Interstellar (2014), Solaris (1972), and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

This past summer I was able to catch up with two science fiction films that played here in Chicago in 35 MM at the Music Box Theater. The first was Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris a very slow paced and mysterious film set on a space station where members of the crew succumb to the planet Solaris' control of their minds. It was a visually beautiful film to watch, but felt long; I may need to watch it again a second time to fully comprehend its meaning. Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, also set in the future, left me with a bleak feeling at the end, as most of the characters in the film fell prey to a great deception. I also felt a bit exhausted at the end of it as well. Visually, the film was also beautiful to watch, with stunning visuals. It's another film that I may need to watch again to pay more attention to details, as I feel much went over my head, but I feel I caught the main ideas throughout. In, both films, the comic relief was limited.

Which brings us to one of the year's most anticipated films, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. "Part 8" in the Star Wars saga, this film has its share of suspense and surprises, but perhaps what surprised me the most was the amount of comedy in the film; this film contains probably the most comic relief of all of the Star Wars films put together, which seems unusual since this film was meant to answer some serious questions about the fates of some of the best-known characters in the series such as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Whenever an actual Star Wars film's comedic tone would fit well in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs (1987), something seems a little out-of-place.

I can only imagine what Interstellar and Solaris would be like with the amount of comedy that was in The Last Jedi.