Rian Johnson's Comedy in TLJ

He could have been written as active and not have been so pathetic. Luke Skywalker, pathetic, yeah, not what I wanted to see. He just sat around, depressed and waiting to die. Just because it's good writing in a dramatic sense, doesn't mean it's a good idea. This isn't Art House stuff, it's Star Wars. You can make any argument you want to justify his treatment but a route so divisive with such a beloved character like Luke Skywalker is the wrong way to go IMO.

 

He wasn't pathetic. He was broken. He was angry. He had real human problems.
If he were "active" there's no real story. And if you have a problem with that, your real problems are with George (for doing the PT not a ST) and JJ (for having Luke be a maguffin not a real character in TFA). Not with Rian and TLJ.

Sat around waiting to die? He was living. He was fishing and cultivating on his own.
Just because he wasn't wagging his laser sword around doesn't mean he wasn't active.

I get it, people wanted their imagined Luke from 30 years ago. Im sorry that didn't happen. But it was a great story in a dramatic sense. It was a great idea. Just because something isn't the fan service answer doesn't make it "art house".

 

I meant 'fearful' about the First Order not Hux the character. He is the general of the greatest power in the galaxy and is the butt of jokes by the resistance, if they don't take him seriously it is difficult for the audience to as well.

 

"I came to this island to die" not my words, that's Luke Skywalker talking, that's in the movie, just saying. Also, he left map to his location, if he never wanted to be found, why'd he leave a trail? Active doesn't mean swinging a lightsaber around, it being active, looking for answers, JJ gave us the impression he was there looking for something, it was the site of the first Jedi temple yet nothing is done with it, a total missed opportunity. We could have had Luke Skywalker actively trying to figure something out while on the island, not just done with life floating around on the island, fishing, etc but not active; That's what I'm trying to say.

 

Neither is George... yet there is comedy in every single one of his films. Tell that to all the supposed "writers" on YouTube making videos saying, "10 ways to improve TLJ!" Or other such nonsense.

 

You are all focusing on the wrong thing. Hux in TFA was a generic "evil guy in a uniform". Now he is angry, emotional and impulsive. Remember the scene where he was about to finish Kylo Ren off in the throne room. That's the key part. Now we don't know what Hux is going to do in Ep.IX. Will be betray Kylo Ren? How? Abandon him or try to become the surpreme leader himself? How Hux is actually interesting to look forward to.

 

Me neither, but what really grates on me about it, is that Rey just looks down, doesn't give a hoot that she nearly killed one or two of the caretakers, and turns away. She should have shouted down sorry, at least. But that could be just me? I like manners.

 

No i understand perfectly how his character is changing and growing and he develops a lot more in TLJ which brings him to the forefront of the film and in my opinion he is a really interesting character. I'm just purely commenting on the attempted comedic scene at the beginning and how i didn't think it fit with what they are trying to do with him.

 

The Hux thing would be ok if that scene was later in the film. But to open a Star Wars film with a joke scene is just 100% wrong.

Can you imagine if the steaming iron gag had been the opening scene after the title crawl?!

 

If he was there to literally just die, he would have jumped off the cliff years ago.
He came there to spend his last days. Don't be so pedantic.

 

Luke didn't leave that map behind. It was a map to the first Jedi temple, where many speculated Luke to be located. Lor San Tekka found a part of said map and that's where TFA begins.

 

Oh my God! Yes! Do it! Do it now!

 

Right? Especially in a movie so humbling and dreary.
"Hey here's a ray of sunshine, because you aren't getting many more...."

--- Double Post Merged, Jun 14, 2018, Original Post Date: Jun 14, 2018 ---

Amazing the things that slip through the cracks of these theories.

 

Luke was broken through much of the movie.

If you choose to ignore his final development, that's your prerogative, but that's the only reason you see him as "pathetic".

Turns out, there's actually a part of the movie where his arc ends up paying off. Did you leave the theater early?

 

However you feel about the quality of the jokes, they didn't belong in the movie. The opening dialogue between Hux and Poe was pure cringe and set off alarm bells for me for the rest of the movie. Star Wars is not part of the MCU and you should apply MCU tropes to it. If Johnson want's to do that for his movie he's welcome to, but you don't change the tone of a franchise in the middle of it. It's jarring. The prequels did the same thing and are actually closer to the matrix in tone than they are to the OT.

 

Why didn't they belong in the movie?

 

Because cell phone jokes in the GFFA - especially in the middle of a combat scene - take the viewer out of the movie.

It was horrible and indefensible. Leave that for the MCU.

 

I liked it...

PS. Also - what on Earth does "MCU humour" mean? I've seen my fair share of MCU films and the more I think about it, the less sense this term makes. How is humour in Thor: Ragnarok the same as in Doctor Strange? What similarities does humour in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 share with humour in Black Panther? I'll tell you - not many. "MCU humour" is an empty phrase. Also, a little something many people seem to forget - a scene can have multiple, vastly differing tones right next to each other and that doesn't mean it's tonally inconsistent. Want a good example? Rewatch battle of Hoth. Or scene when Han gets frozen in carbonite. Yes, it contains jokes. You find the Hux-Poe talk unfunny? Be my guest. Not every joke has to land for everybody. But calling it indefensible is a touch too much. Nothing in art is indefensible because nothing in art is objective.

 

I must admit that scene was a bit of a gamble. As soon as Domnalh Gleeson and Ade Edmondson (a very well known comedy actor in Britain) exchanged that look at "a single light fighter!", I knew there was something unusual... That look took me out of the movie much more than the Hux/Poe exchange. In fact, it was the phone call itself which brought me back to the characters, Poe's irreverence and Hux's grandiosity. Viewing this scene afterwards I noticed it is not disimilar from Poe's "Who talks first? I talk first?" of TFA. Definitely not as subtle, but on the same line.

For me tossing the lightsaber off the cliff was one of the most unfortunate comedy moments. It made you chuckle, I admit, but at what cost...

 

The only comedy I enjoyed in TLJ was with the Caretakers, I found everything else cringeworthy!

Also I wasn't a fan of the swearing in a Star Wars film, one of the things I like about Star Wars is it has it's own cursing, Nerf Herder, Moof Milker, Bantha Poodoo etc.