What happened at Heathrow airport on Star Wars Day?

[DennisN]

and I will write a review here soon. I am very divided how I feel about it.

I can't write a review yet, I got too confusing feelings from the movie. I have to see it again .

Edit: I changed my mind, I'll write it now...

A lot of potential in the movie, some amazing action and good fun, but also a lot of things that were unnecessary, e.g. unnecessary humor (a bit too much), some convoluted storytelling and completely unnecessary scenes like Leia flying like Superman. Really, why? That was so silly and childish, in my opinion. Ok, this is fiction, but I also found it amazing that when Leia was saved, they just opened the door to get her in, while the vacuum of space had no impact on them whatsoever .

Cool scenes: The intro space battle was awesome, splitting the First Order spaceship was quite cool, the scene and lightsaber battle with Snoke, Rey, Kylo and the guards was very cool, Luke doing a Force hologram was quite cool, the scene when Chewbacca was about to eat a small animal was very funny, Benicio del Toros character was interesting but perhaps underused, he is a great actor.

Not so cool scenes: Too much jokes, Leia flying like Superman, Maz Kanata just appearing out of nowhere to help them felt very forced, the casino scenes were not so interesting and riding animals through a casino city felt a bit too much.

I find it to be a quite uneven movie, but still an entertaining one. But my impression at the moment is that The Force Awakens was a better and more congruent movie.

So my conclusion regarding The Last Jedi is very much like what the emperor in Amadeus had to say to Mozart about his music:
Too many notes, just cut a few and it would be perfect .


Edit 2: Oh, I have one more thing to say regarding the supposed parents of Rey. I was not convinced about what Kylo told Rey about her parents being nobodies. He could very well have been bluffing/lying to try to make Rey join him. I actually still think my Rey theory could be true. But maybe it is wishful thinking, I can't really say .

Edit 3: I forgot about another scene which I definitely would like to have seen being cut and dropped from the movie, or even better, never filmed at all: when Rose rescues Finn in the end. That was a real downer for me; to me, Star Wars should not be like a run-of-the-mill silly action movie, with silly, over-the-top heroic/dramatic stunts like that one. Please. No. More. Of. That.

 

[star apple]

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/26/us/star-wars-religion/index.html

"George Lucas, the creator of "Star Wars," says he wanted to do more than entertain the masses. He wanted to introduce young Americans to spiritual teachings though "new myths" for our globalized, pluralistic millennium.
"I see 'Star Wars' as taking all the issues that religion represents and trying to distill them down into a more modern and accessible construct," Lucas has said. "I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery."

I really like the movie because it brings into awareness something so complex that you can't think of it well without the movies giving the mood.

Anyway. What do you want to happen in the next installment of the franchise or other movies related to it?

Well. I want the Jedi thing (or non-thing) to extend to Earth. They could write a new movie of the Jedi order (or sorta) and activities on earth. Perhaps George Lucas can look into this. What would you feel if the Jedi remnants or Siths tried to go to other planets and established themselves as a spiritual hierarchy of some sort? The movie really brings into awareness the fact our Earth alleged spiritual hierarchy are nothing but Jedi factions who pretend to being beings of pure light. Here's a passage I want to share in Externalization of the Hierachy:

"How will these Members of the Hierarchy in Their various grades appear on earth? Will They come
through the methods of ordinary birth, of childhood and maturity? Some initiates may follow this
ordinary pattern, some are already passing through it today and are in the stages of infancy and
adolescence; to them will be given a large share of the preparatory work. Some will not pass through
these relatively limiting phases, but will pass back and forth between the outer world and the world of
hierarchical endeavour; they will be sometimes present in physical bodies and sometimes not. This
method of activity will not be possible as long as the present rules of national and civilian
identification, of passports and of drastic airport and seaport inspection are required by the authorities;
such people as these "transitting initiates" would not be able to identify themselves. This form of
appearance is therefore postponed for some time. Some of the Masters will create what is called in the
language of the East the "mayavirupa"—a vehicle of expression which is built of atomic physical and
astral substance and of concrete mental substance. This They can create at will, use at will and cause to
vanish at will; Their problem is not, therefore, so acute in the matter of appearing and of reappearing as
is that of the initiate who cannot thus create to suit his purpose and his service."

No. I won't talk about this topic again. I just happened to encounter some of them and them being just Jedis described them better. Just to share food for thoughts for George Lucas future movies. He needs ideas and these are great ideas especially how to bring Luke Skywalker back to life. Peace.

 

[GTOM]

Again i'd like to note we are different, we like different parts of the same story, etc.

But i found something that has a pretty detailed analysis why people are so divided about TLJ.
(It also generally analyses the problem with MarySue characters. Not as if Gary Stues were any better of course, i never liked Superman movies, except maybe the third one with a bit character development, and tricky solution at the end.)

https://litrpgreviews.blog/2017/12/...wonder-woman-force-awakens-and-the-last-jedi/

The last part is about The Last Jedi.

 

[DennisN]

https://litrpgreviews.blog/2017/12/...wonder-woman-force-awakens-and-the-last-jedi/

The last part is about The Last Jedi.

Thanks! That was a very interesting and thorough analysis, and I can not say I disagree with it.

 

[Khashishi]

https://litrpgreviews.blog/2017/12/...wonder-woman-force-awakens-and-the-last-jedi/
https://litrpgreviews.blog/2017/12/...wonder-woman-force-awakens-and-the-last-jedi/
The last part is about The Last Jedi.

The criticisms are totally valid, but I feel like the reviewer has some impossible expectations with regard to The Last Jedi. First they criticize The Force Awakens for being too similar to the original, and then they criticize The Last Jedi for being too different. TLJ does a good job of being fresh and unexpected. If every plot point was tied together in a meaningful way, then the overall plot would be too predictable, like The Force Awakens. Yes, the other criticisms of The Last Jedi are good, especially the lack of flaws on Rey. The writers could have introduced Rey's dark side earlier on as a flaw, since this would tie into important plot points later on.

 

[NoMan2000]

The criticisms are totally valid, but I feel like the reviewer has some impossible expectations with regard to The Last Jedi. First they criticize The Force Awakens for being too similar to the original, and then they criticize The Last Jedi for being too different.

I wrote the review. Well, there's different good and different bad. TLJ is different bad. The massive expansion of powers wouldn't be bad, for example, if they were set up previously. Consider the first Star Wars.

1.) Luke learns there is something called the force.
2.) On the Millenium Falcon, Obi-Wan tells him that he can use the Force to predict the future, and hence, block blaster shots. (This gets very stupidly worked into an actual training scene in the prequels where a bunch of kids standing next to each other are waving around light sabers.) He fails to do it.
3.) This introduces us to Han Solo. Han Solo tells us that he has no use for mystical mumbo-jumbo. We see this in the Gweedo shooting and when he meets Darth Vader, he just immediately starts blasting him.
4.) Obi-wan tells him to use the force and to let go of his rational thought. Han Solo and Obi-wan are on opposite spectrums of a dilemma, does Luke trust in physical skills and computers, or does he trust in the Force?
5.) Payoff. The final destruction of the Death Star, Luke trusts the Force to guide him and destroys the death star.

Each piece had a setup and a payoff. Same thing occurs in "The Empire Strikes Back." Each skill Luke learns pays off. He learns to lift rocks, he uses this to grab his lightsaber and cut himself free. He's told that Jedi mind tricks don't work on everyone, they fail on Jaba the Hutt. He learns how to do a super jump, he does it in his fight against Darth Vader.

Now go through TLJ. Every power is not set up, it's just done so that the plot can move forward. Sometimes, it doesn't even add up. Princess Leia can force fly. We ge this from nowhere. The payoff is that she shoots Poe, then tells him the answers to what he asked the Captain about earlier. Why?

Luke can force project himself. This is done so he can stall for a few seconds and leave us with the wonderful last line, "See you around, kiddo." Why?

Everything is just "Why?" Plot McGuffins everywhere.

As I talk about in The Art of the Edit, having auters is great, they're creative people. Typically they're better than design by committee approaches. But they usually need someone to roll their ideas off of and to keep things straight. If you let most auteurs go loose, you end up with a mess of unfinished works, (Orsen Welles) or you end up with utterly incoherent stories, (Jupiter Ascending and most of the Wachowski's work in general, M. Night Shyamalan, etc.).

It seems like this is a case where no one put their foot down and what we ended up with is an incoherent mess.

 

[DennisN]

I had to post this photo from Heathrow airport yesterday (apparently May 4 is Star Wars Day...)
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/8gxfc7/heathrow_airport_this_morning_happy_sw_day/