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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?
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".
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.
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.
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.
They were basically prehistoric carnivorous turkeys.
So what critics are saying by finding themselves in raptures means that the movie is an ass-eating turkey.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
How can you forget the plot to The Force Awakens? It was the same as A New Hope.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
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.
Force Awakens is a feminist movie because Rey was the main character? I think you doth protest too much. I've seen it 3 or 4 times and saw nothing of the sort. My only disappointment was that it was basically a reboot of A New Hope but I thought they did it well.
I never saw Rogue One - so I won't comment.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
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.
This is one of those things that everyone knew as the walked out of the cinema. And you can say it now, but not a single review said it. Well I remember one alluding to it - they said something like "reviews have mostly been positive but a few people have complained the plot has too many similarities to A New Hope".
Then again if you were Disney and you'd just spent a fortune on the rights to Star Wars and you knew people disliked the prequels, you'd play it safe too. I.e. a soft reboot of ANH with lots of practical effects and fan service and at the same time set up a new set of actors with roles analogous to Luke/Han/Leia/Darth Vader and option Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford for one or maybe two movies to do the handover.
From a business point of view, it made a lot of sense. It just wasn't a very memorable movie, and probably couldn't have been given the business constraints.
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'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.
Rey is no more a Mary Sue than Luke was. I don't think you know what a Mary Sue is.
Also, you can turn in your geek card given your quote: "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?!!!)" The Empire always were Nazis, that's what Lucas based them on. That's literally why all the officers wear jackboots.
You have no idea what Star Wars is. You are completely unfamiliar with the original movies, you have no idea what the themes are.
In the mean time you consider it an outrage, an "SJW" outrage nonetheless, that something that's supposed to be evil might get compared to White Supremacism. Seriously? You're so out of touch you think it's wrong to consider White Supremacism evil? Because even here on Slashdot you're going to have a hard sell with that.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
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.
Rey is absolutely a Mary Sue. It's not that she has jedi powers or is shown as a strong woman. The problem is that there's no limitations to her skills - there's nothing she has to overcome. She picks up a wrench and she's a master mechanic. She hops into the Millenium Falcon and she can fly it better than Han Solo immediately. She discovers Jedi powers and suddenly not only is invading Kylo Ren's mind (who's been officially trained for years) but is able to mind control stormtroopers all without training. She picks up a light saber and BOOM she's besting Kylo Ren again as a better light saber duellist! No training - no explanation for these master skills. She's magical star princess and JJ Abrams said he intended to write her that way to begin with to show that girls could be teh awesome too! I have no problem with her being a wunderkind - but even a wunderkind has limitations and has to LEARN skills.
Luke was a whiny teenager who used the force 3 times in the first movie (against the drone, against the stormtroopers after Han's death and destroying the Death Star. He couldn't save Ben, he saw his adopted family destroyed and he almost botched Leia's rescue that SHE had to fix!
You'll notice no one complains about Princess Leia being a strong woman who can hold her own in a blaster fight either because her character is BELIEVABLE.
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
When The Force Awakens came out, Lucas said, "Every movie, I work very hard to make them different ... I make them completely different, with different planets and different spaceships, to make it new."
People give him crap because the prequels weren't very good, and that's true, but at least they were new. I'd take Force Awakens over Episode 1, because that was awful, but for the others? I'd rather have something new. Episodes 2 and 3 weren't so bad.
In the media blitz that was absolutely the case. In the actual movie, I don't recall too much being made of Rey's gender.
The main issue with her character within the movie was the fact that she was some bum who became aware of her powers and did impossible shit in the span of about 14 seconds.