The Last Jedi : BEWARE SPOILERS YOU SHOULD

[Santino]

One of the least edifying aspects of online discourse on cinema is the undue weight given to rules and structure, as if by adhering to (or breaking) certain rules films are thereby good (or bad) - objectively so.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I might re-watch over Christmas to see if I feel less disappointed a second time around...

Although the whole Sons of Dick Van Dyke thing still irks....

 

[T & P]

The Wacky Races segment with a flotilla of First Order ships chasing the Resistance ships at low speed is my main gripe with the film to be honest. Absurd at so many levels.

 

[emanymton]

He’s not a fanboy. He’s just a film reviewer, and a really good one. His objections to the film are not based around the usual fanboy guff. His dissection is around the structure and tone of the screenplay itself. A farce is when the protagonists do things that are idiotic for no good reason, like when Chevy Chase decides to buy a shit car in the face of it being obvious to the viewer that the car is shit in Family Vacation. In Last Jedi, equivalent idiotic things happen regularly, like Finn and Rose deciding to park on the beach on a world where it is obvious they will face consequences for this, even though they are supposed to be on a covert mission. It’s not like that decision doesn’t matter either, it is fundamental to the plot, just like the poor car purchase is in Family Vacation

His (their?) breakdowns are good its just a shame they wrap them in shit.

The comedy really was the first and biggest failing of the film. The opening scene with the prank phone call and the 'your mum' joke was just awful. A spot on comment I heard was that it felt like something from a comedy sketch show doing a Star Wars bit, rather than something from an actual Star Wars film.

 

[kabbes]

One of the least edifying aspects of online discourse on cinema is the undue weight given to rules and structure, as if by adhering to (or breaking) certain rules films are thereby good (or bad) - objectively so.

If you’re going to break narrative convention, know why you’re doing it. If you’re going to borrow the structure and characterisation of farce, know why you’re doing it. Some of the best films break the rules. And so do find if the worst.

 

[kabbes]

His (their?) breakdowns are good its just a shame they wrap them in shit.

The comedy really was the first and biggest failing of the film. The opening scene with the prank phone call and the 'your mum' joke was just awful. A spot on comment I heard was that it felt like something from a comedy sketch show doing a Star Wars bit, rather than something from an actual Star Wars film.

Luke examining his lightsaber and rejecting it would be dramatic. Luke tossing the lightsaber over his shoulder was a comedy scene. At a moment where comedy was really out of place.

 

[Santino]

If you’re going to break narrative convention, know why you’re doing it. If you’re going to borrow the structure and characterisation of farce, know why you’re doing it. Some of the best films break the rules. And so do find if the worst.

For me, with popular/Hollywood film the conventions are so robotically obeyed that I welcome anything different, if it works in the overall context of that particular film. I'd rather see a flawed attempt to do something different than that same one structure flogged to death and beyond.

I do think that Kylo Ren is an interesting character (in the context of a story about space-monks with magic powers and comedy robots). He's not just bad, he's also vulnerable. It's very hard to see how he can have any kind of redemption but he isn't just a soulless villain to be dispatched at the climax of the third film.

 

[kabbes]

The Plinkett review pointed out that Last Jedi would have been orders of magnitude better had it ended at the point Kylo was reaching out to Rey just after they’d beaten Snoke. Leave it on a cliffhanger in which both those characters could go either way. Everything that happened after that point was either trite, stupid or trite and stupid. Plus the film was too long anyway.

 

[Santino]

The Plinkett review pointed out that Last Jedi would have been orders of magnitude better had it ended at the point Kylo was reaching out to Rey just after they’d beaten Snoke. Leave it on a cliffhanger in which both those characters could go either way. Everything that happened after that point was either trite, stupid or trite and stupid. Plus the film was too long anyway.

But Luke walking out to face Kylo!

Cliffhangers are usually a terrible way to end films anyway.

The Last Jedi is not without its flaws, but most of those are due to the way The Force Awakens ended, i.e. not long after the climax of the film but with something that needed to be resolved. It meant they had to carry right on with the story instead of jumping ahead 2 or 3 years and seeing where the war had got to and how far Rey had developed.

 

[kabbes]

Luke walking out to face Kylo was stupid because it was again played as a farce.

 

[Santino]

As farcical as Han chasing Stormtroopers down a Death Star corridor? Or Ewoks fighting space Nazis in walking tanks? Or a big space worm swallowing the Millennium falcon?

At a very fundamental level, Star Wars is a comedy, a pastiche. Otherwise it's a terrible story about billions of people dying in a war.

 

[rekil]

I have always hated every single thing about Star Wars and always will. The "franchise" is the eternally implacable enemy of fillum and space.

 

[Santino]

I have always hated every single thing about Star Wars and always will. The "franchise" is the eternally implacable enemy of fillum and space.

Your mum is the eternally implacable enemy of fillum and space.

 

[rekil]

Your mum is the eternally implacable enemy of fillum and space.

Everyone needs a reason to get up in the morning.

 

[kabbes]

As farcical as Han chasing Stormtroopers down a Death Star corridor? Or Ewoks fighting space Nazis in walking tanks? Or a big space worm swallowing the Millennium falcon?

At a very fundamental level, Star Wars is a comedy, a pastiche. Otherwise it's a terrible story about billions of people dying in a war.

Comedy is one thing but farce is something else. Kylo’s face off with Luke was not the time for a comedy beat and his ludicrous reaction was farcical in its incompetence

 

[Santino]

I like it when Luke appears outside of the fort, and Kylo says 'I want every gun...' and you think for a moment that he's going to order all the guns turned off because he needs to face Luke alone, but then he's all 'Nah, mate - everyone shoot the fuck out of that man.' The way other dark lords never bother to even try. Just shoot the good guy, soon as you see him.

 

[DexterTCN]

Thanks but I've really got better things to do today. I'm already suspicious of someone who takes this much time nitpicking a movie to death. I see more value in spending time a (video) essay which makes you appreciate a film more, rather than one that is fanning the flames of hate for an hour....

 

[Reno]

Thanks, I just never gotten used to watching these.

I'd rather watch another film. If I do watch a documentary on film it's more likely to do with film history rather than an opinion piece on a modern blockbusters. Otherwise I prefer film podcasts and books or written articles on film.

Ultimately I'm more interested in reading or listening to something which introduces me to something new, rather than something which confirms my opinion.