Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Spoiler Edition [Enter at your peril]

[Robogeber]

So, thoughts on the film? Thoughts on how it played out, and the various plot points, put them here.

My thoughts in a nutshell:

Pros:

• Snoke died.
• Hux survived, and was back in action
• Gorilla AT-AT's
• The Supremacy
• Poe's story arc.
• The Battle of Q'Dar
• Hope doesn't save people.
• The whole chase
• Decimation of the Resistance. At the end, rebels got wrecked, as they always should be.
• Supreme Leader Kylo.
• Rey's parents were just drunk asses
• Morally ambiguous Luke
• No Kylo Redemption

Cons:

• Phasma is totally useless, again.
• Leia being superman
• Snoke dying. I put it as a positive, but at the same time, it was a bit BS. We didn't get a backstory, how he got there. Why he got there. He was just there.
• Lack of world building. The crawl says the First Order's taking the Galaxy by storm. Show that. Show us some stormtroopers marching onto Coruscant, Naboo, everywhere.
• Force Hologram? Now that's a load of shenanigans if there ever were any.
• Finn getting saved out of nowehere, when he was about to save the whole Resistance was also a bunch of bull
• Not enough Canto Bright
• Muh ramming

My thoughts more broadly:

Overarchingly, my feelings were mixed in regards to this film.

On one hand, I did enjoy the impeding doom which came with the First Order's pursuit of the Raddus, as well as cantankerous, morally ambiguous Luke, and the death of Snoke was surprising to say the least. I liked them, because there was some surprise there. It subverted expectations, and despite being structured differently to Empire, it felt like more of a blow now to see the Resistance number just over a dozen members. I also enjoyed Poe's rebellious streak, along with his rivalry with Holdo, which added to the tension. It was nice to see that they sort of continued that factional theme which was touched on in Rogue One. Adam Driver is once again good, and my favourite character, ya boy Armitage Hux was in top form. In fact, the exchange he had within the first five minutes with Poe, felt exactly like something that could feasibly work on Chaos.

What I didn't like, was Rose and Finn. I liked the idea for the plan, however, I felt as an arc, it was too rushed. There should have been more time spent on Canto Bright, or at the very least infiltrating the Supremacy. You're on a Casino world, do some Oceans 11 heist or something. These same criticisms could also be given to Snoke. We have no idea who this guy is. What he wants. How he got control, we have nothing. And now he's dead. While his death certainly subverts the plot, and brings opportunity for Kylo to bigger, and badder, it just felt empty. We saw him a handful of times in TFA, and now he's just gone. There was no meaning. No visceral impact for me to feel there.

World building was also weaker, and one of my real dislikes to take away from the Force Awakens was the lack of it. The Last Jedi, compounds the problem. I went into the film, and came out of it with the vague understanding the Republic was gone, and now the Resistance and First Order were duking it out. Now sure, we have expanded media, and they do say the First Order pay a pretty penny for their weapons, but there isn't enough substance. A film like this shouldn't have to rely on expanded content like books or comics to expand on concepts. As a film, it should stand on its own.

The opening crawl told us a grand offensive was taking place, and that got me pumped. But all we saw, was some small scale action with the Resistance. I would've preferred Crait to have been a populated planet, where the Resistance marshalled a small army with locals to destroy a First Order offensive.

Finally, there comes the more outlandish aspects of the films. Such as the Force-projection Luke creates. Although it later on kills him, all I could think about was "Which god-moddy force user on Chaos is gonna try to use that first? And survive". That, and Leia's superman stunt also irked me.

Still, at the end of the film, I felt ironically enough like it ended on a note similar to that of the state of the board. One in which the light siders are now on the run from the big, bad, imposing Empires and imperials which threaten to scatter them, and submerge everything in eternal darkness.

 

[Mordillah]

EDIT: IGNORE THIS POST, DID NOT READ TOP.

edit edit: Clearly I'm an idiot. I'm happy it took me 21 years of life to finally have it confirmed.

 

[Aryn Teth]

I think world building definitely was lacking in the movie as you said, we got some neat stuff around the main characters, but not much (i.e. some more details about Luke's Jedi) but seeing some actually familiar locales would've been great. The outlandish force stuff was also a bit ridiculous to me, especially Leia's weird superman moment. The weird projection thing I was less worried about, considering the power it took I suppose actually killed Luke. The sort of connection that Rey/Kylo had and their conversations over those massive distances were pretty neat though, that was the most force-y thing I enjoyed in the film.

I might be a little biased considering recent Chaos events #Dagobah #BreakerOfShips, but my favourite scene, especially visually, was honestly Admiral Holdo hyper-spacing directly through the First Order fleet. Visually, the silent shot of the ships with all the cracks tearing through them is absolutely spectacular and awe-inspiring. Similarly, the fight scene between Kylo/Rey and the Praetorian Guard is radical.

I think my major problems, which were surrounding world building and lack of development of certain characters (Snoke and Phasma, especially) can be allayed by reading through the books that have been coming out, but I think it also kind of sucks that it's now a requirement to read those books to gain any major tangible understanding of those characters.

Overall though, I did enjoy the film, it subverted a lot of my expectations and I was especially pleased to see the new trilogy taking its own, very different direction, instead of just echoing Empire Strikes Back.

 

[Taa Nul]

Movie was brilliant. Loved every moment of it. Must admit, Puppet Yoda had me shedding manly tears of nostalgia. So good. <3

Also. RIP Admiral Ackbar. ;-;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4qzPbcFiA

 

[Ras'kala'han]

Here's a plus for the movie: I never have to feel bad about my Force-user improbably surviving in the vacuum of space again.

 

[Stephanie Swail]

I have to admit, the First Order seemed pretty useless in this movie.

Literally just following a Resistance cruiser the whole movie, picking off ones who ran out of fuel. Then on Crait the walkers did little except blast a Force Vision. Expandable TIEs, as always. Their "Supreme Leader" got offed by an aggressive, morally conflicted apprentice. Their "fearsome Captain Phasma" got offed by a former Stormtrooper.

Where was the dominance of the galaxy? All I saw was them try to beat back a handful of Resistance fighters, which they failed to do in the end, and shout orders at eachother.

Come on, FO! Pull your socks up for Episode IX or we're going to have very lacklustre villains ahead.

 

[Teynara Jeralyr]

Finally, there comes the more outlandish aspects of the films. Such as the Force-projection Luke creates. Although it later on kills him, all I could think about was "Which god-moddy force user on Chaos is gonna try to use that first? And survive". That, and Leia's superman stunt also irked me.

I was rather wondering that myself. It was pretty amazing, and honestly a better way of explaining how the hell Luke survived that laserfire, but yeah, it was an incredibly powerful technique, and honestly isn't one we should see being used much on Chaos. Though I can think of a few people that will undoubtedly use it when utterly outmatched in a duel, as a means of saying "Yup, you killed me, but I wasn't really there, so HAH!".

The whole chase scene was interesting but pretty stupid. Yes, the Resistance ships were faster, but are you seriously telling me that all of those Star Destroyers lacked gunships or something larger than a fighter but smaller than an ISD? Or that they couldn't do a quick projection of the Resistance's course and do a short hyperspace jump to get ahead of the Resistance fleet? The whole thing was predicated around the idea that Rebel ships are faster and therefore can stay out of proper attack range until they run out of fuel. Really?

I'll be honest: I loved the film. It was really, really good, but there were some plotholes and just outright stupid moments. Again, Luke's characterisation feels completely off to me - it doesn't match up with the Luke of the Original Trilogy at all. I don't feel like he'd have even contemplated murdering Ben because of his Dark Side leanings. He'd have kept working to turn him back, or dissuade him. That just didn't feel right - though I did like that they both had completely different versions of the same story, showing that it was all ultimately a misunderstanding that caused such tragedy. That part was awesome.

Snoke's death was beautiful, though. He was clearly going for another ROTJ "Emperor vs Luke" moment with Kylo rather than Rey, and Kylo completely screwed with his head. And, for just a brief moment, you can see Ben Solo there, turned to the Light. And then...temptation kicked his ass and he turned back and became Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. Damn it, Disney, why did you have to do that to me? For just a moment, you could see Ben, Rey and Finn working against the First Order? Will they? No. Grr.

On the plus side...Rey's parents were nobody. Undoubtedly there'll be the whole "But Kylo/Ben was lying to Rey about that!" conspiracy theorists, but I honestly loved it. As Snoke said: Darkness rises, and Light to meet it. That's all the explanation you need of Rey, I think.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

Full disclosure: I'm a prequel hater. They concept behind the movies is interesting, but it's ruined by hamfisted directing, awful writing, an abundance of stupid elements, etc etc. This argument has been done to death, I mention it because this movie felt like the opposite of the prequels. It had so many silly or pointless plotlines/elements but held up as a film so much better.

Yeah that's right, I liked it. Mostly. This is initial thoughts.

In the initial space battle we see apparently the sole competent commander in the First Order killed by Hux's hubris. TOP FORM. But it worked, and it was clearly intentional. Youth and exuberance are no match for experience and grit (except when it is). Take note, whippersnappers.

I liked what they did with Luke, but I can understand why Mark Hamil felt (feels?) frustrated by the direction taken. He and Carrier Fisher were easily the weakest actors in the movie though, which was interesting.

The chase sequence suffers from similar problems with time and scale that TFA did, but it at least makes an attempt to handle it. Still calling 4 ships a 'fleet' is stretching things a bit. But it doesn't actually affect the point/ or impact of the movie.

Casino planet is pointless and makes little sense as a diversion. That whole plotline could've been handled better, but I really liked how it DIDN'T WORK and Vice Admiral Holdo was right all along. It was used to set up the growing spirit of resistance, i get that, but could have been used better. And yet wierdly enough it didn't ruin things for me.

Hux was an interesting character. He is consistently outmaneuvered, useless, likes bossing around people who probably know better, and prone to fits. He's the quintessential bad leader, but plays a wonderful foil to Kylo (who is also a bad leader, though for other reasons). I look forward to the conflict between them in the next movie. If done well it could be very compelling. Like I trust JJ to do it well. Hah.

The fight with the Praetorians was fantastic. Well done to the fight choreographer. Somewhat related, Snoke's death makes sense for Kylo and works fairly well. It was also fairly unexpected (I did have a 'friend' spoil it for me so I saw it coming once Rey headed to meet Kylo) and frankly, I think it's a decent choice. Hell compared with his weak and scattered showing in TFA Kylo has a clear purpose, motive, development, etc.

But oh man, the hyper-ram scene. It was brilliantly done, the slow mo and flash to white and all. Beautiful scene. It's gonna be hell dealing with the fallout from that with every wannabe fleet master trying to sling corvettes around like artillery. It's also, from a lore-perspective, fucking stupid. If it was that easy, why not slave rig a pack of ships and just throw them at the Death Star? Want to destroy a planet? Throw a Cruiser at it! Brilliant!

But that fact doesn't really take away from its impact in the film.

I have more thoughts, I'll put something more coherent together tomorrow. Or not. In summary, TLJ is more than the sum of its parts, and succeeds in spite of itself. I'd ask JJ to take notes, but he won't.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

I had significant doubts about the addition of the new characters -- DJ, Rose, and Holdo in particular. My feeling was that I cared about the OT trio (Luke, Han and Leia) and I cared about the ST trios (Rey, Poe, Finn and Kylo, Hux, and Phasma) and I didn't really have a lot more care in me for new characters. But on watching the film, I have to say each of these characters was carefully placed and there for a reason. Holdo was a fascinating character -- I love Laura Dern but I didn't think she was particularly well acted, it was just Laura Dern as Laura Dern, in my opinion -- and I really hope that the story arc with Poe learning about leadership and results in him taking the reigns from Leia.

Speaking of Leia, Leia being a badass was excellent and I'm not sorry about it.

 

[Mordillah]

So I just got out of the theater and my super simple review is this:


It was funnier than id like it, campier than i hoped.


That whole “dont kill what you hate save what you love” comment....

I hated it down to my core.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

I'm actually conflicted, and I'm really surprised at that. I plan to see it again when I am on holidays to get a better sense of it.

When I came out of TFA I was much more enthused in the moment, but later reconsidered because of the closeness to ANH. When I came out of Rogue One I was energised because of a brilliant and exciting 3rd act.
I came out of The Last Jedi thoughtful. I'm not sure what to think.

Was it a good movie? Yeah, I think so.
Was it a good character movie? Definitely, probably the most morally ambiguous and detailed character story of any of them.
Was it a good Star Wars movie? Of that...I don't know.

What was immediately apparent was that the villains of the sequel trilogy are complete and utter fools.
Snoke; we don't know where he came from - I'd seen all the theories from Darth Plageius to clone of Palpatine. We didn't find out, and then he died like a punk.
Kylo; Did what Vader didn't and overthrew his master. Makes even less sense than in that case. Everyone goes along with him because he can Force choke? He's shown to be rather pathetic and prone to tantrums.
Hux; Even more useless. The stereotypical crony who is still alive if only because Kylo Ren needs someone to yell at.
Phasma; Showed up to die. Slightly more useful than in TFA, but not much.

The central conflict of the story; the chase, as Cyrus pointed out makes almost no sense. Surely they have more ships than destroyers, surely they could send someone to cut them off. Surely they could use their fighters and bombers to overwhelm it?

The diversion to the casino planet...why? A lot of time diverted for something which should have either been a main plot point or been spent better infiltrating the big ship. This movie has things to say about a lot of things but I'm not sure they're things which need as much time devoted to them.

How is the First Order tracking the Resistance? I was sure that Holdo would turn out to be a traitor...or something to explain it other than 'magical mcguffin'.

Hyperspace destruction of the ships? It was beautiful...but if that worked why aren't people just wheeling out cargo freighters and firing them like ballista bolts?

As those above have mentioned...where is the scale? I am told the galaxy is being overrun, but aside from 2 near uninhabited and 1 unrelated planet we don't see anything to justify this. Where TFA went between many planets, this one seems positively laser focussed, more like the original than the prequel trilogy.

Hmm, that all sounds like I'm negative, but there were things I liked.

I liked Luke and Leia. Of course...with Luke being killed off and Carrie's unfortunate passing they have no original trilogy characters left besides the droids. I liked Poe and Finn still and I liked Rey. She had things she had to do and was more than a mild Mary Sue this time.

The story of Luke and Rey was very entertaining, even thoughtful. A highlight of the movie I think for me.

The Porg were cute.

The battle with the red guards was cool and surprisingly (PG-13) violent.

The final battle and Luke's projection had definite shades of Obi Wan in A New Hope.

I'm not sure where Episode 9 will go. They've killed so many of the characters I'm not sure what's left. This felt like a mix of ESB and ROTJ so where they go next is something I am curious about.

I enjoyed it, but I had a lot of questions and nagging thoughts, so we'll see what I think when I have seen it again.

 

[Kixi Rajki]

Movie was awesome but has its flaws. Saw it a second time tonight.

When Rey gives Luke his lightsabre, (And he throws it out), that part is a direct continuation from the end of Episode 7. Right. And from what I remember, the Resistance just blew up the Star Killer planet. Umm so why is it that the Resistance is now Immediately evacuating and running. For crying out loud they just dealt a crippling blow to the First Order.

Oh and what about the fleeing Resistance ships. Yes they ran out of fuel, but they all had enough for one more hyperspace jump. So why waste fuel? The 2 support ships should have jumped to two different destinations, and the main cruiser still stay. The First Order would only be able to chase one, and chances would have been that they wouldn't have since they wanted the cruiser more.

Also on a completely different note, who controls Coruscant now? New movies and canon make no mention of it. Damn legends was better. They should have based new trilogy on legends. I mean legends had sexy Mara Jade and Jaina Solo. Rey is good... but nowhere near as good. ;-)

 

[Matsu Ike]

I like it, some of the turns we'll call them were interesting. That Snoke was killed... honestly seems more funny since now all of those grand snoke identity video's people have made are out the window. The inclusion of some of the more exotic powers from legends like that Force phantom and Force Sustenance. Such things are strange but overall it did feel like some things from legends were carrying through. Hell Kylo and Rey when they touch hands almost looked like the cover image for Truca at Bakura. I was kind of hoping Leia would have gone out with a bang and been the one to stall the first order so they could survive. Overall I am looking forward to the third part which can go some places and based on how Hux and Kylo butt heads. It could be that without snoke they are going to start imploding.

 

[Huxy]

Pros:

• Snoke's Death - It was super creative and ingenious!
• Battle Sequences - They were all amazing and creative, especially the one on Crait and the one where Kylo & Rey teamed up against the Praetorian Guards
• ​Chase Sequence
• Conflicted Kylo Ren - They really developed his character and his struggles in this film. I loved how they explored him and his past along with his conflict. They truly fleshed him out and gave him great character and attitude, minus the tantrums.
• ​Force Link between Kylo & Rey - I loved this and all of the mystery behind it. Certainty led to great development of both characters and furthered their relationship.
• ​Exploration of the Force
• ​Finn & Phasma Duel
• ​Luke & Leia
• ​Poe
• Rey's Parents - Greatly unexpected, that's for sure.
• Hyperspace Ram - That was absolutely brilliant and a truly stunning and beautiful scene. It makes you think why they haven't' done it before, though I'm guessing its because it's risky. My theory is it depends on the size of the ship you're trying to hit and the ship you're launching at it. In the battle, it was the Mon Cal ship being launched through a 'thin' part of the Supremacy, it took a wing off of the supremacy. But I'm guessing it won't always work. Like a cargo ship might not be able to due to it's size and what it's made up of. It's probably more effective for a capital ship to do it against a capital ship because they're both made up of strong materials. That, and the Mon Cal ship did shoot through part of the large hanger on the Supremacy which probably made up for it somewhat.
• Kylo's Fall to the Darkside - It was brilliant. Definitely something I hadn't thought of and it intrigued me every second. I loved the split POV's of what happens definitely fulfills Obi-Wans quote of "What I told you was true, from a certain point of view."
• Main Character Development
• Luke on Millennium Falcon - This scene got me right in the feels. It was just so emotional seeing Luke back on the Falcon and all of the memories flooding back to him of the old days. It was a simple yet great scene that made me not see Luke for the hermit he was, but as a young hero now turned old trying to find the spark he had so many years ago.

Cons:

• Snoke's Death - He was killed off too quickly and I would've liked for his backstory to be explored. Where he came from, who he was, how he formed the FO, etc.
• No Kylo Redemption - I was disappointed. He just had a change of heart so quickly, it felt unjust and wrong to me. I would've liked to see him defect. If he did defect, they could've kept Snoke alive for episode 9.
• ​Phasma's Death - I was annoyed. Phasma hasn't gotten enough screen time and her death felt rushed and unfulfilled.
• ​Phasma - As with the above one. Phasma seems interesting and I would've liked if they explored her backstory and developed her some in the movie. She just felt like a 2-dimensional baddie. I mean, the fight between her and Finn was cool but too quick.
• ​Rose & Finn - Eh, I don't ship it. Along with that, their scenes brought me out of the action and excitement of the scenes with Poe and the scenes with Luke, Rey, & Kylo. I felt it was un-needed, though Canto-Bight looked cool.
• Hux - I wanted development for Hux. But what I got was an incompetent commander and him just being bossed around. Hux seemed like an interesting character in Force Awakens and his rivalry with Kylo was nice. I would've liked if it were developed upon more.
• ​Kylo as Supreme Leader - He's an incompetent and terrible leader, I didn't like it. He makes too many military errors just for sake of plot and it irks me. That, and Hux would've made a better choice. True he proved to be incompetent in the chase sequence, not hunting down the rebels straight away. Though he does have a military and strategic mindset.
• ​No Knights of Ren - Yup, that's it. I wanted to see the rest of them, seeing as we only got a glance of them in Force Awakens...yet we didn't. The Praetorian Guards were nice, but didn't give me the feeling of dread as the Knights of Ren did in the dream sequence.
• ​Luke's Death - I just didn't like it, sorry.
• Rey's Parents - I was still disappointed. I wanted her parents to be someone of significance to bring the story full circle, like Obi-Wan or Palpatine. But sadly no. They were just some random drunks.
• Luke milking that weird Alien - Grosssss!!!

 

[Via Dolorosa]

I absolutely loved the movie, despite numerous flaws already pointed out and some still left unmentioned. Then again, all SW Movies have flaws that could be mentioned and not mentioned. My only foul call is the whole Leia superwoman scene (already mentioned). Skywalker or not, come on J.J.!

Counting down the days until the next installment.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Darth Venefica"]
J.J didn't direct this one....

 

[Deleted]

Going to post my removed review here as it comes across as spoilers, but I didn't want to lose discussion with the others here.

I’m going to say it from the off here – I walked out of the midnight showing of ‘The Force Awakens’ and ‘The Last Jedi’ a little disappointed. Not for J.J Abrams’ thrill ride, but for the new episode from writer/director Rian Johnson. ‘The Last Jedi’ is a blend of all that works from the prequels and original trilogy, but sadly lots that don’t. The result is a film that delivers on the most part, but stumbles along the way and gives, I think, little payoff for a film that should offer more resolutions than headaches.

Maybe I will feel different on the second viewing with a clearer head? Or maybe that’s me as an avid Star Wars fan desperate to find more in this blockbuster than I originally found.

We are catapulted into the fall-out from ‘The Force Awakens’ in a typical Star-Warsy narrative that is tried and tested; a number of stories running parallel that converge at the end. The late Carrie Fisher has far more to do this time around leading the Resistance as General Leia Organa never putting a foot wrong. Oscar Isaac is back as passionate pilot Poe along with John Boyega as Finn and newcomer Kelly Marie Tran as Rose, a mechanic. It’s this group, along with Laura Dern as the ‘is she good / is she bad’ Admiral Holdo, that are the ones scrabbling around trying to fight and flee the First Order at the same time.

On the other hand, we have Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker looking to understand each other, the Force and the state of the galaxy at war. On the OTHER other hand, Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren and Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux ham it up for all it’s worth as the brash, short-fused, volatile but merciless First Order agents.

As you can see, it’s a busy narrative with lots of new and old characters, new planets, species and technology. And as you suspect, there is a lot of waste and a lot of back and forth that messes up the flow. The Resistance has a lazy plot that revolves around breaking a secret code on-board the biggest Star Destroyer in the First Order fleet to allow their ships to flee. So much time is spent on this task that is made out to be much easier to do than it really should be, giving Boyega, Tran et al reasons to forge relationships and run around on the very prequel-esque digital world of Cantonica and Canto Bight. It detracts from the main flow of the story and is very digital, compared to the practical worlds of Takodana and Jakku from ‘TFA’.

The CGI here and throughout is very noticeable. It’s not 100% polished, but because there is so much it’s far easier to spot. From Snoke’s digital body to dozens of new alien species and much more gravity/physics defying action, it reminded me more of the flamboyant CGI of the prequels than the restrained, minimal CGI J.J Abrams introduced us to. As I said, some of the prequel material worked, much didn’t. ‘The Last Jedi’ plays out like a new modern entry wrapped up in a prequel skin.

It’s a busy film, and the secondary narrative detracts from what we are here to see – the return of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and his relationship with Rey. We get this and more, and it’s wonderful. A highlight of the film is seeing the two bicker, argue try to understand each other, exploring lore from the past and touching on the future. Hamill is not the Jedi we last saw on Endor, but a world-weary, scared and bitter hermit questioning his own existence and the Force itself. He draws us into his story and the spark between him and Ridley grips you, wondering just who is right and who is wrong.

And on the subject of Luke; his Porgs. Not as annoying as you’d expect, and rather amusing in a restrained way. They are NOT the new Ewoks, believe me, and the best of the various digital creatures we have here…the Canto Bight ones truly pointless if you ask me.

But with constant interjections from a slightly boring Resistance story, it becomes frustrating being drip-fed so much about Luke, Rey and Kylo that while it is electric to watch, Johnson doesn’t offer clear resolutions to questions raised in 2015. I felt short-changed by many outcomes, and annoyed at what seemed to be a waste of established material. To be honest, at times I didn’t know if I was watching the middle of a trilogy or the end of one. As both stories crank up to converge, my mind’s eye saw ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ blended with ‘Return Of The Jedi’ in a mish-mash of sequences that, while hitting the humour, emotion and action just right, were just too rushed and hap-hazard to take in. Even the Battle Of Hoth’-esque finale (spot the Gareth Edwards solider cameo!) is pretty boring, un-eventful and jammed with digital creations that I was turning off even when a certain character brushed his shoulder off. It felt too much, too late.

I was seeing things I didn’t want to see happen. Outcomes I didn’t want to witness. Characters go when I couldn’t see a reason for. The film itself is immersive, don’t get me wrong. There are some really beautiful shots and really tender, well executed moments developing our heroes and villains. I just felt the outcomes were either cheap or rushed. Even the score by John Williams is devoid of anything standout, and the only motifs that roused me were ones recycled from the Original Trilogy for a truly sentimental impact.

You can see, I’m torn, and I’m annoyed that a Star Wars film has made me feel like this especially following such a blistering opening chapter.

As I said, I felt the trilogy was wrapping up towards the end of this. It was strange. Where will they go from here? J.J Abrams needs to really add something new to ‘Episode IX’ because questions and motives are still clouded and over-looked all for dramatic effect, and opportunities have been missed. While I buy into this new galaxy and always will be an avid fan, I need more to invest in for this current battle between good and evil to give me chills the way all closing chapters should. Because to me it feels Johnson has peaked the trilogy too soon.

 

[Via Dolorosa]

[member="Valiens Nantaris"]

I know....I thought he produced it or had a hand in the storyline for this. My mistake.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Darth Venefica"]
He's doing IX now but had no real role in this one.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

I too felt a little conflicted coming out.

At one point I was really enjoying it. But by the end I felt they'd tried to cram in too many action sequences and plotlines without actually advancing the story all that far. Felt a bit bloated and could have done with about thirty minutes less material.

At times I feel like I'm sat between two camps going:

"Best movie ever, how dare you not love it!"
And
"Ruined my childhood Disney, not watching another!"