Last Jedi? How many Star Wars purists are there here? (aside from me)

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The best Star Wars....The original Trilogy. Episode II and III. Gendy Tetarskys Clone Wars. Rogue One (minus the scene on the planet with the other crystals).
Force Awakens was a remake of New Hope. Last Jedi was one step up. Comedy scenes were not funny but Rey is now looking like a sexy woman instead of a hobo.
 
Haven't seen it yet, but the news so far is about what I thought. I saw a New Hope as an adult in 1977. To me, the original trilogy was so far ahead of it's time, nothing has really compared since. I liked Rogue One though.
 
I guess that I can be considered a Star Wars purist. I saw the original in a movie theater in 1977 and haven't seen any of the other ones.

I liked it. I just didn't go to a lot of movies as a kid and now there are so many sequels, prequels, etc., I wouldn't know where to start.
 
I really liked it. I thought that Rian took the universe and started to make it feel a bit more galaxy sized, instead of just skywalker-full house. At some stage they were going to have to open things up, or it was going to die on the vine. I had wished that rouge one and force awakens would be more ambitious than they were, so I was glad that they took this one as far as they did.

Star Wars has always been a marketing engine to sell toys. At least now we are getting complex characters, and some real chance at some story.
 
G gadgetgeek The toy marketing scheme, at least for the first movie, was a complete surprise as to it's success.

Kenner bought the license and was not prepared for the demand by any stretch of imagination. I bought my son an Early Bird Certificate Package for the original run of four figures in December of 1977. IIRC we bought it at Sears. I had to send it in to Kenner to get the figures. It didn't take long for Kenner to realize what a gold mine they landed, they sold 40 million in 1978 :D

In a twist of fate, the Mego Corporation rejected the original offer, calling Star Wars a "flash in the pan" thinking it would bankrupt them. They filed for bankruptcy in 1982 and went out of business in 1983.
 
While no marketing scheme is a sure thing, Lucas must have thought that there was a chance that the toys would be big, or he wouldn't have retained the licensing, and would not have instructed the ILM guys to model things in a way that was toy-maker friendly, they had no reason for so many ship types. So a surprise, yes, but based on a gamble. Not that I mind though, I love BB-8 as a character, and I'm sure we will have Porg throw cushions on the couch before too long.
 
Though I know next to nothing about the man(Lucas) it makes perfect sense—the sets and costumes were so real, in a way I had never seen before or since—they must have been what was closest to his heart; he wasn’t giving that away!
 
I will admit that I'm NOT the biggest Star Wars fan. But I remember when my big bro took me to see the original Star Wars movie before I turned 14 back in 1977. And I enjoyed it, especially the final assault on the Death Star. There had never been anything like it in a movie before. I felt like I was literally on a wild ride, and apparently, so did the rest of the audience. TBH, I thought it was a movie by itself and never thought there'd be a sequel (this was before the days of sequel-happy Hollywood). However, unlike so many others back then, I only went to see it that one time.

I didn't care much for The Empire Strikes Back, but loved Return of the Jedi. Once again, I thought that was it; that the characters would live 'happily ever after'.

I HATED the trilogy that began with The Phantom Menace.

Nowadays, seeing those old originals, although the effects may be dated and obsolete, none of the newer, superior effects can ever replace the magic experience of the originals when they first came out. It was the time period (late '70s) that made the original special. Today, we have CGI that, technically, blows away the cruder special effects of that time. And yet, IMO, something big has been lost in today's CGI-laden films.

Now, although I haven't seen any of the newer Star Wars films, I DO like the greater racial diversity among the new characters. That is something that the originals, for the most part, sorely lacked.

Jim
 
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knarfeng said:
Went to see Last Jedi.
Good movie. As an action movie, I enjoyed it. Beautiful cinematography. Great acting. Fantastic CGI. Definitely worth seeing.

Poor Star Wars movie. As a Star Wars movie, the director did something nasty with the dog.

IMO, the director took his lack of hubris from Disney, "We own it. We can do whatever we want with it." In Sci Fi, you create a universe with a set of realities. Then you say, if these were so, then how would people behave. And off you go from there. Rian Johson overrode the characters and the underlying realities of the Star Wars universe to make what he wanted to make.

So the force did things it has never done before. Johnson ignored the teaching he had Luke Skywalker give Rey in his own movie. It isn't magic. It's a life force. Move stones by someone with only a little training? a strain, but maybe. Astral projection? Phhtt. Wrong movie. That's Doctor Strange's gig.

And he twisted his characters out of their classic roles. Even Mark Hamill thought it was bogus. Won't say what because of the risk of a spoiler.

A good Star Wars movie is worth seeing a few times. This one? Nah. I saw it once. It was fun. Next.
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Exactly what I thought. As I walked out the movie I turned to my mother, who I took to the movie for Christmas, and said “entertaining, but stupid.”

Without giving away too much spoilers there is the one scene where the infiltrating rebels have been captured and are about to be excecuted. (Infront of like every single member of the Imperial army.) The executioners weapons are an inch away from their necks. Suddenly the imperial ship is rammed and the explosion caused all the bad guys to disappear. But the rebels are just laying there completely fine. The bad guys just vanished.

There were too many moments like this that were “unrealistic” (i know it is a fantasy movie). It just didn’t feel well thought out. In the proper starwars movies it feels like they have created a whole galaxy that via the characters we are given a window into.

In the disney starwars, especially Last Jedi there was too much that didn’t make sense just to drive the character’s story. (That guy mutinies over command of the rebel ship, then when deposed, his punishment is being lectured and an inspirational speech.)

In the last disney SW, Rogue One the major issue was Rey who was an absolute Mary Sue of a character. Atleast 85% of Last Jedi wasn’t the original (now aged) cast turning to the screen and winking at the audience knowingly. (Trying for those nostalgia bucks $$$)
 
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I saw the first couple in the theater and enjoyed them a lot. From then on, I never could figure out the chronological sequence and simply punted. I like fantasy novels but seldom read a prequel done later. Probably already know what I need to know from the others.
 
I was an average fan but after reading The Republic Commado series by Karen Traviss, I really got into Episode III. I read the 3 books around the movie. Guy Lacerno did a great job on his 2 books but Mathew Stover botched Episode III. I have one real collection. Al! The Phase II Clone Troopers. Around 50 that Hasbro put out.
 
I saw it last night in the theater with my Father, as I had done as a boy with the original back in 1977 (minus brother and mom).

Overall, I will say, that I enjoy movies for what they are...entertainment. In the realm of 'total fiction' sci-fi, its an opportunity for a couple hours to check your brain and daily drama at the door. Put another way, I don't spend too much agony over whether their were the proper shade of orange on the X-Wing fighters pin striping compared to Episodes IV and VII, but not V. Its a movie...we're talking about a series where the baddest swordsman in the universe is a green alien with a cane and as a blade made of light that can cut through steel and stone, not to mention is able to actually stop the flow of light a couple feet from the handle. In other words, its fiction, and that's totally alright, and what I want to see. On the other hand, I don't want to sit through total crap either.

I'd give Last Jedi 2.5 Lightsabers out of 5. It was watchable, but room for improvement.

I think what gets lost by a lot of folks is that what made the original in particular so appealing, was it was almost literally, light years ahead of anything else in terms of special effects for the time. It wasn't too long before then (for those of us old enough to remember black and white television), where you could literally see the string the 'space ships' were 'flying' on in the scene. But contrast, Star Wars had actual (for the time) 'mind blowing' special effects.

My $.02 worth.
BOSS
 
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Was supposed to go the Sunday of opening weekend but I fell ill. For all of the whining, it has already grossed almost $1.1 billion worldwide in 18 days and it hasn't opened in China yet. I think that i have time too catch it in the cinema. I bet Disney is just heartbroken by the response for the purists. :D I like changes. What made Rogue One good was that it was able to deviate quite a bit from the George Lucas Guidebook On Writing Cheesy Dialogue (Forward by James Cameron);)
 
IMO, there is only IV, V & VI.

The rest sucks like a Dyson and scores a 10 on a Jar Jar Binks scale from one to 10.

knarfeng said:
How many Star Wars purists are there here?
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Not sure.
Let me go look at my vintage/late seventies Stormtrooper helmet whilst I ponder that question and lament the fact, that Disney et al ruined SW.
 
I'd be interested to know who got into the extended universe novels, the Zahn and Stackpole stuff at least. I wonder if those who read the books are more likely to go for the newer movies. (also yeah, 1,2,3 are not good, Lucas should have stuck to producing, and done what he did with the other three)
 
I have not read any of the books, nor watched any of the animated shows.

As I said, I have enjoyed both The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi. But I am annoyed that the director and writers of the Last Jedi did not take time to understand the foundations of that universe before making their movie.
 
gadgetgeek said:
I'd be interested to know who got into the extended universe novels, the Zahn and Stackpole stuff at least. I wonder if those who read the books are more likely to go for the newer movies. (also yeah, 1,2,3 are not good, Lucas should have stuck to producing, and done what he did with the other three)
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Got into the original Zahn trilogy of novels, with Admiral Thrawn (if I remember correctly) as the villain. His description of how mining could work on the scale involved with building and maintaining an intergalactic empire and a fleet of star destroyers was valuable information to me at the time. I thought episodes II and III took everything “magical” out of the franchise. Maybe George took what I thought to be excessive criticism about 2 or 3 minor subplots and characters in phantom menace way too seriously, and just decided to throw it in.
 
knarfeng said:
I have not read any of the books, nor watched any of the animated shows.

As I said, I have enjoyed both The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi. But I am annoyed that the director and writers of the Last Jedi did not take time to understand the foundations of that universe before making their movie.
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So what's the specific problem? Was it the duel at the end? I'd say there was precedence for that stretching back to A New Hope.

Just watching Return of the Jedi right now as I type. Waiting to see St Nick. Vader has just taken Luke into custody.
 
I do not buy into Luke's losing it with his nephew. (Neither did Mark Hamill, BTW.)

Moreover, there is neither precedence nor basis for astral projection using the force. If you consider that the force is supposed to be a "a force that binds all living things together", it becomes reasonable to move things using that force or to have great physical abilities, but there is no basis for astral projection.
 
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knarfeng said:
I do not buy into Luke's losing it with his nephew. (Neither did Mark Hamill, BTW.)

Moreover, there is neither precedence nor basis for astral projection using the force. If you consider that the force is supposed to be a "a force that binds all living things together", it becomes reasonable to move things using that force, but there is no basis for astral projection.
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I buy Luke loosing it. I don't think Luke ever really was a Jedi to point of being a Master. He was simply the best (or only) choice they had left. The Jedi in the past had the benefit of the temple and the other Jedi to train their apprentices. Luke just over reached. He was never even a proper Padawan learner. And a council of Jedi's never gave him the title of Master. He just decided I"m pretty good now, I'm going to title myself.

And as for the projection the concept of a force ghost is gospel. Same for moving objects. This combines the two. A force ghost while still in this world is a new aspect but almost every episode exposed some new thing about the force.

Let's not forget the force is waking up. What that looks like is a mystery. And for Han and Ben's recaps? Well Han knew about the force existing but he never was a user. Ben was well know for his explanations being from a particular point of view.
 
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