A Review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi

**** out of five stars

Currently in theaters

by Walter G. Tarrow

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Actually it was May 25, 1977. And it wasn’t the Galaxy, but the Americana in Southfield, Michigan…

I and my wife had taken a day off from our jobs and joined a small band, no more than 20, of rebels, outsiders seeking the extraordinary, fighting against the establishment empire and the same-o, same-o plastic, cookie cutter, ticky tacky, boring mindless pablum from Tinsel Town, and assembled in the center of a thousand seat movie house anxiously anticipating the premiere showing of something exciting, something new.

As words scrolled the screen up up and away to reveal an endless warship of space, we were, mouths hanging open, awestruck.

And for the next two hours, we pioneers on the cutting edge were transported to new worlds of imagination, to thrills and swashbuckles, and creatures and characters and landscapes all very familiar yet totally alien.

We had so much fun with this light but heady space opera. With the spunky princess, her two mechanical Stan ‘n Ollie companions, the young tragic hero in the making, his wizened wizard of a mentor, and the maverick space cowboy and his hairy sidekick leading the battle for freedom against the imperial forces bringing dark death to the stars.

Then word got out. 

And it was merchandised. And the world of movies was changed forever.

We are deep in the age of the film franchise where the box office, the almighty dollar reigns over the art of the cinema. The Empire has expanded and was converted into a cult and has finally been co-opted by corporate Disney.

But, to the dismay of the legions of worshippers of the Star Wars canon, the dogma of the Jedi, arrives a blast from the past. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a nostalgic recapture of a simpler time when there weren’t infinite storylines and complicated characters and eternal bickering over whether or not this character had blue eyes.

The characterizations are straightforward and simple, even two-dimensional. Most characters with whom we’re familiar and a few we’re not, but without the overly involved back stories. And the settings are, like the 1977 original, familiar yet cleverly not.

The plot is a no-brainer. A race to safety with numerous battles throughout. Many of the beats, the tropes, the signature Star Wars elements are there, but without all the pretentious pomposity that accompanies the franchise and its ubiquitous manifestations. Perhaps too many scenarios of fights and conflicts resolved (I honestly thought prematurely that three times the movie had reached its end) and a bit long for a less than epic light space opera…

But it felt, refreshingly and welcome, so very much like that movie that awed me and a small band, not so long ago, in that theater, not so far away…