Watched it again. Enjoyed it better, still somethings in the meta-message of the movie are far off SW.
Space Leia counterdicts the idea that the Force is for everyone. Leia has never received any training in the movies yet she uses the force just because of her powerful bloodline.
There’s no good and bad anymore. (Kylo/Rey, Benicio del Toro’s skepticism)
It’s better to be obedient and submissive than to rebel against orders that make no sense to you, because if you don’t follow orders things can go worse. Trust the system.
There’s no point in sacrificing for others, like Finn tried. Or like Rey tried, because if you hold on to the spark of hope in someone who seems beyond redemption it’s just a bait for evil to torture you. So let go of solidarity as well.
There’s no redemption for those who don’t want to save themselves (did Vader want to save himself?), that’s Rey leting go of Kylo in the end of the film that is Leia renouncing to a mother’s inconditional love, which essentially speaks of a far worse Leia than Luke in TLJ. She’s a strong woman, granted, but she’s not quite a great and functional human being in her role of mother (only that motherhood doesn’t say anything about you anymore) At this point, it was Han and not Leia who truly loved Ben. And Leia was just a jerk that sent Han to death only to renounce his son after that (and not because of that).
There’s no point in having remorse for one’s mistakes, like Luke did. Because “failure is the best teacher” (which is to say that failing is something good. Wouldn’t it be betterr not to fail at all, and learn watching someone else’s mistakes?)
There’s no point in knowing the past (let the past die, burn the books, kill your father and your teacher, burn the tree) or caring for the future (we are what they grow beyond, no need to learn or reveal a military plan), and from here on:
There’s no point in knowing one’s identity (Rey), because in the end we are all sons of nobodies (the only way to positively determine an identity at a social scale is patriarchy, otherwise check the hebrew POV on the subject, and reflect on the agenda of the movie.)
This is not a “safe” corporate product in terms of inmediate market selling. Half of the people don’t like this movie, so that POV doesn’t stand as solid for me. This is instead a very deep, well thought manifesto on social architecture in the hands of a corporation: TLJ proposes that we are all individuals and that we have no need of the Other. We’re no ones. We have to obbey, to be passive, to accept imperfections, to renounce the past and the future, to refuse the concept of bravery, to embrace our lowest and not to ever rebel against ourselves or the others beyond the point we’re allowed to by the permissions granted.
Luke wasn’t being selfish, I disagree with Hammil on this one. He was acting out of solidarity. And up to some point, it is not out of character. I mean, he responds like Luke Skywalker would. Luke is a good person, that is why he is full of remorse out of what he did. And that is Luke Skywalker from the Original Trilogy: we saw him slip to the darkside in Jedi, and then tossing his sabre. He did again with Kylo and had the same reaction.
I don’t know if I wanted the ST trilogy to be designed to include Luke only in one episode, and have that episode be about a broken Luke. But having a Luke capable of evil again after ROTJ, his conflict and reaction seems totally in character to me. And it totally makes thense that the only and most respectful thing you can do with a Hero in a movie about accepting what happens is to have him recluse on an island.
I don’t blame Rey for being tossed in a probable redemption arc situation in the middle chapter of a trilogy, but as far as this movie goes, not as great human being as the son of Anakin.
The irony of it all? That in the end Luke died looking at the horizon and sacrificing for others, for “the Other”. And he saved the Others, and saved the franchise not by saving the good guys on screen but by counterdicting the shitty message this movie has. It’s not a redemption for him, but more of reaching a peace within himself with his own thoughts from the past, a big fuck you to the bullshit they made Yoda say this time. For him, for a true hero it’s not here, now and within, but somewhere else, tomorrow, someone.
And it is a true hero, a true Jedi Knight, a true warrior of the Light Side who ends up saving this bunch of idiots that are the Iphone version of the rebel alliance.
The cause, consequence and true image of this movie is Anakin’s lightsabre (Call Dr Freud) being split between a “good” good girl and a “bad” vilain boy. Share the phalus, share the power, a little for each.