I just saw the new Star Wars movie [spoilers in comments]

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
12/21/2019 at 21:58 • Filed to: None

All the bad things the critics said about it are true, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

DISCUSSION (39)

Bryan doesn't drive a 1M > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:01

Just saw it myself and that's about right.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:09

I haven’t seen it yet but I have to assume based on what I heard that this trilogy would have been better served by having on director for all 3 movies. It seems to me based on the reviews and trailers that this movie is going to spend a lot of time fixing what Rian Johnson did with The Last Jedi instead of telling it’s own story.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:12

Buck covers his eyes and ears and starts yelling lalallalalalllalaaalalaaa!!!!!

I think we are going to see it tomorrow.

wafflesnfalafel > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:12

it was better than I thought it was going to be

SiennaMan > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:13

The only way the critics would have liked it is if they'd done something unnecessary that'd have infuriated 99% of the paying fans..

Chuckles > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:13

This movie managed to be both entertaining and disappointing at the same time.

ttyymmnn > TheTurbochargedSquirrel
12/21/2019 at 22:31

Not necessarily. I will say, though, that my wife and I tried to watch Last Jedi last night and lost interest about 40 minutes in and watched football instead. Most of the complaints I’ve heard say that they tried to throw too many SW references in the film to satisfy the fan base, and that’s true. It didn’t bother me though. The NYT reviewer said that if you rated all 9 films against each other they would all be tied for 4th place. I think that’s an excellent assessment. Not one of them stands out much above the other, but they are all enjoyable.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck
12/21/2019 at 22:32

No spoilers! I enjoyed it, I got choked up a couple of times, my wife actually cried. It’s a good ending to the saga. The music is fantastic. Is it cheesey? Of course. Are there plot holes? Of course. Does it matter? Not a bit.

ttyymmnn > SiennaMan
12/21/2019 at 22:35

But the SW fanbase is complaining that they didn’t do anything new. You can’t please these people one way or the other.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/21/2019 at 22:36

I shook my head a couple of times at the implausible bits (even for a space opera with swords and wizards), but I was satisfied with how they resolved things. It was very entertaining.

SiennaMan > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:41

That's very true.

Chuckles > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:45

( I’m going to assume that anybody who clicks on a post called “I just saw the new star wars movie” should know that comments might contain spoilers.)

I liked this movie, but what I didn’t like was how it basically tried to undo what was done in The Last Jedi. I loved the fact that Rey was a nobody. I really loved the message in TLJ that “hey, the Force can be used by anyone. You don’t have to be related to a powerful jedi or sith!”

And then this movie was like “just kidding! The only people who are good with the force are from this preapproved list of families!”

We ended up with a 9 movie story arc that might as well have been called the Palpatine saga.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 22:53

Like I said I haven’t seen it yet. The first trailer was almost entirely retconning The Last Jedi.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/21/2019 at 22:55

I tried to watch TLJ last night but lost interest and switched to football. But yeah, the business with Rey’s parents could have been handled better. If anything, all the SW movies are consistent in how they throw something out in one movie only to have to explain it in the next one. After setting up Rey in the firsts movie where we thought she might be related to somebody, then have KR in TLJ say that she was a nobody, felt like they were just messing with us. Of course she has a family history. Isn’t that want the entire SW saga is about?

MrSnrub > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 23:02

Basically how I felt as well. Loved most of the character beats, enjoyed it a lot more than I expected, but the story was definitely video-gamey and overstuffed. It felt a bit unfinished, like it needed another go-over to clean up the plot and improve the pacing . Not to mention some plot contrivances that bother me (how did Lando manage to rally like all those ships in 16 hours??)

Definitely doesn’t deserve the Phantom Menace-grade drubbing it’s getting from critics in my opinion though. It felt more like a movie with a mid-70s Rotten Tomatoes score

Chuckles > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 23:14

Back when I first saw TFA, I walked out of the theater and said “I’m going to be bummed out of Rey is related to someone else. Let someone new have force powers. Not everyone needs to be related to everyone.”

When I saw TLJ, at the end of the throne room scene, when Kylo Ren said “you’re nobody,” I said “yes!” (Also that throne room battle in TLJ was possibly the best looking hand to hand combat scene in any SW movie).

So I was disappointed that JJ dug up the ole emporer and made him a grandpa. I still liked the movie, I just wish it had gone in a different direction.

Poor_Sh > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 23:14

Pretty much every other actor and actress portrays more emotion and interest than Daisy Ridley did as Rey. Just, ugh.

ttyymmnn > MrSnrub
12/21/2019 at 23:17

I thought it was by far the most satisfying of the final trilogy. I’ve been watching these movies for 40 years, and I’ve never spent that much time analyzing or getting into the extended material. I’ve taken each movie as it came and watched it and moved on (though I saw the original film about 10 times in the theaters back in 77). I expected to be entertained and I was. It scratched my SW itch, and now I look forward to see where the franchise goes now that we are (supposedly) completely free from the Skywalker storyline.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/21/2019 at 23:20

Agreed, the return of Palpatine was kind of dumb and felt contrived. I’m still now sure how he survived or was reanimated. I suppose JJ felt like since he was following in Lucas’ footsteps he had to stay true to the original trilogy. And that led to a lot of constraints on what he felt he could do. Now that the Skywalker saga has (supposedly) been put to bed, I look forward to what they do with the franchise going forward. The possibilities are endless. More Keri Russell would be nice.....

Chuckles > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 23:23

The Americans is one of the best TV shows I’ve watched in the last decade, so I’m a big fan of Keri Russell. I recognized the voice and knew it was her before she opened her visor.

I just signed up for my free year of Disney plus today, so I guess it's time to check out The Mandalorian.

f86sabre > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 23:23

I have no idea why they crashed the Falcon before Ray ran off. Even with gear issues the could have just hovered gently down on the belly.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/21/2019 at 23:29

We’ve been watching The Mandalorian. L ike the movies we’ve been discussing , The Mandalorian is not a great show. But it is entertaining, and works outside of the constraints that are on the original S aga. Each episode basically stands alone, and each has a different director. I think this is a bit of a weakness for the show, as it doesn’t have the coherence it might if it were directed by the same person. The episodes have been a bit hit and miss, but the last two have been pretty strong. I’d like to see more serialized stories about SW characters outside of the Saga.

Chuckles > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 23:30

I have also heard good things about the two animated series, Clone Wars and Rebels. My coworker told me to watch Rebels, but I guess Clone Wars comes first.

ttyymmnn > f86sabre
12/21/2019 at 23:31

And then they managed to fix it--and the gear--without any jacks or hoists or whatever. Oh well, it wouldn’t be SW without gaping plot holes.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/21/2019 at 23:33

My boys watched Clone Wars and enjoyed it. io9 did a story the other day about the epically horrible SW Christmas special. There was a long cartoon in the middle which featured Jango Fett, and was actually pretty entertaining. Again, when you get outside the box of the Saga, you can do lots of cool things.

His Stigness > ttyymmnn
12/21/2019 at 23:48

But that was what was so compelling about The Last Jedi! Johnson wrote the whole film around dispelling that idea, and I loved it for that. The galaxy is massive, but Lucas and Abrams are telling people that out of all of those people only one family is special and worthy to be the Jedi? That doesn’t seem right? I think Johnson did such a good job with The Last Jedi telling the audience that you don’t need to be special, anyone can be a Jedi, including a little slave boy in the stables.

All The Rise of Skywalker did was make me like The Last Jedi even more, despite ruining Luke.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/21/2019 at 23:58

This is a very interesting take on the latest film.

Chuckles > ttyymmnn
12/22/2019 at 00:06

I’ve seen that take before. And while I get what they are trying to say, as someone who plays video games, I d on’t love when they are portrayed as “lesser” media. The writing and storytelling on games can be phenomenal, but as a genre it often gets looked down upon.

Unrelated to that, I also wonder what might have been if Carrie Fisher had not passed away. All of the footage of her in this movie was recycled from TFA and an unused scene. We might have had a very different film.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/22/2019 at 00:09

My son had a problem with her being a full-fledged Jedi. I thought it was pretty cool. I liked that training scene, and seeing Luke and Leia young, even if it was CG.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/22/2019 at 00:12

Also, I didn’t sense any condescension about VGs in that piece. If anything, I thought it was more of a dig at the movie.

Chuckles > ttyymmnn
12/22/2019 at 00:13

It's only a dig at the movie if they're implying that video games are somehow "less than" compared to films. This article wasn't too bad though.

ttyymmnn > Chuckles
12/22/2019 at 00:15

The piece also had a lot of good things to say about VGs and the ones with complex stories. Which by comparison, the author notes, ROS does not have.

ThePlasticOne - no diggities expressed nor implied. > ttyymmnn
12/22/2019 at 00:26

DENIS. LAWSON.

Jayhawk Jake > Chuckles
12/22/2019 at 08:57

For real. What’s disappointing to me is how unimportant her heritage actually was. She could have been left as a nobody, everything else could have played out as it did, and it would have made little to no difference. It probably would have been better.

Chuckles > ThePlasticOne - no diggities expressed nor implied.
12/22/2019 at 09:10

That was completely unexpected and such a great moment.

InFierority Complex > ttyymmnn
12/22/2019 at 09:34

Haven’t seen the movie but the Palpatine coming back storyline is pretty much lifted from the Dark Empire arc in Legends. There is was him projecting his mind into a clone body with the force or something like that. It’s been awhile and it’s not my favorite arc.

That’s not even the worst cloning in Legends. Would you believe me that there was a Luuke (sic) Skywalker which was a clone from Luke’s hand cut off at Cloud City.

I love star wars and all but there is plenty of nonsense in it

Danimalk - Drives a Slow Car Fast > TheTurbochargedSquirrel
12/23/2019 at 11:58

The original trilogy had three different directors. Lucas only directed A New Hope, though he was very involved in the production of each.

ThePlasticOne - no diggities expressed nor implied. > Chuckles
12/24/2019 at 13:43

I wonder what they had to do to convince him to get on board. He’s famously had Alec Guiness-level disdain for the franchise.

Chuckles > ThePlasticOne - no diggities expressed nor implied.
12/24/2019 at 14:09

He may have not been interested in reprising his role in a larger capacity in the sequels, but after seeing how people have been (mostly) enjoying these new films, they may have been able to talk him into his 1 line cameo to help bring closure to the saga.

Of course, money doesn't hurt either.