Spoilers Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Grading & Discussion

[Trekkin]

Because I'm a nice guy, I'll put this behind spoiler tags...

Spoiler: The Last Jedi and Connections with the EU

People are whining about this Force projection thing. Most of them are EU fanboys, it would seem. Does anyone remember when Luke used Force projection in Dark Empire? Apparently not.

And yes, you can say it was portrayed as a Dark side power then. Doesn't mean it has to be now.

Spoiler: Spoiler

It was also set up earlier in the damn movie. Rey and Ren physically touch, Luke can clearly see both of them, and Ren mentions that the amount of power needed should be killing Rey.

Spoiler: Rian Johnson's influences/motivations

All this stuff demonstrates that, unlike JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson wasn't influenced/motivated solely by nostalgia and instead clearly let a number of different sources from both the present and past of Star Wars help shape the story he was telling, which bodes extremely well for the future of the franchise.

Nah. In its own way, it plays very heavily to audience nostalgia.

More so than any of the others.

 

[Campe]

Spoiler: Spoiler

It was also set up earlier in the damn movie. Rey and Ren physically touch, Luke can clearly see both of them, and Ren mentions that the amount of power needed should be killing Rey.

I'm not certain I understand out of context to the scene. But I can wait to find out. Less than 31 hours.

 

[DigificWriter]

Spoiler: Spoiler

It was also set up earlier in the damn movie. Rey and Ren physically touch, Luke can clearly see both of them, and Ren mentions that the amount of power needed should be killing Rey.

Nah. In its own way, it plays very heavily to audience nostalgia.

More so than any of the others.

Abrams wasn't trying to play to audience nostalgia; he was trying to play to his own (and Lawrence Kasdan's), which is why The Force Awakens is so blatantly repetitively evocative of A New Hope.

 

[JD]

I'm not defending it. I haven't seen it.

Oh and thanks for using the spoiler tag there. Jesus. I know it says 'Spoilers' at the top of the thread but couldn't you have been a little more considerate, you know, like other posters have? You've just ruined it for me, and I suspect a few other people on here.

Ruined it for me too, I was being careful, but most people seemed to be coding spoilers so I thought I was safe.

 

[Campe]

Ruined it for me too, I was being careful, but most people seemed to be coding spoilers so I thought I was safe.

Some people just want to see the world burn. Or spoil movies. Regardless, its the same effect.

 

[fireproof78]

Abrams wasn't trying to play to audience nostalgia; he was trying to play to his own (and Lawrence Kasdan's), which is why The Force Awakens is so blatantly repetitively evocative of A New Hope.

And yet, works very well on its own. In point of fact, despite the beats, TFA works well as a standalone introductory film to this trilogy. I noticed far more of the mythological beats on my latest rewatch of the film.

 

[Unicron]

Rotten Tomatoes has been getting the first set of reviews in, and so far they seem to be pretty favorable. I consider that a good sign.

 

[DigificWriter]

And yet, works very well on its own.

I disagree.

I noticed far more of the mythological beats on my latest rewatch of the film.

Whatever mythological underpinnings exist in TFA are not there intentionally, because Abrams, by his own admission, didn't connect with ANH on a mythological level; he connected with it as an action-adventure space serial (as did Lawrence Kasdan, again by his own admission), and that's what he (and Kasdan) tried to recreate with The Force Awakens, and, despite the film's financial success, it didn't really work.

 

[JD]

Since the big spoiler is already out, I'm gonna go ahead and post my reaction.
Honestly, I'm not that shocked but I am a little sad to hear about it. I've pretty much expected that to happen for a while now. I'm a little disappointing by what it means for IX, but it's not a deal breaker for me. It won't effect my enjoyment of the movie, or my interest interest in the franchise going forward.
Are there other big shockers in the movie? Not looking for examples, just a yes or no.

 

[fireproof78]

I disagree.

You are free to do so.

Whatever mythological underpinnings exist in TFA are not there intentionally, because Abrams, by his own admission, didn't connect with ANH on a mythological level; he connected with it as an action-adventure space serial (as did Lawrence Kasdan, again by his own admission), and that's what he (and Kasdan) tried to recreate with The Force Awakens, and, despite the film's financial success, it didn't really work.

Not necessarily so, since the character stories are ones that unfold on their based around the mythology that Star Wars created, which, in of itself, is a very archetypical story.

Mythmaking and world building are not always intentional, but the elements arise from common experience and storytelling.

 

[Campe]

Since the big spoiler is already out, I'm gonna go ahead and post my reaction.
Honestly, I'm not that shocked but I am a little sad to hear about it. I've pretty much expected that to happen for a while now. I'm a little disappointing by what it means for IX, but it's not a deal breaker for me. It won't effect my enjoyment of the movie, or my interest interest in the franchise going forward.

I'm really not either. I actually thought this was going to happen after walking out of TFA. I was hopeful I was going to be wrong, particularly in light of real life events. But there were a lot of clues that led to the idea this was going to happen. Now, I think I'm more excited where this might lead for Ep IX than anything. There's a few ways I think this can go.

Spoiler: Theories on Episode IX

The way it goes down, I wonder if we could get "Luke the White." One of the interesting things about some of the early drafts of Return of the Jedi is that both Obi-Wan and Yoda (in different circumstances) are able to come back from being one with the Force. If they can do this and not make it cheesy, I think it'd be pretty cool.

Or Luke stays a Force Ghost. Really, after two films, its time for this generation to stand on their own. Luke, Han and Leia didn't really have anyone helping them out past A New Hope other than Yoda training Luke. But everything was done by the big three. Even though Luke doesn't seem to really leave Ahch-To, he looms majorly over events as does Leia. Rey, Poe and Finn need to do their own thing.

Are there other big shockers in the movie? Not looking for examples, just a yes or no.

Depends on your definition of shockers. Twists and turns? From the sound of things, yes.

 

[DigificWriter]

Spoiler: Episode IX Implications

One would think that life-long Star Wars fans would remember this, but death has never meant "the end" in Star Wars, so Luke dying a physical death in TLJ means basically nothing in terms of how it impacts the storyline of Episode IX in terms of the character's involvement

 

[Campe]

^Star Wars fans seem to be forgetting a lot of things these days in their criticisms of TLJ.

 

[DigificWriter]

The backlash doesn't even really qualify as criticism; it's more along the lines of 'knee-jerk freaking out'.

 

[Campe]

Well, yes. I was being nice.

I need to stop that. lol

 

[DigificWriter]

Spoiler: Rey

There's a sad sort of humor in watching people try to tie themselves in knots in order to act as if Rey's parents being random nobodies wasn't something that was clearly intended from "Day 1" of JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan rewriting Michael Arndt's script for The Force Awakens, even though it's been pretty clear since very shortly after TFA's release two years ago that this is the direction they were going and is instead something that Rian decided to change once he got started on the script for The Last Jedi, and to act like there was some huge 'mystery box conspiracy' in place that results in Rey's parentage being this huge letdown and building up of false expectations.

 

[LJones41]

Is there some kind of turmoil going on over Rian Johnson's handling of the Finn character?

Found this on reddit. CNN slams TLJ compares it unfavorably to AOTC.

Wow! The author seems really pissed after seeing the movie.
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsLe...ar_wars_the_last_jedi_falls_short_of_skyhigh/

Considering that AOTC is one of my top favorite Star Wars movies, I don't what to say about that.

 

[Campe]

Is there some kind of turmoil going on over Rian Johnson's handling of the Finn character?

There’s some kind of turmoil over Rian’s handling of the entire film, it would appear.

 

[fireproof78]

Is there some kind of turmoil going on over Rian Johnson's handling of the Finn character?



Considering that AOTC is one of my top favorite Star Wars movies, I don't what to say about that.

I think AOTC is fantastic, but it is often the most lambasted of the PT so I doubt it was meant as a compliment.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Yeah, the author of that CNN article clearly meant his comparison of The Last Jedi to Attack of the Clones as a criticism, but for all Star Wars fans but a very vocal minority, it's not likely to be seen that way.