I finally saw the movie tonight with my son. We are both huge SW fans. We both thought it was AWESOME! I'm reading some of the comments and I just think were you haters asleep? Some the stuff you're complaining about was explained. And for the few holes in the plot, there were no more holes than mnay of the other best sci fi movies.

So many iconic scenes. Loved Luke vanishing into the force. Loved Leia floating back to the ship. Loved the scene with Luke staring down the AT-ATs. Loved the scene with Chewy trying to eat the space penguins. I even loved the kid at the end clearly telling the audience that there would be future Jedis. Loved Snope getting cut in half - didn't see that one coming.

Oh, I liked that there were butt-loads of space battles. Loved the opening bombing scene. Loved the ship jumping to light speed slicing through the Dreadnought.

I did have a couple minor complains. The Rose character was weak. The casino scene was a little weak and I could do without the horse things. They should have figured a way to re-edit the end and kill off Leia. That's going to be awkward in the next film.

Sure there were certain plot devices that they reused but that's what makes it a SW movie. I would say this was easily top 3 SW for me.

I detest people who pirate movies. It is a completely scummy, criminal thing to do. Show some class.

BTW, we wanted to go see the 4pm showing but all shows were sold out until 10:20pm. And that showing was almost sold out. I think this movie has legs.

A little confirmation bias going on here. You don't like the movie so you start dredging up facts to support the fact that it is a terrible movie. Unfortunately, the facts don't support that conclusion.

I can play that game too.

Let's see, two weeks at we sit at $745.4 million. Yeah, a real flop.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi blasting towards $800 million at the box office.
http://ew.com/movies/2017/12/26/star-wars-the-last-jedi-box-office-christmas/

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Expected to Reach $1.6 Billion At Global Box Office
https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-last-jedi-expected-global-box-office/

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Box-Office Fatigue? Don't Be So Sure
https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/tv-film/8078725/star-wars-the-last-jedi-box-office-fatigue-dont-be-so-sure

Oh and by the way, Rotten Tomatoes has had movie reviews spammed by bots and coordinated efforts in the past so the don't be so sure about those reviews yet...

Surprise, Surprise: The ‘Alt-Right’ Claims Credit For ‘Last Jedi’ Backlash
https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/tv-film/8078725/star-wars-the-last-jedi-box-office-fatigue-dont-be-so-sure

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Detractors Are Reportedly Using Bots To Spam Its Rotten Tomatoes Score
http://uproxx.com/hitfix/star-wars-the-last-jedi-rotten-tomatoes-bots/

Oh yes and another point... CinemaScore, which is actually scientific in their collection of audience data, had audiences scoring it an A.
https://www.cinemascore.com/

No doubt. Analysis of space physics and plot holes is kind of silly for a Star Wars fans. I don't think any of the plot holes were that outrageous to cause me not to enjoy the movie.

There were only a couple times where I thought, oh that was dumb but that rarely took me away from my immersion in the story. I think most oddities in this movie were explained. Luke's brown beard at the end bothered me for a minute. But I let it go and enjoyed the scene only to be shown why the beard was different in the next scene.

That was funny. Like all good humor there was a lot of truth in there. I still loved the movie. Although the lactating space cow WAS creepy.

CinemaScores uses the magic of statistical analysis to determine the overall grade. They are not judging the film one way or the other. They simple take statistically significant samples from theaters across many regions. Much, much more accurate summary of audience sentiment than Rotten Tomatoes user reviews. So they just might know what they are talking about.

So I enjoyed the movie and respect your opinion if you think it’s sucks. I watched Kevin Smith’s review of TLJ and he pretty much summed up what I loved about the movie in great detail. As a director, there were a few things his version he might have done differently but he nailed the many moments in the movie that I thought were awesome.

Check it out if you want some fun reviewing each scene in detail from the movie.

I do have a theory why some SW fans loved it while others hated it. I think some were too invested in the stuff Abrams set up in the first movie. As some of those elements were taken down, some fans brains got stuck. Other fans just went along for the ride and enjoyed where the new storyteller went.

Abrams was a producer on the film so he sure he had some input on the final story line. If anything, the new film was not predictable.

One factor for people debating box office returns for TLJ...

Overall the industry box office take has been on a downward trend and 2017 was not a good year. Competition from streaming services is hurting the theaters. Still, TLJ will be the top movie in 2017 with only 3 weeks of release. Replacing another Disney release as the top dog in 2017.

I’m not saying I agree with the audience. I’m just providing another data point. Rotten Tomatoes isn’t the only or best barometer of goodness.

I can tell you as I left the theater, the buzz going on around me was very positive.

WTF? The prequels added very little. We had stupid pod races and crap that was just eye candy and no substance. The third movie tied up some loose ends but there was little meat on the bones. The new movies have actually expanded the universe with a host of new characters that are at the beginning of their life cycle.

Marcus theater does $5 Tuesdays. Two medium popcorns, two large drinks and two tix were $25 bucks! Plus heated recliner chairs.

I wish this thread would be more about why we liked or disliked the movie versus trying to convince the other side why they are stupid morons. No one is going to change someone’s mind in a Pinside debate.

What I liked...

Character Development

I thought they moved the characters forward. They did seem to focus on Rey and Kylo Ren most. There was a lot of interaction between them when they were Force-modem connected by Snoke. Their relationship grew as they communicated and wrestled (mentally) with each other (much like this thread) to convince the other side that they could slide over. This was a key theme. Luke saw that Rey was teetering on the edge of the dark side (ie, the dark hole).

Meanwhile, Kylo Ren also struggled with his light-side demons as he chose not to kill his mother. We saw Poe's character develop as more of a headstrong, anti-authority character. Meanwhile the director tried to start this Finn and Rose relationship as they introduced Rose as a love interest character for Finn - I think the Rose/Finn relationship was the least successful character development - no spark there for me.

Luke's character had changed. He had made mistakes. He had become cynical, old, curmudgeonly. He had become a shadow of his former self; disconnecting from the force that had brought him both glory and pain.

The scene between Luke and R2-D2 was special. Luke and R2 had come a long ways from their chance meeting so long ago. R2-D2 let's Luke know that he's being an ass. When R2-D2 shows Luke the video message from Leia it really brought the story full circle. Luke decides to train Rey. Brilliant moment by the director/writers in my opinion.

The Battles

The battles kicked ass! The opening bombing scene on the Dreadnought was awesome. I'm not going to let a little thing like space physics get in the way of a fun battle. I mean come on people, nearly every sci-fi flick asks you to suspend physics!!! Clearly the scene was inspired by WWII bombers.

The lightspeed jump through the other dreadnought was crazy! The silence was very jolting as Holdo rams the Rebel cruiser through Snoke's ship. It was a great moment. At the end of the day, Star Wars is about "space war" and the battle sequences were pure Star Wars! Huge ships, overwhelming odds, etc. It delivered for me.

BTW, I hated the Laura Dern character keeping a secret about the ultimate plan. Upon reflection, it did make sense. Poe had been demoted, disregarding the chain of command and wasn't acting trustworthy. Why would they share the plan? that would be kept as secret as possible. Just my take.

I also thought the final battle with Kylo Ren kicked ass. The shot from behind Luke as he faced the M6-ATs that was chilling. Ren opens fire on Luke in a massive barrage of fire power. Freaking awesome scene with Luke brushing the dust from his shoulder. Luke is BACK and badder than ever!

Humor

I loved the humor. I guess I wasn't married to all of the set-up from TFA. When Luke tosses his ligh saber over his shoulder, the theater exploded with laughter. It was one of many very funny moments. Star Wars has always had its humor. I think RJ added his stamp to the series by cranking up the humor a notch. I thought the Porgs were hilarious but not integral to any plot line like the ewoks. Porgs became tension-releasers during the battle sequences. The scene with Chewy trying to eat a porg was hilarious. The audience in my showing seemed to love the porg humor.

Twists on old SW devices

So many of the traditional SW ploy devices were used in TLJ. However, they weren't always used in the same way. Snoke was the new Emperor, the new super villian. Except he was killed unexpectedly. Nice twist. I think director was trying to get us to think Kylo Ren was going "good" on us but the twist was he sought to be the Supreme Leader. Snoke did sense resolve in Kylo Ren but it was his undoing. People complained that Snoke was never developed but neither was the Emperor in the first three movies.

The other old device re-deployed was the Obi-Wan, "if you strike me down" moment. I'm really surprised that some people didn't get the ending. You may not have liked it but it was consistent with the SW universe. The twist was that when he let Kylo Ren strike him down, he wasn't really there at all. Yet it has the same effect... like Obi Wan and Yoda before him, it was his time to move on and become a Force Ghost. The scene of him silhouetted against the dual suns was the book-end to his life. It hearkened back to when he first started his journey on Tatooine where he stood against the backdrop of the dual suns and made the decision to fight the empire.

TLJ was a dense story with a lot plots and sub plots going on. Relationships were forming and other characters were coming to an end. For me, the movie made many mistakes. For example, continuity editing could have been better. It was hard to piece together Rose "dying" and making it back to the bunker. A simple shot of Finn struggling to pull her through the ensuing battle would have explained that. Rey goes through training with Luke but we see very little indication of the amount of training... was it really 3 lessons? How long did it take? A few extra moments on film could have cleared up a lot. Overall, the good exceeded the bad and the pace was fast enough for me that I didn't linger on the absurdity of space physics and other non sequiturs.

It does seem consistent to me. Holdo just didn't take the precaution Han did in episode 4. She pointed the cruiser at the other ship and rammed through it at light speed. Han had to take the time to plot a safe course... Holdo didn't have to calculate a safe path. Isn't that the point? Maybe I'm not understanding the problem with the scene.

I actually did like the Mary Poppins scene. In hindsight, they should/could have killed Leia off at that point. But I ran with the story. The only thing I didn't understand...and here is the continuity error again... when they opened the door to get Leia they should have gotten sucked out. Maybe there was an airlock there but I didn't see it. Again, I ran with it and enjoyed the overall story arc.

The question I would ask to the people that were distracted by every continuity error is how MUCH explanation do you expect the director and editor to provide to the viewer? Is it their responsibility to make sure that the audience has no discontinuity at all? Or would all of those extra shots slow the story telling down? I'm not sure there is a right answer for everyone. If you show every little detail...like adding a scene showing Finn dragging Rose across the salt field you risk slowing the pace down and end up with a 4 hour movie (ala LOTR). The point of continuity in film making is for the viewer to piece together a story line without having to show everything "in between."

I loved the sci fi series Dark Matter. Anyone else? But every episode I cringed because they short circuited so much of the story line. Nature of the beast.

I think we'll see Luke in episode 9. Luke said he is going to haunt Kylo Ren and "see ya round." Unless JJ Abrams wants to do a RJ move on RJ.

Looks to break the $1 billion take by year end. Maybe that doesn't prove it's a great movie but it doesn't make it a financial success for Disney. Doubt anyone's getting fired yet. I would hope they do take the criticism at face value, fix the storytelling flaws and make the final movie epic.

Love the android on that show. Ended with major cliff hangers and then canceled.