Beautifully shot movie, specially on the important parts. It felt very barroque, carefully handed were it needed to be.
On the other hand, I don’t understand why all the meaningful inner conflicts between the characters that end up being decided with lightsabres fall on this trend of “epic” videogame settings. I’ve complained about this in TFA and have to complain again about it. The ridiculous stances, the over-pronounced and underlined open shots just translate to the scenery what should be happening and conveyed on the inner self of the characters. And I’m speaking of course of the Death of Han Solo in a gigantic bridge, dark, with rigid standing characters and just a beam of light. All methaphoric and at the same time, meaningless. And now the same with Luke’s duel with Kylo. Epic epic epicness!!!
Nope, not working for me. I just like better the way the scale of the sceneries is handled in the OT, were a son fighting his father or an apprentice killing his betrayer old master happens in just regular corridors, casual scenarios that better reflect the claustrophobia and conflict of the characters. What I saw is just too pronounced, too anime-like, too japanese for me.
The opposite principle applied to how they handled Yoda, that for the first time in 40 years came back to be the one we’ve met in ESB. And I like how they de-mythified Luke, for the exact same reasons. The conflicts reflected in SWs movies are conflicts most of us have and I (western) can relate better to a master that laughs and makes jokes, or to shouting to my parents in a room sized space than to facing some one “very very evil” that’s just a wounded boy or a broken old man in the unlikely scenario of an open war battle.
Rebels duel between Obi Wan and Maul feels 150% more Star Warsy to me than this.
Yet it somehow helped to convey a meaningful end to Luke’s character (even if I don’t agree at all with his arc and less even knowing what we know of Luke from the OT) that’s now definitely established as one of the most powerful Jedi Knights in history. And that is somewhat satisfying, and more it is due to how those last shots in Ach To are framed.
From a plot POV, regardless of what happens in the movie, the Star Wars mythos I liked and loved just is no more. OT was the story in different levels (political, romance, and the individual story of Luke) of the conflict between Destiny and Free Will. That’s the story of the conflict within the western traditional culture. And from that point of view Star Wars was somehow an medieval european fairy tale in space.
Literally, since we knew from the beginning how it was going to end, the Prequels were just the story of a man meeting his (faustian) Destiny.
Now this Sequel Trilogy, considering what’s established in TLJ through different layers has lost that dimension of conflict the OT had and has balanced decidedly to the free will side. Rey’s nobody. Kylo gets rid of the past and just decides to make something new. The old world must be torn apart and something new is to come. Same with all the cinematic conventions of a Star Wars movie, all abandoned. Everyone makes his own future. A new future.
It’s a new mythos. An american , openly capitalist mythos and one that absolutely matches the size and identity of the corporation owning Lucasfilm thesedays and gets on the bus with just every turn down the past theme it can: Luke milking because tits are to be shown, Rey claiming Kylo to put something on because of feminism, diversity in the cast because we don’t want to offend nobody, care for the animals because, the moral compass is no more because now everything is accepted, etc. I could go on in a conservative rant that just doesn’t necessarily reflect my opinion on those subjects.
Only that fairy tales are traditional culture and thus they’re expected to have a rearguard metamessage. And this clearly has a more avant-gard message.
And it’s a mythos that I’m just not interested in hearing anymore. And even less when it’s stripped off the characters I’ve grown with.
Perhaps because I’m growing old. If someone at Disney reads this, bring me back my old beloved characters. Luke, Leia, Han, Yoda, ObiWan and Vader. And stop the political bullshit, fire Kennedy and her agenda if necessary. Tantrum thrown.