A Reasonable Discussion of The Last Jedi - Part 4

            So then we get to the island and we at last get to see what Luke and Rey do after staring at each other for an eternity.  This is where Rian and JJ's visions become clearly not in sync.  The two of them are not standing the same distance from one another and there's a different tone.  And then, of course, Luke tosses the lightsaber over his shoulder.  And, I'll just say it...

            I don't hate this... at least not entirely.

            The problem with it, of course, is that Luke is so flippant about it.  For one thing, this saber has a history to it that Luke would at least have a reverence for, even if he's lost his own spirit.  And at the very least, he's going to be confused as to how it was recovered.  This was the saber that was lost along with his hand in Bespin.  JJ Abrams passed the buck on how it was recovered, and now it's being passed on once again.  It's lazy writing by people who just don't care.

            The biggest problem with this is that it's once again a humorous moment that diffuses later drama.  They purchased a cheap laugh at the price of important character development; and one must ask him or herself, what's more important for this character arc?

            So why do I not hate this moment as much as so many rabid Star Wars fans?  It's because I get the basic idea of what Rian Johnson was going for with Luke, and with all due respect to Mark Hamill and many others, I think it's a good idea... in theory.

            Remember that JJ Abrams set up a very difficult scenario.  He made it that Luke had secluded himself on an island, then he did what he always does and passed it on to someone else to figure out why.  Johnson had to make a reason, and having it such that he's lost all hope is a good one.  His character literally represents hope, so the theme that runs through his story arc should be all about hope.  In this case, it's the loss of hope, and it's up to the new lead character to help him get it back.

            I can't think of any better way to personify that than to have him disregard the lightsaber.  It's a good way to introduce that dramatic arc.  BUT... there are better ways to do it than to have him flippantly toss it over his shoulder.  He could ask her where she got it, hand it back to her, even shout at her for not leaving him alone.  And if they wanted him to throw it away, have him turn and chuck it in anger.  Make it clear this isn't a joke to him, but that he's truly turned away from this life.

            Aside from this misstep, my favorite scenes of the movie are on the island.  Hamill's performance is incredible, and the character development is most interesting during this time.  The best character interactions are either between Luke and Rey, or Rey and Kylo.  I even like the pogs and Chewbacca's interaction with them is adorable.  And of course the scene with Luke and R2 is enough to bring a nostalgic tear to the eye.
            I even like where he drinks milk from the beast.  I know, that's heresy to say, but here's why I like that.  Again, going with the idea that Luke has lost hope, nothing shows more vividly how far he's fallen than seeing him drink from the tit of a beast.  Is it the Luke we used to love?  No!  That's the point.  He's lost his hope and his dignity and is wishing to die alone.  That creates the obstacle Rey has to overcome; to bring back the spirit of the most optimistic man in the galaxy.

            And at last Rey's character arc is able to do something.  Abrams weakened the drama with her by making her too powerful, but Johnson grabbed onto the story about her not knowing her heritage or understanding why the force is so strong with her.  She explores this through her conversations with Luke, her interaction with Kylo, and in that wonderful mirror sequence in the cave.  It's obscure and we don't yet know what it means, but it was a very creative way to slowly reveal the mystery of her only character arc thus far.

            It's also an example of what is done right on the island.  There have been a lot of complaints that Luke doesn't train Rey on the island, and this is valid in that Rey should not yet have full control over her powers as she's not received any real, formal teaching.  But you also don't want this movie to just be a copy of Empire, so it shouldn't be just a rehash of him teaching her what Yoda taught him.

            Alas, there are other things they do wrong, which we'll get to later.

A Reasonable Discussion of The Last Jedi - Part 3

            When the trailers for The Last Jedi came out, a friend of mine said he was worried it would be a copy of Empire Strikes back.  I believed it wouldn't.  But when the movie began with the resistance escaping a planet the First Order was trying to blockade, I thought, "well, crap."
            But here comes Poe, my favorite character.  I was hoping there'd be some focus on him.  I was even still on board as he began trolling Hux.  I have to admit, I found it funny in the moment.  Now, a lot of people have claimed that comedy has no place in Star Wars.  That's ridiculous.  First, the original films had plenty of humor in them, and even if they hadn't, it's meant to be a fun series.  Humor has every right to be there.

            However, with every decision you pay a price, particularly when you put comedy somewhere.  In this instance, the comedy took away the power of Hux and the First Order he represented.  Imagine the same joke being used on Sauromon in Lord of the Rings.  You may laugh in the moment, but the price you pay is ever feeling any fear for that villain again.  It's a basic cost-benefit analysis which the writer didn't do.

            I also want to point out one other thing about the dialogue.  The way Hux speaks, he might as well be twirling a curled mustache.  Star Wars has always been about good versus evil, but there's a certain point where the evil has become so cliche it's a parody of itself.  The dialogue here is more a view of what this sort of movie is supposed to be rather than having an identity of its own.  Compare this to the evil ways people speak in Rogue One.  The characters give you chills without sounding like they're coming out of a children's book.  I'm disappointed that this one didn't do the same.

            What followed looked pretty cool.  It was clear that Poe saw an opening as long as he destroyed the towers to make way for some bombers, and it was neat to see just what a droid does to repair a ship; though that turned into the droid essentially plugging holes like it was filling with water.  But whatever, Poe gets rid of the towers, supposedly making way for the bombers.

            Next is something very strange.  General Leia has ordered no attack to happen, and has been chastising Poe for going out there.  But when he clears the last tower, the bombers are already on their way.  There's no moment where someone says, "It's okay to go!" and they launch.  They have that moment in Rogue One where the rebel base has said they're not going to support the team, but then they learn that the team has gone anyway and they're succeeding, so Mon Mothma and the others order the attack to go forward, and you see them launching.  Here... it feels like that's missing.

            Anyway, the rebel bombers launch and the tie fighters go at them and rip them apart.  There's a bit to unpack here, so let me pause a moment.  First, I want to commend Rian Johnson for having A wings and a new type of bomber here.  He recognized there were more ships than just X-wings and tie fighters, and that there should be new ships.  He also understood that Star Wars ship battles are supposed to have a World War II feel to them, so he made the bombers much like Flying Fortresses.

            However, there's one thing he didn't quite understand.  The fighter battles had always felt like a World War II battle, they weren't right on the nose like these bombers.  Granted, the other ships don't fight the way they would in space; to get a better idea of what that would be like see the remake of Battlestar Galactica.  But the Star Wars ships always had a sort of compromise between WWII fighters and space ships.  These bombers, straight up Flying Fortresses; slow, cumbersome, and they have to get directly over the target to drop their bombs.

            And it turns out taking out those gun towers did no good whatsoever.  Look, I understand if the towers would make it harder, but if everything gets destroyed by fighters anyway, what was the point of taking out the towers at all.  It's not like Poe wouldn't know that there were fighters on the capitol ships.

            As far as dropping the payload, I realize there are all sorts of arguments about there being no gravity, maybe it's the artificial gravity that shoots them out, they're magnetized, whatever.  First, I guarantee you Rian Johnson did not think about it that deeply.  By this point it's already clear he's going with the "good ol' fashion" style of storytelling where you're not supposed to ask.  To be fair, that's been in Star Wars for a long time.  There are plenty of aspects of the original series that people have always joked about.  Here, though, it was inadvisable because it was so over the top in its illogic, and it would have been so easy to get around that.  Simply have it be short range missiles that they have to be close to fire, or have someone say drop the magno bombs or something.  Such an easy fix would have avoided a big controversy.
            After the dreadnought is destroyed, there's a scene I really like.  Snoke calls Hux and his big head appears as a hologram above him.  Not only is this image intimidating, but he then slides Hux around the room, revealing just how powerful he is.  Between these effects and Andy Serkis's wonderful performance, they're really setting up Snoke to be a frightening villain.

            In fact, there are a number of performances I'm really liking here, including Carrie Fisher's daughter, who I'd like to see more.  It's all of this great talent that I feel has gone to waste.  It's the biggest missed opportunity since Star Trek 5.

A Resonable Discussion of The Last Jedi - Part 2

            To be fair to Rian Johnson, the major problems with The Last Jedi do not begin with his movie.  They begin with The Force Awakens; or more specifically, JJ Abrams.  Why Abrams is considered a mastermind capable of handling the largest franchises of all time is beyond me.  His breakthrough project Lost has literally the most infamously bad ending in television history.  He built up a mystery for years and abandoned the project so others would be blamed when no answers were revealed.  He then developed Star Trek with unsustainable world building, then abandoned it just when audiences lost interest so others would get the blame.

            He goes to Star Wars and admittedly creates a fun story with likable characters, but it's a repeat of the original with no coherent world building.  It also creates a mess which he once again walked away from, leaving someone else to clean it up.

            For instance, the basic logic of the story of Force Awakens makes no sense.  Luke Skywalker (whose name is always uttered with extreme reverence) has left a map to him which the heroes have to get back to the rebel... I mean "resistance" base.  If they get the plans, they can go find him, but if the bad guys get it, they'll go kill him.  Now, why the hell would Luke make a map to himself that could get in the hands of someone who could come kill him?  Why not just tell his sister, or someone he trusts?

            But the main problem this sets up for the next film is that now they have to explain why Luke has isolated himself on this planet, and why he made a map to be found.  Standard Abrams setting up an impossible to explain situation and leaving it for someone else.  Speaking of which, he has a scene where Maz hands Luke's lightsaber to Fin and literally tells him that the story of how she got it is "for another time."  Never before has Abrams been so blatant in his plan to pass the buck than that line.

            The biggest challenge of all that Abrams has left is how this galaxy even works.  He acknowledges the original trilogy and says it happened 30 years earlier.  But then he sets up a new empire called The First Order and shows the rebellion is still fighting under the name "the resistance."  With such a setup, one needs an explanation as to why that dynamic still exists three decades after the climax of Return of the Jedi.  He makes it even more confusing by saying there is a new republic which is somehow relegated to only one solar system.  This is confusing not only in that a GALACTIC REPUBLIC is only in one star system, but it makes it all the more confounding that the "resistance" is on their side.

            Someone might need to get a dictionary to Mr. Abrams so he understands that a "resistance" is set up to resist the government.  If there's a galactic republic, they're supposed to be fighting that.  If they're fighting for the republic, they're either a government entity, or mercenaries.

            He furthermore created a main character that has started out where characters should end up; already powerful enough to take on and beat the main bad guy.  She can also fly the ship that gets them around, and is adept at using the force.  Dramatically, there's little room for her to grow.  However, Abrams did set up a mystery with her parents, so perhaps they can explore that aspect, and there will be something interesting there.

            There's also a nitpicky thing that I still think is a bit relevant.  Abrams being the hipster that he is, only put in the ships that he liked from the original, and developed no others.  So the resistance has X-wings, and the First Order has tie fighters.  Nothing else has been developed in 30 years, and even the ships that had existed in the other movies, such as Y-wings, B-wings, A-wings, tie interceptors, etc. have no upgrades.  Only the ships Abrams thought were cool got to continue to the next film... with new paint jobs.  Oh, and of course, the Millennium Falcon.  Can't let the new characters have their own identity with a new ship.  Only Abrams' memories shall be allowed here.

            So that's what he handed off to Rian Johnson with the new movie.

A Reasonable Discussion of The Last Jedi - Part 1

            When I went to see The Last Jedi in the theater last December, I was hyped up beyond any other recent Star Wars movie.  It had been reviewed better than any other Star Wars film, and was lauded as better than Empire.  I told my girlfriend I would probably be coming back on cloud 11.  But as it unfolded, I got uncomfortable.  I started wondering what might be wrong with me.  If everyone thought this was so amazing, what was I missing?  I kept trying to make excuses for it; trying to go along with it.  But by the time the film was done, I was just depressed.  Not only had I not enjoyed the movie, knowing what the future held for the franchise, I wasn't interested in anything they had planned for the future.  I had just lost my love for the series.

            This was a big deal to me because I grew up with Star Wars.  The original Star Wars was the second movie I ever saw, (damn you, Benji!)  My first experience telling stories was playing with the action figures; and that literally caused me to become a writer.  Most of all, I always saw untapped potential in Star Wars.  The title alone implies so much.  "Star" - Within a galaxy there are hundreds of millions of stars, around which billions of beings live.  "Wars" - Within any war there are millions of stories, and this is plural, implying many, many more stories.

            My biggest disappointment with The Empire Strikes Back was that it only followed the main characters.  Though in retrospect it was the greatest of the Star Wars movies, I always felt that it could have branched out from there and done what the Marvel universe is now doing.  So when Disney bought the rights to the franchise, I thought they'd do something similar.

            And to be fair, they are; but unfortunately the people they've put in charge of it have turned out to be wanting to go in a direction I simply don't care about.  This was the crossroads where that's happening, where JJ Abrams has been brought back to finish the main storyline, and Rian Johnson is going on to create the new series, while Kathleen Kennedy oversees it.  These are the three people that have proven to be on a path I believe is detrimental to the franchise.

            By the time I got home that night, I was downtrodden.  I truly did not care what happened next.  I never thought that I would actively boycott the next films; I just had no interest.  It was the first time in my life that had happened, and I felt empty.  My girlfriend asked if I was on cloud 11, and I said, "There is going to be a huge backlash over that movie."

            I'm not a film critic.  I usually endeavor to tell my own stories rather than criticize others.  In the case of Star Wars I've been writing my own fan fiction to tell it the way I would  You can find it at:

            But this time my mind kept racing back to it.  For some reason it's really bothered me and I've wanted to speak out.  I didn't for a while partially because it's just not something I do, but also because my prediction of the backlash has been right, and there's been so much vitriol from both sides.  I didn't see how my voice would help.

            I doubt it will help now, (in fact, I'm probably just beating a dead horse,) but it's bothered me long enough that I just need to get it out on paper.  I'm not going to write a diatribe of how bad it is; I wish to be reasonable about it and even point out where it was good.  I also don't want to belittle people who liked it.  If you enjoyed it, that's fine.  In fact, I envy you.  I wish I could have enjoyed this as much as you did.

            This is intended to be a reasonable discussion on The Last Jedi, but bear in mind that there will be more negative than positive.