It’s been interesting to see the divided opinions of the latest Star Wars film, “The Last Jedi” (“TLJ” for short hand going forward) as die-hard Star Wars fans seem to be lining up on 2 sides of either hating it or loving it. Who knew this film would throw things out of balance with what seemed like a pretty united fanbase. Being one of those kids born in the late 1970’s who grew up with the Original Trilogy… and as a long-time Star Wars fanatic I find myself in in the midst of the fray and wanted to weigh in on this apparently controversial movie.

In reading blogs, and watching You Tube videos I am actually very surprised to find how many things people found to complain about with regards to this film. While I’m not going to address all of them, here are the biggest issues people seem to be talking about. I’m going to start with what I consider to be the 2 larger issues, and then move on to some of the “smaller issues” people have been taking issue with.

Of course I need to offer fair warning… if you haven’t seen the movie yet, be warned that there are spoilers ahead!
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The “BIG” Issues

1. Unanswered Questions

The 2 biggest questions that people seem to be disappointed by in TLJ are about who Rey’s parents are and wanting more back story about Snoke. While we do get a clear answer (but is it believable?) from Kylo Ren about who Rey’s parents are… people seem to want more or simply are disappointed to learn she’s not some offspring of a past Star Wars Jedi Hero. Personally I think this is brilliant that she came from nothing. Just like Anikan Skywalker in Episode 1 has no major significance in his family to that point… and the little boy at the end of TLJ with his using the force to grab a broom indicates that you don’t need a significant family line or heritage to become a Jedi or use the force. The fact that we don’t know more about Rey’s family doesn’t bother me at all… I just find I don’t care anymore like I did before seeing the movie. It just isn’t relavant, and TLJ shows us why.

And Snoke? I guess I never really needed to know his back story. It doesn’t matter to me where or how Snoke came into the picture. So Rian Johnson’s decision to just cut him out of the film and not answer more about that sits fine with me. Sure if you nerd out about Star Wars and backstories and what’s Canon or not…. And spend hours on WookiePedia this may be a disappointment, but its not something to let ruin the movie for you.

2. Luke’s “hermit like” attitude, and his last controversial scene.

This is by far one of the biggest things people are upset about. They feel betrayed… like their childhood hero was sacrificed or changed due to where Rian John decided to go with Luke’s Character. Even Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker himself) appears to disagree with Rian Johnson’s script writing and decisions about Luke’s character, so I realize I’m going to have a pretty uphill battle to try to rationalize why I felt Luke’s attitude on life and his last scene were good decisions. So bear with me as I attempt to lay this out.

Before I can directly address the Luke issues I need to lay out some back story.

First, one must look at the other key Jedi in the entire trilogy… namely Yoda and Obiwan Kenobi. While there are other significant Jedi in the previous 6 films before The Force Awakens (TFA), these 2 Jedi stand alone as significant ones in that they both understood the force better than any other Jedi. Additionally they have some things in common. First, they both went into exile to hide from the Empire, and in that time they grew even stronger with the force, learning it to its near fullest potential and understanding. Second, both are shown to “die” in such a way that they “became one with the force” rather than actually passed away in a physical way. In all the films we don’t see any other Jedi “disappear” in the same way that these 2 “Super Jedi” do. I believe this is because they found a way to not really “Die” but rather “move on” into a higher state of being as they become one with the force and continue to help the Jedi in new ways.  This is much mostly apparent through Obiwan’s story in Episode 4 when he dies and then only seconds later is instructing Luke to run onto the Falcon (with further instruction to come while he flys his X-Wing attack on the Death Star).

You can probably see where I’m going with this… Yes, Luke has these things in common with Yoda and Obiwan in that he too went away to hide from Kylo Ren and in that time learned more ways to use the force (as we see in his last stand in front of the First Order’s attackers). So in this time he has also learned what Obiwan and Yoda have, which is how to join with the force, and its explore its deeper benefits.

So why would he do this? The same reason that Obiwan did… to help. He realizes that the best way that he can help the Jedi and his friends is by joining the force rather than be a Jedi in the physical world. And his last act as a physical living Jedi is to help the Resistance escape. I don’t think he suffered so severely that using the force in this new way killed him. He willingly chose to “Become one with the Force” after successfully carrying out his last mission.

Some have argued that there is a hole in the story in that Kylo Ren doesn’t realize that Luke is “Force Projecting himself” until later during his light saber battle with Luke. They claim this is weak because Kylo should have figured out Luke wasn’t really there just after the zillions of bullets attacked where Luke was standing only to see him still alive. However I disagree. Kylo is a new and young Sith who himself was surprised when earlier in the film he can see Rey in some new way that he can’t understand or control. This is new to him as it is new to us. It’s a new unexplored power of the Force, and he knows about as much about it as we do. And we the audience aren’t 100% sure if Snoke really caused them to see each other using his dark force powers, or if Rey and Kylo did it on their own and Snoke simply used his knowledge of it happening to try to turn Rey to the dark side. In either case, when I first watched Luke get pummeled by all that artillery and then walk out of it alive… I simply concluded that Luke was a bad ass and might have yet another super force power trick that I don’t know about. Maybe he has some force field power that we have yet to learn about. Perhaps Kylo was thinking the same thing.  Additionally Kylo knows that Luke is superior to him, and there is still much Kylo needs to learn about the Force.  So the timing of when Kylo figures out Luke’s trick seems perfectly natural to me.  He experienced the revelation right when we (the audience) did.

As to why Luke is all grouchy and angry… it makes sense if you think about it. The last time we really saw Luke in action was at the end of Return of the Jedi where he faced the Vader and found a way to balance the dark and the light side of the force by becoming powerful by giving in to his emotions (like the Sith), but then being strong and wise enough to do the right thing (like the Jedi). But when he fails to successfully train Kylo, Luke feels conflicted and helpless… like a failure… and perhaps even fearful of the hate that could so easily rise inside him to make him consider killing Kylo.

The Dark side seems to be pulling at Luke, and he sees and feels fear, maybe for the first time in a long time. In this struggle Luke falls out of balance with the Force. He is no longer able to stay balanced (feel fear and emotion, but make wise decisions and actions). Then after Luke confronts a sleeping Kylo, Kylo then kills the other “Jedi in training” and in doing so kills off Luke’s dream of rebuilding the Jedi.

So what does Luke do at that point? How does he feel? The answer is that he goes likely goes into a depression and into hiding. He is a failure because of Kylo Ren, and he himself doubts his ability to fight off the dark side’s seductive power. He even warns Rey to stay far away from it… to the point of yelling at the top of his loungs to stay away!  So here Luke sits… He has no Jedi prospects, no way forward and he’s completely alone. His “hermit like” attitude and loss of desire to live or train other Jedi makes sense. He’s lost all hope. And when Rey arrives… he has his daemons to fight before he feels he won’t fail again. In addition, he’s battling the hypocrisy he sees in past Jedi and is struggling to reconcile their role and importance in the future universe. No wonder he’s jaded, angry, confused and wants to be left alone.

What many people may overlook is that this film (The Last Jedi) is very much a story about Luke. He follows the hero’s journey in a powerful way. He resists the call (Rey’s prompting for Jedi training) and its not until Yoda (the wise advisor) and a situation he cannot run from (the inevitable demise Leah, Rey and the resistance) that he answers the call and steps up to be the true hero of the movie. (Obviously this is an abbreviated Hero’s Journey as I laid it out). TLJ isn’t about Rey, Kylo, Fin, Leah or anyone else really… it’s about Luke. Its about his failure, resistance, acceptance and sacrifice. The way he passes into the Force I believe is not so much a death scene as it is his natural transition into the next phase of his life. Yes all the other characters have stories and adventures as well, but the core story in TLJ is about Luke, and this film perfectly sets the stage for those new heros and villians to rise in the next film. And I can’t wait to see whats next!

THE “SMALLER” ISSUES

1. Length – It was really 2 movies crammed into one:

While I understand this complaint, I don’t see this as a negative or in any way hurting the story (or stories if you want to state it that way). I was never board, always engaged and enjoyed every frame of the movie. And what does a Star Wars fan want most? MORE STAR WARS! So why not cram as much into a movie as possible. While it’s a risky move to try to tell so much story in one film, as a film maker I didn’t feel it detracted at all while watching the film due to its length or multiple story lines. It was easy to follow what was going on, and as a film maker I appreciated how well they handled transitioning between storylines throughout the film.

2. Admiral Holdo’s secret plan of Escape:

People are arguing as to why she didn’t tell Poe about the secret escape plan. There are a few ways to address this. First, was it her plan? Or was it Leah’s plan that was passed on after she (Leah) woke up? Did Admiral Holdo even have a plan at all to begin with? And even if she did, I see no reason why she needed to share it with Poe. Furthermore, we don’t know Holdo as a character yet or she would say or do since we only just met her in this film and have so little time to get to know her. Perhaps she’s a “Type-A” follow the rules type person and divulging top secret plans to fighter pilots goes against regulations. Or like I said, maybe she didn’t have the plan, and didn’t know what to tell Poe. The point is… who cares! It sets up Poe to show some “Take matters into his own hands” heroics as well as reveal some flaws in Poe’ character which can help build a better character arc in later films. A flawed Hero (or sub hero) is much more interesting than an invincible / perfect one.

3. Admiral Holdo’s Light Speed Jump:

I’ve heard people complaining about the fact that one person can’t do such a complicated maneuver by him or herself in a large starship, and that it minimizes the need to have that command bridge full of people running a complicated starship if one person can do something so easily. OK maybe that’s a valid argument… but maybe not. When people are put into desperate situations, they can do some incredible things (both in science fiction stories and in real life).

But is jumping to lightspeed really that complicated? In the Millennium Falcon, jumping to light speed is triggered by one leaver which gets pulled down after “locking in the coordinates in the nav computer”. Sure the falcon and the larger starship are very different in their complexity, but from what I can muster from the 8-9 Star Wars films is that from a operation standpoint, you really only need 2 things (coordinates in a nav computer and a button/leaver to make it happen). And if she didn’t care about where she was going since it was a sacrifice maneuver straight into the enemy ship, she just needed to be pointed in the right direction and then pull a leaver. So I see no substantial argument for this being a significant hole in the story.

I personally LOVE the scene where this happens, and rather than spend energy on shallow questions about “Can Holdo do this on her own…” can’t we just enjoy the film? I would much rather enjoy one of the coolest scenes I’ve ever seen than let these details ruin a fantastic story. (side note the sound treatment was amazing in this scene!!!)

4. The “Slow Chase Scene”

The question is about why “The First Order” doesn’t do more to take out Admiral Holdo’s ship as it slowly runs out of gas. This might be the only “Hole” in the film that I can’t really refute. It seems like the pursuing enemy fleet would have SOMETHING they could do to attack them more… send some tie fighters or some other technology to take out the escaping ships. But is this one issue enough to ruin the movie for me? Not even close. So sure… this might be a hole… and maybe with some more explanation as to why they didn’t do more would have been nice… I’m easily able to overlook this given everything else this movie has to offer.

5. Leah living in open space

The question is how can Leah live after being in open space, and how can she have rescued herself in that situation? This question I still wrestle with. We aren’t given any explanation for it, and we have nothing to pull from based on prior films, so we can only speculate. However is this a “hole” in the story? Or simply a question? I would argue it’s the later. Sure we can’t explain how she is still alive, or how she was able to save herself, but what we do know is that this movie had multiple new ways that the Force was used that we’ve never seen before. We obviously know that Leah has force powers as she is able to connect with Luke at the end of Empire Strikes back as he hangs at the bottom of Cloud City, and then later Luke confirms that she has power as well outside the Ewok hut in Return of the Jedi. I think its safe to assume that Luke followed through with teaching her as much as he could about the force and one of the ways she was able to use it was to save her own life. I for one think it’s a cool idea and thought it made Leah that much cooler after seeing her do this.

So that about wraps it up for now. I may add to this or continue the conversation in the comments… but I hope this gives some insight into why I think The Last Jedi was so great.

Like millions of others, I’ve been a Star Wars fan since the beginning. I grew up on the original trilogy and watched Episode IV more than any other movie as a child (Empire Strikes back was a close second). I had the toys, the games for my Atari 2600… and if you saw my office now, you’d know how much Star Wars continues to been a part of my life. (see photos and video below) Needless to say after Lucas gave us a very lack luster (in my opinion) set of Prequels I was nervously excited about a JJ Abrams reboot of the story.

As a film maker and visual story teller, my starting place in all my films is to consider my audience. If I’m making a video for a Counseling Practice, or a Bride and Groom for example… the pace, visuals, content, tone and style of film all should be tailored to a very specific market of people. With Star Wars having such a huge following with so many people who love the Star Wars films, it’s clear that the target market for The Force Awakens (TFA) is THE FANS. Disney would not have bought the franchise from Lucas for 4 Billion dollars if they didn’t already know of the millions of Star Wars lovers that are hungry for more. And so, the task was set before Disney (who hired JJ Abrams to Direct it)…. to make a Star Wars film for their target market, their fans… Star Wars Lovers. And they did just that and more.

Lately I’ve been reading some articles critiquing TFA saying it was a rip off of the original trilogy, or that so many plot points were “stolen” and plagiarized making it unoriginal. These statements clearly reflect how blind and shallow the author of those articles truly are.

When I went to see the latest Bond film “Spectre” this past November, I went into it expecting THE EXACT SAME PLOT AS ALL THE OTHER BOND FILMS! For example … the basic plot line for a Bond film: Exciting opening sequence, then an opening credits song… then Bond finds a woman to seduce and moves on to meet with Q for some cool tech gear and start his mission. Then some backstory and plot development launch us into the story and Bond gets captured, tortured and then escapes to save the day and get the girl. The formula and plot points have been around since the first Bond film “Dr. No” in 1962, and “Fans” keep coming back to Bond because they love the characters, plot layout and story elements of that specific story line. And what’s fascinating about the newest set of Bond Films (with Daniel Craig as Bond) is that the single film that blows ALL the other bond films out of the water in terms of Box office sales is Skyfall. And this particular Bond film is the one that brought back, and re-introduced the MOST Bond nostalgia and Plot Pints than any other “Daniel Craig” Bond film to date. It grossed over 1.1 Billion worldwide which was leaps ahead of previous Bond films in the entire franchise. It’s followed closely by “Spectre” which falls PRECISELY into the Bond story structure and cadence as past Bond films (this one grossing 850 Million Worldwide). (see details here).

I won’t go into the details about Skyfall or Spectre, but Bond fans would agree that there were countless ties to the old films through plot points, characters, cars and more that made these particular new Bond films “Feel” like a nostalgic nod to the Bond films of old. They were new, but paid homage to the old. The point is the filmmakers of the new Bond films had their target market in mind. BOND FANS. But they did more, they successfully invited a large new audience into the Bond franchise which is both brilliant and of course a secondary goal of the film makers (obviously they want to grow their target audience).

What is so great about the new Star Wars film is that it was FINALLY something that WE (the fans), were wanting. It brought back the people, plot points, locations, setting, characters and most of all the feelings we remembered feeling when watching the original 3 films. (SPOILERS TO FOLLOW… skip ONLY the next paragraph if you haven’t seen the film yet)

I thought it was brilliant how they used elements from all 3 movies (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Jedi) to tell this new story. Many of parallels were from Episode IV, but there were things brought in from all the original films. I love how when Han faces Kylo Ren (a Father / Son conflict) it looks like the setting in cloud city where Luke and Vader have their Father / Son conflict in Episode V. I loved that we got to see a forest setting where Kylo Ren captures Rey, which is reminiscent of the Endor Moon in Episode VI. And there is snow on the new “Death Star Planet” which is a nod to the planet Hoth from Empire Strikes Back. There were SO many little things too! Like the storm troopers saying “we think they may be splitting up” while searching for Rey after she escapes (Ep IV reference to when Luke and everyone are trying to get back to the falcon on the death star and the storm troopers say the same thing). Or the fact that Fin was in the “sanitation” department of the first order… opening up the joke about “is there a trash compactor nearby” asked by Han to Fin (Episode IV reference obviously).  Or how Fin picks up the “remote” (what Luke first practiced using his light saber on with the blast shield down), or how Fin bumps the 3D Claymation creature game on the falcon. It was VERY obvious that JJ and Disney were here to give “us fans” what we wanted. There are literally tons of articles about the parallels to the old films, but where many of those articles criticize JJ and Disney for copying from the originals, I say it was a brilliant move and exactly what we wanted to see.

When Lucas tried to make something “new” and stray from the classic Star Wars formula…. It left us all wanting more in the 3 prequels. (Episode 3 is probably the only one I feel contributes positively to the overall Star Wars story). See, we “the fans” don’t want just a new Star Wars film; we want a new version of what we already love. Just like Skyfall and Spectre. We want to have a 2015 version of a 1977 story. We want to remember what it was like to see a great Star Wars film for the first time. And that’s what they delivered. And it’s pretty obvious that’s what the fans wanted … 1 billion in sales in 12 days and tons of other box office records broken.

So to those critics out there who are saying The Force Awakens is a copycat, or cheap remake of the old films or plot elements, I say those people are not true Star Wars fans. This is not an insult if this is you, just an observation that perhaps you weren’t the “Target Market” that they were going for. And that’s fine. But your accusations that wasn’t a good movie because of this are a shallow and stupid. Perhaps you aren’t truly the Star Wars fan you thought you were.

After seeing the TFA 3 times (something I never did with the prequels), I’ve looked for holes in the plot, weakness in the story or inconsistencies to the old films, and I have not found any. If you are truly a Star Wars fan you will love this film. And even if you aren’t a die hard Star Wars fan but enjoy Psy-Fi, I think you will enjoy this film. Just as JJ was able to introduce Star Trek to a brand new generation through his 2009 “Star Trek” film, I believe he did the same thing with Star Wars through “The Force Awakens.” It lives up to the hype… Go see it and rediscover (or discover) your love for Star Wars.

(Video: Below is the first time I watch all 6 films in one day nearly 10 years ago)

P.S. I recently watched the all the films in Machete order (4, 5, 2, 3, 6 – episode 1 is excluded) and will be posted a film of that day’s journey soon… so stay tuned!