I agree with the point you're making, and like I said, in Johnson's case, I thought Looper was pretty bad. But with Nolan, holy cow, how many good movies does he have to make before you consider it a possibility he might be a good director? (And you didn't care for Memento?)
Of course he only had the thought for a moment, a moment he never acted on it. And then felt shame and blamed himself for hurting his family, even though he didn't, also sounds like Luke. And Luke would never hunt down Kylo and murder him because that is not who he is..
I think what really bothered me most about this movie is Holdo. Why in the fuck did she not just tell Poe her plan? That would have meant Finn would never have needed to go to Canto Bight, they would have never met with the codebreaker who gave away the plan, and more Rebels would have survived- because in the end, they still abandoned ship, but a whole lot more people died. Especially if she already knew he was a hothead, she should have figured he would start doing things that could mess her plans up if she didn't tell him the plan.
Saw The Last Jedi last night and I’m sad to say I really didn’t like it. I will see it again so I can try to become more objective about it, but my initial reaction is not positive. SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD When the Sequel Trilogy and the return of Luke, Han and Leia was announced, my first thought was, “I really hope they’re not bringing the Big 3 back just to systematically kill them off, one by one.” Because death is how the torch is passed in these movies. Then they killed Han. That one didn’t bother me so much because I knew that was probably a stipulation for Ford’s return. I expected it so when it happened I felt nothing. Then Carrie passed away. I hope they recast rather than kill off her character offscreen. She could easily die from her injuries. Then The Last Jedi happened. One of the things I have a problem with in this new trilogy is how over powered Rey and Kylo Ren are. Now we have them connecting through the Force from across the galaxy and having face to face conversations and somehow managing to get Kylo wet from Rey standing out in the rain. And then Luke uses a Force projection to “battle” Kylo Ren, which somehow ended up killing him. I just feel like calling BS on all that. And that Yoda puppet. Just so very bad. Worse than the puppet they used in The Phantom Menace. It just feels to me like they’re taking away everything that was accomplished in the OT, rehashing those stories and giving those accomplishments or outcomes to the new characters. For example: - In Return of the Jedi, Luke brings Anakin back to the Light and he fulfills the prophecy and brings balance to the Force by killing Palpatine and then dying himself. - In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren (another Skywalker/Vader) is in the service of Supreme Leader Snoke (another Emperor). While not Sith, they do practice the Dark Side of the Force. - In RotJ, the Rebellion finally defeats the Empire. - In TFA, the Resistance (another Rebellion) is fighting the First Order (another Empire). - In RotJ, Han and Leia get together. - In TFA, Han and Leia are not together. - In RotJ, Luke is the first of the new Jedi Order. At least I thought he was, maybe that’s the problem. - In TLJ, Rey is considered the first of the new Jedi Order and Luke the last of the old. Again, not the way I read the situation resulting from RotJ. On a side note, I disliked the Canto Bight stuff. It just felt like a useless side mission to give Finn something to do since he couldn’t pal around with Rey. It might have been more interesting if he and Poe had gone off on the mission but I guess he had to stay behind to be a hothead and stuff. And once again, Phasma contributed absolutely nothing. In any case, I feel like Star Wars is moving on without me. That makes me sad, but I’ll still always have Episodes 1-6. As Mark Hamill said in an interview he had to realize the story wasn’t about his character anymore. It’s about the new generation. I guess after 40 years Star Wars isn’t my story anymore either.
I see down thread that this has been debunked, but both planets are in the Unknown Regions, so it does make some sense. What doesn't make so much sense is that the Empire could have mined out the core of either planet, since a navigable passage through the mess of wormholes and quazars that make up the Regions wasn't discovered until the final days of the war. (I also found a ton of useless trivia prior to this movie coming out). I can do you one better though. In Rogue One, Chirrut tells Jynn that "The brightest stars have hearts of Kyber," a metaphor for the potential within her and the necklace she wore. But for that metaphor to make any sense, Kyber must naturally occur in a molten state inside some stars. Which means Starkiller's source of Kyber may actually come from the stars it drains rather than mining thousands of tons of crystals from old Jedi temples (the efforts of building two damn death stars likely severely depleting those during the Empire's reign).
Lol it was the longest storyline ever just to have Poe learn to be a "leader". But it wasn't the Pod Race!
You say you have 1-6, but what about the prequels actually continued the story from the OT in a meaningful way? Like I get you didn't like it, fine, but saying you'll have 1-6 seems weird to me. The OT, sure, but the prequels were even less about the OT story than these are, in a way.
And let's not forget, Luke is about 95% self-taught. The unfortunate order the scenes in Empire are arranged make it impossible that Luke spent more than a couple weeks maximum with Yoda. And even that is pushing it. Two weeks isn't even enough to get an orange belt in any martial art. Dialogue in Jedi makes it clear he never visited Yoda after Empire and before his 10 minute visit that ends with Yoda's death in RotJ. And he got essentially zero instruction from Ben, other than 2 minutes on the way to Alderaan. And Luke's surprise at seeing a vision of Ben as he froze to death on Hoth while waiting for Han to rescue him suggests that Ben had not appeared to him prior to that. That means everything else Luke did on his own. That's incredible. In the opening scenes of Empire, we see Luke has acquired the ability to move things with the Force by bringing his lightsaber to him in the cave. Nobody ever seems to notice this, but as far as the audience OR Luke knew at the point Ben died in New Hope, that wasn't even an ability the Jedi had available to them. He somehow discovered that and mastered it on his own, without even having been aware that was a thing. No doubt, if the internet had existed in 1980, we all would have blasted the movie to pieces for that, but back then, nobody batted an eye. And going back to someone else's point that it was out of character for Luke to have that moment of weakness and consider killing Kylo, because Luke in RotJ sensed the conflict within Vader and did everything he could to save him, are we only selectively remembering the parts of that movie that agree with our points?? Yes, Luke surrendered himself peacefully to Vader on Endor. Yes, he met the Emperor with a steely calm befitting a Jedi. BUT What happened when Vader merely mentioned Luke's sister? LUKE LOST IT. He instantly went into a murderous berserker rage and absolutely would have killed his own father if the Emperor hadn't inadvertently snapped Luke out of it while trying to bait him further. How is anyone forgetting this?? Falling to bad impulses due to wanting to protect others and almost making murderous choices is completely in-character for Luke. It's disappointing, absolutely, but it's in-character. I get and even agree with some of the complaints people have with the movie, but this one just isn't valid. If someone doesn't want to see it that way, that's their choice, but they're creating their opinion by ignoring parts of the OT.
Uh-oh, someone wasn't paying attention. It was Snoke who formed the bond between Rey and Kylo, as he explicitly says. He was able to use their natural connection in the Force to facilitate the powerful Force Bond. What Luke did was on a whole other level. I (and many others) have gone into detail on how Luke's death isn't about the feat itself, but rather him finally finding peace in the Force and reconciling with the burden of his legacy. If your takeaway was just "Luke used the Force so hard it killed him," you're kind of ignoring how effectively it culminates his entire character arc and the thematic buildup from the entire movie. Now that's some hyperbole because the TPM puppet was absolute shit, and the one used in TLJ is practically identical to the OT puppet. The visual dissonance of seeing a puppet straight from 1980 in a film with modern visual effects technology, combined with the Force spirit effects, will make everything seem off at first. Give it another watch and it'll feel much more natural. But why can't it be? Were the specific characters of Luke Skywalker, Leia, and Han Solo the only things that made you a fan of Star Wars? Or was it the dazzling universe, the themes of growth as a person, the hero's journey, finding inner balance, moving on from the past, and accepting hard truths? Star Wars was never truly about its characters; they were only a vessel for its deeper meanings, which now have even more power as we see them being passed onto a new generation (as all wisdom must do in order to survive). But hey, if you can't get on board, that's understandable. This film was always going to lose a lot of people in moving the franchise forward.
It just wouldn't feel right to recast Leia after Carries death , I don't know what they will do for 9 but I hope they don't recast or use CG
I don't know about brilliant... Best of a bad situation, for sure. Looper is phenomenal and well regarded. Homeboy also did Brick and the greatest episode of television ever produced
Part of the problem might be that people hyped the movie up in their head to be the next The Empire Strikes back. Putting on expectations in advance that the movie would never be able to hit because The Empire Strikes back was a moment in film history that can't be repeated. It also seems a bit rough to pass finial judgement on the movie with it being the middle chapter of the story. It's just so hard right now to know if the set up in this movie will actually pay off in the third film. If the third movie doesn't have a big pay off then this movie will suffer in repeat viewings because of it. But if the third film has some big pay off then we might look back and say hey if they don't do this or they didn't do that then we could not have gotten where the bigger story needed to go.
The "outer rim" stuff is such a crutch on the franchise. Can't explain something? They were on far away desolate planet in space no one bothered to monitor.
Dude the unknown territory are on any star wars map of the galaxy. The big blank area to the west? That's unknown region, not the outer rim. No one except the Chiss mapped it. And who was friends with the Chiss? The Empire.
PT is about Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the fall of the Republic. While it was a pretty botched delivery, it was all about the OT story, and how the universe got in that state.
The prequels were more foreign to the franchise than what was put on screen for TLJ, or it would seem that way to me. Watch the OT, then watch the prequels, then watch the OT again, then watch the sequels, and see which is more in line with the OT.
People keep mentioning the loss of Admiral Ackbar, and how upset they are that there will be no more "it's a trap!" moments. I get it, I do. Sadly, I'm pretty sure his actor passed away last year. EDIT: He did indeed, unfortunately. Erik Bauersfeld - Wikipedia
Well said. I still can't believe how much more people want the Big 3 in the new movies. It was always said this new trilogy wouldn't be mainly about them. But I do agree that another Death Star (Satrkiller Base) and another New Hope (Rey) are bit of a retread from OT. Maybe Rian's new movies will be different in this regard. Speaking of the Big 3...do you guys not remember what Mark Hamil looked like when TFA was announced? Getting in shape for these movies clearly extended his real life, lol. I am glad he did not get the Dooku CGI battle treatment. If there is any blame on getting more Luke/Han/Leia adventures, blame Lucas who spent years on updating OT and making PT. He should have let other directors step in with creative freedom years ago. I am sorry but I hate that even 3PO, R2, and Chewie are in PT.
People didn't want them to be the main characters of the NT. They wanted proper send offs for them. Han and Luke both die as pretty much absolute failures in comparison to the growth they had in the previous trilogy. Heck, giving them high positions of power would've been a perfect excuse to leave them out of most of the movies. If the NT wanted to deconstruct the OT, then they should've remembered that deconstruction doesn't work if you fail to put it back together in some form by the end.
