Joel
Premium
- 8,141
- Halifax, NS
- Noob616
I really liked TLJ, honestly I might even put it as my 2nd favourite SW movie after Empire.
I think it probably ran about 30mins too long but overall I liked it a lot. I loved the Rey/Luke/Kylo story arc, Ridley/Driver just have incredible chemistry and Rey disobeying LUKE :censored:ing SKYWALKER to reach out to Kylo (and being proven right) was amazing IMO. Luke and Kylo both being scarred by the memory of Vader and it creating their conflict was great. Rey immediately gets tempted by the dark side just like Kylo with Vader. Kylo destroying the mask and Luke's "this isn't going to go how you think" is the film in a nutshell IMO.
The whole thing just subverted the fanfic setup from TFA, we were all ready for Luke to train Rey like Yoda's trained Luke, and for Rey to be Luke's daughter and to fight Kylo. Instead we get Yoda's ghost literally destroying the Jedi/SW canon so Luke can finally move forward, and Rey being just as orphaned as Finn. Then we get Rey and Kylo teaming up to fight Snoke but Kylo still being so impulsive and hot-headed about Luke that Rey can get away etc.
In the end Luke (along with Leia/Holdo) have to grudgingly admit that Rey/Finn/Poe were right and the resistance needs to fight differently to avoid falling into the same trap as the prequel and original trilogy Republics that fell to the Empire/First Order. But the Holdo/Poe arc is great and Holdo ends up being vindicated too. When she tells Poe the plan at the end he immediately blabs to Finn and the plan leaks to the First Order and 2/3 of the ships are destroyed.
I just love the idea that Rey/Finn/Poe/Kylo are all fighting a conflict that's bigger than them but they're thrust into those roles because their leaders failed them. Luke sits idly by on an island while the First Order took control and murdered billions in the last movie. Snoke turned out to be a paper tiger. The Republic was toothless in stopping the First Order just as they were shown to be toothless in stopping the Empire in the prequels and Rogue One.
Leia was usurped by Poe, and Rey undermines Luke's wishes and is vindicated by seeing Kylo can still be turned. They're all flawed characters who constantly deal with failure and are picking up the pieces from the failures of Luke/Han/Leia/Vader/Snoke/ etc. and the Republic in general. They're struggling to find their place and constantly learn from failure themselves.
The Finn/Rose stuff was kinda fun ish and I liked how it reckons with the real human consequences of the war to the non-special characters (like Rogue One) but it ran about a half hour too long. The Leia thing was cheesy but whatever, it's a movie about magic space wizards with laser swords. Just wish they could have just had her be seriously injured but still in the ship when the bridge was destroyed instead of flying into space. I don't really care too much about the cutesy stuff, it was a bit much but overall I didn't hate it and we already have a really dark Star Wars movie in Rogue One. Ultimately Star Wars is pulp fantasy about space wizards made to sell toys to kids so I can't get too upset about porgs.
I like Rose as a character for the same reasons I like Rogue One (she's a "real" person and not a magic space wizard) but overall their subplot of riding horses around space Vegas/Monaco was a bit ehhhh and too long. I don't think it quite hits all its beats, and the Jedi books being saved at the end was frustrating and undermined a lot of what I liked so much about TLJ. But overall I loved that the movie subverted the expectations of the Star Wars canon and made something new.
My updated rankings/tiers is probably:
Empire, The Last Jedi, A New Hope
----
Rogue One
----
Return of the Jedi
----
The Force Awakens
---
Revenge of the Sith
---
Attack of the Clones The Phantom Menace
[/spoilers]
The whole thing just subverted the fanfic setup from TFA, we were all ready for Luke to train Rey like Yoda's trained Luke, and for Rey to be Luke's daughter and to fight Kylo. Instead we get Yoda's ghost literally destroying the Jedi/SW canon so Luke can finally move forward, and Rey being just as orphaned as Finn. Then we get Rey and Kylo teaming up to fight Snoke but Kylo still being so impulsive and hot-headed about Luke that Rey can get away etc.
In the end Luke (along with Leia/Holdo) have to grudgingly admit that Rey/Finn/Poe were right and the resistance needs to fight differently to avoid falling into the same trap as the prequel and original trilogy Republics that fell to the Empire/First Order. But the Holdo/Poe arc is great and Holdo ends up being vindicated too. When she tells Poe the plan at the end he immediately blabs to Finn and the plan leaks to the First Order and 2/3 of the ships are destroyed.
I just love the idea that Rey/Finn/Poe/Kylo are all fighting a conflict that's bigger than them but they're thrust into those roles because their leaders failed them. Luke sits idly by on an island while the First Order took control and murdered billions in the last movie. Snoke turned out to be a paper tiger. The Republic was toothless in stopping the First Order just as they were shown to be toothless in stopping the Empire in the prequels and Rogue One.
Leia was usurped by Poe, and Rey undermines Luke's wishes and is vindicated by seeing Kylo can still be turned. They're all flawed characters who constantly deal with failure and are picking up the pieces from the failures of Luke/Han/Leia/Vader/Snoke/ etc. and the Republic in general. They're struggling to find their place and constantly learn from failure themselves.
The Finn/Rose stuff was kinda fun ish and I liked how it reckons with the real human consequences of the war to the non-special characters (like Rogue One) but it ran about a half hour too long. The Leia thing was cheesy but whatever, it's a movie about magic space wizards with laser swords. Just wish they could have just had her be seriously injured but still in the ship when the bridge was destroyed instead of flying into space. I don't really care too much about the cutesy stuff, it was a bit much but overall I didn't hate it and we already have a really dark Star Wars movie in Rogue One. Ultimately Star Wars is pulp fantasy about space wizards made to sell toys to kids so I can't get too upset about porgs.
I like Rose as a character for the same reasons I like Rogue One (she's a "real" person and not a magic space wizard) but overall their subplot of riding horses around space Vegas/Monaco was a bit ehhhh and too long. I don't think it quite hits all its beats, and the Jedi books being saved at the end was frustrating and undermined a lot of what I liked so much about TLJ. But overall I loved that the movie subverted the expectations of the Star Wars canon and made something new.
My updated rankings/tiers is probably:
Empire, The Last Jedi, A New Hope
----
Rogue One
----
Return of the Jedi
----
The Force Awakens
---
Revenge of the Sith
---
Attack of the Clones The Phantom Menace
[/spoilers]
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