Star Wars: Episode VIII (The Last Jedi) - SPOILERS POSSIBLE*

Should I skip Rogue One? I have enjoyed almost every moment of them but the last part of The Force Awakens. The first hour really clicked but after that I was a bit disappointed. Should I give the last hour of TFA another chance and dive into Rogue 1 or just hope for the best with this new one?

 

I enjoyed both Rogue One and The Force Awakens. The consensus seems to be that Rogue One is an original story in search of interesting characters, and The Force Awakens has interesting characters in search of an original story. I say give Rogue One a shot. You may like it. You may hate it. But you'll never know until you try it.

 

They look a bit wonky.

 

Thanks for responding. I suppose it did achieve what it intended to. My only gripe with that would simply be – why do we need to know any of this? I guess I always felt satisfied by the way the opening crawl to SW'77 establishes the setting and the idea of filling in the backstory just feels very unnecessary. That was much of my complaint from 1999 to 2005 with the prequels. The question I came back to all the time was why do we need to know any of this? I guess I applaud them for attempting to make a whole film out one or two sentences from the A New Hope crawl; that's certainly an ambitious undertaking.

And I think this is where those that love the film find their connection to the material and where I simply do not. I felt like it was very much storytelling by committee; it felt very safe. The characters felt like they were phoned in from other films and I never really felt an affinity for any of them, frankly. One of those questions I tend to ask myself in a movie is "do I care about any of these people" and the answer for me with ROGUE ONE was an unequivocal no, with one exception – K-2SO. Strangely, I thought that the most human character in the film was a droid. He has the most interesting story to tell and engendered the most empathy from me.

The visuals were perfectly fine, although I cannot help but think that there was a lot of story re-working done between the time the original trailer hit and the time the film actually opened. I'm a bit suspicious that the original tone of the film was changed fairly heavily from what Gareth Edwards was going for. I say that based on the fact that the entire film was basically 'reconceptualized'. While I was skeptical from the beginning if an entire feature could be made out of a thin story line, the fact that so many changes were made leads me to believe that the film was "mainstreamed" considerably in re-shoots and that's a shame. I do understand it is show business, I just had hopes when they announced they 'Anthology' line of films they would take more chances since these films aren't part of the 'saga', that's all.

I understand what you are saying about it feeling more "adult" but I would respectfully disagree. I felt most averse to storytelling flourishes like trying to shoehorn in CGI Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher and the ending you mentioned. I felt like those things, in particular, were there to cynically force the viewer to feel some connection to the film and how it ties in to A New Hope. I never felt like the best moments from the original trilogy played me that way. And I would even go so far as to say that the best moments in the flawed but still well made THE FORCE AWAKENS were able to elicit that sense of wonder and possibilities that the original trilogy did for me as a boy.

But that's a whole other discussion.

 

Who's consensus is that?

I think Rogue One is a fine Star Wars film, and succeeds at what it intends to do, completely. The primary characters are interesting and only more so on repeat viewing, and were never meant to exist and carryover into the main story arc. I find the characters very interesting within the constraints of the film and the timeframe of the story.

 

I want Jar Jar to make a cameo in Episode VIII.

 

It would difficult to tell you whose consensus it is since consensus in this case would involve countless people. It seems to be a commonly held viewpoint based on what I've read since the film was released. I didn't say that it was an opinion I shared. As I've already stated, I enjoyed the film.

 

Someone on Reddit posted this comparison image from THE FORCE AWAKENS and THE LAST JEDI. The top of course is Han back in the cockpit from TFA. And the bottom is Luke in the cockpit from TLJ "Awake" commercial.

I think the poster was commenting on the different lighting choices between Abrams and Johnson (and their DPs). Either way, made me a little sad (again) we'll never see those characters on screen again together. I'm doubtful we'll see Luke and Leia together in TLJ, honestly.

 

The bottom one looks better (that strip of light was always white, not blue). But the corridor was never that colour in the originals, and the lights were square, not round; that's wrong in both pics.

 

Maybe Chewie installed some new lights? More cost effective etc...

 

Low power LEDs. Gotta keep that hyperdrive pumping away somehow!

 

Don't forget that what's-his-face on Jakku owned the Falcon for however many years before Han and Chewie got it back.

 

Well, we'll agree to disagree. Your criticisms of Rogue One are almost exactly what I'd apply to Force Awakens, which felt precisely what I expected Disney would do to the franchise: extend a story that should have ended with Anakin's funeral pyre on Endor, start killing off the familiar characters we know and love, and shoehorn in a bunch of new characters/droids/planets/CGI aliens so Disney can milk the franchise for decades to come.

Knowing that, the tension in the series is gone and consequently I had almost no emotional reaction to any of the Last Jedi trailers I've seen yet. It might as well be an entirely different franchise at this point. And to the young kids who probably loved Force Awakens as their first SW film, it pretty much will be.

And yes, I agree that the rumors of the extensive re-tooling and director musical chairs that has gone into these post-Lucas films is evident of a larger problem with the franchise: it's now moviemaking by focus groups and corporate committees, with an enormous bottom-line to answer to. How can you ever spin genuine magic out of that?

 

I wonder if we are going to get to hear Obi-Wan talk to Luke.

Pat

 

I can respect that and would never be disagreeable on purpose. My take on THE FORCE AWAKENS is that — while it is flawed — it brought back the magic je ne sais quoi (for me) that is particularly present with EMPIRE and JEDI. I suppose much of that tender, spunky, heart comes from the fingers of Lawrence Kasdan. And I was particularly pleased by his involvement in the film. I felt particularly drawn to Daisy Ridley's aura in TFA. She's brave but also vulnerable; that gave me a way in to feeling some kinship with the character of Rey. We spend extended bits of time early in the film with her, alone, on Jakku and I felt I was able to naturally care for her situation because of it. Conversely, I never felt that same kinship with Jyn Erso. Juxtapose the protracted introduction of Rey in TFA with the very hurried intro of Ben Solo — "the villain" — whom we would suppose is 100% bad in the beginning of the film. But, by the time he finally confronts Han Solo, is a wholly conflicted character. It worked, for me.

 

There's always the Luke and Chewie reunion. It will be all the more sweet if they use Peter Mayhew for that particular scene.

 

I can't remember: Is Chewie with Rey and R2 in the Falcon when they find Luke at the end of TFA?

 

Yes. He flew the Falcon.

 

Yes.

 

Thanks. Kinda surprised they haven't shown Chewie on Luke's little island in any of the trailers. Now I'm picturing him just sitting in the Falcon, bored, waiting for Rey to come back.

 

It'll give Chewie and Artoo plenty of time for an alien chess rematch. Chewie was none pleased that he got his butt kicked by that little astromech in the first movie.

 

I just got my tickets for Dec 15th.

 

I've already bought tickets for three separate screenings - opening night on the 14th at my local multiplex, then later screenings at the Cinerama, and in (real) IMAX.