HR Boards

I absolutely hated in the beginning when the Empire didn't fire a single shot at the escape ships. Waiting for the "Dreadnought" to do all the work or some shit. What the hell?
Also hated, like Peter making a deal with Mephisto kinda hated, when Leia ... well, lets just say (in case Jeff couldn't hold out  :D) when she made her return to the ship. Hated that. It really put a sour spot on the movie for me.  
And what the hell was all the uproar over those Progs or whatever they are called? They were just in a couple scenes and were not intrusive, yet all I heard before seeing the movie was all the hate. Really?

In almost all movies, the standard mission scenario is for the courageous hero to take a chance and go against an ignorant and/or play-it-safe authority and save the day.  In several places throughout the story, Poe repeatedly disobeys his superiors (first Leah, then Holdo) but instead of saving the Rebellion, he just keeps screwing things up even worse.  I found it pretty brave for the writers to use fan-favorite Poe to illustrate this, but had he followed orders, there would have been a lot more people and ships on his side at the end of the movie.  

Some fans have griped that Holdo should have let Poe in on her plan. Why?  Because he's a handsome, funny rogue who flies well?  No, she doesn't have to tell him anything because she is in command.  Heck, what little he did find out got leaked with catastrophic results.

And I really like Laura Dern with her purple hair.  :D

I have mostly been avoiding reading any reviews of The Last Jedi-from before, and after having watched it- simply to the point that a) most of it is annoying fan-based click bait sites (which, yeah, I read a lot of at times) and b) they have ranged in analyses of ‘it’s brilliant; you’re a whiny fanboy and don’t get it!’ or ‘what junk! Wrecks all things Star Wars!’ to ‘awesome! A great movie!’

Well, here’s my thoughts.Skip reading this at any time.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

It’s a decent movie. It’s pretty good. I enjoyed it...mostly...ish..

I do come out of it with feelings of dissatisfaction. Perhaps not dissatisfaction, but disconnected. I don’t have any comments like ‘It’s not MY Star Wars’ or ‘it’s not made for me.’ Nothing of the sort. I’m not all fanboy raging either with any statements of ‘this character would never do that!’ or ‘how could they do this?!”

I actually quite liked <most> of the character arcs and moving pieces for those characters. Notice I said ‘most.’ What I did not care for was the pacing or sequence of driving action to move the plot.

For starters, in the movie’s opening crawl, I was immediately confused. The last movie had JUST ENDED with the Empire’s Starkiller base being destroyed, and a great victory for the Rebellion. Now, mind you, the Republic planet, the seat of their power, was destroyed. However, with the Republic being comprised of hundreds or thousands of planets, I doubt killed individuals would wreck their home planets’ entire global system. Everything would be in an uproar, but this movie suggests something else. Also, apparently, the Rebellion is in tatters….what? Again, the Starkiller base, a MOON was just destroyed, and the Rebellion is down to a few ships on the run. Now, I totally get that SW plays with time. There was definitely time to have passed based between the celebration after the base was destroyed and from when Rey finally met Luke.

This Rebellion in tatters leads to the great movie Macguffin of the Last Jedi. The Rebels can’t hyperspace jump away, but they can slowly outrun the Empire with sublight engine speed (re: cruise control in space). So, it’s a straight line, slow, space chase until the Rebels run out of gas.

THIS was done to set up what 2 of the titular characters would do with their story arcs. This is boring as shit. You may be able to come back at me to say this is how Poe grows from an impulsive, singular flyboy to a leader, and to allow Finn time to grow and see that there is something worth fighting for. I’m all for that. Find a better vehicle to extend time in a film. This is boring watching ships fly slowly-but even with that excuse, the Rebels never slowly pull away due to being ‘lighter and faster.’

It’s an uneven and ponderous story bridge from the beginning of the film to the climax.

Now, SW has played with not caring about actual time progression-because while being sci fi, it’s also a fantasy film. The young hero travels with the mentor on a quest to learn and grow. To be fair, Luke only trained with Ben for about a few hours. He was with Yoda for, what, a week? We accepted his hero journey, even though it was juxtaposed with the constant harried search of the Falcon in the asteroid field to Bespin by the Empire because it just seemed to work.

It didn’t for me here. It was boring. This time dilation led to Finn’s growth story arc with the new character Rose. I don’t feel Rose added anything to the saga of this movie. I didn’t care about her. I didn’t. This substory with her and Finn to the gambling planet only lengthened an already long film. The moment of these 2 characters discovering through narration through the most improbable deductive reasoning how to stop the other film Macguffin was laughable at best.

What I wanted was Rey and Luke. And this I loved and was fine with. Took their time here, and made it something I wanted to see. Luke, Rey, Kylo; all great set pieces with their movements through the film. Just fantastic.Rey’s history and parentage was PERFECT. Anything else would have been just too highly of a coincidence, or over explained.

However, with Snoke, I come to believe that Rian Johnson, writer and director, just simply didn’t care where stuff started with the first film. The use of Snoke in these movies makes Darth Maul look like Macbeth himself. A waste of space and interest in a character. No, I don’t want every detail written out about all characters, but to have him made prominent in 2 films, then to end that story part as they did reduced his appearances to set dressing.

I feel I’ve already gone off topic from what I wanted to say or pass on. I’ve been non-spoilery on specifics of the film, and wish to keep it that way. What occurred for this fan and movie goer during the Last Jedi was that I went from excited and highly engaged to disaffected and bored through most of the viewing. I’ve said, and I’ll see how I feel stating it again, but I believe that I “really don’t need to see a third one of these (movies)” As an enterprise of a movie, there was a lot of great work put into it. But it’s nothing that drew me in personally. No part of me said, when walking out, that I can’t wait to see this again. Nope, I saw it once, thanks, I’m good.

If anything, that just makes me sad. If I could edit the movie on my own at home, I’d watch Luke and Rey and Kylo only, with some definitely awesome Leia moments in there, and call it a day.

character by character:
Rey- I liked her overall arc in this film.  She didn't back down from Luke and stood her ground and reasons for being there.
  I liked that she was conflicted and had a weakness towards the dark side just like another Jedi that I will get to in a few.
  Oh what the hell.  She's just like Luke.  She is very emotional in what she believes in and as we all know, being overly emotional can lead to the dark side.  I'm not sure that I buy her lineage though.  Not yet.  It may turn out to be true,
 but it could also be a giant swerve by Kylo.  I still wouldn't be surprised to find out she is Ben's sister.  I also wonder if maybe she is like Anakin and a creation of Midichlorians.  Debate at length, if you want.

Finn-  He grew on me a bit more in this movie, but I found the plot of the casino to be one of the weaker points of the film.  He progressed as a character and I think he will be one of the leaders in the Alliance by the time the next folm rolls around.

Poe- My favorite new character.  I loved his opening sequence and the dogfight except for the minor gripe of how a lack of gravity in space would prevent the supposed G forces he was portraying when BB8 punched the X-wing.  I feel like he is the "Han" of the new group and much how Han was my favorite growing up, so to is Poe.  I loved how he scratched BB8's belly like a dog when they were reunited.  I predict he will be THE leader of the Alliance in the next film.

Leia- Mary Poppins space flying aside, I was pleased at how she was handled in this one.  I expected her to die about 4 times in the movie.  I thought the Dreadnought was going to take her out, then I thought Kylo was going to take her out,
 then I thought she was toast along with Ackbar, and then I thought she was going to stay behind on Crait and face Kylo and he would kill her much like he did his father.  I am curious to see how they handle her in the next film and I have a theory I will share in a bit.  I think it's ironic that the only one of the big 3 from the OT to be dead in real life is the only one of the big 3 still alive in the movies.

Kylo- I was pleased when i thought he had turned when he killed Snoke (a lot of clapping and "Wooo"ing from the audience in the theater both times i saw it) but I was even more pleased when he revealed his true intentions.  I hear a lot of people have a theory that Snoke knew all along what he was doing (he did say he knew all of Kylo's intentions) and he may have "force jumped" his conciousness into Kylo, but I disagree.  Kylo was WAAAY too emotional when Luke showed up on Crait.  If Snoke was in control, he would have been cool about it.  I think he will be much more in control and Vader-esque next episode.

Snoke- so we didn't learn a whole lot about Snoke and a lot of people seem to be up in arms about it.  Let's think back to when I was 11 years old and ROTJ came out.  We knew JACK SQUAT about the Emperor and NO SEEMED TO GIVE A DAMN!  Why is it such a big deal now?  Because a lot of fanboys theorized about his origins and they were disappointed?  I don't get it.  Also, we may not have seen the end of him (but I suspect we have.)  We may get a snippet of info about him via a flashback or a couple of lines from Kylo in the next film.

and finally, Luke.  Oh, Luke.  I have seen a LOT of people upset at his portrayal this film, even from Hamill himself.
  I kinda get it and I kinda don't.  Luke has ALWAYS been tempted by the dark side (see Rey above ;)) and let his emotions drive his decisions.  ALWAYS.  Why is it such a shock now and such a disappointment?  I'll tell you why.
 Because all the fans who read the books and comics that Disney said were no longer canon can't get past that.  The Luke in the film never did all the things that the Luke from the extended universe did.  The Luke we see here is the same Luke we see in ANH and TESB except he has, in essence, let the dark side win by closing himself off from the force and running and hiding, letting his emotions make his decisions for him.  This is also why he almost killed Ben at the school; his fear and hatred were driving his decisions.  He caught himself at the last second, but it was too late.  I was oh so sad to see him die (and hated how he did die) because I wanted to see him redeem not only himself, but the entire Jedi religion because he was right; the Jedi became complacent and they let Palpatine slip in under all their noses due to their hubris.  I want to see the Jedi rebuilt more in the image that Luke has for them as true peace keepers and defenders of the light so I hope we see him, along with Yoda and Ben as force ghosts in the next film.  I also loved his scene on Crait.  

My two favorite scenes from the movie are, of course, the two big fight scenes.  The dogfight at the beginning and the fight with Kylo and Rey against Snoke's guards.  My only gripe there is, when the guard had Kylo in that choke hold,
 why didn't he use the force to throw the attacker off him?

big let downs- not much.  I really thought the code breaker was going to be Lando, and along those lines, why don't we know anything about what happened to Lando after ROTJ?  I hope they fix that glaring mistake in the next film if nothing more than a line from Poe about what happened to him.  I mean, Nien Nunb is still in the Alliance.  Surely he kept tabs with Lando.  Sheesh. Also, Phasma is the new Boba Fett.

Theories for the next film:  It takes place years after this one and Rey is training new jedi (we all know the kid at the end who uses the force to grab the broom is a sign that the force is trying to balance itself with the births of more force sensitive children, right?) with the help of force ghosts Luke, Yoda and Ben (and perhaps Anakin?).  Leia has died a natural death and Poe is the new leader of the Alliance with Finn as his second in command.  Chewbacca sticks with Rey at the training temple (and hopefully has a larger role in the next film which does NOT include him dying!) and assists her however he can and still upkeeps the Falcon.  Kylo has put his team back together of the Jedi trainees who left Luke's school with him and they rule with an iron grip and continue to search for the new Jedi training center.  Massive battle at the end including a dogfight with the First Order which finds Poe back in an X-wing and a massive Jedi battle which finds Ben finally turning back t the light with help of force ghost Luke who brings along the ghost of Han and for one final hurrah, a CGI force ghost Leia.

having Leia "come back" was stupid and I hated it with a fiery passion. What makes it worse is, and this is a tad morbid, but knowing what we know now, about Carrie's death, it would have been a fantastic end to her saga and so fitting as well had they kept her dead in space. It would have worked on so many levels.

And I still get goose bumps when Luke is seen through all that smoke after the bombardment of fire

While watching the part where Rey confronts the dark side on the island, I found it interesting that when she sought her parents she saw herself.  Yes, I know the same thing happened with Luke on ESB, but she didn't just see herself.  She saw lots of copies of herself.  Clones?  I certainly hope not. I just remember thinking of that. I think the notion that her parents are nobody special is the right choice and I hope the writers stick with that.   

Noticed a couple of things with Luke and Kylo's climatic duel near the end.  On first viewing, I suspected something was up when Luke appeared at the mine with his hair and beard shorter and darker.  On second viewing yesterday, I also noticed that the camera zoomed in at least once for a close-up of Kylo's boot scraping the white salt from the red surface as he solidified his footing, but Luke's foot moved over the surface and the white salt remained undisturbed.  Also, he wielded a blue lightsaber.  Luke has a green lightsaber (seen only in flashbacks in this film) and Anakin's blue one was split in half on the Falcon. 

Weak males, strong females.  Didn't quite see it as much the first viewing as I did this time 'round.
 
Leia and Holdo were strong, patient, intelligent leaders who managed to save "the spark" of the Rebellion despite Damorn's recklessness and insubordination getting most of the surviving resistance killed.   

Rose was the plucky engineer who not only prevented the impulsive and constantly distracted Finn from abandoning ship, but continued to keep him on-task and pull his fat out of the fire throughout the movie, even saving him from himself near the end.  All this while rescuing animals and instilling hope in children along the way.

And then there's Rey.  So sweet and innocent, yet so powerful that she scares the hell out of a sulking Luke, a conflicted Kylo, and an overconfident Snoke.

Not trying to make a commentary, just an observation.  Your mileage may vary, as they say, so I'll leave any subjective commentary, positive or negative or otherwise, to the individual audience member.  :-\

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dobbu_Scay