It has been five years since The Last Jedi was released in theaters across the globe. Five years. I remember opening night, going to see the movie 45 minutes away at the nearest theater that did not force a 3D viewing. I remember moments in the movie where I was on the edge of my seat – the fight with Rey and Kylo Ren against the Praetorian Guards, watching Snoke become half the man he used to be, etc. I remember wondering what the heck was going on when Luke acted like he could care less about the lightsaber and the over-the-top political statement about abusing animals with the fathier racing and the nonsense around the “master codebreaker.” Oh, and the force flying in space and survival of Leia that makes zero sense at all. And while many hated it, I did not mind Poe’s smart aleck “mom joke” toward Hux given I had read the Star Wars novels and knew that Hux’s parentage was a topic in the books. And I remember standing in the theater as people filed out, wondering what I had just witnessed.
Five years later I look back and I like The Last Jedi even less, especially because of how it impacted the Star Wars timeline. While much of that may be because it forced J.J. Abrams into an impossible situation for Episode IX, it killed off a childhood hero without ever giving us a real fight and was filled with so many real-world attempts at humor that it did not connect to Star Wars as we knew it. While we have seen Disney and LucasFilm create fantastic Star Wars stories with Rogue One, The Mandalorian, Rebels and now possibly the best of them all in Andor, The Last Jedi fells like it gets worse with each and every Star Wars production that is released.
The Last Jedi movie poster credit: Disney & LucasFilm