What is The Last Jedi actually about?
It’s just a bunch of stuff.
Traditionally, films work by taking audiences on a journey. We follow a group of characters that we come to know intimately: their motivations are revealed, there is conflict, we discover their backstory. Characters have arcs, and we feel fulfilled and enriched by watching their struggles and failures and triumphs.
The Last Jedi takes a different approach.
We’re now two films in to this latest Star Wars trilogy — lets see what we’ve learned about the new group of heroes and villains that are guiding us through the galaxy far far away…
By the end of The Last Jedi we learn that Poe is maturing into a fine leader after being taught the lesson that you must always blindly follow orders even when they make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Hux and Snoke learn that bad guys don’t need motivations or back-story to be interesting, only a snazzy outfit. If you really want to make your villain memorable, like Darth Maul, then cutting them in half works a treat. Oh I forgot, Captain Phasma is also in it.
Newcomers ‘Rose’ and ‘DJ’ discover that adding memorable characters to a series isn’t as easy as The Empire Strikes Back made it look.
Finn learns that he’s actually only a minor character. Must’ve come as a shock to the poor chap. He also finds out that self-sacrifice in order to save your cause and protect your friends is stupid.
Vice Admiral Holdo learns that self-sacrifice is the noblest way to save your cause and protect your friends.
Leia learns that you should never let someone else take your hero moment, as you may not get another. Surprisingly, she also found out that she had far more Force ability than Jedi Master/teacher/scholar Luke Skywalker.
Speaking of Luke, he demonstrated an amazing new Force power, gleaned from watching The Avengers endlessly on his Jedi travel-dvd player. If he summons all his strength he can project his ghost-image nearly as well as Loki. Luke also learned that he was a potential child killer. Well, to be fair we were all wrong-footed by that one.
Kylo-Ren has the biggest transformation in the film; from a messed up kid who no-longer needs a mask, to a messed up kid who needs a mask. Then back to not needing it. He also still hates his whole family, except his dad whom he killed for other reasons (it said so in the script). His motive for turning to the darkside is not known, but it might have something to do with trying to impress girls.
Rey learned that she still knows nothing about herself, not even her surname. She’s still none-the-wiser about mom and pops, but at least she’s still the last Jedi, as we learned at the end of The Force Awakens. Basically she’s exactly as we left her at the end of Force Awakens.
And we, the audience? Well the movie left us sure in the knowledge that the Force has Awakened in the galaxy. Which we also find out at the start of the previous movie called The Force Awakens.
I’m counting down the days to Episode IX: More Stuff.
