I believe that now, two days after seeing The Last Jedi, I am more inclined towards liking it than I was before. This is not new territory for me. I clearly remember hating The Empire Strikes Back after first seeing it (Vader was lying! He had to be!). For that matter, once we got Return of the Jedi on VHS, I fast-forwarded through any mention of Leia being Luke's sister (a plot point that I did not admit to being a part of Star Wars reality until Timothy Zahn's wonderful--now non-canon--books). Sometimes, it's not until much later that I come to appreciate a movie that I have seen (no, Bj ... that will never be the case for X-Men: The Last Stand).
What positively swayed me today was a phone call with Alex. She truly enjoyed The Last Jedi and has already seen it twice in the theater. As we discussed various aspects of the movie, I realized how important the atmosphere and audience while viewing a movie can be towards my feelings about it. For example, I saw the Ghostbusters reboot with Alex (who tends to make a funny movie funnier due to her reactions), and despite all of the criticism about it, I really like the movie.
One issue I had with The Last Jedi was that a lot of the humor felt out of place, inorganic. I have always enjoyed the humor in the original Star Wars trilogy, but its humor seemed more subtle to me. Yet, after talking with Alex about some of the moments that had seemed--well, forced--and hearing why she liked them with the laughter in her voice, I started to enjoy those moments more too.
I wasn't thinking that I wanted to see this movie in the theater again, but I've since changed my mind. I want to catch the parts that I missed and watch the movie more for what it is rather than what I wanted it to be. It would almost be worth it to fly Alex up just for that reason.
What positively swayed me today was a phone call with Alex. She truly enjoyed The Last Jedi and has already seen it twice in the theater. As we discussed various aspects of the movie, I realized how important the atmosphere and audience while viewing a movie can be towards my feelings about it. For example, I saw the Ghostbusters reboot with Alex (who tends to make a funny movie funnier due to her reactions), and despite all of the criticism about it, I really like the movie.
One issue I had with The Last Jedi was that a lot of the humor felt out of place, inorganic. I have always enjoyed the humor in the original Star Wars trilogy, but its humor seemed more subtle to me. Yet, after talking with Alex about some of the moments that had seemed--well, forced--and hearing why she liked them with the laughter in her voice, I started to enjoy those moments more too.
I wasn't thinking that I wanted to see this movie in the theater again, but I've since changed my mind. I want to catch the parts that I missed and watch the movie more for what it is rather than what I wanted it to be. It would almost be worth it to fly Alex up just for that reason.
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