#133
by igorfrankensteen » Jan 05, 2016 3:32 am
I was thinking that my opinion of this one might improve after the next one comes out. Not because it will be worse, but because some of what looks like distracting crap in this one, might turn out to have been foundational plot elements.
From a pure Film Appreciators point of view, a film Historians point of view if you will, the first six films, were all created and then later modified, under the influence of shifting pressures. SOME of what appear to later viewers as flaws, were really a result either of the limitation of the technology (or budget) of the time they were made, or intriguingly, by the forces driving and controlling movie making in general at the time, at war with the evolving mind of their central creator. Fans have heard the story that many of the problems in what became Episode Four, were there because Lucas feared there would be no other episodes, and had to make the film stand on it's own.
In the same way, the films which were made with the certainty that others would follow, had seeming gaps or otherwise mysterious elements which were there to set up the next film, or to explain items from the previous one. Maybe this one shows that characteristic.
But then, the apparent capricious nature of Lucas as a creator is a part of it all as well. Lots of artists who become famous, get challenged to explain details which were not at all important to them at the time of creation, and due to their human sensitivity, they invent an explanation in the moment, designed not to accurately answer the questions, so much as to provide the artist with emotional relief from the stress of being questioned. That, or they simply change their minds, and don't want to admit it.
This one is obviously the first in a new sequence. How much of the references to the past, or odd asides of the present were really necessary wont be known until the second or third installment is released, if ever.