If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?..why Pokematic "hi."
Ahhh Star Wars, it's a franchise I'm a big fan of (see my review for Episode 1 3D, Force Awakens Spoiler Free and Spoiler Full, The Phantom Edit, Rogue One, and Attack of the Phantom), and I was quite happy when Disney injected some much needed life into the films (though I do wish they didn't hand the games license to EA, how much longer do we need to wait this out?). Well, it's time to review Episode 8, The Last Jedi. I'll keep things spoiler free for first part, then I'll go into some spoilers in the second part.
OK, so right off the bat, I need to say this has a lot of laugh out loud moments. Like, there were at least 10 times I let out more than just a faster than average exhale, these were real "hahehehehe." Don't get the impression that this is a comedy though; this is an action movie and it has a lot of that, but it probably would have been a little too heavy if they didn't have the bits of comedy. And don't be scared, this isn't "Jar-Jar being a slap stick cartoon character" comedy, this is "3PO telling R2 to 'let the wookie win' after learning about wookie nerd rage" comedy. All the comedy is very in character and reasonable within the cinematic universe that has been crafted.
The next thing I need to say is this movie keeps you guessing and the last third or so of the movie is nothing but twists. I won't go into detail here (that's for the spoiler section), but man alive, as we're approaching the climax I was thinking "alright, time for some action with..." only to have it be the complete opposite of what I expected. Then when I was kind of catching onto what they were doing and expecting the unexpected, they went into going with the expected that threw me for an even greater loop. Wow, well crafted twists, which I'll get to in the spoilers.
The last big thing I'll mention is this movie is very polarizing among the starwars community, not in the Star Wars Episode 1, "that...didn't suck...right?..I mean it's Star Wars" denial kind of polarizing (which, for the record, is my favorite Star Wars film; if I didn't wear my fandoms on my sleeve, I would call it a guilty pleasure). It's a real debate as to if it was good or not. There are a lot of things to dislike, particularly with Luke. I'm not going to go into detail here, but it's worth warning that Luke takes a pretty dark turn in this movie, and it kind of feels like character assassination at times. It's not full character assassination (there is a reason for what he does), but it's kind of hard to come to full grips with it.
Before I get into spoilers, just a couple of technical things. The music was great as always. John Williams strikes gold again. Then there's the visuals. Recent movies have been kind of "uncanny." They still have a lot of the model designs, but it's all CGI, so my brain gets a little confused having seen the other movies so many times (and primarily on VHS might I add). But, the visuals are still good. The movie is also long, but the pacing keeps it alright.
It's a pretty good movie. Hopefully you enjoy it. If you don't want spoilers, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye. OK, now for spoilers.
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OK, the first thing first, the 2 parallel stories. There's the "Luke trains Rey" story, but there's also the "rebels vs the first order" story. I'll get to Luke and Rey later, first I need to talk about the...underwhelming? rebel vs first order conflict. It opens pretty strong, the rebels are trying to get to the outer rim where they can set-up base and regroup, and the first order is on their tail and is doing the unthinkable, tracking them through light speed. I suppose in the star wars universe that would be difficult and considered impossible, but I'll get to science anger later. Well, when a giant first order fighter ship comes out of light speed, Poe (the fighter pilot from Force Awakens that befriends Finn) sets up a bomber run on the ship, and it's very remenicent of bomber runs in war time films, where the fleet of bombers have to survive enemy attacks while approaching their target. It's very high energy and very costly in that all the bombers and most of the support X-wings are destroyed after a remaining bomber narrowly manages to drop her load on the target before being blown-up, by the force of gravity, through open bomb bay doors the pilot is in without an oxygen mask. The scene is very powerful, as we see the face of distress as each pilot is blown up, with the final bomber pilot desperately trying to get the release controller to fall to her hand while we watch her do her duty and die with tears in her eyes.
But with that in mind, I just can't help but get angry at the science. I get it, Rian was going for the "world war 2 bomber run" feel, and it works, but I just can't get past the fact THAT THEY'RE IN SPACE! There is no gravity, and no atmosphere. The pilot was in the bomb bay, with the bomb bay doors open looking down onto ship below. This universe has not established an "air trapping technology that acts as a barrier between space and atmosphere," at least not in the movies. While I've seen it in the REAL battlefront games (not the EA garbage), I've not seen it in the movies. There is a small argument to be made regarding things like the deathstar hanger, but those are large ships with the express purpose of having shipping and receiving. Seeing that I see airlocks on higher profile entry points, I'm left to assume it's rather costly technology, to the point it would be cost prohibitive to have it on bomb bay doors of a bomber. But OK, let's assume it does have that passive barrier, I mean the primitive gungans have it for underwater. This doesn't stop the gravity problem. I'll suspend my disbelief regarding artificial gravity on ships within the interior. I mean, this is the world of controlled lasers after all. However, I take problem with that artificial gravity extending beyond that of the ship all the way down to the impact point of the bombs. The bombs fell under the force of gravity, and they appeared to be accelerating at a constant rate meaning the center of the gravitational pull was at the ship. They were pretty far away, I can't believe that the artificial gravity would be able to extend that far. It just doesn't work like that. Errrrrrg, OK, that rant is over.
I do have to comment on one thing. In this big battle, Poe follows Battlefront 2 space battle tactics (the real battlefront 2, on PS2 and XBOX Classic; not EA). On a failing ship, Poe flies into the hanger of the first order ship, blows up some component of the ship, and hijacks an enemy ship. That was my favorite part of battlefront 2. I loved flying a marine into the hanger of the enemy, go to the life support system and engine room to blow it up from the inside and steal an enemy ship to hurt them with their own arsenal. Oh it was so cool to see that happen on the big screen, and hopefully they included it as an allusion to the real battlefront 2.
Back to the story, general Leia is distraught, because these weren't pawn, they were people, with loved ones, and while they took out a major first order destroyer, the cost was too high. She scolds and demotes Poe, shortly after having the command deck of her ship get blown up by the first order that tracked them out of light speed, with everyone dying in the empty vacuum of space, with her surviving only through her force power. See, real science that's defied within the logic of the universe through the magic of the force. This puts her in a coma and she is replaced by her second in command, which causes tension between flyboy Poe and by the numbers general. I gotta say, the conflict is pretty good as Poe wants to take the big risks with high reward potential, whereas the general wants to play it safe. This is increasingly complex because the rebels are running low on fuel and can't outrun the first order. However, they can keep out of range if they just stay far enough away, with the big plan to buy time until they come up with a better plan. Time is of the essence, because they can't stay out of range forever. It's a race against the clock, a simple conflict with high stakes as we see ship by ship run out of fuel and fall back to the first order's fire with their only hope to send all the crew to a ship that's further upstream. We even see the captains stay behind and go down with the ships that will add more weight later.
OK, last science nit pick, then I'm done. During this conflict, when the ships run out of fuel, they decelerate and behave like a ship running out of fuel on the open sea (turning, twisting, rocking with the current, and slow down). Again, vacuum of space without gravity. One efficiency of space travel is that one only has to expend fuel to get up to speed and/or change direction; but once a course is set, one only has to coast at a constant speed because there is no drag and natural forces acting against you requiring you to keep expending energy to maintain propulsion. You could make the argument that the ships are using fuel to maintain a constant rate of acceleration and that's how the first order catches up because the rebel ships are now moving at a constant speed (and with no real points of reference in space, the camera could be moving at the same rate of acceleration as the ships giving the illusion of slowing down), but the ships don't maintain their direction as the first order catches up to them, they twist and turn as they run out of fuel suggesting an external force acting on them. It just makes the science nerd in me scream. OK, that's it for the science rants.
OK, enough rebels for now, time to talk about Luke and Rey. This is where most of the controversy within the community stems from. As was hinted in episode 7, Luke doesn't want to be found, but on the final shot, Mark Hamill has some "hope" in his eyes as Rey hands him his old light saber. Here though, when Rey hands him it, he throws it away (which was handled quite funny), because he's done with the Jedi and wants to see it end. We know Luke feels guilty about Kylo, and Rey knows it too. Her goal is to convince him to train her as she can stop him. This is a very interesting and layered problem. Obviously, there's the whole "Rey wants to learn, but Luke doesn't want to teach her" bit, which we've seen in the past with Anikin and Luke as the potential students (Anikin by the council, Luke by Yoda). Unlike the council and Yoda, Luke isn't hesitant to teach Rey because she's too old, or annoying, or any other reason of "the student," Luke doesn't want to teach her because he as the master is not ready. He feels responsible for Kylo Ren, he does not think he's a good teacher, and he does not want to risk creating another Kylo Ren. It's a very interesting character struggle, that come to think of it is entirely within reason. Think about it, Anikin was taken in by one of the best Jedi in the galaxy, Qui-Gon, and Luke studied directly under Qui-Gon's apprentice AND the wisest Jedi in the galaxy, Obi-Wan and Yoda. Both of them had formal training under experienced Jedi masters who knew how to teach the force. Luke on the other hand, was really made it up as he went along. Luke didn't learn it all, he didn't have enough time with Jedi mentors to learn all the ins and outs of the force. This is why he holds his failure of Ben Solo so close. A lot of critics basically say he's being selfish, and I don't blame them, but I understand where he's coming from. It also adds time for us to see hermit Luke and his daily routine, which had some good laughs.
One thing I found very interesting is what beak's Luke's position to not train Rey. Rey goes to the Jedi temple Luke made with the remaining sacred jedi texts. As she's reading them, Luke confronts her and they have a heart to heart where Luke agrees to train her, just the 3 fundamentals. Fist thing, mediclorian haters will love this. When Luke is explaining the force, he explains how it's the energy that binds everything together, and that when he dies, the force will live on, and how the Jedi are a religion that's goal is to harness the force. While it doesn't necessarily retcon "Jedi germs," it definitely retcons "Jedi germs gives Jedi their powers" and it's a genetic mutation or whatever. This basically says "anyone can use the force, some are just more gifted than others," kind of like algebra. Similarly, it's through this exchange where Luke see's that Rey isn't power hungry, she just wants to carry on a legacy and bring balance to the universe. There is one plot hole here, and that's "where did these texts come from?" Luke was not an original Jedi, the Jedi temple was destroyed along with the texts (LucasArts Battlefront 2 cannon as my main reference), and only Obi-Wan and Yoda survived. The most I can figure is Yoda had them in his hut on Degobah and Luke took them after Yoda died. But who knows.
While this is happening, we get some Kylo Ren development. Thoughout most of the movie, Kylo Ren is torn. This is first pointed out in a meeting with Snoke. Snoke tells Kylo "you are still conflicted, there is still good in you" (or something to that extent) to which Kylo responds "no, that died along with my father." This meeting is happening with the first in command of the first order, who also has an err of hesitancy to him. I see that mainly when he and Kylo are talking to each other. It's very interesting, because it feels like neither of them are really committed to galactic conquest (a feeling I kind of got in episode 7). A lot of their actions kind of have this immature "really guys, I'm one of you, and I'll prove it" feeling. This is a very different perspective from other villains in the series. I had no trouble believing that Palpatine, Duku, Vader, Tarkin, or any other villains were in this 100%, but the again, these guys were also much older, with an ideology they firmly believed in. With Kylo and the first commander, I get the feeling that they wanted to start something, but it grew outside their own control. This is done INCREADIBLY subtly, with it all being within their mannerism. When Tarkin blew up Aulderon, he had a very calm and calculated demeanor, like this was just "business as usual." When the first commander of the first order blew up Coruscant, he had a nervousness in his tone and mannerisms, like "OK, I'm really going to do this, I'm going to kill millions of innocent people, oh this is crazy." Duku, Vader, Tarkin, and the rest of them were all following Palpatine's lead, and Palpatine was pure evil. Kylo on the other hand feels like he started this with his top commander to carry on the dream, but it got too big. It gave a very different feeling to the kinds of people that are in the first order.
Kylo and Rey have these random "mind links" where Rey and Kylo see each other in the same rooms and talk to each other. During these encounters (after their initial "what's going on" encounter), they try to bring the other to their side. What's really interesting is the power dynamic between these 2. Whenever we had "light and dark confront each other," it's always been "impressionable light apprentice against powerful dark master," be that Anikin and Palpatine, or Luke and Vader. With this though, Rey and Kylo feel like they are on equal levels. While Kylo is a more experienced and trained dark jedi, Rey is more secure in where her moral compass points. These even themselves out in the power struggle, making for a very interesting character progression. Kylo uses his power and knowledge as an argument to his side (I can teach you what Luke won't), whereas Rey pulls at Kylo's conflicted soul as an argument to her side. During these encounters, neither seem futile. It's not one sided like the past. All the time it feels like it could go either way, which I really welcome.
This also ties into why Luke is hesitant to teach Rey after lesson 1. Luke teaches Rey how to find a connection to the force, but as he does he sees the great latent power in her, and it scares him to where he says "no more." I believe it's around this time that Luke tells Rey the backstory to Kylo Ren, and how Kylo lashed out, killed all the other apprentices, destroyed the temple, and started the first order. He had the same latent power that Rey has, and he wasn't going to do that again. It's a very hard back story, one Luke feels responsible for. It's pretty difficult for Rey to accept.
Oh, but then it gets better. What Luke said was true, but from a certain point of view. During the "Ben Swolo" encounter (the one where Kylo Ren doesn't have a shirt on that's become a meme), Kylo tells Rey there's more to the origin story. See, he didn't just "randomly lash out and destroy what Luke had built," he did it defensively. Luke feared him, and was ready to kill him in his sleep. During this flashback, Luke looked really evil, and mean. The lighting caused by his light saber made it really eerie, and atmospheric. What's more, this makes Ben a more interesting case. Unlike other Sith lords who were seduced by promises of power and glory, Ben was driven to the Sith by the Jedi. This makes Kylo Ren a very conflicted individual, and why he has an err of "I didn't have a choice, I did what was best for me and I'll live with my path in life." He's a much better character for it. However, it really hurts Luke's character. Luke isn't perfect, but he's good. It's really hard to imagine him doing something like this, which is kind of character assassination. This is a major complaint from critics, and I get it. This isn't the Luke that we know. Also, it sews a major seed of doubt in Rey. Yes, Rey calls Kylo a liar, and refuses to believe it, but Kylo does the whole "search your feelings, you know it to be true" sort of thing. This is when Rey does her most growing as a character.
After this, Rey confronts Luke about this. She is angry, and at the breaking point. She even draws her light saber on him demanding to know why he tried to kill Kylo. This is when Rey almost is turned, but once again, the story is true, from a certain point of view. Luke explains what happened in full. Luke saw the great power in Ben, and sensed Snoke's power attracted to him. One night, he went to Ben as he slept to see if he could tell Ben his concern, but he couldn't, and in a brief moment of desperation he drew his light saber to end it. That moment passed almost as soon as it came, but when Ben awoke all he saw was his master looming over him ready to strike, and in that moment he was a scared boy who ran away from danger. While Luke is narrating the story, the narration isn't necessary. The expressions could tell the entire encounter without the narration, a very powerful bit of acting and directing. Again, it's character assassination of Luke, but it is a reasonable direction. Again, Luke is figuring this out as he goes. He doesn't know how to teach students, and how to handle the dark side. He knows how to say no, but he doesn't know how to tell others. It's really quite powerful.
Before I get back to the rebels, I need to wrap up a couple of things here. Chewy befriends a puffin thing, after eating one of it's friends. It's a really funny scene. Also, after Rey and Chewy leave, Luke decides he's going to burn it all down, end the Jedi and destroy the sacred texts in his little temple. Who joins him? Master Yoda as a ghost. When Luke can't bring himself to burn it down, Yoda summons lightning and starts the fire. In this, we get a nice conversation between Luke and Yoda, about how the old ways are over, and Yoda helping Luke to forgive himself. I don't remember all the particular, because IT WAS PUPPET YODA!!!!! Yes, I am a puppet Yoda purist. I accept episode 2 and 3 because they needed Yoda to do crazy acrobatics and whatnot, and it wouldn't look good to have him suddenly turn from puppet to CGI, but I own episode 1 on VHS twice because I need puppet Yoda. I don't know if they made a new puppet or used the old one, but it was brilliant and I love it.
Now that I've explained Rey, Luke, and Kylo, time to get back to the Rebels. We left off with the First Order in pursuit of the Rebels. Leia is comatose, and most off their back-up has been destroyed. Their fuel reserves are running low, and the things seem bleak. Back to the story. Finn enlists the help of Rose, the sister of the bomber that was killed in Poe's bomber run. His plan, find a hacker that can get into the First Order ship and turn off the tracker. He figured out that the first order is tracking them through their main ship, and if they can turn it off, it will give the rebels just enough time to get away to safety. They go to Rose's old home planet, a casino planet. Aside from the humor BB8 causes with people thinking he works there or is a slot machine, it's a story of "all the glitter's isn't gold." The way Rose was hyping it up, it sounded like gangs were going to mug them and steal their ship or something, but they run in with the law because they park on a public beach. Everyone there is fancy, and ritzy, and sophisticated. But we soon find out that the nice place is held up on the backs of slaves, whom are sympathetic to the resistance, and one of them has force powers. It's pretty interesting.
Now we get to twists. The heroes think he's one of the gamblers, but he turns out to be a stuttering prisoner. When the hacker steals a ship, we learn that the ship belonged to a weapons dealer. First we see this dealer sold to the first order, so it's OK, he was a bad guy; but then we see that he also sold to the resistance, so it gets murky. It's quite interesting to see this "it's not black and white, good and evil" in the universe, some people just do what works for them. Then there's the break in. They sneak on, steal some uniforms, and get to the place. As they're getting done, successfully hacking the ship, they get caught. I didn't see that coming. Then the hacker makes a plea bargain, where he sells out the rebels, because "it's just business." There's a pretty awesome fight scene with Fasma making a return, and they get away back onto rebel ship.
Now for the largest twist. Rey confronts Kylo on his ship. I saw a lot of parallels between this and Episode 6 with Luke and Vader. It worked pretty well. We see Rey tempted by Snoke. Snoke apparently did the mind-link with Rey and Kylo. It was all part of his plan, and he wants Kylo to end her. Kylo is conflicted though, and we can really see it in his mannerisms. Now for a twist, while Snoke was torturing Rey, Kylo takes his light saber and kills Snoke. Cuts him right in half using the force. A lot of parallels to episode 6, again. Then there's this big hand to hand fight scene with Rey and Kylo against Snoke's guards, with them improvising light sabers as needed. And right when we think Kylo had a change of heart, he offers Rey a chance to rule the galaxy with him, now that Snoke is dead he doesn't have to answer to anyone. And this is what changed him to be a true Sith. All this time, Kylo thought what kept him from being a real Sith lord is his bond to his past life, but it was really his bond to Snoke. This is cemented by Kylo's mannerisms. Now, there is no more confusion, no more conflict, he is evil. Wow, really well done. Now he is the Sith he hoped to become, and is a true villain.
Now for more twists, the acting commander's plan was to buy as much time as possible, then let the fleet escape on escape pods to an abandoned rebel base. Poe doesn't agree with this plan, because Finn is running his hacking plan, and he does a mutiny to let Finn do his thing. Then when Finn gets back defeated, Poe agrees with the plan, but only after Leia awakes and agrees with the acting commander. All the rebels are fleeing with the last ship taking the fire as it's about to run out of fuel. However, the first order is onto the plan (thanks to the hacker) and starts taking out rebel escape ships. Then in a final act of courage, the acting commander turns the ship to the first order fleet, and jumps to light speed, ramming them and destroying some of the ships. This was really cool, because we've heard about how important it is to make your course during a jump to light speed. This was the aftermath of it.
Now the movie could have ended there, but then there's a "Hoth battle" (I call it that because that's what it's based on). Now, more twists. The rebels get into some junkers to make one last stand against the first order as they try to get away, and the first order is getting a cannon ready to beak open the defenses. Finn figures he can stop it by flying directly into it, but he's stopped by Rose. And then there's the big final battle between Luke and Kylo. Luke flies to the planet, reunites with Leia shortly, and then steps out onto the battlefield. Kylo orders all fire be concentrated on him, but it fails, requiring Kylo to fight him one on one. Oh, it was such an epic battle, with words being as strong as the actual battle. It was a battle of minds and will as well as a battle of power. Then, in another twist, Luke ends up being a projection of himself from his island. Then Luke dies and falls into the force. The movie kind of ends after that. I find it ironic, the movies killed off all the original characters, except the one who's actress died.
All in all, it was an awesome movie. I can see where people find problems.. I have my own problems with it too. This isn't a movie for the simple viewing. It's complex, takes a lot of risks, some of which work and some that don't. Hopefully if you watch it, you can enjoy it. I really enjoyed it. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
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