Rogue One, which I have no major issues with TLJ, which I have one major logistical issue with TFA, which mostly loses points for feeling like a retelling of ANH
I voted TFA. Things could change after multiple viewings of TLJ on blu, but as of right now I enjoyed TFA better.
I enjoyed both films immensely, but The Last Jedi contains a secret element that gives it a significant leg up over TFA: Luke Skywalker.
If that was Lucas' intent, then he failed, as far as I'm concerned. Despite the fact that I basically despise both Sequel Trilogy films, I would still vote for "The Force Awakens" over "The Last Jedi".
Just saying. His intent with the PT was also to showcase a good guy turning bad, and that was lacking in my opinion, as well as the romantic elements. So, hey, equal "fan hate" for every trilogy!
I found TFA's attempts to display Rey as a tough cookie with innate knowledge of Force-usage to be very forced, indeed. And oh, yeah: Han was the father she never had! After knowing him for barely 3 quarters of an hour! Solo's getting sabre-stabbed left no impression on me, whatever. In fact, when he started pawing Ben's face afterward, I couldn't help but chuckle at how Abram's just milking it for all it's worth. And when General Leia stepped out, my heart broke at -- wow! -- how elderly Carrie Fisher became. My heart just sank, I felt so bad for her ... she looked so old! 3-PO was played really cartoonish, I hated even looking at him, what with his ... his fuchsia arm of stupidity. And the whole thing of matching ANH beat for beat was not a plus for me, either. Finn was really the only character who was half-decent in the whole feature. What I will give it, though, is that "they" got the look right. Whereas, the prequels were just too bright, clean and pixelly. Otherwise, TFA was no better than RotJ, really ...
^^^2TakesFrakes: Wow- I didn't see the same film you did. I mean, TFA isn't Lawrence of Arabia, but it wasn't terrible either. I'm also still not getting the "play for play copy of AHN" thing. TFA has some similarities but much of the plot and most of the characters and their relationships are completely different. Ah, well...
Same here. "beat for beat?" I didn't recall a defecting stormtroopers, or a wannabe Sith pretender, or even a girl who wants to go back to the junkyard. My only complaint is that the destruction of Starkiller base was like the trench run. But, that's about it for me.
While at the same time completely failing to emulate what was great about the trench run. It was like they were thinking, "You nerds like trenches, right? Well, here's a trench!" (A sort of prefiguration of this kind of thing was when the Clone Wars cartoon tried to make a trench out of the side of a starship. No cigar. And then the other one even named a character Trench. I'm facepalming over here.)
I didn't care for The Last Jedi, but I loved The Force Awakens. I acknowledge the flaws of TFA and TLJ was far more ambitious, but none of that matters. TFA was fucking fun. It was an adventure story with a likable cast and good humour. The plot sucked and everything was predictable, but I was having too much fun to care. On the other hand, TLJ was a pretentious movie that was far too concerned with being clever and deconstructing Star Wars to put any effort towards entertaining me. I mean, it was clever so mission accomplished there, but dumb movies like TFA can be better than clever movies. The Last Jedi is more fun to discuss, but The Force Awakens is more fun to watch.
The Atlantic's review of TLJ made the grand assertion that it may be the best SW movie since ESB. It is certainly in my top ten SW movies. My only real issue with the movie was the goofy humor, such as in the Hux/Poe banter at the beginning. Kor
I voted that TLJ is marginally better than TFA. I find the new Disney movies are just lacking in...something. Emotional resonance I guess. The one element they definitely did right was Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron (casting him and not killing him off). So TFA is superior for having a higher Poe content.
I would not disagree with this, and I feel very similarly about the MCU movies under Disney ownership, as well as other Disney productions of recent years; Very slick, entertaining, and well-produced, but somehow lacking a little something in heart and soul. Kor
It looked as if Rian Johnson was trying to reboot various parts of "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" to me.