Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

[VinylGuy]

Stop. Rian is a huge fan. Forcing this narrative is absurd.

Its just a feel Joe, please let me share my feelings.

You can feel whatever you want. I just want to give you facts, too. That way your feelings can change and you don't have to feel that way anymore.

Its a fact too thats weird for Luke to call them that way. That, summed up with the parody scenes at the beginning led me to feel he dont like the mythos of SW.

Luke is specifically using that phrase to disparage the Jedi - not as a mouthpiece for the director (who has been quite vocal in his absolute love of star wars) but because it communicated the state of mind of the character delivering the line by showing, not telling. That is the essence of good writing.

Thats your feeling Stip and its ok.

I dont think thats good writing at all. I think Rian spoofing SW with all the parody, Luke´s throwing saber at the beginning after how TFA ended, and those little things is showing he doesnt care about were those characters come from.

Man, he even says it with Kylo.

So Luke should have immediately come out of his self imposed exile ready to train Jedi and be the hero of legend because some chick he just met handed him his old lightsaber? The look on Luke's face at the end of TFA is a mix of panic and regret. He wasn't rarin' to go.


Every one of Luke's actions are logical and intelligible given his state of mind and the circumstances that led him there - from his unwillingness to train Rey to his eventual sacrifice of himself to embrace the utility of his legend - one that others need even if he doesn't. If you don't enjoy that arc, so be it, but from the standpoint of craft and storytelling it is extremely well done. Respectful as well, in that it takes the characters seriously as dynamic people.


It is entirely possible that if RJ was writing the first episode of the series he would have written Luke differently. But what he does is probably the only way to actually treat Luke seriously as a character given the situation he inherited.


Granted neither of us are writers - but knowing that Luke

A: started to train a new order of Jedi
B: trained his nephew
C: could not prevent the dark side corruption of his nephew
D: watched his nephew slaughter his students
E: abandoned his family and friends because of his grief
F: abandoned his responsibilities because of his grief
and G: Took steps to make sure he could not be found

how do you think he should have reacted to a stranger showing up, unannounced and unasked for, and presenting you with a symbol of everything you voluntarily walked away from.

That's all from TFA. Rian Johnson picks up at exactly that moment. How would you have him respond (keeping in mind as well that his treatment of Rey somewhat parallels his own treatment by Yoda, who would have ignored Luke had Obi Wan not intervened)?

Rian didnt take it seriously. He spoofed basically the ending of TFA. Its like LV wrote those scenes man.

[Sgt. Crackpot]

deleted scene

You know, I think it would have been great to have Poe frozen in carbonite after being caught on his little tangent/mutiny mission.

Then get's rescued in EP IX by Finn who gives him a passionate kiss on awakening.

[spike]

20 minutes of extra scenes for the DVD/BR released. Rian spoke about some of them recently:

“Again I will give the caveat that the movie is better as a whole without any of them, but yeah man, there was some great stuff. There’s a whole extended sequence where Finn and Rose and DJ sneak through the Mega Destroyer when they’re kind of, after they sneak in with DJ and they’re trying to find the tracker. There’s a whole extended sequence. It’s a full sequence of like stuff with them sneaking through this big office area of the Mega Destroyer and then having to fake out these Stormtroopers.”

“And then on the island there’s a massive sequence that we shot with Daisy and Mark, which is kind of an additional sort of trial/test that she goes through, that involves her and Mark, and then a big emotional scene between the two of them. I mean, it’s big stuff, it’s like actual real scenes.”

“There’s an extended sequence with Rey and the caretakers, which are the Nun-like fish creatures. That’s actually one of the biggest things that was taken out of the movie. And there’s this incursion on Snoke’s ship, I mean there’s a lot of stuff that was cut out of that, with Rose and DJ and Finn, and some of it is particularly fun.”

“There’s some really nice stuff in there, but we actually cut that stuff pretty early because it was very clear that that section of the movie was completely lopsided in favor of those three, and it just didn’t support it. But it’s good stuff. It’s really good stuff. I assume when you’ll see it, you’ll enjoy it because I mean, we all did. It was cut early, and how you always know is like my staff, there’s a decent number of assistants and collaborators that work in the cutting room, and they were all complaining when we cut the sequence. And that’s how you know that it was something that people like.”

“There’s a couple Finn scenes that—there’s one great Finn/Poe scene that’s kind of a set up scene at the beginning when Poe was kind of bringing Finn up to speed after he comes out of his coma. God, there’s a bunch of really fun stuff. Yeah, anyway, we talk more about them when the Blu-ray comes out, but I’m excited for folks to see them.”

Last but not least Johnson confirmed that yes, there will be a blooper reel.

so finn's arc, if it existed at all, was left on the cutting room floor? he's all over this.

[Kaius]

All good points, stip.

The best point is about Yoda refusing to train luke. Obi Wan had to convince him.

nice parallel, without simply reproducing beat for beat what happened before

Yup

[E.H. Ruddock]

Welp

[Strat]

Oh god....

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

Welp

Not a fan?

[Strat]

For some reason this is going to break my heart.

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

I saw this yesterday and as usual with SW movies i really enjoyed watching it but wasnt sure how i felt about what they did, but after thinking about it a ton last night and today and reading lots in this thread im really excited to see it again and feel like this is going to really be a grower.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Roll with​ me here team, I know much of this has been talked about already but...

A lot of really great moments in this movie. Way more than TFA. But frustratingly, a lot of missed opportunities or just out of place things that kept me from fully getting into this.

Good:

Adam Driver. Made everyone else's acting look like shit.

The silence in the scene where Holdo shot through the destroyers. That was awesome.

Yoda. Also the delving into Jedi history. I hope they do more of that.

Daisy was pretty great too. Not on Driver's level, but still great.

D.J. Benicio is the man, although I want more of him.

The scenes on Skellig were mostly great

The frustrating:

Plasma and Snoke. Just, poof! They're gone. Boba Fett and Maul redux.

Canto Bight

Poe's character

Finn

The humor with Hux didn't work for me.

Listen, I'm a lifelong, HUGE Star Wars fan, so I say this with great respect. Carrie's acting was awful.

Lastly, I went with my friends and their two kids. The 11 year old daughter was crying when we left, because of Luke. It made me get teary eyed. Seeing a little kid who is that into Star Wars. Made my night.

I liked this more than TFA, but just frustrated with the flow and lack of some story lines

[Strat]

Fair and common assessment.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Fair and common assessment.

Are you saying common, like I just don't "get it" or something?

[Strat]

Fair and common assessment.

Are you saying common, like I just don't "get it" or something?

No! Your response is about what everyone elses is!

Now it just matters on how much it grows on you and if it will or not.

[E.H. Ruddock]

I get what lv is saying about that red background. It was almost distracting.

Snoke's guards seemed a little weird too, but I can't put my finger on it

[Strat]

I get what lv is saying about that red background. It was almost distracting.

Snoke's guards seemed a little weird too, but I can't put my finger on it

God i loved everything about the throne room and entire scene. All of it. Super gay for it.

[E.H. Ruddock]

At the Jedi academy kylo took some students and killed the rest. I'm assuming they became the knights of Ren?

[Strat]

Sleek yet vigilant, subtle yet effective.

[@SkitchP]

Okay, Im talking myself into loving this movie even more.

[LoathedVermin72]

One thing that is sticking with me is how small-scale this movie is. It feels almost cheap and claustrophobic. Johnson doesn’t seem to think in scale or spectacle. Even the climax - it’s like a handful of walkers against one door. It’s downright tiny compared to the sprawling imagination of previous SW movies. He seems to have trouble juggling multiple balls at once in terms of action and location. As much as I hate TFA, even Abrams was better at this.

[darth_vedder]

Fair and common assessment.

Are you saying common, like I just don't "get it" or something?

No! Your response is about what everyone elses is!

Now it just matters on how much it grows on you and if it will or not.

I think I'm on team Ruddo here, but I don't know if I liked it more than TFA. I JUST DONT KNOW GODDAMMIT!