Star Wars: The Last Jedi

[TRP]

Since when did the crappy dialogue and acting in a Star Wars ever matter? It's always been hokey.

While I did enjoy The Last Jedi, just like Han Solo, "I have a bad feeling" about episode IX. It'll be terrible if it turns into the Oprah Winfrey Star Wars edition. "You get The Force, and you get the Force! Everybody gets the Force!"

Or even worse, it could be like some late era LeGuin, where all the male Jediis were siphoning from the Dark side in one way or another. Only XXs can set the Force right, and XYs must never be allowed to levitate, channel lightning or force choke again.

[garhkal]

I know I'm wading in at the end of long conversation but what the hell.

Totally loved "The Last Jedi". There were a few plot holes -

Why didn't the rebels jump their capitol ship away as a decoy immediately when they were doing their little subterfuge with the transports? If the ship had enough juice to jump into a destroyer (or whatever) it probably had enough to jump to juice to jump to another system and lure the New Order fleet away but overall it hangs together. A few thoughts: Old Luke - totally believable - has anyone ever known an old hippie aka aging idealist? Eventually you can get pretty worn out with things - might even start milking goats or weirder creatures - and you get pretty weird and crusty. And Luke was already pretty out there in RotJ. Whatever had turned him into a what he thought a Jedi was didn't exactly make him someone who was going to be able to deal with society after they won easily. I never saw him really mellowing out after all the Yub Yub. He's also half trained and very aware of the fact and apparently no one else seems to get that. Yoda - always playing mind games with Luke - if Anakin in the first series was too old to train what did that make Luke? Yoda always seemed to feel Luke needed to be guided by whatever methods would work if that includes lying about burning sacred texts its right in his wheelhouse. I even like the goddamn porgs - it fulfills Lucas's desire for comic relief without a. the porgs save the day a la the ewoks or b. a bunch of robots stepping in poop with out any relation to anything or c. horse toothed aliens in 50's diners.

Edited to take out any potential spoilers!

Maybe they couldn't, as they NEEDED it there, to mask the sensor reading on the pods??

[Steve]

Didn't see it, no interest since Disney took over. The prequels look much better these days.

[MageInBlack]

The prequels look much better these days.

That seems just...wrong!

[garhkal]

Didn't see it, no interest since Disney took over. The prequels look much better these days.

Other than the current crop of Marvel films (panther, Ant man 2, avengers 3 and 4) and EP9, i am also done with Disney films..

[bobjester]

Didn't see it, no interest since Disney took over. The prequels look much better these days.

Other than the current crop of Marvel films (panther, Ant man 2, avengers 3 and 4) and EP9, i am also done with Disney films..

Doesn't sound like you really meant that.

I'll give Black Panther a go, since they will treat that character with canonical respect, and I suppose Infinity War is too big to ignore, Deadpool and the New Mutants were Fox products before the buy-out, so I can't really say no to those two.

Star Wars is dead to me and there will never ever be Episode IX afaic, I have had 0 interest in Dismal princess movies for several years, and my interest in Marvel wanes with each year, despite their assurance that they are still original Avengers characters, and not a crop of 3rd wave 'woke' characters. 20 more Marvel movies means RDJ will retire a billionaire before 5 more get to the screens, and I am sure that I'll be out by then.

[Falconer]

This is pretty cool. I’m not a fan of the Prequels, not at all — I think they turned something with a lot of heart into a plasticky superhero franchise — but the Phantom Menace trailers I still happen to have some nostalgia for. Of course I was swept up in the excitement, and, with the classic John Williams score, a timeless film look (this is from an original 35mm reel which was sent out to theaters), a lot of imagination, a few cameos (Yoda! Jabba!), and barely a hint of Annie and Jar Jar, someone did a hell of a good job making this movie seem like it was going to be awesome.

[Steve]

The prequels look much better these days.

That seems just...wrong!

I used to hate Jarjar as much as the next guy; I now find Jarjar utterly hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

Imagine you just received your formal wedding photos that were taken in the park, only to realize that it was photobombed by a dog dropping a load in the background. For years you hate that dog for ruining your precious day.

And then, years later... you know longer take yourself so seriously, and you bust a gut laughing every time you look at that photo.

Relating the prequels to the criticism over the Disney movies, the prequels do what fans claimed they wanted:

*There were no deathstars injured in the making of the prequels.

*There was no rehash of the good underdog vs. the evil giant, Rebels vs. the Empire. Instead, you have a morally neutral civil war over an economic dispute, with both sides being played by an evil genius who creates and manipulates it in order to establish himself as emperor of the universe.

*The prequels did not undo the original trilogy.

Even the Phantom Menace, by far the worst of the prequels, introduced two of the coolest characters in the Star Wars universe: Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul. Plus the mother of all stinkbombs, Jarjar Binx.

[JCBoney]

Speaking of the prequels... anyone besides me ever notice that "Padme Amidala" sounds suspiciously like "Pet Me I'm A Doll" ?

[Blackadder23]

Speaking of the prequels... anyone besides me ever notice that "Padme Amidala" sounds suspiciously like "Pet Me I'm A Doll" ?

Well, she is doll.

On the other hand, Lucas managed to make Natalie Portman unappealing, Liam Neeson and Christopher Lee into bad actors, and Samuel Monkey-Fighting Jackson into a bore. I think he deserves some kind of award for such execrable direction.

[Blackadder23]

Speaking of the prequels... anyone besides me ever notice that "Padme Amidala" sounds suspiciously like "Pet Me I'm A Doll" ?

Did you ever notice that most of the characters pronounced it "Pad-May", but Anakin - her husband! - mispronounced it "Pad-uh-May"? She should have slapped him.

[garhkal]

There was times i could have sworn so did others make that slight verbal slip.. But maybe it was just an accent thing?

[S'mon]

On the other hand, Lucas managed to make Natalie Portman unappealing, Liam Neeson and Christopher Lee into bad actors, and Samuel Monkey-Fighting Jackson intro a bore. I think he deserves some kind of award for such execrable direction.

I think this is an important point. Without the insanely bad direction & acting, in retrospect the prequels would have been good films. IMO the acting & directing in the sequels TFA & TLJ is much better, yet otherwise - plot, story, characterisation - they are much worse.

For me the result is that the sequels were less physically painful to watch in theatre, yet much more destructive of the mythos.

[MageInBlack]

THIS makes Episode III a little more enjoyable.

[Blackadder23]

There was times i could have sworn so did others make that slight verbal slip.. But maybe it was just an accent thing?

You could be right. I probably noticed it most from Anakin because he was her husband and ought to know how to pronounce her frikking name.

And of course Padme's daughter had much the same problem (being alternately called "Lay-uh" and "Lee-uh" by various characters). Come to think of it, Han/Hahn also had this problem. Lucas sure can handle actors!