Category: Sci Fi

Predictions and Final Thoughts - The Last Jedi - Review #3

1/5/2018

Predictions

The new villain will be the weapon supply corporations and those that gain from warmongering.
Kylo will be betrayed by Hux. The rule of two at work with these two, I think.
Kaydel Ko Connix and Poe Dameron are the new fixtures at the head of the Rebel Force. Finn and Rose represent the enlisted, "nobodies" in this group. I think Finn and Rose could get a stand-alone story film.
Rey creates with a Darth Maul-like double light saber out of the two pieces of Luke's broken light saber. Cant' wait to see it.
Rey is probably the daughter of Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker. Remember the fan theories about the graveside scene with Luke. No one knows yet whose grave it is. Remember in TLJ what Luke said about Rey that he has only seen the pull of the dark side only one other time. It was about Mara, I think.
Luke will appear, maybe even with Yoda (and and Obi-Wan and Anakin!), to influence the tension between Rey and Kylo. Oh, wait, there's more.
If Jedi can physically be present with one another then could they not also duel and not just as a projection. What if Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin show up to help Rey in a light saber battle against Kylo and the Knights of Ren. Oh. Man.
The three slave kids from Canto Bight will be the lead characters in Rian Johnson's next trilogy of Star Wars films. The Canto Bight mission if for no other reason was worth it to get these three kids into the Rebel cause and awareness of the Force. Does Rey take on the boy as a padawan by the end of Episode IX?
No way! That Force-sensitive kid--I kid you not--wished upon a shooting star at the end of the film. #ThanksDisney. A star that was actually the Millennium Falcon carrying the remnant of the new Rebellion. I loved seeing the kids playing with action figures and telling the story again. #ThanksRian.

Final thoughts

After all the dysfunctional trash talk against The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson, and the whole thing, I get how Prequel fans felt when OT fans dumped on their films. I get it. And, I now appreciate the Prequels more. There. I said it.
There are so many ways to situate ourselves as fans into this saga. This is what makes this sci-fi fantasy universe so great. We have been able to put ourselves into the story. For the young adults seeing the OT for the first time, and then quenching their thirst in novelizations by writers like Timothy Zahn. In my childhood, it was action figures. In my kids' time, it was Lego Star Wars for Nintendo.
There's something for all of us to love and hate. Too many of us take this saga way too seriously. I remember waiting so long for The Empire Strikes Back, and then the Rebels get hammered on Hoth, Leia falls for Han over Luke (!??!?!?), Han gets deep-frozen by Boba Fett (and probably dies), Lando betrays everyone else to Vader, and then Darth Vader is Luke's father! No. Way. Some of us have been there after a second installment. We've seen things, man. It gets better.

The Rebel Force Radio podcast has produced ten hours of commentary and reaction to the film. It really shows the extremes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction regarding the film.
(Click on each one to go to the episode page.)

In light of some of the extreme distress in the fandom, I want to leave you with one of the best moments from The Last Jedi--Yoda's conversation with Luke on Ahch To.

Luke: Master Yoda

Yoda: Young Skywalker

Luke: I'm ending all of this: the tree, the texts, the Jedi. I'm going to burn it down. [Luke lights a torch and walks toward the tree, hesitates, looks down, and backs away.]

[Yoda gestures and creates a lightning strike that engulfs the sacred tree in flames.]

Yoda [laughing]: Ah, Skywalker, missed you have I.

Luke: So it is time for the Jedi Order to end. [collapses in despair on a rock near Yoda]

Yoda: Done it is . . . For you to look past a pile of old books

Luke: The sacred Jedi texts?!?

Yoda: Oh, read them have you? Page turners they were not. Yes, yes, yes, wisdom they held but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess. Hmm. Skywalker, still looking to the horizon--[pelts Luke with his walking stick]--never here, ah, um. The need in front of your nose. Um!

Luke: I was weak, unwise.

Yoda: Lost Ben Solo you did, lose Rey we must not.

Luke: I cannot be what she needs me to be.

Yoda: Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned--strength, mastery, but weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher failure is. Umph. [sits alongside Luke in front of the burning tree] Ahh. Luke, we have what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.

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What-the-Force Moments in The Last Jedi (spoilers!) Review #2

1/4/2018

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I have seen The Last Jedi three times, and I've listened to about 10 hours of podcast commentary on the film. I loved it. Sorry to all of you that think Rian Johnson is, in the words of our favorite princess, a "stuck up, half-witted, scruffy looking nerf herder."

Even though, I loved this film, there were a few times my jaw dropped at the What-The-Force moments.

More great Star Wars insults:
Slimy piece of worm-ridden filth
Near-sighted scrap pile
Overweight glob of grease
Walking carpet
Laserbrain

I didn't like Holdo. I admit it. It was something about her Valley-Girlish delivery. That is, until the second viewing. She is a Rebel legend now, like the Rogue One team, Raddus and now Ackbar. Her plan did not include self-sacrifice, but the circumstances created it. This is why she didn't say so to Poe earlier. It was not what she expected but what she decided to do. Her kamikaze ploy seemed like a cop-out to me but it was visually stunning. Sometimes legends are made in the moment.
I didn't like the short screen time given to Captain Phasma. I timed her screen time in the second viewing and she had less than ten minutes. But this is not much different than the short screen time with fellow baddies Boba Fett and Darth Maul.
I didn't like Rose at first, either. But, after seeing the film a second time, I realized how important her role is in turning Finn into a Rebel and giving new direction to the Rebel cause. Her minimal dialogue is crucial to the new plot line: "Look closer . . . not fighting what we hate, but saving what we love." The trip to Canto Bight turned Finn into a Rebel. Rose helped Finn realize it is not a battle against Jedi and Sith but real evil that looks like the "horrible, beautiful place" at Canto Bight--physically beautiful people with horrible intentions. Real evil is not as easily hated as it was for villains like Jabba the Hut. How hard is it to rebel against the beautiful, horrible people behind the War in the Stars? Rose describes what these warmongers did to her home planet. We have a motivation for her and her sister's service and sacrifice with the Resistance. She recognizes revenge against the Empire and the First Order are not sufficient. If there is a fight it must be for something more than hatred fulfilled. I thought her line to Finn about not fighting those we hate but saving the ones we love was Disneyified fluff, at first viewing. Later, after the second viewing, I realized she just gave us the new direction for the saga's plot. Also, draws in the next generation with the slave kids, especially the Force sensitive one. So sweet.
At first I didn't like the weird banter between Finn and Phasma when they were fighting. Finn calls her a "chrome dome," which sounds dumb, unless it is compared to other put-downs in the Star Wars universe. It seems like a storm trooper might think this very thing about one of their superiors. Phasma then calls Finn "rebel scum." This is the third time it is mentioned in the film: Hux, the officer arresting Finn and Rose, and Finn about himself. Rebel scum is an echo from The Empire Strikes Back.
Leia seemed old for the first time. Very tired and fatigued, it is in her voice. When she was blown out of the bridge, her face almost showed resignation . . . until she opened her eyes. My jaw dropped when she floated back in the vacuum of space to the cruiser. What?!? We saw this in Star Trek with Captain Kirk and Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy. Battlestar Galactica fans know that there's no coming back from the space vacuum. Still, I went with it. Hey, it's the Force, man. It will be with you always, right? I think it could have been less her floating toward the cruiser than it was her pulling the ship to herself, maybe? I have no idea why people were concerned that she is Force-sensitive. She's always been Force sensitive in her connection to Luke, and now to Kylo. Secondly, I like the transition from her to Poe. It was a decent story arc between these characters. Leia's role in passing the baton of leadership to Poe is now complete.

For all of you that think the canon is being betrayed by J.J., Rian and their ilk, here is a short 30 minute podcast Imaginary Worlds episode on The Canon Revisited. The host Eric Molinsky invites Ben Newman, a rabbi friend, to discuss the expansion of the SW canon. It is sweet to hear them talk about biblical hermeneutics and midrashim in light of the Star Wars Universe (link below).

Imaginary Worlds Podcast: The Canon Revisited

I've always thought there have been religious elements to Star Wars fandom. In the absence of actual religion, people will try to find meaning somewhere else.

For me, Star Wars is not my religion. I don't need it to define my life. I don't take the films or the Star Wars universe so seriously. I don't need to. I enjoy it, but that's all.

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What I Loved about The Last Jedi (Spoilers!) #1

1/3/2018

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I have seen the film three times: opening night, once the next week, and again last night.

First of all, nothing brings out the kid in me like the opening crawl and blaring anthem at the beginning of a film in the Star Wars saga. I still watch these films as that kid. It's a swashbuckling Saturday matinee epic adventure for a 21st century audience.

I love it . . . but it's not my religion. I had to learn early on to stop taking it so seriously, man.

My first viewing, however, left me ambivalent. I loved some things, and I didn't care for some other things. First things first.

What I loved after the first viewing . . .

Seeing the X-wings in action. Poe's opening salvos against the Dreadnought. Dang! This is exactly how I imagined this kind of battle going--a small fighter facing up to the most intimidating warship. This kind of thing is audacious as some X-wings attacking the Death Star. I loved seeing the X-wings engage in dogfights with TIE fighters, skimming the surface of the warship. We also got a taste of this in The Force Awakens and Rogue One. Never gets old. So, so sweet.
Luke. Yes. Nailed it. The initial scenes with Luke reminded me of Yoda in Empire Strikes Back. There he is hidden away in a hermit-like existence. Remember Yoda eating a rat creature? Kind of like seeing Luke milk a sea creature. Bucking the fandom, and being a cranky and depressed old man with no time for admiring fanboys, or in this case, a fangirl. Here is a cocky kid on the Falcon taking out TIE fighters now dealing with being a disappointing "legend" in his own time. His youthful glory of bringing Anakin has now resulted in old age as continuous self-flagellation over the failure with Ben Solo. So true to life, right? Hearing Luke interact with the "old friend" R2, sitting in the Falcon took me back to the OT. The defense-only, Obi-Wan-like duel on Crait with Kylo was just so sweet. What can I say about the scene with Leia and the wink toward Three-P.O. The cocky humor in these scenes is very much what I imagined Luke to be like. In later viewings, I see Luke very much like Obi-Wan in A New Hope and Yoda in Empire Strikes Back. The echoes between these characters are very real, and intentional, I think.
On subsequent viewings, just love the scenes on Ahch-To. The tension between Rey and Luke was excellent especially their brief fight with sticks that ended with a laser sword. Rey holding the light saber over Luke reminded me of Luke holding a saber over Ben Solo.
I also just thought the interactions between Rey and Kylo were just so well done. These actors have created some of the most memorable characters in this universe. Their duel (light and dark) against the red guards---dang!!!
Kylo. Loved every part of this character. Rian Johnson helped fans root for the guy in scenes with Snoke and his guards that killed Han Solo in an act of patricide. His intense hatred toward Luke at the end, and that duel. Ahh. So sweet.

A great listen for those that loved the film, go to Rebel Force Radio page and listen to their reactions about one hour after seeing the film on opening night (link below):

Rebel Force Radio - The Last Jedi Review #1

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Predictions and Final Thoughts - The Last Jedi - Review #3

What-the-Force Moments in The Last Jedi (spoilers!) Review #2

What I Loved about The Last Jedi (Spoilers!) #1

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