Absolutely brilliant. What a wonderful, insightful piece. I gave up highlighting or I’d be highlighting the whole thing.
What I don’t understand about people who defend the film is that in all the thoughtful critiques I’ve read of the film — of which this is the best — the writers clearly understand Star Wars and the Force far better than Rian Johnson.
For example, you’re absolutely right in saying that things The Last Jedi is being showered with praise for, have always been part of Star Wars: strong female characters; strong black/minority characters; themes of failure and hopelessness; the fact that Jedi do not have to come from Force-sensitive lineages — or else who were Yoda or Ben Kenobi’s famous parents?
Indeed, for all the talk of Star Wars fans being unable to adjust to a galaxy far far away led by strong female and ethnic minority protagonists, why weren’t people saying that about reactions to The Force Awakens? Because, those fans loved the fact that JJ seemed to understand how this saga works — the scene of Rey pulling the lightsaber out of the snow to a John Williams fanfare reduced me to tears of delight. This, finally was my Star Wars. By contrast, the scene of Rey lifting rocks with ease as some sort of triumphant moment only served to irritate that part of my brain. Back to the dark days of the prequels already.
And, as you so rightly say (I thought I was the only one who felt this way) what of the central theme of the film: that the Force doesn’t belong to the Jedi, their hubris and dogma have led to so much pain and bloodshet in the galaxy that their ancient texts should be burned and their order consigned to history. A fitting way to end the saga perhaps — to give it some overall meaning beyond the Skywalker family. Except, the last scene of the film reverses all of that and brings us back to square one; an about-turn so fast and jarring it gave the audience whiplash. Sith, Jedi, Empire, Rebels, lightsabers and Imperial Walkers. Sigh.
Long time Star Wars fans don’t want the status-quo, we want change. We just want it to make sense.
