This is less a blog entry and more a cross-post for people who want my thoughts on the movie unfiltered. In other words, this is where the SPOILERS are. So like... you're gonna see it, it's Star Wars, I do like it overall. On with the show.
I'm not sure if this is what I want from my Star Wars. But I have to acknowledge that this is the Star Wars the world needs.
- The failure to establish the nature of the New Republic absolutely bites HARD in this one, and is easily it's biggest failing. Like, here's the thing- it's easy as shit to figure how this all went down, flows naturally from the series history, and is backed up by one of the Despair moments in the ending. See, sure, Star Killer base was a huge investment for the First Order, but... they also took out the Republic's current capital and all assigned defensive fleets right?
So let's set that up. The Galaxy went GENERATIONS with more or less the Jedi and local policing forces for defense. The militarization of the Clone Wars and the later expansion into Imperial militarism was a massive aberration that left the galaxy scarred and distrustful of centralized authority.
That was the whole of the New Republic's forces. Aside from Leia's Resistance, which had always been a tiny plausible deniability force whose size as seen in the film is entirely sensible, there WAS no organized military force in the galaxy, not one that could fight even the displayed fleet the First Order has in the film.
- Honestly on that note the vast red shirt casualties (seriously, they quote about 400 survivors getting off their base in the opening. Generously, the Falcon has 20 people on it. 95% casualties? Holy fuck.) got to me a bit. You don't really need to kill off that many people to set up the story you want, and you can do a bigger victory than "well they weren't TECHNICALLY annihilated" and still reinforce the theme you're going for.
- I know you wanted a Trust Women thing but uh guys? When you have someone who you employ because they're dedicated, defy the odds, and are always looking for a way to win, unless you WANT them to go behind your back and do what they think needs done, you KEEP THEM IN THE LOOP. How hard is that. C'mon now. Not that Leia stunning the fuck outta Poe wasn't fun in a vacuum.
- I know you were going for backstab% in the end but... really? You telegraphed Billy Lee Williams that hard and denied us? the balls, so blue.
- Killin' off Snoke? Fuckin' awesome. Actually that entire scene is the climax of the movie, both in Kylo overcoming his master and in him then assuming control.
- Hux is such a PERFECT nazi puke. Bully, taunt, threaten, exterminate those weaker than him, but he's also an idiot who has no idea how to use the tools at his command and is actually good for little else except being a weapon for wiser, more nuanced villains to point at those he needs exterminated.
- Luke's last stand is so utterly perfect in both narrative and thematic terms that... I don't want to say any more, even here in the spoilers.
- So yeah like, obviously they're doing a changing of the guard generational shift thing here, which is natural. They've blended it into this "burn down the old ways, democratize the power" bit, which makes sense thematically but I don't really think works logically, and doubly so in Star Wars, where yeah the Force is in all living things but the ability to sense, communicate with, and manipulate it really is something not just anyone can manage.
- At the same time, we live in a world where all our institutions are burning themselves down. We do need fiction that suggests that people, protecting one another, forming new bonds and forging new paths, is a very real way forward.
- Really though I think this film is something of a rehabilitation for the prequels. And perhaps a refutation of the Kreia View of the Force. The 'Chosen One', forced into being by the Sith, becomes their downfall. Born into a world without Jedi, his heir realizes the 1000 generations of folly of the order; the Force was never 'theirs', and by trying to be the only path for the Force, they not only created a blind spot for the Sith to exist, but rendered them unable to fight them when they revealed themselves. Between them, they bring balance by removing use of the force from blind duality, and allowing the next generation to hear it clearly and discover (or rediscover) deeper wisdom. I think Rei's scene in the dark side cave is super illustrative; she immerses herself in it, can see in a straight line how her actions cause the future, she is in control... but it holds no answers for her. The darkness will always exist, will grant power and certainty, but all that you'll find is yourself. No future, no past, just your ego. In the wisdom of the Force, the Darkness will never truly triumph because it can never be anything but a mirror.
So like large stretches are deeply troublesome/unsatisfying on a narrative level, but the exceptions are amazing and the thematic resonance is very high. Not as much sheer joy as Force Awakens (seriously, the backlash there is tiresome, your nitpicks should not get weight over the sheer fun of it all), but lots of good stuff and leaves one big question that's so easy to build the next episode out of.
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