The Last Jedi Graphic Novel Adaptation by Alessandro Ferrari
The Last Jedi Graphic Novel Adaptation written by Alessandro Ferrari, illustrated by Igor Chimisso, Stefano Simeone, and Massimo Rocca
This adaptation had some fine visual moments that really grabbed my attention and absorbed me into the book. Unfortunately, a lot was missing from the story that I see as crucial for a deeper understanding of characters and plot threads. Regardless, the overall package was worth the read and did a great job of hashing out the most pertinent through lines to accurately present the movie in this abbreviated format.
One cute thing was how BB-8 spoke in barcodes of differing colors. There was no rhyme or reason to the colors that I could tell, but if you tried hard enough, you could still read meaning into it beyond the picture which was cool.
In many places, actual dialogue or action moments are replaced with boxes that briefly relay what is happening in the story. I found this a frustrating mode of story-telling as several truly powerful moments were placed in these text boxes and visual panels were foregone for the sake of brevity. One such example was the fathier stampede through Cantonica and beyond. There's so much in this scene that speaks to freedom, liberation, and bravery both for the fathiers and Rose and this is all cut to just two simple boxes that read, "The fathiers smash through the casino floor..." "and run in the streets finally free!" Also, the Praetorian Guard scene is cut short!! We just get a few snapshots and then in a simple box, "Soon..." I wanted so much more out of that spectacular cinematic showdown!
Timeline issue! This might could be solved by assuming that Ahch-To has very short days, but this adaptation states, "Rey follows Luke for days, hoping to convince him, to no avail." Okay, so this leaves me wondering how come the Resistance plot line takes place over the course of 24 hours while Rey's plotline seems to be taking place over a longer period of time. Unless it took the First Order days to get to D'Qar after the destruction of Starkiller Base...but I just don't think that's the case. From everything I've read, it appears that from the attack on Starkiller Base to the end of the Last Jedi is less than 24 hours...so Ahch-To must have super short days. Unless I'm missing something...
I love when Finn responds to Phasma's, "You were always scum!" with "Rebel scum." This line just really stood out to me in this adaptation and I think it does a wonderful job of showing us just how much his priorities have shifted since the beginning of the film. He no longer only cares for one person...but now for many.
Another great moment that I somehow missed in my viewings of the film (or maybe it's just not there...I can't remember) is when Rey snarkily says, "Lifting rocks." when she is doing just that outside the cave on Crait. Too funny since Luke told her straight up that being a Jedi has nothing to do with lifting rocks and here she is doing that to truly become a Jedi and save her people. And I think her face in this adaptation is priceless in that moment (see above).
Below you will find a long list of missing scenes/dialogue which turned me off a bit to this adaptation, but there were still plenty of deftly illustrated moments from the film that had me in awe(see below).
Missing scenes/dialogue:
-Poe is immediately shown attacking the Fulminatrix without any prelude at all (this also happens in the short run comic series adaptation). "Holding for General Hugs" is one of my favorite lines in all of Star Wars both for its humor and its show of Poe's unflappable bravado. It speaks so much to his character...whether that's a good or bad thing...and shouldn't have been skipped over. Also, he didn't go straight to fighting because part of what he was doing was buying time for transports to escape D'Qar. And I think that little tidbit is quite important.
-Hux never gets to say he has the Resistance "tied on a string" which is a line I think is very important as foreshadowing the First Order being able to track them though hyperspace. It also shows that Snoke at the time has more trust in Hux than he does in Kylo Ren as he throws Kylo to the floor and practically congratulates Hux on his new technical marvel.
-Poe's pondering over who is going to take Leia's place after she ends up in the coma is skipped in favor of going directly to Holdo's speech. I loved this moment in the movie because once again it showed his ego and bravado in the face of a scary situation--temporarily losing the leader he had looked up to for years.
-Finn acting drugged after being attacked by Rose with the stun-stop. This was such a funny moment!! "I can't feel my teeth." and "What have you done to me?" are completely skipped over to Finn immediately talking normally. I just don't think the story flows right without these little bits of humor and glimpses into the characters of different players--re: Rose being willing to do absolutely whatever she must to support the cause...I mean, that stun-stop had some punch behind it!
-Rey responding to Luke's "Reach out." with actually reaching out and then getting tickled by a feather. I think this scene showed her naivete and confusion over what the Force actually was which was a super important thing to show in contrast with experienced Luke.
-The visuals of "Life. Death and decay that feeds new life. Warmth. Cold. Peace. Violence." I thought this was such a powerful way of showing what the Force really is.
-We never see DJ being part of the conversation about the Resistance's plan with the transports. This leaves his turncoating widely open for interpretation instead of solidifying how things went down.
-Leia letting Holdo say, "May the Force be with you." because she's said it so much already in her life time. I felt like this scene showed her experience and age and how overall tired she was getting.
-"Oh they hate that ship!" I love this line because it shows just how much Kylo Ren is trying to hate his father. It brings us into the reality of his character in the moment.
-There's no transfer of dice between Luke and Leia...which I think is super sad because it is such a touching moment showing their shared love for Han. And there's no Kylo Ren picking up the dice at the end, something I thought showed his humanity toward his father.
-Kylo doesn't Force push Hux into the side of his ship! This was a great moment showing just how powerful Kylo was and how beholden to him Hux was going to have to become.
The ending makes me believe that Episode IX will occur at least a year after Last Jedi. In several narrative boxes at the end, it says, "All over the galaxy a story is told...the story of Luke Skywalker facing down the First Order...and a spark of hope ignites!" I don't believe such a story could instantaneously spread or even spread over a few months. I think such a thing would take time to occur. Which also leads me to believe that the very ending of Last Jedi itself takes place well after the Resistance leaves Crait on the Millennium Falcon.
Trivia:
-32 star destroyers plus Snoke's ship were all on the hunt for the Resistance once the Resistance exited lightspeed.
Hmmm...so overall, this adaptation was missing quite a bit. But I guess that's to be expected for a movie that lasted over two and a half hours. I just think that they maybe chose some of the wrong things to cut or gloss over. Either way, it was still an enjoyable read because the meat of the story was certainly there. And some of the visuals were simply amazing depictions of powerful moments. If you liked the Last Jedi, I would recommend this book for a quick way to relive the film...emphasis on quick...
One cute thing was how BB-8 spoke in barcodes of differing colors. There was no rhyme or reason to the colors that I could tell, but if you tried hard enough, you could still read meaning into it beyond the picture which was cool.
In many places, actual dialogue or action moments are replaced with boxes that briefly relay what is happening in the story. I found this a frustrating mode of story-telling as several truly powerful moments were placed in these text boxes and visual panels were foregone for the sake of brevity. One such example was the fathier stampede through Cantonica and beyond. There's so much in this scene that speaks to freedom, liberation, and bravery both for the fathiers and Rose and this is all cut to just two simple boxes that read, "The fathiers smash through the casino floor..." "and run in the streets finally free!" Also, the Praetorian Guard scene is cut short!! We just get a few snapshots and then in a simple box, "Soon..." I wanted so much more out of that spectacular cinematic showdown!
Timeline issue! This might could be solved by assuming that Ahch-To has very short days, but this adaptation states, "Rey follows Luke for days, hoping to convince him, to no avail." Okay, so this leaves me wondering how come the Resistance plot line takes place over the course of 24 hours while Rey's plotline seems to be taking place over a longer period of time. Unless it took the First Order days to get to D'Qar after the destruction of Starkiller Base...but I just don't think that's the case. From everything I've read, it appears that from the attack on Starkiller Base to the end of the Last Jedi is less than 24 hours...so Ahch-To must have super short days. Unless I'm missing something...
Another great moment that I somehow missed in my viewings of the film (or maybe it's just not there...I can't remember) is when Rey snarkily says, "Lifting rocks." when she is doing just that outside the cave on Crait. Too funny since Luke told her straight up that being a Jedi has nothing to do with lifting rocks and here she is doing that to truly become a Jedi and save her people. And I think her face in this adaptation is priceless in that moment (see above).
Below you will find a long list of missing scenes/dialogue which turned me off a bit to this adaptation, but there were still plenty of deftly illustrated moments from the film that had me in awe(see below).
Snoke just looks so utterly surprised in this moment. Perfection.
Love the surprised look on Finn's face as Rose reaches up to kiss him!
The focus on the hands is wonderful!
-Poe is immediately shown attacking the Fulminatrix without any prelude at all (this also happens in the short run comic series adaptation). "Holding for General Hugs" is one of my favorite lines in all of Star Wars both for its humor and its show of Poe's unflappable bravado. It speaks so much to his character...whether that's a good or bad thing...and shouldn't have been skipped over. Also, he didn't go straight to fighting because part of what he was doing was buying time for transports to escape D'Qar. And I think that little tidbit is quite important.
-Hux never gets to say he has the Resistance "tied on a string" which is a line I think is very important as foreshadowing the First Order being able to track them though hyperspace. It also shows that Snoke at the time has more trust in Hux than he does in Kylo Ren as he throws Kylo to the floor and practically congratulates Hux on his new technical marvel.
-Poe's pondering over who is going to take Leia's place after she ends up in the coma is skipped in favor of going directly to Holdo's speech. I loved this moment in the movie because once again it showed his ego and bravado in the face of a scary situation--temporarily losing the leader he had looked up to for years.
-Finn acting drugged after being attacked by Rose with the stun-stop. This was such a funny moment!! "I can't feel my teeth." and "What have you done to me?" are completely skipped over to Finn immediately talking normally. I just don't think the story flows right without these little bits of humor and glimpses into the characters of different players--re: Rose being willing to do absolutely whatever she must to support the cause...I mean, that stun-stop had some punch behind it!
-Rey responding to Luke's "Reach out." with actually reaching out and then getting tickled by a feather. I think this scene showed her naivete and confusion over what the Force actually was which was a super important thing to show in contrast with experienced Luke.
-The visuals of "Life. Death and decay that feeds new life. Warmth. Cold. Peace. Violence." I thought this was such a powerful way of showing what the Force really is.
-We never see DJ being part of the conversation about the Resistance's plan with the transports. This leaves his turncoating widely open for interpretation instead of solidifying how things went down.
-Leia letting Holdo say, "May the Force be with you." because she's said it so much already in her life time. I felt like this scene showed her experience and age and how overall tired she was getting.
-"Oh they hate that ship!" I love this line because it shows just how much Kylo Ren is trying to hate his father. It brings us into the reality of his character in the moment.
-There's no transfer of dice between Luke and Leia...which I think is super sad because it is such a touching moment showing their shared love for Han. And there's no Kylo Ren picking up the dice at the end, something I thought showed his humanity toward his father.
-Kylo doesn't Force push Hux into the side of his ship! This was a great moment showing just how powerful Kylo was and how beholden to him Hux was going to have to become.
The ending makes me believe that Episode IX will occur at least a year after Last Jedi. In several narrative boxes at the end, it says, "All over the galaxy a story is told...the story of Luke Skywalker facing down the First Order...and a spark of hope ignites!" I don't believe such a story could instantaneously spread or even spread over a few months. I think such a thing would take time to occur. Which also leads me to believe that the very ending of Last Jedi itself takes place well after the Resistance leaves Crait on the Millennium Falcon.
Trivia:
-32 star destroyers plus Snoke's ship were all on the hunt for the Resistance once the Resistance exited lightspeed.
Hmmm...so overall, this adaptation was missing quite a bit. But I guess that's to be expected for a movie that lasted over two and a half hours. I just think that they maybe chose some of the wrong things to cut or gloss over. Either way, it was still an enjoyable read because the meat of the story was certainly there. And some of the visuals were simply amazing depictions of powerful moments. If you liked the Last Jedi, I would recommend this book for a quick way to relive the film...emphasis on quick...
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