The Last Jedi - Spoiler Thoughts
Dec. 15th, 2017 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
31_rabbitsI really enjoyed The Last Jedi, although it is not a perfect film, and there were a handful of moments/elements/scenes that, for me, bumped it away from that A+ review. Floating Space Leia was one... the majority of the Codebreaker subplot was another, specifically because that actor annoys the piss out of me... but, on the other hand, I do like Rose and I like Finn and Rose, so there's that. I watched it super late last night and am still trying to distill my thoughts, so let's see if I can do that here.
The film had strong interconnected themes of Balance, Accepting Failure, Embracing the Past vs. Running from it. In a way, the film validates a long-held frustration with the relationship between the Jedi Order, as portrayed in the Prequel Trilogy, and the Force itself. The Pequel-era Jedi Order is just... the worst? Because they are so arrogant, believing that their way is the only way to maintain the light, when their way is deeply flawed, and the light isn't the point. True Force use, I suspect, should tend much closer to a Druid than a Paladin, right? The Force is an extension of the Universe itself, and nature has neither a dark nor light. It exists in balance. An excess of one over the other, and you get repression, damage, violence, ignorance. That, for me, cemented the point (if there is one) of the Prequels. Much like kids who grow up under an extremely repressed religious framework, and then go off the rails at the first chance of freedom, Anakin was the embodiment of the need for balance, not for one method over the other. The Jedi failed him. And sure, that doesn't absolve him of his behaviors, not in the slightest, but it does give context. Maybe he saw himself in those younglings, and, in a twisted way, wanted to free them from the anguish he had grown around, like a tree being forced to grow around barbed wire.
I loved the scenes of Rey and Luke on the islandof misfit Jedi. I loved grumpy, anguished, regret-laden, Force-resisting Luke. Jesus Christ, what that man has had to go through in his life... he went to the island to die, so overwhelmed by his regrets and failures... that was some of the best parts for me. Rey repeatedly pleading with him on behalf of the resistance, and then finally, asking for help, trying to understand this strange power within her. I loved that.
Oh and can we talk about Reylo now? Because... yeah. I was totally thrown for a loop by the force-bonding scenes that the two of them shared. That was NOT what I was expecting, and it worked so well. Their fight scene together, fuck me, that was great. I know some have said it looked more like a stage play than a film, but I am okay with that. The brief moment when Rey and Ben (and oh Force, she calls him Ben, and goddamn Daisy and Adam are great in this movie, the tears constantly spilling over, their emotions so close to the surface, frayed like raw nerves, searching for and rejecting comfort in the same moments) synchronize their movements was just glorious to watch. That scene gave me chills.
Rey craves the truth, while knowing the truth and having repressed it. Her parents are nobody. She is nobody. She looks backwards, constantly searching, looking and finding nothing but herself in countless mirrors. In a sense, too, Ben is right. Let the past die. Kill it, if you must... but he's stuck looking forwards. To that future point, when he won't feel any more. When he won't hurt any more. When his father and mother and mentor won't haunt him any more. But you can't ever reach that point. And he knows it.
The present moment. Yoda reinforces this to Luke, burning the past. Learn from your failures. Be present. Be here. Not back there, not ahead of yourself.
Poe's Arc, The Resistance, and the Survival Equation was another really interesting choice for the movie.
Poe in the first film is very much about the 'rules-don't-apply' hot-shot sort of energy. And it works, it does. But in this one, the Rebellion is all but destroyed, the Republic is basically destroyed, and every person has value. Every bit of this arc is about pursuit, desperation, being pushed into a corner, options taken away again and again. I feel... like I need to see the film again to really pay attention to this element, because I was so focused on the Rey-Luke-Ben threads. Poe made an assumption, a ton of assumptions, and Holdo really wasn't forthcoming about her motives, so I initially felt a bit like... what? So, that's one for the re-watch. I didn't hate it, I just want more.
Some reviewers thought the 'animals have feelings too / precious orphan moppet' bit on the Las Vegas Planet whose name I can't remember/spell was a bit heavy-handed and I can see it. But I didn't hate it. Mostly because I was invested in Rose, and I loved the reinforcement of the shades of grey of the universe. Like, on one hand, this group of rebels is desperate, injured, limping along, and on the other, these people are living without a care in theworld universe and getting rich off the destruction. The universe is so huge, why wouldn't this be happening? I thought it worked.
And oh, the callback to the little slave boy at the end... I didn't hate that. Anyone can be Force-sensitive. Even a nobody from nowhere.
I am sure I will have many more thoughts on second viewing. Right now, I give it a solid A-.
The film had strong interconnected themes of Balance, Accepting Failure, Embracing the Past vs. Running from it. In a way, the film validates a long-held frustration with the relationship between the Jedi Order, as portrayed in the Prequel Trilogy, and the Force itself. The Pequel-era Jedi Order is just... the worst? Because they are so arrogant, believing that their way is the only way to maintain the light, when their way is deeply flawed, and the light isn't the point. True Force use, I suspect, should tend much closer to a Druid than a Paladin, right? The Force is an extension of the Universe itself, and nature has neither a dark nor light. It exists in balance. An excess of one over the other, and you get repression, damage, violence, ignorance. That, for me, cemented the point (if there is one) of the Prequels. Much like kids who grow up under an extremely repressed religious framework, and then go off the rails at the first chance of freedom, Anakin was the embodiment of the need for balance, not for one method over the other. The Jedi failed him. And sure, that doesn't absolve him of his behaviors, not in the slightest, but it does give context. Maybe he saw himself in those younglings, and, in a twisted way, wanted to free them from the anguish he had grown around, like a tree being forced to grow around barbed wire.
I loved the scenes of Rey and Luke on the island
Oh and can we talk about Reylo now? Because... yeah. I was totally thrown for a loop by the force-bonding scenes that the two of them shared. That was NOT what I was expecting, and it worked so well. Their fight scene together, fuck me, that was great. I know some have said it looked more like a stage play than a film, but I am okay with that. The brief moment when Rey and Ben (and oh Force, she calls him Ben, and goddamn Daisy and Adam are great in this movie, the tears constantly spilling over, their emotions so close to the surface, frayed like raw nerves, searching for and rejecting comfort in the same moments) synchronize their movements was just glorious to watch. That scene gave me chills.
Rey craves the truth, while knowing the truth and having repressed it. Her parents are nobody. She is nobody. She looks backwards, constantly searching, looking and finding nothing but herself in countless mirrors. In a sense, too, Ben is right. Let the past die. Kill it, if you must... but he's stuck looking forwards. To that future point, when he won't feel any more. When he won't hurt any more. When his father and mother and mentor won't haunt him any more. But you can't ever reach that point. And he knows it.
The present moment. Yoda reinforces this to Luke, burning the past. Learn from your failures. Be present. Be here. Not back there, not ahead of yourself.
Poe's Arc, The Resistance, and the Survival Equation was another really interesting choice for the movie.
Poe in the first film is very much about the 'rules-don't-apply' hot-shot sort of energy. And it works, it does. But in this one, the Rebellion is all but destroyed, the Republic is basically destroyed, and every person has value. Every bit of this arc is about pursuit, desperation, being pushed into a corner, options taken away again and again. I feel... like I need to see the film again to really pay attention to this element, because I was so focused on the Rey-Luke-Ben threads. Poe made an assumption, a ton of assumptions, and Holdo really wasn't forthcoming about her motives, so I initially felt a bit like... what? So, that's one for the re-watch. I didn't hate it, I just want more.
Some reviewers thought the 'animals have feelings too / precious orphan moppet' bit on the Las Vegas Planet whose name I can't remember/spell was a bit heavy-handed and I can see it. But I didn't hate it. Mostly because I was invested in Rose, and I loved the reinforcement of the shades of grey of the universe. Like, on one hand, this group of rebels is desperate, injured, limping along, and on the other, these people are living without a care in the
And oh, the callback to the little slave boy at the end... I didn't hate that. Anyone can be Force-sensitive. Even a nobody from nowhere.
I am sure I will have many more thoughts on second viewing. Right now, I give it a solid A-.
