TLJ Thoughts

***The Last Jedi (TLJ) spoilers! Don't read!***

I feel caught in the middle with TLJ, there was some interesting ideas but overall there was so many problems with the movie that I can't bring myself to say it was good. My biggest problem with the movie was the use of humor. It seems that movies made after 2012 are afraid to be serious, instead choosing to use awkward humor to defuse the tension. I think this really hurt TLJ. At the very beginning Hux is in position to attack the remaining Rebels on the planet (do they name these planets anymore? I can't remember). Poe, in a single X-Wing, flies up infront of the entire First Order fleet and asks to speak to Hux. Poe pretends he can't hear Hux, while Hux tries in vain to answer him. The audience where I was watching was laughing at this point, but it was just so absurd I couldn't get into it. Hux is apparently the leader of all the military forces of the First Order, and he gets duped in the most comical and stupid way imaginable. It makes Hux look incompetent and nonthreatening. It even ends with Poe insulting his mother! I guess you can say this fits Poe's character, he has been shown to do this in the previous movie, but I think it is a terrible choice. This became a common theme throughout the entire movie. Any scene with any kind of weight to it HAD to be defused by humor, lest we take the movie seriously for five minutes. Hangar full of rebel pilots just blown up? LOOK AT THIS FUNNY DROID. Kylo and Rey emotionally bonding and developing as characters? AWKWARD TIMING JOKES!

I feel conflicted because I get the feeling the audience loved it. People were laughing at the jokes, people laughed at Luke brushing off his shoulder, people laughed at porgs. I wonder if I just have the wrong expectations for these movies now, I had low hopes going into this movie and came away enjoying it more than I thought, but I feel as if it could have been so much stronger than what it was. Why were they so afraid to show anything meaningful by itself? Luke tossing his lightsaber behind him gets a cheap laugh, but it kills any real weight to the scene. I'm not surprised by the fact that most positive comments are around Kylo's performance, as it had the least amount of humor. If anything was good about this movie, it was the Kylo development.

As for the other stuff in the movie, this might have had some of the worst scenes in any of  the movies. Most people are going to remember this for the Leia 'Superman' scene, and it was truly awful. I went to the movie with my brother and we both just turned to each other and were gobsmacked. It was so awful and stupid looking and there are so many things wrong with it that I don't want to go into any more detail. Ackbar being killed with barely a mention is depressing enough, especially considering it would have been amazing to see him in the purple haired woman's role. The entire plot around the ships' fuel felt really stupid, and the casino planet didn't feel 'Star Wars' at all. Mark played Luke really well considering what he was given, but I can't help but feel a bit upset knowing that the hero from my childhood ended up attempting to murder his nephew and "giving up" on everything to become a hermit. What happened to the Luke that was so desperate to join the Rebellion, that put his friends above all else and risked his life in numerous ways for the greater good? This isn't really a problem with TLJ as TFA set this up already, but I guess I had just hoped for a bit more from Luke. On a totally different point, I know that Rogue One set up the idea of using ships to ram other ships, but I feel like ships should have some kind of defense against another ship going into light speed to smash through it. Why would anyone build giant star destroyers if they could attach a hyperdrive to a rock and get it to smash through the ship?

I'm excited to see what happens to Kylo (which is surprising considering TFA made the character an absolute joke), but I can't help but feel that these movies are more like a weird fanfiction than a continuation of the series I really love.