Spoilers Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Grading & Discussion

I'll probably have to see it again but don't think ill change my mind. I do hope that Luke figures out how to come back from the force. If he does that he would be the greatest jedi.

 

This was so fucking good! Loved every minute of it. The bits where they teased Kylo turning to the light side (which everyone treats like it's WWE and switching sides is just a thing people do) were excellent. When he killed Snoke then fought alongside Rey I was going nuts, wanting him to turn but also totally not because his character without all the angst would be boring as fuck.

And then he stayed to take over and I was like, "YESSSSSS!!!!!"

 

My favorite part of the whole film was finally seeing what a droid does aboard an X-Wing other than beeping complain.

Okay, it's not quite my favorite, but I certainly loved it.

Actually, my favorite part of the film is how it subverted a lot of expectations and tropes (well...not all of them). Hearing words of wisdom from Luke upon receiving his old lightsaber, Luke teaching Rey to lift out his X-Wing (or himself doing to leave), grand expectations about Snoke's role in the galaxy, grander expectations about Rey's parentage were just some of the many expectations that were dashed aside for a better, more unexpected story.

I particularly love how Rey's parents are nobodies. For me, there is no greater explanation and anything else would've been a letdown. Instead of her being yet another character of destiny, she's anybody who can be anything. Any person could develop strong Force potential, which is further compounded by the slave boy at the end of the film who casually draws the broom towards himself. Rey is better served as a character this way and I applaud Rian Johnson and whoever else made the decision to not make her the child of Luke, Obi-Wan, Han and Leia, the Force, Snoke, or whoever else fans speculated in the last two years.

I also liked how dire this film. Our heroes fail, both individually and as a whole. Luke failed himself and Ben by briefly succumbing to his fears. Rey failed to save Ben from the Dark Side. Finn and Rose failed to get the codebreaker and failed again by bringing in DJ who betrays them. Poe failed the Rebellion by not trusting Holdo. Holdo failed the Rebellion by not telling them she has a plan at least. The Rebellion failed itself and was nearly wiped out entirely.

But there is a spark of hope. Luke sacrificed himself for the good of the Rebellion in the most natural ending of the character. Finn and Rose left a great impression on the Canto Bright slave boy and who knows how many others. The allies may have not responded to the call but that doesn't mean they don't support cause. They just need some encouragement. And the surviving Rebellion has become a ragtag team that would make Blake, Kira, Crichton, and Mal proud.

I need to see the film a second time before I vote on a final grade, but tentatively it's an A- and on the same level as Rogue One and above The Force Awakens.

 

The rebels are out of ships. Poe will need that one...

 

I think this is only a bit above The Phantom Menace.

Rian Johnson is as arrogant and reckless with his creativity in shaking up the ossified SW formula, as George Lucas was out of practice, vague, and complacent with the PT. I have a gut feeling Rian Johnson will, during production, be denied the keys to his passion project of the post-Kylo Ren trilogy.

 

Snoke, you were gone too soon. How little we knew you.

 

Went to the first 3D showing this morning. Yea, it has some plot holes you could drive a star destroyer through, but overall I enjoyed it. I agree the middle dragged a bit and it could have used another pass in the editing room. I had a good time with this outing and eagerly await the final chapter. Gave it a B .

Q2UnME

 

2nd highest opening weekend of all time. Zero chance of him being denied anything.

 

Something that niggles me:

In TFA, I was under the impression that Rey did know who her parents were. She never really speaks of them like they were strangers, and she was depicted as old enough to remember them. She just never brings up their identities to any other characters, because...who outside of Thor casually does that?

Her issue in TFA wasn’t who they were, but where they were. Or more accurately, where they weren’t.

That’s not saying it wasn’t ever intended to be a reveal to the audience, but it keeps bugging me. The same way it bugs me that Rey never calls out Luke ‘I really really never wanted to see anyone again!’ Skywalker for leaving Leia a map to his location.

He was always meant to be a little bit in denial on that front. The map’s mere existence would have tied into that pretty well.

Some continuity just seems...off. Admittedly there’s nothing exactly ‘wrong’, or as ‘big’ as the sudden changes to Force abilities between ANH and ESB.

 

The explanation, including the map, was in the long story which Rey might have told Luke if he had traveled with them on the Falcon.

My biggest issue with the film is in its handling of a space-faring military. None of it makes much sense, especially for civilizations more advanced than ours. The battles, as depicted, have more relation to my grandfather's generation - the WW II era - than they do today. As this era becomes more shrouded in the fog of history, the writers will make even more egregious errors, like star fighters needing the protection of capital ships for space combat, as suggeted in TLJ. Fighters in WWII could travel far from their home ships, do their thing, and return home safely. However, this has been an issue with sci-fi films for a long time.

 

So just got back from seeing it, overall it would have been great but Luke dying really put a downer on things. I guess he’ll be back as a Force Ghost in the next one, but I kinda wish they’d resisted the urge to keep killing off the old characters.

 

Not very likely to drive a First Order ship thru any plot holes. Apparently those ships are ridiculously hard to pilot or they would have just encircled the Resistance by flying off in multiple directions.

 

I don’t know if you’re joking, but he isn’t. He’s a brand new character

I saw a theory that Snoke didn’t die and that was just an advanced force projection. But that’s dumb

 

Not if it is a financial success.

 

I've got at least $1.5 billion (or Disney will have soon) that will say otherwise.

 

Is that so ? I'd seen the theory on some site or other, and the major wound in his head was one of the reasons it was suspected.

 

As a casual Star Wars fan, I enjoyed TLJ. It was a fun movie despite the massive plot holes. I do wonder though if maybe there were some changes made between TFA and TLJ. I say this because TFA seemed to set some things up that were dropped in TLJ:
1) TFA set up this whole idea of Luke leaving a map for the Resistance to find him which seemed to suggest that Luke wanted to be found. Han even suggests that Luke left to search for the origins of the Jedi. I think this led fans to speculate that we were going to see a Luke who has learned the secrets of the Force and who would happily train Rey to be the a full fledged Jedi. In TLJ, Luke finds the Jedi sacred texts but basically concludes that the Jedi sucked and just wants to be left alone. The idea of the map is never mentioned in TLJ. Not necessarily a contradiction but definitely a change of direction.
2) TFA seemed to set up Snoke as this mysterious and powerful character, showing us Snoke only as an enlarged hologram in a dark location. This made fans wonder who he could be. But then The Last Jedi drops the hologram and shows us the real Snoke, sitting in his throne room on his uber ship, gives us no backstory, and unceremoniously kills him off. There definitely seems to be a difference between the Snoke in TFA and the Snoke in TLJ.

So it makes me wonder if maybe the writers had originally planned something different for TLJ but changed their minds.

 

About the map, Luke didn't make it after he found Ach-to and send it back to be hidden, so it must be a copy of the map he used to find Ach-to in the first place. Thus to find Luke you just need to find the person that showed Luke where Ach-to was. Perhaps a senior member of the Church of the Force?

 

(best. review. ever.)