Ok, I have now seen The Last Jedi five times in the cinema. I’ve seen it in 3D, 2D and on New Year’s Eve in Laser 3D with Dolby Atmos. That was pretty impressive.
Just like the movie itself is pretty impressive. Which is, of course, my personal opinion. I think the various trailers were setup pretty well, i.e. in throwing fans off track. Rey suddenly summoning Kylo’s lightsaber? Snoke reaching out with two fingers outstretched a la Obi-Wan vs. Grievous? Leia looking out the window, with Kylo seemingly ready to blast her into oblivion? None of that in the actual movie, so that’s a plus for me.
Being the middle installment of a trilogy, comparisons to TESB are easily made. But I told myself this is a whole new trilogy and shouldn’t be compared to the OT or the PT. The Star Wars community seems to be really split now that TLJ is out. I’m no psychologist, but I just can’t get with the fans who call this movie awful, rubbish and that it er…. raped their childhood., without any further explanation. I think those fans forget they first experienced Star Wars (whether it’s OT or PT) when they were kids themselves. But that’s modern times for ya, with comfy anonymous ‘social’ media and all that
Enough of this, on to the movie itself. Like I said, I’m one happy fan. The more I see it, the more I enjoy it. First of all, the quirky humor. To me it’s well placed and timed. This time BB-8 gets to say the famous words “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” and the way Poe stalls time is pretty darn funny. Too Marvelesque you say? Well, what about “boring conversation anyway”, the Stormtrooper bumping his head, Leia’s sharp remarks to our heroes, etc.? I say Marvel humor is heavily based on the style of humor Star Wars has shown us. Throughout the movie, more of these funny moments can be enjoyed, such as Luke trying to teach Rey a thing or two.
Those first scenes were great. I loved the attack by Poe and the bomber squad on the dreadnought. You could feel how desperately Poe wanted to destroy one of those fleet killers, making you get a sense of how much the Resistance had already suffered from those immense battleships. The way nearly the entire squad was lost, was very dramatic and the whole part had a WW2 feel to me, especially the designs of the bombers and crew.
Now, straight on to Luke. We all envisioned how Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, could… would… should finally look like in this movie. But that’s all based on the numerous tales in video games, novels, comics, our own minds and that can be quite hard to let go off. I thoroughly enjoyed Mark’s performance of Luke. If you follow him on social media or watch interviews with him, you know he’s got a pretty peculiar sense of humor. Add to that the fact that he gave voice to one of the crazies villains in animation history, it wasn’t difficult for me to accept his portrayal of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master in exile. The way he looked when he drank some of that milk or when he pole vaulted to the edge of that cliff… it had something maniacal to it. Heck, I even spotted a dash of Joruus C’Baoth in him sometimes. But Luke was also still Luke, as so well put by Yoda. I’m not entirely sure, but I think that was an actual Yoda puppet. Mark and Frank Oz connect so well when they play those characters. Great scenes to see. As I’ve said, Yoda again reminds Luke to look at what’s in front of him. And that seemed to get the message across to him, because in the end he finally made his appearance, at the right time. The first time, my heart was skipping beats like crazy, especially when he took in that barrage by those AT-M6s (and the tiny AT-AT). Reminded me a bit of the Luke you can see in the awesome Dark Empire comics. When it became clear he wasn’t physically there, but Force projecting himself from the across the galaxy, that actually showed even more what a true Jedi Master was capable of. And in the end, he apparently succumbed to his efforts, but I don’t think the Force projecting itself did that. Since he apparently was able to connect physically with his surroundings (he brought the dice to Leia), I think he actually really took in the laser bolts and saber cuts during that battle. And that was what eventually killed him.
As for Leia, uhm…. Great performance by Carrie, better than in TFA, but yeah… the whole space scene still feels a bit odd to me. Apparently, Leia was more Force sensitive than we were led to believe after ROTJ. But now that Carrie isn’t with us anymore, I wonder how they’re going to work around that for episode IX. I think she’ll be mentioned in the opening crawl. Something like “….after the passing of General Leia Organa five years ago, the Rebellion has….”. Or something like that.
Adam and Daisey have really grown into their characters and the chemistry between them is definitely there. I really liked the scenes with Snoke as well. You could feel the anger building up in Kylo as Snoke continued to downplay him. And when Kylo ordered the attack on Luke, man, he was absolutely full of anger and hate. This guy has now totally derailed. It was also very obvious Rey was still incredibly naive. I mean, she was so convinced of Kylo turning to the light side and the way his future looked. Luke warned here it wouldn’t go the way she thought, but she didn’t listen. But she develops her Force abilities in an impressive pace and by the time Ep IX is upon is, I think we’ll see a Rey that’s on level with the Jedi Knights of old.
I’m still on the fence about Finn and the development of his character. The mission he and Rose were on…. I’m not sure what that really adds to the storyline of the movie. But I did like Canto Bight and its entourage. In every SW movie we get to see a sequence featuring a variety of aliens: the cantina in ANH, Jabba’s Palace in ROTJ, the podracers in TPM, etc. New designs are constantly thought up and combined with existing ones. I read a lot of comments on the fact we hardly get to see any “classic” aliens in the sequel trilogy and actually none on Canto Bight. About that last bit, I think it’s justified not to show Aqualish, Trandoshans, Rodians and such there. To me, those aliens have always been the ones a few step further down the social ladder. You know, aliens with dubious careers and all that. But the ones on Canto Bight, war profiteers, are much farther up the chain. And I really liked the designs. But did you notice the bird like creature in the background, while that little guy threw coins in BB-8? If that’s not a nod to Jim Henson’s Skeksis in the Dark Crystal, I don’t know what is. And how about the slot machines themselves? Totally reminiscent of V.I.N.CENT from the Black Hole!
But like I said, I can’t quite place Finn and Rose, not even after the battle on Crait. I don’t know how Finn’s character will develop. Although I have this strange idea, Finn is actually the one unwillingly leading the First Order to the locations of the Resistance. After all, he was a stormtrooper and probably has an embedded chip somewhere…. Maybe that’s what Hux meant by having them on the end of a string, not the fact they could track them through hyperspace.
Anyway, this is already a very lengthy 2 cents, let me wrap it up. Holdo’s sacrifice: one of the best scenes. The boy pulling the broom towards him and holding it up at the end of the movie, also great use of in universe reference. The Porgs are a very nice touch and very funny. Very cool to see that more and more. I’m very curious as to where things will go on from this. It’s not a middle part like TESB or AOTC, but feels more like ROTJ the way it ended. Will Luke return as a Force spirit? How will the creators handle the fact Carrie Fisher isn’t with us anymore? Will we get answers as to how it’s possible for Force spirits to physically connect with life beings? Is Kylo lying to Rey about her parents (I think he is)?
Yep, I’m definitely a fan of this movie and this trilogy. It’s time to let the past die and make way for new heroes. And I’m glad the old heroes get their parts to play out, instead of having new characters just thrown at us out of nowhere.
Oh and for those who say it’s all just another Disney marketing scheme to sell more merchandise. Well, guess what? Star Wars has always been that
Just watch the first episode of the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us.
