The Last Jedi : Nostalgia, Beloved Characters, and a much needed shift needed?

[theonetruebatman]

****THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW. IT IS SAFE FOR READING****

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI & THE DECONSTRUCTION OF THE SUPERHERO

****THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW. IT IS SAFE FOR READING****

If you go to see latest installment of the third Star Wars trilogy with lofty expectations that of watching the band getting back together again in order to kick ass and chew bubblegum with the help of the new generation then I can say you have indeed made your way into the right movie. However, your definition of what that allegory means is probably going to change but most definitely be challenged.

If the last film was in Disney's own words "One for the fans" then the TLJ is "One for the money. Two for the show." What I mean by that is you go to the movie and just let it be what it is in being the transition from one generation of politics looking back on their time which was the best of times and the worst of times and handing the baton over to the new generation(IE THE MONEY AKA ensuring the future of The Brand) and letting them know that nostalgia may be the love of everything old but just like the graphics from the 1970's not all of it is as great as you remember it today back then (IE THE SHOW AKA Even your heroes from the Pope to The President may have done great things but not every action they took may have been great.)

This film left me into two pieces last night. One piece was disappointed that Mark Hamill really was correct in his viewpoint in how Luke would be portrayed in this film. Basically, this ain't your daddy's Luke Skywalker. To put it in DC comic terms this is a Batman that's lost his mission statement much like Ben Affleck's Batman in BvS.

The second piece was one of hope for the future because that all there really is left when it comes to this franchise. Disney took your love of nostalgia and instead of giving it a dignified death the smashed in repeatedly with a bloodied hammer all while making you watch as it screamed in agony. However, we were left with iconic moments and the promise of more to come from one of the most celebrated universes in all of pop culture. Who can really complain if that's the worst we were left with? The answer is obviously A LOT OF PEOPLE who in pop culture look to these characters for inspiration. For instance had Batman not been introduced to me as a child I cannot necessarily say I would be the same person as my morality is very much in tune with that of the character's. What? My parents were too busy yelling at each other to really instill morals. Don't judge me.

If the last film was in Disney's own words "One for the fans" then the TLJ is "One for the money. Two for the show." What I mean by that is you go to the movie and just let it be what it is in being the transition from one generation of politics looking back on their time which was the best of times and the worst of times and handing the baton over to the new generation(IE THE MONEY AKA ensuring the future of The Brand) and letting them know that nostalgia may be the love of everything old but just like the graphics from the 1970's not all of it is as great as you remember it today back then (IE THE SHOW AKA Even your heroes from the Pope to The President may have done great things but not every action they took may have been great.)

Without spoiling anything I will say that I hope that the need to deconstruct our favorite characters, especially the ones that literally have saved the universe time and time again will stop being the means to the end of moving a property forward ergo meaning their presence being reduced to nothing more than a McGuffin and/or plot device. This happened to Superman in Batman V Superman and now it has taken both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker as it's latest victims. It took 3 movies for the heads at DC to realize people just wanted to see Superman be Superman and it paid off for what little time we got from him in Justice League and what fans have wanted for the last two Stars Wars movies was to just see Luke Skywalker be Luke Skywalker. Perhaps no one wanted to see that more than Mark Hamill himself. That isn't to say his portrayal wasn't as legendary as his performances as Luke before it and we do get some iconic moments in this film from him as well, because we definitely do. I find myself and I am sure many others do as well agreeing that the right moment for Luke to show up in this new trilogy was on the Star Killer base when the Lightsaber was instead caught by Rey. If he had been there and saved the day AND THEN if we absolutely had to do a little bit of character deconstruction than at least as Mary Poppins promises the medicine would have gone down with that bit of sugar,

If I wanted to see that I would go watch the amazing Vindicators 3: Return Of Worldender" episode of Rick and Morty. Not only does that episode accomplish everything that this film does it at least still leaves me with a smile on my face. Seriously though, that episode of that amazing animated property has never been more relevant to the medium than it is right now.

We need to remind these filmmakers that change can co-exist with times of great sacrifice and sadness and that our heroes are our heroes because of their ability to persevere through said times of great sacrifice and anguish. It's in this way that as much as Doctor Who has informed Star Wars, I think now is the time for Star Wars to be informed by Doctor Who. "The Time War" in that property was a time of great bloodshed, sadness, and deconstruction of our hero. However, every time we watch the 50th Anniversary special and the of the episodes before it and after in which we see how damaged our favorite Time Lord has become we then get to revel in how inspired we feel by our favorite character come episode's end.

All it takes a better handle on the proportion of darkness to heart when it come to the tone of your story. Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is a perfect example of this. The movie has stakes, an ironic amount of humor, a great deal of heart, and accomplishes everything that The Last Jedi and the other movies I compared it to within this op-ed did without making it's main character let alone the most celebrated character in comics feel less important in the world that he sacrificed his body and reputation to save.

I hope this marks a change in the way we make these films. In my opinion everything that Man of Steel and Batman V Superman arguably got wrong about those respective characters is very much SHARED by the first two installments of this new Star Wars trilogy. The only difference is that the latter has 7 movies and a literal army of fans willing to protect it because of the trust it built over the last almost 4 decades of fandom, celebration, and once again NOSTALGIA. This is the very meaning of the saying "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down", as it was clear the mandate is New Star Wars, Not The Same As the Old Star Wars if I can paraphrase The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again.

You as the viewer/fan have to decide which side you are on though. Are you ready to move forward and make Star Wars something bigger than Luke, Han, Leia, and Vader? One would say as a fan of the Extended Universe sort of have to, right? Star Wars was always bigger than that, no? Or are you the feeling like George Lucas and are now ready to divorce yourself from the property?

[ChrisIII]

I think it's important to realize the actors have aged (and also Carrie died) and are not going to do the same kind of action and energy they had in the OT apart from a few moments here and there. It was kind of a bit easy for Ford, as he just had to sort of "point and shoot", but take a look at say, his last take on Indiana Jones, where a lot more of the action was really given to Shia (The jungle chase being a prime example of this-Indy's pretty much driving for a good chunk of the scene).

Likewise, I can't see Hammil doing the somersaults and swinging he did 30+ years ago either. When they tried to do that with Mcdiarmid and Lee in the PT it often came off looking kind of silly.


At the time also remember that ESB got a lot of criticism for a downer ending too. Luke's whole worldview has been flipped upside down, he's suffered permenant injury, the Rebels have been pretty much routed and Han is frozen right after starting a relationship with Leia.

Also even the books towards the canon overhaul seemed to be moving away from the post-ROTJ Han/Luke/Leia dynamic with "Crucible" (much of the other books featuring them towards the end were mostly set during the OT such as Razor's Edge, Scoundrels etc and that's of course where the Marvel comics are focused), and there were plans for a Jaina series going forward that were cancelled. The "Legacy" comics also pretty much also put the galaxy back under the Empire/Dark side as well.

[theonetruebatman]

Very fair and nuanced.