Star Wars Wednesday: The Last Jedi Official Trailer Hot Takes

The Last Jedi Official Trailer Hot Takes

          After I did my frame-by-frame analysis of the first Last Jedi trailer, I thought there was no way I’d ever do another one. I was thoroughly pooped by the end. But here I am again, after another amazing Star Wars trailer, here to give my thoughts on what exactly’s going on here.

          I’m going to be doing things a little different this time to make things easier on both of us. Instead of a full analysis of every shot, I’ll be doing “hot takes”, which means I’ll just be talking about the most important parts of the trailer or a scene I specifically want to look at. Basically it’s good for me because I don’t have to write “oh, here’s a landscape, and now here’s Rey holding her lightsaber, and now here’s a close-up of Luke’s robo-hand, wonder what that’s about”, and it’s good for you because you don’t have to scroll through all that to get to the good stuff.

          With that said…

          Here we get our first look at the new First Order AT-ATs. I’m sure they have a proper name, but let’s be honest, we’re all gonna call them AT-ATs. They look sort of gorilla-esque, which makes me think they’re gonna be a lot more mobile than the classic models.

          So two things here: first off, I’m pretty sure we can see some classic Imperial AT-ATs mixed in with the First Order ones. Check out the smaller one right in the middle there. It looks more like the ones we saw in the Original Trilogy than these massive beasts, and it looks positively puny compared to them. Remember how in Rogue One they made the AT-ATs look monstrous? Not so big now, are they?

          And second, we can see Kylo’s ship hovering above the battlefield, which means he’s on Crait during the battle. Will he play a similar role in the fight that Vader did in the Battle of Hoth? Who knows.

          So here we see Rey igniting her lightsaber, but this shot isn’t what I want to talk about. I want to talk about what we hear Snoke say overlayed in the first bit of the trailer.

          “When I found you, I saw raw untamed power. And beyond that…something truly special.”

          The real question is who he’s talking to here. The obvious answer would be Kylo, and the trailer is framed to reflect that. But Rey applies to a lot of the stuff he says as well, and this theory gains even more traction the further into the trailer we get.

          Here’s Rey in a foggy marshlike area on Ahch-To. When I first saw this shot, I figured this would be a scene similar to the one in Empire Strikes Back where Luke fights the phantom Vader on Dagobah. It looks similarly creepy to that weird cave, and I don’t trust those rocks for a second.

          Rey uses the force to break the ground, and Luke is like “whaaaaaaaaat”.

          “I’ve seen this raw strength only once before. It didn’t scare me enough then. It does now.”

          So a few things here. First off, there’s the word “raw” again. Either Gordon Ramsay is making a surprise appearance in the movie, or the fact Snoke and Luke both used it means something.

          Also, who’s Luke talking about here? He’s seen plenty of super-powerful Jedi in his time: Obi-Wan, Yoda, Vader, Palpatine, Kylo, and maybe Snoke. Again, the trailer is framed to make you think he’s talking about Kylo, and the “It didn’t scare me enough then” line seems to mean that he lost his academy because he left Kylo unchecked. But people on the internet have been posting the classic “I’m not afraid.” “You will be.” exchange from Empire to point out some similarities. There’s also the fact that Luke almost got cooked alive by Palpatine in Return of the Jedi by openly defying the dark side after literally disarming Vader. If Vader hadn’t intervened, Luke wouldn’t have made it off the Death Star alive. Food for thought.

          IT’S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!

          Here we see the tragic final moments of Kylo Ren’s helmet. Moment of silence, please.

          This is our first look at Kylo’s TIE Fighter. It bears some similarities to both his main ship and Vader’s TIE from A New Hope. It’s probably going to be one of the hot toys this Christmas.

          Band-Aid Boy isn’t sure if he wants to commit double patricide.

          I’ve heard people online say that these shots of Kylo hesitating on the trigger and the subsequent shots of Leia aren’t actually going to be together in the movie, but in this case I think they are. We know from interviews with Rian Johnson and Adam Driver that one of Kylo’s driving points in this movie is that he’s not sure he wants to continue down this path now that he’s finished off his father. Him failing to do it again with his mother would make sense with his character.

          Speaking of his mom…

          As sad as it is, it’s kind of inevitable that something’s gonna happen to Leia in the movie that means she’s not showing up in Episode IX. Theories online say that Hux is going to step in and finish her off after Kylo hesitates, but I kind of want her to have a better send-off than just a proton torpedo to the face.

          This Porg basically sums up me whenever I watch this trailer.

          Finn vs. Phasma for real this time. As someone who was super disappointed at how pointless Phasma’s character was in Force Awakens, I can’t wait to see how they use her here.

          It’s also worth pointing out that Finn is using the same anti-lightsaber riot stick that that one “Traitor!” stormtrooper used in Force Awakens. Given his previous experience with lightsabers, he’s probably gonna need it.

          Ice fox. Yes please.

           Our first look at non-hologram Snoke. He looks mighty spooky, but we’ve got no clues here as to his true identity (as if they’d put that in a trailer).

          Rey struggles to win the limbo contest at Snoke’s birthday party.

          All joking aside, this is a really interesting shot. For one thing, that gold robe in the background is unmistakeably Snoke’s, which means he and Rey will share the same room before the movie is over. It took Luke three movies to make it to the final boss, and this little overachiever here is doing it in two.

          I’m guessing Snoke is going to completely destroy her as we see here, and that’s going to be the end of the movie as well as set him up for Episode IX. Since Kylo looks to become more of an anti-hero, I really want Snoke to become an awesome villain.

          “I need someone to show me my place in all this.”

          Oh, I wonder what Luke’s reaction to that is gonna be.

          NO

          NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

          Like everyone else, I’m pretty sure this is two separate scenes spliced together to create an awesome ending for the trailer. The backgrounds on Rey and Kylo look different, and the scene could’ve been colour corrected to make it look like they’re in the same place. But regardless this is a huge moment and one that dropped jaws around the world.

          And that’s it! Like any good trailer this one teased a lot of cool new stuff without really giving away the plot structure or anything important like that. I’m way more excited for the movie now than I was before, and I was really excited before.

          Don’t forget that tickets are on sale now, so if you’re like me and need to go on opening night, it’s best to scoop them up ASAP. See you guys next week for more Star Wars action!