Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi

[RickR]

<Spoilers allowed>

 

Have you seen it?  What did you think?

 

I saw it today and loved it. 

[TrekMD]

Not yet.  I don't go opening weekends anymore to movies.  Plan to watch it this week.

[RickR]

My son and I bought early-bird tickets on-line a few days in advance.  It was at 9am on Sunday and tickets were $8 each.  It was a full house, but a really nice theater with large comfortable seats (with foot rests!) 

 

I won't share any spoilers until we have a few others that have seen it.  Other than we both really enjoyed it. 

[Arenafoot]

saw it 2pm friday - Disney/Johnson really screwed up everything in this one! 

 

Hoping JJ Abrams can correct some of this mess in episode 9. But, it might be too late.

[greenween]

I plan to watch it for sure. If I'm willing to get up early enough I can get a private screening.

[stirrell]

I feel weird because it seems like everyone is loving it and... I didn't. I am going to withhold final judgement until I see it again but I felt like there was very little in the way of a plot and there were far too many cheesy jokes. That said, if I saw this as a kid? I probably would have loved it. I might be taking it too seriously nowadays. But I will watch it again. I actually liked Rogue One more the first time I saw it and then had a lot of nit picky complaints upon a second viewing.

 

Scott

[RickR]

saw it 2pm friday - Disney/Johnson really screwed up everything in this one! 

 

Hoping JJ Abrams can correct some of this mess in episode 9. But, it might be too late.

 

 

I feel weird because it seems like everyone is loving it and... I didn't. I am going to withhold final judgement until I see it again but I felt like there was very little in the way of a plot and there were far too many cheesy jokes. That said, if I saw this as a kid? I probably would have loved it. I might be taking it too seriously nowadays. But I will watch it again. I actually liked Rogue One more the first time I saw it and then had a lot of nit picky complaints upon a second viewing.

 

Scott

 

Totally fine if you didn't like it -- no need to feel weird.  My other son in San Diego also didn't like it.

 

 

<SPOILER ALERTS -- STOP HERE if you haven't seen the movie>

 

 

 

 

 

I can understand your complaints -- but here's my thoughts.  I thought the jokes were a welcome addition.  Go back and watch Empire Strikes Back and notice that it makes similar jokes.  For example, any scene with Han and C3PO.  The scenes with Chewie and the little penguin things were pure gold IMO. 

 

And oh my God...the return of puppet Yoda!  And in the same spirit as the character from Empire...That part alone sealed a "like" for me.  I LOVED how he gave Luke a few verbal jabs and let out a few cackles.  Have I mentioned how much I loved this one scene? :)

 

And I totally get how it feels a little empty how they resolved some of the story hooks from VII.  I think they were trying to start fresh.  Why have hooks like "I am your father!"...that would just be repeating the original trilogy.  Get rid of Snoke -- won't Kylo Ren make a better bad guy that way?  Very clever how they made the death similar to the one in VII.  The "back-to-back" fight scene was awesome.  Red Guard was awesome.  Loved how Kylo was unable to pull the trigger in an earlier scene.

 

But yeah, there were flaws.  The whole Laura Dern role/story was dumb.  The "space walk" part was silly.  The Rose sacrifice part seemed forced.  (pun intended).  Shirtless scene was funny, but probably should have been left out. 

 

For me, it's simple...it was a pretty long movie.  2.5 hours.  I was bored 0 times.  I lost interest 0 times.  I was engaged and enjoyed myself the whole time.  Grade of "A" from me.

 

Oh...and my son paid!  For those of you with younger kids, those are enjoyable times for sure.  And the teen years are really tough!  But man, wait until they get through that.  They come out the other side as real people -- real fun and enjoyable people!  Remember that Sean Connery line from the third Indiana Jones movie:  "You left home right when you got interesting"?  It's 100% true.

[dgrubb]

I might go see it, but will probably wait for the home release.

 

I wasn't very impressed by The Force Awakens which felt a bit by-the-numbers and between CGI-muppet, General Weasley and Emo-Vader I didn't find the villains credible or interesting. They completely undermine Ren in his first scene by allowing Poe to poke fun at him in a self-aware forth wall breaking way ("So who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?").

[RickR]

I might go see it, but will probably wait for the home release.

 

I wasn't very impressed by The Force Awakens which felt a bit by-the-numbers and between CGI-muppet, General Weasley and Emo-Vader I didn't find the villains credible or interesting. They completely undermine Ren in his first scene by allowing Poe to poke fun at him in a self-aware forth wall breaking way ("So who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?").

General Weasely!     Oh man, that's good.

 

I think they tried to correct a lot of that in this film.

 

<SPOILER>

 

Ren is transformed in this movie.  Get rid of the mask.  Get rid of the emo.  Get rid of snoke and let him be the bad guy we want him to be.  It will be much more interesting going forward IMO. 

[Starbuck66]

Some nitpicks:

 

The hyperspace knife trick... it seems like the Rebellion would have been using that all along if it was viable.

 

Spacewalk Leia was also jumping the shark, even for Star Wars.

 

Those huge slow bombers... I mean, maybe that’s all they had left, but where were the Y-wings? And the pilots wearing the masks... it’s like they were trying to make Memphis Belle in space, it was ridiculous.

 

Other than that I really enjoyed this movie, much more than the last installment because it felt original. Loved seeing Rey and Ren develop more as characters, and Luke Skywalker finally taking the stage, hell yeah! I also liked that Poe had more of a role in this movie, and started developing as more of a leader.

 

Planning on seeing this one again between Xmas and New Years for sure!

[RickR]

 

Those huge slow bombers... I mean, maybe that’s all they had left, but where were the Y-wings? And the pilots wearing the masks... it’s like they were trying to make Memphis Belle in space, it was ridiculous.

 

 

 

I agree on all your points, especially this one.  One more:  The bombs seemed to work via gravity!  In space!  Wouldn't they just float in place instead of falling when released?  That scene was horrible. 

[Starbuck66]

I agree on all your points, especially this one.  One more:  The bombs seemed to work via gravity!  In space!  Wouldn't they just float in place instead of falling when released?  That scene was horrible. 

 

I'm guessing they have artificial grav on the ships, with that woman falling to her doom and all, so with that to start them dropping, I would think inertia would do the rest? Still dubious science in the fiction though... 

 

I HATE the new Star Destroyer models too... I mean, the old ones had serious design flaws with the bridge location and shield generators being huge weak points and all, but they LOOKED impressive. These new ones look like they took two old ones and sandwiched them together.

[RickR]

Not to mention that a single X-Wing can take out all the cannons on a giant dreadnaught. 

Seems like a single button to drop bombs with no failsafe on the bombers is another huge design flaw. 

 

(we are getting nit-picky and I like it)

[Sabertooth]

I just saw it this evening. I liked that it was original and I didn't mind the humor or the porgs. The Rey, Luke, and Ren arch was really enjoyable. The Leia spacewalk was over the top, the casino world was like something out of the prequels and ending with the kid and his rebel decoder ring was just goofy.

 

One thing that I really appreciated was how deftly Rey's parentage was handled. It would have been too easy to make her a Kenobi, Skywalker or Windu. Well done, that.

 

In order: V, IV, VII, VI, VIII, III, I, II

[RickR]

 

In order: V, IV, VII, VI, VIII, III, I, II

 

I 100% agree with your order. 

[TrekMD]

I finally watched it yesterday. Surprisingly, the theater was fairly empty.  I did enjoy it but it felt a bit too long.  Lots of twists on this one!  It was, essentially, a passing of the baton to the new trio of heroes. 

[Starbuck66]

I 100% agree with your order.

Mine is IV, VI, V, VIII, III, I, VII, II

 

Yes I liked Empire the least out of the original movies and yes I would take two of the prequels over Ep VII. After I first watched Ep VII I blew my family and friends minds when I turned to them and said I would take any of the prequels over Ep VII. I had time to think it over since then though, and I think II is bad enough to go to the bottom of the pile.

[dauber]

I've seen episodes 4 through 8. Never was a huge *fan* of Star Wars -- when I saw the original trilogy, it was...because it was what you did. It was the late '70s/early '80s: you go to see Star Wars. Having said that though, I absolutely looooooooved me The Last Jedi. Wow. Went to see it with my wife and mother-in-law. All three of us were just stunned. My wife and I rarely go to the cinema....we average about one movie every two years (and that's being generous)...all I'll say is, if she wants to go out and see this movie again, I'm so there. Nothing more to say.

[StormSurge]

Not perfect but I was thoroughly entertained & can't wait to see it again.