So as legions of ‘Star Wars’ fans come together in Orlando
for the annual celebration of all things relating to a galaxy, far, far away it
came as little surprise that Disney used the opportunity to drop more information
surrounding the much anticipated ‘The Last Jedi’. Naturally that included a
teaser trailer but before that, let’s address the poster they also revealed
because it really is a thing of beauty. It’s vibrant, beautifully illustrated
and if you’re into visual metaphors that may foreshadow the development of your
protagonist it’s about as good as you can get. Rey, caught right in the divide
between the last Jedi himself, Luke Skywalker (in ‘Return of the Jedi’ shortly
before his death Yoda said to Luke “When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will
you be” so until I hear otherwise that’s what I’m assuming the title is
referring to) and the freshly scarred Kylo Ren as he continues his own treacherous path down
the dark side.
As ever I’m avoiding plot speculation in favour of just
judging the trailer itself and what questions it raises. I must that admit that
upon my first viewing I did feel somewhat underwhelmed, this trailer is
certainly a far cry from the one we received at the 2015 celebration for ‘The
Force Awakens’ but upon reflection I’m very satisfied with what we got. One
must remember that the trailer for ‘The Force Awakens’ was almost clinically
designed to cement the idea that ‘Star Wars’ was returning not just as a film,
but as a phenomenon. Soaring music, uplifting visuals, “Chewie, we’re home”,
they were all playing into the hype that ‘Star Wars’ was well and truly back.
‘The Last Jedi’ trailer does not need to convince us of
that. What it is conveying instead is an atmosphere and mood. It takes a more
sombre and muted tone (and or about as sombre and muted as you can get with ‘Star
Wars’) and hopefully that is a sign of what is to come. When it comes to
whether it gave away too much the answer is a resounding no of course. It gave
us just enough to contemplate without providing context to any of those
impressive looking set pieces.
The trailer certainly establishes the idea that ‘The Last
Jedi’ could be a more morally ambiguous affair, Luke’s statement regarding the
fact that the situation is much bigger than a simple light vs dark mentality is
very promising in that regard. His last chilling line only hammers home that
feeling. True the last line is certainly a tease, but what else are trailers
supposed to do at their core. It is there to convince you to go and see the
film because doing so will give you context to that final chord, unless you’re ‘The
Amazing Spider-Man 2’ of course.
What also struck me about the trailer was its visuals. Rian
Johnson is a very different filmmaker to JJ Abrams and that is clear from the
contrast of ‘The Last Jedi’ compared to ‘The Force Awakens’ but the effect is
not too jarring to make us forget this is in the same universe. There are a
number of brilliantly composed shots which probably owes a lot to Johnson
brining Steve Yedlin to the role of cinematographer, whom he worked with on ‘Brick’
and ‘Looper’. The colour pallet seems a bit more restricted, as if to set us up
for the darker road that lies ahead. After all when one considers ‘The Last
Jedi’ stands as the second instalment in this trilogy we can safely say Johnson
has quite an act to follow. It’s either ‘Attack of the Clones’ or that other little
movie, so talk about a low basement/high ceiling situation.
Then of course the trailer draws in all kinds of questions
regarding where our favourite characters are by the start of the film and where
they will go from there. Finn is clearly still recovering from his encounter with
Kylo, Rey is undergoing training with Luke and Poe is still fighting the good
fight. For all the speculation on narrative, themes and details, it is the
characters that continually drive ‘Star Wars’ forward and out investment with
them is essential to that. This trailer has me intrigued and it’s going to be a
long wait until December.
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