Star Wars: The Last Jedi

mirth · February 07, 2018, 02:13:11 PM

your dog feels the same way about you

Barthheart · February 07, 2018, 02:14:23 PM

What do you know, you've never met my dog. I'm her hero. :)

W8taminute · February 07, 2018, 02:43:01 PM

Quote from: Barthheart on February 07, 2018, 01:23:00 PM
Is it just me? Why would I care what some millennial thinks I hated about the movie? I must be getting old or just don't get social media... but she is just some random person to me, who's opinion I don't rate any higher than my dog's when it comes to movies or anything else for that matter.....

I saw that video a few weeks ago and thought the same as you. +1

Sir Slash · February 07, 2018, 02:57:02 PM

Millennials. #:-) Let me guess. "Why do they have to have a 'war' in Star Wars? Why can't they just sit down and talk about their feelings together and come to some agreement to fight together against Galaxy Warming or for Trans-Gender Wookie rights? Maybe over a Vegan Pizza". God's Balls, somebody shoot 'em with a Death Star!

JasonPratt · February 07, 2018, 03:22:00 PM

^^ It's more thoughtful than that. ::) I can't stand TLJ, so if I post something like that I'm not just trying to be nice. O:-)

That said, she didn't touch any of the reasons I can't stand TLJ.

BanzaiCat · February 07, 2018, 03:40:44 PM

Surely the Death Star has a safe space puppy room!!!!

JasonPratt · February 07, 2018, 03:48:42 PM

So for example (her list isn't in any order of importance):

10.) "Snoke didn't end up being anything." A simple complaint along that line, sure that's a silly complaint. But that doesn't touch a more complicated complaint of "Snoke comes out of plot nowhere and is more than a little conveniently stupid, so it makes no sense for him to be competently leading this group so far." Relatedly, what happens to Snoke isn't a problem in itself -- it's actually an evil inversion of the wizard mentor being removed as a crutch so that the true protagonist can level up properly against adversity. That's reasonably clever. The problem is that what happens should have very blatantly been detected and stopped.

bayonetbrant · February 07, 2018, 04:10:52 PM

My issue on Snoke vs Thrawn is that we know where Thrawn came from, we get a plausible explanation as to how he was able to rally the remnants of the Empire, and we get why he's such an existential threat to the nascent Republic.

Smoke just 'appears' and no one can really tell what the First Order is, why it exists, or how it suddenly went from rebelling against the Rebellion to the taking control between movies and suddenly having the Rebellion rebelling against the interim rebellion that was rebelling against the old Rebellion. I mean, c'mon... we can't get some actual reasons behind things? Writers forgot why things happened? I mean, the "why" matters b/c it sets up all the reasons for everything else...

bbmike · February 07, 2018, 04:15:03 PM

^You're looking for logic and plot continuity in a Jar Jar Abrams film? Good luck!

BanzaiCat · February 07, 2018, 05:10:18 PM

I still like the theory that Snoke is (was) Mace Windu. Not gonna happen, but interesting.

JasonPratt · February 07, 2018, 05:51:01 PM

Yeah, her defenses are "but the themes are interesting". I agree, theoretically on paper they're interesting. It's how they're deployed on screen that's cringey and annoying (to me and to others, not to everyone, which is fine: I genuinely envy people who enjoyed the film more than I did. As long as they aren't enjoying it for dumb ideological reasons that the execution of the film doesn't support, and so calling me a racist if I don't fawn over it, too. ::) )

So for another example, she replies to "everyone loses" with "that's the story, everyone is supposed to lose and to learn something from it". But (a) nobody learns anything really from their losses (which she admits from the villain side); and (b) everyone loses for dumbass reasons contrived solely to force the plot to go particular ways. Good idea on paper, poor execution.

Still, I appreciate her being nice in her defense (except for one "racist" crack which might have been sarcasm at poor defenses, not sure), and that she focused on themes being worth trying to defend. O:-) I don't always agree with her, but she's a sharp critic when she's on her game, and often damn funny.

JasonPratt · February 07, 2018, 05:55:05 PM

Quote from: bbmike on February 07, 2018, 04:15:03 PM
^You're looking for logic and plot continuity in a Jar Jar Abrams film? Good luck!

I was willing to give the first film a pass if they explained better story continuity in the second film: set up the situation and then explain it. Not my favorite approach, but workable.

But the second film openly pisses on continuity, so... I can't even complain that it's another example of JJA's damned "mystery box" conceit, because he had little or nothing to do with TLJ's disdain for followthrough.

If nothing else, I'm slightly interested from a technical storywriting standpoint to see how or even if JJA tries to salvage and course correct in the finale.

mirth · February 12, 2018, 02:14:52 PM

BanzaiCat · February 12, 2018, 04:02:00 PM

^ :DD

"Shut up, Carl"

That last bit with him holding back the AT-AT beams and them knocking them back into them, now THAT would have been bad-ass to see on the screen.

JasonPratt · February 13, 2018, 08:51:07 AM

The little halo around Grumpy!Lara Dern's head was pretty hilarious, too.

I would have been okay with Luke deflecting the shots back, but this puts Rey in the action (and ups the ante on newly revealed Force abilities) so, fine. It provides a legitimate "spark" for igniting defiance to the First Order, too.

(Daisy Ridley has been featured around the internet recently half-confirming that Snoke was supposed to be Darth Plageuis, btw.)