every now and then i am, look you see, prone to purchasing something out of a sense of obligation or responsibility. invariably, or if you like usually, this is to do with having the entire set of "complete works" of someone or something.
this, mindful of the risk of sounding like one of them psychotic, no sense of perspective "fanboy" types, was surely and truly tested to the full on Monday. as many of you shall be aware, the Monday just gone was, but of course, the DVD and Blu Ray release date for Star Wars Episode VIII : Battlestar Galactica. or, if you like, Star Wars The Last Jedi; for so it is scribed on the box.
at the time of seeing it down the pictures i gave this an average to mediocre and dull review. many fellow Star Wars fans felt the same, with only paid, employed movie critics declaring it to be "the best thing ever". early, provisional talk of Mark Hamill winning an Oscar for playing Luke Skywalker again faded right around the time he commenced milking some sort of space cow. at least, let us assume it was milking what he was doing.
for me, this was a film that the more you think about it, the worse it was. perhaps i should watch it again - maybe sat comfortably at home it won't seem "all that bad". but, then again, just the thought if not prospect of committing about 30 minutes south of 3 hours to it once more is daunting and displeasing.
so why buy it? well, i have the rest of the Star Wars films, so it seemed silly not to. this, i know, is the entire Disney business model for the films. presumably they are quite confident that people such as i shall buy it whether or not we like it, simply for the name on the box. also, the boys and my (considerably) better half seemed to like it more than me. perhaps they are the target market, then.
given two choices of "exclusive, limited edition" slip cases, i went with the "resistance" one, showing the ostensible heroes of the film. the alternate, the "first order" one, was quite frankly rubbish. so bad that i elected not to bother taking a picture of it for here.
it is with some interest i note that the box artwork, and indeed the credits for the film at the back of the bottom of the packaging, exclude the "Episode VIII" or if you will "Episode 8" aspect of the title. from what i remember some fans - a few hundred thousand, give or take - requested via some sort of petition that Disney just delete this film, makes a proper Star Wars Episode VIII, and we will all pretend this did not happen. this is unlikely, considering the hectic, locked in schedule they have for further films.
of course, the alternate is that, after some 40 years of mixed results, perhaps the concept is exhausted, maybe there are simply no more Star Wars stories to tell.
no, i am not "angry" with the film in any "fanboy" sense. i just really don't understand why they did what they did. dragging some of the original cast back after 30 years was a nice, sentimental touch, but in all cases they have gone out of their way to ruin or change the characters. cocky, suave Han Solo was turned into a bumbling idiot. Leia was OK, i suppose, but Luke was totally knacked. also, "inconsistencies" in the plot narrative, to say the least. how come "force ghost" Yoda turns up when Luke is about to set fire to a tree, but for some reason did not when Luke was going to kill a young Jedi trainee (padawan?) because he "might" have gone bad?
worst of all, here in Episode VIII, was the ruination of perfectly good new characters. Finn, Rey and Poe turned out to be really sensational, ace new heroes in Episode VII : Mission To Moscow. here in Episode VIII, they are given entirely different characteristics, and all three of them are made to be dull, of no interest and frankly boring.
there are two questions about Episode VIII : Battlestar Galactica, or if you like Star Wars The Last Jedi. first off, why did they make it like they did? at best, genuine innocence or a belief that they really were making a decent film. a darker possibility is that the incumbent owners of Star Wars absolutely hate it, and think the fans are stupid. if this is so, then perhaps they have thrown billions at it so as they may make uber billions to prove the point of how easily fools and money can be parted.
one would have to assume that we shall never truly know the answer to that first question. the second, however, will be answered in good time. just what is that question? how the hell are they going to wrangle another, supposedly final, story out of the convoluted mess of what happens in Episode VIII to make an at best semi decent film for Episode IX? again, perhaps it is just me, but there's no possible two hour story that could be told at the end of that one.
so there, it is sat in the collection. perhaps the boys will have a watch of it again at some point; maybe i will.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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