Annnnd here’s that ‘Last Jedi’ behind-the-scenes video.

In fact, I gotta go watch it again, so I can codify what I think about Star Wars: The Last Jedi at this point.

I have to be careful not to give the current ongoing trilogy virtues that it does not have; or, more accurately, I have to be careful not to ascribe to the previous trilogy vices that it did not possess.  I will, by the way, not follow Lucas’s lead in thinking of the previous movies in terms of internal chronology.  The ‘first’ trilogy was Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi; the ‘second’ trilogy consists of the prequels; and the current, unfinished trilogy is shaping up to be a sequel to the first trilogy that ignores the second one whenever possible.

It is fair to say, of course, that the current trilogy threatens to be essentially a remake of the first one — Honest Trailers made a compelling argument along these lines — but from the above video it’s fairly clear that they’re continuing to physically make a movie, and not a green-screen extravaganza.  There were special effects being shown that you’d almost assume would have been done via CGI as a matter of course*. That they’re not is kind of psychologically reassuring: if it turns out that this trilogy is merely nothing more than the ultimate Star Wars Original Trilogy Fan Film, well, that’s still better than what Phantom Menace managed.

Moe Lane

*You really are left with the impression that the people on that set cared about Star Wars in a way that George Lucas himself never quite did.  And, to be brutally honest about it: Star Wars is space opera.  I imagine that it might grate to have that series define your entire career and public persona, if you wanted to be known as the sort of person who made American Graffiti. …I don’t remember if I’ve ever even seen that movie.