'Star Wars: Episode XIII - The Last Jedi' is the best Star Wars film since 'The Empire Strikes Back' and I will live and die on that hill.
The true problem with Star Wars is not its' films, but its' fandoms- who are too often contentious or entitled. They are also extremely divisive on eras of Star Wars on top of individual films within each respective era. This makes pleasing every faction of them extraordinarily difficult, so LucasFilm almost exclusively constructs new films and series around their most popular characters etc. Even though shows like, 'The Mandalorian' are objectively great, they are ultimately fan service that do not move the franchise forward in any meaningful way.
Nostalgia has always been baked into Star Wars and perhaps that has always been its' crux in the long-term. Even the original evoked western nostalgia, nostalgia for serials from the 40s and 50s', and arguably even nostalgia for Akira Kurosawa films. 'The Empire Strikes Back' received similar criticism to the 'The Last Jedi' upon release but is now often regarded not just as one of the best Star Wars films, but one of the best films of all time. Neither 'Empire' nor 'Last Jedi' attempted to cater to nostalgia. Instead they both in their own way progress the series forward. In the case of 'The Last Jedi', the filmmakers wanted to move beyond the Skywalkers, the Jedi, and the Sith, emphasizing the more existential and cosmic aspect of the force and letting go of the concept of it being reduced to 'dark and light' 'The Last Jedi' also takes some honest self reflection on the franchise as a whole. One of Luke's Skywalker's quotes sums it up quite well, “Now that they’re extinct, the Jedi are romanticized, deified. But if you strip away the myth and look at their deeds, the legacy Of the Jedi Is failure. Hypocrisy. Hubris... At the height of their powers they allowed Darth Sidious to rise, Create the Empire, And wipe them out. It was a Jedi Master who was responsible for the training and creation of Darth Vader.”
Much Like the beloved 'Knives Out', which was also written and directed by Academy Award winner RIan Johnson, 'The Last Jedi' is a sharply scripted subversive masterpiece and it lets the audience know that from the get-go. Whatever half-baked fan theories or illogical storylines that had been speculated for months prior to release were thrown out the window for more poignant and clever ones that suited the motif of moving on from that past.
Now that 'Empire' is nearly 40 years old, it has evoked nostalgia for the last thirty years. Maybe that means we are only a few years away from 'The Last Jedi' being nostalgic and finally being appreciated in Star Wars cannon.
4/5 STARS
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