Talking Backwards
Senior Citizen
- Oct 5, 2009
- 1,833
- 43
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LOL. Well, you aren't entirely wrong about the general feeling of this particular film, but JJ Abrams didn't write or direct this. Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, The Brothers Bloom) did. As many issues as I had with The Force Awakens, it was a much better written (yeah, that's what I just said...written), directed and edited film than The Last Jedi. Most importantly, despite being so derivative, it still very much felt like a Star Wars film.
The Last Jedi got all sorts of critical praise, but for all of the wrong reasons. It also seems like so many of the glaring problems with the film are hand-waved away or simply swept under the rug by those that believe being subverise is a virtue in itself, and that change, regardless of how it actually serves the story is something to appreciate. Oh, and of course the heavy-handed, or borderline infantile way certain "lessons" or themes were handled. When they weren't being pounded into your face with the subtlety of a jackhammer anyway.
There are so many things wrong with this film, but it's hard to discuss without getting into spoilers, so I'll just sum up my general thoughts.
Pros:
Really well shot for the majority of the film. One of the best looking Star Wars films so far. For all but around thirty minutes at least.
A pretty cool fight with lightsabers (that isn't an actual lightsaber duel).
A certain cameo. Some people really dislike this, but aside from a questionable display of something, didn't bother me too much.
Rey, Kylo Ren and Luke were the standout performances, but that had more to do with the material they had to work with than it does the rest of the cast not being up to par.
Cons:
SJW: A Disney Story. I'm 100% for diversity, but I don't appreciate it when the way it's handled is to meet some kind of quota, which is exactly how it was handled in this film. To me, that's even worse than having less diversity. And yes, the film was entirely about how men are stupid and that women know best. Rian Johnson was even given his own Star Wars trilogy to direct before this even hit the theaters because of how much Disney was impressed with this. Hmm, Kathleen Kennedy have much influence here? Nah...
Product placement. Porgs have a reason to exist in this film, but beyond the initial reasoning (part of which was the location the film was shot), they are there for no other reason than to sell toys. Even the Ewoks did something in Return of the Jedi, and their village was very memorable too.
Plot holes. So many fucking plot holes or huge leaps in logic that still never made any sense. Too many convenient contrivances that go well beyond the realms of believable coincidences...in a fucking film based around the force. It doesn't follow its own rules of logic. At times it seemed like the film was written in a random flowchart style where the ending was already figured out, then the beginning and everything was then connected via if/then scenarios. When that was done, it's as though Johnson still didn't feel that was enough, so he just randomly started throwing darts at the board.
Things that were completely discarded or given very unsatisfactory answers to from The Force Awakens. JJ Abrams actually did set up quite a few interesting ideas in that film, which I think most expected to be answered in this film. Nope. This film is a clear case of the left hand not talking to the right. Certain events take place that a lot of "fans" have an issue with regarding specific characters, but I'm mostly neutral. I didn't have any major beefs except for one.
Returning characters basically being thrown under the bus just so that newer, and ridiculously underdeveloped characters could have more time on screen in a film that was already too long.
The humor was so tone-deaf and distracting. The film undercut so many dramatic scenes with Marvel styled humor that didn't fit at all. Star Wars always had humor, but it always had its own brand and each character usually had their own style. Most of all, other than the stupid Jar Jar shit, it had been consistent.
The editing and pacing. Oh my god was this just awful. Even excusing everything else, this was just really fucking bad. There's also a near forty minute sequence (illogical at that) that actually looks like they took something out of the prequels and inserted it into an entirely different film. Just awful.
I still can't decide if this is as bad as the prequels or not. The prequel film that I came closest to actually liking was Revenge of the Sith, but it only had maybe forty-five minutes worth of content that I truly liked. The rest was either handled very poorly, or just looked like a video game. The Last Jedi probably has at least an hour and a half (the movie is two and a half hours) of stuff I legitimately like, but it's so uneven, and has so many things wrong with it that it's hard for me to say that I really liked the film overall.
Anyway, JJ Abrams is back to co-write and direct Episode IX. With the way this film ended however, I have no idea what he's going to do, because he's essentially left with a mess that could have been so much more based off of what he had previously setup.
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