There is a certain teacher who I have to teach with at a junior high school. If you are a foreign English teacher and you teach in public schools in Japan most of the time you will have a Japanese English teacher who teaches with you. Some teachers are good about balancing the load between the two teachers and some teachers rarely use the foreign English teachers to their full ability. At one of the schools I attend there is a teacher who literally has no idea what to do with me. Her English is at a decent level but her class structure is not very good and I’m being kind when I say that. She mumbles and trails off while speaking and myself as a native English speaker I have trouble trying to figure out what she is trying to say. I can’t imagine what it would be like being a 13 year old kid trying to understand what she is trying to say with her low volume and unwillingness to say anything of consequence. She likes to end sentences with “ya, know?” And I have a definite answer for her. I DON’T know what you are trying to say and I’m sure 99.99% of the students don’t either.
The Japanese language and culture has a unique feature where no one likes to say anything directly. Everyone implies what needs to be said so they don’t have to bother anyone. Basically if the person you are talking to doesn’t understand what you are implying then they must not feel the same way. In that case many Japanese people will just let it go. When you try to apply these concepts to English everyone sounds unnatural and the listener constantly feels like they have to say something like “what’s your point?” or “Why are you telling me this?” As an English teacher I think that being able to use the language in a natural manner is as important as being grammatically correct. Anyways, today this teacher wanted me to evaluate the students’ English. They are junior high school first graders. Their assignment was to introduce someone that they look up to. It would go something like this. Look at this picture? Do you know this person? This is Michael Jordan. He is a basketball player. If you are able to say something like that you should get an A. I however felt that the assignments were a bit too simple and I thought that something of that nature should only be worth a B score. The first reason is I don’t like how the assignment was designed. I am asked “do you know this person?” And am only allowed to answer how the script is written. So even if I know the person I have to say I don’t. Which just basically means that I am not needed for the assignment. It is a one sided conversation where all I say is no I don’t. I don’t think you need a native speaker of English to hang out in a classroom for 50 minutes only to say “No I don’t” 30 times. I know that this teacher is just following what is in the textbook however I feel like if you want to stimulate your students you should make almost all of your activities interactive. If you don’t you are just speaking by yourself and of course that isn’t communication. That is just a recitation. Many of the students did their presentation and I would ask them one follow up question and some of them were able to answer but most of them were not. I just wanted to give the students a chance to actually communicate but I feel like I would be criticized because I was deviating from the textbook. In a recent test to measure the level of English of students in the prefecture where I live, over half of the junior high school students were not able to have a simple conversation in English. These are students who have been studying English for 7 years now and they still can’t have a basic conversation. It’s not because the students don’t have the ability either. They aren’t given the chance to practice. For example, after I evaluated the students today there were 15 minutes left in class. Rather than trying to think of an activity for the students practice speaking the teacher told the students to study for a test. I think that being able to improvise and make fun activities on the spot is an important ability for teachers. This teacher constantly complains about the level of students in the class but her classes are so boring and unclear that many of the students have lost any interest they had in English. It’s embarrassing to be a part of. With languages it’s hard to say what deserves a perfect score. If someone writes an essay that meets all the requirements that doesn’t mean they get an A. With language classes an assignment must be better than average to receive a high score. If a student’s assignment excels far beyond the rest of the class it should be recognized with a high score. If a student is average I don’t think there is anything wrong with getting a B. There is nothing wrong with getting a B on an assignment but there definitely is something wrong when a student who is miles ahead of other students is getting zero recognition.
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At the schools that I teach at, all of the students were given tablets with a keyboard about a year ago. The teachers are doing their best to implement the tablets into their classes but it's a double edged sword, especially in English class. Many of the students use google translate when they need to write something and the Japanese teachers don't seem to realize or care. Obviously this means the students don't get a chance to improve their writing skills. One of the benefits of having a tablet with a keyboard is learning how to type but since many of the students don't have access to a computer at their home they have never learned to type. Also, they aren’t taught how to type at school, meaning that when they do have to write in English they search for one letter at a time using the "hunt-and-peck" method. I feel bad for the students because they should be learning how to type. Being able to effectively use a keyboard in the 21st century is an immeasurable beneficial skill. I actually looked up online to see what percent of Japanese people can type without looking at the keyboard and it was only 30% according to pcacademy.com. By the way typing without looking at the keyboard is called touch typing or blind touch. I’m not sure which saying is more commonly used or which is older but according to a coworker Blind Touch is much more commonly used. I can’t say for certain but most likely that research was done in a metropolitan area, so most likely if you were to go into a more rural area like where I live, Iwate, the percentage would be much lower.
In the past I would be given handwritten assignments from the students and check their writing. I think when you are at a basic level of your second language, handwriting is the most mentally stimulating way to practice the language. If the assignments are handwritten it means that even if they use google translate in order to finish the project they must write it themselves, rather than just copying and pasting from google. Also writing by hand in general makes one become slow and deliberate in terms of choosing which words they would like to use. I’m a firm believer that when you are learning anything new the last thing you should be, is in a hurry. I would rather a student write three sentences with actual creativity and intent than just spewing back a bunch of randomly translated sentences from google. Disconnection. The schools have the ability to add me to Microsoft Teams groups so that I could check the students' writing but they don’t. I don’t know why either. I’m not sure if it’s because they don’t know how to or if they would rather not have to go through the trouble of doing so. I’m the only native speaker of English at my school and while the Japanese English teachers do have good skills there will always be times when a native speaker will catch something strange that most Japanese English teachers would not. For example a sentence may be grammatically correct but it could be phrased in a way that native speaker would never do. I asked one of the teachers at a junior high school if he would mind adding me to a Microsoft Teams account so I could check the students' writing and he said “there is no need”. I honestly got a bit frustrated and asked him “Why do you think so?”. His response was “just writing in English is good practice and they don’t need to be corrected.” While his opinion does make sense the unfortunate truth is that many of the students aren’t even writing themselves. They are simply using google translate. I’m not a fan of setting the bar low for students. I don’t care how low the level of the students is, that should never determine your standards for the class. There are always going to be gifted and intelligent students in your class and depriving them from more meaningful and interactive classes because you think that just writing is enough is a weak excuse. Let’s put that idea into practice in another class, for example math. What if I just let students do a bunch of math problems and I never checked their work because I said “just doing math is enough”. People would look at me like I am out of mind. People act like all languages are fluid things that don’t need to be perfect and communication is the only thing that really matters and for the most part they are right but I don’t want people to think that there are no rules for a language because there definitely are. Just because someone will probably understand you even if you make a grammatical mistake doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put in the effort to learn the correct grammar. The only thing I think about when a teacher makes a comment like “they’ll probably understand you” is, “you’re too lazy to teach this grammar correctly.” When I am speaking in Japanese and I get corrected about my word usage or grammar I’m always interested and I don’t take it personally because I know that I am not a native speaker and getting advice from native speakers for free is an invaluable experience. If a Japanese teacher of English doesn’ share that same level of enthusiasm about English it could mean a few things. The first is, they have topped out on their English ability and don’t feel they need to improve anymore. The second would be, they are OK with students speaking incorrectly. The last would be, the teachers don’t think students actually need to learn English. All three interpretations of the teacher’s laziness are problematic. I’m sure there are many effective ways of using technology in the classroom but right now there is a gap. Perhaps the textbooks should be completely changed into digital documents that are completely interactive. Perhaps having an AI companion similar to the Microsoft paper-clip from Windows 1997 will be a welcome addition to the future of English education but I get the feeling that having an experienced educated person at the front of the classroom will always be part of the educational experience and will always be the preferred way to become educated. For example, currently I am trying to become a better guitar player and there are several ways to get lessons online right now but having a one-on-one teacher is still the preferred method to get lessons because getting feedback from your individual performance is the quickest way to improve. There are several ways to learn how to program online also but for most people the options become overwhelming and wind up never truly learning what they need to become able to use it effectively. For the time being the tablets that my students are using have become glorified smartphones. They are useful for simple tasks but in many ways they simply get in the way of having a genuine experience. In a time when everyone is concerned with how much time children are spending in front of screens, why do we feel they need to give them more screen time in school? Shouldn’t we be focused on real experiences? Technology is definitely our friend but not if we don’t use it in a way where we can monitor its pros and cons. Sometimes when I have free time at work I'll just start looking on auction sites even though I don't need anything and I want to say that again. I don't need anything. I have a lot of hobbies and I have more than enough stuff to do them. I have 5 bicycles, every game system I want, several guitars and tube amplifiers and tons of records. As a human we only have one set of hands and that means you can only do one thing at a time. So why do I need so much stuff? The answer is, I don't. I just have impulses that make me feel like I need more stuff. For example today I was just thinking about the fact that I don't have a North American PS3 which for a very small list of reasons could be useful for me.
I live in Japan and that means DVDs from North America do not work in a standard DVD player. I do have a DVD player that I bought in America a very long time ago but it's so old that it only has a composite out. You might be asking "Robert who still watches DVDs?" and the answer would be "I do." Have you ever tried to Stream anything by Wes Anderson? He does not exist on Netflix or Amazon prime in the least. Have you ever tried to watch the original terminator? You'll be able to find the later sequels with Christian Bale but not the original movie that started the series. Those are just some of the reasons I still have physical DVDs and a few blu-ray discs. Having a North American PS3 would mean that I could watch movies from North America in HD with an HDMI cable; something that I currently cannot do. Other than that it would mean I could play North American PS1 games on an HD TV. However I have only about 2 or three North American PS1 games. Because I've been living in Japan for over a decade now, most of my collection is in Japanese. Also buying old PS1 games in Japanese is much cheaper than North American games. The only PS1 game I have bought in the last 5 years is metal gear solid. I bought that game about a year ago and still haven't played it. Mostly because I have the HD collections for PS3 and if you didn't already know, the PS3 is region free. So that means the only reason I would need to have a PS3 is for PS1 games of which I have two and I have played neither of them since I bought them. Of course DVDs would be nice but blu rays are cheap now too and obviously higher resolution so there is no reason not to buy them. I feel like whenever I need to buy something I should be writing an essay to convince myself of why I don't need whatever it is I just became obsessed with. Buyer's remorse is real. Have you ever just clicked on an item and instantly felt like you did something stupid. Sometimes I think back to the line from Fight Club when Tyler Durden says "The things you own end up owning you". If you buy something and regret it you have two choices. The first choice is to keep it because you don’t want to admit to yourself that you bought something stupid. The second choice is to take a loss and get rid of something you don’t need which is obviously the more admirable path but most people don’t do it. I know it's cool to hate on Fight Club these days but I still feel like there are still a few insightful lines from that movie. Also I had a chance to meet the author Chuck Palahniuk when I was about 19 years old in San Francisco and he was one of the nicest guys I've ever met and I feel like discrediting someone's classic work just because people for some reason relate it to toxic masculinity. I don't even know why people think that. It's troublesome how the entire left wing of people seem to take certain people's opinions as fact and don't decide anything for themselves. Anyways, let's get back to the PS3. Do I want a PS3? Yes, I do. However I feel like I have so many games that I haven't finished yet and there are so many new games that I should be playing that I shouldn't waste money on another PS3. I already own 4. What I should be doing is getting rid of my PS3 slim and my PS3 phat that doesn't play PS2 games because I do already own the original PS3 that plays PS 1,2 and 3 games. However 1 and 2 aren't region free leaving this itching sensation in the back of my head that I do need the USA version even though it costs almost as much as a PS5. Then I just think about the fact that I have a PS5 and the only game that I have played on it is Death Stranding Director's Cut which of course is originally a PS4 game. Shouldn’t I just buy another PS5 game? Shouldn’t I be playing CyberPunk 2077 finally after years of thinking about that game instead of grasping on to memories of PS2 games I played 20 years ago. I think it’s important to differentiate your feelings about wanting to play something or just collecting stuff because it reminds you of yourself when you were younger because believe or not, no matter how many games you buy you’re never going back to 2002. Yesterday I found out that a friend of mine is holding a concert at the space where my band practices. My drummer is going to DJ, another friend is too. Also A few acquaintance's bands are going to play. My drummer actually runs the place where the concert is going to be held. It's a skatepark that has been open for three years and he is the GM.
I found out that our band didn't get invited to play at this concert. We have been playing for two years and have about 10 original songs and are more than capable of playing a show. I have been trying to get our band to play more concerts but it seems like our drummer is just really hesitant about playing live. He used to be a guitar player and he isn't bad but he isn't great yet either. Honestly I don't care because drummers that are too good just wind up playing tons of fills and not concentrating on the beat. So I kind of flipped out at the whole situation. I asked the guy holding the concert why he didn't think about asking our band. He said "I've never heard you guys." Which is a fair answer but we live in the same town we both play music I've released a few of our recording, we are on Instagram playing music all the time. The only reason I can think of why he hasn't heard us is because he purely isn't interested. This is a guy who I thought of as a friend for at least 8 years. I guess I was wrong about him being a friend. I asked my drummer who runs the skatepark why aren't we going to play at this event and he responded with something like "I don't want to play with the other bands that are playing" and honestly it just sounds like bullshit. I don't want to toot my own horn but I am a decent guitar player and a pretty good drummer. I can play bass when I have to. I feel like if the other people in my band aren't willing to play live shows with me then there is no point playing with them anymore. I can just make music myself. Which sucks though. I think anyone who has played with other people realizes that playing live with other members just feels right. So now I am in the situation where I have confront my drummer about why he doesn't want to play live. We had a concert scheduled a few months ago and he canceled it because he had to work. He is the GM and other people work there. Why couldn't he just take the night off? There was a pretty awesome concert going to happen and he didn't even try to get us on the bill. I understand that he is not the person planning the concert but if it were me I would at least try to get us to play. It just seems like he is avoiding playing live and I am sick of it. I have no idea if this is inside of my head. I can't think of who I would play with if this band broke up. I have made music on my own in the past and honestly I am more capable now that I have ever been. Anyways, this was just a shitty situation and it definitely put stress to two of my friendships to the point where I don't even care if I see one of the guys ever again. Recently mask mandates have been lifted on public transportation and indoors. Some people are upset but I think it's time we give people the freedom of choice. You can wear a mask if you want to but you can't expect everyone to keep wearing them. They're uncomfortable and really change the way you interact with people. One of the weirdest things I read the other day was a Facebook friend who was talking about people being assholes because they aren't wearing masks indoors. I totally understand his opinion but this is coming from a guy who is extremely liberal and seems to be always fighting for the rights of people. I guess you could say he is fighting for the rights of the people at risk but what about all the other people. Do they just keep doing what they're told because a small portion of the population is at risk? In the immortal words of Spock "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". You might think I'm heartless but you have to think about people's health mentally also. Being stuck inside for years now has certainly had a strain on my mental health. I want to enjoy my life while I have the chance to. Living abroad during the pandemic means that I haven't seen my family in more than two years. I feel more and more distant from old friends. I still have to deal with all of these restrictions going in and out of Japan even though the same virus exists in Japan and the USA. More than ever what we need is Freedom of Choice.
The metaverse is happening. People are going to start going to more and more digital or virtual events. The pandemic has definitely jump started the progress. The ability to go to large events feels to be gone for the time being and so we stay inside but humans don't work that way. Staying inside makes stress build up in our heads. How do we relieve that stress? There are many options but probably one of the most popular is playing video games.
A few days ago the weather was nice and I was asked if I wanted to go out somewhere and I said no. I just got Death Stranding for the PS4 and decided that I would focus on playing that game for the day. I think since I am the only one in my family who plays video games people don't really understand it. I think for people who have never played video games it's easy to think that it's a waste of time. I even sometimes think the same thing but in this modern age I think it's time to think about what is really a waste of time. I think passive and active activities are a really easy way to distinguish what type of person someone is. For the past few years I have never been the type of person who just watches a TV show on netflix or anything like that. The last show I got really into was game of thrones and years later looking back at the show I don’t think it’s as amazing as I used to. In gaming terms the replay factor is very low. I find that to be very true with most tv shows. Even something like breaking bad which I loved. Once the plot is over and you know the character arch there isn’t a real reason to watch it again. Then you have to compare that to video games. With video games your actions define what is happening in the world. Thus each type you play the game there is a chance for another experience. Right now companies are releasing more and more content because they don’t have to worry about a time slot for when the show is going to be on or who is going to sponsor the show because everything has become based around streaming. Because we don’t have to worry about a schedule there is no sense of urgency about watching a show. I remember when I was young and I would wait for 8pm on Sunday to watch the simpsons. I don’t think there are any shows like that anymore, at least for me. For the past two years games have been an escape for me. An escape from endless time on my hands. The genre doesn’t really matter to me. As long as I feel immersed in another place I can enjoy myself. It seems strange to say escape though because I still exist in the real world and I actually enjoy interacting with other people when I play online. No one says they are escaping from the world when they play a sport or practice an instrument. So why do I feel this sense of quilt when I play games. Is it because society has given me this deep seeded feeling that games are bad? An opinion formed more than 40 years ago when pong was the most popular video game. There are many games which I consider to be life changing. They reformed the way I look and interact with the world. The music and visuals are at a level that I think a lot of TV shows and movies can’t compete with. I live and die with the characters. Video games give us a chance to be someone else, not just to watch them. To understand the drive of another person and their world. You can take the things you learned from the experience and improve your life also. I don’t think video games mean you are lazy either. The amount of mental focus you have to have to play modern video games is no joke. Also the drive to move through huge worlds. So the next thing I have to wonder is will the meta verse and gaming become the same thing. Right now traditional video games are still the most popular but what about in another 10 years. Are we going to be using VR all the time and interacting with people all over the world? The internet has opened up the world to us. We can interact with anyone who has access to it. I have heard of people giving money and help to their online gaming friends and even emotional support. Working together and having a feeling of a team doesn’t have to just exist in jobs and sports. It can exist in your mind or in a game. Our perception of gaming is going to change. Especially with the next generation who grew up playing video games online. I don't want to sound like I want people to pity me but lately I feel increasingly disconnected from everyone I used to know when I lived in America. I lived there for 29 years in the same area. I had a lot of friends and family and then I moved to another country. It seems like everyone just forgot about me. I have now lived in Japan for almost 8 years now and no one has ever visited me. No one has even thought about coming to see me. Not even my family. I understand Japan is really far away and it is a big deal to cross the pacific but I was your friend, brother and son. Why does no one care that I am gone?
I come back to the USA about once a year and always try to make plans to meet old friends and tell people months in advance that I am coming but almost no one tries to see me. I don't think people realize how much time, effort and money it takes to go to another country. The other day this guy I know named Erv was visiting where I live in Japan. I have only met the guy twice before but I realized that he took all the time and effort to get out here and if I can't get out just to say hi and have a drink with the guy then I am just as bad. I don't want to make this a big complaining blog but I have lived in Japan for almost 8 years and I have never even received a phone call from anyone outside of Japan. It's like no cared that I left America. That's why I feel like I have less and less of reasons to go back. There was so much hype leading up to see black panther that it really got my expectations up super high. It was a great movie but there was some things that kind of let me down. Having a superhero movie set in a fictional country in Africa certainly presents a lot of challenges. Of course actually filming a movie in Africa would have been incredibly difficult so the film was filmed in Georgia, South Korea and Argentina. Also this movie is basically a full introduction to Black Panther to people who are not into comic books. One thing about a lot of comic book characters is that have a flaw that makes them seem more human. Hulk has to deal with the fact that he is unappreciated in his normal form as Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers rogers wrestles with his sense of justice which puts him at odds with the Avengers and the US gov't in general. Black Panther doesn't seem to have the sort of flaw. He does have to come to terms with the fact that his uncle was murdered by his father resulting in his cousin being left alone to live in Oakland but those don't seem to be flaws so much as just obstacles. Perhaps it's just that I don't relate to T'Challa but I feel that he was a bit one dimensional. The soundtrack of this movie was good but I feel like there was no real motif that was continued throughout the film which I thought was a missed opportunity. It was interesting to see a movie that used 808 sounds and had a hip hop feel to it. Having Kendrick Lamar work on the soundtrack was a great idea. He is at the top of his game and the messages of his music tie in well with the movie. When I think of Kendrick Lamar's music the struggle of growing up in Compton seems to be very similar to Killmonger's struggle with being cast out by the royal family of Wakanda and struggling to find self worth. I am currently listening to the soundtrack which is available on apple music and I think they could have used a lot more of the vocals in the movie but I understand why they didn't. It is kind of insane how much profanity is in the soundtrack. You have to keep in mind this is a Marvel Entertainment film which is essentially a Disney product. To see Disney essentially using Kendrick Lamar's music is kind of incredible. The cast of this movie was incredible. I think Michael B. Jordan's performance almost overshadowed Boseman's. He was believable as Killmonger. The juxtaposition of his rugged American vernacular the Wakandan clean and dignified way of speaking could be really hard to pull off but he did it so well. Letitia Wright who played T'Challa's younger sister Shuri was probably my favorite character in the movie. She was charming, funny, believable and not to mention beautiful. I watched the movie in Japan and when she delivered the "what are those?!" line I was the only one is the theater who understood the reference to the famous vine post. I started busting up laughing in a completely silent theater. One other actor whose performance I thought was great was Andy Serkis'. I think many people didn't realize that this was Gollum they were watching. His strong yet unbalanced delivery of Klaw was perfect. Side not, Klaw's back story is insane. Go check it out on wiki if you are interested. He is the son a Nazi war criminal sent by Adolf Hitler to obtain the secrets of Wakanda. Another strange side note I found while researching for this article was that Mark Hamill was the voice for Klaw in The Avengers animated series. There are so many great actors that I could go on for pages but I'll end this paragraph by saying the cast was well balanced and had no weak actors. In terms of the plot of the movie, I thought it was quite strong. It all goes back to Killmonger though. All of the movie's momentum is thanks to his character. T'Challa did have some pretty great scenes, in particular when he goes to the ancestral plain to speak with his father I felt like that gave a lot of depth to his character. This movie is getting some comparisons to the Lion King in terms of plot and I can see that when you see T'Challa talking to his father's spirit just like Simba talked to Mufasa. One thing I kind of found hard to believe was W'Kabi's character so easily taking Erik Killmonger's side after he overthrew T'Challa. I can see that he wanted Klaw to be brought the justice but to completely take a stranger's side after he kills your king seemed kind of unbelievable. Also during the last battle scene when he drops his weapon and his girlfriend Okoye immediately forgives him after being such an ass was a bit far fetched. I felt like the movie could have used one more change of scenery also. Perhaps some flashbacks to Killmonger's time in the military could have been intense and given more depth to an already amazing character. In terms of special effects the movie had some really great points but also weak points. The city in Wakanda looked amazing. Some of the fight scenes leaved a little to be desired. I know that modern movies just use CG all the time, but some more hand to hand combat would have been amazing to watch. I realize that when Killmonger and Black Panther are both fighting in their suits that they are super powered but they were in those train tracks and their powers were diminished, so there could have been an opportunity for some well filmed hand to hand combat. I realize that having real combat in a completely CG background would create some sort of clashing but still. I think the ancestral plain was extremely well done. To me use of color palettes is important. They allow films to express an emotion or mood without saying anything. This was done super well in many scenes in the movie. In the last scene when T'Challa brings Killmonger out to see the sunset is another good example of using colors and tasteful CG. I watched Comic Book Girl 19's review on YouTube and she said something that I agreed with also. I know that Wakanda is incredibly advanced but I don't like technology that is so advanced it kind of doesn't make sense. Like the fact that Black Panther's suit comes out of his necklace. I realize nanotech could make something like this possible but it kind of seemed over the top, but then again Ironman took his suit out of a suitcase in Ironman 2, so there is precedent for that kind of unbelievable tech in the MCU. The camera work was also quite good. There weren't many scenes that had what I would consider to be amazing balance in terms of camera work but it's an action movie and I think it served its purpose. Currently Black Panther has a 7.8 on IMDB which is I think is a fair assessment. There was a lot of great parts about this movie but I think that there were things that could have been done a little better. When you think about the fact that Civil War also received a 7.8 on IMDB you really can't complain about the rating. Personally I think Civil War is the best movie ever made in the MCU and to receive the same score I think says a lot about how well this filmed was received. Of course I have to mention the fact that this is the first movie in the MCU where the main character is black, the director is black, and is set in Africa. You have to think about the cultural significance of that and it's huge. There were some heavy cultural messages in this film like when Killmonger talks about Africans jumping ship while crossing the Atlantic because death was better than living in chains. That is a really serious and profound thing to be talking about in a superhero movie and I am glad they did that. Watching this movie in a Japanese theater I had to think about that people around the world are largely ignorant to slavery in the USA. I know I am late with this review but the movie was released 2 days ago in Japan. This is one of those movies that you should see in theaters. You are not going to get the full experience at home. Check out Black Panther in theaters and stay until the credits are over the get glimpse at my favorite character in the MCU, Bucky Barnes. One of the weird things about Japan is certain customs during new years. Since I work in a town hall I have a lot of people coming in and out of the office where I work. When knew year comes people feel obliged to come and say "kotoshi yoroshiku", which basically means treat me well this year. I'm sure Japanese people in my office know who all of these people are but I have no idea. So I am basically getting up and sitting down and bowing to someone who I have no idea who they are but this is Japan. If your superior is standing up and bowing and you are sitting down, you just look like an ass. The actions of superiors dictate the actions of subordinates.
I wasn't nearly as excited for this movie as I was for the force awakens and I actually forgot the movie was coming out. I wound up seeing it though and man I had a lot of mixed emotions. There were some good elements of the film like the special effects and music but the story was really weak. Disney is already doing what I thought was going to happen to the Star Wars franchise after being sold. They are going to milk the series for every cent they can get. During the previews I saw Ron Howard talking about making the Han Solo movie and that just looks like it is going to be another hastily thrown together movie just trying to get more money from Star Wars fans. The Last Jedi really went overboard with new types of beings in the movie. From characters that actually speak to just random animals, the amount of CG animals was just too many. The worst was the casino scene. It completely reminded me of when Lucas Films remade the Jaba the Hutt palace scene and added the horrible singing alien. It went way too far into the realm of small child movie. There is certainly more comedy in the new movies and I honestly don't mind it but it was just too much this time. The scene where the little drunk alien is trying to stick coins into BB8 was just over the top. I know that a lot fewer people go the movies than they used to and getting families to go the movies is a great way to make money but look at this photo of the Return of the Jedi release. What do you think if the average age here? From the ice foxes to the care takers on the Jedi island, there were simply too many weird creatures that didn't seem like they needed to be in the story. I can even list more, the weird things that Luke drank milk from, the porgs and the weird horse like creatures on the casino planet. There were creatures in the original trilogy but they didn't take center stage like the creatures do now.
There was truly a lack of story. I am still waiting for someone to truly explain who the hell Snoke was and how the first order arrived. I know that Rey talked with Kylo Ren and basically described that her parents were no one special and probably just drunks that sold her into slavery for drinking money but can that really be true? I feel like nothing was really expanded upon. Then there princess Leia using the force. Don't get me wrong, I know she is the daughter of Anakin Skywalker and probably has some force DNA over whatever but having her just randomly, out of no where float back into the ship was just out of character for her. Did she train with Luke after Return of the Jedi and we just never heard about it? Wasted chances for more character development. I think that Finn was my favorite character is the Force Awakens and the fact that he really wasn't in the Last Jedi that much was kind of a waste. Also, after being captured by the First Order I think that Phasma and Finn could have had some great dialogue together but that never happened. Also Gwendoline Christie is a great actor and I would have loved to see more of her in the movie. It was also strange to see yes another GOT character in a star wars movie. Kate Dickie who played Lysa Tully made a brief appearance on the bridge of a First Order ship. One of the other weaknesses of this movie is how much they are using story elements from the original trilogy. The walkers from empire strikes back, and basically Luke becoming the new Yoda on the Jedi island, or however you want to call it. Seeing Yoda again was awesome though. I thought they should have just used a puppet instead of CG but that is just me. I am just so used to the original Yoda that seeing a CG version just throws me off. All and all it was better than any of the prequels but at certain points I got that bad taste in my mouth feeling that I was watching one of the prequels. The characters verged on breaking the fourth wall with their bad humor. The weak story and me actually wondering how long this movie is. The huge amount of new creatures was just distracting at points. How can the Cantina scene from a new hope still be the bench mark of good creatures? It is 40 years later and that scene is still the bench mark for creativity in terms of making good looking aliens and creatures that seem like they could actually exist. The Michelin man looking opera singer from the casino had to be the worst thing in the movie. I think that when you are creating new creatures you should ask yourself, "what about their environment made them look that way?" Because if you don't you wind up with distractingly awkward creatures that take away from the scene. They ruin the suspension of disbelief factor. If you are a Star Wars fan you should see it on the big screen, there is no question there. However is terms of ratings I would put this below Rogue One. I liked Rogue One but would say that it is a flawed movie in some regards. The Last Jedi is even more flawed. I would give the movie a 70%. It is a passing grade but just barely. |