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My Take on Star Wars: The Last Jedi
So let me start by saying that I really enjoyed the experience of going to the cinema and seeing a Star Wars movie. The moment thatmusic blared through the speaker making me jump in my seat and that yellow writing started flying through space, I was so very excited. Little did I know, this would end up being one of my favourite moments in the next two and a half hours.
Star Wars has epic space fights.
One thing I think Star Wars has always done incredibly is space ships shooting lasers at each-other. This holds true in The Last Jedi as well. One of the very large ships owned by the First Order is readying weapons to destroy the last rebel base. Poe - A kick ass rebel pilot openly defies orders to abandon his assault on the First Order, barrels towards their ship
Not only do we have Poe tearing up space with some sweet space ship moves, we also have the dark apprentice Kylo Ren ruining Rebel's days in his TIE Silencer. Not only is this a really awesome looking ship. It has some pretty sweet moves, as you can see from the below GIF.
The Last Jedi has some...err...a lot of flaws
Please note, these will not be in chronological order of how the move progresses, this will be in order of what I think of first. This generally means, what annoyed me the most.
Leia's Space Walk.
This first flaw nearly had me walk out of the cinema very early in the movie. Our favourite princess/general Leia is sucked into space after one of her son's minions blew a dirty great big whole in the bridge section of her spaceship. Now, science tells us that if this were to happen everyone and pretty much everything in the bridge would be sucked into the vacuum of space. Well, this is what happened which is excellent. We then see Leia floating through space presumed dead and slightly frozen. Most likely what would have happened is that she would have taken a deep breath right before the blast hit the ship. Then, when sucked out into space her lungs would have ruptured from the air being sucked out of them so quickly.
After a couple of quick other scenes us viewers are directed back to Leia's lifeless body. Except, it isn't lifeless anymore. A finger twitch. An eye twitch. Then she is alive, and apparently more powerful than ever before. Using the force to pull herself towards her recently attacked ship. On approach, Leia's band of loyal followers await her behind a sealed door. When Leia does arrive from her very cold space walk, the door is opened to pull her now incredibly weak self through the door. It is important to note that when this door was opened, not one person was sucked out through the big hole that is still there on the bridge. Now, I know Leia is a Skywalker and I know that this is Star Wars, where people fly in space ships, shoot lasers, shoot lightning from their hands and tell people that "These are not the droids you are looking for." However this is one thing I could not overlook. A - Leia would be dead from being sucked into space. B - Leia is not a jedi and has no control over the force. C - People would have been sucked into space when the door was opened.
The chick in the half destroyed bomber.
I will keep this one pretty short because it wasn't a huge part of the film to me. All rebel bombers have been destroyed bar one. Girl is getting yelled at to release bombs over a big ship that is shooting the rebel base on the planet below. She falls down and cannot reach the remote to drop her bombs. This whole time the floor of her space ship is open where would not be able to breath, let alone kick a ladder 50 times to try and get the remote. Anyway her 500th kick of the ladder makes the remote fall down and she catches it better than Tom Brady has ever caught a football. Releases some bombs and then she crashes and dies.
Please train me Master Skywalker.
I feel like a lot of the movie was taken up with Rey asking for Luke to train her, to which he keeps telling her no. She keeps persisting and persisting and he keeps saying no. During this time we see Mr. Skywalker milking some weird animal, tossing a lightsaber towards the ocean and taking up a spot of fishing in his retirement. It felt like well passed the halfway point that Luke finally agreed to train Rey. This was quickly ended as she did not resist the dark side of the island that was calling her. okay, okay, I will say the part with the leaf and feeling the force got a good laugh out of me!
After a couple of more heated discussions between (my prediction father and daughter) Luke decides to give this another shot but Rae is just far too mad and fly's away. Luke is pretty upset with this so he is visited by Ghost Yoda (who can still use the force???) to bop him on the nose with a staff. The majority of these scenes were a waste of time really.
-A few more things.
- Sith Lords can now make two people (one of whom he has never met and has no idea where they are) see each other across a span of many light years. They can even touch each other. They cannot however see lightsabers turning towards them.
- The whole casino planet part of the movie. This was cool visually however you can take the whole going to the planet, finding the code breaker and sneaking on to the ship section from the movie and you will have the same Star Wars movie.
- Jedi can now project themselves across space where they are kind of ethereal - they cannot be touched and leave no footprints behind on red salty planets. They can however touch their sister's hand and kiss her on the forehead.
- How Rae, with no formal training can fight off guys in red armour just as well as Kylo Ren, a guy trained by Luke Skywalker and a Sith Lord.
Conclusion
I am happy that I went to see a Star Wars movie in the cinema. The visuals and sounds created a great experience. I love being transported into a different world every time I see a Star Wars film. I always wish I was a jedi, wielding the force and a lightsaber. Ahhhh, to dream.
However, I can still think of more flaws that I cannot even be bothered to write about. This is possibly the second worst movie I have ever seen. But I am glad I went to see this poor, poor movie.
I Cannot help but agree with everything said in this post!
I mean honestly, I love how beautiful the visuals were! I truly appreciate my childhood series coming back for another trilogy! I am just so heavily disappointed that, the second movie in this visually brilliant series left me with questions.
I believe I spent the better half of two hours in the movies for this one! I sat through a good chunk of the movie the Casino bit, yes. Which could have been a stand alone movie!
The scene with Snoke, need I say more? Wow, honestly, WOW! I have read fan theories in attempt to justify this, but why? Seriously!
I believe that this next Star Wars Movie needs to create a clever way to finalise this trilogy, maybe keep it open for its own sequel (A very strong, maybe). I am hoping they (The Directors and Writers) Figure out a clever way to pull everything from the last two movies together, answer all the questions and give us a chance to look back and see how It built up from before the end! Just like the Prequels!
A lot of people really bag the prequels, but honestly after looking deeper into it! I think they are a fantastic set of films! Some of Lucas' best work!
Dude, so glad you agree! You are so right, it felt so Disneyish’. It also made me think that the prequels are so much better than I originally thought.
Alright, finally home, cooled down from this bullshit weather, and fed. Couple of points:
Poe defying orders: Poe's parents are both rebel fighters, and his mother was a rebel pilot. He was always disillusioned with the way the Republic handled the Galactic Empire, so it makes sense that his distaste for their inaction against the First Order makes him more likely to defy orders. He became General Organa's most trusted pilot, hence why he was sent on the mission to Jakku in the first place. It makes sense that his motivations and position of trust makes him annoyed that his abilities aren't being utilised.
Leia's space walk: Leia is, in fact, Force sensitive. Being a Skywalker, daughter of one of the most powerful Force users in history, makes her very powerful. She was never formally trained by Luke or Yoda, because being trained to use her powers would have revealed her presence to Vader and Sidious. But she has the same raw power and instinct that Anakin and Luke both have/had, which she's used in both the movies and the other sources.
Also, Jedi can survive in the vastness of space - Jedi Master Plo Koon and General Grievous both survived periods of time in space. So have others I can't recall the names of. The Force can be used on instinct alone as well, and doesn't require training to use, only to master.
Getting sucked into space: It's pretty well established that force-field technology exists. For an era where space travel is common among tens of millions of planets (to the degree that people go to whole other star systems via light speed for holiday), it stands to reason that ships contain force-fields to protect parts of the ship like hangars, so smaller ships can pass in and out. Otherwise they'd need to fill the hangar with oxygen and blast it out any time pilots go in or out. Force-fields would kick in automatically in the case of a breach.
The girl in the bomber: Same thing. Force-fields would protect the pilots, while allowing the bombs to pass freely.
Luke and Rey: Luke was afraid to train her, because he trained Ben, and Ben went nuts and formed an entire sect of people to take over the galaxy; something that Luke fought to stop from happening again. He was hesitant to train her, which is why he went to a forgotten island in the middle of nowhere in a planet in the middle of nowhere, so he could die in peace and take the whole Jedi thing with him. He reluctantly agreed, but then Rey started showing the same signs of interest in the dark side, and he freaked out again. She left because she's impatient and time was of the essence. She envisioned that she would seek the famous Luke Skywalker, give him his lightsaber, and he would fly back with her to defeat the First Order by way of sick Jedi flips and lightsaber moves. Remember how she flipped out when she met Han? She's idealistic. She had ideas, then got pissed when it didn't work.
That's a reflection of young Luke's training. Yoda also said he wouldn't train Luke because he didn't know if his character would allow him to be a strong Jedi or fall to the Sith. That's why Leia was kept secret as well, in case she was needed if Luke turned or failed.
The mind link shouldn't come as a surprise. Every new movie introduced a new power of some kind or another, but there hasn't been a new movie in 10 years, so people seem to think the current list of powers are stuck in amber, while each new movie gave us something new. Jedi and Sith can sense things, and have visited each other in visions. Vader sensed Luke's presence, and Leia could sense when Luke was in danger or okay. She sensed Han's death. She and Ben could sense one another's presence - she pleaded to him and he stopped himself from taking the shot on her ship. The mind link is really only an advanced version of that between a Skywalker and another powerful Force user, aided by Snoke, who is also powerful. Mind links like this have also been seen in the comics and books.
Casino city: Yeah, I agree. Seemed a bit out of place within the movie, but I suspect that part of it was to establish Finn and Rose as prime characters moving forward. Rian said he wanted top inject something a bit light-hearted into the movie to distract from all the sombre tones.
Luke's projection: Like I mentioned above, it's a) a new power, and b) an advancement on prior abilities we've seen before. And as we can see, it was pretty taxing and sapped the last of Luke's power. A Force power called 'Doppelganger' has been seen in other sources, and also includes the ability to manipulate things via telekinesis. Also, it was kinda hard to spot, but both Threepio and Leia seemed to know that Luke wasn't there. Either he could manipulate his doppelganger to make it kiss Leia, or it was pretend.
Rey's fighting prowess: She grew up scavenging on Jakku, and demonstrated some fighting ability in The Force Awakens. Makes sense she'd have a little ability under her belt from that. She also seemed to take training pretty seriously. Add in raw talent from her Force sensitivity, and she could fumble through a scrap.
Wow, way to just debunk everything, just like that! You made it too easy. I really loved the new force powers and bought into that no problem. But Liea's space walk was a huge groaner, it went a bit to far, and there really should have been some sort or real airlock, when they brought her back into the ship like that.
Most of Necro's issues were with easily explained canon, so easily addressed. Of course, I don't expect anyone to know those things, because not everyone is as familiar with the specifics as I am, given I've read many of the books and comics, as well as the animated series and played a lot of the games. A lot of those things can be taken for granted when you're more familiar with the subject, however the film doesn't cover them, and it can't be expected to or it'd be even longer.
I agree that Leia's space walk was pretty out of place, though. It seemed a bit too cringy; it would have been easier to have her just use her latent powers to stop herself getting sucked out of the breach or something, but I guess the director wanted something flashier. Naturally, her survival predates the sad death of Carrie Fisher, and my guess is that there were plans to show more of her abilities in the future. Issue is, now, how will they resolve the character and the actor?
Awesome review man, I was thinking of writing something similar about a few flaws. I can't believe you didn't address the bit let down of Rey's linage.
Rey's lineage is going to be one of two things:
a) Kylo lied to her, and is hiding the knowledge of who she is (or he doesn't know) in order to try abd break any notions of specialness to recruit her, or,
b) Rey has zero specialness, and telling everyone in the movie that she is not special, not a Skywalker, not anyone relevant is part of the new movement for Star Wars. Luke is dead. Han is dead. Leia is (soon going to be) dead. The Skywalker lineage has ended, and it's time for a new generation.