What Could Have Improved Canto Bight?

I remember hearing somewhere that GL made the bad guys in the OT black and white to make them bland and look conformist and boring. I'm thinking maybe RJ was going for the same thing (or something similar) with Canto Bight, making the evil rich guys look boring and earth like instead of fantastic and alien. Maybe that makes him a genius, maybe some people will come around to that way of thinking... I think he failed to pull it off, which ruins a chunk of the movie. Luckily that part of the movie goes nowhere and has no impact on the overall story. Unfortunately that part of the story goes nowhere and contributes nothing to the movie and only distracts from the story, trips up the pacing and jolts you out of the story.

So what could have saved Canto Bight? Not having Canto Bight and replacing it with a story that fits Finn better, that ties him to Rey and the main story line, that doesn't have a forced romance shoed into it.

 

Canto Bight doesn't really need improvement for me, this is what I said in another thread:

"m just very surprised by those people who are saying Canto Bight was an 'inconsequential side plot'. Sometimes a location, a space, is used in a narrative to characterize our characters. It characterizes Rose, and through Rose Finn learns to see the injustice in the galaxy which members of the resistance like Rose hate and fight. In the beginning of TLJ Finn only fights for what he loves, Rey. At the end of TLJ, Finn identifies with the resistance, fights what he hates. However, he is rescued by Rose who now fights for what she loves. Finn has become a bit more like Rose. Rose has become a bit more like Finn. That's what Canto Bight did.

As for the specific narrative function of Canto Bight: they needed a code-breaker. That code-breaker happens to be on Canto Bight: no matter where that codebreaker is, the space where he resides is by extension always 'consequential'. Sine qua non. Some people say, 'the codebreaker could just have been there on the Raddus'. But the Raddus is not an ambiguous space. The Raddus functions as a space to characterize Poe and Holdo, and in a certain extent Kylo and Leia. The code-breaker needs a space that characterizes him specifically. His motto is Don't Join, that's his name, and it screams ambiguity. The 'master code breaker ' is a mirror image of the thief called Don't Join. A casino is a beatifully ambiguous space, for ambiguous persons. The glamorous 'poet with a blaster' who can do anything doesn't even notice our heroes. The thief did. The former could have really helped our heroes, whereas the latter nearly leads them to their doom."

 

I’d have preferred they scrapped Canto Bight altogether and simply had the Finn/Rose subplot be them infiltrating the Supremacy. Keep it short and simple.

 

An unexpected visit by a passing random Death Star would have been nice. . . .

 

Yes, but how would they break in the Supremacy undetected?

Canto Bight was RJ's way of getting someone that could break them in while at the same time show a bit more of the galaxy, more aliens, etc.

I like parts of it a lot, like the casino stuff and the jail dialog. Other parts I don't like at all, like the entire jail escape sequence, and chase sequence with the animals. I'll probably skip those parts in re-watches at home.

Then there are some parts where I feel more neutral about, like Rose's backstory and motivations. I also did not like how Finn said it was worth it in the end because they broke a lot of things in town. And then Rose says "now it's worth it", after setting the animal lose. Really? Being nice to animals is great and all, but was all worth it just because of that?

I also didn't like much the "car park" idea. I mean, they were in a secret mission, and they parked in the middle of the beach for everyone to see? Sigh, it was really a mixed bag, and easily some of the weakest parts of the movie for me.

 

It's done to highlight she doesn't get her joy from destruction whereas at this point, Finn still does. This plays back when she stops Finn from going head first into the cannon. It's not about destroying what we hate but saving what we love. Destroying the town to her was fine and all, but it was pointless if they didn't save those animals.

 

I feel RJ really phoned it in so to speak.
The chase scene was so lazy. Compare it to the pod race, Coruscant chase or the speeder bike chase, ... they were better thought out, better paced, better shot and felt exciting. This one not so much. I never once felt our heroes were in any real danger.The bad CG didn't help much either.

Also; DJ just happening to be in the exact same cell our heroes were in, his way tooeasy escape and so on, ... I can suspend my disbelief only so much. The film just rushed through those scenes to get it over with was how I experienced it.

As much as I love TLJ as a film this whole sequence seriously tarnishes what is otherwise an excellently written an photographed film.

 

Thanks for your comment, it does make a lot of sense in the big picture of things, regarding the "not destroying what we hate but saving what we love" message. I get that and was not aware ot it in this particular scene.

However, I still think it's a strange thing to say given the situation. I mean, they going there, their important mission and the people who depended on their success so desperately, but still they state "it was all still worth it" because... they broke stuff and/or saved a few animals? I don't know, something still feels quite odd with that dialog to me. But, I understand others may not have a problem with that. Thanks again for the clarification.

 

As far as they are concerned, the mission has failed at that moment.
They're about to be captured short of an incredible plot convenience (read: miracle).
So for her, saving the animals is the silver lining in an otherwise for naught venture.

Just my .02

 

However Rian decided they would. It’s a movie. Needing a “Master Code Breaker” was a fabricated stipulation. DJ could have been some aloof Resistance ‘slicer’ already on the Raddus and still served the same ‘Judas’ function.

Right. It was a plot contrivance created to justify why our heroes needed to go to this exotic location. It was ‘neat’ to see this side of the galaxy, but not really crucial to the story or its underline message.

‘Worth what though?’ was my question. They caused temporary damage to some aristocratic playground. So what? The war profiteers will just spend their blood money somewhere else. The proprietors will just build it back again. The space horses will just be recaptured. The effort was a mild inconvenience at best.

What, they were in a hurry

 

Not much to complain about Canto Bight. One or two scenes maybe but overall I think the planet and the events there worked pretty good. I loved most of the scenes. Favorites:
- The very first shot is amazing. Two aliens celebrating in the boat, with the waterfalls down there. Cheers!
- The guy complainning about the parking: "This beach its private!!!" Love that.
- Finn amazed with the casino.
- Cool creatures. Too many to look at.
- The Casino music, an homage to the Cantina Mos Eysle?
- The real codebraker and the 40's style, music include.
- The Canto Bight Police, like the visuals inspired by Mcquarries drawings.
- Dont Join character, like this character and his lifestyle. Made Finn wondering about the war.
- The fathiers look beatiful specially the animatronics.
- I loved the kids, and of course the last scene of the movie. Cool message.

Maybe the pacing in some scenes and the difference in the visuals if you compare to the rest of the movie are things that people disliked. But to me was not a big problem at all.

 

I think it just needed a more deft hand from Johnson.

1) make it clear that the Master Codebreaker is the only one Maz Kanata TRUSTS. Not that he's the only one who can do it. Pretty sure she says it in passing but just have her double down on it.

2) Don't spend so much time with the jail break. Give Canto Bight time to breathe. In fact, eliminate it and just make them get tossed with BB-8 and DJ is a guy who had been tossed as well.

3) Lay off the subtext here a bit. I love the idea of bringing in the morally grey areas of war like profiteering, but it along with the "save the animals" thing is just so heavy handed and combined it feels more like a sermon than a scene in the movie.

 

Cut it from the movie. Also the "now it is" line has dethroned your breaking my heart as my least favorite line of SW dialogue.

 

Also the BB8 machine coin gun and what is your story line were both pretty terrible.

 

It needed better suspense and connection to the rest of the story. Fix:

Hux informs Snoke that a small escape craft slipped away from the Resistance fleet, notes it might be a diversion. Snoke thinks it isn’t. Sends the Knights of Ren or Praetorian Guards to track them.

Finn and Rose locate the Master Codebreaker (MC) and convince him come with them, but not before they realize the casino is filled with First Order sympathizers (including some from the Canto Bight police). They realize they are sought for questioning, but are able to sneak out of the casino area on the Fathiers. When they arrive at the beach to flee on their ship, the KOR or the PGuards are there waiting for them next to their burning ship. A small battle ensues where the MC is killed. The Canto Bight police arrive, telling the KOR or PGuards that they’ll take it from here. The KOR/PGuards nod to the CB police, and leave the scene. BB8 flees while Finn and Rose are arrested.

In jail they meet DJ, who overhears them lamenting the fact that the MC died. DJ tells them they’re in luck: there is one type of criminal common to casinos—codebreakers--and he just happens to be the best. He springs them out of jail to prove his skills. BB8 helps them steal a ship and the rest of the movie goes on much like it did.

Except when Kylo and Rey go to see Snoke, the PGuard or KOR return from Canto Bight during Snoke’s torture of Rey. They give Snoke a written report that their mission was successful. Snoke skims the report handed to him, laughs, and taunts Rey further: “You have failed to save the Resistance, just like your friend, the First Order deserter, has failed. FN2187 has been defeated at the hands of my PGuard/the KOR. And now you too, will be destroyed!”

 

By Deleting it, is how you can improve it. Awful film making - I don't know what went through the heads of people that thought it was good.

 

Really no need for that last part.

 

I'm talking about Editors etc, not viewers