Star Wars 8 - The Last Jedi (film)

[Neil]

^^ lol!

[Neil]

So... Anyone seen it? Hearing very mixed reviews!!!

[shootemindehead]

Not yet. But yet, very mixed audience reactions. There's a number of threads I've seen where some people are outright hostile to it. A lot of people are saying it's hamstrung by some really dumb "comedy" as well. That was one of the things I hated about 'The Force Awakens', which suffered from some terrible writing and poor characters. It doesn't bode well. - - - Updated - - - So, yeh, saw this last night. It's wildly unfocused film, with some truly terrible "comedy" moments that are so off, it's a wonder they made it in. It has parts that are very good, but some that are woeful. Unfortunately, the good parts cannot offset the bad parts. There's an entire "find the codebreaker" subplot that could have been stripped out or stripped back and a couple of new characters that need not have been there at all. One of whom (Rose) was a pure box ticking excercise and added nothing whatsoever. There's an entertaining film in there trying to get out, but it's smothered by some dreadful decisions in writing, pacing and plot elements. Is it better than the lack lustre 'The Force Awakens'? In parts yes, in parts no. But, I still come away from Disney's Star Wars thinking that the just don't know how to do it. In saying that, I thought 'Rogue One' was excellent, but that's looking increasingly like a one off (and probably has a lot to to with Edwards actually understanding the 1977 movie), but with zero enthusiasm for the upcoming 'Solo' and the depressing news that Jar Jar Abrams will helm Episode IX, it seems it'll be like that for the foreseeable future. Maybe the inevitable 'Kenobi' film might add another entry that's worth watching?

[EvilNed]

Saw it Friday morning. I have very little good to say about and a lot of bad. Is it as dreadful as Lucas' prequels? No, but it suffers from completely different problems entirely. The film continues to ignore large parts of the original trilogy, especially in terms of character development. The Luke presented in this film is in no way a continuation of the character from Return of the Jedi and there's some pretty jarring inconsistancies with his actions in that film and this film. That's actually my main gripe. Other than that, as Shootem said, a large bulk of the middle act is pointless and literally runs into a dead end. They spend a lot of time following two of the characters, including a new pointless character named Rose, down a rather extensive sidetour that leads absolutely nowhere. Literally. You could have written the entire thing out, replaced it with something much shorter and gotten a similar result. It's unnecessary to the point where my jaw almost dropped. Likewise, the film tries very hard to deconstruct the idea of any hero being a white male. All the heroes are either female or minorities. I don't mind the idea of this, but it's just so hamfisted that the result ends up being rather unfocused, like the subplot mentioned above.

[Neil]

^^ Oh dear It's amazing how divided the review are!

[shootemindehead]

There's certainly a rift bewteen what critics are saying and what actual audiences are saying. I can't help but feel if this film was sans Star Wars in the title, it would have been given a rougher ride by the professional critics.

[EvilNed]

There's certainly a rift bewteen what critics are saying and what actual audiences are saying. I can't help but feel if this film was sans Star Wars in the title, it would have been given a rougher ride by the professional critics. Maybe, but the opposite is true of the audience too. It carried a lot of baggage and screwed a lot of it up - on purpose. If it hadn't been carrying all that baggage, it'd been a better film. But being part of the Star Wars saga can be a blessing and a curse.

[bassman]

I liked it a lot. Nobody can say it ripped off the OT, and I saw Luke's change of spirit made perfect sense. There were multiple flashbacks explaining it, even finally paying off that shot of his hand on R2 that we saw in the trailers for Force Awakens. Visits from classic characters, and an ending that gave me the chills. I thought it was great.

[Moon Knight]

I liked it a lot. Nobody can say it ripped off the OT, and I saw Luke's change of spirit made perfect sense. There were multiple flashbacks explaining it, even finally paying off that shot of his hand on R2 that we saw in the trailers for Force Awakens. Visits from classic characters, and an ending that gave me the chills. I thought it was great. I’m with you. It was fun and because of the Star Wars name it’s gonna be harder for people to look past the issues, and yes, there were issues. Some characters really deserved better. Luke’s character segments by far was my favorite moments in the film. The classic call back to the original film gave me goosebumps. So, in short, I really enjoyed the film and on the other, it really pissed me off. However, it’s not the worst Star Wars film made.

[bassman]

It was no doubt enjoyable to see the return of Luke, but for money, Rey and Kylo were the characters that really drew me in. I now see why those particular actors were cast and they're perfect for it! I truly felt like one could go in either direction.

[MinionZombie]

I liked it a lot. Nobody can say it ripped off the OT, and I saw Luke's change of spirit made perfect sense. There were multiple flashbacks explaining it, even finally paying off that shot of his hand on R2 that we saw in the trailers for Force Awakens. Visits from classic characters, and an ending that gave me the chills. I thought it was great. I’m with you. It was fun and because of the Star Wars name it’s gonna be harder for people to look past the issues, and yes, there were issues. Some characters really deserved better. Luke’s character segments by far was my favorite moments in the film. The classic call back to the original film gave me goosebumps. So, in short, I really enjoyed the film and on the other, it really pissed me off. However, it’s not the worst Star Wars film made. I'm with you guys. I finally got around to seeing it this afternoon. It is fair to say that the casino subplot is ultimately fruitless in many ways, but I thought the direction of Luke in this film was challenging but ultimately rewarding and it made sense throughout the film. Indeed, it builds upon Kenobi and in-turn Yoda ... interesting that the themes of 'moving forward' seem to be have been missed by some of the complainers out there. Rey picks one avenue, Kylo picks another. Snoke was also a hell of a lot better looking here than in the previous one. I know he's CGI, but it was far better looking in this one. All this fuss about "the Porgs!", though, and they're barely in it. They're essentially pets, a cross between a puffin and a penguin that happen to be native to the island that Luke is on. They're comic relief at times, yes, and they're cute, yes, but they do very little in the movie - so the "oh, it's another friggin' Jar Jar" whines weren't called for. Imperfect, but then again what is? Pacing wise I felt it was pretty solid (the casino stuff was too long, particularly as it's ultimately pointless in many ways), and the movement from scene-to-scene felt slick with the film cutting to the disparate characters at the right time when we needed to know what was coming. The comedy is broader in certain instances, but then again is it really so out of line? Poe's stalling for time against Hux, for instance, is exactly the sort of thing Han Solo would (and did) do in the original movies. The Porg hitting the window? Yeah, a silly moment, but at the same time the little bugger isn't seatbelted in and the Millennium Falcon makes a sudden turn, so it is justified. I didn't feel like the humour damaged the film in anyway, it felt generally well balanced. Great work from pretty much everyone, I reckon, and in some ways it is bolder than a franchise of its age would usually be - but in such a way that still feels justified IMHO.

[bassman]

I’ve found that I enjoy The Last Jedi more and more with further viewings. It does have its issues, but I applaud Johnson for taking the series outside of its “comfort zone” and making a unique installment. It’s never going to be hailed as the best Star Wars film, none of these new films could ever live up to that title, but I do feel like it will fair better with the passage of time. At least these overly heated haters of the film will learn to judge it on its own terms rather than comparing it to “their” film in their own minds, anyway. I also highly recommend the Home video release too, btw. There’s a fantastic feature-length documentary and Johnson’s commentary is a great listen!

[bassman]

A couple days ago I mentioned in the shoutbox that some fans had taken their opinions of the Star Wars franchise so far as to harass the actress that played Rose in TLJ with personal attacks against her looks, race, etc. She eventually deleted her social media accounts because of the attacks. That was sickening enough, but then today I see that these “fans” have banded together into some sort of group and are actually proud of their actions: That makes my skin crawl! Everyone is entitled to their opinion when it comes to films and by all means, it’s acceptable to hate The Last Jedi or any other film, but this is just sickening.

[blind2d]

A couple days ago I mentioned in the shoutbox that some fans had taken their opinions of the Star Wars franchise so far as to harass the actress that played Rose in TLJ with personal attacks against her looks, race, etc. She eventually deleted her social media accounts because of the attacks. That was sickening enough, but then today I see that these “fans” have banded together into some sort of group and are actually proud of their actions: That makes my skin crawl! Everyone is entitled to their opinion when it comes to films and by all means, it’s acceptable to hate The Last Jedi or any other film, but this is just sickening. Oh wow, I'm with you, that's just revolting... I really liked Rose, and stuff, but... I just don't understand people like this. I wonder if they're too far gone for saving...

[MinionZombie]

The Finn/Rose segment of the movie mostly felt superfluous and was ultimately pointless for the Rebellion, even if it did serve a narrative purpose (so the bad guys could know where the good guys were heading), but that doesn't mean Kelly Marie Tran deserves that ... not in a million lifetimes. Bizarre, too, in their wording with them calling themselves a rebel alliance ... the rebel alliance are one of the most inclusive groups in cinema history! Now, there's a separate argument about tokenism in a much wider context of not only cinema but of society at large, but Rose's race has bugger all meaning in TLJ. The only disappointment was that the majority of the Finn/Rose subplot was kinda naff ... it had good bits, and it allowed other moments to be of import (e.g. the kid with the broom at the very end, the battle aboard the ship - although Phasma was practically blink and you'll miss her), but it did kind of feel sort of awkward amongst all the other stuff that was hardwired into the main thrust of the movie. For instance, Poe's subplot was really good. But, again, KMT doesn't deserve that at all. It's weird how you see some things like this, or different versions of it - like when Josh McDermott left social media because a bunch of TWD fans were badgering him over the actions of the fictional character he plays on TV.