The Last Jedi
Dec. 29th, 2017 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI suspect that I am the last person on earth to see The Last Jedi, but I am almost certainly wrong so I'm going to put my thoughts behind
I found this movie overwhelming sad in a way that is hard to articulate, because I liked a lot of the parts of it. I liked the fact that Poe's hotshot plan doesn't work out (although I am not sure why they couldn't just say "yes, Poe, we have a better plan than 'let's just sit here and die,' so stop freaking the fuck out"), I liked the casual diversity, I liked Rose (I liked all the cast members, but I already liked them from the last film so that was never in question), and I liked the fact that Rey's parents are no one in particular (maybe they'll retcon that, but I would be MOST put out if they did) and that her madcap plan to redeem Kylo simultaneously worked and failed.
It sort of highlights the moral shortcomings of the original trilogy's ending: Vader may not be able to stand watching the Emperor torture Luke to death as Luke screams for help, but that doesn't mean that he's repented for anything else that he's done in service of the Empire. (In the event, given that he becomes a Force ghost and everything, I guess he did - but the one doesn't imply the other.)
But nonetheless it was almost unbearably sad watching the Resistance get relentlessly pummeled into smaller and smaller pieces. They are almost certainly going to come back from it in the next movie, because that's how trilogies work, but it's going to shred my suspension of disbelief.
It was sad watching Luke die - or rather, not so much watching him die, but watching him die and knowing that he's doing so after living a wretched miserable life. He and Han and Leia all deserved happiness if anyone ever has and instead they've suffered nothing but strife and misery and betrayal at the hands of a child whom they all love, who thus far has managed to kill off two of them. (And I strongly suspect Leia will die in the next film - Carrie Fisher's death will almost force that on the filmmakers - which also seems very sad.)
Luke at least sort of had a choice about it - I think he knew what he was getting into when he force-projected himself across the galaxy. And he'll probably come back as a force ghost anyway. But that won't make the life he lived any less sad.
I also find the movie's obsession with whether there is good in Kylo - well, okay, inevitable for a Star Wars movie - but also kind of baffling. No one gives a damn whether there's good in Hux or Phasma or Snoke himself or Random Stormtrooper #357, even though for all we know there could be dozens of potential Finns among the stormtroopers who were forced into service and would gladly desert if only they got the chance.
Surely the soldiers who were press-ganged as small children are better candidates for redemption than the guy who killed most of his classmates and then ran off to join the world-conquering First Order of his own accord.
Walking that back slightly - it makes sense to me that Rey and Luke would both be obsessed with Kylo's possible redemption, because they have a personal connection with him. But the film seems to be trying to say something about redemption without considering any of the other people who might be redeemable, which undercuts whatever they're trying to say. The scene where Finn fights Phasma, in particular, struck me as a moment when they could have done something with that - the bit where Finn sheers off part of her helmet and for the first time we see her face? But then she falls into an abyss and that's that.
Less spoilery note: I'm not sure why marketing went all-out for Porgs when the film also gave us crystal foxes. Probably Porgs are cheaper to manufacture.
I found this movie overwhelming sad in a way that is hard to articulate, because I liked a lot of the parts of it. I liked the fact that Poe's hotshot plan doesn't work out (although I am not sure why they couldn't just say "yes, Poe, we have a better plan than 'let's just sit here and die,' so stop freaking the fuck out"), I liked the casual diversity, I liked Rose (I liked all the cast members, but I already liked them from the last film so that was never in question), and I liked the fact that Rey's parents are no one in particular (maybe they'll retcon that, but I would be MOST put out if they did) and that her madcap plan to redeem Kylo simultaneously worked and failed.
It sort of highlights the moral shortcomings of the original trilogy's ending: Vader may not be able to stand watching the Emperor torture Luke to death as Luke screams for help, but that doesn't mean that he's repented for anything else that he's done in service of the Empire. (In the event, given that he becomes a Force ghost and everything, I guess he did - but the one doesn't imply the other.)
But nonetheless it was almost unbearably sad watching the Resistance get relentlessly pummeled into smaller and smaller pieces. They are almost certainly going to come back from it in the next movie, because that's how trilogies work, but it's going to shred my suspension of disbelief.
It was sad watching Luke die - or rather, not so much watching him die, but watching him die and knowing that he's doing so after living a wretched miserable life. He and Han and Leia all deserved happiness if anyone ever has and instead they've suffered nothing but strife and misery and betrayal at the hands of a child whom they all love, who thus far has managed to kill off two of them. (And I strongly suspect Leia will die in the next film - Carrie Fisher's death will almost force that on the filmmakers - which also seems very sad.)
Luke at least sort of had a choice about it - I think he knew what he was getting into when he force-projected himself across the galaxy. And he'll probably come back as a force ghost anyway. But that won't make the life he lived any less sad.
I also find the movie's obsession with whether there is good in Kylo - well, okay, inevitable for a Star Wars movie - but also kind of baffling. No one gives a damn whether there's good in Hux or Phasma or Snoke himself or Random Stormtrooper #357, even though for all we know there could be dozens of potential Finns among the stormtroopers who were forced into service and would gladly desert if only they got the chance.
Surely the soldiers who were press-ganged as small children are better candidates for redemption than the guy who killed most of his classmates and then ran off to join the world-conquering First Order of his own accord.
Walking that back slightly - it makes sense to me that Rey and Luke would both be obsessed with Kylo's possible redemption, because they have a personal connection with him. But the film seems to be trying to say something about redemption without considering any of the other people who might be redeemable, which undercuts whatever they're trying to say. The scene where Finn fights Phasma, in particular, struck me as a moment when they could have done something with that - the bit where Finn sheers off part of her helmet and for the first time we see her face? But then she falls into an abyss and that's that.
Less spoilery note: I'm not sure why marketing went all-out for Porgs when the film also gave us crystal foxes. Probably Porgs are cheaper to manufacture.
