When it comes to Star Wars, one of the huge appeals of the Art of books is that they shows us the possibilities of what might have been in the worlds, characters and vehicles presented in its pages. For fans, Star Wars has always been about both what we were presented with on screen and the world beyond it, whether it’s canon, legacy or just a concept (from Ralph McQuairre’s original concept art for the first film, to the stunningly beautiful art that was created for the prequel trilogy). It’s a little disappointing then, that – with a few exceptions – the art in this book doesn’t really deviate too far from the finished product.
Picking up by filling in the last few pages of The Art of The Force Awakens, this volume gives a couple of pages to the spoilery scene from the end of Episode VII before getting into The Last Jedi. The pages don’t overly feel like they needed to be included in this volume or left out of the last (surely if you’re picking up the Art of book, you’ve probably seen the film or are at least aware that spoilers probably lie within) as – while the art is lovely – they don’t really offer much beyond what we saw on screen in that last film. Leaving out the art for a key scene at the end of the film is also something this volume suffers from, meaning that we will probably have to wait until The Art of Episode IX to see the art for that.
As with the best Art of books, the text offers insight but is largely left to a minimum, allowing the art to speak for itself (as Rian Johnson says in his introduction “enough with the wordy introduction – this is an Art of book after all”). With a few exceptions that look a little like cut and paste jobs done on a computer, the art within the pages is lovely and detailed, using a wide mixture of artistic styles and moods for the various characters and locales in the film. The pages devoted to Luke and Rey (still called Kira on some pieces) on Ahch-To and the finale on Crait (although some key scenes from this are missing – see above) are the strongest in the book. That’s not to put down the other chapters, as there are some wonderfully realised art within them, it’s just that a lot of it feels familiar from previous Star Wars art (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
THE ART OF STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI / AUTHOR: PHIL SZOSTAK / PUBLISHER: ABRAMS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
