Activity

1) What do you think of this film story’s completeness – in terms of the plot and subplots, and especially the “big picture” of this episode’s place in the entire Star Wars saga (all eight episodes so far)?

I think TLJ’s story is much better than the previous Force Awakens. There’s actually more substance in this one. I have also identified a couple overarching themes that Johnson (tried) to place into this: disillusionment (and recovering from it) and pride. The past is a big focus as well, but I think it can tie closely with disillusionment. I find the attempt of tackling these two themes to be rather satisfying (though not perfectly compelling, unfortunately). Also I find these to be fitting themes to include in a Star Wars film.

The subplots don’t all work well together. The Rey-Luke, Rey-Ren, Finn-Rose, and Poe being the four subplot lines that were rather separate and not complimentary altogether. The Rey-Luke and Rey-Ren were well done – I was very moved and impressed by the scene in which Luke finally revealed to truth about his failing Ben to Rey. (As a character, Luke developed very nicely in the entire saga. I was disappointed when he was killed off, since Rey obviously will not get any training from a living Luke anymore. I’m seeing that perhaps she’ll self-teach using the texts, or Luke as a ghost will give her some advice?)  I like the attention Poe is getting in this story, but Finn took a back seat and him and Rose’s plot had no contribution to the big picture in terms of plot. 😛

Finally, the fact that Rey remains a rather Mary Sue character does not help TLJ – women are humans too. And I’m not sure why they had female leadership dominating the story – especially in a way that is not satisfying (General Leia really didn’t do much as a “general,” General Holdo did have a noble sacrificial ending but her refusing to explain her plan to Poe didn’t make much sense for a supposedly famous general).

@quinn-ofallon