Today the benevolent overlords at Disney™ released the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi and I feel it is critical that I describe the things that I saw in that trailer. This is so other people that saw things in the trailer can read about the things that I saw and decide if they saw the same things that I saw. Hopefully, discussing this hopelessly commercial product of corporate group-think delivered by a media empire can give me and my readers a fleeting sense of connection in this unfeeling world, and also sell some toys.
The first thing I saw in this trailer was a rock, and then Rey touched that rock. She seemed to be out of breath, so maybe she was climbing that rock, or doing some other kind of Jedi training there. Then, she floats some smaller rocks on top of what appears to be a different rock. Genius pacing, here.
Luke keeps the energy at inside voice levels, stoic and slow: “Breathe. Just Breathe. Now, Reach Out. What do you see?” These droning laconic statements are the leitmotif of this trailer, giving it a lazy regularity. Rey chimes in with a similar level of intensity: “Light. Darkness. A balance.” Luke then chides, “It’s so much bigger”. I’ll call – How much bigger?
Well, all the while, I am seeing things. There’s Leia and a star map (“light”), a crushed Kylo Ren mask (“dark”), and a book sneakily titled, “1001 Ways to Bring Balance to the Force” (“balance”). What cool things, and they even whisper quotes from the best three movies under each thing! They must have made a mistake, because they put in some new thing that I didn’t recognize: the red-exhaust ships flying towards some walkers (probably AT-AT, but the distance is too great to tell). These new things scared me and worsened the trailer by their inclusion for two seconds.
Thankfully, there were things that I recognized from other Star Wars movies to allay the fear of the unfamiliar. Finn! BB-8 and Poe! THE MILLENIUM FREAKIN’ FALCON! Rey and Kylo doing a light saber thing (with a make-believe adherence to the 180° rule to trick us into thinking this is a real scene). Then I see more Star Wars things: X-Wings, Alliance Ships, TIE Fighters. Overall, this Star Wars trailer had a good collection of things from Star Wars. From this trailer, I predict that Star Wars: The Last Jedi will make $214 million dollars on the opening weekend, and that I will rate the film 9.7/10.
But wait, Luke Skywalker drops a Star Wars MOAB: “I only know one truth: it’s time for the Jedi to end.” Seems more like a working hypothesis at this point, and quite hyperbolic, but I have to disagree with him. Since Star Wars is going to continue along the same path of risk aversion and fan service that made Rogue One and The Force Awakens so rewarding, maybe it is best to keep the Jedi around. Without them, I won’t have any way to recognize the good guys by the color of their laser sword.
I honestly found the visuals a bit disappointing, unlike trailers for the first one. Given the Disney business model, we can be sure that they will play it safe and perhaps even predictably. But I’m still going…
Yeah, it was pretty lackluster. Not much exciting and new, except for the red smoke ships that were doing that for who knows why.
That last comment from Luke really has me intrigued though. What exactly does he mean by that…is he turning to the dark side? Is there something in the history of the Jedi that we don’t yet know about, that might turn everything around that we know about? There are a lot of possibilities. Still, I have to agree with the comment above. The trailers for Episode 7 left me with goosebumps all over, this one did not do that for me. It looked cool, but it missed something in it. But, even if every trailer that will be released for it would be incredibly stupid: nothing would prevent me from going anyway lol ?
Since there was such a focus on “balance” and Luke saying “It’s so much bigger”, my read is that the old way of the force, light side vs. dark side, is unsustainable. Luke has realized that the conflict is too great when each side is beset against the other. To truly restore balance, he may seek a third option where force users can exist under varying philosophies without murdering each other.
Yep, that is another thought that went through my mind as well. I have heard rumors about him maybe turning into a Grey Jedi. Whatever it will turn out to be, I really like the way they put this line at the end of the trailer. It has certainly sparked enough conversations for it so far ??
When Luke says “It’s s so much bigger” this sounds to me like it”s even beyond both sides of the Force, and beyond balance. But what might that be?
Perhaps the Force has been over-rated?
Before the Old Republic, there were The Rakatan, and before them, The Celestials. Both groups had fantastic super-technology. Even technology that could repair itself! The Celestials built Centerpoint Station. The Rakatans could put their enemies in a mind prison. After the destruction of The Star Forge, technology rapidly faded away and there was more emphasis on using the force. Did the Rakatan ever zap people with Force-lightning? Oddly, I fin”t remember ever hearing that they did, even though they used dark-dide energy for their weapons.
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Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.