On "Star Wars: Last Jedi"

Beware of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Breaking Bad spoilers

After spending the new years in sick bed, the first activity I did in 2018 was watching latest Star Wars movie with my wife. This time I suffered much fewer spoilers before seeing the movie, compared to the Force Awakens. I only saw a troll responding to one of Mark Hamill's tweets with "Luke dies". Luckily, he does not exactly die, but transcends to "force user deus ex machine ghost realm", so I still was able to got surprised. ^_^

I can't write a coherent article about the movie, but here are some thoughts I'd like to share:

My Favorite Star Wars Movie

It is the best movie in sequel trilogy, if not the best of all Star Wars. (My other favorites are "Revenge of the Sith" from prequel trilogy, and like everyone else "The Empire Strikes Back" from original trilogy) I know this before watching episode 9, because it is going to be directed by the pseudo-director J. J. Abrahms.

Actual Character Development

As I am getting older, I'm enjoying character development in stories more. I find a relatable personality or struggle as important as epicness, strong political message or well-crafted distopia. :-)

There definitely was some character development for Luke, Rey, Kylo Ren, and Poe.

Luke was a little bit Shinji-like, by insisting a lot on not being able to do it. However, the unfortunate event that shattered potential Jedi restoration, and the bonds of original characters was believable. Just, not what Mark Hamill had in his mind about Luke he put in life.

Playing with tropes

I loved it when the plan to save the world which was made in haste failed! Poe would have hanged if the Star Wars universe setting was a bit more realistic. His mutiny caused the destruction of half of what is left from Rebellion.

I cringed a bit when the substitute of General Organa was perceived as But than movie showed that it was her who was right. Like Walter White was not actually insulting Skyler (but unfortunately many fans thought so and were satisfied)

I also loved that Rey is not a princess! Her parents are not noble, nor important Jedis. I don't like we still insists on writing stories about rich people, kings etc.

Same arm dealers selling weapons to both sides

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  • I blame J J Abrahms about all flaws of this movie. He definitely did not know what he was doing when he made episode 7, when he placed Luke as a hermit in a distant island
  • It is great pleasure to follow Mark Hamill's comments about the Disney's Star Wars and how frankly he expresses them.

Inevitable Space Opera Parts

  • Destroying huge ship with hyperspace move was a bad idea. If it is possible to destroy a giant ship (which is very expensive) with a smaller ship it could have been done all the time, which makes big ships impractical.
  • Snoke popping out of no where and dying easily just after claiming that he reads Ren's mind Chain of command was not satisfactory. Humanity's power comes from its organizational capacity. Some individuals can have superpowers but compared to a nation state's intelligence service and army it won't be... Why whole First Order is united around Snoke, and how easily can transfer the title of Supreme Leader to another individual so quickly is not explained Just like all movies in Star Wars we don't see much of ordinary, middle class people's lives under Empire/New Order regime. We just see indoctrinated expendible storm troopers with masks

References done right way

  • References to older movies were than much better such as
  • the battering cannon was death star
  • and millenium falcon flying through crystal mines was flying over death star
  • I got very emotional at R2D2's cheap trick

  • Like Yoda's self imposed exile after Anakin Skywalker kills all Jedi students in temple, Luke also is in exile. And their talk is between. In turkish we say "damdan düşenin halindan damdan düşen anlarmış". And like Yoda still helping Luke, Luke helps Rae.

  • best visual directing, beautiful color palettes


tags: stories