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I saw The Last Jedi yesterday--2 thumbs up! I had problems with a couple of things, but mainly I really liked it. Of the original trilogy, "A New Hope" has always been my favorite. And I never saw the 3rd prequel, I was so not into them. I like the new film as much as my favorite of the first trilogy. This film felt as good-hearted as "Wonder Woman", and I like it maybe as much.
Spoilers Ho!
I continue to like Rey. She still feels untried, but unlike most of us, she seems unlikely to let her failures fester and compound into larger ones, like Luke did. I feel she got out of her battle with Kylo Ren and Throned Decaying Guy too easily, but I'm glad she didn't fall for Ren's typical abuser ploy of telling her she's nothing except to him. Still, so far she hasn't had to really struggle with her limits and failures--I hope we get to see this in the third film to round her out and deepen her--it wouldn't take long with her emotional strength. I hope they let her arc be about her humanity, and to be human is to err, and I really hope it's not all about cleaning up after the mistakes of men, because the Good Woman trope would not be progress. These are hard lines to balance, I know.
I love Rose. Can anyone not? So adorable. I hope she gets to interact with Rey in the next movie. Yay for another great woman character of color. Her joy of seeing critters was delightful.
And speaking of critters, I just loved the crystal foxes. And the porgs were well used with the cute factor being played self consciously for humor.
I was happily surprised to see the General make it through this film to the next--I did not know they had enough footage of her for the third film. And it was great to see her get to do freaky Jedi tricks in rescuing herself from space. And that she had a comrade in arms from her youth in Vice Admiral Holdo. I loved Holdo. I love that being a kick ass general means you can dress as femme as you want to. She had that anime hero-goddess look in the last shot of her in the ship alone with her long gown lines. Let the Leia/Holdo fics commence!
So good to see a good amount of women characters and in the background--a third or so. I still feel there could have been more characters of color.
I liked Luke's arc with having to deal with his Abraham-Isaac moment with Ben Solo. Just a split moment of fear on his part leading to his threatening abuse but not following through still lead to tragedy. And not only was he dealing with this fail, but Ben was not his child, he was his only sister and dearest friend's child. Yes, I could see a very good person not being able to handle that and running away, hating himself and not able to deal with his friends' condemnation, and worse the guilt for their sorrow. and forgiveness, and that all on the microcosm level. But I like that the responsibility for Ren's turning was still open and still ultimately Ren's responsibility. I liked the astral projection, his getting to say sorry, to Ren and that he got to watch the horizon while transcending, despite Yoda's chiding. I think the film failed, though, in not showing him reacting hard to Rey's news of Han's death, and at Ren's hands would have been a knife twist in Luke's feelings of guilt.
The film's biggest failure to me though was in letting Luke, with Yoda's blessing to boot, BURN BOOKS! Oy! That is never, ever an appropriate message! What a horrible image! Yes, Luke needed to end his idolatry of tradition, but not obliterate that traditions' history and records! Let's blow up artifacts of ancient civilizations for good measure! Like we need to encourage that in our world! He lit it all up in flames and then . . . transcended, so no, there will be no correction of this fail in the third film. Burn books you did, Yoda! WTF? Not good!
Also, the film was a little too long and the twisting multiple escape plots at points felt tiresome in their bleeding together in the long knots of them. And no, Canto Bight was not one I'd want to drop--the messages there of the destruction of lives, human, animal, and planetary by the arms deals that built the city's beauty was at the heart of the film and set the background for the last scene, so that was not what I wanted cut.
I did like the ending with the kids playing rebel after exposure to Rose and Finn's kindness and the child slave as Jedi sweeper willing his broom to his hand, and that you could switch the John Williams' theme music to Harry Potter there if you wanted to--fun for crossover fandoms! A good note to end on.
Spoilers Ho!
I continue to like Rey. She still feels untried, but unlike most of us, she seems unlikely to let her failures fester and compound into larger ones, like Luke did. I feel she got out of her battle with Kylo Ren and Throned Decaying Guy too easily, but I'm glad she didn't fall for Ren's typical abuser ploy of telling her she's nothing except to him. Still, so far she hasn't had to really struggle with her limits and failures--I hope we get to see this in the third film to round her out and deepen her--it wouldn't take long with her emotional strength. I hope they let her arc be about her humanity, and to be human is to err, and I really hope it's not all about cleaning up after the mistakes of men, because the Good Woman trope would not be progress. These are hard lines to balance, I know.
I love Rose. Can anyone not? So adorable. I hope she gets to interact with Rey in the next movie. Yay for another great woman character of color. Her joy of seeing critters was delightful.
And speaking of critters, I just loved the crystal foxes. And the porgs were well used with the cute factor being played self consciously for humor.
I was happily surprised to see the General make it through this film to the next--I did not know they had enough footage of her for the third film. And it was great to see her get to do freaky Jedi tricks in rescuing herself from space. And that she had a comrade in arms from her youth in Vice Admiral Holdo. I loved Holdo. I love that being a kick ass general means you can dress as femme as you want to. She had that anime hero-goddess look in the last shot of her in the ship alone with her long gown lines. Let the Leia/Holdo fics commence!
So good to see a good amount of women characters and in the background--a third or so. I still feel there could have been more characters of color.
I liked Luke's arc with having to deal with his Abraham-Isaac moment with Ben Solo. Just a split moment of fear on his part leading to his threatening abuse but not following through still lead to tragedy. And not only was he dealing with this fail, but Ben was not his child, he was his only sister and dearest friend's child. Yes, I could see a very good person not being able to handle that and running away, hating himself and not able to deal with his friends' condemnation, and worse the guilt for their sorrow. and forgiveness, and that all on the microcosm level. But I like that the responsibility for Ren's turning was still open and still ultimately Ren's responsibility. I liked the astral projection, his getting to say sorry, to Ren and that he got to watch the horizon while transcending, despite Yoda's chiding. I think the film failed, though, in not showing him reacting hard to Rey's news of Han's death, and at Ren's hands would have been a knife twist in Luke's feelings of guilt.
The film's biggest failure to me though was in letting Luke, with Yoda's blessing to boot, BURN BOOKS! Oy! That is never, ever an appropriate message! What a horrible image! Yes, Luke needed to end his idolatry of tradition, but not obliterate that traditions' history and records! Let's blow up artifacts of ancient civilizations for good measure! Like we need to encourage that in our world! He lit it all up in flames and then . . . transcended, so no, there will be no correction of this fail in the third film. Burn books you did, Yoda! WTF? Not good!
Also, the film was a little too long and the twisting multiple escape plots at points felt tiresome in their bleeding together in the long knots of them. And no, Canto Bight was not one I'd want to drop--the messages there of the destruction of lives, human, animal, and planetary by the arms deals that built the city's beauty was at the heart of the film and set the background for the last scene, so that was not what I wanted cut.
I did like the ending with the kids playing rebel after exposure to Rose and Finn's kindness and the child slave as Jedi sweeper willing his broom to his hand, and that you could switch the John Williams' theme music to Harry Potter there if you wanted to--fun for crossover fandoms! A good note to end on.