NeverarGreat

As someone from South Virginia, this is about our level of geographic awareness.

He’s getting too old for this sort of thing.

I’ve decided that ranking these movies as some abstract exercise in filmic quality is folly. So I’m going to numerically rank them in terms of how I felt when they actually released:

First, the Star Wars:

1. Star Wars - A stone cold timeless classic which has never been topped
2. The Empire Strikes Back - The best Star Wars sequel and a perfect coming-of-age tale
3. Return of the Jedi - A worthy sendoff of the trilogy with some of the best optical effects ever made

Next, the Attempt at Recapturing Star Wars:

4. The Phantom Menace - A fascinating if flawed space adventure with a good mix of practical and digital effects
5. Attack of the Clones - The inflection point of the saga, whiffing on almost everything except the score
6. Revenge of the Sith - Taking all the poor choices of Clones and doubling down, officially killing the prequels

Finally, the Never Coming Close to Star Wars:

7. The Force Awakens - The opening crawl throws Star Wars in the garbage, and it manages to get worse from there
8. The Last Jedi - A sophomoric postmodernist deconstruction of the garbage fire that is this IP
9. The Rise of Skywalker - An attempt so pathetic that it truly becomes so-bad-it’s-good

So yes, the Episode numbers exactly correspond with the quality of the saga, simply because each misstep of the previous entries becomes part of the story and lessens it. The story of Star Wars is legitimately worse because of the prequels, and the 1-6 ‘Saga’ is trivialized and trashed by the ST. Attack of the Clones is better than The Last Jedi simply because TLJ never had a chance to be part of a meaningful story.

Anakin Starkiller said:

Obi-Wan Force healing Luke back to life is actually a good idea IMO. It explains why he just gives up fighting Vader; he’s already dying anyway. As it stands he just gives up for no reason.

Man, Lucasfilm really needs to cool it with these special editions. I mean, I assume that’s what happened, they must have digitally removed that big pit in the floor separating Obi-wan from the Falcon, right? Because in the movie I have at home, he was caught on the far side of that pit and decided to buy Luke and co a few precious moments to escape.

The worst is when you find one in a box set. Though I guess the makers of the Star Trek movie box set never expected for someone to actually try and watch The Final Frontier.

Apropos of nothing, but none of the films save the trilogy-starting installations really benefit from a crawl.

freezer opened with a sickening

Just checked and it totally is. Chewie’s head just pops back into frame.

Morgan the Boost said:

Anakin Starkiller said:

When Rey buries the lightsabers, she unearths the cloth-wrapped body (mummy?) of Shmi.

It occurred to my on my last re-watch (last night) that the Lars property has a perfectly good cemetery, but Rey is to lazy to go to it.

Ah, but you fail to take into account that acknowledging this cemetery would validate a small aspect of the prequel trilogy, and would obviously destroy the vast sea of goodwill built with the true fans of which Mister Abrams is a part.

Your statements reek of low class, Millennial entitlement which borders on, dare I say, outright Filoni-ism which actually disgusts me. Please refrain from such uncultured and unthinking observations in the future.

/s

I may have gone too far in a few places.

Part of this complete breakfast.

So how would y’all feel if in '77 this happened:

STAR WARS

EPISODE IV

DEATH STAR

or

A DOCTRINE OF FEAR

or

LIGHT OF THE KILLING MOON

…or anything to do with the Death Star, really, since it feels like the main character of the story.

It sounds like we have similar ideas for what the scene needs, maybe just different ways of approaching the issue.

The biggest problem when it comes to editing will be the music, I imagine, since my idea switches the locations of the airy Rey Force moment and the dramatic Luke illusion reveal.

I mean, it would be entirely different and not open to useful speculation. Would it use Hamill, Fisher, and Ford playing their characters just a few years older? Would it recast for a plot taking place hundreds of years in the future? Who knows?

Ha! I knew it.

StarkillerAG said:

I had the same idea you did about someone else helping Rey lift the rocks, except I wanted Leia to lift them. I think that could be a much better option. It would set up Leia training Rey in TROS, to make these movies seem more connected. It would show that although Rey has plenty of raw strength, as demonstrated in the rest of the movie, she still needs to learn to concentrate. And it would avoid deifing Luke’s character by having someone who hasn’t shown much Force sensitivity before performing such an enormous task.

That would be good, except that there’s really no footage that can be made to indicate this.

This is what makes me think that they might have originally intended for Luke to be involved - her look of surprise.

DominicCobb said:

NeverarGreat said:

Yeah, any issues with the power of Rey are secondary to the larger issue of her place in the story, which I think in TLJ becomes a bit usurped by Luke.

Here’s my question though, I also have an issue with that scene in the movie, but how is your change fixing that? Not saying it doesn’t I’d just be curious to hear your thought process.

I’d like to hear the specifics of your issue with it.

As for my thought process, as I said above, her powers are well established and clearly equal to Kylo’s according to the saber breaking scene. It may seem a bit paradoxical to cure the issue of Luke’s limelight stealing sacrifice with even more evidence of his awesomeness, but the important thing is not the miraculous acts but how they relate to the characters. Luke knows that the First Order will see his power and glory on full display with his illusion. He must also know that if he helps Rey save the Resistance through the lifting of the rocks, she will get the glory and legend for this act though he had a hand in it. I see it as a final gift to Rey, a vindication of her belief in the legend of the Jedi which he passes on to her in this moment. Luke may feel that he is undeserving of his legend, yet in the end he faces evil regardless. He sees the value in such an act, and now Rey has the opportunity to feel what he feels; generating a legend greater than her own acts to become a spark of hope.

Yeah, any issues with the power of Rey are secondary to the larger issue of her place in the story, which I think in TLJ becomes a bit usurped by Luke and he steals the show. It seems a bit weird to imply a collaboration between them in this act of levitation since this might serve to add to that ‘Luke is awesome’ narrative, but Rey has proven her power many times before this point.

Reviving this thread to add a few ideas:

Luke and Yoda

Though the Luke and Yoda scene has been improved by a later placement in the film (Hal and Poppa), in viewing the film holistically I think there’s a good argument for removing it completely. The scene acts as a way to show Luke’s change of heart regarding the Jedi, but in practical terms it consists of Luke’s old master ordering him to take care of Rey. It also feels weirdly and hopefully conclusive, a feeling in opposition with all potential scenes around it. Without this scene, Rey is retained as the primary force for bringing Luke back to the fight. It can be assumed that Luke has returned to protect his friends in their time of need, much more in keeping with his character than returning due to being admonished by a ghost.

Rey lifts Rocks

The entire sequence of Luke facing Kylo intercut with Rey lifting rocks feels like a missed opportunity. There are several issues, notably the arbitrariness of Luke’s death and his lack of a final contact with Rey. Both issues could be resolved if his voice called out to Rey as she lifts the rocks, clearly making him present at both her location and with Kylo.

Here’s how I might go about recutting this.

Kylo and Luke fight.
‘When I kill you, I will have killed the last Jedi!’
‘Amazing. Every word of what you just said, was wrong. The Rebellion is reborn today. The war is just beginning. And I will not be the last Jedi.’
Luke deactivates his saber.
Kylo runs at Luke, slices him in half.
Luke is revealed to be an illusion, meditating on his island.
Poe and Finn look on as the rocks are lifted.
Closeup of Luke facing Kylo. Luke says something to the effect of ‘The thousand generations live in you now’…he disappears from Kylo’s presence…‘Rey’
Cut to Rey as she lifts the rocks, surprise on her face.
Luke collapses on the island.
Rocks fall.
Reyunion and Fin.

I almost commented on the feminine aspect of purple, and how it seemed almost ‘pink ranger’ typical and for that reason to be avoided, but maybe that’s just me.

It’s very cool!

One thing I wonder though, since Rey’s saber is yellow at the end, whether it might be more fitting to have Leia’s be yellow as well. It would be an illustration of Rey carrying on Leia’s legacy even if we lose the ‘Rey Skywalker’ moment, and actually might be more powerful as just the color callback than anything she could say.