Star Wars Episode VIII: The
Last Jedi Predictions
I don’t do predictions on movies like I used to when I first
started this blog. When I first began doing them, I got really hyped up for
movies. Now, I don’t do that to nearly the same degree, because over the years,
I’ve continually been disappointed, and really, it’s usually my own fault. I
set expectations much too high, and forget that at the end of the day, these
are just movies. But people get passionate about them, and when you hope for
something great and get something that sucks, it’s hard not to take it to
heart.
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you might remember
back in 2015 I wrote a series of top ten lists and predictions about Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
I brought up theories, things I wanted to see, things I didn’t want to see, questions, concerns, and then when it came out,
I did an in-depth analysis.
The weird part is, I’m not even a huge Star Wars fan.
I got caught up in all the hype, and looking back on it,
it’s easy to see why. The Force Awakens
really was the movie event of a generation. It brought back characters who
hadn’t been seen in decades, yet these were characters who had become some of
the most iconic movie characters of all-time. It was a return to what is
undeniably one of the biggest franchises in film history. The trailers were
expertly crafted, the fans were outspoken about their excitement and
hopefulness that it would deliver, and it seemed like the perfect storm to
produce the first great Star Wars
movie in far too long.
The Force Awakens
certainly did deliver, and my initial reaction was overwhelmingly positive. It’s
been two years since I first saw it, and my contemporary take on it is…still
positive, but less so. I think it did the right thing by being closer to what
the original movies were all about, but it was a little too close. Familiar things like a death star and evil bad guy with
a mask and cape and an important character dying and a droid carrying crucial
information turned a lot of people off, and I get it. But for me, the positives
still heavily outweigh the negatives, thanks to the characters, both new and
old. They are interesting, fun, sympathetic, and the acting is great.
Now here we are, the next chapter of the saga begins. So why
don’t I feel as excited? I think a big part of it has to do with the marketing.
I am in awe at the marketing scheme for The
Last Jedi. Minimal trailers, minimal footage shown. I don’t know the plot
(though I can guess), I only know vague shots of a couple action scenes, and I
don’t even know what the big twist will be (or if there will be one), and that
makes me excited in a very different way than I was with Force Awakens. I wouldn’t even say it’s excitement, so much as
patient anticipation.
Though people were excited, there was still a lot of
uncertainty with The Force Awakens.
Would it really turn out to be great?
Could writer-director J.J. Abrams successfully continue the story? Would seeing
the old characters again be satisfying? Would the new characters be able to
carry the torch? All of the big questions were answered with resounding yes’s,
and now, I’m not curious about any of that. Writer-director Rian Johnson has
proven himself in the past as a capable writer/director, so having him helming
this sequel sets many of my concerns to rest before I’ve even seen the movie.
Will it be darker, more serious, more original, more poignant? I don’t see why
not.
I haven’t thought about The
Last Jedi in great detail leading up to the release. I haven’t generated
tons of theories about what might happen, about who is who, what direction the
story will take, what the characters will do, who might die, etc. I think
because it’s predetermined that this is the middle chapter of a three-chapter
story, and everyone who fell in love with the first chapter (which was mostly
everyone) will be back there for the next one, it carries a different kind of anticipation.
It’s not as boisterous as the hype was for Force
Awakens, and I’m glad. It’s like everyone has this quiet, shared
understanding that “of course it’ll be good, but how good do you think it will
be?”
I could easily be wrong about The Last Jedi. For all I know, it might end up sucking worse than Rogue One (I know a lot of people
enjoyed last year’s standalone Star Wars
story but I strongly disliked it), but I won’t be let down. What came before it
(The Force Awakens, and the original
trilogy, of course) still stands on its own as being great, but seeing as this
is, as I said before, chapter two of three from the same story, it’s hard to
imagine The Last Jedi not being a
worthy continuation for the series. 
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