Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

[Monkey_Driven]

Just catching up on all your thoughts. Some good takes guys.

I’m with LV on one thing.

This film feels weirdly small. It’s like a season finale of a tv show rather than a Star Wars film.

It could be it that it echoes battlestar galactica a bit, the resistance being chased and even some of the shots of them popping out of hyperspace.

It’s a minor quibble but something that is definitely there. Hope it’s less apparent on further viewings.

I compare it to Empire in its scope. There's really only three locations in each film.

[LetMeSleep]

I thought the smallness was a reaction to the immensity of previous SW. Starkiller got a lot of shit and rightly so. The history of the dark side is bigger bigger bigger.

[epilogue]

I like the scope of the film. I agree that it feels small and I think that's a strength of the film. I actually wish it was even more intimate and micro.

However, I do agree that some of the editing choices are strange. It does feel like Rian struggles a bit with b multiple storylines on this scale.

[Monkey_Driven]

I like the scope of the film. I agree that it feels small and I think that's a strength of the film. I actually wish it was even more intimate and micro.

However, I do agree that some of the editing choices are strange. It does feel like Rian struggles a bit with b multiple storylines on this scale.

That I would agree with.

[blueviper]

I'll expand on my non-descriptive list from my original post:

Plasma: I get the idea of introducing a "cool" looking character (see: Boba Fett), but what is the point? There are plenty of "cool" looking guards, etc. And was it so Finn could have a sworn enemy? Because if so, it was a short and one-sided conflict. Shining example of a character there just to sell merchandise, imo.

This is exactly what Boba Fett was (and characters existing to sell merchandise has been there since A New Hope). If anything at least Phasma gets some lines. And again, Phasma is not a principle. she's a mini boss/henchman. Golden Eye didn't suffer because we didn't get Xenia Onotop's backstory. She is exactly what she should be for this movie. They'll expand on her in EU material, if they haven't already.

Except Boba Fett has a purpose and his use is minimal. He's only used to further the story. He's the one bounty hunter that found Han Solo (out of the group of 5)

It's post ROTJ EU stuff that elevated Boba Fett to some higher prominence that is still baffling. I think it's just more people now want the awesome looking background characters to be more prominent when they wouldn't service the story properly.

Case in point. I watched THE LAST JEDI trailer reactions on Youtube (I have no idea why). No one goes nuts seeing Luke have a speaking line for the first time in 30-some years. They go nuts seeing Phasma attacking Finn. The stupidest, most irrelevant scene in a trailer (and in the movie).

[VinylGuy]

I don't know, it just seems all of these character "arcs" are so pedestrian. I actually didn't care about Finn, Poe, Rose, Holdo at all. I got bored of that story line. I liked Poe and Finn in TFA.

Instead of introducing yet another character, use the ones they have. Since they are using the whole hyperspace tracking plot, have Poe, Finn and Rose devise a way to get on board and destroy it themselves. Take BB-8 to help with the hacking. Use each of their character skills to make this dangerous mission all the more important.

Exactly.

Arcs? Finn´s arc? Poe´s arc? They are basically sidelined. There are no arcs there guys. Its just a sidestory that crumbles.

[stip]

I think you are confusing a character arc with action beats, VG

[stip]

I agree you could have bypassed Canto Bight and just sent the characters directly onto the destroyer. I see what RJ is going for there but it is the one place in the movie where I think his reach exceeds his grasp

[bune]

Poe's story in the movie was sort of weak. But it will probably set him up to be the new leader of the resistance.

My memory is a bit fuzzy about the first attack, but wasn't the main plan to destroy the dreadnought, and they managed to do exactly that? No way those strange bombers were going to survive flying into the battle like that. Yes, he did defy Leia at one point, but what was Leia's plan?

My problem with those bombers is that the bombs looked gravity fed - like most bombers here on Earth - but there's that little gravity thing that wasn't present in space. That plus how slow they were moving it just felt like a scene to pad the run time.

I keep going back and forth here. There's a good movie in there, it's just surrounded by some really weird decisions that feel like a modern choice instead of the right choice.

also: Did anyone else feel like some scenes were too "close"? Like they filmed the scene and then realized that this part of it was better than the whole and blew it up? Just some weird artifacting that could also just be from the theater but it happened more than a handful of times.

[stip]

I really liked that first dreadnought commander. I would have liked a bit more of him

[bune]

[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.

I think one thing is that this movie has the main characters much more involved with the larger war waging between the First Order and Resistance. It feels like the film is trying to focus on the large scale stuff, without making it about the characters (in some parts of the film. Even though I have some issues with Luke, I don't have a lot of issues with him and Rey). It felt similar to how the prequels were way too involved with the government stuff.

ANH: characters are the main focus, and basically interact with the Rebel Alliance at the end to help destroy the Death Star
ESB: characters are with the Rebels and help with the escape, but then do their own thing.
ROTJ: Characters do their own thing, only meeting up with the Rebels to help take down DS 2

TLJ: most of the group is with the Resistance the whole time.

This movie has a tighter focus on character and dynamic character arcs (for Luke, Poe, Rey, Kylo, and Finn) than probably any other movie. Characters aren't introduced, but they all undergo significant change by the end. S

For god’s sake stip what is wrong with you

[stip]

i understand that a story is more than a slow motion leap out of a firey building, possibly in a christ pose for the addition of a ‘mythic theme’

[stip]

(i did mean any other star wars movie, obviously - not any other movie period)

[LoathedVermin72]

i understand that a story is more than a slow motion leap out of a firey building, possibly in a christ pose for the addition of a ‘mythic theme’

And I understand that a movie is more than a story

[stip]

of course it is

[Monkey_Driven]

i understand that a story is more than a slow motion leap out of a firey building, possibly in a christ pose for the addition of a ‘mythic theme’

And I understand that a movie is more than a story

You said movies aren't stories earlier. So, now you're saying they are stories, but more than that? Duh. No one is arguing that.

[stip]

LVs gonna LV

[Strat]

i understand that a story is more than a slow motion leap out of a firey building, possibly in a christ pose for the addition of a ‘mythic theme’

And I understand that a movie is more than a story

You said movies aren't stories earlier. So, now you're saying they are stories, but more than that? Duh. No one is arguing that.

Fucking Millennials.

[epilogue]

I really liked that first dreadnought commander. I would have liked a bit more of him

One of the best characters of that class in the franchise.