I didn’t include the newest Planet of the Apes trilogy because I’ve only seen the first movie. I’ve heard mostly good things about the second and third, but just never got round to watching them. I’ll catch up one day.
The Last Jedi reminded me a lot of A.I. when I saw that in the theaters once upon a time. There was a scene where it could end on the perfect high note in anticipation of the next installment. Instead, it just goes on…and on…and on…
The third act is garbage.
1 Like
I’m a long-time fan, and I honestly wanted like 400% more betrayal of tradition.
I am done with everything Skywalker and wanking to the memory of Vader and a set of canon that’s 40 years old. Please betray all of it.
The writers keep teasing me with it. Snoke telling Kylo Ren to “take that ridiculous thing off?” Yoda nuking the Jedi tree? Failed Jedi masters? SO GOOD YES.
If anything, I think these sequels are slightly too hide-bound. I get that homage is part of the point (I made that very point about TFA), but I want them to get around to casting off the bonds of the past even faster.
I was desperately hoping Rey and Kylo would join forces, take down the First Order, and watch the Rebellion crumble. I am 1000% happy that Rey is a nobody with a nothing lineage. Between that and the little kids who can use the force at the end, it’s definitely setting the stage to pass off control of the Force to something that isn’t the ages-old bullshit Jedi/Sith conflict.
Overall, I enjoyed this movie despite it being about 30% too long and having like 3 different possible places to end it. I don’t know if I agree that it was “plodding” - it wasn’t madcap by any means, but they moved a lot of stuff in this beast. Maybe too much to be honest.
There were problems and some plot holes, but it’s Star Wars - I learned to overlook plot holes here when I was 6. Nothing grabbed me as being excessively structurally problematic.
No, the thing that irked me the most was Poe getting insufficient comeuppance for being a douche to the Vice Admiral. He learned his lesson about how not to be a hotshot, sure, and Nuri did point out that many of the bridge crew commanders were women, so it was a reasonable lesson to show - but I spent too long wondering if it was going to be some tone-deaf misogynistic bullshit or not.
All in all, better than TFA.
12 Likes
Just gonna point out that Poe was demoted and shot. Did you expect them to drag him out back and kick the shit out of him?
6 Likes
Pretty much agree with Pete,
I loved The Last Jedi, sure it was a bit long, I thought it was going to end a bunch of times, (though Luke standing in front of the enemy forces would have been a good cliffhanger to end on. ) It’s probably a bit under Rogue One (which is high on my list)
Plus they killed all my favorite capital ships and Akbar, I mean you might care about actual Characters, but when I saw the medical frigate that’s been in the fleet since who knows how long… I shed a tear… While the space battles are bullshit plot armor shielded messes, I love them and 100% watch star wars for awesome ABXY-wings and whatever else BS they come up with. Otherwise if I want plot i’d watch Star Trek TV series :-p
2 Likes
I enjoyed the movie, I just feel let down by certain things. It’s weird to think that like 15 video games including an MMO were all on the same page as me about like… space combat… how powerful a force user should be… why politics and favor can still trump just being a plucky jedi, etc. It was a fun movie, but a lot of moments do take me out of it. And the original trilogy isn’t gold either, I still remember little issues I had even as a kid.
I still don’t mind paying $11 for my ticket and I’ll still see the next one, it’s just that there were moments I definitely felt like the writing or directing veered straight into fan-fiction when it didn’t have to. The often mentioned Leia spacewalk among them. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was an unnecessary one.
I mean, I was hoping for it.
I think, ultimately, I wanted the 21st century dashing rogue - Han Solo but treating women as equals. But then they went and made an all-too-realistic asshole who learns a valuable lesson. He’s growing into it instead of being that way from the get-go.
It’s not wrong, and he totally got his ass handed to him, but I’m still mad at him.
yorealquickcanwejuststalkabouthowridiculousgravitybombsareinspacekthx
6 Likes
Doesn’t really change the fact that Y-wings, B-wings, and tie bombers all made sense just fine and these super-heavy bombers with massive racks of ordinance seemed less practical unless you’ve literally cleared the board of fighters, turrets, and escort ships.
I guess people keep saying a theme of the film is failure. Everyone was supposed to do something stupid.
I fully turn off my brain for anything taking place in space. Those conversations can only occur while drinking late night at a party, because there is sooooo much that doesn’t make sense with space battles and tech thru all of star wars, but you know what, it looks awesome, don’t care.
1 Like
Alright, I’ll admit that part was dumb even by Star Wars standards. And yeah sure magnetically-impelled bombs or whatever - but why not use existing established tech.
Wait, shit, that violates my “sever ties with the past” desire.
Also who the fuck flies their bombers so close together that taking out one jeopardizes the others?
1 Like
“There’s more to the Star Wars Universe than the Skywalkers, Jedi, and Sith.” is a place I’ve been for quite some time. So I’m enjoying where this is going.
Some of the more active nitpicks I have with the movie are more of a “Space Naval Warfare” bent than anything else. Like “Why not physically put the cruiser between the transports to soak fire.” (Best answer: Ship doesn’t turn that fast and only one crew at that point.)
It would be interesting to work out the math of Hyperlight Missiles. How much mass you’d need to destroy a First Order Star Destroyer. Which then might bring up an interesting conversation about “Well if these missiles exist, why are we making bigger and bigger ships?” The big weakness in the First Order’s order of battle is they don’t have light cruisers to run down the rebel ships.
Despite what happened to Phasma, it’s still even money on her survival.
As for Snoke, still kinda of want to know where he came from.
1 Like
Every World War 2 movie about Bombers… See Memphis Bell and a ton of other movies that show one Airplane crashing into another.
My problem is, wouldn’t your bombers have like REALLY fucking good shields… Always had that problem with Y wings. Those things are supposed to be able to take a hit yet they always get taken out by one shot.
Also, if going to light speed would cripple their fleet, why didn’t they just have their medical frigate and the other support ship turn around and go to light speed when it was close to running out of gas, they said they had enough fuel for a jump (and it was clear that the hyperspace fuel was different from normal operating fuel)
Also, guys, autopilot, how the F did they not come up with that or I don’t know let a droid pilot the ship into destruction.
2 Likes
Or, if they’re only tracking the lead ship, why not evacuate to all the other ships and have them jump away to different places.
Fuck.
Well that whole conflict is now ruined for me.
6 Likes
5 Likes
Especially considering we’ve seen in the Still-canon non-EU stuff like Rebels, and the books, droids can pilot ships, even very large ships, largely without a human crew.
RE: Snoke: I’d put money on more “Star Wars stories” films giving us background on side characters. Given the direction they seem to be going, where they want to terminate the main canon, it makes sense to leave a bunch of jumping-off points to continue developing new stories.
