tanman

I think this is one of the things that bothers me the most. They've always been a small group of ragtag rebels but now it's ridiculously so. One ship really? I know they set it up that people will be drawn to the cause but we only have one more movie in this trilogy so either they stay tiny and ineffective or all of a sudden they'll have an army and support and be able to fight the first order with hardware that showed up out of nowhere. Either way isn't really cool. I know it's selfish but Carrie's death really throws a big wrench in episode 9 because if she was still alive at least they'd have a reason to be a small group of rebels..er..resistance fighters. I'll wait to pass judgement until episode 9 but it seems like they really painted themselves into a corner. And they killed Ackbar!

And the one thing that really pisses me off about this new trilogy is that we never got to see Han, Luke and Leia together. I just don't see why they couldn't have given us that one happy reunion. I really liked that one scene with Luke and Leia but with the fake out we know that even that reunion will never happen.

tanman

This movie is really a lot to process. I'm not really even sure how I feel about it. It's really going to be polarizing. But overall I thought it was a really well done movie.

Some things I liked:

Porgs! Just enough screen time and hey at least they weren't killing stormtroopers.
The acting was really phenomenal in this movie. I thought everyone really stepped up their game.
Overall I really enjoyed the humorous parts of the movie
Leia - every scene she was in made me miss Carrie that much more. And it really showed she wasn't past her prime.
Laura Dern - she was great in this and that moment she went to light speed at the first order was really badass. But I don't like it when characters withhold information just to artificially elevate the tension. There is absolutely no good reason why she wouldn't have told Poe the plan to escape to Krait, especially when he tried to stage a mutiny.
The scene with Kylo and Rey teaming up to fight the guards was awesome.
I also think they redeemed Kylo in this movie. I think he elevated himself from just a whiny emo kid.
Yoda was really unexpected and his scene was really enjoyable.

Things I didn't like:

Wasted opportunities:
New AT-ATs that feature very prominently in marketing but didn't do anything
Phasma, an awesome looking character that was totally wasted potential
Rey's parents (although I really am starting to suspect it might be kylo tricking her)
Benicio Del Toro's character and his useless tic, It was stupid on Finn and Rose to trust him.
The whole casino planet just didn't fit with the story at all. There were so many other more intriuging things they could have spent screen time on.
What was Maz up to? Her 30 seconds of screentime as a communication hologram made her more interesting than all of her screentime in TFA.
Why were Finn and Rose all of a sudden pilots? Rose said she just spent her time behind the pipes and all of a sudden she goes on a priority one mission and can fly those skimmer things? And the whole reason why Finn breaks Poe out is because he needs a pilot.

Also I can't believe I didn't catch that Luke wasn't really there. I just couldn't get over the fact that he just appeared out of nowhere and somehow found time to hide the grey and the biggest "mistake" was why was he using his blue lightsaber? I was practically yelling at the screen that it should be green. lol

JTH182

I think there's a great movie in there, but they made some bad choices. It should have been more Rogue One and less Episode One. A few more edits would have done this one good.

I didn't hate it, but some parts aren't sitting well with me, and I didn't feel as pumped up leaving the theater as I did 2 years ago.

Oh, and why the fuck include the broom kid at the end? End the movie on the Falcon! That felt ridiculously out of place.

dex14

I'm surprised the Justin Theraux cameo wasn't played by Joseph Gorden-Levitt instead. Was JGL in the movie at all?

JTH182

Also, Yoda shows up but not Obi-Wan? Jedi, please!

JeremyM

JGL was in the credits as a voice for someone. No idea how I noticed that.

I assumed Finn and Rose were flying those vehicles because so many had been killed that they were down to using any live bodies they could find, essentially.

One problem--Yoda tells Luke we need Rey, that he must help her, and his apparent solution is to never interact with her again. Obviously he will be a Force ghost, but...

SmackDaddy

Ok, some more thoughts after sleeping on it...

I really enjoyed how the they slowly revealed what actually happened with Luke and Kylo. I don't have a problem with this at all. Luke sees that Kylo is already lost and wants to stop him. But, in the end he couldn't do it, which falls in line with how he handled Vader (having the chance to finish him off, but not doing it).

Poe finally gets his due after being pretty much a background player in TFA.

I wonder how Rey will go. Luke mentions how easily she went dark when he was having her meditate. There were a couple of times when I thought the big twist would be her giving in. The throne room fight was fantastic.

Kylo is now a much more interesting figure. I think he's now firmly on the dark side of the fence (after wavering, i.e. not taking the Leia kill shot).

Was sad to see Luke go, but it seemed fitting. Love the Binary sunset (rise?) as he faded away.

I mentioned this earlier, like many others, but the casino sub plot seemed out of place. I think it was the aesthetic of the planet/inhabitants, something just seemed off. I'm sure was something better they could have done with Finn. I also hated the Phasma is (we presume) dead. Cool character that got short changed, this trilogy's Boba Fett.

Eliminate the casino planet and tighten it up in a few there spots and this would be even better (I voted 4.5 stars BTW). But, I enjoyed immensely nonetheless.

BearFan

Who's to say how much time will pass between TLJ and Episode IX .. a multi year time jump could really solve problem of Carrie (sadly) being gone and the resistance being so small.

JeremyM

Oh, and how about the payoff to the last scene of TFA with Luke just chucking the lightsaber over his shoulder? I laughed at that.

K&AJones

For those who have seen it maybe a nice read on a take of Luke's Future here....

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood...ppened-to-luke

...some out there take every still of a movie or trailer and put it under a magnifying glass to "spot things" that most miss. Pretty intriguing article that might have you saying, "The obvious might not be so obvious after all".

Dubya

As a member of the "Original Trilogy Generation" (sounds like a Boy Band name) who didn't dislike but didn't love The Force Awakens, I was all smiles after leaving the theater last night. While I have nothing against clapping at movies I had never once clapped at one until the reveal of Luke being on the island while fighting Kylo, that was just fantastic! The Yoda scene was unexpected and it was a delight to see him and Luke share the screen one more time.

dex14

Yup.

mewmartigan

I wonder if episode 9 will start with an opening crawl of "5 years have passed..." because that will give Rey time to mess with her powers since she didn't get much training from Luke. It gives Kylo a chance to really come into power as supreme leader of the first order and it will give the rebellion time to grow again.

At the end, that kid did pick up his broom using the force right? So Rey coming from nowhere is fine because it kinda shows that instead of skywalkers being destined this time, its the nobodies that will rise up and defeat the first order.

Mike86

Regarding there not being a solid plan for the Sequel Trilogy that’s much the same as how the Original Trilogy was no matter what George Lucas likes to say now. You could say that the films that were definitively planned out (the prequels) are the worst.

rocket1312

What am I missing with this article? The main conclusion seems to be that Luke could still appear in ep.9 as a ghost. Well, yeah, who doesn't think that?

As for the all of the 'subtle' clues showing the true nature of Luke's battle with Kylo Ren, did anyone think they were that subtle? I thought they were more or less beating our head with a stick trying to tell us he wasn't actually on <del>Hoth</del> Crait. I didn't read any spoilers going in, but I thought it was obvious from the second he appeared what was going on. And I don't say that to toot my own horn or anything. Based on everything the movie was telling us, and the fact they they spent 2.5 hours pushing the idea of Jedi telepresence, I don't know how you could draw any other conclusion.

ViewAskewbian

To be honest, I think this was setting up Johnson's trilogy.

ViewAskewbian

The only nagging question I still have is how did Kylo get Vader's mask? I assume Luke took it from the fire on Endor Moon, kept it in his office under glass to, you know, look at it from time to time. Kylo nabbed it?

Or, did they, like, just dig him up?

Or did Luke just leave it there to burn killing thousands of Ewoks in the Great Endor Fire.

rocket1312

I wouldn't say it pisses me off. I was skeptical about dusting off the old characters even to begin with. That said, with all of the fan service and OT regurgitation that these movies (Rogue One included) have been dishing out, why is it the one thing that just about anyone could agree they'd like to have seen is the one thing they didn't deliver? Just seems really weird to me.

Trevor

It was fun, we had a cool opening night midnight crowd that cheered at the opening fanfare and other spots. Overall I liked it a bit more than TFA probably, but still not much above an above popcorn flick. Might see it again, but only because of MoviePass and family wanting to see it.

Michael Corvin

One more random thought... how about Chewie getting to be a badass on his own in the Falcon without Han? That was great.

I think that's truly the only way this can go. Easy to explain away Leia's death/disappearance and beef up the Resistance. That leaves Rey becoming a Jedi off screen though, which would be a similar setup to Luke showing up in ROTJ as a badass.

After killing Han, I didn't buy any of the wavering anyway. He was full on bad guy from that moment on.

Yeah that whole sequence was very misguided at best. It would be different if there was a payoff with Finn and Rose succeeding at the mission, but nope. The payoff is that they freed some race horses. Yea? Very unsatisfying. It was also a blown opportunity to bring Lando back. That looked like a scene he would be a part of, or running. I kept hoping he'd be the hacker (even though he isn't one).

Yep. Doesn't piss me off, but it sure is a huge disappointment.

Josh-da-man

Yes, I don't think there was any kind of grand plan in effect for the OT, but I don't think there was one for the PT, either, other than being locked into certain boxes that needed to be checked from the OT. Even then, you have inconsistencies like Leia's memories of her mother, and dead ends like Sifo-Dyas and the force ghosts being handwaved with an "oh, by the way."

And I also seem to recall Lucas admitting that he dicked around too much in the first two prequels and ended up having to cram most of the intended plot of the prequels into ROTS.

DthRdrX

It was a nod towards the title. Rey will not be the last Jedi as others still have control over the force.

I did like how they answered the question about Luke's green ROTJ lightsaber.

I have no idea how Rey got back on the Falcon after Snoke's ship was split in half.

rocket1312

The OT may not have been meticulously planned out, but the original film also didn't set up a bevy of unresolved plot points only for Empire to cut them all off at the balls. Jedi did it with the Leia/sister reveal and it sucked, so I'm not sure what your point is.

Coming out of Force Awakens, I joked with my friends that Snoke was worse than Jar-Jar. I really resented the notion of such a blatant Emperor stand in. I hated his dumb name, I hated that he was cgi, and I hated that he was played by Andy Serkis, who for some reason is the only guy in the world who's capable of doing mo-cap. All that said, I was willing to let it play out and see where they were going with him. As it turns out, the answer is nowhere. In hindsight, that makes the character even worse. He both sucked, and had no purpose in the story. I don't know if Johnson just didn't like the character either, or if there really was no story for him. Either way, it makes Lucasfilm look bad.

Mike86

True I suppose but it seems like with the Prequel Trilogy that there were far more guidelines to follow and it was a matter of piecing those films fit with what came before. I would think that should have been easier to pull off then coming up with sequels forty years down the line that incorporate elements of familiarity while trying to be fresh. It sort of seems like people are flip flopping what they want out of Star Wars. Where The Force Awakens was criticized for retreading the Original Trilogy it seems like a lot of the complaints about the new film stem from it going in different and unexpected directions.

I agree about Snoke which seems to be your big issue. I also think that’s why Johnson killed him off so soon as he felt like a very shoehorned character. Frankly I didn’t care much that we didn’t get more of his backstory.

My point wasn’t really about that though. People were saying how this trilogy doesn’t feel planned out and I was just pointing out how the prequels which at least had more to work with because they were filling in the gaps weren’t very good.

rocket1312

Just for the record, there is plenty of OT retreading in TLJ. Plenty. I don't see anyone saying otherwise. And as far as people complaining that it's going in different and unexpected directions, those different and unexpected directions should be organic to and in service of the story. Putting aside the fact that I don't really believe this movie did anything particularly outside the box, where exactly are the characters at the end of this? What has changed for Rey and Kylo Ren by the time the credits have rolled? By far the most interesting aspect of TLJ was the relationship between those two and just when you thought they were really going to turn the tables on the good/bad/light/dark dynamic, the whole thing just went back to the status quo by the end.