Locked STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI v.3 (Dragonlord's Initial Review)

[moreorless87]

Jyn Erso needed more depth. Show a bit more backstory, some actual attachment to her father. Rather than the 2 minutes they were on screen together.

Even Saw Gerrera (who's a rebel legend, even having his legacy cemented in new canon) should've had more exposition and story. No reason they couldn't have written him on Jyns' Team.

The characters needed work on Rogue one. The movie could've been damn good if they did those things.

No one cares if a movie is 3 hours long, especially not with strong characters engrossing you in their story. Since not everything is action, action, cgi, cgi, charcter development is a must. People say Rogue One was slow for the majority of its run time. Reason being weak characters. They could've done the same damn things and expanded the characters with detailed writing and no one would've been bored.

I actually suspect that the reshoots on Rogue One provided the "work" the characters needed as for me they were the best thing we've seen in SW since the originals.

In Jyn's case you already have a couple of flashbacks showing he attachment to her father plus a lot of scenes that obviously show it as well. That meeting early on with the rebel leaders is I think a classic case of building a character well though performance akin to a lot of Empire Strikes Back(think Leia's sideline look at Han early in that film). You can clearly see the attachment there in her reactions(most not dialog) to hearing about her fathers involvement. Plus of course you then get the message from him and her reaction to it before actually meeting him.

I think they made a wise decision cutting saw down personally. He's not a lead character and we get as much of him as we need to tell Jyn's story, don't think a load of flashbacks to her connection to him are really needed to sell that.

Again Rogue One to me felt like a film that had been polished to the same degree as the originals, focusing in on the more interesting stories and not overloading you with extraneous detail/action as the lucas prequels and current sequels have. The Last Jedi does to me feel like it could have been a decent first draft of a script that would have benefited from a lot of work on it cutting away the less interesting material and focusing more on the most effective aspects(Kylo's story).

The originals and Rogue One are much smarter in what they infer and don't show IMHO putting the focus in the correct places, that is the story of the lead chaarcters and building the setting. The prequels/sequels on the other hand get way too caught up in detail that would have been much more effective left in the background., Lucas with all his political plotting, these films with all there constant twists and turns for the sake of it.

 

[Bob Gray]

When they announced five years ago that they would be making a new Star Wars trilogy and they would cast the original actors, I thought at that time that it was a mistake because now you have to revolve your story around these old characters just for the sake of some short-term nostalgic pop rather than planning long term with these iconic characters. I thought they should have continued with the story just a few years after Return of the Jedi and cast a whole new actors for the classic roles.

With Rebels coming to an end and the upcoming new Star Wars TV shows in pre development, I was thinking maybe have Clone Wars/rebels mastermind Filoni head up an animated series taking place after Return of the Jedi. Now with the new Trilogy coming to a close with the next movie, theres a large time period between Jedi and FA that could be filled in. You could even "Canon-ize" the Thrawn trilogy since hes already been introduced in Rebels.

Two ways you could do it. Either center directly around Han, Leia, Luke, etc and everything that happens after Return of the jedi. This obviously makes a more "epic" and potentially awesome feel. But at the same time it could set up impossible expectations.

The other route is more akin to Rebels, where you center on a group or groups of people set up in some other army or resistance, etc. Then characters like Luke and Hand can be background players that show up once in awhile. The problem here is who do you focus on? A new set of....what? More rebels? Ben there done that. intergalactic political officials setting up a new government doest have quite the same ring as Adventures of the Jedi and Smuggler.

 

[Amerikuracana]

It wasn't snoke that connected them, because of what we saw near the end with rey boarding the ship. Rey also felt luke near the end, as did Leia.

 

[SSgt Dickweed]

Watch this. The magic was in his wife's editing. George was always a shitty director.

The urgency part at the Death Star battle makes me think of the first Matrix movie when they were about to die IRL and Neo started to believe in himself and defeat Agent Smith.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Ray goes evil, Ren turns back to good. Then the third they try and turn Rey back. Finn sacrifices himself somewhere down the road in the third. Luke has at it with Snoke and dies. Rey and Ren double up in the finale and take him down.

Precisely what I wanted.

 

[frenz]

Did you see how when phasma dies her helmet cracks just enough so that you can see she is white? LOL

its turned into SJW Wars, purple haired females and all.

erm........

triggered white person here ^ LOL

youre mad about purple hair...in a star wars film..as if star wars doesn't have 'weird' characters as it is. what is wrong with you people

 

[yakuza01]

Women are generally not the ones leading a war party. They are physically weaker, and men usually lead that kind of charge. Women CAN do it, and Leia did in the original series; no biggie. But white men are, without question, being intentionally taken out of the scene by huge media orgs like Disney. Maybe for the better, maybe not, but don't be surprised if people notice.

Yeah, and you have all these alien species working together and they all happen to conveniently speak English. What a bunch of nonsense.

 

[LC Shepard]

Is it me or are they setting up Rey to go to the dark side, because she will be jealous of Finn and Rose? The gave Finn that look when he was looking after Rose.

Also, was the kid in the end force sensitive? I swear he picked up the broom using force powers slightly.

 

[Tiny]

That movie was fucking horrible and if you disagree, you're a fucking idiot. You're entitled to be one, it's okay, but fuck me that movie jumped out of the realm of "Decent" when Leia flys back in the ship like Neo in Matrix Revolutions and idc if that's a spoiler you fuck right off.

Fuck that movie was bad.

94% on rotten tomatoes tho, bro.

 

[yakuza01]

Ok if this guys theory is true, then I can forgive The Last Jedi. I'd still be mad at it, but I'd at least be excited for the next movie (Which currently I couldn't give much of a shit about).

My only issue with his theory about Snoke pulling the same trick as Luke did at the end is that he fucking got cut in half (unless he is so powerful that could also make an illusion of that) while with Luke, Kylo's light-saber just went through him, thus revealing the trick.

 

[yakuza01]

Also, if you've ever wondered what it would look like if Benicio del Toro played a more toned down version of Brat Pitt's character in Twelve Monkeys, Last Jedi is the movie for you

 

[mixmastermo]

The more I think about this movie the more I appreciate the prequel trilogy.

Yeah, I said it. Come fight me IRL

The prequels were flawed and need some serious editing but at least they had an interesting story arc. You saw how Palpatine rose to power through some very careful manipulation. How Anakin couldn't ever embrace the Jedi way because he was too emotionally attached to people. How the Jedi way was ultimately flawed, etc.

The prequels most definitely had some cringe worthy moments but the general story was strong.

TLJs major conflict boils down to First order/empire bad! Resistance the good guy underdogs!!

There's no real mystery. Any mystery TFA was setting up got thrown away here.

 

[FyrFytr998]

My only issue with his theory about Snoke pulling the same trick as Luke did at the end is that he fucking got cut in half (unless he is so powerful that could also make an illusion of that) while with Luke, Kylo's light-saber just went through him, thus revealing the trick.

Darth Maul says Hi.

 

[TrueBias]

Ray goes evil, Ren turns back to good. Then the third they try and turn Rey back. Finn sacrifices himself somewhere down the road in the third. Luke has at it with Snoke and dies. Rey and Ren double up in the finale and take him down.

Some would say that would be predictable. I would say its simple. When its up against a boring plot, ill choose simplicity any fucking day.

KISS= Keep It Simple, Stupid

 

[GtehMVP]

Great review and couldn't agree more on most things. That whole Fin/codebreaker thing was a galactic waste of time. The first order chase scene at the beginning was severely underwhelming too. With Luke/Rey interaction being anticlimactic as well, it set the tone for a very bland, hollow and overall boring experience. How the hell is this doing well critically?

To add, I also feel that Rose is just tacked on to add another female empowerment role and to increase their diversity points.

My only grip with your review. How is Rey a compelling character? She has no arc and is horribly acted in the first film. I will say she showed better acting chops in this one, but that's not saying much and something more to do with the script. Her also being written as a quintessential Mary Sue hurt any chance she had at being memorable from the get go. It's like playing a RPG with cheat codes for everything.

 

[hearthstone25]

The more I think about this movie the more I appreciate the prequel trilogy.

Yeah, I said it. Come fight me IRL

The prequels were flawed and need some serious editing but at least they had an interesting story arc. You saw how Palpatine rose to power through some very careful manipulation. How Anakin couldn't ever embrace the Jedi way because he was too emotionally attached to people. How the Jedi way was ultimately flawed, etc.

The prequels most definitely had some cringe worthy moments but the general story was strong.

TLJs major conflict boils down to First order/empire bad! Resistance the good guy underdogs!!

There's no real mystery. Any mystery TFA was setting up got thrown away here.

Dude i got yo back in that fight if it happens lol you know what’s crazy is that more than 30% of votes here rated it 8-10 outta 10. On IMDb it’s 8/10. On Letterboxd where I do all my reviews it’s 4/5.. I guess a lot peeps don’t give a F about they played it super safe and didn’t listen to the fans on ANYTHING and fucked up all the characters and story. It’s amazing how Empire compares to The Last Shit in quality it’s mind boggling. Oh ya empire is 4.5 outta 5 on letterboxd. Only a .5 difference in rating... Ha This isn’t better than the 3rd prequel I know that for sure at least

 

[Bonos]

I have forgotten more about star wars and the EU than people who would call themselves hardcore fans even know about it... the movie was hot garbage

That's an interesting perspective you have then, seeing how the EU was/is hot garbage.

 

[SmilinDesperado]

He was hands down the best part of this movie though.

I think his character is one of the only bright spots of this new trilogy. I love how he's an arrogant, wanna be brat with raw intensity.

He was great in this movie and Driver is a very good actor and displays emotion really well

I wish i could see whatever it is you guys are seeing.
He is the worst of the movies for me. It's like looking at Napoleon Dynamite's emo cousin trying to act tough. The indecisiveness, retard temper tantrums where he goes around punching and hitting shit and screaming is just fucking annoying.
I just want to smack the shit out of him every time I see him. He is not scary.
He has gotten his ass handed to him REPEATEDLY, and this is supposed to be the big, bad of this trilogy?
It's absurd.

 

[Amerikuracana]

I wish i could see whatever it is you guys are seeing.
He is the worst of the movies for me. It's like looking at Napoleon Dynamite's emo cousin trying to act tough. The indecisiveness, retard temper tantrums where he goes around punching and hitting shit and screaming is just fucking annoying.
I just want to smack the shit out of him every time I see him. He is not scary.
He has gotten his ass handed to him REPEATEDLY, and this is supposed to be the big, bad of this trilogy?
It's absurd.

They really missed a chance to have him just explode after the deed in the chamber. He should have gone Vader at the end of RO on the red knights. I honestly can't believe they missed that chance.

 

[SmilinDesperado]

They really missed a chance to have him just explode after the deed in the chamber. He should have gone Vader at the end of RO on the red knights. I honestly can't believe they missed that chance.

Even there with the red knights, Rey had to save his ass. She beat his ass, and she had to save his ass and then she beat his ass again.....this is Vader's replacement? How is any SW fan on board with this shit?
This movie was just missed chance after missed chance. There was so much cool shit they could have done.