Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

[solovsfett]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

Ha ha...for the petitioners in fanatic-land

Saw this tongue in cheek throwback review.

This EMPIRE STRIKES BACK movie doesn’t make any sense at all. So they blow up the Death Star but the Empire’s just like NOT AFFECTED? They can still show up anywhere and do anything? Glad so many rebel pilots sacrificed themselves in A NEW HOPE, I guess. Plus uuuhhhh I don’t think humans can survive in the arctic overnight with just a coat or some animal intestines. It’s called Biology 101. And since when can smugglers use lightsabers?? Oh and I guess now we have ghosts in this universe too. Ugh. To make no mention of the tiny insane frog person who’s apparently the galaxy’s GREATEST JEDI MASTER?! Gimme a break. And while Luke is training, Han and Leia (who have NO IMPACT on the overall plot) get captured in like two seconds, so when Luke goes to rescue them, he’s done his massive grand Jedi training in, what, forty-eight hours?! Makes no sense. And don’t even get me started on this “I am your father” horse****. A whole entire galaxy and Vader JUST HAPPENED to be passing over his freaking ESTRANGED SON’S home planet when he lost the Death Star plans one movie earlier??? SMH. And OHMYGOD the ultimate cheap-***-machina when Leia just kinda INTUITS they should turn around and go pick up dangling Luke. The franchise has officially jumped the shark. Hoping Marquand can turn it around for Episode VI, but I’m not holding my breath.

(In unrelated news, “The Last Jedi” is the best Star Wars film in over thirty years.)

[The Rube]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

I have to admit, the fanboys make me laugh and cry at the same time.

[ticapnews]

Ha ha...for the petitioners in fanatic-land

Saw this tongue in cheek throwback review.

This EMPIRE STRIKES BACK movie doesn’t make any sense at all. So they blow up the Death Star but the Empire’s just like NOT AFFECTED? They can still show up anywhere and do anything? Glad so many rebel pilots sacrificed themselves in A NEW HOPE, I guess. Plus uuuhhhh I don’t think humans can survive in the arctic overnight with just a coat or some animal intestines. It’s called Biology 101. And since when can smugglers use lightsabers?? Oh and I guess now we have ghosts in this universe too. Ugh. To make no mention of the tiny insane frog person who’s apparently the galaxy’s GREATEST JEDI MASTER?! Gimme a break. And while Luke is training, Han and Leia (who have NO IMPACT on the overall plot) get captured in like two seconds, so when Luke goes to rescue them, he’s done his massive grand Jedi training in, what, forty-eight hours?! Makes no sense. And don’t even get me started on this “I am your father” horse****. A whole entire galaxy and Vader JUST HAPPENED to be passing over his freaking ESTRANGED SON’S home planet when he lost the Death Star plans one movie earlier??? SMH. And OHMYGOD the ultimate cheap-***-machina when Leia just kinda INTUITS they should turn around and go pick up dangling Luke. The franchise has officially jumped the shark. Hoping Marquand can turn it around for Episode VI, but I’m not holding my breath.

(In unrelated news, “The Last Jedi” is the best Star Wars film in over thirty years.)

As I have said, if the internet exists in 1980 when ESB is released a movie with entire sequences of a teenager doing gymnastics in a swamp while carrying a talking green muppet like a backpack gets torn to shreds.

[FreshFish]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

Saw The Last Jedi last night and really liked it; a strong "A" if not an "A+" for me.

I have studiously avoided this thread for the past week or so, and after I post, will then go back later to read it from the beginning.

In the meantime, things I liked:
-- Everything the remnants of the Republic tried, failed. It's refreshing to see the bad guys actually display competence for a change!
-- the comedic touches were just right: enough to let us know they weren't taking themselves too seriously, yet never ventured into self-parody, they struck a near-perfect balance.
-- the way Kylo Ren turned on Snoke, it was really well done.
-- Kylo Ren and Rey probably are not brother and sister. Good!

and here is something I really, really, really liked:
-- The light saber duel between Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker was brilliant; absolutely inspired. Who would have seen that twist coming the way it did?

and there were some nice subtle touches throughout, like Luke watching a dual sunset near the end, to echo Luke watching a dual sunset at the beginning of A New Hope

The writer(s) was/were able to reimagine the story in a fresh, new way that was really well done.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

You don't have to post in white anymore. I just did it right at the beginning because I was worried about accidents. There's enough not white now it doesn't matter.

Glad you liked it. Seems to be hit or miss.

[FreshFish]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

....and that being said, there was one thing I didn't like much,
-- they introduce a fantastic new character in Admiral Holdo, and then kill her off too quickly....

and there were two things I did not like at all...frankly, I think the movie actually would have been even better had both these scenes been cut.
-- Leia being shot into space and then using the force to get back to the ship? what was the point? that whole sequence was totally gratuitous and could have been omitted. Yeah, I know, Kylo Ren took his thumb off the trigger, couldn't kill his mother too; and then two other fighters did...but still....
-- the whole scene with Yoda really annoyed all of us, a lot. It would have made a better plot to us had Luke come to that realization on his own, and why bother having Yoda destroy the ancient tree when Ren already had those "ancient Jedi texts" in a drawer on the Millenium Falcon? (the scene near the end when Finn opened a drawer to get a blanket showed them)

Without those two scenes, we have a running time of maybe 2 hours instead of 2 hours 30 minutes, which means that movie theaters could have scheduled 4 shows a day in the time it now takes them to schedule 3 shows a day.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

I felt the Leia scene was one of the most important Star Wars scenes ever filmed. And, I felt that Yoda was important and the burning of the tree and the texts (I don't think he knew she had them, but he may have) was also very important.

Both those scenes go a long way to fleshing out and defining The Force.

[FreshFish]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

We were speculating about Rey's possible origins, when a "logic fail" from the earlier films struck me:
- Shmi Skywalker had Anakin without a father being involved; apparently Anakin was her only child at that time when he left with Qui-gon and Obi-wan
- Infant Luke is taken to Tatooine to be raised by relatives, "Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru"
- Huh? Was Owen Anakin's brother? Or Beru Anakin's sister?
- or maybe it was extended family, either Owen or Beru were Anakin's cousins?

That part doesn't matter so much...however, if Shmi later had a daughter after Anakin left Tatooine, that daughter would have been a slave, and her children also might have been slaves, descending into the low-lives who apparently were Rey's parents, if Kylo Ren was to be believed at least.

[BassAle]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

We were speculating about Rey's possible origins, when a "logic fail" from the earlier films struck me:
- Shmi Skywalker had Anakin without a father being involved; apparently Anakin was her only child at that time when he left with Qui-gon and Obi-wan
- Infant Luke is taken to Tatooine to be raised by relatives, "Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru"
- Huh? Was Owen Anakin's brother? Or Beru Anakin's sister?
- or maybe it was extended family, either Owen or Beru were Anakin's cousins?

Owen was Anakin's Step Brother. Owen's father purchased Shmi and eventually freed her and married her. This was shown in the prequels (episode II) when Anakin goes back to Tattoine to rescue is mother from slavery. He finds that Watto had sold her to Cliegg Lars. Anakin visits Cliegg to find that he had married his mother, and that she had been captured by Tuskan Raiders. Anakin goes and kills the entire Tuskan village, including children

[St. Clown]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

We were speculating about Rey's possible origins, when a "logic fail" from the earlier films struck me:
- Shmi Skywalker had Anakin without a father being involved; apparently Anakin was her only child at that time when he left with Qui-gon and Obi-wan
- Infant Luke is taken to Tatooine to be raised by relatives, "Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru"
- Huh? Was Owen Anakin's brother? Or Beru Anakin's sister?
- or maybe it was extended family, either Owen or Beru were Anakin's cousins?

That part doesn't matter so much...however, if Shmi later had a daughter after Anakin left Tatooine, that daughter would have been a slave, and her children also might have been slaves, descending into the low-lives who apparently were Rey's parents, if Kylo Ren was to be believed at least.

The Force was originally intended as a substitute for God, and has been since Lucas conceived the movies. Anakin is a misshapen Jesus.

[FreshFish]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

The other thing I liked is that I think the action sequences were the right length. I'm not a huge action film fan and usually it's because the sequences always last 5 minutes longer than they should. Maybe I don't have the Y chromosome to fully appreciate films where half the movie is stuff getting blown up. I think stuff getting blown up is cool. I thought Ren and Rey taking down all those guys was awesome, but I was glad it didn't go on and on and on.

As I get older and the movies get longer, the start of an action scene is an indication that, if I happen to need a bathroom break, that's a good time to go for it. Plenty enough time to catch the end of it.

[FreshFish]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

Both those scenes go a long way to fleshing out and defining The Force.

Agreed on that. For me, I wasn't really as interested as you are about "defining The Force" as much as I cared about consistency in characterization.

We knew Leia had Force powers from the end of Empire when she has Lando turn around to rescue Luke, and in Return when she knows that Luke is safe when they see Death Star 2.0 blow up. If they were going to show her exercise Force powers more strongly, there are a lot of other ways that would have advanced the plot. To just blow her out into space and then return from space? what was the point? (unless the "point" really was about Kylo Ren not trying to kill her....)

As for the Yoda / Luke scene, I thought Kylo's speech about "forget about Jedi / Sith; it's a whole new world now" laid out a potential theme both for this movie and for IX as well. I'd rather have seen Luke behave like a fully-mature adult who already knew that people learn as much from their mistakes as their successes, rather than need to be reminded of it. Luke is supposed to be The Master now and should already have had the capacity to make the decision he did without Yoda's prompting.

SO we each approach from a different starting point. No worries.

[Slap Shot]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

The Leia floating in space scene was insipid and unnecessary.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

The Leia floating in space scene was insipid and unnecessary.

Interesting that you find the most powerful display of The Force ever filmed bland and uninspiring.

[BassAle]

Re: Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

Interesting that you find the most powerful display of The Force ever filmed bland and uninspiring.

it's pretty bad when you think "oh come on!" during a movie about space wizards

if she's that powerful with the force, why the **** does she need Luke so bad? The opening crawl of TFA establishes that Luke is missing and the resistance is looking for him to come save the day.


at least this movie didn't rely on as many coincidences as TFA
BB8 just _happens_ to come across some unknown Jedi while escaping from the First Order
The Falcon just happens to be on the same planet as Rey, and she flees in it
Han Solo just happens to be close enough to Jakku that he can pickup the falcon on his scanners and get to it before the First Order
Han brings Rey to Maz, who happens to have Luke's old light saber
randomly finding Rey in Star Killer Base
R2D2 just happens to wake up at exactly the right time and has the rest of the map