2017 sequel to a sequel to a trilogy with a prequel
Rating: 12/20 (Dylan: 13/20)
Plot: The Resistance is in a predicament as the First Order is hot on their trail. On the verge of being completely snuffed out--a term this movie really likes apparently--they look for some sort of new hope. Or maybe it's an old new hope.
I might end up really liking this installment, but I came out of the theater and told my son that I "kinda hated it." And I still might kinda hate it.
Oh, I wanted to start by warning you not to read if you've not seen the movie. There will be lots of spoilers although I'll try my best to be as vague as possible.
Anyway, back to my conflicted feelings. Now that I type that, it seems completely appropriate. For a movie--and really, an entire franchise--that has so much to do with duality, conflicted feelings seem about right. My expectations were high going in. This, after all, was supposed to be the Attack of the Clones of the trilogy! Or the Empire of the series. And don't get me wrong. I enjoyed lots of stuff in The Last Jedi. However, there's just so much idiocy mixed in that I found it difficult to just let myself go and love the thing.
And I want you to keep in mind--I unapologetically enjoy the prequels and frequently find myself in situations where I have to defend them.
But my first thoughts were filled with confusion. The first scene of the movie forced me to check my ticket stub to see if I'd accidentally stumbled into a sequel to Spaceballs as Poe prank phonecalls General Hux. For a movie that I expected to deliver the darkness, this was setting the wrong tone. There's an ensuing space battle filled with glorious space battle imagery, but the stakes never felt as high as they actually were, and I felt unengaged. I started wondering early on if I even really liked Star Wars movies anymore. From there, the characters from The Force Awakens are taken to places that either didn't make sense or seemed utterly pointless. I didn't like a single moment of the storyline that involved Finn. Poe spends most of the movie running around arguing with people. Kylo and Rey seem to only be in the movie to be dicked around with. Chewbacca is background. General Leia (I think she's a general in these, right?) does something so perplexing that I heard people audibly sighing behind me. Luke doesn't seem like Luke. Snoke isn't developed at all. General Hux isn't developed at all. And on and on.
After thinking about it for almost a full week, I do get what Rian Johnson was doing, and it's something I can appreciate. Johnson, because it has to be done at this point in a franchise that can't survive just regurgitating the same ideas over and over again, is making an attempt to reinvent Star Wars. He plays with almost every expectation any fan of the series could have had going in.
Want to find out who Snoke really is? Want to find out who Rey's parents are? Well, we're not going to give you answers that are going to leave you fulfilled. Want Luke to jump in and save the good guys by being a total badass? No, that's not what is going to happen? Want Poe to replace Harrison Ford and be that rogue anti-hero type that you love to root for? Well, we're going to turn that trope on its head. Want Kylo to really grow as a villain and evolve into a true successor to Darth Vader and all the other Darths who came before him? No, he's still going to be that tortured, whiny emo kid. Want Captain Phasma to have inexplicably emerge from the garbage before the big death-planet thing exploded and somehow justify her existence in this new trilogy? No, that's not going to happen. Want C3PO to say have some stupid lines like he did in the other movies? Ok, we'll go ahead and give you that one.
What Johnson seems interested in doing is turning everything on its head. There are a lot of lines, mostly delivered by grouchy Luke, about the need to let go of the past. And as risky as it was for Johnson to write and direct a Star Wars movie that so intentionally defies expectations and makes the attempt to start a transition away from any Skywalkers, it's something that I really want to applaud. Johnson isn't afraid to do some dirty work with this franchise, trash a few legacies, and leave some loose threads. In many ways, he's doing something much more interesting with the Star Wars universe than Abrams did.
However, he does it so clumsily. If you want to accuse The Force Awakens of being nothing more than a copy of A New Hope, you're probably still going to say that it was a well-done copy. Sure, it had its problems, but it was competent storytelling and brought new characters to life almost effortlessly. This one's a bit of a mess and doesn't seem to know what to do with all of these characters. Part of the problem is that the movie is overly ambitious. It was like giving a kid a bowl of soup filled to the brim with all sorts of fun little noodle shapes and vegetables and CGI effect capabilities and saying, "Here ya go, kid! Enjoy that soup, but I'm not giving you a spoon to eat it with!" The soup's just going to end up all over the table and very likely the kid's lap. And The Last Jedi also has moments where it just sploshes all over the place, some ending up all over Rian Johnson's lap.
I don't think this review is going very well. Truthfully, this is one of the hardest out of the 3,200+ write-ups I've done on this blog. I kept putting it off all week because I just didn't know how to say what I wanted to say.
Maybe I should switch to the positives. I'll give ten positives and then ten negatives.
1) My new favorite scene in any Star Wars movie--Luke milking some sort of alien creature, taking a swig, and then looking directly at the audience like he's filming a commercial for the stuff. That was epic, and I don't just throw that word around.
2) I actually like Luke's story arc, and all the Jedi stuff. This movie does more for the force than maybe any other movie in the franchise.
3) Luke's big moment on the salt planet, shots that recall Eastwood as the Man with No Name, probably intentionally.
4) Those fucking red guys with Snoke, and that glorious fight scene that might be a preview of Tarantino's Star Trek movie. With the red background, it reminded me of a samurai movie. That was great watching Kylo and Rey do their thing.
5) This looks exactly as good as a really expensive movie should look. The special effects are mostly good with the exception of a scene I'll mention below. There are some really beautiful shots even. Luke's little getaway island is very pretty, and the reddening of that salt planet is a really cool use of color.
6) I really do appreciate the balls it took for them to do what they did with Snoke here.
7) Some of the humor might work? There's a problem when a guy whose impulsivity ended up costing a bunch of people their lives starts cracking one-liners, but there are some funny moments.
8) I like the theme about how anybody, regardless if they have the surname Skywalker, can be be somebody special in this universe.
9) There's the return of a special character. No, not Nien Nunb although he's in there, too. No, the return of another favorite who gets to say some cool things.
10) Oscar Isaac is a good actor, and I think I like his character. I also liked the additions of Benicio del Toro's Tom Waitsian character and Laura Dern. And speaking of Dern, here's a bonus thing that I liked: There are some strong female characters in this movie.
The negatives?
1) I hated the creatures. The Porgs gave people seeing them in the previews some concerns, but I figured those fears were silly. They ended up being in this thing way too much. And those shiny wolf things on the salt planet looked stupid. At least they served some kind of purpose.
2) I hated every minute showing Finn and the new gal's adventures on the casino planet. I hated those horse things, I hated the over-abundance of CGI characters, and I hated the improbable chase sequence.
3) Pretty much everything to do with BB-8 was stupid. I know these movies are really for children and that children probably loved that little robotic ball's shenanigans, but things got a little too ridiculous for me.
4) A shirtless Kylo Ren, obviously just an way to get another action figure on the shelves. Or maybe give female Star Wars fans some spank bank material. He also wears his pants too high.
5) There are big things that happen in this movie, but the story goes from point A to point B by hitting points M, D, S, Q, V, O, F, T, and probably a few others. When you look at how much the plot was actually advanced, you might wonder whether it was worth a 2 1/2 hour movie.
6) Leia. She actually feels superfluous here. I believe she was supposed to have more to do in the third movie (with the first one being Solo and this one being Luke), and we'll probably not get to know what that would have meant unless they do a CGI Carrie Fisher again. But there's something that happens with Leia in this movie that makes me angry just thinking about it.
7) An explosive action sequence on the bad guy ship with Finn, BB-8, and the new girl is about the silliest thing I've seen in a Star Wars movie since the clone factory scenes in Attack of the Clones.
8) The demise of one very important character without much commentary at all. It's just like he was an action figure tossed out the window of a moving car. Actually, you could argue that there's no weight to any of the deaths that occur in this movie.
9) The fact that Finn or Rose (that's the new gal's name--I looked it up because I'm serious about my blogging) don't need to be in this movie at all. I mean, I guess you're not going to decide to just not have Finn in the second movie, but they run around a whole lot and only actually accomplish a single thing that I can think of. And that's not even a good thing.
10) There's a scene with Lupita Nyong'o's character that was really dopey. It was one of many silly missteps that wouldn't have annoyed me nearly as much if they had just appeared as deleted scenes on the dvd.
I'm going to see this again and will let you know if my feelings change at all.
10 comments:
I couldn't agree more. This movie seriously underperformed for me. And I'm not even going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say it was turning tropes on their head. Here are my likes and dislikes...
Likes
1. Adam Driver's acting. That guy's choice on how to be a bad guy is brilliant. He's not menacing. In fact he charms/mesmerizes Rey. When he's not throwing temper tantrums (which is written in the script...not the actor's fault). I really like his low, calm, smooth voice….and nipples.
2. Probably my favorite part is when Kylo Ren kills Snoke and talks about starting a new world/universe. With Rey’s help, they could lead a new way of things. He talks about doing away with the Empire and the Resistance and starting anew with them as a balance. How refreshing. I think I physically nodded my head in agreement as he was speaking. That moment took things into a completely original direction. Before, even the most powerful Star Wars characters had to make a choice of one side or the other. This was a powerful moment that breathed new life into worn out lungs of telling the same story through how many 3-quals?
3. The chemistry between Rey and Kylo Ren. It went from intense to subtle and back with such velocity that it made for some good drama and suspense.
4. Benicio Tel Torro’s character/acting. Great new character…though, the way he was introduce and exited was sloppy…but that later.
5. Laura Dern’s character. I like it when characters are made to look like villains then they come through and get redemption.
6. Yoda
7. Some of the great lines. I read that Carrie Fisher had a hand in rewriting some of the script. I’ll have to read further to see which lines were hers, but there were some real winners. Yoda’s line about “failure [being] the greatest teacher” might go on my classroom wall…for me. I’m not a very good teacher. Or the line about “believing in the sun until morning” or Luke’s explanation of The Force. “Don’t fight what you hate. Save what you love.” Good stuff that kept the tone and believability alive.
8. The look. He’s a better director than George Lucas…if that’s saying much.
Dislikes
1. WHAT THE FUCK was up with Leia’s space flight!?! That was a slap in the face to Star Wars fans and regular moviegoers. I’m going to have to search the internet for someone to defend that stupid move. I need to know a reason.
2. Underdeveloped and underutilized characters. Wow, there were a lot. Captain Phasma, Snoke, Benecio Del Toro’s character. WHO ARE YOU? WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT YOU? WHY ARE YOU IMPORTANT? As much as I think their characters are interesting (and well-performed…especially Del Toro’s), they were certainly not necessary for the story. Not even a means to an end. They were superfluous. They were decoration and wall dressing at best. And why even have Chewbacca or Fin or Rose? Those subplots were useless overall. They never even shut down that damn tracker thing!
3. This movie introduced some things that have never happened in the Star Wars cannon (to my knowledge). Like Luke being able to show up somewhere, hand a tangible object to someone, kiss/hug/hold hands with/wink at people…Be a mirage for all to see. And it kills you apparently. Why didn’t he just die and show up as a Force Ghost? I was waiting for that. People being able to live in a space vacuum. That’s bullshit. I don’t care how long ago this story takes place or how far away the galaxy is. You can give me 9 movies explaining and building up the idea of a magical force that allows for superhuman things to happen, but you can’t pull that nonsense out now. Now I’m too mad to stay focused…moving on.
4. The comedy. Too much of a good thing. All of the weightiness was lost with all of the knee-slappers.
5. The wannabe parts. The Casino wanting to be the Cantina (it had over-the-top characters, a feeling of immanent danger, and goddamn Ragtime music). The Porgs wanting to be Ewoks. Stop giving us “adorable” creatrues for the sake of getting new merchandise. Snoke’s wannabe Emperor. Poe’s wannabe Solo. Again, I’m not blaming the actors. They did their jobs. In fact, I think they were good actors delivering a bad script. I they did a helluva job. But who ok’d all of that? Did no one say, “We’ve seen this before?”
6. The CGI got in the way sometimes. First of all, Leia floating in space with her eyes open made me go, “Well, that’s fake.” But then we get into those big dog-horses, or those crystal foxes, or the overabundance of Porgs. Thankfullly Yoda wasn’t all CGI. I’m glad they went back to their roots on some of his shots. I mean, I know Andy Serkis is the master of acting in a unitard with dots on his face, but did he really need to for this movie? Did Snoke absolutely HAVE to be a completely CGI character? I was totally convinced of The Emperor’s power, and he was just an old man with a frog in his throat. If Chewbacca can be done without CGI, then so can a lot other things that were just ended up being a distraction.
7. The overall story telling. I don’t know. Maybe stuff just sounded better on paper, and then didn’t end up on the screen like they thought it would. Whatever happened, I blame the writer/director for giving us a movie that didn’t raise the stakes or do justice for the characters he was handed. Luke got an ok farewell, but even that was a little sloppy until the end. After The First Order unloads on Skywalker, I rolled my eyes and sunk in my seat. Seriously, he’s gonna “dust his shoulder off…?”
Did I like the movie experience? YES. Will I watch it again? YES. Will it stand the test of time? PROBABLY NOT. Is it the best Star Wars film to date? NOT EVEN CLOSE.
That Yoda quite is ALREADY on my wall! No kidding. I have a "STEAM quote of the week" that I change about once a month, and I threw that quote with a little picture of Yoda up there the last week before break.
I do like Driver, probably more than his character. Although there's a lot of hate that I've seen on the Internet for the Kylo character that I don't quite get. I think he's a fascinating character, and there's still potential for him to be a really great character in this trilogy.
The Kylo/Rey "join me" thing...yeah, that was interesting. It parallels the Sith guys tempting the good characters (Anakin in the prequels, Luke in Empire/Return) but transforms it into something more interesting.
Curious about that shot you took at George Lucas with your #8 up there...I never thought anything in the original trilogy (with the possibly exception of some weird green-screen stuff--the monster under Jabba the Hutt, for example) looked bad, and the prequels, although they're sometimes too glossy, look good except for a couple of CGI things (Anakin trying to balance on some pig thing on Naboo)...I never thought the look of Lucas's movies was the problem people had with them.
Can't disagree with much you have in your "dislikes" list. I kinda dug the Luke dusting his shoulder off deal. That made him more like Clint Eastwood, and I think a lot of the look of that scene was a nod to those Sergio Leone movies. Or maybe those Kurosawa movies.
I can't think of any reason for Chewbacca to be in the movie. I think Peter Mayhew sat around most of the time thinking, "Why the heck am I even in this movie?" Finn and Rose don't really need to be in the movie either except for the fact that people would have thrown a fit if Finn wasn't in the movie.
Andy Serkis with dots on his face...that made me laugh out loud, man!
I can't overemphasize how much I hated everything that happened on that casino planet with the possible exception of the kid with the broom at the end.
I can't see this with my Movie Pass again, but I am going to get a ticket to another movie (maybe that religious cartoon that is currently out) and sneak in to see Star Wars again. Maybe next week.
When George Lucas writes and creates, he always thinks outside of the box. He has this "let's think of what CAN'T happen" frame of mind. Very empowering -- unlimited. However, when he directs, he throws in the kitchen sink and it's just too much. His hand a the Star Wars universe was the worst. Even the wanna-be "American Graffiti" was a lot of nonsense.
Well, yeah. But that's his storytelling, not his visual aesthetics.
Go back and watch those prequels. There's so much going on in those shots. There's a chase scene in Clone Wars where I literally lost where the characters were. His visuals are crap just like his directing. Plus, he loves CGI to an embarrassing extent. And those swipe transitions...don't even get me started. His films look bad.
His movies are cartoony. That's the word I was looking for.
I'm not saying that every shot is going to be perfect. There are some really beautifully-constructed shots in all six of those movies he had a hand in though.
I don't think the original trilogy is cartoony at all with the exception of the first part of Return of the Jedi. The prequel trilogy is a lot more cartoony though. That's what CGI does for ya.
I don't want to get you started on swipe transitions, but I don't really see why that's an issue. Maybe I'm more forgiving of those because I first experienced them when I was 5?
Where to start? Your review was great and I agree with almost everything you said. I actually liked the humor at the beginning, and I am not sure that Johnson had any great master plan. This is an "everything but the kitchen sink" movie, where once again they try to find a new path while echoing everything they can from previous movies, whether it works or not. Seeing another cantina-style bar/casino and more cutesy characters really made me angry. The whole "who can turn who" thing has been going on for 40 years. Writing a cohesive review about a movie that was anything but cohesive is really hard, so the pro and cons lists you both created is the perfect way to analyze that is just a collection of good and bad bits. One thing I will say is that cartoony is a very good way to describe the prequels. A few decent action scenes are overwhelmed by ridiculous and confusing plot contrivances, incredibly broad humor, and bad actors delivering unbelievable line after line in unbelievable ways.
After so many disappointments, I don't know why I can still be let down by this franchise. The great movie was in there. It is about how exhausting it is being the resistance. It is looking at what you really stand for versus the Empire or whatever, and how the Jedi and the Rebellion failed in the past. I liked the cynical Del Toro character and how he implied that war was just business for much of the galaxy and that could have explained why the rebellion never wins in the end. There was nothing profound here, just the same types of characters doing the same types of things we have seen time and time again...except for floating through space or somehow appearing millions of miles away from where one is sitting. I would give this a 13, but just wish they would wrap up this pointless series so I would no longer care.
"How exhausting it is being the resistance"
Or how you don't have to be anything special to make a difference in that resistance.
Yeah, there is an interesting theme or two in there.
I really disagree with what you said about Johnson and a "master plan"...if anything, I think he was overly ambitious in his deconstruction of Star Wars.
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