I know I’m really late to the party but I just saw the movie two nights ago due to holidays and babysitter issues. I read the first 10 pages of this thread but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I apologize if the points I’m bringing up are dead horses but I didn’t see a lot of them in the first 20 pages.
I’m really really disappointed in the movie. I liked (didn’t love) TFA. I loved Rogue One. I was giddy when my parents said they would babysit so we could go. 30 minutes into this movie I found myself thinking, I don’t care about what’s happening in this movie. Everything was just so off. Characters were so out of character and moments that should have been emotional were not.
The characters and the special effects to me are what made the OT so special and rise above the plot holes and bad dialogue and other flaws. This movie seemed to have no heart or Johnson didn’t understand what made these characters tic (or didn’t care).
You’re going to convince Luke to come back and you leave Chewie and R2 in the Falcon other than open a door for you? Really?
We get a 5 sec facial reaction to Han’s death. And the explanation happens off screen? Really? Yeah, I know, we know what happened but that should have been an emotional moment that should have had Luke ponder going back for Leia if nothing else, but no.
I’m totally ok with craggy mess of a hermit Luke at that point in the story. I’m totally ok with him tossing the lightsaber. I am not ok with how he got there. Luke wanting to murder Ben at that point in the story is not in character. This is the Luke who woukdnt give up on Vader who had murdered billions of people and was committed to help him because he saw some spark of goodness there. At that point in the story arc, the rebellion had won, he’s opening a school, life is good. He looks into his kid nephew, sees some darkness and thinks he should be murdered. Sorry kiddo, I went to the mat for your grandfather and successfully brought him back but you I want to kill at the first sign of darkness. No way.
I love Leia. I adore her. But her first real active use of the force (beyond reaching out and feeling people) is not to save herself after being blown out into space. It’s just too big a leap.
So the Resistance fleet is too fast for the big ships and they recall the TIEs because ... the First Order suddenly cares about TIE casualties? Really?
The whole hyperspace tracking from the lead ship only was a typical tortured SW plot device but just because SW is littered with them doesn’t mean it’s a good thing that should be repeated/encouraged/accepted.There were other ways to have the First Order track them. I really thought it was going to be that we’d find out there was some way to track stormtroopers. That would have given Finn a better role.
The Finn subplot was poor as many have said. It’s too bad, I like him.
After the fantastic space battles in Rogue One, these were very ho-hum in comparison. I did really like the use of silence and some of those shots were cool with the Raddus but other than that moment they were not as good as R1.
I also don’t understand why people are saying this movie is so original. It seems to me like they took a bunch of scenes and ideas from all 3 OT and just shuffled the deck to show them out of order. Crait was Hoth with red dye (and a bit of Helms Deep thrown in) at the end of the movie. Turning on Snoke was Vader turning on the Emperor in the middle of the second movie instead of the end of the last. Luke’s island was Dagobaugh complete with sunken x-wing and monster, dark side cave, Luke as Yoda. I told DH after TFA that I was ok with TFA being a bit of a rehash because of trying to kick off the universe again but would not accept that from VIII. But to me that’s what 8 is - rehash. Visually and plot wise there is way too much homage to OT.
I’m fine with Rey’s parentage but not fine with it was not explained in a way that fits with anything that was teased in TFA. Be consistent. A lot of people really enjoyed talking about how that could go. It was a great little mystery and helped keep the spark of excitement alive between movies. If Johnson didn’t like or even respect what was done in TFA why was he directing this? And the fact that they wrapped much of it up with no real mysteries to debate and be excited about is another source of my disappointment. As a kid I remember debating endlessly whether or not Vader was really Luke’s father after ESB. Im sad there is nothing like that after this movie.
I did like Luke’s gambit at the end. Although it worked in part because of all the other plot holes. When he came out of the back my first thought was ***. Oh another dumb plot point. Oh wait, this one was actually intentional.
I also liked the interactions between Rey and Kylo and also between Luke and Leia at the end.
I also liked Yoda igniting the tree and I’m ok with him agreeing that they need to take another path. Honestly it hadn’t worked out so well for the Jedi. Changing/starting over is wise of Yoda to admit. Sadly, it doesn’t seem that the people in charge of doing that are really up to the task.
I realize that a lot of my complaints when taken alone are small and can be lived with (TFA and TOS had issues and were still very successful movies). Taken all together though is just too much for this movie to work at all for me. I don’t have any desire to see it again. I may not even buy it when it’s out. I’m very sad about that. A lot of people who liked it keep saying things like people who didn’t are just looking to complain or hate on this movie. I’m not an Uber fan who has analyzed everything. I’m not someone who goes into a movie looking to criticize. I’m just a lifelong SW fan whose very disappointed.
both Pro AND Con. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion-but let me make one thing perfectly clear: Neither @Disney or #Lucasfilm has complained or told me what to say- EVER. #PeriodEndOfStory
-mh
