Just watched it again in VR on my Vive Pro in what was about a 100-foot wide virtual screen because why the fuck not. Gonna babble because it's all fresh again so bear with me.
My #2 Star Wars film, pretty comfortably now, and its asking to have a conversation with my #1.
Sure it wasn't perfect and I have nit-picks about all of my favorite movies. They could have made the CG of Rose's speeder thing colliding with Finn's ship a little less...hard? They made it look more dangerous than I think it needed to be to make the point. And I'm still waiting on some sweet baddassery from Phasma, which I would have liked to see in this movie if possible. But goddamnit what a beautiful redemption story and coming of age story for Luke, Poe, Finn, and Rey. All in different ways, for different reasons, but all ending up growing up and/or redeeming their past mistakes to pave a future for the Rebellion.
Yoda said it best: the most important lesson (the one Luke didn't get a chance to teach Rey) is failure. It is a natural outgrowth of hope. It is through hope that we overcome repeated failure walk into our future success.
- Luke needed to learn from Rey that there is still reason to hope. He needed to be reminded by Yoda that if you always look beyond today, you will miss what you must be and do right now. A different way of saying something my grandmother always said: "Don't be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good." It's okay to look to the future, but do so with your feet firmly planted in what you must do today to get to your desired destination. In always looking toward and fearing the future, Luke missed all the good he could have been doing all this time, including and up to helping Rey in her time of need. Something that would soon rectified, but yes even Luke had a flaw in his armor. Legend and all.
- Rey needed to learn from herself that her search for her parents will not define who she is; she is already more than enough as she is to be who she needs to become and protect those who need her. She needed to accept that coming from little and being left behind doesn't mean you're trash. A validation struggle that many in this world (and probably even this thread) can identify with.
- Poe needed to learn from Leah, but mostly from Holdo how to lead with wisdom and see the bigger picture if he was going to be a true leader of men. From the beginning of the movie recklessly getting people killed to him waving off Finn and realizing what Luke was doing, he grew by leaps.
- Finn needed to learn from Rose to see beneath the surface, to understand what the resistance means to the downtrodden, and to understand how to fight (and lead). He needed to see all of Canto Blight (whether some of you liked it or not), because he needed to go from shallow to complex in his understanding of what was happening. He needed that challenge from the code-breaker to make a decision of (a) whether he'd pick a side adn (b) what side he wanted to be on.
- ...and Kylo...well...he learned all the wrong lessons and in doing so, he will be the only one truly alone.
And Luke will go on to be remembered as the most legendary of all Jedi, single-handedly saving them all. Whether he was there physically or not is utterly immaterial to the heroic degree of his gambit. What he did in the way he did it was simply EPIC. No way to travel there since the Falcon had already left, he did something basically impossible. And in doing so, he was able to actually stare down the entire First Order with swagger. Even the children on Canto had heard the tale. Epic final scene with him still looking off into the distance. Because that's just who he was. It was his strength and his weakness. As we are all both strong and weak...our lives and futures are a function of how we respond to those strengths and weaknesses and how the reflect in the decisions we make along the way.
As for the rebellion, the spark not only remains...if those kids have heard the story, it's already a wildfire. Hell yea.
I'm sure all of you knew this already, but it bears repeating anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed the subversion of audience expectations; it kept everything exciting. I enjoyed all of those arcs and the messages they left behind for the audience. It was maybe the ONLY Star Wars movies with something encouraging to say to its audience about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for those who had an ear to hear.
Well made. Well focused. Well done.
(sorry if some of you guys didn't like it. it really is too bad if you let minors get in your way of enjoying an absolutely fantastic movie. hope you enjoy the final entry into the trilogy, but if not...I really don't care. I sure will.)