Star Wars: The Last Jedi (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

[AshVX220]

Well, the trailer has just been played at Star Wars Celebration and I watched it via facebook live.

It looks really good, sure it'll hit Youtube soon.

Very much looking forward to this.

[AshVX220]

I enjoyed the trailer also, but won't watch anymore. I made the error of reading far too much before the Force Awakens, expecting to read a few things about the filming etc, I inadvertently read a massive spoiler, which I regretted immediately, spent the whole movie waiting for it to happen!

I just booked my tickets for the Friday 16th at Disney Springs, tried to get tickets for opening day, but they were all sold out, I'll still head down though on opening evening, in case they make a big deal of it.

[AshVX220]

I'm still really considering this film.
There were many, many things I liked and a few things I disliked.
I liked;
The troubled part of Luke, having trained someone that turned on him and so he's trying to turn his back on the force.
The comedy was more than a normal Star Wars film, but I thought it was OK, not too in your face.
The destruction of Snokes ship, by going into it at light speed (possibly the best scene in the film).
Having Leia sucked out of the ship into space, however........
What I didn't like;
Leia somehow using the force to bring herself back to the ship (this really took me out of the moment (though I hate that phrase)), as others have said, they probably should used that as her demise and re-filmed a few scenes to accommodate this, I believe it would have been a fitting end and still shocking as it was so early into the film.
The bombers (and I'm sure some of the laser shots from the big ship arced toward their target as if they were influenced by Gravity.
The left wing, isn't capitalism evil undertones, I don't need to be lectured to about that by anyone, particularly someone with money (most Hollywood actors), I especially don't want to be lectured on by a massive corporate entity like Disney that makes more money than God! (and I love Disney, I'm at the parks most weekends as a passholder!)
The way they made Hux, such a useless baddie, when he gave his speech in TFA it was clear he was quite evil (copying Hitler really), but in this he's now a shadow of what he should have been.
Snoke, what was the point really, there should have been more story.

I still enjoyed it and will see it again at the cinema I think, I hope that when the next one is released it'll become slightly clearer. To be honest, if I were Disney, I would put the team that did Rogue One on to the rest of the franchise, because of the last 3 movies, I think it was the best.

[AshVX220]

r11co said:

AshVX220 said:

Having Leia sucked out of the ship into space, however........

...was st. Her Superman pose and force-flight back to the ship was Star Wars' 'jumping the shark' moment.

I actually thought being sucked into space would have been a good end, but yep, they definitely "jumped the shark" with her surviving and getting back to the ship!

[AshVX220]

Halb said:

THe RLM take is really very good. THe skinny one says, at one time Star Wars was a great trio of films, people loved. Now, people like the brand, and get defensive over it.

article with Rian defending his choice on Snoke
http://epicstream.com/news/Rian-Johnson-Explains-W...

That explains a lot to me, or at least helps me see why there were so many holes between the two. He was writing the script for TLJ while they were still shooting TFA. To me this explains in some way why there were so many things that were dropped between the two,

[AshVX220]

Halb said:

The new films rip up all the books from the 90s, though it does make sense that Leia would have received some guidance from Luke.

Exactly, so they needed to at least acknowledge it in the films, just a one liner when she sends Rey off to find Luke, saying that Luke gave her training in the ways of the force, so Leia's confident he'll be able to train Rey. Anything would have been better than to just have her suddenly able to do it IMHO.

[AshVX220]

Guvernator said:

Princess Leia in isolation isn't too bad. OK it is because it's totally out of context BUT you could have possibly given it some leeway and accepted Luke might have given her some training before he went into exile or something, if the rest of the film was up to scratch or made sense. Unfortunately it doesn't so the Leia in space scene just becomes one more nail in the coffin.

Oh look another extra powerful female character doing the impossible. I really have no issue with strong female leads, a lot of my favourite cinema characters are female, Rippley, Sarah Connor, Clarice Starling, the Bride etc. However when a film goes out of it's way to make a gender statement as is obviously the case with this, we even have articles online stating this was one of Kennedys goals, to the point that it effects the cohesiveness of the film and the political statement overpowers good story telling, then I have an issue with it.

Indeed, at the very least what Disney should do is retain a single writer/director for each trilogy they release, that way we won't have RJ throwing away all the stuff that JJ had lined up in the first film. It seems to me that RJ not said "screw you" to the fans and legacy of the franchise, he also said a huge "screw you" to JJ.

That said, I'm taking Mrs Ash to see it this weekend, so maybe a 2nd viewing will be more enjoyable.

[AshVX220]

southendpier said:

I imagine the jokes and the Porgs are absolutely fantastic on 2nd or indeed 3rd viewing.

With the hype and the toys etc, I was actually dreading the Porgs bit, but to me they were among the lease offensive aspects of the film!

[AshVX220]

I still don't understand how Disney were able to do something so great with Rogue One, but yet with TLJ completely screw it all up story wise and top that insult off with an overly politicised POS (can't actually believe I'm calling a Star Wars or Disney product that!).

They also did pretty good (though safe) work with TFA, yet for TLKJ through away everything that had been set up.

There had to be some back story as to why the Rebellion were now a Resistance to now re-grouped and threatening First Order, and it has all been completely blown over.

[AshVX220]

DMN said:

AshVX220 said:

There had to be some back story as to why the Rebellion were now a Resistance to now re-grouped and threatening First Order, and it has all been completely blown over.

A lot of that has been left up to the Books and Comics. Bloodline tells the story of how the First Order began to take over the Republic Senate. Its more about politics than space battles, but is a good read.

I read aftermath, probably need to read it again along with the others. I just think the franchise would have been better if the new republic were doing OK and the first order rose initially out of terrorism, gaining support and finally having enough support to rebuild it's fleet etc. Lets be honest, most people don't read the books (I'm a bit of a Star Wars nerd, but haven't read a Star Wars book for years (despite reading quite a bit).

[AshVX220]

Foliage said:

Me too, I fell asleep... Even my rage couldn't keep me engaged.

Some of the changes are hilarious too, trying to address some of the fan outrage...

Changes? What changes? (Or are these changes to reviews?)

[AshVX220]

funkyrobot said:

I'm not even bothering with Solo.

To be fair, based on Rogue One, I think Solo will be OK, there aren't supposed to be elements that lead into a trilogy etc as they're stand alone, so it should be OK. However, that said, I won't be seeing Solo on opening Friday (as I have for every other Star Wars release).

[AshVX220]

Mr. White said:

Never mind the "disrespecting history" arguments, even on its own merits as a single film it was incredibly poor. The storylines were nonsense and full of contradictions and inconsistencies, and that's before the clear SJW/Third Wave Feminism politics.

The result was a film that neither "fans" nor newbies generally liked. That's some effort.

Haven't heard any more on Johnson's trilogy yet, hopefully it's been canned. Mind you, after this effort and his subsequent interviews I have no intention of seeing another film made by him, Star Wars or otherwise.

Haven't seen any interviews by him, but I thought the whole SJW thing was at Kennedy's direction.

Either way, I still find it amazing that no-one seems to be able to point out to these current people that we had amazing strong female characters years ago, they just got on with it without the fan-fare and need to make it quite so obvious.

[AshVX220]

Not sure if any of you have heard of or seen any of these before (it would appear there are a few of them). Anyway, this ones quite good;

How it should have ended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCB8DUGpYQQ

[AshVX220]

Things are really not well at Lucasfilm;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoi1z_wlf-I

I guess at least they're prepared to do something to try and save the franchise, who here would want the job.

[AshVX220]

Halb said:

If I owned a police box, I'd take it on. Sadly, I do not.
Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, Chewie, these are the ones I care about, and the LINO lot has destroyed that, so, personally I think it should be allowed to end, but it won't, and they're stuck with the turds they've created.

But there are many stories that can be told within the universe and the battle between light and dark. Not even necessarily in the current "timeline".

[AshVX220]

I guess it depends on how original you want to be and what you want to show/be shown. Personally I would like something along the lines of the going from the Battle of Endor (or just before) to the creation/evolvement (or just after) of the First Order.

Going way back in time, a "Knights of the old Republic" story may be interesting.

[Ashtrooper]

Halb said:

edit
had to add this, looks like forbes drone is already laying groundwork for suggesting star wars 9 won't go good business, the reason, not because the film will be as awful as last jedi, or the fact that LINO has pissed on the old core, but that the weekend wil be busy.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2018/0...

Edited by Halb on Thursday 28th June 11:20

I couldn't actually read all that it was so full of BS, you have to wonder if he produced it on the orders of Disney or if he thought of it all by himself.

Edited by AshVX220 on Thursday 28th June 14:19

[AshVX220]

Moonhawk said:

Well - he was a general in ROTJ and actually destroyed the second death star.......so i'd say he is pretty up there.

But it does beg the question - why haven't they used him before now. Again another established character wasted so they could introduce new ones. Lando and Akbar should have been prominent figures in TFA and TLJ, instead of Holdo stealing the limelight.

Not only that, but Lando would have ticked a valuable SJW box for Kennedy.

[AshVX220]

Going back to the Hollywood/Ideas thing on the last page. I think one of the big problems that Lucasfilm have at the moment is that they seem insistent on having a writer/director. When you should have a writer (and FFS use the same one for the entire trilogy) and then a separate person to do the directing and bring the writers world to life. For all of it's faults with the SJW stuff being rammed down peoples throats TLJ wouldn't have received anywhere near as much criticism if it just told a decent story and flowed from TFA better. Because when all's said and done if you provide a good story with interesting and believable characters, the fans won't give a st what minority their from.