Shakyuk

Star Wars for me was a 4/10.

I walked out of the cinema not really caring about what would happen next, which is the first time this has happened in any Star Wars. Even with the prequels being so terrible, I had intrigue in where the plot would move and hope that the next film would be of better quality.

My main issue with The Last Jedi is that like The Force Awakens, it isn't original at all. The Force Awakens was a rip off of the original Star Wars with a planet destroying weapon.. This film was a rip off of elements from all three of the original films.


I can describe multiple scenes which are rip offs simply by replacing place/people names:

• The battle for Hoth (Empire strikes back)/The battle of Crait (The Last Jedi) - The rebels last base is a hardened position in the side of a cliff. The planet is white (Snow on Hoth, Salt on Crait) which provides a nice cinematic contrast. The base is being assaulted by Imperial AT-ATs who are slowly approaching from a distance. There's trenches at the front of the base with scenes at the start of the fight of rebels running into the trenches. The rebels use fast moving vehicles to attack the AT-ATs, taking heavy loses, but in Hoths case they manage to trip the AT-ATs up. In The Last Jedi - sparkly foxes... I'm sure some of the actual shots where exactly the same as Hoth.
• Luke/Rey need to go find a jedi master called Yoda/Luke, on an isolated planet to seek training. Yoda/Luke initially refuce to train Luke/Rey due to the internal conflict they sense within them and their prior experience of approving/training someone with internal conflict (Yoda - Vader, Luke - Ren). On the isolated planet there is a darkened area (the interior of a tree in Luke's case, the cave in Rey's). Following training of Luke/Rey, Yoda/Luke die near the end of the film. Luke recieves a vision of his friends in danger and cuts his training short. This is actually a trap, leading to his capture. Rey recieves a vision of Ren reaching out to her and cuts her training short. which is actually a trap, leading to her capture. Both Luke/Rey's capture lead to the next scenes...
• Final scenes - The Emperor/Snoke is in a large open throne room having captured Luke/Rey using the aforementioned vision. Vader/Ren face an internal conflict of wether to strike down The Emperor/Snoke or strike down Luke/Rey. In the end Vader/Ren kill The Emperor/Snoke in a shock change of mind.

Seriously, I can describe premise of scenes by only changing the character/place names!


Snoke, a sith so powerful he can project the images of two very powerful jedi/sith (Rey/Ren) across the galaxy and fool them into thinking they're somehow linked. Yet he doesn't notice Ren turning his own lightsabre right infront of him. Snoke was a massively wasted character.


Some 'little old lady' aliens tut at Rey damaging the house. Rey cuts a rock and it destroys a wheelbarrow pushed by these 'little old lady' aliens. Luke throws the light sabre over his shoulder at the start... The gags were so cheap.


The entire film chasing a ship because it's slightly faster than the Imperial Star Destroyer ships. Come on. Can't they just light speed ahead of them, surround them? Send tie fighters out which won't have the fuel to return... but they can go pick them up? Anything. That whole plot line was so weak.


Super Leah, suddenly using the force to save herself. Despite the actor being dead. That would have been the perfect death for her, dying in battle. But no, she survives? The only reason I can think is that they filmed her scenes for the next film already. I know you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but she'd had so much botox and face lifts that its like watching the shed skin of a lizard trying to act.


Make it a 2/10.

Shakyuk

Netflix and Churchill

Atlantic Xpat

Watched on a plane on Friday:

Kingsman; the Golden Circle. Just as sh1t as the original Kingsman movie. Utterly forgettable.

Logan Lucky; Highly recommended. A redneck version of Oceans Eleven (same director) with a good cast - especially Daniel Craig who is almost unrecognisable as Joe Bang. Good fun, no need to think movie.

BristolUK

Crikey. Anyone want to review that review?

Can you be sure you actually saw it?

Atlantic Xpat

Genuinely, I sat here this morning, thought I'd share Logan Lucky & then "I know I watched another film on the flight, what was it?" I had to google what's playing on Air Canada's IFE at present to remember. So utterly forgettable, yes.

BristolUK

Ever been on a plane when the movie was something like Snakes on a plane, Airport, Flight, Entebbe etc?

Atlantic Xpat

No, but I did watch "Bottle Shock", a quite enjoyable movie about the time that the Californian wine industry took on and beat the frogs, while flying business class from Toronto back to St John's a few years back and got royally pissed while doing so. That was quite fun.

Related to your post, did you see that there is a new Raid on Entebbe movie coming out? Looks quite good from the trailer. Trailer #1

BristolUK

Yes...I was looking for hijack examples and up it came. I saw 2018 and thought what?

Shakyuk

I know it's not real and I shouldn't be so invested... but I love the Star Wars universe!
I used to think that when you love a Franchise so much, it'll never deliver. But then I watched Blade Runner 2049 and it blew my little replicant mind. The fans can get what they want... only it won't make any money.

BristolUK

I wasn't a huge fan (preferred Star Trek) but I did enjoy the original three. I saw the first prequel and it just didn't seem right (so I've not bothered with the others), whereas the first and subsequent Star Trek 'prequels' worked fine. Now I read that they're not really prequels, more an alternate timeline, but they all work well.

Does that really count as a franchise?
As I said earlier, somewhere, I'm supposed to like Blade Runner but it never hooked me. I hoped the director's cut would make it better but I didn't see an improvement.

Shakyuk

The new Star Trek Discovery series is great! I'm also a Star Trek fan, but from TNG onwards.


The new Star Wars films follow on from the original three (1977 onwards) but have been disappointing.


Rogue One on the other hand is a fantastic film, definitely give that a watch. It's a stand alone film that sits between Episode 3 and 4. It explains how they got the plans for the death star in Episode 4 (the original 1977 Star Wars film).


True Blade Runner isn't a franchise, I've just watched it so much that it may as well be!

morpeth

A year after Entebbe I was on a flight from Karachi to Dubai, only 1 or 2 Westerners on the flight which had packed in a bunch of Baluchi workers. when we landed all of a sudden a group of Arabs rushed onto the plane carrying something hidden under the clothes and one shouted "Nobody move". We sat in quiet for 5 or 6 minutes wondering what was happening- then they all pulled out some sort of spraying devices and sprayed the whole plane, evidently to fumigate it for some reason, then ran off the plane. strangest flying experience I have ever had.

morpeth

Logan Lucky sounds like fun to watch.

I usually don't watch much science fiction, but I am extremely impressed with the Black Mirror series on Netflix, sort of a 21st century Twilight Zone. Some of the most interesting plots to each episode.

Atlantic Xpat

The Mrs has been watching Black Mirror, albeit with a certain amount of "WTF..?" over the first episode. (Something to do with David Cameron I think...). Since you've mentioned SciFi, it's my duty to plug "The Expanse" again. It's an immersive and clever universe & is highly recommended "real" scifi. (i.e. actual physics rather than magic space mcguffins). Not on Netflix I think so needs seeking out via your preferred streaming provider. Or purchase on itunes etc.

BristolUK

I remember the spraying on a flight back from Luxor - killing off any bugs so as not to bring them back to blighty.

Not as dramatic as your experience though.