So I gave up reading everything around page 20. Too much to cover.
Here are my thoughts:
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
SPOILERS PEOPLE.
"I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character."
-Mark Hamill
I feel like the filmmakers were very purposeful with this film, for better or worse. People complained that TFA was too copypasta to A New Hope....and now they are complaining that TLJ is too different? I applaud Johnson for trying something new, but I feel like he dropped the ball on a lot of aspects here and Disney seems to be alienating the core fanbase in an effort to force the series in a different direction.
Numerous times the film states that we need to let go of the past. Ren angrily says this to Rey multiple times. This is Disney telling us to let go of those films that we loved as kids and embrace what they want to do with the series going forward. Look, I like the new characters. I think Rey is terrific and Finn isn't so bad when he actually has something to do. But to waste the original characters is more or less a slap in the face. People thinking they weren't wasted are letting this film off easy.
Luke Skywalker, a whiny little farm boy manages to train and become a Jedi Master, like his father before him. He brought Vader back from the dark side, something both Yoda and Obi-Wan thought impossible. Here, Luke almost kills Ben because he senses that he has lost him to the dark side. Seems totally different to the character we know from before. Literally fighting and ready to die to bring Vader to the light...and he succeeded. Why try to kill a kid when you sense he's been lost? What happened to the man that we knew from before?
After that, he goes into hiding to die on a deserted island...but still makes a map that leads to where he is? His friends and family are being slaughtered, but he doesn't seem to care because the Jedi must end? You don't want to train anymore Jedi? Okay...stop it. But still help the rebellion instead of leaving them to die. It just doesn't make any sense. What also doesn't make sense is Luke not questioning how his lightsaber that the lost in Empire is in his hands now....that he tosses over his shoulder. Mark Hamil himself has stated that this is not the Luke Skywalker that he knows and remembers. Now he is backtracking because Disney isn't happy with him. He can say that Disney never told him to say anything, but we all know how the media machine works.
I feel like they have a total disregard for what came before it, this is evident with killing Admiral Ackbar in a blink of an eye and sidelining Leia for 85% of the film. Leia...what the hell was with her frozen in space sequence? A fake out for the audience that caused more confusion and unintentional laughter than anything else. Carrie Fischer....rest in peace....clearly had nothing to offer here. Her performance was horrendous. I don't think she managed to register a single emotion and her commanding voice was barely above a whisper. Gone is the strong, charismatic and bold Leia people once knew and the last scenes we have of her is sitting around whispering orders to people. It was kind of sad to be honest.
The film offers some new perspectives on the force, for better and worse again. Luke's force projection at the end is interesting and something that I knew was happening the moment he appeared on the screen with Just For Men in his beard. It opens the doors for new aspects in using the force for future films, but we are also given a scene where a ghost Yoda actually interacts with the living. He brings lightning down to destroy a sacred tree. So if he can physically interact with the living, why isn't he helping? Bring some of that God of Thunder powers down on some First Order henchmen. Seems retcon-ish.
The Snoke build-up and then having the rug ripped out from under us is surprising...Johnson managed to surprise me here, but I am also left with Darth Maul-itis. Here is this mysterious guy, with powers that seem to be bigger than what the Emperor had and he's taken out quickly. I would have liked some backstory to him before the end. Will we get any in the next film? No? Serkis did an amazing job with his motion capture performance and I'm actually sad to see him go without a hint as to who the hell he was. Wasted opportunity. What could have been better is eliminating the useless Casino sequence and have Luke tell us who the hell Snoke is and why he was afraid of him.
Rey's parents. The mystery was there in TFA and taken away in TLJ, just like Snoke. Johnson seems to stress the fact that Skywalkers are not the only Jedi anymore, this is clearly evident with the final shot of the film. The Jedi will live on. Yet this still makes me questions her abilities in the first film. Wouldn't it make more sense if she was trained as a Jedi, but then had her memory wiped when Ren killed all of Luke's padawans? Maybe she was the lone survivor or something? Then when she is reintroduced to the world of the Jedi/Sith, the fore awakens within her? Nope, she is nobody that instantly gets the hang of it. No training required. Not even in this film when she is supposed to be trained. It ultimately makes her character a little too one dimensional. People complained about her Mary-Sue aspects in TFA, but I brushed it off thinking they would explain it in the later films. They do not. So those complaints are justified in my eyes now.
Finn and Rose. Has there ever been a more unnecessary subplot in movies before? First, why is Laura Dern keeping key information from Poe and the rest of the rebels? This was bad writing that showed they had nothing for Finn to do. You are the last surviving people from the rebellion and you are not sharing your plans? A simple 'this is what we are going to do' scene and you eliminate the entire story arc for Finn and Rose going to Casino World to find Justin Theroux and settling for Benecio Del Toro. Two really distracting roles (cameo) from notable actors in a Star Wars movie. The dynamic between these two wasn't there for me and I felt little to no emotion for the new character.
There was a moment where I thought Johnson was going to take the series in a different direction, the Rey/Ren dynamic. But by the end of the film, we are exactly where we started. Nothing really changed for them. Ten struggles with the light and the dark...again. Rey instantly knows more Jedi stuff.
The Last Jedi is all about subverting expectations. I'm all for that, but this film subverts them in the wrong ways, which leads to frustration.
I was surprised by how bored I was by a lot of it. The running time really slowed the film down and I felt it. This entry continues to do one thing that Lucas did in the prequels, create a creature simply for selling merchandise. Porgs. Ugh...even the comedic aspects of these things were off. The comedy in the entire film really is hit and miss. It misses a lot of the times.
If you're going to ditch the original cast and characters and want us to follow some new people. Make them interesting. Aside from the Rey/Ren character bits, there is nothing else really offered here. An unearned kiss between two people is awkwardly trying to force a romantic triangle into the next film, a lazy way to create unneeded drama.
I seem to be hating on this film a lot. I don't hate it, I was just really underwhelmed by a lot of the decisions. The technical aspects of this film are great. Beautiful colour designs, great cinematography. The red salt on the final planet was gorgeous to look at contrasted by the white surface. The one and only lightsaber fight was interesting and finally ignited some excitement from me. The film surprised me with Snoke and Captain Phasma biting the dust, but offered nothing of real value in the end and decides to stick with the incapable and whiny villains. Bad choice.
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I think, to paraphrase my namesake, hate is clouding your mind.
