Quote:
Originally Posted by direwolf
Nobody is wrong for disliking a movie. It's all subjective. For some folks, TLJ just didn't deliver what they wanted to see, which is fine. Star Wars fans can be an ornery bunch and they'll never agree on anything (except for Empire of course). I don't think any filmmaker on earth could ever completely satisfy the fans at this point, and I imagine trying to write and direct one of these movies must be the most stressful thing ever.
Personally I enjoyed TLJ a lot. I thought it was beautifully shot with some great action sequences, wonderful character moments, and terrific acting, particularly from Hamill, Ridley, and Driver.
I loved what they did with Luke's story arc and I enjoyed pretty much all of the Rey/Kylo moments, especially the kick-ass fight scene with the Praetorian guards. And the entire sequence with Yoda was just perfect. The music, the dialogue, Hamill's acting, the use of an actual puppet, and Frank Oz doing the voice again...everything just worked beautifully in that scene.
Does the movie have it's flaws? For sure. Flying space Leia was really dumb. The Canto Bight scenes didn't really do it for me, and Benicio del Toro's character kind of annoyed me. But those are minor complaints. Overall I thought it was solid entertainment from beginning to end and a worthy addition to the franchise. After watching it again on bluray recently, I think I liked it even more.
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I'm about 10 years to young for a first run viewing of ESB, so I grew up with a constant awareness of that movie, not remembering the first time I saw the plot play out.
I think due to this I never got it. As a young kid, ANH was a simple heroes journey, easy to understand, you knew you were to identify with Luke, the movie a 7 year in the analog era could latch onto. ROTJ was fun action packed, had teddy bears in it, my 6 year old today is clear that 1) music 2) ewokes 3) droids are the best parts of star wars. But ESB was this dark disjointed story with a revile that seemed obvious in that it contained information I had always known, it did little more for me that bridge the gap between the two fun movies I identified with.
Growing up, I did start to enjoy ROTJ less for it needless goofiness (especially in light of PM playing off that tradition with complete failure), and I did started to enjoy ESB for showing allot more depth of story telling than the other two movies. But still I did not get it as a bigger moment in movie history than ANH, the original that started this all.
But then this year I went to Infinity War. Going into the theater skeptical that they could hold over a dozen principal characters together in a coherent story line, vaguely aware that our heroes were doomed to lose this match. I still got to that movie utterly impressed how well the framed every character as an active movie piece in the story, how plot lines weaved in and out of each other, and that they wer not only bold enough to go through with the snap, but just how deep the cut truly went. Then I looked back and saw how much better movies like Dr Strange and Age of Ultron are with the benefit of understanding the characters better and the story they were building towards. After seeing that, I finally think I understand the experience people speak about in reference to ESB, but for me ANH is still #1.
All of that said TLJ rant;
Has allot of interesting things to say about the key themes of Star Wars, Light vs Dark, Hope vs Hopelessness, Courage vs Practicality. Just because this movie found a different lens to view these from does not mean it was not addressing the same themes.
The Luke retreat to hiding, is perfectly in line with every bit of training he ever had, Uncle Owen told him to keep his head down and be fearful, ObiWan watched over him in hiding for near two decades, Yoda sensing defeat isolated himself and resisted rebuilding the Jedi. There is no reason we should have expected anything less from Luke.
Lukes death was poetically perfect. The raw expression of power completely absorbing his entire being, The longing for home which he was so eager to run away from, the final act off hopeful defiance.
While the car chaise scene was a bit much, I though the last moments when unshielded transports were literally being shot down like fish in a barrel created some of the best dramatic suspense in the star wars series. And I thought the Kamakazi hyperspace attack was a fair resolution for the viewers.
Reys ending was a fun bit of hopeful irony, after being told the force is not about lifting rocks and stuff, she finally gets to be a hero by using the force to lift rocks and stuff. Its just good story telling. Note through all of TFA the only person she was really trying to save was herself, the escape from the cave was her second act of true heroism towards someone else, the first and only other one being towards BB8 on Jakku.
The Leia space thing bugged me allot of first viewing, I think going in with knowledge of real world events, it so deeply violated my expectations. But it seems little more than a passing incident now on my third viewing.
Kilo went from the worst villain in starwars history, to at the very least the best motivated villain in star wars history. In a half dozen short scenes they accomplished the objective of the entire first trilogy.
Poe's extra screen time was a welcome addition. Star Wars needs and shooting from the hip fly boy to balance out the lofty goals of the rebels.
Kato Bight was a waste of time and a poor use of Fins character, but I think they needed to distract us while they built up the suspense in the car chaise scene. Poorly executed, but effectively managed it's goal.
Snook and Pasma unceremonious deaths, who cares. This isn't the Snook saga, he was a casualty that allowed Kilo to step up and assume a higher mantel than Vader who never escaped the yoke of the Emperor. And Pasma was a crap character, replace her with generic male voice white storm trooper completely and the needle doesn't move at all on either movie.
Saying this movie needs to be redone in a frame that better fits your personal expectations just doesn't square with my experience. That movie was good Star Wars.
(I be perfectly happy to see I / II / III redone in a fashion that better suits expectations, so I'm not against the concept of making those types of complaints).
/rant
Personally I'm pretty excited for IX. I think they have shrunk this down to a very small personal conflict, and it allows them to go in almost any direction they want.