Star Wars The Last Jedi *SPOILERS*

[Sacred Knight]

What is it with fans and their adoration for the Skywalker bloodline?

Even if you just count the 6 Lucas movies and disregard the Disney ones, the Skywalkers have done a lot more evil than they have done good. And even if you chuck in the old EU it's about 50% odds any given Skywalker will turn into a Vader.

I can only speak for me personally but its less an adoration rather what I came to expect with things Disney/Lucasfilm themselves have done and said in the crafting and promotion of this trilogy. I'm more than fine with a main character not being a Skywalker. But when you do everything you possibly can to make it seem like the sequel trilogy will indeed revolve around that like the previous two had, the expectation was naturally there. And frankly still is there. I'm still convinced she is a Skywalker and that the explanation Rey got from Kylo is complete bullcrap. So I'm not holding that against the films just yet.

For instance, its already been made clear that the next trilogy will be completely removed from all this. And I'm just as stoked for that if not more stoked.

[godisawesome]

And I still think the time to reveal a Rey Skywalker scenario was this film, if it was going to be done at all.

There's a law of diminishing returns on secrets and reveals in a trilogy. One of the problems people had with Rey Skywalker was that it seemed conventional and obvious (as a reveal, I mean). Such a reveal would lose serious appeal if they waited 4 years for it, and waited until Luke was dead and maybe a force ghost to do it.

[Sacred Knight]

I don't think that's necessarily true, as the original trilogy frankly did a very similar thing. People tend to forget now so many decades later since its just common knowledge now, but Vader's reveal was not taken for face value immediately. It was a cliffhanger crafted to be left confirmed by a more credible source, which indeed the first act of the final film in the trilogy did through Yoda. Until then there was still the strong question of whether or not Darth Vader was lying to Luke. To me there's absolutely nothing saying that since it wasn't done in this film, that it won't be done at all. Indeed there are parallels in the way this movie turned some OT concepts on their heads to lend evidence to the idea it may very well be what Abrams intends for IX. Where Yoda confirmed Vader's words were true in VI, I could easily see FG Luke confirming in IX that Kylo's were false.

I would agree this loses something now that Luke is physically gone, but I still think its highly possible if not outright probable.

[CraigTheCylon]

Saw it earlier today. I cried 4 times, by my count. That's...quite something.

It'll take some time for me to fully break it down, but this might be my favourite SW movie to date, and right now I can't honestly think of anything I'd change.

Bullet points for the rest:

- Rian Johnson (and his cinematographer) have done an excellent job of breaking away from the more 'traditional' style of shooting used in the previous films. Even with non-Lucas directors at the helm, SW has always been pretty rigid in its visuals. Last Jedi breaks from the mould and feels all the stronger for it.

- The Canto Bight business with Finn and Rose threatens to drag on, but - apart from some good character work and a fun chase - it ties into that amazing last scene before the credits and points towards the future of Star Wars. Whether Rebellion or Resistance, it's never about a chosen-by-destiny pack of kung fu wizards with lightsabers bringing balance to the Force; the galaxy will be saved by the everyday people, the downtrodden, the poor and the used, the ones who know what it's like to be crushed under the iron bootheels of Empires and Orders. That's a far more powerful theme. Bring it on.

- Poe is an actual character now! He develops and stuff! I didn't even need him to, because Oscar Isaac can just lean against a bulkhead for all his scenes and still take the limelight, but it's great how they're transforming him almost into the anti-Han Solo, in a good way.

- Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro barely have characters to work with, but their roles work as stand-ins for aspects of this universe - a more pragmatic side of the Resistance, and the truly amoral parts of the underworld that aren't just cool bounty hunters or whoever - and they're charismatic enough to pull it off. But y'know, Holdo could've like, explained stuff to Poe at some point instead of just berating him...

- Rey's big moments often feel in service of the greater story so it's difficult to really consider her growth on its own. Suffice to say she's alternately stronger and less assured than in The Force Awakens, which strikes a nice balance (key point: telling off Luke for thinking that dark emotions welling up inside Ben meant he had already fallen beyond redemption, which was correct, then failing to take her own advice and letting herself get captured because she completely believed what she saw in his head). And I'm inclined to believe Kylo was telling the truth about her parents. While it's obvious that Rey is 'special', that doesn't have to be linked to some particular bloodline; hell, before Anakin the Skywalker family was nothing special, unless I'm forgetting something. Ultimately, Rey not feeling the pull of an inherited destiny gives her a less prejudiced view of her life and future, which helps her see the right path forwards, while Kylo is forever letting the ghosts of Han and Vader drag him further down.

- Speaking of the pouty-lipped wonder, man I love what they did with Kylo here. He shuffles closer and closer to a redemptive arc for most of the film, and his credo of "letting the past die" is something the movie is often on-board with. His killing of Snoke and the subsequent paired-up fight with Rey are brilliantly staged, and against my own initial desires I found myself getting on-board with the notion of a good guy Ben Solo...but then it turns out he's still a broken-up selfish goober out to claim his own empire, and I breathed easy again. I want a nuanced Kylo but I still want him to be a P.O.S. who fully deserves to be clowned constantly, and boy does he get clowned something good by the end of Last Jedi. Delicious.

- I'm probably not in a good place emotionally to talk about Luke or Leia right now - eyes are misting over again just thinking about how Luke just opens up when he sees R2D2 - suffice it to say this was a far more complex and nuanced take on Luke than I'd ever expected, and the bit where Leia actually uses the Force to float through space like a cosmic queen gave me chills.

- Given his place as the most recognizable character tied to the failed Jedi Order from the prequels, having Yoda's ghost be the one to burn down that tree with the ancient texts in it feels like post-mortem redemption for the crazy gnome. And yes, I'm so glad he's both a puppet and talking crazy again.

- I have no idea how and why Hux became the comedy lynchpin of the movie, but it's a major improvement over the nothing he was before, and Domnhall Gleeson does a great job as the Inspector Clouseau of the Space Nazis.

- lolphasma

[ZeroBG82]

- Given his place as the most recognizable character tied to the failed Jedi Order from the prequels, having Yoda's ghost be the one to burn down that tree with the ancient texts in it feels like post-mortem redemption for the crazy gnome. And yes, I'm so glad he's both a puppet and talking crazy again.

Just a quick note here, Yoda didn't destroy the books. He had one over on Luke.

Rey stole the books before she left. At the end of the film, when Finn is going through a drawer on the Falcon, you see that Rey stashed the books there.

So when Yoda tells Luke, "There's nothing in there that young Rey doesn't already have," he means it quite literally.

[Buried Alien]

Best line of the movie: "Page turners, they were not!" Even Yoda thought the ancient Jedi texts were a bore.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Somecrazyaussie]

The structure of the Jedi Order is what gave rise to Darth Vader in the first place. If Anakin had been allowed to openly have his relationship with Padme, then Palpatine wouldn't have been able to twist him like he did. The rigidity of it is why it needs to end. Luke even mentions it in this film. The old Jedi ways need to die. Only then can a new one take its place. Which is what this film hammers home.

[raidensix]

Liked it overall but it was a bit underwhelming (maybe because of a different director?).

A few nitpicks:

1. Timeline seems off. Rey has just met Luke and at the same time the Rebels are evacuating. The republic has practically fallen (honestly, it deserved to fall if it's leaders thought it was a good to have its ENTIRE military in one place)

2. Poe's mutiny only managed to get most of the rebels killed. His plan not only failed but also exposed the stealth escape. He should be in the brig.

3. Agree with others with Luke, he should have been physically there instead of a force projection (impressive though, he was visible to living beings and droids alike and tangible).

4. All that hype about Laura Dern's character and she dies?!

5. Who/what was Snoke?

6. What happened to JJ Abrams "Star Wars is the story of the Skywalkers"?

[Buried Alien]

Wasn't one dead giveaway that the "Luke" who appeared on the salt flat wasn't the actual, physical Luke that he was carrying the wrong lightsaber? He was seen carrying Anakin's lightsaber, which Kylo Ren and Rey had already destroyed earlier in the film. If it were the real Luke, he would have carried his green, RETURN OF THE JEDI lightsaber.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[godisawesome]

The Force projection had a lot of hints; wrong lightsaber, younger look with darker hair, the quick scene where you see he doesn't scrape the salt up when he drags his feet like Kylo...

Someone suggested we should see his death as being caused by Kylo's lightsaber touching his Force hologram rather than him just being drained. I don't think so; the latter seems what they were going for, and the former would seem stupid for him to stand there and take a hit.

[Buried Alien]

Force ghosts and Force projections seem to have undergone quite an upgrade since the time of the Original Trilogy. In the past, they were always ethereal and well, ghostly. Now, they can take on full three-dimensionality and even tangibility...which is probably what Yoda returned to teach Luke by whacking him on the nose with his stick.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Buried Alien]

What happened to JJ Abrams "Star Wars is the story of the Skywalkers"?

There's still Leia (though it remains to be seen how they're going to pull that one off with Carrie Fisher being dead), and though Luke is done in a flesh-and-blood way, he probably isn't DONE done.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Starrius]

The structure of the Jedi Order is what gave rise to Darth Vader in the first place. If Anakin had been allowed to openly have his relationship with Padme, then Palpatine wouldn't have been able to twist him like he did. The rigidity of it is why it needs to end. Luke even mentions it in this film. The old Jedi ways need to die. Only then can a new one take its place. Which is what this film hammers home.

It wasn't just Padme

it was his attachment to his mother Shmi
then after his mother died, Padme replaced Shmi as Anakin's attachment which led to his downfall

the way of the Jedi is detachment
the way of the Sith is attachment

these are concepts in Eastern Religion like Hinduism and Buddhism

[healed1337]

6. What happened to JJ Abrams "Star Wars is the story of the Skywalkers"?

The main villain descends from Anakin Skywalker. And I'm pretty sure we'll still see Luke in some capacity in episode IX. Without Carrie Fisher around, we might even see a lot of him.

[the nomad]

I saw the movie and a large, very large part of me feels like Peter Griffin after he made it halfway through Failure to Launch.



However, I don't think I'm all the way done just yet, I'm still trying to process everything that happened in my mind. And While I don't totally loathe this movie. I definitely, definitely don't love it either, which is sad because I love star wars. And I understand that it's changing, and some change is good but it has to be a change for the better, not for the mediocre, which is what I feel like I'm seeing. Especially with this movie. I'm sorta just......Meh, right now.

Episode 8, is filled with half-ideas, forced romances, unnecessary cameos (Here's looking at you Justin Theroux) , Disneyfied throwbacks, and alot of other stuff that I'm scratching my head about. And several Characters get the shaft, especially one character in particular. Finn, which was the only character I was really excited about when they announced this new triology. but Episode 8 pretty much just gave him the finger.