Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I’ve been struggling to actually write about this movie. I’m not sure if I like it or not — there are times when I think it’s very good, and there are times when I feel a little disappointed.

Spoilers below.

Kylo, Poe and Leia are all better in this movie than the previous one, especially the last two characters. (Kylo was already one of the stronger characters in the first movie, I would say.) Phasma was a complete waste of potential, as was the case last time. Hux also feels dull, although he does get one of my favourite lines in the movie, when he sarcastically asks: “Do you think you got him?”. Snoke is slightly better than his first appearance, but is still boring. I’m actually surprised at how many people are annoyed that his background wasn’t explained. On one level I do understand wanting a more fleshed out background for the story, but on the other hand the character itself really doesn’t interest me at all.

Interestingly, Benicio del Toro’s character outshines Phasma, Hux and Snoke. The writing and the performance both work well, to the point where I would actually like to see him return. Rose also works fairly well, and it will be good to see more of her character in the next film. Yoda’s return was also handled surprisingly well.

Rey is solid, as she was last time. Luke…well, Luke is part of why I am so confused about how I feel when it comes to this movie. I won’t go into detail here, as I still haven’t decided what to think about him on the whole, but I’ll say this — his reunion with R2-D2 was a bright spot, along with the way his story wrapped up.

One of the highlights of the movie is the battle in the throne room, where Kylo and Rey take on a bunch of skilled guards. On the note of Kylo, one thing that does confuse me is the way he is referred to as being a rare talent in the force. Honestly, I never really had that impression when I saw the first movie…it was Rey that came across like a prodigy, not Kylo.

One thing I will miss about Johnson (I believe Abrams is returning to direct the next film) is his interesting dialogue. I’m thinking of Yoda’s dialogue to Luke, about failure and the student and master relationship, or Luke talking to Leia near the end.

Filmstruck 4 Challenge

So, this seems to be getting a lot of attention at the moment — essentially, it just asks you to name four films that ‘define you’. Here are my choices, in no real order:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Surely the best fantasy film ever made? Some Tolkien fans aren’t particularly happy with any of the adaptations (I’m not much of a fan when it comes to Jackson’s Hobbit films) but this one, and the following two, were special. The writing was smart and sharp — cutting Bombadil was a good move, in my opinion. The music was superb, thanks to Howard Shore. The performances were excellent, especially Sean Bean as Boromir and Ian McKellan as Gandalf. There isn’t a single dull part in the film. It’s charming, scary, dramatic and generally engaging on all levels.

The first time I watched it, I actually think I was a little too young to grasp it properly. Now that I’m older, I really appreciate just how good it was. It probably got me much more interested in Tolkien’s books too.

Mulan (1998). My favourite of the animated Disney films. Humour, action, drama, tension. I’m not the biggest fan of the ‘Reflections’ song, but most of the others are superb. Be a Man is a highlight, of course. Mulan herself is a great character, and Mushu makes for a good sidekick. (“The truth is we’re both frauds…”) As a big fan of martial arts, I always get a kick out of the training montage too.

They are apparently making two live action versions of this story, one by Disney and the other by Sony. Honestly, I feel a bit nervous about this, but I’ll wait and see how it turns out.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983). Before I got into Trek, I was really into Star Wars. (I still like it, to be clear.) My favourite film of the franchise is The Empire Strikes Back, but for some reason I feel like this third film might be a better choice for this sort of thing. I’m mainly talking about the stuff that occurs after the whole Jabba material. I really like the whole confrontation between Luke, Vader and Palpatine and the scenes between Luke, Yoda and Ghost-Kenobi. The shot of Luke standing in front of Vader’s funeral pyre is great, and the ending party is wonderful.

Spider-Man 2 (2004). When I was younger, Spider-Man was probably my favourite superhero, mainly thanks to the animated cartoon. This film is an odd choice, because I don’t even know how much I really like it — I’d like to rewatch it at some point, as it has been quite a long time. There is one scene in particular that makes me cringe, where Peter decides to start quoting a bit of poetry to Mary Jane in the middle of an argument. However, at the same time, there are some truly great moments — the whole ‘Raindrops’ scene, the bit where Peter gets ready to go and see Mary Jane in a play, the horrifying scene between Peter and his aunt, where he talks about the death of Uncle Ben, etc. I also remember being struck by one of Octavius’ lines, where he talks about using intelligence for the good of mankind.

I haven’t seen the latest Spider-Man film, but I find it doubtful that it can match this one. (The fact that the Peter in this one is actually an adult rather than a high school student is another plus point to me.) I would say that this is better than any of the modern Marvel movies that I’ve seen, other than Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Roger Ebert gives a good review of this film here.

Novels of the 19th Century

The other day I found myself thinking about one of my favourite periods in fiction — the 19th century. It gave us the Brontë sisters (all three were excellent writers), Dickens (I’m not a massive fan, but I enjoyed David Copperfield), Gaskell, Eliot (again, I’m not a big fan, but she’s certainly one of the most famous and respected writers of the period), Jane Austen (I love her work), Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky (both impressive writers).

There are still a fair amount of books from the period that I need to read. (I’ve looked up a list of works in that period to refresh my memory while I write.) I still haven’t finished Moby-Dick. I also need to check out A Tale of Two Cities, Middlemarch, The Portrait of a Lady, Far from the Madding Crowd, Les Miserablés, and there are plenty more too.

I’ve never been able to get through one of Hardy’s books, and I’m not sure why. I also have trouble with Eliot. I couldn’t really get into Vanity Fair, by Thackeray. Maybe I’ll change my mind once I try reading their work again…

In terms of adaptations, I quite like the Joe Wright movie for Pride and Prejudice, and the famous BBC television series was also good. There was a recent version of Jane Eyre, but the main thing that struck me when I saw it was that there had been a mistake in regard to casting — personally, I really think that Fassbender would have been perfect for the role of St. John. Ah well.

Reaction to seeing ‘The Karate Kid’ (1984):

Just a few notes on The Karate Kid (1984):

• The fighting choreography is surprisingly good. I’m mainly thinking of the tournament fights near the end of the movie.
• I’m not sure what people think of Ralph Macchio’s work in this movie, but personally, I thought his performance worked very well. Roger Ebert also seems to highlight the performance in his review of the movie.
• Two of the songs are actually quite catchy. The first is ‘Cruel Summer‘ (Bananarama), which plays during a scene with Daniel at school, and the second is ‘You’re the Best’ (Joe Esposito), which has a great selection of tournament clips near the end of the movie.
• The scene where Daniel helps Mr Miyagi to lay down, then blows out the candle and bows to him before leaving the room is a particularly nice moment.