Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

[These thoughts were written for friends in a private Facebook thread, but I don’t feel like writing about The Last Jedi again so here they are:]

I saw the space movie again. I hoped to clarify and distill my feelings, but… they’re still pretty complicated. I love the first hour of the movie. It works. The opening space battle, catching up with the characters, the early stuff with Rey and Luke. Cool. Fun. But then Canto Bight, and then… all the other stuff. I’ll try and articulate what I love about the movie and what really disappoints me more and more upon reflection:

On second viewing I noticed the line in the opening crawl about the Resistance waiting for Luke to return and restore hope or something like that. That is actually a pretty good summary of the story. It really happens, albeit in unexpected ways. Fundamentally, this movie delivers on its own premise (and on the promise of Episode VII).

But almost everything ancillary to that story of Luke and the survival of the Resistance feels like a squandered opportunity and/or waste of time. Poe vs. Holdo? Pointless conflict based on an obtuse misunderstanding. Finn, Rose, and DJ (had to Google his character name)? Their mission accomplishes nothing and feels like an episode of a Star Wars cartoon show. Some of those subplots had fun moments, and I still really like all the characters, but for such a long movie you’d probably want at least some of those tangents to amount to something.

The other major thread in the movie is Kylo and Rey, and on second viewing it actually left me really conflicted and uneasy. But I guess that means it worked, since this is the “Empire” movie in this trilogy, and their relationship is really the only big thing left for the sequel to deal with.

Also occurs to me that the final scene of The Last Jedi could 100% pass for a Target Commercial.