Worst and Best Scenes

Yeah the Leia scene was the worst for me. I think her surviving a bit longer (she's gonna die in the opening crawl to XI folks, sorry) was worth it though for the reunion with Luke. Favorite scene was Rey throwing Kylo the lightsaber and him igniting it right through the guard's head. Close second was Luke dying in front of two suns on Ach-To

 

Oh yeah! R2 showing Luke the hologram!!! That hit all the right sentimental fan boys strings while also being very pertinent to moving the current story forward!! That one was a home run

 

WORST:

Yoda's cameo. Yuck. He shows up to chastize Luke and then destroy a sacred Jedi landmark with lightning? What a waste. It was also unnecessary in a film that had a LOT of "unnecessary" moments.

The continued insistence to stick characters into the film for 12 seconds just so they can make a toy of the character. BB-Hate and Nien Numb exist in the film solely so they can make an action figure. It's stupid and it needs to stop. Also how and why is Nien Numb not fighting with the Resistance at the end? Did he die? I mean where the heck is he?

The caretakers. Why? Just why are they in the film? Just to clean stuff up when stuff breaks? Again, in a film over-burdened with too many characters, they were just useless and unnecessary.

Hux - I am tired of him being an idiot and I'm not sure his increasingly "comedic boob who screws up constantly" act is anything that can be sustained. He should have died and been replaced by the vastly superior Captain Phasma.

THE BEST

Mark Hamill. Best acting performance in a Star Wars film ever. Mark NAILS it in this film. In fact, Mark redeems the film for me. He's just so good and Rian gave him such a beautiful arc in this film. TLJ is a mediocre, cumbersome movie, made great because Luke Skywalker is treated with great love and affection by both the director and the actor. It's beautiful. I love it.

Lieutenant Connix - A minor point, but I think we have a character here that can expand even further in Episode IX. I was surprised just how much I liked her and rooted for her in this film, despite limited screen time.

Adam Driver - This guy takes a very difficult role and thrives. Kylo is a complicated and emotive villain and that is not what America usually expects or enjoys. So the task is tough to begin with in a world where villains in both the Marvel and DC Universe are often ignored, undeveloped and serve no purpose except to give the heroes someone to punch around. Kylo is a great villain and Adam's performance is a large reason why.

Daisy Ridley - I am confident, utterly confident that no other actor could have done what she has done with the role. She has made Rey a hero for thousands of young women in the USA, a nation still sadly devoid of strong matriarchal heroes in their pop culture. Every time I see a young girl in a Rey costume, I smile and realize Daisy has delivered us something very special and even a kinda important to all of us. Cinema needs more characters like Rey.

Captain Phasma - So good, she looks so stunning. It's sad she wasn't given more to do. I hope she's not dead. I'm sure she's not, her action figures and t-shirts sell like hot cakes. Also the Phasma novel is one of the best Star Wars novel written in a long time. More Phasma please!

The ending, it's good, it's solid and it sets the stage beautifully for Episode IX.

 

[/QUOTE]
Lieutenant Connix - A minor point, but I think we have a character here that can expand even further in Episode IX. I was surprised just how much I liked her and rooted for her in this film, despite limited screen time.[/QUOTE]

I also loved Connix, pleasantly surprised

 

Just remembered this but one my worst was Maz. Didn't like that scene at all.

 

Parts of the movie were silly and at times (Leia's Superman Flight) pulled me out of the story, but I really enjoyed it. It was fun ride. Would there be some things that I would change. Absolutely. Overall though, really solid entry. It's not better than Empire or A New Hope, but it's up there.

Worst:

• Leia Superman Scene: the vacuum of space should have done something. First Marvel with Quill and Gamora surviving and now Leia. I mean sure there is the supernatural portion of the stories (the Force and Quill being half Ego) but the lack of oxygen and the pressure of the vacuum. That just didn't work for me.
• Poe's Phone Call: I understanding the taunting/stalling nature of the tactic. But making Hux look that stupid made him feel like more of a buffoon than he actually is. I miss Imperial Commanders like Tarkin/Piett. Hux feels more like Admiral Ozzel.
• Canto Bight: They really dropped the ball here. It should have been made to feel like the Cantina Scene or Maz's Castle, but they just made it feel so bland. Should have been a passing cameo of Lando or someone. The drunk little alien who thought BB-8 was a slot machine was funny though.
• Luke Milking the Sea Cow: I didn't want or need to see that. No one did.
• Finn vs Phasma: I understand why they did this, but Phasma is a dumb character. She's not a badass. TFA ruined her character and had too much ground to try to make up in this movie.

Best

• Everything Luke: Yeah I wish they would have shown him throwing a Star Destroyer into a star with the Force or something cool like that, but the Force Projection was pretty cool. They didn't make him feel whiny or bratty. Luke had believable shame for even considering the possibility of murdering his own nephew, and finally learned from his mistakes and focused on the here and now.
• Rey & Kylo Telepathic Connection: Really cool expansion of the Force and Force Users.
• Yoda: Bravo! Classic ESB Yoda! Mischevious Yoda! Wise Yoda! Loved it.
• Snoke Throne Room/Rey & Kylo vs Praetorian Guards: no words can describe how much I enjoyed this scene.
• Battle of Crait & Destruction of Supremacy: Visually Stunning

 

There wasn't much that I flat out didn't like...except maybe Poe trolling Hux. BB-8 is now like flying Artoo that can do anything.

Favorite moments:

Chewie getting guilted by the porg
R2 replaying the hologram
Luke wins without fighting and becomes even more of a legend
The throne room scene...all of it
Milking the sea cow
Seeing Leia use the force. Lots of hate on that scene but I loved it
Floating rocks
Holdo's sacrifice
A crazy half cocked plan finally didn't work
The bombing run. You can see 12 O'clock High as an influence here
I thought Finn was actually going to go die
DJ with a tic from being shocked too many times
Laura Dern was awesome
Force Ghosts can now do things...more powerful than you can possibly imagine
Yoda

 

Worst:

1. any scene with Rose in it. Man, that acting... what was that? It's like Luke was force projecting a bad romance onto Finn just to screw with him

2. I don't know, there wasn't too much I disliked about this movie outside of the Finn and Rose plot but even then, the superdogs chase was pretty cool


Best:

1. My god the shockwave that went through the theater when Kylo turned Snoke into a kabob... And the number of hands that went stuck in the air when he actually fell off his throne. That was worth the price of admission right there

2. The opening battle. I was completely thrilled. I was a dumb little kid again, absolutely losing it over the buzzing and zapping and sploding. Poe was so charismatic, and I (and the theater) were cracked up by the phone call thing. That's peak rogue right there. I was tapping my thighs nervously with the bomber duel

3. Any of the Rey and Kylo connection scenes

4. So I'm the only one who enjoyed seeing salty old Luke live heartily off the land and hunt big fish and drink Dinosaur-seal milk?

5. The Vice-admiral splitting the Supremacy is the image that flashes into my head when I close my eyes and it will be that way for the next couple of days

 

Best:
1. Rey/Ren back to back (awesomeness!)
2. Luke brushing the dust off his shoulder after the FO tries to blow him up
3. The Porg giving Chewy the sad face
4. Poe's reaction to being reunited with BB8 (buddy!!!!!)
5. Leah and Luke's reunion (I cried)
6. Finn, "yeah! they HATE that ship!" LOL (if you've seen it you know exactly what he is referring to)

Weirdest:
1. Snoke lifting Rey around with the force (kind of weird)
2. The mirror snapping scene with Rey (sorry I don't get it yet)
3. Laura Dern's outfit (LOVED her character!! Hated her outfit...yeah I know total girl thing to say)

 

It's not badly written, it's actually well written film with great characters with believable motivations and arc that drive the plot. I don't think anyone can really use that as a criticism unlike with the prequels when you could have.

In broad terms think some fans initial dislike stems from one or both of the following

1. It's not the story they wanted.
2. The fantasy element of it does not ring true to how some fans understand how things work or how they want them to.

Both points I can understand but both are subjective as well. Some may overcome this in time whether through re-watches or in context of Episode 9 whereas some may never. However it's not because of bad writing and I think because it is written so well there is still "Hope" of appreciation later on once people accept what's happened. Took me a while to accept Vader as Luke's father, I really did not like that at first.

Whereas the prequels are so badly written there is little hope for those who don't like them as whatever happens they will always remain badly written.

Back on Topic .....

Best - The opening sequence - wow !!! I think my favourite of all the films to date
Worst - The floating Leia effect did not look right CGI wise and also felt a bit cheesy.

 

I forgot to add this to my list! I was downright nostalgic as Luke sat and watched that hologram again and the "that was a dirty trick" line was perfect. R2 D2 had very little to do (again) but the one thing he did do was bitter sweet on so many levels. A beautiful part of the film.

 

I think weird is such a good way to discuss these things haha

 

I'm sure this was discussed by the Rian/Disney. However, they could only do this at the sacrifice of the Luke/Leia 'meeting' on Craite. Ultimately, I guess they determined it was best to allow them to have their reunion of sorts and deal Carrie's death in a different way. And personally, I would have hated for her to go out like that. As I was watching it (and not knowing any spoilers), I just kind of assumed at first that this was the way she had been written out, and man, I would have been bummed out by that.

 

Best:

Every scene with Luke. I just love that character but I'm also very sad it's the end of his days as a living person. But the scene with Yoda gave me some hope, because it clearly shows that even while being a force ghost you can still behave as a Jedi master - manipulate the weather and hit some heads with your stick

Snoke's death and throne room fight. Well executed.

Holdo going kamikaze. Beautifully made - both special effects and this silence.


Worst:

Superman Leia. So unnecessary and so dumb. I would really like to hear Rian's explanation - why he decided to include this scene in his movie.

Useless Phasma. The true Boba Fett of the new trilogy. Looking cool, hyped by marketing but useless in reality. A wasted character.

And traditionally - dumb imperials (FO) again so easily losing their ships. What's the point of investing so much time and materials to build them if a single fighter can cripple it and single bomber - destroy?




And porgs were funny, I have nothing against them.

 

And it is so funny to hear so many people complaining about the milk scene and Yoda scenes. I thought the milk scene fit in perfectly with all the other things that were showing just how far off the grid (and reservation!) this guy was. And Yoda was just the classic Yoda I loved, and not the furrowed browed prude from the prequels. In fact, I thought one of the best lines from the film was when the Tree was burning and Luke brought up the sacred texts Yoda said something like "real page turners were they?" Old age and death really lightened him up! Yoda knew that those books and that tree were nothing "magical".

Did not overly care for the Poe/Hux 'crank call' right at the beginning of the movie, or the James Bond wannabe at the craps table on Canto. The whole Canto mission really seemed weird. Everyone seems to love Rose...and Tran seems like a good actress...but honestly I did not buy into many scenes she was in.

Oh and the cave scene with 'infinity' Reys...I still don't know how I feel about that!

Overall, I had a great time, and I really appreciate all the twists that were thrown in. Luke throwing the lightsaber over his shoulder...loved it..

 

It was badly written because there was no story.

What about the FO and the Rebels get sucked down a worm hole and meet a greater adversary. They have to join together to defect it. WOW...now that would be a twist.

Then Luke comes along to saves them all.

That is a story.

Ok, I am not going to win any awards for my idea but FFS it better than endless episodes of the alliance vs the rebels. BORING. We have been there and done that.

I was kinda of expecting a change of direction to the franchise.

Instead we have had the most boring 2.5 hours of nothingness with the worse villain (grumpy kid) in SW history.

Come on JJA, grow some and do something different.....or is it too late ? Yes it is too late. Ryan F**** it up .

 

The scene where Leia pulls herself in the ship after the explosion. In theory doesn't sound too bad but it just looked really awkward and redundant. Could've been done better.

 

I fully agree and that's how a general could die. And that was representing death, it happens like that, one second and you're out.

The rest of Leia's presence in this whole movie is easily replaceable.

 

For me the worst element of TLJ like many have said before me was the Leia scene - However I'm not totally out of love with the idea, I just believe the delivery and the aesthetics of it was poor and for me it took me out of the film for a couple of minutes.

I also had the same problem with Yoda, I think it was a good idea to include him but how he was presented just seemed off. I had the same with Tarkin in Rouge One. Im always surprised that it doesn't get dialled back in post production. I think its obvious to everyone watching the film that the aesthetics were off but I believe it just gets green lighted because time has been spent on it and people have worked very hard to deliver.

I think TLJ took some risks but it wasn't anything new to the galaxy that star wars lives in. The only difference is and this will be the result good and bed of continuing star wars films is that in previous films they have told us things and hinted towards certain aspects but now we are in a position where the films can show us rather than just alluding too, and that changes the dynamic quite dramatically going forward.

 

I had a similar reaction to the scene where Finn is kamakazing that huge cannon on Crait. After they killed Snoke and Rey/Kylo teamed up momentarily I felt like all bets were off, so I seriously thought Finn was going to die. It's rare to feel that way about a protagonist in the middle section of a Hollywood trilogy. I was really surprised and trying to understand my feelings in that moment. What a bold move. I don't want Finn to go, but what a way to go. And then Rose barrels into him, condemning what remains of the Resistance to the mercy of that huge cannon, and tells him some nonsense about how he can't sacrifice himself unless he does it out of love not hate. If she's going to save Finn like that, at least have her barrel into the cannon instead and make the sacrifice.

With the Leia flying in space scene, I just kept thinking about how you have about 14 seconds in the vacuum of space before your blood starts to literally boil, i.e. I think she was floating there too long for the Force to save her.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 15, 2017, Original Post Date: Dec 15, 2017 ---

Agreed this should have been Leia's sendoff instead, but I think their original plan for the elders was as follows:
- TFA: Han is the focus, dies
- TLJ: Luke is the focus, dies
- Ep IX: Leia is the focus, dies

It seems like they were setting up Ep IX to be Leia vs Kylo, leader vs leader, mother vs son, with the emotional stakes quite high: Kylo killed or tried to kill literally every father figure (Han, Snoke, Luke) but could not bring himself to kill Leia when given the chance.

I have no idea what their Plan B will be for Ep IX, but obviously Trevorow couldn't figure it out.