Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 10 Concerns Raised By The Full Trailer

Are the Porgs destined to be the Ewoks of Episode VIII?

Star Wars The Last Jedi Trailer Concerns
Lucasfilm
"I am legitimately torn. If you want to come in clean, absolutely avoid it."

Words straight from Rian Johnson himself, the man behind the next episode in the Star Wars saga. He's talking, of course, about the full trailer for the movie, which dropped on Monday and has since taken the world by storm. And yet, oddly, it's a trailer that the filmmaker isn't sure whether or not to endorse.

It's a bit strange for a director to comment on the marketing for any movie, but that goes doubly so for a product as huge as this one - especially since the picture was made under the watch of the world's biggest media corporation, Disney.

What Johnson's comment seems to suggest, however, is that for a number of reasons the trailer is giving away too much, or perhaps painting an image of a movie that doesn't exist in its final product. Whatever the reason, he's made the decision to step away, suggesting it might be better to come into The Last Jedi with a clean slate and no preconceived notions about what to expect.

Watching the full trailer, then, which depicts what looks to be an incredibly dark, serious and compelling action film, there are a number of moments that one could highlight as being somewhat "questionable." That's not to say that any are going to spoil the picture outright, but they do each raise a slight cause for concern...

10. Mark Hamill's Over-The-Top Line Delivery

Star Wars The Last Jedi Trailer Concerns
Lucasfilm

Mark Hamill didn't get a line of dialogue in the last Star Wars outing, which left fans in a state of both shock and confusion. This time around, though, there's no doubting how much of a part the actor will play: he's visible right there in the middle of the new trailer, speaking actual words and sentences and everything.

And yet there's something awfully off about his performance, don't you think? Hamill's delivery of his most famous character's lines are strange and unnatural; he feels less like Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, and more like a curmudgeonly old dude who experimented with a lot of drugs in the '70s.

The infliction the actor puts on his line, "It does now," feels absurdly dramatic and overwrought. Same goes for "This is not going to go the way you think!"

Now, fine: maybe this is how Rian Johnson wanted Luke to come across, as opposed to the more stoic-looking Skywalker glimpsed at the end of The Force Awakens. And perhaps there's an element of not having seen Hamill in a role like this for a number of decades that makes his line readings feel so... odd.

Hopefully this is just a matter of said scenes being out of context and not something to legitimately worry about (even though Hamill previously admitted he totally disagrees with everything Johnson has done with the character).

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.