Quote:
Originally Posted by Dominic
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
I was 13 when the first Star Wars came out in '77. I saw it in the theaters at least 10 times. 40 years later, it's still damn cool and The Rise of Skywalker is a worthy ending to the saga.
I had a blast. I've really enjoyed this last trilogy, even though I thought the 2nd one had a tone problem.
I don't understand the hate this one is getting. Compare it to the JJ Abrams Mission Impossible movie - if you liked that, you'd like this.
These are movies for kids. These are for children....why people take them any more seriously than a good romp, I don't know.
I loved it. Great, great fun.
Dom
First of all- no one can take away the emotion/nostalgia a movie brings to you. At the same time when you discuss said movie with a different person it's essential to understand that they're likely not viewing it through the same lenses.
I love Star Wars. My little brother is one of the biggest nerds of
anything I've ever met, and he's a Star Wars nerd. Our family watches them constantly. I've seen the prequels more times than I'd like to count. I am a prequel apologist and will defend them until the end. I also enjoyed The Force Awakens, even though it was basically a ripoff of A New Hope. But The Last Jedi didn't just have a "tone problem". It was an objectively terrible film on every level, and I will do my best to detail why.
1) A lot of it was just pointless. Why did Rose & Finn go on their wild goose chase? If you break it down none of it mattered to the film at all. The answer, of course, is simple---they had nothing to do with those characters. Why didn't Holdo just tell Poe what her plan was? Remember when Holdo and Leia are doin their condescending smirk look when the plan is revealed "ahh that hothead is a good kid"? Ya that was cute. But again, it highlighted how dumb made the entire arc. Just tell the guy what you have up your sleeve? Instead 30 min was spent watching Poe rally the troops to upend Holdo, only for them to pull the rug out from under us because HA, she knew what she was doing all along! When it woulda been as simple as her just saying "hey bud, here's the plan."
2) The film inflicts serious problems on the canon. So Leia can force fly huh? Why is she the first to do that? Why has no one ever thought to hyper space a ship into another? George Lucas spent 3 movies establishing and developing Luke Skywalker as the symbol of hope. A man who would fight until the end, and die to protect his friends. You're telling me he'd come to the brink of murdering HIS BEST FRIEND AND HIS SISTERS' CHILD? And then exile himself when the rebellion needed him and become a grouchy old man? Even Mark Hamill hated that.
3) Rose sucks. She's not Jar Jar bad, but she's bad. So at the beginning of the film her sister gives her life for the cause. Rose stops Finn from running away and tries to arrest him for abandoning the cause. And then at the end, as Finn is trying to sacrifice himself for the cause, Rose stops him? And is gonna let everyone die? Remember she doesn't know Luke is about to show up. And why? "That's how we're gonna win, not fighting what we hate, saving what we love." The explosion in the background that is supposed to make her kissing Finn look prettier is literally the rebel base being blown up. She just, presumably, got everyone killed, so she could get one kiss in with a dude she has a crush on before they all die. Pathetic.
4) It tried to be a Marvel movie. Disney basically decided "ok we have a formula that works, let's stick with it." I guess I'm saying what you said about "tone problem", but the need to force lame jokes in (opening the movie with a your mom joke, Rey asking Kylo to put a shirt on, etc) just don't fit a Star Wars movie at all. I like Marvel movies, and don't mind a good amount of the humor in those films. I think they find a good balance and it works most of the time. But Star Wars movies aren't Marvel movies. It's supposed to be more serious imo. I understand the first 7 movies had comic relief littered in, but it was much more blatant in TLJ. Also, why the **** are they all so happy at the end of the film? Everything Empire Strikes Back was this film wasn't.
5) It didn't do much to advance the story, and it killed many of the mystery. Why are we even supposed to care about 9? As I said previously, TFA was basically ANH ripoff, but they did open some new threads. Who are Rey's parents? Who is Snoke? The Last Jedi cut those off at the head real quick with extremely underwhelming answers.
There's just nothing. You don't feel Reys' struggle---she's had nothing to overcome, and has already been established as stronger than the main antagonist. You don't understand why Kylo is who he is---say what you want about the first 3 and/or Hayden Christianson's acting, but from a storytelling perspective the downfall if Anakin Skywalker is at least developed and mapped out. You don't really care about Finn or Poe because, aside from Finn once being a stormtrooper (which was a thread that had potential and they just haven't done anything with) we don't really know anything about them. For a counter example, Han was a great supporting character because he was a greedy, selfish, smuggler who threw away everything to help the rebellion. So what exactly are the stakes here? It's the responsibility of the 2nd film in a trilogy to carry on the momentum the first one built, while raising the stakes. The Last Jedi didn't really accomplish anything.
I think I'm going to like The Rise of Skywalker.. I liked The Force Awakens, I believe JJ had an actual plan for the trilogy and Rian Johnson just decided to do his own thing, so I think he can squeeze out a fine ending. But The Last Jedi is just an awful movie on every level. I guess it looks pretty? But everything else is terrible. I would actually be interested in somebody who sort of enjoyed it to try and type out a counter-argument merely from a story-telling perspective. What was even good about it? From where I sit, when you combine expectations, resources, and the responsibility this movie had to a movie franchises legacy, The Last Jedi is one of the worst movies of all time.
