Star Wars thoughts and many, many spoilers
A
few thoughts on Star Wars and on the latest chapter – beware, here
there be spoilers galore…
I
was exactly the right age when the first Star Wars movie was
released. Just like Luke, I was a whiny teenager complaining about
having to do homework or chores rather than run into Tosche Station
for some power converters (and to hang out with my friends). I was
going to LOTS of movies then – midnight showings of Kentucky Fried
Movie and Rocky Horror, first runs of almost anything that looked
decent (and many that didn’t) – from Rocky to Rollercoaster.
There was a LOT of build up for Star Wars and my girlfriend and I
made it to the very first showing in Charlotte - at the old
Charlottetown Mall theater. It might be a little overkill to say
that it was life-changing, but it certainly blew me away. A few days
later I was in Winston-Salem for the summer attending Governor’s
School, surrounded by fellow geeks who had already seen the movie 3-4
times before they arrived on campus and it was a major topic of
conversation.
All
of this is to say not only that the Star Wars cosmology is very
important to me but also that I come at it differently than someone now in their 20s whose parents made them watch the original trilogy over
a weekend before taking them to see Phantom Menace in the theater.
Let
me first get out of the way that Eps I, II and III are mostly
unwatchable – the result of Lucas being so completely in charge.
The man may be the worst writer of dialog in the history of
screencraft and it didn’t help that the actors chosen to portray
proto-Darth Vader were completely inept. The guy that created the
Machete Order for watching the first 6 films makes a very valid point
that The Phantom Menace can be completely ignored without any effect
on the rest of the series. Darth Maul and Qui-Gon are both
introduced and both killed before the end of the movie. Jar Jar
almost completely disappears after TPM, other than a couple of short
scenes where he is used by Palpatine. On the other hand, II and III
do offer some insight into the backstory – I don’t watch them
often (and I take extended bathroom breaks during the Anakin/Padme
courtship) but they do provide some insight into both
Vader as well as the path that Luke is trying to navigate. But they
are not good movies.
The
Force Awakens had to try to do a lot. It had to bring back people
like me that were turned off by the prequel trilogy while not losing
the younger generation that grew up wearing Darth Maul backpacks to
school and it had to attract an even younger audience as well. So I
get the fan service aspect (the retelling to some extent of A New
Hope, the reuniting of the original trio as a new one is being
formed, etc) and I certainly have no problem with the broadening of
casting by adding more women and people of color (I found that
refreshing). I found the movie enjoyable but thin (a common
criticism of JJ Abrams, I suppose) and ultimately somewhat
forgettable. In other words, it was par for most movies that I’ve
seen (ever, frankly) – a good couple of hours entertainment. Which I guess is fine but I wanted more.
Then
there’s Rogue One. One can argue whether it needed to be made or
not but I’m damn glad it was. It wasn’t just a good Star Wars
movie – it was a damn good movie, period. The final 45 minutes make it one
of the best war movies I’ve ever seen (admittedly not a genre I go
very deep in). I kept expecting to see a pack of Luckies tucked into
the helmet band of one of the rebels. There was a time when movies
ending in major character deaths were fairly common – in this case
it was inevitable and known before you saw the movie but the way they
handled that ending was excellent. If they want to tell more stories
about the stuff that happened off camera and they’re as good as
Rogue One, I’ll be all over them.
My
expectations for TFA were not that high. My expectations for The
Last Jedi were actually QUITE high and they were met. Yes it could
have been a little shorter and yes it did drag for a few minutes in
the middle and yes they wasted a perfectly good Del Toro (unless he’s
back in IX) so I’ll give 4.5 out of 5. Still a fantastic movie and
a worthy entry into SW canon. I honestly don’t understand most of
the critiques I’ve read (by non-critics) – they don’t like the
humor (there has always been humor in SW), they don’t like the way
certain prominent characters were killed off (still trying to be a
little careful about spoilers despite my warnings), the alt-right
puppies don’t like the fact that the cast isn’t lily-white and
possessing a Y chromosome, blah blah blah. The folks that say this
doesn’t feel like Star Wars to them don’t have the same
understanding of Star Wars as I do. I’m not saying they’re
wrong. But they’re wrong. :)
Let
me talk about Princess Ambassador General Leia Skywalker Organa for a
minute. I wrote elsewhere today about her story arc in the original
trilogy and her often-overlooked kickassedness. In the prison deck
of the star destroyer, she was the one that took action that allowed
them to make a (smelly) escape. She had complete control of the male
attention coming her way. Even in the first act of RotJ, despite her ridiculous outfit, she
single-handedly kills her oppressor. She was not only a leader of
the Rebellion, she was the one they trusted to receive the Death Star
plans and to get them back to the rebel base. In the last couple of
years, I started following Carrie Fisher on Twitter and came to love
her as much as her character. So I was prepared for emotions. I was
not prepared to lose it three times – in her last conversation with
Holdo, with her exchange with Luke’s projection and in her last
scene with Rey. Niagara Falls, Frankie. In this movie, I see Leia as
George Washington, who was known more for his strategic retreats than
his military victories. Live to fight another day – that’s the
premise for the whole movie. She was brilliant. And I miss her.
One
of the best things about The Last Jedi is one that I’ve seen fans
complain about – Poe’s arc throughout the movie. Apparently some
want their dashing heroes to be faultless. Instead you start to
understand Poe as the Star Wars version of the World War I flying
ace, doing one-on-one combat above the trenches with little regard
for the boys below or the ground crew (or overall strategy). His
jubilation after expending the whole damn bomber force to take out
one Dreadnought is followed by Leia watching the lights representing
bombers (and crews) blinking out. You know she was both lamenting the
loss of life as well as thinking about what the hell they were going
to do when the NEXT Dreadnought showed up. Follow that with Poe’s
mutiny against Holdo (which he probably only survived because they
were so short-handed – otherwise I’d have spaced him) and one
hopes that he may finally be learning about command and strategy
beyond his tactical combat skills in ways that will show up in the
next movie.
I’m
still pissed off that years ago Lucas replaced the planet of Wookies
in the initial RofT scripts with “the forest moon of Endor”
populated by annoying furry mini-Chewies called Jawas. And I was
prepared to hate the Porgs. But they were such a small (get it?)
part of the movie that they were just fine.
Middle
movies of a trilogy are always tough. If the Interwebs had been
around when Empire Strikes Back came out, I can only imagine the
screams from ANH fanboys - “Vader is Luke’s father? Where did
THAT come from!” “You froze your best character!?” Yet it is
considered by most now to be the best movie of the lot (I still place
A New Hope ahead of it because it is a complete movie – it all
could have stopped there and the ending would have been
satisfactory). In middle movies, you have to break up the
“fellowship” so you can reunite them and they have to end dark so
that the third movie can restore the light. The Last Jedi does that
in ways that are enough different than the original trilogy that it
doesn’t suffer the same “we’ve seen this before” issues that
plagued The Force Awakens.
I
was not a believer in Kylo Ren in TFA. He just didn’t seem that
formidable of an opponent. That changed during the scenes with Rey in
TLJ – while his grandfather was content to essentially be muscle
for his mentor/master the Emperor, Ren wants to be THE GUY. And he
also wants to burn it ALL down and start over – no more First
Order, no more Resistance, just a galaxy united as… Renland?
Kyloville? At least the kid’s got ambition now. I'm a little readier to see him as the Big Bad.
I
would have liked a little more Rey and a little less Finn, but that’s
a minor quibble. And unlike some fan critics, I hope like hell that
Kylo Ren was telling the truth about Rey’s parents. We don’t need
her to be a forgotten Han Solo by-blow or a hidden Kenobi or Yoda’s
love child. I’m perfectly happy with her being an extremely
powerful force-sensitve nobody and I’ll be disappointed if JJ
Abrams walks that back in XI. The fight in Snoke's throne room was awesome - the best choreographed light saber battle they've yet done. If you've ever seen any videos of Daisy Ridley's insane workout routines, you can see there where it pays off.
So
The Last Jedi moves into the number 3 spot in my Star Wars order of
goodness – behind A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back and just ahead
of Rogue One. I’m hoping JJ does XI right and I’m much more
interested now in the three-movie deal that Rian Johnson has for new
SW movies to come. Interested in what you guys think!
Labels: Movies
