thedeadparrot | Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I think this is one of those movies I appreciated more than I enjoyed, and I'm still trying to parse out my feelings about it. I thought I would have more feelings about it than I did (my feelings are easy to manipulate). Which isn't to say that I didn't have feelings. Just. Less than I thought. But I've been spoiled by watching Coco and The Shape of Water recently, so.

This movie felt like it had too many plot threads and emotional arcs in it. Almost Marvel-esque in that way. It wasn't that the arcs were bad. It was just that there were too many of them and too truncated to have much of a lasting impact. We've got Finn and Rose's shenanigans on the casino planet. Poe and the Resistance stuck in the middle of siege. Rey and Luke on their island. Rey and Kylo Ren doing whatever. At least one of these needed to be cut.

I kind of liked the sort of twist on Return of the Jedi where Kylo Ren murders his master and it looks like he's turned a corner but is really still a shithead. He's the worst, and I'm glad the movie still leaves him that way, but he did get too much screentime for how much the worst he is. Snoke was a shitty shadowy villain anyway.

Luke's characterization was a thing. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. It just felt shortchanged by the plot necessities of the rest of the movie. I mean, I have a lot of Luke Skywalker feelings, and he's so much the emotional grounding rod of the OT that his arc here feels shallow since it happened so much in the past, especially compared to that of Kylo Ren.

That scene with Yoda was great, tho. And that final shot of him looking towards the horizon and seeing two suns. Fuck, that got me right in the chest.

I'm still salty about them killing him off, though. I wanted him to have the chance to come back and fix his mistakes in the way Obi-Wan Kenobi never did. I guess that final stand was about that, but see: truncated storylines. I bet he gets to be a Force ghost in the next one, but still. SALTY AF.

Oh, hey. Poe got to be an actual character in this one. Kind of a confused, messy one. But that beats the last movie.

I laughed at all the funny bits.

I have no idea what they're doing with Rey. She got to learn how to use the Force, hooray! And then was shackled to Kylo Ren's arc and storyline for the rest of it. Blech.

I liked the way the movie tackled the Jedi and their failings and the moral philosophies behind the Force. But it never got a chance to fully expand on that. Damn, it just makes me miss how the pacing of Empire Strikes Back could give Luke all that time on Dagobah to talk things out and feel things.

Also, separating the main trio for the entirety of the movie was not a good idea. They have good dynamics and chemistry. And I'm not just saying this as an OT3 shipper. They could have cut down on the number of storylines by doing that, too.

Rose was great.

This was the most blatantly political Star Wars has ever been, even with all the senatorial/taxation/trade shenanigans in the prequels. Not subtle about it at all, obviously, and not exactly a sophisticated take on things, but more it was explicit than it has been in the past.

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I kind of liked the sort of twist on Return of the Jedi where Kylo Ren murders his master and it looks like he's turned a corner but is really still a shithead. He's the worst, and I'm glad the movie still leaves him that way, but he did get too much screentime for how much the worst he is.

YES, THIS!

I thought Daisy Ridley did the best with what she had to work with there; she really is the standout actress for me...but oy, the flip side of this clever take on Kylo Ren is that it makes Rey look naive in ways she hasn't been shown to be before.

Oh, hey. Poe got to be an actual character in this one. Kind of a confused, messy one. But that beats the last movie.

I thought it was an interesting development: enhance Poe's attitude about Doing Something, which is in line with his crazy spy act for Leia the last time around, and downplay his sweetness. I mean, that is what I liked about him, but it was pretty thin as characterization goes. (And I definitely liked that he had a Thing for Holder, and vice versa, but that none of it kept these two leaders from going through with their plans.

I don't mind Rey being naive, really. She is hardened by her time on Jakku, but I think she has been shown to be kind of wide-eyed about how the galaxy at large works. What bothered me about it is that she has to keep harping on the same thing over and over again with Kylo Ren, and ugh, she had so many other interesting things she could have been doing instead.

I do feel like it was a natural extension of Poe's character that we've seen before. I think my hesitation is that I'm not sure what the movie was trying to get out of his actions. Was it that both sides had justifications for what they did? Or was it that Holder was being an asshole for just not telling people the plan? Or Poe was an asshole for jumping straight to 'mutiny'? I did also appreciate the sexual tension aspect of it that never gets carried through on.

I don't mind Rey being naive, really. She is hardened by her time on Jakku, but I think she has been shown to be kind of wide-eyed about how the galaxy at large works

Hmm, that is a good point. Jakku did not seem to, um, foster much wisdom of human relationships in the first place, and then there is her particular sad situation.

I do feel like it was a natural extension of Poe's character that we've seen before.

Yeah, it was one way to go from the last movie, absolutely. Not the only way, but definitely one way. I don't fault Rian Johnson one bit for that (or for so many other things...geez, Star Wars fandom really has a hate-on for the guy, eh? I think he did a decent job).

think my hesitation is that I'm not sure what the movie was trying to get out of his actions. Was it that both sides had justifications for what they did? Or was it that Holder was being an asshole for just not telling people the plan? Or Poe was an asshole for jumping straight to 'mutiny'?

That part is a little muddled -- generally, my impression is that Rian Johnson did a good job with a more complex plot and more original moments; he didn't always let these moments grow organically from what we have seen and are seeing in the characters, though.

See also this: https://lunabee34.dreamwidth.org/530714.html?thread=6355482#cmt6355482

Play in that thread; I think you'd enjoy Lorraine's and my discussions. :)

Also, separating the main trio for the entirety of the movie was not a good idea.

Agreed. I did miss that a lot -- but I also feel it a) never was the story for the middle part of a Star Wars series; this is always the Darkest Before The Dawn installment, and b) Rian Johnson in particular was not the guy to tell warm, fuzzy OT3 stories -- too bad J.J. Abrams isn't, either (I know; he gave us the first movie, but Abrams is so obsessed with threading plot that I don't think he will have the space to thread relationships together in a way we are likely to find satisfactory).

Yeah, I get that it was a chance for all of them to shine in different ways, and that it was never going to be satisfying OT3 shenanigans anyway, but I did miss them all together. Alas.

We WILL have fanfic for that, though!

And think of all the shipper setups:

Finn/Rose
Finn/Rey -- probably still the strongest (especially if you ask John Boyega ;)
Finn/Poe -- sure, he was deflecting his love to BB-8, but y'know, there was a lot of racing through corridors for Finn
Rey/Poe -- that moment there! Which brings me to
Rey/Poe/Finn and of course
Rey/Poe/Finn/Rose.

I woke up trying to work Rey/Poe/Finn/Rose into a sedoretu...

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

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