djansen24

The Last Jedi breaks away from the shadow of the original series and attempts to forge new ground...to very mixed results. The strengths are stronger than anything in The Force Awakens. Gone too is the plot recycling from TFA. No more Death Star. Unexpected things happen. And the best scenes follow the classic feel of good vs. evil, most notably in the excellent fight scene in Snoke's throne room. But where its strengths grew stronger, so did its weakness.

TLJ at its heart is not a Star Wars film. Sure, it has a certain "Star Wars"ian ethos. Some of our beloved characters are back. But ultimately, it is about equality & social justice. The Star Wars series, on the other hand, at its heart is about good and evil, with good redeeming evil. It resonated with people on the most basic of instincts. It pushed way beyond the confines of its rather 2D story. TLJ seems aimed at the Millennial generation, to whom social justice is very important. While it is also important to me, Star Wars is not the appropriate place for "topical relevance". Star Wars is not about ending oppression. It is about good overcoming evil. So it is misguided at best in TLJ to have subplots about slavery and arms dealing. It is misguided to crowd the cast with mostly women fighters and fighters of every racial background just for the sake of doing so. Give us interesting characters and then we won't care what their race is. I left the theater feeling like someone in Disney was trying to force some social agenda upon me. The magic was lost in the midst of social politics. What a pity. It forces diversity without character depth, spirituality without theology, and social justice without resonance. TLJ is a critic's darling at the moment, but it will not stand the test of time like Ep. 4-6, which will always be beloved. And let's not even mention the utter disappointment of Luke's character and his fate. Unnecessary and soul draining.

Usually I applaud a movie for reaching for greatness and stumbling just short of it. Far better to try for it and fail, than to play it safe. But with TLJ, I wanted to say, "Leave my movie series alone!" Keep it pure and simple, and don't use it as a platform for social political views. Those subjects are best left for stories outside the Star Wars universe.

The Kendrick brothers are a paradox. They aim for realism, but script like an apologetic debate. They want to reach out to seekers of Christianity, but make films for Christians. In many ways, they miss their mark as filmmakers, constructing sermons instead of stories. For anyone who has read my reviews, you will quickly see that I am for the most part disappointed with modern American Christian film productions. They lack good script writing. They deal with complex problems superficially. Courageous, unfortunately, follows the trend. In many ways, it is an expanded version of their last film Fireproof. We delve into the lives of more characters and in more detail. But the Kendrick brothers do not break out of their financially successful formula. You have the born again believer (in fact, the same African American actor from both films). You have the skeptic who converts. You have the comic relief character (though this time given more depth). You have a resolution made by the characters. You have the sermon at the end of the film to make sure you get the point. What the Kendricks do, however, is turn out a deeper story and up the stakes. What you wind up with is a better version of Fireproof, but not one that breaks free of the weaknesses of that film.

The Kendricks choose here to tackle integrity and being a godly father to your family. These are noble and important subjects. But as always, they want to weave in the salvation message into the film. While this is good, it requires a delicate touch to make it real and not just a concept. But the script pounds you in the brain over and over again about God being the focal point to being a godly father. While that is true, the heavy-handedness of it makes for little way in for the skeptic. So, like Fireproof, I find this film more appropriate for Christian groups than secularists, at least in an American context. This film was shown at my church in Germany to both Christians and non- Christians. Ironically, the non-Christians seemed to like it as well. But I chalk it up to it being a foreign film to them, which makes it more appropriate to challenge the German secular world view. Had it been a local German production made by Christians, it might very well have been ridiculed just as I have seen American secularists deride it on this website. So have discernment before showing this to your American secular friends.

More pros and cons:

Pros: Decent acting from a mostly amateur cast. A final chase scene which despite its low budget was actually riveting (I cared about what happened). Deeper characters. Nice lighthearted touch with some really funny bits. Competent technical production values. A very touching scene between a father and daughter at a restaurant.

Cons: Pedantic, overbearing script. Oversimplifying solutions to complex problems. Racial stereotyping (though not mean spirited). The only women characters are completely dependent on their men characters (no variety). The sudden downfall of one of the main characters (plot twist with no real previous reason for it). Laughable scene with a gangster initiation.

This is one of the best films ever made. Somehow by divine providence, this gem got buried after its initial (and somehow unbelievably unsuccessful) run, and seemed doomed to be a lost Capra classic. But then it came into public domain and was revived by TV where it came into classic status as a beloved holiday film. Having seen it so many times, I almost forgot how good the acting, set design, and direction are. Look and you will see the subtleties crammed into every nook and cranny. The movements of the extras. The lived in feel of the town. The sidewalk walkers and animals roaming around. Everything breathes realism, yet the story is not one of stark realism, but of ideals.

And therein lies the classic feel of this film. Capra wanted a quasi real town that showed the ideal community he wanted to live in. Filled with flawed and normal people who are tempted to fall, but who rise to the occasion and help each other out. They don't do this of their own accord. They are inspired to it by the protagonist, George Bailey. It is his self-sacrifice that brings out the best of them. And then they get to help him out in his hour of need. It makes for a story that brings tears to the eyes every time I watch it.

This is one of those timeless classics that gets better with age. You feel like your putting on your favorite album you haven't heard in awhile or pulling out a photo album of happy memories you haven't seen in a few years. All of the actors fulfill their roles, from protagonist to extras. Great detail was put into the character relationships, making them seem like a real small town community where everyone knows each other. And they embody the goodness of man that, although tarred by sin, was put in there by God. If it's idealism is not completely realistic, it is nevertheless inspiring as the American town that we all wish we had grown up in. In that way, it is even relevant as a film of happy ideals during hard times. We need this kind of communal inter-dependency as we enter into dark times of 2017.