I saw the LAST JEDI opening night, Thursday, December 15 , 2017 here in Atlanta, GA, USA. For this franchise in particular it is important to get in there quick before the people who delight in spoiling the films “get you.” This is well documented on reddit where not only are people posting spoilers in their flair tags (a part of their username) but also go out of their way to direct message people who posted on the r/starwars sub page in the past with spoilers delivered straight to your door!
Besides that they are mean what does this behavior tell us? It says there is a perceived value to plot and I think that goes farther to help explain the absurd reactions the movie is getting. Critics love it to the tune of 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Earliest reports suggesting it would top all previous films in terms of critical praise, before settling down. People have opinions, but they really have expectations.
Some of the most eager fans are, “heart broken” at how far Director Rian Johnson has taken from their vision of what STAR WARS is, or should be, in their eyes.From my combing of forums these were the spoiler highlights and low lights according to the masses:
GOOD
- -The light-saber battles were fun, especially when Rey and Ben/Kylo teamed up to fight Snoke.
- -The kamikaze light speed attack by Laura Dern’s character was beautiful and powerful.
- -Adam Driver and Mark Hamill provide some of the best performances to date.
- -It was original compared to THE FORCE AWAKENS.
BAD
- -Too much humor.
- -The green milk was too weird.
- -General Leia’s space walk was weird.
- -Finn’s side plot and side kick were weird.
- -Snoke dies too easily.
- -It was too different from other Star Wars movies.
How you feel about those points above are definitely subject to debatable opinion, but they seem to be the sticking points on both sides. For me, my gut reaction was that it was instantly one of my favorite STAR WARS experiences of all time. My receipts include: watching RETURN OF THE JEDI on VHS copied from television broadcasts and watching the SPECIAL EDITION re-releases by myself in theaters at a time when my middle school and high school friends were literally watching everything else, including SCARY MOVIE 3 twice in one weekend.
Here are my observations from a first time watch:
-The speed and editing for the spaceships felt cool. For the first time, the fuel economy and maneuvers of these vehicles seemed more real than whatever the story demanded, I was in the moment.
-The humor worked for me and felt more earned than attempts as humor in the past. For example, the opening call between Hux and Dameron was timing and performance based. The Porg looking sadly at Chewbacca because he was about to eat a grilled pork/g was a visual gag. These aren’t wry one-liners. They are set pieces that are understandable even if you don’t know who these people or things are.
-The milking scene was cool, it was a worthy successor to Rey’s green bread, and it was a fun character building moment for Luke showing his rugged connection to nature while also world building. He’s trying to gross out Rey and it grosses out the audience too, fine.
-As a director style choice, Johnson loves editing to narration. I liked the force dialogues between Kylo Ren and Rey, it solved the logistics of having the characters interact while also thematically working.
-The battle between Snoke and his henchmen versus Kylo and Rey was good. The choreography felt fresh and interesting and I especially liked the death moves, it felt like real choices a person would attempt given the circumstances.
-The twists worked for me, all of them. Luke being closed off from the force. Luke attempting to kill Ben, turning him to the dark side. Kylo not hating his dad, and liking Rey. Rey’s parents being nobodies.Yoda tricking Luke about the books. It all happened to work for me, personally.
-Kylo Ren getting to be the new Supreme Leader was a worth killing off Snoke for me. This is the thing I always felt as a kid, where we see Darth Vader as the main antagonist only to reveal he is essentially the Emperor’s puppet. Let’s see the Vader, this time Kylo Ren, get to be the main villain since we are spending the most time with him.
-My one complaint I had from this film was that it teased the idea that Kylo Ren was of a misunderstood good guy and Rey was born to be bad, only to chicken out in the end and reset them to exactly where they were in their story arcs from the end of the last film.
We saw Kylo Ren refuse to kill his mom, we saw him kill Snoke, we saw him connect with Rey, and then we finally saw him go berserk in the end. Conversely, we saw Rey seduced by that dark side hole in the ground, reject Luke Skywalker, team up with Kylo Ren, then finally in the end, crawl back to the resistance. I felt a little teased by the idea that we could have potentially had Luke and Leia fighting for the rebels, General Hux leading a force-less, secular New Order, and wild card team of two untethered force users in Kylo Ren and Rey.
However, I admit that is my hang up. I’m still happy to see where the next movie goes.
double primer 