Fans of the “Star Wars” saga will find the return of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in “The Last Jedi” as disappointing as when Luke found out Darth Vader was his Dad; it’s a film that’s so unoriginal, uninterestingly familiar and overly long that you’ll wonder why you just didn’t stay home and watch “The Empire Strikes Back” or “Return of the Jedi” instead.
Two years ago, audiences were treated to a special return of characters from the original “Star Wars” films with “The Force Awakens,” a movie that was a continuation/reboot using the 1977 film as its base storyline and served as a ‘passing of the baton’ for a new generation of fans to cheer another Padawan/ promising Jedi named Rey (Daisy Ridley). Despite having new characters, new creatures and new planets to explore, “Force Awakens” was the same “Star Wars” we knew with Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Chewbacca and Leia (Carrie Fisher) easing the transition by helping Rey find the force within her. Though we knew Rey was just a pseudo-Skywalker. Luke (Hamill) appearing at the end of “Awakens” gave us a new hope (pun) for the series’ sequel.
“Last Jedi” picks up where “Awakens” left off, with Rey finding Luke in exile and asking him to return to help the Resistance fight the First Order (just as Rey is the pseudo-Skywalker, the Alliance and Empire have new names). Luke doesn’t want to go but, finding Rey has the force within her, agrees to help her (like Obi-Wan and Yoda helped him- see where this is going?). This nugget of the familiar features a more mental than physical training to embrace the Force and Rey begins to telepathically communicate with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), “Awaken’s” pseudo-Vader who is also Leia’s son so he’s got Mommy’s Force gene inside him enabling him to talk to Rey. Eventually, all of this leads to Rey and Kylo meeting to play the ‘ol ‘who-can-turn-who’ to their good or bad side of the Force.
It’s seemingly impossible to give spoilers to “Last Jedi” because every main character is a representation of one we’ve encountered in the original “Star Wars” films- nothing about their roles has changed and their actions come as no surprise. While my previous plot description takes up an hour of screen time, you’ll have to endure another hour-and-a half of rudimentary Resistance reconnaissance to seize a tracking system and visit a casino not unlike the cantina in the original “Star Wars” before “Last Jedi” releases you after pulling every rehashed reference it can.
“Star Wars” may not have been original even in ’77 (essentially, a ‘good guys vs. bad guys’ space opera), but it entertained with its special effects innovations; “Last Jedi” has none of that. With new characters lying limp on-screen (Benicio Del Toro as a codebreaker with a Porky Pig-stutter; Laura Dern as a by-the-book, purple-haired Resistance officer) and new creatures like the Porg resembling Pikachu from Pokemon, you’ll be scrambling for the exit once the credits start to roll.
In this season of giving, writer/director Rian Johnson (“Looper”) has given us a new installment to the “Star Wars” franchise that’s unbelievably ‘old hat-’ an intended moon rock in your stocking that’s really a lump of coal.