Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

[Sportsforever]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Thanks for posting that. Very interesting.

Still, the issues some had with Episode 5 are different than what most are saying about Ep8.
At least in Ep5 every scene was worthwhile and the storyline was moved along properly.

If you cut out every non Rey-Luke-Kylo Ren scene, you'd miss nothing. This movie could have been a 30-minute TV show.

I don't disagree.

Spoiler

I have to say, there was a lot about the movie that really was bad. I think it's all been said, but I'll mention it anyway:

- Really, really didn't care for the Rose character with Finn. That entire story line was so forced and felt out of place the entire movie.

- The entire gambler/casino story line was really awful.

- The entire movie felt really, really disjointed and clunky. There were multiple times where I was cringing.

- I had heard a lot of rave reviews about Driver's performance. I didn't see it..in fact, I didn't think anyone "acted" well in this movie.

I really, really enjoyed TFA and Rogue 1. I am not a Star Wars "fan" per se, but find them entertaining. I found some entertainment value in this one, but the cringe-worthy moments outweighed that entertainment value.

[Money99]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

I don't disagree.

Spoiler

I have to say, there was a lot about the movie that really was bad. I think it's all been said, but I'll mention it anyway:

- Really, really didn't care for the Rose character with Finn. That entire story line was so forced and felt out of place the entire movie.

- The entire gambler/casino story line was really awful.

- The entire movie felt really, really disjointed and clunky. There were multiple times where I was cringing.

- I had heard a lot of rave reviews about Driver's performance. I didn't see it..in fact, I didn't think anyone "acted" well in this movie.

I really, really enjoyed TFA and Rogue 1. I am not a Star Wars "fan" per se, but find them entertaining. I found some entertainment value in this one, but the cringe-worthy moments outweighed that entertainment value.

Spoiler

Totally agree about all of that.
I don't like the Rose arc either. I like Finn and Rey. I realize there may be a triangle with Kylo Ren (or possibly even Poe), but I really enjoyed the Finn-Rey dynamic in TFA.

IMO, I'd rather they had Poe and Finn go on the mission to penetrate the First Order Ship.

But if we're really discussing what we'd rather, that whole storyline goes out the window.

The gambling scene was brutal too and I felt even the cameo with Justin Theroux was wasted.

It's funny you mentioned how disjointed the film was and I felt the same.
Seeing as I'm a Star Wars fan, I wondered if my fandom was getting in the way.
However, my wife, who didn't grow up watching any of these films and doesn't care one way or another, said the exact same thing.

While I still liked this movie better than the prequels, it was the first of the 9 SW's films where I found myself checking my watch frequently.

What I don't get is that with the wealth of quality SW's novels in the wind, how could someone come up with such a mediocre and boring script.

I'm not sure how to feel about Episode 9. Will it even be good?
And now my interest in the Next Trilogy Disney has planned is waning as well. And I think I was looking forward to a completely different Star Wars arc more than anything else.

[Boltman]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Thanks for posting that. Very interesting.

Still, the issues some had with Episode 5 are different than what most are saying about Ep8.
At least in Ep5 every scene was worthwhile and the storyline was moved along properly.

If you cut out every non Rey-Luke-Kylo Ren scene, you'd miss nothing. This movie could have been a 30-minute TV show.

I agree, such a frustrating film.

[jasontoddwhitt]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

I saw the movie again today with my father...still not getting the hatred, but whatever.


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[Armor and Sword]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

I saw the movie again today with my father...still not getting the hatred, but whatever.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah hatred is crazy. It’s a fun movie.

Better on my second viewing. Great Star Wars film? Naaa but it is a good Star Wars Flick.

There have been 5 great ones out of 8 and two good ones, one below average and one clunker.

Not bad for a timeless series thus far.


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[tdawg3782]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Yeah hatred is crazy. It’s a fun movie.

Better on my second viewing. Great Star Wars film? Naaa but it is a good Star Wars Flick.

There have been 5 great ones out of 8 and two good ones, one below average and one clunker.

Not bad for a timeless series thus far.


Sent from Palm Trees and Paradise using Operation Sports

This is how I feel. It was fun, hod some great visuals, pushed the story along, and I'm very interested to see where we go from here.

The hate is unwarranted imo.

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[mestevo]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

If anyone wants to see the 'they are chasing after us' plot line done right, watch the first couple hours of Battlestar Galactica series. The first episode (after the 2hr 'pilot') is called 33, as in every 33 minutes the Cylons jump in and they have to flee again.

Ships don't always make it, and it's such a fast tempo that the crew can never really relax and everyone is frayed around the edges.

[Smallville102001]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Yeah hatred is crazy. It’s a fun movie.

Better on my second viewing. Great Star Wars film? Naaa but it is a good Star Wars Flick.

There have been 5 great ones out of 8 and two good ones, one below average and one clunker.

Not bad for a timeless series thus far.


Sent from Palm Trees and Paradise using Operation Sports

For me its 4 great ones 3 good but far from great ones and 2 crap ones I want to forget.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Just got back from watching the latest Star Wars and, without any spoilers, let's just say if you went for space battles and light saber stuff you probably won't be disappointed. But just in case some of my comments might be considered spoiler-y...here's my spoiler protection...enter at your own risk.

Spoiler

I thought it was a decent popcorn flick that will keep you entertained most of the time with a few cringe-worthy moments and one major suspension of disbelief moment (even for the Star Wars franchise) with a certain explosion and a certain someone being vented into space temporarily. It was by no means a great film (even for the Star Wars franchise) and probably ranks somewhere around the middle of the Star Wars canon. I actually liked TFA and the entire original trilogy better.

In terms of action, it didn't disappoint. Large space battles, new ship types, walkers, storm troopers, plenty of Force-y battle scenes and struggles, a pretty sweet jump to lightspeed, and the usual against-all-odds vibe. The art was pretty stunning if you just like looking at pretty pictures.

That said, I feel the writing was pretty weak and the plot was too loose and lacked focus. At one point they had something like 4 or 5 different story arcs going at once and I felt that it was just too unfocused. Sometimes it just seemed like they were adding stuff to add stuff and doing stuff to do stuff. Made this 2.5 hour movie feel 3.5 hours long. There were a few clever moments, but it felt like you really had to earn them by sitting through a bunch of irrelevant-to-passable stuff in the meantime. But keep in mind this is coming from someone (me) who thinks that almost no movie writing in recent times stacks up with plots/scripts of yore.

I'm not sure if I liked the acting or if the writers should be blamed for putting the actors in no-win situations. I do think the guy that played Finn (forgot his name) got a lot better at acting since his debut in the previous movie. I felt one of the weaker points in TFA was Finn's over-acting. He was more likable and believable in this one, imo. I thought Driver (Kylo Ren) and Ridley (Rey) were both somewhere between pretty good and really good.

One place I was pretty disappointed aside from the stuff I already mentioned about the plotting/writing was that a certain mysterious figure from TFA wasn't really explained or elaborated on. Wasn't given a backstory or fleshed out. Sort of became a MacGuffin.

And now for something that is 100% a spoiler so enter this next space only if you've seen the film or don't care about being spoiler'd...

Spoiler

BASTARDS! You killed Admiral Ackbar!! You can take Han, but damn you for taking Ackbar! What next, Chewy?!?

[Kearnzo]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

If anyone wants to see the 'they are chasing after us' plot line done right, watch the first couple hours of Battlestar Galactica series. The first episode (after the 2hr 'pilot') is called 33, as in every 33 minutes the Cylons jump in and they have to flee again.

Ships don't always make it, and it's such a fast tempo that the crew can never really relax and everyone is frayed around the edges.

My favorite series of all time, and you're absolutely right. The desperation and fatigue of the crew made for such a captivating plotline.

Perhaps it's time for another run through the series.

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk

[jasontoddwhitt]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Just got back from watching the latest Star Wars and, without any spoilers, let's just say if you went for space battles and light saber stuff you probably won't be disappointed. But just in case some of my comments might be considered spoiler-y...here's my spoiler protection...enter at your own risk.

Spoiler

I thought it was a decent popcorn flick that will keep you entertained most of the time with a few cringe-worthy moments and one major suspension of disbelief moment (even for the Star Wars franchise) with a certain explosion and a certain someone being vented into space temporarily. It was by no means a great film (even for the Star Wars franchise) and probably ranks somewhere around the middle of the Star Wars canon. I actually liked TFA and the entire original trilogy better.

In terms of action, it didn't disappoint. Large space battles, new ship types, walkers, storm troopers, plenty of Force-y battle scenes and struggles, a pretty sweet jump to lightspeed, and the usual against-all-odds vibe. The art was pretty stunning if you just like looking at pretty pictures.

That said, I feel the writing was pretty weak and the plot was too loose and lacked focus. At one point they had something like 4 or 5 different story arcs going at once and I felt that it was just too unfocused. Sometimes it just seemed like they were adding stuff to add stuff and doing stuff to do stuff. Made this 2.5 hour movie feel 3.5 hours long. There were a few clever moments, but it felt like you really had to earn them by sitting through a bunch of irrelevant-to-passable stuff in the meantime. But keep in mind this is coming from someone (me) who thinks that almost no movie writing in recent times stacks up with plots/scripts of yore.

I'm not sure if I liked the acting or if the writers should be blamed for putting the actors in no-win situations. I do think the guy that played Finn (forgot his name) got a lot better at acting since his debut in the previous movie. I felt one of the weaker points in TFA was Finn's over-acting. He was more likable and believable in this one, imo. I thought Driver (Kylo Ren) and Ridley (Rey) were both somewhere between pretty good and really good.

One place I was pretty disappointed aside from the stuff I already mentioned about the plotting/writing was that a certain mysterious figure from TFA wasn't really explained or elaborated on. Wasn't given a backstory or fleshed out. Sort of became a MacGuffin.

And now for something that is 100% a spoiler so enter this next space only if you've seen the film or don't care about being spoiler'd...

Spoiler

BASTARDS! You killed Admiral Ackbar!! You can take Han, but damn you for taking Ackbar! What next, Chewy?!?

Spoiler

Not only did they kill Ackbar...it just got a brief throwaway mention. That's almost right up there with Chewie and Leia not hugging after Han's death in TFA when they reunited. He led the Rebellion fleet in the Battle of Endor for goodness sakes!!!

[Blzer]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

I just realized

Spoiler

Ackbar died from a trap.

[Smallville102001]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

I have only seen the movie once plan on seeing it again but the funny thing is I had no idea any thing even happened to him in till I went onto the internet and read some of what people thought about the movie. Had I not I wouldn't have known that any thing even happened with him in the movie lol.

[matthewk]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

At what point can we end the spoiler tags and start discussing the movie openly? Maybe we need a spoiler thread.

Saw this on Christmas day with the family. Re-watched Rogue One last night.

Spoiler

I was entertained enough during the movie. Cringed a couple of times at some really bad writing. The more I thought about things after the movie, the less I liked it. I re-watched R1 just to see how I'd feel watching that one again. R1 > TLJ by far.

The Leia space scene was the worst of a number of really poor decisions by the makers of this movie.
Other moments include:
- Luke coming up with the neat trick of being a hologram (which I liked) to dying alone with no real explanation 5 minutes later (which I hate). Way to give an iconic character a meaningless death.
- Speaking of trashing Luke, they actually wrote into his story that he was ready to murder Ben in his sleep because he sensed the dark side in him? So Luke goes from doing everything he can to save Vader to being ready to kill a pupil over what he sensed could come? Did the writer(s) even watch the original trilogy? Plus, we are shown numerous times the conflict within Ben/Kylo. He's nowhere near as evil as Vader was at the time.
- The whole plan to slowly run from the Star Destroyer on low fuel and not tell anyone about the real plan. So now Poe sends his friends off on side mission which proves pointless all because the writers want to trick the audience. A lot of the movie felt like this. Let's trick the audience into thinking Leia is going to die in space, trick them into thinking the purple-hair lady is a spy or plain stupid, etc..
- How did the codebreaker know about the transports? Fin and Rose didn't know, which is why they were on their mission to get the codebreaker. If they did find out via transmission (I don't recall, but I read some say this happened), then why not abort your mission? You don't have to get on the enemy ship and disable the light speed tracker now.
- When they went to the casino city, why not radio for help from there? Surely someone would come to their aid? At least make an effort in case the codebreaker thing didn't work out.
- Did they really say at one point that the 400+ on the ships were the last of the rebels? In the whole galaxy you have nothing more than 400 left? That's really pushing the insurmountable odds thing a bit far. On top of that their distress call resulted in no one other than Luke arriving to help? They really make them look pathetic here.

I feel like the writer(s) never saw or cared about Star Wars. Too many things written in felt like they were trying to be tricky just for the sake of it, and it ended up making things look stupid instead.

I didn't like TFA due to it's similarities to ANH, but this one was worse. The movies are VII and VIII in both order and how they rank for me. Only Phantom Menace was worse. R1 is better than both by a significant margin.

[Cardot]

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

At what point can we end the spoiler tags and start discussing the movie openly? Maybe we need a spoiler thread.

Saw this on Christmas day with the family. Re-watched Rogue One last night.

Spoiler

I was entertained enough during the movie. Cringed a couple of times at some really bad writing. The more I thought about things after the movie, the less I liked it. I re-watched R1 just to see how I'd feel watching that one again. R1 > TLJ by far.

The Leia space scene was the worst of a number of really poor decisions by the makers of this movie.
Other moments include:
- Luke coming up with the neat trick of being a hologram (which I liked) to dying alone with no real explanation 5 minutes later (which I hate). Way to give an iconic character a meaningless death.
- Speaking of trashing Luke, they actually wrote into his story that he was ready to murder Ben in his sleep because he sensed the dark side in him? So Luke goes from doing everything he can to save Vader to being ready to kill a pupil over what he sensed could come? Did the writer(s) even watch the original trilogy? Plus, we are shown numerous times the conflict within Ben/Kylo. He's nowhere near as evil as Vader was at the time.
- The whole plan to slowly run from the Star Destroyer on low fuel and not tell anyone about the real plan. So now Poe sends his friends off on side mission which proves pointless all because the writers want to trick the audience. A lot of the movie felt like this. Let's trick the audience into thinking Leia is going to die in space, trick them into thinking the purple-hair lady is a spy or plain stupid, etc..
- How did the codebreaker know about the transports? Fin and Rose didn't know, which is why they were on their mission to get the codebreaker. If they did find out via transmission (I don't recall, but I read some say this happened), then why not abort your mission? You don't have to get on the enemy ship and disable the light speed tracker now.
- When they went to the casino city, why not radio for help from there? Surely someone would come to their aid? At least make an effort in case the codebreaker thing didn't work out.
- Did they really say at one point that the 400+ on the ships were the last of the rebels? In the whole galaxy you have nothing more than 400 left? That's really pushing the insurmountable odds thing a bit far. On top of that their distress call resulted in no one other than Luke arriving to help? They really make them look pathetic here.

I feel like the writer(s) never saw or cared about Star Wars. Too many things written in felt like they were trying to be tricky just for the sake of it, and it ended up making things look stupid instead.

I didn't like TFA due to it's similarities to ANH, but this one was worse. The movies are VII and VIII in both order and how they rank for me. Only Phantom Menace was worse. R1 is better than both by a significant margin.

I agree with pretty much everything.

Spoiler

Luke dying didn't bother me as much as it did to some people. But if you are a Jedi who can become a Force Ghost, do you ever really die?? On the flip side, I think Luke is only in his 50's....that is a bit young to fade away like Yoda did in his 800's.

Regardless, I am curious what I will think the next time I watch ROTJ. The ending might not be quite as happy knowing that in a few years the Empire will be back better than ever, the rebellion (to new republic and back to rebellion/resistance) will be wiped out. Han and Leia won't pan out too well, and Luke has a lot of disappointment awaiting him. Buzzkill.