Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 

I know this is a book blog, but you are going to just have to deal with a Movie Post because its Star Wars and I love Star Wars!

This is not going to be a review.  It will be an explosion of all the thoughts running through my head after seeing the movie.  Yes, I am sure you will be able to tell what I thought of the movie, but it is not my intention for this to be a review.

Also it will contain spoilers! So if you you haven’t seen the movie you should probably stop reading!

I’m serious!!! I am not even going to pretend to keep anything secret!

If you are still reading then I am going to assume you have watched the movie, or don’t care if you learn all the plot twists.

I apologize in advance that this post is going to be all over the place. I have tried to break it up by thought.  Good luck and may the force be with you!

1) Family

My Dad, My Brother, and I saw The Last Jedi on Sunday.  This was us:

I enjoyed watching this with my dad and brother! We are all nerdy together and it was nice to talk about all the parts we liked and didn’t like on the way home!

2) What is the Deal with Porgs?

A lot of the merchandise being sold pre-release heavily featured Porgs.

First I want to know how everyone knows they are called porgs?  I even knew that is what they were called, but have no idea how I knew that.  I am fairly certain it didn’t say it in the movie?

Second, why does so much of the merchandise feature porgs? I thought they were going to play an important role in the movie, instead they were all but pointless.  Yes they are super cute and funny and gave us an excuse to see Chewbacca, but they didn’t add anything to the plot. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them.  I just don’t understand why there is so much merchandise with them on it?

3) Rey’s Parents

Are they really nobodies?  Was that another trick Snoke was playing to try and seduce Rey to the Dark Side? Personally I am still holding out that Rey is Obi-Wan Kenobi’s daughter.  Obi-Wan is one of my favorite characters and it would be awesome if she was his daughter.  My favorite character is Han Solo, but Kylo Ren is Han’s son and I don’t want Rey and Kylo to be siblings.  Though, siblings would be better than lovers, so who knows.  Either way, I hope that they answer the question once and for all in the next movie.  No more of this ambiguous crap.

I have been reading other people’s reviews all morning, and this topic seems to have viewers split.  One person really liked the fact that they were nobodies and hoped that it was true.  Another person hoped that it was just a trick from Snoke and that we find out who her real parents are in the next movie (he was rooting for Obi-Wan too). A third user ignored the fact that they said her parents were nobodies and went straight into the speculation of who they really are (he thinks Luke Skywalker)

4) CGI Carrie Fisher?

You might have already known this, but I wasn’t sure of the timeline.  After seeing the movie I was curious if Carrie Fisher had actually finished the filming before she passed, or were there CGI parts.  I knew she was CGI at the end of Rouge One, so it is possible that they could CGI her in this movie and future movies.  Googling it was hard because it returned a lot of articles about how the franchise is dealing with her death, and not a specific answer to my question.

Eventually I found this article: Carrie Fisher’s Traumatic ‘Last Jedi’ Scene Hard for Family to Watch.  They mentioned that the family had gotten to watch an early cut while Carrie was still alive, so I think it is safe to assume all her appearances in this film were actually her.

5) Vulptex

Unlike the Porgs these creatures are not all over the merchandise.  Also unlike the Porgs, they have an actual use in the movie.  They help the small band of remaining resistance fighters to escape.  Personally I like these guys better than the Porgs, but I tend to like feline creatures in general.  (I know these guys could be canine … I still like them!)  I am not the only one! There are lots of posts saying how much better these guys are than the Porgs:

• The Last Jedi’s mysterious ice fox is our new favorite Star Wars character
• Forget Porgs, There’s Another New Star Wars Creature We Should Be Talking About
• ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Trailer Reveals First Look At New Creature

Also, back to the Porgs. Everyone knew what they were called but no one knew what these cute Ice Foxes were called.  It actually took some digging for me to find their name.

6) Why is it important to let us know the surface of Crait was made of salt?

Remember this scene? Unknown character one steps out of the trench to look off into the distance with his binoculars.  His footprints on the white landscape are red.  I think they might be blood.  Unknown character two sticks his finger in the boot print and then licks his finger (ewwww) He then turns to unknown character three and says “salt.”

That might not have been exactly how it went, there is a lot of scenes playing around in my head, but I think I got the jist of it.  I very rarely analyze why a scene is in a movie.  I don’t care that the porgs were useless, they were cute.  But this scene baffled me.  it didn’t make any sense why it existed.  What am I missing?

7) Vice Admiral Holdo’s Purple Hair

I love the purple hair.  In fact I like her whole look.  She looks regal and bad-ass all at once.  I also liked her character.  She had no reason to explain her actions to Poe.  In the military I don’t think it is common practice for higher ups to divulge their plans to the lower ranking soldiers.  Overall I really liked her.  And at the end where she took the ship into light-speed to try and save the others while taking out an enemy ship was spectacular.

8) “We are what they Grow beyond. That is the true Burden of all masters”

I love this quote.  It is super insightful.  Of course it had to come from Yoda, the wisest Jedi we know of.  The issue with it coming from Yoda is that its said in a weird order.  So its not particularly easy to quote.

9) “That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.”

This scene bugged me.  I know Fin is one of the main characters so therefore he is more important to the story, but why did Rose sacrifice herself to save him?  And in doing so she prevented the destruction of the battering ram that probably killed hundreds of people when it destroyed the door.  Why is Fin more important than all the people he was trying to protect? It was very selfish of Rose.

I know that they needed to open the door for the rest of the movie to continue, and I am glad Fin didn’t die, and Rose probably isn’t actually dead.  But it still bugged me that she sacrificed all the people Fin was trying to save, by saving Fin.

10) Lei Floating Scene

When Lei got sucked into space and then used the force to pull herself back in, it just looked stupid.  It was a cool idea, but ended up looking ridiculous.

11) The Code-breaker

It was unclear if the code-breaker they ended up with was the one Maz was referring too.  It is probable that he lost the flower pin gambling and ended up in jail, and that is who they were looking for. What are the chances there were two code-breakers in the same place that could break into the First Order’s ship?  If it was the right guy, did Maz know he was the type of person to turn tail when it suited him?

It was super unfortunate he betrayed Fin and Rose, but not surprising.  He is the one that points out the people making money building First Order ships are the same people making money building Resistance ships.  They don’t care who wins the war, they are just in it for the money.  Thats how the code-breaker operates.  He is going to help whoever pays him.  Though he did give back Rose’s necklace, so I don’t think he is completely heartless.

12) Kylo Ren kills Snoke

This was awesome! I like how Snoke narrated his own death and didn’t even see it coming!  It was brilliant.  He could tell what Kylo Ren was doing but couldn’t see the little details.

Then Kylo and Ren fought together and it was beautiful.  I had such high hopes! But then Kylo had to be a little bitch and ruin it.

13) Kylo Ren is a little bitch

My fiancee sent me a text a couple months ago asking who Kylo Ren was and if I liked him.  My Response: “He is the Bad Guy in the New Star Wars movies.  He killed Han Solo and is creepy looking, so no, I don’t like him.”

I really wish he was hot. I know that is weird, but it bugs me that he isn’t attractive.  Anakin Skywalker was very attractive.  Kylo Ren looks like a whiny teenager.  And for the most part he is a whiny teenager.

In The Force Awakens I didn’t like him at all, but there was a TON of character development in The Last Jedi.  You see how Kylo Ren was “Created.”  If you woke up and thought your Uncle was trying to kill you, you would probably freak out too.  You also see a lot of conflict inside of him.  He wants to do right, but the light side betrayed him.  He is confused about what is right and what is wrong.  Snoke took him in, in his moment of weakness. Now that I understand him more, I like him more as a villain, but he is still weird looking.

In his twisted conflicted mind, he thinks he is better for the galaxy than either the First Order or the Resistance.  Does this make him different than the Resistance?  This plays into my next thought … what is good and what is evil?

14) What is good and what is evil?

In the original 6 movies, good was light and evil was dark.  But Kylo is a conflicted mix of both.  You can see there is good and bad in him.  Rey is also strong in the dark side and doesn’t shy from it, which scares Luke.  Rey is obviously good, but Kylo is not solely bad.

Also is the Code-breaker bad? Yes, he revealed the Resistance fleet, but he also broke into the First Order’s ship.  He is more of an opportunist.  I would say he is pretty neutral.

Skulls in the Stars summed it up really well: “Putting it in terms of Dungeons & Dragons alignments, the First Order seems to be Lawful Evil and the Resistance seems Chaotic Good; in DJ, we have a character who is practically true Neutral: he will work for anybody, and doesn’t give a shit.”

15) Plot Twists and Spoilers

What is considered a spoiler? Is saying there is a large plot twist a spoiler?  Personally I would rather not know there is a plot twist ahead of time because I want to be completely surprised.   But the radio station I listen to told everyone without warning that there is a plot twist.  They didn’t seem to think it was a spoiler.  My dad agrees with me that he doesn’t want to know there is a plot twist.

Also, what was the plot twist? Was it that almost all of the resistance died? That Fin and Rose failed? That Kylo killed Snoke? That he didn’t turn to the “good side” afterward?  Was it Luke returning at the last minute? All of the above?  If I had to guess they were talking about Kylo killing Snoke and not returning to the good side.  I don’t know why people got so worked up about the “Plot Twist” when it doesn’t even come close to the plot twist of Vader being Luke’s father.

16) Everything the Resistance Tries Fails

In most movies the heroes have some troubles then ultimately they succeed, but not this one.  Every plan the Resistance has fails.  They start with a decent amount of people and end up with enough to fit on the Millennium Falcon.  After the movie, this kind of bugged me.  Its no fun to watch everything fail over and over again.  Its very stressful.

But, after reading other fan’s reviews, it makes a little more sense.  One of the theme’s was that you have to let the past die and move forward.  The old Jedi order has been destroyed and the new is being reborn in Rey.  The Resistance needs to be broken down in order to start over.

It also can be stretched to say that this movie isn’t like the original 6.  You need to accept that the old movies are done and you need to embrace the new ones as they are.  I think thats a little too deep and reading into it too far, but its kind of cool to think about.

17) What are the dice things on the chain?

The gold dice things on the Chain that Luke gave Leia at the end and then they disappeared in Kylo’s hand when Luke died.  What are they? What is their significance?

I know they are important and I remember seeing them earlier in the movie but I didn’t take note and now I can’t remember where I saw them before?  It bugging me but I don’t want to google it, in case it brings up other stuff relating to future movies.

18) Potato

Sorry for the long Post. Here is a Boba Fett Potato:

Side note: Why do people post potatoes at the end of long posts? How did that get started?

Thanks for reading!! Please feel free to comment with any answers to my questions (they aren’t rhetorical!) or any random thoughts you had!