I finally saw Ep VIII last night. Overall I happen to think it is actually one of the stronger movies, but not without its flaws. I think it actually advances the story rather than just introduce new characters and give lip service to the previous generation. There was enough real despair and underlying thread of the conflict between light and dark in each of us, and philosophical issues of "good and bad are made up words" that make the bigger story fairly compelling. Even the campy lines about hope and suns and all that. Personal sacrifice, giving up the momentary victory to save what you love instead of destroying what you hate - those are all pretty big themes that I think are often missed in western cultures these days - I mean, people don't even understand in world events why people would be willing to risk their lives for various ideals, let alone against helpless odds. The stuff about arms dealers, too, that's a pretty heady thing to put in that movie.
I feel like the movie maybe could have had an even darker tone had it not been catering so much for kids, but it's not a bad balance. As it was though - I'd have to consider when I'd take my kids to see it. Lots of people dying in that movie, even as "sanitized" as a ship going up in a ball of space-fire may be.
Some things to keep in mind though - it's obvious that Disney is making the series more aimed at a younger audience. If you approach the series with that mindset a lot of things make a bit more sense. Remember folks, the movie makers are not making the movie for
current Star Wars fans so much as they are trying to make new lifelong Star Wars fans. They are trying to get kids at younger ages.
That said, things I liked:
- Actual new story progression. Much more than the simple "let's introduce some new characters" of Ep VII, we had progression about the nature of the Force, etc. For those of us who don't spend massive amounts of time in the EU for instance, this is welcome.
- Aside from the technical issues, the cruiser lightspeed jump was one of the most visually stunning elements I've ever seen in a Star Wars movies.
- I'm still not sure who these folks are saying there are no "wide shots" in this movie - there were actually way more than I was expecting. Think of all the stuff at the Jedi temple complex where there is no or almost no dialog, just exposition of Luke's daily life through imagery. There was basically no words at all with Luke's last moments, just shots of the suns-set.
- Some character building of the main 4 - I thought it was pretty decent for each of them, working through the various situations. You don't have to like the characters, but the way the development is done is actually better than most movies these days. And that's kind of scary/impressive.
- Did that little kid at the very end force-pull the broom into his hand, or did I dream that?
My dislikes, and most of them are technical:
- There were actually few instances of green-screen failure. By that I mean there was a discernible layering of the characters into their surroundings. The worst of these was during the hangar-in-flames fighting and escape of Fin and Rose.
- The flight mechanics of ships in the Star Wars universe is baffling. Why do ships require fuel to move at constant speed? Why do capital ships all seem to move at the same speed? That is - the Resistance fleet moves away from the New Order fleet initially to get range, but then the New Order fleet apparently keeps the same range from then out. This just suggests a response lag, not a difference in thrust / speed capability. Small aside: why would a ship start drifting aimlessly just because it ran out of fuel? Apparently this part of space is either dense fluid or uses Eve Online space mechanics.
- Snoke really needed some development. First of all, a prosthetic costume or animatronic would have been way better than that CGI mess. Also, he's supposed to be this badass, but we only get a couple menacing holograms and one "in person" scene where he basically Dies of Hubris (there's probably a TVTropes for that). No "mystery" like we had with the original Emperor, no real evidence of why people fear him other than his overt use of power, etc. But where did he come from? You'd think if you had this many super-powerful dark side adepts around, they would be more obvious...
- You can use a stampede as a story element, but having your heroes ride the stampeding animals is... reaching. Plus the stampeding animals were a bit too emotive. A horse is expressive, but doesn't have a simian face like whatever those were. Somewhat related: I don't quite understand the little bird-things that Chewie befriended. They seemed kind of like fluff (see what I did there?)
- Too much special effects money spent on odd choices - fix the greenscreen and get rid of that little greedy thing throwing coins around.
