The Last Jedi has injected necessary change into the Star Wars franchise that is essential for its long term strength.
By Adam Parker // When I walked out of The Force Awakens in December 2015 my overwhelming feeling was how it made me feel like I was six again. Two years later Rian Johnson and Disney have shown me with The Last Jedi that I was wrong. On reflection The Force Awakens took me back to my childhood where as The Last Jedi made me feel like I was six again. This is all down to one thing; change through bold film making. Change that will ultimately give the Star Wars franchise the longevity we hope it has.
Evolution not revolution
The Last Jedi has evolved the Star Wars franchise. Evolution results in living things changing over time as successful characteristics are passed forward. The new characteristics come about by small changes in the DNA of the living thing. Rian Johnson has taken the essence of Star Wars, its DNA and changed it in such a way to create something new, challenging and exciting grounded in the core ideas of the franchise.
I walked out of my first viewing of The Last Jedi not knowing if I’d liked the film or not. I spent a day talking with friends about what we had experienced. We all felt the same; unsure. My friends and I discussed the positives and what we saw as negatives. The positive list far out weighed the negative. It took a second viewing for me to fully reflect on what I had seen, and I loved the film. As a six year old that is exactly the process I went through after watching The Empire Strikes Back. All great films should challenge you as the viewer.
Change is essential
Change is incredibly important in any art form. Repetition will lead to artistic stagnation, but so often it is what the public want and crave. A repetition of what they originally fell in love with. Changes in style are often met with initial resistance. Great artists like Lichtenstein, Picasso and Turner have all moved through changing art styles that have challenged their audience. As have in the musical world David Bowie, The Beatles and Radiohead while in each case some changes have been quickly accepted while others that move slightly further from the mould often take longer to be fully appreciated.
One of the most innovative film makers who fully embraced the artistic need to change was George Lucas. He strived to obtain autonomy from the studios and gained the freedom to make the films he wanted to thanks to the success of Star Wars. Star Wars itself was a film turned down by everyone and never full understood by most at 20th Century Fox the studio that actually funded it. From the start he pushed boundaries in style of film making and in the technology used to do it. Each of the original trilogy pushed film making forward in some way.
He did it his way
Sixteen years later and George continued to make the films he wanted to. The Phantom Menace is the Episode I George wanted it to be, he had complete control over the writing, direction and production of the film. While many aspects worked, equally many aspects of the film did not. The most important aspect of The Phantom Menace and all the prequel trilogy is that George made them how he wanted them to be. No rehash of what went before, no ticking of the same boxes that had made the Episoes IV-VI such a success. He nailed his colours to the mast and made the films he wanted from a pallet he selected.
A lot rested on The Force Awakens and Disney produced a film that included many of the beats and rhythms from Episodes IV-VI. The film was wrapped in a modern film making package using style and techniques Disney had honed through their successful Marvel Cinematic Universe. Aspects of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi can all be found within The Force Awakens. This needed to be done to reinvigorate an audience familiar with what had come before and capture a new generation of fans. The film worked and became the third biggest box office film of all time.
Franchise awoken
Move forward two years and Rian Johnson has been given the baton. As a film The Last Jedi challenges what an audience expects of a Star Wars film. The cinematography, character development and story telling techniques all moves things we have seen in the franchise forward. All art should challenge the viewer and cause a response. The Last Jedi did this for me just as The Empire Strikes Back did for me as a small boy. As Yoda tells Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes back ‘you must unlearn what you have learned’, this is a good mantra for anyone expecting a beat for beat repeat of other Star Wars films in anything yet to come.
I hope the challenge and progression of the franchise continues. I want to sit in the cinema and see ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….’ and have no idea what to expect for the duration of the movie. Take me to the galaxy and present me with a film based on the core ideas of the franchise that has the essence of the created world and give me stories I could never have imagined presented in a way I had never expected. I am sure I will not like everything I see, some things will challenge me more than others. I would always rather be challenged than not. When I meet something I enjoy less I can always sit comfortably knowing there is forty plus years of content for me to go back and enjoy and also new content arriving all the time that I am sure I will enjoy again.