The Last Jedi

WaterBomb

Two kids no brane
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I can't be bothered to try to form this into a coherent review so I'm just gonna stream of consciousness it and hope I remember to include everything:

-i can believe somehow that the bombs from the bomber were propelled somehow upon release or pulled by the planet's gravity, even though I know deep down that's rubbish and they were just lazy with the science. I cannot, however, find any excuse for the clunky opening of a side door in a COMPLETELY NOT DEPRESSURIZED hallway to let Leia back in. Come on.
- General Hux will snap in the next film. He's bound to be close to breaking down after being force choked/thrown into walls/ face planted to the floor/ slapped that many times.
-Snoke is not permanently dead. You heard it here first.
- Disney may not go this direction and may not even realize it, but Luke's death before really training Rey combined with the destruction of the Jedi texts jk I missed the part where Rey had them leaves the door open for a potential complete ending of the Jedi/ Sith religion and a conclusion of the entire series at the end of the next film. This might be an unpopular idea, but I think it certainly has the appeal of being unexpected and bringing real closure.
- either John boyega is just an overactor, or Finn is written that way. Either way, Finn just feels...overdramatic as a character. Especially for a trained stormtrooper. Maybe this was intentional to show contrast against the typical stormtrooper persona, but it seems over the top most of the time.
- didn't like how Luke did such an elaborate Force projection (which was effing cool, by the way), presumably to preserve his actual body for later, and then died anyway.
- call me crazy, but I actually appreciated what they did with Luke's character for this. Looking back at the original movies, I got to see Luke's maturation from whiny farmer boy to trained Jedi and hero, but maybe he wasn't all the way there yet. It makes a little sense that he'd be a reluctant hero, and the weight of everyone's expectations of him was just too much to live up to. Remember that Luke remained pretty immature and impulsive right up until his final battle with Vader, so it's not unreasonable to think he had just overachieved there and hadn't truly completed his growth. This would explain his character in TLJ, at least to me.
- didn't like General Holdo's character at all. Felt to me like pandering, forcing another strong female character into the plot for the sake of political correctness. The other strong female characters at least had organic reasons to be there. As another user pointed out, holdo could easily have just been ackbar or Leia herself.
- for all my complaints, I can't say I was ever bored or looked at the clock. The movie kept me engrossed from start to finish, and a lot of the cinematography was no less than stunning.
-tooooooooo many modern phrases and buzzwords being used in the dialogue. They stuck out like a sore thumb every time they happened and it made me cringe.
- benicio del Toro was perfect. Nuff said.
- ending scene with the child and the rebel ring leading into the credits was pretty powerful I thought.

All in all I'm looking forward to episode 9 and seeing how they decide to finish it.
 
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Yeti

dark saturday
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Luke's death before really training Rey combined with the destruction of the Jedi texts
(Yoda told you Rey had them) Rey closes a drawer on the Falcon before going into the pod to find Kylo and later Finn opens the same drawer to pull a blanket out for Rose and the texts are in there. Rey took them with her when she left. Yoda force fired a symbol of the flaws of the old Jedi but not their texts.

Also Luke had an ungiven third lesson for Rey so he will almost assuredly be back as a Force Ghost, especially since we saw Yoda as one a lot less blue and see through than in the OT, probably to haunt Kylo and help Rey. Lesson 3 is probably going to be making a lightsaber with the crystal from Anakin's.

Also to the dude who quoted me the flaws with the Holdo/Poe storyline aren't "not what SW fans want to see" they're genuinely bad writing crutches/cliches. But yes much of the audience issues with the movie are because it's simply not what they were hoping for or wanting to see. Mopey Defeated Luke after he saves Vader through his unending belief there's still good is so meh.
 

Lemonade

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now this is podracing :psycry: only freaky looking alien horses
rey feeling the force :psysly:
snoke's unexpected death :psyduck:
basically everyone dying :psysad:
the milking scene :psynervous:
leia force scene :psywoke:
$$$$$$$$$ :psyangry:
dark side hole in the ground and following :psygrump:
porgs :psyglad: (for me they are whatever though)
opening roll :psytear: (is this weird misplaced blush or tears of warm fuzzy feeling?)
 

Martin

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I saw this movie in mid-December. The first 2/3 were totally inconcequential to the outcome of the film and the plot made barely any sense but I still enjoyed it. 5/10. The luke stuff wasn't interesting though and it felt like it was an amalgamation of past plots, kinda like episode 7 except not as blatant.
 
Oh boy have I got stuff to say for this movie.

I'm not exactly a big Star Wars guy. I saw the OT and can appreciate them as movies, but I don't watch them regularly nor do I get into too much EU material besides maybe some of the TV shows like Rebels. With that said, the more I think on this movie, the less I like it compared to the 7/10 I was willing to give it when I left the theater; even then it was more of an "I didn't like it but I can see what others did" judgement at the time.

- Holdo's character, as stated multiple times, was a terrible addition. She doesn't seem to have any grasp on the idea of leadership, and while I get that she was thrust into the position abruptly, she had a stated position that sounds like she should understand principles even if they didn't work at this level of command. Why does she not tell anyone what the end goal of the transport evacuation was? Poe is the main example, and he's the reason I find this particularly bad. The film opens with Poe going against orders and leading a mission that costs them their bombers, but takes out the Dreadnought that they establish could have basically destroyed their fleet on its own. If you look at this as an accomplishment, Poe has earned the right to know and to try and assist in the escape effort; if you treat this as a defiance, Poe should know the story so he doesn't do anything maverick like, I don't know, organize a mutiny in the midst of the escape effort? The fact that Poe got several members on his side during both sequences clearly indicates there are other people who either trust his judgement more or don't want to go with Holdo's plan as presented. There is no angle from which her withholding information makes sense other than because the Finn and Rose plot can't happen otherwise.

- Finn Rose plot goes nowhere significant. Rose is not a deep character and I kind of resent her for the ending role. Finn was one of the few characters I liked in the new trilogy, in that I think he could stand with the old cast fairly well. But this movie had the perfect chance to conclude his character arc, and I think actually having him die in that last battle would have been a risky move for this series. Instead, Rose crashes their speeders, nearly getting herself killed, Finn killed anyway, and the Resistance is left utterly fucked if Luke hadn't shown up.

- Rey/Ren stuff was fine. I didn't have too many problems with their interactions. Snoke feels like he's trying to play an Emperor role, but he hasn't earned it. The Emperor I accepted because the OT essentially opened with the Empire in control, so I just accepted this was the way things simply were. Snoke coming to power is upsetting the status quo and victory that Episode 6 ended on.

- Luke. Luke. I commend Mark Hamill's performance, he played the role very well and I did get into the character despite these issues, but when I look at the film itself, I don't like how out of character Luke is in the backstory. People have talked at length about how abnormal it is for the guy who sees the good in Vader to contemplate murdering Ben, even if it was just a few seconds of instinct. I can accept where his character ends up in some respect after that, but the catalyst sits poorly with me and I feel it loses impact since we don't see anything of how long or how hard it was to build to before it was all torn down.
 
i've seen it twice, the first time I enjoyed it in the cinema, disliked it a lot more after thinking about it, and then liked it a lot more on the rewatch. most of my complaints have already been said, but i do want to mention that my biggest problem with TLJ is that it lacks a coherent... "thesis statement" of sorts

there is this sentiment that Rose delivers at the end of the movie which is that the Resistance is going to win by protecting what they love, not destroying what they hate - this is something that I think should have been emphasized far more in all three subplots and would have tied a few things together pretty neatly. Holdo's refusal to give Poe any information becomes more understandable if she's furious that Poe caused the deaths of what seems to be over half of the Resistance in his impulsive attack on the Dreadnought, which was something I felt wasn't given nearly enough weight in the actual movie. this is also a way to effortlessly tie in Rey/Luke's subplot with the rest of the movie, because as it stands I think all three subplots feel rather disjoint. Luke's failure (and moreover the failure of the Jedi) was in attempting to destroy the Dark Side rather than protecting the Light, and Rey's journey into the dark side cave and subsequent experimentation with and rejection of the dark side sets her apart from the rest of the Jedi.
 

TheValkyries

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all three subplots are about failure and the different ways we learn from failure. I'd argue it's a ridiculously cohesive thesis statement with many thoughtout variations which is why I think it's a miraculous magic trick that it was so magnificently dense while still being simple and clear and not too confused as you watch it.

The thesis youre looking for is said by Miss Piggy: "Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters."
 

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