The One Where We Are All Angry #NotMyLuke
Star Wars Episode VII came out in theaters a week ago and Part-Time Characters is finally ready to talk about The Last Jedi with all of the spoilers and rage. Accompanied by our guest, Jerry Rodriguez, we let the hate flow through us as we discuss the out of place humor, the new character pairings and ‘the twist’ that people either love or hate.
Be warned. We talk about every little detail of this movie. There will be all the spoilers. If you haven’t seen this movie yet and don’t want it spoiled for you, maybe come back in a week and have a listen.
We start off the episode by mentioning in a few sentences how we felt in general about The Last Jedi. Bridget makes the perfect analogy of comparing the movie to eating Froyo when what you really wanted was a sundae. We move on to analyze the humor and how it compares to the humor of previous Star Wars movies. Was it too much? Was it actually funny? Did it even feel like Star Wars?
Later on, we discuss each character’s story and how they come together in the third act. We are all still perplexed with Finn and Rose’s storyline and how this is not the Luke Skywalker we all know and love. Even Mark Hamill doesn’t understand why Luke would hide away for so long.
Right before we almost join the Dark Side, we end the episode by speculating what can be expected from Episode IX. Let’s just say, we don’t have a lot of hope. Sorry, Princess Leia.
NOTES
00:03:13 Spoiler Warning and Quick Opinion of the Movie
00:12:40 The Humor and the Jokes
00:38:31 Characters and New Dynamics
00:59:30 Finn and Rose’s Story
01:17:50 Who the Hell is Snoke?
01:48:29 Science Inaccuracies
ANNOUNCEMENT: We are thinking of making a confession game. We are going to leave our anonymous confessions here (all related to movies or celebrities) and in the next episode, we will read them and try to decipher who confessed what. The whole point is to bluff and make sure people don’t guess our confession. You can leave yours as well and confuse us. When we play the game, you can admit to your confession in the comment section. Click here to register and confess!
Question of the Week: What did you think about The Last Jedi?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments and Sam will read them next week. You can also send us your thoughts to our email parttimecharacters[at]gmail[dot]com. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook or Twitter so you can send us direct messages and get podcast updates.
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This Week’s Cast: Maria Garcia, Bridget Serdock, Sam Noland and guest Jerry Rodriguez
MUSIC
Great Days by Joakim Karud
I personally enjoyed this movie, despite it being wildly inconsistent in both tone and quality. I hated Looper so I didn’t have high hopes for this movie, and I came out pleasantly surprised. I wish that Rian Johnson had come out with a better script, and a lot of this film’s misfires could have been avoided.
Now I don’t know if I can answer all of your grievances about the movie, but here are some I can pick up on, as well as my thoughts:
-Finn couldn’t have introduced Poe to Rey since he was in a coma at the end of the previous film.
-I liked the porgs, and I don’t feel as if them or Captain Phasma were meant to be more. The real life location of the Skellig Michael Island (Luke’s Island) is a UNESCO site, which has a lot of birds. So they simply decided to create their Star Wars version of birds (I’m sure that making them cute was to sell toys) but I never expected them to do anything but populate the island. As for Captain Phasma, I think Gwendoline Christie’s star power and cool costume are the only reasons why people wanted more from her. I personally hope she doesn’t come back for episode 9, only to die again.
-The reason why Snoke’s identity/backstory was not revealed is because Rey would not care who he was, she only came for Ben and to stop the First Order.
-Rey was attracted to Ben Solo. Don’t believe me? Watch the movie again. She not only changes clothes and hairdo before meeting him, but wears lip gloss for the first time in the movies as well. I was personally interested in a hero/villain romance, since its new to Star Wars, and finally feel validated in predicting this after watching TFA. It’s clear that there will be a Ben Solo redemption arc and there will be a coup in the First Order, where someone else will take the power from him, so this war doesn’t end in a peace treaty and instead an awesome space battle.
-How did you guys not realize Luke would no longer be the Luke we know after TFA? We already knew that he abandoned his friends and family, and the old Luke would never do that. So after two years to brace themselves, fans should have seen this change coming. I personally liked the fact he was one part crazy, one part funny, and one part understanding of what I realized after watching the prequels, that the Jedi order sucked.
-I also did not like the PSA that animal abuse is bad in Star Wars, even as someone who works for Pets in Danger. Also, the people in that casino didn’t live there, so trashing the place doesn’t really do much, and all those animals will get recaptured. I would have liked the Star Wars equivalency of the Palace of Versailles or the Pyramids, so that the destruction of the place could be more impactful to this greedy 1%. Finn should have inspired more stormtroopers to defect, that would have been a cooler and more complex storyline.
-I feel that Rey’s abilities are not ridiculous. Unlike Luke, she’s had to fend for herself her whole life, and developed the combat skills to do so. As for piloting and mechanical skills, I just figured it was a combination of her interests and her daily job on Jakkuu. Also, after the interrogation scene in TFA, her powers were literally awoken and I really enjoyed seeing her try them out on the fly. I think her arc will be to understand her place in the galaxy, to save it, and understand her own self-worth.
-Poe Dameron really irked me in this movie since he doesn’t seem to care about all the people he leads to their deaths, and if he had just told Holdo the plan Finn and Rose had come up with we could have avoided that whole subplot.
-This is far better (for the most part) from Guardians of the Galaxy humour. There is no dick joke or poop joke, and it doesn’t make the women in the movies boring archetypes, they’re allowed to make jokes too. (PS I like those movies too).
-Finally we get a lead woman in Star Wars who isn’t white. I love Rose, in all her cuteness and bravery, and I hope that her relationship with Finn is better developed.
-In only a single scene Paige Tico was awesome, and instantly won me over, helping me gravitate to Rose who we see later.
-Yoda says failure is the greatest teacher, and having all the characters fail in this movie hammers the message home. It will only make the victory in nine all the more satisfying (i hope).
-Having very little idea where episode nine will go is actually kind of exciting, I’d rather not be able to guess where it will go and am still interested in these characters and the, as far as we know, conclusion to the Skywalker saga. I just hope JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio have enough time to make it great.
Overall I thought that The Last Jedi wasn’t great, but it had some good parts. I thought that one of the scenes had some really bad exposition with the guy that licked the salt, spit it out, and said, “Ugh, salt.” It was very dumb and was pointless in the movie because nobody cares that the red stuff is salt. If anybody wanted to know that, they should just read one of those weird companion books. Snoke looked like a grandpa that just got out of his walk-in bathtub and is wearing his bathrobe. Yellow is not his color. There was also too many closeups of Kylo Ren’s sweaty face, and I disliked that. Also, I disagree with Sam, I never recall you guys getting 20 comments. It might just be that I haven’t listened to the older episodes, but I’m pretty sure that you guys never got that many in the ones I listened to.