Don't read this, if you plan to watch the movie and still enjoy it!
As a family event during the winter holidays we decided to see the spectacular 3D movie "The Last Jedi". Movies nowadays are quite often a disappointment for the lack of consistent logic, storytelling, values. But mostly they are quite great in special effects. So we grabbed some Popcorn and something to drink, watched the 30 min advertising and then dove into the world of StarWars in 3D...
There is quite a bunch of very good reviews out there, so I won't do that. I will go into the value set and the differences between the trilogies. (AND why the new trilogy does not "feel right" ... at least for me)
Let's look at the three main characters and their development through the trilogies:
Luke
He grows up in quite homely circumstances, although an supposed "orphan", he is raised with values. He has to help on the fields, has to repair the robots, and has some talent s a pilot. He has to learn about delayed gratification and responsibility, although he has dreams and a special bloodline (of which he is not aware at the beginning). Through the episodes he makes a lot of bad decisions, for which he gets bad beatings, he even looses a hand. But he doesn't give up, he learns, he gets wiser and he gets controlled and selfaware, making him into a Jedi Master finally.
In the new trilogy we see him as a broken man, although the idea behind it is quite appealing. He reached the point of enlightenment, where he can understand that both sides of the power are one thing. Like Ying and Yang. Instead of smiling about this understanding which only very few people will ever understand, he gets obviously bitter, picking a side for the last time and "dying" for "the good".
Anakin
From the start Anakin is the super genious little boy, too smart for his own good. He is "half orphan" but he loves his mother. The bloodline is extremely strong, he is a genious bot builder and pilote. This is a "saviour gone bad story", much as if Jesus from the bible took a wrong turn and gone mad. Very early on he has to live a fully clocked and sheduled life and does not feel very good in the rule system of the (quite totalitarian) Order of Jedi. (They get the touch of clerics in this trilogy, marrying is forbidden, failure is punished, sin is bad) He is given not much of a choice in all this. He has to become a Jedi and is taken away from his mother, who dies because of his obligations to the Order of Jedi. Who would not become mad about such a rule system?
Rae and Kylo
Rae ... well she is a woman... finally we have a female main character with the force. (As well as Leya apparently can use it by now... Mary Poppins Style) And as we can see from many films, woman can do everything without training, without values, without delayed gratification, only by looking nice and powting from time to time. NO, don't even try to whiteknight for her! Even Yoda does this...
"She already knows everything"
WHAT? Yoda, the wise buddha like guy, who always cautioned to take it slow, to learn, to become wise. Ever smiling super power Jedi who needed about 1000 years to become as wise as he is grants a female with 3 days of "training" the label "She knows everything"
What a pile of horseshit!
Then Kylo: Some more consistency here. He is from a very powerful bloodline, more or less forced again into this Jedi Order rule system and much too powerful for his own good. He mimics a lot the development of Annakin / Darth Vader. HE is strong enough to trap Snoke!? Well, the ultimate evil puppet master, able to manipulate a mighty Jediapprentice as Kylo through the depth of space is dead now. By a simple mind trick. Supposedly he was much stronger than anything we knew so far, but he is dead... by Kylo, who probably is even stronger, but at the same time probably much weaker than Rey...
Sorry. I don't get it. What a strange setting for the last part of the trilogy. We have an all powerful goddess of the Power and an evil halfgod set up to ... do what?
A nice (and much honest) ending to the movie and the trilogy would have been to let everybody die and Kylo and Rey teaming up to build the NWO. But no... we (Disney) need a third part to make some more shitloads of money by destroying (in fact killing) the memories and values of my youth pushing the agenda of female empowerment and diversity...
Some hits towards the rest of the story:
Finn and Rose:
In a strange sidekick story where they try to find a hacker in an environment of "capitalists" feeding from the war games of the rest of the world. Destroying half of the Casino Planet and freeing a pack of alien horses they finally notice that :
"It was worth it..."
They accomplish nothing. They risk the life of thousands, they free a pack of animals that will be recatched in the blink of an eye and instead of the super hacker they wanted, they find only an ugly mexican appearing guy (probably able to sneak through any wall), who betrays them in the end. But it's worth it... gosh. So much diversity: a black guy and an asian woman teaming up vs "capitalism" in an "antifa-style" and this is a good thing!? Gimme a break!
Poe and Holdo:
Both are hollow characters, both determined to commit suicide and blowing themselves up for a greater good, while shouting "Admiral Ackbar". One succeeds, one doesn't. A very strange thing to label on the "good side". I did not find the source, but no wonder that an ISIS guy once claimed "we are the rebels and the US is the Galactic Empire // the First Order".
Lea:
RIP dear Carrie Fisher, I loved you in many of your movies. Sorry to rant about your last role in this way. I have not much more to say, but that Lea has become a strange character. Almost through the whole movie she reminded me of Hillary Clinton trying to push through "the glass ceiling", not appearing to be shaken by the loss of her rogue husband in the slightest. Wooden wannabe leader character saved once again by the Force. Now I will probably always remember her as "Mary Poppins of Star Wars". I really will fight this memory not to become constant.
Strictly personal thoughts:
I did like the film while watching, but the more I think about it, the less I am fond of it. Probably I will watch the last episode, too, just to have something to rant about.
Sorry for the really bad quality of pics, but I won't use material that could bring me in trouble.
