Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) (WITH SPOILERS!)

[Brian G Turner]

As the film is released this week, I thought I'd better create a discussion thread for those who see it and want to discuss spoilers.

 

[Harpo]

I'll be back at the end of January, by which time the entire world will be fed up of me saying "no spoilers!"
(Managed it last time, just about)

 

[ctg]

Well, you’re hitting a point that was a bone of contention. Because you see in the trailer he says, I know one truth, it’s time for the Jedi to end. And I said to Rian, I said, what are you talking about? A Jedi doesn’t give up. If they make a wrong, they try and make it right. That was a big kind of thing and I had to realize it’s not for me to decide. When I see what he was doing that, what my function in the script was my job was to put my own personal feelings aside and do my best to realize his vision. Not Mark Hamill’s vision, Rian Johnson’s vision. Whether I agreed with it or not. ‘Cause, I mean, I used to say to George, it was funny, why can’t Luke have a girlfriend? Eventually, I heard in the Extended Universe there’s Mara Jade. And he got married and he had kids. I still don’t know, are [Jedi] supposed to be celibate or can they be married with children? Can you answer that?

I think the Jedi are supposed to be celibate, but…I kind of think Luke is saying something like this organized religion has turned this thing that was good for something bad.

Right. Well that’s a good way to go. Another way to go is when I say, look, a lot of times in acting you have to find things that are parallel in your own life to know how to react emotionally at any given scenario. And so I thought I was of The Beatles generation. And I bought that “All You Need is Love.” I said, by the time I get to be, our generation is in power they’ll be no more wars. They’ll be no more racial discrimination. They’ll be peace and harmony. We failed. Arguably the world is worse now than it was in the ’60s and early ’70s. So I drew upon that to try and figure out why Luke was so disillusioned. Why he so tragically failed. He did fail. Obviously, he thought Ben Solo was the Chosen One and he was wrong. Now he’s almost responsible for the rise of the next Darth Vader. Now that’s where you get into the weeds because my contention was he wouldn’t let that go. He would try and correct that. But for the purposes of the story and I without really revealing too much, you’ll understand more when you see it. And again, I totally trust Rian and I think he’s done a spectacular job.

Mark Hamill on if Luke is Still a Hero in The Last Jedi

 

[ctg]

Actor Mark Hamill insists that Luke Skywalker hasn’t dined on porgs or their weird alien eggs, saying on Twitter that Luke is a vegetarian. However, that doesn’t mean the idea of eating them is unthinkable in the Star Wars universe. The book Star Wars Made Easy includes a passage about porgs, describing them as: “Small, bird-like porgs are the island’s most adorable inhabitants. Cute? Definitely. Tasty? Maybe.” Oscar Isaac, who plays Poe, agrees—at least according to The Last Jedi co-star Laura Dern.

Dern: The more I went on about how adorable they are—it was like looking into the eyes of E. T., I loved those eyes so much—Oscar only continued to talk about different recipes.

Isaac: Porgs with roasted turnips. Glazed porg.

https://gizmodo.com/what-do-porgs-taste-like-1821194647

It's a long article on Luke's weird animal companions.

 

[Judderman]

So I got back from watching The Last Jedi with my wife. A fun movie overall. I would say kids to early Teens might love it, and it is a good one for parents with kids or grandkids to go too. From our viewpoint as a couple without kids, who are not total fanboy types, I would say it is mixed in parts between enjoyable and frankly boring. It is definitely a Star Wars movie with much of what you would expect, good or not so good. I real felt that the film is well over 2 hours long.

The weird creatures and characters they show briefly were excellent as usual. I think it needed more of that. The casino had some good glimpses but it took a while to get to that. Quite a lot of the movie felt a tad too serious. There were some really well done space action scenes. I liked the link of Kylo and Rey. Benicio del Toro having a role was a joy. The scenes with Luke and Rey dragged too much and was partly why the length of the film dragged. Some of the characters dying for the cause again didn't hit the mark as they were virtually unknown to the viewer and no key, good character died.

Leia and Luke are apparently far more powerful than ever? Leia practically invincible/back from the dead while Luke can present himself far away even more convincingly than Snoke could??

Snoke being killed without a real fight was such a letdown. Now the most powerful bad guy isn't a threat for the final movie.

I enjoyed it more than The Force Awakens (7) as it wasn't quite so overly nostalgic and repetitive of the originals. Though we still have plenty of recurring themes. It is certainly not in the Empire Strikes Back class! But I didn't expect that. I don't think it deserves the critics score of over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes (but I think individual critic reviews are only given 100 or 0 on RT right?). The audience score nearer 60% seems fair.

 

[Judderman]

Oh apparently I missed Luke's body disappearing at the end.. Weird, I just remember him collapsing. Must have been when my wife was asking when this thing is finishing.
So that is one key, character gone then. But he had served his purpose.

 

[Harpo]

Oh feckin bollocks!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

If you must include spoilers do NOT put them right at the bloody start of your post!
Everyone avoiding this thread can see that accidentally on the "recent activity" page. Like I just did. Thanks a blimmin' bunch.

And I still have to wait six weeks. *not happy*

 

[Judderman]

Sorry Harpo. But Recent Posts just shows titles?

 

[Harpo]

Recent Activity doesn't, it's the quickest way to see what's happening all over the forum.
https://www.sffchronicles.com/recent-activity/

 

[Danny McG]

Recent Activity doesn't, it's the quickest way to see what's happening all over the forum.
https://www.sffchronicles.com/recent-activity/

Good link but how you find it?
Half a dozen times I've went back to Home page and clicked on different bits but all end up as wrong trails

 

[Harpo]

Members online now > recent activity

Now please ignore me, so I don't have to come back in here to reply to anything.
Star Wars arrives on my island on January 26th, that's only six weeks away.
Cinema- What's on at An Lanntair

 

[dekket]

Spoilers



Spoilers


Spoilers.

I quite liked how Kylo Ren manouvered his rise to becoming Supreme Leader. It was very Rule of Two. It must be extremely difficult to plot such a thing, considering Snoke could read this thoughts through the Force.

And the Leia thing reminded me of me of the episode is of season three of Star Wars Rebels, when Maul tossed Kanaan out the airlock and he used the force to pull himself back to the hanger.

I didn't like the how close together the Resistance bombers were flying, so that when one was taken out most of the rest were destroyed in the explosion and wreckage.

 

[Harpo]

Leaving







Gaps




Does




Not


Work



https://www.sffchronicles.com/recent-activity/

 

[reiver33]

What’s so wrong with bringing order to the galaxy? I was right with Kylo, standing amidst the carnage of the Supreme Leaders throne room, asking his ‘light’ counterpart and equal to rule with him, thus bringing balance...

 

[Culhwch]

Leaving







Gaps




Does




Not


Work



https://www.sffchronicles.com/recent-activity/

Sorry, mate, but it's a bit unreasonable for you to expect people in a thread clearly labeled as for-spoilers to not post spoilers for six weeks while you wait to see it. Sucks for you, I know, I'd hate to have to wait that long myself, but surely it's more reasonable for you to avoid the recent activity page.

 

[Harpo]

I will do, but my point is that everyone looking at the Recent Activities page can see the spoilers if they're near the beginning of a post.

It's not just about me.

 

[Culhwch]

I will do, but my point is that everyone looking at the Recent Activities page can see the spoilers if they're near the beginning of a post.

It's not just about me.

It seems most people aren't even aware that page exists, so hopefully the impact is minimal. I certainly didn't know it existed, but had I been using it, knowing that post content and not just titles pop up, I'd've been avoiding it like the plague prior to seeing TLJ, and hopefully everyone else who uses it has been or now will be.

I'll flag your concerns in the staff room, though, and see if anything can be done. I just imagine it's going to be impossible to police people dropping spoilers early in their posts in this thread, as I'm sure it's about to grow pretty rapidly.

 

[Bugg]

I went to see it yesterday and was very disappointed by it. I know TFA copped a lot of flak for replaying the first movie plot but I liked that it rediscovered a sense of charm and fun, and it felt to me like the kind of reboot the franchise needed after the Godawful prequels. But this one commits similar sins and more on top, IMO. I'm hoping my initial reactions are just a knee-jerk and that future viewings may change my mind. But.

It is way, way, WAY too long, for a start. It dragged horribly in places. The whole code breaker/casino plot that took up the middle of the film was totally pointless and should have been cut - it was just there to give Finn something to do because Rey was off doing the only important bit (and splitting up Rey and Finn for most of the film was a huge mistake for me as their relationship was one of the better aspects of TFA). They spent just as much time here retreading stuff from the previous films. Even the throne room scene, which was the best bit of the movie, was just a RotJ replay, light v dark side, emperor type character, space battle outside etc etc. And when that looked like doing something interesting, in having Rey and Kylo team up, they bottled it and went down the predictable path and wasted the chance. Luke's storyline didn't sit comfortably with me, forced in that direction to mirror the Dagobah storyline, right down to the Dark Side cave. Hammill did a good job but I thought it was a wasted opportunity as well.

The worst thing for me was that I found it a bit uninvolving. I realised, after the throne room fight, that I didn't care what happened to the characters. I wasn't expecting that because I really liked Rey, Finn and Poe in TFA.

On the plus side, it was good to see Carrie Fisher one last time. I thought they'd killed Leia off via cgi at one point but Luke had obviously trained her in the ways of the Force before he got moody and ran away. I wonder how they'll deal with Leia in ep 9.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I’m just glad they didn’t remake ESB and took some great risks; the whole rashomon’s perspective of Luke and Kylo Ren regarding why Ben fell to the dark side was a great device.

Glad Snoke’s gone. He was too similar to Sheev ‘I am the Senate’ Palpatine and Kylo’s arc would be stymied if he stuck around.

More to say have I (great seeing senile Yoda back) but I went to bed at 6am so I’ll have to write more when I’m feeling a bit more human.

pH

 

[Culhwch]

I saw this today, and I liked it a whole lot more than I liked The Force Awakens. It was not a perfect film by any means, and I preferred Rogue One to be perfectly honest, but I thought this was a good step forward from a lacklustre start to this trilogy.

My fear was that this was going to be a simple rehash of The Empire Strikes Back, and while it did cover some of the same territory (the training sequence, the final Hoth-like battle, a diversion to an exotic world to seek questionable help, dark tempting light) and also pulled in some Return of the Jedi (a throneroom scene with the acolyte turning on the master at the prompting of the new apprentice), it did more than enough of its own thing to avoid becoming the tiresome 'Remember this bit!' that TFA was, and took the story in a lot of unexpected directions.

The bits that didn't work for me were largely to do with the drawn-out middle portion. The excursion to Canto Bight felt like it was just thrown in there to give Finn something to do. While I liked Rose's character, and enjoyed her and Finn's chemistry, the fact that that whole thing panned out into precisely nothing was disappointing. In the end it didn't matter a whit that they went and scrounged up this dodgy slicer, who I thought may have at least redeemed himself by helping them escape (a double-double-cross, if you will), but no. Nada. And at the same time we have Poe playing off against Hondo, who could have saved everyone ALL of this trouble by just sharing her very reasonable plan. Plus, Maz Kanata for no discernable reason?

Canto Bight as a whole felt incredibly forced, and featured a lot of shaky CGI aliens, all of whom seemed new to the universe. I mean, there aren't enough existing alien species for you? At least throw in a Twi'lek, a Rodian and a couple of Ithorians to make it feel like a genuine Star Wars locale. Also, talk about a perfect spot to re-introduce Lando, but no...

Oh, and the makes of these films continue to misunderstand just how vast space actually is. But it was an improvement on TFA's every planet-is-in sight-of-every-other-planet approach.

But overall, after just the one viewing, yeah, I liked it a lot. We'll see how it stands up to repeat viewings. Not on the original trilogy level, but well above the prequels, so that's a plus. I'm keen to see where we go from here. Particularly with General Leia. At this stage I'm predicting a time jump and an unfortunate between-films passing, which will be sad. It's a shame that this film didn't incorporate a fitting send-off, but that's obviously not a failing on its part, given the circumstances. Oh, and I bet Luke will be back, hopefully Force-ghosting it up with Yoda and Obi Wan both.