Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, December 15, 2017) Movie • Page 352

I like it quite a bit, but there's no way I could call it a masterpiece.

 

The Last Jedi was great. I’m at the point where I just don’t get the hate anymore. So many of the arguments against it fall completely flat to me.

 

I appreciate this perspective. Do you still feel the same cognitive dissonance about Jackson's Hobbit trilogy? With a book as source material, I feel it's easier to scrutinize compared to Star Wars, which has no 'right' story, fan expectations be damned (and that's speaking as someone who's still a little disappointed with The Last Jedi).

 

Yeah I do, and it really bums me out. As more time goes by I just look at the three Hobbit films as a huge misfire where the filmmakers wasted perfect casting in their lead and hundreds of millions of dollars in a pretty irresponisble way. It turned out fine for everyone involved in the end because the movies made ridiculous amounts of money and were financially successful but as narratives you look at them and they are silly incoherent messes. It's not even just book versus film stuff either, I mean simply in the three films themselves things are set up in earlier films and then completely dropped and abandoned later on. Watching it it always seemed to me like Peter Jackson kind of had no idea what he was doing and was just winging it on set and then you see the behind-the-scenes material and it's like holy shit it's even more of that than I thought.

 

Yeah, I've always felt like there's a good 3 or 4 hour cut of the movie hiding in there, but they're clearly bloated with tangential characters and story threads. Restraint goes a long way towards good art, which is part of why the length of The Last Jedi works against its quality, in my opinion. It's a totally different movie, but by contrast, Dunkirk benefited greatly from its lean 100-minute run time. Brevity intensifies quality, in many cases, but money often drives the excesses of sequel-after-sequel film making more so than story, unfortunately.

The Last Jedi has a story to tell - don't get me wrong - but Rian may hold told it more effectively with about thirty minutes excised.

 

Never saw any of The Hobbit movies and I don't plan on ever doing it going forward.

 

I tried twice and couldn't make it past the first 15 minutes of the 3rd Hobbit because my investment in what was going on from the past 2 films was below zero

 

The first Hobbit movie had the Gollem scene, which was great. And I remember enjoying the 2nd when I saw it in theaters. The third was a mess though. I just don't think the Hobbit was ever going to adapt well to film. And it definitely didn't need to be three movies.

 

It’s also one of the few examples of how CGI can take away if not done correctly.

 

I disagree slightly only in that I don't think it was ever going to adapt well into the type of film they were trying for, 9 hour action-filled epic. I absolutely think the story can (and someday should) be adapted as the smaller scale more focused story that it is. A single film of normal legth, probably 2 hours, maybe a little more if they wanted to show a lot of the story, could tell this story very well in an entertaining way.

 

The cousin dwarf of Thorin's or whatever who showed up in the battle in the 3rd movie.....geez. He was completely CGI and it made me feel like I was watching a WoW cut scene and not a movie.

 

The Gollum scene from the first film is the perfect example of what the filmmakers are capable of with a solid plan ahead of time. That scene was written ahead of time and written well and everyone knew what they were doing and shooting for going in. The scene is great. Contrast that with behind the scenes footage from the 3rd film where they have Cate Blanchett walking up foam stairs in front of a green screen waving her arms in a vageuly magical way where nobody knew what the hell was going to be going on around or behind her yet or when they had the 2nd unit just go out and film people bashing at each other with weapons in front of green screens for a while with no idea what the battle was going to look like or be.

 

My roommates are out of town, so I've got the house all to myself and now I'm having a serious internal debate right. Do I go out to the movies tonight or take advantage of the free house and rewatch this on Netflix with no interruptions.

 

If you choose the Netflix route, you also have the option to Risky Business throughout the house.

 

Went with TLJ. I honestly might have this tied for #2 right now with ANH. With time, we'll see how well it ages. But for now, I love it.

 

Also, and maybe this is hot take territory, but screw it. Canto Bight is good. The weakest point of the film, for sure. But still good imo. The stuff I really disliked about it either makes more sense to me now or doesn't seem as bad to me now. The chase sequence used to feel a minute too long. Now it breezes by (without it, the middle of this film would be sooo slow). The lame way Finn & Rose get caught (parking ticket) really just further serves to highlight how shortsighted of a leader Poe was. He sent a couple of inexperienced people on a covert mission, and surprise, they landed in plain sight of everyone. I dig it.

It also feels so relevant right now. The rich being more than happy to fuck over the rest of the world as long as they reap the benefits? Yep, makes sense. Maybe it won't age well (but, ahh, history says it will), it just hits home right now.

 

Thanks for reminding me how awful the Hobbit movies were.

 

I honestly always liked the Canto Bight stuff. Really cool costumes and creatures.

 

Never even thought of this. Thanks for pointing that out. Another part of being leader is how you delegate and just like Rose and Finn trusted DJ who was just a dude in a jail cell who ends up betraying them, Poe trusted this huge mission to a janitor and a maintenance worker lol

 

Someone on Reddit pointed out that Luke’s journey began with Leia sending him a projection of herself asking for his help and his journey ends with him sending a projection of himself to help Leia.

Not sure if that was intentional.

 

i read that on twitter a few months ago and nearly cried lol

 

Idk but considering that same message was played in TLJ which is what gets Luke to reconnect to the force, I wouldn’t be surprised.

 

also, not to be sUUUUper picky, but she didn't send luke the projection, it was sent to and meant for obi-wan, we don't even know if she knew she had a brother at that point, none the less that it was luke, and by chance he was there when it was played. it's a nice sentiment but it's also fan-reaching for the sake of emotion lol

 

Yeah, you're right. She didn't send it to Luke and didn't know he existed or that she even had a brother.

It's still a nice sentiment though.