fujishig

I don't know how you define fun, but I feel like these movies have comedic moments despite the oppressive nature of the FO, and are in a lot of ways less dark and scary than the OT, where there was similar hopelessness. I mean the end of Empire basically ends with Luke emotionally and physically crippled, and Han trapped in carbonite after they were betrayed by Lando (which was really shocking to me when I was a kid). I'm not sure how "fun" that was.

Mike86

Yeah agreed. I don’t view either this or The Force Awakens as too dark. There are a lot of funny character moments and in jokes and while some things are cutesy and probably a bit Disney-fied (BB-8, the porgs) none of it feels too forced. The darkest of the new films is Rogue One but really it’s basically a movie that’s a suicide mission so that’s to be expected. Even there though K2SO provided some great humor and is one of the best new characters despite only being in one film.

stingermck

Just saw it a 4th time. Still enjoy it.

I was surprised the theater was almost full. On a Wednesday, 11am and it's 6 degrees outside.

Brack

I’ve seen it three times now, the last ones being back-to-back showings on Xmas Eve, and I think it keeps getting better. The casino stuff is actually not even 25 minutes of the movie, maybe 20 minutes even. I’ll have try to keep count next time. That’s nothing considering the length of the movie. It’s a brisk 2 1/2 hours for me.

Phasma needs to give up on that armor. It clearly hinders her ability to move effectively in a fight. I’d rather see her kicking but, i.e. Game of Thrones style, even if it would be typecasting/performing.

Noonan

My wife went to see Greatest Showman (or whatever it's called) yesterday afternoon and said they had to sit in the front row. Packed house at 1pm on a Tuesday.

I saw TLJ a 2nd time. Sadly, I still don't enjoy it. It's a good movie but a bad Star Wars story.

fujishig

Eh, the blaster proof armor is the only reason she didn't die earlier (if she is indeed dead). It is a little surprising that for all the storm troopers they have, we haven't really gotten a ground level battle with rebel forces, the closest is on Maz's planet and the FO retreated before the good guys landed. That's the only way she could kick butt, if she beat some red shirts.

Jay G.

A lot of people are off work/school this week, so movie viewing is going to be up. This is why the doom-and-glooming of TLJ's "poor" 3 day weekend was a bit premature. TLJ actually did slightly better box office on Tue than on Mon, Christmas Day.
https://www.the-numbers.com/news/227...h-28-3-million

The box office trend looks like it's going to split the difference between TFA and Rogue One in BO gross:
https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/c...tar-Wars-Story

johnnysd

I am not a card carrying member of the smear TLJ campaign or trying to convince people otherwise, but for me I have a difficult time getting past completely illogical and silly plotting. The "epic" payoffs of ludicrous plotting does not make up for the serious problems it creates.

Take this as an example. Visually and technically it was awesome. But I cant get immersed because the scene is inherently stupid and violates its own rules. I love fantasy books and the best fantasy books have outlandish elements but there is a science and consistency to them.

So it's cool but the scene is just so dumb?

1. Why couldn't they use autopilot and not have to have purple hair die
2. If that works, why isnt that their main way of fighting the New Order. It is INDEFENSIBLE
3. Why didnt someone think of this before?

So that scene was cool and all but it tears down the foundation of the entire universe in which Star Wars exists. It's cool for the sake of cool and has dramatic impact, but it is just so game changing that it just ruins the experience.

And there are dozens of things like this in the movie. The cool scenes in a movie should flow logically from the narrative, not just thrown in as a convenient plot device.

The entire premise of the movie is stupid. All of a sudden the ships seem to run on gas of some sort and they don't have enough fuel so they can only warp once more, but (plot armor) they have a Warp tracker so we have to eliminate that, but (plot armor) we are smaller so we can stay ahead of the New Orders bigger ships?

Seriously?

All of that just again tears down the universe of Star Wars. None of that make sense on any level.

It just detaches me (and many others) from the movie, and once you are detached and not involved in the story it just amplifies every little thing until it becomes just unwatchably bad.

The PT did the same thing. There was a great story in there of Palpatine democratically becoming the Emperor and at the same time turning Anakin to the "dark side" but it was done in like the dumbest way possible.

One thing I did like about TLJ is the broadening of the world, though it could have been done a zillion times better. I also liked the foreshadowing that there really isn't a "dark" side of the force, just a set of powers that come from a different place and it is how you use those that determine if it is good or evil.

JasonF

I can think of a dozen answers to each of those questions.

• The fleet didn't have autopilot.
• They did have autopilot, but it was damaged.
• The autopilot works, but Captain Holdo wanted to be able to respond to changed circumstances rather than trust the autopilot.
• The autopilot can't be programmed to do whatever it is Holdo planned to do after the escape pods got away.
• There needed to be life signs on board the ship or the First Order would have known it was a ruse.
• Ships are expensive and take a long time to build; you can't go ramming them into the enemy every battle or you'll quickly run out of ships.
• Once the First Order knows about the tactic, they'll come up with workarounds.
• People did think of it before -- it happened in the Clone Wars; we just never saw it on screen.
• Nobody thought of it before because Holdo is a tactical genius.
• People thought of it before but it was too horrific to contemplate the thought of a suicide mission.

That's just off the top of my head.

johnnysd

Ok. if those rationalizations work for you that's great.

Mike86

I think you’re overthinking it a bit and those explanations are all more than logical especially considering that this is a science fiction adventure film.

slop101

You're watching a space opera about space wizards and you're sweating this shit? Give me a fucking break.

fujishig

I think it's less stupid that Holdo (or someone) needed to stay on the ship for tactical reasons than for the dummies to stay on the medical and support frigates when they knew they were going to be shot down. And I think someone mentioned this before in this thread, but kamikaze bombers have been a thing for a long time and yet it's not standard practice in wartime.

But the main thing is, that was one of the coolest parts in the movie! I mean are you going to complain that all of a sudden everything was quiet? Lasers make sounds in space, where are the explosions? How did that collision warp Phasma all the way across the fighter bay when she was standing right in front of Finn and Rose just before?

And I said it earlier, but there are a lot dumber strategic things that happen. Like those worthless b-wing lite speeders Poe and company went out in, which did absolutely nothing except give Finn and Rose a cool scene. Or the first order landing and marching slowly in a line towards the wall with the command ship ripe for targeting just hovering overhead, and no thought to surround the base or anything with their superior numbers. Or, and this is probably the one that I agree with the most because it's so central to the plot, the fact that the first order had no access to smaller, faster frigates, or ability to warp other ships in front of them to pincer them in, or heck just sacrifice some tie fighters to slow them down. Or why Holdo doesn't reveal her plan, since there was nothing to be gained by secrecy (if they thought there was a traitor, the traitor would have similarly given them up when they launched in the escape pods anyway).

Jay G.

I thought the captain of the medical ship said that the crew had all been evacuated, presumably to the main cruiser. He was piloting the ship while everyone else escaped, pretty much like the beginning of Star Trek (2009), or like Holdo does just a bit later in the film.

E Unit

My biggest a gripe was that red background in Snokes room. That shit looked flammable as hell. Why would you use flammable background like that stuff? I’m glad he’s dead.

fujishig

Right, I meant the captain himself. The ship is running out of fuel and is going to just float in space and get destroyed. Holdo at least has to maintain course and react if the FO does anything while she continues on the path so that it doesn't seem like everyone abandoned ship.

Supermallet

The whole movie the resistance goes on about how many ships it’s losing—they clearly don’t have enough ships to do endless hyperspace suicide attacks like Holdo did. Furthermore, it didn’t actually destroy most of the big First Order ships, it just damaged them, so not only is it an extreme waste of resources, it’s also not as effective as targeted strikes would be. Holdo only did it out of sheer desperation.

sracer

Just returned from seeing it for the first time. As a die-hard fan of the original trilogy (but not of the prequel trilogy, nor the novels, or any other side-bar series, etc.)... I absolutely loved it. (with only a few cringe-worthy scenes, like Leia's "superman in space" moment)

It had an epic feeling to it... mostly due to the Original Trilogy-feel and the presence of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. It got me wondering if there has been a longer time span for an actor to play the same character.

I thought there were a quite a few points of commonality between TLJ and ESB. Ice Planet vs. Salt Planet, Yoda the hermit vs. Luke the Hermit, etc. It wasn't over done, and it gave me a subtle sense of deja vu that didn't seem like a rehash.

I appreciated that not every encounter was an epic battle to the death, but some were dispatched relatively quickly.

So much fun. As with TFA, I felt like 20-something again (roughly the age range I was when the OT was first released).

fujishig

First off, glad you had fun.

As far as reprising roles, off the top of my head, maybe Jeff Bridges in Tron? Arnold in Terminator and Ford in Indiana Jones were long but not quite as long an in between I think.

Brack

This x1000000000000000000000

I’m getting people on other blogs mad about astral projections not being “canon” and why other Jedis never did it, when it’s almost hinted at when Kylo feels water on his hand/face after another force connection with Rey.

The reason is most likely because it’s a suicide ability. Jedis typically aren’t kamikaze pilots, but whatever, people will bitch about anything.

Jay G.

This prompted me to look into this. Unsurprisingly, the answer is that certain soap opera actors have acted for longer:

https://www.quora.com/Which-actor-ha...e-longest-time

There's also been some impressive gaps where actors reprised old roles. It was 42 years between the Twilight Zone episode "It's A Good Life" (1961) and the Twilight Zone revival episode "It's Still A Good Life" (2003), with Cloris Leachman and Bill Mumy both reprising their roles.

https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off...-role-1771209/

Brack

At least the traitor would’ve most likely exposed, but yeah, I didn’t like that much either.

The First Order was crippled too, they just got blindedsided by a kamikaze Lightspeed attack, so maybe they were attacking on the side of caution and didn’t know what was on that planet as far as weapons.

funkyryno

I believe it was a symbolic scene of Rey looking longingly at Force Awakens plot threads that went nowhere in the Last Jedi.

Brack

That was the first time she saw Finn conscious and reminded her of how she had left him and hoped her friend would recover. Think Finn had the hots for Rey rather than vice versa, but hey, this isn’t going to have a Han/Leia love story like the OT did, at least no signs of one atm.

sracer

Thanks! I should’ve known that as my Mom has been watching the same soaps for 50+ years. lol