I watched The Force Awakens four times; I don’t think I want to see The Last Jedi ever again. (Even though I loved it)

S-P-O-I-L… you know the rest.

I loved The Force Awakens too. It was a slick, tightly structured film that definitely contained some very smart and new ideas. Personally, I’m a little tired of hearing how it was basically Star Wars remade. I didn’t feel this at all, and to begin with I didn’t hear that criticism very much. Then one or two people said it, and suddenly it seemed to become general opinion.

The Force Awakens was exactly what it needed to be, a firm foundation of familiarity that enabled the introduction of new characters and ideas. Any Star Wars fan knows about the importance of balance, and J.J Abrahams got it just about right. And in doing so he provided the perfect platform for Rian Johnson to come in and explode the franchise beyond that. I have to give Johnson great credit for being bold enough and brave enough to do just that, I suspect that he would have come up against a lot of resistance. Apparently not least from Luke Skywalker himself!

I was delighted to hear that Mark Hamill didn’t agree with Rian’s take on the character. Hamill loves the Star Wars franchise and is incredibly protective of it. And rightly so in my opinion. But for a story to truly survive it must move on, especially when it’s characters are ageing. Hamill has been there from the very beginning, when Luke was a fresh faced farm boy full of hope. He, like many of the film’s harshest critics may have been hanging on to the past. And I completely understand why many people would be doing that.

Part of the magic of movies is that the characters are frozen in a moment of time, we rarely return to see them grow old and die. Star Wars had an enormous impact on the lives of a generation, and until Disney began the new trilogy, they stayed with us as they were back then. The death of Han Solo was sad, but for me it wasn’t a shock. I knew about Harrison Ford wanting the character to die in Return of the Jedi, so I was, in part at least, expecting it. And Harrison Ford has gone on to inhabit lots of other strong characters, beyond the Star Wars universe.

But Mark Hamill was Luke Skywalker, And Luke Skywalker was Mark Hamill. True, he has gone on to become a strong voice actor, and that his vocal portrayal of the Joker in an animated series was fantastic. But in terms of film, he is Young Skywalker. So when he dies at the end of The Last Jedi, I felt a real sense of loss. Of a part of my childhood in a way , and of a character that was forever young in my memory. And I imagine that this feeling was intensified by the knowledge of Carrie Fisher’s recent death.

And that is the reason that I don’t want to watch The Last Jedi again. It genuinely wrenched my emotions, and I feel that if I saw it again that memory of that experience would be quelled if I were to watch it again.

Thanks to J.J Abrahams and to Rian Johnson for doing what, in my opinion, has been a great job. And thanks also to Disney, the corporation has and will continue to receive a great deal of criticism in relation to it’s purchase of the Star Wars franchise. But without that, we probably wouldn’t have any more. If you really hate the whole idea of Disney and Star Wars, don’t watch them. And if you have romantic yearnings for what George Lucas would have done with it all, remember what happened last time!

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Addendum:

On the question of whether or not Luke’s character would behave the way that he did in The Last Jedi. I recall an often melancholy Luke, particularly at the end of Empire and then throughout Return of the Jedi. A more mature character, and one filled with a great deal of sadness. I felt it was entirely believable that, after the horror of what happened the night that Ben Solo burned the temple and slaughtered many of Luke’s students, Luke would go into mourning.

Of course, it could have been handled entirely differently, and in many people’s minds it will have been. A different Luke will have rejoined the Resistance and fought the First Order. But Luke Skywalker already saved the galaxy once, and that stuff must be exhausting.

Oh, and no mention has been made as far as I know of him being a single man. Could there have been a lost love somewhere in there to have compounded his weariness of the universe? And remember, ultimately Star Wars is a story about a dysfunctional family. And that family is prone to bouts of extreme kindness, nastiness and no doubt depression or similar.

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I read today that Kevin Smith was quoted saying that The Last Jedi contained plenty of ‘Fuck you JJ’ moments in it. I find it hard to believe that Abrahams just chucked Episode 8 at Rian Johnson and said “Off you go lad, I’ll catch up with what you’ve done when it hits the theatres.”

Surely Abrahams would have been closely involved throughout the process. Smith gives the smashing and discarding of Kylo Ren’s helmet as one example, but I would refute this. In Force Awakens Ren removes his helmet in a moment which I found particularly powerful, showing his vulnerability and contrast with Vader. In that film it seemed that removing the helmet was, in part at least, symbolising some weakness and uncertainty. Whereas in The Last Jedi it felt more like a strengthening of his resolve.