Star Wars 8 shit talk

which is unfortunate imo

I feel like that narrative can help fill out the next 150 minutes. After all the suffering inflicted on the rebels I feel like an old man and his dead prof burning down a tree was kind of “yup”

xxxp the stable boy very subtly Force-pulls his broom into his hand

how much more interesting might it have been if she had taken his hand, or she had managed to persuade him to give up on the dark side?

maybe it's just a part of living in this current world, but one of the best parts of this movie was that it briefly convinced me that Kylo had the right idea, like yeah! it's all shit, burn it all down and start over!

Kylo and Rey have insane chemistry - parts of this felt a bit like watching Reylo fanfic writ large. did they really need a gratuitous shot of shirtless Adam Driver?

re: Tombot's request for more on the attempts at social commentary

I guess I have two angles here, one of which I think is fair and the other is transparently unfair. The fair one is that the Star Wars universe is by design too simplistic for any insightful political allegory or commentary on a world that resembles our own. Good, evil. Dark, light. Rebellion, Empire. First Order, Resistance. For me and most viewers (though not all), the original trilogy works because there's lots of cool shit to look at and the plot beats are linked to big, obvious-but-effective emotional cues. By the same token, again for most viewers, the attempts to map out political intrigue in the prequel trilogy were misbegotten. (I'm sure people have written eloquently about the politics of the prequels but tbh I don't remember them well and fuck rewatching them.) The attempts here to introduce shades of grey - the both-sides-do-it arms deals, the class disparity on the casino planet, even to an extent Kylo Ren's hatred of the universe's own simplistic mythology - hint at a more interesting universe that these movies, by design, can't deliver on. By the end of the next one, Benicio's character (the mouthpiece for the movie's most ambiguous sentiments) will either redeem himself in service of the Resistance (in Han-ish style) or (less likely) be righteously killed. When the Resistance inevitably triumphs and takes control, they'll tack on some phony fix for the working underclass. Kylo's rejection of the universe's monolithic forces...just ends with him doubling down on Being Evil. So ultimately these nods at real-world issues feel like nothing more than a sop to contemporary audiences that expect "timely" digs at the 1%.

My unfair angle is that coming so soon after the Disney-Fox deal, the notion of this unspeakably immense conglomerate trying to sell class warfare back to us via one of their most simplistic properties left a foul taste in my mouth.

"the destruction of the tree is also completely undercut in the penultimate scene when the jedi books show up in the drawer on the falcon "

fuck I saw this movie TWICE and didn't notice that.

Something I will give Johnson credit for is that he knows people are going to watch this over and over so he lets things like that and the force-reach at the end go by in a split second, unremarked upon.

Things I liked. Almost all the non-Benecio Del Toro and Laura Dern characters are likeable and well done. Creatures. Almost all of it looked great. It had different beats than the other films and they mostly worked. Some good fights.

Things I didn’t like. Soooo long. Casino Royale subplot. Three annoying kids.

Overall though I have a distinct sense that Driver is basically carrying the entire plot for this trilogy. I’m not sure there is much else here which sticks.

This was great.

Some of my friends are butthurt about all the dead end side missions as if that wasn't the intent.

They were all impulsively rolling the dice with Hail Marys when retreat was the only answer that made sense all along. The film redefined what heroism in the Rebel universe means. The most heroic moment being simple cunning sleight of hand.

Everybody wanted the mysteries of TFA to pay off with Empire-esque plot twists and...we've done that before. Why shrink the universe more?

Enjoyed this. Uncollected thoughts:

There was a graphic starkness to the b&w shot post-suicide run that struck me as straight anime.

BSG connections were stark in this, with echoes from both the old and the new series. The casino planet was straight out of the pilot of old BSG, wasn’t it?

Lots of calling back to old bits that were then subverted. C3P0’s line, the lightsaber grab from the throne arm, even the entire last third of the movie. Nice that they felt the need to have a nameless character point out that it was actually “salt.”

Leia uses the same pistol she wields in New Hope.

Interesting how Benicio has played an untrustworthy space character in two different Disney franchises.

More outright comedy in this than I expected. The iron joke was great. Some of Poe’s lines were a little too cute; the repeated “yeah I’ll hold” and actually saying “big-ass” at one point.

Apparently JGL voiced a character.

All in all, I wish Rian Johnson was doing Ep9 instead of JJ, but I dig the fact that he has his own trilogy to go play in.

There was a graphic starkness to the b&w shot post-suicide run that struck me as straight anime.

yeah, this was easily the most striking shot in the whole movie (the sudden silence on the soundtrack is a really great choice too) - there was an audible gasp from the audience i saw it with

one thing that also really stuck out to me is rey's narration in the mirror sequence - is this the first time in the whole of star wars that we hear an inner monologue?

or at least what is presented as an inner monologue before we see cut to rey speaking those lines?

the small aesthetic digressions were def the best thing about the movie

the other reason I know this movie was good is because it pissed off the right fanboys: people who simply just wanted another Star Wars movie that hit the exact same beats as the ones before it, nerds who just wanted more easy fanfic like TFA (which don't get me wrong, I loved). Don't get me wrong, I loved Rogue One, but - as good as it was, it was a movie that had no point existing. Everybody knew what was going to happen more or less, it just had to have the blanks filled in.

A lotta nerds wanted the Snoke and Rey mysteries to be these big, shocking reveals, including me going in, but that isn't ever what Star Wars did best so I'm actually happier they weren't. Empire was already a killer movie before the "I am your father" moment - that just elevated it. Rey's realization is a net positive - she doesn't have a legacy to uphold or adhere to. Her purpose in the conflict is her own to decide, rather than being prescribed to her like Luke's was laid out for him.

In the original trilogy, the Empire was the old guard, with aging veterans like the Emperor, Tarkin, and Vader eventually being overwhelmed by fresh, driven new blood in the Rebel Alliance. Here, the roles are reversed - the Resistance's leadership is filled with aging, fatigued ex-Alliance members, whereas the First Order is lead by hungry, fired up young men. Kylo sees this as necessary, that the previous generations have run their course, and its time for his to lead. His move makes perfect sense. Kylo doesn't like to kneel before authority - he wants to *be* the authority. He doesn't like being manipulated.

I also like how Rey confuses Kylo's conflict for sympathy for her cause. He adores *her*, and he still has a hard time with being the closed off, ruthless killer like his grandfather was, but he still believes the Resistance is scum.

The side missions all fail because Holdo had the right answer to the problem all along - and Rey, Finn, Poe all learn from their failures in a way that makes them stronger at the end of the movie despite being thinner in ranks.

anywho..going again today.

The world-building was great. Loved the casino-planet scene and Luke's hermit planet.

Praetorian guards are badass. What can I say?

it was funny when they started busting moves.. like a beefeater suddenly throwing off his cloak and flexing a kung fu stance

it was really the time for Star Wars-themed Wu-Tang music

those are all good points neanderthal!

especially the wu-tang one

I have to admit I've been to the Star Wars toy aisle a few times this week, playing it off like "I'm looking for my kid" (I don't have kids).

yeah i like your generational take, Neanderthal, it feels right and true to the movie

once again i didn't like any of the humanoid character CGI. it just looked like cartoons. snoke's scariness in particular suffers imo because a subconscious part of your brain knows he's simply not real. as the tech gets better, say 5-10 years out, large chunks of this movie will look v embarrassing

I feel like Snoke was just an ex-Senator who had a botched plastic surgery

My Snoke backstory of choice is he’s an Order 66 survivor who went bad in exile

it was def nice to see puppet yoda back in action (even if he did look a little... off in his first few shots)

still sticking with my ‘snoke is an insane shaved ewok’ theory

something so weird about andy serkis locking up every cgi job going. nobody else could have done that? they had to pay serkis rates?

biggest disappointment -- where are the knights of ren? i was promised knights of ren!

also regarding rey's parentage -- do we trust a knight of ren to be honest?

not i!

speaking of mocap, apparently mark hamill played the drunk little alien that keeps pumping change into bb8 xxp

good point about the knights of ren! rian johnson says the first cut of the movie ran over three hours so maybe they've hit the cutting room floor again

Lol yea its like two movies no knights

IMO the 9th film is gonna say the previous 8 films were a coma patients slumber dream

Don't get me wrong, I loved Rogue One,

no let me get you wrong!

it was def nice to see puppet yoda back in action (even if he did look a little... off in his first few shots)

Wait that wasn't CGI? Damn

p sure the first shot of him was CGI, and a few subsequent ones too

hard to tell if the first shot was or it was just because of the glowing haze. I've seen it twice and can't tell. when he's wiggling around and sitting down it definitely the puppet though.

"Apparently JGL voiced a character."

who is that?

http://www.slashfilm.com/joseph-gordon-levitt-has-a-cameo-in-star-wars-the-last-jedi/

ah. I was trying to figure out who JGL was and all I could come up with was Jennifer Gason Leigh

totally re watching Rogue One tonight. Star Wars is great innit?

jean guc lodard

cgi porgs were lame too. if they'd figured out how to do it practically it could have been great. i did appreciate a "lone chewie thinkin' baout things" moment tho

most of the porgs were puppets I believe

not that that excuses them

I like how in Luke’s fantasy oh himself at the end his hair is a lot less grey

yeah when he pulled off his hood at the end i was like ‘wtf I guess he stopped off for some grecian 2000 and a quick haircut on the way’

Also blue lightsaber. Spent too much of that scene internally spluttering "but that's the wrong lightsaber!" before I realised what might be going on

what is wrong with you porg haters

The porgs got a huge positive reaction in the theatre. But I suspect everyone else hated them

The Porgs were a harmless diversion.

Not having Han helped this movie

guess I'll read Chewie and the Porgs by myself then

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Last-Chewie-Porgs/dp/1484780760

He eats live Porgs

Thats why they call him Chewie