The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi is a beautiful empty thing that follows a similar template to its predecessor, The Force Awakens: a band of plucky rebels attempt to stymie a new imperial threat while old favourites from the original trilogy are added to warm the hearts of older fans.  But unlike TFA, this film lacks the brio and momentum provided by JJ Abrams’s direction as well as its surprise elements (the new villains, the new masks, the new lightsabres, the stormtrooper turned hero subplot, the Han and Leia family issues). The Last Jedi is a flabby affair that needed some ruthless editing – there is too much aerial footage of Skellig Michael; there’s a section set on an intergalactic version of Las Vegas that seems to have been included to show off CGI technology rather than advance the plot; and at least three endings. There is also too much Carrie Fisher, who really doesn’t seem match fit and too much Mark Hamill, the inclusion of whom feels like a victory for sentiment over storytelling: they are there to appease fans rather than advance the plot. Remove the film from the canon and you would wonder why any director would want to spend so much time lingering on these two characters. 

                As pretty as The Last Jedi inevitably looks, the villains seem more underpowered than ever before. Maybe it’s partly due to Po Dameron’s baiting of him in the opening scene, but Domhnall Gleeson is a watery, dweebish imperial commander and his accent and bearing are reminiscent of an antagonist in a school play. Adam Driver, so good in Paterson, is just too much like a sad sack bloodhound to be a convincing bad guy and why bother making Andy Serkis into dent-headed skull creature when there are few scarier actors than Andy Serkis himself? 

                Daisy Ridley and John Boyega put in solid turns but they are not given the scope they had in Force Awakens when they were allowed be funny and moving. Instead, the spotlight is turned on the veterans Hamill and Fisher, who were never much good in their roles.

                As ever with blockbusters, you are left wondering about the behind-the-scenes machinations, the compromises that billion-dollar franchises inevitably force film-makers to make to keep the fans happy, to secure marketing deals, to win over audiences across the world.  After all, this is as much about maintaining the integrity of a brand and selling merchandise as it is about telling a story, hence this slavishly conservative film that is aimed, like all of the Star Wars films, at children but is desperately trying to keep its nostalgic older viewers satisfied. 

                Watching The Last Jedi you always feel aware that it is one segment of an enormous business, a unit that is there is help keep the merchandising juggernaut ticking along.