Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi 12/15/17

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

This movie really solidifies Luke as my favorite character in the Star Wars saga, and what's so great about him is that the character is so substantially different in each film that he's in. There's always another phase of Luke and that speaks to just what an underrated actor Hamill is.

He's so flawed and human and nerdy and weird.

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

I think he's just wingin' it.

[mr.negativity]

[O.Supreme]

I don't think SW needs the Chinese Box Office to be successful (TFA is the only SW film that any marginal success there...), but it is interesting. I heard some internet commentators say part of the problem is... "with Star Wars you cant go and film in a Chinese city to draw that demographic"....If Disney wanted to, I bet they'd accept that challenge. They have cast numerous Asian actors in the last 2 films. But I bet they could easily make a planet that is populated by nothing but Asian humans . (I mean for the record, Canto Bight took me out of the film, because it seemed like normal Los Vegas- a bunch of rich white people gambling, with the occasional alien thrown in for laughs...but it was very different and out of place in the SW universe) I guess time will tell. International drop-off or not. TFA is performing exactly as it should, with about a 30% drop-off overall from TFA. Sure I bet Disney wishes it was increasing and not decreasing, but such is the way of things. Hopefully after episode IX, they will rethink their plans and instead of jumping head-long into endless annual films, give the series the break it deserves. They will have made more than their 4B back from Lucas, they can let their new theme park attractions and TV series make them $$$.

[Dai]

[Gman2887]

[jellydonut25]

[eabaker]

Yeah, to me Star Wars benefits from feeling like a big event, and it can't feel that big when we're getting movies once a year.

[Henry88]

the house of mouse demands it and it will be so.

[Dai]

You all seem terribly blasé about the passing of decades; anyone would think humans live to be 500. Am I seriously the only one who hears the ticking clock of mortality when a movie series goes into hibernation for ten or twenty years at a time? By all means, if anyone wants to wait a decade or two before watching this year's Star Wars movie, that's your choice. Personally, I prefer to have more of the things I like while I'm still alive.

[jellydonut25]

I guess I don’t like Star Wars that much. *shrug* If I only watched the OT here and there for the rest of my life, I’d be happy (assuming of course Disney continues to make these throwaway “fine” entries that neither really disappoint or terribly excite. Everything aside from that OT is Clone Wars “fine for what it is” level at best. Star Wars has been exposed as just not that interesting.)

I’m absolutely gonna skip Solo barring Wonder Woman level reviews (I had intended to skip that film until it got rave reviews). And episode 9? I’ll probably see it just to finish off the story, but it’s not anything I don’t want to wait for.

[eabaker]

I love the original Star Wars trilogy. I mean, they played a huge part in setting the course for my life; I don't know if I'd be a filmmaker now were it not for the experience of seeing a double feature of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back at age four (Return of the Jedi hit theaters just a couple of weeks later, so I saw them all in pretty rapid succession that first time). I've probably watched the OT movies more than any other movies in the course of my life (closest competition might be Return of the Living Dead).

I am very happy to get new, good Star Wars content. The Last Jedi is a movie I have begun to love, but I'll probably never love it with the same intensity that I do the OT, because it wasn't part of that childhood experience. Nothing else ever will be.

I know I'll keep watching new Star Wars movies as they come out; some I'll like, hopefully more will come along that I love. But, the thing is, I don't need that to happen. I have this beautiful thing, the Original Trilogy, that means as much to me as a work of art/entertainment ever could. And I can revisit that again and again and again. And I'm satisfied with that; it doesn't make me crave more.

[O.Supreme]

^ This 100%, thanks for articulating a similar sentiment so well. A close friend of mine who is a way bigger SW fan than I has actually stopped watching the films, he had no desire to see TLJ, which is sad in a way, but I get it. I will continue to enjoy SW, to a degree, but when Disney made the choice to render the EU as "non existent", that changed my whole concept of any film coming forth form them. I know many people don't care about the EU, never read a single entry, and that's fine. But in the early 90's when SW was all but dead, and Tim Zahn released that first Novel, Heir to the Empire was, for all intents and purposes Episode VII, and I've never felt any different. The Disney Movies are a nice little *what if*, but its not MY SW canon. In fact, its odd because to me, in their effort to undo the EU, Rogue One was pretty much a near-perfect representation of a EU Novel realized on film, something I thought we'd never get. It was wholly unnecessary, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Again, its the law of diminishing returns. You CAN have too much of a good thing. When something special becomes commonplace, it no longer is special anymore. case in point:- I spent more hours and money than I care to admit trying to get nth level generation bootleg copies of the original Ultraman series on VHS for over a decade, many many years ago because that series was so strongly engrained in my childhood. Now new Ultraman series come and go, and are practically free to stream online, and while I still have interest, its certainly not a priority. I still have many series and films to view, when I get around to them.

I enjoyed Clone Wars, and am enjoying Rebels, but if SW does become so commonplace that its not special anymore, that will be a sad day.

[Benjamin Haines]

[jellydonut25]

[mr.negativity]

An Evening with Rian Johnson, Director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi

[mr.negativity]

[jellydonut25]

"Snoke gets cut in half, but then Darth Maul crawls out of him like a Russian nesting doll."

This is probably a real thing someone somewhere wants.

[eabaker]

Last night, while talking to Jenn about TLJ, I had a realization about my relationship to the movie.

None of what I'm about to say is intended to argue a point; I am not trying to convince anyone of anything. It's just a personal statement about my relationship with a work.

I first saw all three Star Wars movies in fairly rapid succession shortly after turning 4 years old, in 1983. First it was a double feature of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, followed by a return visit the following weekend (my mother was amazed that the second movie managed not only to be so good, but to improve the original by association; and so she made my father come with us the for the repeat viewing), and then Return of the Jedi when it opened a week or two later.

Between 1983 and 2017, nothing made and marketed as "Star Wars" felt entirely like Star Wars to me. It was mostly an echo, not filling the void so much as calling my attention to the emptiness. Sometimes it was more like seeing a stranger crudely dressed in the trappings of Star Wars. Sometimes it was like watching the rotting corpse of Star Wars made to dance like some hideous puppet. At its best, it was like encountering the disembodied ghost of Star Wars, a spirit speaking to me from beyond the grave; fleetingly, tantalizingly akin to the experience of Star Wars, but never anything that could be held onto.

And then I saw The Last Jedi, and for the first time since 1983 I felt like I was seeing new Star Wars. Not an extrapolation or an imitation or a tribute or a cash-in, but Star Wars itself. There was no separation between me and the experience; it was as pure and true as it had been in 1983.

And I loved it.

It gave me back something I felt had been lost to me.

I wasn't looking in the mirror and seeing Star Wars reflected behind me, then turning to find that I was really alone the whole time.

Star Wars was alive again.

I love The Last Jedi. I never thought I'd love a new piece of Star Wars again. But I do.

And I know that the next piece of Star Wars to come out almost certainly won't awaken that same sensation in me. Maybe it won't feel that way to me for another three and a half decades. Maybe it never will again.

I guess that's all the more reason for me to treasure this one piece, this return of what I can only perceive as the duende of Star Wars.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Finally got around to watching Episode VIII the other day thanks to Netflix. Ugh what a terrible movie. I just didn't like it until the end.

[Dai]