[RD] The Last Jedi – Another Cold Rehash

[onejayhawk]

Hey, dude! I'm sitting right here.!

Finally, something in common.

J

 

[Broken_Erika]

If a family has 4 kids, which one would be the middle child, the 2nd or the 3rd?

 

[aelf]

I think it's a B- or B for me as well. Better than Force Awakens, which was just super formulaic with nonsensical things thrown in (not that there aren't some nonsensical things in this one; they just felt less jarring than, oh, Starkiller Base).

I think Star Wars fans would generally dislike this film because it departs quite a bit from what made Star Wars, well, Star Wars. I think it's quite confusing from that perspective. The characters behave differently and I think the plot's trajectory is also somewhat unexpected. I guess maybe that's why critics have a better reaction to it than audiences.

Spoiler :

What I dislike about it is the very drawn-out defeat and escape of the Resistance towards the end. I like the idea of having things go really badly for the New Republic because, well, they've screwed up since the last film. But it frankly got quite pathetic towards the end, and only the extreme incompetence of Kylo's First Order allowed, like, twenty of them to escape alive. And since apparently no allies are willing to help them, it's very difficult to believe that they would be able to come back from that in the space of one film, if at all. The 'spark of hope' idea is trite and ridiculous, especially since it has so far apparently inspired just a few slave children.

The universal teenage desire to be an insufferable edgelord.

Nah. If he was, he'd just be sitting somewhere trying to debate people about why "the Dark Side is natural" is a perfectly valid statement that people's biases just can't handle, or something.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Well your avatar seems to suggest at least some sort of passionate relationship to cute beings.
Sorry I have nothing to contribute and probably won't see the movie til January because since everything is organized via whatsapp groups it can take forever to organize things with certain people.

This sounds super stressful and annoying. Hope things go quick and easy.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I caught the 11am show on the way back from visiting my mom in rehab this morning.

I'm still not really sure what I think about it. There were parts I quite enjoyed, but overall I was disappointed. I don't regret paying $4.95 to see it, but would have regretted spending more to make it a date night.

(I was originally hoping to take a girl to see it in 3D for our 3rd date, but she said her schedule would be too hectic until atfer she gets back from visiting her parent over the holidays.)


I enjoyed The Force Awakens as much as any of the original trilogy (despite a few nonsensical things that could have been easily avoided), but am inclined to rank The Last Jedi behind Revenge of the Sith. I'd say it is still better than The Phantom Menace though, and far better than either Attack of the Clones or Rogue One.

Spoiler :

I really disappointed that they did nothing to elaborate on Snoke's backstory, leaving him a very generic villain. I wish we were introduced to the other Knights of Ren. I don't get why they didn't have Captain Phasma fight without a helmet for a while after it got damaged. I was really hoping that the code breaker did another double cross, perhaps sabotaging something that would not be noticed until he was gone. I don't get why Finn couldn't jump out of his craft and let it crash into the enemy weapon without him inside. I did not think Yoda's ghost looked right.

 

[Takhisis]

If i had a Porg, I'd name it Perogi!
Not sure if i'll see it in the theater, that would require me to go to a place with strange unfamiliar people during daylight hours.....
I don't like being in areas with more than 5 unfamiliar people....people scare me.

Go by night then.

Spoiler :

What I dislike about it is the very drawn-out defeat and escape of the Resistance towards the end. I like the idea of having things go really badly for the New Republic because, well, they've screwed up since the last film. But it frankly got quite pathetic towards the end, and only the extreme incompetence of Kylo's First Order allowed, like, twenty of them to escape alive. And since apparently no allies are willing to help them, it's very difficult to believe that they would be able to come back from that in the space of one film, if at all. The 'spark of hope' idea is trite and ridiculous, especially since it has so far apparently inspired just a few slave children.

Spoiler :

Villain incompetence is one of the things that threw me off. As I say all the time, if you don't have credible villains you have to make the protagonists struggle with their own flaws or you write My neighbour Totoro. Otherwise you're screwing up.

Snoke: calls Kylo Ren out on his mask being ridiculous but then seems not to take notice that he is about to destroy him. And who is he, anyway? What is he?

General Hux: falling for a ‘Your mom’ joke (this includes his underlings). On the whole, downgraded from TFA. It also seemed as if the jokes dictated the pace of his character.

Kylo Ren: erm, too emotional. He manages to slip under Snoke but when he sees Luke Skywalker appear from nowhere he just goes down to fight him with, as Luke calls it ‘a laser sword’ and somehow he and his entire legions fail to notice he's not making any foorprints or kicking up the dust/salt from the ground. And goes to fight him and tells his troops to completely stop all fighting.

Phasma: Once again my greatest regret. I really think there's several minutes of deleted scenes out there. Otherwise the ‘chrome-dome’ comment lacks… something. She spends most of her time uttering lines Hux could say instead of, say, fighting Rebels (and she has the blaster-proof armour).

As a whole the First Order appear to be a group of neo-Nazi neo-Imperial fanboys with a small fleet who really struck lucky when they managed to use the not-a-Death-Star to destroy the Republic, far smaller than the Empire they seek to rebuild. What is the rest of the galaxy doing? Have they been destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong?


Bonus point: Yoda is a show-stealer as usual.

 

[Takhisis]

One good thing, at least, is that unlike The Force Awakens it didn't feel like a rehash, so the thread title would be quite inaccurate.

Also, the title of TFA is clarified, I think, in TLJ.

 

[onejayhawk]

Agreed. Force Awakens was rehash. Last Jedi was throwing out the wash water with most of the dishes still in it.

J

 

[luiz]

I'm sure it's going to suck but I'll probably still see it in the cinema, because why not? Star Wars does have the nostalgia going on for it. But if it's as bad as a I fear, it might be the last one I see. Or not.

 

[rah]

Saw it with my daughter. It's just a movie folks. I enjoyed it. It isn't a masterpiece but no Star Wars movie ever was. Anyone that thinks it's the worst one ever really needs to go back and watch 1 and 2.
Yes there were some issues, but it was a good romp. I didn't have a problem with the cute ones because they were only used sparingly. And the campfire scene was pretty funny.

Haters will hate.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Saw it today. Movie was freaking awesome. Folks saying they didn't like it are trippin'

Go see it for yourself.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I'd like to add some anecdotes... I got there just in time to catch the tail end of the Avengers trailer, then went to get popcorn. When I got back the movie had started and was a couple minutes in. As I opened the door to the theater, the audience was roaring with laughter... like hysterical laughter throughout the whole theater... I thought "Oh this must be a trailer... wait this is the movie? Wow this is gonna be good " I can't even count the number of times the audience burst into applause, nor can I count the number of times the audience burst into laughter, or the number of times I heard someone in the theater gasp "No!"...

How people could have watched that movie and not just not like it but hate it... is a little baffling to me. It was a rollercoaster of emotion, full of surprises... it was everything a movie should be. AND it was Star Wars. I'm looking forward to EP 9.

 

[Kozmos]

Most of those jokes were forced and cringy. Few people were laughing at my end and I went on premiere when biggest fans go.

 

[Sommerswerd]

On the other hand, the premiere is also when the fans who take themselves the most serious go, right? Its the folks who are the most likely to be the harshest critics and the biggest nitpickers with the highest expectations and the lowest tolerance for any perceived inconsistencies or deviations from canon etc... so it can be a mixed bag, right?

 

[aelf]

Spoiler :

Villain incompetence is one of the things that threw me off. As I say all the time, if you don't have credible villains you have to make the protagonists struggle with their own flaws or you write My neighbour Totoro. Otherwise you're screwing up.

Snoke: calls Kylo Ren out on his mask being ridiculous but then seems not to take notice that he is about to destroy him. And who is he, anyway? What is he?

General Hux: falling for a ‘Your mom’ joke (this includes his underlings). On the whole, downgraded from TFA. It also seemed as if the jokes dictated the pace of his character.

Kylo Ren: erm, too emotional. He manages to slip under Snoke but when he sees Luke Skywalker appear from nowhere he just goes down to fight him with, as Luke calls it ‘a laser sword’ and somehow he and his entire legions fail to notice he's not making any foorprints or kicking up the dust/salt from the ground. And goes to fight him and tells his troops to completely stop all fighting.

Phasma: Once again my greatest regret. I really think there's several minutes of deleted scenes out there. Otherwise the ‘chrome-dome’ comment lacks… something. She spends most of her time uttering lines Hux could say instead of, say, fighting Rebels (and she has the blaster-proof armour).

As a whole the First Order appear to be a group of neo-Nazi neo-Imperial fanboys with a small fleet who really struck lucky when they managed to use the not-a-Death-Star to destroy the Republic, far smaller than the Empire they seek to rebuild. What is the rest of the galaxy doing? Have they been destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong?

Spoiler :

There's some speculation that Snoke is still alive and that he might just be doing the Sith thing where the apprentice is supposed to kill his master... except, if he is Darth Plagueis, he might have cheated death again and is playing a long game, biding his time and possibly letting his former apprentices do the work for him. That would be interesting.

Alternatively, maybe he was able to read Kylo Ren's intent but not toward whom the intent was directed. I can live with that, but it would super annoying if they never revealed who or what Snoke really is.

"As a whole the First Order appear to be a group of neo-Nazi neo-Imperial fanboys with a small fleet who really struck lucky when they managed to use the not-a-Death-Star to destroy the Republic, far smaller than the Empire they seek to rebuild. What is the rest of the galaxy doing? Have they been destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong?"

That's a problem - the biggest problem - with The Force Awakens. I cannot buy the idea that it is possible to construct a planet-sized superweapon without massive shipments from multiple systems that would have been detected or at least reported. Apparently, not only are the bad guys super incompetent, the good guys are too. They seem to have no capacity for intelligence gathering (maybe the Bothans were all dead?). So, if we accept the events in TFA, then the New Republic and Resistance deserve this fate. But it's still pathetic and unless the First Order is also almost on its last legs, there should be no returning from this without another unbelievable plot development.

 

[rah]

It's unrealistic to think that anyone could acquire enough resources to subjugate the ENTIRE galaxy. All the movies have suffered from that ridiculous thinking. This is simple space opera and putting any realistic constraints on it is just plain silly.

 

[aelf]

That is simply a function of how much resources the galaxy has. Not unbelievable.

 

[rah]

It is logistically impossible to control the entire universe. It's too big. One nation can't even control the entire earth. It scales even worse.

 

[aelf]

Galaxy, not universe. That's a function of the level of technology. Again not implausible.

The level of tech in Star Wars is variously very advanced and relatively undeveloped, so you can argue that it's not plausible under the given conditions. But there's some indication that even in the Empire, the Grand Moffs had a high level of autonomy in ruling their fiefs. And that's why the Death Star doctrine actually made sense. The thing that would have held the Empire together and prevent systems from really going rogue was the threat of a planet-killer that could warp anywhere.

 

[rah]

While you have a point, I think it's just wishful thinking. The UN on earth is just another example. No one is unified enough. It would take to much. So if you destroyed every planet that wasn't 100% under your control, you'd end up with no planets.