SPOILER THREAD - The Last Jedi

[Meister]

SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY.

I have mixed feelings about this film, after thinking about if for a day I came to the conclusion, I love this movies themes, but dislike the plot.

I like that this movie takes a different spin on my Star Wars expectations, I like the whole Luke, Rei, Kylo dynamic, all those actors were on top form. I feel that unlike most Star Wars films this one has quite a lot of thematic depth, particularly when it comes to ideas of heroism, and legends. The story arc sort of turns the traditional idea of the great hero on it's head for once daring against all odds heroics don't save the day. I like the duality between Kylo and Rei, one longs to escape the past and the other desires it. Also the Rei parents reveal = awesome.

I also noticed that this was the First New Star Wars not to have forced nostalgia Easter eggs in it, I mean they were there, but they weren't as in your face as they were in the two previous films.

Things I don't like, the escape from the First order plot, IE: the slowest chase in the galaxy. This made no sense to me, sure the Resistance ships were faster, but the callous Fist Order were afraid to send their fighters in without cover even though the Resistance had no fighter cover? does the First Order not have it's own bombers? Couldn't they have just done short hyperspace jump to put a capital ship in front of them? Couldn't they have called in reinforcements to trap them? Whatever happened to tractor beams?

And on the resistance side, if only one ship was tracking them couldn't they have split up, or if hyperdiriving your ship into the enemy causes so much damage why didn't they do that earlier when they had more ships? These rebels are not very smart, no wonder most got wiped out.

The other thing I dislike was the whole arc with Finn and Rose that achieve nothing, it really made the move drag in those parts.

As said above some of the humour was misplaced, not bad, just used at the wrong time.

Anyway that's my rant, I'm still stewing over what my overall thoughts are, I would kind of like to see it again, however there are parts I would like to fast forward through.

That's my major gripe, admittedly Empire Strikes Back has the same flaws, Luke seems to be off for weeks while for Han and Leia it seems like a day.

My main annoyance is that with all the tech and military power the First Order has been show to have, they just decided to sit back and let them run out of fuel, I guess they only had one dreadnought.

It kind or reminded me of the 2000's Battlestar Galactica yet more silly, or perhaps the steamroller scene from Austin Powers.

Not much I can disagree with there, the countdown plot device gave an interesting non-traditional flare but is ultimately riddled with holes. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and thought the acting really was superb by the main cast, there was a lot of bits that didn't make sense to me (even if they were admittedly cool). I can give you a list right now of all my awesome! vs wtf? scenes (i.e. since you've already mentioned it the "light speed collision" was pretty awesome, but that whole "Finn and Rose mission" was wtf for me for a number of reasons) but I remain hesitant to lay it all out on the line yet seeing its only the first day its been out (I would be basically spoiling all the major parts of the entire movie)

I think what stood out the most to me was that it wasn't shot like your traditional Star Wars movie, there is a significantly noticeable difference between directing styles, particularly from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, especially in the combat scenes, it was quite noticeable to me right from the get go, I think that threw me off the most, not that it was bad, just different.

WARNING MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD, I'm about to drop a big one here, if you continue on from here you only have yourself to blame!

I REPEAT YOU SHOULD NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THIS MOVIE!!!!

Ok so what I really did like the most was Kylo's story line, I love the fact that it is in a way Anakin's (Darth Vader) alternate universe, what would have occurred if Anakin's plan from Revenge of the Sith had come to fruition i.e. if he had defeated Obi-Wan and deposed Palpatine as he intended, becoming the Ruler of the Empire. We get to kind of experience that "what if" now with Kylo's story since Kylo succeeded where Anakin (Darth Vader) failed. I thought that was a pretty cool trajectory to go with, and totally did not see it coming. Needless to say I am super keen to see how they intend to explore this in the next installment.

Anyway, a lot more to discuss

[philby]

It says spoiler thread in the title, you don't have to give warnings like that 😁

[yoshi594]

the last encounter with luke and kylo sparked my mind to the g1 hound moment when he used the hologram of a combiner to scare off the decepticons.

The movie overall wasn't great but it wasn't horrible either.

The bad bits:
============
The casino plot and codebreaker plot was too long felt underwhelming.
Phasma was disappointing yet again.
Everything about luke was disappointing.
Superman Leia...my gawd!
Rey being soo powerful with such little training! eek!
Rey parents reveal...
Snoke being wasted so fast!
Admiral Ackbar not treated like the legend he is!


The good:
=========
Kylo Ren fighting along side rey.
Poe hot headed dameron.

Even luke hated luke :P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0biqMZrxJ0

[SharkyMcShark]

I really enjoyed it.

I adore the one of the central messages of the film, and that of the closing shot - you don't have to be part of the genetically elite Skywalker family to become immensely powerful in the Force.

Kylo and Rey - wow. Loved their impromptu team up. Thoroughly enjoyed the scenes they shared. Neither of them has a master now, which is a bold set up. It makes me hope that JJ resists the urge to bring Hamill back for Ep9 as a ghost, because that would cheapen what we've seen here. The Star Wars lore nerd in me wanted to know who or what Snoke was but ultimately it's the same as Rey's parents - unimportant. What matters is that now neither of them has no parental figure to guide them (assuming what we've read about Leia not appearing in Ep9 is true).

Luke was brilliant. The old school nerd in me wanted to see him shake off the cobwebs and dust off his saber. This is probably why I'm not a film director, because what we got was a fantastic portrayal of a broken man trying desperately late doors to redeem himself.

I went back and forth about the Leia 'Skywalking' scene. Immediately disliked it, with hindsight love it. It suggests that the depth of connection that you have with the Force is largely independent of your training. You can be untrained and the Force can still allow you to do amazing things. For Rey that was beating Kylo in the Starkiller forest, for Anakin it was podracing and blowing up the command ship, for Luke it was the Death Star and for Leia it was her Superman routine.

The story arc with the Resistance fleet was Battlestar flavoured perfection.

Like a lot of others, I wasn't super enamoured with the Finn/Rose story. It felt like it either should have been cut, or given more content. Not super happy about how Phasma went out but then most of the hype around her was created by the marketing team - what we saw on screen was basically just a Stormtrooper captain in shiny armour.

From a technical standpoint the visual were phenomenal and there was an incredible use of sound (and an absence thereof) in a lot of the scenes.
So yeah, a very enjoyable film.

Footnote: The Star Wars lore nerd in me can't go past the fact that they did Ackbar dirty in this

[philby]

i think some of the issues I am having with those points SharkyMcShark is that this is the 2nd movie with some of these characters and I think they should have had more time.

In Force Awkens Phasma was just a stormtrooper captain in shiny armour who didn't really do much. Why waste an opportunity to do a little more with it the 2nd time around. Even if it is just another confrontation with Finn, have it go for more than like 5 seconds

Same with Snoke and Rey, maybe it is a good and surprising and fresh cinema technique or whatever killing him and having Rey's parents be nobodies but it seems really annoying and cheap to me after laying seeds and thought provoking dialogue in the TFA.

I don't disagree with the Force being able to do what it wants and maybe help people in need etc but the execution of that idea, if thats what it is supposed to be, with Leia zooming around in space not being dead just looked really silly.