Episode VIII : The Last Jedi - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD * — Page 62

NeverarGreat said:

…it’s supposed to be confusing and defy interpretation - not through subtlety or inter-textual clues, but through withholding of essential plot information. And that irritates me.

QFT

Don’t get me wrong, I really do enjoy TFA, but this is my biggest issue with it (aside from perhaps Death Star 3) but it doesn’t ruin my enjoyment of the film as a part of the larger story. As its own film however, it takes me out of the narrative. But it’s fairly obvious that this movie was never intended to be its own film. It was always intended to be a nostalgia driven segue, so they could buy time to figure out the details and get to the meat of the story later on.

Now the reason I think this is relevant in an Ep.8 thread is because all of this now falls on the shoulders of Rian Johnson. TLJ, in my opinion, really needs to establish a legitimate backdrop for the conveniences of TFA. Luke’s saber, Rey’s history and possible connection to prior events, and Maz’s relevance to all of these events needs to be addressed. And while I don’t think they need to be spelled out for us in detail, they do need to be given thematic and logical relevance.

Now I have complete faith in Rian Johnson to make a great film, and a great Star Wars film at that, but I really hope that he can also make the events of TFA hold more weight after viewing TLJ.

There’s no reason that can’t all be resolved in IX.

TV’s Frink said:

There’s no reason that can’t all be resolved in IX.

Certainly valid, and the question of Rey’s past is one mystery that probably won’t be fully realized until IX. But saving all of it for IX might make that film a little too dense considering it also has to wrap up all the events of the trilogy as well. But certain things like the lightsaber and Maz’s involvement feel like they could lose relevance to the overall story if they aren’t addressed soon, which would turn the conveniences of one film into conveniences of the trilogy. Just my opinion though.

lovelikewinter said:

I could see the exposition dragging down a film and grinding the plot to a halt.

"It was salvaged from a desolate planet many years ago."
Done. Not great, but it at least tries to explain something that’s a very big deal. Would have taken 10 seconds to add the line in but JJ is too obsessed with non-stop action nonsense to let the characters breathe for two minutes.
Chucking random things into a movie that have been established as gone for 30-odd years and saying “it’s okay, the sequel might explain how it suddenly popped up” is atrocious writing. I have no idea how anyone can defend it.

I just feel sorry for Rian, you’d need half a film just to explain the holes in TFA.

There are no holes in The Force Awakens that need explaining. Everything you need is right there in the movie. Sure, some things need to be inferred, but that is Star Wars. The the Original Trilogy was the same way. You don’t need everything spelled out. That would be as boring as a senate trade negotiation.

Fuck spin-offs, characters should always explain everything at all times, whether the roof’s falling in or not!

Want good writing? Look at the prequels. Extraneous exposition is the name of the game JJ. You’ll never be a George Lucas if you keep some things mysterious and open to interpretation/speculation.

I think the problem lies in assuming everything that falls takes the route the Luke did… as in dumped into the gas giant below. Likely they have sensor that can filter out recoverable materials. They are likely further sorted by the Ugnaughts. Just changing that one thing, filtering what falls into valuable and disposable, is all you need to end any wonder at how Maz got the lightsaber. From there, any route would make sense and would needlessly bog down the film.

Also, even if it did fall out the bottom of Cloud City like Luke did, there’s no reason to think it couldn’t have landed on some kind of mining platform lower down in the atmosphere.

DominicCobb said:

Fuck spin-offs, characters should always explain everything at all times, whether the roof’s falling in or not!

Want good writing? Look at the prequels. Extraneous exposition is the name of the game JJ. You’ll never be a George Lucas if you keep some things mysterious and open to interpretation/speculation

But there’s a difference between leaving things open to interpretation and bad writing for the sake of convenience. I’m not saying we need Maz to tell us exactly how the lightsaber made it from Bespin to her basement. But we do need to be told WHY it ended up there. What meaning does it hold for the story and why is it important to this new trilogy, other than nostalgia and unnecessary mystery?

The same thing applies to the other things I mentioned. Rey’s history for example. We don’t need to be told exactly who her parents are and the exact course of events that led to her being left on Jakku. But we do need to know why her past is important to the overarching story. Was she a slave/orphan for sake of creating a parallel, or does her history actually have relevance to the story.

So to be more clear, we don’t need explanations of all of this stuff, we need relevance. The things in the OT that are left open to interpretation still hold meaning and relevance to the story. In TFA, there are many instances where they don’t. And my personal hope is that TLJ is able to give relevance to the convieniences of the TFA.

The amount of shilling that some posters do on behalf of Disney for their empty, commercialized bullshit is truly astounding.

I hope they own shares in the company or are at least employed by them in some capacity.

Well that was a nice four day break anyway.

Alderaan said:

The amount of shilling that some posters do on behalf of Disney for their empty, commercialized bullshit is truly astounding.

I hope they own shares in the company or are at least employed by them in some capacity.

I know, right? That they may actually believe something of substance is contained within those movies? Utterly impossible.

Curt Schilling used to be on ESPN…

Somebody send 2-1B in here with a box of tissues.

Alderaan said:

The amount of shilling that some posters do on behalf of Disney for their empty, commercialized bullshit is truly astounding.

I hope they own shares in the company or are at least employed by them in some capacity.

What is truly astounding is that you think that return of the jedi is anything but a hollow toy commercial with zero substance…it is a awful film