Canto Bight

Just finished Star Wars: Canto Bight, a collection of short stories tied into The Last Jedi. A mixed bag of low stakes tales, featuring a place I can't help feel should've played a larger role in the movie. This seems like a definite "Constable Zuvio" moment; referring to the character basically cut from The Force Awakens, who featured prominently in the run up to that movie. 

Short descriptions of the four tales included, taken from the inside front cover:

Rules of the Game (Saladin Ahmed): An honest salesman meets a career criminal as a dream vacation turns into the worst nightmare imaginable.

The Wine in Dreams (Mira Grant): Dreams and schemes collide when a deal over a priceless bottle of wine becomes a struggle for survival.

Hear Nothing, See Nothing (Rae Carson): Old habits die hard when a servant is forced into a mad struggle for power among Canto Bight's elite.

The Ride (John Jackson Miller): A deadbeat gambler has one last chance to turn his luck around; all he has to do is survive one wild night.

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None of this feels like Star Wars. That may be the point of this new reboot, Disney stuff. I am not sure anymore. 

All four are OK stories, I'd wager. Not really groundbreaking or even all that interesting, the stories feature a strange collection of "heroes": a moisture vaporator salesbeing of the year, a sommelier and a pair of eclectic twin sisters, a massuer, and a professional gambler.

Nothing earth-shattering occurs. Canto Bight sounds OK; but not even as nice as the descriptions I recall from the Kuari Princess or Pantolomin. Certainly not as opulent as locales on Coruscant. I've been to much better places with my friend Lando, a true master gambler (and hero of the Rebellion).

Cantonica feels like a quaint back-water, comparatively. 

One thing I read in the Visual Dictionary: Canto Bight is a casino city on the planet Cantonica, which is in the Corporate Sector. Interesting. More on how stupid that makes certain TLJ plot points, in a future post reviewing the movie (with spoilers).

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The main characters in these stories are probably find-able extras in the movie. Not sure.

The Vaporator Salesbeing of the Year, Kedpin Shoklop

Derla Pidys, the four-eyed sommelier

Rhomby and Parallela Grammus. Worst SW names ever? Probably not.

Lexo Sooger, the masseur

Kaljach Sonmi, failed gambler

The Last Jedi review (no spoilers)

I saw Episode VIII last night, and I can now answer this burning question: can you make a worse Star Wars movie than The Force Awakens? Rian Johnson et al deliver a resounding: YES!

I won't go into specific spoilers in this first Episode VIII post, but suffice it to say that I thought this movie was a disjointed mess of underwhelming miniature crises, unwarranted side treks, and unbelievably poor tactical and strategic planning. Many Bothans died needlessly in an endless parade of stupidity. The First Order deserves to win, but nobody cares if the Resistance fails.

One item I will dig into a bit more, later, is the numerous times the writers, via direct dialog, are having a conversation with us, the fans. It's like Johnson and Disney closely read the reviews of TFA, particularly those related to plot holes or outstanding questions, and wanted to include a line about each, usually spoken directly into the camera. It's low-brow, to my mind. Like an author replying to specific Amazon.com reviews of their book in the text of the sequel.

Luke: No, Gary from Portland, we did not forget how the Force works. And yes, Sheila from Maine, my cloak does look wrinkled. I live on a deserted island, for cripes sake.

Rey: Who are you talking to, Master Skywalker?

Luke: Nevermind...

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My preferred order for the movies:

IV A New Hope
V The Empire Strikes Back
VI Return of the Jedi
Rogue One
III Revenge of the Sith
II Attack of the Clones
I The Phantom Menace
...
VII The Force Awakens
VIII The Last Jedi