Star Wars: The Last Jedi

[Prey]

Some of the hate the movie is getting is quite something...

The last Jedi was quite simply insulting to every Star Wars movie before it.

I didn't think it was possible to make a Star Wars movie worst than The Phantom Menace but somehow, Disney found a way.

Help us, George Lucas. You're our only hope.

And suddenly Rotten Tomatoes is completely down...

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/

Planning to go and see it next week hopefully.

[Tank]

Some of the hate the movie is getting is quite something...

The last Jedi was quite simply insulting to every Star Wars movie before it.

I didn't think it was possible to make a Star Wars movie worst than The Phantom Menace but somehow, Disney found a way.

Help us, George Lucas. You're our only hope.

Pathetic. Then again we are talking about Star Wars fans who have the capacity to be some of the most annoying, pathetic and mewling entitled cry babies since the creation of the internet. So yeah, business as usual really.

[Nethlyn]

Put it this way, set of rellies no. 2 went to watch it today and they all hated it including one Prequel generation teenager.

Star Wars The Last Marmite would've been a better UK title, it's really splitting the audience with the effect of a higher number of people not coming back for those 3rd to 7th repeat viewings affecting the box office.

It'll still trickle its way to $1.5 billion worldwide but struggle to maintain those legs over Christmas unlike TFA and Rogue One, maybe not $2billion for the film itself but all the merchandise will make up for that as the director of the film came up with the stupid Porgs - maybe that's the real reason he got his own trilogy, if he can generate merch money for Disney at the same time as directing.

[Wrathbone]

Considering the backlash from some corners, I'll be surprised if Rian Johnson stays at the helm of the new trilogy.

[Tichinde]

It's good.
Definately enjoyed it, but it aint as good as TFA, but still better than Rogue One (big woop, wanna fight about it?)

It's laden with issues, the cutesy bits weaken it overall (I think we're calling them Porgs??) as does the over-use of comedy to lighten the mood.
The worst though is the huge feeling number of nods. TFA took the piss, a lot. This is a new level of piss-taking.

Spoiler: show

If you set us up with a straight up scene from Empire, then HAVE to put in a dude explaining it's salt, not snow, you've nodded to hard, fuck off.

Additionally, TFA stood alone. It has it's own story within the arc of the trilogy.
This feels like I've just watched Kill Bill and now have to wait for part 2 to complete it's story.

TLDR, enjoyed, but rated 5 out of 9 in the hierarchy.
edited because I can't count.
Best to worst: 5, 4, 7, 6, 8, 3.5, 3, 2, 1.

[Nethlyn]

The worst though is the huge feeling number of nods. TFA took the piss, a lot. This is a new level of piss-taking.

Spoiler: show

If you set us up with a straight up scene from Empire, then HAVE to put in a dude explaining it's salt, not snow, you've nodded to hard, fuck off.

Fair point but I think they

Spoiler: show

decided to double up that explanation that it's salt with the cameo for Gareth Edwards, just trying hard to show that Lucasfilm has at least one former director they still get along with same as the code breaker being Justin Theroux, writer of Iron Man 2.

I'm over the film's faults and will come back two years from now where I'll have another blank slate and have no expectations at all for Ep 9. Ironic that they got the marketing so right with no trailers at all on UK TV until after the film was out, only YouTube, that's the one thing I hope they do again.

[Raid]

I liked it. I'd happily go back to the cinema to watch it a second time.

Spoiler: show

It was great seeing old man Luke, and I love how cantankerous he's become because of his past. The explanation of his hubris leading to the creation of Kylo Ren and his hermit-dom worked perfectly, and his attitude towards the Jedi philosophy was pretty much exactly what I had hoped it would be. Leia too continued to rule every scene she was in, dispensing sassy lessons to everyone else. I don't know how they're going to deal with Carrie Fisher's death in the third film; I was expecting them to sideline or kill her character through editing in this one (although in retrospect that would probably have been disrespectful), but by the end she's just as important as she ever was, and now that the entire resistance is on the 'Falcon, her absence is going to be impossible to ignore.

Finn felt really underused in this one. I'm sure they intended to show his transition from defector to hero, and I guess it succeeds in that, but his scenes just felt disconnected from the rest of the film - he didn't spend long enough interacting with the established characters I think. I didn't find any of the new characters introduced in this one to be especially memorable. Granted, I spent the entirety of Vice Admiral Hodo's scenes trying to remember who the actress was and where I knew her from, but she and Rose didn't really seem to fit in, and it's not clear if we'll even see del Toro's character again.

I continue to like Kylo Ren as a villain. He's never going to be as strong a villain as Vader was, but that's intentional, hell it's even mentioned in dialogue. He's conflicted and unpredictable, and he feels dangerous because of that. He's a *much* better villain than Snoke ever was, but how could he not be when they just killed Snoke off without telling us anything about him. Still, if it gets him out of the way for the final film in the trilogy then it's probably a good thing - I really don't like entirely CGI major characters; it's fine for background characters, but when they're filling a frame and talking, it does nothing for me and I'd much rather be looking at an actor's face. The technology is impressive but the uncanny valley effect pulls me out of a film.

I love General Hux; his scenery chewing dialogue and almost complete ineptitude make him such a pathetic character, and Monica and I were trying to work out the worst possible death for him in the final film, ranging from being force-pushed into a hole by Kylo on a whim to abandoning his post in an escape pod only for it to be shot down.

Still, Hux's character brings up a point of confusion; when he was presented to us alongside Kylo Ren in TFA, I thought that his youth and incompetence were deliberate to show that The First Order were a young, fanatical galactic power who wanted to prove themselves. Now they're so big that nobody can stop them? What? Where did The First Order even come from? The Empire's stranglehold on the galaxy made complete sense because they were simply the galactic government turned dictatorship, but The First Order don't have that background. Star Wars has traditionally been a bit light on describing the overall situation that the galaxy is in, but there's at least 60-70 years of canonical history now and it'd be nice if they filled in some of the gaps. The best explanation I can come up with was that they were formed (or at least funded) by former Imperial worlds still sympathetic to the cause, but Rebels has really doubled down on how evil the Empire were (strip mining entire planets and bombing them into submission) and it doesn't make a lot of sense that this would be supported.

[Wrathbone]

About Hux:

Spoiler: show

I hated his character (and performance, if I'm honest) in TFA because it was so stupidly melodramatic. I'm not sure why, but it works so much better in TLJ. I'll have to keep that in mind with a second viewing.

[Raid]

Oh he absolutely doesn't fit in, I think that's why I started to like him. He's almost comic-relief, and while I appreciate that's not going to work for everyone, the original trilogy had its share of comically inept or over-the-top Imperial commanders (Admiral Ozzle and the guy that Tarkin stops Vader murdering), Hux just has more screen time.

[Tichinde]

Still, Hux's character brings up a point of confusion; when he was presented to us alongside Kylo Ren in TFA, I thought that his youth and incompetence were deliberate to show that The First Order were a young, fanatical galactic power who wanted to prove themselves. Now they're so big that nobody can stop them? [/spoiler]

My understanding was the First Order are just the Empire that wasn't on the Death Star at the end of Jedi.
Hence being chock full of Storm Troopers and Tie Fighters....
And naturally, their only opposition is the Republic. Who are spread over 5 planets or so that we see in TFA.
And just in case someone hasn't seen TFA yet....

Spoiler: show

The planets which aren't there anymore because the Death Star 3.0 (note to self, stop making trenches that fighters can fly down to get to important bits of machinery) blew them all up....

So yeah, that reason. I think....

[Rusty]

Hux strikes me more as someone who's 'bought' his way to the top by bullying and other dodgy tactics and actually isn't all that good. He's floundering as he still has ambition but suddenly is having to make life and death decisions (and put up with a 'rival' in Kylo)

[Jez]

Just got back from watching this.

Not sure what to think. It felt long. Longer than I thought it was anyway and maybe that's because it has so many spinning storylines and threads going on. I'm not sure why but this felt over complicated somehow and the series as a whole is really suffering for this trying to be too clever for it's own boots...BUT...it has to also be dumb enough to cater for a child audience. I think this hobbles the franchise incredibly. The original trilogy had the right mix and neither the prequel or this set of films has gotten it right.

Spoiler: show

Snoke....umm... hiya then thanks for all the kylo ren emosh vehicle. Like someone says above that really can't be left like that. I preferred ren this time round in general has all more about himself than the last film. I didn't much rate the Skywalker sections, his little exit at the end after his virtual reality silly moment was done topped that off for me. They clearly tried to harness the original trilogy moment when luke was put In front of the emperor by vadar when ren brings Rey to snoke but it doesn't have that effect at all really mainly because we know fuckin fuck all about snoke so the moment is utterly wasted....meh.

I have loads of other things I disliked the whole make 40 something year old Poe Dameron look a pretentious twat of a teenager "flyboy" didnt work for me at all. Irritating. In the end why didn't they use the cruiser as they did a lot earlier and save all those other ships and transports they lost anyway oh well.

Overall it's a marmite film I've leaned more to the dislike side but I'm willing and hoping to be wrong when I see it again for cheap in a few weeks.

[Rusty]

I started out like that but having read more and had time to think a bit it has grown on me. Maybe a second viewing will help my feelings

[Mantis]

Finally seen this and have to say that it did absolutely nothing for me. I thought that TFA was fairly good as a rehash of New Hope that did a decent enough job of trying to push the new generation of actors, but it was Harrison Ford who was the best thing about that movie. This time around Mark Hamill proves to be the best element by a significant margin, though I think Daisy Ridley is good as well. Everything else was simply meh. Adam Driver works pretty well as Ren, but almost everything else is so convoluted and lacking in direction that I found it hard to really get into. Every other new cast member is poor at acting in their roles and not given enough development to really shine through as new main players. As others have said, there are entire segments with Finn that should probably have been cut from this movie.

I genuinely think that Episode 3 was a better movie than this one.

It just feels very clear to me that there is no real vision or direction behind these movies anymore; Disney are simply using it as a licence to print money off the back of mediocre movies where the directors and writers fail on a number of occasions at following simple film-making 101 lessons to produce something cohesive.

[Jez]

I must agree also. It appears as though Disney is trying to squeeze every bit of value and life out of the franchise. I'm willing to watch it again at some point and maybe feel differently but that film felt a mess to me now I've had time to think on it. So many threads and scenes were utterly not needed while others required much more to them. The whole "codebreaker" bit was contrived when it could have been written better and made to mean more than it did.

Luke too going out like he did was ridiculous also on thinking about it. They totally wasted his scenery overall I felt. Regularly he'd go grump and spout how what such and such said was just "all wrong" and then grump a bit more and then do his fuckin virtual reality force bit and pop off with a fuckin whimper in some manner trying to out cool the moment when obi wan buys it in the first film. Stupid.

Maybe all of that film is just scenery laying it up for something epic in the next film but at this point I doubt it.