Spoilers Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Grading & Discussion

[Q2UnME]

Thanks to the arrival of my Blu-ray, I watched TFA and TLJ back to back. Was a fun evening of Star Wars goodness. I felt the movies flowed into each other fairly well. TLJ held up well on second viewing and I'll stand by my 'B' grade. I also found on second viewing that the pacing issues with TLJ mid acts didn't seem as noticeable. All in all, a fun evening and a good viewing experience from the home theater.

Q2

 

[CorporalCaptain]

So "the force"?

Why does vader bother telling the captain to calculate trajectories or hire bounty hunters? The Tantive IV is the same scenario. Ship escape destruction in battle against empire, jumps to hyperspace, returns to sublight, empire shows up.

What do we know about the orders Vader gave to locate the Tantive IV? Maybe he did the same thing, list all possible destinations along the last known trajectory, and then saw that Tatooine* was one of those possibilities, and went "Aha! I'll go there, you all in the fleet** go to all the others." Maybe he used the Force like he may have when reviewing the probe droid data from Hoth, but it isn't necessary to plausibly get him there to find Leia's ship.

* - His very own birth planet.

** - Fleet on call.

 

[Prax]

Because he was desperate and determined not to give up the chase for Skywalker if he had to turn the whole galaxy inside out. As I already described, that could be thousands of possible systems across half the galaxy. Anyway, they never actually jumped, so it's moot.

It's only moot if you don't know what discussion was about; that Hux had no new technology, but was left an easy way to track the Resistence. They simply jumped right in front of him. He will be able to figure out which way they went, where they will be, and when they will be, and calculate possible exit points, which he did, as is stated in the book.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Hux DID have new technology, though; the film itself establishes that, and what the films do supersedes what the novelizations do.

 

[Reverend]

How does that help the hoofing-it-in-a-straight-line Rebels?

They can change course.

And if they turn they sacrifice the thing keeping them alive. And it doesn't help, they still get skewered.

Sure it does. Space is big and any approaching ship will be spotted long before they can intercept. Also remember that the First Order wasn't in a hurry and were quite happy to wear the Resistance down.

And and why turn at all when they would have no idea what was coming? It'd be a slaughter.

They have sensors. Star Destroyers aren't exactly sneaky.

^ Hux DID have new technology, though; the film itself establishes that, and what the films do supersedes what the novelizations do.

Yes and no. The technology wasn't entirely new in the sense that it wasn't using some heretofore unknown substance or physics. But what it did do is use existing technology to a degree and at a scale that hadn't been done before, which doubtless required all kinds of innovations just to get it to work.

It's the difference between inventing gunpowder, and inventing orbital rocketry. The former is the result of pure (probably accidental) research while the latter is extrapolating on already known technology to push the envelope.

The salient point here is that it didn't break any in-universe rules by pulling some magical tech out of their arse. The circumstances were very specific and not easily reproduced.

 

[Tuskin38]

The resistance was surprised that the First Order was able to track them through hyperspace. They wouldn't be surprised if it was so easy and known.

The First Order's Hyperspace tracking was actually teased in Rogue One, it was one of the projects Jyn listed off on Scarif when trying to find the Death Star plans. This was confirmed to be on purpose and not a coincidence.

The Empire didn't have time to finish it before they fell but the First Order managed to finished it later.

What do we know about the orders Vader gave to locate the Tantive IV?

According to a newer book their Hyperdrive was leaking which is how Vader tracked the ship.

Captain Antilles plan was to ditch the Tantive IV and acquire a new ship on Tatooine, but Vader found them too fast.

Hux explains the process of finding the ship, and it's the same process that has always been used.

He had new tech that allowed them to do it a lot faster then they could back in the Empire era.

So yes, in a way it's the same process, but the new one is a lot more accurate and faster thanks to new technology being researched by the Empire and then later finished by the First Order.

 

[JD]

Wow, a lot more of the big effects sequences were done practically than I would have expected.

 

[Set Harth]

the place they jumped to isn't a planet or even a system but some nondescript location in interstellar space

Not entirely nondescript - they're somewhere under 18 light-hours from Crait ( and we don't presume their speed to be very near the speed of light ). That's at least in the vicinity of Crait's system.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Thanks to the arrival of my Blu-ray, I watched TFA and TLJ back to back. Was a fun evening of Star Wars goodness. I felt the movies flowed into each other fairly well. TLJ held up well on second viewing and I'll stand by my 'B' grade. I also found on second viewing that the pacing issues with TLJ mid acts didn't seem as noticeable. All in all, a fun evening and a good viewing experience from the home theater.

Q2

I feel similarly. It was only my second time watching it this weekend, but I found that I was enjoying it more than I remembered, and I'm one who really did enjoy it the first time around. The Canto Bight scenes went much faster than I remember, as well as the rest of the middle of the movie. People talk about the "chase" being so long and drawn out, but I actually felt that the pacing was just right upon rewatch.

I think part of that is being able to watch without expectations or anticipation of what might come. When I didn't know what was going to happen, I was always waiting for some "big" moment to occur, so most of the middle of the film felt like filler until we got to that moment. Now I can watch and just enjoy what's going on in the moment, instead of waiting for the next big thing.

 

[publiusr]

Well anyhow, to sum up my reaction to the movie was and still is like this:

Nah. Don't Fear the reaper would be even better music for that scene.

Size Comparison of the Resistance Bomber and First Order Dreadnought

I can't even see the bomber.

Instead of following the rebel ship until they ran out of fuel, why not send some ships ahead of them at light speed and intercept them in the way they were traveling?

Low speed chase like that-I was looking for a Ford Bronco

Supremacy:
This ship has seven droid factories, eight durasteel foundaries, starfighter assembly line, star destroyer construction and maintenance facility, capital ship component manufacturing, and asteroid mining complex which can convert asteroids into materials for the ship. It is equipped with thousands of heavy turbolasers, anti-ship batteries, heavy ion cannons, and tractor beam projectors. It is the flying capital of the First Order. Not capital ship. Capital as in Washington, DC. (Illustrated Cross-Sections, pp. 22-23)

Yo HasLab--this is your next project right? To scale with the Die Cast Finalizer, right?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Saw this again yesterday on DVD. Fucking awesome movie. Best bit is the throne room, after the fight where Kylo pleads with Rey to join him. Awesome stuff.

 

[LJones41]

My sister bought the DVD and I saw it again. I changed my grade from a "B" to a "C-".

 

[fireproof78]

My sister bought the DVD and I saw it again. I changed my grade from a "B" to a "C-".

Higher than I would expect.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Saw this again yesterday on DVD. Fucking awesome movie. Best bit is the throne room, after the fight where Kylo pleads with Rey to join him. Awesome stuff.

Everytime I watch it, no matter how badass it is, I keep hoping either Rey will join Kylo Ren or Kylo Ren will realize the error of his ways

 

[Set Harth]

Why don't Rey or Kylo use the Force on the guards?

 

[fireproof78]

Why don't Rey or Kylo use the Force on the guards?

Rey seems far more adept at physical combat, and Kylo may be aware that the guards are not going to be put off guard by Force powers like average troopers.

 

[Set Harth]

Why aren't they going to be any different from average troopers? Can't Kylo just fling them around?

 

[USS Firefly]

If the guards aren't force sensitive they can push them trough the room without using their lightsaber

 

[fireproof78]

Why aren't they going to be any different from average troopers? Can't Kylo just fling them around?

They have armor that resists lightsabers. I haven't read all the lore on them, but I imagine that they may have so Force sensitivity or training to resist.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I saw the movie for the first time this week on Blu-ray. I enjoyed it more than TFA and cetainly more than any of SW1-3. To be sure, the slow chase seems like a massive plot hole - I blame captain Vyvyan, I mean Peavey, lol. Use the large number of ships to head the rebel fleet off by making short hyperspace jumps into an encompassing sphere formation. I enjoyed the humour and character interaction so I'll be giving this a rewatch soon.