If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going
One of the curious things about liking Star Wars at this moment is that sometimes I think my distance from the franchise helps me enjoy it more. I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m not really a huge Star Wars fan- I don’t dislike the franchise and enjoy some of it very much but I just don’t have the same relationship with it that I do with Star Trek or superheroes. That being said, I think the fact Star Wars was always just another collection of films to me has made me less inclined to feel anything has been lost in the Disney handover.
More and more I feel like I’m seeing folks angry at the loss of some mercurial inner spark to the Star Wars films that they feel only the original trilogy maintained. Which seems a damn shame to me because The Last Jedi is quickly gearing up to be the best looking Star Wars film yet, with an ambitious new trailer striking an incredible balance of tone and content that continues to redefine expectations for this film.
The strongest element of The Last Jedi, both in this trailer and the last, is the complete willingness to reject the nostalgia-driven story-telling that informed a bit too much of Force Awakens. When the first trailer ended with Luke Skywalker’s resolute declaration that the sun had set on the Jedi it was basically the film throwing down the gauntlet on what the series was to be about and making a pretty good point in the process. A New Hope was all about what was next despite the nostalgic origins of the project; it was a truly new and forward facing endeavor- 30 years later the franchise needs to continue looking forward rather than insisting its best days are already behind it.
This trailer continues those themes though through a significantly different prism, playing as almost a mirror version of the first trailer only here focusing on the villains of the new trilogy era. We open with the narration of Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren’s mysterious mentor, in direct parallel to Luke Skywalker’s narration in the first trailer. Where Luke was calm and reassuring Snoke is berating, angry, and insistent on Kylo’s greatness as opposed to Luke’s council to Rey about how the Force is bigger than all of us.
Kylo really is the major focus of this trailer though it doesn’t skimp on Rey or Luke, which I’m pleased about. Luke Skywalker has always been my favorite Star Wars character and his return to the franchise has been long overdue- plus you can’t go wrong with Mark Hamill and it’s always great to see him show up in things.
As I said, this trailer works as a dark inverse of the first one so we’re getting a Luke who’s far more frightened than inspiring, afraid of the power Rey wields and still very much haunted by his old failures. That’s a major theme in both trailers that seems to run through the whole film- the way the past can dog at our heels and attempt to track us back into it.
It’s part and parcel of the heavy emphasis on letting go of what was and looking forward, a lesson Kylo is learning in this new trailer. Completely upending the main villain’s identity and arc for the sequel is a power move but one I actually quite like for its boldness. We don’t really have continuous villains in films nowadays, mainly because so many film series are made to be more like a series of television than a contained single story told across 3 films.
As such, getting a bad guy who actually changes from movie to movie is a refreshing approach and I really like the idea that Kylo is the one who really learns the lesson of the movie about letting go of the past and perverts it for evil, changing “letting go” into “violent murder”- that’s a really chilling touch.
Speaking of being dragged backward by our own origins, the fight between Finn and Phasma looks like a great representation of that. Finn is probably the best new character of the new trilogy; he’s got more depth and humanity than Poe’s idealized space ace persona but is also more fully realized as a character than Rey, steeped in unfinished mystery as she was.
He’s got a history and an identity and it’s thoroughly steeped in his origin as a child soldier who abandoned the First Order on his first day so seeing the woman who kidnapped him trying to literally drag him back to his life of faceless drudgery is a great visual metaphor. I also really love the subtlety of Finn reclaiming the identity of the traitor by using the weapon from the now famous “Traitor!” scene in Force Awakens.
We also seem to have verification this trailer that Snoke is a force sensitive of some kind as the final shots imply he’s captured Rey in a force grip of some kind. I have to say; I think Snoke is probably going to be the riskiest part of this whole endeavor because he’s become such a focal point for mystery and speculation. I’m not sure if that was intentional on Disney’s part or just the result of the news vacuum creating inordinate speculation by the 24-hour hype machine but “who is Snoke?” is the core mystery on the lips of pretty much every Star Wars speculation piece.
It’s such a risk because if the eventual reveal doesn’t land or, worse yet, if there’s no reveal at all and Snoke is just Snoke it could take all the wind out of the story’s sails in a bad way. Either way, it looks like we’ll be getting our answers or at least another piece of the puzzle in the upcoming film. I just hope folks remember that there was no real mystery to the Emperor’s identity in the original trilogy if it turns out Snoke is just himself.
Then there’s that AMAZING final shot of Kylo doing his best “Join me and we shall bring order to the galaxy” pose with Rey. I won’t lie, Rey was very much the weak link of Force Awakens for me, not because she was a “Mary Sue” but because too much of her identity was steeped in needless mystery. This is one of the unfortunate things about KNOWING your film will have a sequel, you end up shunting off extra story stuff into the “we’ll get to it later” bin without realizing how vital it was.
As such, the idea of Rey turning evil in some capacity honestly seems pretty dramatic and exciting as far as a next step to take her. I don’t think they’ll take her full Jean Grey or anything but in a series dedicated to scrapping the old mythology, it’d be pretty cool if Rey’s path to mastering the Force hinged more on the methods of the Sith- stuff like embracing her rage and strong emotions.
Overall this trailer is another complete success for a film that’s been hitting it out of the park since day 1. There was never any doubt that the Disney era of Star Wars would produce profitable films but with The Last Jedi, they look to be on their way to make something truly impactful rather than just enjoyable and diverting. Of all the movies they’re making The Last Jedi is absolutely the one they HAVE to get right, not for marketing or money or lasting impact but because it’s the last time we get to see Carrie Fisher in a Star Wars film.
In that respect, it’s a little sad and a little ironic that the main themes of this film look to be letting go of the past, violently if need be, to become something newer, stronger, and truer. Part of me wonders if that was, in some way, a response to Fisher’s passing, as if time ultimately ended up killing Star Wars’ chance at nostalgia. I guess we’ll find out in 2 months.
If you liked this article, please like us on
Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going 
No comments:
Post a Comment