The Last Jedi Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson 2017)

[Chen G. 3,944]

15 hours ago, Nick1066 said:

AUJ 3D HFR was the only Hobbit film I say in 3D HFR.  And aside from Gravity it was the last 3D film I saw at all.

 

I never saw it on HFR but I did see it in 3D, which I seem to recall was very immersive. Jackson knows his 3D, as do James Cameron and Martin Scorcese. I hear they improved on the HFR look in the later two films, too.

 

To each his own: it's not like the moviegoing experience hinged on 3D or on HFR, so I don't mind the criticism. Both are important avenues to explore in the development of film-form going forward.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Been reading the reviews that are coming out the preview footage. Structurally, it makes a lot of sense - particularly given the length of the picture - to do a James-Bond action opening. Its a staple of many of the Star Wars episodes, starting with the original where it ensues no later than the very first shot.

 

It sounds like a fully fleshed out sequence with a variety of different "beats", which is important to give the audience some sense of satisfaction early on the film.

 

Sounds promising!

[toothless 963]

 

[John 2,032]

The Mouse beckons.

[mrbellamy 6,272]

"Hey, watch the language!" haha, very Luke.

[toothless 963]

 

[Alex 2,833]

We haven't heard much from Lupita Nyongo regarding this film. I wonder if Maz even features that much, if at all.

 

Or maybe she has a very important role and they're keeping it a massive secret.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

She's Rey's mother!

[Chen G. 3,944]

4 hours ago, Alex said:

We haven't heard much from Lupita Nyongo regarding this film. I wonder if Maz even features that much, if at all.

 

There are already way too many characters around this movie, as it is.

[Alex 2,833]

You can never have too many action figures!

[Chen G. 3,944]

Yeah, but it seems like Johnson is insistent on fleshing more of them further than in The Force Awakens where so many of them (Hux, Snoke, Phasma) were just that - figures rather than characters. Even Poe and Leia don't have much to them in that film. I'm not necessarily saying that as a criticism - generally speaking, it knew where to keep its focus and where to draw a mark for following installments to draw out of.

 

But in this film we are having Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo, Snoke, Hux, Phasma, Luke, Leia and the Droids as actual characters, and top that with Rose, and the characters played by Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro. The film might be a Maz Canata away from crumbling under the shared weight of its characters.

 

For as good as it looks, there are a lot of hurdles that this film has to overcome! To just assume that it will be great is unfair.

[Alex 2,833]

I rewatched TFA last night and I released there's so much stuff that was left unexplained (Snoke, Rey's parentage, Max con Sydow's character, the map, Phasma escaping the Starkiller Base to name a few things). Will be interesting to see how much is addressed in TLJ.

[Chewy 2,382]

And Luke's lightsaber!

[Chen G. 3,944]

Which, according to ms. sweet-potato Kanata, is supposed to be the one that fell into oblivion in Empire Strikes Back!

 

23 minutes ago, Alex said:

I rewatched TFA last night and I released there's so much stuff that was left unexplained (Snoke, Rey's parentage, Max con Sydow's character, the map, Phasma escaping the Starkiller Base to name a few things). Will be interesting to see how much is addressed in TLJ.

 

I assume some, but certainly not all.

 

Johnson knows not to bite on more than he can chew, especially knowing that there's another one being made by another poor sucker (who, ironically, ended up being Abrams himself). Also, where we see a plot or continuity hole, Lucasfilm sees an opportunity for a bloody book!

[Bilbo 3,709]

16 hours ago, Alex said:

We haven't heard much from Lupita Nyongo regarding this film. I wonder if Maz even features that much, if at all.

 

Or maybe she has a very important role and they're keeping it a massive secret.

 

I hope “Not Yoda” has a smaller role this time.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You're just miffed she's not green!

[Bilbo 3,709]

Totally pointless character. 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[publicist 4,643]

Note how older patrons, not to speak of the IMDB Top 1000 voters, found the movie rather bad while the <18 crowd brought it up to 8-9:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/ratings

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I'm just not excited about this. This is the first time in my life where I haven't been excited to see a new SW film. I don't like this new me...

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

SW used to be an event. A special occasion. Now it's just an annual chore.

[publicist 4,643]

To quote Master Cremers, 'it's a children's movie!'

[TownerFan 4,983]

People will be on fences on both sides for this movie too, ie. nothing particularly new when it comes to Star Wars sequels. The problem is: there is very little you can do with the material that hasn't already been done or explored in the previous films. The story is gonna be a retread more or less once again, with "surprise" elements thrown in just to elevate the "shock value" that most fans seem to crave for, even in lieu of narrative coherence and solidity.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Yes, for now we are seeing responses to the film that either lack perspective or are from people who were always going to find this film great.

[Bilbo 3,709]

 

 

he’s usually fairly spot on. Think he liked TFA but wasn’t a huge fan of Rogue One.

[toothless 963]

Even if I know people can have different opinions, different artistic sensibilities, different views on filmmaking and so on, I'm always flabbergasted when I see critics going from "It's a masterpiece", to "it's crap". I mean, there has to be some common ground. Such a movie can't be "quite boring" AND "great" at the same time right ?

[John 2,032]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Yes, for now we are seeing responses to the film that either lack perspective or are from people who were always going to find this film great.

 

So you don't think that any of these people who saw TLJ genuinely believe it's a great film? That's a rather ignorant stance to take, considering you haven't seen the film and have no clue of its overall quality.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[toothless 963]

No, of course I'm not flabbergasted people have different opinions.

 

I think the problem comes from the fact Tweets aren't long enough to properly elaborate a critic.  Whenever critics use strong words such a "masterpiece" or "crap" for the same movie it's hard to believe they are describing the same movie without much explanations. And regarding the "common ground" what I meant was : When you judge a movie, opinions, artistic sensibilities and other subjective things come into account BUT ultimately there are also a few OBJECTIVE criteria to take into considerations. And with these few objective criteria, I have a hard time understanding how one movie can be "Great" and "Dull" at the same Time.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Twitter critics are worthless because too short.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[KK 3,307]

The climate has been absolutely dreadful of late!

[James 119]

Well, at least boring is a term that stays between good and bad.

[gkgyver 1,645]

6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Yes, for now we are seeing responses to the film that either lack perspective or are from people who were always going to find this film great.

 

Just wait until the "synthy" Verizon "pastiche" music will instantly become a new classic once it turns out to be actual Williams.

[Marcus 390]

Except it seems to have been confirmed that it isn't. 

[Jay 37,322]

Currently 84/100 on metacritic after 18 reviews

 

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/star-wars-episode-viii---the-last-jedi

 

 

 

BTW, I created a spinoff spoiler thread to discuss the film openly once you've seen it, please keep this thread safe for people, thanks!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

On 12/12/2017 at 4:40 AM, JohnSolo said:

 

So you don't think that any of these people who saw TLJ genuinely believe it's a great film? That's a rather ignorant stance to take, considering you haven't seen the film and have no clue of its overall quality.

 

He's speaking from an insight into the history of how SW films are received by critics, fans and general audiences. Ever since TPM, whenever a new film is released, the initial reaction from everyone is "That was great! A masterpiece!" Then as time goes by, the dust settles, and the backlash from the same people begins, and over even more time, the film is re-evaluated as being heavily flawed, if not a failure.

 

Obviously, SW films excel at wowing almost everyone during their honeymoon period, but they rarely stand up to the test of time. That said, it's hard to blame people for being skeptical of initial reactions.

[Fancyarcher 350]

Currently 96% on RT, and 84 on MC with 35 reviews. Already got my tickets for Friday. I'm hyped!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Bilbo 3,709]

Most of the reviews seem to mention a saggy middle and it seems the Finn and Rose subplot is unnecessary bloat as it’s a common complaint.

 

Donald Clarke of the Irish Times really didn’t seem to like it:

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/star-wars-the-last-jedi-review-boring-bloated-and-confusing-1.3324286?mode=amp

 

In a saga ranking he out it above TPM and AotC but below RotS

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Remco 685]

2 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

Most of the reviews seem to mention a saggy middle and it seems the Finn and Rose subplot is unnecessary bloat as it’s a common complaint.

 

Donald Clarke of the Irish Times really didn’t seem to like it:

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/star-wars-the-last-jedi-review-boring-bloated-and-confusing-1.3324286?mode=amp

 

In a saga ranking he out it above TPM and AotC but below RotS

 

Given it’s current average score and published reviews, why focus on that...?

[Bilbo 3,709]

1 minute ago, BloodBoal said:

Who the hell is Donald Clarke and why should I care about what he thinks of the film?

 

A critic and you should care about his opinion as much as you care about any critics opinion. 

 

His views are generally spot on though and give you a better sense of a film than something like io9 or slash film. 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Remco said:

 

Given it’s current average score and published reviews, why focus on that...?

 

Because new Star Wars films are generally “the best since Empire” and it’s helpful to see someone who’s clearly processed what they’ve seen?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[John 2,032]

51 minutes ago, Denise Bryson said:

He's speaking from an insight into the history of how SW films are received by critics, fans and general audiences. Ever since TPM, whenever a new film is released, the initial reaction from everyone is "That was great! A masterpiece!" Then as time goes by, the dust settles, and the backlash from the same people begins, and over even more time, the film is re-evaluated as being heavily flawed, if not a failure.

 

Obviously, SW films excel at wowing almost everyone during their honeymoon period, but they rarely stand up to the test of time. That said, it's hard to blame people for being skeptical of initial reactions.

 

I don't ever recall TPM and AOTC getting near-universal glowing reviews when they were released. Both received very polarized reviews upon release. So did ROTS, though it was received more positively than its predecessors.

 

 ESB also received very mixed reviews when it came out, along with ROTJ.

 

 

[Alex 2,833]

I'm all for John Boyega having lots of screentime 

[Demodex 557]

CNN's review was pretty disappointing, didn't make it sound that great at all. 

[Remco 685]

Cool. Maybe let’s first watch the movie, form an opinion, and if it is negative, cite these reviews to illustrate that. Until then I don’t see the point of dedicating a post to every single negative review considering these are a clear minority so far.