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The issue is this movie seems to have missed the fact that it was supposed to be part of a trilogy.

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In agreement there. In a vacuum, I thought Luke's death was handled really, really well. But it should have come in IX, not in VIII. There was absolutely no reason to kill him in essentially the very same movie he was reintroduced. Leia should have been the one to go kamikaze light speed and Luke should have lived for one more movie. Made the whole sequel trilogy feel off in that sense.

ATM1876 said:

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I got to take my two nephews to separate showings of this one when they came to visit over Christmas. Ever since then, anytime anything remotely Star Wars related comes up, I bring up this movie. I first talk about how Kylo was such a ****head when he was younger that his uncle wanted to murder him in his sleep and then end with how Luke totally made his nephew look like a fool in front of everybody by outsmarting him with his force projection thing. It's completely obnoxious but since it validates the superiority of the uncle in the uncle-nephew relationship it's a lot of fun for me, especially since it annoys them to no end. For that reason alone, I enjoyed the movie, even if I'm in no hurry to watch it again.

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This is hilarious, and now I can't wait 'til my nephews are old enough to watch this so I can pull the very same thing.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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watching this scene in a Theater full of fans on opening night is a great memory, you could hear the gasps of kids and adults alike.

Thanks for setting these up as always. I missed the opportunity to post in the last two threads because I was trying to adjust to life with a newborn who doesn't care about Star Wars just yet.

It took me a little while to realize that just because the Rotten Tomato scores on TLJ are in complete opposite ends of the spectrum, doesn't mean I had to either love or hate this movie. I know that sounds silly, but it took me about six months after this one came out to just realize, "Oh. This movie is fine." Not excellent, like the original OT, and not the worst of the franchise either for me. So just real quick here's my thoughts on it.


What I Like:

Even if you hate this movie, you have to admit there are some really great moments in it. The light speed kamikaze as already mentioned is just a fantastic theater experience. I couldn't care any less about the poor choreography of the Snoke guard fight, it is beautiful and fun to watch. The Falcon's flight through Crait is awesome, and for whatever reason I enjoy it even more because Chewie is the pilot. That makes me happy for some reason. I enjoy Luke's force projection fight with Kylo.

Speaking of, I like what Rian did with Luke. I know that's unpopular around here and I'm fine with it. The lessons on failures and how we deal with them was good, even if Endgame came out a year and a half later and did it better. The time with Rey on the island is kind of a mess, but there's also a lot of good there too. Not all of the humor in this movie lands but I enjoy the back and forth between these two. I still laugh at the lightsaber toss at the beginning. Sue me.

Adam Driver's performance is phenomenal. Easily the best in the movie. The surprise killing of Snoke, the desperate urge to bring Rey to his side, so good.

It really does look incredible in my opinion. Canto Bight looks a little too prequel-ly for my taste, but the space sequences, Ahch-To, Crait, etc. all look really good.

John Williams score of course.


What I Don't Like:

The same things most of you don't like. Finn and Rose's story line is pretty rough. I appreciate the end result (getting Finn to care about the Resistance for unselfish reasons, and the acknowledgement of a whole different side of the galaxy profiting off the war) but the journey is meh.

The power struggle between Holdo/Poe/Leia is messier than it needs to be. It's a shame too, because I love Laura Dern, but cutting her out makes it a much more interesting story. Or Abrams could have killed off Poe in TFA like he'd planned, and then Rian wouldn't have to have dealt with it. I also love Oscar Isaacs but there is just not enough room for him when you're trying to tell Rey, Luke, Kylo, and Finn and Rose's story, and give them all "hero/big" moments. I think JJ will be able to use him much better in IX at least.


Favorite Tracks:

The Battle of Crait
The Last Jedi
The Spark

Honorable Mention: Sacred Jedi Text, Canto Bight (bad plot with fun music)


Overall, for me, the good outweighs the bad almost two years later and I'm glad to see most people here so far can find something nice to say, no matter how bad it hurts. It's a lot of good ideas that aren't always executed well but leads to a third act that I think is really good.


Final Rankings*:





*Worth noting that I have TLJ, TFA, and RotS rated about the same, and you could probably convince me to switch any of them around between those three spots.


Looking forward to the Mandalorian, Rise of Skywalker, and your next thread, because I am of the opinion that some Star Wars is always better than no Star Wars at all.

I always thought they should have left out rose, canto bite, and the new rebel leader lady and instead had Poe and Finn lead a squad of saboteurs into Snoke's ship to run around fighting Snoke's forces and using Finn's knowledge of First Order tech to sabotage different aspects of the ship (like engines, then guns, etc.)

Rey could still train with Luke, appear on Snoke's ship when she does, and Leia could lead the lightspeed kamakazi. Everyone could still flee to Crait at the end for the final showdown.

Canto Bite, Rose, and Poe's moronic conflict with Laura Dern were the most annoying parts of this movie to me.

Aggie_Journalist said:

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I always thought they should have left out rose, canto bite, and the new rebel leader lady and instead had Poe and Finn lead a squad of saboteurs into Snoke's ship to run around fighting Snoke's forces and using Finn's knowledge of First Order tech to sabotage different aspects of the ship (like engines, then guns, etc.)

Rey could still train with Luke, appear on Snoke's ship when she does, and Leia could lead the lightspeed kamakazi. Everyone could still flee to Crait at the end for the final showdown.

Canto Bite, Rose, and Poe's moronic conflict with Laura Dern were the most annoying parts of this movie to me.

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That would have been a much better movie.

BUT THE PINK-HAIRED YOGA MOM THINK'S HE'S BEING TOO COCKY AND HE DOESN'T NEED TO UNDERSTAND HER BRILLIANT STRATEGY.

Now now, you're violating your own rule.

I think keeping her plan a secret would have worked better if they had played up the fact they believed they had a mole in the fleet giving up coordinates. A scene showing an argument about whether or not it was hyperspace tracking vs a spy would have made the whole thing more believable.

The problem is that Poe storyline is not entertaining, at least not to me. Star Wars should be an epic fantasy, not lessons for children.
Edit so not 100% negative: the kamikaze scene was neat.