The Last Jedi Review: Luke Skywalker Warned You (SPOILERS)

You really shouldn't have been surprised by the twists and turns in The Last Jedi. The very first trailer ended with Luke Skywalker warning us "this is not going to go the way you think" not long after Kylo Ren told us it was time to let the past go.

No two statements describe The Last Jedi better and it is sadly not surprising so much of the Star Wars fanbase, known for spending the last two decades booing George Lucas out of public life for daring to make some underwhelming movies, has rebelled against the risks that The Last Jedi takes and the significant departure it marks from the narrative of the first seven movies (this despite many of the same people spending two years decrying The Force Awakens and Rogue One for relying too heavily on nostalgia and harping ideas from the original trilogy). Every time something in this movie starts to follow convention, when you think you have an idea where it is all headed, something different happens.

Spoilers after the jump

I can't say I wasn't shocked by some of the choices this movie made. I did not expect Snoke to end up being little more than a maguffin that served only to allow Kylo Ren to become the ultimate threat to the galaxy, nor did I expect (though I did hope) that the reveal of Rey's parentage would be so underwhelming. I am left at the end of Episode VIII wondering just where the next installment will take us. For the first time in years Star Wars seems completely new and untethered to the past, and it can become anything. I get why that is scary and irritating to a fanbase pretty used to a fairly basic and comforting hero's journey, but I for one am here for it. Let's take the fuckin' ride, people.

The Last Jedi is, in not even remotely subtle ways, sending a message that the saga is over for the people we have always thought it was about. Luke Skywalker's journey has ended, he redeemed his father, brought peace to the galaxy, and though the path there was arduous, he has secured the continuation of the Jedi. The next generation will carry the torch, and our nostalgia will no longer be what makes these movies work. This is what we should want.

Luke Skywalker is my favorite fictional character of all time. I still have the green extendable lightsaber I got when I was 8 years old. My son and I dueled with it today. I have read dozens of books (now non-canon, and while that change was painful for some I welcomed it because I knew it meant seeing the real deal once more on the big screen) about him, spent countless hours with his action figures, and spent years dreaming of being the brave Jedi Knight. I, like most diehard fans, approached his return with excitement and fear. Would they "ruin him?"

The answer many fans have is apparently yes, but I have to disagree. There seems to be a lot of anger that Our Hero would just abandon the galaxy to its fate and sulk off in exile because he failed. Would the hero we saw at the end of Return of the Jedi really do that? Would he abandon his destiny? Even Mark Hamill apparently disagreed that he would. The Luke Skywalker of the old expanded universe, who went on to become a wise stoic in the mold of his mentors and perseveres even as he loses wife and nephew to death and darkness, would not have done it.

For me, however, nothing Luke Skywalker did was out of character. For all he tries in the early stages of ROTJ to put on the serene face of a Jedi Master, his Obi-Wan impersonation is never the whole story. He is compelled by love for a father he doesn't even know. He ignores the advice of his Jedi mentors, both of whom advise him to forget his familial connection to Darth Vader and eliminate the Sith once and for all. It is Luke alone who believes in compassion and attachment, who sees the failing of the old Jedi Order for what it was: a failure to acknowledge that there is no greater motivation for doing what is good and right than safeguarding those we love. Would Yoda have risked desperately needed Alliance personnel and leadership to go off on a hazardous sidequest to free Han Solo? No. Luke Skywalker did, though, and he is the better Jedi for it.

In the end everything Luke does is for those he loves and cares about. The idea that he not only failed his students, but also his nephew, sister, and best friend by allowing Ben Solo to fall to the dark side would have wrecked him like nothing else. Luke Skywalker never became a Jedi because of some great belief in the force or some grandiose notion of his destiny as the chosen one. He became a Jedi because his father was a Jedi, because his mentor was a Jedi. He became a Jedi because it was the way to help those he cared about, and when his role as a Jedi leads to such pain and destruction for those he loves it's perfectly in character that he would believe he could serve the galaxy better by walking away from it.

In the end what brings him back is what got him involved in the first place: a desperate plea from the princess, a reminder that the Jedi are the galaxy's last hope. Luke Skywalker's legend ends with him singlehandedly holding off the darkness just long enough to ensure hope's survival. How anyone could be disappointed with that is beyond me. It is the entire point of the Skywalker legend.

There is more to love in The Last Jedi than just Luke's tale. Rey shines throughout, always driven, even more than Luke before her, by compassion rather than some nonsense about destiny or power. Poe Dameron's journey is very important, an inversion on the familiar trope that only the Rogue Officer Who Will Break with the Rules to Do What's Right Can Save the Day, when he learns that the first duty of a commander is to live to fight another day. Finn continues to battle with his desire to escape the scars of the First Order while summoning the courage to fight back. Newcomer Rose is a delight. Laura Dern is Laura Dern and that is sufficient. I don't know how to talk about Carrie Fisher without crying, and I will forever regret the Episode IX that we will never get that was supposed to be her tale, but she is brilliant in this as always as the heart and soul of the Resistance, the woman who refuses to break in the face of overwhelming odds. Her final scene with Luke is a beautiful coda on one of the most important bonds in pop culture history. The visuals are amazing and it is amazing that even now, nine movies in, Star Wars can show us space battles we've never seen before.

That is not to say that there are not valid criticism of the movie. It feels overly long and does lag a bit in the middle. The diversion to Canto Bight seems like much ado about nothing, though it redeems itself by setting up the beautiful end of the movie. Some of the jokes fail to land, as is the risk with jokes. I don't know that Benicio Del Toro's DJ does enough to justify his existence so much as it seems like Rian Johnson had a chance to let Benicio Del Toro be himself for awhile and he took it.

In the end, though, The Last Jedi is a great movie that shakes up the franchise in a much-needed fashion. Though some fans are mad that it "ruined" their sacred childhood memories by daring to take their favorite characters into uncharted waters, I felt exactly the opposite. Star Wars: The Last Jedi dares to kill Luke Skywalker, and yet at the same time it reassures us that his legend will never die. The movie ends with little children telling each other the legend of Luke Skywalker, and a boy grabs his broomstick lightsaber and stares up at the stars, wondering what his place is in all of this. If that is "ruining Star Wars" for you, I'm not sure what you ever thought it was about. The characters will change, but the kids staring up at the stars, dreaming of adventure in a galaxy far, far away never will.