Movie review: The Last Jedi

Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you see it, you’ll never make it through the night.

Space cow tits, a lavender haired lady, and a lot of angry fanboys. It’s hard to separate this film from its controversy. But when it comes to the Star Wars sequels, I’ve been living happily under a rock since the 2010s, and I'm just now seeing them for the first ever time.

The Last Jedi is not a simple crowd pleaser. It subverts expectations, and I can see why many were disappointed and disliked it. I get it, the expectation that you were going to see a simple popcorn flick and see Mark Hamill be a badass, and instead he acted out of character, and you were served a bunch of heavy shit about characters you don't care as much about.

It's okay to not like this movie, and to wish that Disney went in a different direction, and that the sequel triology had a more cohesive plan. (I wish that of the classic triology as well.) I dislike all of the prequels, The Mandalorian, The Acolyte, and even 98% of Return of the Jedi,^[1] but my life goes on and I am fine because these are just movies, and I'm used to franchises generally ending up being disappointing in one way or another. I'm a Star Trek fan. I'm used to this.

Many people come to star wars for escapist entertainment. The Last Jedi is not that. We see our heroes challenged and needing to step down. we are used to seeing our protagonists be strong and be right. but this film subverts this trope. we continually see them fail, weaken, and struggle. We see the rebellion at its weakest and smallest yet.

Pour one out for Admiral Akbar.

Luke Skywalker. We often think of our elders as staying wise and strong. We think that only weak or bad people unravel. We expect the good to become our Obi Wans and Yodas. But surely you've known someone, or at least enjoyed a musician, artist, or writer, whose mental health deteriorated as their life went on. We know them for who they were at their "peak," but aside from that there is a human who needs help. Sometimes our elders need help too.

Bro has always been sensitive, and the thing with his dad has given him huge trust issues for the rest of his life. He wanted to do something good and was optimistic but gave into fear and his fears were partly true. He reacted the wrong way which made it worse and now he can't undo what he did so he lives in shame and now he's practically suicidal. I see it as a metaphor for a father who feels that he has failed and driven his child further away.

I can see why it is difficult and frustrating to see a childhood hero act this way, but it also proves that elders can still have arcs and character growth. Elders can struggle. in the end, he does the selfless thing. when he's staring at the two suns? come on that was amazing.

and we know he's not gone. he will live on as a force ghost.

manosphere people are always saying, why doesn't anyone care about male mental health- well this is a movie about male mental health.

(we have Leia remain as the hero archetype anyway and she's amazing. people complaining about the scene where she's in space. come on, this is a series about space wizards with laser swords and that was magical. she's presumably never used the force before, and she uses it because her crew needs her and the hope she brings. "mary poppins" , yes, and it is also silly when anakin skywalker has yellow eyes, when palpatine has makeup all over his face, and . all work deriving from the original star wars is generally pretty goofy.)

"the greatest teacher, failure is." mature lesson. maybe it isn't "fun," but it's compelling and interesting. as opposed to the prequels, which are entirely unfun and uninteresting.

the criticism I do understand, is is this film for kids? I'm not a kid. idk if I would find this fun. a lot of moments in the prequels are unfun to kids too.^[2]

lmao. drinks the milk. the OT Luke has always come across as somewhat twerpy and playful (promo picture of him with light saber)

this film does what empire strikes back did and more. it makes us fear for the future of the rebellion and the cast of characters.

now I'm ready for the next film to go back on pretty much everything this movie sets up, and be a total disappointment. because somehow... palpatine returns. it's only following in the footsteps of ROTJ.

the overblown hate only makes the film look better by comparison, which isn't even fair.

What I like are cool stories and cool films. They are fodder for the imagination.
and developing headcanons and enjoying Legends material and fan theories that exist outside of this canon. Bruh, I'm still hung up on the decision to make Luke and Leia siblings; it was a horrible choice. So if you want to personally retcon Holdo, headcanon that Luke lived up to his reputation for the rest of his life and married Mara Jade,

i wish finn wasn't sidelined as much but his arc was cool and he directly murdered the leader of those who enslaved him and that was cool

this review feels more like "apologia"

so much happens but I really feel like that's because movies are now expected to be so long. the OT movies were 2 hours and they felt just right. the prequel and sequel movies are 2 and a half hours long and they feel it.