We are less than a month away from "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" being released in theaters. World of Reel will be watching it on 12.11.17, hence four days away from release. That's the only date it will be screened for film critics, that I know of at least. Will we be in for an all-time great? I've actually been surprised by the lack of enthusiasm my journalistic colleagues have shown "The Last Jedi," they're skeptical, but, as I've mentioned countless times before, if a movie in this trilogy can "bring it," it'll be Rian Johnson's film.
Entertainment Weekly has jus given us a slew of new pics of the movie and have 4 different covers dedicated to "The Last Jedi" for their 12.1.17 issue.
There's also interviews. Johnson’s hints that Luke might go to the dark side intrigue us:
“There’s a history in ‘Star Wars’ of the attraction between the light and the dark, whether it’s the story of Anakin basically turning from this sweet kid and seeing his seduction to the dark side, or even with Luke,” he said.
“Even though you never really believe he’s going to go over to the dark side, the whole revelation of ‘I am your father’ has to do with Vader and this darkness that [Luke] thought he could just dismiss as ‘That’s the bad guy. I don’t have any of him in me,’” he explained. “Suddenly he realizes ‘No, I comefrom him. I have quite a bit of him inside me.’”
Adam Driver on the other hand hints at his character, Kylo Ren, being not too different from Daisey Ridley's Rey, which begs to ask the questions, is she going to the dark side?
“He has been aware of this ability in himself from such a young age, and I don’t think there’s a lot of people around him who are on the same level, I think that there is something familiar there, as well as something to be feared, or something … that he can’t quite place.”
Johnson goes on to add something that I'm glad he's aware of, this trilogy isn't about whether Kylo is vanquished, it's about the characters and which trajetcory this journey will lead them to:
“There’s a big part of the story yet to be written and not by me,” Johnson said, alluding to J.J. Abramswho has been tasked with directing ‘Episode IX.’ “But I don’t think it’s very interesting if the whole story is just ‘Will Kylo get his comeuppance?’ He’s a more complicated character than that and I think he deserves a more complicated story than that. I don’t see the point of trying to get behind his mask and learn more about him if all we’re going to learn is ‘Yeah, he’s just an evil bad guy that needs to be killed.’”
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opens December 15.
