Ok lets get this started…

I promise, this started out much worse than it ends up being.

What has been a yearly ritual since the release of Star Wars; Episode VII; The Force Awakens  (TFA), a few non-fanatic, friends have asked me “so what do you think of the new Star Wars movie.”  That question has led to a vast variety of conversational rabbit holes (otherwise known as rants).  In the past, I would likely give a list of the pros and cons, and come out with a positive overall grade.  In the past, I never bashed any of the movies - worse case, I may agree with some negative aspect (i.e. bad dialog, too much CGI, to cookie cutter) but at least I was animated and excited about it all.  In the past, I had a lot to say.  The longer I had to digest it, the more analytical I could get.  This year, well… it has been difficult to give anything more than a shrug of the shoulders and a sigh, in response to the question.

Why?

Every new franchise release since 1999, I have remained relatively spoiler free, and I usually watched each new SW movie with an un-biased and open mind.  I usually spend the first viewing trying to notice things – just open eyes and taking it all in.  I scan the screen for Easter eggs, I pay attention to background, foreground, soundtrack queues, and I just try to sponge it all in.  I caught it all in TFA - the lack of Chewie/Leia hug, the switch back to the gold arm, the practice drone that Finn comes across- all on the first viewing.  While in sponge mode, my mind was too occupied to judge.  This is why I usually cannot/will not, form a solid opinion until I have sat through at least a second viewing. 

Going into The Last Jedi, I knew only a few things.  In the lead up, I avoided speculation to the point of avoiding podcasts, blogs, social media, and cast interviews.  What I knew - I heard rumor of Frank Oz possibly being involved however, I also heard that Hayden Christiansen also might have been called in - so 50/50.  Just from living on the internet, there were things one could not avoid.  I knew of a few of the filming locations – Dubrovnik, Dingle Peninsula, and Skellig Michael.  From these sites I saw a “few” pictures involving production, so when the Canto Bight location was mentioned I kind’ov had an idea from the pics from Dubrovnik.  I also was tracking, but not obsessively on cast announcements.  I knew about Benicio del Toro and Laura Dern, but nothing about their roles and no preconceived notion on how they should be worked into the story.  I did patiently wait for the Billy Dee announcement, and still am… All this is to set up the situation in which I was going into TLJ, fresh, unsuspecting, and with only a few questions that carried over from TFA.

What?

Talking with others, I learned that I missed a few of those kind of Easter eggs that I usually notice.  Was I distracted?  Was it because the story was hard to follow (or hard to swallow)?

Answers or more questions?

I only got really excited three times – the moments right before Snoke’s death - I saw it coming but it was still pretty cool, the not quite so announcement of Rey’s lineage, – and, when I thought Luke was going to go all Frank Castle (with a green lightsaber) on Kylo… yet each of those times, after a good amount of buildup, after moving to the edge of my seat, talking a deep breath in…and each time ending in what? -Disappointment? I feel so “blah” about this movie that I am not sure that might not be too strong a word. 

I feel like Rian Johnson took the top fan questions that came out of TFA and purposely tried to give the fandom the most unsatisfying answer to each – on purpose.  The answer to Rey’s parents was almost like RJ took a stick and poked it at the audience, saying – FU, all that time speculating and it was all a waste of time for you to even care.  The same with the question of where Snoke came from.  I was good with how he was killed off, but some of the biggest and wackiest theories from TFA surrounded the speculation on who Snoke really was.  Did it matter?  No, and I am no fan of much of the speculation but, these answers, along with Luke never really having that one great battle left me feeling empty inside.  

Tearless despite wanting to ball like an infant.

The one area I expected to well up and drop some tears, was each time Leia was on screen.  At every turn, I was waiting on how the real world was going to affect the Galaxy Far Far Away.  How was RJ going to “write” Carrie Fisher out of the movie?  Early on, where Leia is blown out of the ship into space, I almost got up and walked out.  I thought for a brief moment that was going to be it.  Thankfully, it was not - but for me, the alternative was not much better.  To be fair, I am not sure anyone could get it right, maybe in this instance, the bar is set to high.  For me, the biggest thing hanging over Episode IX is going to be how they answer the Leia question.  It might be just a casual line about Leia passing or maybe something in the crawl.  Right now, I am just left feeling less than enthusiastic with how Han was killed off then how Luke just does a Copperfield impersonation and just…”pop”…disappears.  How they “kill off” the last of the main three is going to be a make or break for many OT fans.  Either way, I got more emotional over the CGI Leia in Rogue One than anything Leia related in TLJ, despite my willingness to be overwhelmed by how they gave Leia a final sendoff.  I will say, it was proper and great that the film was dedicated to her.  Seeing that in the end credits was about the only emotional part of the entire movie for me.

Speaking of death counts.

Whom didn’t RJ kill off?  Akbar was killed off by some random reference to being sucked out into space.  Then a new character is introduced.  Admiral Hodo or whatever.  Why couldn’t Akbar just fill her role in the movie?  I would have loved seeing him go kamikaze on the First Order fleet at the end.  He could have went out yelling – “Trap THIS MF’er..” Another wasted opportunity was Finn.  I get the whole arc where Poe learns his lesson about making the hard calls and knowing when to pull back to conserve your forces.  But despite Poe calling Finn back when he is making his suicide run on the First Order door buster, he is ignored.  It looks like Finn is going to finally do something other than try to mac on Rey, something that will benefit the cause.  Ahhh … but he is DENIED.  Actually we are all denied.  Him destroying that weapon and giving the Resistance a few more minutes would have been a high point, but that was just another “meh” moment.  Even so, RJ is pretty bloodthirsty.  He offs almost every character we know from the OT, even if only with a passing reference, he also kills off half of JJs additions (Phasma, Snoke) and one of his own (Admiral Hodo) and a couple of bbq porgs. Also, not really under the category of deaths, but more like fading away.  How much screen time did Chewie, R2, and C3PO get?  All combined, it might have been less than Luke’s total from the TFA.

Fan Service.

So in contrast to RJs blatant jab at the speculating set of fans that devoted the last two years to figure out the puzzle JJ left us, he seemed to offer some fan service to a few issues from TFA.

• Chewie got his hug from Leia.  
• Phasma got a “good death”, then again new theories already have surfaced on how she will get her version of climbing out of the Sarlacc and somehow survive
• Finn gets to use the - so we get a different version of the baton fight we got in TFA, while finding a way to sell another toy. 
• RJ gives an unnecessary Maz cameo, thus keeping the diversity ratio a little more even
• Even though not a direct answer to anything in TFA, RJ knows who pays the bills, so created enough Porg-straction (gratuitous porg shots) to ensure continued licensee sales.  Honestly, every time we see a “hero porg” shot, it took me out of the film.  I don’t hate them, and think putting them in to cover up the puffins that might have been caught in the background during principal photography makes sense.  Just not a fan of the silliness for the sake of drawing out a laugh.
• Another BB-8.  A black one.  Was this some kind of inside joke to answer all the cries about diversification or was it just placement to eventually sell more toys? But with all of three and a half seconds of screen time, is this the next Boba Fett?  
• Yoda makes an appearance.  I was good with this, but being a SW fan and never being satisfied, my mind immediately went to “ ok- but where was Ben or Anakin?”

So I finish this off a week and a couple days after I saw it opening day.  I still have not been back.  I had two other tickets on Fandango and cancelled them both.  One was so I could take the dog for a long walk, the other, so I could sleep in.  Maybe that answers what I thought about it more than anything else.  I did my part, saw it once, bought some of the merchandise and the soundtrack but maybe TLJ has moved me from being a “fanatic” to just an enthusiastic fan.  

Time will tell…