Look, almost anything I can say here would be spoileriffic, so let me just say that this is too many cats in one bag, and most of the cats are kind of skinny. It feels like a set of scenes were carefully constructed to look iconic, and then an overall plot was groupthunk together in order to string them into a single movie. If The Force Awakens caught flack for being a re-casting of A New Hope, this movie toys with us and tries to be its own show by repeatedly setting up scenes echoing ones from The Empire Strikes Back and then reversing the outcome. I guess that's what passes for originality these days in Hollywood.
For all that, there are some genuine moments of humor mixed in. Luke Skywalker in particular has some segments where he's mis-directing, mocking the seriousness of the situation, and just generally showing a Yoda-esqe sense of humor. You get the feeling that not only is Luke Skywalker tired of being the Big Damn Hero of the Galaxy, but Mark Hamill is tired of being Luke Skywalker and furthermore the scriptwriters are getting tired of him too. But they all know there's another round or two left, so they might as well have some fun. Surprisingly this works, and makes up some of the best parts of the movie. Carrie Fisher as Prices Leia... what is there to say. If you think they gave away what happens to her in the trailers, um, "This is not going to go the way you think."
Any middle story in a trilogy is going to suffer for being the transitional tale. This one is no exception, so perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on the movie. Most of the individual scenes are worth watching just for what they are, and the plot line does advance the story from Point A to Point B. It's definitely better than any of the prequel trilogy.
ps: Watching how things finally worked out lessens this film's meaning and impact. Let's call it 1.5 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment