STAR WARS The Last Jedi *SPOILERS!*

[The Whovian]

Just got back from watching it and I think my expectations were way too high for this movie. Because of that, I kind of felt a little let down. It wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be, but it was still a very, very good movie. There were some things I liked and some I didn't.

The biggest disappointment for me was the end with how they handled Luke. NONE OF THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN ILLUSION! Luke should have actually been there. It would have carried more weight and they missed the boat on having Kylo and Luke play the same scene out that Vader and Ben did in New Hope. Not only that, but the scene where they were blasting him with energy weapons? If he HAD actually been there physically would have made Luke look very, very powerful. Him just fading away like Yoda on a planet far away afterwards felt hollow. I just didn't like that. It was a real letdown when they revealed it was just an illusion by Luke.

I also didn't like how they kept hammering home the fact that Luke had become so disillusioned with the power of the force and the Jedi order. He should have come around and trained Rey, and I guess he still can if he can do what Yoda, Ben and Vader do. But again, it would have been better if he had trained her. The end was a redeeming point for Luke, which was good. But they really knocked him down low and he seemed like an unappealing, pale version of his old self. I get that he felt shame and responsible for Kylo, but he had a chance to redeem himself right away when Rey showed up and he refused to train her. That just didn't make any sense.

And I knew, KNEW, they were not going to reveal who Rey's parents were and Snoke's identity. Where he came from, how he got to his position of power, etc. Two BIG points that all the fans wanted to know and they failed in that respect. Horribly. Kylo is clearing lying about Rey's parents just being some random nobodies. Heck, he didn't even know she existed until the Force Awakens. Now we have to wait until the next movie to find out the answers to those two questions and it's a complete failure on their part.

Now, the things I loved about this movie:

-Snoke's death. It was very clever and sneaky how Kylo killed him. He knew he couldn't take Snoke one on one. So he was smart about it and did it the best way possible. Having said that, they built up this big bad only to kill him off without a huge showdown and battle. It was still cool though.

-Luke's last stand against Kylo and his forces. It was so cool and would have been even better if he had actually been there doing what he was doing. Still loved it though.

-Kylo and Rey's battle with Snoke's personal guard. Am I right to assume that they were the other six Jedis that Luke said Kylo took from the temple? They never said, but I kind of got the impression that they were those six. Anyhow, it was a very cool and visually amazing fight scene.

-The humor in the show was just right. I know some fans will complain that it went overboard, but I thought the scenes that were supposed to be funny, were actually funny. Some of it was hilarious.

All in all, it was a great movie. I think I like the Force Awakens a little better though.

[Username taken]

I used to complain about Disney not bringing Lando back but I think it’s for the best that he stays in exile.

If he comes back it’ll just be to die or something horrible.

[The Whovian]

Also why didn’t Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo just tell her damn crew what her plan was instead of Risking a mutiny

Yeah, that didn't make any sense either. But the scene where she took out all the Imperial ships was really cool.

[Bossace]

Yeah, that didn't make any sense either. But the scene where she took out all the Imperial ships was really cool.

The problem with that now is now we know ships can just suicide and take out a whole fleet of GIANT ships, snoaks ships, why not just do that before or from now on

[Vanguard-01]

The problem with that now is now we know ships can just suicide and take out a whole fleet of GIANT ships, snoaks ships, why not just do that before or from now on

Yeah, seriously. Why does ANYONE bother with engaging enemy ships with turbolasers and ion cannons if that's a valid tactic? If I had that option, I wouldn't even bother with a huge fleet of ships. I'd just build a bunch of mass drivers based on hyperdrive technology that launches rocks at my enemies at lightspeed. Total annihilation of any enemy at a fraction of the cost of maintaining a fleet.

[Mormel]

I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I had some problems with it as well. I think I agree with many of Whovian's impressions on it, and I likewise prefer TFA. The humour was hit-and-miss for me, but for the most part hit. I loved Oscar Isaac as Poe, the way he handled the humour in his script was excellent; it's not always easy to portray a character that's same part jokester and same part badass, but he found the ideal balance. Awesome to see him fleshed out from his minor part in TFA.
I also liked the "Jakku./Okay, that's pretty much nowhere." joke, and several other ones involving Luke and Rey. But the montage of Luke teaching Rey how to survive day-to-day was a bit quick for me and jarring in the tempo of the movie.
There were some other odd choices, like Poe's X-Wing entering the docking bay and the camera cutting away from it after only a couple seconds; if I didn't know better I'd think they didn't have the budget to extend that and see the X-Wing hit the floor?

At several points ot felt like characters were running around doing stupid things. Throughout the film I was feeling so sorry for the Rebellion/(Resistance?) taking so many losses. Them losing their bomber squad at the start was already a heavy blow for them, but then they also lose 2 other ships probably containing at least 200 people (if the flagship is manned by 200 itself) and once they've boarded the shuttles, they just keep taking hits like sitting ducks with no strategy to make it out. It just felt like a series of dumb decisions, even taking in account the considerable advantage the First Order had. I likewise agree that Holdo should have told everyone her ultimate plan, instead of dividing the crew like that, to ruinous effect.

I loved the Finn and Rose plot. Two underdogs who at heart are the bravest of heroes. I've heard some say their storyline distracted from the rest of the film, but I don't feel that way at all- it felt as important as the Rey/Kylo stuff and the Poe/Leia stuff.

I'll have to disagree with Whovian that the Snoke death was clever. When Snoke said "I can sense his every intent" I did not think he was bluffing, and I find it hard to believe that he could detect neither Kylo's intent to kill him, nor the lightsaber stirring at his side. It diminished his threat and made him seem as incompetent as some other characters featured in this.

The CGI worked for the most part, I liked the designs of the Porgs and the ice-cats and the racing horses, but in some places it suffered from prequelitis. Especially the scene where BB8 is mistaken for a slot machine by the drunk creep was Phantom Menace territory.

In spite of some flaws, I had a blast with this, and will recommend it to everyone (in fact I already have recommended it to everyone I've spoken to so far).

[Somecrazyaussie]

Just got back from watching it and I think my expectations were way too high for this movie. Because of that, I kind of felt a little let down. It wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be, but it was still a very, very good movie. There were some things I liked and some I didn't.

The biggest disappointment for me was the end with how they handled Luke. NONE OF THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN ILLUSION! Luke should have actually been there. It would have carried more weight and they missed the boat on having Kylo and Luke play the same scene out that Vader and Ben did in New Hope. Not only that, but the scene where they were blasting him with energy weapons? If he HAD actually been there physically would have made Luke look very, very powerful. Him just fading away like Yoda on a planet far away afterwards felt hollow. I just didn't like that. It was a real letdown when they revealed it was just an illusion by Luke.

I also didn't like how they kept hammering home the fact that Luke had become so disillusioned with the power of the force and the Jedi order. He should have come around and trained Rey, and I guess he still can if he can do what Yoda, Ben and Vader do. But again, it would have been better if he had trained her. The end was a redeeming point for Luke, which was good. But they really knocked him down low and he seemed like an unappealing, pale version of his old self. I get that he felt shame and responsible for Kylo, but he had a chance to redeem himself right away when Rey showed up and he refused to train her. That just didn't make any sense.

And I knew, KNEW, they were not going to reveal who Rey's parents were and Snoke's identity. Where he came from, how he got to his position of power, etc. Two BIG points that all the fans wanted to know and they failed in that respect. Horribly. Kylo is clearing lying about Rey's parents just being some random nobodies. Heck, he didn't even know she existed until the Force Awakens.

Rey's parentage will no doubt be addressed once Episode 9 comes out. But I don't see them touching upon Snoke. If they do, it'll probably be in a novel. Would it really be worth disclosing his origins in Episode 9 at this point? The guy is dead.

[sunofdarkchild]

The prequels were literally the Republic fighting space terrorists, that became the empire in the last third of the final film. I'm sorry but that excuse just doesn't cut it. A bunch of competently trained Sith who are committing guerilla warfare can be just as dangerous as the Empire (as we've seen in the real world where the largest war of the last decade was over terrorists). In the fact the biggest failing most people had with TFA was that the First Order was an Empire retread. Or just have the First Order be Sith invaders from another galaxy. It doesn't really matter. Just make it not the Empire or an extension of the Wmpure under a different name that has been at war with the Republic since the end of the last film in the serried. It just retroactively diminished the originals in a way that can't be undone.

No. The prequels had the Republic fighting a regular standing army that used regular army tactics and not guerrilla tactics. They made a point about the Republic being outmanned because it went in without a standing army other than the Jedi in order to sell the Separatists as a credible threat - plus it's a lot faster to build a droid than to grow a clone. And it wasn't the Separatists who became the empire. It was the Republic itself.

I agree that I would have liked to have seen something different instead of the Empire 2.0 and removing the accomplishments of the og trilogy. But that bridge was crossed 2 years ago, and at least this movie isn't a remake of Empire but something more original.

[Starter Set]

I think the shadow of the prequels was a big part of the problem. Because the prequels were so badly received, they decided to remake A New Hope to 'restore fan confidence,'

I love that excuse.

Ok, first, the prequels are a success. That's the plain fact of it. They made an ocean of money, turned a whole new generation of kids into frantic Star Wars fans and spawned an army of merchandising, books and even one fantastic cartoon.

Second, it's Star Wars, there was nothing to restore, people would have go see episode 7 no whatever what. There was no way to tank that movie.

But of course why take any risk right? Let's give the fans the almost same soup than the one from 77, they are going to eat it anyway and even be grateful for that.

It rimes though so i guess it makes it all cool.

[Sacred Knight]

I do think they should have picked to reveal one of two things this movie: information about Snoke (he has to have a backstory of some kind that's relevant to the saga despite the twist of killing him off early) or information about Rey's parents (as I believe Kylo Ren either doesn't know so lies, or does know but still lies). Leaving both still unanswered is a tad annoying.

[Hiromi]

My first reactions
Pacing wasn't as tight as it was in episode 7, but it also did a lot to set this trilogy apart from the original, which is good
I liked that after all the speculation Rey has no part in the Skywalker lineage
Seeing practical puppet Yoda back was such a breath of fresh air, felt more like Yoda than any of the Prequel movies did
Rey and Kylo fighting back to back may be the single best lightsaber scene to date, choreography was breath taking
Kylo betraying Snoke but then refusing to actually do a heel/face turn was a nice way of subverting any RotJ parallels
Act 4 on the Salt planet was incredible visually
the movies continue to be about the new characters and it does feel like they're all developing nicely

[sunofdarkchild]

I love that excuse.

Ok, first, the prequels are a success. That's the plain fact of it. They made an ocean of money, turned a whole new generation of kids into frantic Star Wars fans and spawned an army of merchandising, books and even one fantastic cartoon.

Second, it's Star Wars, there was nothing to restore, people would have go see episode 7 no whatever what. There was no way to tank that movie.

But of course why take any risk right? Let's give the fans the almost same soup than the one from 77, they are going to eat it anyway and even be grateful for that.

It rimes though so i guess it makes it all cool.

To a large extent I agree. It's not an excuse. It's an explanation. They had no desire to take a risk, and I think that that was a mistake.

[Sacred Knight]

I liked that after all the speculation Rey has no part in the Skywalker lineage

When all is said and done I don't think this is going to be true. Kylo is lying to her, her lineage is not at all as insignificant and random as he wants her to believe. Chances are still high that Episode IX makes the final reveal that she's a Skywalker.

[BeastieRunner]

Query: could a Force ghost wield a lightsaber?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Well since Yoda blew up the tree with just a finger, I say yes.

And Rey is totally Luke's daughter. Come on guys, it's been freaking obvious since 7.

[Hiromi]

When all is said and done I don't think this is going to be true. Kylo is lying to her, her lineage is not at all as insignificant and random as he wants her to believe. Chances are still high that Episode IX makes the final reveal that she's a Skywalker.

I mean if it does turn out that way it could be done well too, but for the moment I like the subverting expectations and wouldn't be disappointed if it turned out to be true