I Watch Films: The Last Jedi
Let’s get this out of the way. There is something absolutely unforgivable about this film, and it happens right at the start. See the opening sentence? Now see the crawl? See the last line? Now count the dots.
That’s right, four dots. An ellipsis has three dots. That’s what it is. You can use more if you really insist, for aesthetic purposes to cover a large part of the line or whatever, but then you need six or seven at least to show that’s what you’re doing. This is not how you use an ellipsis*.
Here’s the thing about this film. I agree with almost every decision that made it on screen, the slightly long jokes, the failures, every scene in its place. The tricks, the lies, people being wrong, the foreshadowing. All of them are good. And it’s thematically coherent, each of the strands reinforcing the central message (which Yoda puts into the text, so I don’t know what people who don’t get it are watching).
The scene in which Snoke, Ren and Rey all confront each other, all of them mistaken about what the others intend is really excellent. It is Star Wars as cod-Shakespeare, pulp space opera elevating into the intersection of power, family, ambition and guile. Followed, of course, by Star Wars as lightsaber ballet.
Yet as a whole, it’s somewhat... unsatisfying? As it must be, the second part of a trilogy, in which our protagonists (and antagonists!) suffer setback after setback. They stand up to the crushing weight of the enemy and... barely escape. Most of them. Some of them.**
Anyway, it’s a good film, and a fair Star Wars film, one that is perhaps, more interesting than it is enjoyable (though still enjoyable). And maybe that’s where it is; every Star Wars film since the first has tried to be cleverer and more interesting, and mostly they haven’t succeeded. And I think this one has, and it’s lost a little of the simple heroic shine. So be it.
Watch This: If you haven’t watched it already
Don’t Watch This: If you don’t care about Star Wars, because Captain Kirk gets up your nose and isn’t it just Wagon Train in space?
The Question Is: In the long term, does this film stand up in its place in the trilogy and hence larger sequence? Or will it be revealed as a mis-step along the way? We won't know for a while yet.
* In fact this is the case for every Star Wars film with an opening crawl... except Return of the Jedi. What's up with that?
** I’m struggling with writing the second, setback, act of a novel – a sequel for that matter. So I sympathise. And I know the difficulties. But still. I'm a guy on my own and you’ve got the $200 Million budget and the support of hundreds of creative people, I’m allowed to poke holes
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