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thedungeonra · 6 years

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My thoughts on THE LAST JEDI

It’s Christmas Eve-eve and I’m working 2nd shift. It’s finally calmed down a bit so this seems a good time to talk about my difficult relationship with STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI.

I overall dislike the film, both as the 8th episode of the Star Wars Saga/9th film overall in the entire franchise and as a film on its own merit. But there was a lot I liked about the film. A lot I LOVED about the film. Which perhaps makes it more frustrating. Were TLJ as categorically bad as say, HIGHLANDER 2: The one where they’re from the Planet Zeist, I would actually have a much easier time disliking it.

But first, what exactly is my history with Star Wars?

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was the first film I ever saw in a theater. My older brother took me. I was all of 4. I saw STAR WARS on TV later on and it was not until RETURN OF THE JEDI that I connected the dots that it was the same film. You gotta remember that for my generation, what you call, “Episode IV: A NEW HOPE,” was just STAR WARS to us. I loved ESB. And collected what little merchandise was available in early 80s rural Indiana.

I’ve seen EMPIRE STRIKES BACK more than any other film. I have a son, college-age right now, who grew up with the prequels. We had our various lightsaber battles, and played the video games together and bought the toys. It was great!

I don’t hate the prequels in the en vogue way that GenXers seem to hate them. Jar Jar doesn’t bother me all that much. Nor does Jake Lloyd’s Anakin. I still fire up the DVD from time to time for the Podrace and Darth Maul duels. And Qui-Gon is one of my favorite SW characters.

I really enjoyed ATTACK OF THE CLONES because it feels like Ewan really had fun playing Obi-Wan. And SITH… well… it’s not great. I think the last two minutes of ROGUE ONE makes up a lot for the last two minutes of SITH. It’s the Darth Vader we’ve wanted to see for decades.

And I loved FORCE AWAKENS. I really dig all four new leads. I was bummed that Luke had nothing to do and I felt Han got a really bittersweet ending (as did Harrison Ford finally get the exit he wanted from the franchise). I thought the structural similarities between IV and VII were a feature, not a bug. And I’ve been all for VIII since.

Until. The trailers for VIII began. Something felt… not quite right. And yeah, feel free to insert your, “I feel a great disturbance in the Force) joke here. I couldn’t get excited for anything I was seeing in the trailers.

Even seeing Luke in the cockpit of the Falcon felt like the grapes of Han’s, “Chewie, we’re home” to prunes in my mouth. I assumed Luke would die in this film. And after we lost Carrie Fisher much too soon, it was hard accepting that IX would be without Luke, Han and Leia. I waited for the crowds to thin a bit and saw TLJ on Tuesday after opening weekend. 70mm IMAX at the Indiana State Museum, if knowing that of trivia is fun for you.

Now, then. I’m not a film critic and this is not a film review. I’m just a middle aged Star Wars lover and film nerd.

But before we get into what I disliked about it, let’s start off on a positive note! Firstly, I do understand and respect that Rian Johnson had essentially 4 basic audiences for this film, none of whom view Star Wars the same way. Baby Boomers what saw STAR WARS in college; we GenXers what grew up with the movies; Millennials who grew up with the Preqs; and kids today whose first Star Wars theater experience was THE FORCE AWAKENS. That’s a heavy burden and if anything, I feel like they failed in trying to appease to these 4 quadrants of the fandom.

I loved the opening battle sequence. It’s maybe the best star war in Star Wars. It looks and sounds great. There is great conflict and drama. It has this amazing gut punch with the last bomber. Just superb.

I still really just love the four new leads. Those are all rich characters.

I’ve seen a lot of people grousing about Rose and specifically, the entire casino sub-plot. Rose was great! In a movie where people are all over the place on the emotional spectrum, Rose felt like really the only person whose emotional responses actually made sense in their given contexts. And she delivers the theme of the film at the end, which I did enjoy.

And the space casino heist? Are you kidding me? James Bond in space. Loved it. I felt the animal cruelty and slavery beats a bit too on the nose, but that’s just a taste thing. I think my very first reaction on the twitters was something to the effect of, “a great space casino heist film wrapped in a shitty Star Wars story.” Beneicio Del Toro was certainly memorable. I thought they were teasing a new Han Solo-ish scoundrel but instead, he’s this great foil to Finn. I DJ shows back up again either in IX or in Rian Johnson’s spinoff films.

My only real quibble with the casino scene was that Justin Theroux’s high stakes gambler/slicers should have been Lando, right? You can’t put Billy Dee Williams at a Sabacc table for 30 seconds? Also seeing how the owner of the ship DJ stole sells to the Resistance and the 1st Order, having him still Lando’s ship would have been a nice touch. In the absence of the Rebellion and Han, Lando is not the best version of his self. Anyway, I’m not here to write a different movie.

I also really liked Laura Dern’s Admiral Holdo and I enjoyed how she shut down Poe’s mansplaining. I don’t understand some of the choices made with Holdo, but more on that in a bit. Holdo crashing the Mon Cal cruiser into the 1st Order fleet while at lightspeed was insanely cool. That’s the stuff we only ever imagined in the old Star Wars RPG; never thought I’d see something like that on screen.

Didn’t mind the Yoda cameo. Don’t understand people who say, “bro, that should have been Obi-Wan, bro.” I don’t agree, but whatever. Yoda seemed perfect to me.

I don’t think it’s the best lightsaber fight in Star Wars, but seeing Kylo Ren and Rey fight together was really cool. Was great to see the combat training the actors have done get a few minutes to shine.

BB-8. Big fan. I don’t understand why BB-8 didn’t get a moment to take out BB-9e while in that 1st Order Chicken Walker. Would have been a quick scene and very satisfying. Oh well.

The big ground assault on the rebel base at the end was great. That’s the ground battle I expected from the trailer of ROGUE ONE that didn’t seem to be in the movie. I wonder if there’s a connection?

All of the performances were superb. Carrie Fisher especially.

The film was a series of several, often disconnected moments, that I thought were really good.

Now the bad stuff. I find it insanely annoying and not a little condescending to allege that people who do not like THE LAST JEDI are obsessive fanboys who cannot let go of the past. Or that we don’t understand the goals and themes of the film. I get it. Conceptually, I’m on board. I’m VERY ready for the formula of STAR WARS to be reinvented. I don’t need to see rehashes of Sith vs Jedi, Empire vs Rebellion, Skywalker vs Skywalker. It’s tired. I know. Dudes wanna fly off half-cocked into conflict when they should listen to the counsel of wiser women. I KNOW.

Just… be good at doing those things.

So here’s what I hated:

The film doesn’t actually move the story forward. The movie ends with the same status quo as the beginning:

the 1st Order has the New Republic Resistance on the ropes and is assaulting their base.

Rey doesn’t have a teacher.

The 1st Order is exactly as effective with Snoke cut into pieces as it was when he was alive.

The Resistance is exactly as effective when a demoted Commander leads a mutiny against a Vice Admiral as it was with General Leia in charge.

This film sets on fires many dangling plot points set-up by JJ in VII only to return the story to the same position.

And so on. You get it. It’s the illusion of change.

I hated every scene with Luke Skywalker. Man, just one huge bummer after another. And again, conceptually, I can by that he’s at least a Grey Jedi now and believes both the Sith and Jedi are wrong in the possessive perspectives on the Force. I can buy that he went off to Ach-To to cut himself off from the Force and die. I can buy that he, in a moment of weakness, could not figure out how to save Ben Solo from the Dark Side and was tempted himself to take the quick and easy path. He did, after all, cut Darth Vader’s hand off in the Death Star II Throne room.

But all of those things were executed in a clumsy way that seemed to have little regard for the character. It was a gigantic bummer. Would have also been nice if someone had bothered to tell Luke that his best friend died at the hands of his own son. Maybe that’s what Chewie told him? Or Artoo? But I dunno. It’s not clear and they gave Mark Hamill nothing to work with in those moments.

I absolutely hated his hero moment at the end. Why set up Old Logan Luke who doesn’t want to face down the entire 1st Order with a laser sword in the 1st Act if he does it but not really in the 3rd Act? There’s a wishy-washy desire to have things both ways in this film that drives me nuts.

Also, Luke on Denouement Planet was the clunkiest “misdirect” of the entire film. I’ve only seen the film once and at my first viewing, it was obvious to me that this was not actually Luke.

A) We’ve just seen three different flashbacks of Jedi Master Luke from his New Jedi Academy days after RotJ. And Denouement Luke looks exactly like Jedi Master Luke and not the Wild Man of Borneo from the first two Acts.

B) the movie makes a big deal of showing us that the slightest disturbance to the surface crust of that salt pan will reveal the red dust underneath (which was a rad visual element). And when Kylo Ren sets his foot in Sith Action Pose, we see the red underneath. Whereas Luke is clearly NOT disrupting anything.

C) How dumb is Kylo Ren that even though he just destroyed Anakin Skywalker’s blue lightsaber 10 minutes before landing, Luke is somehow wielding it? I think there’s an argument to be made that Luke intentionally chooses a younger visage of himself (of the last time Ben Solo saw him) and is also using his own legacy against him (Anakin’s lightsaber) to put him off balance. But the film does not convey this.

All combined, these three elements rob all the underlying drama tension from that conflict because it’s obvious he isn’t there.

The dialogue was troublesome for me. I legit sat there, stunned, at the end looking for a Diablo Cody writing credit. Remember how I loved the opening battle? Everything but that bit with Poe and Hux. It was funny the first time. The, “Holding for Hux” part after Hux did his nefarious monologue. But they kept hitting that same beat. Over and over. I would have not batted an eye had Poe called Hux, “homeslice” in that moment. Thus, Diablo Cody.

Also, Snoke’s “spunk.” line. Lolwut? Though I had a chuckle and thought to myself, “… and wriggling” after Andy Serkis said, “raw.”

Why do they keep wasting Gwendoline Christie as Phasma? Have they not seen GAME OF THRONES? Are they unaware of the jewel in their crown?

The editing. This film needs a good once-over to trim about 20 minutes out. Do we need to see Luke milking a Watto-Cow or spearfishing? Did we need to see Luke’s X-Wing parked underwater when it’s just an unnecessary head-fake? As much as I did enjoy the casino bit, it felt over-stuffed.

The wishy-washiness. Oh man. This is the ultimate dealbreaker for me. Look, I don’t mind Rey is the daughter of a couple Trump voters from Jakku with no connection to the Skywalkers. The scene where Kylo Ren tells her, “You don’t even belong here. No one cares about you but me.” is fantastic. I loved it. I love their relationship and I hope to all the cinema gods they stick to their guns and don’t reveal that Ben and Rey are just Jacen and Jaina Solo lite.

Don’t waste our precious film time in VII making a huge mystery deal out of who Rey is and who her parents are in VII just to reveal in VIII that she’s nobody from nowhere one-hundredth of her name. And don’t especially get pissy at me because I’m frustrated that you wasted my time on a non-mysterious mystery. That’s false drama, breh. And a really hacky way to “deconstruct” a story.

If you’re going to really deconstruct what we know about this story and these characters, then do it. “Flip you. Flip you, for real.” Don’t try to have your space cake and eat it too.

Luke is done with this mess and isn’t going to show up and play the hero. Until he does. But not really.

Kylo Ren has good in him, but not really.

Rey has darkness in her, but not really.

Now, this is not the same thing as a character arc. I don’t lump this in with Poe being a brash self-centered pilot at the beginning but a real leader by the end. I’m for that.

I’m talking about if LAST JEDI were broken into numerical values, for every 1 there is a -1 and the story of the movie feels like a sum of 0.

Now, there are a lot of nitpicky things I’ve shared with the people in my life (most of whom are glad I’ve turned my focus to the internet). Like, “what’s the deal with Snoke? Who is he and what does he want?” That’s just subjective, “season-to-taste” stuff that grates on me but I don’t feel objectively bad. “Who is Snoke and what does he want?” was not a focal point of the previous film.

Samey-same with Holdo not sharing her plan. Finn’s plan actually not accomplishing anything. If they knew they were being tracked and had two jumps left and a 6 minute window, why not prepare the transports, jump the old rebel base, unload the transport and jump again in 5 minutes? That kind of thing. You know, things people call, “plot holes” on the internet that are not actually plot holes.

Leia Force Flying through space after the bridge exploded. Just looked dumb. If there was any excuse for Leia to bust out a lightsaber, this was the moment. That would have been choice. Tangential to this: the unceremonious death of Admiral Ackbar.

But those are digressions.

I would probably like this story much more if it were the last half of FORCE AWAKENS rather than a movie all unto itself.

That said, I think this petition to remove TLJ from the canon of SW films is idiotic. This film is going to make a billion dollars by New Years and Disney appears to be giving Rian Johnson his own spinoff franchise. So yeah, this movie isn’t going anywhere.

I also think its real low class to jump on twitter and be a raging dickmunch to Rian Johnson. I’ll never understand why people punish creators for being easily accessible. Or to people who loved the movie. I’m not here to convince you that you shouldn’t love THE LAST JEDI or tell you you’re a dumb-dumb if you did. I simply find it difficult to like for Star Wars movie reasons and movie-movie reasons.

I actually look forward to Johnson’s spinoff film because he seems much more comfortable with new characters. I think he’s a person like Zahn who will add a lot of new hated and loved characters. But unlike Zahn, I don’t think he has a steady hand with legacy characters.

So that’s it. 6 pages on a Word document later (assuming you stuck around). Feel free to hit me back on the twitterbox to tell me how both right and wrong I am!

May the Force be something or other. But probably not.

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