Broadsheet Trailer Park: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

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What you may need to know…

1. Disney “dropped” the long-overdue trailer for The Last Jedi last night during Monday Night Football in the States.

2. The first teaser arrived in April, followed by a behind the scenes feature in July; this is the first that offers more firm plot details. Director Rian Johnson offered this caveat.

3. In terms of plot, it’s as you might have guessed. Rey (Daisy Ridley), last seen on Skellig Michael in Kerry, has begun her Jedi training with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, looking decidedly Oliver Reed-esque). He seems concerned about just how powerful she is, as does Snoke (Andy Serkis), who hints that he’s more interested in her than in Kylo Ren (Adam Driver, angsty).

4. On Ren’s side, he’s still struggling with the Dark Side, as illustrated by his hesitation to blow his own mother’s ship to smithereens. Unless this is a big fake-out, it’s sad to see that Leia (Carrie Fisher) has been hastily written out of the film due to Fisher’s sudden death last year.

5. Could Rey and Ren be about to switch allegiances?

6. The cute little animal thingies are called Porgs. Presumably there’s a factory in China knocking out 5,000 Porgs an hour, of various sizes, to be shipped to Disney stores all over the world in time for Christmas. Gotta get those toys out there. Merchandising is the real reason Disney paid $4bn for LucasFilm back in 2012, after all.

7. It’s a good trailer, does the job. But to me it feels like there’s something off about Star Wars’ image at this stage. With the firing of Colin Trevorrow from Episode IX (2019), the firing of Lord & Miller from the untitled Han Solo Movie (2018), and various other changes and replacements, it feels like we’re getting to see the sausage made.

8. LucasFilm and Disney are so fiercely protective of Star Wars that they are unwilling to take a single risk. When this film finally arrives, it’s clear that the immensely talented Rian Johnson will have toed the line completely, and the finished product will have been audience tested again and again, edited by committee and approved by a zillion executives to push all the right nostalgia buttons and so on. Is it the directors they don’t trust, or the audience?

9. That’s not to say it won’t be good. You could interpret it as a return to the old studio system that Hollywood operated until the 1960s, where the producer had complete creative control and the director was a mere technician. Marvel (arguably) keep getting it right, after all. What that led to was an independent film revolution, so I wouldn’t worry too much about the whole “Hollywood is out of ideas” thing. Which it is, but it’s all part of the cycle.

10. Anyway, I shouldn’t complain. Yeah Star Wars!

Doug’s Verdict: Doesn’t matter. Will be huge no matter what.

Release Date: December 15

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14 thoughts on “Broadsheet Trailer Park: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

  1. Burnt Cheese

    I found the trailer decidedly underwhelming. Disney using that trick of red herring editing to make it look like a voiceover is talking to someone else again

    Star Wars movies are not the equivalent of a Simon Cowell pop band. Over produced and creatively bland.

    Even Mark Hamill commented that he didn’t like the direction they were going in with Luke Skywalker before Disney slapped his wrist and he came out with a comment about how great the movie is. (Even though he hadn’t seen the movie!) He was also very vocal about the killing of Han Solo without have any meaningful OT human characters present.

    Tl;dr? NERDS!

  2. Public Service

    the other thing I suspect we’ll see is a backlash – or reversal at least – against the female action leads. not that I’m against it, I just can’t see it lasting

    1. :-Joe

      Hmmm… ye maybe…. there seems to be not only a shift for more and stronger female lead characters but also at the same time a push of less traditional masculine machismo in male leads. Like a rebalanceing or maybe even a complete flip.

      My theory is that the corporations have figured that the female beauty and skincare market is saturated and with gender fluidity pretty much accepted by anyone paying attention they are going after men with the same galaxy of junk products to sell them.

      The problem is the franchise is old and stuck in it’s traditional ways so the older fans who have more invested may not be so keen to watch it turn into another giant world fair of consumer crap manipulation.
      Meanwhile the younger fans won’t notice because they’re young minds are easily led or have already grown up with what seems a newer and more foreign way of life to older generations.

      You could have a backlash unless they introduce a lot more female or gender fluid leads and abandon some of the traditional narrative ideas and the original audience altogether…

      I’ve just realised,.. I’m talking(sh!te) about corporate consumer culture and it’s relationship to gender, through the prism of generations of blockbuster SW trilogys…

      wtf? Let’s blow this thing and go home….

      :-J

  3. Daisy Chainsaw

    The Original Trilogy has a very special place in my heart. I don’t know how it happened, but me Ma brought us to see Star Wars in the cinema, the older ones must have pestered the bejeebus out of her to take us! Doctor General Princess Leia Organa was one of my first heroes and it is going to break me into little peices watching Carrie Fisher in her final role.

    I hope the end frame tribute simply says “Drowned in moonlight”. Fanboys might have a conniption if the word bra was mentioned!

  4. I.P.

    That Kylo lad repents and turns to the light side. But not before killing old skellig Luke. Some ropey cgi in that trailer.

    More fat American tourist money for Kerry though, so not all bad.

    As kids films go, 7/10 bananas.

  5. :-Joe

    The OT was great blockbuster fun for all the family, particularly the first one as a standalone feature…
    I even went to see the re-release trilogy in the cinema which was a strange but worthwhile experience, especially because it was with a few people who had never seen it before.

    Shame they crashed the franchise into a super nova of cash for lucas with the 2nd trilogy, or is it 2T?… damn that direction and editing was bad… and pretty much everything apart from a few SFX and fight sequences adding up to about 30mins… such a dreadfull waste and a rip off.

    I’ll still watch it and whatever else they churn out eventually if I’m half asleep and looking for something a bit daft with not much thought required but definitely not worth going to the cinema for another one… It’s only getting more repetative and predictable… shame.

    The online multiplayer games are probably a lot more fun.

    :-J

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