Review: Star Wars - The Last Jedi (tenth-pass)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (tenth-pass / 2D / spoiler-free)
Cert: 12A / 152 mins / Dir. Rian Johnson / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Well, we did it*¹, we made double figures. And as it turns out, my tenth viewing for The Last Jedi appears to have been the final screening at my local cinema. Ending the run this early feels unusually eager on the part of the programme selection team, since a five-week stint for a film of this size is hardly excessive*², and even I was surprised that there was a fair old audience amassed to watch it. But hey, I don't set up the schedule, and I have to admit to finding something faintly poetic in being there for the first and last showings of a movie I love.

But examinations of the numbers aside, we did it*³. I've watched, absorbed and ruminated upon The Last Jedi enough now for it to no longer be 'the new Star Wars movie. By this point, Rian Johnson's feature is the same familiar, comfort-blanket of other-wordly adventure that I get from all (all) the other entries in the series. I'm still not sold on the Rey From Nowhere idea, and still not exactly a fan of that one particular scene, but I accept their presence and, for the time-being at least, their pertinence to the respective character-arcs. Which is my way of saying that a perfect movie can still contain things which you personally find imperfect. I haven't, and will not be, signing any online petitions to expel the offending toys from my pram.

So, short of me catching the film at some other cinema before it disappears completely (I believe it's still playing in the larger venues in London), this will probably be the last time you'll have me banging on about Episode VIII until the inevitable triple-bill screening before Episode IX. And now I can go back to grumbling about how unexciting all the normal flicks are.

My own internal digestion of The Last Jedi will continue as I read various tie-in publications, and with the bonus material included on the Blu-ray release in March/April*⁴. Although by then of course, I'll be getting super-hyped for the Han Solo movie which we still (at time of writing) haven't had a trailer for. But I digress...

In closing, all I can really say is that you haven't seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi until you've seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi ten times.

Discuss.

The Star Wars's.



It is.



For me, it's a buyer (already pre-ordered, obvs).



It's high.
It's very high.



Over some points, possibly.



There is.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.






*¹ I say 'we', I mean 'I'. Obviously. I'd be very surprised if you'd been to see TLJ ten times. Impressed, but surprised. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Taken 2 played for six weeks as I recall, although that seemed to be more because they couldn't find anything else to take up the screens. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ Again, 'I'. ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ Although as it's already been flash-stickered as "over two hours" worth, that sounds like it'll be about as in-depth as the Rogue One extras. Which is to say, 'fleeting, at best'. For the record, the Phantom Menace DVD in 2001 arrived with 6 hours of bonus material, and the 2011's saga Blu-ray set had over 40. Just saying. ^{[ BACK ]}

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Star Wars - The Last Jedi (ninth-pass)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (ninth-pass / 2D)
Cert: 12A / 152 mins / Dir. Rian Johnson / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

One of the neatest things about A New Star Wars Film is its ability to change your outlook on the previous entries. Whether it's set before or after other episodes in the saga, there are often props, snippets of dialogue and background aliens on a previously unvisited planet which can shed new light on old stories. It's the Galaxy Far, Far Away's ability to continue unfolding as the years go by which keeps bringing audiences back for more.

Now, I like language. I'm a fan of good writing in general and while I make no claims to be perfect, I have a general fascination with (and unduly harsh criticism of other people's) grammar and punctuation. Sure, I'll begin a sentence with the words 'and' or 'but', as well as using the semicolon and Oxford comma like they're going out of fashion, but the grocer's apostrophe and erroneous use of there/their/they're can get right out. There's no excuse for those. Even more troublesome (from a certain point of view) are the 'grey areas', the more informal ticks which people use, but which aren't routinely reinforced during school-years.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I'm a big fan of the ellipsis. That's the '…' or three full stops used to imply that while the sentence itself has finished, the ideas or suggestions within have not. That there's still more to be said on the subject, often eliciting the response from the reader. A punctuational shorthand for 'to be continued'. I love an ellipsis almost as much as I love a footnote*¹.

The standard, generally accepted, form of the ellipsis is, as noted above, three dots. If you use two, it just looks like you've accidentally hit the full stop key twice. Four feels needlessly long, and five or more is generally reserved for informal memos on the noticeboard in the office, organising leaving drinks and the like, typed by people who also use multiple exclamation marks without a single ounce of shame.

For the record, the four-dot-ellipsis is a thing. It's just not applicable in the context of the Star Wars opening. If your word-processing application of choice automatically converts three typed dots into an ellipsis character, you can easily end up with what appears to be four dots by having the ellipsis plus a full stop afterward. It still looks awful and wrong.

So anyway, I'm sitting the other week happily watching The Last Jedi, concentrating on the opening-crawl now that I'm familiar with the events of the movie, when I notice that it ends with a four-dot-ellipsis. Star Wars, my thing, my Star Wars, has used non-standard punctuation in the famous yellow-on-starfield introductory text. Then the next time I watch the movie, I notice that it uses a four-dot-ellipsis in the 'A Long Time Ago' text as well. WHAT KIND OF FRESH HELL IS THIS? Now, for obvious reasons, I am unable to share screenshots of this unexpected anomaly*². I thought I was just going to have to ramble about this with you on-trust until March/April when the DVD lands.

As it goes, I'm able to illustrate the issue more easily than I'd feared. Like any sensible audit enthusiast, I though it would be a good idea to look at the precedent set by other entries in the series. To gauge the level of the bar set by the other Star Wars movies, at least one of which I've been lucky enough to love since I was four years old and still grappling with the very basics of literacy. My first port of call was to look at the last-available versions of the films (so the 2011 blu-ray cuts in with Episodes I to VI, and the standard domestic releases for The Force Awakens and Rogue One).
This is what I found...



SERIOUSLY THOUGH, WHY HAVE I NEVER NOTICED THIS BEFORE? I mean fine, it's not like the logo comes on and says "STAR WAR'S", but still. And it's not even used consistently; Return of the Jedi goes for the standard (CORRECT) three-dot-ellipsis at the end of its crawl. What the actual shit is all this about? And the 'Long time ago' card has always been like that, too.



But then I figured maybe that's to do with the films (at least the Original Trilogy) being remastered and tidied-up over the years. So without wading into the territory of screen-capping my VHS collection, here are stills from the 1995 'THX' laserdisc versions of the Original Trilogy, the set with minimal touch-ups.



Nope, it's always been wrong.
Insane.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that Star Wars was a huge formative influence in my early life and reading progression. My fascination with typography can be traced back to sitting in my bedroom as a six year-old, looking at the classic logo on a poster adorning my wall and drawing it freehand on a pad in front of me; learning the shapes not so much of the letters, but of that particular logotype; the inside and outside lines of each, their interaction with crossbars, baselines etc. And when I took a reading-test in school for children two years older than me at around the age of eight, my teacher visibly raised an eyebrow in surprise when I skimmed through the word "fatigue". How did I know that? Because of Luke Skywalker® (Bespin™ Fatigues)", that's how.

Star Wars didn't exactly teach me to read, but it's been a constant sounding-board and reference point as I grew up. Culturally, morally and creatively, it continues to be so. Then I find out that the cack-handed intern has been doing the typesetting all these years. I'm not so much astounded at my favourite, life-defining, film series using sloppy punctuation, more that it's slipped by me on every single occasion before January 2018. I'm not angry, just really disappointed*³.

So it's not like I'm going to start using the four-dot-epilsis now with the justification that 'hey, it's good enough for Lucasfilm'. I'm going to take away the lesson that sometimes we just have to be better than the examples presented to us...

"We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters."
~Yoda, Ahch-to, 2017.

The Star Wars's.



It is.



For me, it's a buyer (already pre-ordered, obvs).



It's high.
It's very high.



Over some points, possibly.



There is.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.






*¹ See? In fact, there are few things I enjoy more than using both... ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Not least because I hate bootleg movies even more than I hate erratic punctuation. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ With myself, as much as with Lucasfilm. I can't state that emphatically enough. ^{[ BACK ]}

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Star Wars - The Last Jedi (eighth-pass)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (eighth-pass / 2D)
Cert: 12A / 152 mins / Dir. Rian Johnson / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Oh, hello there. I've been to see The Last Jedi again, and rather than bore you silly with nitpicking and needlessly in-depth opinions*¹, I've made you some Skittlez character-posters instead...

[ Click for Big (opens in new window) ]

More soon.
You're very welcome.

The Star Wars's.



It is.



For me, it's a buyer (already pre-ordered, obvs).



It's high.
It's very high.



Over some points, possibly.



There is.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.






*¹ Don't worry, there's a rant on punctuation usage in the GFFA due to arrive in the near future. ^{[ BACK ]}

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Star Wars - The Last Jedi (seventh-pass)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (seventh-pass / 2D / SPOILERS!)
Cert: 12A / 152 mins / Dir. Rian Johnson / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Okay, I've touched on this in an earlier review, but the more I watch The Last Jedi, the less I'm buying this thing about Rey's parents being drunk/junk-traders*¹. The whole issue surrounding our heroine's lineage is focused on so much in this film that the brush-off of 'they're nothing / you're nothing' just screams of Ben Solo's wrong-headedness. And as I've also gone into previously, most of the central characters in The Last Jedi are pretty much wrong, pretty much most of the time.

Especially Ben Solo.

Now, more than ever, it is my belief that Rey is the daughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa. Previously hidden to keep her out of harm's way, fate has intervened (as it so often does in the GFFA) and reunited Rey with the ones she's destined to protect. And/or destroy. Often interchangeable in this timeline. My full list of character-foundations for Rey's lineage is in this Force Awakens review from last year, but I'll take a moment to reiterate these points in the earlier film:

26m30s: The opening notes of Luke & Leia's Theme from Return Of The Jedi play here.
Before we've met Luke in the film, before we've met Leia.



41m46s The opening notes of Luke & Leia's Theme from Return Of The Jedi play here. Again.
We're on the Falcon, but it's before we've met Luke in the film, before we've met Leia.
The score then goes into Rey's own theme immediately afterwards.

Now although my points so far would seem to suggest that Rey is the child of Luke or Leia (do be quiet at the back), I think it's notable that John Williams used this sequence with the new heroine, rather than just the Force Theme. Anyhow, there's another tie to the Princess…

1h57m02s: And we get a full-on Han Solo & The Princess motif in this scene, heavily suggesting that Rey might have something in common with the pair of them.

So, according to my internal-logic (no, don't laugh), unless Leia had a relationship with someone else around twenty years before the events of TFA/TLJ (unlikely since Solo only appears to have left the scene once Ben starting wearing a silly hat; ten years ago at most, according to the TLJ's Jedi Temple flashbacks), then it stands to reason that Han would be her father. Again, plenty of reasons for that in my previous post.

But that's all in the past, of course. What does The Last Jedi have to bring to this party? Well, in the scene on Luke's hideaway planet, Ahch-To, where Rey skips off at night to investigate the Seaweed-Encrusted Dark Side Well and kneels down to look into the aperture, we get a very brief first-couple-of-notes of either Han Solo & The Princess (as above), or Princess Leia's Theme, both of which point in the aforementioned direction (and for obvious reasons I have neither a time-code nor screenshot of this point in the film).

But surely, Ben's revelation that Rey's parents were lying in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert holds some new revelation, no? Not really, no. Because when Ben and Rey touched hands through their Force-Time connection, Rey claims she saw Ben's future and that turned out to be… well, momentarily accurate albeit wildly open to interpretation. And Ben's already a great source of reasoned balance, truth and wisdom, given that his recollection of that night Luke Skywalker confronted him is notably different from both of Luke's re-tellings. Ben Solo can't be trusted to relay his own past, never mind provide insight into anyone else's. And this is before we factor in that the whole Force connection was orchestrated by Snoke. ie, the one guy who showed them both exactly what Snoke knew would bait them into action.

No, Ben Solo knows for sure who Rey's parents are in the same way that he confronts Luke Skywalker, not noticing that the blue lightsaber his former master ignites is the same one Ben himself helped to tear apart twenty-five minutes earlier. Ben is the unreliable narrator.

Back at the tail-end of the prequel trilogy, Luke and Leia were separated for their protection. And while I realise they aren't twins, a sibling relationship - direct descendants of the Skywalker bloodline - would account for Ben and Rey's pre-existing connection and unconscious familiarity. This would be precisely what the Organa-Solos were trying to avoid by hiding Rey (although why this would have occurred 8-10 years before Ben went bad is open to speculation). Han didn't get round to telling Rey the truth before he died, instead offering her a place on the family ship she'd already bonded with. By the time Rey returned to the Resistance base on D'Qar, she already knew enough about the troubled Ben/Han/Leia relationship that Leia didn't feel she could burden the girl with more responsibility. Instead she sends Rey off to uncover Luke, the training with her uncle hopefully being the ideal precursor to a family reunion further down the line. For Rey to know of her sibling in the meanwhile would compromise any action she had to take against him, and is something Ben would thoroughly exploit, in turn.

And for the record I don't think Luke knew about Rey's identity, certainly not until he reconnected with the Force at any rate. Although Yoda's conversation with Luke by the fire seems to be an unspoken 'there is another' moment. Yoda knew she'd taken the books off-planet, after all, his knowledge is greater than the sum of his dialogue.

The most telling thing is that the whole situation still isn't resolved, one more movie down the line. We'll see what Episode IX brings. In the meanwhile, if you needed it all spelling out any more clearly…

I'd love to be proved wrong about all this. But having Ben Solo garble some hot-take on a deliberately obscure vision he's been fed isn't settling anything…

The Star Wars.



Yes.



Yes.



It's strong.
It's very strong.



That all depends on how wrong you are.



There is.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.





*¹ In my mind, Drunk, Junk Traders is a daytime TV programme which airs the Galaxy Far, Far Away, more than likely hosted by Dom Littlewood. It's what Luke's been watching all these years in exile because the island caretakers love it. No wonder the man's grumpy. ^{[ BACK ]}

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.