So ... The Last Jedi. I’m just out from seeing it and I am letting it all sink in. It was not quite what I expected. They definitely took a different direction than they could have. There will be tons of coverage and reviews and critiques in coming days, so I’ll refrain from analysis other than to say : Thumbs Up. Not the perfect movie, but it does many things extremely well.
And, you’ll be glad to know, there was not a single loot box. And the only microtransactions were the extra fees for popcorn and soft drinks. 😉
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Ok, so saw The Last Jedi yesterday and really didn't like it. I'm going to be that guy.
Too long, too many plot holes, characters acting against type, some moments were silly. Really disappointed That said, I know lots of people who loved it so I think I might be in the minority.
Oh well. Hopefully get a chance to see the Disaster Artist to make up for it. LISA YOU ARE TEARING ME APART!!!!
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
I watch Star Wars at the weekend and really enjoyed it. I think I enjoyed it the most of the current films, certainly for me, it was way better than Rogue One and at least on par with the Force Awakens.
I watched The Last Jedi last night and thought it was all a bit fanfictiony and rather pointless. It had far too much Disney style slapstick humour, too. I thought TFA and Rogue One were pretty good but this one is just messy. I'm confused as to how all of the writing and story got green lit.
I quite enjoyed The Last Jedi. My only issue with it is that it's the same - good guys trying to destroy or escape the enemy's huge battleships or laser cannon(s) scenarios all over again.
Just saw this last night. I'm disappointed so many people seem to be reacting poorly to it, although I think I do get why. The film seems to take an almost active interest in deconstructing major aspects of the Star Wars mythos, from the cinematic trope characters to situations the original trilogy used so brilliantly. The likable rouge just out for himself is... actually just out for himself in this film: there's no hidden core of nobility to him like there was with Solo. The wise hermit is actually someone who is incredibly embittered and unapproachable, as could be reasonably expected from people who go to lengths to hide in some remote, relatively unknown location in the Galaxy. The "redeemed villain" plot completely fell through: Kylo Ren has been at this dark side business much too long to simply abandon it because blush he touched holographic skin with Rey. Her too: the lone wolf, powerful hero with secret powers and a mysterious past. Who could her parents possibly be?! If you're used to the vaguely aristocratic norms of the other SW movies, you're expecting a hidden connection to a powerful bloodline. Many were expecting her to be a Skywalker or something. But, no, her parents were drunks and louts who sold her. The last ditch effort by the experienced rebel underling to save it from the arrogance of a higher up who was going to get them killed? Well, as it turns out, that whole scheme was completely useless: all Poe did was engineer a situation where half or more of the remaining Resistance fighters were wiped out. Turns out Holdo knew what she was doing. The "Jedi" aren't some special group of mystical space monks who are the only ones capable of saving the universe. Instead, the legacy of the Jedi is in the hands of Rey and other ordinary people, as this film went to lengths to democratize the force. The big bad guy from TFA turns out be vain and easily tricked and killed by Kylo Ren. It goes on and on.
It must be like someone taking a beloved thing from your childhood and putting it under a scalpel to show the defects. Unlike TFA, which was nothing more than a less inspired retread of the same plot of ANH with less interesting characters, TLJ actually sets out to create a new vision of Star Wars: unfortunately, this can only be had by deconstructing the conceptual clutter left behind by years of Star Wars media, so that a new, reconstructed vision of the franchise can be erected in its place (which it starts to do at the end).
I still had some issues with the movie, of course: While I liked aspects of the plotline, the casino planet bits went on way too long and felt like they were padding out the run-time.
I can't ignore that the entire Holdo/Poe situation was caused by a complete lack of communication. Even if Poe was ultimately in the wrong, it was Holdo's unwillingness to communicate with him that ultimately caused all of this to happen. It was a failure of leadership on her part. When he pleads with her to give him some sense of what they're going to do, she merely insults his character and tells him to go sit down and shut up.
Is there a Bechdel test for men? Because Finn would fail it big time. He spends most of the film obsessing about Rey, smaller portions of the film relating to Rose, and almost none of it developing any actually interesting character traits. I was sad that his bromance with Poe was nowhere to be seen here, as it was one of the few charming things about TFA.
Most of the new characters just fundamentally aren't very memorable. While I get that this works for TLJ and its populist vibe, I can't help but feel that, in ten years, almost nobody is going to remember Finn, Rey, Rose, Holdo, Kylo Ren, etc.
Let's talk about the things I did like, though: I didn't much care for the treatment of the force in TFA, but I really liked its depiction here. It felt very much like something sacred and ancient that was constantly a force in human life. It was refreshing to see the ease with which one could fall into the darkness, or, like Kylo, stay there to hide from the light.
The battles in this film are absolutely spectacular. The battle where Kylo Ren and Rey take down a room full of First Order soldiers is probably my favorite in the series to this point: it's visceral, lightning-fast, and utterly thrilling.
As I mentioned, the wonderful, deconstructive nature of the film itself. I'm not surprised, as Rian Johnson is a master of taking circumstances, breaking down the illusions characters hold regarding them, and seeing things to their terrible, inevitable ends. This should be clear for anyone who saw Johnson's work on Breaking Bad. Particularly, the masterful Ozymandias, which is arguably the most well-written hour of television ever made. Another recent example is the stellar Looper.
This film is an actual ensemble piece where everyone gets to contribute. Rey has a central role in the film, but she doesn't ridiculously Rambo her way across it like she did in TFA. This made TLJ so much more satisfying to watch.
Overall, this feels much more cinematic and less glitzy and Hollywood than TFA. This was also a quality missing in the prequels. Despite the changes and subversion, this is the first time I've felt like I was watching a proper follow-up to the original trilogy.
While I've definitely seen better films this year (Blade Runner 2049 and Dunkirk stomped all over it, honestly), it was still a pretty fun experience, and I feel more hopeful about this trilogy now.
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@Th3solution Thanks. My expectations going in were quite low, but I was really pleasantly surprised by this film. All that remains to be seen is how it will hold up during subsequent rewatches.
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@Ralizah Well, I’ve seen it twice already and as these things go, in some ways it’s better the second go, and in some ways the flaws are magnified. For example the casino world section is even more painful to watch. It drags and seems even more unnecessarily bloated and pointless. The battle scenes amaze and entertain just as much if not more the second time. And, as these things go, you tend to pick up on nuances more with each viewing. For example, how did I not know right away that the Luke fighting Kylo was just a projected non-physical image? It seems so obvious the second time with multiple clues - First of all, he just shows up out of nowhere from the other side of the galaxy, instantly inside the rebel hideout; he looks younger like in the flashbacks with his beard not yet grey; he isn’t damaged at all by that ridiculous laser bombardment; he is using his blue lightsaber which we just saw was destroyed during Kylo and Rey’s struggle; and then the camera makes the extra effort to show that his feet do not leave red marks in the ground as he walks or drags his foot. It is all very obvious seeing it the second time and I felt silly for not realizing it until Kylo’s saber passes through him.
But those are the kind of things that are fun to pull out on subsequent watches.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solutionGood stuff! I didn't even notice some of those physical details with Luke. Probably because I was so involved in the action of the story at the time. I imagine you were the same. It's nice to hear they included those "hints" about the nature of Luke's appearance. Those were the kinds of details that made The Sixth Sense such a fun film to rewatch.
I liked the evolution of the "jedi library" storyline. When Yoda first burns down the place it was in with lightning, he talks like it's not necessary for the library to exist because Rey has all of that knowledge. I've seen fans complain about this quite spitefully, actually. I think what they missed in their rush to dislike the film is that Yoda means this quite literally: near the end of the film, you can see that she actually stole the jedi texts, so that they're quite safe.
Downsizing: Good god, what a massive disappointment this was!
The movie starts out decent enough. A group of scientists have discovered a way to shrink organic matter, which, eventually, gets applied to humans. Humans are able to be shrunk to something like 1/100 of their size, and en masse. Thanks to their drastically reduced living requirements, people who are miniaturized are able to live like kings on relatively little money. $20,000 or so becomes millions for people who are miniaturized. There are also tax benefits the government uses to incentivize people to transition. The first half hour or so of this film explores the implications a bit: what would this mean for humanity's impact on the environment? What would it mean for the social and especially economic spheres of social life when masses of people are dropping out of normal consumer life altogether? Would there be prejudice against differently-sized people? This is the only decent part of the movie. None of this is ever explored again. The main character is a Paul Safranek, an occupational therapist who is played by an incredibly bored looking Matt Damon. He and his wife are having money issues and want a change in their life, so, after talking with some friends who were downsized and seeing that they could live like millionaires in a mansion in a downsized community, they decide to sell off their property and transition as well.
Safranek goes through with it, but his wife flakes out in the middle of the procedure and then proceeds to abandon and divorce him and apparently steals a good majority of his money in the process, he's forced out of his luxurious estate and into a normal working life in the community. Here we see him... date a mousy and pensive single mother... build a relationship with an apparent drug lord neighbor who likes to laugh at people a lot... and then, finally, become the indentured servant of a vietnamese refugee after he breaks her artificial leg in the process of trying to make it more comfortable for her. We see a lot of this refugee and the slum she lives in on the outskirts of the downsized community as the film becomes a social drama. I think they're supposedly falling in love as she constantly berates him and orders him around... I didn't see it.
In the the third act, Safranek and the refugee sail to Norway with the drug lord and someone else for a reason that's never quite clearly explained, and they discover that climate change is rapidly leading to the end of the world somehow (it's mentioned that almost all human life will be wiped out in the next few years), thus signaling a third genre change from a social drama into an apocalyptic film. He discovers that the original colony of downsized scientists have built a shelter that is supposed to protect them underground for thousands of years until... it becomes safe for humans to live on the surface of the Earth again for whatever reason. Safranek is initially gung-ho about joining them, as he feels it will give some meaning to his otherwise meaningless, boring life, but the refugee pleads with him not to go, and he eventually relents, because... she won't go with him, I guess. She thinks it's better to ease suffering in the outside world, and the drug lord mentions that the norwegians will probably end up murdering eachother in a few generations anyway, making their desire to preserve human life from the ravages of climate change worthless. And then... the film ends.
I'm sure there's stuff I'm leaving out, but this is seriously the bulk of the film.
It's hard to begin explaining how many things were wrong with this movie. It's a complete %&$#?@! mess. Let me throw some stuff out there and see if I can properly convey why that is.
The movie changes focus constantly, almost schizophrenically. Why did some high-concept sci-fi movie about miniaturizing people turn into a social drama about disadvanaged minority communities? Why did THAT turn into an apocalyptic drama about the end of the world? And why was this all apparently connected by an apparent love story between a boring, almost without personality Joe Schmoe and some bossy vietnamese refugee who speaks in rapid, broken english? This isn't a mix of genres. It's like someone took parts from the scripts for three entirely different movies, lazily connected them with the same group of characters, and called it a day.
I have NEVER seen a movie so aggressively squander a good premise. Even a hack writer could have taken this idea and fashioned a decent physical comedy out of it. A good writer could have explored the economic, social, political, and spiritual ramifications of this technology on both society and human relationships (it EVEN STARTED TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST TWENTY MINUTES OR SO BEFORE IT BECAME ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY!). This... this is nothing. I almost want to say that it takes talent to screw up a movie with this premise so badly. It's like the last 2/3 of the movie has nothing to do with the first 1/3.
These people are boring. They have nothing interesting to say or do. The drug lord smiles and laughs derisively a lot. The main character is a blank slate who doesn't feel good about his life. The refugee is just a normal person who tries to live from day to day. There are other characters, like the horrible wife and... other people, but they barely even qualify as characters. These people aren't interesting to watch, aside from the sheer fact that they were miniaturized. The end of the movie acts like this group of people have bonded together in some form, but I never saw that, and even if they did, there's no reason for us to care about that.
I keep seeing the word "satire" pop up in reference to this film online, but... doesn't a satire usually... I dunno, satirize something? Doesn't it usually have something to say? I got nothing out of this movie. Destroying the planet is bad? There's no magic pill to improve your life? I'm reaching here. The film has nothing to say. It's about nothing. There are people, and stuff happens to those people, but there is never any analysis of this, and it's never fun to watch. It fails as art AND as entertainment. What's left?
If you had asked me what I thought of it when I saw it the day before yesterday, I would have told you that it was a functional movie that was just profoundly disappointing on all levels. But the more I think about it, the less I like it. It's an aggressive waste of time.
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I finally saw Dunkirk. Largely at @Ralizah ‘s recommendation. Even though I watched it on the small screen, it was very good and everything I had heard it would be — gripping realistic view of such a major historical event. A true turning point in a war that was a major turning point for all humankind. Who knows how history may have played out if the largest part of the entire British Army had been stranded on the coast of France and taken over by the Nazis. I like pretty much everything Christopher Nolan does. The Dark Knight movies, Inception, Memento, The Prestige, and now Dunkirk. He really stretches himself as a Director, making all different kinds of movies. Interesting that the sound design and music are always strong across all his movies and have a similar ‘feel’ to them.
Anyways, I don’t know if Dunkirk cracks my top 20 or anything, and you kinda have to have an interest in history to really get the full effect of it, my thumbs up from me.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I recently watched 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets' by Luc Besson.
The storyline was interesting and the movie-world was highly creative in concept and presentation. It's what I would expect from a Luc Besson sci-fi movie, having the Fifth Element in the back of my mind.
For these reasons it's a movie I feel will be rather memorable.
However, I did not like the two protagonists in the movie. The acting itself was fine and the cast was a good fit for the movie. Instead it's their characters I really disliked, the writing behind them.
The characters often felt contradictory to their roles in the movie. For example, one of them claims to be a soldier who follows orders very strictly, yet continously decides to 'do his own thing'. It doesn't 'add up', and feels somewhat sloppy to be honest.
I think the movie is worth watching for the good stuff, but be prepared to cringe at the protagonists.
@Th3solution What a coincidence! My sister hadn't seen this in theaters, so we rented it the other night and rewatched it with her. While it's definitely not nearly as impactful on the small screen, I still think the craft of the piece carries it home as a singularly unique and engaging experience. Much more "war as experience" than what might traditionally be thought of as "a war movie," due to its focus on the subjectivity of the people trapped in this situation. I also continue to love the thing's experimental structure, and how extended sequences are driven by dramatic action and sound alone. It's all so atypical for modern cinema.
And you're definitely right. Hans Zimmer's soundtracks for these films all have a very particular sound to them. The music in this film is stressful, mechanical, alarm-like... it feeds into the emotional rhythm of the film instead of standing out.
Vox actually released an interesting video on just this subject, if you're interested.
Your Name: Watched this earlier today, so everything is still a bit... fresh.
Makoto Shinkai's previous work, while promising and incredibly distinctive, has always felt a bit... incomplete. His cinematic voice, while very clear, hasn't always worked well with the trappings of the fictional devices he has used to deliver them. His films often feel like imperfect structures meant to convey some sense of his fascination with the passage of time and the mystery that is the emotional life of a human being, with a sense of overwhelming longing being the glue he uses to marry these two things together. Your Name is the first film of his where the symbolism and themes usually explored in his works seem to be almost wholly integrated into the action of the fictional narrative itself, resulting in a captivating display of mature and engaging storytelling.
This film is ingeniously constructed, but not in a way that calls attention to itself. It's almost perfectly paced, for example: most films, even truly excellent ones, often feel like they're lingering too long in certain areas, or are rushing through other sequences with a bit too much speed. But every sequence in Your Name is there for a reason, and every scene lasts exactly as long as it needs to to achieve the desired effect. The way in which the film is plotted is also pretty brilliant, launching the viewer (and the characters) into the central thrust of the story without warning, allowing us to experience this journey with them while also avoiding the usual pitfalls of this sort of approach (namely, confusing the heck out of the viewer). It also cleverly foreshadows a later twist throughout the film: the twist felt surprising but inevitable, like the plot developments in a first-rate mystery.
Multiple genres are blended pretty seamlessly here: this film is simultaneously a body-swapping comedy, romantic drama, coming of age story, apocalyptic science-fiction thriller, and thoughtful meditation on the nature of time, fate, and human life. Every aspect of the film comes together pretty beautifully to create something uniquely charming, entertaining, and beautiful.
I should also mention that this is the least openly emotionally manipulative of Shinkai's films that I've seen. Obviously everything has been constructed to lead viewers on a certain emotional path, but it's so well-integrated into the fabric of the film itself that it feels like these emotions just spontaneously arise from the experience. Gone are the long, maudlin monologues set against stunning environmental backdrops that dotted previous films of his. If his previous works were too "tell" and not "showy" enough, then Your Name is almost entirely about showing the emotional journeys of his characters.
Not that the film is flawless. There is a running joke throughout the film where the male main character, Taki, begins to fondle himself when he wakes up in the body of the female main character, Mitsuha. The first time it happens, it's understandable, but it seems a bit skeevy and violating when he keeps doing it throughout the film, as he knows Mitsuha is a real person and she's uncomfortable with Taki exploring her body. Moreover, certain aspects of the story itself, even though they work brilliantly on a thematic and character level, probably wouldn't stand up to scrutiny from a viewer looking to "connect the dots" between everything that happens in the film. And there is a pretty blatant deus ex machina in the latter half of the film that I felt hurt the integrity of the narrative as a whole. It obviously wasn't enough to spoil the experience, but it does feel like Shinkai writes himself into a corner at one point, and there is no way to proceed without appealing to a mystical plot element that never popped up before in the film. It works thematically, as I said, but there is only so much you can reasonably hope to accomplish in a narrative by appealing to the mysteries of the divine.
Oh, that's one other thing I should discuss. This is a pretty uniquely Japanese film. Japanese traditions, mysticism, and their place in the modern world are a fairly prominent element of this film, and I loved the flair they lent it. Despite the emotions being universal, this film feels very Eastern, and I adored the way it celebrates both modern and traditional Japanese life-styles and customs.
While I wouldn't call think Shinkai's most distinctive or unique work, it is more definitely his most well-made film: something that succeeds wholly as both art and as mass entertainment. I wouldn't call it the greatest work of Japanese animation I've ever seen, but I do think it deserves to be in the running when people discuss great works of Japanese cinema.
If you haven't seen Your Name, you owe it yourself to remedy this. Regardless of your feelings on body-swapping comedies, animation, Japanese animation, romances, or films with heavy speculative elements, you're almost guaranteed to have a good time with this one.
@Ralizah Your Name. is probably the best anime movie I've watched over the last few years. While character animations may not be as good as Studio Ghibli's, the background artwork is pretty superb. Love the soundtrack as well.
@WanderingBullet Yeah, it's the best original anime film I've seen since Summer Wars. I'll admit, though, that I'm not a fan of Radwimps' music.
Pretty crazy to think Shinkai went from making experimental anime on his Mac at home to being compared to Hayao Miyazaki and releasing the highest grossing anime film ever made in 15 years.
And yeah, A Silent Voice is actually the next movie on my list! I've heard good things.
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