Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, December 15, 2017) Movie • Page 204

I thought this was inoffensively fine. I went in without reading anything and I didn’t watch any of the trailers. I didn’t leave the theater with strong feelings or opinions. I enjoyed the timely themes weaved in (kill your heroes, the rich profiting off of war, animal cruelty, exploitation of children and resources, providing hope through stories of heroes and symbols, etc). I also loved every second the porgs were on screen though.

 

Speaking of the throne room as much as I love the sequence of Kylo doing exactly what Snoke was saying in a different way I thought the "now strike down your true enemy" line was a little too obvious/cheese.

Wouldve preferred something like "now pass your final test and become what you were truly meant to be." or maybe even "do what Vader could not" or something. Small gripe.

Oh shit. nvm. If Snoke was mirroring what was in his mind he was just saying what Kylo was thining and he finally realized "now i must kill my true enemy".

Got it.

 

No, they show them at the end on the falcon. Rey took them. Yoda burned the tree before Luke could see they were taken.

 

How was killing Maul killing a “fan-favorite” when he was killed in the only movie he was ever in?

 

Anyone talking about those little keepers on Luke's island? Loved 'em

 

They reminded me of Station from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey haha

 

The irreparable damage is luke is dead, the resistance is down to a mere small group of people that can fit in the falcon... how is this even a question?

 

I wish the tone/mood of the movie was darker to match the events going on around it but I understand why it wasn’t.

 

It's so refreshing and invigorating for this movie to follow up the Force Awakens. This movie is so aware that symbols and images are meaningful when we understand why they're meaningful, when their meaning is dramatized, and that just seeing familiar things doesn't necessarily mean that they mean the same thing anymore. The Force Awakens was content to basically remake A New Hope, and I don't care if anyone else liked it, that's totally fine, but so much of its appeal was I think pretty undeniably that everyone got to be entertained by the images and characters and things from Star Wars they've missed for so long. But the Last Jedi knows that, more meaningful than seeing an AT-AT again, is seeing that pendant that Kelly Marie Tran and her sister shared. It's something we've never seen before, but its meaning is dramatized and stated and understood, which is why it's meaningful when she's so willing to give it up, because what it stands for is so much more important than the item itself. The movie is even able to give us a new item we've never seen before that manages to connect us to an original trilogy character, even though we've never seen Han use those gold dice or whatever, because it's about what it means, and what the characters do with it, not just that Finn turns on the holographic board game or whatever and we get that nostalgia surge of recognition. Leia can even leave it behind, because its purpose was served, for her and for the plot. And then it gets to take on a new meaning when Ben finds it. And that runs through the whole film. It's what the Jedi are and stand for: an idea that we love and don't want to end, but an idea that can only stand for something more when we're ready to leave it behind for something new and recognize that the surface level things we love about it aren't what it actually is. Lightsabers, moving rocks with your mind, that's all fun, but it's only made meaningful when we understand what motivation and thematic understanding are behind it.

Add to that Finn's arc and Mark Hamill's performance and magnificent filmmaking and I am so thrilled to love Star Wars again. It's the first good Star Wars movie since 1983 and I'm very glad it exists.

 

Solid movie! I liked all the Jedi island stuff and Hamill’s performance in particular was stunning. That Leia scene was easily the worst part of the movie. Couldn’t she just have like hit her head?

 

He was a fan favorite before the film was even released. There's also the possibility he could survive (which he did).

 

Right but Lucas didn’t “take a risk” by killing him because he was always going to die. He didn’t defy the fans by killing him because he was dying no matter what, before fans had ever seen him. Not a risk.

 

I have a feeling that Phasma some how made it out and that we’ll see her in episode IX. A lot of why I have that feeling is because, like you said, the last few seconds with her was really cheap.

 

And he was taking a risk by letting the advertised major antagonist die. That risk takes a hit on your future merch sales too (hence why he didn't take the risk to kill off Han Solo).

But the whole point was rather just how you can use that argument to defend almost anything as artistic merit. "Lucas was taking a risk by editing the special editions to truly showcase his vision!"

 

I also like that Ben is his own worst enemy. He ultimately let’s his emotions get the best of him and defeats himself, opposed to just losing a duel to Rey like in TFA.

 

Was anyone else angry that Kylo broke his mask? I love that mask. Hopefully he gets a new one for IX

Fucking Rian Johnson

 

$220 million opening weekend. Lower than TFA but still second best of all time.

 

The bad guy dies in most movies? I don't know how that's a risk.

 

If you can’t see how the portrayal and writing of Luke alone was a risk, especially with how that is receiving the biggest backlash and most vitriol among hardcore fans, then I don’t know what else someone could say to explain it. There’s a reason so many people are angry with Rian Johnson and calling him a hack or accusing him of destroying the franchise, it’s due to the risks he took and the weight of them.

 

This could have been (and in my personal canon may be) the last Star Wars movie ever. The resistance escaping and being pursued, recognizing the cycle but always hoping, with the culmination of Luke’s journey as he watches the sunset again to that score before passing, and then the final scene of Star Wars being a bunch of kids playing with toys and telling the stories, before being oppressed and yelled at, and then looking to the stars with a broom in hand like a lightsaber, it’d be hard to have a more fitting and poetic ending to a series.

 

You’re acting like Episode I wasn’t shot and finished with Maul dying before the advertising campaign started.

 

I love it when someone comes in and makes the point I was about to make before I can make it.

Like minds.

 

A little late on the Ackbar discussion and Holdo's role, so sorry to bring it back up, but...

1. Erik Bauersfeld, who plays Ackbar in the films, died in 2016.
2. People love Ackbar and the audience needed to be fooled into being behind Poe. It makes so much sense that you wouldn't give that role to a beloved character like Ackbar. You can blame the lack of communication on Holdo's expectation of Poe respecting chain of command (Leia's not there to tell Poe to trust her and the audience doesn't know if they trust her) and as a tactical failure on her part. Failed leader, failed student. Letting go of the past (Ackbar). A "nobody" becoming a legend. Themes.

I understand wanted a little more fanfare at Ackbar's death. Leia also being on the bridge doesn't really allow you to have that moment. An unceremonious hero's death in war is reality you don't see enough of in these sort of movies and they don't have time to mourn long in that moment.

This, and their main review, are excellent. Highly suggest people read them.

Love, love, love this. Had the same thoughts about Kylo vs Luke and the kamikaze scene, which is maybe the most breathtaking scene in Star Wars.

 

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' has monster box office opening

""The Last Jedi," the eighth installment in the "Star Wars" saga, premiered this weekend to the second-biggest opening ever in North America. It brought in an estimated $220 million, according to Disney."

 

SECOND biggest? Smh what a flop