Author Topic: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot  (Read 18510 times)

commandercool

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Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« on: December 17, 2017, 01:57:50 AM »
So, who's seen The Last Jedi? It's been pretty controversial around here. After the glowing initial reviews a lot of people I've talked to seem to have really not enjoyed it. Although more than one of them hated it at first and has decided they liked it after all after thinking on it for a few days. I liked it upon leaving the theater, but the more I think about it the more I like it. The worst parts of it feel more frustratingly broken than anything in Force Awakens or Rogue One, but the best parts are REALLY good. It takes Star Wars in some directions that I'm frankly really happy about.

Spoiler:
The timeline of the movie feels bad. I don't know why it had to take place over one day. It makes all of the cutaways and the whole sequence on the casino planet feel really out of place. I can't help but feel like it would have been a much smoother experience if there were a few more breaks in the action to make room for everything that happens, or if they didn't feel the need to have the characters periodically meet back up. Letting the different plot lines stay more separate might have been a good thing.

That said, I'm thrilled to bits that they did go with the "Rei's parents weren't anybody special" answer. I'm endlessly frustrated by the Amazing Spider-Man/Man Of Steel trend in genre movies lately to make heroism genetic. So much of those movies are dedicated to explaining that the heroes are special because they have special dads, and not only does the Rei thing buck that trend but it also soft-retcons midi chlorians.

A lot of people were really unhappy with the whole Space Leia scene and considered it a jumping-the-shark moment, but it feels correct for the pulpy tone of the movie to me. I have no problem accepting that Leia's force powers become activated by extreme danger.

This movie felt like a sequel to Star Wars in a way that Force Awakens really didn't, and it felt like it moved the plot way forward, thematically if not necessarily event-wise.
 I'm curious to see what the next installment will even be about, because this ending was satisfying enough that it honestly could have been the last one and I would have been happy with that. It feels like a fairly complete standalone movie. Which is a good thing.
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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2017, 01:11:44 PM »
I was wondering when this thread would pop up, I just went to go see it today.

Spoiler:
man, where to begin. There was soo much stuff going on in this movie, I can't recall any other star wars movie having this much stuff crammed into it. Well let's start with my overall impressions of it after leaving the theatre. I thought it was ok. I thought it was very ok. Not more, not less, but very o.k. It was more of its own thing than Ep7 was so I'm fine with it even if I thought it was only ok.

After discussing it with my friend though and thinking on my own, I'm starting to feel a little disappointed by it. I'll start from the first half of the movie.

The first half of the movie was really exciting for me. They introduced some really neat ideas and plot directions that were very interesting. I especially liked the mysterious connection that Rey and Kylo found themselves to have, those were some of the best moments in the movie. When Rey reaches out to feel the force, Luke feared her because she went "straight for the dark" and I really liked where it was going, I thought they were really going to go full dark for her. With Kylo's growing insecurities I was quite hoping that the plot would somehow go in a direction where Kylo went Light and Rey went Dark. After the sort-of reveal that Luke was trying to kill Kylo I thought they were going to go even darker and have both Rey and Kylo go darkside.

Well that didn't happen though. The "connection" that Rey and Kylo had turned out to be some jury-rigged machination by Snoke for his evul planzz, that was really disappointing. Also while I'm glad that they weren't afraid of putting some smear on Luke, not treating him like an untouchable OG character, they still went with Kylo already having been corrupted (kinda). Kylo gets no redemption or interesting character arc. I thought he was going to go through one what with his backing off from matricide. Instead he just gets more evil and angry at... something. "The old things." Now, I know that he's not finished yet, so I'll reserve my ultimate judgement of his character until it's concluded in the final episode of the trilogy. Still, I was pretty disappointed that nothings changed pretty much. Kylo bad, Rey good; Empire evil, Rebel in dire straits. Also Snoke dies like a bitch somewhere in this paragraph.

I do agree with you on the Rey's parents bit, on every point you said. I do wish they did more with it though, she just kinda got over it. Kylo called it her greatest weakness and yet nothing happened. If there was a time to deal with Rey's darkness this was the movie to do it in, but they didn't. Like I mentioned above, that thing with Rey reaching out to the darkness was really interesting. It turned out to be a mirror playhouse, and that was it. Darkness resolved. Shouldn't a 'face your own darkness' part involve some kind of foreshadowing or inner insight on something? Anakin had one, Luke had one.

All the cool things they setup in the first half of the movie was completely brushed aside in the latter half that I'm almost confused here. Was the script handed off to someone else at the halfway point?

You know, there was only one twist to this movie. Pretty much every star wars has one, that one moment where your expectations are subverted. This one sucked though. It was that moment of Kylo killing Snook. They didn't execute it well either since they put in ample time for the audience to catch on to what Kylo was doing. Not that it has to be a surprise, but it removes a lot of that impact of the moment. That being the case, the "real" twist may have been the double subversion moment when it turns out Kylo wasn't really going to be good afterall and he wants to... burn everything to the ground(?) or something. If that was supposed to be the twist of the movie, then that was executed poorly too because there wasn't much explaining done of what he actually wants to do or why he's even doing this in the first place. We saw he was conflicted but nothing I remember had any relevance leading to his actions at this critical moment. Came across more as a I'm so sick of everyone's shit, fuck this, fuck that, fuck everything, burn everything the whole thing it down gyaargghh! incohesive angrish shouting kind of emotion. But again, I'll withhold judgement until next next year.

I say all this like I hate the movie but I don't hate the movie. I thought it was ok. I'm just kinda a little disappointed after what the first half led me to think it was going to try.

and well let's not really talk about the whole resistance side of the movie. It seemed pretty pointless. The point of it was to be pointless, which is a point, but doesn't seemed more concerned than adding to the dialogue in the meta-conversation of subverting the whole small-sabotage-strike-team thing that star wars loves to do.

my friend really didn't like the whole force ghosts being able to physically interact with the universe thing, which I didn't mind, but oh boy if all the new stuff they included won't put a new wrinkle in the canon of what the force can do.
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commandercool

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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2017, 03:02:31 AM »
Spoiler:
Like I mentioned above, that thing with Rey reaching out to the darkness was really interesting. It turned out to be a mirror playhouse, and that was it. Darkness resolved. Shouldn't a 'face your own darkness' part involve some kind of foreshadowing or inner insight on something? Anakin had one, Luke had one.

Spoiler:
See I was way into the Sith funhouse mirror. I think it may have been my favorite moment in the movie. The way I see it, it shows Rey that she can resist the dark side because it doesn't offer her anything she wants. She has a question that needs answering and the dark side just isn't about that. It's so self-centered that all it has to offer her is introspection, which she doesn't need. So she can resist it in favor of the light side, which is all about "knowledge and defense", emphasis on the knowledge.

Spoiler:
You know, there was only one twist to this movie. Pretty much every star wars has one, that one moment where your expectations are subverted. This one sucked though. It was that moment of Kylo killing Snook. They didn't execute it well either since they put in ample time for the audience to catch on to what Kylo was doing. Not that it has to be a surprise, but it removes a lot of that impact of the moment. That being the case, the "real" twist may have been the double subversion moment when it turns out Kylo wasn't really going to be good afterall and he wants to... burn everything to the ground(?) or something. If that was supposed to be the twist of the movie, then that was executed poorly too because there wasn't much explaining done of what he actually wants to do or why he's even doing this in the first place. We saw he was conflicted but nothing I remember had any relevance leading to his actions at this critical moment. Came across more as a I'm so sick of everyone's shit, fuck this, fuck that, fuck everything, burn everything the whole thing it down gyaargghh! incohesive angrish shouting kind of emotion. But again, I'll withhold judgement until next next year.

Spoiler:
I would argue that there are two twists. The resistance story basically ends with Poe's plan being a total failure and the revelation that Admiral Holdo was basically right the whole time. In a Star Wars movie the crazy scheme that involves doing a bunch of unlikely stunts always works, so Poe getting smacked down by reality and realizing that maybe he doesn't have all the answers after all is kind of a big deal.

Spoiler:
and well let's not really talk about the whole resistance side of the movie. It seemed pretty pointless. The point of it was to be pointless, which is a point, but doesn't seemed more concerned than adding to the dialogue in the meta-conversation of subverting the whole small-sabotage-strike-team thing that star wars loves to do.

Spoiler:
I guess it's pointless in the sense that they didn't win but they didn't really lose either, but it's not pointless in the sense that the resistance does not return to status quo at the end of the movie. They lose their entire fleet, almost their entire membership, and find out that their allies have abandoned them. So they're definitely in a different place in the last scene than they were in the first.

Spoiler:
my friend really didn't like the whole force ghosts being able to physically interact with the universe thing, which I didn't mind, but oh boy if all the new stuff they included won't put a new wrinkle in the canon of what the force can do.

Spoiler:
I could not care less about what the mechanics of the force are. They're space wizards, they can cast whatever magic spells they want to and I'll buy it I guess. If you told me Yoda could make Naruto clones of himself I'd be like "Yeah, that makes sense".
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MatsuriSakuragi

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2017, 06:19:42 AM »
I don't feel like going into detail but some key thoughts:

Spoiler:
- 100% fine with the midichlorians retcon. That was one of the stupidest things about the prequels. And that's there's a pretty low bar for bad things in the prequels.
- Space Witch Leia is a dumb thing to be upset about imo. She's got Skywalker blood in her, and it's damn solid canon that she's force sensitive. If Rey can awaken to her powers in times of great duress, so too can Leia. And it was cool.
- As cool as the casino planet scenes were, I couldn't help but feel like Finn and Rose were sent on a dumb fetch quest that they didn't even succeed at just to shoehorn them into the movie somehow.
- Finn vs Phasma was one of the coolest fights in the whole movie, short as it was.
- I'm cool with how things went between Rey and Kylo Ren. I like how they're both strongly conflicted characters who don't know where they belong.
- I felt very betrayed by Luke's death at first, because I thought his illusory diversion was just him messing with Kylo from lightyears away and he would have been just fine on his island-- I literally clapped when I saw him floating there on the island, thinking he was just fine, but then I realized I'm actually very cool with how it went down. I didn't want to see my childhood hero get struck down in battle, and I certainly didn't want him dying as the angry curmudgeon he became on that island. Him becoming one with the force in peace is a great way to go and leave Rey to be the final Jedi. Though, I fully expect Force Ghost Luke to show up just as Yoda did in this one.
- The scene where Haldo turns the ship around and pulls off a light-speed kamikaze blow was FUCKING BADASS. LIKE, FUCKING AMAZING. So... why didn't they make it so Leia did it. That would have been the absolute perfect sendoff for Carrie Fisher and her character-- the General, the Princess, the great Leia going out by sacrificing it all in a huge, amazing bang. I liked her "reunion" with Luke a lot and yeah I cried, but now what? She's still alive in the movie. So what now? Are they just going to kill her off in a timeskip and just mention it in the title crawl? Because she deserves better than that.
- The cinematography in this film was on point. Snoke's chamber and the battle on Crait was so fucking good from a cinematic standpoint. Some of those shots could be screencapped and look like a damn painting. So good. The framing in the scene where Rose's sister drops all of those bombs onto the dreadnaught was so good too.

EDIT:
Spoiler:
BB-8 piloting an AT-ST. That is all.
« Last Edit: December 18, 2017, 06:21:43 AM by Matsuri »

commandercool

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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2017, 09:04:23 AM »
Spoiler:
- The scene where Haldo turns the ship around and pulls off a light-speed kamikaze blow was FUCKING BADASS. LIKE, FUCKING AMAZING. So... why didn't they make it so Leia did it. That would have been the absolute perfect sendoff for Carrie Fisher and her character-- the General, the Princess, the great Leia going out by sacrificing it all in a huge, amazing bang. I liked her "reunion" with Luke a lot and yeah I cried, but now what? She's still alive in the movie. So what now? Are they just going to kill her off in a timeskip and just mention it in the title crawl? Because she deserves better than that.

Spoiler:
Yeah, that would have been pretty much perfect, you're right. My best guess is that they didn't do that because it might have felt emotionally manipulative to rewrite the movie and have her die when she wasn't supposed to before, but I think it would have felt right and it definitely would've solved some problems. I'm guessing she will die offscreen, with the next movie opening just after her funeral. That might not feel tasteless while still respectfully acknowledging the situation if it's done just right?


Spoiler:
EDIT:
Spoiler:
BB-8 piloting an AT-ST. That is all.
Spoiler:
BB-8 is beginning to differentiate itself from R2-D2 by being kind of a menace. It would have looked hella dumb for R2 to do something like that, but BB-8 seems perfectly natural in a stolen AT-ST. I believe that BB-8 has probably killed a man at some point. It's a manic and slightly deranged-feeling robot. :D
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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2017, 05:56:37 AM »
Spoiler:
See I was way into the Sith funhouse mirror. I think it may have been my favorite moment in the movie. The way I see it, it shows Rey that she can resist the dark side because it doesn't offer her anything she wants. She has a question that needs answering and the dark side just isn't about that. It's so self-centered that all it has to offer her is introspection, which she doesn't need. So she can resist it in favor of the light side, which is all about "knowledge and defense", emphasis on the knowledge.
Spoiler:
hmm that's a good take on it, haven't considered that. It's interesting then because this is the first time that someone's considered falling to the darkside for something as 'pure'(?) as wanting a parental figure in your life. And also interesting that despite her willingness to go that far, the dark side has nothing to offer on that end. Really pretty interesting actually. Wish it was made clearer to me at least. I was gonna say that I wish they brought it up again when Rey finally refused Kylo's offer to join him in his new rule, but now that I think about it, that had nothing to do with the Dark side or anything. Kylo wasn't all "join the dark side and rule the galaxy", it was just "I value you, let's do this sort-of-evil thing together". The Sith seem to be gone almost as much as the Jedi are at this point.
Quote
Spoiler:
I would argue that there are two twists. The resistance story basically ends with Poe's plan being a total failure and the revelation that Admiral Holdo was basically right the whole time. In a Star Wars movie the crazy scheme that involves doing a bunch of unlikely stunts always works, so Poe getting smacked down by reality and realizing that maybe he doesn't have all the answers after all is kind of a big deal.

Spoiler:
I guess it's pointless in the sense that they didn't win but they didn't really lose either, but it's not pointless in the sense that the resistance does not return to status quo at the end of the movie. They lose their entire fleet, almost their entire membership, and find out that their allies have abandoned them. So they're definitely in a different place in the last scene than they were in the first.
Spoiler:
Technically yes, they lost their entire fleet and the (main) Rebel team is on their last ropes (only sort of, since they still have a lot of allies in the outer rim apparently), but from a narrative perspective nothing really changes for me. The main main cast doesn't change, or their position and what not. The scenario is still the same, with the First Order, the 'Empire', hounding down the comparatively pathetic Rebel forces, that's not changed. Not that it's got to change but we had this same scenario in the original trilogy so I would expect something to be different by this point at least. In 5, Han was frozen and captured, Luke suffered a big defeat and had his arm cut off, not to mention the big reveal of his dad which changed the dynamic of the whole story and what direction it could lead to. The big dynamic changing deal in this one is the First Order switching hands from Snook to Kylo and we still don't know what's gonna happen to him so it's a little hard to judge now but. He's gonna make or break this trilogy he is, Kylo. He's the one gripping the plot steering wheel now. And that's what I meant by pointless, that it didn't take the story in any new direction. I feel like subverting the crazy 0% odds shenanigans is about all it did. And of course, it could turn out that this switching of reins into Kylo's hands is a huuge deviation game changer in the story, but that'll have to be something to determine in hindsight after the trilogy concludes.
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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2017, 09:06:20 PM »
Just got back. I'll be honest, I really loved it, the movie is full of intensity, a handful of dumb bits aren't enough to ruin it for me. But then, I allow my suspension of disbelief to go a lot farther than most people.

Scattered thoughts:
Spoiler:
- There are a few gags that are a little too flippant for my tastes, like Luke just tossing away his lightsaber. I expect Star Wars to have at least a little class.
- I don't think anyone will disagree the whole codebreaker business was completely out of place, the only interesting thing about it was how the plan failed. I do like Rose though.
- I am really really disappointed that they aren't doing anything with Chewie as a character. He really didn't go out to interact with Luke the whole time he was on that island? I know the audience can't tell what he's saying, but come on, it shouldn't be that hard to characterize him. (Also I will forgive the birds since I'm sure they were ordered by some Disney exec for merchandise purposes.)
- While I do enjoy the prospect of repeated Finn/Phasma dustups, I was a bit annoyed that they just trotted her out to have them fight rather than it being anything proactive on her part. In the next movie I want Phasma to show up and wreck Finn's shit at the worst possible moment.
- I was cackling with glee when I realized what Holdo was up to. Too bad she didn't have the idea sooner.
- I was 100% certain Luke would die in this movie so no surprises there. I couldn't be happier that they gave him a DBZ moment as part of his sendoff.
- I am pretty sad Kylo didn't do a face turn. Lost opportunity. But then they'd have needed to establish a new villain, so I guess they didn't have much choice. It's not all bad, since it's rare to see such an emotionally-driven villain.

commandercool

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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2017, 01:54:27 AM »
So do we think
Spoiler:
Snoke is actually gone from the story? This whole thing smacks of some kind of scheme. My best guess is that his plan was to let Rey and Kylo fight it out and then steal the body of whoever won, possibly by goading them into killing him and then having his spirit jump into their body. I don't think he intended to die like he did, but maybe he ended up splitting his essence between the two of them because he was getting ready to possess one of them or something? I think he probably still exists in some kind of form and is going to reappear at some point. Maybe he'll be a ghost haunting Rey in the next movie while Luke is a ghost haunting Kylo or something.

Not sure if having him pop back up would be cool or lame, but I feel like the plan is that he'll resurface a little eventually. Probably not as the main villain or anything, but as an obstacle someone has to overcome.
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MatsuriSakuragi

Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2017, 03:11:58 AM »
Spoiler:
I'm fine with him being dead, honestly. Having him be the big bad in the next movie would steal Kylo Ren's opportunity to really shine as a villain in his most intense form as the true final bad guy of the main series. I didn't really find Snoke interesting and more just a plot device, so he's better off dead now than expanded upon in the next movie. I feel like it'd be filler by that point.

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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2017, 04:38:06 AM »
Spoiler:
Like with many things, if Snoke was going to be an interesting character, this was the movie to do it in. But I also was super expecting him to come back to life after being split in half and laugh at Kylo's futile attempt at his life. Which, didn't happen, and surprised me a little that he just stayed dead and the plot moved on without him. Like Matsuri says, I do hope that Kylo stays the main villain since he's the most interesting one. I do think that they may need to bring Snoke back in some form to help explain how he influenced Kylo's corruption in the first place which is pretty important. Kylo's whole downfall right now was hinged on that pivotal moment when Luke almost tried to kill him and we need more context on that from Kylo's perspective to really understand his character. Stars wars has the nice precedent so far of setting up a galactic conflict in the first two movies and winding it down to a more intimate, personal confrontation in the finale of the trilogy, so I hope this is a road they cross.
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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #10 on: December 25, 2017, 10:40:04 PM »
The gay robot, you say?

...Which one?
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commandercool

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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #11 on: December 25, 2017, 11:21:34 PM »
So apparently my parents and a bunch of my extended family saw it again yesterday and every single one of them liked it more the second time. The ones who didn't like it the first time liked it the second time, and the ones who liked it the first time loved it the second time. I wonder how consistently true that is? I know Force Awakens tended to have the opposite effect.

The gay robot, you say?

...Which one?

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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #12 on: December 25, 2017, 11:37:33 PM »
Spoiler:
In my opinion; the majority of the film was alright; although there are a few glaring things which really drag it down.

1: Why on earth did they not evacuate a ship in that hopeless situation and do a suicide-ram earlier? Just program the computers to do it. And why on earth did Haldo NOT share her plan? The entire Poe thing; while it did actually lead to some character development and a realization for him, was ultimately created because Haldo was an idiot who refused to tell a CLEARLY distrustful and concerned Poe her plan. Woulda saved a mutiny! Which could have avoided half the events of the movie happening. I mean; what did Haldo expect from Poe? To sit on his thumbs and do nothing? Especially after he challenged her early on and accused her of treason? Speaking of which...

2: EVERYTHING with Finn in is borderline unforgivable padding. The entire Codebreaker plotline was a literal waste of time which amounted to nothing. Finn v Phasma was anti-climatic and she'd have probobly died anyway because of Haldo's stunt. Finn didn't even have any character development out of it unlike Poe; unless you want to call his suicide attack 'development'; when he was just as reckless in the climax of VII to protect Ray. [Also the fact that the same dealers supply the First Order and the X-Wings of the Resistance is a retcon. They're made by different companies from the TIE.] When there's an entire plotline you can drop from the movie and the movie is no worse off for it; that is horrible. But without the padding and the chase scene; the movie is largely monotonous and dull. It's awful that the secondary protagonist of the trilogy was basically shipped off on a filler arc just to make it look like he was doing something. The only good thing to come out of the filler was Rose; who was a pretty good character... albeit one who solely exists to create a Love Triangle and repeat the cliffhanger 'critical condition' ending VII had with Finn.

3: You seriously expect me to believe the entire events of everything until the last arc took 6 hours? Including Leia's recovery from a Space-Exposure Coma? Even Hyperspace travel takes time. This bothers me.

There were some good scenes; mostly the Snoke/Rey/Ren showdown. Always wanted to see the Royal Guards do a thing. Still; honestly; if I had to rate VIII; I'd put it as the worst Star Wars film. Even the Prequels may have had Jar Jar; but at least they didn't ship Obi-Wan off on a filler arc that takes up ~30% of the runtime.

This is probobly hugely biased because I'm a anime/manga junkie and therefor anything that feels like filler is toxic to me. And that's sadly what about 1/3 of the film felt like. Filler. And another 1/3 of it could have been avoided had Haldo had a brain and clued Poe in when he started looking like he'd be trouble if he wasn't filled in.
« Last Edit: December 25, 2017, 11:45:22 PM by Raikaria »


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commandercool

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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #13 on: December 26, 2017, 02:05:01 AM »
Spoiler:
On one hand I'm kind of into Holdo being a hardass and refusing to fold just because some low-ranking goober decided he could do her job better than she could, but on the other hand it doesn't feel like a fully realized part of the story that reeeeally pays off.

I have a vague idea for a re-structuring of the plot that would solve that, but it probably has a bunch of other problems.

-After the Resistance jumps to lightspeed they arrive in the same place, low on fuel and somehow aware that the First Order is tracking them through hyperspace, but the First Order takes some time to find them and arrive. Let the plot stretch out over a few days instead of a few hours.

-When Finn and Rose go on their side quest they're looking for Lando to ask him to muster reinforcements rather than looking for the codebreaker. They find him and he either refuses because he considers it a lost cause and doesn't want to lead more people into a deathtrap, or he agrees but the reinforcements that arrive are much smaller than expected.

-Rather than having the tracking system be on board the First Order ship have it be a mole within the Resistance that's leaking their location. This is why Holdo refuses to tell Poe anything. She doesn't even tell him that she believes there's a mole so he has the same arc where he realizes he was wrong not to trust her in the end, but she has a bit more of a moment. This eliminates the whole "Finn and Rose on the Star Destroyer" plotline and would require the Captain Phasma stuff to take place on the surface of that mine planet if it happens at all. This also opens up the opportunity for the mole to be a slightly more sympathetic/less obvious character.

I think basically everything else could play out the same, but by stretching out the timeline a little and crunching down some kind of superfluous stuff I think it would feel a lot more cohesive. Ultimately kind of a futile exercise since we got what we got and it's canon now, but if Disney went insane and gave me rewrite powers this would be my first pitch.

Also, as for why they didn't try the lightspeed ramming trick earlier and why it couldn't have been programmed to happen autonomously, I think the idea is that it never should have worked. It required Holdo's ship to be vulnerable within firing range of Snoke's ship for quite a while and it should have been obvious to Hux that something was up, but he brushed it off as a distraction until it was too late. Holdo only realize that it would work when she realized that he was single-mindedly focused on destroying escape craft and had stopped paying attention to her ship, so she made a crazy hail mary play. Nobody would have thought to do that in advance because there's no way it ever should have worked.
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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #14 on: December 28, 2017, 04:33:46 PM »
...Which one?

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Re: Star Wars Episode VIII: My favorite Star War is that gay robot
« Reply #15 on: January 11, 2018, 06:38:31 PM »
Bump and wake-up.

As a whole, "The Last Jedi", episode Ⅷ, is probably the best Star Wars movie made after 1983 in my ranking, if "Rogue One" (which does not belong to any trilogy) is not counted. Ⅷ brought me lots of interesting and beautiful stuff, provoked many thoughts, and failed miserably at a few points.

Spoiler:
The timeline of the movie feels bad. I don't know why it had to take place over one day.

In episode Ⅶ, they brought back the Death Star concept from Ⅳ and Ⅵ. In episode Ⅷ, they brought back
Spoiler:
the walkers and the timeline issues from Ⅴ
.

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That said, I'm thrilled to bits that they did go with the "Rei's parents weren't anybody special" answer. I'm endlessly frustrated by the Amazing Spider-Man/Man Of Steel trend in genre movies lately to make heroism genetic.

Spoiler:
Force sensitivity is at least partially genetic, canonically, all the way since the classic trilogy. Extraordinary Force sensitivity even more so. That said, I am quite happy if the later parts of the Star Wars saga deal with more than just the Skywalkers. The Galaxy is so huge that one would expect more highly Force sensitive families than just one, and also random occurrences not related to "the Force running strong" in a bloodline.

I have one further thought about the "not anybody special" point; I should revisit it later.

Spoiler:
A lot of people were really unhappy with the whole Space Leia scene (...). I have no problem accepting that Leia's force powers become activated by extreme danger.

Spoiler:
I found it most natural that her powers were activated by such an extreme situation. However, I would have preferred a very different presentation. Firstly, Ⅶ should already have mentioned some rare past "Force moments" of hers. Secondly, the scene should have been filmed in a completely different way, including something about how she personally experienced the "Force moment". Last but not least, the visual effects used should have produced something more credible than a 1950s sci-fi impression. I?m afraid the way her telekinetic flight looked was the single worst moment of the movie in my eyes. And I am generally very forgiving when it comes to visual effects.

(To be continued if any others are willing to participate as well.)