This past weekend, the film of the year was released. Star Wars has been more than a film saga, it has been a cultural phenomenon since it's release and has shaped generation of generation of fans around it. A few years back, George Lucas sold the rights of Lucasfilms to Disney, and with that a new span of movies began development. We saw the first of those films two years ago with The Force Awakens, and now we get the second chapter in this new saga: The Last Jedi. This movie has proven to be quite divisive with an aggregated critic score of 93% and an audience score at 56%. So the question is what's going on here? In my personal opinion the majority of these negative reviews are based in the fact that as this is such a wide spread fandom, there are so many purists who refuse to look at change and accept it. I have seen people with genuine gripes and talked with them, while I disagree greatly on their opinions, I respect them because they made a decent case for them. However, what I am trying to do is show why this film is great, why it deserves that 93 rating and furthermore why these fans are, in my opinion wrong (if you are not interested in seeing a summary to the film, skip to the "What does it all mean?" portion).
The Sum of its Parts
In order to do this I am delving deep into spoiler territory here so beware. I am very quickly going to do a run down of the film, and then I will go into an analysis to prove my points. Right off the bat we have essentially two main stories going on in this film (with one subplot). So really quickly I am just going to summarize the first story going on: The rebellion is caught in a game of cat in mouse. The First Order is high on their tail and has tracked them through light speed. The rebellion is able to remain out of the effective range of the cannons, but due to the light speed tracking the empire has, wasting gas on a jump was not worth it. Poe sends Finn off on a wild goose chase with this new character to try and disable the tracking ability, but that's the subplot and honestly, while it wasn't bad, it didn't need to be in the film. So that's essentially what's going on with the rebellion, but this is not the point of this film. The second half of this film is the "training" of Rey by Luke. I put training in quotations because honestly, Luke doesn't want to train anyone.
This Luke Skywalker interpretation has a lot of people upset, but honestly it's the natural point for his character to be in. Of course Luke at this point would have become a cynic. To just use a line from the film: "Do you think I went to the most remote planet in the galaxy for no reason?" The destruction of his Jedi temple and the murder of his students by Ben Solo and the Knights of Ren utterly destroyed his hope, and what's more is that this is ultimately all Luke's fault, however, we'll get to that. During Rey's training, she keeps seeing and interacting with Kylo Ren through the force. This back and forth ultimately leads to Kylo revealing the truth about why he left the Jedi, that when Luke sensed his power, he tried to kill him. Rey eventually confronts Luke, and Luke tells us that he sensed the dark growing in Kylo and when he did for a split second human instinct took over. He turned on his lightsaber. However, not a second later he was filled with remorse, but a second is all it takes as Luke had awoken Ben from his sleep with the sound of a lightsaber, this pushed Ben over the edge and to the dark. Rey in her interactions with Kylo Ren has sensed the good inside of him. So she goes to the first Order vessel to turn him to the light, and take down Snoke.
She is met on the vessel by Kylo and cohorts of storm troopers who then escort the girl to Snoke. At around this time, the rebels true plan is revealed that they were going to an old resistance outpost that had been abandoned for the rebels to hide in. The empire gets wind of this because of a failed attempt to disable the light speed tracker by Finn, and so they start picking of the resistance transport ships one by one. Meanwhile, Rey and Kylo have an exchange on their way to Snoke where both reveal that they had visions of the other turning to their side, in addition Kylo says that he has seen who Rey's parents are. Then it's time to meet Snoke, Rey tries to fight him and is embarrassingly thwarted in her attempts by Snoke through his force mastery, she tries to get Kylo to turn, when Snoke reveals that he was the one that had linked their minds through the force and that anything she may have seen was a direct result of Snoke's manipulation.
After torturing Rey for the location of Luke, Snoke then brings Rey to her knees infront of Kylo Ren, and give Kylo Ren the chance to show his complete transition to the dark and execute Rey. Which is then followed by the BIG surprise of Kylo Rey using the force to turn Rey's lightsaber on and cut Snoke in half! This is then followed by Rey and Kylo teaming up to fight Snoke's praetorian in one of the most satisfying lightsaber displays in ALL OF STAR WARS! As the fight concludes, Rey asks Kylo to order the vessel to stop their destruction of the rebels. Kylo refuses, he's tired of being part of the wheel. "Let the past die," he says, the jedi, the sith, the rebellion. Build new upon the rubble in a world of their own rules. He extends an offer to join him to Rey while also revealing that Rey's parents were nobody who are buried in an unmarked grave in Jakku (I am going to talk more about this in great depth later so please be patient). This leads to the two vying for possession of Rey's lightsaber through the force. Meanwhile, the Admiral who came up with the escape plan for the rebels finally gets her retaliation together and uses the Rebel cruiser as a light speed Battering ram that is one of the most bad ass displays in Star Wars as well to rip apart Snoke's flag ship. Rey and Kylo are both blown apart by the lightsaber shattering and Rey uses the destruction of Snokes ship as her opportunity to escape. General Hux finds Kylo Ren unconscious, but Kylo quickly recovers and takes his place as the new Supreme Leader. His first order: Go planet side and end the rebellion here.
The stage is set for the final act, the final stand of the Resistance it seems. the Rebels are heavily outgunned and outnumbered, and are literally just hoping to stand long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Leia uses her own personal code for a distress signal to all quadrants. The Rebels make their stand but it seems to all be for naught as they fail to disable the battering ram cannon before it rips a hole into the protective gate. With seemingly no other avenue of escape, and no one answering Leia's call for aid. All seems lost, but then enter Luke Skywalker. Who has seemingly visited a barber shop as he sports the same hair style from the original movies. He apologizes to Leia for Ben, and the two have a beautiful reunion that will bring a tear to your eye. Luke goes out alone, watched by the members of the rebellion in shock and awe. Kylo orders the entire First Order battery to be unloaded on his former mentor, and it doesn't even scratch Luke. Kylo goes down and meets his master and the two duel it out. All while this is happening, the rebels find an escape route by following the crystal critters only to find a pathway blocked by fallen rubble. Rey saves the resistance, and Luke explains to Kylo that the rebellion has been reborn and that Luke will not be the Last Jedi. It is then revealed that Luke was never actually there, he just summoned a force projection of his ethereal form to the battlefield. Luke wakes up from a meditative state and it seems the stress of this and the damage he took during the fight was far too much, he disappears the same way Ben Kenobi does when he was struck down by Vader and becomes one with the force (we can pretty much assume Luke will return in the next film as a force ghost). The last shot of the film is a group of slave children being told the story of what happened on the planet. When their master comes out and scolds them for playing and not working, the group disperses. One of the children goes out side and uses the force to grab the broom. He looks up to the stars, you see the rebel emblem ring on his finger and he lifts the broom in the air.
What's it all mean?!
So, now lets talk analysis here. Just as there are two separate main plots in this film, so too are there two protagonists: Rey and Kylo Ren. What's really interesting here is that before we mentioned that Rey's parents were complete nobodies, and there has been a lot of resentment to that fact, but it's actually very important that they are nobodies. When Disney said these were chapters in the Skywalker saga, they weren't lying, but we all just assumed that meant Rey was a part of that foundation. However, nothing done in The Force Awakens is at all implicit in showing that she is in fact a Skywalker or of any relation, and if she was what would it say about the characters we love if one of them had dropped off their daughter to a slaver in Jakku? She was never intended to be a Skywalker, I firmly believe that. The Skywalker saga is continued ACTUALLY by Kylo Ren. He shares the Skywalker bloodline and it is Kylo Ren who will bring that saga to a close, however, I'll talk about that in just a minute. For now, let's talk about the parentage of Rey, and why not only is it important, but it what Star Wars needs for the future.
When Rey is training with Luke, Luke says something IMMENSELY IMPORTANT. While teaching Rey to feel the presence of the force he says this:
"You feel how it connects everything? To say the force belongs to the Jedi alone is hubris. Just because the Jedi are gone doesn't mean the light goes out with them, don't you see that?"This is a concept that extend not only to the Jedi, BUT THE SKYWALKER LINE! You don't have to be a Skywalker to be attuned to the force, or even be a Jedi for that matter. That's ultimately the point of this film. Legends are just that, legends, they have no basis in the reality of things. The Skywalker line is powerful with the force, but they are not the first and will certainly not be the last set of force users with that much power. Under the Empire, they hunted the Jedi to the brink of extinction, however, it's been over 30 years since the fall of the empire. The Force had an awakening last film, however, that doesn't mean this awakening was only for Rey. There are force users all over, and Luke even discusses how when he started the academy he took in Ben and 12 others. The force can be used by anyone, sure some are more attuned than others, but the whole point is that the Jedi could be anyone. You don't need to be from some prophetic line to be a Jedi, to make a difference, to save the galaxy. That's the importance of not only Rey's parentage, but a little slave boy who has been inspired by the miracle of the Rebellion and the sacrifice of Luke Skywalker we see at the end of the film. Legends might be what are needed to inspire and light the fire, but Legends only tell a part of the story. I mean look at Luke before he found out who his father was, he was repairing droids and working as a farmhand to his uncle on literally the WORST planet to have a farm on. He was just as much a nobody as Rey was.
Now let's talk about Kylo Ren, or Ben Solo. This movie was pure vindication for me as a fan of Kylo Ren from the first film. People have been saying: Oh I think Ben will turn to the light side! While I saw this as an obvious option, I had hoped it to be the farthest from the truth. This series sets up both Rey and Kylo as the embodiment of their respective sides of the force. Rey is rational and shows hesitation the way a Jedi should be, and Kylo is a primal storm of emotion that represents the dark side of the Force. I have said since the release of Episode VII that Kylo Ren should not get a redemption arc, and now it's very clear that he won't. Kylo Ren's legacy to the Skywalker saga is ending it. He's been used by both sides of the force for his power and now he's the master of his own. His goal is to drive this train into a wall and blow it up and start something new out of the remains, and this fits his character. Kylo Ren does not get a redemption arc not in the tangible sense, however, Ben Solo will have redemption, not through his actions but in the failings of his master. Luke's betrayal as a mentor shows Rey all the mistakes made by the Jedi. Their crusade against the dark side and need to cut off any aspect of it made them blind to what it meant to be a part of the force. There is a reason the Jedi order needed to end in the first place in order for there to be balance. Ben Solo's turn to Kylo Ren is the thing that will bring about the change needed in the Jedi philosophy. That legacy will be his ultimate redemption. Bringing reform to the broken and dated philosophy of the Jedi order will be the lasting legacy of the Skywalker line. The tragedy is that Kylo Ren will die a villain and will never be seen as the hero he could have been, and all of it stems in the failure of Luke Skywalker.
While my summary gives a full summary of most of the movie, I tried not to go into too much detail. I know that despite my spoiler notice, there will be people who haven't seen the movie who read this that don't care about spoilers, but even still I feel that this is a film people should get as much out of as they can. To those who have seen the movie and didn't enjoy it, or had issues with it, I hope this gave you a bit of a reason to enjoy it as a thought provoking chapter of the Star Wars series. If not, that's fine, you are entitled to your own opinion, and who knows, all of this could even be undone in episode IX. I really hope it isn't, but who knows really.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed and we'll see you next time! This has been another edition of Comic Relief!
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