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The Last Jedi Review

Jean Valjean

Entry posted by Jean Valjean

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blog-0196207001513361606.jpg:kaukau: This is going to be an incredibly short review, because just about anything could be considered a spoiler. Anyway, here are some of my basic thoughts about the type of sequels that this is.

 

John Williams produced three memorable themes in the last one, but I can't think of anything that stood out this time, although I'm absolutely going to rewatch this, so we'll see. But if I re-watch it several times and find nothing new that's iconic, that will honestly be very sad. I'll be listening to the soundtrack on Spotify in-between now and my next viewing.

 

It's kind of like Empire Strikes Back in that the heroes are definitely up against a huge challenge and you can honestly believe at times that the bad guys are going to win. On the other hand, in some ways this is the most like Flash Gordon than any other episode (and I'm not saying that this is a bad thing).

 

Holy cow, they did some things that I wasn't expecting them to do in the middle film of a trilogy. And by the end, I'm going to be honest, I had absolutely no idea where they were going to go with the next movie. As in truly, I can't even speculate.

 

In a lot of ways, the directing and story felt a lot different from a Star Wars episode, perhaps even comparable to an anthology film like Rogue One. Rian Johnson does several things with his editing that simply have never been done in any episodes prior. It was really weird for me. I think that other people are going to notice it, too, and there's definitely going to be people with passionate opinions on this. Some will love it, some will hate it. I'll just point out that in the original saga, the middle films were where the directors usually got a bit more experimental. In any case, this actually makes me glad that J.J. Abrams is directing the next one. Interestingly, though, I will say that the closing shot of this film was far more classically STAR WARS than Episode VII's ending.

 

Final assessment: I had a really fun time, and I liked it. I was going to watch it ten times, but now I think that I'll only watch it eight times. It's not quite the quintessential big screen experience, but that's typical of the middle films, because they've always been my least favorite. However, we'll see. These movies have a special place in my sister's heart, since this is for her generation, and if she loves it, I'll probably watch it those extra two times just for her. At the end of the day, she's what's important.

 

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Sumiki

The music in TLJ is by far the weakest of any entry, Rogue One included.  I blame the subject matter.
 
I went in thinking that Rian Johnson was going to do really wild and wacky moves with the editing, but I remember coming out of TFA much more attuned to the directorial tricks than I did with TLJ.  Perhaps I'm not cinematically educated enough to pick up on them, but I wasn't blown away by any of it.

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Jean Valjean

:kaukau: I wouldn't say that it was "wacky," but...

 

 

He used flashbacks, slow  motion, and storytelling that was technically non-linnear, considering that the stuff with Rey and Luke took place instantly where the last film ended and lasted over the course of who-know-how-many days, whereas everything with the Resistance took place over the course of about a day and a half.  For STAR WARS, that's just different.  Episode VII definitely had its quirks, too, but it was also obviously trying as much as it could to directly channel that classic "STAR WARS" feeling.  Anyway, I think that people who criticized Episode VII for being too much of a repeat will find Episode VIII a bit more pleasing.

 

 

Also, out of curiosity, what about the subject matter would you say hurt the score?

 

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Sumiki

Also, out of curiosity, what about the subject matter would you say hurt the score?

 

Not to repeat the content from my own TLJ review, but I found the story lackluster in plot coherence.  A lot of rehashed themes cropped up, which I didn't mind (the battle music from ROTJ comes to mind as a welcome return to the big screen), but there was nothing uniquely identifying in the score for the characters of Rose and DJ, who I thought were the two most interesting and complex of the characters introduced in the film.

 

The leitmotifs can also extend to locations, and while there was a pseudo-Cantina score, it wasn't particularly memorable, and the mineral planet also was too Hoth-y to be unique in that sense.  I love the First Order motif, Rey's theme, the March of the Resistance, Jedi Steps, and a lot of the other scores from TFA, when these were new things and locations. TLJ lacks grist for this mill.

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