Every man of my generation thinks about the day he'll introduce his children to Star Wars. (Or at least, they used to. I had kids a bit late in life, so most of my generation has already been through this. But anyway...)
I was 5 years old the first time I saw Star Wars, and I was completely enthralled by it from beginning to end.
My kids are now 4 and 7, so I figured it was time to introduce them to it.
They were interested in the action scenes at the beginning. They were unsure about whether or not it would be too scary, but they decided to stick it out. ("At least it's not as scary as Dr. Strange," my daughter said to herself.)
But then we got to Tatooine, and all the talking parts, and they completely lost interest. Eventually they started asking me how much longer the movie was. I made the mistake of indulging this question the first time. "It looks like we've got an hour and thirty minutes left," I said. But then, they asked the same question 2 minutes later. "I just answered that," I said. By the 4th time they asked me, I lost patience. "I told you, I'm not answering that question."
At 42 minutes into the movie (right at the scene that Luke comes back to find his home destroyed), they were completely done with the movie and went upstairs. (Just out of sheer boredom, not because they were at all concerned about Uncle Owen or Aunt Beru.)
I tried my best to convince them to stay longer. "Come back down, there's more exciting things that will happen later in the movie. I promise." But they were just done with it.
To be fair, when I first saw Star Wars at 5 years old, I didn't understand all the talky parts either. I didn't know what an Imperial Senate was, or why it mattered that it was dissolved. But I had the feeling throughout that I was watching some sort of epic story, and I was just thrilled to be along for the ride, whether I understood all the dialogue or not.
But not so my kids.
I think much of the difference is that when I was 5, it was a real rarity to be allowed to watch a movie, so I was enthralled by pretty much whatever my parents put in front of me. But my kids have been exposed to a lot more screens from a much younger age, and are consequently a lot harder to impress than when I was their age. (We do try to limit their screen time, but it's a constant struggle, and screens are just everywhere now--but that's a different subject for a different post.)
It's always dangerous to extrapolate from my kids to their whole generation, but I suspect it's a generational thing. The original Star Wars probably just isn't thrilling enough for kids nowadays.
At any rate, once my kids had bailed on Star Wars, I decided to just turn it off at 42 minutes. I have seen the original Star Wars so very many times in my life that I had no need to watch it again by myself.
Addendum: Although maybe I should have just stuck it out, because Star Wars is actually on my to-do list for my favorite movies of all time review list. Well, I'll sit through the whole thing another time I guess. When I'm more in the mood.
***SPOILERS*** My Perceptions Going Into This Movie
I suspect your own story is similar.
In the months leading up to this movie, I started hearing rumors about disasters going on behind the scenes. Test screening audiences hated the movie. Reshoots were still going on right up until the release date. No one could decide on the ending. Et cetera.
Then the reviews got released for this movie, and they were pretty awful.
But then, after all the professional critics had gotten done trashing this movie, a lot of normal people started giving it positive reviews, and saying it wasn't nearly as bad as the critics had made out.
My Review
Yeah, it wasn't great. Pretty mediocre. I was bored for much of the movie.
But, it wasn't terrible either. It was perfectly serviceable as the end of the trilogy. It didn't ruin the characters or the franchise for me.
Because this is Star Wars, and because people tend to have strong opinions about Star Wars, it always helps to keep some perspective.
When we were kids, Star Wars was so magical for us that we've come to expect that every movie in the franchise should re-create that magical feeling. But this expectation was never realistic. As more and more Star Wars films get cranked out, we have to realize that some of them will be good, and some of them will just be mediocre. This is one of the mediocre ones. It's not the end of the world, it just means that this film isn't quite as interesting or as exciting as some of its predecessors.
I also recognize that the 3rd film in the trilogy is bound to be the boring one. The first two movies are where all the interesting plot lines are introduced. But in the final movie, you can't introduce a lot of new interesting plot twists because your job is to start wrapping up the existing plot lines.
So I get it. The film makers had a hard job in front of them, and they did the best they could with it.
But, in spite of all that, I do still have a number of criticisms of this movie. So let's get into it:
Negatives
* In my opinion, the principle sin of this movie is that it's boring.
Admittedly not everyone agrees with this. (I have several friends and family members who thought it was very exciting.) So take my opinion with a grain of salt. Your own impression might be different.
There was certainly a lot happening in this movie, but I think my problem was that there was too much happening, and not a lot of time for narrative tension to develop. So although there was a lot of action happening on the screen, I wasn't invested in it.
* So at this point, it's very obvious that nobody had a coherent plan for this trilogy. Character arcs that were set up in movies 7 and 8 were not satisfyingly paid-off. Mysteries that we were encouraged to get invested in were not given logical resolutions.
(See: It Was a Total Lack of Planning That Killed Star Wars--via Whisky Prajer).
* Related to the above point:
The side-lining of Rose Tico was unfortunate. It didn't make sense from a thematic standpoint, because her character had been built up so much in episode 8, that you would expect her character arc to continue in episode 9.
And it doesn't make sense from an in-universe standpoint, because there's a romantic relationship between her and Finn which is just abruptly dropped with no explanation.
The only thing that really makes sense is that she was sidelined because of the negative reaction her character got from a portion of the fandom and from online trolls.
Personally, I really liked the character. I liked the idea of an ordinary working person who becomes one of the main characters. And I thought Kelly Marie Tran's portrayal of her was really endearing. So I wanted to see more Rose Tico.
Given all the racist online harassment that Kelly Marie Tran had faced from online trolls after episode 8, it was really disappointing to see episode 9 appear to give in to that online trolling by sidelining her character.
* Emperor Palpatine coming back from the dead:
I mean, I understand why they did it. Kylo Ren needed to turn back to the light side in order for him to get redeemed and his character arc to be completed. And if Kylo Ren is going to turn good again, then they need someone even more bad and more powerful for him to fight against. And now that Snoke is dead, who else is left now?
But, it was still stupid. Palpatine's arc was already over. We already saw his rise and fall and final defeat. To have him come back from the dead now just seems to undue the ending of the original trilogy.
Plus, this was never set up in any of the previous movies.
Plus, there was never any sort of explanation given in the movie as to how he came back. Unless I missed something, there was just some sort of vague exposition about how the dark side gives you a lot of unexpected powers. Which is a really unsatisfying explanation. Plus, if that's true, then he can never be killed off, right? Why should I be invested in Rey's climatic show-down with him, when I know he can never be killed?
* These show-downs with Emperor Palpatine never seem to make a lot of sense. He tells you to kill him with your light saber, but you can't do it because if you do, then that's just giving into your hate, and he wins. But if you kill him by any other way, then it's okay, apparently?
* These constant light saber battles between Rey and Kylo Ren are getting really tiresome. Especially since we know that neither one of them wants to kill the other. Rey wants to redeem Kylo Ren, and Kylo Ren wants to convert Rey. Neither of them want the other one dead. So why do they spend the whole movie hacking at each other with these really deadly weapons as if they wanted to kill the other one? We have to watch them fight and fight, but we know the fight is never going to lead to any sort of outcome. Plus, we just got done seeing this in the previous movie.
* Okay, so I've made this same critique in all of my Star Wars reviews, but... I'm of the opinion that the original Star Wars trilogy became popular in spite of The Force and not because of it. The first Star Wars movie was all about space nazis, space pirates, and outer space fighter plane dog fights, with just a little bit of The Force mysticism overlaid. But every Star Wars movie since then has focused in on The Force more and more until it's become ridiculous.
It's now apparent that both Kylo Ren and Rey have essentially god-like powers. They can levitate things, heal the wounded, (bring back the dead?), arrest Star Ships in mid-flight, etc, which makes it very hard to create any tension or sense of danger around their characters. It also creates a lot of inconsistencies. From scene to scene, I was constantly thinking to myself, "But why doesn't she just use the Force to get out of this danger? Clearly she has the power to do it because we just saw it in the previous scene."
* So how many times did it look like a certain character was dead, only for them to turn out to be completely okay? I think 3 by my count.
* So what happened with Kylo Ren's death? Did he exchange his life for Rey's? Did the act of using that much Force just physically exhaust him? What was going on?
I have the same problems with Luke's death in the previous movie. And come to that, with Princess Leia's death. (Although I know they were doing the best they could with limited footage they had of her.)
* That new droid: What was the point of it? It contributed absolutely nothing to the plot. I know we were supposed to find him cute, but I just found him annoying, and besides we already have more than enough cute looking droids in these movies.
* Ever since Return of the Jedi in 1983, when George Lucas decided to blow up another Death Star because he couldn't think of anything else to do, it's been apparent that the series has been out of new ideas. But it's never so painfully obvious as it was in this movie.
The showdown between Rey and Emperor Palpatine was the exact same showdown that Luke had with Emperor Palpatine back in Return of the Jedi, even going so far as to re-use a lot of the exact same dialogue. I was so bored during these scenes, because I had already seen this movie, and I already knew what was going to happen. Meanwhile the battle in space to blow up the Death Star big large ship is also the exact same climax of every Star Wars movie. In my 2015 review of The Force Awakens, I wrote:
I was so charmed by this film that I'm giving it a complete pass on its recycled plot. But going forward, I think there is now a real question of how many stories Star Wars is capable of telling. Are we just going to get the same movie over and over again 40 times over the next 40 years? Because if we are, at some point I'm going to stop forgiving that.
I'm now at the point where I'm going to stop forgiving this.
* That re-purposed footage of Carrie Fisher didn't entirely blend seamlessly into the movie. You could tell something was a bit off with the scenes she was in. The dialogue didn't entirely seem natural. Her interaction with the other characters wasn't entirely organic. (I know this is one of those things that is nobody's fault, but I have to count it as a negative nonetheless because it's noticeable.)
The Cameos
So, some people online have been referring to the inclusion of old fan favorite characters by the derogatory term of "fan service". But I actually like them.
I've never really liked that term "fan service" anyway. As if that were a bad thing. The whole reason people are going to these movies is because they want to see what happened to the characters they love. The fact that fans are invested in the characters is the reason that a franchise, any franchise exists. (No one is going to see Star Wars sequels because they care about the politics of the Republic or the New Order,)
So yes, fans want to see their favorite characters back for one last hurrah. There's nothing wrong with that.
Billy Dee Williams, by all reports, would have been perfectly willing to come back for episode 7 or 8 if someone had just asked him. In my opinion, it's a pity they didn't include him earlier. But at least we got to see him in episode 9.
Man, Billy Dee Williams is really looking old and frail. You get the impression that the actor has a very restricted range of movement these days.
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher were all looking grey, but they at least looked healthy and energetic. The same cannot be said for Billy Dee Williams.
But then, the dude is 82 years old, so what do you expect? (Billy Dee Williams was always a bit older than the other actors. He was in his early 40s when Empire Strikes Back came out.) I hope to be as lucky when I'm 82.
In other words, it was a bit depressing to see what time has done to Billy Dee Williams, but not completely unexpected. I was still glad they included him instead of not including him.
I'm also glad they were able to get a cameo in for Wedge Antilles. Wedge is someone else that I was disappointed we didn't see in the previous movies. According to Wikipedia:
Lawson has said he was asked to reprise his role as Wedge Antilles in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but reportedly turned down the role because he believed it would have "bored" him.[8] However, Lawson later said he actually declined to appear in The Force Awakens due to a scheduling conflict, and would have appeared in the film had he been available.[9]
Well, okay, so they got him for the final movie at least.
But was that the most pointless cameo, or what? He had no introduction. He was only on screen for half a second, saying "Nice shooting Lando", and then that was it. He never appeared again.
They couldn't have worked in anything for him to do? They couldn't work in a brief hero moment for Wedge?
I guess I'm glad I got to see him briefly, but it's really hard to see what the point of that cameo was.
Same with Wicket the Ewok. I'm guess I'm glad I got to see him for half-a-second on the screen, but it's really hard to figure out what the point of that cameo was. I would have liked it if they had integrated him into the plot somehow.
Rating: 5 out of 10 Stars. In spite of all my complaining about stuff, it was in the end a perfectly serviceable sequel. Not great, not terrible.
Video Review
Video review HERE and embedded below. I got caught off in the middle of my rant again. The camera I'm using can only film for 30 minutes at a time before it shuts down. But I said most of what I wanted to say, so I'm going to call this one good. Apologies again for the abrupt ending.
But it's 9 months later, and people are STILL arguing about this movie online. (This might be a sign that I'm spending too much time online while normal people have moved on with their lives).
Plus The Last Jedi is now being run on cable TV, and I've re-watched it this week, so I'm going to try to clarify my thoughts.
(Hopefully I'll say what I want to say, get it out of my system, and then move on to doing more worthwhile things with my life.)
To begin with, I'm puzzled about this whole outrage in general:
If you didn't like this movie, that's cool. We're still friends. In fact, within my circle of friends, the whole range of opinions is represented. (People who loved it, people who hated it, people who were luke-warm, etc).
But... the amount of entitled fanboy whining about this movie is truly baffling. (Perhaps this is what the Internet has done to our culture?)
I personally liked this movie. But even if you didn't, the law of averages dictates that not every Star Wars film is going to be brilliant. If a franchise goes on long enough, eventually it's going to produce some bad films. It's just statistics. You can't have every Star Wars film be better than average. There's no magical super-power protecting this franchise from mediocrity. There will be bad Star Wars films from time-to-time. It doesn't mean the whole franchise is ruined. Just suck it up.
What makes all this outrage even more baffling is that this is a franchise which has already produced a lot of terrible entries. Repeatedly. Remember The Holiday Special, those 2 Ewoks movies, that Droids cartoon show, the Clone Wars theatrical movie, and the whole prequel trilogy? Many fans believe that even part of the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, was a disappointment.
So why are people acting like the franchise is ruined now?
Thoughts on Re-watching The Last Jedi
My original opinion remains largely unchanged. This is a brilliant film. One of the best Star Wars ever.
...with a few missteps. That flying space Leia was an unfortunate wrong note. And I still don't like how Luke died at the end.
Okay, so it's not perfect. (Perhaps I was a bit overly generous in giving this film 10 out of 10. Maybe 9 out of 10 is more accurate).
Also, I think Phil Christman has convinced me that Luke's character is not consistent with his earlier portrayals. It works fine as a character arc within this film, but doesn't mesh well with the broader continuity. To quote Phil at some length:
We should talk about Luke. Rian Johnson has constructed an interesting storyline about an interesting Generic Grizzled Veteran character who happens not to be Luke Skywalker--impetuous, activist, goes-where-he's-needed practical farmboy Luke Skywalker--on any level whatsoever. Unfortunately, the script requires that this character be Luke Skywalker, and you never get over the fundamental incongruity, despite Mark Hamill's very best efforts. (Hamill has alluded to this, in his characteristically nice way, in several interviews.) Luke's role in these films has always been to present a kind of Christian active love in untheorized, almost unspoken dissent from the superficially attractive but morally appalling Stoicism of the Jedi. (If I had a nickel for every idiot who has told me that Christian ethics "cribbed from" the Stoics. Christianity subverted the Stoics! And thank God! Fuck the Stoics!) Recall that in Empire Strikes Back Yoda tells Luke in no uncertain terms that he's wrong to fly back to Cloud City and rescue Han and Leia, that he's sacrificing both the Jedi code and the Rebellion's ultimate victory. But yet Yoda is clearly shown to be wrong. Luke's choice sets in motion the chain of events that leads to the Empire's downfall and Darth Vader's repentance and is undoubtedly the correct one. In the next film, Yoda sternly orders him not to go and confront Vader, and he's wrong about this too. Luke is shamed, again and again, for being excitable, for being anxious, for caring. (This is presented in the films as a mere vainglory; Last Jedi is particularly hard on this trait, which it unsubtly codes as intrinsically male.) But he's right and Yoda is wrong in every case where they disagree. Indeed, Yoda is so useless over the course of the six Star Wars films that some fans theorize he was a Sith Lord the whole time. To have him appear in Last Jedi, of all characters--looking at least as stupid as the CGI Thanos in the Avengers trailer--and deliver the coup de grace to hidebound Jedi ideology, while Luke looks on, as dumb as he was back on Dagobah watching his ship lift from the swamp, mistakes completely what both these characters are about. Yoda is hidebound Jedi ideology. And while I appreciate that someone in these films has finally made an explicit critique of the Jedi--from movie one, they have always been magic lying dipshits who speak in platitudes and give bad advice--Luke's isn't particularly coherent, nor is he very consistent about it. If he's worried about a warrior elite lording it over the galaxy, he might start by being a little more considerate of the slapstick aliens who act as caretakers of his remote Jedi hermitage. (When he gives Rey her "first lesson," he should have made it be "fix this hole you laser-blasted in the wall and apologize to these nice people." Anti-elitism begins at home, Luke.)
This didn't occur to me on the first viewing, but I've been thinking about it, and Phil is probably right.
Now that Phil has put the thought in my head, Luke's portrayal jarred with me on the second-viewing.
...Although, counterpoint, Movie Bob argues that this is portrayal is just staying faithful to the King Arthur legend. Arthur was young and idealistic in his youth, but became old and jaded near the end, and allowed his kingdom to disintegrate among his quarreling nephews.
Now I'm not sure what to believe. Both sides have good points.
Legacy
Both The Last Jedi lovers and The Last Jedi haters believe that time will vindicate their viewpoint.
The Last Jedi defenders point out that The Empire Strikes back was poorly received on its initial release, but when on to be regarded as the best of the franchise.
The Last Jedi haters point out that The Phantom Menace got an initial positive response from fans before the initial euphoria died away, and everyone realized it sucked.
Me? I'm in The Last Jedi defenders club. I believe that in the fullness of time, everyone will realize this was actually a great movie.
...kind of. Although actually, in another 30 or 40 years, we'll all be in the nursing home, and no one will care what our opinion is. (Boy, it's depressing when you do the math like that, isn't it? But it's true.)
To assume anyone will still be talking about Star Wars at all in the future is to assume that Star Wars is going to be as important to the next generation as it was to us. And that's not assured. (My elementary school students like Star Wars well enough, but it's only one of many franchises competing for their attention).
It's perfectly possible in the future no one will care about this movie one way or the other.
But assuming, for the sake of argument, that people are still debating Star Wars in 30 years, I think this movie will be treated with respect. And some admiration for its ambition.
...although the pacing is an issue. I noted this in my original review, but it was more evident on re-watching. When I first watched this movie, the suspense of not knowing what was going to happen largely held my attention through the more talky parts of this movie.
On re-watching this movie, I was in danger of getting bored during the talky parts.
It's also a little bit too long to sit through.
If you just watch the first half, or if you just watch the second half, it's great. But if you try to watch the whole thing in one sitting, it does get a bit too long.
Like most people of my generation, I've watched the original trilogy more times than I could count. (It was constantly brought out for slumber parties, youth group events, high school parties, et cetera.)
Could you do the same with The Last Jedi?
Maybe The Last Jedi is not meant to be watched over and over and over again like the other Star Wars films. Maybe it's meant to be watched just a few times, and then reflected on. Less of a popcorn action film, and more like The Godfather.
But, okay, enough fence sitting. What is my final prediction on this?
Prediction
It's going to go the trajectory of The Empire Strikes Back. In 30 years time, it will be remembered as one of the greatest Star Wars films.
Links
In addition to being a response to Internet chatter generally, this post is partially a response to Whisky Prajer's post: Does Star Wars need saving?
I was originally going to leave a comment, but the more I thought about it, the more my thoughts grew into an entire post.
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
More People Arguing About Star Wars
[The subtitle for this is something about how I know I spend way too much time online, and I'm trying to get my bad habits under control. But since I've already watched these videos, I'm going to briefly blog about them.]
Boy, people on the Internet really love to argue about Star Wars, huh? That debate about The Last Jedi is still going back and forth. I was very generous to The Last Jedi. (10 out of 10 stars). The amount of hate this film has gathered has caused me to occasionally doubt myself. But then, it's gotten a lot of praise from people to. Shaun, a youtuber I've stumbled upon recently, and really like, has released a new defense of The Last Jedi. Why I Love The Last Jedi
In other Youtube News:
* Jenny Nicholson (another Youtuber I love) has a video about Solo. She hates it. I loved it. But I enjoyed her video nonetheless. (If someone is very good at articulating their opinions, it can be enjoyable to listen to them even if you don't agree.)
But I later felt guilty about tweeting this. I didn't actually want Solo to fail. After all, this was going to be part of the Star Wars canon. And I was a Star Wars fan. Although I was somewhat dreading the idea of a Han Solo prequel, I didn't want it to fail. I wanted it to be as good as it could be, and do as little damage to the character and the franchise as possible.
I was still angry about the idea of a Han Solo prequel. And I was hoping everyone involved in greenlighting this movie would all lose their jobs and never touch anything related to Star Wars ever again. But now that we are living in a world where the Han Solo prequel is a reality whether I like it or not, I wanted the prequel itself to be a success. (If that nuance is not too confusing.)
The Review
Good news! The movie is good.
I mean, yes, I know, prequels suck as a matter of principle.
And yes, I know, it's sacrilege to have anyone other than Harrison Ford play Han Solo.
But... but the thing works. It starts out with a great action scene and it keeps that momentum going all the way through the movie. Great action scenes, and very exciting.
I loved the twists at the end of the film, and thought the build up and pay-off in the final climax of the movie was very satisfying.
Alden Ehrenreich actually works as Han to me. He's got the cocky attitude down perfectly. And by about 20 minutes into the movie I had completely accepted him as Han Solo.
Donald Glover of course is awesome.
This movie still wasn't necessary. But, it did show that it is possible to do a prequel, and not completely muck up the integrity of the series.
Perhaps after George Lucas's disastrous prequel trilogy, some of us were a little bit too quick to assume prequels couldn't work as a matter of principal. But Solo actually works. Or at the very least doesn't completely ruin the character.
More Positive Points
* As I also wrote before, I agree with Mike Ryan (here, here and here) that Star Wars became a success not because of the Jedis, but inspite of it. The Jedis and the Force are the most boring part of the Star Wars mythos--the real fun is the space Western and space pirates aspect of the story. I believe it was a mistake for subsequent Star Wars films to double down on the Force.
The good news is that there's no Force in Solo. Just all bounty hunters, pirates, and Westerns. And the movie is better for it.
Negative Points
* L3 did not work.
Droids have long been a problem in the Star Wars universe. They're obviously sentient, have thoughts, feelings, fears and a desire for self-preservation. And yet they're treated by everyone in the Star Wars universe as disposable. And framed that way by the filmmakers as well. (Think of how many jokes in Star Wars over the years have revolved around a droid getting comically destroyed. There was even one of these jokes in Solo itself.)
It's a problem, but to tug at this string is going to unravel a lot of the universe, so we fans generally just leave it alone and shove it to the back of our minds.
For this reason, I think it's a mistake to have L3 shine a spotlight on the problem of Droid rights. It just doesn't work in this universe without opening a big can of worms.
But... if you're going to address this issue, than do it seriously. Don't just make a joke out a droid fighting for equal rights. It doesn't work as a joke, and to make a punch line out of the phrase "equal rights" seems to me to be making light of the real struggle of people out there fighting for equal rights in the real world.
That... plus the character just wasn't funny, so it didn't work comedically.
...but then, after seeing the two trailers released yesterday, I'm beginning to think maybe it looks kind of cool after all. I'm thinking maybe I might want this movie to be great after all.
I don't know. So conflicted. Tune-in in 3 months time for my review and see how I end up feeling about it.
Wow, what a movie! This certainly deserves to be watched unspoiled. Do not read this review unless you've already seen the movie.
****SPOILER ALERT*****
****SPOILER ALERT*****
****SPOILER ALERT*****
****SPOILER ALERT*****
I've already gushed before about how Star Wars has a big hold on me because of nostalgia--Here, Here, Here, and Here. So no need to go through all that again.
Other than to maybe make one quick distinction, which perhaps I didn't make clear in all my previous posts. It's more than just simple nostalgia. I'm nostalgic for a lot of things from my childhood, in the way that I have pleasant associations with anything from that time--Disney cartoons, and Dr Seuss books, and Transformers, et cetera, will all get a smile and a warm feeling out of me.
But Star Wars is more than just a pleasant reminder of childhood. In my brain, I still associate Star Wars with all the excitement the movies gave me as a child. It's not so much a warm-fuzzy nostalgia (although it's partly that as well) but it's a shiver of excitement that goes down my spine.
In this way, when the John Williams music starts, or when I hear the laser gun sound effects, I get that same shiver of excitement.
If the Internet is any indication, most people my age feel this way. We are easy targets for the Star Wars franchise, and probably tend to give it higher praise than it really objectively deserves.
But so what? All of our primitive emotions are irrational, and most movies appeal to our primitive emotions. Whether we like a movie because it's got good action, or romance, or sex appeal, or slapstick comedy, it's still the primitive animal part of our brain that is reacting to these raw emotions. Nostalgia is just one of many irrational emotions that color our perception of movies. So if you like a movie because of nostalgia, that's as good a reason as any.
That caveat out of the way...
Wow, did this movie thrill me.
And sure, a lot of that thrill was the nostalgic thrill of seeing the Star Wars cast again. But there were also plenty of dramatic points, plenty of intense emotions. Some great action scenes. Some wonderful character moments. Some really unexpected plot developments.
Right from the beginning, that scene with the attack on the dreadnought let you know that this was going to be an amazing movie. You had all that drama, all that great suspense--would the pilot be able to open the bomber doors in time or not--and it was only the first 10 minutes of the movie.
From that point on, you knew you were going to be in for a great ride.
I was also caught by surprise a number of times.
Those scenes with Kylo Ren and Rey were really great. I legitimately didn't know whether Rey was going to save Kylo Ren, or be seduced by him. I was shocked when Kylo Ren killed Snoke, and the movie actually had me believing for a second that he was going to redeem himself. Only for the next plot twist to kick in, and once again catch me out.
It also had the perfect balance between the old Star Wars characters, and the new ones. Lots of great moments for Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Yoda, C3PO, and R2D2. But also lots of great moments for the new cast to shine.
I'm almost tempted to say it is the best Star Wars film yet.
My only concern is I don't know how well it's going to hold up under repeat viewing. (You need to think about the repeat viewings, after all. This is Star Wars. We're going to watch this film again and again and again until we're sick of it.) A lot of the film's dramatic punches worked so well because of the element of surprise, or suspense.
That climatic showdown between Luke and Kylo Ren, for example. The action choreography in that scene wasn't anything spectacular. What made it a great scene was all the suspense that they built up, plus that final reveal at the end. But when we re-watch this film, once the suspense and the surprise are all gone from it, will it become a bit of a bore?
Or what about the argument between Poe Dameron and Admiral Holdo? It was definitely great drama the first time around, but now that we all know how it will end, how exciting will it be to watch for the 5th time?
Check back in 10 years, I guess, to see how well the film has aged. But for now, my feelings on just coming out of the movie theater is that it is, quite possibly, the best Star Wars film yet.
But of course, there are a few negatives I want to get off my chest...
Negatives
(The list of negatives will often exceed the list of positives, because negatives are easier to quantify. My over-all impression of this film was good, but it's difficult to really put into words the feeling of excitement it gave me. My nitpicks about the plot, however, can easily be put into words. So here are my nitpicks.)
* As much as I love Star Wars, a big problem has always been that the Star Wars universe only has one story to tell--the brave Rebels fighting against the evil Empire. It's incapable of doing anything else.
This narrative framework is so integral into the Star Wars mythology that even after the Rebels defeated the Empire in Return of the Jedi, they had to completely re-set history, and create a new evil Empire and a new rebellion in order to bring Star Wars back.
Granted, this is a problem that this movie inherited from its predecessors. But I still thought this movie laid things on a bit too thick. All that dialogue about how the Rebellion brought hope to the downtrodden of the galaxy was a bit too much for me. We've already seen the Rebellion put down one evil Empire, and how much good did that do the Galaxy? None, apparently. Given that the Galaxy seems to be stuck in a never-ending cycle of rebellion, and the empire's rising and then rebellion again, this whole cycle is beginning to look more like Orwell's Animal Farmand a lot less like a story of hope and promise.
* Another problem that this movie inherited from the greater Star Wars franchise is that The Force has always been way too inconsistent, and because of this can be overused as a Deus Ex Machina by the writers. There were a few times in this movie when The Force granted characters powers and abilities that were a bit too convenient, and which we've never had any indication of before. Princess Leia getting the ability to survive in, and fly through, space. And Luke projecting his hologram over millions of light years.
* As much as I loved this movie, the last 20 minutes did not live up to the rest of the movie, in my opinion.
This was partly just because I was suffering emotional exhaustion at this point. I had already been on such a roller-coaster--so many highs, and so many lows--that I was losing my ability to care. The dramatic reveals just couldn't carry the same punch anymore.
But also, Luke's death was really lame.
It was never really explained to the audience. Why did he choose that moment to let go of his corporeal form? (It will probably be explained in some future movie, but it left the ending of this movie feeling flat).
And in my opinion, it kind of undermined his victory against Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren was so upset when he realized he had been fighting against a hologram, and he couldn't kill Luke. It was a great moment.
...But then, Luke dies anyway? I mean, I know that it was different, because Luke chose to leave his corporeal form of his own volition, and on his own terms. But it still kind of seemed like he was giving Kylo Ren what he wanted anyways.
* This movie and The Force Awakenshave both done a really good job of balancing the old generation of Star Wars with the new. But now with Luke and Han's onscreen deaths (and Carrie Fisher's off-screen death) they have burned through all the original trio.
Episode 9 is not going to have the same nostalgic appeal.
I'm sure Luke will come back as a Force ghost, but it won't be the same, and will likely just be a cameo-appearance.
(To be fair, of course they had no way of knowing that Carrie Fisher would die after the film finished filming.)
* The Force Awakens really ended on a great note. I mean, it was frustrating, because it was a cliff-hanger, but it was such a great cliff-hanger (with the dramatic Star Wars music coming in just at the right moment).
The ending of this movie, however, was a bit flat and disappointing. Some kid we don't even know staring off into space, and then the movie ends.
* Benicio Del Toro is a great character actor, and I love his acting in this movie. That being said... what the heck was his character arc? Is it just me, or does it feel like there must be a scene missing somewhere?
* Remember 2 years ago when we were so obsessed with the mystery of who Snoke was, or who Rey's parents were?
It seemed like J.J. Abrams had some big surprise waiting for us. But now we get the answers in this movie, and it turns out there was no big reveal, and J.J. Abrams was just creating mystery for the sake of creating mystery. Snoke is just some dude who is evil. Rey is just some orphan. (Actually I'm not sure whether to credit this as a positive or a negative. You almost have to admire the showmanship of J.J. Abrams to create such mystery out of nothing.)
Okay, now that I've gotten all those negatives out of my system--it's a solid 10 out of 10 for me. Minor complaints aside, all the drama, spectacle, and action that a Star Wars movie should be. Possibly the best Star Wars movie yet.
Notes:
I've linked to SF Debris videos in the past (example here) but always with caveats.
SF Debris's corny sense of humor is so cringe worthy that it was hard to seriously recommend his videos.
And yet, I still watched them. They were short, they were punchy, and they catered perfectly to my ruined attention span. After all, in this day and age of youtube videos, who has the patience to sit through a 50 minute episode of Star Trek anymore? It was much better to just watch SF Debris's 10 minute summary, even if you did have to put up with his awful jokes.
However, as the above links make clear, once SF Debris drops his corny attempts at humor, and just embraces his role as a nerd documentarian, he really steps into his own. He's created some fascinating documentaries on his website (and thankfully he seems to be dropping his forced attempts at humor).
Hero's Journey documents the making of the original Star Wars. Shadow's Journey documents the making of The Empire Strikes Backand Return of the Jedi.
Both of these documentaries perfectly answer many of the questions that I've been wondering about - on this blog - for the past few years.
Namely, how was it that the same George Lucas was simultaneously so brilliant, and so awful?
If George Lucas was so awful on the prequel trilogy, then how did he create such a masterpiece in the original Star Wars?
And, if saving Star Wars was simply a matter of removing George Lucas, and getting the professionals back on board, then how come no one was able to duplicate the success of the original Star Wars? (You remember during the early 1980s every movie studio was trying to come up with their own version of Star Wars, but nobody could duplicate the success.)
The answer to these questions, it turns out, is long and complicated. (Like, several hours long if you watch all the videos in SF Debris's series.)
But the short answer appears to be that genius story telling is difficult to duplicate.
It was a minor miracle that Star Wars got made at all.
It was an even greater miracle that The Empire Strikes Back turned out to be as great as it was. (Watch all the videos for all the behind the scenes documentation.)
It was too much to expect that this kind of lightening-in-a-bottle could be captured 3 times.
People like to complain that there are only really 2 good Star Wars in the whole series. But perhaps this is viewing the glass as half empty.
Instead, we should be amazed that George Lucas and his team managed to pull off not one, but 2 brilliant movies.
The fact that they ran out of steam eventually was perhaps inevitable.
Perhaps the problem is with us, the entitled fan, and the entitlement fan culture. We expect that everything we get served has to be absolutely brilliant. But the truth is that pure genius story telling only strikes rarely. We got two absolutely brilliant movies, we should be content with that.
If Disney keeps churning out more and more Star Wars movies, the law of averages dictates that eventually they'll probably stumble upon genius again. But in between the genius movies, there are going to be a lot of mediocre movies. And we fans need to just accept that. We can't have every movie be genius.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Hey, remember those Ewok movies?
I'm surprised at how little Internet nostalgia there is for those Ewok movies. You can find one or two videos on them, but I'd have thought there would be more.
Not that they were very good, but they were a huge part of everyone's childhood back in the 1980s. So you'd think with the revival of Star Wars and of all things nostalgic, these movies would be getting more attention.
Anyway I was young enough in the 1980s that I loved these movies at the time.
I'm told that they are actually pretty bad when viewed through adult eyes, but I wouldn't know. (I've never re-watched these movies as an adult. I was probably about 10 the last time I saw either of them.)
Anyway, there are a couple of Youtubers who have taken on these movie. This guy here and here.
He mentions briefly something that I myself had always been annoyed by, even as a child--namely that the girl's entire family is killed off in the first few minutes of Ewoks: The Battle for Endor .
This is, as he mentions, an extremely dark way to start off a children's movie. But actually the dark tone didn't bother me as a child. If you're a child, you are already used to these dark scenes. A kid losing their entire family and having to make it on their own is a surprisingly common theme in children's movies. (How many Disney movies contain the death of one or more parent?)
No, what bugged me about it was not that the parents got killed off, but that the entire previous movie had been about rescuing the parents. So you spent the entire previous movie getting invested in the rescue of the parents, and then in the sequel they decide to just undo all that in a couple minutes by killing off the parents.
So now how was I supposed to enjoy the previous movie ever again? Even as a kid, that bugged me.
Why did your character Mace die in the second film, The Battle for Endor? I was personally taken aside by the brothers who wrote and directed the second movie with Lucasfilm. They told me that when they sat down with George they had a lot of ideas regarding my character Mace. Then George immediately told them that he was only doing the second Ewok film for his young daughter Amanda at the time. For Amanda, being a young girl around the same age as Aubree, Cindel was her hero. So the movie was to center around her character. The last comment they made was that if she was a teenager then it would have been a Mace movie. The orginal drafts didn't have any of the family involved except Cindel and the Ewoks. It was later decided that we would have to be involved even if we were killed off. The mother starts the movie already dead. The person who played the father in the first Ewok movie declined to work on it because his role was so small. So they hired Paul Gleason of The Breakfast Club-fame, to replace the orginial father, Guy Boyd.
Okay, I get George Lucas wanting to make a movie for his daughter. But did they have to kill off her whole family? Couldn't she have gotten temporarily separated from her family instead? Wouldn't that have been much better?
This should have been a warning sign that George Lucas was starting to make incredibly poor decisions with his characters. It was a foretaste of what was to come with the Star Wars prequels.
* Related to the above point, there was no reason for this movie to exist. All we needed to know for the first Star Wars is that the plans had been stolen. No one needed to know exactly how they had been stolen.
* The music was a bit off. Ideally every Star Wars movie would be scored by John Williams, but if that's not possible, then it would be better to just get a different sound track altogether. What they do instead--have the first few notes be reminiscent of John Williams, and then pitter off into a flat and uninspired ending--is just annoying. It makes you think you're going to hear the classic score, only to find out that your ears have just been teased for nothing.
* Although a mostly engaging story, the narrative momentum flagged a bit in the middle.
* I know the whole raison d'etre of the Imperial Stormtroopers is just to get killed really easily by the good guys, but there were scenes in this movie which were pushing things just a little bit too much.
Positives
* Awesome acting and directing
* A spectacular cast. Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) were just really really cool.
* The atmosphere in this movie was just really cool. They did a perfect job of creating a dark and gritty future. Everything from the over-crowded trading posts, to the scenes on the rainy planet, were just perfect for the atmosphere.
* Some awesome action sequences.
The Review
Put aside, for the moment, the fact that this film did not need to exist. (We all could have lived full lives and never known how exactly the plans had been stolen.) This is the best possible movie we could have gotten from this scenario. The acting was wonderful, the characters were really cool, the action scenes were great, and it was all told with a great sense of atmosphere. Dare I say it--this is quite possibly the best Star Wars film since the original!
It does, however, lag a bit in the middle. I think these guys are correct that this movie had ambitions to be "James Bond in Outer Space" by constantly switching from one exotic location to another, but the constant switching in locations makes it difficult to feel like the narrative is building. Instead, it feels like a bunch of mini-climaxes on different planets until we get to our final big battle.
Rating 9 out of 10 Stars. (In the video review I give it 10 stars, but after the camera turned off, I've since talked myself down to 9. For all the reasons listed above in the negative section.) It's a movie severely limited by it's framework, but given the framework that the movie had to work with, I think it does the best possible job that could be expected.
Unlike in Star Trek, where Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise can simply have an adventure on some weird planet and then call it a day, or Doctor Who, where the Doctor (any Doctor) can pop into his TARDIS, visit a moment of time in crisis, save the day, then pop back into his TARDIS and disappear, every Star Wars story is a separate single line from William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
After trying, and failing, to keep to my shorter review format, I've decided to just write this up as a long review.
To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, I would have written a shorter review, but I didn't have the time.
My Background With Star Wars
My Star Wars story is the same story as every other person my age.
I was 5 years old when Return of the Jedi hit theaters in 1983. And it absolutely blew my 5 year-old little mind. (As was the experience of watching Star Wars on TV, also when I was 5 years old.)
I have since that time achieved cognitive maturity, but because of the power of nostalgia I will never be able to view Star Wars with any sort of objectivity. Whenever I see these movies, I'm not seeing them through adult eyes. Instead, I am remembering how they made me feel at 5 years old.
In other words, these movies are not just ordinary movies to me. And these characters are not just ordinary characters.
I haven't conducted any sort of scientific poll, but if anecdotal evidence is anything to go by, and if the huge anticipation of this movie is anything to go by, most people of my generation feel exactly the same way.
I've always thought it was a mistake to identify Star Wars as geek culture in the media. Granted, I personally am a huge geek, but I know many people of my generation who aren't, and they're all huge Star Wars fans too. Everyone in my elementary school playground was obsessed with Star Wars. Everyone. (Fredrik deBoer also recently made this point [LINK HERE] . Star Wars was a huge cultural behemoth which swept over everyone's childhood in the early 1980s. The bullies as well as the nerds all loved Star Wars. )
All this being said, there do seem to be limits to the appeal of Star Wars. At one point in my life, I thought everyone liked Star Wars. But then I began to notice that people who saw Star Wars for the first time as adults never really got the appeal of it. This confused me at first, but then I tried to view the movie through adult eyes. Maybe it wasn't as good as I thought.
"Okay," I began saying. "Maybe you have to see these movies when your 5 years old, or you can never really truly understand their impact on childhood."
I had to revise my opinion still further when I began getting reports from friends of mine, teachers, that kids these days just weren't that into Star Wars. And I began to realize that maybe the special effects were dated. And maybe the action scenes, which had seemed so amazing in 1983, were ordinary nowadays. And maybe the whole pacing of the movie (the first Star Wars especially) was completely different to modern movies.
So, I revised my opinion yet again: "Okay, in order to truly understand how great these movies are, you had to see them when you were 5, and it had to be in the early 1980s," I said.
I've had in mind this year to write a post analyzing the original Star Wars trilogy, and discussing what about it exactly so captivated us as kids. (I've made promises to write that post here, here and here), but it was impossible to write. I found myself trying to either put my finger on something that probably couldn't be pinned down exactly (why Star Wars was such a huge hit, but none of it's many imitators could ever duplicate it's success) or I found myself repeating what had already been said about Star Wars a million times already on the Internet (talking about the character arcs in the first Star Wars movie, for example).
And then, these movies were on TV the other day, and I was watching them, and I thought: You know, it's just self-evident that these movies would appeal to young kids in the early 1980s. You don't need to write 1,000 words trying to explain it. It's just obvious by looking at it that kids would love this movie.
I mean, you could write that post, if you were a real cinephile, and wanted to dissect exactly what makes a good movie good. But you don't really need to explain it's appeal. It's appeal is self-evident. Five minutes into the movie, and I was like, "Oh yeah. It's no wonder we all went nuts for these movies as children. This is exactly the kind of movie kids would love."
This was especially true in the 1980s, when there really were no other movies like this around. Admittedly, nowadays when big budget fantasy/action films are much more common, Star Wars wouldn't have made the same impact on today's generation. But back in 1983, there were no other movie like this.
So, yeah, duh, no wonder everyone went nuts for them. There's no more to be said.
There are a couple of lingering questions:
"Okay," you might say, "I'll grant that nostalgia can make you feel fondly for childhood movies. Fair enough. But come on! There's being nostalgic for something, and then there's being completely obsessed with something."
This obsession with nostalgia seems to be unique to our generation. I mean, when our parents were our age, they weren't obsessing about the movies from their childhood, were they? (Or were they?) [This cartoon (LINK HERE) does a good job of pointing out the differences between adults of generations past, and adults of our generation.] As I said in my previous post on generation blaming, there's no sense trying to blame generations for their unique characteristics. The only thing you can do is look at the causes. Is our generation obsessed with movie nostalgia because we were the first generation to be raised largely indoors? Or is it just that there was never any phenomenon like Star Wars in our parents' generation to compare with? Or is every generation nostalgic, and it's just that there just never was a big industry to cater to before now?
I don't know.
The other lingering question is exactly when the cut-off dates are for the Star Wars generation. I'm pretty sure you have to see it in childhood, or you'll never be able to fully understand it's appeal. This newspaper columnist [Link Here] for instance, was already an adult when Star Wars hits theaters, and writes intelligently on the generation gap between those who saw Star Wars as children, and those who were already cognitively mature when it first arrived. For a while, I posited that 5 years old was the perfect age to see Star Wars, but Whisky Prajer was 12 when Star Wars hit theaters in 1977, and was also completely blown away by it [LINK HERE]. (I've also heard similar stories from some of my co-workers who are about 10 years older than me.) So when is the cut off date? Did you have to see it before you were 10? 12? 15?
And then there's also probably a cut-off date going the other direction as well: the younger generation, spoiled by movies with much better effects and much more adrenaline action sequences, might not understand the appeal these movies had in the early 1980s. But again, the exact where cut-off age is, is difficult to pin down. My younger co-workers (21 years old, some of them) were just as excited for this new Star Wars movie as I was.
Anyways, enough of my musings on nostalgia. On to the main review:
Setting Expectations
Remember how excited you were when you heard that the whole cast of the original Star Wars had agreed to come back for the movie?
This was a minor miracle. For years in interviews Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher had all consistently expressed reluctance to do another movie. I didn't think it was possible to re-unite the old gang. But they did it! And we were all over the moon. Another Star Wars movie featuring our childhood heroes? This was too good to be true.
And then, gradually, we found out that the original cast would just be in supporting roles or cameo roles. And our excitement began to die down again.
Look, I know the torch had to be passed to a new generation at some point. The original cast is all in their 60s and 70s, after all. But I would have loved just one last movie focusing on the original cast. In the first movie, you could have had all the new characters in supporting roles, and the original cast in the main role, and then gradually switched the focus over the course of the trilogy.
That's really the movie I wanted to see.
Instead, most of the original cast gets reduced to supporting roles, or brief cameo appearances.
Han Solo and Chewbacca being the exceptions of course. Those two admittedly get a lot of screen time. But Luke, Leia, C3P0, and R2D2 are barely in the thing.
I mean, if you couldn't get all the original cast to agree to come back, I would have understood. But having accomplished the miracle of getting everyone to agree to come back....well, it just seems like a waste to have them all in the movie, but not get to do much.
That's obviously not the direction J.J. Abrams decided to go in, however, so there's no sense harping on it. As Roger Ebert used to say: "Review the movie you saw, not the movie you wanted to see."
And to be fair, once I accept that, I have to admit that this is a pretty amazing movie.
The Review
Absolutely wonderful. J.J. Abrams really hit the ball out of the park with this one.
As much as I would have loved to spend more time with the original cast, I have to admit that the all of the new characters are completely charming. I loved Finn, loved Poe, and loved Rey.
(I hate to kick Lucas when he's down, but...but it's hard to avoid comparisons with the prequel trilogy, and how wonderful and interesting and charming all these new characters are in a way that absolutely none of the prequels characters ever were.)
This movie has the perfect mix of action, mystery, and humor.
Also, how great was Harrison Ford? He gave a spectacular performance as Han Solo, in which both he and the screenwriters perfectly re-captured his humor from the original movies.
There are certain movies where you are so thrilled by the experience that you don't really care about any of the flaws. You know the flaws are there, but you just don't care--you're enjoying the movie too much to be bothered by them.
This was one of those movies for me.
For example, before I went into this movie, I had heard that J.J. Abrams basically repeated all the same plot points from the original Star Wars movies. (This Salon.com reviewer [LINK HERE], among others, tipped me off to what I was about to see.) And I was all set to really hate this.
This repetitiveness has long been my least favorite thing about the Star Wars franchise. I really hated that in the Star Wars prequels many scenes were just there purely for the purpose of reminding us of previous scenes. And in my review of Star Trek Into Darkness, I wrote about how stupid I thought the whole idea of repetitive history was, and how I really hoped J.J. Abrams wouldn't do it in the new Star Wars.
Well, J.J. Abrams did exactly what I was hoping he wouldn't do, and yet...and yet I was so charmed by the overall movie experience, that I'm largely willing to forgive it. Who cares if we've seen this same story before. It was exciting, it was fun, it was thrilling, it was tense and suspenseful and funny in all the right places.
I don't know, maybe it should have bothered me more, but the movie was just so much fun I am willing to forgive a lot.
Similarly with the plot holes, coincidences, and macguffins--I know they're all there, but it this movie was so much fun, it didn't really bother me that much.
Well, okay, I do have a couple nitpicks:
I'm willing to forgive a lot of repetition if you can give me a fun movie, but that last part about blowing up the Death Star again was just a bit too on the nose.
If that part had been left out, I think most of the critics would have forgiven all the other repetitions.
And the pity is, the movie didn't need it. You could have just canned that whole "blowing up the death star" bit, and it wouldn't really have affected the other plot lines that much.
Furthermore, the blowing up the Death Star scenes were perhaps the one part of this movie that suffered by comparison. In both Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, there was a fair amount of suspense created in the space battles around the Death Star. In Star Wars, for example, we could see the faces of all of the fighter pilots. There was building tension as they all got picked off one by one.
Unfortunately, there was none of that in this movie. J.J. Abrams generally did a good job of creating interest and suspense in all of his other scenes, but the space battle scenes are the one part of the movie where he really dropped the ball. All the more reason why this whole part of the movie should have been cut, and nothing would have been lost.
And One More Big Complaint...
So, everyone knows Han Solo had to die at some point.
All Star Wars geeks know the history--Harrison Ford had wanted Han Solo to die since the original trilogy. He reportedly thought it would add a sense of sacrifice and loss which would heighten the drama and reality of the series. And he reportedly argued bitterly with George Lucas about this, but ended up getting over-ruled by Lucas.
I strongly suspect that Harrison Ford only agreed to come back for new Star Wars movies on the condition that they finally give him that Han Solo death scene he'd always wanted.
So as much as I hated to see Han die, I knew it had to happen.
But here's the thing though--it shouldn't have happened the first movie back. This scene should have been pushed back to the second movie. (Assuming, that is, Harrison Ford could have been talked into delaying it for one more movie.)
For one thing, I think fans kind of deserved one movie just enjoying Han Solo again before they had to say good-bye to him.
I mean, I want to enjoy all that classic Han Solo wit and one-liners that are fully on display in this movie, but it's so bittersweet now, knowing that this is also the movie where I have to say good-bye to him.
Secondly, and more importantly, this movie can't handle the emotional impact of Han's death. There's just no room in the movie for the impact of the death to register. No sooner has Han died, then Rey and Finn rush out into the woods for the climatic scene with Kilo Ren. And don't get me wrong, that final climatic scene is great--it's very emotionally strong in its own right, but the emotions of that scene over-shadow what happened in the previous scene.
Come on! This is Han Solo. HAN SOLO. You don't just kill him off and then rush on with the rest of the movie. If you're going to kill him off, at least give him the full scene. Let the camera linger. Have a scene where the characters (and the audience) get to absorb what has happened before rushing off to the next scene.
And that's the one thing that really bugs me about this movie. This is what brings the movie down from a solid 10 out of 10 to a 9.
Other Notes
* So, by all reports, Billy Dee Williams would have been perfectly happy to come back for this movie if someone had just phoned him up and asked him.
I'm a little bit puzzled as to why he's not in it. Granted, there wouldn't have been much for him to do in this script. He would only have been a cameo character--but then C3P0, R2D2, and Leia were also pretty much also reduced to cameos, so why not have Lando Calrissian also just hanging around at the rebel base?
For the moment, I'm going to put this as another negative on the film's score card. But if it turns out in episode 8 that they were saving Lando's reveal for something really cool (and there are hints of this on the Internet rumor board) then I'll go back and remove this negative.
* According to this Wired.com article, Disney not only has plans to do this trilogy, but to release one Star Wars film a year forever. (Or as long as people keep buying tickets).
I was so charmed by this film that I'm giving it a complete pass on its recycled plot. But going forward, I think there is now a real question of how many stories Star Wars is capable of telling. Are we just going to get the same movie over and over again 40 times over the next 40 years? Because if we are, at some point I'm going to stop forgiving that.
* I've already linked before to this Charlie Jane Anders piece on the confused politics of Star Wars. Lucas was of the generation that was traumatized by the Vietnam War, and originally the evil Galactic Empire and its scorched earth policies were supposed to represent how the United States had acted in Vietnam. But because of the confused messages of Star Wars, and because it represented a Manichean (W) universe in which there is little room for moral ambiguity, the film was perceived by many Americans as a message about the importance of keeping a strong military so as to continue the fight against evil. Matt Zoller Seitz (writing on Roger Ebert's old site) thinks he sees a continuation of the Vietnam War's influence on Star Wars in the new movie, and I don't think he's wrong. He talks about the "My Lai-style massacre" in the beginning of the film, and also says:
Many film historians have noted the way Lucas's first film, which came out two years after the end of US involvement in Vietnam, flipped that war's script upside-down, making defeated Americans identify with “rebels” who were essentially Vietcong-like guerrillas, and root against an industrialized military whose literally-scorched-earth tactics were all too Western. A shot of a storm trooper roasting a hut with a flamethrower brings the original trilogy’s Vietnam obsession full-circle
I'm not entirely sure the Vietnamese appreciate this part of their history being played out for science-fiction fantasy on the big screen.
As it happens, I saw this movie at a theater in Vietnam, and when this scene was playing, it seemed to me that a ripple of discomfort went through the theater.
(Or I don't know--possibly I was just projecting out my own discomfort at being the only white guy in the theater during this scene. But I thought I could feel something in the air.)
