No self-respecting Star Wars fan (with a blog no less) would pass up the chance of blogging
about the most anticipated movie of the year Star Wars The Last Jedi. The sequel to Star Wars Episode VII (7) The Force Awakens is expected out on Friday 15th December, 2017. As of time of writing this blog there is now 88 days and 12 hours before the movie is released. Fan boy moment (swoon). Due to my self imposed restriction of posting every Sunday, I unfortunately missed the 3 month mark before the movie releases. Unlike my favourite Forbes Contributor - Scott Mendelson, managed to write a blog post last week Friday 15th, meeting the 3 month mark - Box Office: 'The Last Jedi' May Be The Most Frontloaded 'Star Wars' Movie Yet.
He indicates - "As far as how well The Last Jedi will perform compared to its predecessor, that’s somewhat of an open question. On one hand, The Force Awakens was essentially a movie 32 years in the making, a genuine sequel to Return of the Jedi with several major returning cast members no less. It was as anticipated as any movie in recent memory, and it clobbered all realistic expectations to earn $248 million on opening weekend and $937m total in North America alone. So you can certainly make the argument that the same level of hype won’t be matched this time out, if only because The Last Jedi will be more of a known entity and merely a sequel to a well-liked mega-hit from two years prior."
I totally agree with him with this aspect, that it is truly an open question as to how this movie will perform at the box office. Carrie Fisher's passing has obviously thrown a humongous spanner in the story line for the current trilogy of stories. Impressively, unbelievably, the forward thinking needed, was the news that Disney receiving USD 50M as a result of her passing. I mean it makes sense because of the obvious impact on story line for Episode 9 due out in December 2019. Lucas Film and Disney has not yet addressed how they'll get over her passing in the movie itself. Because anything less than a brilliant sacrifice for the Rebellion in Episode 9, the entire Star Wars Franchise will be stained for all eternity. Imagine how much lost Box Office Revenue that would be for Disney. Of course they wouldn't want that.
Now if it was Universal Studios, they would've whipped together a music video in honor of Carrie Fisher's passing and profited the heck out of it. But unfortunately for Lucas Film, a poignant song is unlikely to go down well with the Star Wars fans worldwide and is unlikely to fit in well with the whole Star Wars Universe which has only relied on orchestral music for each of the movies released thus far.
Ah yes, Carrie Fisher in the original trilogy, Episodes 4, 5 and 6, brilliant actress who herself said that time and the substance abuse and other things wasn't kind to her. Her most recent appearance in The Force Awakens, she's near unrecognizable to the princess we first met in 1977 - A New Hope.
Dominating the new/ modern trilogy was Natalie Portman, who has gone on to a very stable acting career, but was an unknown in 1999. Cinema audiences grew to love her in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones in 2002 and Revenge of the Sith in 2005.
In between movies, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi came a gorgeous retelling of the creation of the Death Star and our introduction to Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) who's the daughter of the chief architect of the Death Star. Jyn is definitely going to go down as one of the most unexplored character thus far in Star Wars history, as she had and will only ever have one movie for her character. As Disney and Lucasfilm unfeelingly but quite correctly told the Director of Rogue One that he needed to kill off all his characters in the ending of the film and they all very emotionally died in the dramatic finale of the film.
The introduction to Daisy Ridley as Rey in 2015's The Force Awakens was an immense pleasure to discover how well she fit into the entire Universe. The biggest unanswered question which has been endlessly debated in the far reaches of the internet and everywhere else in the world. This is expected to be answered in The Last Jedi.
Of obvious need for the entire Franchise and for the current Trilogy, it is the hope that Rian Johnson (writer and Director of The Last Jedi) came up with a better story than a Death Star/ Death star type world for the Empire which has been the primary plot device in the first seven movies. It's getting repetitive people! Please, something new.
Vanity Fair covers were the first look at Star Wars The Last Jedi and it's fitting for me to include them here and it shows General Leia Organa in all her finery and Rey and Luke looking suitably grim and solemn.
Looking forward to the opening of the movie, it's highly likely 100% in fact that 1) I'll be buying presale movie tickets for the entire family who I'll drag along with me and 2) I'll definitely be seeing it the opening weekend. Purely because this is the only movie franchise that I can do that with. And the only movie franchise that I have to see in cinema and the opening weekend. All the other movies I'll go whenever.
One final word on the opening weekend in December, it will very likely be bigger than the current record holder The Fate Of The Furious $541.9 Million. As to whether it will be bigger than Star Wars The Force Awakens total of $2.068 Billion, it remains to be seen whether it will be critically acclaimed and loved by audiences worldwide.
Just imagine how many people at Disney, Lucas Film and Industrial Light and Magic have worked on this film and knows what it is about already. I'm so jealous...
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