Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Discussion Thread (SPOILERS WITHIN)

[AxlsMainMan]

8 hours ago, luciusfunk said:

See if you can get a set of the “faces” release. It was the last time they were released on VHS before the special editions. Or you can get the 2006 DVDs that have the original as a bonus disc. 

Out of curiosity, is the 1994 "faces" VHS boxset worth much these days? Definitely one of my favorite Christmas gifts from when I was a wee lad. 

[luciusfunk]

34 minutes ago, AxlsMainMan said:

Out of curiosity, is the 1994 "faces" VHS boxset worth much these days? Definitely one of my favorite Christmas gifts from when I was a wee lad. 

Not the full screen. I don’t know about widescreen. I bought it brand new at my local record store for like $20 because I’d lost the ones I’d been gifted back in the day. 

[rocknroll41]

10 hours ago, Georgy Zhukov said:

 

Or Snoke was lying to her, through Kylo. 

 

There has to be something special about Rey. There are force sensitives out there, but she is something special. Or the Force just randomly empowered her because Snoke and now Kylo is throwing off the balance by going to the dark side.

 

What do you think Luke meant by "See you around, kid."

 

Luke never would have tried to kill Kylo. He went down that road with Vader. He was willing to die to bring him back, so why try to kill Kylo?

I think the thing about luke killing kylo was to give luke a valid enough reason to Wanna hide on the island for years and "close himself off from the force." It also explains kylo's reason for turning evil, and why rey would sympathize with him.

only negative aspect is that, like you said, it hinders Luke's arc from Retuen of the Jedi. But maybe the idea Johnson was going for is that even legends who save everyone and learn all the lessons can still be human and make mistakes.

...did I say all of this in an earlier post? I apologize if I did XD

[James Bond]

2 hours ago, AxlsMainMan said:

Out of curiosity, is the 1994 "faces" VHS boxset worth much these days? Definitely one of my favorite Christmas gifts from when I was a wee lad. 

I've seen sealed copies on Amazon third party sellers for like $10... so I'm voting no.

Even the much sought after CBS/FOX early releases don't seem to fetch much now unless they're mint and sealed.

[NachoLZ]

Its hard for me to believe all of this corporate bullshit is canon, a new empire rises from who knows where, they have a whole planet to make a giant death star, Rey is more powerful than the son of freaking Anakin Skywalker (when she discovers the force), now you can do everything with the force (force ghosts that seem real, projections that seem real, no aura, flying, what the fuck) what happened to the knights of ren?

[DieselDaisy]

41 minutes ago, NachoLZ said:

what happened to the knights of ren?

Another Abrams idea scrapped by Rian?

[Nicklord]

1 hour ago, NachoLZ said:

Its hard for me to believe all of this corporate bullshit is canon, a new empire rises from who knows where, they have a whole planet to make a giant death star, Rey is more powerful than the son of freaking Anakin Skywalker (when she discovers the force), now you can do everything with the force (force ghosts that seem real, projections that seem real, no aura, flying, what the fuck) what happened to the knights of ren?

Imagine if force worked like it used to in the last 6 movies and then Luke managed to project himself. It would so epic but now it's like: "Eh, you sis flies in space"  

[DieselDaisy]

Nothing makes sense about the film. Take the island thing? Does Luke train her or not? It is not made explicit. He sort of refuses and then sees her randomly doing some Jedi practicing on her own initiative, and nobody is any wiser. Have you seen the editing when Luke finds out Solo is gone?  

[MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle]

Well, saw the film today.  I'm not a Star Wars enthusiast, was dragged along by my kids to see this one, so thought I'd contribute my thoughts.  

Overall, I did enjoy it, although my lasting impression, as a casual fan, is that it was long, meandering and there were a lot of characters who had to do a lot of stuff, and feel a lot of feels.

I don't remember most of them, certainly not by name, except the double crossing code breaker guy - I liked him.  I was slightly disappointed not to see more of C3PO and R2D2 but I did get the distinct impression this film was a handing over of the baton so to speak.

Loved Kylo Ren and Rey, they were great . Those two were the only characters I cared about (besides Luke Skywalker, who I thought did a good job and I didn't mind how he ended up, I thought it was fitting).  They seemed to be the only ones who mattered and I thought the acting was terrific.  The first time Kylo Ren and Rey did the force connection thingy I was thinking, oh god, this could get tedious, but actually, I found myself looking forward to their scenes; they've got a great chemistry and their story arc was the one that hooked me.  I didn't really care about what the others were doing or whether or not they survived. 

One thing that annoyed me was that particular brand of Marvel-esque one-liner humour @DieselDaisy posted about, which I cannot stand.  That humour has its place, I guess, but I find it distinctly at odds with the style of Star Wars (but I guess the style has changed?) where we are expected to invest in characters and get emotional about them, but then a sarcastic one-liner undermines any emotional impact the scene might have had.  

Oh, and I loved the look of the salt planet - stunning visuals for that one.

[luciusfunk]

Over-under on Phasma in EPIX?

 

What a fucking waste of a character in TFA and they bring her back after throwing her in the trash compactor on a planet that blew up. 

[highvoltage]

I doubt Phasma is really dead. Johnson referred to her the "Kenny" of the series for a reason.

I had my criticisms and they've been covered already... but:

- I wasn't into Leia's space-flying
- Fairly disappointed with Snoke and Phasma like most
- The Finn/Rose arc was pretty "meh"
- I'm not sure I can buy into Kylo as the new top-dog; he's always been a little... bitchy for me
- The Porgs would have been totally tolerable.... with about 1/4 of the screen time. A couple of the gags worked though.

That being said, I liked this movie. A lot. There were some great scenes in it; especially Holdo's huge moment and the red-salt skimmer scene. The lengthy space-chase didn't seem that outrageous to me... they even acknowledged it was a ridiculous situation to be in. I thought it worked.

I don't agree that Ackbar should have had Holdo's moment... notwithstanding the actor's death, he's only popular because he looks like a fish and made it to meme status. We know next to nothing about Ackbar and who he is from the films...
Holdo is an actual character, who makes decisions and creates tension within the story. I thought she deserved that moment. I didn't think you were really set up to hate her either, I think you were supposed to realise she had a plan all along. Anyway, it was definitely one of my absolute favourite moments in any Star Wars movie... there were gasps all around the cinema!

More than anything - I think this film really opens Star Wars up for a new generation (as it should). TFA paid more than enough service to long-time fans and I appreciate that Rian didn't necessarily set out to make a "Star Wars" film with all the quirks people have come to expect. I get the criticism, but I enjoyed it.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Holdo would have saved herself a lot of trouble of she let Poe in on her plans.

[Georgy Zhukov]

11 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

I think the thing about luke killing kylo was to give luke a valid enough reason to Wanna hide on the island for years and "close himself off from the force." It also explains kylo's reason for turning evil, and why rey would sympathize with him.

only negative aspect is that, like you said, it hinders Luke's arc from Retuen of the Jedi. But maybe the idea Johnson was going for is that even legends who save everyone and learn all the lessons can still be human and make mistakes.

...did I say all of this in an earlier post? I apologize if I did XD

It is a weak plot point though. It made more sense that Kylo was obsessed with continuing his grandfather's legacy. Plus we already had a backstory that Kylo was corrupted by Snoke and killed many of Luke's apprentices and Luke realizing his failure goes to the original Jedi Temple. It made no sense that Luke would just say "Fuck it" and try to nip Ben's turn in the bud when he could try to save him. Just like he did his father. Luke was the one who help brought down the most powerful Force user in the galaxy, the Emperor, by seeking the good in his father. Failing to save Ben, would have been enough for Luke to go into exile and go  through another journey himself. 

 

I excepted Luke to raise his X-Wing and go rescue his sister and the surviving Resistance. That would have been the Luke we know and love. The one who would do anything to save those he loves. As for Snoke, his death was stupid. He is clearly the most powerful user of the Force since Palpatine and he dies like a bitch. It was weak writing at its finest. 

[arnold layne]

If anything The Last Jedi has encouraged me to rewatch the series starting from Rogue One.

I really enjoyed the movie to be honest. My biggest gripes were Leia flying through space (stupid), and Yoda making a guest appearance. Yoda is dead ffs. So stay dead. 

A much stronger film than TFA. Wish Rian Johnson would have stayed on to direct the next one.

 

[tsinindy]

12 hours ago, Georgy Zhukov said:

It is a weak plot point though. It made more sense that Kylo was obsessed with continuing his grandfather's legacy. Plus we already had a backstory that Kylo was corrupted by Snoke and killed many of Luke's apprentices and Luke realizing his failure goes to the original Jedi Temple. It made no sense that Luke would just say "Fuck it" and try to nip Ben's turn in the bud when he could try to save him. Just like he did his father. Luke was the one who help brought down the most powerful Force user in the galaxy, the Emperor, by seeking the good in his father. Failing to save Ben, would have been enough for Luke to go into exile and go  through another journey himself. 

 

I excepted Luke to raise his X-Wing and go rescue his sister and the surviving Resistance. That would have been the Luke we know and love. The one who would do anything to save those he loves. As for Snoke, his death was stupid. He is clearly the most powerful user of the Force since Palpatine and he dies like a bitch. It was weak writing at its finest. 

I don't find a lot about this film to defend, however it should be noted that Luke actually did go and save his sister.  In fact my interpretation is he literally died for them as it is somewhat unexplained as to why he suddenly died at the end.  Just bc it didn't happen the way you wanted it to doesn't mean it didn't happen

did he know force ghosting would kill him?  Or was that an unexpected result?  

I do agree Snokes death is somewhat difficult to defend, but my problem with that more in lies with the fact that his backstory should be better developed and I can blame that as much on Abrahms for failing to do so in TFA as much as I can for this film not advancing that characters development further.

Edited December 22, 2017 by tsinindy

[James Bond]

Part of me wishes they could have predicted the future (Carrie Fisher's death) and just got rid of Laura Dern entirely and had Leia sacrifice herself. To me that would have been an excellent, heroic sendoff for the character. Instead we'll probably get some clunky dialogue in the next one explaining her absence.

I don't have any problems at all with how Luke was handled in the film. I just wish we could have had a more narrow focus of him and Rey. Basically anytime Luke, Rey, and Kylo are on screen it's an incredibly film. It's everything else in between that really brings it down. I'm looking at you Finn and Rose!

[tsinindy]

35 minutes ago, James Bond said:

Part of me wishes they could have predicted the future (Carrie Fisher's death) and just got rid of Laura Dern entirely and had Leia sacrifice herself. To me that would have been an excellent, heroic sendoff for the character. Instead we'll probably get some clunky dialogue in the next one explaining her absence.

I don't have any problems at all with how Luke was handled in the film. I just wish we could have had a more narrow focus of him and Rey. Basically anytime Luke, Rey, and Kylo are on screen it's an incredibly film. It's everything else in between that really brings it down. I'm looking at you Finn and Rose!

The more I think about it...while I may disagree or have some issues with certain things.  My two main issues with the film are the Carrie Poppins scene and,

the whole Finn and Rose storyline.  All of that whole storyline is terrible, including the casino and everything that happened there.   

[Gibson87]

1 hour ago, James Bond said:

I'm looking at you Finn and Rose!

I hated that storyline so much. I've said it before and I'll say it again, she's the most annoying character I've come across. Worse than Jar Jar

[Georgy Zhukov]

1 hour ago, James Bond said:

Part of me wishes they could have predicted the future (Carrie Fisher's death) and just got rid of Laura Dern entirely and had Leia sacrifice herself. To me that would have been an excellent, heroic sendoff for the character. Instead we'll probably get some clunky dialogue in the next one explaining her absence.

I don't have any problems at all with how Luke was handled in the film. I just wish we could have had a more narrow focus of him and Rey. Basically anytime Luke, Rey, and Kylo are on screen it's an incredibly film. It's everything else in between that really brings it down. I'm looking at you Finn and Rose!

 

Well they can't kill off two of our beloved characters in one film! In hindsight they probably wished they killed Leia first. Instead they invent a new character we know little or care about who doesn't make the best judgement calls. Killing characters is just a cheap way to arouse emotions because they couldn't find another way to get the auidience invested. They look back and said "Hey! Obi Wan died in the first film, why not kill Luke too?" The only reason Obi Wan died because Sir Alec wanted it that way so he wouldn't be committed to go back for sequels. Mark Hamill isn't a fussy old Brit like Sir Alec.

 

I still roll my eyes at Hux blowing up the transports one at a time. And his excuses not to fly over to the main ships earlier and blow them up. It wasn't like they could get away or anything. "Oh, they are well out of range!" Then get closer! 

[DieselDaisy]

Nobody has mentioned that weird alien from the force awakens who talks on the phone while fighting a battle.

[James Bond]

21 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Nobody has mentioned that weird alien from the force awakens who talks on the phone while fighting a battle.

Just another wasted, useless character!

[Silent Jay]

 

[DieselDaisy]

1 hour ago, James Bond said:

Just another wasted, useless character!

Another Abrams cast-off I feel. 

5 minutes ago, Silent Jay said:

 

Poor Luke - sorry Mark. If he dislikes it so much while promoting the thing, just you wait until the dust settles. We've never heard from George yet either!

[Silent Jay]

In the Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi book, it’s revealed that the first meeting to discuss The Force Awakens‘ plotline took place in January 2013 at Skywalker Ranch, where George Lucas showed off concept art for an older Luke Skywalker, a young Jedi padawan named Kira (later renamed Rey), and a bell-shaped design for the first Jedi temple (later redesigned and relocated to the planet Ahch-To). While most of these concepts were tossed out, some are on display in the new book.

[RussTCB]

On 12/20/2017 at 8:28 PM, luciusfunk said:

By the way, what's the timeframe for merging these threads and allowing spoilers? I was going to change my signature to something from the movie, but I think it might be too spoilerish.

 

I've seen a few sites saying Christmas or day after Christmas.

 

 

I was just thinking about that prior to clicking on this thread just now. @downzy, your thoughts?