The Star Wars thread (includes spoilers for IX)

[Ira Gaines]

Overplayed it's hand at times but largely great. Not as flat out enjoyable as The Force Awakens but it's a better movie.

[Ira Gaines]

I take it we can't do spoilers until tomorrow?

I think for movie specific threads, spoilers become fair game on release.

[GrahamJags]

Going to see it in half an hour. Cannot wait.

[Kyle]

1 minute ago, GrahamJags said:

Going to see it in half an hour. Cannot wait.

Cineworld in Glasgow?

 

See ya there!  

[mizfit]

Quarter past 8 in Perth, cannot wait.

[naegoodinthedark]

7:40 Falkirk.
Cannot.
Fucking.
Wait.

[wellinwigan]

Thought it was boring shite really can someone explain the ending in a spoiler 

[doulikefish]

1 hour ago, wellinwigan said:

Thought it was boring shite really can someone explain the ending in a spoiler 

Spoiler

Luke has became all powerful (like yoda) and the resistance will rise in the next film basically

 

[young_bairn]

So I've had 12 hours to reflect.

Spoiler

Great space battles.

Amazing soundtrack and visuals.

Leia moon walking was out of place. Maybe believable (pinch of salt) if she had displayed a hint of Jedi powers in the past.  That should have been the end of Leia there going forward surely? 

Too many main characters.

Kylo and Ray scenes were great. Taking out the imperial guards was ace. 

What and who was Snoke? Waste of a main character.

Not enough Luke with lightsaber.

 

 

Id say its on a par with TFA but doesn't stand up to Rouge 1 as a story. 7/10

[Kyle]

It’s good but not as good as the hype suggested it was going to be. Kylo Ren is a fantastic character. I’ll add more when more people have had the chance to see it. 

[GrahamJags]

Cineworld in Glasgow?
 
See ya there!  

I was, aye!

Bit underwhelmed with that. Takes a while to get going, but once it does it’s very good. Without going into spoilers, I thought the very end was pretty poor, and there are other storylines that get rushed, or are just brushed over. The Leia story, in particular, is awful.

Kylo Ren is phenomenal though. There is one particular scene (with Snoke) which is jist fantastic, and incidentally, for me, the turning point to when the film really got going. One of the best “bad guy” characters ever. Adam Driver deserves a lot of credit for his two performances thus far. Mark Hamill is also excellent.

[thomas]

Over all I enjoyed this, felt it pretty much moved the story on especially with Rey and Kylo. One scene in particular was pretty terrible but I assume it's a blatant hint towards something we sort of know.

[mizfit]

There’s a few subtle moments near the end I liked.

[Bobby Skidmarks]

The "joke" start was utter shite, apart from the unexpected star turn as a First Officer with General Hux. Felt a bit rushed throughout, like they were trying to cram too much in and as for that fucking Leah bit. Theres also a bit in the Finn storyline that was a bit too Prequel CGI-ish for my liking. 

Adam Driver saves the film imo.

6/10

[thomas]

Having slept on it I'm now pretty pissed off with that Leia scene, totally fucking ruined what I felt was a decent but not spectacular Star Wars film.

Edited December 15, 2017 by thomas

[Quentin Taranbino]

I enjoyed it overall. There were a number of things I didn't like about it but...on the whole a pretty decent film.

Loved all the stuff with Luke, Kylo and Reys characters. Those three were top notch. 

The Leia scene is up there with one of the worst scenes in all the Star Wars franchise.

[mizfit]

I enjoyed it overall. There were a number of things I didn't like about it but...on the whole a pretty decent film.
Loved all the stuff with Luke, Kylo and Reys characters. Those three were top notch. 
The Leia scene is up there with one of the worst scenes in all the Star Wars franchise.

I’ve a feeling it would’ve been expanded on had Carrie Fisher’s heart not exploded last year.

But yes it made little to no sense.

[the jambo-rocker]

There were things I liked about it, but a whole lot more that I didn't. It was a case of I enjoyed a lot of elements, but rolled my eyes fairly often.

Characters that have been built up for so long have ended up becoming parodies of themselves. General Hux becoming a punching bag in this film, while Phasma's chance to be redeemed from the anti-climax of her character in the last film will go down as this generation's watered down Boba Fett.

Finn/Rose's journey to get the person to disable the tracker was a waste of time in what was already a very long movie by all accounts. It could have easily helped streamline a very long film down by 20 minutes.

I did rather enjoy the Rey and Rylo stuff, because there was a good amount of give and take, an almost seesaw of which way the balance might have went. As cheap as Snoke's death might have felt, we knew nothing about him and he was in danger of becoming another Emperor Palpatine ( taking the prequels into context, we hardly kne w anything about him either at the time).  Even the Luke stuff was very good, because Luke for me is at his best when he's failed and trying to redeem himself in the moment (even if it's taken him longer than most to figure this out).

That Hyperdrive scene BTW was vwwery noice.

 

 

Mostly, I'll rip into what my TL;DR rant about what is annoying me with the new Star Wars. I don't like how much of a Disney element to these films have come into it. By that, it has the same feel to Pirates of the Carribean and Marvel film type feeling moments of shoving as much BATHOS* into a scene as possible. Especially watching Luke throw away the Lightsaber to start with. HA HA BLOODY HA. HE SHOULDNT THROW THAT AWAY. 

*There is a video on YouTube called "What Writers should learn from Wonder Woman" which I'd recommend. It opens with a comparison between a scene from Spider-man 2 and a scene from Dr. Strange. The Dr. Strange scene has him finally accepting who he is just before the third act where he's putting the cloak on in front of the mirror, only for the cloak to keep poking him in the face, thus diminishing the sencerity of it and using it's bathos for comedic effect as hell forbid it comes across as too cheesy. Marvel films have been doing this for quite a few films now and it's start to grate. You compare it to the scene in Spider-man 2 when Mary-Jane has been taken away by Doc Octopus and Peter Parker is struggling to focus through his glasses now. He takes them off, sees clearer and realises exactly what he wants and who he is after dealing with this for most of the film. He drops the glasses, clenches his fist, and you feel taken away with the shit about to go down now, no matter how cheesy it comes across, it's a very likable scene which has stood up longer than most similar scenes of clarity you'll see in an Avengers movie.

So when I bring it back to that scene where Luke throws away the lightsaber, that come across as cheap. There was a very poignant final scene to episode 7 and that diminished it completely. Sure, it didn't happen to as  strong a degree on the other occasions in this film, but I'm worried Disney are going to continue to shoehorn as much of these cheap laughs into Star Wars as possible.

Star Wars to me, at least in the original trilogy was never about the cheap laugh* over the cheesiness (I think that's why so many people are fucked off with the Phantom Menace and Jar-Jar when Lucas attempted to introduce a comic appeal). Sure you could mock the cheesy elements, but the cheesy elements worked without needing to keep poking holes in it. It's why I'll keep coming back to watching the original trilogy over most modern superhero films and latest Star Wars.

*If anything, original Star Wars did the funny side well as a consequence when the main characters doing things that any other person watching in their situation would have done, or at the very least did things stuck to their character. Han Solo in all his hubris, took the falcon into an asteroid field tunnel in ESB, realised he'd taken them into a giant worm, and shot it again anyway and then did that pretty funny movement of trying to kick his balance always raised a chuckle. 

Edited December 15, 2017 by the jambo-rocker

[Kyle]

Can only really agree with a lot of what has been said. The Leia scene everyone is talking about threatened to ruin the whole movie as it just felt so out of place and wasn't really explained properly. I appreciate it would've been built on if Carrie Fisher hadn't died, but surely there was a neater solution somewhere than what we eventually got.  I also felt it borrowed a lot from other Star Wars movies (which is fair enough) and a little bit from the second Lord of the Rings movie towards the end. The ending was pretty dreadful too.

However, it would be unfair not to mention the highlights. Rey and Luke's scenes together (other than the daft light-saber over the shoulder bit) were excellent, Adam Driver is showing just how excellent an actor he is with his portrayal of Kylo Ren (assisted by some terrific writing in that respect I think, but no less a feat) and the space battles were brilliant too. 

I'd probably give it 7/10. The hype prior to the movie's general release has done this absolutely no favours. It's not the best or even the second best movie in the Star Wars saga for me. I don't even think it's as good as The Force Awakens in terms of pure entertainment. Kylo Ren's scenes saved this movie from a lower score.

 

 

 

[Mr. Brightside]

I thought it was pish, sadly.

The only parts I enjoyed were too short also, Rey and Ren were excellent, particularly Ren. However I was so underwhelmed that there was a big showdown between Luke and Ren, and I know that wasn’t the point, but there was basically only one lightsaber scene in the entire film.

Overall well below TFA and Rogue One, just above ROTS in all honesty.