Every single Star Wars movie is basically the same thing over and over. Same cuts, same sequences, same energy, same everything. The Last Jedi shook it up and honestly I think that it was a good idea because the material was shaken too.
In the Prequels you had the story of the Jedi v the Sith but both were very confident. Both were established.
In the Original Trilogy you’ve got Kenobi and Yoda with a guiding hand helping to smooth things out and ease the path.
The Force Awakens shows the Resistance on about the same level as the Rebels in the OT in how they’re managed and their goals. But then suddenly they’re obliterated. While everyone keeps saying that Starkiller Base is just another Death Star, they neglect to point out that this one worked. It wasn’t destroyed last second to help save other planets. It let off its first offensive, burning a number of planets from the void and into nothingness. This wasn’t the Rebellion pushing to save their lives. This was a Resistance who now had just lost everything in the blink of an eye. All of their governmental backing, all of the support they had from elsewhere. Suddenly the First Order had just leapfrogged over them and they were in a scramble.
So they pull out and try to regroup. They evacuate their base and everyone gets ready to leave but suddenly First Order ships are nearly in orbit and they’re about to start shooting you from the sky. You have to run, now, but tensions are high and everyone is on a hairtrigger. Thinking in a moment of high panic (again, he’s never been in a situation like the Original Trilogy or Prequels), Poe makes a gut decision to help protect his people. His decision leaves his people heavily defenseless and even more of the Resistance is killed. So they start running. They pull back and flee and when they breathe a single sigh of relief, they’re right back on them. They no longer have the safety of running away and they’re strapped for resources. Then in that moment when you’re trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, your flagship is attacked and your Commander in Chief has been taken out of the fight.
Now, I can go into how Poes decisions make sense for his character and how him mutinying against Holdo made sense for him but was objectively the bad call, how Holdo was actually doing the best she had and everything else but that’s not my point. My point is that everyone is in disarray and there is no one around from the typical Star Wars era to help them.
But then you cut to Rey and Luke on an island and the wipes are Star Wars-y. The vibe Star Wars-y. Everything felt more in line with what we see from typical editing and what have you because Luke is there. He’s been through the shit. He knows how to go through this. He’s been helped and guided and is now doing the same for Rey.
Which is why when Luke and Rey suddenly shows up on Crait to help, everything starts falling back into those Star Wars patterns. The music swells in the same way, the cuts start looking Star Wars-y, the long lingering shots… The camera is telling the story of the energy of the movie and the panic of the Resistance. The more confident and assured they become, the more “Star Wars-y” things become.
I think that a lot of people do believe that Rian Johnson just made a different movie for the sake of making a different movie. But this dude made Knives Out. He knows how to make a movie and knows how to tell a story through direction, how to move that on. I think a lot of people were just really upset with how things were turning out for how they wished it and didn’t see a lot of what Rian was doing.
Because it’s something different.
Every single Star Wars movie is basically the same thing over and over. Same cuts, same sequences, same energy, same everything. The Last Jedi shook it up and honestly I think that it was a good idea because the material was shaken too.
In the Prequels you had the story of the Jedi v the Sith but both were very confident. Both were established.
In the Original Trilogy you’ve got Kenobi and Yoda with a guiding hand helping to smooth things out and ease the path.
The Force Awakens shows the Resistance on about the same level as the Rebels in the OT in how they’re managed and their goals. But then suddenly they’re obliterated. While everyone keeps saying that Starkiller Base is just another Death Star, they neglect to point out that this one worked. It wasn’t destroyed last second to help save other planets. It let off its first offensive, burning a number of planets from the void and into nothingness. This wasn’t the Rebellion pushing to save their lives. This was a Resistance who now had just lost everything in the blink of an eye. All of their governmental backing, all of the support they had from elsewhere. Suddenly the First Order had just leapfrogged over them and they were in a scramble.
So they pull out and try to regroup. They evacuate their base and everyone gets ready to leave but suddenly First Order ships are nearly in orbit and they’re about to start shooting you from the sky. You have to run, now, but tensions are high and everyone is on a hairtrigger. Thinking in a moment of high panic (again, he’s never been in a situation like the Original Trilogy or Prequels), Poe makes a gut decision to help protect his people. His decision leaves his people heavily defenseless and even more of the Resistance is killed. So they start running. They pull back and flee and when they breathe a single sigh of relief, they’re right back on them. They no longer have the safety of running away and they’re strapped for resources. Then in that moment when you’re trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, your flagship is attacked and your Commander in Chief has been taken out of the fight.
Now, I can go into how Poes decisions make sense for his character and how him mutinying against Holdo made sense for him but was objectively the bad call, how Holdo was actually doing the best she had and everything else but that’s not my point. My point is that everyone is in disarray and there is no one around from the typical Star Wars era to help them.
But then you cut to Rey and Luke on an island and the wipes are Star Wars-y. The vibe Star Wars-y. Everything felt more in line with what we see from typical editing and what have you because Luke is there. He’s been through the shit. He knows how to go through this. He’s been helped and guided and is now doing the same for Rey.
Which is why when Luke and Rey suddenly shows up on Crait to help, everything starts falling back into those Star Wars patterns. The music swells in the same way, the cuts start looking Star Wars-y, the long lingering shots… The camera is telling the story of the energy of the movie and the panic of the Resistance. The more confident and assured they become, the more “Star Wars-y” things become.
I think that a lot of people do believe that Rian Johnson just made a different movie for the sake of making a different movie. But this dude made Knives Out. He knows how to make a movie and knows how to tell a story through direction, how to move that on. I think a lot of people were just really upset with how things were turning out for how they wished it and didn’t see a lot of what Rian was doing.