This is the most complex and multi-faceted Star Wars movie to date. There were many storylines to interleave — Ren’s inner conflict, Luke’s crisis of faith, Rey’s parent issues, Poe’s mutiny, Finn and Rose’s adventures. One may argue that this is simply too much for one feature film to handle. That may be correct. But the reason I like this movie is because I, in general, liked the individual stories. While the string connecting them may have been flawed, each storyline is a gem.
I absolutely love Luke in this movie. While he is a bit of a sarcastic asshole, that is central to his character and development. This is the first acknowledgment we get that the Jedi were stupid. The Jedi died because they were stupid. I feel like Luke’s faith conflict has many parallels to the real world. The holy are fine, their fan club is what’s wrong. The parallels between Luke in TLJ and Yoda in ESB are also a nice touch. Speaking with Yoda, the scene Luke has with him is amazing. It may well be my favorite scene of the film. Yoda, ever the wiser, does what Luke is unable to and destroys the tree. The dialog that follows is one of the best of the saga. In a way, Luke was never done learning from Yoda — he must still knock some sense into him. Yoda’s lesson about failure is one I think many can take to heart — and his line, “The greatest teacher, failure is” is now one of my favorite of the whole saga. The whole interplay cinematography and music in the final shot when they both look over the fire is phenomenal. My jaw was agape. Expertly done by Mr. Johnson.
The interplay between Rey and Kylo Ren is another great storyline through this movie. Their feelings are symmetrical in a way that your view in a mirror is symmetrical with you: same, but opposite. Both see something in each other — that they can both be turned to their respective sides. I feel like this is opposed to the slightly asymmetric nature of Luke and Vader’s relationship throughout the OT. Luke is clearly the more invested one in that relationship, at least outwardly. They aren’t having telepathic conversations. Ren’s character and Driver’s performance thereof is much stronger in this movie than TFA. Kylo taking the mask off is kind of a maturing experience for him — he’s not playing pretend anymore. His real conflict is that he has nobody to turn to — he’s alone. He killed Han, Leia is basically dead to him, Luke almost killed him, Snoke is abusive to him, and Rey will only accept him if she turns him.
With regard to Rey’s parents, I think I was becoming more and more convinced prior to this movie that she should have nobodies has her parents. For a moment, I almost thought that Ren would reveal to Rey that they were siblings — considering the way Ren thinks of his parents and the way he was describing things to Rey. The movie did the right thing in heavily leaning towards the direction of having nobody as Rey’s parents. I think the movie failed in not giving us enough of Rey — instead of not seeing her as the central character, you kind of see her has another piece in this massive chess game. Maybe that’s where the story’s massive scope turns out to be bad for the movie. I also enjoyed how Rey was pretty ignorant of what the Force was, and Luke’s “every part of what you just said was wrong” moment was great. If I were in Rian Johnson’s spot, I would have given much more attention to the interplay between Rey, Luke, and Kylo Ren.
I think the whole Canto Bight sequence could have been cut down by quite a lot. While there’s an important lesson there about the only rich people in the galaxy being these decadent, morally gray characters, there didn’t need to be a whole horse riding and prison set piece there. Also here, we get back to one of the ever-lasting problems of Star Wars, and that’s… timelines! The timelines here don’t really make sense. What do they say, six hours of fuel remaining on the cruiser? How could all of the Finn and Rose stuff happen in six hours? There must be some serious time dilation here if it were to be realistic. I know I’m talking about a magical space wizard movie, but still, even for Star Wars this doesn’t make sense. There was an inkling in the last movie that Finn might try to “hook up,” as it were, with Rey, and I’m glad that didn’t happen. I’ve always been of the position that Rey would never get into a romantic relationship — it doesn’t seem to me like it’s in her character. I don’t know; I’ll see where they go in the next movie. Finn didn’t get much character development in this movie. At the end, he’s basically the same person as he is at the beginning. I did like Rose and her arc. I feel that the OT didn’t really explain in a very adult, realistic way how bad the Empire was. Sure, we see it in Vader as the personification of the Empire and the Death Star, but we don’t hear how an oppressed person experienced the Empire. I like how we see that with Rose.
I don’t have much to say with regards to Poe and Holdo’s conflict. I don’t have many major gripes with it. In another timeline issue, the way these ships move through space seems absolutely unrealistic to me. Why the hell are they so slow? The slow-motion space chase did not appeal to me. I will say, wow, just how little the Resistance is organized compared to the Rebellion. The Rebellion had its stuff together, even when they were at their nadir. The Resistance clearly does not have that. I found that interesting.
In another “jaw fully opened” moment, I was stunned when Leia suddenly came back to life. I think I’m okay with that moment because Leia has force powers and this is the first time we see her use them. The way it was shot with her moving through space in this odd way could have been done better, but I’ll give it a pass. It’s unfortunate how Leia was sidelined for most of the movie until she comes back at the end. We now know she’ll never have her movie in the way that Han had his and this is Luke’s movie. But I will say one of my favorite moments is when Leia used the stun setting on Poe. The circle is now complete; now she does the stunning!
And that brings us into the absolutely exceptional last act of the movie. This is where everything comes together. Snoke, like the Emperor, is only using his apprentice to his gain. And now Smoke has turned against his apprentice. The whole scene was very ROTJ-esque, and that includes the red guards that we’re finally seeing do something. I don’t really get why they’re fighting against Ren and Rey — their master is gone, what do they have to fight for? Especially stunning was the moment where Holdo jumps into light speed. The absence of all sound made everything seem more poignant. Beautifully shot, as well. I also loved the Crait set piece and the added interplay between Finn and Rose. “I saved you, dummy” was another great line in the movie. I didn’t have any problems with the kiss that occurred thereafter.
The final Luke-Ren conflict was quite unbelievable. Luke was a hothead in the OT. Now, you can see that he has finally cooled down. The moment of him just standing there in front of First Order artillery, not resigned but at a strange piece, was particularly incredible. I’ll admit, my jaw dropped (again) when I saw Luke emerge out of all that fire unscathed, however, I couldn’t yet connect the dots as to how he was there. I chuckled at the “Do you think you got him?” line and when Luke shrugged off his shoulder. I was fooled until the last second; I only realized that Luke was projecting himself when we see him on Ach-to. So yeah, I’m a dummy… should’ve noticed the different hair color. Luke’s final line was a bit cheesy, but I will admit that did sound pretty badass, so I accept it. While the sunset imagery may have been a bit heavy-handed, seeing Luke become one with the Force was a pretty emotional and powerful moment. I felt it a fitting end.
So, in other words, I liked this movie.
