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artist-issues · 1 year

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a great example of fandoms ruining their own movie experience. Often fandoms are right when they think a movie doesn’t deliver on their favorite franchise. But in The Last Jedi, the Star Wars fandom kind of proved that their heads are in a terrible place.

I will explain.

Movies are meant to reach in and grab your emotions. You’re supposed to get out of your own head, and the story is supposed to get under your mental defenses, so that you not only suspend disbelief, but suspend your inner film critic and enjoy an experience/learn what the movie is trying to tell you.

If a movie has terrible form and repellant content, like bad acting or a message like “cold-blooded murder is neat” then people generally don’t get to have that experience because the movie couldn’t reach in and grab your emotions.

The Last Jedi was not a bad movie. I know for a fact that it one hundred percent DID what it set out to do, in the theaters. What happened was, you Star Wars fans enjoyed the movie while you were watching it. Then you got home and got in your own heads and read what some other people thought and watched some Mark Hamill interviews and retroactively decided you actually didn’t like it.

I know you liked it because I was in the theaters with you. I saw TLJ on opening night, in a packed theater of dressed-up fans. Then I saw it three more times in theaters. I heard fans clap when Luke fought Kylo Ren and said “see you around, kid.” I heard them laugh when he threw the lightsaber over his shoulder. I heard them applaud when Snoke got cut in half. I heard no groans of disbelief during Holdo’s Hyperdrive ramming—you could’ve heard a pin drop, exactly as the filmmakers intended. I heard fans holding their breath or whispering, “please please please” when Rey said to Kylo Ren, “Please don’t go this way.” I heard, all four times, thunderous applause during the ending shot, when a kid with a broom is revealed to have the Force.

‘When the lights came on and everyone was leaving the theater, I heard NO ONE saying:

“I can’t believe they ruined Luke.”

“What was with Holdo? Hyperdrive doesn’t work like that.”

“I hate Rey, she’s a Mary-Sue.”

“What was with that casino planet scene, that was useless!”

I heard people excitedly talking about how awesome the film was. I heard them repeating the jokes to each other, or sharing their favorite parts. I heard them hoping Ben Solo would be redeemed for the next movie. The closest I ever got to anything even approaching negative was, “What was with the blue milk alien?” Which is fair. But my point is, even when the movie was over and we were leaving the theaters, the fans loved it. At the time. When the movie was all they had to base their opinion on.

I sat next to a young man who is now the loudest Internet Proclaimer of TLJ’s supposed failure, on opening night. But at the time, when the movie ended, he said, “that’s what The Force Awakens should’ve been! That was so great.”

Then he went home and watched EFAP and came back and said, “yeah I liked it at first but that’s because I was stupid and didn’t know any better. Now I know it’s terrible.”

What? No, you’re not stupid! It was a good movie. It said exactly what it wanted to say, and it had your attention and your emotions the whole time. It even set up the next film for great, new, unexpected success (regardless of how ROS squandered that opportunity.)

But this is how a lot of fans are.

They have pre-set expectations of what they want. Or they don’t have any expectations and they wait for their favorite influencer to tell them what to think. And then, even when a movie is good, they change their own minds about it later to line up with what they thought they wanted.

Not what made the most sense. Not what made the best story. Not what could be an enduring classic. Not what grabbed the emotions most effectively. Just “I want what I want.”

Guess what, at the end of Casablanca, the hero doesn’t get the girl. He loses her. But he becomes a man who takes risks and goes back to living life because of his experience, as sad as it may have been. If audiences back then could complain loudly enough on the internet and get what they want, Casablanca would have had a crappy sequel where the guy gets the girl, and the whole first movie is ruined. Or the filmmakers wouldn’t have been brave enough to do what the story needed in the first place.

TLJ is the perfect example of a good movie ruined by it’s own supposed fandom, who just want what they want, and can’t admit when a movie was good, or even that it moved them, because it’s not what they wanted, in hindsight.

#The last Jedi #I know nobody cares anymore #but I think it’s an interesting point about fandoms #they have the power to change Sonic’s design or ruin the next Star Wars movie #all because they want what they want instead of wanting what a story needs #state of the fandom #fandom #Star Wars #belief agency #Star Wars the last Jedi #Casablanca #meta #film analysis #writing

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pb-dot · 28 days

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Film Friday: The Last Jedi

Oooooooooooh boy. I would say I have a complicated relationship with Star Wars as a franchise, but from what I hear from other fans I've discussed this with, that's normal and, on some level, inevitable. Star Wars is sometimes good, sometimes bad, and almost always a mix of the two. It's a part of the formula at this point, every bit as much as light sabers and obscure space religion magic. That said, there is one Star Wars movie that holds a special place in my heart, and I want to talk about it and what it did to the franchise, or at least tried to do before the Franchise Management people over at the house of mouse got scared and released a feature-length breaking maneuver of a film, but that's just something that happens some times. Let's get on with The Last Jedi.

As so often is the case in second installments, the war isn't quite going the rebellion's way, and at the start of the movie our heroes are caught in a chase to save what little of the rebellion remains. In an attempt to turn the tides, Rey seeks out the council of legendary Jedi Luke Skywalker, while Finn, Poe and newly recruited mainliner Rose Tico attempt to find a way to circumvent the First Order's tracking to beat the chase.

Of course, things don't turn out quite that way. Luke is quite reluctant to get back into the "anything to do with the force"-business, and Finn, Rose and Poe find more than trouble navigating conflicting loyalties and First Order Infrastructure. It's a very "part two in the triology" kind of thing as our heroes fail, are tempted by both craven panic and the dark side, and learn the kind of lesson that, while necessary, doesn't feel all that good.

To briefly sum up the parts I don't like as much about this movie: the pacing is a bit janky, and while I think the Canto Bight sequence is good thematically, it does feel like it prolongs a part of the plot that could be better served with less space travel. It's also a bit frustrating that a major driver of the Canto Bight/pursuit plot is two pivotal supporting characters not telling the main characters things. Sure, it can be justified, but it feels frustrating to sit through on the second watch-through. Also I can't quite decide if the movie tries to set up Finn with Rose, or if we're supposed to be as baffled about that development as Finn apparently is?

Ok, now with those annoyances out of the way, WOW does this movie do some great stuff. The Rey/Luke subplot alone has so much dynamite about mentoring, learning, and growing past mistakes. Luke has spent the last... what, 10, 20 years trying to be forgotten because he doesn't consider himself worthy of being a legendary hero, having failed Ben Solo/Kylo Ren so thoroughly. Through Rey's earnest, and insistent, enthusiasm for his legend he comes to realize that whether he wants to acknowledge it or not, the consequences of his actions are out there, and if he really wants to make amends, he has to confront these consequences. It's one hell of a storyline and development to play out, and Mark Hamil does some career-best work in putting it out there.

There isn't really a good place to put this bit into the structure I wrote, but as I went through to edit this thing I remembered that I forgot to talk about the Holdo Manuever. This bit is apparently a bit controversial among the Military Logistics Of The Galaxy Far Far Away-crowd, but I fucking love it. For one, it's a twist I didn't see coming that also works just about perfectly even on re-watches, and secondly, just look at the thing. This action setpiece was nothing short of awe-inspiring. Letting physics, at least as much of physics as one can count on when dealing with FTL, do the heavy lifting in a pivotal moment feels like an inspiring choice, and again, look at it!

This movie's also I think the most sensible of the Star Wars movies when it comes to the internal politics of the villain faction, in that the interplay between familiar autocratic forms of leadership, fascism to be precise, and the obscure space magic mysticism of the Force makes for some tasty plot threads. For one, Snoke is so secure that he, alone, will be the first dark side user to not be utterly fucked over by his sole apprentice on account of his mind reading ability that he seemingly ignores the possibility of Kylo Ren learning about the concept of meta-cognition, and gets chopped all the way in half for his hubris. One of the easiest way to get couped, after all, is to believe it could never happen to you for X Y or Z reason.

And then there's Hux. Ah, the fashy wet beast of a man that is Admiral Hugs. His is a thankless job, screaming about nonspecific degeneracy and nonspecific order and getting just absolutely bodied by the dark force users of the First Order on any and all occasions. Granted, the man is the military leader of a wannabe empire whose main business is military, but that doesn't matter much. Poe dunks on him, Kylo and Snoke treat him like a puppet at best, and even when the death of Snoke might suggest a promotion, oop, no, guess what, Kylo Ren's still there and while he doesn't proclaim himself Master or anything, he certainly makes a compelling argument for him succeeding the throne of Supreme Leader. Sucks to suck, Hugs, shouldn't have subscribed to an ideology based on strength alone.

Rey's attempt at navigating the force and her identity is also fascinating to watch. The mystery of who she is exactly is an interesting driving force to the whole character arc. While I concede the point that this is in part because Lineage and Pedigree is like catnip to Star Wars fans to a worrying degree, it's also just compelling. Part of finding out who you are is, after all, a part of finding out where you came from, and in the ways you are different and similar to that origin is as good of a guide as any. With that said, it was an immense relief to me that Rey wasn't related to anyone important in the Star Wars Lore, if only because it opens up her plot so much. If she falls to the Dark Side it's because she falls to the dark side, not because she's a sapling from a line of part Force-homonculi like the Skywalkers, or like a quarter Darth Andeddu on her Mother's Side or whatever. Granted, Rey From Nowhere in particular was retconned in the following movie, and I'll GET to that. In the context of this movie at time of release though, it felt like a breath of fresh air.

It felt like an attempt to start something new. Maybe not every important character in the world is related to every other important character. Maybe the galaxy far far away is more vivid and exciting than it ever could be playing out some kind of extended Arthurian family saga. Maybe the first order is a threat not so much because they want to kill our Skywalkers, but because they're a massive conquering beast flattening culture and exploiting those they consider lesser, which is to say everyone. Maybe the stable boy is force sensitive. Maybe that'll matter, maybe that'll just be a little coda demonstrating that The Force isn't strictly a Palpatine/Skywalker family secret.

Speaking of though, let's talk about Kylo Ren some. I love Kylo Ren as a villain. He clearly styled himself on his grandpappy Anakin Skywalker, and the fact that the result is such a store brand thematic mockery is just perfect. Darth Vader didn't dress up like that because it was cool (at least in the Watsonian sense, in the Doylist sense he very much did), he's covered in all of that armor because it's his life support system. His unnerving hissing breath is his respirator chugging along. He is incredibly powerful in the force, yes, but his body is a mess, and it's a tribute to his strength in the Force that it's not a thing you notice as he takes you apart. Vader's armor is more than his armor, it's his prison, keeping him alive, bound to the Empire and the Dark Side in more ways than one. Kylo's armor looks that way because it's meant to evoke Darth Vader. Kylo doesn't need it, he just thinks it lets him be more like his grandfather. He's cosplaying, in practice, and no level of sulky angy boy antics can come close to projecting the sheer weight of Anakin's fallen splendor, which of course, only makes Kylo angrier. This is a compelling mirror to Rey in this movie IMO. Rey does not have Kylo's legacy, which makes her free in a way Kylo could never be, although Rey would probably switch in a heartbeat if she had the chance.

It's this kind of entangled conflict that makes the Rey-Kylo interplay so fascinating. Rey believes in the good in Kylo because That's What The Hero Does, but Kylo is so tied up in being Taster's Choice Darth Vader that she just doesn't get through the aura of angsty rage that surrounds him. They're not quite enemies, but far from friends, thus my choice of word "entangled." It's a pretty fun dynamic to see, and it leads to what I think is one of the better fight scenes of the sequel trilogy where Rey and Kylo are, however briefly, allies of convenience and fight through Snoke's Throne Guard. It's a rad fight because we haven't gotten too many "light sabers vs multiple semi-worthy opponents" in the main series, and because it's just so cool to see non-allies on the same side.

I suppose I have postponed talking about this movie's legacy as long as I can. It's not a task I cherish for two reasons, one, I find the current fandom focus on legacy utterly exhausting, and two, I feel this movie in particular was done dirty by its sequel, to the degree where I didn't even want to touch Star Wars for quite some time after it released.

In short, I would argue that just about every cool bit of The Last Jedi was clumsily retconned or just written out in Rise Of Skywalker. Rey from Nowhere? Gone, turns out she's Sheev "I've been dead for three movies except Sike" Palpatine's granddaughter and Kylo "I never lied to you" Ren was full of shit when he confirmed that her parents were nothing special. The power struggle between Hux and Kylo? Absolutely demolished. Sheev's back and he's brought his own Disappointing Generic Empire Guy to lead, so it's arguably not even the First Order any more. Rose Tico as a kind of Working Class conscience for the Adventure Crew? She's just kind of around and has exactly as many lines as it takes to not formally be an extra. Fuck me, if that movie managed to somehow convince me that cool Rey and Kylo fight didn't happen it'd be batting a thousand as far as ruining good shit from TLJ. Oh, and of course Finn and Poe get Plausible Deniability Girlfriends, because fuck you if you're finnpoe, right?

Anyway, this is not a review of Rise Of Skywalker, but it kind of impossible to speak of all the cool shit TLJ tried to do without acknowledging that these were very much The Road Not Taken. It's also important context to my current relationship with Star Wars. Put simply, I've lost faith. Why even bother participating in any further Star Wars media? I've clearly seen the Only Good Story Possible in Star Wars when I watched the original trilogy, considering how its the only story you're allowed to tell Post-Lucas, and any deviation from the same will lead to one of the biggest media companies in the world to ruin an entire feature-length film to meticulously undo anything that strays from the Star Wars Formula? How would any decent storyteller hitch themselves to a mess like this? How does it not become the miserable slog of content produced by work-a-day directors sleepwalking through Franchise Management-approved scripts, where nothing ever changes or grows, because the Star Wars Fans expect another of their semiregular reifications of three pretty good adventure/sci-fi films from the 70's, and heaven help you if you falter in your breathless reverence for The Legacy.

So while this isn't a review of Rise Of Skywalker, you can plainly see I didn't like it much. Do give The Last Jedi a look though, there's some neat scenes in it, and porgs.

#film friday #star wars #star wars the last jedi #I do love porgs #how the fuck do they fly?#what kind of biological evolution produced these sad cat lemming puffins?#I don't know #they have big eyes to see all your sins #iconic of them imo

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