By the time I got to see the movie and find this thread, it was already 76 pages long. I slogged through the first 40 before I started seeing the same posters cycling through the arguments again and again.
I can’t contribute anything that hasn’t already been said over and over other than:
a) I’ve only seen the film once (lucky to at all with a newborn),
b) I came out of the theatre conflicted about whether I actually enjoyed it,
c) I’ve thought about the film everyday since I saw it, and finally
d) I like it less and less each and every day.Perhaps subsequent viewings may soften my stance, but as for now:
a) I won’t pay to see it again theatrically, and
b) Barring a major course correction it will be the last Star Wars movie I see theatrically.I don’t disagree the political arc chosen for TFA and TLJ is a “realistic” or even “probable” one, and that the Rebel Alliance couldn’t establish a utopian government post ROTJ. Despite feeling like a rehash, I was willing to buy into that “reality” with TFA.
The travesty here is the character arc chosen for Luke. Despite all pro-TLJ lobbying, I simply cannot believe that this hero would have responded the way he does in TLJ.
I don’t want my heroes to be “fallen”. Some may applaud a “James Bond” movie where the protagonist is portrayed as a recovering alcoholic and sexual predator as “realistic” or “honest”, but that’s not why I would choose to watch a Bond movie. And that’s why TLJ will be the last Star Wars film that I see in theatres, the same way I stopped going to see “dark and gritty” DCEU movies after “Man of Steel”.
To be honest, I would rather they never had made the ST and I wish that Mark Hamill would have had the option of reading a script before being contractually obligated to make this film.
This reminds me of when me and my dad went to see Skyfall. I remember him saying this after the movie was over: “it’s a very well put together movie, but that’s not my James Bond”. He also said James Bond wouldn’t have gotten his ass kicked, or wouldn’t be in such a bad shape. James Bond is that guy who kills everyone and completes the impossible mission and his suit is still clean and his hair still on point afterwards. So for him, it didn’t feel like James Bond, none of the Daniel Craig movies did.
I think this is what a lot of people feel towards TLJ, more specifically to Luke.