I took advantage of Barnes and Noble’s 40% off Criterion blu-rays and an additional 25% off coupon to get The Hidden Fortress. I’ve never seen it, but as its listed as an inspiration for Star Wars so I guess I should.
You’re in for a treat.
how about making her Obi-Wan’s daughter. Thus linking up to a potential new spin off. Maybe JJ an swing the new script into that ark.
Because Obi-Wan died 15 years before Rey was born. To make her a Kenobi, you’d need to give Obi-Wan a lover AND a child offscreen. I suppose you could give him a secret kid with Satine from TCW, but they can’t expect a general audience who isn’t super familiar with the cartoon to follow or care about all that. Besides, Johnson’s whole point is that it’s time to stop focusing on bloodlines. Making Rey a nobody democratizes the Force. Making her a Kenobi keeps it aristocratic.
One other thing that Johnson said was that he wrote the script for The Last Jedi before TFA…
Incorrect. Johnson wrote much of TLJ before TFA was released, but the TFA script was definitely finalized and production well underway before he started his own screenplay.
I find it funny that anyone can say feminism is a bad thing with a straight face.
Val, I clarified my earlier statement after you called me out the first time (it seems to be the only post from yesterday you haven’t quoted). I’m done talking about it. Dre seems to be done talking about it. The only reason anyone’s still talking about it is because you keep dragging it back out. Between this and your stirring the pot with Frink over in the Han Solo thread, you seem to be going out of your way to have these confrontations. Please, give it a rest.
This definitely needed to be dredged up again.
I understood his point just fine, I just think bringing in extra-textual material like this is a bad move in general. Deleted scenes are like biblical apocrypha. It’s interesting stuff from a process standpoint, but it’s disingenuous to assign it any kind of substantial weight when you’re evaluating the finished film, especially when it was cut for the very reason you find it problematic in the first place. Star Wars aside, I take issue with that as a general principle of criticism.
Clarification: Disney/LFL says they didn’t make it, which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fake. It could be official product packaging from Hasbro or something like that.
Slashfilm is now saying it’s fake.
Alleged first official image, from an upcoming magazine story:
I think it depends on why they were cut.
Apparently the scene was cut because the movie was too long or it didn’t fit with the flow of the film, not because it didn’t fit Rian’s vision, especially because the scene was in the trailer, so it was part of the final product for some time.
Not according to the Art Of book. That says that it was cut when Rian Johnson et al realized it was going too far and it threw off the tone. It’s not that it was deemed non essential and taken out to cut down on running time. RJ decided it was wrong for the movie and removed it for that reason.
So even though he ultimately decided the scene didn’t work and changed the film accordingly, you’re still upset at him for having the idea in the first place? I’m sorry, but that’s pretty weak.
No it’s not. Cut content still speaks to the mindset of the writer of the story.
I firmly believe anything that doesn’t make the final movie isn’t admissible in this kind of argument, however interesting it may be. Otherwise, Indiana Jones is a statutory rapist.
I caught a live broadcast of a 4th of July concert where an orchestra did a Star Wars medley this past year, and it cut to some scenes from what appeared to be an SD Master of the 1997 SE. And the Xfinity OnDemand menu screen seemed to be using the GOUT for their little Star Wars bump when TFA came out.
But Luke changes his tune after his conversation with Yoda, returns to save his friends, WITHOUT killing Kylo, leaving the door open for his possible redemption, and goes out expressing hope that Rey will get the Jedi going again after all. He strayed for the seven or so years between Kylo’s fall and the start of the ST, but by the end of the movie his faith in the Jedi is restored. The beginning of the movie deconstructs the whole Jedi thing, sure, but I don’t understand how people aren’t seeing that the last act reconstructs it.
Exactly! People seem to take all of Luke’s harsh words on the Jedi early on as if they’re the gospel according to Rian Johnson. Same goes for Kylo Ren and his new motto (“let the past die, kill it if you have to.”).
Just because the characters say things doesn’t mean that that’s what the film itself is saying.
Yes, but that’s an interesting question. What is TLJ saying exactly? The burning of the Jedi tree seems perfectly in line with Kylo’s lines in the film. The movie spends a lot of time deconstructing previously held conceptions and expectations, but at least to some of us doesn’t really seem to fill the void it leaves behind.
Ironically enough I think it’s arguing against extreme opinions. On one side you have Kylo with “kill the past,” on the other you have Luke who’s trapped in a prison of the past. They are both obsessed with it, in their own way (as is Rey, with her parents).
I feel like I’ve said this before but when Luke goes to burn the tree, he’s not killing the past, he’s just furthering his obsession with the Jedi Order and how wrong he thinks they are. But of course he can’t actually go through with it, he can’t let go of the religion and the texts and the dogma and the history and all of it. When Yoda burns the tree, Luke takes that as confirmation: “So it is time for the Jedi to end.” Yoda responds “Time it is… for you to look past a pile of old books.” The message is clear, Yoda isn’t saying that it’s time for the Jedi to end and for the past to die, he’s just saying that it’s time to move on. The fact that Luke says he won’t be the last Jedi and that Rey saves the books just proves this further. Move on from the past, but don’t forget it. That’s the choice Rey makes when she doesn’t go with Kylo, that’s the choice she makes when she returns to the Resistance and her friends.
Cosign.
What is TLJ saying exactly?
[Yoda said:]
the greatest teacher, failure is.
Now, that may not exactly be what the movie is saying about the Jedi Order specifically, but I believe that is TLJ’s overall thesis statement.
But Luke changes his tune after his conversation with Yoda, returns to save his friends, WITHOUT killing Kylo, leaving the door open for his possible redemption, and goes out expressing hope that Rey will get the Jedi going again after all. He strayed for the seven or so years between Kylo’s fall and the start of the ST, but by the end of the movie his faith in the Jedi is restored. The beginning of the movie deconstructs the whole Jedi thing, sure, but I don’t understand how people aren’t seeing that the last act reconstructs it.
i am curious, how trustworthy is this scene description?
It’s in the official Art of The Last Jedi book.
So even though he ultimately decided the scene didn’t work and changed the film accordingly, you’re still upset at him for having the idea in the first place? I’m sorry, but that’s pretty weak.
… but they cut it. For exactly that reason.
I figured it was just Benicio Del Toro being Benicio Del Toro.
So I saw this again with my parents last night (my fourth viewing). Interestingly enough, they both loved the DJ character and are hoping Del Toro comes back for IX, which is an opinion I haven’t really seen much. Overall, my mom had no problems with the story but preferred the simpler, more restrained style of TFA. My dad had no problems at all. For context, they were 15 and 14 in 1977 respectively, loved the originals, and hated the prequels. They both really liked TFA and my mom adores R1.
As for me, I was able to really lose myself in it again. After my third viewing I was worried that it didn’t have the same kind of endless rewatchability that TFA does for me, but now I’m pretty sure I was just over-tired for that screening. I think I agree with my mom about TFA being the more elegantly executed film, but I haven’t decided yet whether I value that more or less than TLJ’s ambition. In any case, I love them both.
Porgatory?
They’ll never touch Chewie after the whole Vector Prime backlash. I think the author of that book is still in hiding. 😉
His name is R. A. Salvatore and he lives in the town next to mine. My dad is on the board of trustees at the local library and he saw him speak at some event they did. He said he does indeed still get hassled from time to time, but by now it’s always tongue in cheek.
Anyway, Chewie’s not going anywhere. He’s the only legacy character besides R2-D2 who isn’t tied to a specific actor.
If there is a new release coming up in the near future, be it OOT or SE, I expect it to be around this time next year, when we’ll have our first holiday season of the Disney era without a new film. That seems to be the perfect time to drop a rerelease without it distracting from anything else.
That’s also when Solo will be out on Blu Ray and DVD.
I’m pretty sure TFA and R1 were both released on home video in April, and I saw somewhere the other day that the TLJ blu-ray has been confirmed for April 18 in the UK. Assuming the same four-month lag for Solo, that puts the disc in late September. Still plenty of time after that to drum up excitement for a Christmas OT release.
Reminds me of a place I had drinks at in Ithaca, NY once, I forget what it was called. They had cocktails named the Moff Tarkin, the Kessel Run, the Wampa, and a few more that I forget (I took a picture of the menu but I can’t seem to find it now). I think I had the Kessel Run, which was tasty, but the jalepeño-infused vodka was a little overpowering. They also had Star Wars action figures all over the bar. Fun place.
If there is a new release coming up in the near future, be it OOT or SE, I expect it to be around this time next year, when we’ll have our first holiday season of the Disney era without a new film. That seems to be the perfect time to drop a rerelease without it distracting from anything else.
