The second and third international trailers for Star Wars Episode VIII have dropped. While the second offers only a little additional dialogue from Kylo in his speech about killing the past, the third gives some new footage. Unlike all the other trailers, the third international trailer, reminds us that The Last Jedi is picking up right where The Force Awakens left off (the first time there has never been a time lapse of at least a year between Saga episodes). We also get a quick look inside Canto Bight and a little more of the Battle of Crait. 10 days, people, we’re down to 10 days!!!!
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past. The film stars Mark Hamill, the late Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro.
Sorry this is weighing on my mind. While I cannot imagine any SW fan not having heard about this or giving it some thought, I guess it still qualifies as a SPOILER.
Luke gone dark. Whaddaya think? Have you LOOKED at that poster, the one that exactly parallels the famous one from 1977? Rey is at the bottom holding up the saber, and above her, occupying the place where Vader’s face sat in the original poster, is Kylo Ren’s face AND Luke’s. And Luke looks evil. Not conflicted, not ambiguous, but totally malevolent. And he is bathed in that universal SW symbol for evil, the color red. Really look at that poster, it is striking and strange indeed. And how about that light/dark cardboard display in theater lobbies, where Luke is in the dark side part AND the light side one? Maybe it means he is partly dark and partly light in the new movie. You could have positioned Vader like that, back in the ROTJ days. Yet prequel Palpatine would have also fit.
But this is not just about marketing. We have been promised the mother of all twists, in a franchise that already contains the most famous twist in film history. Well, the twist cannot be about 1-6, because how do you change the way people look at an already-completed work without ruining it? And people are not invested enough in the new characters for a twist about them to have the impact that is being talked about. Ergo, the twist is about events post-ROTJ, and will revolve around Luke or Leia. The only Leia twist I can think of would be if she turned on a lightsaber at a key moment, or used the Force out of the blue when confronted by Kylo Ren. In other words, Luke trained her at some point post-ROTJ, and she walked away for some reason, but still has the abilities. But while that would be cool, it won’t happen, and would not be the biggest twist in the saga. But if Luke were the big bad of the new trilogy, that would be HUGE. It would mean we were all snowed by TFA, that all the stuff that we thought was progressing according to formula (Vader-like villain, his mentor/overlord, ect) was misdirection, and the trilogy is totally veering off now.
It’s not that I believe this, but it’s tempting.
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If….if Luke has gone bad, hed be a free agent. His academy was destroyed by Kylo and likely The First Order so its hard to see him on their side. I think he’s shed notions of light and dark and is using both as a kind of grey jedi. I think he found out something that changes the way he sees the Force. Leias whole storyline is a total mystery. Shes always shied away from her potential. I don’t think the twist is guessable. I cant see Luke as the ultimate villain from what weve seen. The red throughout all the marketing, each individual character poster and the main one is a clue to something. But its on everyone. Its all over Crait inside and out. What makes that planet so special? I can barely believe a week from right now I’ll be watching it.
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Well, if Luke is evil, the story about the academy we got would not have been the full story. And if Luke had been complicit in what happened at the Academy… makes him quite evil. And it’s not the kind of thing that could be left unspoken, because it’s already been spoken of. So you’re right, Disney would not go there. Ever. They did not want Rapunzel to die in Into the Woods, because of a totally different version of Rapunzel in the film Tangled. They get the trauma that would be inflicted on a multitude of little kids, if Luke were now a monster. It’s bad enough if he turns out to be a real jerk.
If we are to believe that Ren wants to kill his mother, that it is a big plot point, I think we have possibly been snowed by Lucasfilm/Disney. I think that maybe Fisher was NOT slated to appear in episode 9, ever, and we were told a lie so her death would be a surprise. I don’t think it’s a lock that her son will kill her, BTW. I just feel like if she is central to this film in such a dark and dramatic way, her last crescendo has finally come, and would have regardless of fate.
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I honestly don’t know why Disney would have lied about her being in Episode IX because, remember back to a year ago, and things were in crisis. There was no master plot happening; people were scrambling and there wouldn’t have been that reaction had she been done already. I’m looking at the poster (yes it’s on my wall) and Luke could appear menacing…..but I see troubled today. I see him balanced on the edge of a knife, hence the dual theatrical standups. I think THIS is the film where we get the answer to the question that inspired JJ Abrams to kick things off in Episode VII: “Who IS Luke Skywalker?” A week from right now…..I’ll know and be writing my review. 2018 as a whole, looks like it has a whole lot more potential than this year did, but the lack of a SW film at Christmas is going to be tough. It’s become a holiday tradition in my family, and I’m sure in a lot of other families. For that reason alone, I’m eight kinds of pissed at Disney for their continual efforts to shoehorn them back into May and keeping Solo there next year.
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OK, so this is for real now.
Dave, I think we have to brace ourselves for the very real possibility that this will be a lot closer to ESB than we would like. I think it might begin with the First Order discovering the main Resistance base, and walkers attacking it on a snow planet. (That scene from the trailer.) It looks like Canto Bight might be the new Cloud City, and Del Toro’s character sounds eerily like he could be a placeholder for Lando. Rey trains with Luke, but the training is cut short when she goes off to confront Kylo Ren. The twist on that will be that she WANTS to join him. Maybe she goes off to him with that in mind; more probably, he convinces her, during or after a duel. I would not be surprised if the film’s big twist were revealed just before Rey decides to join Ren. In other words, the only structural difference would be that she gives in and joins him, instead of resisting like Luke did. Huge, but does not change the formula/structure, because it comes at the very end. Do not read the rest of this paragraph if you have not seen the final ad they ran, with the big reveal everyone is talking about, though I have a rather sad explanation for it that I think is probably true. SPOLER It’s probably just a vision she has on the island, this movie’s version of Luke seeing his own face in Vader’s mask, in the cave.
The rest of the film would involve a search and destroy mission on the part of Kylo Ren, like Vader with the Falcon.
It is very hard to believe that this is true, but when everything I see fits into a film that parallels ESB, I cannot help but sit up and take notice. I would personally not be upset, most great stories are from formulas of one kind or another, and the bare bones don’t matter. If the emotional beats are resonant and new, everything is suddenly different. What I worry about is backlash. TFA paralleling ANH was defensible, and in fact the only smart move. But now we are entering shyster territory, IF this is ESB Redux when we were promised a film that felt totally different and changed the way we looked at things.
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Don’t worry. It’s not going to go the way you think. See what I did there? Crait is a mineral world covered in salt flats not snow and as for the rest, I don’t see it breaking down like that. This film remember isnt beginning with that battle. Its starting right where 7 ended which breaks the mold to begin with.
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The way the film begins might have changed in editing. You never really know. But the first reactions from the premiere have persuaded me this is not a remake of ESB, so now I just have to ride out one week of no spoilers whatsoever, and why the hell did they have to run that stupid final ad? EVERYONE WAS ALREADY CONVINCED THEY WANTED TO SEE THE MOVIE!
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And Rian Johnson is no one’s shyster, he wouldn’t have gone along with this.
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Actually, he’s the most talented director to ever helm a SW film. I’m obviously not saying he’s a genius visionary like George Lucas, and I’m not saying he’s a genius at creating likable mass entertainment like JJ Abrams probably is, I’m saying that when you look at him PURELY AS A DIRECTOR, there has never been a SW director who knows what he’s doing like this guy.
Guillermo Del Toro MUST be given the Jabba movie he wants, I want to see his beautiful creature-happy mind turned loose on the criminal underworld of SW. Can you even imagine? I saw Shape of Water tonight, and while it hits you over the head with its messaging, all of that kind of fades into a blur as the film goes on and you are swept along by GDT’s revolving, kaleidoscopic repertoire of tonal changes and different things to feel. The film is a Universal-style monster movie, a contemporary fairy tale, an erotically charged romance, and a cold war thriller featuring a genuinely scary psychopathic villain. There’s a dream sequence involving a huge musical number, and a horrifying scene of torture. The film SHOULD NOT work under any circumstances, and yet it does, and really well. It’s one of my favorite movies. To be sure, not many people will agree with me in liking it THAT much, but my God, what a wonderful movie, what a film about the magic of films. I can’t wait to see it again. And again. And again.
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The trailer for Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs is insane.
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I’m just talking, to deal with the insane anticipation. Pay it no mind. Six days.
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You’re not alone, my friend.
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