About The Old College Jedi

Post 271:

            I’ve been beating this drum for over a year on this blog: Everybody loves a good story.

            Not just those losers at work you never want to hang out with at happy hour. Not just the people that seem so uptight they’d never have time for a yarn. And on and on. Two people in the same place at the same time is some kind of story. Whether it’s acknowledged or not, that’s another thing. But there’s a story there.

            And when you get a bunch of people together to create something fresh and exciting, there’s a lot going on. Everybody’s bringing their life stories into the story that’s being crafted. Needless to say, it’s a complex situation.

            Books are relatively straightforward, especially if one is writing a series. I hope I never have to write a series, but God forbid, it makes it easier. Formulaic, to some degree. Still challenging, but the requisite parts are on the table before the first keystroke.

            Then there’s movies. So collaborative. All those stories mashed into making one grand piece of art. I’ve loved film since I had eyes to see, and I think most people do. It’s strange, though. Nine out of ten times, movies are pretty bad. Based on this observational evidence, I’d say it’s pretty damn hard to make a good movie.

            And then we have Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It’s hard to imagine all the people involved in making something on that scale. All the pressure. The expectations. The desire to be original, the need to make it feel like an integral piece of the whole sweeping epic.

            It wouldn’t be fair to say they didn’t try. Clearly, there was an attempt at something. Hard to say what the something was, but that’s the roll of the dice, the complex nature of creation. To my mind, they lost the plot from the beginning. There needed to be a plan for this thing, and they were building on sand. Sometimes you can make a good story from sand, but it’s damn hard.

            So they failed. My opinion, of course. The computer graphic designers didn’t fail, the music guy didn’t fail, but on balance, they failed. Eh. It happens. I’ve wasted money worse ways.

            I can could go on for ages about why it didn’t work. It’s not that complicated. Weird story, boring, getting off the main narrative (which was __) and many other problems. And don’t. Don’t mess with Luke. I heard him say it: “I’ll never turn to the dark side.” Technically that doesn’t happen in the film, but making him a miserable hapless hermit is tantamount to shoving him into the dark.

            Everybody else is thinking it. Maybe my opinion will change. Nah. Bad is bad, no matter the title.

            I hope they keep trying. This crap is hard, but we still need people out there giving it the old college. Cheers. See you after.