The Last Jedi

[schneefink]

I saw The Last Jedi! I saw it with a friend and then when I came home I wanted to talk with DD about it, except it turned out that DD and I have very different opinions on it, which rarely happens.

Overall I enjoyed the movie :) I liked most of it, with two glaring exceptions that I'm trying to ignore but it's hard because they're really annoying, and the more I think about them the less I like the movie overall. Hmpf.

- Vice Admiral Holdo. I wanted to like her! But oh my god was she stupid. There was no reason, NONE, not to let Poe in on her plan, especially once he started the mutiny. What the fuck? If she'd just told him, then half of the people would have felt more comfortable, Finn and Rose would not have gone on their adventure, meaning more if not all transport ships would have made it, and someone else could have come up with the plan to ram the cruiser into Snoke's ship sooner. Proper communication is important! The more I think about this the more I hate it.

- Fucking Yoda showing up. What the fuck. Was he just watching the whole time? And he never showed up before, going by Luke's surprise, but now he does? What.

- Another thing I'm not happy about, but that didn't annoy me the same way the two things above did, was how badly the movie ended. The Resistance is down to maybe a dozen people, all but obliterated! By the First Order, and I still don't have a feeling for how powerful they really are. What about the rest of the galaxy? They didn't answer the Resistance's emergency calls, but they must still be out there. Unlike with the Empire, there's no way the First Order is ruling the galaxy.

Things I liked:

- The silent moment when Holdo rammed the cruiser into Snoke's ship. Awesome.

- Rose. I really liked her! The kiss at the end was unnecessary, it changed nothing, but overall I really liked her. Her sister :(

- Leia's use of the Force was terribly inconsistent, but floating herself back out of space was so cool.

- Luke's astral projection fight against Kylo Ren :D

- The "horses" on the casino planet. Actually a lot of the aesthetics, the red salt planet and the ice wolves etc.

- Kylo Ren killing Snoke

- Finn's character development from trying to run away to save Rey (which surprised me but actually made perfect sense as continuation of what he did in TFA) to actively fighting for the Resistance.

Things I'm not sure how I feel about:

- Luke's last few decades. DD is very unhappy about it and said it's out of character for him, but idk, Luke was in his early twenties in RotJ, a lot can happen. Not coping well with the pressure of the legend, trying to live up to something so much bigger than him, struggling with things he doesn't understand well, having a moment of doubt and one bad choice that makes everything fall to pieces around him, struggling with the enormous amount of guilt and hiding away for many years… Brains are difficult. Not coping well with trauma lies in the family. It's terribly sad, not what I wanted for him, and I wouldn't have said it was likely, but I don't think it was necessarily out of character.

- DD was also unhappy that Leia was so passive. Here I agree more, especially when she loses hope at the end – Leia? But she just lost her husband, her son, and thousands of people and friends under her command, and she just recovered from being spaced, no wonder she has a weak moment. I thought overall she could have been portrayed a lot better though.

I'll probably have more thoughts later, especially after I read everyone else's reviews, but I wanted to write this now before I'm too influenced by others' thoughts in hindsight.

Comments

[dhampyresa]

Yoda was so WTF.

I'm hoping that the lack of Leia is because they cut some of her scene in this movie to use in EpIX, like I heard someone say at some point (much source, very legit, wow).

[schneefink]

I'm so worried about what they'll do with Leia in episode IX. So far everything seems set up for IX to be "her" movie, which I remember reading was the plan before her death. They did have time to adjust afterwards, let's hope they did and Leia gets an ending she deserves.

[out_there]

Tbh, I'm kind of on the other side of the fence when it comes to Holdo. I mean, communication might be great but Poe had just been demoted for outright refusing to follow a direct order and we don't see the admirals sharing tactics with every pilot in the fleet. Poe might be a favourite of Leia's (it's clear they genuinely like and respect one another) but that didn't make him entitled to run the resistance, or entitled to know the plan. It's absolutely human to want to know that stuff, I get it, but in a military force like that and without a rank that requires you to know that, Holdo didn't need to tell him. Given that when she did tell him he led a mutiny -- and not only did the gamble not work, it also revealed their secret escape plan to the enemy -- I think Holdo was right.

I mean, I love Poet and his ridiculously handsome face, and his flaws are forgivable (pride and entitlement and desperately wanting to act / not having the patience to think long term). By the end of the film, we see him learn to stop and think, to consider that other people might have an important plan, that surviving the war is more important than winning the battle.

But given that Poe had refused Leias order when it suited, given that he'd been demoted back out of the bridge, and given that he immediately tried to push his weight around and demand answers, I can understand why Holdo wouldn't tell him. She just didn't realise that he was smart and stubborn enough to try something alone if he had to.

[schneefink]

I don't think Holdo should have had to tell Poe about the plans, especially not in detail. But she knows that he's the type to go ahead and do something even when restraint would be smarter, she knows he already tried to come up with other plans, and iirc she didn't even tell him or any of the other pilots that she had a plan, she just let them think that they were going to continue on their path until the First Order eventually caught up to them and killed them. She just had to tell him, or any of the pilots or command staff who'd pass it on, that there was a plan, not even what it was, especially once they started the mutiny. Before that, okay, but at this point, why not tell them? Letting them think that there was no other hope is stupid, of course they'd try to come up with anything else. Subordinates who know you well might trust that you have a secret plan and are just not talking about it for some reason, but not people who've never fought with you before. And "trust your superiors" is not the core principle of the Resistance.

[out_there]

Clearly the command staff knew because Finn was surprised by the existence of the old base but the others knew it was there. But, yes, maybe it would have been better to tell the pilots where they were flying to had ammo and safety if they could just get there -- although where did the pilots think they were going?

I think what catches me is that the pilots seem to be getting on those ships quickly and orderly, and usually that means there's been an information session first where they've discussed orders and where they're going. Poe didn't know where they were going but the other pilots did... So, what, Holdo took over from the mutiny, explained where they were going, and left it to Leia to deal with Poe?

But, yeah, maybe saying "we have a secret plan, let us work on it" might have worked better. I don't trust that Poe would have accepted a secret plan he wasn't let in on (and let's be honest, Poe got me offside from the start with the whole "that's not what I expected the general to look like" comment, which annoyed me so much) but it would have been enough to stop the outright mutiny.

Either way, it's interesting that neither plan worked, that hard as they might try the First Order kept using superior weapons, tech and numbers to run them down. It really felt like a small rebellion fighting something much bigger than them and struggling to keep going.