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.