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


Dixon Hill

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The meta approach is off-putting, like it's drawing attention to itself, singing and dancing 'Look at me! Look at me! I'm Star Wars!!'

 

Yet, I still think it's a well-constructed film with both visuals and in some of the character moments. The Kylo/Rey tension was great.

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Ugh it has its moments I guess. Like the crashy bit in space and Luke marching outside to face the baddies.

 

But who the hell was this movie made for? This shit didn't happen by accident, the douche who made it knew he was sabotaging the whole thing for shits and giggles.

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48 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

The Rise of Skywalker is more fun, which is all that matters for a Star Wars movie

 

There wasn't one moment in Rise Of Skywalker that I would call "fun". Unless you qualify derision as that. 

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1 hour ago, The Big Man said:

But who the hell was this movie made for? This shit didn't happen by accident, the douche who made it knew he was sabotaging the whole thing for shits and giggles.

 

I still think Johnson just likes to make divisive movies. He knows controversy gets great attention. He was chosen on purpose as not a Star Wars guy who could not be emotionally attached to the series and do something divisive.

 

All media these days is made so you'll go online and talk about it. Look at Mando.

Spoiler

They have a random guy show up at the end of the show. How many people are going to know who this actor is playing a minor character looking completely different than in the movie he was in 18 years ago?

That ending was presented that way so people would go online and discuss it, and articles would be written explaining it and promoting it. 

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I don't understand the whole Codebreaker plot, or the slow space chase. It felt like it was all a ln afterthought to take a backseat to Rey and Luke's story.

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To sum it up:

Finn/Rose bullshit : Did not bring anything forward in the story. Incomprehensible code breaker plot. Just to keep them busy.

Poe/Holdo plot: Weak story if conflicts are just based on people not talking to each other for no reason and later for no reason secrets revealed. Learned nothing from nothing.

Space chase: Felt like the plot of a mediocre clone wars episode, but there we saw better.

Rey/Luke story: See Poe/Holdo. 

Rey/Kylo plot: The only thing worth watching in the movie

Bonus: Kylo Snoke twist was entertaining.

Bonus malus: In Canto Bight the outofthisworldliness of star wars got lost.

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2 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

It starts with them getting chased by the first order and ends with them getting chased by the first order... and now Luke is dead (but that's ok because he had Peace and Purpose)

Empire starts with them on the run laying low from the Empire and ends with them on the run laying low from the Empire... and now Han is frozen, maybe dead until he decides if he wants to be in the next one or not (but that's ok because they're going to save him).

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1 hour ago, crumbs said:

TLJ is the best Star Wars film since ESB.


What does that even mean, though? Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith are middling, The Phantom Menace is a step or two down from that and Attack of the Clones is... well, Attack of the Clones.

 

The Force Awakens is quite good (I personally prefer it to The Last Jedi) and Rogue One is again middling.

 

”Best since Empire” is such a piece of faint praise.

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2 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

It means TLJ is the best Star Wars film since ESB.

TLJ is the worst Star Wars film ever made.


And to whoever said it feels like Stargate SG-1, TLJ wishes it was as good as that show.

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There are little morsels in it: I love that scene of Poe at Leia’s deathbed, when Lando comes in. There are moments in the action setpieces that are vaguely exciting, a few funny jokes, and it all generally looks nice; there’s also something nice about the denouement in the Homestead, especially with the score and all of that.

 

Otherwise; it’s a vapid movie.

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I was so sold on TROS for the first part of the film. Then it all fell apart, starting when Hux revealed himself. Nowadays it's my least favorite of the three. It had the unenviable task of wrapping up two films that pull the story in very different directions, and I'm sad to say it failed completely, which hurt the trilogy as a whole. I haven't even watched it since the theatrical run, which is a first for me in Star Wars.

 

TLJ...man, I can't really defend it in any intellectual way, but for whatever reason, the things I initially disliked about it just don't bother me as much anymore.

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52 minutes ago, Datameister said:

I was so sold on TROS for the first part of the film. Then it all fell apart

 

Really? for me it was "off" since the text crawl and first few frames. There's a difference between an in medias res opening and putting the plot on fast-forward.

 

I was trying to keep an open mind about the inclusion of Palpatine, but the film gave itself basically no time to build to a dramatic reappearance. It just happened.

 

That's the whole movie, really. A collosal loss of nerve on JJ Abrams' part when it comes to the pacing.

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20 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Really, for me it was "off" since the text crawl and first few frames. There's a difference between an in medias res opening and putting the plot on fast-forward.

 

I was trying to keep an open mind about the inclusion of Palpatine, but the film gave itself basically no time to build to a dramatic reappearance. It just happened.

 

That's the whole movie, really. A collosal loss of nerve on JJ Abrams' part when it comes to the pacing.

I was just dissapointed that they did not bring back Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus, Darth Vader, Darth Plagueis and Boba Fett as well.

 

And the dead shark from Jaws.

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58 minutes ago, Pellaeon said:

 

 

Isn't that the moron who said the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh couldn't be proved because none of his victims described his penis?

 

Just shows what kind of idiots who made of their life's goals to troll TLJ.

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I will admit, part of the issue with Kylo's redemption arc is that Johnson's film didn't do enough to shut the door on that eventuality. Johnson does fortify Kylo on the Dark Side, but he never actually commits to making him irredeemable to the audience, and that's a problem that falls on that movie's shoulders as much as anything.

 

This trilogy may not have had a plan, but what it did have was the supposition that the writers must, as Chris Terrio puts it, "find a path to redemption for Kylo Ren, the son of Han and Leia."

 

I find it unsettling that, not only did a large group of people involved with the making a film trilogy never saw this storytelling choice as amoral, but neither did the fans. In fact, they were expecting this ending since the midpoint of The Force Awakens, never once stopping to question its morality.

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44 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

I will admit, part of the issue with Kylo's redemption arc is that Johnson's film didn't do enough to shut the door on that eventuality. Johnson does fortify Kylo on the Dark Side, but he never actually commits to making him irredeemable to the audience, and that's a problem that falls on that movie's shoulders as much as anything.

 

This trilogy may not have had a plan, but what it did have was the supposition that the writers must, as Chris Terrio puts it, "find a path to redemption for Kylo Ren, the son of Han and Leia."

 

I find it unsettling that, not only did a large group of people involved with the making a film trilogy never saw this storytelling choice as amoral, but neither did the fans. In fact, they were expecting this ending since the midpoint of The Force Awakens, never once stopping to question its morality.

 

I mean, after he killed Han, I had a certain feeling of, Oh shit, there's no bringing him back from this. Like, Vader commits atrocities aplenty in the OT, but he never murders a [EDIT: non-Force-ghost-able] main protagonist who's been a fan favorite for 40-odd years. This felt different. Which was...interesting, because it left me wondering how they would eventually bring his story to a conclusion without the redemption angle. They had a plan, I assumed...wrongly.

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2 minutes ago, Datameister said:

 

I mean, after he killed Han, I had a certain feeling of, Oh shit, there's no bringing him back from this. Like, Vader commits atrocities aplenty in the OT, but he never murders a main protagonist who's been a fan favorite for 40-odd years.

Which would have not been the case if the prequels had been first.

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8 minutes ago, Spider-Fal said:

Which would have not been the case if the prequels had been first.

 

Not necessarily. I doubt Lucas would have written a redemption arc had he first come up with the atrocities that he has Anakin perform in the prequel trilogy. The worse thing he has Vader do (by his own hand - not by facilitation) in the classic trilogy is kill Old Ben, and even that happens in-action.

 

It seems the idea that Anakin would perform mass massacres was a late introduction even in the course of developing the prequel trilogy: early drafts of The Phantom Menace seem to set-up a scenario where Watto will kill Shmi, in which case Anakin would not have had any reason to go slaughtering sand children - he'd just murder Watto.

 

When Lucas added that beat to the story, and Padme's cavalier "to be angry is to be human" he paved the road to the kind of moral bankruptcy that we see in The Rise of Skywalker. Both are despicable.

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1 minute ago, Spider-Fal said:

Which would have not been the case if the prequels had been first.

 

I just edited my post with an important detail: a protagonist who has to actually stay dead and not return as a Force ghost. My point being, Vader never actually ended any such character's role in the films. He helps precipitate Padme's death in the prequels, but that's neither intentional nor unexpected.

 

With Kylo, it was like, "This sonofabitch just ended Han Solo's role in the films!" I had a hard time imagining myself forgiving him for that.

 

I will admit his redemption in TROS could have been...somewhat worse. Even with the supremely uncomfortable kiss and the rather sudden and confusing way it comes about.

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2 minutes ago, Pellaeon said:

Where do you guys come up with rules of who can and can’t redeem themselves, and under what circumstances?

 

No rules, just a subjective gut feeling about what feels dramatically "right".

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