OT: The Last Jedi

[John 3rd]

OK. It is time to separate the players from the GEEKS. Who has their Stars Wars tickets for TOMORROW night?

The Cochran Clan will be watching it tomorrow night at 10:30pm. It WILL rock! I've never missed an Opening Day/Pre-Open for 40 years of this series and cannot wait for tomorrow.



Who else is going?

[JeffroK]

?? My eldest saw it at 0001 this morning, are you guys on a delay over there?

[Leandros]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

OK. It is time to separate the players from the GEEKS. Who has their Stars Wars tickets for TOMORROW night?

The Cochran Clan will be watching it tomorrow night at 10:30pm. It WILL rock! I've never missed an Opening Day/Pre-Open for 40 years of this series and cannot wait for tomorrow.



Who else is going?

I mandated my son to attend for me.

Fred

[RFalvo69]

I watched the Italian premiere in Milan yesterday with my daughters.

NO SPOILERS

At 2h30m the movie is too long. I could see in real time whole scenes and subplots which should have been left on the cutting room floor. This is the movie biggest weakness.

OTOH, the last 30 mins or so were really, really tense (another reason to be left perplexed by all the unnecessary padding). There was a twist a minute: some a bit arbitrary but some really cool. Ironically, one of the best also deprived the fans of another scene that everyone was waiting for - but the rug pulling was hard with this one.

Star Wars wise it was... dunno: half and half. For sure it was not "The Empire Strikes Back". Also, the plot often relied on fortuitous coincidences and "the cavalry arrives!"-scenes which were stunningly convenient. And some scenes were "disneyfied" to the point that they made "Frozen" look like a dark and serious drama (no, the Porg were actually cute; a pleasant surprise).

The acting was quite good all around, with Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Andy Serkis (as Snoke: one day they will recognise the bravura that this guy puts in his thankless job) being on top. The direction by Ryan Johnson "grounded" the movie in pseudo-realistic ambiences. Still, Johnson also showed a lot of visual flair, even managing to film lightsaber battles in a truly original way. There are a lot of ways to use a lightsaber, and Johnson showed us how we saw only a few in the previous movies (I also liked how he mostly kept the camera away from the clashes, so that the audience could follow and admire the unique choreographies).

At the end all is good in The Last Jedi - the acting, the cinematography, the direction... except the script. When it is good, it is great. When it isn't, it is either boring and arresting, or flatly bad (it was, however, also very funny, and Domhnall Gleeson ruled as the Monthy Pythonesque General Hux [:D]). Some of the mysteries left from "The Force Awakens" are addressed - and some in a satisfactory way, some in a perplexing one (like if Ryan Johnson had a lot of material he had to address and got rid of some of it as fast as possible; it was known that J.J. Abrams, as usual, had created "mysteries" to which not even him had an answer).

All in all, it was not totally original but it was also not totally an embarrassing "copy&paste" like "The Force Awakens" (even if a couple of key moments were copy & paste).

But, at the end of the day, those last 30 minutes are really worth it.

My vote: 6/7 on 10

[AcePylut]

Daddy Daughter Star Wars Date Day is set for Sunday.

[BBfanboy]

I am starting to get the "oriental patience" of those who know how crazy big openings can be and can wait for things to settle down. Afternoon matinees during the week mean good seats and no stiff neck from looking up at the screen (or left or right).
Many years ago I was wow'd by the SFX stuff, but now I look forward to good acting by the key characters. Of course, seeing more acrobatics from Daisy Ridley is on the list of acting chops I am looking forward to!

[Lecivius]

My son has finals starting Saturday ( who does finals on a freakin weekend?!?). Probably go next week.

[USSAmerica]

We have our tickets in hand for the premier tonight at 1900. [8D]

[geofflambert]

I keep showing up for casting calls. Last time some wise guy said "green is definitely not the new black".

[Major Shane]

My wife and I are going Sunday morning. We bought the tickets 2 months ago.

[Canoerebel]

My boys are going tomorrow night. If they say it's really good, wife and I will go later. I thought the most recent two really weren't very good.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: USSAmerica

We have our tickets in hand for the premier tonight at 1900. [8D]

I will take my wife next week (I hate the "rush" of the first week)... [:)]

BTW, this will give us opportunity to watch the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" again before watching the new one... [8D]


Leo "Apollo11"

[Encircled]

Me and the kids tomorrow morning

Wife not remotely interested

[USSAmerica]

GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!! I'm a huge fan to begin with, but I was thrilled and blown away by The Last Jedi! Quite likely my favorite of all 9 films so far. I'll be going back to the theater to see it again soon! [8D]

[AcePylut]

I really enjoyed Rogue One...

The best part of Rogue One was that it turned Darth Vader "back" into the villian that I knew and grew up with.

[Orm]

I am probably going to skip this one.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

My boys are going tomorrow night. If they say it's really good, wife and I will go later. I thought the most recent two really weren't very good.

From what I hear the new one has loads of special effects stuff like the last two, but the new director really made the characters come to life. So you might hate the action stuff and like the actual acting.

[Zorch]

i just saw it. I haven't decided if I like it yet [;)]
It does have nice refer-backs to earlier films.

[wdolson]

I've been an SF geek from an early age. Grew up watching Star Trek and saw most if not all the SF shows of the 70s and 80s growing up. I also read SF voraciously until the internet came along. I never got into Star Wars though. I saw Episodes 4-6 once each back when they initially came out, but I haven't seen anything the franchise has produced since.

Bill

[JohnDillworth]

Really liked this . Went with my daughter but felt like a 14 year old for 2 1/2 hours. The director dispenses with much of the heavy , weighty B.S. and brings the humor back to the franchise. Movie is bracketed with 2 great space battles but plenty of fun and action in between. Really nice to see whole families at the movies. I was worried the little ones would get fidgety , but not a peep of fussiness but plenty of Ohhhs and ahhhs in all the right places. It's a Star Wars movie....treat yourself