Star Wars: The Last Jedi

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MacSwell
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Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by MacSwell »

Did anyone else find this to be a colossal piece of shit?

Rey is impossibly bland.
Finn/Rose have the most inconsequential subplot in movie history.
Laura Dern is just a "strong woman" prototype with no discernible personality traits.
[spoiler]Why the hell couldn't fan fave Admiral Ackbar be the one to do the hyperspace kamikaze?![/spoiler]Poe Dameron, who's essentially our new Han Solo, is a charmless moron/douche.
General Hux is a pathetic pantomime villain.
BB-8, for me, is at an almost Jar-Jar-level of shite, adding nothing but piss-poor, try-hard comedy.
Chewie has sweet bugger-all to do.
Yoda ghost looks damn weird.

The scope felt far too small and it doesn't go to enough interesting locations (that casino beyond prequel-level awfulness).

When they finally did something interesting with [spoiler]Kylo killing Snoke[/spoiler]they didn't take it anywhere remotely imaginative - it just became "let's rule together". Snore.

The more and more I analyse it, the more and more I dislike it. Its score has already dropped from 40 to 25 less than 48 hours after watching.

VinegarBob
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by VinegarBob »

You expected it to be good?

MacSwell
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by MacSwell »

Not good but passable. I thought Force Awakens and Rogue One were okay.

What's really surprising is how much critics have really eaten this one up, compared to audiences where the reception has been lukewarm at best.

PrestoBix
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by PrestoBix »

I didn't think it was anywhere near bad, though I agree with most of your points.

It was easily the best Star Wars film visually, and as a film spectacle it was extraordinarily rousing. The constant diverting of expectations was also tons of fun.

I've always felt that Star Wars, since the first film, has been a very flawed franchise and you could choose to make the sort of points you did with any of the original trilogy, but for some reason fans can look past those flaws, but absolutely cannot tolerate similar flaws in the sequel trilogy. It's unfair. But, whatever. The amount of anger from entitled Star Wars fans on the internet is amusing.

PrestoBix
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by PrestoBix »

Maaxwell wrote:Not good but passable. I thought Force Awakens and Rogue One were okay.

What's really surprising is how much critics have really eaten this one up, compared to audiences where the reception has been lukewarm at best.


The audience reception to this has been the same as to The Force Awakens(meaning extremely good), according to audience polling in theaters. There are reports of angry fans using bots to manipulate online scores.

90sCoffee
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by 90sCoffee »

Tough crowd lol. First of all, Rey bland? She's awesome, my favourite SW character, conveys determination and good better than any of the previous ones did.

It's definetely flawed for me, I think the problem is the director. His other films are mediocre, this one is also messy. Too much soap-opera like drama. He seems to have an obsession with subverting the plot and forcing twists that don't need to be forced and it's quite annoying. The guy who did TFA did a better job at making a simple Star Wars film with fun characters and lots of adventure without too much unnecessary subplot. Even with the problems though, this guy does some things so well that even though a chunk of it doesn't work, it was still enjoyable enough for me. A very mixed film I guess but the good scenes were goood.

theficionado
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by theficionado »

Laura Dern is just a "strong woman" prototype with no discernible personality traits.
[spoiler]Why the hell couldn't fan fave Admiral Ackbar be the one to do the hyperspace kamikaze?![/spoiler]


What are Admiral Ackbar's discernible personality traits?

MacSwell
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by MacSwell »

theficionado wrote:
Laura Dern is just a "strong woman" prototype with no discernible personality traits.
[spoiler]Why the hell couldn't fan fave Admiral Ackbar be the one to do the hyperspace kamikaze?![/spoiler]


What are Admiral Ackbar's discernible personality traits?

He was afforded nowhere near as much screentime as Holdo but managed to forge a minor legacy among fans despite having about 3 lines. He's always been nothing but a minor character. Plus he's a cool orange shrimp-man. Holdo was so boring.

frederic_g54
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by frederic_g54 »

On a more positive note, this is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMyMxMYDNk

philamental
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Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Post by philamental »

PrestoBix wrote:It was easily the best Star Wars film visually, and as a film spectacle it was extraordinarily rousing. The constant diverting of expectations was also tons of fun.

you could choose to make the sort of points you did with any of the original trilogy, but for some reason fans can look past those flaws, but absolutely cannot tolerate similar flaws in the sequel trilogy.


This is the core of the logic behind my enjoyment of the film. For me, Star Wars as a franchise is a Sci Fi adventure romp. The deified original trilogy are full of weak acting performances and cheesy dialogue, but succeed due to the amazing score of John Williams, imaginative alien locations and cultures and an undeniable innocent heart that pumps through each movie that any non cynic can get behind. The most talked about moment in the entire franchise, the 'Father' reveal, is high level Soap Opera stuff, but by then as fans we are on board for the ride and excited to see where the story goes next.

TLJ surprised me in how close it felt to watching the original trilogy for the first time. While TFA felt like I was actually watching A New Hope again with so many identical story beats, TLJ was 2 and a half hours of sci fi fantasy adventure which frequently surprised me with it's deviances from what we all expected to happen. Some say that Luke's grumpy shunning of his responsibility as the last Jedi was an assassination of the character that had been established in 4 through 6. On the contrary I found it entirely fitting that luke came to question the arrogance of believing he could train any force sensitive pupil. This is exactly the arrogance that led to the rise of Vader and Luke realizing this shows the strength of his character, not a weakness. I also love the ambiguous uncertainty that arose from when Luke attempted to murder Ben in his sleep. Although he stopped himself in time, it didn't look that way to Ben. Did that moment cause Ben to turn to the dark side, or was his path already set?

The overall theme of TLJ is to honour but not dwell in the past, and instead build and work towards the future. I believe the movie achieves this perfectly within the Star Wars franchise, so it's a thumbs up from me.

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