Star Wars VII ****contains spoilers****
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OK, I had to read this spoiler free review just to amp up the anticipation even more.
I have spoiler tagged it here in case you don't want to read it..
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Star Wars fans, your sky high expectations are rewarded. If possible, stoke your enthusiasm even further. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a torrent of plot development. What you've pontificated, argued, and theorized about, is going to be shattered utterly. Rian Johnson takes the fabled lore from a galaxy far away into uncharted territory. He will have you spellbound. It's a lot to comprehend at first blush, and there are a few down beats. The film is so packed with narrative, it doesn't flow quite as effortlessly as Empire Strikes Back or Rogue One; but where it takes you is remarkable.
As the First Order marches to finish the Resistance, every character in The Last Jedi is faced with a reckoning. A hero's journey does not take place without introspection. The search for answers sometimes leads to uncomfortable truths. Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), but he is not at all the teacher she expected. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) killed his father to become more powerful in the dark side. His heinous act further driving the conflict within him. While Snoke (Andy Serkis) and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) sense victory, General Organa (Carrie Fisher) understands the importance of hope. Her officers (Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern) may differ on tactics, but the Resistance can always depend on the iron will of its fighters (John Boyega, Kelly Tran) and droids.
The Last Jedi cuts no corners. Its greatest accomplishment is successfully managing the myriad of complex storylines. Heroes and villains have character arcs that are brewed like Star Wars tea. Their outcomes are seismic. Some scenes will floor you with astonishment. Rian Johnson challenges convention early and often. The genius of his approach is a firm foundation in the mythology; with, dare I say an enlightened take on its future. The Force Awakens was quite similar to A New Hope in plot and structure. The Last Jedi cannot be quantified as The Empire Strikes Back of this trilogy. What happens, where the characters go, and the impact of the climax stands resolutely on its own.
The Last Jedi has stupendously dramatic moments, but offsets the heaviness with sprinkles of sharp humor. These scenes have a decidedly more youthful manner indicative of the director. It helps to manage the staggering carnage. The battle scenes are epic in scope with casualties galore. Star Wars, as established in Rogue One, has taken the kids gloves off in its depiction of violence. War is hell and losses are real. The visual and sound effects deliver the sci-fi blows like a jackhammer. The lightsaber duels aren't as intricate as the Lucas films, but are equally titanic in their resolve. There are two mind-blowing fight scenes that will have fans frothing at the bit for months.
The film does have a primary flaw. The flood of reveals and character exposition leads to choppiness. Johnson has so much to tell us, so much to do; it doesn't all stitch together seamlessly. The Last Jedi tends to swing from jaw-dropping moments. The scenes in between are critical to the story, but feel distinctly less in gravitas. This issue is addressed rather poignantly in the close, when the future path of the Star Wars story is finally laid out.
The performances in The Last Jedi will be immensely rewarding to the fan base. Mark Hamill will have you cheering again for Luke Skywalker. He has changed significantly since Return of the Jedi, but is still the embodiment of the mythic hero. I was mesmerized by Mark Hamill here, just like I was as a child. He and Rian Johnson have succeeded in bringing the wonder of Luke Skywalker to a whole new generation. If you thought he was bad-ass before...
The Last Jedi has deeply philosophical moments. It takes the battle between light and darkness to a whole new place. The film is truly one surprise after the other. I can't wait to hear what audiences think once all of the secrets are in the open. Lucasfilm has possibly made the most discussion worthy installment of Star Wars. Spoilers will ruin the experience, so tread carefully. And yes, the Porgs are freaking adorable.
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Just got back from watching The Last Jedi. I thought the midnight screening geeks would have given an opinion this morning.
An almost full theatre but I was reminded why that can also be a bad thing. All those fuckers slurping their drinks and munching on popcorn at the worst time.
I won't give away any spoilers but some questions have remained unanswered. The corny dialogue is still there but there is more humour, which was good.
IMDb has a current rating of 8.4 which is above TFA and RO.
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@bovidae said in Star Wars VII ****contains spoilers****:
Just got back from watching The Last Jedi. I thought the midnight screening geeks would have given an opinion this morning.
An almost full theatre but I was reminded why that can also be a bad thing. All those fuckers slurping their drinks and munching on popcorn at the worst time.
I won't give away any spoilers but some questions have remained unanswered. The corny dialogue is still there but there is more humour, which was good.
IMDb has a current rating of 8.4 which is above TFA and RO.
A mate overseas really kindly messaged me a spoiler of a familiar character who will be reappearing.
fluffybunny.
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@crucial said in Star Wars VII ****contains spoilers****:
TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!
Sooo avoid then?
In catching it tomorrow , re watched Force Awakens last night. Was great, really enjoyed the mrs asking every 5 mins “which one is the dad”, “how are they related”. “Is that his sister?”
“Which one Luke “.... -
My personal recommendation is to book tickets for another showing as well.
I wanted to go straight back in and watch it again. SW (ANH) was the only other movie that had that effect on me.
It isn't perfect by any means and creates a whole new set of questions for nerds to argue about but it is great entertainment.
If you enjoyed TFA (which some found ho-hum) you will love TLJ
Edit: forget about Porgs being the star of the show. We finally get the real Chewie!
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@crucial said in Star Wars VII ****contains spoilers****:
My personal recommendation is to book tickets for another showing as well.
I wanted to go straight back in and watch it again. SW (ANH) was the only other movie that had that effect on me.
It isn't perfect by any means and creates a whole new set of questions for nerds to argue about but it is great entertainment.
If you enjoyed TFA (which some found ho-hum) you will love TLJ
Edit: forgot about Orgs being the star of the show. We finally get the real Chewie!
I expect to watch it another couple times over my 4 week break from work
From memory I saw TFA 4 times and Rogue 1 about 3 times -
I'm on the fence about this movie. I watched TFA the night before to refresh my memory but TLJ missed the opportunity to answer some important questions, or just completely dismissed them. We'll have to see how Ep IX unfolds. There were some really cringe-worthy moments too, and as I mentioned previously the dialogue.
I will see it again next week so my opinion may change. I note that the IMDb rating is dropping after the initial hype.
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Maybe it was the experience of the full IMAX screen that I had but I really didn't give a shit if there were corny lines or plot gaps. SW has always had those.
These are meant to be entertaining matinee movies not some high and mighty Oscar contender. Made for the kid in us not the grumpy old adult. -
@virgil said in Star Wars VII ****contains spoilers****:
@crucial said in Star Wars VII ****contains spoilers****:
TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!
Sooo avoid then?
In catching it tomorrow , re watched Force Awakens last night. Was great, really enjoyed the mrs asking every 5 mins “which one is the dad”, “how are they related”. “Is that his sister?”
“Which one Luke “....Ha! I did that with the mrs too, Christ women are dumb, surely everybody knows about the force, knights of ren, the millennium falcons kessel run time etc....why so many dumb questions?
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Overall I enjoyed this, but I'm going to watch it again just to confirm a few things (and see those epic set pieces again).
Spoiler bits below
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I'll start with the negatives. The Finn plot line should have jettisoned for time and to remove that horrible casino section. The film was too long and it dragged because of this section. It ruined any tension that was built up about the relentless chase (very Battlestar Galactica, loved it). They had cloaked ships, just use one of those to get Finn on board and use Rose as the tech expert.
Force ghosts can now interact with the physical world? Is that a new ability, or have Yoda, Obi Wan, Qui Gonn, and Anakin just be chilling out instead of helping with all this evil?
Yoda was terrible. It's like they only used the part of the character when he was pretending to be a schmuck to Luke, and forgot the wise version. His advice to Luke was the opposite from ESB! Why?
Those are probably the main complaints for me. Acting wise, I thought Hux was awful (again), Darth Emo was brilliant (again), Rey was less interesting this time, but was fine, but Mark Hamill was extraordinary. He crushed it. Worth seeing the movie for the Luke arc alone, epic.
My favourite scene was the end with Luke staring into the twin suns to bookend his character, just stunning. Have heard great theories that Luke isn't dead, but can now just phase in and out of the force at will. But if Force Ghosts can now interact with the real world, isn't he just as powerful as before and actually be part of the next movie?
The gunfighter showdown between Luke and Ren, just awesome.
Killing Snoke, great! Nice subverting of expectation there. Kinda feels like they have slightly bailed on the trilogy idea and have wrapped up the story somewhat, with the Resistance back to the Rebellion and all but wiped out. Have no idea where they are taking the next one, which is good. I think they will need a time jump to rebuild the Rebellion, and maybe deal with Fisher's death.
TL;DR At least as good as the Force Awakens, better than all the Prequels, not as good as the originals. Worth seeing? Absolutely. Worth seeing multiple times. An average to good Star Wars film is still better than most other movies out there.
Feels good to rant
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@crucial said in Star Wars VII ****contains spoilers****:
My personal recommendation is to book tickets for another showing as well.
I wanted to go straight back in and watch it again. SW (ANH) was the only other movie that had that effect on me.
It isn't perfect by any means and creates a whole new set of questions for nerds to argue about but it is great entertainment.
If you enjoyed TFA (which some found ho-hum) you will love TLJ
Edit: forget about Porgs being the star of the show. We finally get the real Chewie!
Yeah, Chewie was much better in this one. That one scene in particular was really well acted.
I definitely want to see this again, and will get the BluRay. Just needed a better editor.
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@mn5 said in Star Wars VII ****contains spoilers****:
Really good, some outstanding action but overall disappointing.
That's all I'll say until someone teaches me how do do spoilers. @Kirwan Moff Tarkin is spinning in his grave looking at Huxes efforts....
Click on the eye at the top
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My comments about some of the corny dialogue was mainly delivered by Hux. In particular, the
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"snuff them out"
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lines. I'm not sure who decided on the accent and delivery, which sounds like a speech impediment.
Finn's story arc in the middle was like revisiting Phantom Menace.
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Ah righto
As I said, I really did like it but Christ it had issues. First of all Hux, he was nothing short of a joke of a character and made to look an absolute bitch. He felt like a character out of the Office, seriously, the generals that Vader force choked were way more menacing than him.
That Casino scene belonged in another movie and was utterly needless. Finn actually annoys me as a character as did his Asian sidekick. Pointless story arc.
I felt Leia should have sacrificed herself rather than purple hair.
Snoke? Who the fuck is he ? No backstory whatsoever, clearly has a lot of power but despatched with ease. That was disappointing and surprising.
Captain Plasma? That was nothing but a gratuitous cameo.
I liked the scenes with Luke and Rey, space battles were awesome, Ren has improved about 1000% ( remember DV was am emo bitch to start with too ) and I loved the fight with the Royal Guards, great to see them actually do something.
My boys favourite scene was when BB8 hijacked the walker. Brilliant stuff. The fight at the end obviously stole a shitload from ESB, however the Luke bit had us scratching our heads until we realised he was a hologram. It woulda been nice if Ren choked Hux to death, alas not.
So I wonder where the story goes from here? The Rebels rebuilding? Ren getting even more power hungry?
It's too early in the piece to decide where this one sits in the Star Wars echelon....interested in others thoughts.
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I'm happy to comment on a few of those issues.
Hux - He is meant to be a twat elevated above his abilities. Did you not listen to Snoke? Agree that he should have been killed off by Kylo though.
Didn't really go for the Casino stuff either except that without it the movie would have been set around a slow space chase and a wet island that looked too 'earth'. SW is all about giving us new and rich worlds. They may not have got this one 100% but one was needed. Also needed to show something in the Galaxy for the message of hope or, again it would have been an episode of Battlestar Gallatica (credit: Kirwan) with some Jedi on the side.
I think it would have been Leia doing the sacrifice if they knew she was about to die anyway. Better to have her re-unite with Luke. Would have been disappointed if that didn't happen.
Snoke's backstory gets explained in the books, comics etc, maybe even being left to show more of in other movies. Can't fit everything in.
Plasma? Has had a book already, but I think she was a superfluous character in the first place and if it wasn't for the marketing already done before TFA would/should have been cut out altogether. A case of not enough time on screen. If the character hadn't been talked up before TFA but just appeared in the scenes being bad-ass, could well have taken on Boba Fett like fan status for looking cool and being a mystery. Poorly handled all around. An over-reach.
Kylo - I though TLJ made a good job of showing that he was meant to be a whiny emo. Snoke laughs at him and his 'silly mask' and explains how he is being used in the early scenes.
Guessing that Finns storyline in E9 will involve getting revenge on the slicer somewhere along the way.
But:
Awesome space battles. Improved X-Wings (loved the way they now swoop in to land quickly). The best Chewie moments of all the movies. Cool new worlds. Bigger baddie ships. R2 being R2. Leia getting a fitting last showing. The fight with the guards up there with the Darth Maul fight. Great use of humour (loved the prank call).....so who cares about the detail.
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