On the Road to Skywalker: The Last Jedi

WARNING

Like I said before, if you're a vitriolic hater of The Last Jedi, I moderate the comments on my blog with extreme prejudice. The Last Jedi is one of my favorite movies. Rian Johnson is one of my favorite directors, and he was before this movie.

I really do not get the TFA comparisons to ANH. I mean, sure, there's some similar plot threads, but the tone of the movie is somber, dark, and (sometimes!) wistfully nostalgic. And, again, I don't think the comparisons to ANH aren't totally inappropriate, just that people want ANH again and are willing to explain away whatever it takes to get it.

And that is never more evident than with The Last Jedi.

The Last Jedi, as a movie, is classic Rian Johnson, down to the multiple visual puns that haters try to ignore in order to maintain their illusion that it's an idiotically put together movie. Trying to address this movie on its own terms is almost impossible, because of the sheer number of callbacks, references, and completions of lingering plot points. There is a whole lot going on in this movie that is impossible to fully appreciate without the other seven episodes.

I said almost impossible.

Never tell me the odds! GERONIMO!!!!

The Force Awakens promised us this elusive dude, Luke Skywalker. It showed us what his family felt and thought of him. And there was such a warmth there. They remember him fondly, and don't seem to hold a grudge against the Jedi Master for leaving them. I mean, sure, they want him back, but they clearly love him so much that their anger is overpowered by the longing to see him again. They don't think of him as a deserter. They don't think of him as a loser, they just remember Luke. If your'e not going to show a character the next best thing is to show everyone how much his family misses him. And TFA completely nails that longing.

Are we really that surprised that Rian Johnson, the maker of subversive masterpieces like Brick, did this in response?

You shouldn't be saying "Yes, I was surprised"

Rian Johnson's favorite two themes (pain and grieving) are put to excellent use here. We find out that everyone else had rose-colored glasses about Luke. He did leave them. He does not want to come back. He's honestly bitter that he was near them, ever, at all. Luke's failure is so total, in his own eyes, that he wants nothing to do with all the things that remind him of what he once was. He had become "a legend" and just wants to die so that way someone else can pick up the torch. He's an excellently written mess of a person, trying to kill what's good and noble inside of him, but still showing little bits of hope from time to time. He's not gone.

And yes, he was indeed going to burn those books at the beginning of the movie. Just let that sink in for a minute.

Anyway.

This is the situation that Rey walks into: not a hero, but a broken human being who has made the completely and utterly wrong decision. It's a slap in the face to everyone who loves this guy, and Rey's response of disgust and disdain is completely warranted. The rest of the movie is about Luke becoming that hero again, step by step, inch by agonizing inch.  And I'm sorry, but:

You can't have this moment without the green milk. It's not how people work.

This suicidal urge to destroy what made us so great is continued chiefly in Kylo Ren, as he grapples with killing Han in the TFA. The whole movie is him trying to figure out how he wants to align himself with the world and its history: will he burn the past down, or will he integrate its lessons? He goes for destruction.  Rey chooses to preserve what came before, and that's a choice that both infuriates and intrigues Ben. I love the interplay between these two at this point.

Continuing with the theme of preserving tradition, we've got Finn, Poe, and Rose, who are set up as a deliberate counterpoint. They disobey orders, upset the established order of Canto Bight... and almost lose everything in the process. Conservative vloggers like Jonathan Pageau and The Distributist (both of whom I have a great deal of respect for) don't quite seem to land their interpretation of this arc. To paraphrase Wolfe, people die so that way you can't repeat their mistakes, while then receiving what they did correctly. Finn, Poe, and Rose are what it looks like when you're doing it wrong, at least by and large. To preserve, to conserve, is the proper primary human response to what came before. Not striking out at the things that threaten it.

I have gone on. And on. And on. About The Last Jedi before. It's almost nauseating to me at this point, mostly because I feel like I'm just hammering a railway stake with a ball-ping hammer when it comes to how friggin' good this movie is. We meet Luke. We learn who he is, who he really is, way deep down. And he gives the galaxy the will to fight back. And Rey runs with it.

I find that to be a profoundly hopeful thing.