Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (SPOILERS ALLOWED)
Posted: March 10th, 2018, 11:55 pm
Yes, thanks Pep! I've corrected the post.
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Nah, you're making a lot of sense. And that's definitely like old times.Rollafett wrote: ↑March 8th, 2018, 4:29 pm You ain't wrong. I know this entire trilogy is partly a farewell to the original trilogy heroes, but I still see them getting far too little screen-time. Han dominates the film pretty much and even he didn't show up until the 40 minute mark (IIRC). Leia has a small role in the film and doesn't show up up until when....more than an hour in? Luke and R2 are basically not even in TFA and 3PO is practically a cameo. I thought Chewie received proper screen-time, but the horrible error of having Leia and him not console each other after Han's death is unforgivable.
In TLJ they introduce this casino city and Johnson says after the fact that he couldn't come up with a way to incorporate Lando in the film at all? Really? Baffling. Hell, couldn't he have been on the receiving end of Leia's distress call while they were on Krait? Something, c'mon!
Now we go into EP IX and the big three are all gone already. For the most part, I like these films, but it is strange how they're piece-mealing this trilogy together.
And now I'm babbling. Like old times.
I won't go that far. I think there were the best of intentions.
I think Best Buy has an exclusive steelbook, so if I was buying (I'm not), I'd probably get that one.
Thanks, Borg. We looked for it at Target tonight, but the one we want was sold out. We looked online and it's sold out at all Targets from Here (St. Paul) to Chicago! We may have to look elsewhere.borgmatrix wrote: ↑March 29th, 2018, 10:01 am I think Walmart has interchangeable covers and Target...I think like a collector's book/booklet of some kind.
Conceivably, my 3 theater viewings might be it. Can't think of any reason to revisit it.Rollafett wrote: ↑March 30th, 2018, 8:38 pm I bought it on Wednesday here in the states and I haven't felt an urgency to watch the film itself, which I found very strange, considering I only saw it once in theaters and knew it required multiple viewings for me to get a real good handle on it. That bothers me....hell, I watched the extremely mediocre Justice League 3 times in 5 days once I had that on blu-ray.
As much as it was tampered with, JL is better. And it's more fun. I bought it and will be watching it, even if not as much as BvS.Rollafett wrote: ↑March 31st, 2018, 7:30 pm For TLJ, I was unable to get to the theater for more than one viewing, although I absolutely wanted to because I felt that it required multiple viewings to absorb it all, but fuck....I've watched JUSTICE LEAGUE three times since I've had it and I'm nearly more tempted to watch that again rather go out of my way to pop in TLJ. And Justice League is not a good movie at all.
TLJ isn't released on home media until the 16th here in Sweden, but I must say that I really have no desire to watch it again. I really, really disliked the movie and with Jar Jar Abrams doing Episode IX... I don't know... Kathleen Kennedy might be a fine producer, but she doesn't strike me as a storyteller who can hold the franchise together nor as a visionary.Rollafett wrote: ↑March 30th, 2018, 8:38 pm I bought it on Wednesday here in the states and I haven't felt an urgency to watch the film itself, which I found very strange, considering I only saw it once in theaters and knew it required multiple viewings for me to get a real good handle on it. That bothers me....hell, I watched the extremely mediocre Justice League 3 times in 5 days once I had that on blu-ray.
That said, I did watch some of the extras....some decent deleted scenes in there which would've served the film better than that bloated Canto Bight sequence.
This was a puzzling choice given that this is the ESB of this triloy, the darker chapter. So why such a push for humor, and in such a forced manner? Like you've said, the worst part of the early humor with Hux is that it completely undermines him as a villain/threat. The chase plot had plenty of other problems with it, but it doesn't help that the guy leading the chase is portrayed as a useless buffoon at the outset. Is it worth it to destroy his character just for a few laughs?Master Magnus wrote: ↑April 22nd, 2018, 2:16 pm - The so-called "humor" in the movie, from the beginning to the end, is awful. The worst is the awful treatment of General Hux, who went from a very young, but still menacing, Fascist-like military leader to a joke. From the ridiculous "General Hugs", "I'll hold" and "Your Mother"-'joke' to the scene in the Gorilla walker... This is a Star Wars movie, not Spaceballs 2. Took me right out of the movie at both the theater and at home (but then I knew it was coming of course). Is Johnson familiar with the word 'tone'?
Yeah, I struggled with trying to figure that out, too. It was portrayed as though Poe was going against orders, acting in rogue fashion. Which is fine if its just him. But a bomber fleet is a pretty massive thing to coordinate. So was the entire bomber squadron in on this, but somehow not Leia and the others? And would they all really be doing this if Leia, Ackbar, and others weren't in favor? Who was ultimately in command?Why didn't Leia herself or Ackbar recall the bombers and fighters? Why was Poe demoted?
It was an odd choice to strip away tension by not having them gain ground on the resistance. The scenario in "33" was so effective because the cylons were all over the human fleet every 33 minutes. That put the fleet under tremendous strain and created high stakes. I'm not sure why TLJ didn't go there.- The boring and minimalistic version of the chase in the nBSG episode "33" that also changes the rule for Star Wars (bubble shields á la Star Trek and turbolasers that go in a curve). The chase is also contrived: Why can't some of the Star Destroyers jump ahead of the "fleet" and cut it off? Why don't use some of the TIE-fighters that could disable the bridge to disable their engines? It's neither exciting nor visually interesting and is completely devoid of energy. It's simply the most boring space battle of the saga so far.
Plotting it out just to preserve for the twist/surprise at the end that Holdo did have a good plan didn't make anyone look good. Felt like the resistance wasn't capable of communicating. That goes all the way back to the bomber thing at the beginning, too. I'd rather have had tension from the First Order fleet being all over the Resistance ships than fake drama within the Resistance fleet that didn't really make sense in the end. When Poe at that end hears from Leia what the plan is and responds with an immediate "that could work", I was exasperated. Yeah, if these characters were actually talking to one another, we wouldn't have needed all the melodrama.- Admiral Party Dress not doing anything to inspire confidence in her puny force or at least saying that she has a plan of some kind. In that context, Poe's action makes sense. Holdo was a poor leader.
Maybe this was more of Johnson "subverting" expectations.- Holdo, besides how the character was used to create meaningless drama as I hinted at above, was a very ambiguous character. To have her commit the act of self-sacrifice was just... Why not Ackbar? Or both? At least there would've been someone along who the audience has some connection with.
It was disheartening to see. I was so glad to see Mark Hamill speak out on "Jake Skywalker", though I was very bummed that he felt he needed to apologize later. Actors should be speaking their minds on things like this. He was dead on about it.- The character assassination of Luke Skywalker. I've never been much of a fan of Luke, but what was done with his character in TLJ was just awful and then I don't refer to Grumpy Luke...
Luke Skywalker, who never knew his father Anakin, but still was able to sense that there was good in Vader, considered to murder his own nephew in cold blood! It's quite frankly outrageous! Luke's character had become one of redemption by ROTJ. If Snoke and Rey could sense Kylo's conflict, how come Luke didn't? Not only that, but he actually LIED to Rey on how Ben finally went over to the Dark Side and blamed everyone else for his predicament. In short: He's also a coward besides being a liar (it wasn't even a justified "a different point of view"-lie).
Another thing Johnson didn't like. He tossed away the helmet, and that was that as far as the Vader worship.'t see Adam Driver as the son of Han and Leia. He does a fair job, buuut. And what happened to Kylo's Vader fetish that was a point in TFA?
They saw another opportunity for a joke with Finn and Rose telling Poe they had a codebreaker. Okay, I had to laugh a bit at that, though it did nothing to make that whole side trip seem worth it.Speaking of the codebreaker, Finn and Rose attempted to flee Canto Blight without the codebreaker. Huh?
This felt like Spock's line in STID about Khan being "the most dangerous" threat the Enterprise had ever faced. Using a line of dialogue to try to drum up the feeling of something massive here.- What the heck does Luke mean when he says about Rey's strength in the Force that he has "only felt the raw strength once before" and that was in Ben Solo? What about Vader? What about Palpatine?
I didn't have any issue with how the puppet looked, but summoning lightning did bother me. As did how quickly Yoda could make Luke see reality when everything earlier in the movie didn't. I'll say again that I'd have preferred the combination of Rey/Chewie/R2/Leia recording earlier in the movie getting through to Luke and avoiding the need for Yoda later.- The Yoda scene. A puppet was made from the original cast, but it doesn't look that good. Apparently it had some CG "enhancements". And why Crazy Yoda? Yoda tested Luke in TESB, we have not seen him act that way before or since. And ghost-Yoda summoning lightning? Again changing the rules...
I never much cared for Fett and kind of enjoyed him being tossed away early in ROTJ given all the ridiculous fan love for him. So I don't mind that with Phasma as we hardly saw much that was meaningful with her anyway.- Phasma ended up like Boba Fett... What a waste!
We did get a great fight with Rey and Ren against Snoke's guards. I'd have loved a lightsaber fight at the end, but I get what Johnson was going for with the end Ren/Skywalker "fight".- TLJ is the only saga movie without a lightsaber duel.