The Galactic Emperor Has No Clothes
Saw The Last Jedi yesterday — curiosity got the better of me and I decided to see if it really was as bad as it sounded.
And I have to say that, yes, if anything it is even worse than its summaries describe. There’s a definite ‘Emperor has no clothes’ vibe about the thing re: the fawning reviews among much of the press and how the thing looks to an ordinary fan (I was a kid during the original releases — saw A New Hope nine times and The Empire Strikes Back five times in the theater — so I’m of the generation who made Star Wars the pop culture phenomena it is).
As it is, I feel sorry for the kids who are being sold this bill of goods now — it’s the worst sort of lazy writing, as if simply making a cast ‘diverse’ is an acceptable substitute for compelling and plausible characters (“I know! We’ll make Finn’s sidekick a girl! And we’ll make her Asian! And we’ll make her chubby!”).
The most obvious example of this is Rey. The core conceit of the original six films was the difficulty in becoming a Jedi, the training, the discipline, the mentoring (And a plausible conceit, given how it mirrors both the warrior and religious organizations it models, thus allowing for the necessary suspension of disbelief). Not any more though — Rey is now the most powerful Jedi the galaxy has ever seen simply because the Force has apparently decided, a la Hillary 2016, to ‘break the glass ceiling’. And, marketing aside, weak writing it is — as much as people ragged on midichlorians, at least that was a tangible explanation, as opposed to this Girl Power/It’s her turn! crap with Rey.
Another area where the reviews baffle me is the gushing over Laura Dern’s character. It’s a completely phoned-in performance — show up, get the hair dyed purple, mouth a couple of cliches, cash check. And the character doesn’t do much except place a female into a position of prominence (More Girl Power!) and sadly relegate Admiral Ackbar to a cameo (Seriously, he couldn’t have occupied that position in the story?).
Finally, the demise of Snoke was a complete anti-climax. Maybe I read too much entertainment industry gossip but I suspect it was a situation similar to Clemenza/Richard Castellano in Godfather I/II, where Andy Serkis simply demanded too much $$$ so they offed his character.
Overall a very weak effort but worth watching as a snapshot of the dismal turn our popular culture has taken (Don’t even get me started on the Antifa politics of the otherwise pointless casino digression). Between ABC News, ESPN and JJ Abrams Star Wars, Disney Corp really is cancer.