The Star Wars That I Used To Know

Please bring George back. Please. Or stop. There’s no in-between here.

WARNING. MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE LAST JEDI. READERS BEWARE.

There are a small number of things that make Star Wars what it is. Stylistic choices, core storytelling concepts and character archetypes. Two of these, storytelling and characters, follow the standard ideas of heroes and villains, good vs evil. It’s black and white morality through and through. Darth Vader is evil, Obi-Wan is good, it’s simple and it’s effective and its worked for 40 years. But here we are with morally ambiguous Star Wars, and I don’t like it.

The original trilogy turned men into myths. It gave rise to the heroes of the rebellion with mighty Jedi, quick witted rogues and dangerous princesses. And to meet them, the greatest cinematic villain in the form of Darth Vader. The prequel trilogy took these myths and turned them into men again, giving us a more human look at the legends, but without removing their mythic status. And then along come The Last Jedi whose most interesting idea is that legends are awful. While The Force Awakens supported the myths, the histories, The Last Jedi grinds them into the dirt, declaring that being a legend isn’t all that great. It would work in a franchise about broken character and fractured men, and it did work in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, but it isn’t Star Wars.

There is an idea presented within this latest outing that to achieve “balance” the can be no good or evil, only a murky presence existing somewhere in between. A concept not unfamiliar to the Star Wars universe as a whole, but one totally absent from the mainline films. And it feels wrong. How can I cheer for good and frown at evil when there is none. How can I grin with joy when the Death Star is destroyed when I know that it means nothing. In The Last Jedi there are two, only two, “Star Wars” moments.

The first of these is in the opening minutes of the film during a space battle. As large and slow Resistance bombers advance on an enormous First Order dreadnought, smaller fighters weave in between, trying to protect them. It feels like a bombing run from a WW2 film, something that inspired the space battles of Lucas’s Star Wars. And this in turn, makes it feel like Star Wars. There was, for a short time, some small amount of hope that I was going to get a Star Wars movie, and not bad sci-fi with a Star Wars skin.

The second moment involves the unexpected return of a fan favourite character. As Luke seeks to redeem himself, he moves to destroy ancient Jedi texts, believing that the order must come to an end. But he cannot find it within himself to destroy that which represents so much of his life. And then, appearing from the dark, the force ghost of Yoda, and character who died many decades ago. And with a single gesture he calls down a mighty bolt of lightning, burning the temple and the books within. It is an emotional scene, one that carries the weight of so many years. It has all the majesty of Yoda drawing Luke’s crashed x-wing from the swamps of Dagobah. It has the reverance of his final moments. It is, in a word, right. For a fleeting moment The Last Jedi felt like a Star Wars movie again. In had tapped into the mind of George Lucas and plucked forth something that wouldn’t be out of place within his films. And by the end of the film the sentiment of this scene is totally ignored.

But two scenes, the latter of which has quickly become an all time favourite within the franchise, do not make a movie. As our villains and heroes are blended together in messy and hamfisted attempts at making Star Wars feel “real” I could help but think to myself, ‘I wish George were here’. And that’s not something I ever thought I’d say. The core of Star Wars has burned away, and all that is left is an empty shell, devoid of everything that once was.