Editorial: Five Years Later, ‘The Last Jedi’ Is Still My Favorite Theatrical Experience Ever
The evening of December 14, 2017, was cold but rainless in Northwest Spain. After packing things up early at the library, I went home before meeting with my friends to pick up my lightsaber — it was the first time it would be seeing the outside of my room since I’d bought it in September of 2016, and that had been on purpose. I was patiently waiting to take it to my opening night showing of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
I had spent months preparing for this movie. After losing my mind over the teaser trailer introduced at Star Wars Celebration, I made a promise to myself to avoid any more footage from the movie, to try to go in as fresh as possible. After that summer, I stopped reading stories or watching videos that covered the movie, and in October, I tried to rein in my biggest impulses to check out the full trailer for the film, the day tickets went on sale. After that, it was an uphill battle to avoid any unwanted plot details, even if they were part of the promotion. That involved making my friends wait outside the theaters whenever we went to the movies just in case they played the trailer. It also included a rewatch of all seven films in the Skywalker Saga with a friend of mine in a little over a month.
Despite all my excitement, I was still a bit frustrated that Thursday evening, since my local theater was offering a double feature of The Force Awakens immediately followed by the first-ever screenings of The Last Jedi, but my friends wouldn’t fly with that, and I finally conceded to buy six tickets for the screening at midnight in the biggest room of the house (obviously). I was almost having a mental breakdown waiting in the burger place in front of the venue — why can’t the clock go faster?
People finally started to exit from the double feature sessions, and at that point, you couldn’t pay me enough money to eavesdrop on their conversations. Finally, we went in. And the sight was glorious. Around 200 people were already in the room, and I counted like six or seven ignited lightsabers; plenty of other ones turned off too. The lights went down, and after a surprisingly low amount of trailers, the Lucasfilm logo popped up on the screen. As the words “Star Wars” covered the gigantic screen, all lightsabers in the room, as if they were programmed to do so, were lifted and ignited, with everyone cheering.
At this point, it’s probably relevant to give some background — where I live, having a visceral reaction to a movie is not that common. You may hear a few laughs at certain points, but whenever something heroic happens, people do not usually cheer, or even react out loud; if there is a jump scare in the film, no more than one or two people will audibly gasp, and when the movie wraps, people get up and leave. No applause, no “What happened there?”, no “What was that?”, no “And now what?”. No nothing. Until I watched The Last Jedi.
This is not a review of the film. This is not me claiming how underappreciated or overappreciated it is, or how right or wrong people’s opinions on the film are. This is my recollection of the night that going to the movies changed from being a cool plan to becoming an experience. Rian Johnson gave me that with his film, and I will always be in debt to him for it.
I had three predictions going into The Last Jedi. The first one came true rather quickly, and was the first sign that the energy in the room was starting to lift — it was Leia using the Force in the film, a moment decades in the making. After feeling the electricity in the air during the Rey & Luke scenes, Leia’s Superman scene was the first moment people in the auditorium had cheered since the film started. We are in for a treat, I thought.
My second prediction was that Yoda would appear in the film, likely to set Luke straight and tell him to train Rey. I was a bit off on the second part, but definitely nailed the first. However, at that point, I didn’t care about my imaginary bingo card. When those pointy, green-turned-blue ears started to slowly appear from the side of the frame, I screamed. And I did it so loudly I couldn’t tell if more people had done the same, or if it was the echo of my voice that I heard right after. Yoda, my favorite Star Wars character of all time, was giving Luke one final lesson. I could have died at that point, and I would have been just fine with it. My wildest dreams had come true. But then, I heard it. Yoda’s theme. At that point, I knew I was in heaven.
We are now halfway through the film, and I couldn’t fathom how Rian Johnson was going to top that moment. But soon after came the first of three cathartic scenes of the film. The first time the audience finally let go of that energy they had been building up was when Kylo Ren started to move Rey’s lightsaber next to Snoke, and finally, ignited it, giving us one of the most glorious shots in the entire film. (I still contend The Last Jedi is one of the most gorgeous Star Wars films, though The Rise of Skywalker gives it a run for its money.) I spent the first few seconds of that fight sequence of Rey & Kylo vs. the Praetorian guards picking up my jaw from the floor and watching my friends do the same. People were screaming all over the auditorium, nobody could comprehend what just happened.
My third prediction going into The Last Jedi was, thankfully, turned to dust soon after — I thought it’d be revealed that Obi-Wan was Rey’s grandfather. The movie’s answer was far better than that. That launched us directly into the second moment of pure catharsis, when Holdo sacrificed herself to give the Resistance more time and wreck the entire First Order fleet in two. Every single soul in that theater gasped in unison.
As we got into the third act, I became afraid the movie would end on another cliffhanger. Will they go to credits when the First Order finally has the Resistance cornered and ready to be blown out of the surface? I was clinging on to every scene as if it were the last, because I feared it would be. Before that, though, one of my top 3 funniest moments in all of Star Wars happened, when Kylo Ren poured all the air inside of his lungs to scream at anyone who would listen “Blow that piece of junk out of the sky!”
One awkward, high school-like kiss later, a rejuvenated Luke walks on screen. John Williams begins a new musical piece that included another of my favorite Star Wars themes ever — the Luke & Leia theme. It plays during their reunion, one that felt even more special than it would have because of real-life circumstances. The air had been sucked out of the room at this point. Everybody was on the edge of their seats. As Luke walks out, I was expecting the credits to roll.
But they didn’t. Instead, the movie delivered us what could be my favorite lightsaber duel in any Star Wars film — ironically, the one where lightsabers don’t even clash. But the emotion and the story behind this duel go back decades, and it builds upon Luke’s confrontations with Vader in both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in ways I couldn’t have imagined. It also sets up the third and most cathartic moment of the film, when Kylo finally realizes he’s fighting a ghost, and Rian Johnson cuts back to Ahch-To at the same time Williams’ music reaches new heights. Everyone in the room screamed in disbelief. I may hold the Yoda scene in high regard, but this final moment is my favorite of the entire sequel trilogy and one of my favorites in the franchise. It solidified, for me, the legend of Luke Skywalker, as ironic as that might be for some.
The film ended soon after, and everyone with a lightsaber ignited it, and everyone without it applauded. It would take me another 15 minutes to realize that not everyone thought this was the greatest movie of all time, when a friend of mine told me he’d hated it, and then two other people walked up to us to share that sentiment. It was the beginning of a new era for Star Wars, one of discord and divisiveness.
And yet, five years later, after reading almost all possible opinions on the film, my opinion hasn’t been negatively swayed. Quite the opposite, actually, as I now cherish The Last Jedi more than ever. And most importantly, I still look back at that night and can’t contain the smile on my face. It is a reminder to me of what the theatrical experience can bring us; the joy and the excitement of watching a film for the first time surrounded by hundreds of strangers is something that is indescribable until you’ve lived something like it. And certainly, watching a new episode of a Disney Plus series doesn’t even compare. It is a reminder to me that Star Wars belongs on the big screen.
I’ve had some great and some unforgettable experiences at the movies since then. But nothing has ever come close to this, and it is part of the reason why it is currently my third favorite Star Wars film. It may not be the best from a technical point of view, or even a story point of view, but the joy it gave me when I watched it for the first time hasn’t been rivaled by many films.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
