Last year, months before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, was released, the news got out that the film was going back into production for around a month to re-shoot some of the film. Rumors blazed through the internet about the brass being unhappy with the final product and changes were going to be implemented. The story that made the papers was that they were just doing typical re-shoots and adding some character depth. What really happened is probably only known to those that made the movie, but after the recent Lucasfilm shakeups, I think it's fairly obvious what occurred. Kathleen Kennedy, who took the helm of the studio after George Lucas sold it to Disney, seems like some sort of all-knowing, all-seeing tyrant that only does what she wants and forces those making "her" movies to adhere to her strict guidelines. She seems to be the type of person who, as a child, refused to color outside the lines on principle. The Star Wars franchise is a money printing machine, so I suppose a tyrant to keep people in line is sensible, but is this ultimately a death knell for creativity?
The third main film in the new trilogy, Episode IX, was supposed to be directed by Jurassic World's Colin Trevorrow. He stepped down (supposedly) before actual shooting the film but being involved for a lengthy period. The reason seemed to be that his vision didn't line up with Lucasfilm's...so they hired JJ Abrams to come back. And next May's Han Solo film replaced its directors (the duo that directed The Lego Movie) with Ron Howard mid-shoot because, again, their vision wasn't right. Who knows why Trevorrow was fired or quit, but it's fairly obvious that Lucasfilm didn't want Solo being a lark in the park comedy fest like The Lego Movie, which it was probably turning out to be until boring Ron Howard righted the ship to vanilla waters.
This is all typical Hollywood, of course. The bigwigs in their CEO offices make the decisions while the creative folk cower in their lower caste, windowless cells. But if the current Star Wars blitz that will never end (a movie a year forever! a TV show on Disney's streaming service!) is going to be handcuffed by Kathleen Kennedy and the Lucasfilm bigwigs...this, sadly, probably means we won't be getting a great, fresh, original Star Wars movie in the future. Sure, we'll get good, entertaining films like The Force Awakens and Rogue One that basically recycle past glories and old tropes from the originals. You'll still see jedi's and Chewbaca and light saber duels. But what you probably won't be seeing is anything like the original Star Wars; something bold, alien, and thrillingly new. And that's a shame.
Episode IIX, The Last Jedi, is, unfortunately, not as good as The Force Awakens or Rogue One, though it is light years better than those God-awful prequel monstrosities. It has some entertaining space battles, a well-shot final fight, a great performance by Mark Hamil, but also a lot of miscues, a lot of cringe-inducing silliness, and a lot of dead-end story mistakes. The big problem is that, unlike, say, The Empire Strikes Back, this film is merely just a popcorn movie. It's fun, it's entertaining, but it needs to be reaching to new heights instead of falling back on what's been done before.
The basic plot in this one has Mark Hamil finally returning as Luke Skywalker. He only showed up in The Force Awakens at the end in the wordless, climax cameo. Well he's back as a depressed, broken old hermit living on an island and given up on being a hero. Let me guess: at the end he turns into the hero and saves the day? I suppose anyone could have written that ending, and, like all of these new Star Wars films, there aren't really any surprises that are worth it. Which means that since The Force Awakens copied the original Star Wars script, this copies Empire. There's no ice monster but there is Luke teaching Rey in the middle of nowhere like grumpy Yoda did with Luke in the swamp in Empire. Instead of Cloud City in Empire we get a casino planet (and a casino planet sounds a lot cooler than it is...what we end up with is fake looking lamas horse racing). And instead of the walkers marching to take down a Rebel base on Hoth like in Empire we get walkers marching to take down a Rebel base on a red salt planet (which is, granted, visually cool). There's also the will-you-join-the-dark-side fight/argument like in Empire between Vader and Luke but here it's between Rey and Kylo Ren. And while some of the dark side/Jedi stuff is played as being super serious and earth shatteringly relevant, it doesn't mesh well with the fact that writer/director Rian Johnson (who's first feature, the High School noir, Brick, is terrific) has made a lot of this film a knee-slapping comedy. I did laugh. A lot of this is hilarious, but it's hard to have Empire-style Vader/Luke hand-cutting-off drama when you're busy cracking jokes along the way. You either want it to be high drama or a typical, fun summer popcorn spectacle. You can't really do both and still get a masterpiece result unless you're a master. And Rian Johnson proves that while he's a good director, he's no George Lucas.
I suppose if you're a kid then this is all new and fresh and cool, but it really feels like they're not even trying too hard. Adam Driver, as the Vader-esque Kylo Ren, does seem to be doing a better job acting wise in this than in The Force Awakens, although by the end he doesn't exactly come across as any sort of great evil to care about. Oscar Isaac, as the Han Solo-esque Poe Dameron, is great, and Hamil fucking kills it, albeit in the ultimate let-down of a story he's given to work with. The rest of the new cast in this trilogy is a fun, amusing bunch, but are they enough to carry their own into the final film? Carrie Fisher is dead and they killed off Han Solo in the last one. Yoda shows up in this as a ghost so I suppose they can still lamely bring back some of the old crew as lively, encouraging spirits in the final go round. But who the hell wants to see that? The whole point of bringing back Luke, Leia, and Han was to, you know, have a movie with them together. They screwed that up by not having Luke in The Force Awakens until the last shot and now it's too late. What was once a promising reunion turned into this; an entertaining, mildly amusing new trilogy that, sadly, could've, should've, would've been something a lot better. **1/2
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