Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?
I dunno. I think TLJ sank on tone issues as much as anything.
When people don't like the tone of a movie they still mostly bring up specific things to complain about. But if the tone had been better they would have been less bothered by the specific rough spots.
Exactly. I like TFA, despite its numerous flaws. Because I liked it, I can overlook the rough spots. For me, TLJ made those rough spots even worse, lessening my positive perspective on TFA.
I'm totally fine with my heroes having failures. It makes them more relatable. You have to have conflict somewhere. And there's nothing in a 'they lived happily ever after'. That is from the end of fair tales. But if you want the story to continue, you got to dump the fairy tale ending.
I agree with this. I didn't hate how RJ portrayed Luke. I was disappointed that RJ ghosted Luke at the end, but the depressed, dejected, self loathing Luke was something I could get on board with. Yeah, there were some seriously creepy looks, like the green milk scene. But overall, I could relate the the "I'm a failure, and there's nothing I can do that will be if any use" Luke. I can totally relate to the "leave me alone and let me die" Luke. Just like I could relate to the "hmm, maybe you have a point, and shouldn't turn my back on the problem I helped create" Luke. My only wish is that he remained alive until episode IX, and had him die off in a better explained way, rather than simply fading away. Did he study the same things that Yoda and Obi Wan (and Qui Gon, to a lesser extent) did to learn how to become a force ghost? And speaking force ghosts, why wasn't Yoda translucent like he was in ROTJ? He was as solid as Luke was, with only a slight aura around him. Certainly they could have done better there.
The problem is HOW they fail.
I think you could have shown the OT heroes facing a failure without it undoing their key triumphs from the OT. Luke shouldn’t fail when facing the darkside, he passed that test where no one else could. But if he failed to raise another generation of Jedi, that could be of use. Like if all his students flipped and became the Knights of Ren he failed as a teacher, not in facing the darkside. There’s ways that could have done it.
I think Rian was right to challenge our ideas of the OT heroes, but the way he chose to do it was misguided.
Episode Nine still has the opportunity to set those things straight. We don't know what else may have been influencing Luke to think about killing Ben. Snoke was shown to be quite powerful by linking minds between Rey and Kylo. Who's to say he couldn't have done something similar with Luke?
I have assumed that the Knights of Ren are Luke's students who submitted to the dark side, rather than be killed by Kylo/ Ben. So in that, Luke failed as a teacher.
And I don't buy into the, beat the dark side once, never have to worry about it again. The Force is ever present, and the struggle with the dark side is a constant battle, internally, as you face your fears and failures, and externally, as you face the struggles of the galaxy as a whole. Luke wasn't perfect, failed as often as he succeeded, and it had to be a burden.
I didn't mind Han Solo dying. I expected it. That was inevitable, and helped give Kylo Ren depth and commitment to the dark side and to Snoke. Sadly, there was no follow through. So while JJ killed Han, RJ did nothing to give meaning and purpose to it.
I mentioned above that I had no real issues with Luke, and his self imposed exile. I'm still up in the air waiting and hoping for a better reasoning behind it.
And Leia, well, let's just say I'm not really impressed with how either director wrote her. Her role in VII wasn't great, in fact one could say it was lackluster to the point of being forgettable. Her role in VIII was just bad. The fact that Carrie Fisher's last living role will be remembered as "Leia Poppins" sucks big time.
Out of the three main heroes of the OT, Leia got the worst treatment. She was shown as neither having failed at anything, nor achieving any major successes, nor having much influence on the galaxy as a whole after ROTJ. it's implied elsewhere, but neither JJ or RJ really did her justice.
IX may very well be able to pick up the threads that were left dangling from VII. I hope JJ can finish what he started.
Since I felt that VIII really didn't accomplish much of anything, I'm hoping that IX is decent and saves the ST. Now that the rumor is splitting IX into two parts, we can still have a full three movie trilogy, lol.
My biggest problem with VIII isn't RJs treatment of the OT heroes, it was his lack of follow through on VII, and just poor writing as a whole. And the fact that, aside from a few things, nothing happened that really mattered.
