Chiba Makoto

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↳ Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) ★ Makoto Shinkai

** BALANCED SPOILERS BELOW **

My father, brother, and I finally were able to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi in theaters today – how did it measure up? Let’s say my views of the Light Side and Dark Side of this movie are pretty balanced – so, in a “special” –

My Top Ten Thoughts on Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi:

This review is going to focus on ten aspects of the film and what worked and didn’t work in my opinion, so bear with me:

10. The Effects:

Let’s get this out of the way – the movie is GORGEOUS to watch on the big screen. I review enough films and critique enough to where that’s constantly what I’m looking for, especially in CGI-heavy films. I will say that the good news is that this has far better CGI than Thor: Ragnarok and DEFINITELY Justice League in terms of creating a seamless environment; plus, there are a lot of practical effects, locations, and set pieces that work well.

This will sort of go along with my #9, but at times, the effects do have a sort of Guardians of the Galaxy feel (see my #4), and that distracts me from the “realness” of the actual effects and some of the creature designs (looking RIGHT at you Porgs, again, #9), are fully CGI in many places and if you’re distracted by that sort of thing, yes, you’ll notice. Otherwise, though, the movie is SO stunning visually, I could do a Top Ten list alone of the visuals and world-building taking place in this movie. So that’s a win for me!

9. There ARE a lot of practical effect creatures blended with CGI in this film – a lot of them I think help the worlds feel more “full” with life and have a galaxy-other-worldly quality to them. The “Caretakers” on the planet Luke is at, for example, work well alongside the Horse-like creatures that Rose and Finn discover on the “Casino planet,” essentially.

While the Porgs didn’t annoy me as I thought they would, and actually have a hilarious scene involving Chewie (not just the one above), they are clearly a marketing ploy and I’m not quite on board with their shameless-plug-nature. Nonetheless, they are okay and nothing as grating as the added CGI “cute monsters” Lucas added into the Prequels and “Special Editions” for no logical reason.

8. As far as the side characters go, we see a lot of the “every man” put into much of the movie – and the whole notion of “nobody” plays a HUGE role in this movie (see far, far down below) – but there were two main “side characters;” one I thought was well-used and the other two I was very, very unsure or displeased with their use: 

Laura Dern’s Captain character, luckily, was the well-used one – she  not only had personality and a presence, but her character had a point. While it wasn’t really spelled out until her final moments in saving the Rebels, it was SO effective.

You could honestly hear a pin drop the moment she went light speed into the First Order fleet – it was one of my favorite moments and a breath-holder for me. RIP Laura Dern’s lavender-haired character!

Benetio Del Toro’s “code cracker” and Captain Phasma, though? I feel Phasma is so wasted altogether – you have such a cool character design, and they really don’t have much to do with her, and Del Toro, while charming though he’s no Han Solo in some moments, has an odd stutter of a character choice and doesn’t do much in terms of the overall plot, though my brother swears he’ll be back in a future movie. Maybe. Not sure I’ll welcome him, though.

7. There were three of our main characters that I felt either became developed in good ways or bad ways: First. let’s get the lesser developed out of the way.

Rose and Finn:

6. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Boyega and the new actress playing Rose and I liked their characters overall – their plot in the film, though, did grind the film to a standstill at several points, and I honestly think it could have been shortened to help move the story along. That, and of all the lines in the film, they had some of the cheesier lines, like “Rebel Scum,” and Rose’s whole line about protecting what you love – the lines aren’t necessarily cringe-worthy, but in the context they were said, I just didn’t feel them or like them. Hopefully, they’ll get more to do in the next film that is relevant with Rey, etc.

5. On the other hand, Poe Dameron, played by Oscar Isaacs jumped up a notch in terms of his role in the film. He clearly has that “Solo” attitude of jumping into action and being the no-worries “flyboy” throughout much of the film, but what I like that they did with him is that he GROWS as the movie goes on, to the point where by the end, he realizes the difference between being the “hero” and being the “leader.” It’s a type of growth that gives his character a much more relatable, and satisfying arc, whereas I don’t feel Rose and Finn get much of one, except Rose may have a thing for Finn now…which, okay, I guess.

Okay, so, I know I’m just wasting time at this point, because it’s all coming down to the Skywalker Family…oh, and Rey and Snoke. So let’s start with –

4. Now, I will be the first to admit that Leia has easily my least favorite scene in the film, and really the only one that I was uncomfortable with. Remember that notion about Guardians of the Galaxy above? Spoilers, obviously, at this point, but at one point, fairly early on in the movie, Leia’s ship is damaged and she is jettisoned out into space. The big deal here should be that it was NOT her son that shot the ship; in fact, he chose NOT to – more on that below – but instead the big deal is that she uses the Force to get back to the ship and to safety. From outer space.

I get the scene on paper; I get the importance of setting up how strong she really is with the Force, because it pays off later, but the entire sequence was a little unnerving and unsettling for me…maybe I’m the only one that didn’t like that sequence.

The rest of the movie with her? She STEALS the show – well, her and Mark Hamill (again, more below) – and owns her time on stage with such grace, elegance, and you can sense this frailty about her that is almost heart-wrenching. I really don’t know why the Outer-Space-Force scene was left in, aside from keeping her out of commission until later, but thankfully, the rest of the film with her makes up for it! Speaking of making up for things –

3. Mark Hamill as Luke stole the movie for me – the emotion in his acting, the action scenes with Rey (and Kylo – for the last time, more on that below), and the overall message of learning from failure just worked for me so well. His humor worked, the raw emotion in specific flashbacks, and with Leia – it all just worked and I would watch a cut of just his, Leia, Rey, and Kylo’s scenes over and over if I could.

There is a scene, once Rey has left to go face Snoke and Keylo, where he encounters Yoda’s force-ghost, and at first, I was like, “Nooooooooope,” because I thought it was going to get cheesy, and that Ewan McGregor was going to pop in as Obi-Wan or worse, Hayden Christensen was going to pop in, but NO, it was just Yoda, and the scene served its purpose well, especially in foreshadowing of things to come. All the nods to Hamill’s bringing back Luke.

2. There’s been this running thread in the film about the Force, and how if you connect hard enough, it’s like you’re actually there. It sort of reaffirms the ability of Force Ghosts to exist and makes sense that characters with a strong bond can connect together and practically feel each other’s existence.

When Kylo and Rey start to connect, there’s this scene where they touch hands and it “feels” as if they’re really with each other, though they are thousands of miles away. That same moment comes back later, as Luke basically fools everyone, even his own sister, to his presence and saves the day. The last few moments with Luke we have? I was almost crying, and I rarely cry at a movie –

ALSO, JJ, if you can do anything for me, can you please, PLEASE just have Luke come back as a Force Ghost and “haunt” Kylo Ren, since he said he’ll always “be in his heart?” If you can do that, I will complain of NOTHING ever again with this series. 

1. I won’t lie, the last act of this movie is my favorite; there is SO much that comes together and to a head – Luke’s fight with Kylo was without a doubt my favorite part of the film, but Rey and Kylo versus the Guards, the confrontation with Snoke, all of that was just SO well done, and I give props to Johnson’s screenplay for taking the Force in a new direction and really giving us a new movie-going experience with this story and I was ON BOARD with that. Plus, Ridley and Drive have SUCH good chemistry together! Seriously, every scene they played off one another, especially the Snoke Room scene – floored me.

Oh, and thank goodness, Snoke dies in this movie, so forget him! While I was really hoping Kylo and Rey would team up after that – I guess we haven’t quite gotten Kylo back to the light…he’s a work in progress, you know. 

Also, finally, we learn who Rey’s parents were – nobodies.

They were common, every day people.

THAT is possibly my favorite part. SUCH a middle finger to all the theorists out there trying to connect her to a person in the already existing story line, but I loved it. Rey is all of us; she comes from a random place, but her motivation, spunk, and drive keeps her going – and it doesn’t help her to be a tad bit Force-sensitive, eh?

Overall, I enjoyed The Last Jedi. Is it perfect? No, the Finn/Rose storyline does drag it a little, the Leia space-moment is luckily towards the beginning, so it’s out of the way early, and there are a few cheesy one-liners I was like “Ooohhh no” at, but overall, the rest is such a fun ride!

If you just happen to walk in the second half of the film, don’t feel bad; the story amps and amps to a fantastic conclusion! Worth seeing in theater!

Live Spectacle “NARUTO” - Akatsuki no Shirabe -  (Opening Title Scene)

Kazui Kurosaki (Ichigo and Orihime’s son)

Trunks (Vegeta and Bulma’s son)

 Moonchild (not confirmed yet: Guts and Casca’s child)