#Blog Star Wars: The Last Jedi

So I was finally able to go see The Last Jedi yesterday...

And it was.. Great!

I finally started checking people’s comments online and critic’s reviews. And to much surprise the film seems to be pretty... divisive among vocal internet fans?

Of course there were little nitpicks and details I didn’t like, like most movies anyways, but overall I quite enjoyed it.

(WARNING SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT!)

Let’s start by the obvious, like Force Awakens before it heavily drew parallels from Empire. The film contains most of the same beats, although with some little twists.

Like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg did with their previous sequels, this one’s the darker middle episode where the heroes seem to be on the losing side. With a much darker tone and colors. (Think Temple of Doom.)

Let’s see the similar points: Most Star Wars films are pretty straightforward, from A New Hope to Force Awakens, passing through the Pnantom Menace and, heck, even the Ewok films! (Yes, I’m the only guy that counts these films as part of the series. So sue me!) While this film had multiple parallel plots, like Empire and Attack of the Clones.

Comparing it to Empire specially: Featuring a young Jedi training with an annoying old recluse master. Facing their fears in a dark cave and whatnot. Then cutting short in the middle of the training (what would be the third lesson??) Our young Jedi’s cut from the main resistance group facing the villains for most of the film. The resistance almost loses, it’s not a big victory at the end in this big final confrontation on a white cold planet at the end with walkers, etc. And meanwhile our dashing newly recruited hero who used to be a former villain gets cheated by a contact they were supposed to meat on this fancy planet.

Same basic beats.

It’s fun to notice this film granted Rian Johnson the entire next trilogy since Disney loved his film so much. And I kinda get that.

This is JJ Abrams’ Star Wars trilogy. He made the first one and was supposed to supervise the next sequels (now he’s directing the last one too since they kicked off Jurassic World’s director from part 9). And the next trilogy, whatever it is - a continuation or any other idea like, say, an Old Republic series will be Johnson’s trilogy with him directing the first film and supervising the rest.
He seems to love Star Wars in its entirety. From its full special effects spectacle to the more quirky scenes.

One of my (and many others) beefs with Abrams is how he played Episode 7 way too safe. You know, the whole thing how he basically remade A New Hope beat for beat.

Nothing much original and different aside for handing the series to a new cast and a new generation.
Well, Johnson really has fun playing with our expectations and throwing us off a loop whenever he can.

The most controversial part being Luke almost getting to kill his own nephew (in a moment of hesitation and doubt, something Mark Hamill himself had a lot of problem with, but we can all understand that). Luke is not infallible. Plus he never received a proper Jedi training himself!
It came like a shock. And it’s supposed to be a shock just as well to Luke and Ben Solo.

Aside from that he surprises us a lot by breaking apart Abrams’ love for mystery boxes (which I’m sure he will either ignore, retcon or add up upon). Rey’s parents? Nobodies (which he could just as well ditch aside saying Kylo Ren had no idea and was just toying with Rey). The impressive and fearful Supreme Leader Snoke? Dispatched easily to allow Kylo Ren to grow and evolve.

What surprised me the most is how modern, sleek and actually a great movie this turned out to be.
I like my Star Wars a bit dusty and vintage-ysh. Here the visuals were modern and top notch. I only really had a problem with how lightsabres looked, way too video game-y for me.

Which brings me to the point this movie seemed to draw a lot from the Prequels for once. While the past 2 Disney-produced Star Wars had more in common with the original trilogy, this one had lots of CGi backgrounds and fauna. People feared the Porgs? Well there’s also weird ostrich-like animals, crystal foxes, horse-cheetah-thingies, etc. !

The whole casino planet sequence wouldn’t have looked out of place in one of the Prequel films. And I’m not saying this as either bad or good, just how it fits with the entire series.

I never honestly understood the character of Poe in the previous film. He was supposedly to die in that film but they brought him back at the end (because of the actor that got the part?) He didn’t serve any purpose. In my eyes he was the “token white guy”. Useless. But since racist fanboys might get butthurt that a female and a black dude are the lead in the films (and the only other guy being the villain), Poe was added for that purpose. Want some proof? A lot of bottles and products have Star Wars all over recently. And I I always get Poe’s face all over products like that, only one did I get Finn, and not a single Rey despite her being the main character!

Anyway, what I wanted to say here is that Poe finally got an arc and stuff to do in the film.
Same goes for General Hux who was bland and did nothing in the first film. But here he finally was a proper character and an interesting non-Sith villain for the movie.

As a long time Star Wars fan for years, someone who basically has all of the Dark Horse comics as well as a few Classic material from Marvel and mostly all of the games on their respective original releases... I’m still a fan of Captain Phasma. No matter how useless she is. She’s shiny. She has a cool appearance. And serves no purpose except being dispatched of easily, Boba Fett style. Hey, I love Boba Fett and he was pretty stupid in the films as well. Will Phasma get to do anything in the next one? I doubt so.. Maybe another death on screen. And in a few years we’ll get fun expanded universe content around her character, maybe. At least Rian Johnson had the good idea to give Phasma the chance to have a decent fight with Finn. All Abrams did was give the cool weapon and fight to a random generic Stromtrooper last time.

The rest of the new cast did great. Laura Dern is always great whenever she’s onscreen (be it David Lynch films, Jurassic Park, etc.) I really felt like they were prepping her up to take on Leia’s role... but surprise! Luke is the one to die this time!

Which brings me to an odd point: How to continue this journey? Abrams said the first film was Han Solo’s return. The second would be Luke’s. And the third one would revolve around General Leia.. but how can they work around that? Recast? CGi? Ignore her character and move on? Kill her off screen? I feel like none of these answers sound good..

The biggest controversies seem to revolve around the Jedi/Sith aspect of the film. While Luke got to look all badass in front of the First Order troops, it was a Force illusion!

Lots of new and weird displays of Force powers this time!

And I welcome it. All 6 previous films got to add upon the lore of the series. We got new powers progressively from Force push and grab to mind control to electricity at the ends of the Emperor. And the Prequels added a ton of video game-style powers like super speed, super jump, etc.
Abrams also played it too safe. Nothing new in his film, really.

Here we have Force-talk (kinda an evolution of the “I got a bad feeling about it” between Luke and Leia in the past). Actually forced (pun intended) by Snoke between our two main protagonists. But also Luke’s Force projection (which I’m sure I’ve seen in Timothy Zane’s old EU material). And even a Force ghost actually interacting with the environment! Speaking of,

FAN SERVICE! Lots of it!

Yoda suddenly came as a big surprise and reveal. And the old school puppet-style Yoda no less! He looked a bit off and the ghost effect was a bit strange compared to past films, but I welcomed his return!

It was certainly a bit too fan service if you ask me.

Luke talking about the Force in a more mystical way again, how there’s light and darkness connected, one should never go too deep on either side. Rejecting the old Jedi Order.

This made a lot of echos to the Prequel films, kind of Luke avoiding the old rules that became the Jedi’s downfall.Some continuity if you will.

 

(Sorry, my Star Wars waifu’s not in the film, but I wanted to have her here anyways!)

It’s maybe a bit mixed for old grumpy Star Wars fans, but it was definitively a great film with lots of twists, character pieces and action-packed.

This time I actually enjoyed John Williams’ music a bit more. Last time the best new piece of music was only used in the Force Awakens trailer but nowhere in the film. This time his music felt a bit more present and he reused a lot of past themes (in odd places though, the attack of the empire while the Falcon was running of the salt planet? My favorite piece, sure, but why did they use it there?) A great use of the previous film’s “Jedi Steps” was quite prominent through trailers and made it during Luke and Rey’s training. Although as a grump old fan I still find John Williams’ new music lacking any proper new memorable themes. Rey’s theme is too discrete and the First Order’s way too reminiscent of the Empire’s.

But overall much better music than last time.

The Porgs were not as annoying as I feared aside from being a way to mask actual real life fauna on the island the film was filmed (and the marketing ran away with the idea to make Disney a ton more cash). And Chewie was about to eat one, the only thing I asked to see with them, to not make them Ewoks/Gungans sentient creatures but just animals.

The film went a bit overload with the CGi in the middle.

And I felt the movie kinda ended after they dispatched of Snoke. But noo, we still have to do a Battle of Hoth style sequence and the film goes on for a lot more time after that.

Which bring me to my one and only real issue with this film: It might have been a bit way too long. I know films are getting longer each time nowadays, and I just see people have problems editing films down nowadays. Specially to justify the increase of ticket prices and all the other 3D/Imax/junk.

All in all, I quite liked this film. Rogue One might still be my personal favorite recent Disney Star Wars film, but I can recognize this one might be the superior film storywise and technically.