Review Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

[Doctor Omega]

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Is Complete





Just under three months out from its release, Disney’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is officially complete.

The film’s writer-director Rian Johnson took to Instagram today to confirm that the eighth chapter in the Star Wars Saga has officially wrapped post-production.

While there may still be some final tweaks to music or VFX, the work is essentially complete. Now comes the publicity campaign and tour for everyone involved with the next big step being the film’s second trailer which is rumored to be launching on October 9th.

In related news, though not unsurprising, actor and filmmaker Andy Serkis spoke about his time working on the film as the villain Supreme Leader Snoke and confirmed he doesn’t share any scenes with the late Carrie Fisher in the movie. He tells The List:

“I had no scenes with Carrie but I did get to know her a little bit. She was an incredible human being with a wonderful personality and she’s sadly, sadly missed and everyone who came into contact with her was really touched by her great energy and great sense of humor. She is a wonderful person and I did have a great time working with the cast and Adam Driver and Domhnall Gleeson, we’ve had some really great times on it.”

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opens in cinemas worldwide on December 15th.

 

[Doctor Omega]

“Last Jedi” Director Says Avoid The New Trailer





Hours ahead of the release of the second trailer for Rian Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” the filmmaker took to social media to make a somewhat unprecedented request – don’t watch it.

More specificaly he says the trailer is very well put together, but he advises that those who want to go into the movie blind and not be spoiled should just wait the next two months out until the film’s release.

Johnson says in his tweet: “I a legitimately torn. If you want to come in clean, absolutely avoid it. But it’s gooooood.” The use of the term ‘absolutely avoid it’ has led to speculation the new trailer spoils something major.


And here is the trailer.....

 

[chainsaw_metal1]

Spoiler

If the spoiler he's talking about is the scene where Kylo is about to bomb Leia's ship, then damn. I am going to cry like a little girl with a skinned knee at this film.

 

[Gavin]

“Last Jedi” Director Says Avoid The New Trailer

Too late. But I didn't see anything that looked spoilerish.

 

[Alex Vojacek]

Only thing spoilerish to me is what @chainsaw_metal1 said and yes, it does indeed feels like she is going to die on that ship.

 

[Gavin]

Only thing spoilerish to me is what @chainsaw_metal1 said and yes, it does indeed feels like she is going to die on that ship.

Yeah, that's definitely possible. I get the feeling that the plan was to kill off one of each of the original trio in each movie with Luke being the last to go in episode 9. It would also fit in with the apparent lack of concern (from a filming perspective) about Carrie Fisher being unavailable for the next one. Although I would have thought that if they do kill her off it would be more personal than being blown up on a ship?

 

[Doctor Omega]

Rian Johnson Talks “Last Jedi” Spoilers & Porgs





In the wake of the release of the “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” trailer on Monday night, the world has gone crazy for the puffin-esque Porgs creatures along with breaking down and analysing the trailer moment by moment.

Of course, as previous “Star Wars” trailers have shown us, there’s no guarantee all of this footage will end up in the final film. Additionally Lucasfilm are very careful about spoilers, so scenes that go one way in the trailer won’t necessarily play out that way in the final film.

In an interview this week with Yahoo, the film’s director Rian Johnson has revealed that during production he sat down with Lucasfilm to discuss what plot points they would allow to be shared in marketing the movie and which would be a ‘no go’ area:

“A year ago, maybe even more than that, my producer Ram [Bergman] and I sat down with the folks at Lucasfilm and said, ‘OK, this is what we’re going to reveal here and there, and this stuff we’re never going to reveal until the movie comes out.’ We came up with a ‘no-fly list’ of, under no circumstances is this shown or that shown. It is a fascinating process. It’s something that for me, just having been a fan my whole life, suddenly being behind the curtain and seeing how it works and seeing how deliberate it is, has been really fascinating.”

He also tells the outlet that those concerned about the Porgs have every right to be as the crew who made the film were in the same boat:

“It wasn’t until we got the actual puppets on set and the whole crew reacted with ‘oh my god, they’re adorable!,’ and also then a few people in the crew were of giving them that suspicious side-eye of ‘these are cute, but are they too cute?’

But the overwhelming reaction on set was everybody loved the porgs. And I love ’em, so you know what? I get it if people are a little wary of cuteness in the Star Wars universe, but I personally love them, and I think they have their place in the movie.”

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opens in cinemas in December.


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[Doctor Omega]

 

[Doctor Omega]

Carrie Fisher Is Why “Last Jedi” Is Full Of Bling





When it comes to aesthetics “Star Trek” was the clean one, “Star Wars” the dirty one. The former featured spaceships with interiors like luxury hotels while aliens were mostly humans with makeup prosthesis and lots of bling. The latter was all grungy workplaces like the floor of a garage, aliens were puppets and glamour is in short supply.

Chalk it up to the late great Carrie Fisher though for amusingly pushing for more jewellery in the “Star Wars” universe with “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson revealing on Twitter that: “In rehearsals Carrie grabbed my arm and told me with great urgency that we needed ‘space jewelry’. I thought that was a fabulous idea. So.”

Indeed some of the commentary about the over-analysed trailers have gone to all the adornments worn by multiple key characters in the film in a franchise not normally known for it. Supreme Leader Snoke has a giant black-jewelled ring, Poe Dameron wears a ring around his neck, new character Rose wears a necklace that ties into her backstory, Luke Skywalker is rumored to possess a certain special necklace, and of course Leia herself is outfitted in her own stylish jewels.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and all its necklaces opens December 15th.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Hamill Shoots Down Dark Side Luke Talk





A recent stash of promotional material for Rian Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” has hinted that Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker may have turned to the Dark Side.

Posters and art have positioned his character alongside other villains in the film including Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke, which has prompted the speculation. In a new interview with Hamill for Disney Rewards Insider (via Movieweb), Hamill himself has clarified what’s happening:

“Luke has lost confidence in his ability to make good choices. It haunts him to the core. But he hasn’t gone to the dark side. This isn’t an evil version of him. But it’s still an incarnation of the character I never expected. It has pulled me out of my comfort zone. It’s a real challenge.”

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opens in U.S. cinemas on December 15th.

 

[Doctor Omega]

 

[Doctor Omega]

 

[Doctor Omega]

Best not to read the comments on the second video as there are MAJOR SPOILERS!!


And when there are not major spoilers there are a lot of comments like this....

Just watched the movie. Incredibly, incredibly disappointed.

your not the only one

Ryan Johnson doing the new trilogy!! NO THANK YOU!! It meant so much to you as a kid? Well you have messed it up in a big way!! Felt so disappointed and let down after seeing TLJ. Wanted to walk out half way through the film. So many of my friends feel the same way about it!! Big back lash is coming!! It's a sad day for Star Wars die hard fans!!

Rian Johnson has destroyed SW with this movie.It's that bad.Seen it last night and I'm still furious.I've liked SW for 40 years and he's fucking ruined it.

lay off this guy asap. the las thing need star wars is this fucking idiot

the way he disrespects the legacy is infuriating.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Up until now I had the impression that this film was really well received from what I had previously read.

Your eyes can deceive you, apparently.

I am more inclined to trust the views of Joe Public.

Things don't seem to look good for this much vaunted new trilogy!

 

[Doctor Omega]

“Last Jedi” Dividing Fans In First Reactions





The critics are definitely warming to Rian Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” the film nabbing the best aggregate scores since “The Empire Strikes Back” and numerous reviews saying a variation on the line that it is the best film of the series since that one. A big part of that is risk with the film taking some chances with the franchise.

Here is a series built on formula, classic models of good vs. evil, and themes of legacy – one that embraces nostalgia in the way “Star Trek” embraces diversity. But whereas both ‘Force Awakens’ and ‘Rogue One’ so heavily anchored themselves with nostalgia you could argue they were creatively drowned by it, ‘Last Jedi’ breaks free at points – deliberately deconstructing hero worship, offering unexpectedly subversive takes on existing characters, throwing in some experimental comedy, and boasting a few genuine surprises.

It’s a very different animal to the two films that came before, and that has led to some divided reaction in the first scores online from fans as audiences flock to see it. On Rotten Tomatoes the film is currently scoring just 59% (vs. critics with 93%) with 61,125 votes counted. On Metacritic, there’s a real gap with critics giving it an 86/100 vs the public’s 5.3/10 score which consists of 254 positive, 223 negative, and 79 mixed reviews.

‘The Last Jedi’ is proving surprising polarising, especially as it’s the first film of the new era that was surprisingly smooth sailing with little to no studio interference. With ‘Force Awakens’ the common complaint was it being ‘A New Hope’ rehash with some trying to justify the lack of creativity with the logical but false assumption it was necessary to get people familiar again with the property.

With ‘Last Jedi’ the complaints are more varied, and frequently a variation on the ‘this is not my idea of Star Wars’ model. However some specific issues with both the Canto Bight subplot, the long runtime and the film’s use humor have popped up regularly.

 

[Doctor Omega]

 

[TheIrishAvenger]

Here's a link to my spoiler free review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi for anyone who's interested:

https://davecsimpson.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/star-wars-the-last-jedi-a-spoiler-free-review/

 

[Doctor Omega]

 

[Doctor Omega]

Johnson: “Last Jedi” Has 20 Mins Of Cut Scenes





Disney and Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” has beaten expectations with a near-record $220 million debut in North America over the weekend, the second-best showing of all time and only 11% behind the debut of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” two years ago. Internationally, the film took a further $230 million from 54 markets for a worldwide launch of $450 million (with $40.6 million of it being IMAX).

Director Rian Johnson has continued to do press for the film and has told The Playlistand Collider that there’s plenty of cut footage from the film and he indicates around twenty minutes of them will be included as part of an extensive deleted scenes section on the home video release:

“There’s soooo much stuff we had to cut out of this movie. The movie is better for it, but some of my favorite stand-alone scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. So there’s going to be really a lot of really – I’m going to sound like I’m selling Blu-Rays here, but there’s going to be a lot of really extensive deleted scenes that are included as extras on the home video. I’m excited for folks to see them… we had a lot of really good stuff that got trimmed away for the sake of the whole film during the course of cutting.”

He does say there weren’t any big scenes with Carrie Fisher’s Leia that were cut, and did confirm there’s an extended sequence where Finn and Rose and DJ sneak through the Mega Destroyer, an emotional extra trial/test scene with Rey and Luke, more to the early scene of Poe talking to a just awoken Finn, and an extended sequence with Rey and the nun-like caretakers on the island.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Johnson On Last Jedi’s Snoke, Cameo & Ending





“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson has gone into further and spoiler-filled details about the appearances of two small but key characters in the film and how the decisions made regarding them were important.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI”

The first is Supreme Leader Snoke. Seemingly being setup as this trilogy’s equivalent of The Emperor, it came as a bit of a surprise when this second film jumped forward and effectively did its version of Palpatine’s ‘Return of the Jedi’ death just over midway through the story.

Snoke’s sudden demise left us knowing very little about the character who remains a fairly simple villain in death, a device really to move the storyline of the true antagonist Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) along. Fans have speculated wildly since the character’s reveal years ago about who he was, and Johnson addressed how he came up with the idea of having Kylo Ren kill Snoke in a new EW piece:

“When I was working on the character of Kylo, I came to a place where I thought the most interesting thing would be to knock the shaky foundation out from under him at the beginning of this movie…By the end of this film, he’s gone from being a wannabe Vader to someone who is standing on his own feet as a complex villain taking the reins.

But then the question is: What place would Snoke have at the end of that?…That made me realize the most interesting thing would be to eliminate that dynamic between the ‘emperor’ and pupil, so that all bets are off going into the next one. That also led to the possibility of this dramatic turn in the middle, which could also be a really powerful connection point between Kylo and Rey.”

He also makes it clear he didn’t want to add much of anything about Snoke’s backstory because it tended to ruin the film’s pacing:

“It would have stopped any of these scenes dead cold if he had stopped and given a 30-second speech about how he’s Darth Plagueis…It doesn’t matter to Rey. If he had done that, Rey would have blinked and said, ‘Who?’ And the scene would have gone on…and I’m not saying he’s Darth Plagueis!”

The other character is Yoda whom was resurrected in proper puppet form as opposed to a digital creation. Johnson tells Uproxx that they went to great detail to match the Yoda of the original trilogy:

“That felt really important to me. And, actually, I cut some of that out and Frank Oz said to me I had to put it back. Because when I first pitched him the scene, it’s like the Yoda from Empire is back because that’s the one Luke had the emotional connection with. And that’s why we did the puppet and recreated the Empire puppet: Neal Scanlan and his team did a recreation of the Yoda puppet.

It’s not only a puppet, it’s an exact replica of the Empire puppet. They found the original molds for it. They found the woman that painted the original eyes for Yoda. Then Frank came and worked with them for a few weeks to get the puppet right. He did a lot of testing and a lot of adjusting with the puppet creators. It was amazing to watch the process. The idea that the last time Luke saw Yoda was in Return of the Jedi and the notion of getting back to that version of Yoda to form the emotional connection with Luke – including a glimpse of the impishness, as part of their relationship. It made a lot of sense.”

He also spoke about the final scene of the film with a young boy on Canto Bight demonstrating force power and hearing the stories of Luke Skywalker’s heroism. He tells Cinema Blend that the shot is meant to signify the rebirth of hope in everyday people following Luke’s sacrifice:

“First and foremost, that scene and the stable kids were about, for me, Luke’s journey and about the final act that Luke does, and showing at the end of the movie that it wasn’t just about saving 20 people in the cave, but that it was about taking on the mantle of the legend of Luke Skywalker so that that would then spread through the galaxy and reignite the hope, and the underclass would start to rise again. And so… showing THAT through the stable boy at the end, that was the real intent of the scene. And yeah, just the little hint of… there is more out there.”

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is now out in cinemas everywhere.