"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

I really haven't understood the hate for the Porgs. They really only had that one scene at the campfire, and the others they were in were background or cameo shots. They literally have no impact on the story, which makes them harmless fun. The people saying they were awful are either having Ewok flashbacks or are the type that insists that every minor character gets a major moment (and in the case of the Porgs, they'd be pissed if they had a major moment because of the Ewoks).

 

Is there even an actual Porg backlash? I keep seeing references to a Porg backlash. I'm sure people roll their eyes at them, but I think that most people probably think "Star Wars" worked the pandering cuteness in the right way this time, finally. The Porgs are not Jar Jar.

 

The prequels also kind of suck because, as they point out on The Watch podcast often, they turn the Jedi into fucking tax collectors.

 

Hayden Christensen is the main reason the prequels suck.

 

It's weird, because he's good in other stuff. Shattered Glass was an enjoyable flick. (Not sure if it holds up, since I saw it a decade ago at this point.)

 

I agree. I think the backlash came when they popped up in the trailer and people assumed the worst.

 

VII, VIII and Rogue One are all better than the prequels by a long shot. This is coming from someone who also didn't mind the prequels as much as most fans did. But after seeing these three it makes the prequels just look like the garbage they obviously were. And at this point I wouldn't even put VII at least in the top five of the franchise, even though I liked it very much.

 

That was my point. For those that enjoy stuff like that, mostly kids, they are fun. For those that don't, they are easily ignored.

 

54 percent audience rating at Rotten Tomatoes after 134,000 responses.

I think that part of that is a coordinated review bombing.

But I also think a lot of people spent two years thinking that they were going to see which Skywalker that Rey was related to, and which prequel character Snoke was the reincarnation of.

 

Finally saw it, and enjoyed reading the many commentaries from my fellow SJ.com Star Wars nerds. The review DoubleDown linked, noting how Last Jedi threw away/destroyed some of the previous movie's plot points, was excellent.

A few quick thoughts:

Spoiler

1. The humor was always there, at least in the four films that had Harrison Ford. The shock of this one was that Luke, Leia, even Yoda had some one-liners ("page turners they are not").

2. The telepathic communication between Kylo and Rey was cool — especially that some physical contact occurred. Although Snoke claimed to have set that up, I'm wondering if Kylo Ren established the connection and let Snoke think he did it ... after all, Ren fooled him about his thoughts in the throne room battle (a great scene, best of the movie).

3. Batman's point about Luke's holographic appearance, and how he winked at C3Po because the droid realized it, is one of the many cool details this movie gets right. The hall of mirrors scene on the island, Rey's similar reaction to Luke's when he first shot tie-fighters in the Falcon ... they get a lot of things right in Last Jedi.

4. Loved the Laura Dern character, and how she went out ... even if the science of her kamakazee mission is a little suspect.

5. Most important thing: had a fun time at the movie, with my wife and both kids (ages 18 and 16) all enjoying the movie, even if for different reasons. They have a wide range of possible plots for Episode IX.

 

Saw it maybe 2 years ago. It still holds up, though some of the computer technology is obviously dated.

 

So apparently Mark Hamill does not like the depiction of Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. The quote was "He's not my Luke Skywalker." He added that he thought of Luke as a different character during the performance.

The argument is that Luke wouldn't give up and he would keep trying to fix his mistake. And I think that is true of Luke during the original trilogy, but that was over 30 years ago in the timeline of the movies. People change over time. Luke isn't the young idealist any more. He has been changed by his failures.

Is Hamill right? Should we care? Oddly enough, I thought he gave a great performance.