I really liked the movie, and even my wife was really stunned. She's no Star Wars fan, in fact, she haven't seen pretty much any movie, and she has really enjoyed the movie.

Anyway, when talking about the movie on our way back home, my wife wasn't sure why the camera was paying so much attention to Luke's feet in that scene, and we figured out he didn't leave any red footprints, which was a clue - were we right?

Kubik wrote:

I really liked the movie, and even my wife was really stunned. She's no Star Wars fan, in fact, she haven't seen pretty much any movie, and she has really enjoyed the movie.

Anyway, when talking about the movie on our way back home, my wife wasn't sure why the camera was paying so much attention to Luke's feet in that scene, and we figured out he didn't leave any red footprints, which was a clue - were we right?

Yeah, I think that was the big giveaway for people who caught it early before it was revealed afterwards. Kylo leaving the red salt trail, and Luke not doing so.

I saw it yesterday and thought it was excellent.

I've been seeing a lot of mixed reviews online, I don't know if these people saw the same movie I did.

The only quibbles I have with it are minor: I felt like the casino scene could have been a bit longer and the "horse" (or whatever those things were) racing bit left out or minimized. It might have been interesting to see them get turned down by this master hacker guy before getting caught and going with the backup.

And as much as they teased Snoke as being some super darkside badass, I felt like he was disposed of much too easily, I kinda wonder if he is going to come back as a malevolent force ghost or go into a clone body or something? Or possess Kylo Ren? Or maybe he's just gone for good.

But anyway, audience reactions were very positive. I don't remember anyone clapping in Phantom Menace. People that are saying this film is the same as Phantom Menace are full of it, this is at least of the same caliber as Empire.

Like Rogue One, nothing I hear about this movie is compelling to see at the theater.

I went to the movie, because I was invited by others. It does succeed in getting the impending doom feeling across, and strangely it stays that way over the entire length of the movie. The whole situation is rather linear and IMO not that enjoyable. Rather read a good SF book that shows an interesting fictional universe instead of wiping one out.

It was different.
I think it's the one SW movie that has any worthwhile dialog. And it was beautifully done, nice details in the background (the sea creature you see for a moment, the weapon that is flung at the red dome which slowly burns away the red), the whole white red salt desert pictures...
And the big fuck you to all theories! Snoke, what we see is what we get. Ray, nobody from nowhere

Dominus wrote:

I think it's the one SW movie that has any worthwhile dialog.

Really? I thought it was trailer-worthy dialogue, everybody saying overly serious and "big" things.

I didn't particularly enjoy this movie, where as I really liked Force Awakens. It is at the very least a very problematic movie, with many pacing issues and filler/B-plots that lead nowhere.
The whole Snoke thing in particular could have been handled a lot better honestly and I found the way he was killed immensely lame.

I really really like Adam Driver as Kylo Ren though, I think there is depth to his performance and it is supported by the story rather well. Rey is also pretty believable as a character and I'm glad they didn't make them siblings or cousins, but I have a fear that they will try to change that with episode IX, because otherwise VII's buildup leads nowhere, with her touching Luke's lightsaber and instantly being filled with past emotions and images.

Ok, I have to confess that worthwhile was too much, but seriously, the dialog got *better*. Also there was at least some character development in this movie. The former one seemed much more like a series of bold words without any development of the characters.

I rather liked the way Snoke was killed, especially by the lameness mostly because it was unexpected. You expect a RotJ fight between Kylo and Rey with the demise of Snoke in the end through some stupid stunt. But he ends it in a second. I liked that.
Same with Kylo disabling the launch platform of the Rebel cruiser with a swift action. That was unexpected. The whole movie was doing unexpected stuff while still being expectable.
You expect Luke to rush to the Resistance side. Nope, not happening. Then you expect him to be some savior in the end. But nope, he is just a projection (and yes, he is kind of saving him).
You expect Kylo to rush down there and fight him man to man. But no, he is a way better villain than most of the other movie villains. No talking senseless stuff, just "shoot him with every cannon!". I liked that.

The whole Casino/tracking plot was useless... except it build up a relationship between Finn and Rose. And *this* could be an influence in the next movie. It seemed to be hinted at.

There was a lot of scenes that made me cringe, Leia's space walk, *every* scene with the Porgies (or what's their name?) and lot of funny scenes. But then this was always kind of a thing with Star Wars (not to mention Episode I 😀)

I really enjoyed it as well. I can understand some of the gripes, but I wouldn't put as much stock in them.

As snorg mentioned above, Snoke was done away with so quickly and with so little back story that I wouldn't be surprised if he is back and able to communicate with Kylo in the next movie. If he isn't, well... it was a bit odd for everyone to talk about him without ever mentioning where he came from or who trained him. I get the impression that with so few people "strong in the force" in the galaxy since the Jedi and Sith were wiped out, the idea is that incredibly powerful people keep popping up, requiring little training, because there are so few people in the galaxy trained in the force. Snoke came into power because of Luke (since the Emperor and Vader were both suddenly gone), Rey and Kylo Ren were obviously there to balance one another out. That's as far as I care to think into it, but it helps the sequence of events to make more sense.

I really liked the way that it didn't tie itself too closely to the conventional Star Wars plotlines and in fact took jabs at some of them. Star Wars has always had a kind of corniness (with the exception of Rogue One, which was an incredible movie all on its own) and they all have lots of plot holes and after Epidodes IV and V had fairly predictable storylines... this movie seemed to acknowledge those short comings, avoiding some and embracing others. I actually liked the one-liner quips from various characters... like Snoke saying to Kylo "Take that ridiculous thing off...". Snoke scolding an obsessed Vader fanatic kind of felt like the writers directly talking to the overly critical obsessed Star Wars fans who hate everything that wasn't released between 1977 and 1983.

My wife and I saw it last Friday after watching all of the previous movies in chronological order over the past couple weeks (the dialog in the prequels is as horrible as I remember... ugh). I would like to go see it again.

Also, I must say that the part of me that really likes Star Wars movies and lore was happy to see all of the ancient Jedi books that Rey had stashed in a drawer in the Millennium Falcon. 😁

So basically with these new Star Wars movies, we have questionable plot (TFA was just a rehash of ANH), but good character dialog and development. Loved the Snoke death scene and the Luke end scene.

The one really bad scene was Leia miraculously saving herself in space. Geez.

While people don't see it like that, I still see TLJ as a rehash of Empire but not such an obvious one

I was very disappointed with the film. It was beautifully done, but I particularly hated the characterization of Luke and found the plot lacking.

On the one hand, I understand and appreciate the director's vision that anyone can be a hero; that you don't have to have some special lineage to make a difference, hence the broom kid at the end and all of Luke's musings about the vanity of the Jedi. From that point of view, I understand throwing away Snoke's relevance and dismissing any significance to Rey's parentage; however, these core films are supposed to be the story of the Skywalker lineage and I feel like Episode 7 and 8 are disjointed in a way that the other films aren't, including the admittedly awful prequels. This whole 'turning Star Wars on its head' thing should have been saved for Rian Johnson's new trilogy. It's pretty obvious after watching 'The Force Awakens' that these disgarded plot points were meant to be significant, but Johnson decided, "Nope, that doesn't work for my film". Maybe Abrams can rectify some of this in Episode 9, but the damage is done. It's not like you can bring Luke back to life.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe, which is how they handled Luke. Mark Hamill's been on record making it clear that he disagreed with the director's characterization of Luke, and I couldn't agree more. He's a miserly curmudgeon who has resigned himself to die in exile on an island. The same guy who saved the galaxy and never gave up on anything, including his father turned supreme evil being who EVERYONE had given up on, and what does he do when Kylo breaks bad? He just gives up. I can't get over the fact that he never actually left the island. That's not the Luke I grew up with. Yeah, I know he force projected and saved the Resistance, but it would have carried so much more weight for me had he done it in person and not via Force Skype.

Few other things:
The hour long slow chase until the rebels run out of gas plot was silly. Couldn't the First Order have hyper jumped a few ships in front of the rebel fleet and trapped them in the middle?
Finn's plot felt completely tacked on. It's as if the writers had no idea what to do with him, so they drummed up some crazy mission so he'd have something more to do than sit around and wait.
Why hire Gwendoline Christie and Benicio del Toro and basically give them nothing to do (more so for Phasma who was heavily hyped and really did nothing for two films)?
You can survive the vacuum of space if you're a Force wielder?
If you know you're going down with the ship anyways, why not pull off the "Kill 'em with a warp speed jump" maneuver before they have a chance to start blowing up all of the transport ships and catch them by surprise?
Is the Darth Maul fight going to be the best lightsaber fight ever in perpetuity? These two new films haven't come close to replicating the only thing the prequels did well, the lightsaber duels.

I know this post comes off as very "Get Off My Lawn", but man did I walk away disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high. I had zero expectations for last years Rogue One and I was very pleasantly surprised. The Vader scene at the end of that was amazing. For those whose generation were not defined by the original trilogy, I can see them very much enjoying this film. But for me, it just messed too much with the characters that I grew up with and loved. To each his own, though. I'll still be one of the first in line for Episode 9 😀

firage wrote:

Like Rogue One, nothing I hear about this movie is compelling to see at the theater.

Ditto. TFA was pretty meh; at least TPM was memorable, even if we kind of hated it.

RichPimp wrote:

I was very disappointed with the film. It was beautifully done, but I particularly hated the characterization of Luke and found […]
Show full quote

I was very disappointed with the film. It was beautifully done, but I particularly hated the characterization of Luke and found the plot lacking.

On the one hand, I understand and appreciate the director's vision that anyone can be a hero; that you don't have to have some special lineage to make a difference, hence the broom kid at the end and all of Luke's musings about the vanity of the Jedi. From that point of view, I understand throwing away Snoke's relevance and dismissing any significance to Rey's parentage; however, these core films are supposed to be the story of the Skywalker lineage and I feel like Episode 7 and 8 are disjointed in a way that the other films aren't, including the admittedly awful prequels. This whole 'turning Star Wars on its head' thing should have been saved for Rian Johnson's new trilogy. It's pretty obvious after watching 'The Force Awakens' that these disgarded plot points were meant to be significant, but Johnson decided, "Nope, that doesn't work for my film". Maybe Abrams can rectify some of this in Episode 9, but the damage is done. It's not like you can bring Luke back to life.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe, which is how they handled Luke. Mark Hamill's been on record making it clear that he disagreed with the director's characterization of Luke, and I couldn't agree more. He's a miserly curmudgeon who has resigned himself to die in exile on an island. The same guy who saved the galaxy and never gave up on anything, including his father turned supreme evil being who EVERYONE had given up on, and what does he do when Kylo breaks bad? He just gives up. I can't get over the fact that he never actually left the island. That's not the Luke I grew up with. Yeah, I know he force projected and saved the Resistance, but it would have carried so much more weight for me had he done it in person and not via Force Skype.

Few other things:
The hour long slow chase until the rebels run out of gas plot was silly. Couldn't the First Order have hyper jumped a few ships in front of the rebel fleet and trapped them in the middle?
Finn's plot felt completely tacked on. It's as if the writers had no idea what to do with him, so they drummed up some crazy mission so he'd have something more to do than sit around and wait.
Why hire Gwendoline Christie and Benicio del Toro and basically give them nothing to do (more so for Phasma who was heavily hyped and really did nothing for two films)?
You can survive the vacuum of space if you're a Force wielder?
If you know you're going down with the ship anyways, why not pull off the "Kill 'em with a warp speed jump" maneuver before they have a chance to start blowing up all of the transport ships and catch them by surprise?
Is the Darth Maul fight going to be the best lightsaber fight ever in perpetuity? These two new films haven't come close to replicating the only thing the prequels did well, the lightsaber duels.

I know this post comes off as very "Get Off My Lawn", but man did I walk away disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high. I had zero expectations for last years Rogue One and I was very pleasantly surprised. The Vader scene at the end of that was amazing. For those whose generation were not defined by the original trilogy, I can see them very much enjoying this film. But for me, it just messed too much with the characters that I grew up with and loved. To each his own, though. I'll still be one of the first in line for Episode 9 😀

I agree with all these points. Why have Mark Hamil go thru all this "hoopla" only to have his character go out with a yawn. It seems movies these days put all they have into the special effects only to come up short in regards to storyline, plot, humor. I'm old school, but remember the audience cheering in episodes 4-6. There's no emotional attachment to movies these days, at least not for me.

RichPimp wrote:

I was very disappointed with the film. It was beautifully done, but I particularly hated the characterization of Luke and found […]
Show full quote

I was very disappointed with the film. It was beautifully done, but I particularly hated the characterization of Luke and found the plot lacking.

On the one hand, I understand and appreciate the director's vision that anyone can be a hero; that you don't have to have some special lineage to make a difference, hence the broom kid at the end and all of Luke's musings about the vanity of the Jedi. From that point of view, I understand throwing away Snoke's relevance and dismissing any significance to Rey's parentage; however, these core films are supposed to be the story of the Skywalker lineage and I feel like Episode 7 and 8 are disjointed in a way that the other films aren't, including the admittedly awful prequels. This whole 'turning Star Wars on its head' thing should have been saved for Rian Johnson's new trilogy. It's pretty obvious after watching 'The Force Awakens' that these disgarded plot points were meant to be significant, but Johnson decided, "Nope, that doesn't work for my film". Maybe Abrams can rectify some of this in Episode 9, but the damage is done. It's not like you can bring Luke back to life.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe, which is how they handled Luke. Mark Hamill's been on record making it clear that he disagreed with the director's characterization of Luke, and I couldn't agree more. He's a miserly curmudgeon who has resigned himself to die in exile on an island. The same guy who saved the galaxy and never gave up on anything, including his father turned supreme evil being who EVERYONE had given up on, and what does he do when Kylo breaks bad? He just gives up. I can't get over the fact that he never actually left the island. That's not the Luke I grew up with. Yeah, I know he force projected and saved the Resistance, but it would have carried so much more weight for me had he done it in person and not via Force Skype.

I know this post comes off as very "Get Off My Lawn", but man did I walk away disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high. I had zero expectations for last years Rogue One and I was very pleasantly surprised. The Vader scene at the end of that was amazing. For those whose generation were not defined by the original trilogy, I can see them very much enjoying this film. But for me, it just messed too much with the characters that I grew up with and loved. To each his own, though. I'll still be one of the first in line for Episode 9 😀

Snipped out some of the post so as to not have a wall of text.

Regarding the bolded bit, I sort of looked at it from 2 points of view: a). Luke's failure with Kylo and resulting destruction of the Jedi temple and slaughter of his students I think broke him, to some degree. That's why I think he was hiding out. Regarding point
b.) I think he was trolling Kylo, he knew he was going to die whether he went there in person or did the apparition projection (from the sheer effort involved), but he really wanted to rub it in Kylo's nose that he punked him as a force apparition. That was my take on it, anyway.

Do I think the movie could have been a little tighter or had some things ironed out to make it truly epic? Yes, I do. I also think they tried a little too hard at some points with the humor, but I don't think the movie overall was bad. I'm not sorry I spent my $12 to see it. I'd say it was a solid 7 or 8 even if it wasn't a 9 or 10. I don't think it was the dumpster fire that some are making it out to be.

I was never a hardcore, die-hard fan of Star Wars legacy, and even watching them never turned me into one. Not that I'm not a sci-fan - I love sci-fi themes to an extent. But I do enjoy watching Star Wars anyway. I think Rogue One had better story. (Or maybe because Harrison Ford was there.)

The Last Jedi is a good movie, but with many predictable dialogues and scenes. Nothing jaw-dropping, IMHO.

One good thing is, it's worth every cent spent because of the duration of the movie.

In the end, I miss the George Lucas' touch during Harrison Ford-Mark Hamill-Carrie Fisher trio casting.

You guys are nuts, it's horrible.

Malik wrote:

I think Rogue One had better story. (Or maybe because Harrison Ford was there.)

I don't think Ford was in RO, I think you mean Force Awakens?

Anyway, I really liked the Last Jedi, it had these dark undertones that's been missing for a long time (since Empire Strikes Back). I didn't like the new furry things or other comedic bits, but they didn't distract too much. The only cringeworthy part was the floating Leia bit that was just embarrasing to watch. More desperate struggle, more killing and more dying. That makes a good SW movie. 😈

awgamer wrote:

You guys are nuts, it's horrible.

It is. Anyone notice that, besides Luke Skywalker who redeems himself a little by delaying the bad guy, the film is as feminist as can be. I am all for 50-50 or something, but this is way out there. I suspect they wanted to add even more new age ideas in there, then did not dare to do so, and were left with this half-progressive, half-vintage thing.