I didn’t enjoy The Last Jedi and believe it has led to a disconnect between the overarching strategic direction for the franchise by failing badly at tactical level. The acquisition of Lucasfilm was in part a long-term play for Disney; they would turbo-charge the franchise and improve on delivery of films in the pipeline. One of the criticisms of Lucas was the glacial pace of delivering new films and at least Disney would seek to capitalise on their investment and seek to recoup the $4Bn in record time.
So, in a world where you must compete for our limited attention span; where kids are not buying toys in the droves they did as technology takes over and where well established competitor franchises (GoT, Harry Potter, re-booted Star Trek and not least a powerhouse Marvel) threaten to steal a march this task was going to be all the harder. Making that task easier are the legions of fans that span the age group from the middle-age group who grew up on the original trilogy to the millennials who did the same with the prequels and thereafter the newbies, excited by the new trilogy & rebels.
To his credit, JJ Abrams had tee’d up several mysterious characters that left us guessing and theorizing as to who they could be and their back story. Fans hoovered up books in order to assist them in working through the big reveals – there was a great deal of anticipation about the movie and at the midnight showing – dragging along my long-suffering brother in law – there was a palpable excitement in the cinema. We decided on the double bill, having just finished watching The Force Awakens beforehand. The film started. It failed to grip from the start – straight into the action with little in the way of scene setting; the choice to start where the previous film ended negated the need for the titles – how can the First Order rule when so little time had elapsed. From there it deteriorated and come the end we walked from the cinema in a state of bewilderment and deflation; where at previous first screenings there had been applause, now there was a quiet grumble of discontent. It was only on second viewing that my opinion was cemented. Plot holes, appalling use of characters, a convoluted story line and a deeply unsatisfying conclusion.
My view may well contrast with others and I respect their view which may be entirely different. Certainly, from the litmus test of the dozen or so people I’ve asked – half have said that they enjoyed it and half that it was a dreadful movie. Of the half who liked it, when pushed they all independently said the casino scene was awful, they didn’t enjoy the end much, they loved the lightsaber battle but crucially all said it clearly had problems and when I pressed them on those issues, it seemed to revolve around the length of the film and the plot holes.
Going back to my original premise – my big issues with this film are that:
1) It was designed to shock. The director was determined to go for the unexpected at every turn – thrills a minute, shocks galore, forgetting that the impact of those great shocks would dissipate after being seen for the first time. You are then left with ‘edgy’ decisions where the need to do the unexpected thing seems to be the overarching aim of Rian Johnson. He clearly wanted to use the shock and awe tactic knowing the risk that if it paid off you win big for being bold enough to embrace the unexpected, but if it lands flat, you end up with people writing blogs like this.
2) With the exception of Adam Driver, who was quite brilliant, there was a real failure to explore characters and develop them fully. It is unfortunate for Rey that she didn’t need training and is so wholesomely perfect; no kissing her brother, no real attempt by Luke to assist her or stop her going to her fate. She’s bold and brave and perfect and suffered none of the doubts of Luke. It does her a disservice and hollows out her story. Similarly, old characters such as Akbar were dispensed with crudely and shouldn’t it have been he that went on the suicidal last run? I won’t even start on Luke – who like Driver, had the benefit of some excellent acting from Hammill behind the role. Everything he did in the original trilogy, his redemptive fight totally undermined by ‘edgy’ Johnson.
3) It created some new behaviors that smack of the geek in Johnson always having wanted to explore and freed of the shackles of oversight he plastered them on the story; undermining the original trilogy in the process. One wonders of the need to destroy the death star using mere fighters when a suicidal captain and a large empty vessel (or even one packed with explosives!) will do.
4) It lacked the patience to be part of a trilogy, to assist in developing a larger plot unravelling over three movies. Johnson wanted the glory of killing of Snoke, Luke and yet not Leia – the one character who he wouldn’t have been blamed for ending. He didn’t want to be the patient Empire Strikes back – he wanted his Empire to be a stand-alone movie. It has left no clearly defined story for JJ to pick up save for a likely showdown between Rey and Kylo which has four outcomes: He wins (unlikely), they both die (unlikely), she wins (likely), he converts and she saves him (more likely).
5) It has left us deflated and the big unsolved mysteries of the previous films have now been answered or no longer matter. This has an impact on the strategic because quite simply it makes the third film in the trilogy redundant. No one greatly cares now where the story goes. This film left us with no great mysteries to solve. It therefore leaves Disney with a great deal of excitement to generate for what is now in effect a stand-alone movie.
6) It rejected totally the ‘safe’ story route – which would have worked better since this isn’t a stand-alone film. How easy would it have been to have had a nice space battle at the start; then the chase post some wonderful sacrifice, Poe leading a rearguard action throughout (against the clock), desperately awaited allies, Finn leading a suicidal mission onto Snoke’s ship, Luke (albeit scared of Snoke’s power but facing him anyway), Rey saving him at the last minute and then Kylo killing Liea at the last. Nice and simple and safe and then the final film is Luke’s final self-sacrifice to kill Snoke with Kylo’s assistance. Safe, predictable and believable.
7) This is an odd one. Kids aren’t rushing to buy the new improved AT AT walkers… Why? Simply put – they saw no action; similarly, with the salt speeders – they didn’t land a single blow; consequently, they make crap toys. Also with Poe being ship bound throughout the movie there is no good aerial combat – and that chance to develop with a limitless budget some wonderful new ships and vehicles and throw them into the heart of the action.
My final note is the way it has badly served the franchise. If JJ Abrahams had written a three-part trilogy, why didn’t they stick with it and if not why – with so many excellent Star Wars authors around didn’t they cover the basic basic elements such as have a story before they started making three films. Unlike Lucas who had all three movies by and large mapped out in advance; they allowed Johnson freedom to do as he pleased. Basic risk management would tell you that allowing a single point of failure and having no oversight is never sensible.
This blog wasn’t supposed to be solely about Star Wars, but such are the peculiar decisions taken by Disney in handing the franchise and its future to such a disparate and disorganized bunch that it serves as a timely reminder that large firms can make poor decisions and that leaders – in this case Kathleen Kennedy need to exercise control of rogue elements.
Star Wars can be saved, the story can be resurrected but it may need a paring back of some of Johnson’s decisions and a bit of artistic license to back-fill the larger plot holes. In the meantime, I wouldn’t buy any shares in whoever made TLJ’s toys….
STRATEGY + tactics 