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Star Wars: The Last Jedi discussion thread(Warning: Spoilers!)

Bryan^H

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Title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Tagline: The Saga Continues

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Carrie Fisher, Laura Dern, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Benicio del Toro, Frank Oz, Lupita Nyong'o, Anthony Daniels, Jimmy Vee, Bill Hader, Ben Schwartz, Dave Chapman, Brian Herring, Billie Lourd, Amanda Lawrence, Mark Lewis Jones, Adrian Edmondson, Hermione Corfield, Veronica Ngo, Tom Kane, Tim Rose, Justin Theroux, Noah Segan, Jamie Christopher, Paul Kasey, Michaela Coel, Priyanga Burford, Navin Chowdhry, Crystal Clarke, Hugh Skinner, Shauna Macdonald, Kate Dickie, Ralph Ineson, Michael Jibson, Luke Neal, Andy Nyman, Gareth Edwards, Lily Cole, Warwick Davis, Kiran Shah, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mike Quinn, Gary Barlow, Peter Mayhew, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Griffin Hamill, Nathan Hamill, Chelsea Hamill, Prince William, Prince Harry, Liang Yang, Bern Collaço

Release: 2017-12-13

Runtime: 152

Plot: Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order.




Discuss the movie--- spoilers are welcome.
I will check back tomorrow after I see it and post my thoughts.
 
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Simon Massey

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Managed to catch it again - its not flawless, but Id rate it higher than Force Awakens and Return of the Jedi for having some genuinely surprising moments and given all the characters new and old a chance to shine. Some thoughts

As others have said, the whole Canto Bight sequence and Del Toro's character could easily have been cut and probably would have result in a much tighter film.

Its pretty funny in places though some of the humour seems oddly out of place in a Star Wars film

I noticed the second time that Rey had stolen the Jedi texts and hidden them on the Falcon at the end - missed that the first time.

Phasma was again largely wasted but at least that's over now.

Carrie Fisher was much stronger here than in Force Awakens and pretty much every scene she was in was quite affecting.

I suspect Hamill will be back for IX at least for a cameo though it seems apparent that it would not have been the case had Carrie Fisher not passed away.

The first Star Wars film in a long time where I really didn't know where it was going and if certain characters were going to live or die. The similarities and riffs on all of the original films were apparent, but its the work with the characters that really stands out and make this work.

Setting this straight after Force Awakens means a hell of a lot happened to all these characters in the space of about two or three days :)
 

Yee-Ming

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Plenty of parallels to ESB in this one -- starting with the fact that the movie started with an assault on the 'rebel' base. And echoes of SW and ROTJ scenes too. But unlike TFA, which almost felt like a remake of SW, TLJ still felt like its own movie, with the parallels/echoes more like nods to ESB, rather than ESB being its blueprint.

So much to say/discuss, but I've got to get to work... but some quick observations: Rey is more powerful than Luke was, a few days' instruction and she can move a rockslide. Although: while she and Ren could only "facetime" across the stars with Snoke's intervention (so he claims), Luke was somehow able to conduct an entire lightsaber duel with Ren. Having said that, the effort may have killed him. I expect Luke to appear in IX, as a Force ghost, just as Yoda did; that was a very nice touch, and his discussion with Luke about the burdens of being a master was great stuff.

With Leia still alive at the end, this means she'll have to be killed off-screen early in IX, or for instance they fudge it with an establishing shot of her on a transport which is shot down. Conversely, I'm not convinced Phasma is dead: Vader survived SW, after all. (Not that I'm saying Phasma is anywhere equivalent -- as friend put it, he equated her to Boba Fett: cool-looking armour and for some reason popular with the fans, but ultimately a mere background character.)
 

Chuck Mayer

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I'll try to write a longer and more detailed review later. But quick thoughts now. Good, solid Star Wars film. Absolutely beautiful to look at, in ways both new and old. Some fun surprises, some silly comedy, some solid character work, some outstanding design. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with what TLJ turned out to be, balancing nostalgia and new stuff pretty effectively.

And let me mention again how great the film looked. Last thing...it was wonderful to see Luke Skywalker again. And I like how much Mark Hamill they put into him. It worked. Hope the die hards enjoy it, and I look forward to reading their reviews.
 

Colin Jacobson

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Its pretty funny in places though some of the humour seems oddly out of place in a Star Wars film

Agree - too jokey at times, and some of the laughs took away from the drama. I know all the other movies had plenty of humor, too, but I don't think those moments detracted from the serious scenes as much as the gags in this one do.

That's probably my biggest complaint about the movie, though I may feel differently when I see it again.

I liked "Jedi" but found it curiously disaffecting. It seems fashionable to dump on "TFA" now but I loved that movie and think it was more satisfying than this one.

"Jedi" just seems like a bit of a mishmash that never quite feels like it knows where it's going. It feels more like the final chapter in the trilogy, not the second one.

And that ending with the kiddies adds to that. So the movie implies they're the future of the Rebellion - does that mean Leia and the rest are just gonna hide for 20 years until the kiddies grow up? :laugh:

I completely reserve the right to change my mind, but right now, I have mixed feelings about "Jedi". Entertaining but spottier than I'd like and not nearly as thrilling and enjoyable as "TFA"...
 

TravisR

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I was surprised on multiple levels by this movie- it's much funnier than any other SW movie, it's more mature than probably any other SW movie and it's pretty different from most SW movies. It's a long movie but it worked for me throughout. It has some parts that are already some of my favorite moments (the meeting between Rey, Kylo Ren and Snoke) from all the movies. Can't wait to see it again!

I think anyone that had problems with TFA is also going to have problems with this one.

Also, I'm happy that Rey's parents were no one. After TFA, I remember being surprised that people were saying it was Luke or Ezra or Jaxxon* because my initial thought was that it was just some unknown and unimportant characters. Though once everyone seemed convinced it was an established character, my money was on Obi-Wan.

* Give yourself a pat on the back if you got that deep cut.


So Snoke is dead and we get zero details on his backstory? Weird!
I didn't think of it but that is weird. If it's not revealed in some form in Episode IX, I'll post the info when the Snoke origin novel or comic book comes out. :)
 

Chuck Mayer

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I didn't care about Snoke, so I didn't care about Snoke dying.

I don't dump on TFA because it is fashionable, but rather because I find it relatively mediocre, after an invigorating first twenty minutes. While this film had some (similar) SW dissonance for me, the direction was superior (minus some of the humor as discussed above), and it focused on new characters.

My largest gripe is that sometimes the film very obviously felt like it KNEW it was a Star Wars movie, if that makes any sense.

I too was happy that Rey was just a Rey, although it is quite possible JJ will change that in IX.
 

TravisR

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But how can we really be sure? We're just taking Kylo Ren's word for it?

Not saying it's not true - and it probably is - but I wouldn't be shocked if we got a different answer later...
It's true that I'm taking Kylo Ren's word for it but like you, I think it's going the truth. Actually, I'll be kinda surprised if her parentage is even referenced in Episode IX.
 

MielR

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I tried to keep my expectations low, but I was hoping it would be a bit better than TFA.

I found the direction of TFA to be unfocused and sloppy and I assumed that with a new director, the direction of TLJ would be tighter, but unfortunately that was not the case.

My main criticisms are the Laura Dern character (why?), Snoke's demise which just left us with a lot of questions and not much else, Rose and Del Toro whose characters seemed superfluous, the big "reveal" as to who Rey's parents are was a totally uninspired let-down, the whole casino sequence was ridiculous, and hardly any Jedi training scenes with Rey and Luke which was a total waste (and mostly what I was looking forward to in the film).

There were some nice, poignant & nostalgic moments in the film (mostly with Luke on-board the Falcon, Luke and Leia reuniting, and Luke with the twin-suns parallel at the end) but that's not enough to make up for a lack of a good script and good directing. My nephew and I talked about it in the car on the way home and we agreed that the film was mostly disappointing.

On the bright side, there was a camera crew there from the local CBS station, so we're probably going to be on the 11 o'clock news! :-P
 
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Robert Crawford

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I'm going to wait to post my comments about this film until I see it again tomorrow. There are some things I don't like and that mostly evolves around Rey and her parentage. I'm afraid a lot of people are going to be disappointed if what was revealed in this film is true.
 

WillG

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Alright, just got back. I'm sure I'll have more to say later but I'll get the negatives out of the way first.

The "can you hear me now" opening exchange between Poe and Hux and the "sir, I think he's trolling you" (I know trolling wasn't the actual word but I can't remember what they used)

The Casino planet section was awful

The "Love conquers all" moment with discount Maragret Cho

Other than that, the rest was kind of weird.

as far as remakes go, they crammed both TESB and ROTJ into this so J.J. has his work cut out for him in episode IX

There were also some interesting ideas they kind of blew

The idea of Rey actually really aligning with Kylo could have been a great cliffhanger.

Also they could have left lingering doubts as to who, Luke or Kylo was telling the truth. I got the feeling in some spots that Johnson was trying to cast some ambiguities but Kennedy put the Kibosh on them.

One thing I kind remembering alluding to somewhere buried in these threads..

Rey's parents turning out to be nothing. Which actually was probably the best decision they could have made.

I guess that could turn out to be lies but just going with what I know now

Also to be brutally honest...

I think they should have ended Carrie Fisher where she was originally thought to have died. It was a perfect and emotionally fitting out (better than another space Jesus allegory to be sure). I don't think she contributed anything essential to the plot after that. And obviously it would have solved a lot of problems.
 
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WillG

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I'm going to wait to post my comments about this film until I see it again tomorrow. There are some things I don't like and that mostly evolves around Rey and her parentage. I'm afraid a lot of people are going to be disappointed if what was revealed in this film is true.

I said this in my spoiler, but to emphasize (and I'll spoilerize again to be sure)

assuming we take that at face value. It's probably the best decision they could have made. A big reveal would really have made no one happy. In one of these threads I think I made a joke that in the next movie Rey saw some random characters (to us) and just looked at them and said "hi mum, hi dad. I guess I was sort of right.
 

JimmyO

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I have a feeling that Reys parentage is exactly as Kylo said in the film. He told Rey to search her feelings, that she's always known - which she does not deny when he reveals it to her.

It's not a big enough deal anyways. At this point we know that Rey has command of the force. It doesn't really matter what the origin, and it certainly IS true that the Skywalkers don't have exclusive domain of force wielding.

I did find the whole "find the codebreaker" plot line to be an absolute waste of time. So much more time could have been spent taking Rey through intensive training. It did feel to me like she uses force like she's been doing it all her life. She fell into it a bit too easily. It's almost like they really didn't know what to do with Boyega.

Also, minor niggle point but - Finn can pilot now? He couldn't get off the starkiller base on his own without Poe to pilot him, now he's flying around a light attack vehicle and successfully negotiates a suicide run while being melted by the canon thing?

Overall though, there were a lot of touching moments, some good humor (a BIT overplayed, but still...) and I enjoyed the movie. The entire set of scenes with Rey/Snoke/Kylo were my favourite of all.

Leia flying through space was my least favourite. Especially when you consider that we were painfully aware of Fisher's passing, and at that point in time would have been convinced that they found a way to write her out of the story completely. But then didn't. My guess is they just didn't want to cut the Luke and Leia reunion, that would have been a huge loss in the eyes of the storytellers. It was a tough call, I am sure.

They've passed that particular problem onto Abrams.

Finally: who else got the tip off immediately when Luke appeared at the end with a completely brown beard and head of hair that it wasn't really him? I saw that instantly.
 

Tino

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No need to spoilerize in this thread Will.

I didn’t care about Snoke either. Good riddance.

Or Rey parents. I too am giad they were “no one”.

Agree about the casino planet and Del Toro

Still digesting.

By the way, WELCOME BACK CHUCK.

Missed ya buddy;)
 

Chris Will

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Just got back. All I can say for now is that I loved it, fantastic film and an amazing SW film. Genuinely surprised by some things and we got to see Yoda again! That shocked me, in a good way. I knew his theme appeared on the OST but I figured it was going to be just Luke talking about him.

Can’t wait to see this again and again.
 
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