It occurred to me today that they convinced Abrams to do TFA with the question “Who is Luke Skywalker?” and with the events of TLJ and JJ now coming back for IX, that’s pretty much the only thing in the ST he won’t address.
I think we’ll see Luke in 9, either as a force ghost or in flashback.
I hope so, anyway. Hamill rules.
Whoever voiced the Mon Calamari character in Rogue One didn’t sound too different from Ackbar.
I didn’t realize it was someone else. Whoever that was could have done it for this. I agree, by the way, it would have had a lot more weight if it had been him. Either way, I thought the silent visual of the rebel ship hitting the First Order ship was absolutely fantastic. Second only to the shot of Leia looking out from the base on Crait. The total solitude of that shot was VERY moving.
Full review later.
Very very interested to hear your full review of this, Anchorhead.
I actually thought the Force projection thing was alright. That was I think the only time this movie ventured somewhat successfully out of its own comfort zone. Sure, it’s not the most outrageous thing you could think of, but at least it’s something we haven’t seen in a Star Wars movie before.
Agree. I like the Force projection. New stuff is cool if it’s good.
Random thought: Why did Chewie cool that Porg anyway? Didn’t have him down as a ‘well done’ kinda guy.
I actually thought The Last Jedi gave us a really nice, naturalistic, presentation of the Force, and went a long way to retcon the mistake of Midichlorians, blood tests, and ‘all in the genes’ exclusivity that the PT advanced.
Rey isn’t a Skywalker, she isn’t a Kenobi. She’s no one. And for the audience, that makes her everyone.
I agree with this. RJ (and JJ in TFA) made the force magical again, and personally I’m not fussed by Rey not being a Skywalker or a Kenobi or whatever, I think ‘anybody can access the Force’ is a far better take on it.
Could somebody explain to me why I’m supposed to give a sh*t about Captain Phasma?
Seriously, a lot of people seem to find this character and her ‘story’ interesting. What’s the deal?
^agree
Im so bored of being told I don’t like TLJ because it was different. No, I didn’t like it because characters, plot points and events were underdeveloped and large chunks of the movies were, frankly, lame.
rodneyfaile said:
the new walkers didn’t really do anything but stand there.This was something I thought afterwards but couldn’t confirm, did only the TIE Fighters attack instead of the walkers just shooting down the junk ships?
They fired at force-projection Luke (in a sequence that felt like a video game) but I don’t think they actually shot at the junk ships.
Here’s a pretty good article about the film: https://www.avclub.com/part-kurosawa-part-wile-e-coyote-the-last-jedi-boldl-1821291545
RE: Ackbar vs. Holdo, the author of this piece has a good point in a response to a comment:
Lotta folks seem to think that her role should have gone to good ol’ Admiral Ackbar, but I get Johnson’s intention: Everybody likes Ackbar, and the audience needs to be fooled into Poe’s point-of-view.
Probably why she didn’t get a proper ‘hero’ introduction as well. It’s a trade-off, but one I liked given where and how it’s taken: this is all Poe’s point of view - to the very end, and that’s why his turn into a proper leader works in the finale.
The more I think about it, the more I appreciate how well-written this film is.
Poe got a bunch of people killed because he was reckless and disobeyed orders. But it’s cool because ‘Ah, that’s just how Poe is, the little scamp’.
almost everything on the casino planet
If nothing else, the “riding the CGI animals” stuff was prequel-level awful.
Don’t be that guy, Frink.
He’s right though. I went to the bathroom at that point.
Yeah, Ackbar should have gone down fighting. Can’t imagine Ackbar being a dick to Poe though.
Or vice versa.
They could have changed the way the dynamics between the two characters played out while still retaining the basic storyline (i.e Poe thinks the Admiral is making a mistake, Poe disobeys, then Admiral is proven right and ultimately sacrifices himself to save the resistance).
Poe clearly had reverence for Holdo before meeting her but was then disappointed by her actions. He could have easily felt the same way about Ackbar (this is the guy who led the Rebel fleet in the Battle of Endor and now his plan is basically to run away in unarmed transports… no way, the guy’s old and lost it, I’m taking over).
I am feeling like these arguments from the people vehemently defending hating TLJ, they’re rationalizing. They want to hate it, and so are finding reasons to justify their position.
Yes, it seems some people have thrown reason out the window, and are being willfully obtuse about it.
This is unfair. I wanted to like it (I loved TFA) and I am openly jealous of those people who loved it, wishing I could be in their number. But I’m not.
The same argument could be levelled at some of the people who loved it despite its many glaring flaws. They ‘wanted to like it’ and so will say anything to convince others (and themselves).
Or maybe the above is bullshit and people just like different things… how about that?
I would have preferred for Admiral Ackbar to occupy the role that was given to new character Admiral Holdo.
Yes! Great idea. That would have made that whole plot line 100% better.
I didn’t actually like or give a shit about Snoke in TFA, and agree a retread of the old ‘master and apprentice’ thing would have been lame/predicatable. I also think the way in which he died (and thatbwhole throne room scene) was pretty good.
But after setting Snoke up in the last film it would have been nice to at least get some insight into who he was and why he was doing what he was doing so that Kylo’s destruction of him could have had some meaning/impact on events. As it stands I didn’t care about Snoke before or after his death. He was a cardboard cutout villain. They may as well have given him a moustache to twirl.
Does anybody have anything good to say about the finale in which the star destroyer gets totalled by Laura Dern light-speeding through it and Finn/Rose/Phasma being the only survivors then BB8 piloting an AT-ST?
Come at me with positivity about that whole scene, I could do with a laugh.
It looked cool.
Agree
I like Laura Dern as an actress and she played her part well enough.
Disagree. I used to like her as an actres but after this and Twin Peaks I kind of think she sucks.
Snoke’s stretched out Star Destroyer getting wrecked made me feel good because holy fuck that thing was hilarious looking.
Agree
Holdo dying was good because she was an annoying character who could have easily removed an hour of runtime from that movie if she just told people her plan.
100% agree
I have nothing good to say about anything involving Finn, Rose, Phasma, or BB-8.
Oh man 1000% agree (in this movie. I liked Finn and BB8 a lot in the last one. Rose sucks hard).
Does anybody have anything good to say about the finale in which the star destroyer gets totalled by Laura Dern light-speeding through it and Finn/Rose/Phasma being the only survivors then BB8 piloting an AT-ST?
Come at me with positivity about that whole scene, I could do with a laugh.
I was absolutely left stunned with that sacrifice scene; I could feel the whole theater in such awe of that visual! That’s the first time a movie visually surprised me in that way. Usually, eye candy to me makes my eye roll because it’s just there for a cool factor with little purpose. Here, there was more emotion behind it, so I really loved that moment.
Oh and BB-8 with the Walker caught me by surprise too; I really thought it was going to be the codebreaker.
Fair enough.
Agree it was visually quite cool.
Personally I had no emotional attachment to Laura Dern’s character. In fact I thought she kind of sucked, so her sacrifice meant very little to me.
And even if it had, Finn, Rose, Phasma and BB8 surviving the total destruction of a Star destroyer just felt very convenient to the point that it took me out of the movie and destroyed any cool factor that had come before.
BB8 piloting an AT-ST is up there with R2’s rocket jets (and for the record I loved BB8 in TFA, so aim not just a BB8 hater like some folk. I would have liked to see him have a bigger role in the movie as a whole a la R2 in the OT).
Does anybody have anything good to say about the finale in which the star destroyer gets totalled by Laura Dern light-speeding through it and Finn/Rose/Phasma being the only survivors then BB8 piloting an AT-ST?
Come at me with positivity about that whole scene, I could do with a laugh.
As such, this trilogy is like that game where you fold a piece of paper and each person takes it in turns to draw a head/torso/legs then unfold the paper and see what weird monster drawing you end up with.
That’s exactly what it is, for better or for worse!
For the record, I’m not against giving writers and directors free reign at all. Creativity by committee rarely works and I think a director or writer should absolutely be allowed to have their own vision. But I also think that free reign should be given in the spin off and standalone films (eg Rogue One), while the main Star Wars ‘Saga’ should maybe be treated with a certain reverence and a degree of planning to make sure the characters and world get the coherent story they deserve (as opposed to a ‘let’s take this 40 years old and much loved property and just see what happens’).
(By the way, I haven’t seen episode 9 yet -obviously- so I’m not actually saying this new trilogy doesn’t work because how could I know that? I’m just expressing some opinions on the approach the creators of the trilogy have taken based on what I’ve seen so far).
The final chapter is supposed to be a pay-off, but a pay-off to what?
I feel the same.
I agree that different is good, risks are good, and nobody wants to be spoon-fed obvious, predictable stories. But TLJ left me with no plotlines or stakes to really care (or even wonder) about going into the next film. By the third act of any story I should be aware of what we are working towards and what I’m supposed to be hoping each character will or won’t achieve.
Also… I’ve heard a lot of people either praising or criticising Rian Johnson for the decisions this film took. Do you really think RJ was in charge here? I’m pretty sure this film was made by a committee. There’s no way they’d let some director come along with a bunch of weird ideas and just let him run with them at the risk of torpedoing the master plan. Gareth Edwards had to reshoot half his movie and Colin Trevorrow was fired because he wouldn’t play ball. RJ is a hired gun like the rest of them, no?
JJ pitched his Episode IX story to Kathy Kennedy yesterday.
It’s RJ’s ideas, but she has to approve, and it has to align with the Story Group during.
So while they were making TLJ nobody actually knew (even loosely) what the overall arc of the new trilogy would be?
That sounds like a really dumb way to make a trilogy.
How is that any different from the OT?
Lucas never had much of a plan for any of the OT sequels before he actually started to work on them.
He may not have known specifics but he probably had some overall thoughts on how things might end up (which inevitably changed and evolved as things went on).
Admittedly Lucas didn’t know everything right from the start, and it’s obvious that stuff like Vader being Luke’s Father was thought up later, but the fact that Lucas was one guy forming the story means that he was at least thinking in ‘big picture’ terms when he made (most of) his decisions.
Also, and this is a key difference, Star Wars ‘77 was released as a stand-alone movie. It wasn’t announced as the first part of a trilogy right off the bat like these new films have been. If you announce a trilogy you should probably have given some thought to what that trilogy looks like, story-wise, rather than announce 3 movie then make it up as you go along.
As such, this trilogy is like that game where you fold a piece of paper and each person takes it in turns to draw a head/torso/legs then unfold the paper and see what weird monster drawing you end up with.
The final chapter is supposed to be a pay-off, but a pay-off to what?
I feel the same.
I agree that different is good, risks are good, and nobody wants to be spoon-fed obvious, predictable stories. But TLJ left me with no plotlines or stakes to really care (or even wonder) about going into the next film. By the third act of any story I should be aware of what we are working towards and what I’m supposed to be hoping each character will or won’t achieve.
Also… I’ve heard a lot of people either praising or criticising Rian Johnson for the decisions this film took. Do you really think RJ was in charge here? I’m pretty sure this film was made by a committee. There’s no way they’d let some director come along with a bunch of weird ideas and just let him run with them at the risk of torpedoing the master plan. Gareth Edwards had to reshoot half his movie and Colin Trevorrow was fired because he wouldn’t play ball. RJ is a hired gun like the rest of them, no?
JJ pitched his Episode IX story to Kathy Kennedy yesterday.
It’s RJ’s ideas, but she has to approve, and it has to align with the Story Group during.
So while they were making TLJ nobody actually knew (even loosely) what the overall arc of the new trilogy would be?
That sounds like a really dumb way to make a trilogy.
Maybe JJ can tie everything up. Let’s see in 2 years.
The final chapter is supposed to be a pay-off, but a pay-off to what?
I feel the same.
I agree that different is good, risks are good, and nobody wants to be spoon-fed obvious, predictable stories. But TLJ left me with no plotlines or stakes to really care (or even wonder) about going into the next film. By the third act of any story I should be aware of what we are working towards and what I’m supposed to be hoping each character will or won’t achieve.
Also… I’ve heard a lot of people either praising or criticising Rian Johnson for the decisions this film took. Do you really think RJ was in charge here? I’m pretty sure this film was made by a committee. There’s no way they’d let some director come along with a bunch of weird ideas and just let him run with them at the risk of torpedoing the master plan. Gareth Edwards had to reshoot half his movie and Colin Trevorrow was fired because he wouldn’t play ball. RJ is a hired gun like the rest of them, no?
I’ve read tons of reactions to this movie and the one thing that people who hate it all seem to agree is terrible is the ‘Space Leia’ moment. People who like the movie largely don’t mention it.
I don’t know what that means.
For the record, I thought that did look a little weird, but I ended up quite enjoying it.
Not everyone… it looked weird but I didn’t hate it in theory. Leia’s learnt The Force since ROTJ and can now survive in space (for a short time and requiring recovery in the medical bay)… I can go with that just about.
There were worse things about this movie than Space Leia.
actually making the force feel magical again
Ok, on this point I 100% agree. Luke explaining the force to Rey was excellent.
Mark Hamill has been a seriously underrated actor for far too long. (Even though he’s probably the best incarnation of The Joker ever.) He played Mozart in Amadeus on Broadway, but likely wasn’t even considered for the film version because he’s forever identified with Luke in a way Harrison Ford doesn’t have to deal with having been both Han and Indy.
Mark just knocked it out of the park with this. I sincerely hope he gets an Oscar nomination. It would be a first for a Star Wars film?
I waited 34 years to see Luke back in action, and it was worth the wait.
Hamill was by far the best thing about the film. I loved every minute he was on screen.
People are going to warm up to this one. It’ll take some time, because it’s so different. But it will happen.
I do hope you’re right. And maybe Ep9 will give this a new slant.
But you know what? I’ve heard this ‘it’s just different’ defence a lot, and that’s not why I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it because large chunks of it were lame, dialogue in places was awful, whole plots were redundant/cheesy/boring, etc. It didn’t just fall down for me as a SW film, it fell down on basic movie stuff too.