Last Jedi

[BVHawk95]

It's not the rehashing for me. It didn't have the classic Star Wars charm. It felt more like a Marvel movie. Forced humor, such as one-liners in a tense moment, belongs in an Avengers movie, not Star Wars. And there's no sense of scale. Love them or hate them, the prequels painted a vast, varied galaxy. So far, the sequel trilogy has been two smaller groups fighting in the backwoods of the galaxy, condensed into a handful of planets that serve more as backdrops rather than believable, living, breathing locations.

BIG SPOILERS BELOW




The entire arc on the casino planet was useless. They accomplished absolutely nothing besides setting a few race animals free (yet ignoring the slave children tending them), and instead got a lot of their friends killed in the process.

All of the loose threads set up in TFA are discarded or ignored entirely. While this is a bit of an indictment of TFA, it's also confusing and too much misdirection. Why spend most of the first film and a good chunk of the newer books building Snoke up to be this mysterious, powerful evil figure, and then kill him like a minion? It's just not very good storytelling.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Disney’s focus is more on diversity than it is on interesting, compelling character stories.

Look, two years ago I specifically said they should cast an Asian male as the lead for whatever good guy they wanted to introduce. The market in Asia is huge - play to it. I get it if they want to do that. Did they? No. Their play to the Asian market was an awkward, fat, ugly woman who I am supposed to believe went from a pipefitter to a skilled pilot with no force abilities in a matter of something like a day or two. And she treated us to a lecture on the evils of money. No. Just no.

I think it's good to say "hey, when the first movies were made, Lando was the only black person and we should fix that." I'm totally fine with that. But when the fix is "let's just make all the bad guys white males except for the "Chrome Dome (which is a term used against Cobra Commander in the original GI Joe cartoon for those keeping score at home)" who we'll make a woman and we'll make sure there are no white guys on the 'good' side" the whole thing seems forced. Like they spent more time in meetings contemplating Twitter responses from some hypothetical people named "WokeAsianWoman" and "GiveMeHillaryOrGiveMeDeath" than they did actually thinking about developing the story. I don't want to walk out of Star Wars feeling like I just got a lecture from the Diversity Sensitivity Committee about why I'm literally worse than Hitler, but somehow, Disney managed to pull that off. Oh, and this woman led rebellion, well, it's whittled itself down to like 3 transport ships or something. So perhaps there is hidden misogyny in there somewhere.

 

[theboat]

It's not the rehashing for me. It didn't have the classic Star Wars charm. It felt more like a Marvel movie. Forced humor, such as one-liners in a tense moment, belongs in an Avengers movie, not Star Wars. And there's no sense of scale. Love them or hate them, the prequels painted a vast, varied galaxy. So far, the sequel trilogy has been two smaller groups fighting in the backwoods of the galaxy, condensed into a handful of planets that serve more as backdrops rather than believable, living, breathing locations.

BIG SPOILERS BELOW




The entire arc on the casino planet was useless. They accomplished absolutely nothing besides setting a few race animals free (yet ignoring the slave children tending them), and instead got a lot of their friends killed in the process.

All of the loose threads set up in TFA are discarded or ignored entirely. While this is a bit of an indictment of TFA, it's also confusing and too much misdirection. Why spend most of the first film and a good chunk of the newer books building Snoke up to be this mysterious, powerful evil figure, and then kill him like a minion? It's just not very good storytelling.

Imagine this guy falling for that stupid phone banter in the beginning

You can’t because it would never happen. Not every character needs a laugh track.

 

[BVHawk95]

Imagine this guy falling for that stupid phone banter in the beginning

You can’t because it would never happen. Not every character needs a laugh track.

MORE SPOILERS


Luke tossing away the lightsaber like it was a piece of junk irked me as well. Should have been a moment of reflection, and memory of the tragic events that caused him to leave it. Instead they use it for a cheap laugh. His "moment of weakness" that caused Kylo Ren to leave the Jedi seemed way out of character. We saw in ROTJ how Luke had matured and was seemingly cleansed of the reckless impulses of his predecessors.

I think Disney A) does not understand the original characters (specifically Luke) well enough to craft believable stories for them and B) sort of wants to usher them out of the way to make room for their main characters.

 

[vork22]

You might like Last Jedi if you are 6. It’s riddled with stupid stuffed animal like characters and bad CGI. If that isn’t bad enough Disney does it’s best to ram diversity down your throat as well as a sub plot of the careless, arrogant man being led by strong smarter women. Another narrative about rich getting richer by selling weapons to the good and bad guys missed the mark. Soon all Disney movies will be gender neutral minorities or lbgtqWKRP. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

 

[SmokeTownHawk]

I've never seen any of the series other than the first 3. My thought was why mess with a masterpiece trilogy? Part of being in the artistic community is creativity and inventing something totally new, especially if you're in film making.
My thoughts hearken back to the Godfather movies. When G III came out it was obvious it was made only to cash in on the franchise and not make any real artistic statement. I'm getting the same feeling with this overdoing of Star Wars.

 

[99topdawg]

Woo hoo! We just won the R2D2 trophy!

 

[MoseSchrute]

I've never seen any of the series other than the first 3. My thought was why mess with a masterpiece trilogy? Part of being in the artistic community is creativity and inventing something totally new, especially if you're in film making.
My thoughts hearken back to the Godfather movies. When G III came out it was obvious it was made only to cash in on the franchise and not make any real artistic statement. I'm getting the same feeling with this overdoing of Star Wars.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

But, as it has been pointed out, it's not even all about that, anymore. Hollywood is to the point where they would rather preach than offer up sympathetic characters and original stories. And it is actually costing them some profit to do this.

 

[mopkins]

The last Jedi had great visuals.

The movie itself was a complete mess. A lot of the plot was either pointless or made zero sense...or both. A lot of the major moments in the movie created massive plot holes for the rest of the prior movies.

 

[BVHawk95]

The last Jedi had great visuals.

The movie itself was a complete mess. A lot of the plot was either pointless or made zero sense...or both. A lot of the major moments in the movie created massive plot holes for the rest of the prior movies.

Yup. It's as though too many different people wanted to put their own stamp on the film and Star Wars in general, and what resulted was a convoluted story in which ultimately nothing happens. The Resistance ends the movie in the exact same situation it began in.

 

[mopkins]

Yup. It's as though too many different people wanted to put their own stamp on the film and Star Wars in general, and what resulted was a convoluted story in which ultimately nothing happens. The Resistance ends the movie in the exact same situation it began in.

I saw A New Hope on tv the other night and all I could think about was why didn't the rebels just hyperspace jump into the death star and instantly split it in half. What was the whole point of lukes trench run

 

[BVHawk95]

I saw A New Hope on tv the other night and all I could think about was why didn't the rebels just hyperspace jump into the death star and instantly split it in half. What was the whole point of lukes trench run

Off the top of my head, certain death, which they were trying to avoid, no capital ships on hand, and to the Death Star, it wouldn't have been much more than a nuisance.

I actually did like that part, but I feel it should have happened much earlier (y'know, before they'd lost 80% of their landing ships), and story-wise, it should have been Leia piloting. It would have been a fitting and heroic way for Leia to sacrifice herself, and to end Carrie Fisher's role.

I'm nerding out here.

 

[Fryowa]

I love the original 3 movies, but as an adult I can’t watch any of them now without thinking that...

1. There’s no sound in space. No blaster sounds, no TIE fighter sounds (other than the light saber the most recognizable audio bit in a movie period), and no explosion sounds. All of those epic battles in space would be 100% silent.

2. How do they just walk around the Millennium Falcon like there’s earth-equivalent gravity? Shouldn’t they be weightless just like on the space station?

3. Why do X-Wing fighters bank when they turn like an Earth aircraft would have to do because of the air? Can’t they just turn left?

4. How do all of those planets have the exact, perfect atmosphere for people to breathe?

I want answers dammit.

 

[DDThompson]

Pretty much my feeling.. It's a complete rehash of all the same plot points from the original trilogy. I know it's not officially a remake, but in effect, it is. With a few tweaks. I won't list it all here, but most parts in the last two movies, I kept thinking "Yep, just like in a New Hope (or empire or ROTJ)". I'm referring to episodes 7 & 8 not Rogue One.

It's Star Wars so I did expect some similar themes of course, but it's not just one or two things.. It's nearly everything. The Force Reboots. Yep.

If you ignore the original movies they are ok, but, as a lifelong Star Wars fan, that's impossible for me to do.

It's not that it isn't as good as the originals that bothers me.. it's that the new movies are just a carbon copy.

pretty much nails it. The acting is slightly better and cgi is much better. The light speed kamikaze jump was pretty cool.

 

[DDThompson]

That's exactly why the movies were unbelievable on the whole. The Empire was always too unbelievably incompetent.

You’ve never heard of the United Nations?

 

[BVHawk95]

I love the original 3 movies, but as an adult I can’t watch any of them now without thinking that...

1. There’s no sound in space. No blaster sounds, no TIE fighter sounds (other than the light saber the most recognizable audio bit in a movie period), and no explosion sounds. All of those epic battles in space would be 100% silent.

2. How do they just walk around the Millennium Falcon like there’s earth-equivalent gravity? Shouldn’t they be weightless just like on the space station?

3. Why do X-Wing fighters bank when they turn like an Earth aircraft would have to do because of the air? Can’t they just turn left?

4. How do all of those planets have the exact, perfect atmosphere for people to breathe?

I want answers dammit.

I know you're kind of joking, but that's another of my problems with TLJ. Movies like Star Wars require a certain suspension of disbelief to enjoy. TLJ abused that, by making its characters do dumb things for the sake of the plot. Showing Leia turn into space Mary Poppins was another example. Initially, I thought that was going to be a fitting end for her, killed by the First Order because her son still didn't have it in his heart to pull the trigger on her, and it would have set up an avenue of redemption for Kylo Ren nicely.

But Disney and Rian Johnson go "lol, nope" and Leia shows a level of Force mastery that she has never exhibited before.

 

[Knight78]

Combine the last two Star Wars movies and the only thing I liked was when Vader opened a can of whoop ass on the rebels.

Darth Vader was not in the last two Star Wars movies. He died in Return of the Jedi, Episode 6. And when Luke opened a can of whoop ass on the First Order it was pretty impressive, more so than anything Vader did.

 

[Knight78]

That's exactly why the movies were unbelievable on the whole. The Empire was always too unbelievably incompetent.

It was George Lucas' story telling that was incompetent. Can't make the plot line better when the story is so incompetent. Many people try to elevate his abilities, but I don't see that.

 

[Knight78]

Like it or hate it, The Last Jedi is #117 on the All Time Box Office Adjusted For Ticket Inflation ranking and it's only been out two weeks. That makes it the second highest ranked movie of 2017 to Beauty and the Beast (which was released in March of 2017). It may not crack the top 10 for a while (the latest movie in the top 10 is 1997's Titanic).

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm?adjust_yr=1

 

[mopkins]

Off the top of my head, certain death, which they were trying to avoid, no capital ships on hand, and to the Death Star, it wouldn't have been much more than a nuisance.

I actually did like that part, but I feel it should have happened much earlier (y'know, before they'd lost 80% of their landing ships), and story-wise, it should have been Leia piloting. It would have been a fitting and heroic way for Leia to sacrifice herself, and to end Carrie Fisher's role.

I'm nerding out here.

Well the issue is that in the star wars universe hyperspace travel has been around for thousands of years. So everyone would know that if you hyperspace into an object it seriously messes up the object. The first order ship was like 5 times the size of a star destroyer and they cut the thing in half with a transport.

So by that logic every single fleet, every single terrorist, every single person would use hyperspace weapons against their enemies. There would be no point in starkiller base or a death star if you could make a large object, equip it with a hyperspace drive, and point it at your enemy.