Let me start by saying that while I love the Force Awakens I was eventually in the camp that it didn't do anything new with many of its plot points. A New Hope comparisons are very accurate. The things that that were the worst part of it, were traditions of J.J. Abrams' idea of a Mystery Box. Mystery Box storytelling is basically making audiences beg the question, a lot. It sets up a lot of mystery and it makes the audience hope that itll pay off. Personally I think this is a lazy form of storytelling, especially in a franchise.
The Last Jedi is in my top 5 films of 2017.
It's not without its flaws, and plot holes, though some plot holes are reaching too much and others can sort of be explained but not to cover up the whole hole. I will offer some of my own gripes, and that is mainly only with the Casino sequence, it was very skimmed over and sped up as compared to other sections of the movie. Its role in the narrative is fine, I just think they could have done more with it to make it more engaging and less meh. Also I'm a fan of the milking of the alien, it adds a quirk, and makes the world feel lived in, and a more real place, and also just makes Luke look even more crazy.
Major Spoilers Ahead for the Last Jedi.
These are things I noticed after watching it a few times, not any of the now released reveals by Rian Johnson. Also not focusing on easter eggs and references to other movies.
BEGINNINGS & ENDINGS:
for this one I'm going to focus more on each characters introductory moment and ending big moment.
Poe.
START: arrogant pilot. won't listen to reason and call off attack. urges last bomber to continue on its trajectory. Ready to run into a fight.
END: rational leader. calls off sucide attack. urges Finn to stop his trajectory. Leads everyone to escape.
Finn.
START: eyes closed laying in a watery tank. he is not an active participant in the plot. his only worry is about Rey.
END: eyes closed getting burned by powering up laser. he is an active participant in his action. he is worried about the resistance.
Kylo.
START: subordinate to Snoke, allusions about him being a new Vader. kneels to him. angry, and throws a fit.
END: he is the leader. his shot into the cave is verbatim the same kind of shot that shows Anakin walking into the jedi temple when he becomes darth vader. he is kneeling again, but afterwards, even though he just lost the resistance and rey he appears to have calmed.
Rey.
START: her first shot is her giving all the power to Luke (represented by the lightsaber). pleaing with Luke to come back, so Luke can fight. unsure of her point in the story.
END: Rey is reaching out to lift the rocks, using her own power (again a hand image). she has taken on the hero role.
The Battle.
START: Poe takes out the cannons to clear the way for the bombers
END: Rey and Chewbacca clear out Tie fighters to make way for the speeders
START: one sole person is prepared to sacrifice themselves for the cause (Rose's sister)
END: one sole person is prepared to sacrifice themselves for the cause (Finn)
START: Giant cannon is going to shoot out of the dreadnought and destory the resistances' cruiser
END: Giant cannon is about to blow open the gate leading to the destruction of the resistance
START: a one manned fighter approaches the first order fleet and then proceeds to lead an assault that destroys its biggest ship
END: one man approaches the first order walker brigade and proceeds to inspire the galaxy
HERO WORSHIP and DISILLUSIONMENT:
Rose and Finn:
The first time Rose meets Finn she is a fangirl about it. He is THE Finn but then she realizes he's dishonest and kind of a coward and she doesn't worship him that way again.
Rey and Luke:
Rey looks up to Luke as a hero and teacher, but quickly realizes that he is a broken man, and that he can't help her in the ways she wanted.
Kylo and Snoke:
Kylo reveres Snoke until he learns that his sacrifices aren't amounting to much, and when he learns that Snoke manipulated him
ROSE AND FINN
Rose zaps Finn with her taser and sends him flying against the wall out of disgust.
in the following scene Finn wakes up and proceeds to kind of yell at her until they both work out that they have information that is beneficial for both of them
Rose crashes into Finn with her speeder out of love
in the following scene Finn kind of yells at her demanding an explanation and then Rose proceeds to reveal her love for him which may or may not be mutual, and then she passes out (opposite of Finn waking up)
TRIOS
Rose and Finn are betrayed by DJ and multiple ships get blown up
Snoke is betrayed by Kylo and then Rey and him kill the guards
FAILURE/PERSPECTIVE AS A THEME.
Poe succeeds in destroying the dreadnought but fails in securing the safety of his fighters.
Luke failed Kylo.
Rose and Finn fail in disabling the tracker and are directly responsible for death of resistance members. (a lot of them)
Holdo's plan of evacuation fails.
Rose and Finn also fail at locating master code breaker.
Poe's little coup fails
HINTS AT MAJOR MOMENTS:
Death of Snoke.
this one is easy but we see Kylo move to attack Snoke before promptly launched away by an electric attack. Snokes guards respond by drawing their weapons. Kylo cannot kill Snoke alone.
(let's be honest, if he can kill his own father, he can sure as hell kill some douche bag who's treating him like garbage, especially when he's reminded about how much like vader he could be)
Luke's Illusion.
this one is easy to catch too after you've seen it once. the ash doesn't fall on him. he looks younger. poe's line about "how did he get in here." he leaves no footprints. (also side note as pointed out by IGN I think, Luke would be no good in a real fight, he essentially loses to Rey, and he's out of practice, he would have lost a straight up lightsaber duel)
Reys Parentage.
In the cave scene, she sees herself when she asks, "show me my parents" hinting that she raised herself.
I for one am one of the people who buys Kylo's story, I mean yes he is trying to manipulate her to his side, but it works, and even his constant reminder that, "this is not your story."
Lukes Death.
"The amount of power required would kill you," line when Kylo realizes Rey can't be projecting herself. This foreshadows Luke dying from projecting himself across the galaxy.
Luke Cut off from Force.
"Falcon? Where's Han?" line foreshadows reveal of Luke closing himself off from the force and being absent fromt he Starkiller base fight.
Jedi Books.
Yoda's line about the tree not offering Rey anything that she doesn't already possess' is Yoda's last joke since it means there's nothing new for her to learn from the tree, and also that she literally has the books.
The Dice.
Rey and Kylo touch hands, and Kylo's face is wet from the rain, shows that things can be tangible as a projector just like the dice.
Light Speed Attack (as pointed out by a friend)
Leia flies in through a hologram of Snokes ship in the same place Holdo launches the Cruiser.
LITTLE THINGS:
Luke has that blade of grass in his hand the entire walk up to the rock. Which means he hoped or knew that Rey would reach out with her hand, which is hilarious.
The shot of the x-wing is to fool us. Sure yoda got his x-wing out of the swamp in empire, but who knows how long that x-wing has been laying there.
There is total destruction on both sides of the fight, which means, there is a freedom to move on in technology and design new ships. We lose old fashioned rebel fleet stuff, and Holdo's move obliterates multiple star destroyers.
Why don't the dice disappear when Luke dies? Because he is one with the force now in spirit. He also will most likely be back because he only taught Rey 2 out of the 3 lessons
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