Star Wars: The Last Jedi discussion thread(Warning: Spoilers!) (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

I suspected Rey’s parentage would be no one of consequence and with that reveal and the last scene felt very much like the film was trying to reclaim the Force from the Skywalker lineage and given that this sequel trilogy is supposed to wrap up the Skywalker saga it makes sense especially since Leia would have closed out the last film had Carrie Fisher been alive.

I think we will see a bit of a time jump for IX with the Resistance built back up ready to take on the First Order and probably Leia will have died in the opening crawl and Poe will have taken over as leader.

Good points!

 

[Robert Crawford]

One of my favorite moments was when Luke finally took the lightsaber from Rey (we've been waiting 2 years for it!), he just chucked it off the cliff.

Yeah, my audience and I laughed out loud.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I have a feeling that my second viewing in 3-D today is going to alter my thoughts on this movie. In short, I'm going to like it more today than after last night's viewing. Maybe, more time to process things and seeing things I missed during my first viewing.

 

[Francois Caron]

Also interesting to note he flies the Milleium Falcon, that once did the Kessel run in 16 parsecs or whatever, but apparently doesn't even have a decent stove, so he is cooking his meal on an open fire outside.

Do you still have an outdoor barbecue in spite of having a decent stove in your home?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

My main criticisms are the Laura Dern character (why?), Snoke's demise which just left us with a lot of questions and not much else, Rose and Del Toro whose characters seemed superfluous, the big "reveal" as to who Rey's parents are was a totally uninspired let-down, the whole casino sequence was ridiculous, and hardly any Jedi training scenes with Rey and Luke which was a total waste (and mostly what I was looking forward to in the film).

Agree on Dern - seemed like "stunt casting" for a part that didn't really need to exist.

Liked the fact they killed off Snoke now, though - keeps E9 from being too much of a "ROTJ" clone.

Also liked the relative lack of Jedi training scenes - avoided the movie emulating "ESB" too much...

 

[Robert Crawford]

I don't quite understand the criticism of the Dern casting. Seems like nit-picking to me.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I wanted to see this on the first night with my super Stars Wars fan 21-year-old son because you always get the most enthusiastic audience in their Star Wars t-shirts opening night. But one thing that was starkly different this time from TFA opening night was, back in that screening, when the Lucasfilm logo appeared, the crowd went nuts and it just escalated to the Star Wars title. This time around the crowd was noisy and restless and excited until.. the moment the Lucasfilm logo appeared. And then, the place went dead silent, where you could hear a pin drop. And I realized it was like everyone in there was in church and the sermon was about to begin. Such is the reverence this saga has so empowered.

I loved the movie, thought it was a great action film, had the right balance of humorous moments, and some decent pathos. Adam Driver totally made me believe in his emo way that he might come over to Rey's side. Mark Hamill was in it far more than I thought he would be and his acting was his best ever; such a contrast to his performances in the first films (as it should be for an evolved Jedi). I completely missed whatever happened to Benecio del Toro's character in the end. I guess we'll see him again in the next. And seeing Leia's death scene early on, I too thought they should have possibly left her there. The whole floating back thing was too weird.

But overall, just great action, visually realized with some stunning images. I think Johnson just blew Abrams away as a director (and no camera flares!), and wish he were also directing the next chapter.

 

[Greg.K]

I don't quite understand the criticism of the Dern casting. Seems like nit-picking to me.

Didn't mind the casting, but she was largely unnecessary. I could have done without the Leia-in-space scene as well.

I did love the kamikaze jump to lightspeed through Snoke's ship. (come to think of it, hyperdrive torpedos would be an amazingly useful weapon, much better than those stupid bombers).

 

[Sam Posten]

The whole Benicio del Toro thing was weird. Especially the stuttering.

No snoke backstory was weird.

Rey's Parents being ordinary is weird, if only because of her traumatic flashbacks

Armored AT-ATs? AWESOME.

Best opening sequence Star Wars film.

The Sisters subplot was great.

Porgs needed more to do. Individuals needed to stand out more. You can identify specific ewoks but no porgs were individually memorable.

Blood red salt sand was awesome.

GREAT HDR throughout.

Phasma needed way more to do.

Loved the bombers and dreadnaught

There was no real iconic characters introduced in this film. Weird.

Liked the Snoke guards. They should have had more action before snoke died.

Loved the use of young luke with no footprints. I thought he was actually dead already.

Loved Leia shooting Poe. Unexpected.

The metal dice on the falcon, is there any OT connection? Or a made up macguffin for this film.

What's up with Huxes new look?

Music good!

Yoda CG->Puppet weird.

Cave weird. Infinite Rey good. Her answers were a letdown.

Humor good!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

The whole Benicio del Toro thing was weird. Especially the stuttering.

I think del Toro's character felt like a riff on his performance in "Usual Suspects" - which I liked!

 

[MielR]

I don't quite understand the criticism of the Dern casting. Seems like nit-picking to me.

It's not that I mind her so much (although I think her performance was a bit wooden), but the character was unnecessary, IMO. It was just one more bit of bloat in the film that wasn't needed. A secondary character like Admiral Akbar could have accomplished the same suicide mission while actually bringing some emotional resonance (because we know him already) while not adding a bunch of needless chit-chat scenes to establish who his character was. That was the main problem with the film---too much crap. Too many characters, too much visual embellishment. The OT had 4 main human characters, killing one in the first film (Ben), adding one in ESB (Lando), adding another in ROTJ (Emperor). That was all they needed, because they had coherent scripts. The more I think about this film, the more disappointed I am in it.

I remember the days when I didn't have to think about whether I liked a SW film or not---I was just blown away by it. I guess those days are gone.

 

[Chris Will]

I don't quite understand the criticism of the Dern casting. Seems like nit-picking to me.

A lot of what some are saying seems nit-picking to me. At this point I'm not sure what some SW fans want from these movies as they are never happy. I think the last 2 movies are great entries in the franchise and I rank them both above ROTJ. They are both 10x better then anything in the PT which is full of sloppy writing, bad stories and messy characters and some horrible acting. They turned the best villain in cinema history into a whinny brat. I didn't find this movie bloated or messy at all, just the opposite IMO.

We do not need to know anything else about Snoke, he served his purpose to complete Ren's path to the dark side perfectly. Ren is the true villain of this trilogy not, Snoke. Just like Vader was the villain of the OT not the Emperor. If you think about it, we didn't know much backstory about the Emperor after ROTJ either and no one really cared. IMO, the Snoke/Ren/Rey scene is one the best in whole series.

Every scene with Rey was great IMO. Her character is turning out to be a true gem in the SW franchise, up there with Luke IMO. Fans have mostly themselves to blame regarding her parentage, they wild speculation over the past 2 years was their own doing. I have no problem with the outcome and I actually think it improves her character. The way Johnson wrote the scene leaves no question that he meant for it to be the truth IMO. Ren told her she always knew, to search her feelings and then she starts to cry. That tells me that she did just that and saw that he was telling her the truth. Now, JJ could come along and screw that up but, it would be a mistake IMO.


Now I understand and agree with some of the complaints about TFA but, I still think it is a really good SW movie. My biggest beef with JJ is his obsession with creating little mysteries that never seem to get answered. He does it in almost everything he works on and I hope he can some how avoid doing that with IX. I really wish Johnson was going to be involved at the script/story stage of IX.

Oh, I loved all the BB-8 action, I just can't get enough of that little droid.

 

[Rodney]

I do have to comment that the Casino scene and the island scenes seemed to have an homage to the "Special Editions" with all the CGI animals/characters.*

I also felt that some of the humor seemed out of place. I may follow Crawdaddy's lead and watch it again to see if I feel the same way. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. And with Luke back, I really wanted to love this one.

I remember the days when I didn't have to think about whether I liked a SW film or not---I was just blown away by it. I guess those days are gone.

You're not the only one, it seems.

*Yes, you would be right if you read this to mean I didn't like those parts

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Best part of this film? No lens flare!

 

[MielR]

It's like when you name a chicken! You can't eat it anymore!

I don't think I was the only one who was getting fed up with this very long movie. After the house lights came back up, there was no cheering, no "whoop whoops", all I saw were a lot of exhausted theatre patrons who looked like they ran a mini marathon and just wanted to go home.

The Last Jedi was seriously underwhelming.

The audience where I saw the film were the same way. I saw a lot of long faces as we walked out. There was no applause or cheering at the end. There were many moments in the film that generated laughter, like when Luke chucks the lightsaber over his shoulder (IMO that bit of humor was on-target and one of the few moments that actually FELT like a SW film), but a lot of the humor felt out of place.

Surprisingly, I actually LIKED the Porgs, which I wasn't expecting to.

Best part of this film? No lens flare!

Yeah and I'm pretty sure all the helmets were 100% symmetrical! We know how those things can ruin an otherwise fabulous film!

 

[Greg.K]

The metal dice on the falcon, is there any OT connection? Or a made up macguffin for this film.

Those were the Sabacc dice Han used when he won the Falcon from Lando.

 

[MielR]

Those were the Sabacc dice Han used when he won the Falcon from Lando.

I think you can actually see the dice hanging there in SW '77.

I don't understand why they disappeared when Kylo picked them up.

 

[Yee-Ming]

It's not that I mind her so much (although I think her performance was a bit wooden), but the character was unnecessary, IMO. It was just one more bit of bloat in the film that wasn't needed. A secondary character like Admiral Akbar could have accomplished the same suicide mission while actually bringing some emotional resonance (because we know him already) while not adding a bunch of needless chit-chat scenes to establish who his character was.

Had Akbar been in charge, Dameron would never have committed mutiny, given that Akbar was a revered hero and acknowledged strategist of the original Rebellion -- Dameron would've trusted Akbar, rather than have doubts. So that plot line would not have worked. Holdo being merely a vice-admiral, Dameron probably had less faith in her abilities. Having said that, I suppose the plot could have been tweaked with the Canto Bight "find the codebreaker" plan known to Akbar, and he approved it as a backup or alternative plan to the main plan, rather than Dameron going rogue.

As an aside, Holdo was 'introduced' in the Leia, Princess of Alderaan book, not that her characterisation in the book adds anything one needs to know for the purposes of TLJ. On that note, I'd suspect that Snoke's backstory will indeed be told in a book or comic, and indeed possibly how Maz Kanata came into possession of Anakin's/Luke's lightsaber.

 

[Greg.K]

I could have done without the whole Dameron mutiny plot too. I like the idea of having Akbar do the suicide run better too. Oh well.

 

[MielR]

Had Akbar been in charge, Dameron would never have committed mutiny, given that Akbar was a revered hero and acknowledged strategist of the original Rebellion -- Dameron would've trusted Akbar, rather than have doubts. So that plot line would not have worked.

I'm not sure the plot line worked anyway.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I could have done without the whole Dameron mutiny plot too. I like the idea of having Akbar do the suicide run better too. Oh well.

Fried calamari for everyone!