The Stupid Plot
Jun. 12th, 2018 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperApparently, social media outrage is running rampant over the Star Wars movies again. And I have read enough stuff floating around that I am finally giving up and writing down what I think.
So, let me preface this with a couple of things:
I have yet to see Solo. This is not because I have any objection to going out to see Solo. This is because I have two children, a job, am coaching softball, and am flipping exhausted. I haven't seen Avengers yet either. Or Black Panther. I've seen Coco (which was great!) and I'll be seeing Incredibles 2 with the family at our earliest opportunity.
The people who are picking on Kelly Tran are a bunch of idiotic assholes.
That said, I feel really sorry for Kelly Tran. There was absolutely nothing wrong with what she was doing in The Last Jedi. She just had the misfortune to be stuck as one of the lead characters in The Stupid Plot(TM).
Now, The Stupid Plot appears time and again in Star Wars films. The prequel trilogy was full of it. It's why so many of us didn't like it.
The entire excursion to the gambling planet was idiotic. It cannot work unless the ragtag fugitive Rebel fleet (wait, wrong show) was being chased for weeks. I understand that Star Wars historically plays fast and loose with space and time (see: Kessel Run), but this makes no sense. Certainly, when we check in on the fleet, we have no sense that this chase has been going on that long.
So we have this entire plot line that is shoehorned into the film and has no business being there. And what does it say?
All rich people are scum.
...
No, I'm trying to think of something else it had to say, but I'm coming up pretty empty. I guess we get the pretty scene at the end with the kid and the broom, but this plot line was way too big a price to pay to get there. Seriously. Get there some other way. It can be done by competent writers.
Other than that, I liked The Last Jedi. There are things that I can quibble with, but it's pretty much quibbling. But this massive dose of The Stupid Plot just hurts an otherwise good film.
And here's poor Kelly Tran, who is getting savaged on the Internet by idiots and trolls. And she doesn't deserve any of it.
On the behalf of relatively sane people on the Internet everywhere, let me just say, "I'm sorry."
So, let me preface this with a couple of things:
That said, I feel really sorry for Kelly Tran. There was absolutely nothing wrong with what she was doing in The Last Jedi. She just had the misfortune to be stuck as one of the lead characters in The Stupid Plot(TM).
Now, The Stupid Plot appears time and again in Star Wars films. The prequel trilogy was full of it. It's why so many of us didn't like it.
The entire excursion to the gambling planet was idiotic. It cannot work unless the ragtag fugitive Rebel fleet (wait, wrong show) was being chased for weeks. I understand that Star Wars historically plays fast and loose with space and time (see: Kessel Run), but this makes no sense. Certainly, when we check in on the fleet, we have no sense that this chase has been going on that long.
So we have this entire plot line that is shoehorned into the film and has no business being there. And what does it say?
No, I'm trying to think of something else it had to say, but I'm coming up pretty empty. I guess we get the pretty scene at the end with the kid and the broom, but this plot line was way too big a price to pay to get there. Seriously. Get there some other way. It can be done by competent writers.
Other than that, I liked The Last Jedi. There are things that I can quibble with, but it's pretty much quibbling. But this massive dose of The Stupid Plot just hurts an otherwise good film.
And here's poor Kelly Tran, who is getting savaged on the Internet by idiots and trolls. And she doesn't deserve any of it.
On the behalf of relatively sane people on the Internet everywhere, let me just say, "I'm sorry."
no subject
Date: 2018-06-12 07:58 pm (UTC)Not that I'm particularly in touch. I've seen The Force Awakens, which was a case of The Recycled Plot, and Rogue One, which I liked better, even though it wasn't cheerful even by Erica's standards. I haven't seen The Last Jedi or Solo. Eventually the library should get them on DVD.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-12 09:07 pm (UTC)But, yes, I'd say that's pretty much what's happening here. She makes a useful target, which is a sad thing.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-13 09:52 am (UTC)It looks, just going by that article, as if something worse than displaced aggression against the script writer is at work.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-13 03:04 pm (UTC)