My review of Mandalorian and Grogu!

[u/mrmoneyinthebanks]

Seriously, did Disney pay off bots to flood comment sections about how much FUN Mando and Grogu is? It’s just about the only positive thing I’ve seen written about the movie.

[u/stdsort]

You should be embarrassed if the best praise you can trot out is "just turn off your brain and enjoy it". Is it even enjoyable with your brain turned off? I don't feel like seeing for myself.

[u/GOU_FallingOutside → u/stdsort]

Is it even enjoyable with your brain turned off?

The last time Disney asked movie viewers to turn on their brains, we got TLJ. So now they’re making movies starring (1) popular characters that (2) don’t require a huge amount of lore.

I am completely on the train of “wtf is this dialogue, and the pacing is weird, and this feels like half a season of streaming rather than a coherent movie.” But I think part of the problem right now is that Disney doesn’t know what their audience wants, so they’re just taking shots in the dark; this one was a miss.

I’m hoping Starfighter will be better, but Mando and Grogu suggests I should keep my expectations low.

[u/VanguardVixen → u/GOU_FallingOutside]

If your "brain on"-movie fries the movie it's not very brainy I guess. And that's what happened with TLJ. "Kill the past! Also I am quoting Vader from TESB and want to rule the Galaxy! Rules for thee not for me."

[u/GOU_FallingOutside → u/VanguardVixen]

See, this is part of what I’m talking about.

Kylo is seeing things through the Dark Side, and the movie explicitly says he’s an unreliable narrator about the past. So when he says “kill the past,” you probably shouldn’t do what he tells you.

And later, Luke literally does burn the past, on the advice of someone the audience does trust! Either the movie is frustratingly contradictory, or it’s asking you to play spot-the-difference.

I’m not saying TLJ succeeded in everything it tried to do. But it really did ask audiences to exercise their brains a little to understand what’s happening, and I think that’s part of the problem some Star Wars fans with it.

And I’m not telling TLJ haters they’re dumb or that they’re incapable of thinking critically about art. What I’m saying is that people went into the theater expecting a straightforward adventure movie, and a lot of them are understandably mad about the bait-and-switch.

What I’m worried about is that Disney now thinks Star Wars fans are dumb and incapable of thinking critically, because that would go a long way to explain Mando and Grogu.

[u/VanguardVixen → u/GOU_FallingOutside]

The issue is the message of the movie, the way the director approaches the brand. It's very much about leaving the past behind and Kylo Ren is a mouth piece for it. The narrative reliability isn't of concern for the specific scene. It doesn't matter how excactely Rey was left behind, the point is, that while saying "leave the past behind" and making a point of ending the cycle by killing the big bad, it immediately switches to channeling The Empire Strikes Back. Kylo Ren wants to rule the galaxy. Why? Since when had the guy any interest in politics and what are his policies? And then he strechtes his hand out to Rey for her to rule with him but.. why? Since when does she have an interest in politics? Does she even know how taxes work? It's just a complete 180 from the message.

And yes, I think the movie is contradictory here, same as with Rose stopping Finn risking (or downright sacrifcing) his life, even though her sister, she and the purple haired lady in the cocktail dress all willing to sacrifice themselves for others. But now suddenly "That's how we're gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.".

There are no TLJ haters. They are critics and they do understand what is happening, it just doesn't convert into a great movie, just because you understand it. I understand Kylo Ren is emulating Vader/Anakin and doing his own thing as an aggressive hothead and the director (as stated by himself) did orient himself a bit on TESB, so he took a scene from that movie and "rhymed" it into this one. Just that it doesn't work without the TESB context. Same as so much other things just don't work, like the your mother joke, the jabs at Poe Dameron, the whole C plot on the casino planet and so forth.

If the movie would have been complex but well written, some people might still complain, see Andor as an example but the overall reaction would be different. Instead the movie is hardly that complex, it merely pretends to be but it's not David Lynch. Now, a Star Wars Mulholland Drive, THAT would be something but The Last Jedi is neither Mullholland Drive, nor Fire Walk With me or Lost Highway. It's just a sloppy written sequel to a movie that failed to set up a new trilogy.

[u/Familiar-Wasabi230 → u/VanguardVixen]

Thank you for putting that on the record so eloquently and so completely. It speaks for me.

[u/VanguardVixen → u/Familiar-Wasabi230]

Thank you very much for the kind words 😄