So it’s probably (past) time for me to talk about Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
We went and watched it right before Christmas, and the last two weeks have been … diverting from anything approaching normal social media interaction. Now I’m ready for something more spoilerful.
SPOILERS BELOW!
I liked The Last Jedi. I have not gone to rewatch it (see above “last two weeks”), but I look forwad to do doing so some time. I have read a fair amount about it, mostly in terms of things that people like, and things that people didn’t like.
I loved the wonder of it all. I loved the highlighted acts of heroism. I loved the subversion of expectations. I enjoyed the thoroughly unexpected reversals of fortune to both the disastrous and the successul. I dearly love that things right now are extremely fraught for the Resistance, beyond the point of catastrophe, and I have no idea where they are going to go with it.
Poe is a hothead who keeps doing cowboy hothead things that sometimes succeed, sometimes fail, but get lots of people killed in doing so — and he gets called on it (if never nearly hard enough), and has to learn from it. Finn is a fundamentally a coward, driven by fear; he’s not just a conscientious objector from the First Order, but a man defined by terror of the world around him, and then terror of being caught out in it.
Rey wants so damned much to be a hero and she manages to succeed in ways that may be making things worse. The revelations about her past were a welcome breath of fresh air in the Dynastic Destiny bits that Star Wars has gathered about itself, and a welcome subversion of both fan expectations and her own. Kylo is a talented teenager who has decided to let the (admittedly high level of) angst in his life drive his actions; his scenes with Rey are delightful in how they ultimately turn out. Rey and Kylo are Luke and Vader, only this is a Vader with feet of clay but who actually does get around to striking down his master, and this is a redeeming Jedi acolyte who discovers that standing by the person she’s sure she can fix doesn’t mean everyone lives happily ever after.
Luke, meanwhile, is an emotional wreck, and I give huge shoutouts to Mark Hammill for what he did in this role in this movie; Hammill’s work in the whole first trilogy was not all that great; his growth as an actor is noteworthy, and the role he’s been give here is exquisite, overcoming his own fears and insecurities (in a way Kylo has not to finally become the hero. I mean, Luke is seen as the hero in the IV, V, and VI, but he succeeds mainly through others — he lets Ben and the Force destroy the Death Star in IV, he ends up an amputee, a failed suicide, and child of the biggest monster the galaxy in V, and he only “wins” in VI by the Emperor nearly killing him. But here, finally, in VIII, he finds clarity and grace and stands up to his failures and reaches out to people and succeeds.
It is impossible for me to consider Leia’s role in this film without the impact of having known of Carrie Fisher’s death. Because of that, I expected Leia to die over, and over, and over again. That she didn’t made Leia’s role even better, and while this was meant to be the “Luke” episode of this trilogy, she managed to make it partly hers as well. She will be missed.
Rose Tico is awesome. Like Rey, like Finn, she’s not some magical creature of destiny, born of ancient lineages to fulfil regal prophecies. She’s an ordinary working stiff, caught up in something much bigger than herself, and trying to make her way through it. I was so worried she was going to be fridged, and so glad that she was not.
I loved the characters. I reveled in their flaws. I loved how they overcame those flaws to do mighty things.
But speaking of flaws …
There are significant ones in TLJ, no question, almost all of them related to plot and the story. What I like is that they ultimately make little difference.
Yes, the goofy Resistance Bombers at the beginning of the film are just plain goofy, no matter how much fandom tries to ‘splain the goofiness away (a pastime I cannot in all good conscience criticize). But it doesn’t matter, because it’s not about this video game mechanic about that video game mechanic, but about sacrifice and Rose’s sister and Poe’s failure and how much trouble we’re all in now, guys.
Ditto for some of the other set pieces: the Long Pursuit (albeit audacious in its conscious lack of real action over so much time), the Battering Ram, the Use of Hyperdrive as a Weapon — all of these are just rock-headed stupid in how they are constructed, but it makes little difference because the purpose they play in the plot overwhelms how they do it — again, working stuff around the characters, their flaws, their heroism, and why they fight, and the tragedy and the triumph and the stuff that blends the two.
Granted, this is Star Wars we are talking about. Plot goofiness is almost as much a part of the franchise as the Skywalker/Solo dynasty. Only in the past is was more about priming action-adventure; here it serves that role, but also gives us character development, which goes a long way to redeeming. The Charge of the Light Brigade against the Battering Ram was idiotic (if beautiful) but the opportunity it gave us to further Finn’s character arc, and Rose’s (and, heck, Poe and Leia and Luke’s) was golden.
TLJ is a mediocre story (great moments, interesting ideas, ludicrous illogic) with spectacular effects and really strong characters who do interesting things and who are run through the wringer to end up in worse shape than when they started. I’m perfectly happy with that.
—-
Now, a few articles (via +Bill Garrett, who posting about it the last day or two actually got me to get around to this post):
- It seems a vocal number of men, particularly white men, think TLJ is an awful film because reasons. Or, it seems, because it isn’t a film about white men, and therefore isn’t “their” Star Wars. This goes right along with “Jodie Whittaker is apparently a woman, and therefore she isn’t really my multi-thousand-year-old alien body-shifting time traveler.” To which I say, people who hold this particular kink are dolts. Or, read this article.
- Bill focused in on another bit of plot goofiness in TLJ that I don’t go into above, but which deserves some attention. It didn’t ruin the movie for me (or for him), but to the extent that the movie is about leadership, it was something that did bother me in the watching:
- A nice look at how TLJ informs a watching of its predecessor, The Force Awakens, and actually sounds like it makes it a better movie.
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And, finally, the notes I wrote immediately after watching the movie (with some [thoughts] after a few weeks of mulling):
- I love Rose. I love that someone who’s not a hot, sexy model can be one of the heroes of this series.
- Does it seem to anyone else like the Resistance / Rebellion is a bit heavy in the female leadership? Or, at least, those are the ones who have survived? Should I feel resentful that have here a universe where women are in charge and men are relegated to being hot sex objects? (I jest.) [Apparently, some people aren’t jesting in this, which is nucking futs, if you ask me.]
- Hey, kid — you might want to close that Resistance decoder ring. Just saying.
- One initial thought on coming out of the movie was, “Wow, Finn/Rose’s mission sure was useless.” But it wasn’t – it helped show what the Resistance is resisting against, what the evils of the First Order (and the Empire before it) were like. That’s actually refreshing. (Oh, and it let us deal with a Finn/Phasma fight, thought that whole scene was the least interesting part of it.) [And Phasma was still kind of wasted, in my opinion, except to tee up Finn’s best line.]
- So the Poe/Hux phone call was both hysterical and a bit distracting. And not in a good or plotty way. [It was an odd, anachronistic note for something that took place so close to the beginning of the film.]
- What, Imperial red-armored guards who aren’t worthless? Color me intrigued!
- Okay, I do not mind those cute critters at all. I would like one for Christmas, please. Either the furry cliff rats or the gorgeous crystal-furred foxes.
- Bombing the dreadnought at the beginning is one of the goofiest military things I have ever seen.
- So, wait — why are we not seeing hyperspace attacks as a common thing in the Star Wars universe? An X-wing is hyper-capable — I think it would be more effective to simply send an unmanned X-wing hypering into a star destroyer. Or design hypercapable missiles to that effect. (It was a stunning scene, but it makes no sense.)
- Also, “They’re not going to see or pay attention to our cargo ships” seems like a really bad plan.
- Another bad plan: “Rather than using all of these Star Destroyers to attack the those Rebel ships, we’ll just have them sit here while our Dreadnought is getting attacked.” Not once, but twice.
- I kept expecting Carrie Fisher to get killed. Every. Freaking Scene. “Her ship’s going to be blown up. She’s going to stay behind on the cruiser. Her ship’s going to be blown up (oh, wait, that will kill Poe, too). Her base is going to get blown up. She’s going to stay behind with her brother. She’s going to die in the pursuit. A rock’s going to fall on her. Oh, wait, she survived.”
- I did not expect Snoke to get killed.
- I was resigned to Luke getting killed. But not that way.
- I was resigned to Finn getting killed. I was terrified Rose was going to get killed, then she survived, then she died, then it turned out she didn’t die. Yay, Rose!
- Why did Leia leave behind the brassy dice? Did she sense before the fact that they were Force projections? [Of course she did. She’s the only one there who realized it really wasn’t Luke physically present.]
The two scenes that annoyed me were the scene where Leia survives the spacewalk without any protective gear, and the scene where Rose kisses Finn then falls unconscious. I could not suspend disbelief for the first, and the trite melodrama of the second rubbed me the wrong way.
+David Newman I've seen a number of complaints about the Leia scene you mention, and, frankly, both the Force and the dramatic nature or the scene are more than enough justification for me. (It bothered me more that she inhaled before being thrown into vacuum rather than exhaled, as the pressure differential would make lungs full of air prone to significant bodily damage).
I was more scared that Rose was either dead, or that she died at that point, than annoyed by the triteness of the scene.
Seeing it tomorrow so I’ll be back then.
_ Also, "They're not going to see or pay attention to our cargo ships" seems like a really bad plan._
Well, it's not as if the First Order navy had somewhere else to be urgently, after destroying the main Resistance ship, is it? Yes, a number of plot holes all through the film. As much as I liked the "Casino world" excursion, they could have deleted the whole thing and got away with that (just find another way that Finn and Rose get caught), but really this film WAS about defying expectations. I fully expected some form of light sabre amputation to happen, just not as severe as what Snoke got! And Snoke's death itself was another twist to defy expectations itself. All these fan theories about whom he might be – but it doesn't really matter now he's out of the picture.
Perhaps one of the points of the film is to the DIFFERENCE between the First Order and the Resistance. Kylo killing Snoke fell into the Sith pattern established in the first six films. Rey rejecting that also, but otherwise the people it was difficult to see what was coming until we got there.
Interesting spin on flawed characters. Lukes heroism really inspired by others… Now he is a wreck…No Epic end.. Just the best he can do … Han was the same way if you looked in the expanded universe.. Everytime he had a shot at the good life he eventually falls Back.. After Jedi he ends up leaving the hero role and his wife and kid to go back to smuggling.. Sure he helps at the end of TFA but his death is sort of blah… But do I really want real life in my fantasy movies? It would have been nice to see a white robed Luke taking out walkers or fighting Snoke and Kylo with Ray.
+Jim R Oh, I can imagine any variety of great stories, depressing stories, gritty stories, fluffly stories one could tell with the characters post-RotJ.
I'm just saying that these stories (in particular TLJ) are good stories, that I enjoyed, and that intrigued me in providing some heroes that are not quite Saturday Serial squeaky clean Tom Mix characters. For my taste, at least, I liked it.
+Jim R "Lukes heroism really inspired by others… Now he is a wreck…No Epic end.. Just the best he can do"
I can't imagine how anyone might think that Luke's end in this film is not epic. He acts in power and confidence. He saves his friends. He comforts his sister. He confounds his enemies. He acts. He pays the price, but he succeeds in what's needed. I consider that quite epic.
+Dave Hill Epic would have been going himself to save the day. We have seen in Empire a X wing can be submerged and still be able to work. All he did was use a trick to delay the First order. Everyone is still in danger, Ray is untrained, what little she could learn from the books went up in smoke. It was a pretty lack luster end. Even Mark was unhappy with the way Luke was handled. But using your own review in a way its understandable because he is an emotional wreck.. If they were going for that it works… And as you pointed out the mantle of hero was thrust on him rather unearned… And when he tried on his own to bring back the Jedi he failed horribly.. I can see how he got to where is was in TLJ…. I thought the whole movie was horrible.. looking for different angles is just trying to justify some of the bad writing for me.
SPOILERS
I could not read this post this morning, because we didn't actually see the film until this afternoon. A few thoughts:
I, like you, expected Leia to die. Either the screenwriters for Episode 9 will have a lot of 'splainin' to do, or the CGI folks are going to have to work overtime.
I have seen the original trilogy (4-6) and have never seen the Anakin trilogy (1-3). Therefore, I went into the movie expecting that episode 8 was going to be a complete downer, like episode 5. Surprisingly, it wasn't. Yes Luke dies, but it's such a positive death – and also the impact of that death was lessened by Yoda's appearance, which reminds us that all the previously dead folks can turn up at any time. Episode 9 could feature Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones.
Kylo Ren is one of the most fascinating characters in the five Star Wars films that I have seen. With all of the internal struggles in his character, there's no guarantee that he will become Ben again at the end of episode 9 as part of a wonderful happy ending.
And yes America, there ARE a bunch of white guys in Star Wars. Just not EVERYWHERE.
+Jim R 'Epic would have been going himself to save the day.'
Only if "epic" = "Deus ex Jedi Machina."
A theme of this second trilogy has been heritage. The victories of the past are never permanent, as much as they remain victories. "They lived happily ever after" is for fairy tales, not for either real life or ongoing adventure. Whether the current canon or the previous EU, challenges beget victories beget new challenges. And just as past victories give way to future threats, so must past victors give way to future contenders and, one trusts, victors.
For Luke to come in and "save the day" would be akin to Yoda hopping onto the Death Star II, challenging the Emperor (again), and this time succeeding, bringing a new and perpetual era of peace and happiness to the galaxy. It would be cheap writing.
Luke succeeds when it seems all has failed. He tees up the next generation for their own triumph, and redeems his previous doubts and failures. It was epic indeed, my friend.
+Dave Hill I wish that were the case. I know a lot of people who think Disney killed the series and are not planning on seeing 9 or the Solo movie. I know I am in that group.. This movie made the Holiday special look good.. LOL
+John E. Bredehoft Agreed on all points.
Re: Leia, my understanding from what I have read:
1. The new trilogy was supposed to feature a passing of the guard from the trio in the first trilogy: Han, then Luke, then Leia.
2. Carrie Fisher's death put that idea to an end.
3. The Lucasfilm/Disney folk have declared that Fisher will not be reproduced through CGI (as in Rogue One), and the production team for TLJ have said that they actually didn't change anything substantive in the plot for the movie in response to Fisher's death (there was apparently some jiggery-pokery with existing audio to deal with the normal post-production reshoot edits). What we saw was what was intended.
4. I have read speculation that Ep. IX will push the timeline forward some period of time, which allows for the First Order to consolidate its Empire-like grip, the spread of the Resistance and the Force that we saw indicated in the final scenes of TLJ to take root and grow, the Resistance to grow beyond the dozen-plus folk who are left at the end of TLJ, and Leia to have shed this mortal coil in the interim. That's not as satisfying a conclusion as one would have hoped for, but the least manipulative given Fisher's death.
+Dave Hill A timeline push would explain that very last scene, in which the young boy watches the rebels fly through space…
+John E. Bredehoft Exactly.
Also, the idea of the Force "awakening" and the subtle saving of the Jedi documents.
Well maybe IX is setting things up for the NEXT Trilogy?
+Laura Ess I am sure there will be some elements of that, at least in a "state of the galaxy" fashion.
Saw it, and I was glad that they finally had a likable character that wasn’t one of the originals.
More later.
Dave, RE: Doctor Who. There are a lot of women that are upset that the doctor is going to be a woman and they won’t be able to ship the Doctor anymore.
Quick quibbles with the TLJ:
Having Leia flying ala Superman back to the bridge. Dear god there had to be a better way to do that scene. I kept expecting to hear the Christofer Reeves Superman theme to kick in.
Storm Trooper Executioners? Really? I’m sure they are popular to be around on the on the fleet. Aren’t all Storm Troopers executioners?
The use of the word “Snake”, twice. Are snakes universal? Are there no Nerf Herders anymore? Plenty of creepy established animals from the Star Wars verse script writers could have used.
Three Star Destroyers could make mincemeat of the ships the Resistance is left with. Use your tools properly. It took a while to get back into the movie after the first ship battle.
I guess the Interdictor class is no longer around, could have been a far simpler plot point instead of having Doc Browns reactor recreated in the Dreadnaught
As tracker.
Things I enjoyed.
Rose. Finally, a likable character. I want to see where her arc takes her. But, that might be because she is the Hermione to Finn’s Ron Weasley and Poe’s Boromir. Great character.
DJ. A real scoundrel, I could see someone’s entire Star Wars campaign centered around that character. Good stuff and I hope we see him in the next movie.
The Progs and the Crystal Foxes, but oh dear god the Progs. Lucas is kicking himself he didn’t think of them first.
And I was glad that I was wrong in thinking that TLJ was going to be a repeat of Empire, like how the Force Awakens was remake of A New Hope. I am also glad that I was surprised and kept on my toes plot wise.
+David Newman yep, to both.
+Stan Pedzick
1. The plot twists and unexpectedness were the greatest strengths of the movie. I suppose that points to an overall weakness of the franchise ("OMG It's not totally tropic GENIUS!"), but credit where credit is due.
2. As I noted, the idea that the only recourse for the FO was a slow, long-distance plonking of shields was both a fascinating twist and utterly unbelieavable.
3. The progs and crystal foxes were excellent in that they were incredibly cute (actually saw a prog at Huntley Bookstore and almost bought it) and were superfluous to the story (vs, say, Ewoks). They were lovely color text, right alongside the red salt.
I enjoyed it, and I never expect Star Wars to make sense 🙂
@Marc – Precisely. Though I acknowledge that there are differing degrees of not-making-sense, some of which pull a given viewer (but not another) out of the story.
+Dave Hill wow. Even a longer review than I wrote 🙂 A refreshing, honest yet positive review. Some people hate or greatly dislike the film for a multitude of reasons so I wouldn't assume they are all in one box or demographic…
I've seen the film 4x so far. I'm kind of the resident Star Wars guy here so check out my profile / collections if you are so inclined.
Leia didn't leave the dice behind. Kylo felt their presence after the fact. It wasn't Force-astro-projection. The Force is everywhere and in everything so it's more like Force teleportation.
+Raymond Mendiola IV An interesting interpretation about the dice. You're suggesting that the Force-projection Luke teleported the real dice to Leia, and then they teleported on their own back from the floor of the cave while Kylo was holding them to the Falcon ? I'm not sure how that makes any sense.
+Dave Hill no. Luke himself via The Force was "transported" to Crait with the Dice. He was physically on the planet and touched Leia. When Kylo sliced and stabbed him it was basically his Obi-Wan moment and then he fully returned to Ahch-to where he became one with The Force.
Kylo only saw a shadow or remnant of what had been there with Leia and the DICE.
+Dave Hill I had thought that they just force projections and that they faded away as Luke died.
Though, I’m confused about how the Jedi books got on the Falcon.
+Stan Pedzick Rey grabbed them from the tree before Yoda torched it
+Raymond Mendiola IV I feel it more likely that it was all a Force projection of/by Luke, explaining the lack of disturbance in the sand/salt, the lack of substance to be shot/stabbed at, and how it all eventually fades away (and also that we never actually see Luke either fly or teleport to the salt planetoid). But there's nothing that specifically contradicts your interpretation instead; I just think it's more complicated.
As to the books — I prefer to think that Force Ghost Yoda stashed tem aboard. Or maybe he told Rey to do so. That explains why he says nothing about it to Luke when they're having their fireside chat.
+Dave Hill yep, Force Ghost projection and Yoda, both of those make more sense.
+Dave Hill the "teleportation" is instantaneous. Just like ol Ben was able to appear to Luke on Hoth and Dagobah.
During the film, I can't remember exactly when but Rey hears the sounds of the Force tree after we see her enter it the first time. That's when she theoretically gets them.
+Raymond Mendiola IV Except Ben was already dead and a Force Ghost when he talked to Luke in the cases you mention. Luke isn't dead at the point he seemingly appears (in clean clothes and a less-white beard) on Crait.
Clearly I need to watch the movie again, though.
+Dave Hill yes but Luke undoubtedly had training from multiple Jedi masters during his seclusion.
What is most odd about that is that Luke basically appears as his younger self for whatever reason – with his lightsaber that already had been destroyed. It would have been so much more awesome and more sense to have had his green ROTJ saber.
+Raymond Mendiola IV My presumption over his appearing as is younger self and with his already destroyed lightsaber is that he's a projection — apparently a projection of what he looked like back when he was teaching Ben Solo (et al.), either as a redemption statement for his actions then, or a way to provoke Kylo into acting as stupidly as he did.
There is no indication that Luke "had training from multiple Jedi masters during his seclusion." Not only was Luke fleeing from being a Jedi and a Force user while there, after his failure teaching the next gen Jedi, but he's amazed to see FG Yoda again.
An additional review from the bittergertrude.com site that's worth a read.
https://bittergertrude.com/2017/12/20/this-is-not-going-to-go-the-way-you-think-the-last-jedi-is-subversive-af-and-i-am-here-for-it/
+Dave Hill no ordinary Jedi can have done with he did with no training – Force "projection", "teleportation" or otherwise. He had training at some point – even just to become one with The Force. Before Qui-gon taught Obi-Wan, Jedi just died and their bodies remained.
Okay, one other thought I had during the movie that I forgot about until just now.
Holy crap, is Maz Kanata using the Rocketeer's jet pack?!
(Apparently so, or at least one that looks just like it, which is a bit of Disney awesome.)
+Raymond Mendiola IV I see no problem handwaving the Force projection and Force Ghosting as the Force itself deciding to do it. Heck, Luke's been on Ahch To for years, soaking up Forceyness, and he's the Last Jedi, so why not?
Or maybe Yoda just gave Luke a quick briefing after he used a hithertoo unknown Force power, Summon Lightning.
Another fun article: on the origin of the porgs (the cute little sad-eyed avians on Ahch-To). TL;DR: the island they filmed on is covered with puffins, so they needed something for the foreground to explain the out-of-focus little bits moving here and there in the background.
http://www.starwars.com/news/designing-star-wars-the-last-jedi-part-1-how-porgs-were-hatched
+Dave Hill For me, the Bitter Gertrude piece leaps to too many conclusions, especially since the real-life privileged angry white man was still a laughingstock when Episode 7 was released (let alone written), and the attack on the patriarchy didn't really begin until long after Episode 8 completed filming.
That having been said, the inclusion of people of color in this trilogy is certainly a response to general cultural trends that have occurred over time, in the same way that the very first trilogy dared to include a strong woman. (And yes, the first trilogy was imperfect, but remember that the bikini-clad Princess Leia was conceived during the heyday of Charlie's Angels.)
+Dave Hill it is also in the trivia section on IMDB.
+Dave Hill Rocketeer? Now we'll have to scan the movie for hidden Mickeys. 🙂
+John E. Bredehoft I think the specific comparison made between Trump and Ren is, for the reasons you give, more rhetorical and amusing than concrete, but starting from a foundation of "the old order changeth" there were precedents even before TFA (and certainly before TLJ) of broflakes and gamergaters and "entitled young white men getting all pissy about stuff" that ratcheting up the knob on that a click or two would have been easy to do.
Which is not to say that the "OMG STAR WARS IS NOW A FEMINAZI SJW CONSPIRACY" folk deserve any comfort in the idea that, yes, some of it was perhaps written with just their vacuous criticisms of female and PoC protagonists in mind, but figuring out was was explicitly intended vs implicitly allowed vs intrinsic to the times is a fuzzy matter that allows for conspiracy theories.