Well, I don’t envy Abrams writing ep. IX, that’s for sure.
Thought this was kind of funny:
Everything You Think is Important, Is Not Important - HelloGreedo
A bit harsh maybe, but HelloGreedo does make some interesting points in this video. Many fans do focus a a bit too much on what they think the upcoming films should be about, or what they think a character from the old films should be like after thirty years of life-experience.
Johnson also explained in an EW interview (Source) why he didn’t elaborate on Snoke;
Johnson explains why he didn’t go into Snoke’s back-story, comparing it to our introduction to Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. We didn’t know where he came from. We just knew he was pure evil, and that was enough. Perhaps not knowing where Snoke went to high school keeps that shrouded sense of mystery we needed. Plus, as Johnson points out, it would have stopped the movie in its tracks, which he didn’t want to do.
“It would have stopped any of these scenes dead cold if he had stopped and given a 30-second speech about how he’s Darth Plagueis. It doesn’t matter to Rey. If he had done that, Rey would have blinked and said, ‘Who?’ And the scene would have gone on.”
Before moving on himself, Johnson quickly added, “And I’m not saying he’s Darth Plagueis!”
It’s easy to forget retroactively that we knew very little about most backstories prior to the PT and the EU. Heck, even a lot of names, incl. Palpatine, were never actually spoken in the films.
Interesting short analysis of TLJ:
Not too sure about every point he makes, but it’s the first video I’ve come across so far that simply tries to analyse Johnson’s intentions with the film.
My rankings:
ESB
ANH
ROTJ-RO
TLJ-TFA
TPM-ROTS
AOTC
I’m still one the fence about TLJ, so this ranking is likely to change after I’ve seen it again.
(I don’t get all the negativity towards RO. I feel like it’s biggest sin was simply not trying to be the best SW movie ever. It was just a simple spin-off story that tried to entertain, and that to me is a rare virtue in modern Hollywood.)
REVISED EDITION
That looks great.
Are you planning on colouring any other photos?
I made this in about 3 hours. Never knew re-colorizing old photos would be insanely hard given little to no references, and more. (If you dont believe me, reverse google image it.)
That looks really good.
Did you have have any reference at all when it came to the colour of the jacket? Regardless the blue works quite well.
EDIT: Never mind. Found some pictures on google with the blue and orange jackets.
However as a Norwegian I find it a little weird that the gloves are still in black & white. I’d add some red and/or blue to make them more authentic.
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.
9.5/10 on first view. needs more viewings
Needs more viewings? Not a lot of room for improvement is there? Sounds like you were pretty happy with it.
i need more viewings to be sure of that rating. worst case i could see it dropping to an 8, but i doubt it.
Ah, I see. For some reason I thought you were hoping to knock it up to a full 10/10.
I guess I’m the opposite. I usually start a little low with these films, then I hope to improve my rating after the second viewing.
9.5/10 on first view. needs more viewings
Needs more viewings? Not a lot of room for improvement is there? Sounds like you were pretty happy with it.
For the moment I’d put on a pretty equal level to TFA. It had many moments far superior to TFA, but I felt was inconsistent in tone. So for me it kind of evens out in terms of over-all quality.
A 6/10 movie with 7 & 8/10 moments. (Does that make any sense?)
Silly question, but does anyone have an opinion on whether I could take my 6-year old to this. He’s not really allowed to view anything violent however I make an exception for Star Wars. I don’t want him to see Tfa as I find Kylo’s murder scenes a little too dark. This didn’t seem nearly as violent. Is it just me?
Well, no main-character is stabbed to death, but there was definetely more violent deaths than TFA. Depends on your priorities. I’d personally say that TLJ is much more intense than TFA overall.
I have a much more positive opinion of this film now that I’ve had a few days to reflect.
In essence, this film tells a very dour story: the First Order have caught up with the Rebellion that is on the run and alone after the destruction of the Republic, and they are slowly picked off one by one. What started with a whole base at the beginning, is just a handful of people that can fit in the Millennium Falcon by the end.
Another downer: people are making decisions that they think are the right ones, but they turn out to be completely wrong:
- Poe and attacking the ship then sending Rose and Finn to find a hacker. His actions have immense negative consequences that end up killing a lot of people.
- Luke cutting himself from the Force and wishing for the end of the Jedi.
- Rose and Finn finding A hacker (not THE hacker) and hoping for the best, which it doesn’t.
However, despite all of these terrible decisions comes a spark of hope:
- Poe sending Rose and Finn has inadvertently allowed the cause of the rebellion to spread.
- Luke has now become one with the Force and fully allows himself to be part of it instead of rejecting it, thus allowing him to save his friends and save his soul.
- Rey will carry on the Jedi, but perhaps is all the wiser thanks to Luke teaching her that the Force is not something that only people with a specific bloodline have, but that everyone has. This is reinforced with the boy and the broomstick and Rey’s lineage. This is in contrast with Luke who was told that, as a Skywalker, he was special, and that the force was strong with him and his family, and that only he could destroy Vader.
These are some great points, I’ll definitely have to keep that last one in mind when re-watching the film.
I’m fully convinced now that having Rey be no one special was a good decision on Johnsons part.
Hello,
can anybody tell me how the First Order Heavy Scout Walker looks in the film?
The LEGO-thing looks very weird.
Are you talking about the spider-looking thing? Because that never appeared in the film (or at least it wasn’t very noticeable). The “new” AT-ST’s however looks pretty much like the OT ones, only a tad bulkier.
Although I did think the film was fine, and the Luke-Rey-Kylo plot-line was great, I feel like TLJ’s biggest problem is a lack of consistency in tone. It really feels like Johnson tried to make three different movies and crammed them all into one. It felt like ESB, TFA and RO all crammed into one long and weird film with mixed themes and styles. TFA played it too safe, sure, but it felt like SW. It felt maybe a bit too much like SW. RO however managed to find that nice mix of OT-atmosphere mixed in with WWII and Vietnam war film concepts (both of which were OT inspirations), so it too worked fine. I can’t really tell what TLJ is trying to be. I got really excited some months back when Johnson talked about the non-SW films he’d used as inspiration, but I can’t really tell how any of those actually influenced the final film.
I’m not hyperbolic enough to call it a bad film, but I doubt I’ll be able to overlook its mistakes even upon my second viewing (though I do think I’ll like it a tad more than the first time.) So far RO is my favourite new SW film because it managed to stay committed to one tone throughout the entire movie, and it was a tone that actually fit with the franchise will still being somewhat new.
As for my more specific thoughts from the other spoiler thread:
I’m kind of conflicted about the film. For now at least. Maybe I’ll change my opinion after a second viewing (I usually do).
Many parts of the film was amazing, others just felt weird. The Luke stuff I absolutely loved, but a lot of the Finn scenes felt really weird, and so did a lot of the First Order and Resistance stuff.
The humour was a mixed bag for me. Some was great, some if it felt a bit too cartoonish.
I also feel that it overdid the CGI a lot. RO has so far been the most balanced film VFX-vise. For such a character-based film, TLJ went a bit too big with the effects.
Canto Bight was a bit disappointing. Cool idea with much potential, but it didn’t really work that well within this plot. It really should have been reserved for a RO- or SOLO-type film
Admiral Holdo was pretty interesting, but the whole thing about the cruiser being out of firing range was pretty weird. I didn’t think much about while watching the film, but on the way home my brother pointed out how much of a plot hole it really was. Why didn’t Hux just send out TIE fighters? They’re much faster and would have decimated the ship in short time.
Yoda scene was great. I loved it. It was funny and emotional. And I was so glad they did him as a puppet again. Probably my favourite scene.
Rey’s parents are nobody important. Maybe it’s petty of me to enjoy the thought that all those stupid fan theories will fall apart, but I did. It also works better in terms if Rey’s character growth. I’m very pleased with this development.
Snoke’s death came as a huge surprise. I enjoyed the scene overall, but it still bugs me. Who is he? Where did he come from? This isn’t that important, but the OT never did anything like this. Yes, there’s the EU to explain these things, but it seems kinda weird to me.
Also surprised that there were no Knights of Ren what so ever.
Leia’s force self-rescue scene. I honestly can’t tell if it was brilliant or just silly.
Luke’s force projection was, to me, a wish come true. I’ve wanted to see this in a SW film for soon long. I wonder if Rian Johnson has read Dark Empire, as a lot of TLJ reminded me of it.
Not too sure what to think about Luke becoming one with the Force. It was unexpected, but I think it worked.
Speaking of Dark Empire, I’m glad they borrowed from DE 1. Not too sure about the DE 2-style ending though. The entire Resistance was literally reduced to like 20 people.
I definitely liked it more than TFA, but until I’ve seen it again I can’t call it a “masterpiece” like so many others has online. For now RO is still my favourite new SW film.
Several plans contain “human” references (e.g. Arabic numerals on the gauge of Poe’s ship and on the gateways of the imperial vessel; champagne bottles at the casino, piano music at the casino, irons)
SW has always used Arabic numerals.
OK! Maybe this time it was too much for me…
PS: was it replaced by Aurebesh alphabet in the SE ?
The English letters, yes, but the Arabic numerals were kept the same.
But, the Porgs felt unnecessary. I didn’t find them to be cute (I’m cuteness intolerant in general) but they weren’t annoying either. Maybe made me chuckle once or twice. However, their CG design just wasn’t up to scratch and became an eyesore when they were just sitting there on a real set.
I’m pretty sure the Porgs were puppets 98% of the time, the only exceptions being when they flew or moved their feet.
The Yoda scene was…interesting. I LOVE the way the scene played out: Luke about to burn Jedi history, Yoda confronts him, Yoda burns Jedi history which then makes Luke realise that he does care about the Jedi. Very smart.
But this also left me confused. From memory, it is decided between Luke and Yoda that the Jedi should end, but at the end of the film Luke declares Rey to be the last Jedi (so are the Jedi still a thing or not?). Also, I have no idea if Yoda was a puppet or CG, I mean this in a bad way. Yoda looked like CG made to look like a puppet (my opinion). Yoda just didn’t look quite right to me, but there again he is a little green alien.
I never thought about Yoda being a CG-puppet. Might explain a few things, but I do think he was an actual puppet.
However I do think the two biggest oddities was his colour and his size/shape. He seemed to be a much darker green than he was in ESB and ROTJ, though that might be a result of the Force-ghost effect. Secondly he seemed, for the lack of a better word, “chubbier” than he used to be. I don’t think they got the dimensions of the original puppet quite right. He also seemed to have been made of a much more plastic-looking material than the original puppet (which was foam-latex I think). Though Johnson seems to have committed to making Yoda a puppet I don’t think he fully committed to it. Directors used to be much better at working with practical effects, but nowadays they’re so used to fixing things digitally that they just kind of expect everything to work out flawlessly and fail to adapt to the technology while they’re shooting.
Several plans contain “human” references (e.g. Arabic numerals on the gauge of Poe’s ship and on the gateways of the imperial vessel; champagne bottles at the casino, piano music at the casino, irons)
SW has always used Arabic numerals.
Hey guys, what was this dices-keychain thing? Have we ever seen it somewhere?
It’s been in the Millennium Falcon since ANH. Though it is somewhat of an obscure reference. This is the first time they’ve been shown in any detail (movie-wise anyway.
So, should I wait for a few days before posting my thoughts on the movie? Or is a spoiler warning enough?
Go for it mate - the film has been released to the general public - it is fair game.
In 8-and-a-bit hours I’ll have seen it myself 😃
OK. I’ll start without spoilers, then give a warning, start with light spoilers and work my way down to the big ones.
I’m kind of conflicted about the film. For now at least. Maybe I’ll change my opinion after a second viewing (I usually do).
Many parts of the film was amazing, others just felt weird. The Luke stuff I absolutely loved, but a lot of the Finn scenes felt really weird, and so did a lot of the First Order and Resistance stuff.
The humour was a mixed bag for me. Some was great, some if it felt a bit too cartoonish.
I also feel that it overdid the CGI a lot. RO has so far been the most balanced film VFX-vise. For such a character-based film, TLJ went a bit too big with the effects.
SPOILERS FROM NOW ON!
Canto Bight was a bit disappointing. Cool idea with much potential, but it didn’t really work that well within this plot. It really should have been reserved for a RO- or SOLO-type film
Admiral Holdo was pretty interesting, but the whole thing about the cruiser being out of firing range was pretty weird. I didn’t think much about while watching the film, but on the way home my brother pointed out how much of a plot hole it really was. Why didn’t Hux just send out TIE fighters? They’re much faster and would have decimated the ship in short time.
Yoda scene was great. I loved it. It was funny and emotional. And I was so glad they did him as a puppet again. Probably my favourite scene.
BIG SPOILERS!
Rey’s parents are nobody important. Maybe it’s petty of me to enjoy the thought that all those stupid fan theories will fall apart, but I did. It also works better in terms if Rey’s development. I’m very pleased with this development.
Snoke’s death came as a huge surprise. I enjoyed the scene overall, but it still bugs me. Who is he? Where did he come from? This isn’t that important, but the OT never did anything like this. Yes, there’s the EU to explain these things, but it seems kinds weird to me.
Also surprised that there were no Knights of Ren what so ever.
Leia’s force self-rescue scene. I honestly can’t tell if it was brilliant or just silly.
Luke’s force projection was, to me, a wish come true. I’ve wanted to see this in a SW film for soon long. I wonder if Rian Johnson has read Dark Empire, as a lot of TLJ reminded me of it.
Not too sure what to think about Luke becoming one with the Force. It was unexpected, but I think it worked.
Speaking of Dark Empire, I’m glad they borrowed from DE 1. Not too sure about the DE 2-style ending though. The entire Resistance was literally reduced to like 20 people.
SPOILERS OVER!
I definitely liked it more than TFA, but until I’ve seen it again I can’t call it a “masterpiece” like so many others has. For now RO is still my favourite new SW film.
So, should I wait for a few days before posting my thoughts on the movie? Or is a spoiler warning enough?
I took a screenwriting class this summer, and the tutor spent the first class using ANH as an example on how to properly pace a film. I find that kind of funny now, after having seen this video, as the ANH script, if anything, was a great example on how not to pace your film. (Of course that doesn’t change the fact that the finished film is great reference for any would-be filmmakers & screenwriters.)
I also get really happy when I see one of these OT videos that actually use footage from the unaltered film.
I feel like the Hand of Thrawn duology made a lot more sense back in the late 90’s if you had already read all the other EU books than it does nowadays. I found them to be very confusing and I had to pull out my phone and look up names all the time. At least Survivor’s Quest doesn’t have this problem, but I found it to be somewhat mediocre, even kind of dull at times. As indifferent as I am overall when it comes to the new EU, I actually found Thrawn (2017) to be Zahn’s most interesting book about Thrawn since the Thrawn trilogy.
Haven’t gotten around to reading Outbound Flight yet though.
How Star Wars was Saved in the Edit - VIDEO
Great video about the editing process of ANH and how the final film contrasts with the script and the rough cut.
(It’s also great to see one of these OT videos that actually used pre-SE footage. They even briefly mention the Despecialized edition.)
EDIT:
Seems there’s already a whole thread dedicated to this video.
What I like most about TOTJ is that the artists actively tried to make theirs stories look like they took place in the ancient past of the SW Universe. Too bad no one involved in KOTOR & TOR ever thought to do the same.
Right. I was surprised and impressed by how different it looked from any other SW content I’ve ever seen/read before. Yet it had just enough familiar concepts in it to still feel like it belonged in the same universe.
I’ve never played KOTOR, but from what little I have seen its basically just a mix of PT and OT visuals.
TotJ reminded me a lot of Dune actually (especially the Tetans). And Onderon had a bit of a Flash Gordon vibe to it (only more 90’s than 40’s.) I really wish that EU content would borrow more from SW’s influences rather than just borrow from SW itself.
Just finished reading Tales of the Jedi. Great series. It’s a pity that modern comics don’t get this creative with their art. You could argue that they’re more “realistic”, and that TotJ could get a little wacky at times, but I’ll take stylized 90’s comic art over dull realism any day.
Looks like Luke fighting/training with Rey on Ahch-To.
