The Star Wars Thread

[trebor8273]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Personally I don't see it happening, but I'll happily eat my hat if it does!

sadly i have to agree, always found strange is how he has criticised other directors for changing films etc and saying the films belong to the public and not them and then we have the whole original trilogy thing!

[hivemind]

Went out last night to see what all the fuss was about. After subjecting myself to the dross of The Force Awakens back in 2015. With a heavy heart and some Southern Comfort before the screening of The Last Jedi I made my way to cinema with a group of enthusiastic Star Wars friends.

Well, what can I honestly say about this film. Firstly I felt the chemistry between Rey and Luke wasn't evident at all. Secondly the film run time is just tooooooooooooo long. Looking around at people midway during the film I could see people looking rather bored and somewhat more intrested in their smart phones. The acting was just terrible too. I will say that Adam Driver was about the only actor that actually took the plot seriously, the rest just chewed up the scenery with with dialogue that made me want to cringe. Another thing as well, Luke didn't feel like the Luke Skywalker from the original trilogy either.

Something was lacking in the character development, and I found myself thinking about what George Lucas must be thinking as I watched The Last Jedi. Lucas probably wished he'd never relinquished Lucasfilm to Disney. Where in the original trilogy Lucas kept the stories far more grounded and more believable to the audience, this film, like The Force Awakens is all over the place, in more ways than one.

I too complained about the prequels, but when you look and see what a complete and utter mess Disney/Lucasfilm have made of the Star Wars universe, you have to conclude that the soul has been totally ripped out, and a more corporate (Disneyfied) path has been taken with characters that don't stay with you in the same way the characters in the original trilogy did. Even the jokes are absolutely terrible, and this time you can't blame Lucas either. There's certainly elements of The Last Jedi that mirror's The Empire Strikes Back. The Last Jedi is trying exceptionally hard to imitate the said 1980 film in places. It's trying far too hard to be the bad boy of this rather lame so-called new trilogy, and for the most part it doesn't ultimately succeed in my view.

Yes, the CGI effects are very well accomplished and handled by ILM, but the story leaves you cold. Where the superb The Empire Strikes Back delivered a tight, well thoughtout plot with a fine twist at the end, this film leaves you feeling underwhelmed and damn right pissed off. Even Phasma doesn't get much of a look in. All in all I won't spoil the film for those that may read this mini review.

I was looking forward to seeing something different from the vertual re-make of A New Hope with The Force Awakens, but unfortunately Mr. Rian Johnson couldn't deliver what was needed to make this film a satisfying middle film like the masterpiece that is The Empire Strikes Back. There's more I would like to say about this film, but won't.


Rating: **/5

[trebor8273]

Originally Posted by hivemind

Went out last night to see what all the fuss was about. After subjecting myself to the dross of The Force Awakens back in 2015. With a heavy heart and some Southern Comfort before the screening of The Last Jedi I made my way to cinema with a group of enthusiastic Star Wars friends.

Well, what can I honestly say about this film. Firstly I felt the chemistry between Rey and Luke wasn't evident at all. Secondly the film run time is just tooooooooooooo long. Looking around at people midway during the film I could see people looking rather bored and somewhat more intrested in their smart phones. The acting was just terrible too. I will say that Adam Driver was about the only actor that actually took the plot seriously, the rest just chewed up the scenery with with dialogue that made me want to cringe. Another thing as well, Luke didn't feel like the Luke Skywalker from the original trilogy either.

Something was lacking in the character development, and I found myself thinking about what George Lucas must be thinking as I watched The Last Jedi. Lucas probably wished he'd never relinquished Lucasfilm to Disney. Where in the original trilogy Lucas kept the stories far more grounded and more believable to the audience, this film, like The force Awakens is all over the place, in more ways than one.

I too complained about the prequels, but when you look and see what a complete and utter mess Disney/Lucasfilm have made of the Star Wars universe, you have to conclude that the soul has been ripped out, and a more corporate path has been taken with characters that don't stay with you in the way the original trilogy did. Even the jokes are absolutely terrible. There's certainly elements of The Last Jedi that mirror's The Empire Strikes Back. The Last Jedi is trying exceptionally hard to imitate the said 1980 film in places. It's trying too hard to be the bad boy of this rather lame so-called new trilogy, and for the most part it doesn't ultimately succeed in my view.

Yes, the CGI effects are very well accomplished and handled by ILM, but the story leaves you cold. Where the superb The Empire Strikes Back delivered a tight, well thoughtout plot with a fine twist at the end, this film leaves you feeling underwhelmed and damn right pissed off. Even Phasma doesn't get much of a look in. All in all I won't spoil the film for those that may read this mini review.

I was looking forward to seeing something different from the vertual re-make of A New Hope with The Force Awakens, but unfortunately Mr. Ryan Johnson couldn't deliver what was needed to make this film a satisfying middle film like the masterpiece that is The Empire Strikes Back.


Rating: **/5

Not seen it yet but isn't Luke the way he is because of everything that happened after return of the Jedi and most people change overtime , especially when bad shit happens strangely most sites and people have praised the acting ,while not Oscar material is better than most films and let's be honest the acting was not that great in the original trilogy apart from the obvious few.

[hivemind]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

Not seen it yet but isn't Luke the way he is because of everything that happened after return of the Jedi and most people change overtime , especially when bad shit happens strangely most sites and people have praised the acting ,while not Oscar material is better than most films and let's be honest the acting was not that great in the original trilogy apart from the obvious few.

Depends where you sit in terms of how the story and dialogue is delivered. For the most part I thought the original trilogy was decent in the acting department. I wanted Luke to have more thoughful and deeper characterisation. Yes. He's been through alot, but I felt that the character wasn't as well developed as Luke was in the other films.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Although i haven't seen The Last Jedi i do think for me it will have the same problems The Force Awakens did and to a lesser extent Rogue One.

The original trilogy story lines were fairly linear. The action took place largely in three places for each film - Tatooine, The Death Star, space (battle) - Hoth, Dagobah, Bespin - Tatooine, Endor, Death Star.

These new films are all over the place. jumping from planet to planet and escapade to escapade. Just stop. Take a look at things, let your characters develop. Slow down. And see what made the original films so popular.

Damn. Even the prequel films worked that out, even if you didn't like characters such as Anakin.

[hivemind]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Although i haven't seen The Last Jedi i do think for me it will have the same problems The Force Awakens did and to a lesser extent Rogue One.

The original trilogy story lines were fairly linear. The action took place largely in three places for each film - Tatooine, The Death Star, space (battle) - Hoth, Dagobah, Bespin - Tatooine, Endor, Death Star.

These new films are all over the place. jumping from planet to planet and escapade to escapade. Just stop. Take a look at things, let your characters develop. Slow down. And see what made the original films so popular.

Damn. Even the prequel films worked that out, even if you didn't like characters such as Anakin.

That's about right. When a film like this keeps jumping all over the flipping place, you instinctively know that the plot went out the window from the beginning. On a techinical level The Last Jedi looks superb. I think Dem you've observed right. The original films allowed the auidence time to take in each character and you actually felt fully invested in the storyline. A good, solid fluidity flowed through The Empire Strikes Back. The story wasn't pushed to the background, and the visual effects aided the story rather than being the dominate force, excuse the pun. It's a difficult feet to achieve today, especially when the audience expects thrills every 2 mins in the film itself. They expect everything delivered quickly and without the notion of thought. Solid character development seems to have gone out of the window. It's very much a reductionist vision today of what went before.

Is the art of great storytelling dead?

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by hivemind

With a heavy heart and some Southern Comfort before the screening of The Last Jedi I made my way to cinema with a group of enthusiastic Star Wars friends.

NOT a complaint or a criticism, but rather a mere observation

Maybe you would have enjoyed it more if you hadn't had the drink beforehand

I have watched films in the past when I have had alcohol, and they have been awful. I have watched the same film when sober, and my opinion has changed

[hivemind]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

NOT a complaint or a criticism, but rather a mere observation

Maybe you would have enjoyed it more if you hadn't had the drink beforehand

I have watched films in the past when I have had alcohol, and they have been awful. I have watched the same film when sober, and my opinion has changed

Don't worry Susan, I only had one SC before I went. I also had a meal before consuming the one glass of SC, so I was absolutely fine. No impact on my views of The Last Jedi, except the one scene in the film set on the planet Ahch-To with Luke milking the sea cow that made me think for a moment that I might have been slightly drunk, but thankfully it was the film more than the Southern Comfort before the movie. Though I did have to drown my sorrows at a Truro bar after seeing such a pile of absolute junk. Even both of my friends who are big fans Star Wars looked dejected and very depressed by what they both saw. I needed 6 Southern Comforts just to get over watching the film.

[SymbioticFunction]

I really enjoyed Last Jedi! Surprised that folks are so negative towards it. Thought it was a big improvement over the Force Awakens. Looking forward to re-watching it on blu-ray.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

From Box Office Mojo.

Opening day demographics show the film played to an audience that was 58% male vs. 43% female and of that audience 37% was 25 years old or under. Opening day audiences gave the film an "A" CinemaScore, matching the score for Force Awakens. However, there may be a small glitch in the Force as many are pointing to the RottenTomatoes audience score for Last Jedi, which is currently 56% vs. a 93% score from critics. It is the largest audience-to-critic divide for films in the Star Wars franchise on the site. Additionally, IMDb is showing a down tick in user ratings when compared to user ratings for Force Awakens (8.8/10) and Rogue One (8.3/10) on the Sunday following release with Last Jedi currently holding a 8/10 rating. Just how significant an effect this data has on the film may be difficult to assess given the sheer size of its grosses, but it's definitely worth noting.

Sounds like those who have been paid to say it's the great aren't in tune with it's actual audiences.

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Delivers Second Largest Opening Ever - Box Office Mojo

With the second largest opening ever Disney won't be letting go of Star Wars anytime soon. They'll still be churning them out long after many of us have left this world.