Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

[abelardsnazz]

I thought it was great. The Force Awakens and to a lesser degree Rogue One were crowd-pleasers, fitting in to and building on existing continuity. Rian Johnson has taken the reigns and moved the story on, and I for one hope he carries on to make three more. There were enough nods to the past, but not too many that it didn't feel fresh and genuinely exciting. I also loved the humour.

[Jim_Campbell]

Well, I quite liked it. A better film than The Force Awakens by some margin, for me, although not without significant flaws. I liked Rogue One more, but I’m definitely up for Episode IX.

[Mister Pops]

Just to add, the power Star Wars is amazing at bringing the absolute cock out in people. Obviously, most of my friends have the same or similar interests, so my social media is absolutely dominated by the last Jedi and I’m seeing all kinds of wierd behaviour!

This includes one guy who absolutely hates the film, but has been to see it four times in four days (cue loooong rants every single time.) There’s the usual gang of trollish idiots who, as usual, haven’t seen the film but feel the need to snidely comment on every single thread. It’s odd. We’ll add to that the Disney bashers, the people who simply have to tell us at every opportunity that they’ve never seen a Star Wars Film in their life (Hey, thanks for sharing that!)

I love Star Wars season, but it drives me potty too!

I know what you mean. I am regularly baffled by some people's attempts at sounding  super smart and intellectuallizing movies about space wizards with lazer swords

[Steve Green]

Aren't you describing the film itself there?

[Theblazeuk]

One big thing about Snokes being basically the emperor is that we *already had the emperor*. In the first trilogy the Empire and its ruler had been the status quo for the characters entire lives (not obi wan). In the new movies, Snoke 'turned Ben' - when? How? He's also a big cgi person which is never compelling.

But that's exactly my point - We know next to nothing about the Emperor in Jedi, IIRC we don't even know his name ('Palpatine' coming from the old EU material if memory serves) - but no one asked 'How did he take over the galaxy?' 'How did he turn Vader?'.

I meant that we've already had it once, the same trick doesn't always work twice. Largely because unlike the first series, the origins of the first order and snokes aren't something that predates the main characters.

[radiator]

Aren't you describing the film itself there?

 

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

On the whole, I liked that more than any Star Wars since Revenge of the Sith. My main problem with these is the lack of Lucas. Whatever you think of the prequels, at least it was what he wanted, and he was unapologetic of his vision. These ones will always have a slight tinge of fan fiction about them, and it would be easy to dismiss them just as easily as I can dismiss the yards of paperbacks and comics in the shops.

That said, they mimic the "real" stuff very well, and if you squint and go in the best frame of mind, it's hard to fault them.
Problematic things:
Yoda. Lovely to see a puppet. But not THAT puppet.
What was up with that? The eyes were weird, the smirk was weird, it seemed stiff and expressionless... And the dialogue was just weird. We came out joking about "pyromaniac stoned Yoda who hits everybody with sticks"

Snoke. Excellent to see him killed, if he was. But why a CGI man and not an actor in makeup. He's human sized, basically human and the proportions of his face would fit a man in makeup. The CGI version just looked to me like it had "floating eyes".

That all said, I loved the end scene. I took it to mean that after a period of inactivity the Force had "awakened" and that all across the galaxy, people were at last fulfilling their potential to become Force users. The "fire" that Leia had spoken of being "sparked".

Very sad to see the death of Luke- and was unprepared for how moving I found that. Bearing in mind he's the first hero I can remember falling in love with as a small child, it felt like the end of innocence, in a way.

If they never made another Star Wars film, this could have served as a fitting End. As it goes, I have no idea what they can do next. 

SBT

[Big_Dave]

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[radiator]

I also loved the humour.

I liked a lot of it. Goofy humour has always been a key part of SW, and a lot of the stuff with Luke - the milk scene, the porgs and the caretakers etc felt really in keeping with that. I even liked it when he casually tossed the lightsaber over his shoulder, it was a funny way to deflate 2 years of build up.

What I have issue with is what I took to be the irreverent, meta kind humour - there was a little of it in TFA ('That's not how the Force works!"), but quite a lot more of it in this one. Like when Rey makes a crack about the Jedi 'lifting rocks'. It doesn't really seem like something the character actually would say in that moment, it's more of a postmodern, self referential kind of quip you'd find in a Joss Whedon script. It's the kind of humour that works really well in the Marvel movies, but just didn't really sit right with me for a SW movie and really took me out of it, much like Chewie's weird 'Tarzan' bit does in Jedi. Likewise Yoda's use of the term 'page turner', or thing with the steam iron, which was just so baffling to me. It's like the film turned into Space Balls for a second there.

Rian Johnson has taken the reigns and moved the story on

I'd argue what he's actually done is pushed a giant reset button.

[hazy efc]

I thought the last jedi was overall a better film than the force awakens it definitely has some issues pacing being one of them but Im nit picking, as for who stood out in the film Mark Hamill stole the show for me I could easily watch a whole film based on older Luke on his island also Carrie Fisher r.i.p was terrific too.

[Steve Green]

Yeah, pretty much what radiator said.

The same when Luke calls it a laser sword - it jars a bit as if it's from someone talking about Star Wars rather than being a character inside it. Even things like running out of gas felt odd.

Best way I could explain it was when there's someone from the film doing a skit in character and it's just too knowing.

[radiator]

It is great to see Hamill get the limelight again. He's so great on screen and he seems like such an awesome guy off screen too. I never understood why he didn't have much of a movie career after Star Wars.

Though I don't really like where they take his character in this, he plays the cranky recluse part really well.

[JamesC]

Just back from seeing the film as a birthday treat. I enjoyed it but I can see the flaws.
The most annoying thing for me was the total ineffectiveness of Star Destroyers in the film.

Return of the Jedi remains my favourite Star Wars film (the original version, before they ruined it).

[radiator]

Return of the Jedi remains my favourite Star Wars film (the original version, before they ruined it).

Anyone know how the Fox merger affects the likelihood of Disney rereleasing the unaltered originals?

I had always assumed they were waiting for Lucas to pop his clogs, but maybe this changes things?

[radiator]

Best way I could explain it was when there's someone from the film doing a skit in character and it's just too knowing.

Yeah, it's kinda like an SNL skit or something, or a self-aware spoof like Galaxy Quest.