Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Spoilers)

26,542 Views | 190 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by GivemTheAxe
MinotStateBeav
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Ok if we can get Rian Johnson to direct Stanford football we may see a few decades of success. What this guy did to the memory of luke skywalker and Leia is absolutely shameful. This movie is worse than Dune. This guys review was spot on after I watched the movie....good lord../rant off.

SPOILERS INCLUDED (and bad language warning)


Bear19
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Turns out Carrie Fischer actively participated in the writing for TLJ, so I think she would have disagreed with these criticisms, while Mark Hamill voiced many of the same concerns.
MoragaBear
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I loved the movie and so did my whole family and everyone I knows that saw it.

What are some of your specific complaints since you already labeled it a spoiler thread?

I can't watch the "review" unless I put earbuds in since it's @50% profanity. Something about the lack of political framework surrounding the story line? I don't find the idea of an ununified, politically and socially-fractured galaxy particularly unbelievable. And besides, that theme started with The Force Awakens.
calgldnbear
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The movie was good and enjoyable... The original characters are getting old (well, the actors are) so it makes sense to send them off and end their run. The movie was well received overall but you certainly can't please all the people all the time.

The story continues ... The saga moves on .... Etc
MinotStateBeav
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Ok my beefs with the movie ..

A) ...the slow speed 2 1/2 hour long chase ....totally ******ed. Seriously the empire couldn't have just light speeded ahead of them and fired on them when they got there ? Lol.

B) Leia going superman outside of space then opening the hatch and the crew not getting sucked out? lol

C) the poor use of humor during serious scenes..example...Damron calling the Empire ship at the begining of the movie to make a "your mama" joke.

D) The entire Casino sequence. Absolutely pointless and had nothing to do with anything in the movie.

This is just off the top of my head...there's a ton I'm not listing...wait wait....one more....

Bombers...in Space....
82gradDLSdad
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I'm really looking forward to Star Wars: the last one
LACalFan
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MinotStateBeav said:

Ok if we can get Rian Johnson to direct Stanford football we may be see a few decades of success. What this guy did to the memory of luke skywalker and Leia is absolutely shameful. This movie is worse than Dune. This guys review was spot on after I watched the movie....good lord../rant off.

SPOILERS INCLUDED (and bad language warning)



Dune is rad! It would've been even more amazing if Jodorowsky had been allowed to direct it.
BearForce1
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Agree with this list...Regarding the humor, I enjoy well written, well placed comic relief, but the "your mama" exchange + leia making that "I changed my hair" joke with near certain death and destruction of her life's work at the literal doorstep - just awful

my brother also pointed out that if they could just lightspeed through destroyers and dreadnaughts, why haven't they been doing that all along?

Maybe I am being nitpicky, but I think it's fair to hold this franchise to a higher standard...
MoragaBear
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I like the humor far more in the last 3 Star Wars movies, including Rogue 1.

There was way too much of the, "Oh, R2! You silly scamp!" and Han Solo throway lines in the earlier movies that had to pass for humor.

Part of enjoying Star Wars movies obviously involves suspending reality. I mean, if you want to nitpick sci fi fantasy movies, it's never going to be pretty. It's all about entertainment value for me.

The parts I liked the best were the interactions between Rey (who I really like a lot) and Ren. I really liked the Finn and Po interactions in TFA and Finn and Rose in this one. I also liked the backstory with Ren and Luke and what helped bring them to where they are in TLJ. I like the concept of non-Jedi's being able to become adept at using the force, like Rey. I liked Yoda's return. I liked the Luke hologram battle with Ren. I like it when Ren loses his mind in anger in both movies. I liked Leia having a bigger and more important role in this movie and her too-brief reunion with Luke. I liked Rey's exposure to the dark side and her being able to walk through it and not be tempted. I LOVED the Rey and Ren team light saber battle with Snoke's guards and Snoke meeting his demise. I liked that they put a distress call out to the galaxy, maybe foreshadowing a much bigger resistance in the future or more unification of good to fight evil -First Order or whatever it may be.

Far more for me to like rather than focus on nitpicking. If you want to, you could nitpick apart any of the 8 Star Wars movies, but why?
calgldnbear
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Well MB.... you just spoiled the whole movie ....

For shame (I kid, I kid) .....

Sometimes people need to just sit back and enjoy things instead of nitpicking things so much (like how there are never any guard rails (unless needed) in space ... Star Trek fails here all the time)
socalBear23
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I liked it about 80%. You have 150 minutes of movie. They gave 20 to the casino mission and 2 to the death of Snoke. Probably should have re-thunk that one. Overall it does set up for a great Ren V Rey showdown. . .
Bear19
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MoragaBear said:

I loved the movie and so did my whole family and everyone I knows that saw it.
I enjoyed TLJ too.

However, one of my sons gave it a 3 out of 10, saying that Johnson forced the characters to conform to his storyline without regard for their well established pasts, rather than allowing the storyline to arise out of the characters' persona. I've seen that there is a rather large group of folks voicing such criticisms. Enough that I don't think their thinking should be disregarded.

These folks grew up while Episodes 4, 5 & 6 were released, and evidence staunch ownership of that SW canon. (By the way, Rogue One is hailed by this group as an example of an excellent story that honors & expands Episodes 4-6).
MoragaBear
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I loved Rogue 1 and grew up watching 4, 5 and 6. Just watched them all again last week. I like the new ones as much or more, though.

Can't bring myself to watch 1-3 again right now, though I am reading The Phantom Menace. At least I don't have to watch JarJar Binks or hear him talk and can skim his dialog.
Bear19
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MinotStateBeav said:

B) Leia going superman Superwoman outside of in space then opening the hatch and the crew not getting sucked out?
Cal84
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I honestly fell asleep after about an hour of watching this flick. Literally asleep.... am going to go again in a few days to try and see the whole thing.

Best Star Wars movies ranked IMO:

1) The original (Episode 4) - a revolutionary film, dated now, but of historical importance to cinema. Resurrected sci-fi as a genre which had been left for dead after the commercial flop of 2001: A Space Odyssey (although I loved that film too)

2) Revenge of the Sith (Episode 3) - When Anakin turns to the camera, it zooms in and he says, "If you're not with me, then you are my enemy", it was the most powerful anti-war political statement Lucas had ever made, as it was a direct riff off Bush 2.0's speech that began the American military campaign in the Mideast. This film also had the best acting performances of the first six films.

3) Empire Strikes Back (Episode 5): When this movie came out, film goers still had a sense of wonder and awe about Lucas and his story telling. And he delivered. A good, solid film.

4) Attack of the Clones (Episode 2): There is actually some pretty awesome cinematography here - the stadium scene in particular. The whole sequence with the clones blasting away at the drones through a sandstorm was lame though. They have personal lasers, faster than light travel, but they don't have infrared goggles like we do now? On the plus side we do get to see Anakin get his ass kicked, so there is that.

5) Return of the Jedi (Episode 6): Predictable plot. Annoying Ewoks heralding the start of Lucasfilm's dumbing down of its plot/film structure. Substandard acting quality which was fine when Episode 1 was a no-name art house type film, but now is glaring. The only plus of this film was that it closed out a heroic, epic trilogy.

6) The Force Awakens (Episode 7): Once upon a time JJ Abrams took risks and made innovative motion pictures. And then there is this film which is a completely unoriginal, fan service dominated rehash of Episode 1. At least he cut down on the use of lens flares which overwhelmed his recent film efforts. There is also some shockingly good acting in this film, once you get past Harrison Ford of course. Look at the small facial movements in some of the close-ups. This is what happens when you get pros, instead of people off the street as in the original trilogy. More money buys you that at least.

7) Phantom Menace: Was there any doubt where this film would finish? You know I didn't even mind the midi-chlorian mumbo jumbo. But what stuck was the inability to maintain any sense of audience suspense or tension. Chariot race, a la Ben Hur? No, constantly break it up with inane announcer commentary. Epic space battle? No, constantly break it up with a 6 yr old prattling on. Huge ground battle for the fate of a planet? No, Jar Jar Binks interludes. Ugh.

I didn't rank Rogue One, but I thought it was a very good film. I didn't rank The Last Jedi because, well as Deng Xiao Ping said when asked what he thought of the French Revolution, "Not enough time has passed to judge".
MinotStateBeav
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My favorites were
1)Empire Strikes Back
2) Star Wars (the first film)
3)Return of the Jedi
4) Rogue One

I didn't really like any of the others. There were parts I enjoyed like the huge Jedi battles but I thought generally the more they made the worse it got. I hold Star Wars up in high regard and so I expect epic masterpieces from that similar to Lord of the Rings.
Yogi58
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MinotStateBeav said:

My favorites were
1)Empire Strikes Back
2) Star Wars (the first film)
3)Return of the Jedi
4) Rogue One

I didn't really like any of the others. There were parts I enjoyed like the huge Jedi battles but I thought generally the more they made the worse it got. I hold Star Wars up in high regard and so I expect epic masterpieces from that similar to Lord of the Rings.
And yet The Hobbit movies are no classics either. Sometimes it's best to quit when you're ahead.
OskiDeLaHoya
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MinotStateBeav said:

Ok my beefs with the movie ..

A) ...the slow speed 2 1/2 hour long chase ....totally ******ed. Seriously the empire couldn't have just light speeded ahead of them and fired on them when they got there ? Lol.

B) Leia going superman outside of space then opening the hatch and the crew not getting sucked out? lol

C) the poor use of humor during serious scenes..example...Damron calling the Empire ship at the begining of the movie to make a "your mama" joke.

D) The entire Casino sequence. Absolutely pointless and had nothing to do with anything in the movie.

This is just off the top of my head...there's a ton I'm not listing...wait wait....one more....

Bombers...in Space....


Ditto. I agree with everything on this list. I would add:

1) I get that Poe disobeyed orders earlier in the movie, but it made no sense for the Vice Admiral not to share her plan of setting course for the abandoned base. If she'd shared her plan, we wouldn't have had the idiotic plot Poe had to track down a hacker or whatever

2) Was not a big fan of the whole Rey/Kylo telepathic connection storyline. But to be fair, I did appreciate the nuggets about always having to have a dark side to balance the force.

Anyways, my favorite of the Disney productions was Rogue One.
BearsWiin
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MinotStateBeav said:

Ok my beefs with the movie ..

A) ...the slow speed 2 1/2 hour long chase ....totally ******ed. Seriously the empire couldn't have just light speeded ahead of them and fired on them when they got there ? Lol.

B) Leia going superman outside of space then opening the hatch and the crew not getting sucked out? lol

C) the poor use of humor during serious scenes..example...Damron calling the Empire ship at the begining of the movie to make a "your mama" joke.

D) The entire Casino sequence. Absolutely pointless and had nothing to do with anything in the movie.

This is just off the top of my head...there's a ton I'm not listing...wait wait....one more....

Bombers...in Space....
A) FO ships couldn't hyperspace past them because they'd overshoot them by a long way, and then the Republic ships could turn and go the other way. The whole thing makes me think that Rian read and took to heart Robert Massie's Dreadnought and Castles of Steel, a recounting of the machinations leading to WWI (and the role the naval arms race played), then how naval engagements were fought during that war. You have ships that need to find balance between speed, firepower, and armor; where you enhance one, the others suffer (especially between speed and armor). The Germans built their ships based on Tirpitz' dictum that the first task of a ship is that it remain afloat, so they sacrificed speed and firepower for armor and compartmentalization. The British built their ships with less armor than the Germans, and their famed battlecruisers sacrificed armor for speed while not skimping on firepower. Beatty's battlecruisers could outrun the Germans, but they couldn't hang with them in a gunfight. TLJ's spacefleet scenes hearken back to WWI naval realities. So I thought it was pretty cool. They even called one of their larger ship classes a dreadnought, in an obvious homage to the original 1906 supership.

B) My impression was that Leia collapsed against the door but it didn't open until those inside the ship had established an airlock. They launch fighters out of hangars on the larger ships, so the airlock tech exists for them. Whether it is reasonable to expect that tech on the bridge is another question entirely.

C) Forced humor was a little silly.

D) I've heard this complaint several times, but I think Rian felt that it was important to show that not all high-risk hairbrained missions succeed. This one didn't, even though viewers probably expected that it would (Rian confounding and breaking audience expectations here, too). Even Dameron's problem with the substitute admiral whose name escapes me (Dern's character) highlights the fog of war and that sometimes subordinates aren't privy to the reasons why a leader tells them to do something; it's their job to carry out those orders. But, yeah, sometimes things don't pan out the way they (or we) want/expect them to. If you want to complain about a plot hole, complain about why Dern's admiral didn't kamikaze into the FO fleet as soon as the transports were away, thus saving them all (she knew she was dead already, so why not take as many of the enemy out?).

You could also complain about how Rose was in a position to avert Finn from sacrificing himself by flying into the mini-cannon. He was speeding straight into it, but she would have had to take a looping course to intercept him. The only way to reconcile this would be that her crappy speeder somehow was faster than Finn's crappy speeder (I couldn't believe that the speeders would attack walkers from straight ahead again, not learning a damn thing from the slaughter on Hoth). But it was important for her to make that little speech about how they were going to win not by fighting that which they hate, but by saving that which they love... because then Luke does exactly that.

You can probably surmise that I found the movie refreshing and satisfying, if a little unsettling initially. I think the last thing we needed was another formulaic Star Wars movie. We get enough of that yawn factor with the Marvel movies.
sycasey
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This was easily the best Star Wars movie since the original trilogy. First one to really feel like it's about something more than just reminding us about the old stuff. Not perfect, but I loved the new approach. The fact that this was not slavishly devoted to decades-old Canon is a major plus for me.
sycasey
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MinotStateBeav said:

D) The entire Casino sequence. Absolutely pointless and had nothing to do with anything in the movie.
I will disagree with this point, but maybe from a different angle. It's not hugely impactful on the plot, but thematically I don't think you can just remove it and have the movie deliver the same message.

It's about how sometimes you need new blood to keep the revolution going, lest it stagnates. The final shot of the kids in the stable is emblematic of that idea. You can't get there without taking this detour. I agree that it could have been shortened somewhat, but if you think it could just be removed entirely then IMO you missed the point Rian Johnson was trying to make.
prospeCt
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prospeCt
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Strykur
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It sucked, and the franchise is now on life support. Where the **** do you go from here?
ninja1999
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I heard Sonny Dykes was a fan of the prequels.
Cal84
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ninja1999 said:

I heard Sonny Dykes was a fan of the prequels.
LOL. I heard Jar Jar went to USC.
Yogi58
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Strykur said:

It sucked, and the franchise is now on life support. Where the **** do you go from here?
Make more mediocre movies and sell lots of tickets. It will never stop.
MoragaBear
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And I'll be lined up to see every one of them and enjoy them all to varying degrees (unless they go down the moronic JarJar style path again).
Cave Bear
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Garbage storytelling wrapped in slick visuals propped up onto the platform of a well-adored franchise
Cave Bear
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Strykur said:

It sucked, and the franchise is now on life support. Where the **** do you go from here?
Is the franchise now on life support? They're still making mountains of cash off these things with no end in sight
LunchTime
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MoragaBear said:

I like the humor far more in the last 3 Star Wars movies, including Rogue 1.

There was way too much of the, "Oh, R2! You silly scamp!" and Han Solo throway lines in the earlier movies that had to pass for humor.

Part of enjoying Star Wars movies obviously involves suspending reality. I mean, if you want to nitpick sci fi fantasy movies, it's never going to be pretty. It's all about entertainment value for me.

The parts I liked the best were the interactions between Rey (who I really like a lot) and Ren. I really liked the Finn and Po interactions in TFA and Finn and Rose in this one. I also liked the backstory with Ren and Luke and what helped bring them to where they are in TLJ. I like the concept of non-Jedi's being able to become adept at using the force, like Rey. I liked Yoda's return. I liked the Luke hologram battle with Ren. I like it when Ren loses his mind in anger in both movies. I liked Leia having a bigger and more important role in this movie and her too-brief reunion with Luke. I liked Rey's exposure to the dark side and her being able to walk through it and not be tempted. I LOVED the Rey and Ren team light saber battle with Snoke's guards and Snoke meeting his demise. I liked that they put a distress call out to the galaxy, maybe foreshadowing a much bigger resistance in the future or more unification of good to fight evil -First Order or whatever it may be.

Far more for me to like rather than focus on nitpicking. If you want to, you could nitpick apart any of the 8 Star Wars movies, but why?
Of the 9 movies, this one has the second most cringe inducing humor. Jarjar is the only thing that tops it.

Serious moment, you mama joke. That us the opening of the movie.

The WWII bombers with ball turrets, I accept that in universe. Everything about star wars space battles is absurd, so why not space b-17s? it's kind of fun...

But the swing and miss humor is what ruined it for me.

Kylo and Ren are pretty good though. They made it not a total disaster.
ducky23
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I have the same complaints that have already been expressed. The jokes missed the mark and were way too cutesy. The middle of the movie was boring as hell. And a bunch of stuff just didn't make sense.

To MB's point that you have to suspend belief to watch Sci-fi. That's kinda true. But not really. You have to suspend belief to accept the rules of the new universe that's been created. Like you have to accept that the force exists. But you can't just break the rules that the new universe has already set up. Rey shouldn't be able to just pick up a lightsaber and be a badass. She's trained for like what, half a day with luke? Luke was training with yoda for months and he still sucked as a Jedi. And once Leia starts flying thru space, that's when you have to throw your hands in the air and say, bull****.

The one thing I did like was the directors giant fu to Abrams.
Cause Abrams is clearly the devil. Abrams just loves catering to the fanboys. Who cares about making an actual good movie. Instead let's just put a bunch of stupid mysteries in the movie so fanboys can obsess about who snoke is or who Rey's parents are.

Well guess what you stupid fanboys? Snoke is snoke. And Rey's parents are no ones. That and binary sunset is the only thing the director did right.
MoragaBear
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Staff
Who's to say that the rules of space are the same in the Star Wars galaxy? Why should it be so unbelievable that someone could float in space and possess enough powers to get back to the ship when it's someone like Leia? Why should people be sucked into space in their world like in our atmosphere when a ship is blasted? Why should bombers not work in their world in space? If you go to enjoy the movie, why get sidetracked by things like that?

Rey was special from the beginning. She was better in combat than those on her planet. She was extremely bright and resourceful. She prevented Ren from reading her mind, which he found mystifying. The new story line is showing that people can be gifted without being Jedi's, like how Finn was at least competent with a light saber (which also drove some people crazy). I think some were so profoundly impacted by the first 2-3 movies that if you move the bar or get outside of the lane one's used to or expects, it's almost a sacrilege.

Just keep the ewoks and gungans away and I'm cool as long as I like the story line.

The thing is, it's all a matter of preference and personal taste. I'm not telling anyone they should love the movie, just saying it's a shame to miss out on the joy of it. It seems like some here are speaking in absolutes, though, like of course this is a terrible movie that thinking people should hate.

I'd hate to miss out on the magic of Star Wars by thinking like that. I hope they make dozens more, as long as I like the characters and story lines. I love that Disney bought the franchise and brought new life into the series with new and talented directors and look forward to many years more of enjoyable entertainment, just like I'm glad that my favorite series -Game of Thrones- will live on in a prequel or sequel series, even though it won't be produced by Benioff and Weiss.
Cave Bear
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ducky23 is correct in my view (at least in this part): the storytellers have the liberty to define the rules of their universe, but how they wield that authority bears on the quality of the story. The rules don't need to be uniform throughout to be valid, but they need logical consistency. If Leia has abilities in this film that defy the understanding the audience has formed of her character from her appearances in prior films, that's a problem. It's just deus ex machina at that point. A good test for whether the ability is deus ex machina is to survey those who have seen all of the movies and ask them whether they would have expected that Leia would survive an explosion, violent de-compression and exposure to vacuum (for an indefinitely long period) before they saw the scene. If an overwhelming majority say "no" but the scene happens anyway and the discrepancy is not credibly reconciled afterward, I think there's a huge storytelling defect.

As is detailed in the excellent review posted by MinotStateBeav, the abundance of those 'universe physics' issues are only part of the movie's plot defects. There are also a huge number of garden variety "uhhh, why didn't they just do XYZ" issues too (like the fact that there's only one evil ship with the tracking device and it's quite conveniently placed in front of the formation). That's bad writing. Moreover, if there's no explanation for things like why Leia can open the door from inside the now vacuum exposed bridge without exposing the internal hull to depressurization, then it's damn terrible writing. Moraga asked "why should people be sucked into space in their world like in our atmosphere when a ship is blasted?" There are two good answers to this question. (1) Given the rules of the Star Wars universe established in the previous 8 films, those rules of elementary physics still seem to apply; and (2) like two minutes earlier we saw this very same bridge hit by an explosion which exposed it to space and saw all of the people sucked out (including Leia), just like we would have expected. The same goes for bombers in zero gravity.

Moraga suggests these criticisms are nitpicking. Perhaps they would be nitpicking if the logical flaws were few in number or largely insignificant to the plot, but that's not the case. It's not nitpicking to object to a movie on these grounds when these issues arise dozens of times including in critical plot devices. Beyond a certain point, they tell the audience that your ability and willingness to rationally track and process what is being presented to you is not only not going to help you enjoy this movie, it will in fact be counter productive. In the words of the YouTube reviewer, what the f*ck?

This is all before other critical defects regarding the storytelling are considered, like the wholly justified reservations about the movie's comedic timing, butchering of the character of Luke Skywalker (who was IMO the second most central character in the entire story), proliferation of trope-y sidekicks and worthless one-off villains like Rose and Captain Shinyarmour, and the absurd failure to develop moments of dramatic significance (like when Luke discovers that Han is dead).

ducky23 is off the reservation (in my view) when he signs off with his FU to the 'fanboys'. You don't have to be a fanboy (or fangirl) to care about characterization. Despite being called "episodes", Star Wars was never really episodic. It was an epic built around arcs which were contiguous through the individual movies. These films may have different directors, but given the pains Star Wars had always taken to preserve continuity in characterization, it's very disappointing to have The Force Awakens invite the audience to ask significant character questions like "Who is Snoke?" or "What is Rey's origin?" only to have the answer be 'don't matter lololol stupid fanboys' like some moronic internet troll.

Star Wars is supposed to be a saga, but this is not a continuation of that saga. It is the death of the universe as it existed before followed by the reanimation of its corpse under a new and schizophrenic identity. If that doesn't bother you then you're far less likely than I am to have objected to The Last Jedi. If you also like the 'storytelling' found in the modern superhero genre replete with lazy characterization, sophomoric/kitsch/slapsticky humor, and cheap melodramatic tension, you're likely to have loved this movie and be eagerly looking forward to more.
Bear19
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Cal84 said:

ninja1999 said:

I heard Sonny Dykes was a fan of the prequels.
LOL. I heard Jar Jar went to USC.
George Lukas based Jar Jar on Sonny, whining on the sideline during games: "Monsters out dere, leakin in here, all sinkin an no power? When are yousa tinkin' wesa in trouble?! Dissen gonna be bery messy! Me no watchin!"
 
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