15 January 2018

The Millennial Jedi

(Yes, the title would make great clickbait in present popular parlance. Maybe I should add "10 Things You Won't Believe About..." to assure this post's procreation.) Well, it's been a month to the day since I first saw The Last Jedi, and I'm finally getting to blog about it! I have intentionally avoided any reviews (still have the last 20 minutes of a podcast from December to listen to), and have only discussed the film with friends in an attempt to keep my thoughts as clear, cogent, and unique as possible. Spoilers after the jump.

My first impression: Wow. The first five minutes of Poe's run on the Dreadnought were amazing! His conversation with General Hux, less so. (The final line about "news from his mother" was hilarious, but the back-and-forth "Can you hear me?" got old fast.) Poe's character arc was excellent and made me like & respect him much more than anything in The Force Awakens. Rey was outstanding, again. Yoda's cameo had me tear up it made me so happy. Luke's scenes with R2, Leia, and Ben (i.e., "Kylo") were powerfully moving. But then there was Finn, Rose, and the Floppy-Eared Podrace. And BB-8, whom I just don't care for. (Is it justifiable to say he's too "kid-friendly," and claim that's unlike R2 in the original?) Also, I suppose Phasma was just a Red Herring, being as she got to do virtually nothing of any significance in this or the previous film. Snoke will have the Red Herring, too. But despite all that, I really enjoyed this film. Before watching it, I described my expectations thusly: I didn't care much for The Force Awakens, but Rogue One is a favourite and in my top 4 Star Wars films; so, I'm not expecting much. I and a coworker had exhaustively discussed the likelihood that one or both Skywalkers would die in this film, and I was convinced that Luke would pull an Obi-Wan and somehow sacrifice himself for Rey. Beyond that, I had given the film little thought - though I was expecting melancholy seeing Carrie Fisher on screen.
So, what made this Last Jedi feel so Millennial? Its feelings.
The narrative makes a fine mess of what seemed to be key plot points from TFA; most notable among these is the seeming importance of Snoke (and Phasma, for that matter). Luke's obstinate refusal to train Rey upsets the expectation the whole ludicrous hyperspace-map-to-Luke plot engineered by TFA. Ben's mopey Vader-wannabe-ness was done away with, as it needed to be (so maybe Snoke did do something significant...). And how in the galaxy can the First Order not send half their fleet through hyperspace to coordinates just ahead of the fleeing Resistance? (Seriously, the FO have to chase them at sub-light speed when the FO can track them through hyperspace? I get that if their whole fleet jumped and the Resistance jumped before the FO came back out, maybe they'd lose their ability to track them - so send half your fleet ahead and keep the rest tracking!) The Floppy-Eared Podrace I don't intend to address; one friend pointed out after viewing that the movie is trying to be a film for adult fans and draw in children. In that vein, could someone edit an "Adult" cut (awkward phrasing, granted) that does away with the kiddy stuff of BB-8, Finn, et al.? I agree with his assessment, and the storyline didn't bother me enough to prevent a second viewing, or plans to buy the Blu-ray.
But. But! It's got all the things that make Star Wars successful: fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants - err... A hermit with an eager but reckless young pupil. A princess leading a battle against hopeless odds. A smuggler with a heart of - oh. Well. Hmm... John Williams! Frank Oz! Joseph Campbell! Sarcasm aside, I think that's what made TLJ so much more enjoyable for me than TFA: despite the fact that each does homage to its original counterpart, where TFA felt slavishly focused on external aspects of ANHTLJ taps into the underlying magic of Star Wars.
This, then, is what I mean by The Millennial Jedi: the film feels subjectively like Star Wars because it deals with archetypes and monomyth constructs; but, its narrative is also more about feeling than coherent plot structure and continuity from TFA.
Let's begin with Rey's experience in the tidal cave. At the outset, I must admit that I don't think I have a handle on what all Johnson was trying to communicate here. Firstly, which is my third primary-ordinal number phrase in this paragraph, the cave is introduced as a place of darkness, the balance to the heights of the island during Rey's training session with Luke. The Dagobah Luke-cave connexion is obvious - but remember this is all monomyth imagery of archetypes Lucas learned from Campbell; again, getting to the underlying principles rather than the externals: Rey does not attack a masked figure who turns out to be herself. Luke says that Rey sought out the cave when she sensed it held something she needed, disregarding its darkness. What does Rey need most? Her lineage. As she looks into the Mirror of Erised, what appear to be two figures approach, and then merge into one - who turns out to be Rey herself, in unbroken succession/procession (made me think of Johnson's Looper). My best guess is that we are to take this as Rey being Immaculate Offspring of the Force (a la Anakin). Given Ben's statement about her ancestry, which I think is a misdirect, her parents are truly "nobody." While this neatly resolves the question of her lineage, it's somewhat unsatisfactory, given the shot in TFA of some adult's hand holding hers as a child before a ship leaves Jakku. So, it makes mincemeat of plot continuity (at least, speculated continuity...), but taps into archetypes utilised in the original trilogy (Cave - the Hero's underground self-confrontation, usually near a source of water), as well as those from the -sigh- prequel trilogy (Immaculate - Hero catches the ball during a championship game after an inexplicable ricochet - err, Hero's parent is a deity).
Hopefully, that's enough to convince you, reader, of my Millennial Jedi theory; children are crying and dinner is calling, so I'll have to leave it at that for now.
Note to self to discuss further: Poe's arc, the Reyn connexion (and possible future); Luke, R2, and Yoda (reminisces of Dagobah); my final impressions.

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