The Nerd Column is a feature I've add to the blog so that I can participate in mindless pop culture debates and save my vast readership from more anti-Trump posts and the heartwarming confessional poetry of the Goon. First up: Undeserved criticism of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the only Star Wars film to feature a jedi milking a giant blue sea monster with human-like breasts, therefore making it my favorite.
The Last Jedi had a controversial reception from Star Wars fans. I personally enjoyed it more than any Star Wars movie since the originals. Most of the criticism stems from three main points, which I will go over below.
#1) Oh my God, they killed Snoke and we never really knew him! Spoiler! The Last Jedi really didn't give a shit about fan-theories. Big baddie Snoke was speculated to be the Emperor reincarnated, Darth Vader, Darth Plageus, Jesus, Gollum, or even a fucking hologram by the collective wisdom of the internet. Instead of doing something stupid, director/writer Rian Johnson has Snoke murdered half-way through the film by his protegee, Kylo Ren. Let's face it, people: Snoke was a stupid character. He was exactly the same as the Emperor. Does this sound familiar? A deformed dark side master lures a young jedi away from the light side of the force. Rian Johnson fixed J.J. Abrams mistake by killing him off rather unceremoniously. What satisfying explanation did people expect? How do you explain Snoke's missing presence during all the other Star Wars films? There's no good answer, so having him go out like a jabroni was the best thing Johnson could have done.
#2) What they did to Luke was character assassination! So Luke Skywalker has a moment of weakness when he finds out that his nephew Ben Solo has been playing around with the dark side and briefly considers lopping Ben's head off with his laser sword before he can pretend to be Emo Darth Vader. When Ben wakes up to see pyscho-Luke looming over him with an ignited lightsaber, he causes the room to collapse around them and escapes. When Luke comes to, Ben/Kylo has burned down his jedi academy, and he's so overcome with shame and guilt that he runs away to a penguin-inhabited planet to die like a mangy old hermit. Luke wouldn't have done all that shit! scream the critics. My childhood is irrevocably ruined! I think people are missing the point of Luke's arc. He was already the hero of the original trilogy; now he's the reluctant mentor coming to terms with his mistakes. Did fans want to see Luke take on Kylo Ren or Snoke in an epic lightsaber battle? Did we not get enough pointless lightsaber battles in the prequel trilogy? Mark Hamil is an old man, and he's not going to be bouncing around the walls like Yoda on crack. Before Lucas turned the Force into a superpower in the prequels, it was a mystical... force that bound all living things. "Wars do not make one great," said Yoda in Empire. Well we all know that Yoda was a goddamn hypocrite, but Luke learns his lesson by the end of the film, sacrificing himself to provide a distraction so that the rebels can escape, and he does it in a way that adds to his legend rather than his ego.
#3) Rey isn't a Skywalker/Solo/Kenobi/Palpatine, how is she so goddamn powerful? This is a weird argument to me. In the prequels, we see that there were thousands of jedi, implying that the force is not the exclusive property of the Skywalkers. Having Rey not be from a royal lineage makes her more of a hero in my eyes. Haven't the Skywalkers fucked up enough shit already? Like Snoke, people are really just pissed that their fan theory turned out to be untrue.
Bonus Bull) Bombs don't fall in space/Holdo Manueveur/This movie's too PC! Alright, people are nitpicking at this point. Sure, bombs don't fall in space, but there's no sound in space, either, and Star Wars movies have never cared about scientific accuracy. It's fantasy, not sci-fi. As for the second, I never really understood the objection. How do we know nobody's tried kamikaze lightspeed ramming before? Maybe the First Order didn't expect it because the Rebels have almost no ships left at that point. Suicide attacks don't seem like the Rebellion's way. For the final criticism, you're just an asshole if you object to a more diverse Star Wars Universe.
Nate, I agree with most of what you said here, but I wanted to point out a flaw in your analysis of your second point. The problem with Luke's turn isn't his "moment" of weakness, it's his determination that Ben Solo was irredeemable prior to that. The farm boy that gave DARTH VADER three movies worth of credit and was willing to die for it at the hands of Palpatine decided that Ben Solo, his nephew, was irredeemably turned so much so that he was stalking through his room at night watching him sleep with a lightsaber drawn. That is what is problematic about Luke's turn. It was hardly a "moment of weakness".
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, most of the other complaints I've seen center around the contrivance that Holdo didn't inform anyone about her plan. Specifically not Poe. Had she done so, she prevents the entire conflict -- specifically the 100% unnecessary Prequel-esque casino scenes (which, even in a decent movie, accounted for its low points).
Those two criticisms: Luke's predetermination of Ben Solo's wickedness and the plot contrivance that Holdo keeps the escape plan a big secret, I think, are worthy criticisms of an otherwise great film. My son (he's 8) literally gasped when Kylo killed Snoke. That's who this movie was for... not the theorycrafters.
Good work, buddy. I hope you're well.