Sulphur on 22/4/2018 at 17:13
I think I'm beginning to like The Last Jedi even more thanks to its uncanny ability to piss off mainline Star Trek fans. From Luke's light saber toss to its answering of the question as to who Rey's parents are to its conceptual drive ('let the past die; kill it, if you have to'), the movie runs almost like a concerted effort at flipping off everyone who wanted things to remain the same.
Sure, the movie's not perfect and it's got flaws up the wazoo, but it delivers surprises, humour, incredible visual design in a minimum of three key setpiece scenes, and it moves to properly democratise the Force by rendering the hokey Immaculate Conception of the Skywalker bloodline moot -- more than enough for a memorable and enjoyable ride, which 2.5/3 prequel movies somehow managed to fuck up. Rian's got my vote to make as many more Star Wars movies as he dares, and I say this as a Star Wars fan who watched them wide-eyed as soon I was old enough to push a VHS tape into the player.
SD on 22/4/2018 at 17:33
I feel like we needed to thin the herd a bit. The Last Jedi, which I really enjoyed, has certainly done that. Criticisms of the movie usually focus on the preponderance of female and ethnic characters, which says it all really.
Jason Moyer on 22/4/2018 at 18:40
I hope the decisive reviews don't lead to Disney scrapping plans to have Rian make his own SW trilogy. I wouldn't rate TLJ with Empire or Star Wars (the fuck is this New Hope nonsense) but it was better than TFA or the prequels (which were an insult to the art of film making) and on the right day I might rank it with Jedi.
Starker on 22/4/2018 at 23:32
I saw Backstroke of the West for the first time today and, for me, it highlighted how bad the last prequel was. When you take out the music and replace the dialogue, its failure as a visual work becomes really apparent. It's a real mess where goofy slapstick scenes are interspersed with angst and over the top violence and it's full of boring characters with no chemistry whatsoever spending long periods of time sitting and talking or standing and talking or slowly walking and talking, using the same old boring shot reverse shot editing. Even some of the action scenes can feel amazingly lackluster when the actors don't know how to react to green screen.
Renault on 23/4/2018 at 02:59
Wasn't a fan of TLJ at all. I could go into detail why, but I'll just say it's first Star Wars movie that I didn't go back and see a 2nd (or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.) time in the theater. I really almost just completely forgot about it within a week of seeing it - pretty sad. It actually bored me while watching it.
@Sulphur - I'd say liking it because it's anti everything that can before it is a pretty poor reason to like it.
Sulphur on 23/4/2018 at 05:20
It's not 'anti' everything, though. It's clearly grounded in the old mythology but committed to making something new out of it, which may be controversial, yes, but a damned good attempt at avoiding stagnation. And at this point, nine movies in, it's the shot in the arm the franchise needed. TFA was pretty and competent, but it was structurally so similar to Episode IV I'd started to wonder if nostalgia was the only trick they had to keep this franchise alive. Thankfully, it's not.
henke on 23/4/2018 at 05:35
Quote Posted by Sulphur
I think I'm beginning to like The Last Jedi even more thanks to its uncanny ability to piss off mainline Star Trek fans.
Because there weren't enough Klingons in it?
Sulphur on 23/4/2018 at 05:41
Please, we've had enough Klingons. Chewbacca? He's a Klingon after they finally hit puberty. There just weren't enough Ferengi, but that's true of everything, really.
(Good catch. What's the entertainment franchise version of a Freudian slip?)
heywood on 23/4/2018 at 21:39
Quote Posted by Sulphur
It's not 'anti' everything, though. It's clearly grounded in the old mythology but committed to making something new out of it, which may be controversial, yes, but a damned good attempt at avoiding stagnation. And at this point, nine movies in, it's the shot in the arm the franchise needed. TFA was pretty and competent, but it was structurally so similar to Episode IV I'd started to wonder if nostalgia was the only trick they had to keep this franchise alive. Thankfully, it's not.
TLJ wasn't that big of a break from nostalgia. Somewhere between TFA and TLJ, the First Order grew into another Empire, and by the end of TLJ we had another Darth Vader in charge, running an attack on the rebel base with Imperial walkers. The remaining rebels get out at the last minute and are off to run and hide. Also, there's now a bond of sorts between Ren and Rey and each of them believe they can turn the other. And the sith apprentice kills his master in his lair in order to save the newbie jedi. And the old jedi master sacrifices himself to distract Vader/Ren while the rebels escape. Those plot points seemed awfully familiar to me.
Slasher on 24/4/2018 at 00:55
If youtube comments are anything to go by (ugh), there is overlap between people who loathe the new Star Wars films and hate the new Star Trek series. And it doesn't have anything to do with Chewbacca's Klingon son in the upcoming Star Trek Han Solo film.