Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson)

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IMDB / Wiki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YrA8ApA9PI

Making this thread now in anticipation for tomorrow....because not only will I get to see this three days before its release, but afterwards I will be writing the most important review of my life to go up on the website once the review embargo is lifted. Couldn't be more excited. :)

I'm not seeing it until Saturday, so once again MC will be my voice of reason.

Please please please no spoilers!

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Originally Posted by Skitch

Please please please no spoilers!

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I assure you, the review will be spoiler-free. :)

I wanted to talk about so much more but it was a challenge to do that without treading into spoiler territory. But here is my review, spoiler-free as promised.

https://615film.com/2017/12/12/revie...tar-wars-saga/

Seeing this tomorrow, but feel that I should watch The Force Awakens again tonight because I don't remember much about the actual plot itself. Feels a bit like homework though, which tells you a lot about how I feel about the franchise at the moment.

The most exciting thing I've heard in reviews is that Johnson answers many lingering questions from the first film and quickly.

Thank God.

That porg poster rules.

Hard to nail down just a few thoughts or even just adjectives, but to me this is just a phenomenal, thriving, emotional and haunting piece of blockbuster filmmaking. I laughed a bunch and might've wept even more.

Easily the best Star Wars movie of my lifetime. (Which is easy to say because I was born after the OT but it's also as strong an addition to rank amongst those.)

Not good. Some seriously bad writing. I’ll get into detail once more people have seen it, but this is basically 30 minutes of story and characterization stretched out via interminable wheel-spinning. It should be called Star Wars: Buying Time.

It’s basically the slowest chase movie ever.

1. ESB
2. ANH
3. ROTJ
4. TFA
Rogue One
5. TLJ
6. TPM
7. ROTS
8. AOTC

If you guys haven't played with the VR stickers yet I highly recommend it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcr8LxIl...-by=dukefrukem

Its ambitions, both thematic and story-wise, may have outstripped its actual fun a little bit (which is still a lot), but so frequently thrilling to see Johnson's attempt to interrogate and move on from past iconography/out-sized myths, along with their inherent obsessions, in order to create and chart out new ones. In this way, it feels almost like the film is talking to The Force Awakens in the same way that these new characters are questioning their worshipped legends, and the old guards growing wary of their own. Also a welcome, borderline-ambling dose of some ground-level viewpoints to consider the effects of wartime heroics, both as a spark of inspiration and as collateral damage. The actions, perhaps less delightful this time but more propulsive, crackle with precise eye-catching craft and some new awesome moves; speaking of creating some new iconography, the two main color-red-coded setpieces may rank up there with the best of the series. 8.5/10

The Rey/Kylo Ren/etc stuff is mostly pretty compelling, until it gets silly. The Finn/Poe/etc stuff is completely ridiculous all the way through, and then it gets silly. And then the movie overstays its welcome, and ends on the absolute silliest note possible.

Not the worst thing in the world, but oh boy is this thing all over the damn place. And what's really standing out to me the most about this movie though is that it just tries to tackle so goddamn much, and yet in execution, it is by far the sloppiest Star Wars movie to date. Like, it's sort of unbelievable in that regard just how poorly paced, poorly plotted, and poorly cut together this movie is.

It's certainly not a retread like TFA was, but more so than the other movies, you can definitely feel the Disney influence all over this film. This felt like it goddamn MCU movie, and I'm really just sick of that general style by this point.

I think I might just be done with live action Disney in general at this point...

What TGM said. This was good but mostly bullshit and too goddamn long.

I feel this big studio/Disney hangup is getting so weirdly pervasive (and more a self-fulflling pre-critcism at this point). This was both unshapely and plot-shifiting, for better or worse, in the same way that Johnson's films usually are. So a big studio determines that an audience-friendly, risk-smoothing move is to have a lengthy detour/side-mission that ultimately proves futile (but feeds into this film's worldview)? What? (Already saw a lot of complaints about this one).

This movie fucks.

Hard.

In regards to the Disney comment, as well as the general writing of this thing, I go into spoilers, so I'm just gonna tag the whole post...

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A lot of the forced humor felt ripped straight out of recent Marvel movies, and the general tone similarly felt like it was too timid to get too dark like those films, so always had this faux-lightheartedness to it. But otherwise, just writing wise, the entire Poe/Finn story is completely filler. I mean, right off the bat with that opening action sequence, that was totally a modern big blockbuster clusterfuck. I was just thinking back to the OT space battles, how you never felt lost following along, or even in the big opening space battle in Episode III, how grand it felt in scope, yet once more, it was so fluidly told on a visual level to where it was really easy to follow along with the action. But this, this opener was just an disorienting and explodey fucking mess as we followed a bunch of non-characters. But even as we get to their actual "plot", literally the whole thing is 100% preventable had Laura Dern just properly explained her plan (no reason why she didn't), and even after they execute the plan, it turns out that their plan was 100% pointless in the end anyways, meaning all this time was spent literally just to give these characters something to do for an overly long period of time, nevermind that it doesn't actually advance anything in the end anyways.

And then there's the fact that, with the First Order right on their back, it would appear that they're in quite a time crunch, yet even as they were going over their plan, all I could think was, when the fuck are they going to have time to travel around to other planets looking for people to help with this convoluted scheme? Nevermind that they take their time on said planet having these awkward quiet moments of reflection and such, even though, oh wait, we're kinda in a real fucking hurry here. It was just so poorly planned out just from a script level.

As to the Rey and Kylo Ren stuff, this wasn't without its hiccups, but it mostly worked, up to a point. That point basically being right when Kylo Ren kills Snoke (which, k, WHO was Snoke anyways? They forgot to even establish WHO this character is, WHERE he came from, and WHAT his actual aim is all this time, before just nonchalantly killing him off solely for a quick cheap shock value). Then suddenly, Kylo reverts back to being a cartoon villain, and Rey is just... sorta there? I dunno, I guess she became more aware of the force surrounding her in this movie, but otherwise, how else did her character or arc really progress? (Also, are we really to believe they're leaving it that her parents are unimportant?) This is a shame, because I actually liked her character quite a bit in TFA, but here, she really does come across as the "mary sue" everyone accused her of being.

The more I think about this movie, the more of a completely and total mess it looks like. Which is a shame, because I do dig some of the ideas present here, how it's not afraid to address the gray area between the two factions, how even the "good guys" aren't always so good and all of that. But god damn does a do a really sloppy job actually bringing any of these ideas to the forefront or really actually doing anything with them other than literally just acknowledging them before moving right along. I dunno, but this was sort of a trainwreck of ideas that really didn't come together at all.

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Kylo Ren is SUCH A BITCH... but Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley are the best actors in this trilogy, easily. Also, doesn't anyone have shields on their goddamn ships anymore? Why does Poe introduce himself to Rey, as if for the first time at the end of this, YET they definitely met in TFA when BB-8 shared the map to Luke and when the resistance sent her off? Shit drove me crazy.

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Originally Posted by Zac Efron

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Why does Poe introduce himself to Rey, as if for the first time at the end of this, YET they definitely met in TFA when BB-8 shared the map to Luke and when the resistance sent her off? Shit drove me crazy.

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Yeah, I also found that weird. :\

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I'm trying to contain my excitement, but this was a fucking Star Wars movie. It's easily the best directed Star Wars film. There are some breathtaking set pieces. I never once felt like there was too many cooks stirring the pot. The fan service never felt forced or there just for a reaction from the audience. I loved the humor. Even characters like Space Dern, Benicio Del Toro, and Kelly Marie Tran never felt wasted in their small screen time. Yeah, the pit-stop at the casino planet dragged a bit, but it was a much needed break in the roller coaster of emotional stakes.

I expected Rian Johnson to knock it out of the park, and he did it. The only downside is that I wish he was doing 9.

Rian Johnson knows what it's about.

Loved that he acknowledged, right off the bat, two things that bothered me about Force Awakens:

a. Rey being pretty much invincible without any training. A large part of this movie revolves around Rey's learning process with Luke, and that was fascinating. It made me wonder if midichlorians ever actually made it to this continuity. But seriously, I'm not a big "expanded universe" geek, but the way those scenes explore the Force seemed quite unique to me.

b. Why the fuck does Kylo Ren wear a mask, he's not distorted or anything, is he just a fucking cosplayer??? Snoke appropriately makes fun of this.

This movie was awesome. TMG pointed out something that also rang weird for me (Laura Dern just not explaining herself for no reason), but overall this is the best Star Wars movie since Empire Strikes Back.

Slept on it. A day later, this movie is shit. I may even like Phantom Menace better.

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Originally Posted by transmogrifier

Slept on it. A day later, this movie is shit. I may even like Phantom Menace better.

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I need to watch it again, but I fear I’m in your camp on this one.

This is going to divide the audiences like no SW movie before it. I suspect those who had anything positive to say about Rogue One will hate this, and vice versa. And I'd rather gouge my eyes out than get anywhere near TPM.

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