heywood on 17/12/2017 at 14:47

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The Star Wars franchise has been eroding the mystique of the force ever since Ep1 with its exposition on midichlorians, then Ep2 with its goofball battle between Yoda and Dooku, and TFA adding mind reading and Rey's ability to master Jedi powers she's never seen before in literally seconds with no training.

Sulphur on 17/12/2017 at 16:26

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Okay, so summary in three words and one abbreviation: TLJ was pretty good. That's it, post over!

Right, no. Sorry.

I agree with henke that it could have been trimmed a bit, the casino planet especially seeming like a massive stretch for overall suspension of disbelief because a) hand-waving the possibility of sending some TIE fighters to just finish off the cruiser, b) it's a surprisingly close by planet if they were able to return within 6 hours of the fuel running out, and c) it messes up the overall pacing by overlaying the desperation of the situation with an extended detour to Make the Movie's Point, and to Develop Old/New Characters. It felt like the urgency went a bit MIA with the script flitting back and forth between child labourers, animal abuse, and the casino canvassing.

For most of the first half, I was starting to think TLJ was Rian Johnson not getting how much The Empire Strikes Back would refract viewers' opinions for this movie through their own prisms of expectations and nostalgia. Since The Force Awakens mirrored A New Hope, expectations were of course that The Last Jedi would mirror Empire. So what exactly makes Empire special? I suspect most people would say its dark atmosphere and THAT revelation towards the end. Oh sure, there were lots of lovely character moments and fantastically choreographed battles, but those were already done in ANH (as they were in TFA more or less), so the expectation was for those to continue.

So, that's most people. Me, I like TESB for two things: its glimmers of light in all that desperate darkness, and its absolutely fucking fantastic iconography. And those moments are pretty damn iconic: glimpses of Vader's head before the meditation chamber closes on him; a motherfucking cloud city; the carbonite chamber duel; Luke hanging onto a strut with one arm against the backdrop of a gorgeously painted abyss; and a whole bunch more. So about an hour in, I was wondering whether that anything to equal that was going to happen, because it hadn't. The movies shared a similar color palette - my recollections outside of the stark whites of the Hoth battle and the warm oranges of Bespin are a lot of darkly lit shots, some dominated by primary reds and blues, which TLJ's poster (http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/the-last-jedi-theatrical-blog.jpg) recognises, but that was it. The atmosphere was a bit dour, and the stakes were mostly abstract. It was fun, but it felt like it was treading water.

Long story short: yeah, Rian Johnson knows what he's doing. Right after the halfway point, it becomes obvious that he calculated expectations based on TESB, and the setups that you expect to resolve neatly like they would in all of the preceding movies don't; he subverts them like a good storyteller does, and that's when the movie begins to get really dark -- this is not a coincidence. This is also when he breaks out his paintbrush and really goes to town. Holdo's final lightspeed jump is that audience-holds-its-breath moment, and will be rightly called out as one of the most memorable scenes in the entire franchise. And it's not the only moment: there's Snoke's throne room. The clouds eclipsing the double sunset just before Luke passes on. The salt planet with red earth that kicks up with each tread and explosion like blood.

All of this comes together with a plot that finally seems to kick into overdrive after setting things up for over an hour, for a final act that knocks them down with a welcome, almost relentless intensity. Some would say that it's too prolonged both ways, a bit too calculated, and they would be right; but that's a flaw that I'm willing to set aside in favour of what it does well - it's smart, entertaining, knows when to make a joke and when to surprise you, and while it was never going to be as unexpectedly amazing as The Empire Strikes Back, it makes a damn good fist of trying anyway... and almost succeeds.

Also, Luke's lightsaber toss after taking it from Rey was fucking glorious. I laughed so hard.

8.5/10 midichlorians, baby.

Jason Moyer on 17/12/2017 at 17:53

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Yeah I think you could go overboard with it, but I was fine with the new stuff in TLJ. Luke and Leia are legends, and the force bond between Rey and Ben actually adds some mystery to things. It should be interesting to see where Kasdan goes with that.

Then again, I like when people take the general idea of the Force (an energy that binds all life together) and come up with new things to do with it. That's why I think Nihilus from KotOR II is one of the best villains that's been featured in SW media. The Force is best when it's not just "the Emperor has reached level 12 and has now mastered Chain Force Lightning!" or something.

Jason Moyer on 17/12/2017 at 18:30

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They kind of explained that in the Casino scene didn't they? TNO has been stripping planets of resources and using it to buy weapons. Unlike the Empire, they seem like less of a government and more a marauding army.

As far as the trainees (who I think became the Knights Of Ren) part of me was wondering if that wasn't them in the throne room scene.

Snoke was basically as developed as the Emperor was in the OT. And I think, like the Emperor, he's basically just there for the purpose of developing the other main characters. I mean, I'm not sure how important it would be to delve more into his character when the film is already 2 and a half hours long. And there's nothing wrong with leaving things unanswered, in fact when it comes to Star Wars I generally prefer it.

TBH, I find a lot of the "but what about" stuff with SW to be pointless. We had 3 films dealing with the political machinations of the galaxy and they were terrible.

Renzatic on 18/12/2017 at 03:37

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I think Snoke was there simply to act as a foil for the main characters, just another face in the background who's sole purpose is to add more depth to the focuses of the story, which are, of course, Kylo and Rey.

Would it have been nice to get more background in Snoke? Yeah. Sure. But as far as the story is concerned, his part in the tale begins and ends with his relationship with Kylo.