R2-D2 not being much in the film was kinda predictable. He hadn't much of a presence in TFA, and BB-8 is the 'new' droid. If anything, I do like the consistency that R2 and C-3PO are in every film so far, often in the background, but tying the whole saga together (that's why I'm not entirely sure about the announcement that the new trilogy will feature a completely new cast).
I'm glad they didn't went all out CGI with Yoda. He actually looked like the Yoda I remember, and not the prequel trilogy nonsense. I think his portrayal was perfect. Obviously shoe-horned into the film for nostalgia reasons, but I liked his portrayal.
Agree with you on Snoke. He feels like a throw-away bad-guy. After all the build-up, the mystery, he just gets killed and is never mentioned again... I got memories of Darth Maul or Count Dooku...
And yes, I think that flashback in particular is why Mark Hamill disagreed with the script and the portrayal of Luke.
Oh... and Rey is OP.
And that's sort the issue with the force in this one, it's all over place. Characters can use it in ways they've never used before, space flight when there was no mention of Leia using the force before. Teleportation,
or whatever Luke did at the end. The long-distance mind communication. It felt.. like a Harry Potter film if that makes any sense.
I can see some of the issues you two mention. Won't go into detail myself yet, but certain things mentioned felt like the right progression for me. The Force stuff did feel a bit OP, but still impactful where it counted, if you look into the deeper meaning of such stuff.
One of the better films we've had, though I'm not sure if I can follow other reviews in saying it's better than Empire yet.
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and I still think it's one of the least consistent Star Wars films to date. It's all over the place. Unnecessary jokes, unnecessary scenes. Characters come and go without much explanation or background story. And a lot of unexplained weird force stuff going on in this one.
I just made home after seeing it with my friends; they all thought it was the best one yet, I have mixed feelings about it. It definitely has some high moments—the opening, THAT is how the next Star Fox game NEEDS to start! And I enjoyed the humor, but in the end, it just feels like there was very little that actually happened.
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Leia using the Force was another cool moment for me. It's already been established that the Skywalkers are strong in the Force, and Vader and Palpatine said they would turn her to the Dark Side if Luke didn't submit in Ep. VI. These movies are apparently 30 years after RotJ (according to Wookiepedia), so is it really that much of a stretch to think Luke taught her at least a little somethin'-somethin' about Force use in those early years after Endor, and she used Breath Control to survive in space and simply Force Pulled herself back to the ship?
The long-distance mind communication. It felt.. like a Harry Potter film if that makes any sense.
It does. Snoke was essentially using Legilimency on both Kylo and Rey, and the confrontation was basically a rip-off of the end of Order of the Phoenix.
After watching the film I too had mixed feelings about it, and I think the problem is that everything seemed so rushed. We get to see these awesome characters in action: Snoke, praetorian guards, Phasma, Luke, but they all die after proving how powerful they are. It's like what they did meant nothing, they were going to die no matter what happened.
Then we have too much destruction. The whole resistance was destroyed??!! And the FO lost a lot of ships and troops for no reason. It seemed almost like a DC movie.
There are good things however. Leia using the force to survive in space, Rey entering a dark side cave only to find her greatest fear is being alone, Luke using the force to create an illusion of him all the way across the galaxy, the porgs and Chewbacca scene, I actually found C3PO funny for once, Luke entering the Falcon and finding R2D2, etc.
Those are my main complaints but overall it was a good movie, still liked the force awakens better (I really liked it) but I guess I'll have to watch it more times to make a comparison.
@SilverEdge92 Off the top of my head, I don't think there's anything in Force Awakens that says that Luke initiated the map.
@Octane I had my second viewing today and feel so much better about it now. Most of the things that bothered me initially are far more acceptable now. The ending really choked me up this time, as it should.
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
Gonna throw my 2 cents in here. I love the Expanded Universe, from the Thrawn Trilogy, to the X-Wing books, the KOTOR games, the Jedi Knight games, the New Jedi Order books, and back again. It wasn't without flaws but I loved it all the same.
And I hate Disney's new canon. Can't stand Kylo, hated what happened to Han and Leia, and how they portrayed Luke and I think Rey is a Mary Sue.
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I was wondering why the movie thread was so quiet, as all the Star Wars chatter is in here!
Here’s my thoughts on ‘The Last Jedi’. Suffice to say, I loved it.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 9/10
Instead of writing about my thoughts with regards to this film an hour after walking out of the cinema, I wanted to ponder about it over the weekend before doing so.
There are way too many rushed impressions on the internet, mostly because so much happens in The Last Jedi that has seemingly upset (old) Star Wars fans whose nostalgic attachment for the original trilogy is almost unhealthy.
Anyhoo!
I adore this film.
I enjoyed The Force Awakens, don't get me wrong, but it was very much a case of reintroducing everyone back into the world, and putting everything back in the status quo. Again, it’s not a problem, as I feel like most choices made narrative sense however, they were a bit boring as a whole. It was fun to watch, but offered nothing new.
A New Hope 2.0, it was.
Now, what Rian Johnson had to do with The Last Jedi was probably a nightmare to write.
J.J. Abrams rather ho-hum style of ‘mystery box storytelling’ meant that all The Force Awakens did was pose questions, and left it for people to answer them. I thoroughly dislike that. When questions are asked of the audience, they should have some kind of payoff, and shouldn't be rapid fire, like they were in The Force Awakens.
Off Rian Johnson goes and says "bugger it", and pretty much answers everything in some way, which - to me - seems to be a fundamental part of the backlash this film is receiving.
Snoke is easily comparable to the Emperor, who by the end of Return of the Jedi we still barely knew. He was a way to grow Kylo Ren, and I think it made sense. Revealing that he was the one who created the Force link between Rey and Kylo Ren, and then Kylo Ren hiding himself in the Force as a result until he kills him (the look Kylo Ren gives Snoke at the linking revelation says it all) works for me. It's more boring to have an Emperor rehash exist through IX and give J.J. Abrams the same problem he had in The Force Awakens, which is too much similarity with another film.
So Rian gets rid of him, which I like.
Same thing goes for Rey's parents. Star Wars has always been about being special; Anakin was special, Luke was special, and Rian is going out of his way to show that in a universe that is as large as Star Wars, random nobody’s can be heroes as well! I have a sneaking suspicion J.J. Abrams might retcon this as Kylo Ren lying, but that would be rubbish, and go against the ending to this film, with the stable boy, who is another example of hope with a nobody, somebody who can grow into a new destiny, not fulfill the one that everyone says they should have.
As for the Luke Skywalker plot, in terms of execution, it's my favorite Luke Skywalker plot in the franchise, in no small part due to how remarkable Mark Hamill was in his role. For all the people that were upset that The Force Awakens had Princess Leia and Han Solo back in the same role they were thirty years ago with little to no change, it seems silly to argue against this characterisation, whereas Luke has grown.
He's a broken hero, who could not possibly live up to the hero he became at the end of Return of the Jedi. Legends are often wrong, and that's the point in the film, to a degree, and Luke's arc in thisfilm is embracing his legend. "What do you think I'm gonna do, take on the First Order with a laser sword?" he asks Rey. It sounds silly on paper, until he shows up at the end of the film, and in that moment, the legend of Luke Skywalker is reborn. Personally speaking, the point where he's walking towards the doors and all the Rebels are coming into frame ending in Poe, the swell of the music, it might be my favourite Star Wars scene to date. It was a legend inspiring a new generation to keep fighting, and it was exactly what Luke Skywalker was supposed to be after all these years.
Even Luke's thoughts of killing Ben make sense, considering how important the idea of a legend is in this film. With another Skywalker falling to the dark side, the legend will slowly turn into a curse for the family, one that threatens to mess up the galaxy for generations. I understand why Luke was considering it, but he didn't, and he felt ashamed, and it worked. Somehow, deconstructing the myth of Luke Skywalker, not putting the myth to screen, was the best possible way to handle the return of the character, and I can't applaud Rian enough for what he did.
Sticking with the Jedi aspect of the film, how this film goes to define the Force is what I wanted the prequels to teach me. We had three films devoted to a standing Jedi Order, and this film deals with the Force more than all three of those combined, and makes it more tangible than it felt in any of the original trilogy films. The balance, the light rising to meet the dark, how easy Rey goes to the darkness, it creates for a narrative that goes past a hokey space religion that, for most of the films, was used to move rocks and trick people. Kylo Ren’s struggle to not go to the light in The Force Awakens echoes Rey's issue with not going to the dark side, and it further connects those two characters in an interesting way.
I must admit that the Finn subplot was quite rough, I cannot really say otherwise. Having Finn and Rose sneak on board the Star Destroyer without wasting fifteen minutes in Canto Bight seems like a much stronger choice to shorten the film and get to the point. Saying that, it is only about fifteen minutes in a two and a half hours film, and that's not even considering the fact that the escape sequence, with that John Williams score, is actually pretty enjoyable.
I think the plot for the Resistance was fine, and for all the complaints I have seen about Holdo not telling Poe the plan, when she did, he told Finn, and DJ overheard, and how many people were lost as a result? It's a decent way of justifying the storytelling choice, and as a whole I thought Poe's arc was surprisingly decent. Leia's Supergirl moment was a bit daft, and on paper I can see the idea working fine, but how they put it to screen didn’t really work.
Despite this wall of words, I am actually a fairly casual Star Wars fan, and this is one of those films that challenges you in what to expect in a forty-year old franchise.
I can’t fault people for not liking the film, and I believe that over time it'll fall into better graces with the fandom than it is now. It grows the world of the Force and the order of the Jedi in a way that is both fantastical and believable, and gives a legend a character arc to redefine what legend even means.
I saw it yesterday and thought it was a pretty cool Star wars. Better then Force Awakens, since it has more surprises (Force awakens was also fun though, but a bit to much a retelling of A new hope). Though it can't match the highest Star wars movies in my opinion (wich are episode 5 and 1 in my opinion, yeah I am weird like that). I'll go a bit further, spoiler alert:
Right of the bad this movie has a different vibe wich may not appeal to everyone. Maybe its because the huge amount of jokes. Most jokes resonated with me, some didn't. Yeah, this is Disney. Thor was also a joke-fest from what I heard. Maybe the newer Marvel movies too. Personally I think they got it just right, but they shouldn't make the next Star wars funnier then this (though Rogue One was a bit to serious. Still good though). Then will go totally overboard if they choose that route. Especially if they want a darker movie. This movie was already meant to be very dark, but it didn't feel that way.
Also, the Force might be a bit OP in this one, with Leia pushing herself through space, Kylo literally speaking with Rey from a distance and the projection of Luke. We have never seen it this strong in the movies, basically everything goes now with the force.
There where some lovely action-scenes, like the Kylo/Rey duo battle, or the casino-escape (yeah I liked that, sorry). And some awesome fan-pleasing moments like the Yoda-scene (old-school Yoda, mischievous, probably the best scene in the movie), or the Luke mirrage (it was weird, but very satisfying)
Strange though that they never visit some familiar planets. Would have loved to see Tatooine again.
The story itself might be a bit unfocused with so many people all over the place (Rey on the island, Finn in the casino, etc), And some characters and stories got wasted. If this is Rey's whole background (I don't buy it) then that's underwhelming. Captain Phasma didn't get a real moment to shine. The casino arc was fun, but amounted to nothing in the end (though I guess we see the hacker back in episode 9). Luke was great though! And I also liked Leia, even if her role wasn't as big as they first said.
But the biggest dissapointment is Snoke: Just some evil guy, no backstory? And now he's dead?! That can't be it!
As for the Porgs: People go totally overboard again with their hate. Personally I liked them. The movie wasn't filled to the brim with them, just a couple of (in my eyes) funny scenes. Of course they are there to sell toys, but the whole franchise leans heavily on merchandise. There has to be money made. As for the other creatures, this movie had quite some cool creatures. Like those foxes. I think its part of the charm, wouldn't be Star wars without the weird creatures.
Now I may sound a bit negative overall, but I did enjoy it. Though of course there are better Star wars movies. I can't deny that.
I wonder what will happen from now. Rey might still try to pull Kylo to the light-side and she might succeed in the end. I also have a feeling that Rey might raise a new generation of Jedi, judging from the ending with the little boy. This combined with the new strenght of the force, doesn't it all sound a bit Avatar-esque? Anyway, I am hugely curious what they will do next!
That's all!
Okay, one last thing: Williams hasn't been at his best so far with this trilogy. He made faaaaar better and more memorable music for the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy. What's up dude, step it up for ep 9 please?!
I was thoroughly disappointed by The Last Jedi. It had far too many plot holes, really messed with characters and a several plot threads that ultimately had no real impact on the story. It looked and sounded good though.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Okay, one last thing: Williams hasn't been at his best so far with this trilogy. He made faaaaar better and more memorable music for the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy. What's up dude, step it up for ep 9 please?!
A little harsh regarding the score for The Force Awakens - that soundtrack is excellent with some very impactful pieces - e.g. Rey's Theme and March of the Resistance, plus that scene near the end with Han.
Everyone its taste. So far I don't find the music in the new trilogy to be very memorable.
On a sidenote: Isn't it a pity that j.j is doing episode 9? Rian gave the franchise some freshness, while j.j may take the safe route again. Besides Rian already will do the future trilogy, might just also do Episode 9 then!
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