ST Rate The Last Jedi

Ok, so I've seen it once, going to see it again tomorrow. Overall, I felt quite underwhelmed and disappointed. But how anyone can rate this a 0/5 or 1/5 is just outrageous. 3/5 for me right now.

No matter how bad it might be, it's not worse than "Are you an angel?" or "I don't like sand."

I have a ton of problems with the movie. Actually, the last 30 minutes or so I thought were the best. I liked Luke's Force projection after not liking the idea of it when I read leaks. I like how he fooled Kylo and gave one last hurrah before becoming one with the Force.

I didn't like the first half of the movie much. There were serious pacing issues, and it was quite boring. Essentially the First Order was chasing the Resistance in space in slow motion. And the entire Canto Bight sequence? Pretty terrible. Rose was a dumb and boring character.

And yes, the amount of humor was a big issue for me too. I naturally like more serious movies. However, this amount of humor might have been OK if this were a more optimistic plot. But it was supposed to be dark and scary. The Resistance was literally almost extinguished completely. Everyone faced something really difficult. And for the entire buildup of this movie to be "dark," to have this amount of humor in it was a terrible choice. You can't have both. Either pick a dark movie or a light movie.

That said, there were parts that were good, and I'm sure the casual fan will be entertained. I just feel like this radical new direction RJ took Star Wars in was better suited for his separate trilogy. This doesn't feel right.

 

My boys love it.
I was complaining to them about many things , and my son said, "mom, thats a super cool extra great movie! Why do you sound like a greedy fan who always wanted more and super extra critical about things? "
Then i thought, well yeah, its SW, it has always been like this (plot holes, simplified things, etc). I think overall it is enjoyable.

 

The fact Mark Hamill and Carrie Fischer are in the movie automatically makes me a fan. The throne room sequence is great. Anything on the island I think is great. The ending segment with hologram Luke is great. My issues lie with Finn, Rose and Canto Bight.

 

4/5. It was terrific.


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1/5...*maybe* 2/5 if I'm feeling generous.

This wasn't a Star Wars movie. It was a movie with Star Wars characters in it.

I was very disappointed. Ugh. Where do I start? Too much flashy/distracting CGI, the environments were too pristine, and the humor was often misplaced if not outright cringe-worthy (What was that sequence with that creature treating BB-8 like a slot machine? Jeez. Did 1990s George Lucas write that part?) The Rose/FInn storyline was pointless and annoying to watch. I hated every single thing about it. Every. Single. Thing. The casino, that stupid chase on the CGI animals, BB-8 performing ridiculous feats that made Lucas's flying Artoo look like he was exercising restraint....even that codebreaker felt like a throw away character. Everything about it seemed unnecessary.

The plot in general was a cluttered mess. Like, a bunch of random threads were picked up, but then never fully developed. Poe starting a mutiny was a interesting idea, but it felt rushed and was executed poorly. Laura Dern is good. No, she sucks. Just kidding, she's the most self-sacrificing and heroic of heroes!

Ugh. Yoda looked like a goofy cartoon. I'm not entirely convinced his appearance was even necessary. And those stupid caretakers sharing the island with Luke? They looked so unconvincing and lame, like something out of a dated children's tv show. And why did the movie end on some random kid who I give zero craps about? Wtf? I have zero emotional investment in him. End it on Leia on the Falcon.

Stuff I liked which made the movie somewhat tolerable: Mark Hamill was really, really good in this. I applaud his performance. Kylo Ren was pretty interesting too. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the Rey storyline. I spent half the movie worried that I had slipped into some Reylo fanfic writer's fever dream, and the implications were horrifying to me. But ultimately it ended in a far less offensive way than I feared, so I dunno. I might like that storyline better on second viewing. I did like when she was on the island with Luke. Also, Carrie Fisher! She was great! And I loved how Leia had more to do in this film. That last planet with the old Rebel base looked really cool, too. Snoke looked really good. (Which again, makes me wonder why the ILM crew seemed to phone it in when recreating Yoda). I loved the moment between Luke and Leia toward the end of the film. Also, the Resistance being whittled down to a group small enough to fit on the Falcon--how fascinatingly bleak for our characters.

But otherwise? Meh. There was more to dislike than like in this movie. And that's unfortunate. Rian Johnson had no business directing a SW film. He did not capture the right feel or spirit at all.

 

4/5. It was terrific.


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4/5. It was terrific.


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I though this was a big problem as well. The film spent a good deal of time, uh "fixing" problems that were caused in TFA, instead of just telling a story. For example, one of the biggest problems was that after TFA, everyone thought Kylo Ren was weak and ineffective. So this movie spent a ton of time trying to rehab his image as a baddie. I thought generally it was effective, but when you have to spend a ton of effort plugging holes from the last film, it takes away from whatever new ground you are trying to break.

 

Given the way Luke's character was portrayed, a 6 is as high as I'm going to get.

 

IMO - It was much more interesting and realistic to see Luke suffering from the traumas that he had endured and learning to deal with them than to see a "Chuck Norris " portrayal where after a massive fight you wind up joking around at a bar.


I also thought that his ability to project his essence and interact with an environment far away is the most interesting Force power we have seen with perhaps the exception of becoming a Force Ghost.

 

On the contrary, most people think that Rhian Johnson created a stand alone film that did not feed into the narrative structures that JJ had set up. In truth, TLJ wasted no time establishing Snoke as a character rather than caricature, abandoned Rey's links to the Skywalker name, and did not shed light on why there was a map to Skywalker's location (to name just a few). IMO, TLJ was unapologetically and emphatically its own film. I guess opinions really are polarised.

 

amazing. had some issues but they were tiny.

 

After second viewing my issues diminished to quibbles and boy, oh boy does the film work. The best since Empire by miles, and way ahead of even that film on a thematic level. Stunning work. So much I missed on the first take that shone through in the second. Initially I was glad JJ was coming back. Now I'm gutter RJ is not doing 9 (though I'm delighted to see his trilogy). I'm not interested in arguing with anyone that didn't like it. Happy to debate constructively, but if it didn't work for someone I get that. I would advise anyone that is slightly unsure of how they feel after a single viewing to watch again (if possible). So much that seems throw-away is anything but, and once you know where it's all going every line, every scene, every character serves a purpose. Bravo Rian Johnson. Bra-****ing-vo. 5/5.

 

I really don't understand statements like this. I mean, movies are always a matter of one's personal taste, so I'm totally okay with people not liking TLJ. But ranking a movie that on an objective level has at least interesting cinematography lower than a movie that hasn't is beyond my understanding. Go back and watch AOTC for example which is (unfortunately) in many parts completely uninteresting on a visual level.

 

AOTC is a masterpiece compared to this one and not only because of Luke's handling. Hux handling was as terrible as Luke's.

 

The problem is that Luke is supposed to be the one who rights the wrongs his father did, along with reforming the Jedi Order for the best and bringing balance to the force. In Return of the Jedi he pretty much came full circle, he's more mature and feels like a natural born leader, imagine seeing that same character as a Jedi Master, instead he just threw in the towel. Don't get me wrong, having Luke as a broken man is great on paper but not when he goes as far as trying to murder Ben Solo in his sleep when he could've easily helped him control his emotions or having a scene where Rey beats him with no problems whatsoever. Would the Prequels have been better if they had a scene where Obi-Wan or Yoda tried to kill Anakin before being seduced the Dark Side? I kind of wished that Disney would've started off making Star Wars spin-offs like Rogue One just to test the waters before making a new trilogy or creating their own sci-fi film franchise.

 

In thinking about Luke in TLJ I have to wonder if his actions were the result of a very late entry to the Jedi Teachings and a hurried training without the environment of the Temple. While in some ways this made him less dogmatic in his approach and able to turn his father back to the light , it seems to have caught up with him in latter years.

I also wonder why Yoda waited so long to return to Luke to help set him straight.

 

9/10 for me. This movie took huge risk and each character has taken a step forward in their development. I only have one viewing under my belt now but my first impression was this is what Star Wars needed. I was glued to the screen and I am so glad I was only slightly spoiled. Kylo took a HUGE step forward and I love the communication between Rey and Kylo. I actually thought she would redeem him. When Snoke told Kylo to take off that silly mask and Kylo went off I knew I would love this movie. So much layers so many emotional moments, so much action! This movie even nods to the PT by acknowledging the reason behind the fall of the Jedi. It made so much sense why Luke felt the way he felt. He was a worn down old man waiting to die and leave the hopeless world behind. Rey gives him the saber and he just tosses like a hot potato because who wouldn’t after what he has been thru. His family got burned to death, his mentors lied to him to get what they thought was best, his dad cut his hand off then died in his arms, his nephew almost killed him and wiped out his Jedi academy. Who would not be ready to call it quits after that? This movie has so much good in it. The Canto Bight scenes were the low point of the movie, not terrible just not as good as the other stories. There were some other small issues without a doubt but none of them were deal breakers for me. Going to see it again this weekend and I am so glad this movie to risk and expanded the story the way it did.

 

Full disclosure,I may or may not have been given some mind altering ..erm spices (sort of legal where I make my abode),before seeing this movie by my boss ,so all the colours and star warsiness of it all made the two hours simply fly by,and i DID have a blast(pun intended).
on closer tought,I dont think there was much more to it then the spectacle...

I feel that this version of star wars we see in the new trilogy is an off brand experimental cherry flavoured new Star Wars,while the stand alone movies are the theme of self sacrifice n war for a worthy cause,l feel this may be their way of honouring those we left behind in years past ,in the GWOT (that or I could be a rambling old fool,like Luke).

 

pros - pretty much everything.

cons - puppet yoda looked off.

bb-8 in the walker

luke's beard being soo dark. unnaturally so.

the ending not being the standard version

but these things were very minor and didn't actually bother me too much. just some things to mention.

 

"That's not how the Force works!"

3/5 (I think) - Very entertaining movie, but not Star Wars. (The more I think about the movie, the less I like it.)

Too inconsistent with Star Wars folklore. There were so many new extremely powerful Force powers introduced. It had me quoting Han Solo from Episode 7 "That's not how the Force works!"
- Leia's more powerful than all the Jedi, Sith & Harry Potter all combined. She can resurrect herself, survive in the vacuum of space, and fly.
- Rey & Kylo can have sit down conversations across the universe
- Luke can project an interactive hologram of himself across the universe

Why didn't we see any of these Jedi powers before? Luke, Obi Wan, Yoda could have been remote-training Jedi across the universe for hundreds of years.
In the original trilogy we saw Luke and Vader reach out telepathically with a few words. I always presume because of their close connection.
Even worse, zero thought went into the use of these new Jedi powers. I left the movie with too many questions:
- Why didn't any other Jedi ever use these powers?
- Why did't Luke use any of these new powers to remotely apologize to Ben Solo? Or kill Snoke so he couldn't turn Ben into Kylo Ren?
- Why didn't Leia or Rey use these powers before to talk to Luke rather than waste Ep7 looking for him?

I'd have been fine if the Jedi books Yoda burned revealed all these new Jedi powers that had been lost for thousands of years. The writers could have done so if they put in 2 minutes of thought into Star Wars.

On the bright side it takes no training or knowledge to use any of these new Jedi powers, which is good because they killed off all Jedi who could teach others and pass on knowledge (and burned the only known Jedi books).

I'm really confused what happened to Luke at the end. I presume he became a Force Ghost, but I'm not sure why. Did he want to die? Did he teleport to somewhere else using other new unknown Jedi powers? Why didn't Leia go out and confront Kylo Ren & resurrect herself again if he killed her?


The new writer/director discarded/ignored a lot of what JJ set up in Episode 7:
- Kylo Ren was suddenly strong and confident. The weak annoying temper-tantrum-brat was gone.
- The Knights of Ren seemed to disappear and a new background story of Kylo Ren was introduced.
- Must not have liked Snoke so rather easily killed him. Cool scene but too obvious. Even Snoke had to see that coming.

After the Poe/General Hux scene my friend read my thoughts saying "Is this Spaceballs". A little too much comedy.

As a kid I loved Star Wars because you could discuss everything. This movie was like any ordinary action movie... turn off your brain, sit back & enjoy the action.

 

4/5 for me.

Some badly executed attempts at comedy and a lull during the casino bit. But really satisfying character arcs for Poe, Luke, Rey and Kylo. Some great action sequences and an excellent score. The actors did well, none more than Fisher and Hamill.

I think some of the split opinion is how fast and loose RJ played with expectations, and in turn, the mythology. It's very different to George Lucas linking everything together. Despite loving this film, I am a little concerned at the gradual chipping away of core rules - if they give every director a blank slate every year or two then the world-building will break down - even spinoffs like Clone Wars and Rebels kept to a tight ruleset. So I think the next one needs to be much more conservative and detail driven - otherwise this franchise will end up more akin to James Bond or Marvel in terms of continuity. Despite this, as a standalone movie, TLJ was very satisfying.

 

Harsh!

 

I still feel this way after 2 viewings (skipped the other 2 viewings I had tickets for).

 

2/5 Weakest movie in the SW Universe.

 

I gave it a 0. Its a 1,5 or a 2 for me, but felt I had to compensate de 5/5 that are totally out of place.

If this is a 5, what is citizen kane? or even within SW, ESB?