What is Your Opinion on The Last Jedi?

[Winter]

One of the biggest issues with The Last Jedi, and the Disney Sequel Trilogy as a whole, is that it's to big. Nothing is personal for anyone, Rey has no connection to any of the characters, Finn has no real reason to be so dedicated to Rey, Kylo has no reason to be so obsessed with Rey and the original Trilogy characters have barely interacted at this point. Seriously, as of TLJ the total amount of screen time TOTC have spent has been 5 or 6 minutes and most of their dialogue with the new series characters has been mostly grand speeches about love, the Force or The Dark Side.

One of the reasons I love TTT is because everything is Very personal for pretty much everyone involved. Han and Leia are trying to protect their children and each other, Karrde is trying to keep to his own unique more code which tends to put him against the Empire despite his wish to remain neutral in the war. Luke is concern how he will go on to create a new Jedi Order and is unsure if he will be a good teacher for his niece and nephew and Mara wants to kill Luke for the death of her adoptive father Palpatine only to learn that said foster father never truly cared about her which leads to her trying to break away from him.

Why does Rey want to become a Jedi? I know there's the whole thing of her apparently being a OT fan girl but that's doesn't equal character development as we never learn Why she's a fan. We know why Anakin and Luke wanted to become Jedi's and why Mara wanted revenge and to later sever ties with Palpatine but with Rey, all we get is her having a doll that looks like a rebel and her wearing a rebel helmet. We know why she doesn't want to remain on Jakku as everyone realizes it's the @$$end of nowhere but we never learn why she waiting for her parents.

Because the TLJ insisted that Rey's parents were nobody we, the viewer, don't form any sort of connection with and it just raises a lot more questions without answering anything about her personally. And the really funny/depressing thing of all this is we've actually learned more about Han's dashboard dice then we have about Rey. Yes the backstory of a random prop was more important to the film makers then the motivation and backstory of the new trilogy's main character. A random prop that I'm willing to bet most of the hardcore SW fans didn't even really noticed or cared about was something Lucas film felt it Had to flesh out.

Over on the web series RWBY one of the main complaints was that the main character, Ruby, was not given any real agency in her own series and was mostly pushed to the side in favor of the other leads. Fans didn't like this and it reached new heights in Vol. 5 where Ruby was barely involved in the main plot and her archenemy, whom Ruby scarred for life at the end of the last arc, didn't even talk to or Look at her.

So in response Mile and Kerry, the series writers, decided to give Ruby a greater role and agency in Vol. 6 by side-ling her mentors and giving her a new mentor who had the same sort of power and giving us a number of private moments with her where we see the pressure is getting to her. This was great and really helped Ruby's character and helped turned from the generic girl to something of a fan favorite.

But with Rey, the film makers seem rather uninterested in making Rey a actual character with actual goals, personal demons, a past or any personal motivation beyond, she is the chosen one and everyone just loves her for being her.

Even before Vol. 6 Ruby was given a reason why she wanted to be a Huntress, a history, had a number of character flaws and wasn't made out to be the golden child that everyone loves just for being in the same room. Mara had to earn the trust and friendship of the OT characters and that took most of the Trilogy and even then she was only really friends with Luke and was only allies with Han and Leia.

[Yukaphile]

Well, character has gone out the window thanks to CGI and effects being more realistic than ever. "Look, they're almost lifelike!" And that's what movies and TV today has become, short on substance.

Imagine the day when we can replicate a TNG style show with synthetic voice distortion/duplication, and completely 100% realistic CGI just from a CD you buy at home for $40? Or whatever that era's equivalent of forty bucks is. At that point, shows like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who and so on will be in the public domain, hopefully, so that we aren't shackled to people who don't have the franchise's best interests at heart.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Why does Rey want to become a Jedi? I know there's the whole thing of her apparently being a OT fan girl but that's doesn't equal character development as we never learn Why she's a fan. We know why Anakin and Luke wanted to become Jedi's and why Mara wanted revenge and to later sever ties with Palpatine but with Rey, all we get is her having a doll that looks like a rebel and her wearing a rebel helmet. We know why she doesn't want to remain on Jakku as everyone realizes it's the @$$end of nowhere but we never learn why she waiting for her parents.

I didn't get the sense that it's so much about her wanting to become a Jedi like Luke's father before him, but I thought it her joining the rebel plight was pretty clear. Han affirming everything about the Jedi and then taking her right to the heart of the rebel alliance gives a lot of momentum for her to take stake in what's going on.

I don't think it's much of a problem that she's waiting for her parents. It looks like there's nothing really to do on that planet, and that's what we're shown with her introduction with no tonal music in TFA.

Because the TLJ insisted that Rey's parents were nobody we, the viewer, don't form any sort of connection with and it just raises a lot more questions without answering anything about her personally. And the really funny/depressing thing of all this is we've actually learned more about Han's dashboard dice then we have about Rey. Yes the backstory of a random prop was more important to the film makers then the motivation and backstory of the new trilogy's main character. A random prop that I'm willing to bet most of the hardcore SW fans didn't even really noticed or cared about was something Lucas film felt it Had to flesh out.

I think they're being much more temporal with her. In the cave she sees a bunch of hers behind her and a bunch of hers in front of her. Finding meaning in her past or where she's going, there's no actual tells other than her personal experiences. I think it's supposed to echo Luke's cave visit in Empire Strikes Back as it shows them their fears that they face. It's really less substance than what we got with Luke if that's the case, in any such case we do have to see where they go with it.

[Yukaphile]

Rey and Kylo are just Revan and Bastila expies, that is all.

[Sir Will]

The Last Jedi sucks. It actually beat out episode 2 as worst. Only one I have no desire to watch again.

[Karha of Honor]

Well, character has gone out the window thanks to CGI and effects being more realistic than ever. "Look, they're almost lifelike!" And that's what movies and TV today has become, short on substance.

Imagine the day when we can replicate a TNG style show with synthetic voice distortion/duplication, and completely 100% realistic CGI just from a CD you buy at home for $40? Or whatever that era's equivalent of forty bucks is. At that point, shows like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who and so on will be in the public domain, hopefully, so that we aren't shackled to people who don't have the franchise's best interests at heart.

Maybe never. People expected in the early 2000s that CGI will be so cheap that you could make the last Avengers movie for 10 million dollars at this point...

Hold your horses.