Star Wars: The Last Jedi

[CF DolFan]

For the key love story Hayden Christiensen & Natalie Portman had absolutely zero chemistry between them -

IMHO Hayden Christensen is the single worst thing to happen to this franchise. He has gotten better but his acting and personality in the Star Wars franchise was equivalent to watching paint dry. It was hard to do and a huge stretch to see him as the future Darth Vader.

[Spider-Dan]

Adam Driver is only two years younger than Hayden Christensen (who is the same age as Natalie Portman, even though Anakin is supposed to be significantly younger than Padme).  Can you imagine how much better the prequels would have been with Driver instead of Christensen?

[CF DolFan]

It would have been better ... that's for sure.

[Dave Gray]

I think that if the prequels remained largely the same with a few of the original intentions, they would've turned out way better.

1) George Lucas just isn't a good actor's director.  He doesn't draw good performances.  He didn't want to direct Ep1 originally, but Spielberg wouldn't do it.  Both Christensen and, more so, Portman are decorated actors capable of giving great performances.

2) Anakin was originally several years older in the script.  He changed it to make him younger but kept the script.

3) Lucas wanted Lawrence Kasden to write the script with him.  I think that would've kept Lucas' main ideas, but would've cleared up/simplified/streamlined things and fixed all of the cringey dialogue.

It would be nice to know how that would've turned out.

[Sunstroke]

I finally watched Last Jedi this weekend, and I really enjoyed it. I did like it a little more than Rogue One, and I'll definitely be watching it a second time soon.

[SCFinfan]

Watched it three times in the theatre, trying to figure out if I liked it or not, but finally came to the conclusion that I just didn't.

[Phishfan]

Can I ask why you would watch a movie in the theater 3 times without knowing if you like it?

[CF DolFan]

I plan on watching it a second time myself and I wasn't a big fan of the first. I'm hoping time and less anticipation helps to appreciate it.

[Tenshot13]

I can finally open this thread now that I've seen it.  I thought it was very average.  I liked the Rey/Kylo connection.  I would be very surprised if they left Rey's parentage as a couple of nobody's.  There was a lot I didn't like:

SPOILERS



 

• Leia force glide in space--not only looked dumb, but no precedence that she developed force powers.  I don't mind her doing that, it just came out of no where
• Snoke being underwhelming and not adding much to the story
• Luke having PTSD and just fading away at the end.  He needed to go out like a boss.
• Finn, Poe, Rose dynamic
• Phantasm going out like Boba Fett, all anticlimactic
• Literally no twist at all
• Pretty sure no one had an arm chopped off

[Dave Gray]

• Leia force glide in space--not only looked dumb, but no precedence that she developed force powers.  I don't mind her doing that, it just came out of no where

We haven't seen Leia for 30 years, so there's room to assume that things have changed, but she did exhibit force powers in the three previous films: speaking to Luke telepathically in ESB, knowing that Luke was her brother without being told in ROTJ, and sensing Han's death in TFA.  She's been pretty consistently using some form of Force powers all along.

• Literally no twist at all

The reveal that Luke is projecting is a huge twist, I think.

• Pretty sure no one had an arm chopped off

Not sure if it counts, but both of Snoke's arms are cut off when he's bisected.[/list]

[Tenshot13]

We haven't seen Leia for 30 years, so there's room to assume that things have changed, but she did exhibit force powers in the three previous films: speaking to Luke telepathically in ESB, knowing that Luke was her brother without being told in ROTJ, and sensing Han's death in TFA.  She's been pretty consistently using some form of Force powers all along.
The reveal that Luke is projecting is a huge twist, I think.

Not sure if it counts, but both of Snoke's arms are cut off when he's bisected.[/list]

It goes from being able to do a little force, to full on force gliding in space.  I agree, it has been 30 years, but it just comes out of left field.  I feel she needed some sort of showing that she can wield the force better than just sensing Han was dead before gliding around in space.

We disagree about Luke being a projection as a twist.  It was a small twist, not "I am your father" or "I was Snoke the whole time".  Not those per say, I want to be surprised, but some sort of twist along those lines that blows your mind, or at least tries to.

Good enough, I feel better about the arms thing now, thanks!

I feel things needed to be fleshed out a little better in some parts of the story.  There needed to be more tension between Finn and Phantasm, more chemistry between Finn and Rose.  You get the chemistry, tension and conflict between Rey and Kylo.  If a little bit of that carried over to the other two I mentioned, it would have come off better.  I feel Poe is just yelling at whoever, and the whole mutiny thing was stupid and avoidable.  Don't even get me started on Finn going kamikaze on the cannon for no reason at all.

As bad a character that I found the botanist lady from Jurassic Park to be in Last Jedi, that light speed into the destroyer was pretty boss.

Could have been better, but could have been worse too.

[Phishfan]

We saw her in the last movie without any mention of the force that I recall. Definitely not 30 years since she had a role. I agree it was out of nowhere and felt forced. Working in her death only seems appropriate since she died in real life.

[Dave Gray]

We saw her in the last movie without any mention of the force that I recall. Definitely not 30 years since she had a role. I agree it was out of nowhere and felt forced. Working in her death only seems appropriate since she died in real life.

She used the Force in TFA, feeling Han's death at the time of death.  Also, sensing good in Kylo and a bunch of other Jedi feelings-type stuff.  ...nothing as big as force levitation, but it was there.

The filmmaker said that to kill her in that moment would've robbed the audience of her final performance, including the closure scene of Luke at the end of the film.  I understand that, I guess.

She can just die between films and I think it's not a huge deal.  Maybe they'll use some old footage or movie magic to bring her back for a small scene.

[Tenshot13]

Leia force ghost with Luke in the next movie, calling it now.

[Downunder Dolphan]

We haven't seen Leia for 30 years, so there's room to assume that things have changed, but she did exhibit force powers in the three previous films: speaking to Luke telepathically in ESB, knowing that Luke was her brother without being told in ROTJ, and sensing Han's death in TFA.  She's been pretty consistently using some form of Force powers all along.

Sorry Dave, I am with Tenshot on this one. For starters, in ESB it was Luke telepathically calling to Leia to say where he was, she had nothing to do with it. Absolutely no idea Luke was her brother as evidenced by that French kiss at Hoth (ewww, does that look awkward now!) She may have sensed Han's death, but she had absolutely no foresight that Kylo was evil enough to kill him in the first place? Then again maybe she did, and figured it was cheaper than a divorce...

So then out of nowhere after somehow using the force (like nobody ever has before) to survive the explosion on the ship's deck, the vacuum of space, and return back to the said ship, she doesn't have a clue at the end of the movie that Luke is buying time for them to escape? Of all people Poe is the one who realizes this and convinces everyone to leave!

That's what I meant when I said earlier that at no other time in the five movies does Leia even use the force, let alone like that moment. It's far more plausible that Kylo Ren was actually the one who used the force to save Leia after the explosion on the bridge, he stopped when it came to release his torpedos and looked upset when his escorting fighters fired on the ship. Think about that as an option, it seems slightly less ridiculous.