The Last Jedi – er, not sure about this one
December 2017
Dave
SPOILER ALERT – if you have not seen the film and want to see it fresh then please stop reading.
Ok, I am not a fan of Episode VIII of the Star Wars franchise. Now, if this offends you and you don’t want to hear why ‘from a certain point of view’ The Last Jedi has a number of flaws then ‘move along’. However, if you want to understand why the latest instalment has not landed a resounding ’10 out of 10’ with me, then please, read on…
So, a bit of context here. I watched Episode VIII at midnight on the day it opened in the UK, straight after watching Episode VII, which the cinema had screened first. I think this did play a part in the disappointment I felt at the end of the movie, as I had a direct comparison. But, for me the concerns I have do not just fall into the categories many lovers of the movie claim ‘haters’ have – I am not simply suffering from nostalgia.
Well, where to start? For me there are a number of features that make the movie weaker than all of its predecessors. Yes, you read right, ALL. From having a number of conversations with the wider Jedi Council Team, and with fans both online and off I have a working list of issues. I have tried to categorise my opinion so that I can capture everything: Emotive; Poor Storytelling; and Missed Chances.
Dave
SPOILER ALERT – if you have not seen the film and want to see it fresh then please stop reading.
Ok, I am not a fan of Episode VIII of the Star Wars franchise. Now, if this offends you and you don’t want to hear why ‘from a certain point of view’ The Last Jedi has a number of flaws then ‘move along’. However, if you want to understand why the latest instalment has not landed a resounding ’10 out of 10’ with me, then please, read on…
So, a bit of context here. I watched Episode VIII at midnight on the day it opened in the UK, straight after watching Episode VII, which the cinema had screened first. I think this did play a part in the disappointment I felt at the end of the movie, as I had a direct comparison. But, for me the concerns I have do not just fall into the categories many lovers of the movie claim ‘haters’ have – I am not simply suffering from nostalgia.
Well, where to start? For me there are a number of features that make the movie weaker than all of its predecessors. Yes, you read right, ALL. From having a number of conversations with the wider Jedi Council Team, and with fans both online and off I have a working list of issues. I have tried to categorise my opinion so that I can capture everything: Emotive; Poor Storytelling; and Missed Chances.
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1. Emotional
This first category is very personal and the least quantifiable as it is so personal so please bear with me on this. Everyone goes to the cinema for different reasons, and have different expectations, and perhaps will even go to different movies to experience different feelings. I watch a wide range of movies, tending towards escapism; superhero, science fiction and fantasy tend to be my usual movie choices. Each movie, and in fact each brand offers a different attraction for me. So, for instance, I enjoy both Marvel and DC superheo movies, but I go to the cinema with a different expectation for each. So, for me, Star Wars has a ‘feeling’ associated it with. I first saw Star Wars at the age of 4, in a cinema that no longer exists, around Christmas 1977. I was filled with wonder at a galaxy far, far away. And with every instalment of the franchise I have returned to the cinema and had my wonder rekindled (even with the Prequels – they had their faults but they still had the wonder). Until Episode VIII. |
This time I left the cinema disappointed.
The movie I had watched did have some good bits. The battle between Rey and Kylo and Snoke’s praetorian guard is really good, and reminiscent of oriental martial arts movies. The final face-off between Luke and Kylo was clever and had a good twist. Finn finally had his chance to show Phasma why he was the best in his class at the First Order training academy. The camerawork scenes (whilst heavily CGI at times) were sweeping and carried the right atmosphere. And there were a couple of good shocks – no-one saw Snoke dying so quickly, including Snoke it seems. But overwhelmingly I had a feeling that this wasn’t a Star Wars movie. It was an ok sci-fi movie set in the Star Wars universe at best.
The flat humour at the beginning of the movie with Poe attempting to make a fool of Hux was dire and set a poor introduction to the movie. Was this Rian Johnson’s attempt to match JJ Abrams with his first dialogue between Poe and Kylo in The Force Awakens? If so, then it was clumsy and drawn out. And the concept of having a caller ‘on hold’ is a mundane real world humdrum and not suited to a galaxy where we see people able to communicate galaxy-wide with no problems. And then there was the flippancy Luke shows to Rey when he first meets her, after she managed to solve his puzzle. Again a forced humour piece that lessened the wonder of the movie. Perhaps this was Johnson attempting to follow the success of Disney with Marvel and the humorous interactions of their characters? Humour is to be found in all of the other Star Wars movies, but it is an unforced and natural humour. This bludgeoned humour is just not ‘Star Wars’.
The movie I had watched did have some good bits. The battle between Rey and Kylo and Snoke’s praetorian guard is really good, and reminiscent of oriental martial arts movies. The final face-off between Luke and Kylo was clever and had a good twist. Finn finally had his chance to show Phasma why he was the best in his class at the First Order training academy. The camerawork scenes (whilst heavily CGI at times) were sweeping and carried the right atmosphere. And there were a couple of good shocks – no-one saw Snoke dying so quickly, including Snoke it seems. But overwhelmingly I had a feeling that this wasn’t a Star Wars movie. It was an ok sci-fi movie set in the Star Wars universe at best.
The flat humour at the beginning of the movie with Poe attempting to make a fool of Hux was dire and set a poor introduction to the movie. Was this Rian Johnson’s attempt to match JJ Abrams with his first dialogue between Poe and Kylo in The Force Awakens? If so, then it was clumsy and drawn out. And the concept of having a caller ‘on hold’ is a mundane real world humdrum and not suited to a galaxy where we see people able to communicate galaxy-wide with no problems. And then there was the flippancy Luke shows to Rey when he first meets her, after she managed to solve his puzzle. Again a forced humour piece that lessened the wonder of the movie. Perhaps this was Johnson attempting to follow the success of Disney with Marvel and the humorous interactions of their characters? Humour is to be found in all of the other Star Wars movies, but it is an unforced and natural humour. This bludgeoned humour is just not ‘Star Wars’.
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2. Poor storytelling and lack of understanding of what makes ‘Star Wars’
Whilst my first concern was a personal feeling that the movie wasn’t quite right, what follows next are examples of the poor storytelling by Johnson and a lack of understanding of how the Star Wars universe works. Again, I have seen plenty of reviews where the reviewer is raving about the ‘complexity’ of the new movie, and perhaps even insinuating that this complexity is not adequately understood by the existing Star Wars fans. But, whilst the story itself did have three sub plots (leading to a complexity of the overall story), none were 100% on point from a storytelling perspective, undermining this concept that the story was ‘complex’. |
Bombs away…
At the beginning of the movie, after the painful ‘on hold’ scene already discussed, there was the battle between the First Order dreadnought and Cobalt Squadron. If you get a chance please watch this scene once again. Cobalt Squadron were piloting MG-100 StarFortress SF-17’s and undertook a bombing run on the dreadnought’s upper surface. For me, this scene has a number of problems. First, the battle is played in 2 dimensions with up/down, backward/forward seemingly the only axes for the bombers. They were in space. There is no up or down. Watch space battles in any previous Star Wars movie, the smaller ships involved rotated through 360 degrees (including the Y Wings and B Wings – both utilised as bombers), only capital class ships tended to align to a single plane.
So, in this movie the bombers approached their target in a flat plane, flying en-mass much like World War 2 bombers did, clustering together and using overlapping fields of fire for mutual protection. They also seemed to suffer from the same slow/lumbering/cumbersome problems of WW2 bombers – whilst in space with none of the constraints of gravity and atmosphere. This in a galaxy where freighters such as the Millennium Falcon and Ghost seem to be able to perform barrel rolls – even when in atmosphere and flying close to the ground – freighters, not combat spacecraft. This just smacks of a storyteller who had seen a really good WW2 bomber movie and wanted to recreate it – and ignored all of the reasons you aren’t restrained in this way in a space battle.
And then that brings me to the final bit of this battle, (this was first mentioned by a friend of mine called Scott), where Rose’s sister releases the bombs which destroy the dreadnaught. Now, forgive me if I am wrong, but how do you ‘drop’ a bomb when you have no gravity? It is a continuation of the idea you can have slow cumbersome bombers in space moving in only one plane and dropping bombs down – a bit like a WW2 bomber movie. An all round poor decision for a space battle. Maybe Johnson should get it out of his system and do a WW2 movie?
The longest chase in Star Wars history?
Whilst we are on the subject of space battles, another really poor story by the creators of Episode VIII was the long, drawn out chase / battle between the fleeing Resistance and the First Order. This scene takes up a good length of the entire movie, with the First Order having slightly slower/heavier capital ships than the Resistance so chasing them at maximum range whilst the Resistance have a finite amount of fuel so cannot make a jump whilst the First Order can track them.
There were flaws galore with this as a story line. It was envisaged (I assume) to provide a tense backdrop for Rose and Finn to go on their little jaunt across the galaxy to find a code breaker. And so set a time limit the heroes had to complete their little side trip.
So what’s wrong with this as an idea? Well, the First Order had a flotilla of star destroyers on the hunt. Each with a decent contingent of TIE fighters (according to Wookipedia two ‘wings’ of TIEs per destroyer – and 72 TIE per wing – so that’s over 140 per destroyer) – probably giving over 1,000 TIE fighters to throw at the enemy. So why didn’t they? TIEs are short range fighters but the First Order would gladly have sent them out knowing that they would pick them back up as they came past using a tractor beam. That’s over 1,000 TIEs that could have ripped the Resistance to pieces, much as Kylo and his 2 wingmen managed to destroy the bridge of the lead Resistance ship.
Alternatively, Hux (or Snoke) could have made half his fleet jump ahead of the Resistance – they were travelling in a straight line – and cut them off, where both halves of the fleet would have crushed the Resistance – with our without 1,000 TIEs.
And what about the greatest minds of the Resistance? Why did they let the farce play out? It seems that Holdo had no real plan – keep ahead of the First Order then send a load of little ships down to a deserted base and hope for the best. We know that the First Order were not scanning for smaller vessels. That is how the Resistance managed to abandon ship. And we know that there was at least one hyperdrive capable ship on the Resistance capital ship – the one Rose and Finn stole for their little adventure. So why didn’t the Resistance look to use the smaller ship (undetectable by the First Order) as a relay to either empty the main craft or go to appropriate a small flotilla of such craft to allow all the Resistance to scatter? Instead Rose and Finn take the ship and in so doing doom hundreds of Resistance fighters.
So, it appears we have the most inept admirals on both sides in this battle, or perhaps an inept storyteller?
Rose and Finn jet off to save the day…
Rose and Finn take a possible escape craft leaving the rest of the Resistance to suffer the long, slow chase / battle.
They journeyed to Canto Bight, seemingly in the blink of an eye. From what I understand about hyperspace travel (the means of travelling between the stars in the Star Wars universe) the journey shouldn’t be instant. There is always a journey time. And different vehicles have different classes of hyperdrive with different speeds (with the Falcon supposedly one of the fastest in the galaxy). So, either the shuttle used by Finn and Rose is the fastest ship in the galaxy (in which case why not use it to take everyone off the Resistance capital ship), or Johnson decided to ignore that to allow him to have the side story to bring Rose fully into the story.
So Rose and Finn had enough time to cross the galaxy, have an adventure, get arrested, escape from gaol, have another adventure and then fly back across the galaxy. All that in 18 hours. That ship is fast!
Canto Bight – larger than life
I was lucky enough to travel to Celebration in 2013 (the international Star Wars event hosted almost annually in a different city each time around the word) and witnessed Kathleen Kennedy (CEO of LucasFilm) promise the fans that LucasFilm had learned from the response to the Prequels (I am not a hater of the Prequels – the storytelling wasn’t as good as the Original Trilogy but they were OK). We were told future movies would use less CGi for CGi sake and focus more on proper storytelling and live action. Did Johnson not get this memo?
Canto Bight was a pointless CGI-fest – the casino, the race track, the racing animals themselves. What point did this planet, or side story really provide? Was it just an opportunity for Johnson to more firmly introduce the latest member of the Resistance, Rose? To push her up to be part of the main cast? Could he have not done it better – could he have not used a more intelligent storyline?
And the politicising of the conflict with arms dealers and murky dealings. This again carried the hallmarks of the Prequels where the storyteller attempted to make the story more complex but with no real benefit. We were supposedly past this type of storytelling in Star Wars.
Eccentric Luke
OK, Luke had been on Ahch-To for a few years following his decision to seek more wisdom after the failure of his reborn Jedi Order. And in that time he quite possibly would have developed some eccentricities. But the Luke we saw in Episode VIII was not the character we had previously seen.
Perhaps Johnson had taken some inspiration from the eccentric Yoda from Empire? There did seem to be some of the contrived simplicity by the Jedi Master we saw in that movie.
But even so, some of the actions are very questionable. Firstly, why throw the lightsaber away when Rey first provided it, following an emotionally charged first meeting? Rey had managed to track down Luke. A feat almost impossible, indeed only possible due to the fact that R2 (Luke’s own droid) had the missing piece of the jigsaw – this implies to me that Luke had arranged a method that he would be found when the time was right. So why the immature response? I think that Johnson didn’t want to carry on a story begun by another director, so chose to deliberately ignore the plot hooks already created by JJ Abrams. A case of Johnson wanting to say ‘I made this’, at the expense of the wider movie and of the fans.
I have seen an interview where Johnson is explaining his decision for Luke (I think it was in Collider) and he says that the only ‘honest’ response Luke would have when someone turns up is to shun them as he is trying to distance himself from the galaxy at large. Firstly, this isn’t the story plot that had already been established in Episode VII – both Han and Leia claim that Luke went looking for clarity and answers following what had happened with their son. Luke knew he had created the problem, and left clues as to his location when he needed to be found. And Luke is presented with a lightsaber he last saw over 30 years before when he lost his hand, a lightsaber that belonged to his father who he battled to bring back to the light. It was more than a symbol of the Jedi, it had too much personal meaning for Luke to merely throw it off a cliff. Johnson has completely misjudged Luke in this part of the story.
And the milking of the space seal thing on Ahch-To? Where the creature seems to get some kind of satisfaction from Luke’s milking? That was weird and crass. What was the point? More pointless CGI for CGI sake? Did Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of the team not think this a little tasteless?
Dark Luke
Whilst Luke and Rey are feinting around each other, Luke comes clean regarding what happened between him and Kylo. It appears that Snoke managed to cloud Luke’s judgement and nudge him towards fear of his own nephew, setting him on the path to the Dark Side (fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering). Following the whupping his nephew dished out, Luke came to his senses and decided to abandon the universe to what he had created. This, again, is not the Luke of the established canon. Luke was never a quitter – he was a Jedi, as his father before him. It would also suggest that Snoke had Force abilities far stronger than the Emperor – to set Luke on the path to the Dark Side.
Explosive Leia
On the flight deck of the Resistance capital ship we see Leia confront Poe after his flying stunt (which had saved her and the rest of the Resistance). Leia is a seasoned member of a royal family, diplomat and general. And yet she ‘loses it’ in front of her subordinates and physically strikes a junior officer? Really? Leia had a temper, we had seen that when she was a teenager and young woman, when she was in love and torn. But this was a woman thirty years later, who had commanded armies. Not a petulant old woman who strikes out when she doesn’t get her way.
Shame Johnson. This wasn’t right. Leia is better than this.
At the beginning of the movie, after the painful ‘on hold’ scene already discussed, there was the battle between the First Order dreadnought and Cobalt Squadron. If you get a chance please watch this scene once again. Cobalt Squadron were piloting MG-100 StarFortress SF-17’s and undertook a bombing run on the dreadnought’s upper surface. For me, this scene has a number of problems. First, the battle is played in 2 dimensions with up/down, backward/forward seemingly the only axes for the bombers. They were in space. There is no up or down. Watch space battles in any previous Star Wars movie, the smaller ships involved rotated through 360 degrees (including the Y Wings and B Wings – both utilised as bombers), only capital class ships tended to align to a single plane.
So, in this movie the bombers approached their target in a flat plane, flying en-mass much like World War 2 bombers did, clustering together and using overlapping fields of fire for mutual protection. They also seemed to suffer from the same slow/lumbering/cumbersome problems of WW2 bombers – whilst in space with none of the constraints of gravity and atmosphere. This in a galaxy where freighters such as the Millennium Falcon and Ghost seem to be able to perform barrel rolls – even when in atmosphere and flying close to the ground – freighters, not combat spacecraft. This just smacks of a storyteller who had seen a really good WW2 bomber movie and wanted to recreate it – and ignored all of the reasons you aren’t restrained in this way in a space battle.
And then that brings me to the final bit of this battle, (this was first mentioned by a friend of mine called Scott), where Rose’s sister releases the bombs which destroy the dreadnaught. Now, forgive me if I am wrong, but how do you ‘drop’ a bomb when you have no gravity? It is a continuation of the idea you can have slow cumbersome bombers in space moving in only one plane and dropping bombs down – a bit like a WW2 bomber movie. An all round poor decision for a space battle. Maybe Johnson should get it out of his system and do a WW2 movie?
The longest chase in Star Wars history?
Whilst we are on the subject of space battles, another really poor story by the creators of Episode VIII was the long, drawn out chase / battle between the fleeing Resistance and the First Order. This scene takes up a good length of the entire movie, with the First Order having slightly slower/heavier capital ships than the Resistance so chasing them at maximum range whilst the Resistance have a finite amount of fuel so cannot make a jump whilst the First Order can track them.
There were flaws galore with this as a story line. It was envisaged (I assume) to provide a tense backdrop for Rose and Finn to go on their little jaunt across the galaxy to find a code breaker. And so set a time limit the heroes had to complete their little side trip.
So what’s wrong with this as an idea? Well, the First Order had a flotilla of star destroyers on the hunt. Each with a decent contingent of TIE fighters (according to Wookipedia two ‘wings’ of TIEs per destroyer – and 72 TIE per wing – so that’s over 140 per destroyer) – probably giving over 1,000 TIE fighters to throw at the enemy. So why didn’t they? TIEs are short range fighters but the First Order would gladly have sent them out knowing that they would pick them back up as they came past using a tractor beam. That’s over 1,000 TIEs that could have ripped the Resistance to pieces, much as Kylo and his 2 wingmen managed to destroy the bridge of the lead Resistance ship.
Alternatively, Hux (or Snoke) could have made half his fleet jump ahead of the Resistance – they were travelling in a straight line – and cut them off, where both halves of the fleet would have crushed the Resistance – with our without 1,000 TIEs.
And what about the greatest minds of the Resistance? Why did they let the farce play out? It seems that Holdo had no real plan – keep ahead of the First Order then send a load of little ships down to a deserted base and hope for the best. We know that the First Order were not scanning for smaller vessels. That is how the Resistance managed to abandon ship. And we know that there was at least one hyperdrive capable ship on the Resistance capital ship – the one Rose and Finn stole for their little adventure. So why didn’t the Resistance look to use the smaller ship (undetectable by the First Order) as a relay to either empty the main craft or go to appropriate a small flotilla of such craft to allow all the Resistance to scatter? Instead Rose and Finn take the ship and in so doing doom hundreds of Resistance fighters.
So, it appears we have the most inept admirals on both sides in this battle, or perhaps an inept storyteller?
Rose and Finn jet off to save the day…
Rose and Finn take a possible escape craft leaving the rest of the Resistance to suffer the long, slow chase / battle.
They journeyed to Canto Bight, seemingly in the blink of an eye. From what I understand about hyperspace travel (the means of travelling between the stars in the Star Wars universe) the journey shouldn’t be instant. There is always a journey time. And different vehicles have different classes of hyperdrive with different speeds (with the Falcon supposedly one of the fastest in the galaxy). So, either the shuttle used by Finn and Rose is the fastest ship in the galaxy (in which case why not use it to take everyone off the Resistance capital ship), or Johnson decided to ignore that to allow him to have the side story to bring Rose fully into the story.
So Rose and Finn had enough time to cross the galaxy, have an adventure, get arrested, escape from gaol, have another adventure and then fly back across the galaxy. All that in 18 hours. That ship is fast!
Canto Bight – larger than life
I was lucky enough to travel to Celebration in 2013 (the international Star Wars event hosted almost annually in a different city each time around the word) and witnessed Kathleen Kennedy (CEO of LucasFilm) promise the fans that LucasFilm had learned from the response to the Prequels (I am not a hater of the Prequels – the storytelling wasn’t as good as the Original Trilogy but they were OK). We were told future movies would use less CGi for CGi sake and focus more on proper storytelling and live action. Did Johnson not get this memo?
Canto Bight was a pointless CGI-fest – the casino, the race track, the racing animals themselves. What point did this planet, or side story really provide? Was it just an opportunity for Johnson to more firmly introduce the latest member of the Resistance, Rose? To push her up to be part of the main cast? Could he have not done it better – could he have not used a more intelligent storyline?
And the politicising of the conflict with arms dealers and murky dealings. This again carried the hallmarks of the Prequels where the storyteller attempted to make the story more complex but with no real benefit. We were supposedly past this type of storytelling in Star Wars.
Eccentric Luke
OK, Luke had been on Ahch-To for a few years following his decision to seek more wisdom after the failure of his reborn Jedi Order. And in that time he quite possibly would have developed some eccentricities. But the Luke we saw in Episode VIII was not the character we had previously seen.
Perhaps Johnson had taken some inspiration from the eccentric Yoda from Empire? There did seem to be some of the contrived simplicity by the Jedi Master we saw in that movie.
But even so, some of the actions are very questionable. Firstly, why throw the lightsaber away when Rey first provided it, following an emotionally charged first meeting? Rey had managed to track down Luke. A feat almost impossible, indeed only possible due to the fact that R2 (Luke’s own droid) had the missing piece of the jigsaw – this implies to me that Luke had arranged a method that he would be found when the time was right. So why the immature response? I think that Johnson didn’t want to carry on a story begun by another director, so chose to deliberately ignore the plot hooks already created by JJ Abrams. A case of Johnson wanting to say ‘I made this’, at the expense of the wider movie and of the fans.
I have seen an interview where Johnson is explaining his decision for Luke (I think it was in Collider) and he says that the only ‘honest’ response Luke would have when someone turns up is to shun them as he is trying to distance himself from the galaxy at large. Firstly, this isn’t the story plot that had already been established in Episode VII – both Han and Leia claim that Luke went looking for clarity and answers following what had happened with their son. Luke knew he had created the problem, and left clues as to his location when he needed to be found. And Luke is presented with a lightsaber he last saw over 30 years before when he lost his hand, a lightsaber that belonged to his father who he battled to bring back to the light. It was more than a symbol of the Jedi, it had too much personal meaning for Luke to merely throw it off a cliff. Johnson has completely misjudged Luke in this part of the story.
And the milking of the space seal thing on Ahch-To? Where the creature seems to get some kind of satisfaction from Luke’s milking? That was weird and crass. What was the point? More pointless CGI for CGI sake? Did Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of the team not think this a little tasteless?
Dark Luke
Whilst Luke and Rey are feinting around each other, Luke comes clean regarding what happened between him and Kylo. It appears that Snoke managed to cloud Luke’s judgement and nudge him towards fear of his own nephew, setting him on the path to the Dark Side (fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering). Following the whupping his nephew dished out, Luke came to his senses and decided to abandon the universe to what he had created. This, again, is not the Luke of the established canon. Luke was never a quitter – he was a Jedi, as his father before him. It would also suggest that Snoke had Force abilities far stronger than the Emperor – to set Luke on the path to the Dark Side.
Explosive Leia
On the flight deck of the Resistance capital ship we see Leia confront Poe after his flying stunt (which had saved her and the rest of the Resistance). Leia is a seasoned member of a royal family, diplomat and general. And yet she ‘loses it’ in front of her subordinates and physically strikes a junior officer? Really? Leia had a temper, we had seen that when she was a teenager and young woman, when she was in love and torn. But this was a woman thirty years later, who had commanded armies. Not a petulant old woman who strikes out when she doesn’t get her way.
Shame Johnson. This wasn’t right. Leia is better than this.
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3. Missed chances to move an established story forward
An overriding concern I have (and one shared by a great deal of the fan base) was Johnson’s decisions to completely ignore established story arcs for principle characters. I am not entirely sure why. The reason that jumps out at me is that Johnson chose to deliberately ignore the hooks so that the movie is ‘his’ and not a continuation of established stories. Alternatively, was it because he could not tie up these story hooks so chose to ignore them as it was simpler and so he would have an easier film to direct? |
What story hooks am I talking about? There were many. I have already mentioned that Luke must have deliberately left clues as to his whereabouts (such as with R2) for him to have been discovered – therefore Johnson’s new story that Luke had gone there to hide from the galaxy doesn’t fit with what we had already been told.
Then we have the ‘Knights of Ren’. These were seen in Episode VII as a flashback – they were part of the group who razed Luke’s new school for the Jedi, and they were mentioned by Snoke when he spoke to Kylo – he particularly referred to Kylo as ‘Master of the Knights of Ren’. Where were they in the new version of the destruction of the Jedi school? And where were they in Episode VIII? Did they become the Snoke’s praetorian guard? If so, and if Ren was their master, why did they attack after Snoke was killed? We probably will never know.
And Rey. Now I am not bothered she was a ‘no-body’ from the perspective of being a Skywalker or some such. That said, we only have Kylo’s word for that whilst he was trying to manipulate Rey, so this might not turn out to be true. We know from previous movies and canon material, that all Jedi (except Luke) are no-bodies as Jedi never took partners and so never had children. Luke is the exception to this due to Anakin and Padme’s unsanctioned marriage. What was missed by Johnson is Rey’s control of the Force as well as power. Luke underwent training with Yoda to do anything more than instinctual Force use (the same as Anakin as a podracing child), and yet Rey seems to have power and control. This was seen in The Force Awakens when Rey suddenly exhibits Force abilities. Also, when Rey first handles the lightsaber she has a number of glimpses and hears voices from the past. These flashbacks are of the Jedi School in flames (and the Knights of Ren are in attendance), of the scene of the first meeting between Luke and his father when Luke was using the lightsaber, of both Yoda’s and Obi Wan’s voice (both long dead). All of these are separated by time and distance from each other so why did they all converge on Rey when she handled the lightsaber for the first time? There must be some connection between these disparate things. I believe that had Johnson followed the breadcrumbs left by Abrams then we would have found out how these things were connected and how she had managed to develop the control so quickly. Instead Johnson chose to ignore the previous plot hooks. And in so doing also provides Rey with no explanation for her unnatural control of the Force.
Summary
I think that pretty much covers off my thoughts about The Last Jedi. I am not a hater of the movie, because as a sci-fi, it was ok – albeit having some dodgy storytelling. But as a Star Wars movie this was poor. It did not have the feel of a Star Wars movie, it missed a number of established canon and plot hooks that would have joined the story better into the current overall theme of the trilogy and the anthology as a whole.
It wasn’t even as ‘fresh’ a story as the reviewers and those passionate about it seem to keep claiming. The story steals heavily from both Episodes V and VI (Empire and Jedi). Alex (part of The Jedi Council) first mentioned this when we were discussing our thoughts about the movie, and since he did I cannot help but see this.
In Empire, we see an aspirant Jedi, someone who has felt their first awakening of the Force, travelling on a quest to find a Jedi Master to train them. We saw a reluctant Master and an aspirant having to prove their commitment. We saw that same aspirant confronting the Dark as part of that training and we saw the aspirant rush off (their training to full Jedi unfinished) to help their friends. In Jedi, the same Jedi in training hands themselves into the Apprentice to the Dark Side Master, as the young Jedi sees good still within the Dark Apprentice. The Apprentice then hands the Jedi to their Master and the Master attempts to break the Jedi in his throne room (on a massive space craft, which is ultimately destroyed) whilst proving to the Apprentice the power of the Dark Side. The Apprentice ultimately turns on the Master and destroys him. We even had the offer from the Dark Apprentice to the Jedi of joining forces to rule the galaxy together. Oh, and we had a battle on a white planet where At-Ats were marching on a Rebel base. So where was the originality of The Last Jedi, as all of this could be a direct description of the main story for Episode VIII?
Much of the negativity about The Force Awakens (I enjoyed the movie) was directed at Abrams for his reinterpretation of the original Episode IV. But, to be honest, I understood the role that Abrams was providing: he delivered a new Star Wars story that met the nostalgia of the original fans and the excitement of a new generation. And yet, none of the reviews I have read seems to have picked up on the fact that Johnson seems to have borrowed ridiculously from both Empire and Jedi, making his movie much less original than has been suggested.
In a similar vein, the scene where Leia rescues herself from the vacuum of space by using the Force to pull herself back aboard the ship bears all the hallmarks of the similar scene from Season 3, Episode 3 (Holocrons of Fate) of Rebels. In this scene Kanan is ejected into space by Maul. He uses the Force to propel himself through the void as his clothes and skin begin to freeze (looking much like Leia) – he even assumes a similar pose as he glides through space. The main difference is that Kanan pulls himself through the shielding protecting the flight deck of the craft he is aboard. Whilst Leia pulls herself to a door which is opened to admit her to the ship – and on that point, why didn’t the craft explosively decompress when the door was opened? Another aspect of physics and space that seems to have escaped Johnson in his rush to provide a ‘fresh, vibrant, complex Star Wars movie for a new generation…’. Which brings me back to my opening title to this piece: er, not sure about this one.
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Then we have the ‘Knights of Ren’. These were seen in Episode VII as a flashback – they were part of the group who razed Luke’s new school for the Jedi, and they were mentioned by Snoke when he spoke to Kylo – he particularly referred to Kylo as ‘Master of the Knights of Ren’. Where were they in the new version of the destruction of the Jedi school? And where were they in Episode VIII? Did they become the Snoke’s praetorian guard? If so, and if Ren was their master, why did they attack after Snoke was killed? We probably will never know.
And Rey. Now I am not bothered she was a ‘no-body’ from the perspective of being a Skywalker or some such. That said, we only have Kylo’s word for that whilst he was trying to manipulate Rey, so this might not turn out to be true. We know from previous movies and canon material, that all Jedi (except Luke) are no-bodies as Jedi never took partners and so never had children. Luke is the exception to this due to Anakin and Padme’s unsanctioned marriage. What was missed by Johnson is Rey’s control of the Force as well as power. Luke underwent training with Yoda to do anything more than instinctual Force use (the same as Anakin as a podracing child), and yet Rey seems to have power and control. This was seen in The Force Awakens when Rey suddenly exhibits Force abilities. Also, when Rey first handles the lightsaber she has a number of glimpses and hears voices from the past. These flashbacks are of the Jedi School in flames (and the Knights of Ren are in attendance), of the scene of the first meeting between Luke and his father when Luke was using the lightsaber, of both Yoda’s and Obi Wan’s voice (both long dead). All of these are separated by time and distance from each other so why did they all converge on Rey when she handled the lightsaber for the first time? There must be some connection between these disparate things. I believe that had Johnson followed the breadcrumbs left by Abrams then we would have found out how these things were connected and how she had managed to develop the control so quickly. Instead Johnson chose to ignore the previous plot hooks. And in so doing also provides Rey with no explanation for her unnatural control of the Force.
Summary
I think that pretty much covers off my thoughts about The Last Jedi. I am not a hater of the movie, because as a sci-fi, it was ok – albeit having some dodgy storytelling. But as a Star Wars movie this was poor. It did not have the feel of a Star Wars movie, it missed a number of established canon and plot hooks that would have joined the story better into the current overall theme of the trilogy and the anthology as a whole.
It wasn’t even as ‘fresh’ a story as the reviewers and those passionate about it seem to keep claiming. The story steals heavily from both Episodes V and VI (Empire and Jedi). Alex (part of The Jedi Council) first mentioned this when we were discussing our thoughts about the movie, and since he did I cannot help but see this.
In Empire, we see an aspirant Jedi, someone who has felt their first awakening of the Force, travelling on a quest to find a Jedi Master to train them. We saw a reluctant Master and an aspirant having to prove their commitment. We saw that same aspirant confronting the Dark as part of that training and we saw the aspirant rush off (their training to full Jedi unfinished) to help their friends. In Jedi, the same Jedi in training hands themselves into the Apprentice to the Dark Side Master, as the young Jedi sees good still within the Dark Apprentice. The Apprentice then hands the Jedi to their Master and the Master attempts to break the Jedi in his throne room (on a massive space craft, which is ultimately destroyed) whilst proving to the Apprentice the power of the Dark Side. The Apprentice ultimately turns on the Master and destroys him. We even had the offer from the Dark Apprentice to the Jedi of joining forces to rule the galaxy together. Oh, and we had a battle on a white planet where At-Ats were marching on a Rebel base. So where was the originality of The Last Jedi, as all of this could be a direct description of the main story for Episode VIII?
Much of the negativity about The Force Awakens (I enjoyed the movie) was directed at Abrams for his reinterpretation of the original Episode IV. But, to be honest, I understood the role that Abrams was providing: he delivered a new Star Wars story that met the nostalgia of the original fans and the excitement of a new generation. And yet, none of the reviews I have read seems to have picked up on the fact that Johnson seems to have borrowed ridiculously from both Empire and Jedi, making his movie much less original than has been suggested.
In a similar vein, the scene where Leia rescues herself from the vacuum of space by using the Force to pull herself back aboard the ship bears all the hallmarks of the similar scene from Season 3, Episode 3 (Holocrons of Fate) of Rebels. In this scene Kanan is ejected into space by Maul. He uses the Force to propel himself through the void as his clothes and skin begin to freeze (looking much like Leia) – he even assumes a similar pose as he glides through space. The main difference is that Kanan pulls himself through the shielding protecting the flight deck of the craft he is aboard. Whilst Leia pulls herself to a door which is opened to admit her to the ship – and on that point, why didn’t the craft explosively decompress when the door was opened? Another aspect of physics and space that seems to have escaped Johnson in his rush to provide a ‘fresh, vibrant, complex Star Wars movie for a new generation…’. Which brings me back to my opening title to this piece: er, not sure about this one.
Thank you for reading, this has been a much longer opinion piece than I intended. If you have an opinion about this opinion then please let us know.
Let us know your thoughts on Twitter and #mtfbwy