The Last Jedi (for now)

Over forty years of its own film history is crammed into this latest offering of Star Wars and,
put simply, The Last Jedi delivers the goods.

Generally, the further out a story goes, the more difficult it can be to balance bringing in new
fans to the fold and keep the original ones engaged. In The Last Jedi, the stakes are set up
early: the First Order has the universe almost entirely within its grasp. Snoke is in control, the
rebels are on the run and Kylo Ren is humiliated, but remains determined to claim the place
his Grandfather Darth once did.

A bit of fun gamesmanship allows the Rebels to both point out the Last Order’s weaknesses
(arrogance and unwieldy largeness, mostly), against all its obvious advantages (firepower,
hardware, manpower, etc.), and continue the fight. Oscar Isaac shines as the wise-cracking
gunslinger/fighter pilot, Poe.

After the initial fight, the film takes a nice turn, reminiscent of my favorite film in the
franchise, The Empire Strikes Back. When Rey continues her journey with Luke, where
we left her at the end of The Force Awakens, on the secret planet of Ahch-To, there are
shades of Luke and Yoda on Degobah. The largest difference here is Yoda was a brand new
character in Empire, while we know Luke’s story well from episodes 4-6. What's missing is
what he's been up to since doing the celebratory Yub Nub dance with the Ewoks on Endor.
That story unfolds slowly, with humor, heart and darkness over the next 90 minutes or so.

Humor and self-reference are used throughout the film with some moments working better
than others. Overall, though, Director/Writer Rian Johnson’s touch is extremely deft. And
Disney has undoubtedly cashed in once again with the next generation with the uber cute
puffin-like “porgs”. I know this intimately as my six and eight year old were immediately
clamoring for them after the film was over.

Another great retro moment with the kids was the opening title blast from John Williams.
That first brass hit explodes on the screen just before the infamous vertical/z-axis title
crawl and it gets the newbies today as much as it did me back in 1977. I got to laugh
at my daughter's leap the same way my dad did when I jumped at this aural blast.

I purposely avoided as much as I could about the film going in to have the cleanest
experience possible. I’m very glad for that as there were several plot twists that surprised
and delighted me. To that end, I won’t contribute to spoilers in the form of greater detail in this
piece. If there’s enough response in the comments, I’d be happy to discuss the plot details
further after the new year, figuring that’s enough time for those who really want to see it to
check it out.

This may, in fact, make a good time to introduce the Nobody Knows Hollywood fan
video interviews...more on that soon.

I will say this, without spoiling anything, Leia gets her due in this film and I am very, very
glad to see that for her character, and even more so for the memory of Carrie Fisher.

Suffice to say, if The Last Jedi was the end of the series, it would be fitting and very well
done. There’s enough going on at the end, however to see how it may continue. May the

Force be with the filmmakers as the Star Wars universe continues to grow.