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First of all, a belated Merry Christmas to everyone on my f-list. Very busy Christmas season for your non-Christian blogger here: tending to the Elf on the Shelf (sigh), attending my first midnight mass (D was an altar boy!) and yet still having to get the presents down to the tree before Christmas morning (without getting caught by an excited little boy who refused to go to sleep).
And, oh yeah, seeing The Last Jedi.
I'd heard so many great things about this movie before going in, and I tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible so I could get a "pure" cinematic experience.
But looking back on it now, maybe spoilers wouldn't have been such a bad idea; they might have helped me mentally prepare for some of the big disappointments.
[OK, here we go. If you want to remain pure, turn back now....]
*******************
TLJ actively irritated me for most of the extremely long runtime. For the first time since the prequels, I was dissecting and grumbling about plot holes while I was watching the movie. I scratched my head when entire chunks of Star Wars mythos established (or hinted at) in TFA were thrown away with barely a second thought. And I bristled when the characterizations of new and old Star Wars fan favorites were either wrongheadedly altered or ignored completely.
1. "They're getting away--very slowly!"
With the exception of the rebel assault on the First Order dreadnought at the start of the movie, none of the big military standoffs in TLJ made any sense to me. (In fact, there were points in the movie when I mentally said, "You're kidding, right?")
Nothing exemplifies this better than the central plot runner of the movie, the pursuit of the Resistance cruiser by Hux and the First Order destroyer:
All right, we know that the First Order has found a way to track ships through hyperspace, and they only need to keep hyperjumping right behind the rebels until the cruiser runs out of fuel. That's fine. Leia and/or Holdo is playing "keep away" with the FO destroyer until they can figure out their next move.
So why doesn't Hux simply bring another ship out of hyperspace, plant it right in front of the retreating rebels, and blow the cruiser out of the sky? If the rebels are forced into another h-jump, they're out of fuel. Dead. If they stand and fight? Dead. If they veer off, they never reach the mining base. Dead. It's so easy! But Hux never does it. WHY?
My wife tried to give them cover by saying they were overconfident. Well, there's "overconfident" and there's "stupid." This is the last pocket of open resistance. Leia freaking Organa is on that ship! If you don't want to piss off your supreme leader, you destroy that ship as quickly and efficiently as possible! (Not that Snoke really matters, though. But I'll get to that.)
And when Kylo and Hux brought out their big boom boom cannon to huff and puff and knock the rebels' door down, I thought it was vaguely ridiculous, but I couldn't quite figure out why. Then, after the movie, I read an online comment that nailed it down perfectly:
Why didn't they just blow up the mountain from space? Why bother with the door at all?
(Granted, it might have taken a few days to sort out the bodies--but this is why we have henchmen.)
We want the good guys to win because they're brave, smart and resourceful. If they survive just because the bad guys were stupid, it's just not as much fun.
2. I'm ... So .... Angry!
I didn't have much of a problem with our new Big Three here. I thought Finn, Poe and Rey were pretty much on point. (Leia? Carrie Fisher wrote her own dialogue. No problems there.) Rey blossomed as a Force-wielder, developing skills and making mistakes her own, distinct way. Rendering Rey's parentage insignificant was one of the few times I agreed with Rian Johnson when he threw away the groundwork laid down by JJ Abrams in TFA. Rey isn't great because she has the right bloodline; she's great because she IS Rey--and that's more than enough. (The whole "democratization of the Force" theme worked beautifully, with that grace note at the end.)
I especially liked the psychic pas de deux between Kylo and Rey, equal parts combat, conversation and flirtation. Rey completely misread Kylo throughout the movie-- but it's hard to blame her, since Kylo/Ben's motivations were unclear, even to his supreme overlord.
What's the deal with this guy, anyway? Why is he so ANGRY? I mean, even before he had that unfortunate confrontation with Uncle Luke, there had to be some reason why he was so easy to bring over to the dark side. Was he mad at Leia for sending him to Jedi training? (And some kids think piano lessons are bad...) Was it the Jedi oath of celibacy? Did Han blow off playing baseball with him one too many times? I know we don't usually need a villain's motivations in Star Wars, but Kylo is kind of a special case. Why does he assume leadership of the First Order after killing Snoke? What's his ultimate goal? Kylo doesn't seem to be in control of his own head most of the time, so it's hard to believe he has a master plan. The vagueness can either be intruiging or annoying, and for me it kind of landed on annoying.
Speaking of Uncle Luke...
Rian Johnson is asking a lot from Star Wars fans here. And personally, I can't reconcile this version of Luke with the one from the original trilogy. It's not that I can't accept what happened; it's that I don't accept what DIDN'T happen.
If you're a parent, a loving and concerned parent, and your family has a history of a certain disease, you will study your child for signs of that disease every day of its life. And if the child shows signs of that illness, you will try to stop it, or come up with a way to make the disease less dangerous. Now, if your family has a history of apocalyptic Evil, and your child shows the slightest signs of turning to the Dark Side, you step in immediately. Maybe the Jedi training stops until you deal with the problem. Maybe you go and deal with the Dark Lord messing with the kid's head. You don't put it off until it's too late. Luke (and by extension, Han and Leia) did none of this. And I don't buy that for a second.
And even if I could accept that, I can't believe Luke would abandon Leia, Han and Ben and go sulk in a cave for 30 years while the kid is unleashing genocidal destruction on the galaxy. Luke is all about family. Yes, he'd be wracked with guilt and self-doubt, but he wouldn't let that stop him. He'd deal with Ben... and THEN he'd go sulk in a cave for 30 years.
I know Mark Hamill agrees with me here. He said so. He recanted because he's a team player and he doesn't want to let down his friends and colleagues. Yes, just like Luke.
3. A fascinating character with limitless potential? Nah, not interested.
As I said before, Rian Johnson discarded aspects of the mythos and reworked characters to fit his personal vision of Star Wars. Sometimes it worked (with Rey) and sometimes it didn't (with Luke). But I was surprised by how casually Johnson dismissed two key figures from TFA: Snoke and Phasma.
Snoke was supposed to be the Palpatine of the new trilogy, the puppet master, the Big Bad. But he was shockingly easy to kill, and I wonder: was he meant to be disposable from the beginning--or did Johnson just lose interest in him? Either way, it seems a waste. After all, he's played by Andy Serkis, who's anchored TWO highly successful franchises as a motion capture character, and I personally would have let Mr. Serkis stretch a little before slicing him in two.
[ETA: Ooh, a thought just occurred to me: what if Snoke was so easy to kill because he WASN'T the real bad guy? Suppose Snoke was literally a puppet of the real bad guy, who wanted to keep our heroes occupied with a stereotypical villain, while he went about his business unmolested. (Kind of like The Mandarin in Iron Man 3.) Is it possible that the real supervillain is Benicio del Toro's mysterious codebreaker, who creates the war and profits from both sides? We'll have to wait and see.]
But the bigger waste here is Phasma. Cool uniform. Imposing presence. Great actress. Star Wars' first major female bad guy. Screenwriters dream of getting hold of a potentially iconic character like Phasma!
But all we got was a perfunctory battle scene with Finn and then into the flames. I thought Phasma would have been a much better second in command than Hux; there's only so much sneering, arrogant little weasel (with a plummy accent) you can take in two hours. Now, Domhnall Gleeson is a very good sneering, arrogant little weasel (with a plummy accent), but I wish they'd gone in a different direction.
One more point on this topic:
Ackbar deserved better.
4. Oh, all right, there was some cool stuff, too.
I've been slagging Rian Johnson hard here, but my complaints are about the script. Johnson is a superb visual stylist, and overall, the film looks great. There were at least four scenes that knocked my eyes out, and either had me on the edge of my seat or crying in my popcorn:
Scene One--Leia's Spacewalk. Seeing the late Carrie Fisher nearly die on screen was wrenching enough, but the dreamlike visual of her floating back into the cruiser amplified the emotional impact.
Scene Two--Holdo Does Long Division. A critic said that the silent shot of the Resistance cruiser cutting the destroyer in half was like something out of great Japanese anime. Totally agree.
Scene Three--Kylo and Rey Clear the Room. Best light saber fight scene since the Duel of the Fates (TPM). Just Driver and Ridley and the stunt men against the stark white background. (Like Samurai theater.) I was almost cheering.
Scene Four--Luke Comes Full Circle. The twin sunsets. John Williams' familiar theme. Hamill's expression of peace. I'm not ashamed to admit that yes, there were tears.
(And Yoda showed up! Even dead, he's still smarter than most of the cast.)
5. See you in Episode IX.
To sum up, TLJ was even more of a mixed bag than TFA, if for different reasons. I think Johnson had some great ideas here, but they weren't worked through properly, and there was too much dead weight in the script. (We spent a lot of time in Canto Bight for what was a narrative dead end.)
We get JJ Abrams back for Episode IX, and while that means we might see a much less ambitious product, we might also see some of those loose threads picked up that Johnson left on the cutting room floor.
Regardless, the fam and I will be there watching.
And, oh yeah, seeing The Last Jedi.
I'd heard so many great things about this movie before going in, and I tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible so I could get a "pure" cinematic experience.
But looking back on it now, maybe spoilers wouldn't have been such a bad idea; they might have helped me mentally prepare for some of the big disappointments.
[OK, here we go. If you want to remain pure, turn back now....]
*******************
TLJ actively irritated me for most of the extremely long runtime. For the first time since the prequels, I was dissecting and grumbling about plot holes while I was watching the movie. I scratched my head when entire chunks of Star Wars mythos established (or hinted at) in TFA were thrown away with barely a second thought. And I bristled when the characterizations of new and old Star Wars fan favorites were either wrongheadedly altered or ignored completely.
1. "They're getting away--very slowly!"
With the exception of the rebel assault on the First Order dreadnought at the start of the movie, none of the big military standoffs in TLJ made any sense to me. (In fact, there were points in the movie when I mentally said, "You're kidding, right?")
Nothing exemplifies this better than the central plot runner of the movie, the pursuit of the Resistance cruiser by Hux and the First Order destroyer:
All right, we know that the First Order has found a way to track ships through hyperspace, and they only need to keep hyperjumping right behind the rebels until the cruiser runs out of fuel. That's fine. Leia and/or Holdo is playing "keep away" with the FO destroyer until they can figure out their next move.
So why doesn't Hux simply bring another ship out of hyperspace, plant it right in front of the retreating rebels, and blow the cruiser out of the sky? If the rebels are forced into another h-jump, they're out of fuel. Dead. If they stand and fight? Dead. If they veer off, they never reach the mining base. Dead. It's so easy! But Hux never does it. WHY?
My wife tried to give them cover by saying they were overconfident. Well, there's "overconfident" and there's "stupid." This is the last pocket of open resistance. Leia freaking Organa is on that ship! If you don't want to piss off your supreme leader, you destroy that ship as quickly and efficiently as possible! (Not that Snoke really matters, though. But I'll get to that.)
And when Kylo and Hux brought out their big boom boom cannon to huff and puff and knock the rebels' door down, I thought it was vaguely ridiculous, but I couldn't quite figure out why. Then, after the movie, I read an online comment that nailed it down perfectly:
Why didn't they just blow up the mountain from space? Why bother with the door at all?
(Granted, it might have taken a few days to sort out the bodies--but this is why we have henchmen.)
We want the good guys to win because they're brave, smart and resourceful. If they survive just because the bad guys were stupid, it's just not as much fun.
2. I'm ... So .... Angry!
I didn't have much of a problem with our new Big Three here. I thought Finn, Poe and Rey were pretty much on point. (Leia? Carrie Fisher wrote her own dialogue. No problems there.) Rey blossomed as a Force-wielder, developing skills and making mistakes her own, distinct way. Rendering Rey's parentage insignificant was one of the few times I agreed with Rian Johnson when he threw away the groundwork laid down by JJ Abrams in TFA. Rey isn't great because she has the right bloodline; she's great because she IS Rey--and that's more than enough. (The whole "democratization of the Force" theme worked beautifully, with that grace note at the end.)
I especially liked the psychic pas de deux between Kylo and Rey, equal parts combat, conversation and flirtation. Rey completely misread Kylo throughout the movie-- but it's hard to blame her, since Kylo/Ben's motivations were unclear, even to his supreme overlord.
What's the deal with this guy, anyway? Why is he so ANGRY? I mean, even before he had that unfortunate confrontation with Uncle Luke, there had to be some reason why he was so easy to bring over to the dark side. Was he mad at Leia for sending him to Jedi training? (And some kids think piano lessons are bad...) Was it the Jedi oath of celibacy? Did Han blow off playing baseball with him one too many times? I know we don't usually need a villain's motivations in Star Wars, but Kylo is kind of a special case. Why does he assume leadership of the First Order after killing Snoke? What's his ultimate goal? Kylo doesn't seem to be in control of his own head most of the time, so it's hard to believe he has a master plan. The vagueness can either be intruiging or annoying, and for me it kind of landed on annoying.
Speaking of Uncle Luke...
Rian Johnson is asking a lot from Star Wars fans here. And personally, I can't reconcile this version of Luke with the one from the original trilogy. It's not that I can't accept what happened; it's that I don't accept what DIDN'T happen.
If you're a parent, a loving and concerned parent, and your family has a history of a certain disease, you will study your child for signs of that disease every day of its life. And if the child shows signs of that illness, you will try to stop it, or come up with a way to make the disease less dangerous. Now, if your family has a history of apocalyptic Evil, and your child shows the slightest signs of turning to the Dark Side, you step in immediately. Maybe the Jedi training stops until you deal with the problem. Maybe you go and deal with the Dark Lord messing with the kid's head. You don't put it off until it's too late. Luke (and by extension, Han and Leia) did none of this. And I don't buy that for a second.
And even if I could accept that, I can't believe Luke would abandon Leia, Han and Ben and go sulk in a cave for 30 years while the kid is unleashing genocidal destruction on the galaxy. Luke is all about family. Yes, he'd be wracked with guilt and self-doubt, but he wouldn't let that stop him. He'd deal with Ben... and THEN he'd go sulk in a cave for 30 years.
I know Mark Hamill agrees with me here. He said so. He recanted because he's a team player and he doesn't want to let down his friends and colleagues. Yes, just like Luke.
3. A fascinating character with limitless potential? Nah, not interested.
As I said before, Rian Johnson discarded aspects of the mythos and reworked characters to fit his personal vision of Star Wars. Sometimes it worked (with Rey) and sometimes it didn't (with Luke). But I was surprised by how casually Johnson dismissed two key figures from TFA: Snoke and Phasma.
Snoke was supposed to be the Palpatine of the new trilogy, the puppet master, the Big Bad. But he was shockingly easy to kill, and I wonder: was he meant to be disposable from the beginning--or did Johnson just lose interest in him? Either way, it seems a waste. After all, he's played by Andy Serkis, who's anchored TWO highly successful franchises as a motion capture character, and I personally would have let Mr. Serkis stretch a little before slicing him in two.
[ETA: Ooh, a thought just occurred to me: what if Snoke was so easy to kill because he WASN'T the real bad guy? Suppose Snoke was literally a puppet of the real bad guy, who wanted to keep our heroes occupied with a stereotypical villain, while he went about his business unmolested. (Kind of like The Mandarin in Iron Man 3.) Is it possible that the real supervillain is Benicio del Toro's mysterious codebreaker, who creates the war and profits from both sides? We'll have to wait and see.]
But the bigger waste here is Phasma. Cool uniform. Imposing presence. Great actress. Star Wars' first major female bad guy. Screenwriters dream of getting hold of a potentially iconic character like Phasma!
But all we got was a perfunctory battle scene with Finn and then into the flames. I thought Phasma would have been a much better second in command than Hux; there's only so much sneering, arrogant little weasel (with a plummy accent) you can take in two hours. Now, Domhnall Gleeson is a very good sneering, arrogant little weasel (with a plummy accent), but I wish they'd gone in a different direction.
One more point on this topic:
Ackbar deserved better.
4. Oh, all right, there was some cool stuff, too.
I've been slagging Rian Johnson hard here, but my complaints are about the script. Johnson is a superb visual stylist, and overall, the film looks great. There were at least four scenes that knocked my eyes out, and either had me on the edge of my seat or crying in my popcorn:
Scene One--Leia's Spacewalk. Seeing the late Carrie Fisher nearly die on screen was wrenching enough, but the dreamlike visual of her floating back into the cruiser amplified the emotional impact.
Scene Two--Holdo Does Long Division. A critic said that the silent shot of the Resistance cruiser cutting the destroyer in half was like something out of great Japanese anime. Totally agree.
Scene Three--Kylo and Rey Clear the Room. Best light saber fight scene since the Duel of the Fates (TPM). Just Driver and Ridley and the stunt men against the stark white background. (Like Samurai theater.) I was almost cheering.
Scene Four--Luke Comes Full Circle. The twin sunsets. John Williams' familiar theme. Hamill's expression of peace. I'm not ashamed to admit that yes, there were tears.
(And Yoda showed up! Even dead, he's still smarter than most of the cast.)
5. See you in Episode IX.
To sum up, TLJ was even more of a mixed bag than TFA, if for different reasons. I think Johnson had some great ideas here, but they weren't worked through properly, and there was too much dead weight in the script. (We spent a lot of time in Canto Bight for what was a narrative dead end.)
We get JJ Abrams back for Episode IX, and while that means we might see a much less ambitious product, we might also see some of those loose threads picked up that Johnson left on the cutting room floor.
Regardless, the fam and I will be there watching.
