The Last Jedi - Full Spoilers

That was snow? I thought it was salt on top of red earth. I love that I didn’t care either

They had me thoroughly convinced it was Hoth and then I realized it wasn’t. So cool. Those old displays were AMazing

I’m really glad to know that stuff like Leia in space isn’t enough to kill the kid in me that loved this movie. My uncle hated it cuz of lots of reasons but they’re all minor and nit picky. This movie alone has made me realize I’m not as cynical as I feared I had become

There was a scene where the guys setting up in the trench scraped the white off and said "It's salt!".

But that was obviously added there to explain the white-on-red, which is a pure dramatic visual thing. And it was fantastic, especially as the ships started to get picked off one by one and even Poe had to admit you can't always beat the odds. The trails just ceasing did a tremendous job of showing how few were out there.

That was one thing that almost drew me out of the movie in space battle land. There were so few fighters out. I get that the Resistance was resource-poor, but I was under the impression that all those Star Destroyers carry a full complement of TIE fighters. However, that complaint goes all the way back to 1977, so I didn't let it bug me too much. They certainly made the most of it in counting the losses on the Resistance status board, too.

Just saw it, and thought it was really good. Can't remember the last time I was actually surprised by a Star Wars movie, and had no clue where the story and characters were heading. Or when a Star Wars movie had added anything interesting to its world. Or felt that over the place and ballsy. Or had such beautiful cinematography. Or jokes that worked (yeah, they did for me, for most part). Or had such great acting (everyone is so good, but Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill... they were just stellar here, more so than in any other movie). Or made me that close to cry. Or made me want to watch it again as soon as possible.
It sure has some problems, but in a movie that big it is kinda unavoidable, and nothing was a trainwreck. My only big half-criticism is that it feels like Rey and Ren have still a lot room to grow as characters and mythos, and that that growth will be handled by JJ Abrams, whom I don't trust to do it properly.

My favorite scene was Yoda and Luke. That dialogue was so well-written, poignant, and just felt right.

I re-watched Force Awakens and like it even better having seen Last Jedi. Its nice knowing that Rey is nothing more than the person we see surviving day-to-day on some Tattooine-ish planet. Han and Leia weren't keeping some dark secret from her the whole time like assholes. Luke didn't abandon any kids like an asshole. The Emperor didn't have a hate-child with Mon Mothma or whatever either. She's just a girl on the hero's journey.

Rey's non-origins was a good choice from any perspective. First of all, no secret origins would have been good enough, would not have surprised me or evoked any emotions. Because it has been done before, and because we kinda expect that from SW. And because, as Barnes mentioned in an earlier post, the whole jedi-by-birthright thing is plain elitist. And, most importantly, completely unnecessary.
Talking about elitism, I loved how many extras and secondary characters there are there. Starting with that unnamed/unknown doomed bomber crew, that swiftly replaces Poe as the focus of the scene (that, btw, felt very Rogue Oneish).
And the spin TLJ puts on the force lore is amazing. I am so used and tired of Force being a Jedi vs Sith thing, as a clash between two dogmatic extremes. It is great to see Luke rejecting the Jedi doctrine, and for Rey to move with freedom and disinhibition into areas that any decent Jedi would have considered heretical. She goes straight into that hole in the island (to Luke's dismay), is not afraid of her emotions, a lot of anger there. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if she's slipping into the dark side, but at the same time admiring her bravery - she's basically doing the very opposite of what we (as Star Wars' audience) were taught by two generations of films, and yet it doesn't look like she's off the track.

A note on TFA. My opinion of it has not improved at all, in fact it has only gotten worse. Rey's awakening to the Force was awfully executed. She basically started to exhibit and expertly use all these cool powers all of a sudden, not even surprised at her own abilities. Now we know for sure she was not trained before, so that scene is even more jarring and incongruous with the character.

Finally saw this thing. The last 40something anglo man in America at this point.

As STAR WARS movies go, it was pretty good! As to Vlad's complaint that Rey is getting this all too easily, I think Luke points that out—she has amazing raw talents and it's scary as hell. I was OK with that. Visually it was really well put together, just a couple of hambones in there. I liked Rey in Red and Kylo in Blue when they communed, that was a nice cue on their intermingling. I thought that Porg Chewie was going to eat was the faskest fake bird that was ever faked. Like, fucking hand the guy a Cornish hen or something, cripes.

I don't have tons of theories or any of that junk. It was a good movie.

I noticed everyone has a development arc.

Ren & Kylo is pretty obvious.
Finn becomes so courageous that he's suicidal.
Poe turns from hotshot pilot to actual "leader".

They are all *very* different from the old heroes. Especially Kylo which dropped his Vader cosplay. I wonder what will he don on IX.

Oh my.

My wife was let out of hospital late on Thursday, so given the last time she was allowed out of hospital was only for 36 hours we went to see The Last Jedi on Friday afternoon. So finally myself and the kids can relax about spoilers (2 years ago we were in a similar situation and my daughter managed to blurt out to my wife that Han dies in TFA).

Some observations on my second viewing:
- I loved it even more. At the moment this is my favourite Star Wars movie, but we will see how it sits with more time and distance.
- The humour really jumped out at me the first time I saw it, seeming to be out of place, but it was fine the second time through.
- The bombing run at the start is probably my 3rd favourite action sequence in the octet of movies (after the snow battle in TESB and the lightsaber battle in TPM). People complain about the lack of gravity in space but I like to believe the bombs are propelled like rail guns.
- I have loved Adrian Edmondson since I was 10, so don't know how I missed him the first time particularly as he had such a big part as Hux's second in command.
- The only thing that is jarring is DJ knowing about the cloaked ships. It is possible Poe told him and Rose and Finn that it was a possible plan as they are in brief contact with him when Poe knew, but for such a key plot point it felt really out of place.

Just saw the movie this morning and I'm kind of ambivalent about it. I'm a long-time Star Wars fan like most of you, but there were a lot of things I liked about it and a lot of things I didn't. For starters I just thought the movie was too damned long, I think they could have trimmed it by 20-30 minutes. I felt like the casino planet chase scene dragged on too long as well as some of the mutiny in space. Also Rey following Luke around, I was like are we going to do this or not? Let's get this story moving. Also, while I mainly agree with the political undertones of the movie, I thought they were a laying it on a little thick. I rewatched Force Awakens a couple of days ago and I thought Force Awakens had more levity and humor than Last Jedi. The nerdiest thing I'm annoyed with is we still know absolutely nothing about Snoke. Who was he? How was he so powerful with the force? I mean he says he in Force Awakens he's not a Sith right? And what's his motivations for the First Order and destroying Luke Skywalker, just to be an all-powerful dude (granted that's pretty strong motivation for a bad guy). I didn't feel like it all had to be spelt out, but I would have liked some little nugget as to who that character is.

On the flip side I love that Rey is really a nobody and not a part of the greater Star Wars history. I mean, once upon a time Anakin Skywalker was a nobody right? They don't all have to be Skywalkers to be someone important. As Yoda tells Luke the greatest teacher is failure and pretty much all the good guys fail in this movie. Poe destroys the dreadnaught but it was really a failure. Finn's plan to save the fleet doesn't really work, nor does Vice Admiral Holdo's. Rey fails to turn Kylo Ren back to the light side. Everybody is just failing all over the place. I liked the moral ambiguity of everything. From how the real bad guys aren't necessarily the First Order but the war profiteers who make their money on conflict, to how the jedi weren't really all that great despite denying themselves the Dark Side. I think it would have been really interesting to see what would have happened had Rey joined with Kylo Ren, that idea of forgetting the past jedi and sith and empire and republic and building something new. Although trying to forget the past and not learn from past mistakes is a naive one. Oh, that fight scene with the royal guard was really awesome though. Visually the movie was very pretty, especially the red dust and white salt on that planet of the last stand happened. Back to the moral ambiguity thing, I liked Benicio Del Toro's character, not his weird stutter thing or his name (DJ, really?) but that this was a guy who was like the opposite of Han. Very much from the "scum and villainy" faction of Star Wars.

Another thing I didn't like, the kids. Star Wars struggles to do kids. Each time they've shown them in the prequel trilogy and in Last Jedi just felt really cheesy. Young Jyn Erso was great in Rogue One, but that's about it for kids in Star Wars.

So a bag of mixed feelings, I liked it more than I disliked it, but it wasn't perfect for me. I like Force Awakens better and I like Rogue One even better than both.

I saw this between Christmas and New Year, after having already watched some "reviews" on youtube. Most of the complaints I saw (particularly the Angry Joe ones) were easily resolved by watching the movie and paying attention. I guess people can debate the politics of the movie, but not going into the film expecting/hoping to be outraged by perceived SJW pandering might help with that. In terms of the story/plot, everything makes sense, which you would expect from the bloke who made Brick and Looper, frankly.

This felt like the story that TFA should have been getting to. I get that stuff happened in that movie that needed to be told on screen, just that I feel like this is where the story actually starts moving. If Abrahms is doing the next one then I'll have to moderate my expectations but TLJ is a great SW movie for me, and my favourite of all the new ones. (Rogue One was a tedious slog for me, except for the Y-Wings at the end, because Y-Wings are awesome).

The silent scene was one of the best things I've ever seen/not heard in movies.

what was the silent scene? I don't even remember it.
Yeah, Y-Wings are the bomb. I loved flying them in Rogue Squadron. So sluggish. If I had a TIE interceptor on me, I was finished.

Yeah so Last Jedi officially bumped LOGAN off my top ten list for 2017. I'm sad

metalface13 wrote: For starters I just thought the movie was too damned long, I think they could have trimmed it by 20-30 minutes. I felt like the casino planet chase scene dragged on too long as well as some of the mutiny in space.

Very much agree. Some fans have mounted a spirited defence of these scenes as a means of developing the character and narrative arcs and I can get with that, but I still think they could have been shorter and still made their point. The film as a whole just felt overlong and saggy.

Other than that, I very much enjoyed it. I was especially impressed with the cinematography and design which was a cut above pretty much all the other films in the series. The action sequences toward the end were thrilling and it had a bit more depth than the average sci-fi blockbuster. Slots in a comfortable fourth in my series ranking, below Empire Strikes back and above A New Hope. The Force Awakens was next, in sixth place.

Black Barney wrote: what was the silent scene? I don't even remember it.

I think this refers to the outcome of the "Holdo maneuver" with the hyperspace jump. Which was an amazing piece of cinema even if it's also a bit of a plot hole (why has no-one ever done this before?).

I realized after posting that although the topic is spoiler-friendly now. Yes, it's the maneuver moment.

As to the plot hole, I wonder. I only know about the movies, not any extended universe stuff, but I don't think I've ever seen a computer pilot a ship through hyperspace. There seem to have been a few moments in the movies where "someone" has to pilot the ship, and nobody has a spare astro-mech droid or programmed system available to do the donkey-work of yoking a space-ship around.

So far as I can see, then, either as a matter of moral policy or practicality, droids are never used as pilots* so you're left with what amounts to a kamikaze/suicide attack. TLJ might be the beginning of that tactic being embraced by the forces involved.

*There's that one droid in X-Wing/Armada games but I don't know the story there.

I'm okay with it. I think the problem is that they've created a MASSIVE plot hole if we don't see this tactic exploited or dealt with in the next movie. It's obviously the Rebellion's personal little Death Star so this better not get ignored by EITHER side.

That's the problem. I realize they're out of capital ships and stuff but couldn't even an X-wing do insane damage at that velocity?