RE: Vlad's Diary - Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Non-Spoiler Review) (December 19th 2017)
My reaction to "The Last Jedi" wasn't positive at all: when I left the theater, I felt betrayed by Disney and thought that they took too many liberties in terms of pacing and direction. I didn't feel like I've watched a Star Wars film, it was more like "The Guardians of the Galaxy" in the Star Wars universe. And this comparison of mine with the Marvel universe has been confirmed and reinforced by my brother and one of our friends.
I felt this way also. I also that Mark Hamill said it best: “were never going to catch lightning in bottle again…If you think your going to go into that theater and recapture your childhood you got another thing coming” I’m paraphrasing here but it’s pretty close.
Maybe that they brought the characters back and put them in a new story, but the spirit and the atmosphere of the originals are dead.
Yes and No. ( I never seen anyone refer to the feeling towards the empire as “respect-hate feeling” but yes and yes). The spirit isn’t dead Vlad (it lives on in our hearts...SNIFFFF....) They can never take away the original trilogy or it’s message. But we also have accept the fact that the Star wars trilogy is now in the hands of people who don’t share the values of much of the audience. And all future installments will be a disappointing ride.
"the old meets the new" moments, but the most intense scenes get ruined by a stupid one-liner that clearly destroys all of your tension. When one of the main characters is able to joke during his times of danger, it's like breaking the fourth wall and reassuring you that everything is going to be fine while this is just a temporary transitional situation that shall be overcome.
Exactly! They had so many opportunities to make these new movies powerful and they fucked it up by doing this. I cringed when Leia said “I changed my hair” Blech.
I have nothing against the idea of adapting the script and direction for the younger audiences, but the process should not come at the cost of destroying the tension of the scenes. There are quite a few instances where pointless humor ruins the gravity of the events, and even small gestures made by a character completely change our perception and understanding of his psychology.
This is happening all throughout newer films. It’s like they are afraid to portray seriousness. The attitude of perpetual adolescence. Rian’s portrayal of Luke is disgusting because it stripped him of his wisdom that he would have at that age and turned him into a moody teenager. Part of the magic of the Star Wars movies was the portrayal of archetypes. These portrayals are important because they are reminders of what we need to bring into our own lives to some degree. They inspire and help to act as guide stones by the billions of people who came before us.
Nevertheless, the approach of "The Last Jedi" is very different from the usual Campbell influences: as it was hinted in "The Force Awakens", the line between jedi and sith is blurred. Disney tries to create a sense of mandatory balance between the two forces, and this leads characters into a morally grey area where they have to determine their alignment on the way, according to the choices that they make.
This s a result of the post-modern ideology creeping into the Starwars franchise. Post-modernist (like Rian Johnson) habits are generally to take something established and turn it on its head and then pat themselves of back for being so brave. When in fact all they have done is the equivalent of taking a sharpie marker to the Mona Lisa and say: “she always had a mustache we just couldn’t see it until we drew it there.” I know the Mona Lisa statement seems confusing but I'm not sure how else to put it...
this IS a cultural zeitgeist I couldn’t agree more.
Damn Vlad, wish I could go have a beer with you or something. We see eye to eye on a bunch of stuff.
This article was cathartic, and I appreciate you writing it. You articulated some things I’ve been feeling since I saw the movie.
Also I'm selfishly hoping you do a how to post on formatting... Because I need some help bro. Badly. Your posts so far look crisp as fuck. Looking forward to your future posts
Oh wow, I'm happy that people actually read the article for the sake of starting debates and making further analysis. As a 90s kid, I grew up watching Star Wars on late television and feeling amazed by the complexity of the entire universe - so the films are quite a big deal to me. I've spent a lot of time watching documentaries and researching George Lucas' inspiration for the films, but never really cared much for the spin-offs and the Extended Universe. I understand that this side of the story has been told in a version of the EU, but I'm pretty sure it's written better than it's directed and presented to us visually by the Disney-owned Lucasfilm.
Anyway, this review is a little milder than my initial impulse to completely bash the production. Half the time I felt like I was watching "Guardians of the Galaxy" with Star Wars characters, but there were some satisfying moments that made it all feel worthwhile.
I kind of like Poe Dameron, he embodies the Han Solo spirit pretty well (though his humor is updated and in the spirit of the film). On the other hand, Luke Skywalker and Snoke were the biggest disappointments, as they both let us down in terms of action and inaction (I've written my latest article about their shallow portrayal).
All we have left for the next film is the Kylo/Ben - Rey antithesis, and I guess it's going to be interesting to see how their newly-discovered postmodernist approach helps them solve that.
Thank you again for your comment!
PS: I've written a reply to your introduction article and I've briefly described the "secret" of my formatting. Just make sure you never write long paragraphs because they're very likely to get skipped/scrolled through, add a subtitle every 300-400 words, and add a picture in between sections to give readers a break. This is basic SEO writing and lots of bloggers and internet writers take notice of these notions (however, I tend to get annoyed when they hit "enter" twice after each sentence and it all feels like a series of sticked-together haiku. To me, an idea or article has to be presented within a paragraph).