SW8 : The Last Jedi

For reviews and close examination of sources - episode reviews, book reviews, raves and rants about short stories, et cetera.
Post Reply
User avatar
Mr. Oragahn
Admiral
Posts: 6865
Joined: Sun Dec 03, 2006 11:58 am
Location: Paradise Mountain

SW8 : The Last Jedi

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Mon Oct 23, 2017 6:16 pm

So, we've got enough trailer material to talk about that new flick now.

Of course, SPOILER ALERT for anyone coming here.
You've been warned!















It does seem that, through the larger trailer's montage, that Kylo is pushing his own fighter through the hangar bay of a major Republican (?) ship, on which happens to be his mother it seems, Leia Organa (played by recently deceased actress Carrie Fisher). She doesn't even speak in that trailer, but considering what happened in real life, it's most likely a forgone conclusion that Ren will simply complete his own kind of twisted murderous vengeance by cutting all family ties.

The trailer AND the poster try hard to make it look like Luke may have veered towards a darker path, more than we think. Hard to know. Maybe he'll be using Marry Sue* as some kind of assassin like Yoda and Obiwan did (yes, they essentially only trained Luke into a killer to get rid of Palpatine and Vader).
Since the title alludes to a possible closure to the Jedi cycle, there may be substance in that idea.
However, it may also be a vague reference to the general idea that the era of the Jedi really has come to an end and they may be replaced by something else. Or at least perhaps that's what Luke may have tried before his likely failure.

Another point of interest being the title itself: hard to know if it's singular or plural.

There new AT-STs and even bigger, beefier gorilla-like hunchback walkers (don't know their name), which I think is not a bad decision: they've always been more symbolic than practical. The idea was probably taken from one of the EU's late drawings for a card game. The giant walkers have an extra forward very heavy cannon.

Snoke... I thought the guy was really overcompensating, what with the huge hologram I almost expected him to be in fact a sort of lilliput in the movie. But it seems he's "just" a twisted human/oid.
Mind you, when it comes to size issues, the Supremacy has nothing to envy to the Executor, now 400% wider!!!
Admitedly, it does look very cool but I suspect it will be another wasted asset.

Marry Sue seems to go to some secret LOTResque wooden grotto wherein may lie a great secret about the Force, perhaps a source?
Geez, if they really go with the idea that Luke wants to close the original Force tap once and for all, I swear I wish I had put a copyright on my post from a couple years ago. :)
Still, it took me a ton of viewings to realize that we were seeing books in what is in fact a small room, although it looked much bigger to me and I thought it was some kind of ancient landing platform.

Chewie is probably still mourning the death of Han and... found a furry chicken-penguin thingy pet to have fun with (we don't know to know), which we're all sure will sell like hotcakes when the merchandising rolls out (don't be cynical, it's there just to be sell plush stuff to kids, we know it).

Ren has some silly, fake looking fish-like stuff stuck on his right cheek. Looks like it's a herring fillet picked out of a jar of rollmops.
Wow, scarry.

Marry Sue seems to be kidnapped by Rylo who leads a squad into the weird cavernous crystal-volcanoish scenery, which is also the location of a pursuit between the Millenium Penguin and nuTies. This world seems to be frozen on the surface and even has ice-wolves as part of its wild fauna (we see these beasts running into a Yavin-like base which a massive door closing down).

There's an X-wing of some sorts that appears to have a massive engine added to the usual four-piece set.


We've got to wonder if this movie will be hinging around a solid script enchanted by a proper direction or end in another clusterfuck of plot nonsense and shameless nostalgia exploitation like SW7 was.
Some other spoilers and so-called leaks are just so advanced that even midly spoiler-consumers should really think twice about exposing themselves to them.
One seems almost too contrieved in bending the prequels's theory of the Chosen One into some kind of sinister conspiracy to [bweep bweep bweep], making the whole Balance of the Force some kind of cynical joke.

* sorry but her character was so damned bland in SW7 that I simply can't remember her name. Rena? Lana? Mara?

Sothis
Bridge Officer
Posts: 155
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:17 am
Contact:

Re: SW8 : The Last Jedi

Post by Sothis » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:44 pm

I'm pumped for this movie - it looks to be this trilogy's 'Empire', only darker than TESB. I don't think it's a foregone conclusion RE Ren killing Leia, as Leia had completed all her scenes and the film was written with the intention of her being in Ep 9 - that said, they may have attempted to revise the film somehow.

Snoke's unassuming appearance mimics Palpatine's own aged, decrepid look. No one would look at him and think 'dangerous and all-powerful', yet Palpy certainly was, and Snoke commands the First Order for a reason.

There appears to be a lot in the way of space battles, or at least one major space battle, which should be good, and it would be nice to see the Republic offer up forces that can give the First Order a bloody nose, even if the majority of their fleet was apparently wiped out in Ep 7.

Character wise, it would be great for Luke and Leia to share a moment on screen. I hope that happens, though the trailer doesn't drop any hint of that. It would be fitting, and we can hope.

User avatar
Praeothmin
Jedi Master
Posts: 3920
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:24 pm
Location: Quebec City

Re: SW8 : The Last Jedi

Post by Praeothmin » Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:34 pm

Please ignore grumpa up there, the movie was awesome...

SPOILERS AHEAD


We have Snoke adding on a layer as to why Kylo, who had slightly more training than Rey (that’s her name), was beaten by her...
In addition to having been blasted by Chewie (remember that fucking blaster that would throw troopers in the air when it hit? Remember how Kylo could freeze blaster bolts in the air, and how Chewie’s shot did NOT thrown him in the air, meaning he was able to absorb some of it, even though he was bleeding like crazy?), Snoke said that killing Han made him lose his focus, that he wasn’t concentrating, and that’s why he couldn’t deal with Rey...

We see them fight again as allies, and Kylo is now a peak health, and he dispatches 5 of the Emperor’s spécial guards to Rey’s 3, and that is after Rey was trained...
Special guards who might have been the other Students of Luke that Kylo ran away with, as they seemed to be trained to counter force users...

He seemed to have increased his mind-shielding as Snoke, who could read Rey like a book, was not as good with reading Kylo...
The only time they seemed equals was on the Force pull, but then you could see Kylo was as tormented by this as after he had killed his father...

Luke told Rey he had only seen such potential once, and in Kylo, so Rey is another living being with high force potential...

So she is as Mary Sue as Luke, Anakin, Yoda, Mace, Sidious, Snoke, in other words, all the other powerful Force users we’ve seen over the years...

Jedi Master Spock
Site Admin
Posts: 2164
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:26 pm
Contact:

Re: SW8 : The Last Jedi

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Thu Jan 18, 2018 3:11 am

Sothis wrote:
Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:44 pm
I'm pumped for this movie - it looks to be this trilogy's 'Empire', only darker than TESB. I don't think it's a foregone conclusion RE Ren killing Leia, as Leia had completed all her scenes and the film was written with the intention of her being in Ep 9 - that said, they may have attempted to revise the film somehow.

Snoke's unassuming appearance mimics Palpatine's own aged, decrepid look. No one would look at him and think 'dangerous and all-powerful', yet Palpy certainly was, and Snoke commands the First Order for a reason.

There appears to be a lot in the way of space battles, or at least one major space battle, which should be good, and it would be nice to see the Republic offer up forces that can give the First Order a bloody nose, even if the majority of their fleet was apparently wiped out in Ep 7.

Character wise, it would be great for Luke and Leia to share a moment on screen. I hope that happens, though the trailer doesn't drop any hint of that. It would be fitting, and we can hope.
I liked it. I agree that it's meant to play a role much like TESB - and I think that makes it a movie that people will like less now, even if they might like it a lot once it's bookended with a more optimistic conclusion.

Sothis
Bridge Officer
Posts: 155
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:17 am
Contact:

Re: SW8 : The Last Jedi

Post by Sothis » Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:23 pm

Since seeing the film, I’ve come to realise that the core message is how, sometimes, the best (indeed only) measure of victory is in surviving. Sometimes plans and plots and taking on seemingly impossible odds head on *won’t* work.

Post Reply