Star Wars The Last Jedi

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 12/15/17 at 8:35pm

Has anybody on here seen this? I just got home from it and I am still speechless. It was just an all round amazing film. I was laughing, crying, trying hide under my coat for the entire movie. The acting was amazing and visuals were stunning. I can’t wait for 2019.

 

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I just really wished they had closure for Leia/Carrie. Everything I’ve read says they won’t be featuring leia at all in the next film and I’d just hate to see her arc left without some kind of tribute. Maybe it will be more of an off screen tribute, but I’m afraid that would be kind of cheesy.

I just have to say Laura Dern was by far my favorite part of this film acting wise. She was just stunning in her role, even if it was small. 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 12:34am

Going tomorrow (Sat) morning! Very excited.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 5:36pm

I don't think I loved it as much as you did, but I was thoroughly entertained.   Yes, visually it was stunning, and there were enough twists and turns to keep it surprising and plenty of hold your breath moments.

 

However, I definitely do not sure your feelings about Dern.   

[binau]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 8:49pm

When watching this it felt like the formula for the movie was: 1. Think about what the most obvious sci-fi/movie trope would be in this movie, and then 2. Surprise by not following it and go with the exact opposite. I loved it - and enjoyed twist after twist after twist. But can’t help but feel there was too much thought in how they can keep the audience on the edge of their seat. I know that is an odd thing to say.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/17/17 at 4:57pm

I really liked it and it was bittersweet knowing  it was Carrie Fisher's last movie. I thought Mark Hamill was the best part of it.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/17/17 at 5:07pm

Well, that was certainly a feast-- especially when viewed in 3D on the big screen at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood as any giant popcorn movie like this should be viewed.

Gird yourself-- the thing is a full 2 1/2 hours long, and does feel it in places. As with any of these space operas, I'm always a bit bored by the battles and chases and love the dialogue exchanges that fill the quiet spaces in between. That was true of this one in spades. They took great care to pepper the proceedings with loving throwbacks to the very first trilogy of films, restoring old characters and beats to the story that made me warm all over. The story this time was full of holes (as usual), but FELT emotionally sound the whole way through, and that was what was important.

The acting had some sold strengths (Carrie Fisher could do no wrong), and disastrous misses in equal measure: who could possibly explain the casting of Laura Dern with her neurotic midwestern twang as a rebel commander?? And poor Adam Driver seemed out of his league sharing the screen digitally with the magnificent Andy Serkis, and later on with Mark Hamill who bore a welcome sheen of gravitas for the first time. 

But the movie didn't sink or swim on its acting laurels; the writing and direction were on such solid footing that we were happy to go along on whatever ride they wanted to take us. Bravo!

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 12/17/17 at 6:54pm

People keep saying there were plot holes. What plot holes????

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/17/17 at 7:18pm

I'll try to answer without naked spoilers if I can.

The first Act and last Act both end in climaxes where our heroes the rebels manage to escape by means that make no sense-- A) Why wouldn't the First Order continue to chase them wherever they go? and B) if the rebels have a solution all along for destroying the Empire's evil mother ship in Act I (sorry, don't know the term), why did they wait so long to do it in the first place? Also C), what was the whole point of going off to the Casino planet if they never actually bring the real mastermind on board with them, and never succeed in deactivating whatever was supposed to be deactivated on the Empire ship? A complete red herring that takes up most of the middle reel.

Regardless, the film works EMOTIONALLY if not logically, and that's all that really matters, right?

Updated On: 12/17/17 at 07:18 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 9:19am

The Casino sequence makes explicit what has been only moderately implicit since the prequels: that the Empire/Rebellion squabble takes place in one galaxy, in a much larger universe that frankly does not care. Establishing that the warmongers exist as a third and nebulous force outside the army versus army conflict may not impact the plot much in the short term, but it certainly opens up the scope of the story and its morality into a shade of grey it didn't seem enthusiastic about exploring before.

Also: kudos to Hamill for growing as a live performer. Hamill has spent his whole career essentially playing two roles, classic flavor Luke and variations of his voiceover role as The Joker. Here, he steps away from his two "types" to play a third figure, and he does it masterfully (even though it's just a new version of his classic role).

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 10:54am

^I was, too, impressed with him -- I thought maybe I was just being sentimental!

[haterobics]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 11:43am

I enjoyed it a lot but hasn't every movie been that they have some massive weapon, and the good guys know its one crazy vulnerability? And it's so obvious even the janitor knows how to bring it down?! And once they introduce that there are arms dealers selling equipment to both sides, doesn't that just mean the Resistance isn't buying the better available weapons? But as soon as they're in trouble they tell people, oh don't worry, you'll be rewarded handsomely if you help us...

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/18/17 at 11:56am

It's cheaper to buy a hundred spies than a nuke.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 12/21/17 at 11:03am

I was very dissapointed in this movie, to be honest.  I hate that plot points and characters were set up one way in "Force Awakens" and then this writer/director decided "Nah....I wanna do my own thing."   You can't try to start at ground zero in the second part of a trilogy.  Plus, the Casino planet/Rose side plot had no point being in the movie.  It's like the writer/director didn't know what to do with Finn so he kept him far away from everyone else on his own quest which amounted to nothing.  Snoke and Phasma were wasted and I love how Rey went to Luke to train and learn more about "what is inside" her, but the only training she got was "Reach out."    Sadly, this is one of my least favorite of the franchise.  

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/21/17 at 11:13am

Which characters were set up one way and delivered a different way?  No point to the casino planet?   Sure there was....lots.  The wealthy don't give a crap about the rest of the world, as well as the ending of the film with the stable boy.

 

I will say I liked both Rogue One and the Force Awakens MORE than this, but episodes 1,2 & 3 are all just gawd-awful.....and could never be above The Last Jedi on my list.

 

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 12/21/17 at 11:44am

The casino planet served no point to the plot of the movie.  They went there to find the code breaker with the flower lapel to stop the tracker but all it did was show greedy people treating animals and people poorly and they randomly picked up a guy who says he could break the code.   Come to find out.......nothing happened with that subplot.  They got caught.....the tracker was never stopped.....the guy they found got paid.....rose and Finn escaped.  Yeah it set up the kid at the end using the force to grab a broom but what other purpose was there for it?  It showed what's going in another part of the galaxy but it took time away from more important things in the story.

In regards to what was set up that this movie ignored/changed from "Force Awakens" =   Snoke was set up to be the big bad like Palpatine in "Force Awakens." Even in this movie he stated that he set up the whole force melding between Rey and Kylo and he was starting to turn Kylo while being trained by Luke.   But he gets killed by Kylo before anything is established as to the how/why/when. Also, if it's true that he was the one connecting them.......how did they continue to do it after he dies?   Phasma was also set up for something (or so it seemed) but nothing happens with her.  Both characters should never have been introduced if nothing was to come of them.  They could have just mentioned Snoke in passing as to who put Kylo on this path. 

Ray's parents are big one.   In a way it's cool that she came from nothing but at the same time the first movie and parts of this one built it up the "Who are her parents" so much as to how she could be so powerful in the force and seem to know and do things without any type of training.  What was the point of her touching the lightsaber in "Force Awakens" and have Kanobi talk to her if there is no connection?  Why him?  

Also, and one of my biggest issues, is that everyone (minus Luke and maybe Po) ends the movie in the exact same spot they started.  There is no character development in any of them.  Kylo is still conflicted, Rey has learned nothing new, Finn was on a side adventure the entire time and learned what?  That there are greedy people out there and there is no good in self sacrifice?  Which by the way is a big theme in the Star Wars.  Kanobi sacrificed himself for Luke.........Vader sacrificed himself to stop Palpatine from killing his son......the resistance fighters sacrificed themselves to save the galaxy from the First Order......Holdo sacrifices herself to save the last few ships remaining trying to reach the planet.........Luke sacrificed himself at the end to give a distraction for everyone to escape?  But then Rose makes that statement that it's not meaningful?   I'm glad Finn didn't die but why make that speech when Holdo JUST sacrificed herself and Luke is about to?  

 

I know I rambled a lot of but those are my thoughts.  I may have to see it a second time to get more out of it but yeah..........

 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/21/17 at 5:16pm

I agree with a few of your points, and see what you mean about others.  (Rey's parentage annoyed me, too - not because she came from nobody, but that they threw it away and she had a (supposed) false memory.

 

I disagree with the planet: I think it tied in with the ending that no one was going to help what was left of the rebellion - that we see why = they are set.  And going back to the boy, we set up that the young and downtrodden will rise up and use the force, which also sets up the good in the force, helping those who need it.

 

I think some of your other points are more along lines of personal disappointment and expectations vs film reality -- but that doesn't make it any less disappointing for you personally.  

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 12/21/17 at 6:33pm

I enjoyed it a lot, though not as much as the last one. I'm more of a casual fan, and to be honest I didn't know precisely what was happening at any given time...but it didn't matter one bit.

I assumed that that there will be more reveals about Rey's parentage - after the last one, I thought she was Luke's daughter, and during this one I got the feeling that Ben & her were twins (echoing Luke & Leia)...the "parents" who traded her or whatever must simply have been tasked to look after her...there just has to be more to the story - but like I said, I really don't know what I'm talking about. I have a hard time remembering all the names, who's supposed to be in love with whom (Rey  & Finn? Finn & Rose? Ben & Rey?).  I definitely missed Harrison Ford's sardonic presence.

It was weird when Laura Dern said "Godspeed". Isn't that essentially just another way of saying "May The Force Be With You"? I thought that the Force more or less was God?

 

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I guess none of the original main trio (Carrie, Harrison, Mark) will be in the next one? What a shame.

How nice to see Yoda make an appearance! Can Jedi just come back as ghosts now?

Edit - I just realized I forgot to mention how pretty Oscar Isaac is. 

Finally, I got an unexpected lump in my throat when the tribute to "our Princess" came up during the end credits. Such a loss.

Updated On: 12/21/17 at 06:33 PM

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 12/21/17 at 8:50pm

I just saw it again tonight, and perhaps it’s only me, but when Laura dern was staying the ship I wanted to cry my eyes out. She was just so there, to me.
^and yes this time I stayed through the credits and got appreciate that moment. So bittersweet. I can’t help but wonder what it felt like for Billie to see herself alongside her mother in one of her first films, but in carries last.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 12/22/17 at 6:30am

A little late in seeing this , it’s a pity that so much of it was filler . But when it soared , it was magnificent. Starting with Rey with snoke onwards till the end was edge of your seat film making. Sadly the first 80 or so minutes lacked

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 12/22/17 at 4:20pm

Why did Kylo stop wearing the head mask (and why did he ever wear it to begin with)?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/22/17 at 10:15pm

Wearing it?  As a connection/homage to his grandfather.  (My assumption)

Stopped?  After Snoke ridiculed him for it and ordered him to take it off, his rage over being put in his place made him destroy it.

[wiggum2]

Posted: 12/23/17 at 12:58pm

Jay Lerner-Z said: "

 

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I guess none of the original main trio (Carrie, Harrison, Mark) will be in the next one? What a shame.

How nice to see Yoda make an appearance! Can Jedi just come back as ghosts now?

Edit - I just realized I forgot to mention how pretty Oscar Isaac is.

Finally, I got an unexpected lump in my throat when the tribute to "our Princess" came up during the end credits. Such a loss."

the ghost thing was in the original trilogy as well

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/23/17 at 4:09pm

 Can Jedi just come back as ghosts now?

Sometimes....

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 12/23/17 at 5:16pm

Oh, right. Thanks, I forgot about Obi Wan.

I'm a little sketchy on the first trilogy - I did see the re-tooled versions years ago, but I was holding out for the original CGI-less presentations before re-watching. I guess I'll be waiting a while, though...I thought they might re-appear when Disney bought the franchise.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 12/23/17 at 11:58pm

Jay Lerner-Z said: "Oh, right. Thanks, I forgot about Obi Wan.

I'm a little sketchy on the first trilogy - I did see the re-tooled versions years ago, but I was holding out for the original CGI-less presentations before re-watching. I guess I'll be waiting a while, though...I thought they might re-appear when Disney bought the franchise. "

There's a few revived whispers that now that Disney is buying Fox and will gain full control over distribution rights for the original movies that we may be able to see the original versions again sometime in the near future. Of course, Lucas claimed that the original, unaltered negatives no longer exist, but who knows what some dedicated folks might be able to turn up if they really try.