Last Jedi: All the things I loved

[jack]

I loved the diversity of characters.

I loved a lot of the humour. Some fell flat, but most was hit well for me and none was very cringy. In particular, I loved the opening scene of Poe taunting Hux; it did just seem so in character for Hux that he'd want to talk, but not delegate the questioning to an underling till it was too late.

I loved Rose's sister. I loved some of the visuals of the bombers.

I loved that they made an effort to show how a planet suffered under the first order.

I loved Pink-hair admiral (I have some quibbles with the plot centred around her let her down, in a later post).

I loved Leia using the force.

I loved Luke as an older Jedi master.

I surprisingly loved the idea of a place at the centre of the force, both good and bad.

I loved the tantalising question of whether Ben would turn away from the dark side.

I loved the scenes with Rey and Ben (although I admit, I was worried about a "love conquers anything even mass murder" plot following).

I loved the diversity of animals and scenery. The spiky foxes did feel a little more like someone's idea of what would be cute than an actual animal, but I still liked them. And I liked the porgs a lot, I didn't love love love them, but I liked them.

I loved the tension of "slow retreat under fire". (I had some quibbles about the way this was established.)

I loved the visual of the red sand (and the fact that it provided a hint about Luke I didn't notice).

I loved the "Luke's force ghost distraction thing". It was a very elegant way of showing Luke both using the force in an overwhelming way, but also, of him being pacifistic.

I loved that Yoda got a cameo (although I did have some quibbles, like maybe he could TALK to Luke and not just hint, and when exactly can force ghosts use the force, does Yoda know how many lives he could have saved by lightning-bolting Palpitane?)

I loved some of the DJ scenes (although it was a bit rushed to really provide a set-up and payoff for how untrustworthy he was or wasn't)

I loved the force-fighting over the lightsaber.

I loved several of the bits where Rey and Ben fought together, like catching and activating the lightsaber in one motion.

I had some quibbles, but I loved Ben taking over as supreme leader.

Rereading that, it makes me feel very positive. I had a variety of objections (coming up next), but few films did I have that much to *say* about, but I did this one.

Comments

[rmc28]

I loved that it kept subverting my expectations.

E.g. Poe *not* pulling off a heroic victory at the start; Holdo *not* being incompetent and/or a traitor; Leia *not* dying in space; Kylo Ren *not* getting a love-conquers-all redemption.

(but the Ren/Rey dynamic being very gripping)

I loved how beautiful it was, so often.


I really really loved Rose's initial fangirlish awkwardness around Finn, and how she didn't let him fool her anyway, and how he took her suggestions seriously - the bit where they are finishing each other's sentences as they identify the technobabble setup about the First Order tracing them is so cool.

[rmc28]

Oh, and I meant to say, when Luke disappeared under a barrage of fire, I had this moment of thinking "oh hey, he's like the Hulk, is his secret to resisting the Dark Side that he's always angry?"

So I wasn't surprised that he walked out of the barrage of fire, or survived fighting Kylo Ren, but *how* he did it was another way the film subverted my expectations. He didn't defeat Ren by being the best and baddest and most powerful, he bought everyone else time by being sneaky. He protected what he loved, rather than fighting what he hated/feared.

[jack]

Yeah, all those things. Definitely the "subvert" thing, although for me some of the expectations worked and some didn't.

Interesting point about the barrage of fire. At the time, I thought it was a shame we didn't see him parrying a few shots first, and maybe somehow blocking a large number, and *then* them using an overwhelming barrage on him. Now, of course, I know that would have given the game away, that he wasn't parrying at all, he just wasn't there. But I wish either, he'd been shown explicitly taunting them to make a huge barrage, or somehow faking dodging the first few shots (e.g. blinking out of existence and in again, or similar.)

I did really, really like the way he didn't aim to WIN the duel, but to facilitate the rebellion in a simultaneously more effective and less combative way, that seemed to really reflect his spirit.