Star Wars Rewatch Project: EPISODE VIII - THE LAST JEDI

8,982 Views | 93 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by Atreides Ornithopter
TCTTS
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01.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE
02.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES
03.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH
04.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
05.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
06.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE
07.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
08.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: EPISODE VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI
09.19 - Star Wars Rewatch Project: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS

Alright... here we are at last. 10 months. 10 movies. I wish we could go out on a higher note than this particular installment, but I'm attempting to compensate later this month with a massive, celebratory, image-based thread chronicling the entire Skywalker Saga, which I think you guys will like. Until then...

Title
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Release Date
December 15, 2017

Director
Rian Johnson

Writer
Rian Johnson





TCTTS
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How about this...

No post can be 100% negative.

Try to post at least ONE positive thing about this movie before, among, or at the end of your various complaints.

Because I've already expanded upon my grievances in detail over the past couple of years, I'll go straight to my positive (while still throwing some shade for context)...

Upon my recent third viewing of the movie, I've come around on the third act being pretty damn good. Basically, everything from when Rey arrives to confront Kylo/Snoke, all the way to the end - minus Rose saving Finn and her eye-roll-inducing line/kiss - I think is incredibly solid. And yes, when watching in slow motion (as shown in the breakdown video most of us have seen by now), Rey/Kylo vs Snoke's guards is laughably choreographed, but I think everything with Snoke just before, and everything with Kylo just after, works really, really well. I still wish we had more context/history with Snoke, but when you're expecting his death, I think it's easily the most thrilling - and maybe even brilliant - part of the movie for me. That, and Luke's confrontation/fake-out with Kylo worked better for me this time as well. I still can't stand how the entire movie is steeped in inaction, stalling, and constant finger wagging, both in plot and in theme, but what Luke does in the final act *is* a pretty cool and effective feat. Even the rock/boulder payoff stuff with Rey at the every end worked for me this go around.

At the very least, this movie allowed a nearly clean slate for Episode IX. At first I wanted more dangling threads, but now I'm glad Episode IX at least has the freedom and potential to be its own, final thing. Hopefully Abrams can capitalize.
Urban Ag
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Cinco Ranch Aggie
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I haven't re-watched this in more than a year, but I figure I'll watch it on Friday night.

I am sitting here at my desk this morning listening to the score. So there is the first and probably most obvious positive for The Last Jedi. This score is very good, with a lot of familiar themes and some new stuff mixed in. Of course, this is John Williams, so I doubt anyone is really surprised he delivered the best aspect of The Last Jedi.
The Collective
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Fat Bib Fortuna
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Best movie of all time, no debate.
bearamedic99
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MuckRaker96 said:

Best movie of all time, no debate.




DannyDuberstein
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Construct a plodding chase while crapping all over everything set up in TFA while also cramming in some SJW stuff.

But Luke's beard was pretty rockin.
MGS
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At least they didn't screw up Chewbacca's character.
The Collective
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MGS said:

At least they didn't screw up Chewbacca's character.


Actually, they did. Chewie should have BBQ'ed that Porg, so we didn't have to listen to his **** on the Falcon.
MGS
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He was still a bit emotional after losing Han.
The Collective
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This was my second gif candidate for this movie.
Brian Earl Spilner
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heddleston
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The hyperspace kamikaze is without a doubt the absolute coolest dadgum thing I've ever seen in a theater.
Quad Dog
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I'm mostly positive on this movie, but it does have some glaring faults.
  • People on here hate the intro and the jokes, but I love it. I thought it was funny and it instantly reminded me of Han saying "Everything is under control here..." in episode IV.
  • It does spend too much time on the island with Luke.
  • Rey's Dark Side vision makes no sense.
  • The Rose/Finn plot is pretty bad, but mainly because they go to find some hacker, get arrested, and a completely different hacker is coincidentally in prison with them. This is a very tired movie trope. However, the underlying story about arms dealers selling to both sides, and only money wins, was a great thread I wish was explored more. Actually some good social commentary too.
  • The scenes and fight in Snoke's throne room are just beautiful. Don't pick apart the fight scenes in slow motion. Literally any movie fails that test.
  • The kamikaze ship thing was amazing in the moment. A true gasp inducing moment. However, the implications of it don't work when you think about it too much. How has that never been done before, why is it not a standard battle tactic, why not hyperspace weapons, etc. Again, many great movies fail this overthinking test. Also, Ackbar should have been the one on that kamikaze ship. In fact he should have had the role that Laura Dern's character did. Write her out entirely.


The main thing about this movie that I liked was: it sets stuff up. I think the events of this movie would have made a great first movie to this trilogy. It creates power vacuums on all sides with people there to fill them: Luke's death sets up Rey to take over the Jedi; Snoke's death sets up Kylo; and most of the Rebels die setting up Poe. The Force is reduced down to just a few people, but then a hope of their story, and Luke's sacrifice, spreads the Galaxy, with the Force spreading with it.
A great complaint about the movie I've seen before is that no one has a character arc. And that is true, most characters are the same as when we met them. But it does create opportunities for those characters to evolve at the end of the movie. Setting up the sequel to show their evolution. Again, I think it would have been better for this movie to have sequels to show that evolution instead of one sequel.
veryfuller
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Quad Dog said:

  • The scenes and fight in Snoke's throne room are just beautiful. Don't pick apart the fight scenes in slow motion. Literally any movie fails that test.

Thank you!

I was talking the other day about this with someone and then we went to YouTube and watched TPM fight scene with Darth Maul that everyone still drools about. We found so many times that Maul could have/should have killed both of them, or the other way around. Literally instances where Obi Wan is standing waiting to hit the back side of his double light saber. Its a movie, its choreography, if you pay too close attention to most any fight scene, the illusion of it being an actual fight will drop away.

/rant
The Collective
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The most realistic lightsaber duel happened in a cartoon, and it took about 3 seconds.
Urban Ag
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CJS4715 said:

The most realistic lightsaber duel happened in a cartoon, and it took about 3 seconds.
Are you referring to Maul and Kenobi on Tatooine in Rebels?
Aggie_Journalist
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The movie had several awesome images, like the throne room fight, the light speed kamakazi, and the red and white salt planet fight at the end.

It's almost like they said, "We have a few powerful images in mind, we want them to happen, and we don't give two s**** how we get there."
Thanks and gig'em
YouBet
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heddleston said:

The hyperspace kamikaze is without a doubt the absolute coolest dadgum thing I've ever seen in a theater.
This. The context of it is beyond stupid but it looked incredible.
Jim01
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Overall it's not as horrible as people make it but it ain't great for sure.

Act 3 is indeed 95% great, minus Lukes horrific "brush dirt off my shoulder" reaction.
Grapesoda2525
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I like finally seeing Luke skywalker again. Episode 7 doesn't really count because he didn't have any lines.

My main complaint about this trilogy is that Kylo ren is a wussy. He doesn't even come close to being as bad as Vader, palpatine, or even maul.
The Collective
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Personally, I love that Kylo is kind of a poser. Best new character, imo.
Brian Earl Spilner
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Exactly! I love that about him.
Fenrir
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Does every big fight have some blemishes? Yes.

Do good fights have significantly less blemishes? Absolutely.

It's a flashy but bad fight scene.
oragator
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Come at me, but I respect it more than 7.
Sure. It took two hours to go little distance, the whole Offlsnder scenes added nothing, the Mary Poppins action was dumb, and some of the paint by marketing numbers stuff made me want to vomit.
But, for all it's faults. it at least tried, it was an original plot and idea, unlike 7. I liked that Rey's family wasn't some big over engineered reveal, I liked the idea of the entire movie being about a desperate point in the struggle, I liked how they gave Luke a great way to go out, and I like for how it sets up 9.

All that said, I have t watched it since I saw it in the theater, and no real plans to.
YouBet
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CJS4715 said:

Personally, I love that Kylo is kind of a poser. Best new character, imo.
Agreed. I think he's the best thing about the new trilogy and his character makes sense to me. Powerful, mentally unstable, family is a sh^t show, etc. He seems like the classic use case for a Sith to take advantage of and to convert.

Hell, we see it all the time in real life. Now, I want to see him get really nasty before they either kill him off or redeem him.

Edit: he' basically everything Anakin should have been but wasn't.
Brian Earl Spilner
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The Collective
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TLJ might be a better movie than TFA, but I enjoyed the hell out of TFA a whole lot more.
Render
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The only thing I like is the potential Kylo-Rey romance-partnership.

The rest is a flaming pile of crap.

And if Luke had been handled better, I would've bought into his change of character. Instead, his change is ungracefully dumped in our lap.

At least TLJ will give us TROS, a movie that, if the rumors are true, will be a glorious schlock mess. At least then I can enjoy it ironically.
PaulSimonsGhost
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I'm positive I'd rather shave my nuts with a cheese grater than rewatch The Last Jedi.
TCTTS
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Render said:

At least TLJ will give us TROS, a movie that, if the rumors are true, will be a glorious schlock mess. At least then I can enjoy it ironically.

What rumors? There was an erroneous report about reshoots, but that amounted to nothing. Otherwise, I haven't heard a single rumor good or bad about TROS, in terms of quality.
TCTTS
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Overall, I'll say this... the utter hate for this movie is pretty ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I'm PLENTY annoyed by it, and I have nothing good whatsoever to say about the Holdo and Finn/Rose plot lines, but I can't understand hating the rest of it. There's some really good stuff in this movie that shouldn't be wholly discounted because of the bad.
maroon man
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I really didn't care for the whole Canto Bight sequence...and Code breaker really fell flat.

But also thought that most of the movie was nails and LOVED the way Luke defended the Resistance.

Each time watching that still gives me chills.


The Collective
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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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