Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi 4K

I like many people spent most of my time between December of 2015 and December of 2017, eagerly awaiting the next installment of the science-fantasy space opera that I have grown to love. Also, like many people I left the theater on December 15th of 2017 with…well with mixed emotions. Out of those mixed emotion rose anger. I was upset. I stewed on this anger for about a week and then departed to my parent’s house for some winter time off, where once I had arrived my mother had informed me that she had not seen Episode VIII yet. I’ll be honest I tried to brush this aside, I had no plans to watch this movie a second time, at least not so soon. However, Star Wars holds a special place in my mother’s heart, not necessarily for the narrative, but because she saw Episode IV in theaters with her mother, my now deceased grandmother. So ultimately this emotional connection to the saga drove me back into the theaters to at the very least make my mom happy. I expected the same disturbing feelings that had gone through me during my first watch through…A twist though! After a second watch in theaters Episode VIII came off…well it wasn’t as bad as I had first thought. Now I write this after consuming this text for the third time, and I believe this is a piece that has flaws but was made with love and with intentions of delivering on this sacred film saga’s legacy. Some flaws still get to me, but I find that I am able to see this movie for what it wants to be.

Okay, lets get in to the synopsis first. Episode VIII quite literally picks up from the moments that Episode VII left off on. The resistance is trying make an escape from the base of operations but the first order, fresh off the destruction of Starkiller base, is hot on their trails. Going deeper into this, the opening scene is a blast, Poe Dameron (Oscar Issacs) is charged with distracting the first order fleet long enough so that the resistance can escape and live to fight another day. This involves some humorous dialogue between Poe and General Hux ( Domhnall Gleeson), that does stray, towards its end, to be a bit too much. Ultimately Poe goes against the orders of Leia (Carrie Fisher), when she orders him to pull back once he has succeeded in delaying the First Order attack. Poe being the Han Solo reskin that he is ignores this. His motive for this is that one of the most fearsome ships in the First Order arsenal—a Dreadnought—is in the field and they need to destroy it. At the cost of many resistance pilots they succeed. This leads to tension with Leia who promptly demotes Poe. After this whole ordeal goes down Finn (John Boyega) awakens from his medical coma that he was in to cure himself of the wounds he sustained in The Force Awakens. He doesn’t get much dialogue and serves in this moment to transition us to Rey.

Speaking of Rey (Daisey Ridley), She is also in the same spot where we left her back in 2015, handing the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker back to it’s rightful owner, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Many of us have wondered what actions would follow. Would Luke ignite the sabre and head off with his new apprentice to battle the First Order? Well no. He promptly throws the artifact of the force he had been handed over his shoulder and walks away. What follows between Rey and Luke is some tense exchanges as Rey tries to convince Luke to come with her back to the resistances. Luke constantly refuses this as he believes that Jedi would do more harm than good in this fight. Eventually he agrees to teach Rey, and to show her why he believes the Jedi need to end. Rey is resistant to Luke’s current ideas of what should become of the future of the Jedi. This also leads to some conversations about what happened between Luke and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).

Speaking of Kylo Ren, he is currently still stinging from his defeat at the hands of Rey back on Starkiller. Our first scene we get to see with him involves Snoke (Andy Serkis) shaming him and proclaiming that he might have been wrong in what he saw in the young Kylo. This leads to a darker more conflicted Kylo than from the first movie. The being that he though he had pleased thinks less of him now than he did before.

The plots of Kylo and Rey become intertwined after they appear to have some sort of mental connection and can communicate with one another despite the great distance between them. Ultimately Kylo’s version of what happened between him and Luke presents itself to Rey and elevates the conflict between Rey and Luke. This advances us to a new part in this plotline in that Rey now realizes that she might have to look elsewhere for help in the conflict between the First Order and The Resistance. Towards the end of this we also get the return of Yoda (Frank Oz) which I found quite enjoyable.

All while this is going on we are fed a subplot involving Finn, Poe, and their newfound friend Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) trying to do what they think will save the remaining Resistance Fleet from The First Order. Poe is at odds with the acting commander Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern), who has taken over due to Leia being hospitalized from the prior First Order attack. Finn and Rose know how the First Order has been able to track their ships and present a plan to Poe, who approves of this over whatever Holdo is planning, which is something that we are in the dark with same as Poe is. Finn, Rose, and BB-8 head to the Canto Bight casino to find a codebreaker and end up with the ragged DJ (Benicio Del Toro). All this ends in madness and serves to progress Poe as a character.

We are finally told that Holdo has had a plan all along, and this leads us to a final confrontation where all our characters come together.

Ok so I have left out some spoilers in here. That aside…This whole thing that I have explained above is…well it’s interesting to say the least. Look I understand most of the characters actions, even Luke’s despite what Mark Hamill might say. My biggest issue with this whole thing was and still is–despite me having seen it three times now—the canto bight bit with Rose, Finn, and Poe. Story telling is like making a cross country journey. You want to get from New York to LA you devise the most efficient way possible and only deviate from that path when obstacles are presented. The point here is you don’t deviate unless it is for an obstacle. You wouldn’t go to Florida just because Florida is nice if you must make it to LA. This is what the whole canto bight sequence feels like. Its purpose is to progress Poe as a character, that’s right Poe, not Rose or Finn, but to teach Poe that the gunslinger cowboy route isn’t always the best route to take. However, Poe isn’t really involved in the actual action except for a mutiny towards its resolution, and they’re using other characters to serve a lesson that we should see the character learning for himself more firsthand. It throws off the pacing of the whole movie and is scattered with Military-Industrial complex references. It’s almost like Johnson was dead set on talking about this issue and tried to excuse it by saying the whole subplot serves to make Poe a better person. Also, Holdo has had a plan for the resistance fleet the whole entire time and just refuses to tell Poe, and there’s no good reason for this. If Holdo is such a great admiral, then why wouldn’t she just explain her plan to Poe and avoid the whole situation all together. Poe accepts the plan when it is finally told him. Maybe she was worried Poe wouldn’t accept it and mutiny, but he mutinies either way, so why not just tell him! It was just a tiring part of the movie that could have been better served elsewhere.

I have actually grown to like the Kylo and Rey plots. After hearing Rian Johnson’s explanation for doing the things he did with regards to this, it all ties together very well. I think that one of the successes that have come from this movie is that Rey and Kylo are set up in advantageous positions to resolve their conflict in Episode IX. Luke’s character is another one that grew on me in a positive manner the more I watched the film, and his actions in this film are in line with what knowledge we had on him from Episode VII.

I think that in the end Rian Johnson did a solid job crafting a fresh Star Wars that caught a lot of fans off guard because of how he strayed from everything we thought we were going to see. It has obvious hiccups to it, but also has some memorable moments such as a fight in Snokes Throne room. Some questions were not answered in a satisfactory manner, but also the characters are set up for a strong finish in Episode IX. This film is no Empire Strikes Back, but also contrary to what people might tell you it’s no Attack of The Clones. Following this movie my rankings for the movies is as follows:

1.Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
2.Episode VI: The Return of The Jedi
3.Episode IV: A New Hope
4.Episode VII: The Force Awakens
5.Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
6.Episode III: The Revenge of The Sith
7.Episode I: The Phantom Menace
8.Episode II: Attack of The Clones

The Last Jedi is a movie that I think will be remembered better by fans as time passes and could move up my list if Episode IX ends up being amazing. As for now it serves as a solid addition to the franchise that has its faults but is made with the best intentions of furthering the franchise.

SPECIAL FEATURES
They packed this thing full of special features, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Balance of The Force piece was an interesting take on how Rian Johnson thought of The Force and provided some extra insight into his thought process and why he wrote certain characters the way that he did.

The Director and The Jedi full length documentary was fascinating, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about film and the process of making a movie. Regardless of what you think of The Last Jedi, through this documentary you get an eye into what goes on behind the scenes of a massive undertaking. Making Star Wars is not like making other movies, and it was cool to see how productions of this magnitude are put together.

The deleted scenes by themselves were cool little add-ons, but they also come with the option to add commentary from Rian Johnson, which makes them vastly more interesting. You get to hear the reasoning why these scenes were cut and are more informed on the decision-making process that goes on in the editing room by listening to Johnson talk to about these scenes.

We also treated to a more in-depth look at the making of the more complicated scenes such as the Battle of Crait, and the Canto Bight sequence. While I wrote on my displeasure with the whole casino ordeal, I still can’t help but admire that there were a lot of talented people that worked on it and it was fascinating to see them at work, and I still hold nothing but respect for those people.

The Bonus features were very satisfying and regardless of what you think of the movie I think you will find enjoyment in them especially if you are a movie nerd like myself. You do also, through watching this, get some deeper insight into why some choices that appear in the final product were made, and I also have a larger respect for all the hands involved in the movie making process. They are a good ode to those who normally wouldn’t get much mainstream media attention but none the less are vital to the entertainment that we indulge ourselves in.

4K
No surprise here the 4K in this film is beautiful. The Battle of Crait sequence at the end truly shines as do the space battles. Star Wars is already a beautiful film, but it is stunning in 4K. The movie is good enough I believe that the 4K is not the only thing it has to offer, which is something that upsets me when I see people excited for a terrible movie just because it is in 4K. It goes down as a worthy addition to any growing 4K library, and the film has enough to stand on with out the 4K so that you won’t be disappointed.