December 24, 2017 (Originally posted on Blogger)
Star Wars Episode 8 Talk Thing (Probably Spoilers)
This is going to have spoilers, sort of, inevitably, so for the sake of things, I don't suggest clicking through to this post unless you have seen or have absolutely no plans to see The Last Jedi. Unlike co-workers you may or may not have, I'm going to give you fair warning before I talk about anything in the movie.
Again, this is going to have spoilers, so I suggest not scrolling down unless you have either already seen or feel that you won't want to see Star Wars: Episode 8: The Last Jedi. I'm going to put a picture of a robot here, and after that, and more scrolling, will be the post.
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Last warning before maybe spoilers. I know this might be a bit overkill but I'm nice like that. At least I try to be.
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Okay, here is the post. After this line.
So this is kind of a weird movie. Essentially people can't seem to agree if they like it or not, or maybe someone's just screwing with review scores, I don't know. But they do pull off a lot of weird stuff.
Yes, there are a lot of crazy events in the plot and all that. There's even kind of a detour in the middle. I don't really wanna go into plot details, though, since that kinda requires explaining the whole movie. It's more just about what is with some things, I guess. I did like the movie, there's just some weird aspects around.
For one thing, it's long, it's about 2 and a half hours, but that's kinda becoming normal for movie length, even in this whole short attention span thing going on. I thought it was almost over for a bit, but then I remembered that they didn't get to the weird planet in the trailers so there must be a fair bit left, and there was.
Also there's the whole thing about marketable mascots. I can see two attempts. Most people are going to talk about the Porgs. They're the CGI facsimile of how they had lots of puffins showing up on location, apparently. They're cute, yes, but they're not in there too obnoxiously. They do kinda hitch along for the ride, though. I'm just wondering how far marketing will take them.
There are also the BB droids. Yes, droids. There's multiple now. I think people might be pointing these out less because they like them more, but I definitely noticed how we went from the one to at least 10. They're kinda just all around as background characters for the most part, but this also implies "you could have your very own without just stealing plot-important characters". Also maybe more of a thing regarding fan droids which were inevitable as soon as the character reveal in Episode 7. Get it, it's like android but "fan droid". I don't know.
Also I swear they were just trying to maximize BB-8's badass level for the movie, some stunts do get pulled. I don't know if they're trying to have it live up to R2's record but some crazy stuff does happen. But it's helping and that's good.
There's even an evil version of BB-8 that I swear you only see once. Maybe it showed up more and I wasn't really seeing it, but according to Wookieepedia, the Star Wars encyclopedia, apparently it did do something when it was looking at some people in the one scene where I saw it.
The rare presence of BB-9E as well as its marketing levels reminds me of another character who didn't show up a lot before, Captain Plasma or whoever. She's a shiny Stormtrooper or whatever they're called now. She shows up again, and she's not around for long. I think she's Finn's ex-commander or something.
There's also the humor, some people apparently thought it was pretty campy at times, and I can see that. There's a careful level of meta to remain aware but not just all "hey remember this thing" or "this is actually kinda silly just so you know" all the time. I found it a nice break from all the tension, it just needs to be used wisely.
I also think Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher played their roles very well, the occasional wisecrack, pulling some pretty heroic acts as well during some of the major climax points, it was great to have them in this movie. They played their characters in a pretty interesting and matured light.
I do want to talk a little about what role the Force plays, they're pulling off some pretty crazy stuff with it in this movie, and certain things might only work once or a few times thematically, so again, a careful line to not cross into total deus ex machina type stuff.
So, overall, I liked the movie, I don't know that it falls into being the best Star Wars movie ever as some are calling it, but it's pretty good. Figuring out the best movie would require somehow removing the whole nostalgia filter, between certain events inside the movies and the movies themselves. That would be difficult given the roots in pop culture. Essentially they're going to follow this up with Episode 9, so that would be a tall order given it'd be the last in the sequel trilogy unless they're pulling something weird with that. But before then, probably the Han Solo side story, which I know next to nothing about and I think they're just selling it on the name so far. I wasn't even sure it would be coming out soon.