The requirement to use endless spoiler tags in this thread was a deplorable misjudgement.

The "Everyone's A Critic" forum has always been a place for the open and spoilerful discussion of released films. If a forum member who hasn't seen the movie is stupid enough to read a review thread, then they're likely the same sort of person who reads every media review before seeing the movie too.

The spoiler tags clutter up the thread and choke free discussion.

tree and a half is right. There shouldn't be special rules for special films on special weekends. I haven't see the film, and it is nobody's fault but my own if I happen to glance over a spoiler in this thread. Personally I don't care because it's only Star Wars, but if it were something important I would care, but it would still be my own fault for checking the damn thread where spoilers are "ALLOWED".

WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE THO

Too tired to write a real review.

Things I Loved:

- Luke becoming a mentor the way Obi-Wan and Yoda were. The parallels were great.
- Using jump to lightspeed as a weapon
- Kylo Ren's character is now by far my favourite of the new group. He's actually interesting now.

- Leia using the force
- The sequence where the bomber drops its payload. Amazing tension and they manage to build a great character in like two minutes.

Things I Did Not Love:


- The Asian chick. Jesus Christ. Zero charisma, 100% annoying.
- The weird "rich people are evil" subplot. Felt like propaganda, Star Wars didn't use to have this shit.
- Purple Haired Lady not telling them about their plan and leading to a mutiny + totally unnecessary subplots that accomplished nothing. Lazy screenwriting.
- Rey improved her acting but she's still the Daniel Radcliffe of this series.

END SPOILERS

The Variety review makes a good point:

The throne room fight is one for the fucking ages.

I wouldn't call the first problem being that fanboy-related. It actually stems from the first movie(Force Awakens). The character was established as the new Emperor, just like Kylo was established as Vader. Both appearing pretty much out of nowhere, just like the First Order. It was only needed to establish anyone as an Emperor, which wasn't really needed in the story going forward, thus him becoming irrelevant and him being blatantly killed-off. And while whole scene was beautiful and cool, I couldn't help but think its setup was too much alike with same scene in Episode VI, which made it less special overall even without the Snoke problem.

And yeah, the movie still has the same problem as VII. Rehash of scenes from previous original episodes.

Also I don't see anyone complaining about General Hux. While Kylo Ren is respected and feared because of his powers, despite him being fairly imbalanced and emotional(he also wasn't in command that long), why Hux became the general is questionable. Their dynamic with Kylo brings the unneeded comical status to the First Order's leadership.

WTF was this... I've got to gather my thoughts to properly give this a formal review but this was the first Star Wars I almost walked out on. This was a truly terrible movie and worst of the the entire series by a mile. I never thought it could get any worse than TFA.

D-

My rankings-

1- Empire Strikes Back
2- Revenge of the Sith
3- A New Hope
4- Phantom Menace
5- Attack of the Clones
6- Return of the Jedi
7- Rogue One
8-The Force Awakens
9- The Last Jedi

After having a night to think about it, I think The Force Awakens and Rogue One were more entertaining and accomplished everything they wanted to. The Last Jedi sets its ambitions much higher though, and even hitting only 80% of that potential makes it a better film.

The movie is too long, has too many disposable subplots and basically uses the exact same story structure as The Empire Strikes back. So for the first act of the film I had my worries this would just be the exact same as last time. I think The Force Awakens is a great movie, but its empty beyond giving us the old Star Wars back with some interesting new characters. Jedi strips away alot of the nostalgic love though. While Kylo’s goal in The Force is too become the new Vader, here it is the opposite, and his journey is about not being Vader. No more mask, no more emporer, no Luke converting you back to the light. Kylo becomes his own man, mostly thanks to Rey who still wants the original trilogy to play out again. However, since there is no family connection, their debates on whether good and evil really matter is quite romantic. They love each other, but obviously not enough, and that builds both of their characters exponentially.

While The Resistance’s side of the movie is less interesting, it still has some good stuff in it. Poe desperately wants to be Han Solo and is willing to sacrifice anything or anyone to make it happen. It takes alot of death and destruction, but he eventually does realize that his role is more of this cycles Leia than Han, though he still has to grow more to truly be his own man. Finn ... does not get anything good really. He is almost given the same treatment as Snoke and Maz, brushed aside in favor of the deeper characters. His story is basically “we have to give Finn something to do” and full of “it has been too long since we’ve had any” action scenes. And while it seems like he learns something about letting go of the anger and fear of his past, he still wants to charge head first at Kylo. This scene shows us how Poe has matured throughout the film, but Finn is the one person in this film who remains stuck in the past. I think if they improved this aspect and gave him a full story arc, this movie would be an A+ and right there among the originals.

Best scene of the movie: Rey and Kylo Kill Billing the other Knights of Ren.
2nd best: Luke walking through the fire
3rd best: tie for every other Rey:Kylo scene

Worst scene: Carrie flying through space wtf was up with that?

It's no Force Awakens, but this is a highly enjoyable entry in the franchise and the cast does a great job. I also loved the addition of Laura Dern and the action sequences were excellent. My biggest complaint is that Rey and Finn were apart for way too long and their chemistry was a huge reason why I found TFA so wonderful. Still though, after the horrible Rogue One last year this is a much needed return to form. Excited for the conclusion. B+

I'm not a fan of the original trilogy for the record, and it seems that people who are having the most visceral, negative reactions to this are people who are diehards. The Force Awakens is the first and only entry in this franchise I really loved.

Rogue One is awful. This is better in every possible way.

Ya... Rogue One sucked.

I don't think those were the Knights of Ren.

THE LAST JEDI

My thoughts. When I watched it the first time I didn't know how I felt. There was three specific moments that almost made me rant. 1. When Leia was fake killed. 2. When Finn almost fake suicide. 3. When Luke was fake blown to smithereens. I was literally almost like wth is going on here. Putting those things aside, in my second viewing I really enjoyed this so much more. The battle sequences are all very exciting. I could watch xwing combat all day long, so cool. I liked hermit Luke. He was funny and yet powerful and wise at the same time. He was the anti-Kenobi. So jaded he was. I liked the Rey Kylo force connection. That was a new thing. I thought Kylo is so much more interesting in this film. I don't think he can ever be redeemed. I don't Vader was either. I just like the complete honest emotion that Kylo presents the audience. He isn't hiding any of his intention or feeling. I was totally shocked they killed Snoke. I wish we had had some form of flashback or something to let us know more about Snoke but whatever. Maybe he'll be back as a force ghost too. Who knows. The fight sequence with Kylo and Rey v the guards was exciting. The last battle sequence while cool was not as exciting since those rinky skiff speeder whatevers were useless practically. I did like the Luke Kylo fake showdown. First time I had no idea it was fake till they revealed it. I just thought Luke is that powerful he can stop all that blaster fire. I don't mind that he died. He'll probably be back guiding Rey. I am very happy that Rey is not related to anyone and that she literally came from nothing just like Anakin came from nothing. I do wonder how 9 is going to end or wrap or if it will wrap up the story since these trilogies were supposed to be Skywalker related. Kylo is the last so I hope he has a child or something in between the next film. Finally the only negative thing that really kind of bugged me was Leia somehow surviving getting blown out the cruiser. That whole sequence was a bit iffy.

*oh and I loved the Porgs...so cute

Grade - A

2nd viewing was definitely better. First time, everything is a bit jarring in terms of expectations, but on the 2nd, it seems more smoother and coherent.

Both my crowds were bleh and I went to a double feature. Kind of kills the experience to some degree.

This film is the Force. Lots of Good, lots of bad. But I loved the good and found the bad kind of solid, but did eyeroll.

I'll give bigger thoughts in the new year. But there is a lot of frustration. And that is the thing I hate the most with fans. They blast TFA for going back to the formula, and now it's for going off in crazy directions. I actually have a more appreciate appeal to the Prequels.

The main actors were too old now. And to be fair, Ford and company would have never signed on to do a sequel trilogy in the late 90s. But you just know this is not how it should have went. This film gets that sense even more than TFA. They are in complete blank canvas mode, and they have come up with some much brilliant stuff. But you can tell there is no story set. Especially with Fischer dying as that was suppose to be her film.

Regarding Leia flying through space back to the carrier, I think it was simply meant to show that she, too, has a considerably strong connection with the force and can do incredible things (beyond her several small examples) if needed. She never trained as a Jedi, but there are examples of Jedi being capable of sustaining their bodies/oxygen in space for a limited time, so it has some foundation at least and isn't completely unbelievable.

Also, I haven't seen it mentioned here, but Rey has the ancient Jedi texts from the film. I didn't notice it upon my first viewing, but I saw it again today and we get a short glimpse of them on the Falcon near the end of the film. I don't know if she took them, or maybe Luke placed them there when he visits the ship (though that contradicts the burning scene), but they're clearly the same as those seen on the island.

I think she definitely took them (not that I think they'll matter in any big way). Yoda even says while the tree is burning, "Wisdom they held, but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess," which implies he knew she already had them and was just burning the library to push Luke where he needed to go.

Driver's Ben Solo/Kylo Res is already 100x better/more interesting/cool than HC's Anakin ever was at any time ever, including his back flip to kick off Obi Wan duel.

I enjoyed it. Probably on par with TFA honestly maybe even a bit better, but definitely more enjoyable than RO at least because unlike that movie I was actually invested in these characters. I got to say though that the first half whether its the first 30 minutes or the entire first hour was choppy as fuck. It was seriously jarring how awful the editing was and it annoyed me how many weird transitions their were between scenes. That was about as bad as the first half of RO and combine it with some of the iffy acting and I was sure I was going to dislike it, but luckily it did recover from there. Once Rey/Kylo had their first Force link up is when it started to feel a lot smoother for me. Anyways, coming from a casual fans perspective I can totally see why the diehards would hate this movie. Rian Johnson made some bold choices with this film which I can appreciate, because its going against the formula and is at least trying to be different, but being different doesn't always mean it will come out good. Mark Hamill is fantastic here acting wise, but Luke did feel somewhat wasted. I mean I'm not even a Star Wars fanboy, but even I think we should have got some kind of EPIC showdown with him either using a Light saber or The Force. To make it even worse is that they killed him off which felt so unnecessary IMO, but I still have hope that he will show up in the next movie in some form or fashion. As for the rest, the Rey/Kylo relationship has to be my favorite thing about this film, because it is so well done. Sure it reeks of fan fiction, but those two possibly becoming a team up in the future is easily one of the most interesting aspects this new trilogy has offered. Also, how can you not want to see those two wreck more shit together after that badass fight in the Throne Room. It's too bad the Finn/Poe stuff wasn't better though. Finn's story-line is especially meh and you could have had anybody else play BDT's character. Poe is still a likable and cool Han wannabe, but I expected more from him besides just butting heads with Laura Dern's character who I liked, because she does have one of the best visual looking action sequences I have seen in a very long time. I mean that shot was fucking crazy and who would have thought light speed could be used as a weapon.

Snoke was a BIG letdown though. He was talking so much shit and they built him up as this powerful, supreme evil being and he just gets taken out like a bitch lol. It's a shame too, because Serkis brought a lot of menace to the character and we still don't know who the hell he was which is pretty damn disappointing. As good as Driver was in this I'm still not sold on him being the next big villain unless Episode 9 takes place years into the future.

B

Snoke could easily still be alive in my book. He already looked dead to begin with.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Snoke comes back. Luke is pretty much a certainty. They’re both as “dead” as Obi-Wan was after New Hope and Yoda in OT Jedi. Both Obi-Wan and Luke left their cloak behind in the same way.

Why would snoke be back? Certainly not to help the guy who back stabbed him.