New Star Wars film- like it or not?

[thaibeachlovers]

20 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I agree with you.

In terms of characters, I like the hacker, Benicio Del Toro. He is interesting to watch - a lot more interesting than the new stars and the even Luke Skywalker, who has in this movie little in common with the guy we know from the original movies.

Yeah, I just don't get why they made him such a withdrawn character and the backstory is far too superficial to justify. There are plenty of pointless scenes that could have been deleted in favour of a more effective history as to why Skywalker lost his mojo. Didn't we all want more of Skywalker in this film?

[StreetCowboy]

My family said Murder On The Orient Express was a better film, despite the lower special effects budget.

 

I thought the Star Wars film was a bit far-fetched, but I didn't see Murder On The Orient Express myself.

[samsensam]

 

the first 30 and last 20 minutes are ok, you could take a kip through the rest and not miss much

 

love it whenever the millennium falcon appears

 

saw it on the big screen at scala - wonderful place to watch and enjoy a movie, and big enough to get a seat away from the food munchers, plastic bag scrunchers and mobile phone addicts

 

 

[tifino]

 

 

probably score it Forcetars

[ncc1701d]

whether you’ve seen the other movies or not, it is very hard to accept that Luke got to the point of about to pre-emptively murder the son of his sister and best friend. We’ve only seen Kylo being a bit of a <deleted> and hard to imagine that in his training days he did anything to warrant execution - especially from Luke Skywalker. Mark Hamill says as much in a few interviews he has done. 

 

I didnt mind the movie otherwise - but Disney should just be honest and either start fresh or say it’s a remake.

 

TFA was a disaster imo. And it shows that they have no idea what they are doing or be able to stay true to the spirit of SW, because each director doesn’t know what the next is going to do. 

 

Rogue 1 was a great film. 

[smo]

I went to the second showing (the first one being sold out) on the first day the original Star Wars came out in (summer if memory still serves, of) 1977, at the Avco theater in Westwood, Los Angeles. I can still recall the collective orgasmic moan the audience whooped out when Luke dropped that bomb deep into the bowels of the Death Star. And yes, I also dropped out of SW fandom as the 3rd installment was coming out. Already then as I saw all these ewoks chipmunking about a la Disney, I could tell it wasn't a good sign. Princess Leia trying to be femme-fatale by slipping into a gold bikini? sorry mam, but that was a character faux-pas! Fast forward to post Xmas 2017, more than 40 years later. I was all excited to go and see Jumanji 2 but fate would not have it. As of yesterday, J2 had only 2 evening showings in its BKK limited release. So what left for me to do showing up at the local multiplex at 2 in the afternoon? Buy a ticket for the last jedi of course. btw, this is the first SW movie I have seen since "The Empire strikes back."

 

Now that I have watched legions of fan rants against TLJ on youtube (these are loads more entertaining than the movie itself, some are almost as long! Lots of hair pulling and long faces though.) One word that was missing from the way everybody was expressing their disappointment and anger was gravitas. All the British actors in the world (the three young leads among others) could not fill in the void caused by the lack of which in the plot with their Brit accents (Don't we miss the Peter Cushing and Alec Guiness of the first 3?) All the more jarring when heard over ill-timed shallow jokes ("you like my new hair?"  the 2nd question, after the how have you been? Leia asked Luke at their long awaited reunion.) Characters pop in and out (Laura Dern, Benicio del Toro) with absolutely no introduction, no background lead in ("Here's the new captain of the ship..." Laura Dern then came out from the wings and we saw her face for the first time). Rey, Finn, and Kylo the young main villain, the 3 main characters, are card-board thin, spouting inane dialogue (in the middle of a big fight, "you killed my father/ you don't believe me?" or something to that effect). There are 3, count them, 3 kamikaze attempts in this movie, at the beginning, middle and end, like clockwork.

 

Mark Hamill tried his best to act in a scenario that he (said so) did not believe in - and I believe him. While the best Carrie Fisher could do was try not to slur her lines. The script, plot was not even mediocre, as you can tell by now, one bar lower, it was non-stop whtthfck nonsensical. One collateral damage was the unfortunate nickname "Mary Poppins" that Leia/Fisher did not deserve, another was "the white Bronco chase in space" for the chase by the bad guys after the good guys, lasting the whole length of the movie (basically "We chase them until they run out of fuel" I kid you not) The direction/pacing were shockingly inept considering this being an (actually the) prime Disney action/adventure film. I dozed through the big galactic battles, they were that yawn inducing (and didn't look that good either.) Stylish, lean and mean, those are the words I reserve for the 1st star war. Sorry TLJ, man you could not even kiss the ground that one walked on.

 

If SW fans have any balls they will all stay home on Dec 20, 2019, the release date of the next installment. Nothing hurts Hollywood more than empty movie theaters. "Guys and Gals, show them the Force of your Fandom!" But I seriously doubt that would happen. They are yelling at the top of their lungs right now, but when the time comes they will keep their mouth wide open for more of same crap.

Edited December 28, 2017 by smo

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎12‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 10:00 AM, StreetCowboy said:

My family said Murder On The Orient Express was a better film, despite the lower special effects budget.

 

I thought the Star Wars film was a bit far-fetched, but I didn't see Murder On The Orient Express myself.

You didn't miss much, especially if you've seen the story before on film. They did their best to "excite" it up with some needless gun play, but frankly, Ridley ( producer ) is no longer a guarantee of an excellent movie. He's made too many lemons recently. This isn't a lemon, but it could have been so much better.

The thing that I actually disliked about it was that it was too PC by far to be an accurate depiction of the times. Would have been better to modernise the story, that try and impose modern mores on old times when things really were different, and Branagh played Poirot as a pompous twit a lot of the time. As for the moustache- aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

23 hours ago, ncc1701d said:

whether you’ve seen the other movies or not, it is very hard to accept that Luke got to the point of about to pre-emptively murder the son of his sister and best friend. We’ve only seen Kylo being a bit of a <deleted> and hard to imagine that in his training days he did anything to warrant execution - especially from Luke Skywalker. Mark Hamill says as much in a few interviews he has done. 

 

I didnt mind the movie otherwise - but Disney should just be honest and either start fresh or say it’s a remake.

 

TFA was a disaster imo. And it shows that they have no idea what they are doing or be able to stay true to the spirit of SW, because each director doesn’t know what the next is going to do. 

 

Rogue 1 was a great film. 

IMO TFA was a cock up because they set out to make a PC obedient film. The original Star Wars was anything but PC, and it was fresh ( then they stuffed it up with the b***** Ewoks ). At the least, Jar Jar wasn't in the first 3.

TLJ has all the hallmarks of a movie made by committee that think special effects are more important than plot or likeable characters that the audience can invest in.

When the Laura Dern character got dead all I could think was that I wished it had happened sooner and more painfully.

As for the story that they gave Luke since episode 6, so superficially explained it was frankly unbelievable that he would give up as they made him do. Having the Daisy character that can break rocks with the force is no substitute.

 

Agree with your opinion of Rouge 1. Very un Hollywood ending, and more Asian in that the heroes all die. All good.

[pgrahmm]

IMO Murder in The Orient Express was much to do about nothing....Lavishly done scenery & period representation....

 

Poirot was played like a pompass ass + hard to look at with the ridiculous overly done "Hollywood" treatment 'stach....

 

A stellar group of actors looking like they were making their payday commitments only......

 

An extremely droll movie....

 

It wasn't bad - it just wasn't very good either.....It really seemed to lack any "life" of it's own.....It just didn't grab a hold of you & yank you along - it was just sort of there.....

 

 

Edited December 29, 2017 by pgrahmm

[thaibeachlovers]

I just googled "The last Jedi is rubbish" and found some excellent blogs. 

The phrase "This film is goat vomit" was about the best anyone has to say about it.

 

To say some bloggers are very inventive with language is an understatement, and I was quite educated in short order.

 

Whatever, I am not alone in my opinions about it.

[OneMoreFarang]

I guess many of us saw the original 1 - 3 movies and we loved them and obviously all the "new" movies are no match.

But to be fair the new movies are a big financial success and I guess the reason is that lots of younger people love it.

It would be interesting to hear or read the opinion of people who saw first the new movies and then later the originals. I guess many of these people will complain that the old movies have no or boring special effects, etc. ...

 

[Berkshire]

15 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I guess many of us saw the original 1 - 3 movies and we loved them and obviously all the "new" movies are no match.

But to be fair the new movies are a big financial success and I guess the reason is that lots of younger people love it.

It would be interesting to hear or read the opinion of people who saw first the new movies and then later the originals. I guess many of these people will complain that the old movies have no or boring special effects, etc. ...

 

I saw the original in 1977 and never liked the sequels as much, including 2-3.  Honestly, the new generation Star Wars are better than those sequels.  But then it's really the nature of sequels...very few are as good as the original.  I can only think of a couple, Aliens, Godfather II...and maybe the Harry Potters.  But the really terrible?  Matrix, MIB, Back to the Future, Die Hard, Jurassic Park...the list is endless.  I do believe the next Avatar will be quite good.

[Ulysses G.]

On 12/29/2017 at 2:26 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

 

It would be interesting to hear or read the opinion of people who saw first the new movies and then later the originals. I guess many of these people will complain that the old movies have no or boring special effects, etc. ...

 

Maybe, but they have FAR superior characters - especially Hans Solo as a dashing young lad.

[johng]

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Katipo]

I enjoyed it. Didn't love it as much as some, but certainly didn't hate it as much as others. People who have too strong feelings about make believe movies made to entertain, need to get outside more. And yes, I grew up with the originals.

[Berkshire]

Just saw it.  Pretty much what I expected, good but not great.  Special effects top notch.  It's not going to make my top ten list...but then again, none of the Star Wars movie would.  Also a tad on the long side.  Was a tad confused about what happened to Luke in the end, but guess we'll find out in the next installment. 

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎12‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 8:50 AM, Berkshire said:

I saw the original in 1977 and never liked the sequels as much, including 2-3.  Honestly, the new generation Star Wars are better than those sequels.  But then it's really the nature of sequels...very few are as good as the original.  I can only think of a couple, Aliens, Godfather II...and maybe the Harry Potters.  But the really terrible?  Matrix, MIB, Back to the Future, Die Hard, Jurassic Park...the list is endless.  I do believe the next Avatar will be quite good.

Sorry, but Harry Potter doesn't count. It wasn't a sequel as usual, but a series of books made into films. Same with the Hunger Games etc.

If I put my mind to it I can probably come up with a sequel better than the original, but not off hand.

 

What irritates me about all these big new "blockbuster" sequels of movies that came out decades ago, is that they are obviously just to make money, and made by committee. They rely entirely on the love we had for the originals to get us into the cinemas.

Die Hard 5 was a shameful rip off, made by an actor that could have done far, far better. Willis should be ashamed that he ripped off his fans with that pile of steaming horse manure, but I guess he is too busy spending the money to give a monkey's.

One multiple sequel series that should do worse, but actually turned out sort of OK is the Rocky franchise.

 

I just thought of a sequel better than the previous sequel. The last Rambo film was actually well made and satisfactory if one like that sort of movie. The previous 2 sequels were dire.

Pity that Stallone has felt it necessary to repeat the awful Expendable film though. I guess he needs the money.

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, Berkshire said:

Just saw it.  Pretty much what I expected, good but not great.  Special effects top notch.  It's not going to make my top ten list...but then again, none of the Star Wars movie would.  Also a tad on the long side.  Was a tad confused about what happened to Luke in the end, but guess we'll find out in the next installment. 

Best explanation is that he is dead but might come back as a "force ghost" like Yoda. I understand Hamill was less than impressed with this film, so that would not be a given.

Interestingly, the committee that wrote the steaming pile of goat vomit that is The last Jedi gave force ghosts powers that were never in evidence before ie Yoda burning the Jedi library.

Even the idea that Luke could use the force to fight the bad guys in the last big battle scene is made up without any basis in the Star Wars world.

Shoddy writing, poor character development in favour of special effects, never before seen powers etc etc etc. 

I just hope the uproar over this pile of crud makes them try harder in the next one. It could happen. After all they got rid of Jar Jar after he turned out to be such a bust.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎1‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 6:12 AM, Katipo said:

I enjoyed it. Didn't love it as much as some, but certainly didn't hate it as much as others. People who have too strong feelings about make believe movies made to entertain, need to get outside more. And yes, I grew up with the originals.

It is possible to get outside a lot, and still want make believe movies to be worth the ticket price.

If you want to see a well made series of films that is researched and lives up to expectation, look no further than Lord of the Rings. I couldn't find fault when I saw them.

[Berkshire]

26 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Sorry, but Harry Potter doesn't count. It wasn't a sequel as usual, but a series of books made into films. Same with the Hunger Games etc.

If I put my mind to it I can probably come up with a sequel better than the original, but not off hand.

 

What irritates me about all these big new "blockbuster" sequels of movies that came out decades ago, is that they are obviously just to make money, and made by committee. They rely entirely on the love we had for the originals to get us into the cinemas.

Die Hard 5 was a shameful rip off, made by an actor that could have done far, far better. Willis should be ashamed that he ripped off his fans with that pile of steaming horse manure, but I guess he is too busy spending the money to give a monkey's.

One multiple sequel series that should do worse, but actually turned out sort of OK is the Rocky franchise.

 

I just thought of a sequel better than the previous sequel. The last Rambo film was actually well made and satisfactory if one like that sort of movie. The previous 2 sequels were dire.

Pity that Stallone has felt it necessary to repeat the awful Expendable film though. I guess he needs the money.

Good points...some films aren't really sequels in the true sense.  An example would be X-Men.  I was lukewarm with the originals, but really liked First Class, which was more of a prequel.  Same with Star Wars.  But the sequels to the prequels weren't very good.  A solution would be to get Tarentino to direct a sequel. 

[Katia]

I liked it better than the last one (The Force Awakens*), but since I didn't like that one that much... Rey and Finn felt less like tokens this time around, but I still find Rey a bit implausible (at least they didn't overdo it too much in this one like they did in the last one).  Kylo Ren still annoys the <deleted> out of me (I always say he's like Emo Severus Snape) and I wish they'd get rid of him already and find a better villain.  I bet that after killing off Han and Luke, they all went "oh sh*t" when Carrie Fisher died and took Leia out of the picture (will be interested to see what they do with that) although I feel like getting rid of H and L was their "passing of the guard" so I don't imagine they would have kept Leia around that much longer anyway.

 

Most implausible moment: Leia is sucked out into the vacuum of space, floats there for a good long while, but magically zooms herself back to the ship and is alive.  Riiiiight.

 

I saw III but not I or II.  Don't imagine I missed much what with Jar Jar and all.  I get the loose idea of the storyline of what happened.  Probably could have skipped The Force Awakens but at least I didn't feel like this one was a *total* letdown.

 

*I liked Rogue One a lot, though.

 

 

On 12/26/2017 at 1:54 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

even Luke Skywalker, who has in this movie little in common with the guy we know from the original movies.

Except that he's moody and whiny.

 

Also, his parallel to Ben Kenobi of "I was arrogant enough to think I could train this person and failed miserably and they turned bad" was not interesting but just "really, this again?  To the letter?"

 

 

On 12/29/2017 at 1:31 AM, smo said:

over ill-timed shallow jokes ("you like my new hair?"  the 2nd question, after the how have you been? Leia asked Luke at their long awaited reunion.)

I didn't find this shallow... I assumed it was Leia's very deliberate attempt to head Luke off at the pass and avoid any "OMG I missed you so much I'm so sorry" type of scenes... which she probably had neither time nor patience for...

 

 

On 12/31/2017 at 7:04 AM, Ulysses G. said:

Maybe, but they have FAR superior characters - especially Hans Solo as a dashing young lad.

I don't think I'd want to see the opinion of people who saw these first... "Oh, wait... you mean those old people in these movies... they actually were in the old ones?  And were important to stuff?"

 

 

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

The last Jedi gave force ghosts powers that were never in evidence before ie Yoda burning the Jedi library.

Even the idea that Luke could use the force to fight the bad guys in the last big battle scene is made up without any basis in the Star Wars world.

YES.  That's what bothered me about those scenes.  (Although I laughed about Yoda.  I told my friend, "Poor Yoda.  He can't even be dead in peace when it comes to Luke because the guy's still a dipshit who has to be taught the basics.")

 

That and in both films, "Rey is a Jedi prodigy despite the fact that she knows nothing about it."  I mean, Luke was supposed to be pretty good with the Force and have natural talent, and even he had to start from the ground up, which was a hell of a lot more plausible than "Best Jedi Evar even when she doesn't know the first thing about it and can't figure out how she's doing all this stuff."

Edited January 3, 2018 by Katia

[Ulysses G.]

16 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I just thought of a sequel better than the previous sequel. The last Rambo film was actually well made and satisfactory if one like that sort of movie.

It really was good and shot near Chiang Mai. Stallone hung out in The Foxy Lady Go Go Bar and ate at the Duke's most of the time.

[Katipo]

17 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It is possible to get outside a lot, and still want make believe movies to be worth the ticket price.

If you want to see a well made series of films that is researched and lives up to expectation, look no further than Lord of the Rings. I couldn't find fault when I saw them.

I agree with your observation, but the Lord of the Rings is based on an extremely well written and highly regards books. Star Wars is not. 

[BadCash]

Anybody know for how long it will continue to be shown in cinemas (in Bangkok)? Checked Major and SF apps, but they only seem to display the next two days for any movie...

[OneMoreFarang]

5 hours ago, BadCash said:

Anybody know for how long it will continue to be shown in cinemas (in Bangkok)? Checked Major and SF apps, but they only seem to display the next two days for any movie...

I have no clear answer but I just checked for Terminal 21 and they have only two show-times today compared to maybe 10 a week or two ago. This tells me few people are interested and "soon" it won't be shown anymore. Better go ASAP if you really want to see it on the big screen.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎1‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 8:53 AM, Katipo said:

I agree with your observation, but the Lord of the Rings is based on an extremely well written and highly regards books. Star Wars is not. 

Given the amount of money and resources they had to make this film it should have been the best sci fi movie ever made. That it's not says much about the committee that made it.

[johng]

25 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

it should have been the best sci fi movie ever made.

IMHO I think its a pretty good sci fi movie up there with the best.

[BadCash]

Just saw it, didn't like it.

 

I felt like it could have been almost any random action/sci fi movie. Seems to me that it's going the same tragic route that the Documentary Channel show "Mythbusters" did in it's last seasons - more and more explosions, less and less substance... 

[thaibeachlovers]

22 hours ago, johng said:

IMHO I think its a pretty good sci fi movie up there with the best.

That would depend on how many sci fi movies you have watched. I've seen hundreds ( probably over a thousand ), along with many thousands of non sci fi movies.

 

However, I'm glad that you enjoyed it, along with many people.

It's always good to see a movie one feels worth while seeing.

Edited January 9, 2018 by thaibeachlovers

[Justfine]

Stop caring 35 years ago. Seriously who watches this crap?