I know a lot of people have grievances with
this film and I will attempt to respond to some of those grievances. I have numerous friends
and family that did not enjoy this film. I hear you. I rebuke no one for not liking it. I just want to talk about it. Okay? Okay. The Last Jedi is a movie filed down to a razor-sharp point in such a way that it appears like a series of random decisions when in fact it isn't. It's Breaking Bad precise and don't fret, I'll feed you baby birds, if you graciously stay with me for a bit. The Force Awakens video is my most popular video by a stretch and was important to
a lot of people. So, now I'm expected to make a sequel video with through-the-roof expectations that will surely not be met. Oh, I get it, just like Rian. I have a lot to say about
The Last Jedi, it's a fascinating hole to explore, so to push past the hot takes and the artifice and grapple with the intrinsic meaning of this thing. On the first viewing I admittedly only half
enjoyed it and had severe problems with it. On second viewing I enjoyed it a lot more but was
still bothered by some random stuff. And on the third viewing I had a mind meld with it. Yes, I am aware that is the wrong franchise and I'm going to hell. Take a number. Jog on. But for once, I saw the design of a thing in pretty striking clarity. And suddenly I adored it. Like, all of it. Even the weird stuff. This fresco painting of a movie. Allow me to take you there. I'm gonna relay these thoughts right now and it's cool if you still don't like it afterward. I still love you, it's cool. Just be kind to the people that still do love it. Alright, kill the BOK and roll that beautiful bean footage! The Last Jedi was a 2017 holy war that claimed the lives- The Last Jedi was a 2017 film, itself a sequel to 2015's The Force Awakens, written and directed by one Rian Johnson. Which in and of itself is an accomplishment because the only other person on planet Earth to write and direct a Star War, other than Rian, was George Lucas. And he did it three times.
A New Hope, The Phantom Menace and Revenge of The Sith. Everyone's three favorites. No? What?
That's really wrong? Okay. Rian is a quirky dude. He wrote and directed Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper. Oh, and because I can send people to it he also directed the first episode of the criminally underrated, Terriers. He makes quirky things from a quirky perspective. But, I imagine Looper and the three episodes of Breaking Bad he directed were the reason that Lucasfilm became interested in him in the first place. He can make small feel big and he can make big feel small. And sometimes he gets a
little weird with it. [indistinct confused catawampus] At first glance it all feels like
a trippy dream but when you start to dig thematically it was doing what any person should do if they get the monumental opportunity to write and direct a Star Wars film. Explore your instincts. And oops, Ryan did! A film where the protagonist and the antagonist meet in the morally squishy center for an exhilarating moment of the purest kind of Star Wars bliss. Cloaked in an idea and desire that has been in the larger fandom for decades. Grey Jedi. Emotionally conflicted while stalwartly revolutionary. Unsympathetic to the status quo and saying maybe this whole light-dark binary is a little on the nose and reductive of what could be a better world on the other side of it. [Kylo Ren dialogue] "It's time to let old things die. Snoke, Skywalker, The Sith, Jedi, The Rebels. Let it all die." Star Wars is not subtle with its clothing symbolism. AKA, the thematic not literal meaning of the title The Last Jedi. Maybe the idea of Jedi has run its course, and the world needs to evolve a little to allow for a little more nuance. Like the reason a new trilogy should exist. To add to Star Wars mythos with meaningful observations. Like blue omniscient Yoda ghosts using Palpatine-like Jedi powers, now that he has the eternal Smurf ghost gift of hindsight in the afterlife, to say 'You know, maybe Star Wars needs to get a little more
dirt on its pristine cream robes once in a while.' In my Force Awakens piece, I put a flag in the ground that Rey and Kylo were gonna switch places by the end of 9. And the middle chapter brought everything to here so, we did it! Luke even freaks out the first time he trains Rey because Rey
doesn't even fight it. She senses the darkside and just goes for it. She literally does it, not once, but twice. And Luke is like 'Yo, You millennial kids with your non-binary Jedi identities get off my lawn.' [Luke dialogue] "Leave this island, now!" Or, we could talk about Luke. Someone tempted by the dark side for so long that he literally doesn't touch the force anymore at the beginning of the film. He only touches it when Rey leaves him no other options but to do so. Also, Luke dropping down in a Hellmouth Island of a dark force energy is a little suspect, my dude. What hero isn't tarnished by time? [The Dark Knight dialogue] "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." This movie defies expectation at every turn on purpose. It has
a lot to say. [Luke dialogue] "This is not going to go the way you think!" Some of the things people absolutely abhorred about this
film, I thought were the clever-erst things. Like, Kylo is the dynasty character. He has both a Solo and a Skywalker and he offers to burn it all down. Just to make his friend feel better because she spent her entire life lying to herself about being important. Being somebody. So, the dynasty tells her dynasties don't matter. This scene is so huge I can't even... like this film responds to its own criticisms before the criticisms had you... Like, WOW! But no, I'm sure that would have been just as meaningful in addition to Star Wars lore if she was a Kenobi. The new Skywalker trilogy, which this definitely is, starts our Skywalker as a bad guy and tries to tempt him
back to the light side. All the while, someone with immense passion and drive for success, cheated by society at every turn, with nowhere to place her ambition and is routinely shorted by
the reality of her heroes at every turn starts believing in a world not run on fairytales. No idol is beyond reproach and nobody is right because of who they are and what they've done. Even if you thought the casino subplot was silly and dumb because it is definitely both things. But, even that is just Star Wars camp. Which it's always been. I started this piece ready to re-litigate a lot of issues people had with it. But, I ended up deleting that script and throwing it out and I just started over because there are so many things to point out about the structure and the meaning
and the symbolism and what the hell this thing is actually saying. With a bit of perspective I love every decision in this film. but let's talk about.... Snoke is solid Star Wars villain. Thanks for watching don't forget to Like and Subscribe! Enjoy. I should probably back that up. Hmm, Okay. A common criticism of this film is that Snoke was a wasted character because we never learned what he was all about. And, I mean first off it's just like.... eh. But, secondly we did. He appears as someone who wants to present themself as larger than life and also just to sound scary. [True Lies dialogue] "They call him The Sand Spider." "Why?" "Probably because it sounds scary." Because he's actually a withered, easily fooled old man with a propensity for wearing stitch gold lamé from chin to toe. [Tim Gunn dialogue] "Make it work!" His death also cements Kylo is the second most well-developed Star Wars villain. Because hell if anyone's taken Vader's crown off his head any time soon. But hell if they didn't try a whole, whole lot! I think Anakin is an inconsistent character that is very much at odds with who he presumably becomes, regardless of how campy and silly those movies are supposed to be. I think Snoke served a very important purpose and it's the same one as Huck's in fact... They're punching bags. They're story punching bags. They're expendable. They make Kylo terrifying because he's emotionally
so eruptive. Luke Skywalker himself feeds into this. In a moment of weakness the golden boy believed a little too much in the dark-side light-side binary and less so in the power of redemption. [Obi Wan Kenobi dialogue] "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." Psst, Obi you do that all the time. Look, think of things like Snoke as story fuel. They serve the
greater narrative, that of Kylo Ren in this case, in the larger story. And Kylo Ren, in turn, fuels Rey.
Someone who in the last movie believed in this grand destiny for herself. But, when confronted with the fact that she's been lying to herself and her parents sold her off for drinking money he offers her a place to belong. And she's pretty vulnerable to that. Sure, it means probably touching the less puritanical sides of the force but she was already hooked on that shit from moment one. And seeing this from Kylos perspective isn't that hard because he actually was training to be a good guy. Until the head of the golden goodest guys pulled a weapon on him with, at least for a split second, the intent to use it. We never see Snoke kill anyone. We see Rey kill loads of people. It's a complicated conversation.
What do heroes look like? What do villains look like? The new generation has some notes for the older generations for their overly myopic look at morality. Which I will point out, in Canon, also happens from the prequels going into the original trilogy. They're less puritanical than their parents were. I think where Star Wars is taking all of these questions about the force and the universe at large are super interesting. The Last Jedi is a film where the heroes just get wailed on
and dwindled and at points even accepting the loss before the clock ran out. The opening title crawl says the resistance needs a spark and it spends a lot of effort to tell us why. At the end of this they are screwed. The key players of the resistance end up in one room, a small room. It tells a hell of a big story and does absolutely what it was supposed to do To leave the audience wondering how
do they get out of this one. Let's talk about Rey. New Star Wars relishes the grey. No pun intended except for that I totally intended it. Here's a funny thought: Rey has a villains backstory. A manufactured orphan of cowardly parents who sold her for drinking money. Conversely Kylo has the heroes backstory born to affluent former heroes themselves. Rey exemplifies new Star Wars to me. Anakin finally took that plunge into unforgivable child murdering evil with the gentlest of insinuations one could conquer death if they just believed enough. He wanted to save his wife, I get it. Rey got sold. Rey has no one. Rey has lived her entire life having
to fend for herself against an entire planet with greater social standing than her own. Ergo everybody takes from her. Luke never experienced the broken home that created him. He had two loving parents, even if they weren't his biological parents, that literally died in his stead. Rey grew up with a monster. I think Ryan realized there's probably a lot bubbling
just under the surface that one could tap into. Rey is a fantastic hero because she has every reason not to be.
I like that Rey is angry. I mean, she has every reason to be. She was capable from moment one because as a character she had to be capable since she was five years old. How could anyone learn to use a lightsaber that quickly? I don't know I bet it's that as a person she probably had to make weapons out of a lot of stuff at a moment's notice. I don't think figuring out how to make a lightsaber dangerous is gonna take very long. [Look how she uses it in the first one.] The internal logic of scenes in this movie make a lot of sense when you take a moment to think about them. They're almost responding to Force Awakens criticism. Like, the stableboy illustrates quite clearly that not only
do force sensitive kids not disclose the fact that they are force sensitive, they're experimenting
with their powers from a young age. A scene a lot of people gave undue scrutiny to was Ray using
the Jedi Mind Tricks seemingly by feeling in the Force Awakens. The Last Jedi's wrinkle is that she probably didn't. She knows how to do that shit. She's been doing it her whole life. Luke
and Rey have the same ambition. A belief that they were meant for something greater. When Luke
was training his mortal enemy who really took everything he had away from him, he should have been training Rey. That's the irony, that's the thing. There it is! There's the movies! Rey changes
the status quo of Star Wars so I understand why people are uncomfortable with what she does to the fabric of this universe. And I don't even care if in the next movie they reveal that Han and Leia are really her parents because, hell if that wouldn't explain the wonder power twins connection that her and Kylo seem to share. But, it wouldn't change who Rey is. The universe has
already screwed her over the damage has been done. Now she's here to burn it all down and she found a friend to burn it all down with her. And I don't think she's gonna go all the way evil. Not anymore, it's too obvious. But we're now immersed in this world of middle grounds and imperfect calls.
Heroes aren't as clean as they used to be and villains aren't as obvious. I mean, there are obvious ones they just get cleaved in half because that was really all the gas they ever had in the tank. We got to a point in a Star Wars movie where the hero almost became the villain and the villain almost became the hero. I mean, usually they just turn into melted bacon face and talk like this.
But back to Rey. She doesn't owe anybody anything her father and mother sold her when she was like 4 or 5 for booze. They ruined her entire life for probably not that many nights of being drunk.
That isn't a throwaway decision. That decision is everything. It makes her strong and caring and kind and interesting and powerful. You want to bet on natural force users? Bet on the kids that have to fend for themselves. And just to segway into the finale, bet on the people that have to clean up for everyone else's [mistakes]. Everyone wishes they could rewind the clock when one mistake leads to another mistake, which leads to further mistakes. You want to go back in time.
The rebels are outgunned from the word jump but it doesn't really stop them from screwing up
and getting people killed. Poe Dameron, bless his dumb, dumb heart, gets a lot of people killed he makes a lot of shockingly bad calls and a lot of people die as a result. Or Luke who made a mistake in his backstory so bad that the only way to atone for it is to give his own life for it. Something he knew he was doing from the moment he walked into that cave. Kylo is the one that warns Rey that astral
projecting yourself across the universe will kill you. and who do you think taught him that? It was Luke.
He then does it. Leia trusted Poe which almost got herself killed but definitely led to Holdo's heroic sacrifice. And the cleverest bit of the Canto Bight storyline is that Rose and Finn trusted the most rougie lovable rogue person to remind you that the Han Solo's of the universe don't always go your way. Every second they spent making mistakes that cost them time then in turn cost the lives of numerous resistance fighters and they're off riding bobcat dogs on a casino racetrack. People died and shit. I couldn't digest Canto Bight for like, months trust me I get it. But I eventually understood the balance there. Star Wars is as much a wonderfully believable space melodrama
as it is a whiz-bang Flash Gordon serial that people of all ages can enjoy. Star Wars has a
freak flag it has always had a freak flag and it will fly it. And it's trying to make you happy
doing it and I'm not gonna rehash and slightly more benign terms what I said during the Force Awakens piece about Star Wars existing to make the world a better place because I already said all that. For something to have been this relevant for this long it must evolve beyond ideas about morality developed by one guy in 1976. That's 42 years from the development of many of these ideas. They gotta grow up. We gotta grow up. The march of time waits for no one. Despite star wars not really dealing with the whole idea of years and time. I know they do in the books don't @ me. It's a film show. We are finite creatures and that is full circle everyone wishes they could
rewind the clock to fix the problems we caused ourselves. Hate the film but don't sell Rian short. It's difficult on purpose. Some films have like a moral or whatever and I shit you not, the moral of this film is a thing all characters in this film could use to enrich their lives and stuff, was to not jump to conclusions. Hey everybody. It's me again. I'm the guy who were just listening to for like 20 minutes. I know there's probably a lot of people that have a lot more things to say about that movie. I know I probably had 20 more minutes in me. And before you say like "you should do that" also what's up JT (no not that one sorry) I really said what I wanted to say about
the Last Jedi. I kind of edited it down I wanted to start the conversation not finish it. Norbert Wagner the third is amazing. Paul VIN. cinemawins. That is the coolest thing to see that in the credits. Follow me on Twitter please @Mikeyface I'm really funny. Right guys? They're sleeping. also definitely check out the filmjoy patreon it's still called movies and Mikey but essentially it's running this whole thing. Patreon.com/movieswithmikey We need it to survive. This is a
job now and we're trying to do bigger and crazier things and I'm really excited about that just like I'm excited about Lorde hosk and Andrew heckard and era... fun fact Andrew Hackard is a man who edited
multiple Wil Wheaton books. Boom bonus thing you didn't know and I guess sort of last I want to
sort of drive more eyes to our show deep dive you can find it a little further down the film
droid page it's a show I do with Zoe wells and Sam Winkler and Elisa Melendez and what we do is
we forced ourselves to watch terrible movies we pull out of a box called the dive box and we cannot really dunk on it. We have to like find what's good about it no matter how bad the movie is and I think if you watch the Ghosts of Mars episode because I think it was rough before that if you
watch the ghosts of Mars episode I really feel like we hit our stride and we're making a lot more
of that just like Josh and Kenyatta Klein they have a show like they don't. Mike Laidlaw Amy Burg,
Liam Gallagher, Matt Charles, Aaron debury, Brady Alltop. I really just want to say this episode
was was a lot of thinking basically since I saw it last Jedi in the theater I remember I went with my friends and afterward we're like huh I think Ethan said the same thing no that's not true. okay actually it could be true Richard Scott Adam Thomas Trey Warren anyway I watched it again on
demand later and it was only the third time that the the last Jedi like congealed as the thing for
me where I realized I it's a brilliant thing that I love and again you're free to believe whatever
you want and think whatever you want I'm not your mom but map is it's not true it's Tim Gordon
that's not true either Michael stop. bye!
