Last Jedi Canceled

This is weird: as a life long Star Wars fanboy I should have been bursting with anticipation. I should have pre-ordered a seat in the cinema as to be one of the first to see the new Star Wars movie, after eight movies spanning some 40 years, the last chapter in the Skywalker saga, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

But I am not, and I did not. So don't worry about any spoilers here: I haven't seen the movie yet, so this won't be a review... yet. You might have seen some of my previous posts about the new Star Wars trilogy produced by Disney, or one of the countless other pieces that were written about the first two movies, and about episode VIII, The Last Jedi in particular; if you're even remotely interested in Hollywood movies in general or science fiction movies in particular, the many rants about that installment would have been hard to miss. That film, directed by Rian Johnson, will go down in the history books as the one that split the Star Wars fandom in half: you either loved or hated that film, and I am strongly rooted in the latter camp. Looking back now, after two years, it's still hard to believe what Rian Johnson was allowed to do to the franchise by its new owners...

Under the guise of "subverting viewers' expectations", The Last Jedi destroyed core aspects of what was established in the previous seven films. Even in episode VII, The Force Awakens directed by J.J. Abrams, despite that film's many shortcomings (it was basically a "soft reboot", a near perfect copy of the very first Star Wars film Episode IV - A New Hope) we were introduced to the new protagonist, Rey, who suddenly didn't need any training at all to become a force-user, where all previous Jedi, even masters like Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda, had to endure years of rigorous physical and mental training before they could pull a stunt like that. But at least J.J. Abrams placed some nice "mystery boxes", left the maker of the next movie with some intriguing setups that could have been answered in a thousand interesting ways; how did Maz Kanata get hold of Anakin's light-saber, the one Luke Skywalker lost in a fight against Anakin's dark-side incarnation Darth Vader, who are Rey's parents, why did Luke leave a map for others to find him..?

Rian Johnson took all that and gave us... nothing. It's almost like he hates J.J. Abrams as much as he hates Star Wars itself, judging by what episode VIII became; he took all J.J.'s mystery boxes and did NOTHING with them. Who's Snoke? We still don't know and Rian made sure we never will by killing him halfway through the movie. Where did Kanata find Luke's old light-saber? We still don't know. Who are Rey's Parents? Some alcohol addicted nobodies who sold their daughter for drinking-money. Why did Luke leave a map? Nobody knows because according to Rian's vision Luke disappeared just to die alone on an island. It's like he did it on purpose. And to add insult to injury, Rian Johnson broke with established rules and traditions about the force and, most egregiously, Luke Skywalker himself; even Mark Hamill, the actor who has portrayed Luke these past four decades, said he fundamentally disagreed with Johnson's handling of Luke's character. Hamill was right; Star Wars fans could not recognize the defeated, grumpy "get off my lawn" old man who almost killed his own nephew, the son of his sister and best friend, in his sleep. In the very first scene we see Luke, he carelessly tosses his own light-saber over his shoulder, the one given to him by his father Anakin Skywalker, the one that's been lost, along with his right hand, for 30 years! I don't care what Rian or anyone else says; The Last Jedi was a hate-letter to J.J. Abrams and all real Star Wars fans.

_{Star Wars 9: Ultimate Final Trailer | The Rise of Skywalker}

At the end of Episode VIII there was nothing left to build on. Rey always wins every fight although she never trained to be a Jedi. The force is now something available to everyone, as seen by one of the enslaved kids force-pulling a broom in the final scene. Luke Skywalker is dead, and the actress who played Leia tragically died. Episode IX also thoroughly killed the story-arcs of Finn and Poe Dameron, leaving us with just the prospect of Rey (again) facing off against Kylo Ren, a fight we all know she will win with two hands tied behind her back... Speaking of Ren, the Knights of Ren was another setup left by J.J. Abrams that was completely ignored and tossed aside by master subverter of expectations Rian Johnson; Star Wars finally died with Episode VIII after having been hooked up on life-support after episode VII...

But there's a glimmer of hope, a New Hope, so to speak, which is the reason I'm writing all this; it seems that J.J. Abrams is trying to make amends in this new, final episode IX. This becomes clear after reading the many non-spoiler reviews I've already seen and read after the movie's premiere on December 19; almost all of them say the J.J. uses the first half of the new movie to trample on everything Rian Johnson did in The Last Jedi. Many reviewers say that if you hated the Last Jedi, you may well fall in love with The Rise Of Skywalker because it turns back and corrects many of Rian Johnson's missteps. This good news doesn't translate into high scores, even by the ones who praise Abrams for trying to effectively cancel episode VIII (I've even heard one reviewer say that you don't have to see The Last Jedi at all, you can just skip that one and the story would almost not suffer at all). Most reviews are of two minds: on one hand grateful for Abrams corrections, and on the other disappointed with the rushed story resulting from basically re-doing the previous episode. Many say this has become two movies in one, and the the two and a half hours run-time simply isn't enough to do characters an story justice... This makes me so sad, but I will go out and see the movie, sometime next week I think, and write a short review of my own. In the meantime, here's a treat for all Star Wars fans who also follow the news and politics in the United States; really, it's a must-watch. Watch it before seeing episode IX preferably, as Cody Johnson gives us the most unique and entertaining (trust me: it's hilarious) summary of all previous eight episodes in this special newsreel of Some More Star War News:

_{Star War News - SOME MORE NEWS}

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