Star Wars Episode VIII: A New Thread

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Hey Batman, if you're out there riddle me this:

What's the difference between people whining about a movie and the people whining about people whining about a movie?
 
I'm in a weird place with this movie, because I love the performances, Rian Johnson's directorial flourishes, and the big picture concepts the movie toys with. But there's something in the editing and actual mechanical situations on screen that never grabbed me. Like, both Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill are great, yet the island scenes in general felt flabby and circular.

Or, I love the idea of a chase scene, a tense retreat! But there are literally characters rocketing back and forth to the Rebel fleet from three different planets around the galaxy while this is going on. As the movie checks in on them still being chased, it ends up being more of a leisurely OJ-driving-the-Bronco situation. Poe flying up at the start of the movie to distract Hux felt off in the same way, where there's something there that never settled with me in those kinds of scenes.

All that said, I don't want to end up being the dullard who says a movie "sucks" because there's a plot hole or whatever. I didn't really leave TFA with that strong of an impression of Finn and Rey, and I absolutely do now. Everything in the throne room is a marvel. Chewbacca roasting a Porg for dinner. Fun stuff. We'll see if a second viewing makes everything fit better.
 
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I'll throw my post in spoiler tags, in case anyone hasn't seen the movie yet.

I was really unsure how I felt about the movie after I saw it. I need to see it again, but I'm feeling really negative right now. It's probably my least-favorite Star Wars film. I feel negatively about it much faster than I felt negatively about TFA (though my eventual negativity for the latter may have primed me for negativity on the former). I'm generally just not excited about where the sequels ar going.

  • Snoke - Seems like he is pointless and easy-to-kill. I recognize that my pipe dream of Team Plagueis may not have been wise for non-hardcore fans, but this character deserved some sort of a backstory for how he came to be who he is, what his motivations were, what he was doing during the time of Palpz, et cetera. I feel totally cheated out of a fascinating character that Abrams did some nice work setting up.
  • Rey Random - I guess I see the point here ("anyone can be a hero"), but it still deprives the saga of some nine-episode weight that could have been really good. *shills for Rey Palpatine* Plus, the "I'm going to screw with fans on the internet" buildup to that reveal is just downright annoying.
  • What the hell is the deal with Rey and the dark side anyway? Luke says she was tempted by it, and she goes to the cave-thingy, but there's not a ton of solid evidence of practical temptation to convert to the dark side. Even when she goes all Anakin/Luke-In-Episode-VI on Snoke in the throne room, Snoke interprets that as her being a "powerful Jedi" or whatever instead trying to practically convert her to the dark side. So, it's all random talk of the "dark side", but the support underlying it is actually terrible. Compare to both Luke and Anakin's real, palpable temptation, and this feels so emotionally weightless.
  • The number of almost-deaths is quite annoying; it just adds to the "I'm going to screw with fans on the internet" feel that the whole movie had
  • The humor was horrible
  • Hux was annoying
  • No particularly memorable new music at a first listen, although it liberally uses Rey's Theme, which I love

On the positive side:
  • The film was absolutely stunningly beautiful. I loved the fact that there were some prequel-esque fantastic world moments that didn't look like Pixar, as the prequels are wont to look.
  • I generally found Luke's anxiety pretty believable, though I of course wish it had been better-developed re: Rey
  • I rather liked Luke's swan song and death

And still uncertain: I'm really unsure how to feel about Leia's non-death.
 
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Hey Batman, if you're out there riddle me this:

What's the difference between people whining about a movie and the people whining about people whining about a movie?
The whining about the whining isn't that intense in here. I think it's more curiosity over a phenomenon than anything else.

And of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I am entitled to my own: thinking The Last Jedi is a worse film than the Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones is patently absurd. I can't imagine how many galaxies away from being an objective filmgoer one would have to be to come away with that conclusion. It's like preferring Nightmare on Elm Street 5 to The Shining because you thought Kubrick's adaptation was heretical.
 
I'll throw my post in spoiler tags, in case anyone hasn't seen the movie yet.

I was really unsure how I felt about the movie after I saw it. I need to see it again, but I'm feeling really negative right now. It's probably my least-favorite Star Wars film. I feel negatively about it much faster than I felt negatively about TFA (though my eventual negativity for the latter may have primed me for negativity on the former). I'm generally just not excited about where the sequels ar going.

  • Snoke - Seems like he is pointless and easy-to-kill. I recognize that my pipe dream of Team Plagueis may not have been wise for non-hardcore fans, but this character deserved some sort of a backstory for how he came to be who he is, what his motivations were, what he was doing during the time of Palpz, et cetera. I feel totally cheated out of a fascinating character that Abrams did some nice work setting up.
  • Rey Random - I guess I see the point here ("anyone can be a hero"), but it still deprives the saga of some nine-episode weight that could have been really good. *shills for Rey Palpatine* Plus, the "I'm going to screw with fans on the internet" buildup to that reveal is just downright annoying.
  • What the hell is the deal with Rey and the dark side anyway? Luke says she was tempted by it, and she goes to the cave-thingy, but there's not a ton of solid evidence of practical temptation to convert to the dark side. Even when she goes all Anakin/Luke-In-Episode-VI on Snoke in the throne room, Snoke interprets that as her being a "powerful Jedi" or whatever instead trying to practically convert her to the dark side. So, it's all random talk of the "dark side", but the support underlying it is actually terrible. Compare to both Luke and Anakin's real, palpable temptation, and this feels so emotionally weightless.
  • The number of almost-deaths is quite annoying; it just adds to the "I'm going to screw with fans on the internet" feel that the whole movie had
  • The humor was horrible
  • Hux was annoying
  • No particularly memorable new music at a first listen, although it liberally uses Rey's Theme, which I love

On the positive side:
  • The film was absolutely stunningly beautiful. I loved the fact that there were some prequel-esque fantastic world moments that didn't look like Pixar, as the prequels are wont to look.
  • I generally found Luke's anxiety pretty believable, though I of course wish it had been better-developed re: Rey
  • I rather liked Luke's swan song and death

And still uncertain: I'm really unsure how to feel about Leia's non-death.

I was fine with the *idea* of Snoke getting killed halfway through. I guess the implication is, vaguely parallel to Rey's anonymous origins, that he's just some guy who managed to climb his way to the top of the ladder, and he ultimately could have been any one of a number of identical power-hungry dictators. Classic Game of Thrones stuff. Big picture, this happens in the middle point of the trilogy, so it opens the sequel trilogy up to some Back To The Future style formal parallels between VIII and IX.

The problem as far as I see it is that they spent FOUR movies detailing how the democratic Old Republic descended into an authoritarian state (remember, ANH literally begins as the last opposition leaders are criminalized in the Imperial Senate). This stuff is embedded in the franchise DNA. But TFA, so far as I recall, was never interested in explaining the First Order's rise in context w/ the New Republic, so there's this missing piece that would connect Snoke's replacability with the struggles of The Resistance to why everyone rejected the Resistance distress signals from The Mineral Planet of Saltlick IV. I just, I don't really get what the heroes are trying to do. It seems like democracy sucks and is unstable and no one likes it? Every 20 years or so someone can sweep the board clean with a super weapon and some Star Destroyers and the cycle begins again.

Yeah also Rey seems to be doing pretty fine avoiding the Dark Side. Not sure why that's a point of emphasis.
 
I was literally stomping my feet and going all Ric Flair-style "WHOOOOOO!!" after the revelation of Luke's big stunt. .

I sussed that out right away when he entered the base, dead giveaway was the dyed beard and hair, but it was great when the reveal took place

Overall thoroughly enjoyed it. Good fun movie.
 
I'll throw my post in spoiler tags, in case anyone hasn't seen the movie yet.

[*]Rey Random - I guess I see the point here ("anyone can be a hero"), but it still deprives the saga of some nine-episode weight that could have been really good. *shills for Rey Palpatine* Plus, the "I'm going to screw with fans on the internet" buildup to that reveal is just downright annoying.
On this one note
It may not be the truth, Kylo may have told her that to try and get her to join him, or if it is the truth its similar to Anakin I guess.
I was hoping for an actual reveal of her lineage, when she saw herself in that mirror I said out loud "Damn I want an answer", we'll see if anything changes in the next one
 
I am not a big Star Wars fan. I saw it and found it very entertaining and strong at moving the plot forward and keeping me invested. The plot holes outlined here don't bother me because this series has always had those issues and thinking about it too much isn't something I'm interested in.
 
It's probably a bit early to say, but Kylo Ren has become one of my favorite Star Wars characters. I liked him from the beginning, and I think part of that has to do with his conflicted nature; he's the kind of mixed-up villain that's been en vogue for a while now. I appreciate his clear, obvious weaknesses. He's an imbalanced person being forced into a very strict role.

That said, Adam Driver's acting really won me over this time around. Great job, perhaps the strongest performance of the whole film.
 
Yeah, I think I agree. I was very wary of the character heading into the Force Awakens, but thought it made enough sense to have a chance to be good. I think they nailed the character's arc in this one and it was very compelling.

The Snoke thing is obviously going to be something that bothers people, but the problem isn't how he was dispatched. It was that the concept of the character being so all-powerful basically made it impossible to resolve in any satisfying way.
 
The whining about the whining isn't that intense in here. I think it's more curiosity over a phenomenon than anything else.

And of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I am entitled to my own: thinking The Last Jedi is a worse film than the Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones is patently absurd. I can't imagine how many galaxies away from being an objective filmgoer one would have to be to come away with that conclusion. It's like preferring Nightmare on Elm Street 5 to The Shining because you thought Kubrick's adaptation was heretical.



It’s different in my case, I think, because I subscribe to the heterodox belief that the prequels are criminally underrated, and a lot of what I like about the saga (which is present in the PT) has been pivoted away from in the ST as a whole and TLJ in particular. We probably have very different wants out of Star Wars, and they can lead to very different conclusions.
 
It’s different in my case, I think, because I subscribe to the heterodox belief that the prequels are criminally underrated, and a lot of what I like about the saga (which is present in the PT) has been pivoted away from in the ST as a whole and TLJ in particular. We probably have very different wants out of Star Wars, and they can lead to very different conclusions.

Exactly that - something people halfway acknowledge but don't really think through the implications of is that Star Wars is one of the most popular things in human history. So it's not surprising something casting such a wide brush brings in a lot of different people. Same for U2, really.

FWIW I think I agree with you about the prequels. It's entirely possible after Episode IX comes out that one can look at a through-line from 7 through 9 as their own internally consistent piece which doesn't quite sync with what I got from the first 6.
 
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Exactly that - something people halfway acknowledge but don't really think through the implications of is that Star Wars is one of the most popular things in human history. So it's not surprising something casting such a wide brush brings in a lot of different people. Same for U2, really.

FWIW I think I agree with you about the prequels. It's entirely possible after Episode IX comes out that one can look at a through-line from 7 through 9 as their own internally consistent piece which doesn't quite sync with what I got from the first 6.


This is a good post. Makes me appreciate the saga for what it is, as something that can be appreciated by so many people for many different reasons. And it’s okay for one SW fan to value something different than another SW fan.
 
Yeah, I think I agree. I was very wary of the character heading into the Force Awakens, but thought it made enough sense to have a chance to be good. I think they nailed the character's arc in this one and it was very compelling.

The Snoke thing is obviously going to be something that bothers people, but the problem isn't how he was dispatched. It was that the concept of the character being so all-powerful basically made it impossible to resolve in any satisfying way.

Yes. I would take watching Adam Driver/Kylo Ren figure his shit out in Episode IX every time over more of Snoke's admittedly tasteful interior decoration.

Just want to take this moment though to say that Ian McDiarmid is stone cold awesome through the whole series. It ain't easy being the Big Bad.
 
I just don't understand how someone can ignore terrible acting, incompetent direction, bad pacing (especially in II) and SFX that's already aging badly because it offers "what they're looking for from Star Wars" in terms of narrative. :shrug: The new trilogy has been miles ahead in all those categories. I've seen all the movies, but maybe I'm not a big enough fan as far as the lore is concerned to understand that mindset. I'm willing to accept that possibility.
 
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I just don't understand how someone can ignore terrible acting, incompetent direction, bad pacing (especially in II) and SFX that's already aging badly because it offers "what they're looking for from Star Wars" in terms of narrative. :shrug: The new trilogy has been miles ahead in all those categories. I've seen all the movies, but maybe I'm not a big enough fan as far as the lore is concerned to understand that mindset. I'm willing to accept that possibility.

I'll take a stab at explaining myself here. I don't feel a need to evangelize the prequels, but I don't mind explaining myself, because it can be a little frustrating for people to look at me like I have the intelligence of an eight-year-old who just like Jar Jar Binks toys when I say that I like the prequels. And, if I can make someone who is more ambivalent find something enjoyable about the prequels, I'm happy about that. But I'm not trying to make a wholesale believer out of a wholesale unbeliever.

Let me first say that a lot of what you accuse the PT of is valid. It has huge execution issues. I may not be as bothered by them as the average fan, but I won't deny that the prequels have issues with dialogue, acting, directing, pacing, and I'm sure plenty of other -ings. Hell, even one of my absolute favorite scenes in the saga is marred by it: the Anakin/Obi-Wan duel on Mustafar has "from my point of view, the Jedi are evil".

So, what do I find appealing about the prequels? When I take a step back from the execution issues, I see a plot arc that is extremely satisfying, both emotionally and intellectually, in setting up what happened in the OT. It brings together a remarkably strong six-part saga, despite many pieces having huge flaws. I see this on a couple of dimensions: as a political drama, and as a Skywalker family drama.

On the political front: well, I know that the PT gets a lot of criticism for being overly political, but I think it works really well. Why? Because it shows some really fascinating themes, with plenty of real-life parallels. It shows an incredibly wealthy and futuristic society, but with real struggles outside of Coruscant and the surrounding galactic core. Our Chosen One is literally a slave from a backwater Outer Rim planet. The contrast between Tatooine and Coruscant, or even Naboo (an outpost of wealth in the backwater), is incredible, and speaks a lot to urban versus rural, to the wealthy versus those without a chance. Then you have Sheev Palpatine - senator from the aforementioned Naboo, absolutely capitalizing on the fears of the core to seize power in a time of fear as economic inequality rises even in the core. I hesitate to provide analogies to real-life politics, but the themes are certainly believable, and have occurred before. (I'm not trying to make a Trump = Palpz comparison here.) "I hate sand" feels less ridiculous in this context.

On top of that, you have the Jedi Order. The Jedi were portrayed as so saintly in the OT, but I love how they are portrayed as narrow, conservative, and flawed in the PT. Honestly, when Palpatine speaks of the "dogmatic view of the Jedi", he's not completely wrong. Yoda is so deeply conservative that he drives Anakin to repress his emotions, to disastrous consequences that breed the dark side more that would have likely otherwise been the case. Mace Windu clearly enjoys his own power, and is seemingly tempted by opportunities to overthrow Palpatine. Obi-Wan tries to stick to the party line, but addresses problems with it (especially in the form of Anakin/Padmé, to which he turns a blind eye) by ignoring them and pretending that the party line is alright. There are clearly issues at play here, portended by Dooku's departure from the Order. One Jedi, Qui-Gon, seemingly has a renegade attitude. His oneness with The Force is stronger than anyone's, but he's held back by the Order for it. And even Qui-Gon sees a planet filled with slaves and doesn't think anything particularly bad about it; he saves one with essentially selfish motivations, and leaves the rest to rot.

Politically, things are not black-and-white in the prequels. And that goes for the motivations of the "hero" characters as well. It's very human. As the crawl to ROTS says: "there are heroes on both sides." The "from my point of view, the Jedi are evil" line may have been poorly-written, but the sentiment behind it has a lot of fascinating weight and legitimacy.

On the Skywalker family (and other involved characters) drama front: this adds so much weight to the OT to me. Yeah, the lines between Anakin and Padmé on Naboo were often bad. But is the overall concept? When I watch ROTJ, at the end when Vader is considering what to do with Palpatine, I hear Padmé's heart beating as she dies. I hear Obi-Wan yelling "you were my brother, Anakin; I loved you". The togetherness of the saga, as Vader picks up Darth Sidious and throws him to his death, is strong. The conflict that Luke feels as he looks to the dark side, as he considers killing his father, is stronger, because we've seen it before. Yoda's hesitation to train Luke... we've seen it before, as we think of his dejected failure when he climbs into the flying car with Bail Organa. Speaking of Organa, when his planet gets blown up in ANH, I think of him bringing Leia home. When I see Leia talking back to Vader, her father, I think of her mother, a gifted leader from a young age (though that portrayal is, certainly, flawed).

It works. It brings together a narrative for the whole saga that feels so, so satisfying to me.

To revisit execution, yeah, there are issues. But I don't think that the prequels are totally ruined by execution, nor that they are uniquely full of bad execution decisions. There are issues in every Star Wars movie; even the OT has its fair share of pretty bad humor, and TLJ is an utter disaster on that front. Yeah, the Gungans (Boss Nass in particular is a loathsome character) are a questionable decision, but worse than the Ewoks? The CGI was over-the-top, especially in AOTC, but I appreciate the ambition of it, at least. There were also some really good execution points in the movies, centered around some well-acted characters: Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Dooku, Palpatine, Padmé (mostly), Windu, and Organa all come to mind. So, my point is here that execution is an issue in the PT, perhaps more than in the OT and the ST to date (though I'd dispute that with TLJ). But it's not uniquely damning in the context of Star Wars, nor is it all a catastrophe.

I'll contrast this with the ST, just a little bit. Sure, the ST movies are beautiful, and there's no individual line as bad as "from my point of view, the Jedi are evil" (though Poe's call to Hux was nearly that bad). But, so far, they feel like a complete mess from a political standpoint, and Disney/Kennedy/Abrams/Johnson deliberately made choices to avoid making the ST feel like an effective part of a larger saga, other than wholesale ripping off OT plot points and settings. The EU has attempted to fix some of the former, to some success. But decisions like some of the ones that I mentioned in my spoiler-tagged post making it an uphill battle.

So, that's my take. Again, I'm not trying to convince you to agree, but I think I come to this conclusion from a standpoint that's not completely ridiculous or stupid.
 
I'm wholly on board with appreciating the intent of trying to tie together the galactic political scope and the personal Skywalker drama - how a sclerotic republic falls to authoritarianism in concert with Anakin curdling to the monster of the OT, and how those two threads reinforce one another. While I see how Lucas could've conducted parts so much (much) better, it's enough to carry me through awfully rocky stretches of TPM and AOTC into the safer harbor of ROTS (where I'd pair it with TFA and TLJ so far).

There are a lot of boring movies that have been made. I don't think about Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials very much. But I do find myself continuing to think about the PT, because I think it fits as an extension of the ideas of the OT, so I find value in that.

YMMV.
 
as a student of history, i see a lot of parallels between the thermidorian french republic of 1795-1799. like a lot. i can elaborate when i'm less drunk.
 
I've seen it twice now and still absolutely love it. It's a film about failure and how to recover from that. The acting is the strongest of the entire franchise, most especially Adam Driver.

As much of a plot hole it was that Poe survived that crash in TFA, it paid off so much in TLJ. Poe Dameron's character development in this film was done so well, and hot damn is Oscar Isaac charismatic. That man has chemistry with everything, even a droid.

I must say, Luke's end was perfect and this was easily the best performance of Mark Hamill's career.
 
I'll take a stab at explaining myself here. I don't feel a need to evangelize the prequels, but I don't mind explaining myself, because it can be a little frustrating for people to look at me like I have the intelligence of an eight-year-old who just like Jar Jar Binks toys when I say that I like the prequels. And, if I can make someone who is more ambivalent find something enjoyable about the prequels, I'm happy about that. But I'm not trying to make a wholesale believer out of a wholesale unbeliever.

Let me first say that a lot of what you accuse the PT of is valid. It has huge execution issues. I may not be as bothered by them as the average fan, but I won't deny that the prequels have issues with dialogue, acting, directing, pacing, and I'm sure plenty of other -ings. Hell, even one of my absolute favorite scenes in the saga is marred by it: the Anakin/Obi-Wan duel on Mustafar has "from my point of view, the Jedi are evil".

So, what do I find appealing about the prequels? When I take a step back from the execution issues, I see a plot arc that is extremely satisfying, both emotionally and intellectually, in setting up what happened in the OT. It brings together a remarkably strong six-part saga, despite many pieces having huge flaws. I see this on a couple of dimensions: as a political drama, and as a Skywalker family drama.

On the political front: well, I know that the PT gets a lot of criticism for being overly political, but I think it works really well. Why? Because it shows some really fascinating themes, with plenty of real-life parallels. It shows an incredibly wealthy and futuristic society, but with real struggles outside of Coruscant and the surrounding galactic core. Our Chosen One is literally a slave from a backwater Outer Rim planet. The contrast between Tatooine and Coruscant, or even Naboo (an outpost of wealth in the backwater), is incredible, and speaks a lot to urban versus rural, to the wealthy versus those without a chance. Then you have Sheev Palpatine - senator from the aforementioned Naboo, absolutely capitalizing on the fears of the core to seize power in a time of fear as economic inequality rises even in the core. I hesitate to provide analogies to real-life politics, but the themes are certainly believable, and have occurred before. (I'm not trying to make a Trump = Palpz comparison here.) "I hate sand" feels less ridiculous in this context.

On top of that, you have the Jedi Order. The Jedi were portrayed as so saintly in the OT, but I love how they are portrayed as narrow, conservative, and flawed in the PT. Honestly, when Palpatine speaks of the "dogmatic view of the Jedi", he's not completely wrong. Yoda is so deeply conservative that he drives Anakin to repress his emotions, to disastrous consequences that breed the dark side more that would have likely otherwise been the case. Mace Windu clearly enjoys his own power, and is seemingly tempted by opportunities to overthrow Palpatine. Obi-Wan tries to stick to the party line, but addresses problems with it (especially in the form of Anakin/Padmé, to which he turns a blind eye) by ignoring them and pretending that the party line is alright. There are clearly issues at play here, portended by Dooku's departure from the Order. One Jedi, Qui-Gon, seemingly has a renegade attitude. His oneness with The Force is stronger than anyone's, but he's held back by the Order for it. And even Qui-Gon sees a planet filled with slaves and doesn't think anything particularly bad about it; he saves one with essentially selfish motivations, and leaves the rest to rot.

Politically, things are not black-and-white in the prequels. And that goes for the motivations of the "hero" characters as well. It's very human. As the crawl to ROTS says: "there are heroes on both sides." The "from my point of view, the Jedi are evil" line may have been poorly-written, but the sentiment behind it has a lot of fascinating weight and legitimacy.

On the Skywalker family (and other involved characters) drama front: this adds so much weight to the OT to me. Yeah, the lines between Anakin and Padmé on Naboo were often bad. But is the overall concept? When I watch ROTJ, at the end when Vader is considering what to do with Palpatine, I hear Padmé's heart beating as she dies. I hear Obi-Wan yelling "you were my brother, Anakin; I loved you". The togetherness of the saga, as Vader picks up Darth Sidious and throws him to his death, is strong. The conflict that Luke feels as he looks to the dark side, as he considers killing his father, is stronger, because we've seen it before. Yoda's hesitation to train Luke... we've seen it before, as we think of his dejected failure when he climbs into the flying car with Bail Organa. Speaking of Organa, when his planet gets blown up in ANH, I think of him bringing Leia home. When I see Leia talking back to Vader, her father, I think of her mother, a gifted leader from a young age (though that portrayal is, certainly, flawed).

It works. It brings together a narrative for the whole saga that feels so, so satisfying to me.

To revisit execution, yeah, there are issues. But I don't think that the prequels are totally ruined by execution, nor that they are uniquely full of bad execution decisions. There are issues in every Star Wars movie; even the OT has its fair share of pretty bad humor, and TLJ is an utter disaster on that front. Yeah, the Gungans (Boss Nass in particular is a loathsome character) are a questionable decision, but worse than the Ewoks? The CGI was over-the-top, especially in AOTC, but I appreciate the ambition of it, at least. There were also some really good execution points in the movies, centered around some well-acted characters: Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Dooku, Palpatine, Padmé (mostly), Windu, and Organa all come to mind. So, my point is here that execution is an issue in the PT, perhaps more than in the OT and the ST to date (though I'd dispute that with TLJ). But it's not uniquely damning in the context of Star Wars, nor is it all a catastrophe.

I'll contrast this with the ST, just a little bit. Sure, the ST movies are beautiful, and there's no individual line as bad as "from my point of view, the Jedi are evil" (though Poe's call to Hux was nearly that bad). But, so far, they feel like a complete mess from a political standpoint, and Disney/Kennedy/Abrams/Johnson deliberately made choices to avoid making the ST feel like an effective part of a larger saga, other than wholesale ripping off OT plot points and settings. The EU has attempted to fix some of the former, to some success. But decisions like some of the ones that I mentioned in my spoiler-tagged post making it an uphill battle.

So, that's my take. Again, I'm not trying to convince you to agree, but I think I come to this conclusion from a standpoint that's not completely ridiculous or stupid.

:love:

I'll take issue with one thing, and that's you're agreeing with El Mel that the prequels have subpar direction. Lucas is lazy when it comes to getting good line readings from his actors. Some manage to rise above it consistently (Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, Oz), some intermittently (Portman, Jackson), and some rarely (Christiansen). But directing, and I'll quote Martin Scorsese here, is about what's in the frame and what isn't. Primarily, I'm looking for direction that creates interesting/powerful compositions with the frame, and that tells a good story visually. So to say Lucas is a poor director is just a empty attack that singles out one of aspect of his role at the expense of the more important ones. I don't even know if I'd go so far as to say Lucas is a poor screenwriter, because again, dialogue is only one aspect of writing a script.

I also watch the prequels wishing they could have been better, with a better writer to collaborate on the dialogue, or the actors being given time to get their lines right, or some of the dumb humor excised. But there really is such an abundance of great stuff on the thematic, imaginative, and entertainment levels that I'm able to enjoy them a lot anyway. And what they do have that's undenaible is a relative consistency in tone and aesthetics due to having the same writer-director on all three that is already missing from the new trilogy. Does anyone actually think TFA and TLF feel cut from the same cloth? Now if Rian Johnson had been allowed to at least write Episode IX, this could have been salvaged. But god knows what Abrams and his co-writer are going to do. I don't know how anyone could be optimistic. It's really idiotic that the Lucasfilm story group didn't sit down with all these people and map the whole thing out first.
 
It's not a perfect movie, but I loved the shit out of it. A few comments:

1. The first halfish, I was thinking "Well, okay I'm enjoying this, but what is everyone raving about?" Then the last hour or so? Holy shit, amazing.

2. Rose/Finn was dull. Finn is not very interesting to me.

3. Every time there was a scene with Carrie Fisher, I got teary, and kept thinking "oh, this is her last scene" ... but it never was, ha.

4. That light speed jump scene? Holy shit, that was my favorite thing in the movie.

5. I went in thinking "gee, if Luke dies, I'm gonna be pissssssed," but that was just about perfect. I usually don't "see things coming," so it was a genuine surprise to me to see the big reveal.

6. Loved the Kylo/Rey stuff. Loved the visuals in Snoke's office. Lair. Whatever. Big Red Room.

7. From the trailer shots, I thought the Porgs were going to be more of a "character," like the shot of the one in the Falcon with Chewie, I thought it was a co-pilot. Ha! Neat, considering those Irish islands are populated with shit-tons of birds, so cool to incorporate that with little cute furry things.

Also, sure wish my trip to Skellig Michael hadn't been cancelled to weather on my 2013 Ireland trip. I SO wanted to go and was the only reason I added the Ring of Kerry to my itinerary. I was thinking about going back, but damn, those boat trips are going to be full up way in advance with people wanting to go.

Also, I loved this take on it:

The Last Jedi Doesn't Care What You Think About Star Wars

I'll see it again, not sure when. i don't feel like I need to see it immediately again like with TFA (which had the benefit of being "new," consistently refreshing and entertaining after the prequels), but I definitely want to see it again and see if I feel differently about the bits I didn't like as much.
 
Luke's "death" was handled so well, it's really incredible. So different from Han Solo's death in Episode VII.

Also:

For a film that had as its core idea the need to break with the past and its traditions, it's quite ironic that some fans are complaining about some of the liberties taken with the mythology. I am not a hardcore Star Wars person, but I thought every decision made sense.
The scene with Leia floating in space is the only exception, as I thought it was wholly unnecessary.

And finally: I'm not sure it was Abram's decision, but for all his shortcomings directing Episode VII (and I love the movie), the casting of Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver was perfect.
 
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Digitize's post makes me want to give the PT another chance...and then I realize I have given it chances. Many, many chances. And I always come away from those attempts feeling miserable for all of execution issues that have been covered a million times before. They would be superior novels to films, certainly better pitches than films. But there are untold numbers of ideas, some quite brilliant, that never see the light of day because of execution problems or bad luck. George Lucas was in a unique position as an artist and visionary and couldn't execute his ideas in a way that captured the imagination of the majority. As is so often the case, we are now being met with a sharp, opposing reaction in the form of the ST. Less politics, less exposition, less lore. I'm not surprised there's little overlap among those who love the PT and the ST.
 
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I think it's fair to say that Prequel Trilogy did a nice job of expanding the story and universe while not actually being good movies.
 
I'm not sure how much to say about the film as I'm not certain how many have seen it but here's my thoughts through a haze of cold meficine:

1. Movie is much like the little things that give u away because it seemed very slow at first but man is was an epic finish.
2. Adam Driver is one he'll of an actor.. Mark Hamil shown also.
3. I kept thinking when they showed Carrie Fisher I figured this would b it.
4. Very good movie... Not my favorite but definitely not the worst.
5. Without giving much away... Who the beck is Snoke?
6. Visuals during kylo and lukes scene was awesome.
Agree will phils fan about prequels.. My biggest saving grace was Darth MAUL... Second best villian in the whole series.
 
"When Supreme Leader Snoke owned Kylo Ren for being a lame Darth Vader cosplayer, literally called his helmet ridiculous, and told him to take it off."

:love:

I liked that article.
 
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