Star Wars: The Last Jedi

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Eh, while interesting I'm going to reserve my full thoughts until I get a trailer with more substance. Considering that I thought TFA was dud for a SW movie my thoughts are trending that way for this one as well.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Luke: "Its time for the Jedi to end."

Umm.. I hope not.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Ugh... another month to go. I need this movie in my life.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Holy cow was this movie a feels trip. I loved it despite a few minor flaws. It was definitely its own movie unlike the first. Watching Carrie Fisher act for her last time left me a bit emotional. There were a lot of good easter eggs and nostalgic references without making the movie a rehash. Finn's character was a lot better in this movie. Less of the comedian, without completely cutting it out, while giving him more substance. This was probably the most suspenseful Star Wars film in the series. I actually saw it twice today so I was able to pick up on the subtle details I missed the first go around.

The Good, The Bad, and the Neutral:

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What I loved:

Yoda's force ghost! He holds my favorite line in the whole film "Read them have you? Page turners they were not."

The space battles were amazing. The opening scene was intense, as well as the closing arc. The fight scene with Rey and Kylo vs the guards was awesome as well.

Luke's death was as graceful as it could have been without upsetting fans.

The Hypderdrive suicide ram was spectacular. It's never been done in a Star Wars film so its newness was much appreciated. The visuals were just great for the emotion of this scene.

Just about every scene had a reason or purpose. Even if it didn't seem like it at first. There are two that really stood out. The first is when Kylo questions how Rey is connecting with him via the force, and concludes she couldn't be doing it herself because the effort would kill her. Luke's last stunt was to the extreme of that and it killed him. The second was the random scene near the end with the extra walking out of the trench causing the red foot prints. The scene seemed like a minor after thought, but after watching it a second time, it was meant to give you a hint that Luke was projecting himself in the first place. The fight between him and Kylo featured several footwork shots, in which Luke shifted his feet and the snow under it never revealed the red salt rock.

What disappointed me:

All that build up with Snoke, and we get nothing? He just gets cut in half by a force parlor trick while boasting how he is so great and showing his really strong force skills? I don't mind that he died, but it just seemed so sudden and his character didn't really gain any relevance. Hopefully the last film will give us some kind of answer in passing at least. It feels like an odd decision to make what was suppose to be an Palpatine type villain seem like such a minor plot device.  

I expected Rey's parents to be more than some bad people that sold her off for booze money. I'm hoping that was a lie, but I couldn't think of any relevant people to be here parents that would make any sense. She's too young to be a Kenobi.

While Hux became a more relevant character than I thought he had the potential to be, Phasma once again got the shaft.  I'd like to think she didn't die, but c'mon, that was pretty convincing.

What I didn't mind, but I think people will scrutinize:

The Force hits the Super Saiyan effect. I didn't mind the Leia scene, it is Star Wars, but it was a bit over the top. It was cool to know she can tap into the force outside of sensing deaths. I personally liked this scene. But the kid with the broom at the end might have been too much. Rey's mastery of the force is pretty crazy without any training. The prequels and sequels make Luke look like such an amateur in learning how to wield his powers.

This whole film is Poe's fault. His reckless behavior got the fleet decimated, and then ruined the escape plan from the cruiser. So many died because of his defiance of orders... yet he remained a hero.

 

[Pchan 5,162]

I liked some of the movie, visually speaking. Story wise, it was a bit of a disaster. Also, the force is not what it used to be and it's a direction Disney have taken to expand more into the Star Wars universe. I'll post more once Sledgy and Lady have watched it. 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I got around to watching this over the weekend. I really enjoyed it. I was half expecting it to be a bit of a rehash of empire strikes back like how the force awakens was basically a soft reboot of a new hope.

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Yoda's force ghost was great.. and it threw out all the canon the novels made about force ghosts. Which isn't bad, but it now makes the force a completely new thing again. Now there seems to be no limitations to the force, including death. All these years later, Yoda can manifest himself and interact with the real world. I'm definitely expecting Luke to show back up in episode 9 as a force ghost.

I watched a bunch of youtube star wars theory videos over the last couple days. Theres some great ones out there concerning Snoke's death. One theory suggests that Snoke was projecting himself into that throne room much like Luke was doing at the end of the movie as a final test for Kylo Ren to see if he would betray him. As powerful as Snoke was I find it hard to believe they'd kill him off so easily and with no reveal into his past. He was supposedly old enough to see numerous empires rise and fall yet he was never involved with anything? hmm. Another theory suggests that he did die and he knew it was going to happen. That he purposefully wanted Kylo to kill him as a means of transferring himself into a force ghost. Another theory points out that Snoke never had the yellow eyes that almost every sith has always had, and thus he wasn't a sith to begin with and neither is Kylo Ren. That they are both force users on the dark side, but that there could be another sith and his/her apprentice out there somewhere.

That Luke Skywalker scene at the end was amazing to me. I loved seeing him stare down an entire army and then brushing off the attack like it was nothing. At first I thought he was pulling a Goku and was moving so fast that nothing could touch him. The no footprint thing caught my attention tho and then it all made sense. Leia flying back into the ship was pretty epic in that it finally proves that she had force powers outside of 'feelings'.

A couple parts of this movie seemed a bit odd and I'm guessing is all build up for the third movie. Finn and Rose's plot line seemed a little out of place. That ship chase was going on so long they could just warp over to another planet get some help and then rush back. In that time period I don't understand why Hux didn't order some ships to hyperdrive ahead of the rebel ships to cut them off. Maybe there is something in the wookipedia about hyperdrives that micro jumps aren't feasible or something. I can only assume that the smallest jump that could be performed would have cause those ships to be so far ahead of the rebel ships that at sublight speeds it'd still take them more than six hours to back track to them. But aside from that the Finn / Rose arc felt more like a character development subplot than anything else as their overall goal ends up being pointless and actually screws everyone over as much as Poe's own reckless behavior. I'm guessing that Finn/Rose and Poe's failures were the reason this turned into a 2 1/2 hour movie instead of 1 1/2 - 2 hours. These scenes were most likely character buildup to something in the third movie for these people.

The hyperdrive suicide attack was epic. But it makes me wonder why hyperdrives were never weaponized more like that. I'm guessing it might be a mass issue. That massive cruiser did massive damage, but I wonder how effective an xwing would have been. It might not have had enough mass and would simply vaporize off the shields of a destroyer. I wonder if the ordnance on that cruiser even contributed to the destruction. It all happened at such a massive speed that all the force of the impact would blast forward at such velocity probably nothing except the shear mass of the ship had any real impact. Now that Thrawn was kept as canon and interdictor cruisers were mentioned in the star wars rebel cartoon (which is considered canon), I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually show up in the movies, especially since if Hux or Snoke had one of those cruisers in that fleet the hyper drive suicide attack would have been completely impossible due to the cruiser's gravity well projectors.

That kid at the end made me come to this conclusion.. With Luke Skywalker's death, the force is out of balance. So much power resided in him that when he died the force has 'awakened' in others as a means of balance.

I saw some videos about people complaining that The Last Jedi was garbage and ruined their childhood. wtf. I didn't watch many of those as they seemed like people complaining just to get attention and youtube views. The only reason I could think of as to why some people would be butt hurt over this movie would be because of their own idiolized expectations. People assumed Luke would be infallable and become like the jedi from phantom menace. All perfect emotionless, logical vulcans. lol. Instead we see luke casually toss the lightsaber behind him and that probably set some people off. "he'd never do that!" pfft. Hes human, everyone makes mistakes and I love that about how they portrayed him. The other reason I bet ppl got butt hurt subconsciously is because Finn and Poe both screwed up completely and women save them both at their own cost. Whatsherface suicides with the hypderdrive saving Poe and everyone else because it was they only thing she could do to save them thanks to Poe's and Finn's failures and in the end Rose crashes into Finn's ship to save him from his own suicide attempt. The role reversal of men always saving a woman probably pissed off a bunch of self righteous men into thinking star wars is sjw now. lol.

Oh, and I'm glad Rey's parents are nobodies and I hope it stays that way. Out of 50 million inhabited systems in the star wars galaxy, with billions and billions of people living in the galaxy, to have only specific bloodlines be the main source of force users seems completely unrealistic. Its now established that the force can awaken in any living person and that is amazing to me. It seems so un-disney-like too. Disney always has princes and princesses as their main characters and they were always born into that position or married someone into that position, but for star wars there will be no 'royal bloodline' and thats completely refreshing.

Overall I loved the movie. The only real downside that caught my attention was the lack of alien life in the rebel ships. Ackbar was there and died when the bridge was destroyed and Leia was flung out into space, but aside from him there was no real alien representation which seemed a bit odd. And I felt a bit bad for Ackbar. He was a major character and he barely got any recognition when he was killed. Theres supposed to be a new novel out in march that is canon that might give more details about this movie and I'll pick it up asap.

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

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You have to remember that the guy that did Ackbar died in 2016. It might have been someone else voicing the small part, or some reused lines. So they killed him off instead of having him with a noticeably different voice.

I think Kylo is lying and Rey is going to have some significant parent(s). If she truly has "always" known, then it wouldn't have been a big deal in the first film where she wasn't really willing to stay away from her home world. If Snoke isn't dead, then he could be clouding her thoughts on that issue.

I don't like "Here is the force for everyone". Its so anime cliche at this point. That's the only flaw I dislike about this arc. Rey is all of the sudden an adept force wielder with zero training and no blood line to make sense of it. And I bet they'll never explain why or how. Its poor story telling. When we come across Obi-Wan he was already skilled in the force, Anakin progressed, and Luke was scratching the surface, with Anakin saving him from Palpatine. Rey's saber skills make since because of her combat experience with a staff. With Luke's saber destroyed, it would be cool to see her wield a double sided saber like Darth Maul and Bastila Shan.

I think the majority of the gripes are how Luke is portrayed and Mark Hamill didn't help with his comments. People wanted to see Luke do the things that the prequel Jedi did. But what we got is what is realistic by this point. All these actors are too old and they waited too long to make these movies. Carrie's passing is the reality of why none of the original cast could be the main characters. With their ages there was no guarantee they'd last through a 6-8 year cycle of filming.  If Lucas didn't spend years redoing the original trilogy a three to four different times, and sold it off to Disney a decade ago, people might have gotten the movies they envisioned.

 

[Pchan 5,162]

Simple question - why didn't we see a force ghost in action in the original OR the prequel trilogies? Yoda, Palpatine, Ben or Doku or Windu could've done it during the Clone Wars or other places. I don't buy the weak argument that "Oh it takes a toll on ones body and they die from using it". 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Disney is definitely taking the property into a new direction. I suppose they could pull a George Lucas and go back and retcon those movies and add a force ghost to them and re-release them as new blu-rays. I doubt that'll happen tho. On the other hand, Disney threw out all the novels as canon so its hard to make a comparison to those anymore, but in the novels Luke ended up learning/developing an ass load of new jedi techniques that was never covered in the original or prequel movies. Then again in those novels there were multiple more galactic wars, other alien life that could interact with the force in completely different ways than the jedi and sith could and Luke married a woman that was strong in the force and they had strong force babies. The only thing that is kind of similar to those old novels in these new movies is Han and Leia having a kid that basically turned into the new vader. In the movies it is Ben Solo/Kylo Ren but in the novels it was Jacen Solo.

In the novels Luke became so powerful he was able to crush entire ships with the force. Made force choking look like nothing when he can reach out and crush the engines of a star destroyer or implode a bridge with a bit of concentration and a hand wave. All those novels made Darth Vader look like a weak chump in comparison. There was one interesting take on the force in regards to Palpatine tho that doesn't need a retcon. In one novel it was said that Palpatine was incredibly strong in the force but he focused the majority of his power into the inner workings of the empire's military. He was able to instill clarity in the minds of his subordinates and enhance their military strategies throughout the galaxy. Force control some generals to move their fleets into different positions or act as backup to another fleet that would have been wiped out. Something like that. After he died, the lack of his influence throughout his empire sent it into a downward spiral. Generals and Admirals would loose their focus, mess up their tactics and they'd lose many battles to the rebels. In the novels he also came back as a force ghost and occupied a clone of himself.. lol. I didn't read that one yet.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

I finally saw it. I'm not going to go into specifics because there is so much fundamentally wrong with this movie it sickens me (and I finally understand why Mark Hamill had such a problem with how Rian Johnson wrote his character, that wasn't Luke. That was a washed up, pathetic excuse for a man). I can't believe we gave up the EU for this crap.

I did, however, find the movie entertaining (an alright movie but abysmal Star Wars). Again Daisy Ridley was a joy to watch on screen and I thought she did a wonderful job as Rey in this film. As much as I hate his character I'm glad we finally got to see some actual development of Kylo's character (even though I will always refer to him as Emo Vader). Seeing Yoda again was a joy and brought a smile to my face. As much as I hate this movie it was wonderful and highly emotional to see Carrie in her last performance (which she killed by the way, one of the high points of the movie for me).

Actually Sledge, Luke has one child in the novels (Ben Skywalker, powerful but not as powerful as his cousins Jacen and Jaina Solo) and he actually marries one of the Emporer's Hand (an elite cadre of force sensitive assassins loyal only to Palpatine, her name was Mara Jade). Palpatine actually inhabits six different clones of himself until he's finally killed off in the EU by Luke (after turning to the Dark Side for awhile). As for force ghosts in the old canon they never interacted with the living world except for training and mentoring those strong in the force so that's why we've never seen them exhibit power like Yoda did. Also Force Projection/Doggleganger was used in the old canon by people like Dooku and Luke (books/comics) but this is the first time we've seen it in the films and the new canon so who knows why they made it do this in the film. I could go on but I won't, this takes this topic off topic and I really only wanted to post my thoughts on this film.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

When compared to the expanded universe of the novels this movie was garbage. Luke in the novels was amazing. Mara Jade was amazing. I would have loved to have seen a Thrawn trilogy movie over what we're getting now. I read all about the emperor's hand, but I never read the novels regarding Ben Skywalker or the Palpatine clones.

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With how Luke is portrayed in the last jedi, I'd say it was a complete homage to when Luke first met Yoda. Luke became was Yoda was, a reclusive hermit in isolation. At least with the prequel movies we got to see Yoda in his prime instead of just his old crazy man phase from the original trilogy. Unfortunately for Luke all we got to see was his youth and potential in the original trilogy and then they skipped all his prime years and went straight to hermit. ehhh.

I bought the bluray for this and after watching it again I see one major flaw... If Finn had the time to jump away to another planet and then jump back, why wouldn't the empire jump a star destroyer to any planet, triangulate the path that is being taken and simply jump right back in front of the rebel ships and destroy them all instead of following them just out of range.. it makes no sense to me. Hell.. if Darth Vader or Palpatine was there instead of Kylo Ren and Snoke.. and all the leaders of the republic were right there in front of them but just out of reach, they'd have probably sacrificed a star destroyer and made it hyperdrive right into their ships just to finish them all off in one attack.

 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

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Honestly, probably overlooked for tension sake. Scientifically speaking there was no reason why they couldn't, it's quite obvious that planet was there but like Leia pointed out it wasn't a known Rebel stronghold so I'm sure the First Order didn't even think they'd head there until they figured it out. Plus I don't think the idea of using a ship jumping into hyperspace as a weapon (fuck Hux didn't realize what the Admiral was doing until it was too late).

I get that but it honestly didn't sound like Luke was all that badass after Jedi as the books made him out to be. What little story we have comes from BF2's campaign and what little the novels went over. I get the feeling Rian didn't know how to handle Luke's character as I'm sure JJ didn't even really know what he was doing. The way they handled his character is a travesty and while I like the idea of him being the "weird old hermit" like Yoda I just don't think it was a good way to handle the character. It's almost like Rian said "Fuck it, I'm derailing this movie and killing the Skywalker saga now to tell my own story."

God I would of killed for a Thrawn movie. I've never read the books but from what my friend told me and what I've read on the Wookiepedia it'd be a hell of a ride. I only know about the clones due to reading Wookiepedia, same with Ben Skywalker. I honestly never got into reading the books until my friend introduced me to them (I was never a huge SW fan until I met him, I loved the originals but never took my fandom beyond that) and I've only read a handful at that (I don't even remember which ones). Almost all of my knowledge comes from games, wookiepedia, and my friend's extensive knowledge of SW (and his huge book collection). I blame him for both my SW obsession and Star Trek obsession.