JCC Embrace The FU - Formerly the STAR WARS IS BAD thread

Saw it with no spoilers and absolutely loved it.

.... and I absolutely love this post. <3

 

How come you're all miraculously posting?

 

Phil has stopped using the sever to mine Bitcoin for the next 48 hours.

 

Spoiler

Saw it last night so I get to come back to this thread. I bowed out when the first trailer dropped since I'm trying to be super-strict about things. I'm sure you all missed me terribly. Anyway, I'm back.

First thirty to forty minutes were a hot mess. I mean, kind of garbage. Best summed up with the image of Leia reenacting the Can You Read My Mind scene from Superman. The repeated Rey-Kylo communicating across space & time scenes are a damn close second. I mean, could there be a worse/clunkier way to do all that exposition? And, my God, can they see each other or not? They say they can, but that was a real eyeline cluster****. I really could hardly believe I was seeing such absolute nonsense. I was like, "Wow, so the Porgs are actually going to be way down on the list of the stupid things about this movie. Who saw that coming?" At about the half-hour mark, I was basically thinking that this was maybe the worst of the series, except for TPM. I was kind of feeling like the only thing even remotely saving the movie was Hamill's performance which was really magnificent.

But it turned around in a really big way for me and I ended up really, really loving the last hour or so. Maybe around the time Luke finally tells Rey the truth about the night Ben turned is a decent marker for when it started getting better. I forget exactly what was going on in the "let's futz around with the tracking device for forty-five minutes and then not accomplish anything" plot and the "let's bring up fuel levels every five seconds in the slowest chase scene in the entire history of cinema" plotlines, so they might still have been kind of sucking at that point. Somewhere in there it started really delivering. Driver's performance is fantastic, the Phasma action scene is brilliant, the silent hyperspace jump is a breath-holding moment of pure beauty, everything in Snoke's throne room is phenomenal, the whole thing with the salt uncovering the red soil is just gorgeously done, the final duel is everything it needs to be.

It's a shame about that first forty minutes. That whole casino planet plot needed to just go; just completely gone. Introduce DJ earlier in the Rebel convoy to avoid that whole digression. Streamline all those repeated Rey-Kylo scenes into some sort of visions instead of jokey conversations; they were able to build the Luke-Vader relationship in Empire without them having to do anything that stupid. Figure out some kind of a plot mechanic that involves the First Order being right on the Rebel convoy's tail without them having to just scoot through space at the speed of molasses while everyone constantly dithers about fuel. I feel like there had to be a way to do that. Trim. Trim. Trim. There's a really good two hour movie in here. But I'm ending with negatives again. I did really love the last hour or hour-fifteen. On the whole, I liked it; once you get past that dreadful opening act, I kind of loved it.

 

Wow....never noticed that in all my years of watching it.

Perhaps Han won this in a certain poker game?

 

I enjoyed it but my god it is massively flawed.


It isn't getting near TESB or even ANH.


I've not trawled through the thread yet but I'm dreading the Wocky verdict

 

So many headline reviews and comments said this was at least as good as the OT. Well no. The supremacy of the OT remains. This was very good though.

Spoiler

So Snoke was....just Snoke. Powerful dude. But no one. I was hoping for renegade Whill. Or at least some revelation of his history. Nope. Just some dude who got killed. I like the hole throne room scene, just his overall arc didn't add up to much.

In the same realm is Phasma. OMG Gwendoline Christie! And the armor! Coll it took a blaster shot! Dead, no biggy.

The movie was 2.5 hours, but should have been, let's say 2.25? Certain things were a bit drawn out and could have been edited down here and there.

Yoda..I liked it but Force Ghosts can effect the real world? He called lightning bolts(notice, from nature not from his body. Oh but he was a ghost..ah whatever) and blasted the tree. Ok, they want to make new things and ideas but they have to be careful mucking with the lore. Possibly they want people to talk about it and what it means if they can do that but do not directly interfere with reality.

Did Poe and Finn have some special comms set up where they can talk while one is in hyperspace? This creates an issue where they needed to get to the base to send messages to the galaxy...maybe a difference in proximity and power levels?

I don't have any other issues really. I still get little kid choked up when I see A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy far Far Away on that big screen. Luke's entire story here is well done and frankly I loved his passing, it was right. And that would be the comic Dark Empire where we first saw Force Doppleganger.

I liked Leia saving herself in space. Sucks Ackbar was announced as killed in the same scene. Too much of a stretch that they were trapped in their chase and Ackbar was killed in said trap?

For the next one can we get Rey in a better costume?

Kylo lying about Rey's parentage?

Box office right now is odd, says 45 million opening day, then n/a for domestic, but 60 million world wide.

 

i plan to see it again, near the end of its run in a hopefully nearly empty theater. i neglected to mention that when i saw it there were some things happening in the theater that were really distracting and really took me out of the film. for one, my friend kyle who was sitting next to me kept audibly groaning and rolling his eyes at everything, and while i did understand and usually even agreed with the sentiment, i have to feel i would have been less tuned in to all the corniness if i didn't have someone constantly reminding me of it. i have to admit that i also laughed out loud at a couple of inappropriate moments because i just couldn't help it. the other thing was that this poor little girl in the row directly behind us massively vomited about a third of the way through the movie. her parents did their best to clean it up but the smell still lingered and the whole ordeal was incredibly distracting. i feel like my experience could have been closer to rogue's, i agree that the film had a turning point and the stuff that i liked all happened later in the film, but my theater experience kept me from really reengaging with the material. so maybe my initial review wasn't quite fair, i will definitely give it another shot.

i just want to clarify that when i said:

Spoiler

the casino planet sequence reminded me of the prequels it wasn't anything about the planet itself but the sequence of cgi people riding around on strange cgi creatures that gave me that vibe. i thought the ambiance of the casino was actually pretty cool.

 

tom
ugh that sounds awful , someone threw up in the cinema at another movie I saw a coupla years back and the staff cleared us all out and gave us 2 free tickets to come back again .

 

We had a chuckle head that said “Live long and prosper” during every silent moment. In between previews, in between “A long time ago...” and “STAR WARS”, and during that silent moment, you know, that one.

 

is there a thread about Rian Johnson's upcoming SW trilogy ? couldn't find one

 

Spoiler

I seriously doubt she's actually dead.

When that silent moment started and I realized that it was going to be a totally awesome moment with no sound at all, I was terrified that someone was going to start yelling or something.

 

How did he die?

 

Seriously?

I can't see how any other fate is possible.

 

Regrettably, he lives. There was one guy who chastised him for being a comedian. I take a small token of satisfaction in the notion that ten years from now he’ll look back with mortification at his antics. From that point forward, he’ll possess a trivial although niggling embarrassment and shame he’ll never quite be able to shake. Either that or he’s a congenital mouth-breathing idiot.

 

I think it makes sense:

Spoiler

All she knew was that the First Order could follow them through hyperspace, which wasn't considered possible at that point in time. So either they'd developed the tech, or the Occam's Razor of the First Order had a spy in the Resistance. So she kept what was happening very close to the vest in order to prevent the First Order from knowing what was happening. Poe had disobeyed direct orders and it resulted in the death of a significant portion of the Resistance and destruction of their ships making him suspicious. Only in hindsight would telling Poe make sense. [/spolier]

 

But...

Spoiler

- The ship explosion
- The fact that we do not see her on the shuttle with Kylo and Hux...

 

My cinema experience was the best. It was IMAX 3D, the audience was riveted, laughed at every joke, clapped a few times, stood up at the end. My friend and I slapped each other everytime something was cool. I saw nothing coming, I found every joke funny, and nothing unnecessary.
Only two things I didn't like:

Spoiler

1. Canto Bight. The casino, and the ending. I didn't mind the Falviers because I loved the sudden focus on animal well-being, it felt to me as if Star Wars suddenly reconnected with its inner buddha.
2. Luke going on about the Jedi's arrogance and vanity, and then being all awed and ESB-ish when Yoda appeared. He should have grilled him.

 

We didn't in TFA either.

Spoiler

once she falls in the rubbish compactor we never see her again. For all we knew she died when Starkiller Base exploded.
Except she obviously didn't.

I think she probably is dead. But it is also possible for JJ to bring her back (and he's the type that would bring her & Snoke back just to continue the story he wanted) & it would not be too unbelievable given how strong her armour obviously is.

Then again, there's endless debate about whether Boba could escape from the Sarlaac despite the fact he had equally good/superior armour.

 

Yeah, I suppose. And while we're at it:

Spoiler

it is quite possibly Snoke is alive if they decide to borrow from Dark Empire and he turns up in a new body.[/url]

 

Regarding the Fett analogy:

Spoiler

But unlike Phasma, Fett at least had a jet pack along with the grapple cable. I find it easier to buy that he could survive than Phasma.

The thing is, I think they actually need to bring back Phasma so we have more than Hux and Kylo as the main antagonists in Episode IX.

 

Spoiler

Hux was both terribly written and miscast in TFA, and Rian Johnson doubles down on the over the top stoogy buffoonery. The original mistake of imposing him on the trilogy is all Abrams.

 

Christ I hope we never see that, VLM.