Overall Rankings
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Episode IV: A New Hope
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Rogue One
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Wow, I agree!
So I just saw this finally. Disappointing for all the reasons already mentioned so I won’t get into that.
But one thing I didn’t see mention in the first 300 or so posts here: I feel like perhaps Leia was rescued by Kylo. Seemed like her hand was being dragged through space. He couldn’t bring himself to kill her and then clearly had a reaction when he sensed/saw her get blown out of the ship. Kinda makes sense that he would attempt to save her. There is just no way it could have been her.
Anyway, I was entertained but this one was worse than TFA which I thought was fun but mostly forgettable. So far these are still better than those awful prequel films, but I am not excited for the next film one bit. I just don’t care anymore. The original trilogy is all that matters. Fuck Star Wars.
The same. Gone back too watching the rest of the Clone Wars on Netflix and Rebels to get some good SW content.
I disagree with your conclusion on TLJ, but wholly agree on your remedy.
I still maintain that Twilight of the Apprentice and the Maul arc are the best things in Star Wars video since 1980.
This is now canon in my head so I don’t rage as much over that stupid scene. Thanks for this.
That would have worked well, let’s put that in the inevitable Special Edition.
I am not excited for the next film one bit.
I searched my feelings and I know it’s true.
Lots of great musical accompaniment to the throne room fight in this Twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/rachlikesbands/status/955770601842585600
The one with Yakkity Sax with everything sped up 2X was excellent.
I can look at that person’s avatar picture for maybe 10 seconds before I start to feel ill. If that’s what they were going for, then great job.
Okay, I finally saw it at the $4 theater, mainly because I’ve been dying to see Red Letter Media’s videos (reportedly) tearing it apart. God knows they trash the movie left and right whenever it’s mentioned in other videos from late last year.
I liked it better than TFA, which was a goddamn lukewarm reboot of the original trilogy. All of the iconic scenes, but with none of the emotional resonance. “Hey, remember that intense trench run in the first movie? Here’s a blink-and-you-miss-it recreation with lots of CG before we fast-cut to other characters.”
That said, it still bugged the fuck out of me.
Poe’s opening attack on the Dreadnaught was straight out of a FPS game. “You need to destroy all the anti-aircraft guns before the bombers can approach.” (Line repeated every 30 seconds until Poe finally manages to destroy the final deck gun.)
I mean, let’s just get this out of the way; 100% destruction of AA guns is some weird, artificial construct that only occurs in video games. You do what you can, and then you roll the bombers in, and you take acceptable losses. But “Oh, no, god forbid there’s still a single gun left. We can’t do anything until it’s gone.”
The white bronco space chase \was insanely stupid for all the reasons mentioned to date. Hyperspace in front of them. Swarm the damn rebel ships with tons of fighters and bombers; they’ve already demonstrated that small craft can move faster than large vessels, and Poe demonstrated what a single fighter can do against a dreadnought.
I did like the throne room fight. Rian Johnson seems to be like me, wanting to know how bad-ass was Palpatine’s imperial guard?
I also like how they fucking got away from the Force being something you inherit. It almost seemed like an argument for a divine right of kings; and it’s a goddman galaxy; not everything has to run through the Skywalker bloodline.
And the casino planet wasn’t just a bizarre detour, but it ended up getting most of the rebellion killed. They don’t go to the planet, they don’t pick up Sicario. Then they don’t get caught trying to board Snoke’s ship. And then Sicario doesn’t give up the Rebel cloaking technology, and Laura Dern’s stupid plan actually works. (I will say, I thought they were setting up some Holdo/Poe kissing before they offed her; 50-something woman with hunky younger man; that’s one way to get the mom demographic into theaters. Plus, Holdo seemed like a perfect replacement for whenever they were planning to kill off Leia). Then again, all Holdo has to do is tell everything the plan and they don’t panic and go to casino planet in the first place.
And is it me, or did they really kill Admiral Ackbar off and you didn’t see it?
I’ve got more. Done for now.
Yes, it’s briefly mentioned later on.
Technically, we saw it. It was in the background of Leia’s slow-motion blast out into space.
Rian has no love for Ackbar, I guess.
Bold. Courageous. It’s time for Star Wars to move away from Admiral Ackbar. We need new stories about new Mon Calamari.
Did you see the bombers they were using? One gun could wreck all of them. Heck, one Tie Fighter pretty much did that. Just dropping their bombs was pretty much a one way trip.
What I’m saying is, I think all the great ship designers quit after the original trilogy, the new designs aren’t exactly high quality…
Mmm, maybe beer battered with a twist of lemon.
More stupidity.
They need to land on a base to get a radio powerful to transmit a message for help, but they’ve already established that they’re in radio contact with other people, like the dude/dudette/thing who told them about the codebreaker on the casino planet. It’s like, “Hey, dude/dudette/thing, could you do us a solid and pass this along to our friends?”
Or, THEY EASILY ESCAPED IN A SHIP TO GO TO THE CASINO PLANET. JUST HIT UP THE NEAREST PAY PHONE AND CALL FOR HELP, OR JUMP TO THE OUTER RIM. They’ve already established in Rogue One and Force Awakens that pretty much any point in the galaxy is just minutes away. (I chalk that up to more Jar Jar Abrams stupidity; he did the exact same thing with Star Trek. Earth to Romulus was a faster trip than your commute to work).
Fun factoid: Codebreaker with the fancy lapel? Justin Thereoux.
It was important to mention that Ackbar was dead. Off screen. With no fanfare or importance to the movie. Because just not bringing it up would have been bad.
Also, Lando died off-camera of syphilis sometime between the The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
Same here. Not to mention being able to teleport to the enterprise despite being left behind on a planet while the ship warped away a long time ago. I just like pretending those parts of a JJ Abrams movie didn’t happen. In fact, what were we even talking about?
That’s always been Abrams Schtick. Plot points where he puts no thought into the consequences in the world. You can add in his Khans blood just magically being able to bring people back from the dead to his idiotic instant teleporting anywhere in the galaxy.
He makes stories for people who don’t want to think about the stories. He’s like a high school dungeon master making his own quests. Just hand wave the details, focus on stringing together the cool encounters.
Star Wars needs to stop. The prequels are works of art compared to these new movies. Rogue One is trash. Last Jedi is a giant middle finger to Luke, Leia and Han. Force Awakens was okay only because they remade New Hope with Harrison Ford as Obi Wan.
It’s a shame because I like the new characters and the actors playing them in this trilogy but the scripts are fucking terrible. The prequels had good stories but the characters and actors were terrible.