this is extra sucky because the movie uses Luke to set up his own strawman. "You think I'm going to walk out with a laser sword" and he describes exactly what he does at the end of the film. so he does do a bullshit Goku Matrix slow motion brushing off his shoulder fanservice ending, saving the day, but people insist that that's what toxic fans wanted and didn't get, and this is... something different and better? i admit i don't truly understand the narrative around Luke or his supposed "arc".
it is bizarre, the movie really feels like gaslighting it's audience. Luke they subverted his own expectation that the writer purposefully put at the start of the film to make it seem more meaningful and twisty at the end. so early on, Luke lies about the end of the film, planting that strawman that has helped sell it as "bold" and "unexpected". unexpected because it does exactly what it mockingly proposes it does. it's a weird sort of fan service served with contempt.
Luke is a liar throughout this film. he cut himself off from the force yet uses it over and over again during his time w Rey. he rejected the Jedi years ago and moved to the Vatican of the Jedi religion to do so? he wants to just die and left a map so people could find him. his arc is poorly done. then his own "heroism" at the end makes a liar out of him, when he DOES step out with a laser sword and DOES face down the whole FO. wow u didn't see that coming, after Luke saying exactly that earlier in the film. tbh when i first saw the movie, and Luke set up that really lame and obvious foreshadowing, i knew Rian was trying to outsmart people, that he would do exactly that. so it was really a letdown tbh when it turned out to be a super twisty version of making Luke a liar from earlier in the movie.
of course Luke was a liar from the start, standing there dressed in his Sunday Best while saying he swore off the Jedi years ago. this does not make sense. if you quit Catholicism 6 years ago after a traumatic near death experience you would not hang around wearing a Jedi robe. what if he did so in order to fool Rey? but then he would know she was coming, he would sense her through the force, a thing he is supposedly cut off from. why is he dressed like that? cos they had no plan. luckily Rian had him throw the lightsaber and change into a poncho that more or less looks like he is wearing a designer trash bag.
wow look at the art design and set design! that generic slate brick fantasy backdrop that could be on an episode of
Game of Thrones or maybe a
Harry Potter movie. and the choice to blur it out with shallow DOF - so beautiful! look at all that grey! and the flat lighting, truly masterful. yeah this movie looks amazing /s
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Still, it speaks of the man's professionalism that he still went ahead and gave such a good performance. But seriously, having Luke as a fallen Jedi and bitter about it is an interesting plot point to build upon. The movie just went about it in the most confusing and illogical way.
