So I did see Star Wars, and have read one or two reviews since then, and have tried to cast my mind back to what the movie was really all about–no mean feat since whenever there’s a long fighting sequence I generally get bored and hide under my coat to scroll through EmoKyloRen on twitter.
But I did basically see it, and that merits me saying the things I feel like saying. But first, probably, SPOILER ALERT. I’m not sure actually if I’m about to spoil anything, but probably I am, so don’t read this if you care deeply about that sort of thing. Also, this will be a listicle, and in no particular order.
One
Loved those little bird things–a really nice funny touch to break up the monotonous consideration of how far into the dark side Rey could really go without actually becoming part of the dark side. Sure she keeps falling in that big pool of water that seems like it is the dark side, and then emerging no problem from what apparently turned out to be just a regular swim, and then there has to be the long weird mirror sequence that seems like some sort of low budget horror film technique and in no way contributes to the plot, but at least there were those birds.
Two
Feel really bad for Chewbacca, that he has to still be around. His seems a lonely life, but at least he has those birds now.
Three
Am still deeply devoted to Kylo Ren as the perfect millennial villain, fully embodying the spirit of the age. I love his petulant, selfish raging. I love his hair. I love his total lack of mastery over his own emotions.
Also really loved it when Rey told him to put his shirt on. Still, seems a total confusion of purpose to have Rey and Kylo join up and kill the Syth of whatever. No, sorry, Snoak. They all blend together after a certain point.
Four
Love that Rey gets to be a human size. Love the way she’s dressed and that she’s not emaciated. I mean, in no way do I really understand how she is advancing the plot forward, or why her family history mattered but now doesn’t matter, and under what perimeters she can dabble in the dark side but then leave it so easily behind, and, actually, now that I think about it, all her expressions are pretty flat. But still, she gets to be sort of actually female which I liked.
Five
On that note, continue to love love love Princess, I mean General Leia. I love that we got to see her age. That she went from sex appeal to matronly wise. I love her hair and all her clothes and I continue to be an unabashed and full hearted fan girl of all that she embodies, but most especially the gorgeous transition from young and scantily clad to elegant and gracious.
Six
And on that other note, I would like to vaguely but not very vociferously disagree about the over representation of women in the film. It’s true that all the men do seem to be bumbling, and the whole confused muddle devolves into a sisterhood of all that is capably and brilliantly feminine, but it seemed more Descriptive to me, than Prescriptive.
The whole film, indeed, impressed itself on me like a rather dark, sorrowful accounting for how things really have been for this last generation. For example, it is telling that Luke ran away after his failures and just gave up, that when he was begged to come back he refused, that he fully and completely abdicated his role and his place. And Han is dead. So all the women stand tall and alone, trying to cope with and shape petulant, intemperate Young Masculinity. Then Luke comes back, briefly, to draw all the fire to himself, and we discover that he’s just a hologram or something.
Is it the fault of the women that the men are not there? Perhaps force field feminism really did chase all masculinity away, but at some point the men must have agreed to go. It’s the primordial problem of what came first. But as I look over the last fifty years I am loathe to blame all feminists, or just feminism, or all the women for there being no men around. The fact is that a lot of the men packed up and went. They took the opportunity for selfishness that was offered to them. And their sons and daughters grew up bereft. Their wives and mothers stood alone, like Ruth and Naomi, with no men around anywhere.
And certainly, feminism didn’t arise out of nothing. The idea that the man can stride off to work and leave his wife and his children to cope, to struggle all day to keep the house up for his sake, and then fashion and form themselves into little cookie cuttered pseudo people, rather than intimately involving himself in the care and trials of his own household is enough to turn any lonely and depressed housewife into a feminist. I will go to work too, she finally says, especially when I find out my poor pathetic husband has been cheating on me with his secretary. (I’m looking at you Mad Men.)
Remember, the buck didn’t stop with Eve, it stopped with Adam. If you hate the legacy wrought by feminism, why don’t you stop complaining and come back. Show up. Don’t abdicate. Don’t be helpless. Don’t blame everyone else for the fact that a whole generation of you weren’t there.
Seven
Wow, didn’t realize I felt so strongly about that. Well, here’s the bit I hated most from the Last Jedi–the burning of the books.
Really? We don’t need these ancient texts anymore because Rey just has them in all her feelings? Give me a break. The last thing any of us need to do is start burning our libraries down–and the tree (wow)–and just keep following our intuitive force perception.
Well, there you are. My official review of the Last Jedi. Tragically, I bet it won’t be the last one and I’ll be doing this again next year. Now, where is that fat book I was just reading?
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