Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Dec 15th, 2017)

[TaliBane]

While I hate The Last Jedi, and The Force Awakens was nowhere near as bad in my opinion, I knew the series was in trouble when watching Force Awakens as Chewy walks right past Leia after Hans death and Leia embraces Rey.

... a moment mirrored in TLJ when Luke learns of Han's death. And we... move on!

 

[Wor-Gar]

I knew the series was in trouble when watching Force Awakens as Chewy walks right past Leia after Hans death and Leia embraces Rey.

It was a perfect example of the "care" being taken with these sequels. Smart people keeping track of things. Yes.

Of course, then TLJ told us in the face that Disney has no use for the old (other than simple financial exploitation); but story/character through-lines.... bah!

 

[YoNoSe]

It’s like when Chewie didn’t get a medal. That guy obviously didn’t understand our Star Wars.

 

[Wor-Gar]

What do you want, a Participation Trophy?

 

[Adolfo]

What do you want, a Participation Trophy?

That's right he's entitled...

 

[Khev]

I paid to see this movie opening weekend and well ... I liked it about as much as Anakin likes sand.

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I didn't leave a review on Rotten Tomatoes (positive or negative) and I wasn't asked to take part in cinemascores poll or any other polls for that matter.

So am I to be counted amongst those that 'liked' the movie because I paid to see it thereby contributing to the box office (I want my money back lol but that wasn't an option unfortunately)?

If you get a chance to read through a few pages of the latest Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews you may notice a trend that a lot of the negative ones are long, detailed and discuss reasons other than the 'rarrr I hate diversity / feminism' angle. Compare that with the positive reviews which I have found to be typically 3 lines long and say 'Yay it's Star Wars but new and if you don't like that then boohoo fanboy because Star Wars isn't for you anymore ... but man that Canto Bight scene dragged' (sure there are outliers on each side).

I've been watching Rotten Tomatoes on a daily basis ever since I saw the film ... for the lols I tell you (and because I'm sad, mostly because I'm sad ... like 51% because I'm sad and 49% for the lols) and I agree with you that the 49% 'like it' score is pretty meaningless. RT are without a doubt applying some form of aggregator / algorithm to 'count' audience scores. I've noticed a much much higher proportion of negative reviews against positive ones during my time reading them and ever since it hit 50% the score has barely budged despite the larger proportion of negative reviews that keep on rolling in (perhaps it's some form of 'anti-troll algorithm' or something). It also lacks transparency because you can't go back further than the last 50 pages of audience review scores so it is impossible to actually count each one and check RT's averages. Without knowing the algorithm that RT applies to the scores it's not possible to truly apply any weight to the 'audience score' that they provide.

I guess my point is that all these things / scores / critic's reviews can be manipulated and all the websites putting them out / publishing them have an agenda of some sorts (whether it's to get more traffic to their page or perhaps even to please the Galactic Empir... er Disney).

I know a lot of folks point to the box office score and yeh I agree it's large but when you put it in context (i.e. that it's a Star Wars saga movie, the follow up to the box office smash hit TFA, had a monumental marketing campaign / hype machine behind it and was set to resolve a lot of dangling plot threads from TFA) is it really as high as you were expecting and do you think it's what the shareholders / directors were anticipating?

In the end I can only go on my view and I strongly disliked the movie (it now stands alongside X-men Last Stand, Alien 3 and Dark Tower in my most disappointing movies of all time list). I don't think I'm a troll (I'm too lazy for that haha), I'm fairly liberal in my views and most importantly I'm a super easy SW fan to please... I like the freakin prequels. I'm not an old OT purist as I'm from the prequel generation so I would have thought that I'm one of the fans that Disney were hoping to hang on to ... you know when they let the past die and killed it when they had to.

I can't believe that I actually have more interest in Solo now than Episode 9 ... if you could have told me that prior to watching TLJ I would have laughed so hard but alas the joke was on me. What sucks the most is that I really wanted to like this movie, I don't enjoy being a 'hater' and I like even less seeing a picture that leaves me feeling so disappointed.

Everything you say here is obviously fine and valid and represents exactly how you felt about the movie which only you would know. Do I agree with all of your conclusions? Well no because TLJ actually far exceeded my expectations with regard to box office. I figured that since TFA (and RO) made SW "cool" again that there isn't that novelty or epic moment of finally seeing so and so on screen again and that the yearly earnings will ebb and flow like the MCU flicks. Even some of the very best MCU movies (like TWS) did "pretty good" but not Avengers-level profits and nobody freaked out or fell over themselves trying to create a false narrative that conveniently does nothing more than validate their own individual opinions.

I know that I can't cite the box office success, 90% RT reviewer scores, etc., as "proof" that I'm "right" but I find it hilarious that those who are against the movie actually think that they *can* use those stats to "prove" validity to their own opinions. There's no proving anything other than the fact that tons of critics liked it, some audience polls say it was great and some say it was split, while the box office indicates either strong word of mouth (everyone seeing it once and then recommending to others to see it at least once) or many, many people are seeing it multiple times. Those are the facts, the rest is just people saying what they liked and what they didn't.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

That's right he's entitled...

Oh, he's a Millennial.

 

[Adolfo]

Sand in my mouth > TLJ

 

[Khev]

Where was that confirmed?

I posted a link to the interview where he said he knew that his character died from the script in one of the figure threads (Luke Force Projection perhaps?) but here's Hamill's initial tweet to the one guy claiming that Rian and LFL killed his character without telling him:

Amazing! Every word in that tweet is WRONG. No wonder they have ANON in their title. I'd want to remain anonymous if I were spewing complete BS, too. #Disney angered? Final scene a surprise to me? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! #WhattaLoadaSITH

https://twitter.com/hamillhimself/status/945889228998639616?lang=en

 

[YoNoSe]

What do you want, a Participation Trophy?

He doesn’t deserve one if you put him up against the people who don’t like TLJ. He just helped blow up the Death Star. It’s not like he monitored foreign box office daily.

#occupyStarWars

 

[Wor-Gar]

He doesn’t deserve one if you put him up against the people who don’t like TLJ. He just helped blow up the Death Star. It’s not like he monitored foreign box office daily.

#occupyStarWars

He's the co-pilot. Co. No medal for you.

 

[Adolfo]

He's the co-pilot. Co. No medal for you.

There was a deleted scene where Leia gave him a banana.....I swear on my love for TLJ

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

There was a deleted scene where Leia gave him a banana.....I swear on my love for TLJ

Bananas are good.

 

[YoNoSe]

He's the co-pilot. Co. No medal for you.

Co-Pilot >>>>>>>>>>Ex Wife

 

[Adolfo]

My dog hates bananas

 

[Khev]

It’s like when Chewie didn’t get a medal. That guy obviously didn’t understand our Star Wars.

No medal? No problem. No hug? #NOTMYSTARWARS (Even though he did end up getting the hug in the end, it doesn't matter, the damage was done man, the damage was done...)

 

[TaliBane]

I posted a link to the interview where he said he knew that his character died from the script in one of the figure threads (Luke Force Projection perhaps?) but here's Hamill's initial tweet to the one guy claiming that Rian and LFL killed his character without telling him:

Interesting trivia:

That Hamill Tweet was posted only 7 hours after his now-infamous "I regret voicing my doubts & insecurities in public..." Tweet that firmly (though in some circles, not convincingly) backtracked on everything he had been both hinting at and directly stating up to that point. Something that was a quite... curious... situation.

That timing - the SAME DAY - is pretty critical wouldn't you agree?

I do think what makes it unclear is that Luke doesn't actually die in the filmed Hamill footage - the reverse actually: the way it's shot, he seems to actually be recovering. Then he dies, somewhat oddly, in a wide CGI shot.

I mean... wouldn't you show the life leaving Luke's face? That's what stuck out as weird to me in the movie, which was before I heard this theory about him not knowing.

 

[Captain Clown]

No medal? No problem. No hug? #NOTMYSTARWARS (Even though he did end up getting the hug in the end, it doesn't matter, the damage was done man, the damage was done...)

Leia and Chewie's hug in TLJ felt like damage control.

 

[TaliBane]

No medal? No problem. No hug? #NOTMYSTARWARS (Even though he did end up getting the hug in the end, it doesn't matter, the damage was done man, the damage was done...)

Feeling like a supporting character shoulda got a medal... and feeling the emotion surrounding the death a beloved iconic character as felt by their close, longtime friend (and main character.)

Eh. Same-same.

 

[TurdFurgusonsHat]

Leia and Chewie's hug in TLJ felt like damage control.

You want to see damage control, just wait until you see episode 9.