Why is TLJ your favourite/least favourite SW movie?

Hey, no offence, but this debate has been churning and churning for years, with arguments repeated ad nauseam around here and all over the interweb, with circular arguments that goes nowhere leading the charge. There are literally dozens and dozens of topics here discussing why TLJ is horrible or whatever, and it is becoming quite numbing and making visiting (and certianly moderating) the forum feel like a chore. It would be great if we could perhaps move on and not start yet another back-and-forth over TLJ?

(For the record, TLJ is my favorite SW)

 

My least favorite used to be TLJ but now it is ROS BUT THIS DEBATE HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR A LOONG TIME BUT STILL I DONT LIKE ROS

 

Skywalker also you live in mauritius? COOL

 

TLJ is my favorite alongside TESB.

I have probably dozens of reasons to love it!

 

i dont like rise of skywalker.

 

It's somewhere in the middle.

An acquaintance of mine said it best: "TLJ has it both- the best and the worst scenes in the whole saga."
I have to agree with that statement. Scenes like Luke facing Kylo is one of the best scenes in Star Wars, but scenes like Canto Bight are the worst in the whole saga.

 

Least favourite.

 

Somewhere in the middle for me, i rank it the fourth... But it isn't as it was a medium movie... I think it has the best scenes in star Wars, good character development, visually powerful, best dialogues in ST and ones of the better in the saga, the ach-to part is outstanding, I think that luke's portrayal is an unexpected but a very clever one, as his failure seems to me logical when I stop to think about it. And this is the very big reason... It made me think. Think about Luke, think about the Jedi order(I don't watch PT in the same way Since TLJ) think about failure... Crait battle is the most spectacular and beautifully visual battle in the saga, snoke's throne room... Kylo ren and Luke are the mvps(Mark hammill does the role of his life and makes Luke much more interesting, I think that in OT he is surpased by characters as Vader, han or even leia, despite being the main character) The final duel kylo vs Luke is one of the most original things in the saga and Luke ends in the most powerful, epic and wise way...

And then the cons. The very big cons. The main Luke-Rey-Kylo Ren story works perfect and it is awesome... All other plotlines doesn't work at all. Specially Canto Bight. That side quest is one of the worst things that has been done in a star Wars movie, nothing makes sense and Finn and Rose only make ilogical choices. Finn and Rose are also the worst written characters in all ST and maybe the whole saga, and if you skip their scenes the movie not only doesn't lose sense, it even improves a lot. A lot of people think that the ship chase plot doesn't make sense and it is ilogical. I dont think its ilogical... But Yes, it is pretty boring for me. Also leias flight is very poor executed, I never thought it made no sense(and TROS has proven it, leia was force sensitive, that has been always clear). The main failure is visual, the scene is not accurate and it feels very odd When it was supposed to be meaningful and emotional. In the good part, Holdos maneuvre was spectacular... That silence...

The movie wastes a lot of time and it slows too much the pace... Also, once we have seen TROS, I think that if Canto Bight and the ship chase would have been supressed, they could have used that time in introducing and explaining palpatines return(aftermaths trilogy observatories) snoke's origin, and give some context to the state of the galaxy. I think that would be a very better way to explain ST plot and a very accurate mix between RJ(I would maintain all Luke's development, Ach to, crait and ALL kylo and rey's arch) and JJs view(I would started to introduce some TROS plotlines, and it would have benefited ep IX as it would have felt less rushed and much better explained, ep IX is full of plotholes)

Summing up, TLJ has a lot of great moments and goes into unexplored places, but it is not perfect and has very very big issues... It disappoints me when that mistakes dont allow to part of the fandom to preciate its highlights...

 

Favorite by far! Why you ask?

It inspires me to think critically about the characters and themes of Star Wars more than any other movie in the entire saga!

I enjoy critical-thinking very much... obviously.

As such, I also love investigating the reasons and motives behind choices made by sentient beings who possess the gift of Free Will.

This includes the decisions of both the fictional characters within the story, as well as the real-world creators behind them.

The Last Jedi is the most esoterically compelling Star Wars movie in existence.

I absolutely adore it for that reason alone!



"Ride the Tide"

-SOAS

 

The Last Jedi is easily my most favorite Star Wars. It tells an emotional story and takes the characters on great arcs with powerful resolutions unlike anything we've seen in the franchise. It is a study in, not only fantastic writing and awe-inspiring visual language, but in mythic tropes and characters as well as educational lessons that permiates fairy tales and myths. AND, it manages to also be fresh, unexpected, powerful, and moving, and to add stakes and relevance to Star Wars.

If the golden boy Luke can be overcome by responsibility and darkness... if the dauntless space princess Leia's fight against evil can collapse into failure... if heroic warrior Finn's attempt at heroism consistanty backfire and fail, then stuff starts to matters in Star Wars! Stakes and threats are serious and not just fake obstacles for protagonists to wade through on their path to assured success. Failure is now an option! Which makes the struggle for success that much more important.

No, The Last Jedi is not only the best film in the franchise, it is also the most important one (with the possible exception, of course, of ANH which birthed the franchise in the first place).

--- Double Post Merged, May 6, 2020, Original Post Date: May 6, 2020 ---

*sigh*
Man, I'm tired of this discussion... of bouncing the same arguments, repeating the same points, and addressing the same things. I wish we could move on and discuss something else soon. No one are going to change their minds at this point; lovers will love, haters will hate, anyone in between will shrug. Pointlessness is pointless.

 

Well said!

 

I'm on it buddy!

 

Is that Revent of the Sith or Return of Skywalker?

--- Double Post Merged, May 7, 2020, Original Post Date: May 7, 2020 ---

I like it more than any prequel, like it a little more after TROS, but it's my least favorite movie of the sequel trilogy, and definitely below the OT.

It's a weird uneven movie. The humor is pretty bad too. The chase across space was pretty good, but a little awkward at times. Something was off about Oscar Isaac's scenes in this movie. Space Leia was just laughably bad. Carrie Fisher was actually a little off in in TLJ and TROS. Maybe she was the whole trilogy and I enjoyed TFA so much I didn't notice. Being pulled away from the stuff that mattered for Finn and Rose....ugh. Everything about them should have been eliminated, including Benecio Del Toro's character. The final fight was solid, particularly the lightsaber "fight".

Even some of the stuff that was good about the movie didn't work. Ren killing Snoke and the fight that follows was simply Maclunkey awesome....but it screwed up the story for the next movie and a half. It would have been fine if they had the balls to keep Ren the villain, but since they didn't it forced Abrams hand and he had to bring Palpatine back. Watching Ren turn on Snoke was awesome, but ultimately pointless (and you knew it was pointless when it was unfolding).

 

Kind of tired of picking on this movie. I get that they were trying to be different and original, to take the franchise in a new direction, but... I'll leave it at that.

On the other hand I've been getting my Star Wars fix by playing a ton of Battlefront 2.

 

I agree with the others here that this discussion is a little old, but since the thread is here, I will try to explain what I think.

It's my favorite of the ST because of the way it uses a lot of the traditional Star Wars themes to tell a different story with it's own messages to the audience. Especially everything revolving around Luke and the theme of failure and how this all connects with what is going on with the new generation of characters. But also about Rey struggling to find her place in the universe, to find out that she won't find who she is by looking to Han, Luke or Kylo. I adored that character choice and think it's the highlight of her entire arc. (I have some more thoughts about this post-TROS, but will stay away from it for this post). And it is also very derivative of the way mythical stories were used to teach young people things about transitions in life and growing up, which is exactly what George Lucas did with Luke Skywalker. It's a little more on the nose this time, but it still spoke to me.

I was in a difficult part of my life at the time the movie came out, with a lot of failures and setbacks in my life and The Last Jedi really spoke to me because of it. I am tired of the discussion around the movie and don't post alot on the TLJ forum anymore because of it. But I think my hot take is that we project a lot of ourselves on to the movies we watch and sometimes it changes the way we view them. In my experience that means that sometimes movies don't connect with everyone that watches them, but for the people that actually do connect with it, it can be a really strong and eye opening experience. That is why I don't expect to change anyones opinion of TLJ. I know that the movie itself isn't perfect, but I love it and I'm very grateful that I got to connect with a Star Wars movie in this way. The only comparison I can think of is the first time I watched The Empire Strikes Back, and I know that is a comparison that many of you can relate to. Thanks for reading.