5 Ways to Prep - Star Wars: The Last Jedi
By George Rose
December 14, 2017
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Maybe that’s because, as expected, the new film is earning great reviews (currently over 90% positive). Is it just me or does anyone else remember the time when studios other than Disney also made great movies, when predicting box office earnings was more of a challenge and when people seemed more concerned with the possible world domination that the “evil and corrupt” Disney had seemingly been planning for decades? Now it’s 2017, nobody trusts anything that doesn’t have Disney branded at the top of the poster, and EVERYTHING the Mouse House does is both a financial jackpot AND a critical darling. Though the tides have turned, I’m just here on my little tug boat enjoying the waves. As long as someone, ANYONE is making good movies that are earning money and keeping cinemas alive than I’m happy. If that happiness is the result of a corporation taking everyone over (cough cough 20th Century Fox), then I’ll just keep swimming with smiles as I pretend not to hear the terrifying screams of their victims.
Good movies are hard to come by. Movies worthy of a 100 foot screen are hard to come by. I can watch an Oscar-caliber drama while three feet away from my TV and get the same effect, because people don’t laugh or cheer during a drama. For almost $20 a ticket I want it big, I want it good and I want a theater full of fans. Star Wars has given us that for decades and promises it again now. The time has finally come. You know the movie that’s coming and you know the history of the franchise… but do you know how to prep for Star Wars: The Last Jedi?
#1 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
I only allow myself to recommend one previous film from the franchise being discussed. With Star Wars, we have seven prior “main saga” films and one spin-off. Since this is Star Wars we’re talking about, you’ve probably seen them all and already know what’s going on. For the uninitiated, if you have time for only one movie before seeing The Last Jedi then you should see the entry that most immediately precedes it, especially since Force Awakens is the start of a new trilogy and Last Jedi is part two. Again, with this week probably giving you a bit of Star Wars overload I’ll keep this part of the article short. The Last Jedi is Episode 8, go prep with Episode 7 and you’ll be fit as a fiddle. Let’s move on to the recommendations that you may not necessarily be expecting since it’s the only non-Star Wars info you’re likely to digest this week.
#2 - Looper (2012)
One of the few unknowns at this point is The Last Jedi’s director, Rian Johnson. Disney has a way of taking untapped talent and sucking all the creative life force from them to make great movies. This is a brilliant tactic since they can get a director for cheap, retain most of the control and don’t have to deal with an experienced veteran trying to derail their plans. Though this seems as if Disney is acting more like Big Brother than a Fairy Godfather, you can’t argue with what’s worked. Joss Whedon directed one movie (Serenity) before assembling Marvel’s finest and it earned only $25 million, then Avengers earned over $600 million and stellar reviews. Granted, he is a TV and comic book mastermind, but he had no movie experience. There are plenty of other examples of unknowns turning in top-notch work (The Russos with Captain America, Kenneth Branagh with Thor and Cinderella, Taika Waititi with Ragnarok, etc.) and it pleases me greatly that the trend has successfully continued here with The Last Jedi.
The newest member of Disney’s Island of Misfit Directors is Rian Johnson. His list of credits is short but meaningful; he directed a few episodes of Breaking Bad (which everybody loves) and Looper, one of the most shockingly unexpected good movies of 2012. As a newer director in town, it’s surprising that a movie about time travel was trusted into the hands of an amateur. Newbies usually have to prove they can manage a crew, a basic script and getting actors to speak the right dialogue before they are handed a mega-franchise or a complicated storyline. Well, not Rian. He tackled time-loops, intense action, meaningful drama, and big name celebrities (Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt) with ease and turned in a film that ended up 93% positive. To explain more of the plot might give away spoilers, so I won’t, but I will say that The Last Jedi is also currently 93% positive. What’s the moral of the story here? In Disney we trust! And, as it would seem, in Rian Johnson we should trust as well.
#3 - Spaceballs (1987)
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. When you have a franchise that shakes the world to its core, you’re going to have a few people that want to jump on the bandwagon. If a film in space does really well, you’re going to see other studios start making more movies that are set among the stars. Or, you’re going to have a movie come out with characters and a plot that are practically a mirror image. They may not necessarily be stealing, either. There’s a good chance they are making fun of you. The “mock-movie” is nothing new and usually they are horrible, but sometimes there’s a knock-off that just tries for a few laughs but ends up becoming a classic.
The legendary Mel Brooks directs and stars in Spaceballs, leading a cast of fellow 80’s legends through the galaxy on a quest to knock Star Wars off their high horse. Lone Star (Bill Pullman/Han Solo) and his friend Barf (John Candy/Chewbacca) are trying to help Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga/Princess Leia) save her planet from Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis/Darth Vader) by using the Schwartz (aka the Force), which they learn from Yogurt (Brooks/Yoda) after fleeing from the clutches of Pizza the Hut (Jaba). The only thing missing is a Luke Skywalker.
What makes Spaceballs rise above the mock-competition is a combination of both childish humor and original adult sci-fi sensibilities. Characters hold their lightsabers like giant male appendages in several scenes, while in another Dark Helmet tries hunting for the heroes by watching a future copy of Spaceballs (the movie we are watching). This leads to a lengthy discussion of what’s happening “right now” if the movie was already made, taking us from humor to sci-fi and back to humor with ease. The cherry on top of this treat is Dot Matrix, voiced by Joan Rivers. Dot is Spaceballs’ version of C-3PO, but she acts less like a cyborg intended for human relations and is more of a mechanical chastity belt for Vespa. Though most movies that try to mock others are laughing at the source material, Spaceballs is the rare comedy that tried to laugh with the legend it borrowed from and became an intergalactic classic of its own.
#4 - Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
When looking for films to recommend, I like to find movies some of the cast has worked in before. Since Mark Hamill is the last of the main cast that can appear in any future sequels (Han Solo died in Force Awakens and Carrie Fisher died in real life) and since Luke Skywalker wasn’t really in the last movie, he seemed like the obvious choice. I was going to recommend some of his animated voice work (probably a Batman cartoon where he voices the Joker) but then I remembered he was in the stoner comedy Jay and Silent Bob. In the movie, the potheads claim their comic idea was stolen and turned into a movie. The funny thing is, the comic is a lot like Spaceballs in that it is very similar to parts of Star Wars. We follow the pair to Hollywood where they end up on the film’s set, only to learn that the person playing the actor that is starring as the villain is Mark Hamill. Though it was a master stroke of casting, it’s hard to laugh when you realize how far Hamill has fallen since his glory days filming the original Star Wars. Let’s hope Last Jedi makes Hamill the mega-celebrity he was always intended to be.
#5 - Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2016)
Two years ago, The Force Awakens shocked the world when Han Solo died on the big screen. One year ago, just after the release of Rogue One, Carrie Fisher passed away. The real tragedy here is that the very next day her mother, the iconic Debbie Reynolds, also departed this world. The fake tragedy here is that we will now never get the version of Star Wars: Episode 9 that we were intended to get. That movie now has to tackle the problem of how to continue the story without one of the main characters that (presumably) survives Episode 8. I mean, you can’t kill Solo in Episode 7 and then Leia in Episode 8; that’s just a cheap attempt at consistent heartache. There are other ways to stir up emotions and drama. One of those ways is to watch a documentary about the mother/daughter duo that was filmed before their passing. It shows the behind-the-scenes drama of a famous Hollywood family that struggled through the bad and united just in time before they would leave this life together. It’s the incredibly sad story of two funny, talented women that changed the industry forever. Though they now live in a heaven far, far away, we are only a few days from getting to honor the Princess of Sci-Fi one last time. Hamill really is the Last Jedi standing now. May the Force be with him.