Butler's Cinema Scene

Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill

“STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI” My rating: C

152 minutes |MPAA rating: PG-13

Over the last 40 years “Star Wars” films have thrilled and delighted (the original “A New Hope”) and occasionally pissed off and dismayed (the George Lucas-directed prequels).

But until now I’ve never been bored.

We’re talking I-don’t-know-if-I-can-keep-my-eyes-open bored.

It’s not that “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is terrible. It’s just that writer/director Rian Johnson is so handcuffed by the franchise’s mythology that there’s no hope of actually delivering anything new and unusual.

A “Star Wars” movie is now like a giant hamster wheel. We keep loping along but the scenery never changes. The same narratives, motifs and tropes play out over and over again. The filmmakers may tinker with small details, but there’s no way they can give this series the swift kick in the narrative ass it needs.

Actually, Johnson (“Loopers,” “Brick,”  “The Brothers Bloom”) delivers a flash of hope early in “Last Jedi” when the pompous General Hux (Domhnail Gleeson) delivers one of those vituperative “rebel swine” declamatory speeches, only to be phone pranked by rebel pilot Poe Dameron who cuts in on the imperial cruiser’s radio frequency.

It’s a refreshingly gonzo sequence, one that not only re-establishes Dameron as the new Han Solo but  acknowledges the cardboard villainy that has always been the hallmark of “Star Wars” baddies.

Alas, that moment passes, never to be repeated. Yeah, there are a couple of mildly amusing flashes still on tap.

“If they move, stun ’em” one of our heroes says of captives, a clear nod to “The Wild Bunch’s” “If they move, kill ’em.” And we get a throwaway glimpse of an imperial dreadnaught’s laundry room where all those fascist uniforms are being starched.

But for the most part “Last Jedi” takes itself very, very seriously. It needs a lot more finger-in-the-eye subversiveness.

Carrie Fisher

Johnson’s screenplay relies heavily on the narrative rule of three that has long been a “Star Wars” staple, dating back to the conclusion of “Return of the Jedi.”  Three different plot lines are told more or less independently, only to come together for a big smash-bang conclusion.

For starters there’s the Jedi training of Rey (Daisly Ridley) by a reluctant Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

Then there’s the mission by Finn (John Boyega) and the space janitor Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) to break into the bad guys’ computers with the help of a mercenary hacker (Benicio del Toro).

Meanwhile what’s left of the rebel army under Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) is trapped on a besieged ship whose purple-coiffed commander (Laura Dern) is at loggerheads with the impetuous Poe Dameron (“Permission to jump into an X-Wing and blow something up.”)

Lurking in the background is the dark lord Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the misshapen Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis, who despite the C/G makeup delivers the film’s most interesting performance).

There are the usual action set pieces — we expect nothing less than technical excellence and get it — but even here there’s a ring of familiarity. The final battle takes place on a “salt” planet and bears an eerie resemblance to the battle for the snow planet Hoth in “The Empire Strikes Back.”

The mind-meld mumbo jumbo between Rey and Kylo Ren gets boring awfully quickly.

Worst of all, original stars Mark Hamill and especially the late Carrie Fisher give stiff, mannered performances. It’s as if they had learned nothing about acting over the last 40 years.

Artistically, anyway, the whole “Star Wars” thing has reached a point of seriously diminishing returns. Financially, of course, it is destined to make a ton of money.

| Robert W. Butler