Hello, and welcome once again to another edition of my Theories series. If you read the title, you should already know this article in on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which releases in the United States this Friday, December 15th. The 2-hour-and-33-minute movie is set to star Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher (posthumously) as General Leia, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Andy Serkis (through motion-capture and CGI) as Snoke, Laura Dern as Vice Adrimal Holdo, Benicio del Toro as DJ, and Domnhall Gleeson as General Hux. Remember, there will be SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so you have been warned. And with that, let’s get into it.
Now, here is where I would talk about my favorite character, but this time around, I’m going to talk about my least favorite character in the entire film, Luke Skywalker. Even Mark Hamill said it himself, it was almost like he was playing a different character, affectionately named “Jake Skywalker” by Hamill himself. The once-hopeful young Skywalker has turned into basically the antithesis of his character; old, uncaring, and unwilling to help the Rebellion. The writing team tried to write off as Luke becoming jaded after attempting to kill Ben Solo, AKA Kylo Ren before he could destroy the Jedi. But this only caused Ben to go to the Dark Side because he was just a child whose uncle had just tried to kill him preemptively, Minority Report– Style, and an immensely-powerful child at that. The real Luke would have known to make a plan before going in and killing one of the most powerful Padawans, let alone his own nephew.
The main villain, Snoke, was actually surprising weak throughout the film. While he does exhibit a solid handle on the Force by force-choking General Hux from all the way across his ship is something we’d never seen before, and it was probably one of the coolest moments of the sequel trilogy. But, during a pivotal scene in the movie, he is cut in half by a lightsaber that was on the armrest of the chair he was sitting. Kylo Ren controlled the lightsaber to turn on with the Force, which was also another pretty cool moment, seeing the shock on Snoke’s face as his apprentice has finally turned on him, just like the story of Darth Plageius the Wise. But I felt that Snoke was just getting started as the true main villain of the sequel trilogy, instead of Kylo Ren. Leaving Snoke alive would have given Kylo Ren a chance at redemption, while still leaving the sequel trilogy with a distinct villain.
Finally, I thought the deaths of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker were actually pretty disrespectful. Early in the movie, Leia is sucked out of her ship and into the vacuum of space and somehow made it back to the ship and to safety through the Force. The thing is, she doesn’t add anything to the plot after the movie. The right move would have been to keep her dead and give her a proper send off to close out her story. Luke’s death, however, was what pissed me off the most. After an incredible battle on Crait, the salt planet from the trailer, between him, First Order forces, and Kylo Ren. The battle is done amazingly well and is definitely the best part of the film. After the battle, however, Luke just fucks off into a magical Force projection and is found mediating on Ahch-To, revealing he is actually strong enough to project himself to far away planets. If the movie ended with him on Ahch-To, I’d be fine, but then, he disappeared into another Force ghost. You have no idea what the fuck just happened until about 15 minutes later, where, in a throwaway line of dialogue, Rey reveals to Leia that she “felt Luke pass”. It was a stupid death, and on a rewatch of the battle scene with Luke and Kylo, you realize there are no stakes in the battle because Luke was a galaxy away the entire time.
While the writing was absolutely stupid, I think I’m used to it at this point in the Star Wars franchise, and there were still some really cool moments. I give Star Wars: The Last Jedi 3.9 out of 5 stars.
Alright, thank you so much for reading. If you want to see more of these guys, you can find them in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is in theatres near you now. Please, remember to tune in on Monday for my Featured News for December, and Friday for my Character of the Month for January on Jonah Hex. Thank you again for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.
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