In what has now become an annual tradition, I found myself once again taking in the spectacle of a new Star Wars film on a Sunday in mid-December. The first time I did this was a bit unique in that I then hopped a plane to Peru that evening, the memories of the film dancing through my mind during a trip through the jungle. Last year’s experience had little of the build-up, nor the memory; Rogue One is a fine movie, it just doesn’t really make an impression on its own given that it’s solely in service to a greater film. Now, The Last Jedi is a film I’d been trying to temper my expectations for since the moment I walked out of that theater in 2015. The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite film of all time, so this new middle chapter had quite a challenge facing it and a bit of sequel-driven history to live up to. Let’s just say, it’s complicated. As I walked home from the screening, I was somewhat torn. There’s a lot of really awesome things that happen in The Last Jedi. There are also an excessive amount of minor things that really shouldn’t be in the film at all, or at the very least, odd decisions that should be toned down a smidge for the sake of tonal continuity. But most importantly of all, in direct response to the main criticisms of The Force Awakens, it doesn’t clone a previous film, but rather attempts to subvert its spiritual predecessor at every turn. Does it work? Let’s walk through it together and find out.
Are You Ready For Some Star Wars: The Last Jedi!?
Now it’s a bit weird, the continued relationship between Star Wars and the NFL. It certainly makes some sense, with both ESPN and the Star Wars franchise under the Disney umbrella, however the two worlds, at least in my mind, remain about as far apart as they can get. What do Star Wars and football have in common, other than common corporate ownership? Some demographic overlap? Mainstream appeal? Guys in helmets? Well, now Disney has gone ahead and established a tradition: during a Monday Night Football presentation some two months before release, a new full-length trailer for the upcoming Star Wars saga film will debut during halftime.
Unlike as had been done for The Force Awakens in 2014 and 2015, this is only the second trailer for The Last Jedi to be released. The teaser, released in April about two years to the day after The Force Awakens’ first full-length trailer, is the only thing we’ve seen concerning the eighth film in the franchise and it left us with many, many questions. So, without any further hesitation, let’s see what they’ve given us to snack on this time:
A classic Star Wars harp glissando brings us right in. Someone (it’s Kylo Ren) is standing in an Imperial First Order hangar looking over siege equipment.
“When I found you…”
That’s definitely Snoke speaking, in the unmistakable growl of Andy Serkis.
“…I saw raw,…”
An intimidating group of AT-AT-like walkers. That shuttlecraft looks familiar.
“…untamed, power…”
Kylo Ren (I think) leads Storm Troopers through a roughly, black and red, backlit passageway. The overhead perspective is intriguing. In the background, sparse piano notes play under high squealing strings.
“…and beyond that…”
RED.
“…something truly special.”
We cut to black.
Rey ignites her Luke’s lightsaber and stares at it for a beat. Lucasfilm titles.
A drone shot of the island, again.
“Something…”
Cool hand, Luke! Rey gives him the lightsaber. This seems to be a different occasion than the stare-down at the conclusion of The Force Awakens.
“…inside me has always been there,…” Rey whispers.
I have a feeling look is going to be making a lot of puzzled / confused / intrigued faces in this film. He’s the Yoda to Rey, yet I think Rey is far more powerful in comparison to Luke than Luke was to Yoda.
Rey ascends foggy cliffs toward jagged rocks. I wasn’t aware she was on her way through the Emyn Muil. Lots of Lord of the Rings-like imagery going on here.
“…but now it’s awake…”
Roll credits! Er, that was the last film, wasn’t it.
Rey happens upon the tree-root bookshelf from the teaser, looking curiously at it from the books’ POV.
“…and I need help.”
Various shots of Rey swinging the lightsaber around conclude with this one:
Where she expertly controls the blade into a firm position just inches from the rock. Damn, girl.
The ground fissures and Luke looks on… like this:
That seems… not great? For the light side, I mean. It could be awesome for the movie!
Again we see the slow-motion narrow depth of field shot of levitating stones.
Rey is focused. Seems her training is coming along pretty quickly, eh?
“I’ve seen this raw strength only once before…”
When was that? Ren slaughtering the Jedi students? Darth Vader? The Emperor? When?
A robotic hand bursts through collapsed wooden debris as fires burn in the background. Likely the scene of the flashbacks, and perhaps Luke’s hand. So he’s strongly implying that Kylo Ren is the raw strength, also echoing Snoke. And, he’s inferring Rey is stronger than that. Makes a lot of sense, given the events of the first film.
“…it didn’t scare me enough then.”
“It does now.”
Luke looks pants-shittingly terrified. He’s shaking. Rey looks on sadly, though I’m not sure these two scenes actually go together.
Bam, Kylo Ren’s theme blasts. The man himself emerges from a lift.
He grabs his mask, takes a long look, then we cut to a closeup…
Nice scar, Kylo! Is that a tattoo or a fancy bandage? He smashes the mask against the wall.
“Let the past die.”
Space battle! TIE Fighters shoot at Resistance ships. Leia’s on one of them. The sounds here are perfect, as the TIEs overwhelm the auditory scape. It sure seems like darkness has the upper-hand so far.
“Kill it.”
Kylo Ren’s TIE Fighter looks sinister. Like an old Interceptor, but with red (red, again!) cockpit glass and a horizontally stretched fuselage.
“…If you have to.”
A shot tracking the TIE from behind as it flies into a Resistance ship. Whoa, this is something new.
“That’s the only way to become what you were meant to be.”
Man, if these means killing both of your parents… Yikes.
And this trailer does everything to suggest that it does. Wow.
…or does it? The sounds go silent except for a single alarm beeping. I can see the conflict in his face. Is Leia using the force on young Ben Solo? Probably!
THIS CHRISTMAS
The Millennium Falcon flies, pursued by TIE Fighters into a cave tunnel full of sparkling red crystals. So much red in this film’s imagery. I imagine this to be the red soil planet. The Falcon does its trademark twist as it navigates the through.
Chewie looks upset! What could possibly provoke this kind of reaction from the Wookiee?
This little guy lets out a scream too. What are these things called again? Porgs, right? I really hope they’re integrated well. I don’t want my gloomy Star Wars film derailed by too much cuteness!
A Resistance ship takes a hard green bolt and explodes with force. Damn.
Poe seems taken aback by what just happened. I wonder what kind of ship he’s on where there’s just… windows. I don’t think we’ve really seen that before, outside of a bridge, you know?
“We are the spark…”
Interesting how the X-Wing has a fifth engine in the center. What’s that for, afterburner? It leaves behind a shimmering trail.
“…that’ll light the fire…”
Sick close up. I love me some locked-in Poe Dameron. Go kick some ass, buddy.
Much appreciated.
“…it’ll burn the First Order down.”
I can’t quite hear what he’s saying but I think that’s close.
Holy Phasma. And she’s got a sword of some kind? Sparks go flying as she brings it into position.
Finn! I can’t believe it took this long to get him into the trailer. He’s angry, and he’s got an electric stun baton.
It looks like we’re getting another non-lightsaber duel, this time between Finn and Phasma. Where the heck is this happening? Everything is on fire and/or exploding.
Sick. I wonder if only one of them makes it out of there alive… Do I bet on the rehabilitated Finn, or Brienne of Tarth?
Resistance ships explode and BB-8 gets zapped. We’re getting pretty bleak here.
“This is not going to go…”
Angry Luke, in black, in darkness, in rain, laying down, possibly in defeat.
Crystal fox! Neat! Awesome attention to detail on the hexagonal salt formations.
Hooded figure stands at the edge of a vast desert (the one with the red soil beneath). A Resistance base about to be assaulted by AT-ATs? That seems an awful lot like Hoth…
“…the way you think.”
Luke finishes his thought, and here I’m thinking, are they blatantly foreshadowing some kind of twist? I don’t know how this is going to go, but if I’m reading too much into the parallels with Empire, then perhaps I should take another path? Am I reading too much into this?
That’s a great shot of Leia, by the way.
Rey plunges into a pool, to emerge into the dark, rainy scene with black-clad Luke. I bet this is her “failure at the cave” moment.
“Fulfill…”
Snoke narrates as the First Order finishes their domination of the trailer. First, Finn is captured.
Then their forces are ready for an onslaught. The deep hangar looks almost like a matte painting.
“…your…”
The strike begins. Red dirt erupts from beneath the desert. If it’s to be a Hoth parallel, at least the aesthetic is somewhat different. The red really pops here.
Exploding TIEs crash as skiffs bounce away. And by skiffs I mean HOLY SHIT THOSE ARE B-WINGS. YESSSSSSSSSS! In the teaser post I took them for something new, but from this angle it’s for certain. I guess it’s possible to deploy only one wing into attack position?
“…destiny!”
SNOKE. My goodness CGI has come a long way. The animation is still a slight bit off, but the still image is crisp. He’s not quite as Gollum-like as he appeared in the hologram from The Force Awakens, instead appearing more like a old, slightly deformed human. I still think he’s like three feet tall. An evil Yoda, if you will.
Rey is tortured, yet again. She’s stuck awkwardly leaning backward as she twitches and wind blows. I think that’s Snoke in the background, but I cannot be sure. The red of the surroundings suggest the same room as Kylo Ren was in during his introduction above.
Cut to black. The music vanishes, except for, again, sparse piano.
“I need someone…”
“…to show me my place in all this.”
The Force Theme starts to play here, but it’s cut off.
Wait for it…
!!!
Oh my gods. I don’t know how they keep topping themselves. This cannot continue forever, can it? What to expect from a potential Rey / Kylo Ren alliance? Where do they even go from here? Does Kylo continue to be pulled toward the light? Does Rey succumb to her darkest instincts? I DON’T KNOW!
But I do know that I am excited for this film!
For The Force Awakens, I stopped watching and talking about new trailers after the Monday Night Football one dropped, and you know what? That really worked for me. I’ve been keeping a blind eye toward the happenings surrounding The Last Jedi since even before the teaser debuted, and with ignorance comes surprise, tempered expectations, and hopefully a whole lot more enjoyment of the final product. So, from here until whenever I get around to seeing the next film (opening weekend, Sunday matineé, naturally), I will say no more about it.
Two months isn’t a long time. It wasn’t last go-around, and it certainly won’t be again.
The First Last Jedi Sighting
It’s funny. Just the other day I thought to myself, “self, it’s already April. When the heck is the first trailer for The Last Jedi going to drop?” It was a good question; the teaser for The Force Awakens came out in November of 2015. That’s a good year and change before release. Until today, we were basically eight months out with no sign of new footage.
Well, it’s here: feast your eyes on the two-minute trailer for The Last Jedi, revealed as part of the annual Star Wars Celebration.
Immediately, the score conveys a Star Wars feel. It always does. What appears to be a starfield fades into a close-up of a black rock, whilst an eerie, dissonant sound grows louder.
Bam! Rey! Just like the first trailer, we’ve got a jump-scare type introduction of one of our main characters. She’s still on that island from the end of The Force Awakens, and she’s sweating and gasping for breath, again, similar to how Finn was in the first teaser. It’s like poetry; it’s sort of– they rhyme.
The Force Theme plays over the Lucasfilm logo.
“Breathe.”
A shot of The Island. I want to go there.
“Just breathe.”
It’s tricky, because of the fact that I know where this place is on Earth, I cannot transport myself to the galaxy far, far away. Instead, all I can think is “Ireland.”
“Now…
“…reach out.”
For whatever reason, this shot doesn’t feel like Star Wars at all. In fact, I’m having Legion flashbacks. But, this does feel like an echo of the levitation scenes in Empire.
“What do you see?”
I see an unknown figure standing in front of a stellar map. It appears to be on a Mon Calamari cruiser, as you can see a few of them in the background. Rey’s theme plays briefly. My gut says that’s Leia. It’s ’cause of the hair, really.
“Light.”
Kylo Ren’s mask is broken and smoldering. Interesting, as the last film had a close-up shot of Darth Vader’s melted mask. Ren’s theme (or the First Order’s theme) plays over this shot, though it’s curious how it comes after the spoken word “light.”
“Darkness.”
A small stone bookshelf is illuminated by a ray of light. It’s embedded in a wall that kind of looks like an uprooted tree. As the shot fades in, and underneath the crescendo-ing score, there’s someone whisper-speaking. It sounds almost like Yoda?
“The balance…”
A gloved hand touches a book that appears worn and/or burned. That symbol looks familiar, but I can’t place it. (It’s also replicated in the teaser poster.)
*The sound of a distant lightsaber igniting*
“It’s so much bigger.”
Rey is training with a lightsaber as Luke looks on from above. She’s swinging at nothing in particular. Thank goodness there aren’t any remote droids around.
Rapid-fire shot time:
A squadron of skimming fighters scratch up red dust from the surface of a white, deserted, mud-cracked landscape. In the distance, AT-ATs. It’s like the anti-Hoth. Another fighter swoops down, crashes into the ground, and gets back up and flying.
These fighters appear to have an asymmetrical design with the cockpit on the left side. Their aesthetic is unlike anything I’ve seen in the films, which is a good thing.
Finn! I would imagine this is some kind of recovery pod for him, post-duel loss. Or it could be an Iron Man-type suit. There’s a HUD, featuring Aurebesh text. I don’t know if I should try translating it or not…
Poe Dameron! And BB-8! They’re running down a corridor on, again, what appears to be a Resistance ship that’s under attack. Poe’s suit has a Rebel logo on the shoulder.
They reach their X-Wing in the hangar, when there’s an explosion behind it. On the left, I think I spy an A-Wing’s engines!
A TIE Fighter explodes as the Millennium Falcon flies through the clouds, pursued by more TIE Fighters. Very Empire.
Rey runs with blue lightsaber ignited. It looks like she might finally be off The Island.
“I only know one truth…”
Badass. That’s a nice scar you’ve got on your eye there Kylo. Curious, I thought Rey destroyed your lightsaber when she whooped your ass on Starkiller Base?
What appears to be Luke and R2-D2 sitting in front of a burning building as embers fly in the air. I have to believe this is the place from Rey’s vision. No clue where or what it could be.
Captain Phasma and Storm Troopers walk through flames, their shadows cast onto the smoke behind them. Awesome. The structure in the upper left indicates to me that this is probably the aforementioned Resistance ship under attack being boarded.
A space battle! Red and blue adorned ships, shaped like the front-half of a Nebulon-B frigate, are under assault by TIE Fighters.
An X-Wing snipes a TIE Fighter, in what seems like a pretty frantic scene. Hopefully it’s not like the one from Rogue One. While that one was fun to watch, I’d hate for this to be more of the same.
“It’s time for the Jedi… to end.”
Luke stands in a portal to a cave. I wonder if he’s living in a slimy mud-hole like Yoda was. The parallels seem to be too easy to make.
An ominous score. STAR WARS in red.
What the heck does that mean? It’s all so very foreboding. And, thankfully, the teaser does a good job of revealing basically nothing. Like before, I haven’t a clue what the plot of this film is, or where the pieces from The Force Awakens get picked up. I don’t know anything about supporting characters — I assume there will be a few new ones (a la Lando) — nor can I even make a guess as to where our heroes are all heading.
It seems to be a very dark place. Hopefully they do it right this time.
And so he spoke... 
