2. Kids playing with Luke Skywalker figurines in the final scene. BECAUSE DISNEY NEED TO SELL THE TOYZ. This doesn't sour the film as much as the previous scene, but if the Leia scene didn't exist and this one still did, it would still keep me back from overlooking the other minor problems I had with the film.
I wrote the same and since then I've been listening to other opinions that mostly love the final scene, taking it for what I believe was its true intention, showing the optimism of hope. I can believe that was the intent, but coming from a Star Wars film, one of the great merchandising tools of our lifetime, I can't get past seeing it as selling the mania to future generations.
Is there anything these kids could have done that would not inspire this response? If they were lightsabering around it wouldn't change anything, lightsabers come in all kinds of buyable shapes and sizes. I suppose the one could have just been telling the story to the others, but is that how kids work? Do they sit down to tell each other stories at that age, or do they act them out? It's been about 25 years for me, but the toy version feels like the most realistic thing they could have been doing. We got past the cynicism for The Lego Movie, when are we gonna get past it for Star Wars? (I feel I should point out that perhaps the most important plot/character point in the film, Rey's decision to not join Kylo Ren, is a choice against cynicism.)
What are you talking about? Legos ARE toys. There wasn't a lego film then legos made from that film. And I don't know about you, but I never played with soldier action figures based on real life people. Chris Kyle isn't a massively popular action figure.
Your line of argument is so confusing. It presupposes that this scene was the only thing that they could've done, that this is the only way they could've ended the movie, then you appear to negotiate as if the screenwriter was cornered by this apparently logical conclusion. People do this kind of technique all of the time, in order to justify their defense.
No, there's plenty of different conclusions they could've gone.
The entire trilogy up to this point has people telling stories. There could've been an older person of authority telling the story of Luke Skywalker with kids surrounding him. That happens, that's still true and authentic. Point being I have no problem with the idea behind the scene, just with the execution. Even the lightsaber broom isn't so much a problem because lightsabers are just swords. But action figures? Knowing the course that the film series took because of the merchandising (Harrison Ford being told by Lucas that he wouldn't kill off his character in RETURN OF THE JEDI because no one would buy dead Han dolls), it leaves a pretty sour taste in my mouth. Add to the fact that Disney is infamous for milking films for all its toy worth, it just sours more. And to tie that all up, the way it's shot, with the kid's hand moving the action figure toward the camera (!!!) triggered instant 90s toy commercials in my mind. No. It's a bad scene, regardless of the idea behind it, because the execution is god-awful.
Putting your personal attacks aside, I didn't really think this was too hard an argument to follow, but I'll lay it out again for you real slow.
1. The concern going into The Lego Movie was that it was a cynical way of boosting Lego sales.
2. While that may have been an outcome, it only worked because the movie was so good.
3. The movie itself actually undermines Lego's business model because it's about being creative outside of specific Lego sets.
4. Turns out the cynicism towards The Lego Movie is unjustified.
5. These new Star Wars movies were seen to be cash grabs by Disney. This is still ongoing, obviously, and is a backdrop to the rest of this part of the argument.
6. Concerns were brought up about the last scene because some people see it as a commercial to sell toys.
7. There are going to be toys sold based on this movie whether that scene is in it or not. Probably because there are a lot of cool designs for the ships and stuff. AKA, sure, more toys sold, but only because the movie is good.
8. The movie itself actually undermines the Star Wars business model because the Luke figurine is homemade and the kid turns his broom into a lightsaber.
9. Turns out the cynicism towards Star Wars is unjustified.
See, not that hard.
But you made me think a little, too. What's the movie about? The democratization of Star Wars. No longer is it a patriarchal lineage story, now anybody can be a Jedi. And in the final scene what do we see? Literally the most oppressed (enslaved?) kids begin to give each other hope by telling the story of Luke and (one can assume) everybody else in the resistance. Hence the shot of the ring. They do so through the use of homemade props, including a figurine made of wood and string. Then its broken up by their owner and the one kid goes outside to sweep up. But he looks to the horizon and holds not a weapon but a broom handle like its a lightsaber. That's exactly what I did as a kid. I'm sure millions of others did the same. Until this movie we had to pretend that we were being part of that patriarchal lineage. Now we (including girls and children of color) can be part of the story too. And that's like the best thing, isn't it?
So tell me how an older person of authority telling the story gets that same message across. This version uses the language of film way more than your proposed coda would as well. The story is being told in this version, yes, but it's in an alien language and only Luke Skywalker's name is recognizable. The power of the scene comes from that push into the foreground that you complain about (a shot that mirrors what we saw happen not five minutes earlier), it comes from the small gesture of the force pull of the broom. It comes from the change between tool and weapon by the kid's change in grip. As I said in my review, which I'm sure you read, Rian Johnson's greatest feat is bringing movie magic to Star Wars for the first time. The last scene is a great example of that, and that's why I don't understand the cynical reaction to it.