This is certainly an unpopular opinion, controversial, perhaps one that will draw undue hate, as it is an appeal to the rabid fans of a storied franchise who have thoroughly eviscerated one of said franchise’s installments. Here goes….
I like The Last Jedi.
And beyond that…
The Last Jedi is a good movie.
Can I show my face now? Is the shitstorm over? Have the fans retreated? Yes? Good. Time for an explanation, since most of you will want one.
The Last Jedi got relentlessly shit on by casual viewers and Star Wars junkies alike. I think some of this was justified, but a lot of it was not. I think a lot of the hate directed towards this movie and its helmsman Rian Johnson was fueled by nostalgia and clinginess. I think fans who disliked the movie disliked it because it wasn’t close enough to the Star Wars they grew up with. Let me say something to these fans:
Change is good. Please don't fight it.
Change is a good thing. Systems need to evolve, they need to adapt, and in the film world, with a franchise as notorious and as heavily supported as Star Wars, changing means taking risks - making moves that are going to push the franchise forward without alienating people. Unfortunately, I think Johnson counted on his decisions falling on more willing ears than those of the fans who dislike change. A lot of the risks he took, I think, paid off nicely. There are some exceptions, like Canto Bight and Luke’s sea-cow titty milk, but we’ll address those later. A lot of the risks were met by fans crying “that’s not how it’s supposed to be! That’s not how Georgie did it!” Well, guess what? George gave us such masterful dialogue as “from my point of view, the Jedi are evil!” and “I hate sand.” George gave us Jar Jar. George turned Darth Maul, a fascinating character with a rich history, into an animated figure with no character development. badguy.gif. You know who directed the prequels? Lucas. You know who directed Empire? Irvin Kershner. The same dude who directed Speed 2: Cruise Control. No, that is not a joke. If the director of a movie like Speed 2 can make a masterpiece, maybe a guy like Ryan Johnson can make some advances for the franchise with his avant-garde ideas.
I’d like to directly address some of the criticisms I’ve heard thrown at The Last Jedi, as I think a lot of these are stupid.
1) “They got Luke’s character wrong!”
What fucking character? Luke was not a character in the OT. The only dimensionality he had was his relationship with Vader, and we saw him conflicted about killing his father in Return of the Jedi. For the rest of the entire OT, he was a whiny teenager playing the role of the cardboard cut-out protagonist. The Last Jedi gave Luke some depth. He trained Kylo, Kylo defected, Luke felt guilty, Rey came to train with him, he was deeply conflicted due to his history with pupils strongly aligned with the Force. “But Luke wouldn’t have given up like that! If this was the original trilogy Luke would have stayed valiant and persevered!” Luke never experienced failure of this magnitude in the OT. Yes, he lost to Vader in Empire, but he was hopelessly outmatched and that was out of his control. This was in his control, and he failed, and he felt single-handedly responsible for returning to the galaxy an evil that had been destroyed by his own hand. That’s significantly more egregious than losing to someone whose skills far outpace yours. He wasn’t being a whiny, grumpy old man. He had really, truly failed and you felt that in Hamill’s performance. His motive was sound and his character was rich and complex thanks to his history with Kylo. They did not get his character wrong. They got it so very right.
2) “They killed Snoke without telling us who he is!”
So fucking what? He’s not important. Yes, the nerd in me wants desperately to know what race Snoke belongs to, what planet he came from, where he trained and under whom, etc. But we don’t need to know that for the story to continue. The story is about Kylo and Rey. Abrams decided to tantalize us with TFA, but Johnson said “you know what? He doesn’t matter in the end. Fuck him.” I think that’s bold, and I really appreciate that risk. “Snoke is a bad villain without a backstory!” He’s not the villain. Kylo is. The same goes for the reveal about Rey’s parents - so what if her parents aren’t all-fucking-powerful Force users? Her parents aren’t important. She is.
3) “The Leia Force scene was stupid!”
I myself have mixed feelings about this scene. I think showing us Leia’s dormant abilities with the Force was a fantastic decision by Johnson. Leia can only access her abilities in moments of unconsciousness, of desperation, of absolute need, and they are powerful enough to save her life. The idea behind the sequence was a great one. The execution was strange. Her floating through space like Mary Poppins minus an umbrella was just a ludicrous sight and it really detracted from the gravity and the importance of the scene.
4) “The dialogue is incongruous with Star Wars!”
Yes, we heard Poe joking with Hux like a regular human being. God fucking forbid we hear Star Wars characters speaking the way people actually fucking speak. I hate criticisms of dialogue in films, especially if it’s good dialogue. A lot of the OT dialogue was much more casual than I think people remember, especially from Luke, Han, and some of the younger Rebels, and in The Last Jedi we hear the younger characters speaking casually. I’m sorry Lucas didn’t write the dialogue for this himself so we couldn’t get gems like “I’m a person and my name is Anakin!”
There were some disappointments peppered throughout the film. The whole Canto Bight subplot with the ham-fisted message related to the animals was very contrived, and as much as I love Benicio Del Toro, his character was stupid and unnecessary. Rose was the most annoying character, and she had no chemistry at all with Finn, and the kiss at the end had me rolling my eyes. As much as I didn’t want Finn to die, seeing him sacrifice himself to destroy the battering ram cannon would have been a fantastically emotional and powerful moment. Luke’s sea-cow milking scene was gratuitous and completely unnecessary. But this is the first Star Wars film to truly explore the idea of the Force and how it works, especially through the dynamic between Kylo and Rey, and it gave some depth to a character from the OT. I see this, really, as two separate movies: You have the Kylo, Rey, and Luke stuff, which is like an 11/10 movie, and then you have the Rose and Canto Bight stuff, which is like a 3/10. But the quality of the Kylo/Rey/Luke portion far outweighs the issues with Finn, Rose, and the fucking racetrack dogs - enough to make this a good movie.
I saw the Rise of Skywalker trailer and I was just so pissed that everyone was getting excited to see Abrams bring back the Death Star and the Emperor and Kylo’s helmet and imply a stronger lineage for Rey and undo all the risks Johnson took. Abrams did nothing new for The Force Awakens, and it looks like we’ll be getting another two-hour nostalgia-fest fueled by a plot we’ve already seen in the new one. I genuinely think The Last Jedi, thanks to its best elements, is the strongest installment in the sequel trilogy, and I wish people would stop being blinded by nostalgia and attacking me for my opinion.
I’d like to hear criticisms you all have of the film and I’ll respond as best I can. I really wish people would stop relentlessly shitting on this movie for things that don’t make sense.
E: Removed the pretense at the beginning. This is not hate, it's an appeal. Pretense not needed.
Submitted May 01, 2019 at 09:41AM by Kev_Bz http://bit.ly/2GT9Cbw
