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This was a frustrating experience, in that there were parts that were brilliant, and parts where I thought "what the f**k".
I liked (and often loved) everything except for a few sizeable gripes.
1. Too much humour. Not that any of it didn't land, because pretty much all of it did. But I wanted something a little darker with this film and the constant comedy, followed by a heavy scene, followed by more comedy gave the film somewhat of a tonal imbalance.
2. Luke throwing his lightsaber away immediately after Rey hands it to him is funny, but slightly undermines the weight of the beginning portion of that scene we see at the end of TFA. But the film slowly proves that scene's worth so I guess it's alright.
3. Escape from Canto Bight. As others have noted, it's too-CGI riddled and belongs in the prequel trilogy.
4. Finn should have died. It would have been more than appropriate to see him go from wanting to escape to sacrificing himself for the rebellion.
5. The overt build-up of a lightsaber battle between Luke and Ren that never happens. Seriously, the film pretty much led to it from the moment we see Luke. A Star Wars film feels incomplete without a proper battle. This one would have had a lot of weight to it.
6. The lack of any questions being answered. I seriously doubt Rey's parents are who Kylo says they are. They are milking this until episode 9, IMO.
Aside from these critiscms, the rest of the film was superb. And yes, I had no problem with Leia force-pushing herself back into the ship.
I totally didn't expect Luke to die in this one, it would've been cool to see him be thelast surviving member of the original trio. What the hell to they intend to do with Leia now?
2. Revenge of the Sith
3. Return of the Jedi
4. Star Wars / A New Hope
5. The Last Jedi
6. The Force Awakens
7. Attack of the Clones
8. The Phantom Menace
Unranked: Rogue One. I don’t count it. If I did, it would be dead last.
I will say I far prefer TLJ to SP. I also far prefer it to RO. I shall try to see it again next week (looking forward to it actually) even though it didn't blow me away yesterday.
Current rankings:
ESB
TFA
ROTJ
SW (never was as big a fan of it as others)
TLJ
ROTS
AOTC
PM
RO
I think they may have blown it with TLJ by sort of toying with the viewer. Taking us to a familiar state of mind and then yanking the floor out from under. Bold move, but not everyone likes that approach.
Switch TFA with ROTS and we are identical. Nice.
ANH
TFA
ROTJ / TLJ
ROTS
RO
AOTC
TPM
You see, there are qualities in SW that, for me at least, transcend storytelling, acting and the likes. To be absorbed in the fantasy of it all, in the magic of those worlds, conflicts and unique myth, is enough to have a seriously good time. It doesn't mean that you can just shoot some garbage, call it Star Wars and sell it to me under the highest of praise, but so far I haven't seen a lot in this series that disturbs me in such a way that I'd go ballistic over it.
I guess it's not unlike with the Bonds. I have standards of quality that I'm always looking for, but the Bond films too work from a certain magic and a certain fantasy that are at least as important to me as whether or not every scene makes perfect sense and whether or not the films can withstand some Kubrickian tests of filmmaking. Even films like MR, TMWTGG or AVTAK get away with their flaws because there's enough of the good stuff in them to deliver me a good pizza on those days when I don't need my steak.
As for RO--I seriously think it deserves some re-evaluation. It's not "Episode so-and-so" and so it safely falls outside the "Skywalker canon". In that sense, you can take it or leave it. It elaborates on some events that were always hinted at but never previously shown. It respects continuity, both with Star Wars Rebels and Episode IV; it delivers great X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter action; it has Darth Vader drop by in one his most bad-ass moments ever and it dares to go completely nihilistic toward the end. Not getting too worked up over five seconds of bad CGI or the lack of Williams, I can always sit down and enjoy that film. It's not even pizza for me but close to a fine steak. RO is not ESB; it doesn't want to be. It wants to be--and is--its own thing. Together with James Luceno's novel Catalyst, it presents a decent story, leading up to the events of the original SW. For a spin-off film in a franchise based on popcorn entertainment, it holds up very well.
Well said, thats 100% how i feel about Bond.
Never been a big Star Wars fan though, watched and liked the movies when I was a kid but never got sucked into it as others.
That being said even i could not run away from all the hype that the new trilogy receives so i watched FA, RO, and TLJ on opening weekend, and so far I liked FA the most, with RO not far behind and TLJ was... Good, there was much to like about it (basically everything with Luke in it) I feel like it just needs a couple more viewings to settle in.
I was thinking about it, and after ROTJ, it seems he could have had all of them as company all alone on that planet
But still- Luke sees his father at the end of ROTJ, and he’s seen Obi-Wan arguably more after he was dead than alive! :)). Are we to believe he never saw them after that?
I am glad we got Yoda though
--
On a side note, I recall reading somewhere recently that Disney may be looking to use McGregor for a standalone Obi-Wan film (presumably for 2020 release).
Exciting times!
What if they had a solo Vader and emperor film about Vader hunting down the last of the Jedi inbetween ROS and RO
It seems odd that he would just give his life up after being rejuvenated by Rey and Yoda. Perhaps he is evolving into something else through the Force? I'm probably thinking about it too much, but it sucks that we will never get a real confrontation between Luke and Kylo now.
I believe Luke didn’t die because he was so drained from projecting himself through the Force. I think he allowed himself to become one with the Force which got rid of his physical form. Obi-Wan did it before Vader’s blade almost hit him and Yoda did it just before he died from old age. I think you have to rid yourself of your physical form to become a Force Ghost before you die. I could be wrong on that but Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Luke shut their eyes like they were meditating and then disappeared. Then again Anakin didn’t disappear and there was a body for Luke to burn at the end of ROTJ, yet Anakin still became a Force Ghost. That’s about the best theory I got.
Also, I hope Luke will still be in Episode IX as a Force Ghost.
- The humor missed more than it landed for me. Might have been affected by a long weekend and a bad crowd. Will hope this plays better second time. I was surprised to hear a few people call it funnier than TFA. I laughed way less.
- The pace stood out as being quite different for a saga-oriented SW film. Eventually, though, I picked up the groove the film was in, and came around to it. This is partly why I want to see it again; I think the beginning of the film in particular will play better, now knowing the beats. Almost like listening to a new song for the first time.
- In the theater I was thinking that some of the editing came across as clumsy. It appeared to have been trimmed done awkwardly in some portions (some of the scenes on the island with Luke and Rey, the ending post-rock removal). Not surprised to have learned afterward that what we got was trimmed down from 3+ hour cut (although to be fair this is the case with many blockbusters). But I do wonder at what cost the casino/codebreaker escapade was kept in. I'd much rather have had the Luke/Rey scenes on the island fleshed out.
- I enjoyed Johnson's playing with the tropes and the reversals he employed.
- That said, I think his choices resulted in the reneging of some of the promises (or anticipations at least) Abrams made with TFA. Luke tossing the lightsaber over his shoulder oddly stands in for much of the film as a whole. The disposal of Snoke would be my prime example. I can forgive the cavalier answer to Rey's parentage. But TFA really seemed to make a promise with Snoke, and I thought it might have been one lightsaber toss too far (even if that scene was neatly structured and executed).
@Strog, I'm torn about the decision to kill off Snoke. On the one hand, I love the boldness of it, but then again it's very disappointing that we never learned much about him. Just who exactly was he? Where was he during the time of the OT and what was his connection to the dark side?
That was his blaster, not a lightsaber.
2. ROTJ
3. SW
4. RO
5. PM
6. TFA
7. TLJ
8. ROS
9. AOC
I thought The Last Jedi was an angsty mess to be honest.
But man, that fight with the Snoke's guards, that was tasty.