emptywheel

[[LAST JEDI SPOILERS AHEAD]] Some of which can't be explained (fishnuns that look like Tenniel engravings) but are cool enough to forgive; and some that they just don't seem to give a shit about explaining.

[[LAST JEDI SPOILERS AHEAD]] This is where we find the key difference between SF movies and books. In (good) sf books, something about the explicitness of prose, or the conventions of the form, demand that writers find a way to explain everything that can possibly be explained

[[LAST JEDI SPOILERS AHEAD]] But in movies, good explanations can be freely swapped with cool VFX. I'm not knocking good VFX! But there are so many times where they could have BOTH, and they jettison the explanation, even though it would make the movie better.

[[LAST JEDI SPOILERS AHEAD]] I'm thinking specifically of the suicide run of Admiral Holdo. We've just spent the best part of an HOUR watching the fleet ships run out of fuel, fall back and get blown away by the Empire fleet.

[[LAST JEDI SPOILERS AHEAD]] The Rebellion are trying every imaginable thing. Thanks to a spectacularly shitty autopilot, every ship that falls behind has to be helmed by a doomed senior officer, who is blown away before our eyes.

[[LAST JEDI SPOILERS AHEAD]] But no one says, "Why don't we give that medical ship just enough fuel to jump to lightspeed, aim it at the Imperial Fleet, and press GO? Sure, Captain Redshirt's going to die in the collision, but he's doomed anyway.

[[LAST JEDI SPOILERS AHEAD]] "But if we do it, we'll likely kill every Imperial ship and get away clean. We can kill their god-emperor, their heir apparent, and their entire senior military rank. Captain Redshirt, you know what you must do."

that wasn't a fail-to-explain, that was straight up breaks the movie stupid, which i said to the poor guy next to me in the theatre. (Hi, poor guy next to me!) the thing i wanted them to explain was why the rebellion was better politically than the 1st or/empire for everyone else