I just got home from watching The Last Jedi, and here are
some first impressions. Full warning;
spoilers lie below.
The good:
Lightsaber fights: Two particular fights I enjoyed in this movie were the fight
with Ray and Ben vs the ninjas and Ben vs Luke.
The ninja fight I enjoyed because it showcased a lightsaber
fight with a bunch of different interesting weapons that could match up to
lightsabers, and I just like ninjas, so bite me.
The Luke vs Ben fight I thought was handled quite well. It showcased the strength of both characters,
as well as their weaknesses. It didn’t
feel like it clung to too many starwars cliché’s (although obvious reference to
Obi-wan vs Vader), and it utilized our knowledge of how the starwars universe
works in a new and interesting way.
There was also just enough foreshadowing of the climax of the battle that
you could figure it out, without it being overly obvious.
Luke: While this is a significant step away from the luke from
films 1-3, his story is a believable life story for a figure like this, and he
has a few good shots with Ray (Specifically the first one) and Yoda which I
enjoyed. I also was a fan of how he kept
the force as a religion/mystical force, and not some midichlorian bs. And take a note from above where I liked his
lightsaber fight.
Empire commanders who are not incompetent: We’ve all seen the empire throw soldiers at the enemy like
the Roman Empire did back in their day.
Well trained but, led by leaders who had no clue about military combat
beyond the bare basics. It’s a nice
break that The Last Jedi doesn’t completely fall into this trap. Sure, they fall prey to the Rebel’s tricks a
couple times, but one commander (I didn’t catch his name) knew immediately what
the Rebel plan was when it was set in action and took appropriate countermeasures
against it immediately; just a little too late.
General Hux on the other hand makes lots of mistakes, but he’s always
got a backup plan, and quite often when presented with a Rebel trick; he
actually makes the right choice. This
alone makes him more dangerous feeling then any imperial commander from the original
series who didn’t have a breathing problem.
The bad:
Leia: I was not impressed by anything Leia did during the
film as being overly insightful, inspiring or what we would hope from one of
Star War’s great heroes. With the
exception of her defying all time, space and reason in what is quite likely my
least favorite scene in the movie, when she doesn’t die. There is nothing in any of the movies that
would make us believe that an untrained Jedi would not swell up and pass out if
exposed to space for more than a few seconds.
On the flip side; Leia’s 2ic I think was done well, and for
all intents and purposes; her role could have been done by leia a more
compelling hero. Or, they could have
just killed her when she should have died, that would have been ok too.
Finn: Most of my problem with Finn in this movie is that he
doesn’t do anything. He’s supposed to be
some badass ex-stormtrooper hero, and everything he does could have been done
just as well by Ray, Poe, or any generic rebel trooper. I would have liked to see more innovation and
badass-ness out of this guy that’s uniquely Finn stuff. He had plenty of opportunity in the
gambling-town sequence.
The chasing down of the rebels: I don’t object to the overaching theme here, I’m ok with the
empire being able to track through hyperspace; I’m fine with (and expected) the
chasing down and elimination of most of the rebellion, and I’m even ok with
having numerous named characters die because of it. But this sequence involved and cumulated in
my two least favorite scenes in the movie.
One is when leia didn’t die, as I described above, the other is
hyperspace suicide bombing.
So hyperspace suicide.
I don’t even object to Leia v2 making a heroic sacrifice to save what
little remained of the rebellion, in fact I believe that saved her character
somewhat. I just think that how she “heroically
sacrificed” herself was far too effective, detracted from the plot and left a
gaping plot hole in the series in general.
If a single person in a flagship without fuel, fading shields and little
apparent weaponry could easily take out the biggest; baddest imperial ship in
one hit with effectively unlimited range.
And also take out a few star destroyers on the side. What’s the point in ever deploying easily
destroyed bomber-vehicles which required two people to pilot, flew a lot
slower, had a short effective range and could only destroy a single ship when
its defenses had been disabled? It would
have been much better for the plot if the hyperspace suicide merely caused some
damage to the imperial ship without destroying it; but enough damage to slow it
down and let the rebels escape.
The totally not unexpected:
Story Arc: I was rather surprised to read that Lucas wasn’t
involved in the production of this film, because I know he’s a fan of the 3 act
narrative arc, and this film’s narrative was exactly what you expect from the
second act of a 3 act narrative arc.
But, on second thought, I’m really not surprised that Disney would have
a second film follow the exact formula for a second act in a 3 act narrative
arc. In short; the story arc was not
surprising.
Recycling: There are a lot of scenes which mirror scenes in
the original trilogy. We have the young
jedi seeking out an old master jedi, learning from him and leaving before their
training is complete. We have the hero
Jedi turning themselves in to try and turn the villain Jedi back to the
light. We have the snow…. Sorry salt
planet fight with light fighters attempting to take on ATATs and stall for
time. We have the overconfident super villain
who’s betrayed and killed by his young apprentice when all the chips are
down. And we have the old Jedi Master
confronting his turned-to-dark side apprentice and trying to reason with him
while the apprentice tried to prove that they are more powerful.
In fairness, they tried to add a twist to each of these
situations. But there was a lot of
recycling going on in this film.
