Tag Archives: star wars: the last jedi

The Last Jedi Wins the Weekend With 2, 3, 4 for New Films

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As no surprise, Star Wars: The Last Jedi won the holiday weekend with an estimated $68.5 million three day weekend. With a steep 68.9% drop from the previous weekend, the film is expected to do well this Christmas Day with all the films out doing good business.

Domestically the film has earned $365.1 million with the foreign box office bringing in $380.3 million. Worldwide the film stands at $745.4 million after a week. It will likely top $1 billion before its run ends.

Domestically, the film is $175 million behind where Star Wars: The Force Awakens was at the same point in its run but it’s ahead $79 million where Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was. It opened $27.9 million behind Force Awakens and $65 million ahead Rogue One.

In second place was Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle which earned an estimated $34 million domestically off of a $90 million budget. Domestically, the film has earned $50.6 million and it has also earned $49.5 million at the foreign box office for a total of $100.1 million.

Pitch Perfect 3 took third with an estimated $20.5 million domestically off of a $45 million budget. The film has also earned $9.8 million at the foreign box office for a total of $30.3 million.

Coming in fourth place was The Greatest Showman which earned $8.6 million over the weekend to bring its week total to $13.2 million off of an $84 million budget.

Rounding out the top five for the weekend was Ferdinand which added $7.1 million to its domestic total to bring that to $26.5 million and $34.2 million worldwide. With a budget of $111 million the film isn’t doing well and may be the stake through the heart of the animated division that’ll go to Disney as part of the Disney/Fox deal.

When it comes to comic adaptations….

Justice League was #13 for the weekend adding $1.1 million to its domestic total for the weekend bringing it to $222.7 million and $646.7 million worldwide. The film will end the year most likely at #12.

Thor: Ragnarok was #18 for the weekend and added $814,000 to its domestic total to bring that to $309.1 million and $844.5 million worldwide. It’ll end the year at #7.

My Friend Dahmer added $1,100 to its domestic total to bring that to $1.3 million and came in at #29 for the weekend.

We’ll be back in an hour for a deeper dive into this year’s comic adaptations box office numbers.

Those Two Geeks With Alex & Joe Episode Thirteen

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On the docket this week: The geeks have seen Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, and want to talk about it. And they do. With full spoilers almost right from the get go, so be warned.

As always, the Alex and Joe can be found on twitter respectively @karcossa and @jc_hesh if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or @those2geeks if you want to yell at them together on twitter or email ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week in the future!

Graphic Policy Radio Goes to the Movies with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Listen on Demand.

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On demand: iTunes ¦ Sound Cloud ¦ Stitcher ¦ BlogTalkRadio ¦ Listed on podcastdirectory.com

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is dominating at the box office and online debates as people seem to be split as to what to think about the latest entry in the Star Wars universe. We’re becoming one with the Force to discuss the movie, its themes, and reflection on the real world.

Joining Graphic Policy Radio to talk about the film is Anthony Oliveira and Cayden Mak.

Anthony Oliveira is a culture writer and literature PhD with the university of Toronto. You can find him on twitter at @meakoopa

Cayden Mak is Executive Director at 18MillionRising.org, where he has been rabblerousing and nerding out in various roles for the past five years. Outside of work he keeps busy with local organizing projects in Oakland, California, where he lives with his two cats.

The Last Jedi Bids Farewell to The Hero’s Journey

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*Warning: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. If you have not seen the movie, proceed at your own risk*

When I was 10th grade, I had an excellent English teacher who really supported me writing about pop culture critically, and she was even my advisor for my 12th grade capstone where I wrote about the evolution of action heroes from Achilles from the Iliad to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This all started when she showed the 1988 Bill Moyers PBS documentary Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth that laid out the idea of the Hero’s Journey and used the original Star Wars trilogy as a metaphor for it. I thought this was super cool because I was a big Star Wars geek complete with my own homebrew Revenge of the Sith RPG and would spend time free time between classes editing Wookieepedia in the computer lab. And one thing that drew people to the original Star Wars films (And not the prequels so much) was its archetypes and dependable structure of good versus evil, plucky underdog heroes, and musical leitmotifs. Plus Han Solo is still the epitome of cool. (RIP)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens continued that theme by keeping similar elements from the original trilogy like a plucky underdog (Female this time) hero from a desolate desert planet, a masked/red laser sword wielding antagonist with loads of daddy/mentor issues and the possible hope of redemption, and of course, a big space station blowing up at the end. And with its thinly drawn characters, Rogue One was only emotionally resonant or exciting when reliant on nostalgia for previous movies like the Darth Vader scene. However, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, replaces the Hero with a Thousand Faces with cynical asshole Luke Skywalker and a battle between good and evil with a tale of war profiteering, Pyrrhic victories, and yes, a casino heist. Also, Snoke is a joke, and Rey‘s parentage doesn’t matter.

In an early, not-really-a-training-montage scene, Luke calls Rey, “Rey from nowhere”, and later on in the big not-really-a-reveal, Kylo Ren tells Rey that her parents were just scavengers that sold her for extra drink money. (This second one could be a lie.) The other three leads have almost equally as humble roots as Rey. Finn was a Stormtrooper janitor, bright new cast member Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) had a maintenance job on a Resistance bomber, and the most conventionally heroic Poe Dameron gets a demotion after losing almost the entire Resistance bombing fleet to destroy one First Order flagship. They aren’t Jedi apprentices, royalty, or the scions of Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker, but regular people who have lived the legends and legacy of Star Wars and geek out about Luke Skywalker or Han Solo much like the fans of the movies. In fairy tales and myths, often ordinary people ended up being secret princes, but with the exception of Rey’s Force abilities, this doesn’t really happen in The Last Jedi.

In probably its most controversial move, The Last Jedi also deconstructs and humanizes the larger than life Ur-hero Luke Skywalker, and Mark Hamill is up for the task. The quirkiness of the planet Ahch-To with its Porgs and sassy alien nuns is a definite callback to Dagobah, but Luke is no great motivator like Yoda was in Empire Strikes Back and spurns Rey for most of this segment of the film beginning by tossing his old lightsaber into the sea. He avoids training her for most of the film, and when he does train Rey, he berates her and compares her raw power to Kylo Ren. The big twist with his character is that in a moment of weakness he ignited his lightsaber, thought about killing Kylo, and Kylo saw this moment and truly fell to the Dark Side. It’s cool to see this flashback from both Luke and Kylo Ren’s POV and shows both characters’ weaknesses as Kylo spends most of the film trying to destroy all the structures of power, both good and evil, and trying to bond with Rey along the way. However, Rian Johnson doesn’t cop out and redeem him just yet and continues to portray him as very powerful, yet childish man who decides to renege on an easy victory for the First Order so he can settle his grudge with Luke and the Jedi order.

As well as Luke, Rian Johnson deconstructs the scoundrel with a heart of gold (and by extension, the late Han Solo.) through the character of DJ, an enigmatic smuggler played by Benicio del Toro. Johnson and del Toro play up the heart of gold aspects for most of his storyline by having him forge an unlikely friendship with BB-8 and rescue Finn and Rose when they fail badly at finding someone to hack First Order security. The biggest heartstring pulled is when DJ takes Rose’s dead sister’s necklace presumably for collateral, but actually because the metal it’s made of is a great conductor. However, this is all for naught as DJ got a better deal from Captain Phasma and the First Order, and Finn and Rose are captured and sentenced to death. Sometimes, scoundrels are just scoundrels, and the highest bidder wins the day. (Unless they get a last minute save from BB-8 in an AT-ST walker.) DJ gets some of the smartest lines of the movies like, “It’s all a machine, partner. Live free, don’t join.” DJ isn’t a great guy, but this is some good advice. In the real world, there are no good guys and bad guys; even the most decent people have flaws. This is basically the takeaway from The Last Jedi too.

Throughout The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson doesn’t just find the cracks in character archetypes. He examines and tries to correct the weaknesses in Star Wars plots and makes them more relevant to the real world than quests and space battles. The previous Star Wars films have super been into one warrior’s heroism saving the day for everyone whether that’s Anakin blowing up the Trade Federation ship in Phantom Menace, Luke destroying the Death Star in A New Hope, or Han, Finn, and Chewbacca blowing up the shield generator for Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens. However, the big opening setpiece where Poe goes mano a mano with a Dreadnaught ends in heavy losses, and his plan to break into a Star Destroyer and destroy their hyperspace tracker fails too. Rian Johnson is establishing a new Star Wars status quo where the big picture of the rebellion is more important than individual heroics even though that can come in handy like Luke’s astral form inspiring a little boy on a First Order occupied planet to pick up a broom and fight back against his masters in the final shot of the film. Sacrifices will be made, like the brave strategist Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern), flying at light speed into the First Order fleet, but they are for the survival of the rebellion and of hope.

Rian Johnson uses the Star Wars storytelling devices of space battles, heroic last stands, and lightsaber duels while also poking holes in these things. This is wisdom tempered with a pinch of callbacks to earlier films (See the Yoda cameo.) and a lot of real world relevance. The Last Jedi breaks the mold of a kind of Manichean fairy tale battle between good and evil and instead critiques power structures whether that is the presumably good Jedi Order (Some of Luke’s best lines are throwing shade on their actions during the prequels.) or the evil First Order.

In both Johnson’s approach to Star Wars things like The Force and in his characterization and storytelling in The Last Jedi, he chooses balance and thoughtfulness over nostalgia and a slavish adherence to aging archetypes like Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. And I think Campbell himself would be okay with this as he said in The Power of Myth, “The virtues of the past are the vices of today. And many of what were thought to be the vices of the past are the necessities of today.”

To remain vibrant, stories and myths have to evolve and reflect the society in which they were created, and The Last Jedi does this through the diversity of their main cast and their focus on regular people striking a force for good instead of some Chosen One with a hallowed destiny and blah blah blah midichlorians stuff.

Give My Love to Rose: A Song for Unsung Heroes

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[Minor spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi ahead]

Rose (Kelly Marie Tran ) is my new favorite character. And I hope she’s yours too.

Not only is she arguably the true hero of the film, she provides not one but two of the key lines necessary to understand the film. Beyond that, she does something I never thought possible: she turns the entire concept of heroism upside down and reminds us that true heroes aren’t just the ones who get attention and accolades.

The first time we meet Rose she is starstruck by Finn (John Boyega), saying she isn’t used to talking to heroes. Rose works behind the scenes in the Resistance, “behind [the] pipes” as she calls it.

Her sister Paige, with whom she is very close, is a hero in her own right as witnessed in the opening space battle as a gunner in one of the Resistance’s bombers. Through Paige’s heroism and sacrifice, the Resistance is able to take out one of the Empire’s ships. Poe, in talking to Leia, says “Heroes were on that mission.”

“Heroes, but no leaders,” Leia chides him as she demotes him for his insubordination.

Why does this matter? Because the film shows us as important as the heroes are — the Poe Damerons, the Luke Skywalkers — the people who really make things run are the others who are so often nameless and faceless. Finn’s background as a former stormtrooper janitor should also be noted here, and why it’s so important that Finn and Rose get paired up for the better part of the movie.

There has been a decent amount of complaints over the Canto Bight storyline, but it is, in fact, one of the most important in the film. Not only does Rose deliver a strong populist critique of this new hive of scum and villainy — the 1%, war profiteers selling to both sides of the conflict — she wakes Finn up from being dazzled by their surroundings.

“Look closer,” Rose tells him, and he begins to see the people behind the scenes — many of them oppressed or forgotten, many of them children — who actually make everything run.

“Look closer,” as we remember maybe it’s worth staying through the credits of a movie to appreciate all the people who worked on it rather than just to see if there’s a stinger scene to set up the next movie.

“Look closer,” as we remember all of the Star Wars fans who have waited for years to see representations of themselves on screen. Because perhaps even the most important is noticing the actors playing these roles. The fact that both Finn and Rose are being portrayed by people of color adds another layer to the commentary they bring. And especially given the problems of erasure of Asians and women in tentpole blockbusters, Kelly Marie Tran getting the breakout hero role of the film should cause people to take notice.

“Look closer,” at all of the people who never get noticed, but who heroically do their work every day.

A final visit to see the children of Canto Bight at the end of the film puts a cap on why it’s so important we look closer and the importance of heroism to inspire others.

And then Rose delivers the most important line in the entire movie during the film’s finale in the battle on Crait, which gives me unending hope in a time of darkness: That’s how we’re going to win. Not fighting what we hate. Saving what we love.

With so much hate out there, we can remember this and brush off the hate like Luke Skywalker brushes his shoulders after a barrage of laser blasts. The love and self-sacrifice and heart that Rose brings to The Last Jedi is one of the best parts of the film.

Rose is my hero.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Opens With the Second Largest Ever

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It’s no surprise, but Star Wars: The Last Jedi ruled the box office delivering the second largest opening ever. The film earned an estimated $220 million, the second largest. Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened with $247.9 million in 2015. The film is only the second film to gross over $100 million on opening day (with its $45 million Thursday preview, the second largest ever), it also had the second largest single day, the second largest Friday, and is tied with Force Awakens as the fastest films to reach $100 million.

The film’s audience was mostly male at 58% and 37% was 25 years or under. The audience reaction is where things are interesting. The film received an “A” CinemaScore but its RottenTomatoes score is just 56% from the audience vs. 93% from critics and the IMDB rating is 8, which is below Rogue One and Force Awakens. Metacritic has the film at an 86 from critics and a user score of 4.9. Reading the comments on that site would back the belief of a concerted effort to sink the online scores for the film and “hardcore” Star Wars fans angry with the new direction. Though there’s been claims by some, evidence isn’t clear.

The film opened with $230 million overseas, the tenth largest international opening. The $450 million total is the fifth largest global opening ever. The film hasn’t opened in China yet, that happens on January 5th. That major market hurt the film when it comes to being higher up in the record books. The film had the second largest opening in Germany, Australia, and Sweden, and the third largest in the UK. The film pushed Disney over the $2 billion mark domestically, Warner Bros. is the only other studio to do so in 2017. This is the third year Disney has crossed that mark.

In second place was Ferdinand, which opened with $13.3 million in an attempt at counter programming. The film is the lowest opening ever for a Blue Sky release. That low opening is not a good sign for the studio which was acquired in the Disney purchase of Fox and whose future is up in the air. With a reported $111 million budget, that opening is not good. The film did receive an “A” CinemaScore, so its legs should be good over the holidays. Internationally the film earned $6.2 million from 18 markets for a $19.5 million worldwide debut. It adds 44 markets next weekend.

Coco dropped to third place earning an estimated $10 million bringing its domestic total to $150.8 million. At the foreign box office, the film has earned $297.4 million for a worldwide total of $448.2 million.

In fourth place was Wonder which has been doing well above expectations. The film added $5.4 million to its domestic total to bring that to $109.3 million. The film has earned $44 million at the foreign box office for a worldwide total of $153.7 million.

Rounding out the top five was Justice League which added $4.2 million to its domestic total to bring it to $219.5 million. The film also added an estimated $5.3 million from 65 foreign markets to bring the international total to $414.5 million. Worldwide the film has earned almost $634 million.

When it comes to other comic film adaptations….

Thor: Ragnarok was #7 at the box office dropping from last week’s #5. The film earned an estimated $3 million to bring its domestic total to $306.4 million. The film has also earned $535.4 million at the foreign box office bringing its worldwide total to $841.8 million.

My Friend Dahmer added $40,000 to its domestic total to bring that to $1.2 million.

We’ll be back in an hour for a deeper dive into this year’s comic adaptations.

Graphic Policy Radio Goes to the Movies with Star Wars: The Last Jedi this Monday

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi is dominating at the box office and online debates as people seem to be split as to what to think about the latest entry in the Star Wars universe. We’re becoming one with the Force to discuss the movie, its themes, and reflection on the real world.

Joining Graphic Policy Radio to talk about the film is Anthony Oliveira and Cayden Mak.

Listen in to the show LIVE when it airs this Monday at 10pm ET.

Anthony Oliveira is a culture writer and literature PhD with the university of Toronto. You can find him on twitter at @meakoopa

Cayden Mak is Executive Director at 18MillionRising.org, where he has been rabblerousing and nerding out in various roles for the past five years. Outside of work he keeps busy with local organizing projects in Oakland, California, where he lives with his two cats.

Listen in to the show live this Monday.

Movie Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

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2017 has been filled with “anticipated” films and yet none of them feel quite as anticipated as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, what’s sure to be a billion dollar film and a dominating presence for the next few months. The film exceeds expectations in many ways and falls flat in others, but overall, it’s 2.5 hour thing of force, action, and a surprising amount of humor.

The Last Jedi focuses on just a few settings and plot points but its themes are consistent for each. Like The Force Awakens‘ homage and comparison to A New Hope, it’s difficult to not compare The Last Jedi to Empire Strikes Back. Both are the middle chapter of a trilogy but how each film parallels each other is an interesting thing. The Last Jedi, like Empire, is about “hope.” It’s a word that’s brought up numerous times and unlike Empire‘s down take on that theme, The Last Jedi gives us a more inspired version that guides us to the yin of the Empire‘s darker and more negative yang. This film sees the light beyond the darkness the spark of rebellion from a small flame and it makes sure we see it too.

The film picks up from The Force Awakens with the Rebellion on the run and the First Order in pursuit. It’s really one long space battle and pursuit with some side quests. The issue at hand is the Rebellion’s lack of fuel making it inevitable the First Order will catch them to finish them off. Numbering just 400 individuals, hope is dim. A mission is cooked up to give the Rebellion a chance to escape and survive involving pass codes and disabling the main pursuing ship. A sidequest taken up by Finn and new character Rose (played by Kelly Marie Tran) and takes us to one of the few different locations, a gambling world that’s beautiful but with a dark undercurrent.

Here too the concept of “hope” is explored but in this case, it’s a discussion about what “hope” the 99% have against the 1% that exploit them. Though subtle, this is where the film gets its most outright political with an exploration of excess and what the wealthy 1% do with their money. Rose, representing the common worker, discusses the exploitation of ore and mineral and while she describes the world as beautiful can’t help but seeing the corrupt darkness it represents. A class warrior angle is presented and out of everything, it’s one of the more interesting aspects of themes. War has raged and there’s going to be individuals who profit off of it either through the sales of arms or exploitation of worlds and people. Here, that’s on full display.

When not focused on Finn and Rose’s quest, or the impending doom that is the pursuit in space, the movie explores Rey’s exploration as she attempts to lure back Luke Skywalker to help her and the Rebellion. Luke is a grizzled old man who has given up the ways of the Jedi instead living as a hermit at an old Jedi temple/outpost and attempting to enjoy his life. He’s seen the folly of the Jedi and the failure they represent and after his attempt to restore the Order, and it’s failure in Kylo, he’s given up deciding it’s best for the Jedi to die out and let a natural balance to the Force take over. Rey’s focus is to get Luke back into the battle thinking he represents the hope the Rebellion needs but she also wants to understand her own history and what she’s experiencing herself.

The Last Jedi is a brutal film with no problems destroying ships, sets, and killing characters and in each instance doing so with a style and look that’s jaw dropping. Director Rian Johnson (who also was the writer) delivers an amazing looking film with a style unto itself focused on using color to create the mood and setting. Every costume, everyone room, every scene has a color palette carefully chosen and to be debated for years. What’s Rey’s dark blue/grey mean? Why is Luke wearing black? There’s choices in that space alone which could see endless articles written.

Johnson also gives us nostalgia. There’s scenes that outright call back to the original trilogy. A speech in a elevator lift, a talk about what someone might do, they’re dialogue and scenes at times that feel lifted from other films emphasizing an almost cyclical nature of it all. There’s also throne room scenes that feel like they’re straight out of Return of the Jedi. And even Revenge of the Sith gets a nod in some ways.

Things aren’t all great. There’s some characters that fall flat like Benicio Del Toro‘s DJ whose delivery just feels like another take on the Marvel’s the Collector. And, the choice of the actor for the role seems rather odd as the screen time for this is rather limited. Again, Gwendoline Christie‘s Phasma goes down as the most overhyped and underused character in a long time. While there’s a final conflict between Phasma and Finn, it feels forced as if Johnson had to come up with something for the character. Snoke’s fate too feels a little too abrupt and anticlimactic with too many questions left out there. Finally, while I like Rose the character, she quickly turns into a do everything character starting as a maintenance person and then flying a plane in the final battle as if every person in the Rebellion excels at everything (the defense is she’s shown piloting a ship, which questions why she was in her maintenance role to begin with). And not all the settings work too, while I appreciated its themes of the 1%, scenes in the gambling world also feel a bit there for the kids based on some of who we meet and what happens. It lightens up what otherwise is a pretty dark film.

But, there’s also so much that’s good.

The film has a surprising amount of humor and there’s some really good laughs. It does a great job of taking our still relatively new heroes of Poe, Finn, and Rey, and adding more to them as to why we should like them. The action sequences are jaw dropping at times with space battle after space battle and an ending move that’s “holy shit” levels of amazing.

But, what I keep coming back to is that theme of “hope.” Johnson gets how to take a theme for a film and weave it into everything. From the obvious, the “hope” of escaping the First Order and the “hope” of sparking a new Rebellion, but also the “hope” we place in heroes. There’s the instance of it that Rey places in Luke where the idea of legends vs. reality is explored, but also Poe and his interaction with Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (played by Laura Dern). Poe must learn to respect “hope” in some ways and that direct results that are clear might not always be the answer. Sometimes you have to accept and “hope” things will turn out all right in the end.

And that’s where The Last Jedi and Empire Strikes Back diverge the most. Empire had us looking for “hope” but ended on a “down note.” The Last Jedi seems to recognize in this day and age that wouldn’t work and we need a real Rebellion, we need to see the sparks, and the film reminds us that from the tiniest flames a raging fire can grow.

Through it’s setting of constant pursuit, it’s acceptance of a dire situation, and it’s focus on the better tomorrow, Star Wars: The Last Jedi feels like it embodies today’s zeitgeist of “the resistance” and creates a Rebellion for us to be believe in.

Overall Rating: 9.0

Funko’s Specialty Series: The Last Jedi Rose Pop! & Thundercats Jaga Dorbz!

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Every store deserves an amazing Funko exclusive! In an effort to recognize their most special accounts and loyal retailers, Funko is continuing their Specialty Series. Every month, they’ll be announcing two major exclusives – one Pop! Vinyl and one Dorbz – that can be acquired through the Specialty Series.

Why is it so special? You’ll only be able to find these Specialty Series exclusives in boutique retail, specialty stores, local comic book shops and from qualified online retailers. This is your chance to help support local businesses and smaller retailers, and you’ll pick up an amazing exclusive item in the process!

The latest exclusives are Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Rose in Disguise Pop! vinyl and Thundercats Jaga Dorbz! Both are available in January.

Pop! Star Wars: The Last Jedi- Rose in Disguise

Dorbz: Thundercats – Jaga

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