Greetings, reader(s) - I really hope I have more than one ;-)
Having just returned from watching the 1st screening (in Venezuela) of Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (referred to as EpVIII from here on out), I thought I´d share some impressions from the movie.
I feel compelled to tell you that there will be spoilers, so read at your own risk.
Let me begin by saying this: I LOVED the movie!! Frankly, I found it to be better than Episode VII: The Force Awakens and, therefore, a worthy sequel. But, true love must be sincere, and, therefore, I am obliged to point out both my likes and my dislikes about this movie.
I´ll begin by sharing what I view as the positive highlights of the movie:
First, this movie extolls the value of sacrifice, of coming to the realization of putting yourself before others as the only way of getting things done, when all else fails; this is shown repeatedly in the movie: Finn willing to go down the throat of the siege cannon at Crait in order to keep the Resistance base secure; Rose crashing her own speeder into Finn´s trying to save him (and succeeding), putting her life at risk in the process; Poe´s willingness to keep assaulting a First Order Dreadnought, to buy the Resistance time to evacuate D´Qar despite having explicit orders to disengage (and earning a demotion as a result); Paige´s (Rose´s sister) determination to drop gravity bombs (more on these later) onto said Dreadnought at the cost of her life; Vice-Admiral Holdo´s kamikaze attack into Supreme Leader Snoke´s ship… Ultimately , I believe this is representative of what the Resistance stands for: a movement willing to go the ultimate distance to destroy great evil, knowing it cannot go toe-to-toe against it, so it has to do with what it has, making sacrifice for the greatest good its banner.
Second, I absolutely adored Yoda´s “presence” and role, short as it was, in this film. Being an educator, I could not help feel the connection with what turned out to be his last lesson to Luke Skywalker: as teachers and mentors, our greatest challenge is to understand and to accept that we are what our students need to overcome, and to do that, we must not only pass along our strengths, wisdom and knowledge, but also share our failures, as a deterrent for hubris and arrogance. To me, that scene alone was worth the entire movie.
Then, there are some facets to the film that I neither loved nor hated, regarding parallelisms with the original trilogy: Finn, Rose, BB8 and the thief / codebreaker they met while on prison at Canto Bight (Benicio Del Toro's character) infiltrate Snoke´s ship dressing as First Order officers, with the intention to sabotage a tracking device to allow the Resistance Cruiser to escape, reminiscent of Luke Skywalker´s and Han Solo´s infiltration of the Death Star dressed as Stormtroopers while Obi-Wan Kenobi was sabotaging the tractor beams preventing the Millenium Falcon from leaving the hangar bay; Rey´s fall into the depths of Ach-To, finding a flat stone wall which turned reflective showing her own face when she asked to be shown her parents seemed to me drawn directly from the cave in Dagobah, where Luke found his own face inside Darth Vader's helmet; Rey being shown the destruction of the remnants of the Resistance Fleet from Snoke´s throne room aboard his ship, the same way Emperor Palpatine showed Luke the space part of the Battle of Endor to entice him to join the Dark Side of the Force; the Resistance using speeders in an almost suicidal attack against armored walkers on a planet with a white surface (Battle of Hoth, anyone?). It almost seems as if there is certain reluctance to depart in some places from the proven cinematic formulae which made the original trilogy so successful.
Perhaps, these serve as balancing points for those aspects in which the movie does stand apart from both original trilogy and the prequels, such as Luke´s belief that the Jedi Order must end after recognition of its failure to prevent evil (or at least imbalance) from sprouting within itself; such as Luke´s characterization of the Force as both light and darkness in perpetual search of equilibrium, regardless of the existence of the Jedi (and by extension, of the Sith), a perspective which, while maybe will not be to every fan´s liking, adds depth and complexity to the perception of the Force.
Finally… the one thing I truly HATED about this movie.... Early on, the Resistance is evacuating D´Qar and they send Poe Dameron, alone (well, with BB-8), in his X-Wing to destroy the cannons on the First Order Dreadnought, to clear the way so the Resistance bombers can have a go at the mammoth ship. So far, so good. Now, the bombers… or more to the point, the bomb delivery method and the bombs themselves. The bomb bays are vertically elongated, holding dozens upon dozens of spherical explosives which are released and allowed to free fall directly into the target! Let´s take it part by part:
Star Wars, despite being set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” is a cinematic universe known for their technological advanced creations (Droids, Starships, Hyperdrive, Lightsabers, et cetera). So how in the name of the Sith do bombers still resort to gravity-deployed bombs!? 30 years prior they had proton torpedoes! Could the screenwriters not devise a more apt design for a bomb that did not require flying over the target and manually releasing the payload? This is Star Wars, not the First World War! Granted, Star Wars is notable for keeping alive several aspects of aerial warfare which have been largely discontinued in recent decades, such as dogfighting within visual range, there is no excuse for such a throwback (I guess not one of the screenwriters ever played X-Wing or TIE Fighter 20 years ago - That's what happens when you lay off the entire Lucasarts crew).
Well, folks, those are my first impressions on this film; it's not perfect, but it's lovable; I deliberately chose not to discuss every facet of this movie, centering only in what caught most of my attention.
I hope it was to your liking.
Your friend…
The Quite-mad Hatter