Yeah Disney cheaping out on paying Mark Hamill for more than one movie (other than cameos) was probably the biggest problem with the ST. But TFA portrayed Luke Skywalker with a cameo better than TLJ which had him for a whole movie.
Sure Disney killing off the character that symbolizes hope to save money was always going to piss people off, but FFS at least give us one movie where Luke goes on an adventure to save the galaxy. And the ending where “it was all just illusion” made me think “well this movie sucked… he never even left that fucking island, but at least he’s still alive so maybe he’ll do something in the next one” then the movie is like “haha nope!” It was the most infuriating way to handle a studio mandated character death possible.
Luke using an illusion to save the rebellion was the best ending to the arc they established. He spends the whole movie angry that everyone is mythologising him and expecting him to be perfect. Then he uses his myth to trick the bad guys. If he’d showed up in person, he would have been giving in to the pressure to be this mythical figure. His arc would have been accepting that everyone who thinks Luke Skywalker is perfect is right. But instead, he uses the myth for shenanigans, which is a very much Luke-like thing to do.
It’s all just Meta wankery to me. Like the writer is thinking “how do I portray this character has reached mythological levels in our culture? I know I’ll make the movie about that! I’m so brilliant!” Fap fap fap
It’s a “sir, this is a Wendy’s” kind of thing. This is a Star Wars. Fun action adventure movie. Kind of movie kids wear costumes when they go see it. It’s not that I don’t understand the “Star Wars movies are an illusion, but if that illusion inspires children, that’s what really matters!” message to it. And it’s not that the message is wrong. It’s just that it’s obvious and boring.
It’s fine to have this kind of wankery in a Knives Out kind of movie or whatever, but it’s a Star Wars FFS. Pew pew pew voom voom. The challenge is to have a message in the subtext of a fun action adventure, not to spew out an obvious and shallow message overlayed on top of the action that’s constantly telling the audience the movie isn’t real. We know it’s not real, but make a movie that lets us turn off our phones and pretend it’s real for a few hours.
Star Wars is about Taoist philosophy. The following two movies are about how America’s war on Vietnam is unjust, and the next three are about 9/11, which is really fucking clever because 9/11 hadn’t even happened yet when the first one came out and George Lucas successfully predicted it. Star Wars has always been about high-minded philosophy and politics. Your comment rests on the assumption that Star Wars is mindless entertainment that never comments on the real world, but that’s always been false.
And the ST is about Vladimir Putin working in the background before revealing that fascism has been there this whole time, we just didn’t notice. Somehow fascism returned! An authoritarian with thousands of super weapons capable of destroying entire cities suddenly attacks out of nowhere and everyone in the world has to band together to help the resistance.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine didn’t happen yet, but JJ Abrams predicted it! The JJ Abrams Star Wars movies were about high-minded philosophy and politics.
Your comment rests on the assumption that JJ Abrams movies are mindless entertainment that never comments on the real world, but that’s always been false.
Really though, the JJ Abrams movies have quite a lot to say about the emotional paths to fascism. From indoctrination to bad relationships with a father figure, the relationship to our ancestors, our need to restore a past empire. It’s all there. The prequels are very dated, just immature shots being fired at a W. Bush and Newt Gingrich. The JJ Abrams movies explore the emotions that lead fascism, which will always be relevant.
Ever see the statue of a confederate general being removed? If you did, you’d see a reproduction of an evil guy that died a long time ago being moved around with a crane. What do you see at the beginning of RoS again? You might see it as mindless entertainment but there’s a message there, it’s just that JJ Abrams isn’t spoon-feeding it to you.
