Friday 15 December 2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - On Balance

This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Extremely spoileriffic. Spoilers all the way down. SPOILERS.

So. *deep breath* I think The Last Jedi is the Star Wars film I have waited for and will stand the test of time better than The Force Awakens.

It is immediately clear that this is not a consensus. Talking to friends after the midnight screening, first reactions were very divided: a couple of them threw up “disappointing”, an assessment I so vehemently and indignantly disagree with I am actually a-quiver, others were much more positive but cautiously so. Compare this to The Force Awakens: at least anecdotally among my peers, the response was overwhelmingly positive with a few notable outliers. So how is this so different?

Well, first of all, I will concede with pleasure that the film is completely, utterly extra. Everything is at eleven all the time. There are about three movies worth of Star Wars in there. It’s A Lot. The Last Jedi is the Schroedinger’s Cat of the franchise. It is a film full of slapstick, peppered almost constantly with humour of every stripe, and some moments that are so earnest they slip into cringe. It is also a film that casts itself out into the furthest and darkest reaches of what the saga actually is, is visually the most stunning of the series (I don’t think this one is in doubt, only Empire comes close), and the very same moments that are so earnest come hauling a huge load of character development for just about everyone involved.

I loved it. In a complicated way.

Don’t get me wrong, I think The Force Awakens is a delight. It is exactly what I wanted from the rebirth of the franchise; it is 99% fan service, and I wanted to be fan serviced (further explanation: I am a very simple fan who is always on some level pleased by the existence of new Star Wars content). The vast majority of the beats come from A New Hope, reshuffled mostly very well*. But The Last Jedi goes back and asks what the original Star Wars trilogy is about in the first place, and does it by interrogating the most ill-defined yet fundamental part of it: the Force. It’s ambitious, and obvious, and unexpected, and I love it.

The Force - as many have noted - does not really make sense. We are repeatedly told it is about balance, yet the original trilogy is very much about the triumph of one side, and not just the Light side in general, but specifically the (Return of the) Jedi, a religious order (who, in turn, are apparently charged with preserving balance and like I said, it doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny). Yet here we have Luke Skywalker - the last Jedi, the Jedi - disenchanted by years of failure at trying to make old authoritarian systems work and rejecting those systems outright, which is not dissimilar to antagonist Kylo Ren, a structural choice that is as smart and complex as I want a Star Wars film in 2017 to be (something something alt right). That Kylo ends the film declaring himself Supreme Leader, and thus not breaking the cycle at all, is properly distressing (as well as a necessary levelling up in order to take on the primary villain role). That Luke ends the film accepting his failures and passing on the baton to the future - the promise of hope, the arc word of the film - feels both tonally different to the straightforward (and more epic) good vs evil victories of A New Hope, Return of the Jedi, and, yes, The Force Awakens, yet entirely in keeping with the essential promise of the original series, whose great climactic moment is the redemption of Darth Vader: no-one is good or evil, Dark or Light. Everyone fails but everyone can be turned. Balance.

I will admit that a lot of my thinking about Luke has been disproportionately influenced by this meme.

It is key that Luke gives up his life in an act that seems almost futile - allowing a straggling handful of Resistance to escape one last desperate time - far more so than if he’d gone out saber to beautifully choreographed saber with Kylo Ren for real. It is part of the emphasis on small, hopeful community-orientated acts of resistance and rebellion that is repeated again and again throughout the film. It feels like it’s taken a lot of tips from Rogue One (“Rebellions are built on hope”) and it’s all the better for it. It’s the defining theme of all of those disparate character arcs: Poe Dameron’s coming of age story is couched in terms of Not Blowing Shit Up, which is both very literal and very entertaining. Finn and Rose - two characters, both played by POC, who have experienced very direct oppression under the First Order - face almost certain death but “it was worth it” because they got to put that fist through a society of war profiteers first (if this is not Star Wars at its most directly anti-capitalist then…well, it is. It is exactly that). Admiral Holdo is prepared to look like a coward and traitor if it means the ultimate survival of the movement.

The emphasis on the Resistance - what it means, and those who make it up - is timely and really a new thing for Star Wars in its mainstream canonical films, yet, again, very Star Wars-y, with the Extended Universe practically built on the premise of wanting to know more about all of these people with cool names.  In the opening sequence, many die but we really get to meet them first - Paige, Rose’s sister, most prominently but others too: Billie Lourd’s character, the female pilot with the gold helmet who I fell instantly in love with, all of Poe’s backup troupe on board the cruiser. Our acquaintance is fleeting but the storytelling gives you their faces, allows you to touch base with the same people throughout the film, feel the cost of more loss at an already dark time (it allows us to feel along with Leia in particular, for whom loss is foregrounded in this film. It means more than I can say for Leia to be the audience’s touchstone for the original trilogy, despite Luke’s elevated screen time). I don’t think Star Wars is ever concerned about making overt parallels with the real world - nor should it be - but The Last Jedi is extremely conscious of the global context in which it is being made. Hope is a spark, and if you guard it, it grows into a blaze. And, to tie two threads together, part and parcel of that guarding is being flawed and failing and living with failure rather than (in Finn’s case, literally) self-immolating at the first chance. (Holy shit, did Star Wars just make a film about self-care in the face of global politics? Maybe.)

I am actually sparing you the brunt of my Rey/Luke/Kylo Ren feels but just picture me looking at this image whispering "can't even" a lot.

In the interests of balance, of course there are things that didn’t work for me as well, and I’ll probably feel them more on the re-watch: I could take or leave the casino planet as a concept (“Prequals-y,” was my partner’s entirely correct assessment) and Benicio del Toro left me kind of cold, despite evidently having a lot of fun**. I would have liked more Phasma, but I’m also not sure what else they could have done with her narratively, other than just have her hanging around the bridge and I guess they wanted to keep her in the wings for the third act. I think some of its pacing will feel more stumbling when I watch it again - there are a lot of plates spinning and they don’t all stay in the air all the time - and even though I’m a huge fan of what it means for Kylo Ren’s character, boy did they ever not give a shit about explaining Snoke.

And on the other hand, everyone from here to Jakku is going to talk about the visuals, so let me add my voice: the light-speed warp through the Star Destroyer, Rey’s hall of mirrors, and the moment when Kylo and Rey’s fight in the throne room against the red-clad henchmen (Knights of Ren, I want to say?) went into slow motion are some of the most beautiful things you will ever see in a Star Wars film or fuck it, maybe any film. Everyone is nailing their performances - John Boyega has less to do in this one but is never anything less than insanely great to spend time with. Oscar Isaacs sells Poe’s growing up and his instinctive impulsive charm. Daisy Ridley has matured a whole lot since The Force Awakens and, despite the occasional odd line delivery (and even that I now think of as an intrinsically Rey-ish thing) radiates a pureness of heart and conflicted need to belong that is too painfully Original Trilogy Luke for words. Laura Dern pulls off the stupidly difficult job of being a one-shot character that is tonally very new to the series (and has LILAC HAIR, and I could do a whole other blog about the presentations of femininity in this film). Kelly Marie Tran is instantly right in the universe in the most Rogue One-ish role of them all and nails the tricky Ascended Fangirl thing with utter charm (cf also Ingrid Oliver as Osgood in Doctor Who).

A word though for Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. I think it’s fair to say that Mark Hamill’s acting ability is a (very loving) matter of some debate. (Personally, I’ve always been pro-Hamill - he’s not amazing in the original trilogy, but he is Luke, in the way that Ringo wasn’t the best drummer but he was the best Beatle. And besides, his voice work.) But I would say that here Hamill is undeniably, properly actually good. He’s funny, he’s gruff, he’s in pain, he’s completely over the top (Do I hate or love the bit where he brushes his shoulder off after they turn the guns on him? I JUST DON’T KNOW) but he also kisses Carrie Fisher on the forehead with just the right amount of weird romantic tension and Skywalker sibs, I die. I don’t need to say how sad it is that we won’t have her back. I don’t need to say how gutting it is that this film was so obviously teeing up for Episode 9 to be The Leia Film***, in the way this one was The Luke Film and Force Awakens was The Han Film. I’ve written before about the skill of elevating the role of Princess To Be Rescued, how much we feel the loss of her, and The Last Jedi is a punch in the gut, not least because it feels like here is a woman - authoritative, a leader, snappy, hard-edged, inspirational, weary, powerful - finally and completely getting the respect she deserves. It’s hard to watch for a number of reasons.

Not least because we'll now never get to see Leia using a lightsaber.

Above all though, I keep coming back to this film’s care - care for the characters whose story it’s telling, care for nudging those stories off on different vectors. Judging by the early reaction, I think some people feel that it was careless, and it may be the case that tonally it remains unresolved in places, the light and the dark unbalanced. But the flaws are a result of ambition, not laziness, and I was thrilled, and excited, and I’ll take that every single time.


Other assorted thoughts:

- I cannot believe Rey and Kylo Ren spent the whole film Force Sexting. “Join me on the Dark Side. P.S. Send nudes.”

- My wish for the Porgs to have some kind of narrative significance and not be blatantly there to sell toys did not come true, but they were cute and good for a handful of laughs so we’ll let it slide.

- A tip of the hat to Adam Driver’s control over his own face. I particularly covet the ability to look handsome at will when the narrative demands that we sympathise, and like a kind of mad wet cat the rest of the time.

- Mark Hamill and That Bit With The Blue Milk: A Play
   Me: So that’s where the blue milk comes from
   Mark Hamill: *drinks grossly, winks at camera*
   Me: I IMMEDIATELY REGRET THIS EASTER EGG

- How to be Poe Dameron:
  - older ladies
  - constantly pleased to see people
  - just, like, appallingly handsome
  - explosions.


...
*not well done - the First Order/Resistance. Which came first? What exactly is the First Order? Who actually was Snoke anyway? Who the fuck cares, I guess, is the film’s answer.

**I think I actually felt it was too close as a performance to his role as The Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy, which is tonally a very different film. A weird sense of deja-vu, maybe.

***Prediction: Episode 9 will open with Leia’s funeral. Massive ceremonial goodbye, eulogising Leia’s in-universe importance to the Resistance and Carrie Fisher’s importance to the series. And if they do it right, she can still remain a central presence to the film - referenced as the inspiration to keep going in the rebuilding of the Resistance/fight back against the First Order that will presumably make up a lot of Ep 9. She (both shes) deserve nothing less.

1 comment:

  1. Love to see things well organised and clean, here you go. Take your passion of cleaning and organising to a different level by starting a business. Start cleaning business UK and start earning using your passion with Startyourowncleaningbusiness.co.uk
    Click here:
    Cleaning Courses Online
    Cleaning Courses Online Uk
    Start Cleaning Business Uk
    Cleaning Courses
    Cleaning Short Courses
    Cleaning Certificate
    Start A Cleaning Business
    Franchise Cleaning Business Opportunity
    Cleaning Franchise Uk
    How To Start Up Cleaning Buisness

    ReplyDelete