Star Wars

Oh I've been thinking in the last few weeks I should get back to the project of finishing watching the whole series… I got so far as Ep 4.

"Its time for the Jedi to end" - Luke Skywalker

The War in Stars is kewl.

I'm surprised at people surprised by the trailer side-by-side comparison that is being reposted all over Facebook.

Don't hate me for cross posting, this made my day

There's gonna be another (another) trilogy (by the director of The Last Jedi)

Just saw it and here is my humble opinion:

This is a Marvel movie in Starwars paint. Like Fastfood unhealthy and not that good, but can be enjoyed from time to time, but nothing lasting remains. And every time they have touched a more meaningfull and serious topic for 5 seconds they instantly put on some action or humor that kills the mood.

So basicly: You don't miss anything when you don't see it, but you can enjoy it anyway. Just don't expect Starwars like it was.

Spoiler And I hate how all critics say it was different to TFA in that it didn't rely too much on the old movies: It did! It just used some scenes and dialogue 1:1 and added a change of characters or minor plottwist for the sake of having it changed. THAT IS NOT "DIFFERENT"! That is the "Anti-Same", and very familiar! Like ST Into Darkness chaning Spock/Kirk with the Kaaaahhhhn. Totaly different... For sure...

Also all the unresolved situations from the last movie are really resolved without any real resolution or consequences, making them totally meaningless, and actually devaluing TFA.

Didn't much care for it.

5/10

I liked it, but it wasn't perfect!

8/10

For me, it was a solid 8/10. Great movie, i expected worse.

Spoiler Rey and Kylo-Ren/Ben Solo scene in Snokes chambers was amazing. Also when Holdo cut through snokes ship going lightspeed. Damn, the whole theater got quiet and i heard some people just saying "wooow". I kinda wish they did more with Reys parentage, but i guess the whole point there was to show that it does not matter who you are, you can still be a hero and wield the force. So Rey learns about that, Finn learns about facing his fears and that damn awesome pilot just learns how to be a leader. I just want more Star Wars.

10/10

Quite enjoyed it! It had one big WTF moment for me though:

Spoiler Why kill off Luke after the plot twist about the jedi mind trick he played on Kylo Ren? Just so he didn't die a painful death at the hands of the Sith? Felt strange to me.

8/10

Quote from FrieChamp

40 minutes ago, FrieChamp said: Quite enjoyed it! It had one big WTF moment for me though:

http://# Hide contents Why kill off Luke after the plot twist about the jedi mind trick he played on Kylo Ren? Just so he didn't die a painful death at the hands of the Sith? Felt strange to me.

8/10

Spoiler I dunno...did they really kill him off from episode IX? We saw Yoda come back in this movie.

Quote from Izuno

4 hours ago, Izuno said: http://# Hide contents I dunno...did they really kill him off from episode IX? We saw Yoda come back in this movie.

Spoiler Well, I guess he could have another appearance as a „dead“ Jedi who drops by to say hi - like Yoda - but technically Luke is not amongst the living anymore. At least that‘s how I interpret his body disappearing into thin air (like old Obiwan).

Didn't particularly like it. It felt really disjointed at times to me. A little too much "Disney" in it as well for my liking and the story as a whole felt flat. Basically didn't feel like Star Wars to me.

Spoiler Didn't particularly like it. It felt really disjointed at times to me. A little too much "Disney" in it as well for my liking and the story as a whole felt flat. Basically didn't feel like Star Wars to me.

Spoiler

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I don't think this was a bad film. However, I left the film disappointed.

There were some great isolated scenes and characters. Snoke was very cool when he was alive, Kylo Ren's ambiguity was interesting and some of the battle scenes were fantastic; the light sabre battle with the Praetorian Guards springs to mind. But I felt the film was ultimately dissatisfying.

The plot seemed to go nowhere; the film consisted of a snail's pace chase scene and a random off-beat adventure to a casino planet. Luke was unlikable and his opinion towards Rey was completely inconsistent.

Plot threads were't continued from Episode VII. Where were the Knights of Ren? When did Snoke finish Kylo's training as he said he would? Leia floating in space and flying like Superman; that didn't need to happen and seemed forced, forgive the pun.

There was token exposition from Maz Kanata; how did she get Luke's light sabre? It seems like that character was thrown away in this film.

The plot was driven by coincidence: Benicio Del Toro's character springs to mind. Fin and Rose just happened to be in a cell with him. He's a hacker?! What! Then he betrayed them!? It seemed so empty and convenient; all used to make the simple chase plot have some twists.

How did Yoda's force ghost make lighting to destroy the old tree? Could't he just have mentored Luke to give him the resolve to do it himself?

The new character Rose get more character development than Snoke! Luke's death wasn't satisfying. Snoke's death wasn't satisfying; they were both interesting in their own way, but both cases felt underwhelming. I'm okay with the masters being killed off, but they went out with a fizzle, not a bang...

Rian Johnson did a good job of subverting our expectations; however, I would have preferred some predictable catharsis, as opposed to surprise disappointment.

There was a strong theme of learning from failure in the film, in the film Yoda says "failure is our greatest teacher." I do hope that Lucas Film can learn from this films failure to provide satisfaction in future. To clarify, I don't think the film will fail financially; doubtless it will make billions.

I realise I just wrote an essay on a film i'm not that fond of. This is a reflection of my passion for the series, and my desire for the next film to be better. When I view the third film I may completely re-evaluate this instalment. Fingers crossed.

I would be very interested to hear if other people agree/disagree with any of these points.

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It worth watching, however, I've expected much more...

8/10

Quote from FrieChamp

19 hours ago, FrieChamp said: http://# Hide contents Well, I guess he could have another appearance as a „dead“ Jedi who drops by to say hi - like Yoda - but technically Luke is not amongst the living anymore. At least that‘s how I interpret his body disappearing into thin air (like old Obiwan).

Spoiler yeah i know. I'm just saying we may see him in ep IX, but then ep VIII didn't go as we expected, which is basically what Luke said.

Meanwhile, regarding my 10/10...

Spoiler I went into this movie pretty much cynical about Star Wars after the prequels and then how ep VII still took a big page out of Lucas' infamous forced "rhyming" of the prequels with the original trilogy. Ep VII basically had a new death star, saw an old man/mentor to the up-and-comer character by the main baddie with a lightsaber, a new emperor type person, a new empire-like evil organization, on and on and on. That said, ep VII had good new characters, actual good acting (imho) and was not overdone on the CGI the way ep 1 to 3 were, etc. So Ep VII somewhat disappointed and somewhat pleased me.

So with Ep VIII, and not knowing anything about the writer / director, I was not expecting that much. With my low expectations I felt the plot twists and "tear it all down" idea very refreshing...thus VIII significantly exceed my expectations on quality and entertainment value, even if the sequence on the planet with the casino felt too long and a little too much out of the prequel trilogy. I very much understand the 5/10 type reviews and appreciate that perspective.

tl;dr -- I set my expectations low and thus I was happily surprised despite definite flaws with ep VIII. Also, I liked the writing and the acting and how those little bird guys started to get annoying but then the director backed off from pushing them into Jar Jar territory. PS., the sexual tension worked very well, i thought.