My fellow
cybertavern patrons, a many Happy Holidays to you, and thank goodness
things are starting to wind down. Multiverse Desperado is chugging
along just fine, Animation Deviation...needs to come out more often,
and as I said before I've begun parlaying my deep dive thoughts on
game industry current events into more professional columns at a
certain website.
In fact I wrote a
pretty
extensive op ed on the Loot Box controversy surrounding the
reception of EA's Star Wars Battlefront II recently.
Which brings us to
what amounts to my rapidfire thoughts on the release of a certain
blockbuster film recently, Rian Johnson's Star Wars Episode VIII: The
Last Jedi.
First, some
obligatory nerd credential padding. I love Star Wars. It's one of my
favorite sci-fi franchises out there. I love the original trilogy.
I... mostly tolerate certain parts of the prequel trilogy: Darth Maul
is fine, the myth of Darth Plagueus is fine, but midichlorians and
Jar Jar Binks are nails on a chalkboard for example. I love the
Genndy Tartokovsky Clone Wars cartoon, still have the DVDs in fact,
and never finished the “officially canon” CG animated Clone Wars
cartoon but am content that it exists. I've also read my share of the
( now alternative extended universe) of Star Wars novels like the
pretty excellent Darth Bane trilogy, Millenium Falcon, the Legacy of
the Force, and even the truly schlocky nonsense that was Death
Troopers aka What If Star Wars Characters Had To Deal With a Zombie
Outbreak?
Also while the new
extended universe has its detractors, I am more or less interested
and fascinated by the direction the franchise is going. The Force
Awakens was basically a reintroduction to the galaxy far far away for
a new generation while respecting what came before, and even splicing
in some meta-commentary about its own fandom in the margins. And
while Rogue One wasn't really a good movie on a basic level, it was a
fantastic representation of why I read some of the more acclaimed
Expanded Universe books: to see a smaller story of a bigger conflict
in all of its pulpy glory.
Which is something
that I think some of the more long-running fans have forgotten about
when it came to Star Wars' new regime at Disney. A lot of fans have
internalized so much Star Wars mythology as being untouchable and
full of established rules, characters, factions, and conflicts like
an masterwork pocketwatch. But from its entire inception to its
success, it was basically sci-fi schlock with a truly unique
aestheticist behind the wheel and the start of a series that began
the trend of merchandising and toy tie-ins. A character in Return of
the Jedi had to get a fake beard glued on at the last second because
his action figure had a beard for example. In other words, Star Wars
was just as equally about the stories of swashbuckling rogues and
space wizards fighting evil military organizations as well as the
highly lucrative product placements waaaaaayyyy before The Mouse got
a hold of it.
Which is why a lot
of this expanded mythology is actually kind of bloated,
contradictory, and bizarrely all over the place for a series that has
science so soft and rules so broad it could allow just about
anything. Case in point, early stuff about the imperial Stormtroopers
said they were “manifested hatred of the Emperor himself”
...which then the prequels contradicted by saying they were clone
soldiers. In one expanded universe novel, Bobba Fett was some sort of
lizard man under that suit of armor... then turns out he's just some
guy from a race of badasses that can kill Jedi. As for the Jedi and
The Force itself, they became less like wisemen who were deeply
spiritualistic and tried to preserve life in a passive fashion and
more like DnD wizards. Congratulations, you have the Force, as long
as you stay “Light-Side” aligned you can manipulate people, use
telekinesis, run super fast, and eventually get more grab bag
abilities.
Following through on the DnD comparisons, this
super-power focused mystic steroid that became the expanded universe
Jedi eventually eclipsed and overwhelmed anything remotely
interesting that could be done in any capacity. If you weren't a Jedi
in a Star Wars story, you were immediately a supporting character
with barely anything to do with very rare exceptions. But if you
weren't a Skywalker or a Solo, you were the B-Plot at best. For a
religious order that promotes being passive and attempt to be
mediators, it seems just strange seeing them assist in black ops
raids for the New Republic or being treated as espionage operatives
while also glorifying some sort of Skywalker bloodline heritage of
Super Jedi.
But after a couple
decades, the fandom, myself included, internalized these elements and
accepted there was enough rationales to twist and change these
elements into the forms they are now.
And then...I saw The
Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. The latter of which actually made me
hostile at first because of how much of this internalized
presumptions about this universe were either subverted or harshly
refuted.
Don't worry I'll get
to my thoughts on the actual hot topic of the moment but I do want to
clear the air when it comes to The Force Awakens' storytelling tricks
and JJ Abrams' Mystery Box gambit since both movies are quite
intertwined.
As I said before, I
did enjoy The Force Awakens. I love the new leads, Finn is just
amazing and Poe Dameron is slowly becoming one of my favorite ace
pilot characters. The First Order being a bunch of crazy Imperial
loyalists who want to bring the galaxy back into order by reinstating
a new regime after lots of galactic turbulence makes a scary amount
of sense in broad terms. Kylo Ren is a much different type of
villain, the overly emotional insecure manchild with a hatred for
change compared to his more ominous and in control commander of the
Dark Side that was his grandfather. There was genuinely a lot to love
in this movie.
However, JJ Abrams
has a terrible terrible habit that he became famous for when he was a
producer on Lost back in the day, The Mystery Box.
Looking back at The Force Awakens, there was plenty of instances
where Abrams was pulling this gambit: to set up a mystery full of
intrigue and suspense and inviting you to come up with ideas as to
how that can turn out. Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? Was he trained by
Palpatine? How did he become a Dark Side Master without anyone
finding out? Who are the Knights of Ren? Are they similar to the
Sith? How did Maz Kanada get Luke's original lightsaber? Who are
Rey's parents? Abrams made a big deal about her past and her
connection to the Force so clearly that's building up to something
big!
The problem with
this Mystery Box style though is that no matter what you ultimately
reveal, it will never be as fulfilling as what others have brought to
the table. The Force Awakens has been out for two years, and nerd
culture-powered social media did what it did best with fan theories,
crazy ass conspiracy nonsense, and using tentative logic since the
new Disney canon has cherry picked several elements and characters
from the older books like Darth Bane and Admiral Thrawn to justify
stuff from the books and extended media they liked.
Then The Last Jedi
shows up to theaters and practically takes a swerve on every single
non-mystery Abrams had set up, practically slapping this hard work in
the face. In many ways Rian Johnson managed to make a Star Wars movie
that still feels like Star Wars, exciting dogfights, lightsaber
battles, big operatic acts of heroism and the recurring themes of
hope and resistance in the face of great hardship, while also
deconstructing or even subverting elements of it that fans have grown
fond of or desperately wanted something more from.
There are some minor
spoilers for the movie ahead but don't worry, I won't give away major parts.
The biggest case and
point is The Force Awakens ends with Rey reaching Luke Skywalker on
an island on some distant planet and she hands him his old
lightsaber. The music swells, his face is full of emotion, Rey is
clearly waiting for some grand uplifting sense of finality or purpose
in finding the map that lead to him thinking he was looking for some
ancient secrets that might help defeat the First Order.
When The Last Jedi
returns to this exchange Luke takes the lightsaber...then throws it
over his shoulder off a cliff and leaves Rey confused, acting more
like a broken curmudgeonly war veteran that had seen too much and
goes back to his home.
Abrams' big Mystery
Box nonsense involving Luke looking for the origin of the Jedi Order
and leaving a map for someone to find him falls apart to complete
subterfuge for its own sake with the direction Rian Johnson takes.
And this happens
multiple times throughout the film. Supreme Leader Snoke was built up
as next-generation Darth Sidious in The Force Awakens, only for his
role in The Last Jedi to be one of misdirection.
As for the big
mystery surrounding the new generation Jedi-in-Training Rey? Once
again, the reveal is exactly what people weren't expecting and it has
lead to outrage.
This is why I
actually had a pretty adverse reaction to this movie at first. As
much as I'm too used to Abrams' insufferable Mystery Box schtick, it
is still a tool used way too effectively for its own good. But what
Rian Johnson brings to the franchise is a pretty harsh look at the
conflicts of Star Wars, the nature of the Force, and even the dangers
of idol worship, de-mystifying some of the glory of the past movies.
As a reminder, Star
Wars started as, and for many retains its inherent charm, by being a
simple swashbuckling laser blasting space opera. Queue the heresy
alarms.
But as time has
passed I have begun to accept and even embrace the bold directions
The Last Jedi takes the franchise in. Some ways are ones I wished
happened a long time ago such as letting conflict be driven more by
characters, their strengths as well as their faults, rather than
everything be dictated by simple adherence to rationalizations and
logic; something that too many in nerd circles fetishize to a creepy
degree. A recurring theme of learning from your failures while
understanding that not everything will always belong to you. All of
this stuff is fantastic and surprisingly mature coming from a Star
Wars movie.
However, what many
of the more vocal fans have been going on about has been how parts of
the movie don't make any “logical” sense, and some of it does hold some weight. There's a lot of weird
creative license when it comes to cinematic time and travel scale. A
lot of logistical stuff like how The First Order militarized so
quickly to pose a threat to the Republic is basically never fully
explained which makes one of the central conflicts of the movie one
hell of a stretch, the list goes on.
Now I'm not gonna
call The Last Jedi a perfect movie. There are some legit structural
problems in the second act that makes everything feel out of whack
and works against what should be an intense ticking clock conflict
and there are few scenes that could have been cut for time. But I am
willing to offer a big counterargument to the Star Wars fans
demanding answers and clarity and explanation to all of
these details.
Explain to me the
details about Han Solo's boasting about The Kessel Run.
It's a prominent
line he uses in A New Hope and the cast treats it as a huge deal but
it's never fully explained. Guess what? Multiple books tried to
explain this idea and not a lot of them stuck. One book wrote that
The Kessel Run was basically the spaceship equivalent of rum-running
during the Prohibition era where your Run was determined by how fast
you were able to lose the authorities. Oh wait, no it's a run you
make towards Kessel while trying to find the shortest route and Han
did some sick flying maneuvers with The Falcon skirting past black
holes to shave off some distance. Oh wait, turns out The Kessel Run
was an elaborate ruse by Han for him to bolster his credentials as a
smuggler.
All of those are
logical, but the very line itself on its very surface reads as wrong.
Ask any pedantic jerkface and they'll say 'parsecs are a measure of
distance, not time, so that says nothing about what the Kessel Run
is.” I should know, I was one of them.
So this immediate
anger towards similar slip-ups in the new movies seems greatly
misplaced, almost reading like a form of elitist gatekeeping. Hanging
on desperately to a history and only remembering the good stuff while
ignoring the stuff that was more problematic.
As I mentioned
before, the “Legends” continuity of Star Wars will forever hold a
place in my heart, but everything I have been seen at this point from
Johnson, and to a lesser extent Abrams, makes me beyond interested in
the new direction they have made by breaking multiple conventions
holding the series back.
And yes, that is
quite frightening, but it is also exciting at the same time.
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