MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) Discussion > How many of you were hoping that TLJ wou...

How many of you were hoping that TLJ would redeem TFA?

posted 7 years ago by TexasJack (12516)
25 replies | jump to latest

I f***ing hated TFA. Really wanted to like it. Bought the Blu-Ray and watched it several times, trying to like it. Tried watching it drunk; tried watching it baked. The best I could give it was: great visuals and great music (I love Rey's Theme.)

I went into TLJ with more than an open mind. I saw it about 3 weeks after the opening because I wanted to avoid crowds, and I avoided ALL spoilers. Didn't even watch the trailers. The only advance word I had was from the "professional" critics who practically soiled themselves in the course of praising this film.

I was hoping that all my "WTF?" moments from TFA would be brilliantly answered in this movie. I was hoping that we would see such an amazing story for Luke that his bullshit cameo in TFA would suddenly make sense. Instead, we got him milking an alien sea cow.

[–] Titaanzink (44) 7 years ago

I didn't hate TFA but I was pretty disappointed by it. It's an obvious rehash of Episode IV and the writing is all over the place. Rey in particular is pretty poorly written.

So like you I was hoping TLJ could bring redemption, especially as I really liked Rian Johnson's previous sci-fi outing, Looper.

As it turned out, TLJ was a decent improvement on TFA but not not good enough to fix all the problems. The writing is still all over the place. Visually it's more impressive though and Rey has thankfully been dialled back a bit. Not a great film but it's got its moments.

I'm somewhat baffled as to the level of ire it has drawn from fans. Sure, it's not the best film ever but it's not a crime against humanity either. All the criticisms I've seen about it applies tenfold to TFA but somehow that movie seems to get a free pass. Like the whole Mary Sue thing - in TFA she really does come from practically nothing and beats the main baddie in a lightsaber duel, gets the Falcon and is Leia's best buddy by the end.

[–] furiousstyles (4392) 7 years ago

She's Jedi overlord by the end of tlj, this film is much much worse

[–] Threadkiller (3089) 7 years ago

All the criticisms I've seen about it applies tenfold to TFA but somehow that movie seems to get a free pass

This is the main thing that bothers me. Too many people still have this weird denial thing going with that film, dumping the blame on TLJ & Rian Johnson for not retroactively cleaning up the messes left by Jar Jar's Abram's disjointed episode iv rehash. Most of the issues with TLJ stem directly from the problems with TFA including what is widely to be it's most egregious sin of undermining the legacy of Luke Skywalker.

You can argue that Rian Johnson could have pulled a nice contrived excuse out of his ass for Luke but TLJ simply revealed the picture of Luke that had already been painted with the set up from TFA which was that of Luke Skywalker the failure. This much was clear to me after watching TFA alone. Many other people willing to be critical of the film noted this early on as well.

1. Luke overall fails in rebuilding the Jedi order to prominence. 2. Failed in training his nephew who falls to the dark side. 3. Doesn't take responsibly but instead runs away, abandoning the Republic to fend for itself & allows the Empire (new order) to rise again to threaten the galaxy with the help of his former student. TFA completely set the table.

Luke the failure being cast aside and forced to "pass the torch" to MaRey Sue as the true chosen one who will become
Jedi grand master and the one who successfully restores the Jedi order to it's former glory was a preordained mandate of this Di$ney trilogy. K.K. was having it no other way.