Star Wars Cinematic Universe

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm still amazed by all the people who currently think George Lucas was this pristine auteur worthy of the Criterion, while saying the director of Brick and Looper is a focus-testing fraud.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just saw The Last Jedi. Had some issues here and there, but overall on first impressions I liked it more than The Force Awakens and a lot more than Rogue One. No, it doesn't even come close to topping The Empire Strikes Back as the best Star Wars film (it kind of baffles me that some people have even claimed that), but I can at least say that it's the most that I've enjoyed anything from this franchise since that entry.

What I respect is that it plays things a lot less safe than the last two Star Wars movies that we got. That said, it did suffer quite a bit from a rather lackluster B-plot-line which really ended up feeling more like filler in-between the stuff that you actually wanted to see.

Mark Hamill stole the show, though. That honestly surprised me as I was skeptical to see if he could possibly turn in a decent performance as a character that he had been pretty disconnected from for decades. That said, he easily had the bulk of the most memorable and engaging scenes in this whole movie, IMO.

So, the short version: I wasn't realky that wowed by anything here, and it has it's fair share of baggage, but I still found more stuff to like than dislike, so it's worth checking out.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Got back from watching it, and it was cool. You can really feel Johnson's touches during the Canto Blight scenes and Benicio Del Toro's character, and I liked how Snoke's base looked like something out of Flash Gordon.

Spoiler

It's a real downer though that Han's dead, Luke's dead, and Leia's likely gonna die off-screen between this and the next movie. With the Rebels only consisting of a couple dozen people, and nobody in the rest of the galaxy is willing to help them outside of some stable kids. I was almost betting on Laura Dern's character taking over Leia's role for the next film, but then she died as well.

Also, I don't think Snoke's dead. We never got any answer as to who the hell he was, and anyone as strong in the Force as him is probably still surviving as a Force Ghost.

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[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Got back from watching it, and it was cool. You can really feel Johnson's touches during the Canto Blight scenes and Benicio Del Toro's character, and I liked how Snoke's base looked like something out of Flash Gordon.

Spoiler

It's a real downer though that Han's dead, Luke's dead, and Leia's likely gonna die off-screen between this and the next movie. With the Rebels only consisting of a couple dozen people, and nobody in the rest of the galaxy is willing to help them outside of some stable kids. I was almost betting on Laura Dern's character taking over Leia's role for the next film, but then she died as well.

Also, I don't think Snoke's dead. We never got any answer as to who the hell he was, and anyone as strong in the Force as him is probably still surviving as a Force Ghost.

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Spoiler

I don't know, I actually kind of like the way that Snoke went out as well as the idea of him being one big red herring rather than a clone of Emperor Palpatine. Kylo Ren turning on him by outsmarting his ability to read his thoughts was one of the best scenes in the movie and it would be kind of disappointing to see that be undone.

I was a bit "meh" when it came to Benicio Del Toro's character, myself. Benicio himself is a terrific actor which is why his character was the least bit impressionable at all, but from a story standpoint he really contributed very little for as much as he was hyped up in press releases.

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[Dr. Insomniac]

Spoiler

I also notice that people are really angry at Luke's character in this movie, to the point that this movie is getting a rotten score on the Rotten Tomatoes audience ratings. I can kind of understand, since Luke has been the audience surrogate of Star Wars for decades of fans, so depicting him as a half-insane homeless man who drinks milk fresh from an alien's utter and caused the First Order to gain their strongest soldier/eventual leader probably wasn't going to rub people well. It's like telling people "Hey, this childhood icon you looked up grew up to be a horrible failure who only redeemed himself at the end." But I thought it was an interesting change compared to people assuming Luke would be a kindly and whimsical sage in this film.

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[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Once again, Luke's character and the idea that he may not be the saintly hero who can do no wrong that the original trilogy painted him as is, to me, legitimately one of the best aspects of the movie.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Spoiler

And while the scene where Leia flies back to the ship was really stupid, it's a real shame how all these hints that she was in tune with the Force and could eventually become a Jedi herself are now all for nought. Like I bet the rough draft for Episode 9 last year probably had a B-plot where Rey teaches Leia how to wield a lightsaber or something.

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[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As for the general audience reaction to this movie, it's really hard to gauge just from Rotten Tomatoes.

The audience that I attended the movie with was really into it.

Spoiler

The scene where Kylo Ren kills Snoke as well as the scene where it's revealed that Luke is projecting an image of himself with the Force to fight Kylo Ren both got huge rounds of applause from the audience. However, I could see another crowd easily calling BS on both of those things.

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[Dr. Insomniac]

Even the user score on Metacritic is split down the middle. And many of them are also really mad at a certain character's arc.

[Daikun]

I just got back from The Last Jedi. If you're expecting an Empire Strikes Back kind of tone, this movie is nowhere near as dark. Also, spoiler talk...

Spoiler

Structurally, the film is a mess. Snoke died too damn early. He really seemed like the kind of all-encompassing villain for the final showdown. Instead, now we're stuck with a whimpering, conflicted Vader wannabe in charge of the whole First Order.

Also, the movie felt too long. They should've ended the movie when Rey was considering Kylo's offer and the Resistance was wrecked; it was a perfectly pivotal emotional moment. Instead, the movie just goes on for an extra half hour with a far weaker battle scene, which is basically just a carbon copy of Hoth. Not exactly the best way to cap off your "darkest hour" in a trilogy.

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[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Spoiler

Snoke was just a badly done clone of Darth Sidious. People were clamoring to know about his origin yet there was nothing the least bit interesting in him as a character to begin with. Killing him off early was one of the more interesting choices that a Star Wars film has made in a while.

I do agree about the movie feeling too long, though. The Fin and Rose sub-plot could have been cut way down, among other things.

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[Dr. Insomniac]

Spoiler

So, is Chewbacca the only one of the OT cast to have had a happier life in the Disney films than he did in the old EU? I know he lost Han, but at least he has Porg buddies now. While old EU Chewie died a horrible death. The rest of the old characters have been given really miserable life situations in this continuity compared to the old one, where Luke was a Jedi Master and teaching a new generation alongside Kyle Katarn, Leia was a Jedi Knight, Han was a General, and they were all keeping the Imperial Remnant on a tight leash compared to how they're dealing with the First Order in the current movies. They all had their angst in the old EU too, like Leia and Han's son still turning to the Dark Side, and all that shit with the Yuuzhan Vong, but it doesn't feel as much of a downer as their situation in the new canon, where they're all dead and the New Republic is in pieces.

Also, I'm noticing people go "Why didn't Holdo just tell Poe her plan so we wouldn't have all that Canto Blight shit?" And while I agree that she was being a jackass there, it's understandable since Poe got their entire bombing squadron and many of their ships killed against Leia's orders. And because Leia's last action before getting attacked was to demote him for that act, he was probably considered too much of a loose cannon to properly discuss this situation with. In fact, when they do tell him about the plan with the transport ships, he holds Holdo at gunpoint and thinks she's betraying the entire Resistance instead of hearing her out regarding Crait.

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[Dr. Insomniac]

So, the Shape of Water page on RT inexplicably has rotten audience reviews describing The Last Jedi. Either that's people who didn't see the name of the movie they were writing about, or those bot rumors are true.

[Rynnec]

 

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[Dr. Insomniac]

He's not completely wrong. Parts of Attack and Revenge feel like Lucas's attempt to make an allegory for the political climate. Where (the Republic/America) is freaking out over terror attacks, and they prop up a leader (Bush/Palpatine) to do the work, ultimately leading to a costly war (Clone Wars/War on Iraq).