According to the website imdb.com everyone’s
favourite Star Wars film is The Empire Strikes Back (1980) which has more than twice as many votes as the film in
second place, the original Star Wars
(1977). That makes sense because as the middle section of a trilogy, Empire
doesn’t have to do any of the scene-setting of the first one or the resolution
of the third one. It’s just straight-out action featuring some of the best
sequences in the Star Wars canon.
The latest Star
Wars offering, Star Wars: The Last Jedi– either eighth or ninth
depending on where you place Rogue One
in the canon- is in a similarly relaxed position to Empire. It can just get on with some action-packed adventure and
trust that it can all be sorted out in the next movie. I have to say it does
this splendidly; there are very few dull moments in this film and director Rian
Johnson’s visual sense is stunning. This is genuinely epic cinema.
However, in watching the film I was struck by how
much sense it makes to entrust the new Star
Wars expanded universe to Johnson. This is a man who plainly gets the
philosophy behind the franchise. Not content with providing reasonably non-stop
action, Johnson does some root and branch surgery. This is in many ways a revival
of the franchise.
Star Wars:
The Force Awakens (2015) comes bottom
of that Imdb poll which is not really surprising. That film had a lot of heavy
lifting to do; it had to reboot the franchise, banish the memory of three
pretty dreadful films in the first three episodes, and introduce a new group of
interesting characters. That it did that says a lot about the abilities of J.J.
Abrams.
Rian Johnson has been provided with a fairy solid
foundation on which to tell his story. The film opens as so many do with the
remnants of the Resistance being pursued by the First Order led by the grasping
tyrant Snoke (Andy Serkis). This may be the longest chase sequence in movie
history since it runs for almost the whole of the films 152 minutes, however
the eventual pay-off is devastating.
Meanwhile Rey (Daisy Ridley) is where we left her
at the end of the last film, trying to persuade Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to
come back and unite the rebellion. Skywalker may or may not be the titular last
Jedi, but he is the only one who can train Rey in the ways of the Force.
Meanwhile Ray and the villainous Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), fresh from a bout of
patricide, have a connection through the Force. He senses she can be turned to
the dark side while she feels that there is enough good in him to bring him to
the light.
The final plot strand involves Finn (John Boyega) and
Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), a new addition to the cast, as they try to find some
codebreaking doohickey (apologies for the technical term) that will enable the
rebels to win the race against the First Order.
There are a lot of callbacks to Empire here and Johnson uses them
judiciously. However, he does seize the opportunity to move the saga on. If The Force Awakens was a rebirth of the Star Wars franchise then The Last Jedi is a renewal; there is a
definite shift in the balance of the storytelling. Johnson does a bit of
judicious pruning to remove some baggage and sets the scene for a final episode
which promises genuine new hope. Incidentally the final sequence of this film
with its nod to Italian Neo-realism and Rome,
Open City (1947) is heart-warming.
It’s also encouraging to see the universe Johnson
creates is a genuinely diverse place in terms of gender, ethnicity, and
especially age – the command structure of the rebel ship seems to be almost
entirely made up of women in their middle years, which is refreshing.
The film has a few false notes, not least the
casting of Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro;both of these seem like a misstep.
But is has a tremendous sense of visual excitement – the light sabre battle in
Snoke’s throne room and the salt flats conflict in the final half hour are just
visual treats as well as being tremendously exciting. Steve Yedlin’s
cinematography is wonderful and John Williams’ score is the best thing he’s
done in ages.
I enjoyed Star
Wars: The Last Jedi immensely and
I suspect that within a week or so there will be a new, and thoroughly
deserved, leader at the top of that Imdb list.
