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Star Wars Thread - Spoilers, yo.


Monkee

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I'm back from watching it and I enjoyed the majority of it. My main bugbears with the film were the "comedy" scenes, just dull slapstick which didn't add anything.The Porgs whilst not annoying obviously aren't aimed at me and didn't ruin the film, but felt really unnecessary. Luke milking that animal was just plain creepy and the casino scene seemed like something out of the prequels. The Rey/Luke/Kylo stuff was great also how Poe/Finn and Rose in being heroic fucked it up for the rebels, really was a nice twist.

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Overall I thought it was great but it wasn't flawless and I'm not sure how well it'll hold up in a few years.  Ridley, Driver and Hamill were excellent and even carried the hokey scenes well. Visually, it's probably the best Star Wars there's been, the opening battle scene and the juggernaut stuff was incredible, I'm sorry I didn't see it at imax now but may well have to the week between Crimbo and NY. 
I wasn't bothered by Snoke getting snuffed, sure it would be interesting to know his background and how he came to be but that could be a standalone film in itself like Rogue One, there was no need for them to give you anymore than they did here.  I'm not sure about that really being Rey's backstory but more a way of Ren getting in to her head, I'm sure Mas knew something about her in the last film but I could be wrong.
Finn and Rose's side story was pretty pointless and didn't do much for me, more interaction between him and Phasma throughout the movie would have made me care more when he offed her.
Admiral Holdo was a shit new character too, it should have been Admiral Ackbar that got the honour off hyperdriving through the Star Destroyer, not some no mark Hunger Games reject
The less said about space Mary Poppins the better.

There was some really terrific stuff though, all the space scenes were incredible, the face off between Kylo and Luke was great, the "noone's ever really gone" line was perfect and sassy Yoda was great. I actually enjoyed the comedy bits too, all the butthurts complaining about it are forgetting there was a few gags in the originals and it was only the prequels that were dry and took themselves too seriously - JarJar Binks was never funny so he doesn't count. Punching bag Hux is inspired too and Gleeson plays the role perfectly.  

 

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Im surprised at the Hamill love. He's as hokey an actor as he's always been but now has years of being comedy nerd king to look past and for me it's hard to see past. That said he's always been a bit shit and his character was well written.

I did think it was excellent bit felt a little too inspired by Guardians with the humour and especially the Mary Poppins scene being very like the scene in the first GotG when he gives his helmet to Gamora.

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The reviews from fanboys on IMDb are some of the funniest things I've ever read. There's one guy who gives out massively about the porgs and how they've "destroyed the SW universe". They're an invention to sell toys to kids, who are still primarily the target audience. Yes, you've got people who saw the first ones the. the prequal generation, but kids are always going to be the focus. "Chewbacca is rendered useless for the whole film"- he's a bit of fan service for christ's sake, it's not like he's interval to any plot.

"as a die hard Star Wars fan, it pains me to write this review"- then don't! Or you could go watch it again, and realise it's actually a really good film

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I've just finished listening to a two-hour episode of Plumbing The Death Star about the film (they hated it, despite the first 40 minutes being a list of things they liked about it) and while they do have some good points - mostly on ideas of what could have been better - there's a lot of stuff that seems negative for the sake of it, or is stuff that'd be excused in other Star Wars films. They go on and on about the timeline of Rey's training compared to the fleet being attacked, but are totally cool with an explanation that Luke trained on Dagobah for six months to two years during Empire while the Falcon is being chased between Hoth and Bespin despite the film never mentioning that. I'm now at a stage that I can see Last Jedi might have some issues, and I'd rank it below Force Awakens, Rogue One and the originals, I still really enjoyed it and I bet I'd still love it if I watched it another time.

My favourite thing about some of those IMDB commenter types are that they hated this one, but they hated Rogue One too, and hated Force Awakens for being too similar to A New Hope. They also hated the prequels, and the Lucas-tinkered editions of the originals - but they hated Return of the Jedi anyway because of Ewoks. Which basically means they like two out of nine films, but only the versions that you can't get anymore. That's less than a quarter of the film output - but they still class themselves as fans.

Edited by HarmonicGenerator
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I'm interested to see how critics view the film in 5/10 years, or so. It's a good film, I think you're being a bit of a tit saying otherwise, but it does have this weird mix of potential series high points and some ropey ideas, which prevent it from being the masterpiece some critics were trying to label it.

Nonetheless, the more I think about it, the more I think Adam Driver put on one of the best performances this year. It's easily the best bit of acting in a Star Wars film.

Edited by ColinBollocks
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11 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

The reviews from fanboys on IMDb are some of the funniest things I've ever read. There's one guy who gives out massively about the porgs and how they've "destroyed the SW universe". They're an invention to sell toys to kids, who are still primarily the target audience. Yes, you've got people who saw the first ones the. the prequal generation, but kids are always going to be the focus. "Chewbacca is rendered useless for the whole film"- he's a bit of fan service for christ's sake, it's not like he's interval to any plot.

"as a die hard Star Wars fan, it pains me to write this review"- then don't! Or you could go watch it again, and realise it's actually a really good film

The thing is, if the movie is about selling the porg toys it surely shouldn't be a 12A? Go U/PG or lose the toy commercial elements. It's a tricky thing to pull off. Also, how can people complain about the Porgs and watch Return of the Jedi as though nothing is amiss? George Lucas knew what he was doing as regards merchandise when he signed the deal with Fox in 1976 to retain merchandise rights himself, and Disney are more than aware of what a cash cow they've obtained.

I like the way it reinvents the Star Wars galaxy. There's plenty of warning from the characters that "This isn't going to be how you expect" and to "Let go of the past" which isn't just speaking to the other characters, but talking to the audience as well. They even flip a lot of the traditional tropes on their head. The way Luke throws the lightsaber away at the beginning, the mission not managing to come good and save the fleet in the nick of time. While they had something resembling a happy-ish ending there's not a lot of la Resistance left, it doesn't seem that anybody is coming to the rescue (Force sensitive cat stable boys notwithstanding) so there's potential for a hell of a payoff to come in Episode IX. Star Wars has very much been dragged into the 21st century for its audiences, and I'm pretty sure that if A New Hope was to be made at this time it'd have a rather diverse cast of characters as well, which would piss off the alt-right to no end. Some of the reviews I've seen  are ridiculous..

I do personally hope that after episode IX they leave it for a few years. I know they won't, but a gap of even 5 or so years until the next round of Star Wars films has the potential to renew interest, rather than just ploughing through year on year. Or even just stick out some "Star Wars stories" to keep people coming to the pictures for a bit until it's time for a new trilogy.

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I'm still reeling from the way that after some people panned Force (which I fucking loved) for re-telling the first film, they wrote this film to start with an escape from Hoth, go full bore training on Dagobah, and have goodies betrayed to the baddies by a Lando. They didn't go "Ren tells Rey she's his sister" like I thought they might, but still.

Really enjoyed it though. "Destroyed Luke's legacy," eat a bag of dicks.

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Why isn't there a separate thread to discuss Eddie Hitler playing Hux's second in command?? I think that warrants one. We might need to wait until Ian or Gus get round to watching it. What a wonderfully surprising bit of casting.

Just got back from watching it with my kids, I loved it. Thought it was even better than Force Awakens and it has made the prequel trilogy look like an even bigger joke.

The Mary Poppins bit was shit, but I'll 'allow it' (as the kids say these days) because everything else was excellent. 

Add me to the camp that loved the fact that Rey's parents were nobodies. They've done the important offspring/parents shit to death now so I was really relieved. Also pleasantly happy that they shafted overgrown Golum off so quickly. I wasn't prepared to buy into him as a mkII Emperor Palpatine.

Laura Dern looked like Dixy Carter after a purple rinse.

Porgs were bloody adorable. Don't care if they're just there for marketing, I liked them.

But yeah, loved it. My son, who turns 6 next month, sat through all 2 1/2 hours of it without getting bored- he was engaged the entire time and really enjoyed it, was asking plenty of questions to help his understanding (I mean, even I struggle to keep up with these films).

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