on The Last Jedi
Dec. 15th, 2017 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotSo, went to the new Star Wars last night!
I loved The Force Awakens, in this passionate nostalgic made-me-feel-like-I-was-ten-again way. This one -- I am not quite sure how I felt about it. It wasn't a bad movie. But I'm not convinced it was a good one? And as a Star Wars fan, it left me disappointed.
(Though less than I might have been, because, even more than The Force Awakens, it isn't "really" Star Wars to me. Or, it's Star Wars, but it's an AU, the way the new Star Trek movies are an AU. It's an interesting story, but it's not the one true future I accept for the original trilogy.)
There is a lot to recommend it. It had some absolutely stunning shots, both action sequences (the opening space battle and the climactic fight on the salt flats were both incredible) and other (Luke at the end silhouetted against the double suns was maybe cliche but so beautifully so -- as soon as you saw that shot, you knew it was going to be his last, just as it was his introduction.)
The story had some interesting twists and turns, and, especially with the the shadow of Rogue One, managed some actual tension that was surprisingly effective given that this is the second of a trilogy. I knew that the heroes should survive, and yet there were a couple moments that I was genuinely in doubt.
There were some cheer-worthy moments (my audience especially responded to Leia saving herself with the Force and Luke after the dust clears from Kylo's attack) and some laugh-out-loud bits (Luke tossing away the lightsaber especially is awesome). The fuzzy puffins (Porgs?) were adorable -- I really loved how they mixed in so much puppets and practical effects with the CGI, it gave everything a more solid, grounded feel.
And Carrie Fisher was heartbreaking but also amazing, and that Leia and Luke did get a goodbye was wonderful.
But the story also had a lot of hiccups. And thematically it was this uncomfortable mix of things I love and things I hate.
Story-wise, there were pacing issues overall -- this is the longest Star Wars film to date, and it felt it (it felt even longer than it was, and not in a good way). In particular the whole sequence on the Las Vegas planet was really drawn out and weirdly positioned; it took away from the urgency of the Resistance's situation that Finn and co. could take the time to go off on a casino adventure.
And the casino sequence was meant to be important thematically, considering it comes back to it in the end. It's trying to cast the Star Wars resistance as not just the fight against facism but also class war, the decadent one-percents versus the noble proletariat; but it managed to be both hamhanded about that and yet not convincing? (Or maybe that's because I've been getting back into One Piece, which tackles a similar theme in a similarly fantastical setting, except in ways that are viscerally stomach-turning and undeniable. In TLJ, the only abuse of power we actually witness on the casino world are the kids getting whipped by the (non-human) stablemaster; it's worker on worker, while the high-rollers in the casino display decadence but not really evil? We're shown that some of their wealth comes from immoral sources, but that sets up the premise that some wealth is or could be moral, it's where your money comes from that matters. Which, well, Star Wars is a fantasy, when one of your main characters is a princess, you're going to have trouble with your class warfare analogies. But this movie didn't manage to navigate it particularly well.)
There were also some issues of logic, that I'm not sure whether were due to poorly done exposition or just no explanation (Poe's mutiny was either due to him being incredibly stupid or incredibly bad leadership, and I'm not quite sure which it was? Was the failure there that he didn't understand a pretty simple and logical plan, or that the admiral failed to explain her plan for some reason but just expected it to be followed? Which, uh, if you're the leader of a group of rebels, you can't really expect blind loyalty?) Also a few weirdly played red herrings (I'm not sure why the audience was kept in suspense about how the First Order was tracking the Resistance fleet -- it set up expectations for a big reveal, a traitor or Finn having a tracker or something; and then it was just technobabble?)
Then, maybe my biggest problem with the story -- Finn was my favorite character in TFA. He's sweet and heroic and I adore John Boyega (especially in First Order officer costume, wowza). But Finn was ultimately useless in this movie. Not pointless -- he and Rose carried through some of the themes. But he had no impact on the story whatsoever; if you took him out of the movie, the main plot would play out exactly the same. The whole casino sequence and sneaking onto the First Order ship accomplished nothing, in the end. It was basically just an extended team-building exercise for Finn and Rose, which was cute and all, but also frustrating? I like my heroes to count for something.
(The only impact they might've had on the story was negative -- by bringing in that hacker, they might've gotten the Resistance fleet attacked? Except that was one of those logical leaps that I couldn't follow. How did Benicio del Toro's hacker know about the Resistance's escape plan? He couldn't have heard it from Finn and Rey, because they didn't know the plan themselves? Unless they did and I missed it?)
Then there was the main storyline, Rey and Luke and Kylo Ren's story. Which is where my feelings are most mixed.
It was definitely the strongest story of the movie, not plagued by the logical inconsistencies and pacing issues of the rest of it. It developed well and took the characters down complicated and compelling paths.
That being said, Rey's path could've been more complicated. There is this strange feeling throughout that Rey just isn't especially tempted by the dark side -- not even because she's that good or pure a person, but because the dark side has nothing that really interests her? When Kylo Ren makes his pitch for her to join him at the end -- what is he really offering her? She doesn't seem to enjoy using her Force abilities; they more scare her. She apparently always knew in her heart who her parents really were; that question was just a red herring. She has friends and people who care about her in the Resistance, and she knows it, while as she just saw Kylo kill his own master, so she knows the belonging and family she yearns for won't be found there. It feels like the dark side isn't really that tempting -- which makes Kylo come across that much more unsympathetic, because it's not that Rey is so strong that she can resist the darkness, but that Kylo just likes being evil.
The whole thrust of Kylo Ren's story bothers me. It's not even that I like the character, or care about him that much (at least for himself). But the main theme of it I find troubling. Ultimately, it comes down to this: While a major theme of the original trilogy is about seeing the good in anyone, about (cheesy as it may be) the power of love and compassion, the theme of this trilogy so far seems to be the opposite. Good people are good (even if they make mistakes) and bad people are bad. Finn is a good person, so stormtrooper brainwashing doesn't have any effect on him (while all those other stormtroopers are bad people so can be killed without compunction). While as conversely, reaching out to Kylo Ren does no good; he will always choose the Dark Side.
There is still one more movie, so this could still change; Kylo might have a bigger part to play in the end. But as it stands with this movie, Luke's great mistake wasn't that in a moment of weakness, he contemplated killing his own student. His mistake is that he didn't follow through. Han Solo died pointlessly, just making things worse; the galaxy would've been better off if he'd put a blaster bolt through his son's chest when he had the chance.
Rose says at the end that the way to win will be for them not to destroy what they hate but to save what they love. But everyone who loved Kylo Ren failed to save him. So the adjunct lesson becomes, save what you love -- but you better only love the right things. Loving the wrong person, the bad person who doesn't deserve it, is pointless and just fucks over the entire galaxy.
And it's all the worse because Kylo Ren isn't some random villain. This is Leia and Han's son. I grew up with Han and Leia; in that special fan way, they're like family to me. So Kylo by extension is, too -- and it's not just that he shares their blood; they and Luke and Chewie raised him. But that counts for nothing. If Kylo had been kidnapped by Snoke and raised by him, that would be one thing. But as it stands, either Leia and Han and the others are the worst parents ever; or that the dark side is just that powerful -- or they're just that weak -- that they're helpless against it.
Which is my fundamental issue with the whole movie, as a Star Wars fan. Leia and Luke and Han were my childhood heroes. And the whole point of this movie seemed to be, not just that their struggle continues, but that they were never really heroes at all. Good guys, sure; but in all their lives, they accomplished nothing that actually mattered. Defeating the Empire was pointless; in just a couple decades it rises again, as strong as ever. Their love and friendship couldn't survive the rigors that followed. They couldn't raise a child strong enough not to go full-on supervillain. They built nothing good that lasted, either personally or in the universe.
And I don't think that was accidental; I think it was meant to be a major theme, that your heroes aren't so hot after all, that you should question your past idols, that maybe everything should be torn down to restart anew. But it's not the story I wanted. Not for a universe I've loved for this long, for characters so close to my heart.
But then, as a fan, I've been through this plenty of times before. There's still one more movie; and if that one continues to bring these theme forward, well, it is what it is. I'll always have the original trilogy (and Timothy Zahn's corner of the extended universe). And the ten-year-old fangirl inside of me, who loved The Force Awakens so for being everything she dreamed -- I don't ever have to tell her that this movie happened at all.
I loved The Force Awakens, in this passionate nostalgic made-me-feel-like-I-was-ten-again way. This one -- I am not quite sure how I felt about it. It wasn't a bad movie. But I'm not convinced it was a good one? And as a Star Wars fan, it left me disappointed.
(Though less than I might have been, because, even more than The Force Awakens, it isn't "really" Star Wars to me. Or, it's Star Wars, but it's an AU, the way the new Star Trek movies are an AU. It's an interesting story, but it's not the one true future I accept for the original trilogy.)
There is a lot to recommend it. It had some absolutely stunning shots, both action sequences (the opening space battle and the climactic fight on the salt flats were both incredible) and other (Luke at the end silhouetted against the double suns was maybe cliche but so beautifully so -- as soon as you saw that shot, you knew it was going to be his last, just as it was his introduction.)
The story had some interesting twists and turns, and, especially with the the shadow of Rogue One, managed some actual tension that was surprisingly effective given that this is the second of a trilogy. I knew that the heroes should survive, and yet there were a couple moments that I was genuinely in doubt.
There were some cheer-worthy moments (my audience especially responded to Leia saving herself with the Force and Luke after the dust clears from Kylo's attack) and some laugh-out-loud bits (Luke tossing away the lightsaber especially is awesome). The fuzzy puffins (Porgs?) were adorable -- I really loved how they mixed in so much puppets and practical effects with the CGI, it gave everything a more solid, grounded feel.
And Carrie Fisher was heartbreaking but also amazing, and that Leia and Luke did get a goodbye was wonderful.
But the story also had a lot of hiccups. And thematically it was this uncomfortable mix of things I love and things I hate.
Story-wise, there were pacing issues overall -- this is the longest Star Wars film to date, and it felt it (it felt even longer than it was, and not in a good way). In particular the whole sequence on the Las Vegas planet was really drawn out and weirdly positioned; it took away from the urgency of the Resistance's situation that Finn and co. could take the time to go off on a casino adventure.
And the casino sequence was meant to be important thematically, considering it comes back to it in the end. It's trying to cast the Star Wars resistance as not just the fight against facism but also class war, the decadent one-percents versus the noble proletariat; but it managed to be both hamhanded about that and yet not convincing? (Or maybe that's because I've been getting back into One Piece, which tackles a similar theme in a similarly fantastical setting, except in ways that are viscerally stomach-turning and undeniable. In TLJ, the only abuse of power we actually witness on the casino world are the kids getting whipped by the (non-human) stablemaster; it's worker on worker, while the high-rollers in the casino display decadence but not really evil? We're shown that some of their wealth comes from immoral sources, but that sets up the premise that some wealth is or could be moral, it's where your money comes from that matters. Which, well, Star Wars is a fantasy, when one of your main characters is a princess, you're going to have trouble with your class warfare analogies. But this movie didn't manage to navigate it particularly well.)
There were also some issues of logic, that I'm not sure whether were due to poorly done exposition or just no explanation (Poe's mutiny was either due to him being incredibly stupid or incredibly bad leadership, and I'm not quite sure which it was? Was the failure there that he didn't understand a pretty simple and logical plan, or that the admiral failed to explain her plan for some reason but just expected it to be followed? Which, uh, if you're the leader of a group of rebels, you can't really expect blind loyalty?) Also a few weirdly played red herrings (I'm not sure why the audience was kept in suspense about how the First Order was tracking the Resistance fleet -- it set up expectations for a big reveal, a traitor or Finn having a tracker or something; and then it was just technobabble?)
Then, maybe my biggest problem with the story -- Finn was my favorite character in TFA. He's sweet and heroic and I adore John Boyega (especially in First Order officer costume, wowza). But Finn was ultimately useless in this movie. Not pointless -- he and Rose carried through some of the themes. But he had no impact on the story whatsoever; if you took him out of the movie, the main plot would play out exactly the same. The whole casino sequence and sneaking onto the First Order ship accomplished nothing, in the end. It was basically just an extended team-building exercise for Finn and Rose, which was cute and all, but also frustrating? I like my heroes to count for something.
(The only impact they might've had on the story was negative -- by bringing in that hacker, they might've gotten the Resistance fleet attacked? Except that was one of those logical leaps that I couldn't follow. How did Benicio del Toro's hacker know about the Resistance's escape plan? He couldn't have heard it from Finn and Rey, because they didn't know the plan themselves? Unless they did and I missed it?)
Then there was the main storyline, Rey and Luke and Kylo Ren's story. Which is where my feelings are most mixed.
It was definitely the strongest story of the movie, not plagued by the logical inconsistencies and pacing issues of the rest of it. It developed well and took the characters down complicated and compelling paths.
That being said, Rey's path could've been more complicated. There is this strange feeling throughout that Rey just isn't especially tempted by the dark side -- not even because she's that good or pure a person, but because the dark side has nothing that really interests her? When Kylo Ren makes his pitch for her to join him at the end -- what is he really offering her? She doesn't seem to enjoy using her Force abilities; they more scare her. She apparently always knew in her heart who her parents really were; that question was just a red herring. She has friends and people who care about her in the Resistance, and she knows it, while as she just saw Kylo kill his own master, so she knows the belonging and family she yearns for won't be found there. It feels like the dark side isn't really that tempting -- which makes Kylo come across that much more unsympathetic, because it's not that Rey is so strong that she can resist the darkness, but that Kylo just likes being evil.
The whole thrust of Kylo Ren's story bothers me. It's not even that I like the character, or care about him that much (at least for himself). But the main theme of it I find troubling. Ultimately, it comes down to this: While a major theme of the original trilogy is about seeing the good in anyone, about (cheesy as it may be) the power of love and compassion, the theme of this trilogy so far seems to be the opposite. Good people are good (even if they make mistakes) and bad people are bad. Finn is a good person, so stormtrooper brainwashing doesn't have any effect on him (while all those other stormtroopers are bad people so can be killed without compunction). While as conversely, reaching out to Kylo Ren does no good; he will always choose the Dark Side.
There is still one more movie, so this could still change; Kylo might have a bigger part to play in the end. But as it stands with this movie, Luke's great mistake wasn't that in a moment of weakness, he contemplated killing his own student. His mistake is that he didn't follow through. Han Solo died pointlessly, just making things worse; the galaxy would've been better off if he'd put a blaster bolt through his son's chest when he had the chance.
Rose says at the end that the way to win will be for them not to destroy what they hate but to save what they love. But everyone who loved Kylo Ren failed to save him. So the adjunct lesson becomes, save what you love -- but you better only love the right things. Loving the wrong person, the bad person who doesn't deserve it, is pointless and just fucks over the entire galaxy.
And it's all the worse because Kylo Ren isn't some random villain. This is Leia and Han's son. I grew up with Han and Leia; in that special fan way, they're like family to me. So Kylo by extension is, too -- and it's not just that he shares their blood; they and Luke and Chewie raised him. But that counts for nothing. If Kylo had been kidnapped by Snoke and raised by him, that would be one thing. But as it stands, either Leia and Han and the others are the worst parents ever; or that the dark side is just that powerful -- or they're just that weak -- that they're helpless against it.
Which is my fundamental issue with the whole movie, as a Star Wars fan. Leia and Luke and Han were my childhood heroes. And the whole point of this movie seemed to be, not just that their struggle continues, but that they were never really heroes at all. Good guys, sure; but in all their lives, they accomplished nothing that actually mattered. Defeating the Empire was pointless; in just a couple decades it rises again, as strong as ever. Their love and friendship couldn't survive the rigors that followed. They couldn't raise a child strong enough not to go full-on supervillain. They built nothing good that lasted, either personally or in the universe.
And I don't think that was accidental; I think it was meant to be a major theme, that your heroes aren't so hot after all, that you should question your past idols, that maybe everything should be torn down to restart anew. But it's not the story I wanted. Not for a universe I've loved for this long, for characters so close to my heart.
But then, as a fan, I've been through this plenty of times before. There's still one more movie; and if that one continues to bring these theme forward, well, it is what it is. I'll always have the original trilogy (and Timothy Zahn's corner of the extended universe). And the ten-year-old fangirl inside of me, who loved The Force Awakens so for being everything she dreamed -- I don't ever have to tell her that this movie happened at all.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-16 09:42 pm (UTC)It's hard to say it's not Star Wars, when the prequel movies are Star Wars too? And taken as a whole I think the movies are going to be the Rise and Fall and End of the Skywalker line, which is suitably epic. But yeah...it's not the story I want.