Bold 'Last Jedi' bolsters the 'Star Wars' legacy

It’s difficult to distinguish general audience reaction to “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” from the “Internet” reaction to the film. Perhaps in these especially divisive times, it shouldn’t be a shock to go online and hear how polarizing “The Last Jedi” has been to its hardcore and even casual fans.

The divide speaks to a greater problem with fandom in 2017. For many “Star Wars” fans, 2015’s “The Force Awakens” was too familiar and stole too much from the original 1977 film. Then “The Last Jedi” comes along, and now “Star Wars” is apparently too different.

Expectations and the nature of trying to predict what happens next play a role in shaping individual opinions. But some people, it seems, are just never going to be satisfied.

That’s too bad, because while loud voices on the Internet fume about how Old Man Luke Skywalker isn’t the hero they remember from the original trilogy, the film’s objectively major achievement is being overshadowed.

“The Last Jedi,” even with its flaws, is the first “Star Wars” movie in decades that expands the scope of what the franchise can be going forward. Dense with challenging and underrepresented thematic ideas, “The Last Jedi” blows a hole into what should and shouldn’t be expected in big budget, franchise filmmaking. Through its surprises and purposeful upending of “Star Wars” tropes, it establishes a new path that allows for even more creative and diverse viewpoints to tell stories in the universe.

A traditional review running a week after something as huge as “Star Wars” seems a bit unnecessary — a lot of people have already seen it, and nothing I say is probably going to sway someone one way or another at this point.

So I’ll skip the setup. Putting aside expectations and individual creative choices, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” remains a significant technical achievement. Writer/director Rian Johnson has made the best-looking film in the franchise, and his staging of action, especially the spaceship battles and lightsaber melees, results in many genuinely thrilling moments. There’s a clarity and expertise to the action here that few blockbusters manage to accomplish with the same toolbox of computer-generated effects and staging.

While the film trickles on a bit too long and stumbles occasionally in balancing three primary storylines, “The Last Jedi” provides complete and satisfying arcs for eight (eight!) distinct and well-defined characters. People can debate whether or not Johnson made the correct choices in how he chose to depict some of them, but the arcs themselves play out logically and compellingly within the framework of the movie itself.

Even while it seems like most everyone who cares has already seen it, I dare not spoil any of the film’s surprising choices. From what I’ve read of the complaints on the Internet though, I find myself defending Johnson’s choices in most respects. The film knocks down a few of the juiciest teases from “The Force Awakens,” but it does so in ways that makes the storytelling in “The Last Jedi” better.

Whereas some people see “The Last Jedi” spinning its wheels in forwarding the greater story of this new trilogy, I see a movie interested in the nature of failure, and how mistakes and seeming character flaws can teach others how to endure, survive and hope in ways that are ultimately more impactful than traditional victory. This is most apparent in the arc of Luke Skywalker, a hero broken by the shame he has for his own limitations and misjudgments.

Though it would have been nice to see the core trio of Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac interact more in “Last Jedi,” all three prove to be compelling forces to follow individually. Johnson, in his boldest upheaval of audience expectations, also forges a better, more nuanced path for Adam Driver’s baddie, Kylo Ren.

The film is filled with compelling performances, but ultimately, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill provide the most emotionally compelling moments of “The Last Jedi.” Hamill takes a complicated role and adds even more layers to Skywalker’s anguish. Seeing Fisher for the last time on screen is especially crushing — she’s so good here, as she always has been, and the film provides a heartfelt farewell to both the character and icon who played her.

While I won’t reveal the details of the scene, “The Last Jedi” ends on a (divisive) moment that speaks to what Johnson sees as the magic of “Star Wars.” It’s the same thing fueling the revelation of Rey’s bloodline and the deconstruction of the Skywalker legacy. The ultimate appeal of “Star Wars” isn’t about what it means to the people who grew up with the original trilogy. “Star Wars” is a universe of inclusion, both creatively and as entertainment. “Star Wars” is for everyone, and not just for the people who had it first.

“The Last Jedi” doesn’t toot its own horn about its numerous and awesome female heroes, or the diversity of the cast, or the idea that greatness, hope and progress can come from anywhere. From a filmmaking perspective, Johnson isn’t making bold choices for the sake of ruining “Star Wars;” he’s making creative choices that serve a specific story he wants to tell within the universe.

If “Star Wars” continues for generations (and Disney will no doubt try to make this happen), then there was always going to be a point where a filmmaker needed to take a step outside the closed-circuit of the Skywalker saga. Regardless of whether people were ready for it, Johnson does this in “The Last Jedi,” all while simultaneously telling another compelling Skywalker story.

It may not be beloved now, but time and reflection will be kind to Johnson and “The Last Jedi.”

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com