A QT3’er wrote Rogue One. That is reason enough.
Sort of. I’d love to know how much of Gary’s script wound up on the screen. I suspect a lot got changed after he left the project.
The ending folding right into the beginning of New Hope feels like a very Whitta thing to write.
Eh, I feel like I paid my dues when I saw Book of Eli in the theater, back in the days when I actually went to see movies in the theater. And I don’t think Gary’s actually posted here in years, so I don’t know that I’d really call him a Qt3’er.
I liked Rogue One largely because it wasn’t cut from the same Star Wars cloth that we’ve seen before. If you went in expecting more Skywalker shenanigans and space wizard fights then I can understand why you’d be disappointed, but a good chunk of my enjoyment was precisely because it wasn’t that. It’s a tough line to walk, mixing known elements with something different, and IMHO Rogue One is the only Star Wars movie to step outside the mold in a significant way. Best since the original trilogy in my book.
See? Skip gets it.
Even as someone who likes TFA, I’d still rank it below the OT. Rogue One probably as well, but it’s close, and not inconceivable to me to rank it over RotJ. TFA would not be in that conversation.
Put me in the Rogue One was awesome camp. I think it’s among the best films in that fictional universe. It neatly fills the gap between two trilogies and it establishes the Empire as being capable and more importantly willing to destroy an entire world to bring the galaxy to their heel.
I agree with what you guys are saying about Rogue One. I should like it, in theory, for those reasons. But when I was actually watching, I found it underwhelming.
And with The Last Jedi it was reversed. I kind of get all the criticisms here and even agree with a lot of them, but when I was actually watching, I just found it absolutely riveting and thrilling, in a way that a Star Wars movie has never done before. Just the combination of the way the characters were shown, and in jeopardy, it really got to me, I really cared about what was happening in each scene in a way I never have in Star Wars before. By making the stakes so high early on, killing Admiral Akbar, and others, it just felt like everything was on the table, and this could be it for a lot of these characters. I know that didn’t work on most of you, but he got me good.
Finally watched this last night. I thought it was much better than the ocean of dull fan service that was TFA, though I’m not decided on how it ranks compared to Rogue One.
Loved most of the director’s choices, especially the fate of Skywalker. As I was watching I kept thinking “this feels like Star Wars: Ragnarok”. The movie was riddled with jokes (some of them a bit too contemporary and out of place), but more than that, there was this general sense of pervasive mischief-- I can see how fans may feel they’ve been trolled. When Yoda showed up as his old muppet/impish self from TESB, gleefully dismissing the destruction of the old Jedi tomes, I thought the director was laying it a bit thick even as I mentally agreed with him. When you set yourself to the impossible task of recreating the good old golden days, things like TFA happen-- safe, cautious, overly PC, committee-sanctioned boredom with characters that feel like items checked off a list instead of alive. Survival lies ahead, but bygones must be allowed to be bygones.
Not that the movie can free itself from all its tethers, oh no. It’s still saddled with an astonishingly non-threatening bad guy, a protagonist that’s essentially a superhero (note how midichlorians seem to have been sneakily re-introduced to the mythos without being explicitly mentioned), and a bunch of secondary token characters with little in the way of personality. There’s also very little magic to the proceedings, and I realize this is a very personal thing, but I think it’s worth comparing these characters with the iconic ones from A New Hope, and how they worked together, how they overflowed with chemistry and purpose from the first to the last, from the small droid to the old Jedi Master.
Then TlJ introduces problems of its own, namely in the way of -yet again- insipid new characters, an ill-advised sequence on a Casino planet that also serves as a pulpit for a bit of misplaced and awkward social commentary, a slightly episodic feel and a running length that could have been trimmed by at least half an hour. I’m not including the silly plot devices/holes in the “minus” column as I generally find those quite easy to brush off, like the sounds of the space battles, though I do think Leia’s short space trip was bizarre and I never got what was up with that evil pit of darkness in Luke’s island.
In short, better than I expected; a humorously deprecating take on the lore, lots of great visuals and some neat surprises make this an easy recommendation as far as I’m concerned, especially if you’re not a super fan and just enjoy these movies for what they are.
I would be interested to find out why Jedi masters like to set up shop right on top of places that are infused with the dark side.
They seem to be useful as proving grounds for trainees. This one was apparently malfunctioning or something, it didn’t appear to do much at all.
It does seem that Jedi kind of repurpose those spots for training purposes, I guess it just seems a little risky? I gather Yoda had a handle on that tree thing in Empire but Luke seemed startled that Rey went into that hole in her own.
You know what, I take it back. I think I like it better being mysterious, I probably wouldn’t care for any explanation that Lucasfilm would provide.
I liked Rogue One but would like it lot more if it incorporate Kyle Katarn instead of overwriting him.
Last Jedi I loathe.
Amazing honest trailer though
They should let the honest trailer writers write next SW movie :p
My wife was very upset at Luke’s portrayal in the film, especially his fate. I told her it kind of makes sense - the only 2 Jedi he’s ever known were both Masters hiding away as hermits, so why wouldn’t her do the same? In addition, one of them sacrificed himself for the greater good, so maybe Luke felt he had to go out the same way. She’s still pissed though, and there’s really nothing good about Leia’s exit.
It is definitely another installment of cranky old men theater where the same 5 people continually post how bad it is while the rest of us think, “yeah, you have fun with that” while we contentedly munch on our popcorn.
She’s not alone. Mark Hamill says in the documentary that he never fully came around to liking it.
The tomes were never destroyed. Rey saved them. They later show up in a drawer on one of the ships (MF maybe?). Yoda knew this, and was trying to manipulate Luke. One of the few really poignant scenes in the movie IMO. Or would have been if they had made the switch obvious beforehand.
I will never forgive Rian Johnson for killing my childhood hero in a way that had precisely 0 emotional resonance with me. Of course, the solution is simple - I just don’t consider these sequels as “my” canon.
Agree, Rogue would be right after the original trilogy to me. The battle climax is pure Star Wars porn.
I think the opposite is the case.
Obviously, I don’t know for sure, and I doubt Gary will ever publicly be able to say anytime soon, but that surprise ending seems pretty Whitta. Just based on Book of Eli and After Earth, I get the feeling he likes to go for big reveals in endings.