luke return to the fray? Will Ren now be more powerful after killing his father to embrace the Dark Side? Did Snoke trick Ren in to betraying Luke?
So, with new writer/Director Rian Johnson stepping up to a big budget for the first time, how did he sync up with what had been made before?
Unusually for a Star Wars film, Last Jedi picks up literally minutes after the credits rolled on Awakens with the rebels abandoning the base now known to the First Order and Rey still standing in front of Luke. Narratively the films timeline is quite nebulous, never giving you any reference when anything is happening in relation to anything else. The main threads follow the last of the Rebel fleet stuck in a crawling chase away from the pursuing First Order with seemingly no escape and the joint narrative of Rey trying to learn from Luke and Ren trying to learn from Snoke. Finn is relegated to a D-plot involving chasing down a hacker to help the rebel fleet escape the Order that goes utterly nowhere.
The opening is what at first glance should be a wonderful set piece of Poe Dameron facing down a Dreadnought (a super-duper sized Star Destroyer) in a single X-Wing but is undermined by some strange, Marvel-like humour and a bizarre lack of attention to detail. The concern many had when Lucasfilm got purchased was the "Disneyfication" of the films, which the attempts at laughs in Last Jedi certainly feel like. The action is undercut by a seeming ignorance to how space works with Rebel Bombers physically dropping bombs down on to ships ignoring the absence of strong gravity and the First Order arcing their shots at the Rebel Fleet, again, ignoring the absence of gravity. The film carries this lack of attention the details throughout repeatedly breaking immersion, undermining any tension or excitement.
To Johnson's credit, everything is shot beautifully. Some of what is created here provides the franchise with some of its best visuals, be it space battles or simpler shots of vistas and characters. Perhaps, like an inversion of the franchises creator, Johnson should have stuck to just directing as the writing choices and presentation is mostly poor. 20-45 minutes of the film could and should have been cut to allow the better stories to breathe. John Boyega is reduced to being a secondary character in a 4th level narrative serving simply as a soundboard made up of various reactionary noises. The character he accompanies, Rose, likely would be forgettable if not for her god-awful involvement in the final act, disrupting what would have been a greater emotional arc for other characters. Rose is not, however, the worst written character as that ignoble honour goes to Laura Dern's Vice-Admiral Holdo. Serving as the short-term head of the rebel fleet, the writing is so illogical as to be infuriating. Immediately refusing to work with Poe and refusing to share her plan for survival presents her as potentially interesting but unfortunately her refusal to share is only a tool to keep information from the audience. Withholding the information is maddeningly illogical, particularly when a single line of dialogue as to why could have resolved it. Further, the film trying to treat Holdo as amazing for her bad choices only deepens the frustration.
Naturally, the story everyone wants to see is Mark Hamill's return as Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. From the first moment of Luke receiving his family's lightsabre that he last saw falling down a shaft in cloud city, still gripped by the hand his father, Darth Vader, just lopped off, the tone of his character is just so far from the Luke we previously met. True enough, its been decades since he went in to exile but his temperament, actions and packaging just ring hollow compared to the character we watch develop over three films. An eternal optimist, Luke believed so much in good that he fought to bring it out of the second most evil person in the galaxy but here has none of that spirit. Rey is a nuisance to him as he refuses to train or help her, which is fortunate as Rey seems totally proficient in lightsabre combat and force powers already. J.J. set up her character to have a justification for her powers in Awakens but Johnson makes no effort to explain. The other story threads created by J.J. for the sequels, including the mystery surrounding Snoke, are either unanswered or deliberately contrarian resolutions. Johnson seems to have no interest in dealing with any of the questions set up by J.J. and seems on focused on executing his vision of, as Kylo would say, letting the past die and killing it if he has to.
Sadly, after all the furore of Awakens bringing Star Wars back to like, Rian Johnson seems to have gone out of his way to undermine any potential for the future. By being more concerned with politicising half his film and destroying the history of the other half, he has created a barely cohesive film. Without the Star Wars name, it's likely this would be a barely average viewing experience but with the Star Wars logo it has to be seen as more disappointing, given the cultural significance and the unlimited potential the universe holds. Originally, Disney were to give Johnson his own trilogy but if this is what he thinks of Star Wars, we can only hope that no promises were made. With Colin Trevarrow departing Episode 9, the Solo...solo film having innumerable problems, its possible Rian Johnson's Last Jedi will be seen as another turning point in the history of Star Wars, and not a turning point for the better.

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