Star Wars: Five Horrible Mistakes ‘The Last Jedi’ Made
Let’s take a look back at some major mistakes The Last Jedi made.
Today we continue our look back at mistakes the Star Wars movies made. We’ve already covered The Force Awakens; now it’s time to move onto The Last Jedi. This is probably the most divisive Star Wars movie of them all. It’s a movie most people either love or loath. However, even though those who love the movie generally agree, it has some issues. I’m going to skip some of the low-hanging fruit, such as not having a plan or changing directors, etc., and hopefully focus on things even those who like the movie might have felt were missteps.
Failing To Properly Transition Movies
The movie starts with a line of text that reads, “The FIRST ORDER reigns.” But…. how? In the Force Awakens, which had similar issues, we saw the First Order had a massive base, one large ship, and some secret bases that Snoke was at. That’s it. We are never given any idea of the scale of the First Order.
In that movie, yes, they score a major victory by destroying Hosnain Prime, and we can assume of the Republic Fleet. But they also suffer a major loss with the destruction of Starkiller Base, something they’ve been building for like 30+ years. This is a major defeat for them; they aren’t some Galaxy ruling Empire after all. The Last Jedi takes place immediately after TFA; Rey meets Luke at the end of one movie, and the next finishes that scene. How… how did the First Order take over the Galaxy and apparently install a government in a day? I mean, really.
Those God-awful Bombers
A lot has been said on these things, so I won’t belabor it too much. But Star Wars is about… well, wars in the stars. This scene is the only time we really get to see that in the movies and get to see new ships. And it’s horrible. Yes, it’s an homage to WWII movies and bombers, but really, these things fly slower than some people can run and fly so close together that you can take out more than one with a single hit. Just… just a lot of dumb.
The Holdo Maneuver
This might have been the prettiest moment in the whole film, but it was a major mistake for Star Wars as a whole. This hyperspace ram not only continued the breaking of how hyperspace worked previous to the Sequels, but raised so many other questions. Why had this never been done before? Why was any large target a threat? Why aren’t there hyperspace missiles? So many questions. You could have had the same scene but with Holdo just ramming the Supremacy with the same impact and not cause any problems.
Luke’s Death
It’s not that killing Luke in and of itself was a mistake (though you could argue it was) but more how it was done. You have this weird fake-out where Kylo Ren thinks he’s killed Luke, but nope Luke is alive and on another world. Ah-ha! He pulled a fast one and is ready to return to the fight. But then…. nope, Luke just gets tired and dies. It’s a bizarre death for such a major character and feels poorly set up. It seems like the movie couldn’t decide if it wanted him to go out in a blaze of glory and self-sacrifice or die quietly like Yoda. It just does both and poorly. It also sets up this weird idea that the Jedi are just like… constantly killing themselves by overusing the Force.
Bonus: Wet Kylo Ren
During one of their Force Connection conversations, Kylo Ren gets wet with some rain from where Rey is. This isn’t a huge deal in this movie, but boy, does it lead to a whole lot of shenanigans in the next one…
Pulling Back At The End
One of the reasons many people love The Last Jedi is that it’s a subversive movie. It asks many questions about Star Wars and our love of the past, and where things should go. People love the line “Let the past die, kill it if you have to.” For a long portion of the movie, it’s trying to be some kind of anti-Star Wars movie (while also just being an Empire Strikes Back clone). It pretends to be different and offer something new.
There are moments where they discuss if the Jedi are even good, where the status quo could change, where Kylo and Rey could run off and break the Jedi vs. Sith war cycle. And then…. then the movie kind of chickens out. For all subversiveness and subverting expectations, it ends exactly how you thought it would. Rey will be a Jedi. Kylo is just the evil bad guy. Instead of something new, we are back to the same old Jedi vs. Sith, Rebels vs. Empire fight we’ve had forever.
For a movie that keeps trying to say new things, it ends up just saying the same old thing. Maybe it’s a commentary about how we can’t break out of the cycle of violence or something, but the movie doesn’t really present it that way. Rey being a Jedi is good, and everyone agrees Kylo and the First Order must be stopped. Even Luke, the skeptic, is won over. The movie never actually delivers on its point.
Let us know what mistake you think the movie made, down in the comments!
