Friday, December 29, 2017

An Imperial Transport Named Desire

I took my 7 year old daughter to see The Last Jedi on Wednesday. She liked the experience of the theater, and I took the opportunity to allow her extra butter on her popcorn, and even let her have some Dr Pepper (I am getting soft these days).

She is at an age where she critiques everything. Typically her critism starts with "I like it, but," or "it's good, but". Usually she is talking about eggs or a song. Yesterday it went a little different:

As we were leaving the theater, Peyton turned to me and said: "I know Star Wars is your favorite movie, but..." I stopped her before she could dump on the daddy/daughter experience too heavily, which would not have been her intention, but I've learned to squash negativity with kindness before it starts. "Honey," I said with my best (and really lame) soothing Dad voice, "Star Wars is not my favorite movie." She then informed me that she would have like to have seen more of Leia's '77 hair buns.

But there it was: Star Wars is not my favorite movie. It's like saying Metallica is my favorite band. I love them, I root for them, I celebrate their worldwide appeal, I was massively into them when I was a kid, they set the benchmark, but not my favorite, not by a long shot.

To a child of 7, picking a favorite is easy. I wish life remained that simple some of the time. When I was 7, Star Wars was my favorite movie, so I can relate to the assumption. Maybe the Star Wars Jammie Pants, the classic Star Wars glass, or the Wookie coffee mug led her opinion in the matter. Honestly, if she looks at me under the guise that I am sometimes still a kid inside, we are all the better for it.

Much like my musical scribblings, I tend to deep dive into Star Wars because I feel like I can. I've asked Peyton how she really felt about The Last Jedi, and as of this writing, she is sticking to her script about Leia, but am pretty sure she was neutral overall. For me, I'm feeling pretty "Meh" about it. This is dangerous ground, but I am not sure I really liked The Last Jedi very much. I found it to be stale in many ways.

Rey is great. She is taking the franchise in a good direction as the heroine of today, so my beef is not with her. If Peyton even remotely identified with this strong, young female lead, then mission accomplished. Finn is good too, and Poe is the right guy to fill Hans shoes.

That leaves us with Kylo. He is just not dangerous enough despite his boyish temper tantrums. Palpatine, Maul, Vader, and even the strangely unexplained character Snoke had an element of evil. I fear there is too much conflict in Kylo.

Vader and Maul are good benchmarks on what a great Sith should be, for sure. I want a proper Sith. Kylo Ren is like the replacement guy after the Attitude Era of the WWE. He's just not the guy to carry the New Order into my galactic storyline curiosity.

It's a bit of speculation, but I'm feeling the worst is here: oversaturation.

A 2 year build-up is great, but was it? The filler movies are taking a portion of the hype away. Also, with all of the cliff hangers left unanswered, or worse, blatantly brushed off, I'm a bit let down.

Soooo... for the next movie, I propose the following: Rey finds out she is Luke's child, Kylo carves up Luke, Luke takes a Vader suit and goes on an ill inspired killing spree, eventually becoming Kylo' s apprentice, "Darth Arkham" bringing balance to the force.

Word.

Nago