odd experience, not sure i can be bothered to do a full write up. i didn't hate it like i thought i might, but it definitely has the mark of rian johnson all over it. take that for what you will.
on the occasion that the film just plays it straight down the line it generally succeeds, shame those moments are so frequently bookended by marvel quips or groanworthy clunkers ("
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we are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the first order down
"). it's a film that betrays itself in a lot of ways. i could special fellow out a whole essay on world building and how the first order now being the reigning power and the republic being overtly referred to as "the rebellion" makes absolutely fuck all sense, but it's endemic of the film's desire to present situations or characters without being bothered to do the legwork.
luke is the key example of this. while his character seems to based more on crotchety old con-going mark hamill than anything george lucas wrote down, i'm not entire opposed to the idea of him being a sarcastic beaten man begging for a redemption arc, but you have to do a bit more legwork for that than just saying
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i failed with kylo
over and over. this film just can't be bothered with that, which is surprising considering it's got time for entirely pointless dr who and decadent alien animal abusers sideplot.
daisy ridley continues to be awful and you yanks are lucky that her accent puts a degree of separation in there because she is literally drama GCSE tier and can't maneuver even the simplest lines without looking like a startled backpacker on her gap year. adam driver on the other hand is fantastic throughout and the beating heart of the film for me, despite being a conflicted pissbaby he's the only thing resembling a credible threat (
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after snoke was offed at least
). fisher was bizarre and i must admit i wondered if they got her fresh corpse in an propped her up for a few scenes her acting was so stilted and wooden. the moment matey talked about above was probably the single worst moment in a star wars film, which suffers equally from the lack of said legwork and just being visually hilarious.
there are some absolutely visually stunning moments in this film, and thematic crescendos that should hit hard, but again each one seems to have a line or moment that takes you out of it. (
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the AT ATs shooting at "luke" only for him to walk out of it and do a god awful MCU shoulder flick
)
all these moments of insincerity add up and you just end up feeling like the stakes are ankle high. the first order seems to be made of 99% incompetent preening boobs (
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serkis's snoke is a wonderful scenery chewing homage to the emperor and i just wish they could've let serkis play him au natural instead of monster mash CGI, but once he's gone it's like every 80s cartoon where you have a one smart bad guy and his troop of dufuses - minus the one smart guy
). it leaves the lanscape in an entirely familiar situation with the message of "this is just the beginning" like a horrible foreboding for anyone hoping for some kind of resolve rather than just endless episodes for eternity.
you can take the exact same treatment and make a very good film out of it. you can take the exact same moments and with a bit of narrative establishment and more careful handwriting make something great. as it is it's just a frequently enjoyable but ultimately baffling, insincere and as a result largely emotionally ineffective experience which often feels like it's already got one foot in an MCU crossover.
i think i might feel knocked back if i really enjoyed TFA and thought it was going to be the foundation of a classic series, but i already felt like the writing was on the wall back then.
my favourite two things about this film were ade edmonson being in it and that the skiff flyers were proper pieces of shit and what a
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lame fuck up
that whole attack was after being all over the trailers.