Kevin's Watch

I'm shocked to not see a thread for this in Flicks or the Star Wars forum.

Trailers have been out for some time, but don't really give us much. I think Rian Johnson is the right choice to take the helm of this flick. Pity JJ Abrahms stepped back in for Ep 9. But the other guy I had even less confidence, so at least it is a step up.

The reviews have been really positive for this round, and you've got to count on a few reviewers to be populous haters, and to dislike the series simply because enough other people like it. Which is why I frequently ignore the words of critics.

I have had the feeling after hearing the director line-up that the first would be ok, the second - the best, and the third kinda crappy, which is exactly how the original three were to me. And no - I do not blame the Ewoks.

After Episode 7, I felt like it lost a few of the Lucas touches that I actually kind of missed. Namely, a very cool and fun action set piece that was worth going to the movies to see. While there were action moments in Ep 7, there wasn't a Maul lightsaber duel, or a fight through the asteroid field or the intro to ep. 3, or the Death Star trench run, or the Luke/Darth duels. Nah, I take back the one in Ep. 6 - it wasn't really thrilling, but it was necessary. The best action bit in ROTJ was the speeder bikes in the redwoods.
Sounds like Episode 8 has one, and I can't wait. Stuff I'm reading sounds like they land this one. I'm going on Saturday.

I can't stand TFA, so I'm really hoping to like this. There's always hope. The trailers look good enough.

Was seriously disappointed by TFA. Haven't bothered watching Rogue One...will probably catch it (maybe this month) and this at some point, but not all that bothered.

I'll stick to the expanded universe I think...

--A

Have tickets for this Sunday at 7 pm.

Currently holding at 95% positive Rotten Tomatoes score with 205 reviews reporting in.

Rotten Tomatoes says good ... but the review on CNN was substantially more negative. I need more information!

wayfriend wrote:Rotten Tomatoes says good ... but the review on CNN was substantially more negative. I need more information!

Rotten Tomatoes is just a review aggragte score which only means most reviews included at the site are viewed as positive.

If your favorite reviewer doesn't like it that may hold more sway than a faceless majority.

Got tickets for tonight. No spoilers. My son is really, REALLY looking forward to it. My daughter will sit through it as long as I feed her. LOL!

Well, we saw it and loved it. No Spoilers.

I confess, however, that I told the kids on the way out that if we wanted to mess with the folks awaiting the next showing, we could just keep shaking our heads and muttering "Jar-Jar Binks" over and over.

#TheSnarkIsStrongWithYoungGamgees

Saw it last night. It has some really great moments, and it does some very surprising things with the story, but I felt like it was a bit too long and the pacing was off. Overall decent.

Oh I hesitated coming to this thread cos I haven't seen it yet!! But I soooooo want to. Im glad it was decent - I didn't like Rogue One the first time I saw it but rewatched and really enjoyed it. Once I got my head around its place in the series - I enjoyed it better

DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE, AND I MEAN IT DON'T EVEN GLANCE THROUGH IT TRYING TO AVOID SPOILERS AS THEY ARE THROUGHOUT THE ARTICLE, MAJOR ONES THAT ARE BETTER SERVED BY SEEING THE MOVIE:

www.slashfilm.com/the-last-jedi-defense/

I just got back from the film, and have been working through my feelings about it. I think the article has solidified them a lot, and with a number of nitpicks that I will discuss later, I think it is a very good film, with so many surprises. I'm not in love with it yet, but I'm getting there. Still, I don't expect it to be my favorite Star Wars movie of all time, because again, it doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie to me. But it is a really good fanfic, and the article above demonstrates perfectly why.

Saw it last night. I also didn't walk out of the film in love with it but I suspect I need time to absorb it all. The film does indeed tend to subvert your expectations given how the other entries in the series have demonstrated a somewhat predictable pulp fiction feel that TLJ seems to ignore. It does have an Empire Strikes Back sense of gloom and shares a few obvious scenes. I predict that TLJ will ultimately be judged as the superior film of the third trilogy as Empire was in its time. Of course Episode IX might surprise me.

I will have to view TLJ again soon.

Actually, I'm back to feeling conflicted. I think it is a battle between my right and left brain. Or my head loved what was being done with it, but my heart just wasn't into it. Regardless, I like that they made Star Wars challenging (and hate it too).

I won't say I hated it, but this was not a very good movie. It's way too long, jumps around too much, and isn't well-written. I don't think I could sit through it again. There's a very impressive lightsaber duel, but that's about all there is.

Cag's article seems like a bunch of excuses. It's not wrong about it's core point, but that's a bug, not a feature of the film. Though it's less wink-y than TFA, it's still firmly in TESB's arena. The difference though is that Empire had established three leads that the audience cared about, and there was an awesome Big Bad. The new characters simply aren't as well-drawn as they should be, and it's tough to care about them. Hell, with two of the three movies down, we just don't know these people the way we knew the three from the first trilogy. Don't believe me? How many kids did you see dressed up as Poe or Finn for Halloween?

I'm disappointed. TFA was - if nothing else - entertaining. RO was excellent. This squandered the opportunity to really ramp things up, and that's a shame.

I saw the film again last night, and I'm now willing to be much more positive about it. This is possibly the best Star Wars film to date, and at the very least it's the smartest. It's the most character-driven film in the series, and though it may be a bit too long, every part of the plot is necessary to the character arcs. Even Canto Bight is there so that we can see something of what the Resistance is fighting for (though if they were going to trim some time off the film, they could surely have cut down that action sequence).
There's only one thing I don't really like about it -

Spoiler

the scene with Leia in space, which kills my suspension of disbelief. I suspect they wanted to show us once and for all that Leia can use the Force, but it's a bit too much, and with the knowledge of Carrie Fisher's death fresh in mind, it just feels like they're toying with us.

Given that....

Spoiler

Luke makes the exact same failing with Ben as Obi-Wan made with Annekin, then makes nearly the same sacrifice for exactly the same reason.....He's moved from being one trope to another.

There's very little characterization, other than either showing us what we've seen before, or in two glaring cases, becoming experts at something with absolutely no training.

redlettermedia.com/half-in-the-bag-the-last-last-jedi-review/

I'm disappointed in TLJ.

I hated the direction that was taken with Luke's character. I simply don't believe that the Luke who never gave up on Darth Vader would ever contemplate killing Kylo Ren.

I also hated the scene with Leia in space. When the scene started with her floating and the close up on her face, I thought it was going to be a beautiful tribute to Carrie Fisher. Then, we're supposed to believe that she can survive while unconscious in the vacuum of space, and the fly like Superman? It's a violation of everything we've known about the Force and, as Murrin said above, made the additional crime of killing the suspension of disbelief.

I didn't like the conflict between Halder (or whatever her name was) and Poe. There was no reason for it at all. She should have been upfront with her plans for escape.

Finn has become an unnecessary character, and the whole story arc with him and Rose at the casino was also unnecessary.

TFA and TLJ are no better than the prequels. I think we all owe George Lucas an apology. We lambasted him for the prequels for bad writing and story telling, and yet it's apparent that no one else can do better.