Star Wars – The Last Jedi: Subverting Expectations

This movie is perhaps the best in the series, but I think Empire is slightly superior. And like Empire, this movie subverts the expectations of the audience and arguably does it better, although Empire was better rounded than this. Nevertheless, this movie does a great job at subverting established narratives and plot, so much so that it has attracted the wrath and fury of legions of dedicated Star Wars fan who cannot digest what Rian has done to their beloved franchise….well, grow up and learn to deal with it.

I was totally captivated, especially when the final act started to unfold, this movie became so exhilarating. When things started to transpire, you felt it like there were a thousand possibilities, but in the back of the mind you knew that it was contrived, but contrived so that you won’t feel like it’s an insult to your senses. It’s the feeling of an epic opera, when you know that something is going to happen and it happens and it is still exhilarating, despite you having an obvious intuition, that there is no other possibility. This is why it’s a great movie.

I liked Force Awakens, but it was a ‘Star Wars’ film, this on the other hand, felt less like a ‘Star Wars’ film and more like a movie. There was no fan service here, as characters who are considered to be a big part of the series, and those who were hyped up to be leading figures in future instalments were disposed of without any second thoughts. Although, for two of them, I wish they had better endings. However, it is again adhering to the general method that Rian has taken with this film, to subvert expectations, and to show that anything is possible.

In fact, one of the major complaints that has been brought up by fans in a multitude of rants by fans online is a subplot involving three of the characters. These characters are given great importance, and they are given weight in the context of the plot of the movie. Although I must say that the actual setting and some of the writing seemed to digress into a different tone than the rest of the movie, it isn’t as bad as those who are raging online say it is.

In fact, the reveal that in spite of undertaking such perilous journey, they fail miserably is another great subversion in Rian’s part. They were able to do something with one of my personal of Star Wars films – outrageous plans that wouldn’t succeed in any normal circumstances but do anyway because there is too much importance riding on it. These plans had vexed me severely in previous instalments, and also in a lot of other films. But in this, they do the right thing.

They show that no matter how much you want it to succeed, sometimes they don’t – “they didn’t make it” – as one character exclaims in dismay as it is revealed that his ‘brilliant plan’ was in vain. This is what makes this movie special, how it subverts expectations. Another aspect of the thing that they subvert with is the definition of the force, something that has yet again, riled up the anger in many Star Wars fan and has them rallying them in an angry mob to Rian Johnson’s house.

The Force, in the Last Jedi, is made into a mystical and transcendental thing, something that I liked, as it puts magic and emotion into the forefront, and this is perhaps the best reason this movie is only second to Empire in terms of greatness. The force is a balance as it has been always stated, and when the balance is shaken, things go awry.

This is why the Jedi exists, to bring balance to the force, not for a personal agenda to build a suffering-free utopia, as that would be the diametrical opposite to the ‘Sith’ who want to engulf the entire galaxy in ‘darkness’; no, the ‘Jedi’ are wise enough to know that you cannot force things to be non-violent or good, as it would be a very selfish thing to do. They are here to balance the forces of light and dark, as it was always meant to be.

This what I understood, at least. All of this is just very rudimentary, mystical, mumbo-jumbo, but when it is mixed with characters and emotions, such basic things can evoke lofty and grand feelings in us. This is what has happened in the Last Jedi. The way that the force has been played with, and how characters who feel it, ultimately struggle to contain it and use it with the right intentions and wrong. It feels like that the ‘Force’ is a metaphor for a certain kind of clairvoyant spirituality, the sort of which gives us light during the times we need it the most, and sort of which corrupts our mind when we are really indecisive and uncertain. This is how I felt the force was represented in the film, and I loved it.

The ‘Force’ was the basis of such magnificent scenes in the movie, although it was not the only contributor. There is great aesthetics all around, and like I’d said in the beginning, when the shit hits the fan, oh boy….everything is taken up a notch, and you are just absorbing the spellbinding visuals and set pieces that unfold in front of you. When these are combined with how the story is driven, it makes for some sublime, and truly awe-inspiring moments, one of which is a sequence in space that had me screaming ‘Wows’ and ‘Oh my Gods’.

Indeed, this was not a perfect film, and there were some writing issues as the fans have rightly pointed out, but in the context of the film and general themes explored in the film – that of failure, which is perhaps the single biggest underlying theme in the film, and how hope can be in vain and also be the biggest motivation for carrying in spite of overwhelming odds against you – in the context of these themes wonderfully explored, and so perfectly realised in the film, you feel these flaws are inconsequential.

This was always an epic film, and pretty sure the movie is self-aware of this fact, as the suspension of disbelief that it generously uses for it. It doesn’t feel contrived, even though it clearly is, that’s because the sheer scale of the emotions, the characters and the consequences of their actions, the themes, the spellbinding visuals, had me roped in, and made me giddy for a good part of two and a half hours. If you are turned off by the belligerent responses from the fans, I implore you to ignore it, for if you go into the movie, expecting a really good film, and not a fan service, then you are bound to come out at the end of it with a fulfilled feeling of having seen something wonderful.