How should I review Star Wars: The Last Jedi?
That may seem an odd question. After all, here and elsewhere i review the best part of 60 films a year: more, when time allows. So i ought to be have a clue by now. Still, i find myself hesitating to pronounce on this film. Why?
This is, after all, a film like any other. On offer is fast-paced inter-galactic adventure, re-uniting the usual suspects. All the old stalwarts are there, including a jaded and reluctant Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), reunited, finally, with sister Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), leading a raggle-taggle resistance against seemingly overwhelming odds.
New heroes, too, including novice Jedi, Rey (Daisy Ridley), dubious hero Finn (John Boyega) and gung-ho x-wing pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac). Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) turns in a creditable performance as up-and-coming villain, with a penchant for following in the footsteps of his grandpa, Darth Vader.
There are battles, big and small. Both Rey and Ren and, later, Luke and Ren go at it, hammer and tongs, with light sabres. In between, there is the usual flash-bangery of dogfights twixt x-wings and starfighters, intermingled with larger battles as the directors introduce an ever larger array of cruisers, support ships and interstellar dreadnoughts
Here, I guess, is a clue. A large problem for me, having watched every episode of the Star Wars saga since first it hit the big screens in 1977, is just how familiar it all is. So many tropes turning up time and time again in film after film. There's the imminent destruction of the dwindling band of rebels, as the First Order battleship closes and prepares to fire. Too, there is the valiant one-man attempt to take down a massive enemy asset with the aid of a dingle fighter. There's the bit where the only way to save the day is for our heroes to sneak aboard the enemy ship and disable the computer.
There's the scene in an intergalactic nightclub, albeit slightly politicised with reference to privileged classes and the evils of the arms trade. And over all are the references to “Hope” - which we just know has to be capitalised: an unmissable throwback to the very first Star Wars: A New Hope.
As for sub-plot, there is a continuing obsession with parentage. Audiences were left stunned when, at the climax of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Vader uttered those unforgettable words: “Luke, I am your father”. It continues, here, with a mix of hints and misdirections as to who Rey's parents really are. Ren supplies an answer: but is this true? Or is there a further reveal, to come in the final ninth part of the Star Wars saga.
And of course, there is all the hokum around The Force. Luke proves, yet again, that he may be a dab hand with a light sabre: but when it comes to philosopy he is anything but a Master. So yet again, a somewhat ghostly Yoda is brought out of retirement to provide wisdom. Yes, folks: being a Jedi means never having to stay dead.
I hope it doesn't outrage true fans if i say this is all starting to feel like a souped up version of Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner, with the Empire/First Order and the Resistance in the respective roles. The same old pursuit, superficially different, more complex with each iteration: and always, the Resistance/Roadrunner escaping by the skin of their teeth in the final reel.
In the end, that is the problem. That is why i find this film and others in the series ever more difficult to review. Because as stand alone, as one of a kind, it is good. Not brilliant: my sense is that, by contrast with the early films, in which the narrative focussed mostly on a small number of central characters, the proliferation of sub-characters and sub-plots makes each individual story slightly lighter, slightly less substantial. And as a first ever in the saga, launching today, i'd be out there urging people to go see it – as, in the end, i do for this.
The problem, for me, is that this is not first of its kind but eighth or ninth in a series doing many of the same things the franchise was doing 40 years ago. Could it be any different? Perhaps, as the Marvel Avengers franchise shows how different films in the main arc can deliver very different stories and very different story forms.
But that is not the way with good old, reliable Star Wars. What you see is what you get. And in the case of Star Wars: the Last Jedi, what you get is very much the same as before. Which is great if you've not done earlier Star Wars – or if you like it just the way it is. Less great if you are looking for something stunningly original.
Three and a half stars.
