THE LAST JEDI REVIEW: Dun, dun, dun, dadadun, dadadun…Rian Johnson turns this middle part of t

In 1974, Vietnam veteran Joe Haldeman published a science fiction novel called The Forever War that used outer space as a metaphor for the conflict in Southeast Asia. The book won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards—the genre’s top honours—and has never been out of print.

It has also been optioned for the screen almost continuously—Channing Tatum was attached to star as recently as a year ago—yet no film version has ever made its way into theatres.

Three years after The Forever War hit the bookstores, Star Wars, a movie directed by a young man named George Lucas and featuring a cast of mostly little known actors was released. A canny mash-up of Joseph Campbell mythology, Flash Gordon serials, and an Akira Kurosawa film called The Hidden Fortress, the movie became a smash success and has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry featuring sequels and prequels (the latest, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, opened on December 15) to a fan-fair of mayhem. It’s everything a fan could want from a “Star Wars” film and then some.

(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)

Culturedemandsgeeks sits sweetly back – feet up – in the red-plush cinema chairs, and deeply wonders what the true game will be?

The film manages to maneuver in unexpected ways, starting with the decision to build a whole film around a retreat where the goal is not to win but to avoid being wiped out. A sensible notion?

The plot picks up where director J.J. Abrams left off in 2015’s The Force Awakens. The first part of “The Last Jedi” cuts between the remnants of our heroes’ ragtag fleet (led by the late Carrie Fishers Leia) running away from the First Order, aka the next-generation version of the Empire; and Rey (Daisy Ridley) on the aquatic planet Ahch-To (gesundheit!) trying to convince the self-exiled, Jedi master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, whose sandblasted face becomes truly iconic in close-ups) to overcome his grief at failing a group of young Jedi trainees and re-join the Resistance. Also, Rey has the task of dragging his depressed hermit ass back to save the galaxy and whip sense into his conflicted nephew.

That would be Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who last time out killed his own father and now gives his mom, Leia, no end of heartache. On top of that indo meltdown, The New Order’s Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis. plus CGI) has grand plans for both Rey and his Darth Vader-obsessed apprentice Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).

Along that narrative backbone “The Last Jedi” strings what amount to several tight, often hastily devised mini-missions, each of which either moves the heroes (or villains) closer to their goals or blows up in their faces. The story resolves in lengthy, consecutive climaxes and also very, very funny situations, which, refreshingly, don’t play like a cynical attempt to pad things out.

Old business is resolved, new business introduced.

(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)

When we bounce from scene to scene, Johnson gives veteran characters (Chewbacca and R2-D2 especially) and those who debuted in “The Force Awakens” enough screen time to showcase them at their best while also introducing compelling new faces (including a heroic maintenance worker, Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico (spoiler: she’s just lost her brave sister in the opening battle scene); we also have a serene and tough vice admiral in the Resistance, played by Laura Dern (who may, or may not be working for the darkside); a sort of “safecracker” character played by Benicio Del Toro, is the life of the party as a thief and codebreaker (with an annoying click) and no one can trust.

“Jedi” does a better job than most sequels of giving the audience both what it wants and what it didn’t know it wanted. The movie leans hard into sentiment, most of it planted in the previous installment, some related to the unexpected passing of one of its leads (Fisher—thank goodness they gave her a lot of screen time here, and thrilling things to do). But whenever it allows a character to cry (or invites us to) the catharsis feels earned.

We also wonder will the phrase ‘snuffed out’  be the next big thing in the universe!

The other burning question is Rey’s anguish at not knowing who her parents are? And Kylo Ren’s trauma at killing his own father to advance toward his “destiny” literally as well as figuratively mirror each other. Both actors, Ridley and Driver are stellar in big roles and small. They knock it out of the park as Rey and Ren, two characters drawn together by a Force neither understands.

Johnson lets these all-powerful characters telepathically “speak” to each other across space as easily as you or I might Messenger with our friends. This gimmick offers so much potential for drama and wry humor that you might wonder why nobody did it earlier.

Sometimes “The Last Jedi” draws our own very high expectations in a cheeky way that stops short of telling super-fans to get over themselves. This is where humour and jokes collide in a Robot Chicken sketch. Snoke orders Kylo to “take off that ridiculous helmet,” Luke chastises an old friend for showing a nostalgic video by muttering “That was a cheap move,” and an early gag finds one of the heroes calling the bridge of a star destroyer and pretending to be stuck on hold. This aspect adds a much-needed dash of humour to the series.

There are points where the film appears to have miscalculated or made an outright lame choice (this becomes worrisome in the middle, when Dern’s Admiral Holdo and Oscar Isaac’s hotshot pilot Poe Dameron are at loggerheads and pistols!), but then you realize that it was a setup for another payoff that lands harder because you briefly doubted that “The Last Jedi” does, in fact, know what it’s doing. The mystery unravels, and we get to see Laura Dern do something really cool in a huge space movie, creating perhaps one of the most indelible Star Wars images of all time in the process…that alone is enough to make The Last Jedi a classic.

This determination to split the difference between surprise and inevitability is encoded in “The Last Jedi” down to the level of scenes and shots. How many Star Destroyers, TIE fighters, Imperial walkers, lightsabers, escape pods, and discussions of the nature of The Force have we seen by now? Oodles. But Johnson manages to find a way to present the technology, mythology and imagery in a way that makes it feel new.

Be prepared, a surprise face returns from the past to haunt and hit Luke! Guidance I give him, (and No one is mourning Han Solo in “The Last Jedi,” and this isn’t awkward or anything!)

Also, hilariously, a blurry video conference in which the goggle-eyed warrior-philosopher Maz Kanata (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) delivers important information while engaging in a shootout with unseen foes. (She calls it a “union matter.”)

There’s a single moment where Johnson knows he has you in the palm of his hand. As it plays out, the sound drops out. Gone are the sound effects of lasers and tearing metal. Gone is the cry of our beloved characters. Gone is John Williams’ booming score.

Above: will the bad guys come to a sticky end?

Plot points: The Jedi have a history with students who go bad.

A key element of the original “Star Wars” trilogy is that before he became Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker was Obi-Wan Kenobi’s apprentice. The prequel trilogy is all about how Emperor Palpatine managed to seduce Anakin to the Dark Side, but the Jedi’s history with failing students is a long one, and it often has to do with the headstrong pupils clashing with overconfident teachers. In a way, the Jedi are responsible for a lot of deaths and horrors in the galaxy, as their religion often seems to give rise to powerful bad guys who go on to wreak havoc on the innocent.

We know Luke’s experience training Ben Solo went very similarly to what happened to Obi-Wan, so the parallels between what happened to the teacher and his apprentice are likely to be important to the story of “The Last Jedi.”

The whole focus of “The Force Awakens” was on finding “the map to Skywalker,” which the Resistance hoped to use to bring Luke back to the fight, and Kylo Ren wanted it so he could kill Luke. But in addition to not knowing where Luke went, nobody knew why he went where he did. Luke went in search of the first Jedi Temple. It’s true that Ach-To, the planet where Luke is found, is the site of the original Jedi temples. But we still don’t know why that’s where he wound up, or what Luke is doing there, and it gently unravels itself during the film..

Still…

The Last Jedi belongs to Hamill in a portrayal that cuts to the core of what Star Wars means to a generation of dreamers looking to the heavens.

In the 40 years since the actor first played Luke Skywalker, we’ve followed him from callow youth to Jedi master. But it’s here that Hamill gives the performance of his career, nailing every nuance of an iconic role and rewarding the emotional investment we’ve made in him.

Is Jedi singular or plural? Is it Luke, Rey or someone else? Rian Johnson has produced a glowing film, and we finally find out that Rey is the last Jedi. Nostalgia can only get you so far. The real success of The Last Jedi lies not in the affection it clearly holds for George Lucas’ original trilogy, but the way it manages to move the story forwardThe film is filled with spectacular explosions, one-on-one fun and frolics and sometimes heart-felt reunions. 

There are spots where the film can’t figure out how to get the characters to where it needs them to be and just sort of shrugs and says, “And then this happened, now let’s get on with it.” But there are fewer such moments than you might have gone in prepared to forgive—and most importantly, the damned movie moves, both in a plot sense and in the sense of a skilled choreographer.

Downsides: there is no denying that the porg is a merchandise insert; it’s this generation’s Ewok, it’s a stuffed animal made (fake) flesh, and its placement in the trailer — right after the emotionally devastating face-off between Kylo Ren and Leia Organa — was intended to be a moment of levity to distract from the real plot of this movie. And it’s super cute, the way the Porg tries to imitate Chewbacca’s cry. It’s like if baby Groot and the Niffler from Fantastic Beasts had an even tinier, more adorable baby! What’s not to love?!

But overall, the Last Jedi truly, lives up to expectations.The movie shows how Finn and Poe’s relationship advances. Space battles! Forms bonds with other characters , while drawing a line on familiar characters who will sadly not be around for the next cache of films. (Did I mention ‘space battles!) Also, it doesn’t dwell on a major death from The Force Awakens or overshadows Carrie Fisher’s final (we presumed!) appearance either.

Finally, The Last Jedi is exploding with moments that will have fans cheering in cinemas across the galaxy, and fantasising for the next instalment. On a scale of Gungan to Wookiee (with the Ewoks somewhere in between), The Last Jedi is 97% amazing, and 3% porg.