They added chromecast to mine this year which has been useful.

Also… the future kinda sucks.

If you’re criticizing a fictional woman that was written by a man, are you criticizing women, or criticizing how men write women?

As long as they never hire women to write movies amirite? :P

Does that mean you agree? Gray Jedi are a dumb idea?

the new republic is so useless they had the whole government in a single planet

There are a few exceptions, but pretty much every government in the world have their capital in one city. While there are no Death Stars, we certainly have weapons that can obliterate a city. Are you saying every country in the world is stupid to do this? Whether you think this or not, it doesn’t seem at all strange to me the Republic would do this. Seems more like a 20/20 hindsight kind of thing, after the planet was blown up it seems like that was a bad idea but it seems reasonable they would’ve done this. Also from a visual standpoint, it looks to me like they blew up multiple systems at the same time, so they may have government buildings in multiple systems.

If I were preparing for a Death Star attack, I’ve build some capital ships with some kind of cannons on it that could punch a hole in it’s armor so fighters could be sent into it and blow up the core RotJ style. If I had intel that there would be a possible Death Star attack on the capital I’d move these these capital ships around the system to cover all possible approach vectors so we could take it out before it could get into range of the planet.

Seems like a reasonable plan to counter a Death Star attack. Problem is that it’s kinda like planning to take out a bomber carrying a small nuke when your enemy has an ICBM carrying an H-Bomb. So a sensible plan for a Death Star attack results in the Republic fleet getting destroyed by a Star Killer base attack.

I don’t much care what other materials say about these things because to me the movies > everything else in terms of canon. TFA is internally consistent, judging a movie because of something someone else did later seems unfair to me.

tell the directors that doesn’t make sense (like the dagger they use with the ruins of a death star)

The dagger plotline is the exact same as the amulet from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Obviously RoS was rushed (they all were, which was one of the biggest problems, but RoS especially so) and they copied Raiders for the plot of the first half of the movie. So everything you dislike about the dagger can also be applied to the amulet from Raiders.

In Raiders someone back in ancient times made an amulet that had to be used on a specific time of day (and specific day of the year if we care at all about how the tilt of the Earth works) from a specific spot in a map room they constructed because… why did they do that? You have to translate the amulet to find out how long of a staff to use, but there’s a trick because words on the other side of the amulet that reveals that the instructions on the other side aren’t completely accurate. So somehow this amulet made in ancient times will blast a laser to a the location in this map room specifically made for this purpose to reveal the Ark’s location. Why they hell would people in ancient times ever do all of this? It’s almost as if they constructed this elaborate set up simply so someone in the future could have a fun adventure. And those ancient people made it a little tricky with some words on the other side of the amulet, just in case a bad guy had a copy of the inscription from just one side of the amulet burned into his hand. Like those ancient people reaaallly thought of everything about the adventure someone would some day have. Really considerate!

Does that make Raiders of the Lost Ark a bad movie? Of course not. It’s meant to be a fun action adventure and you’re not supposed to nitpick every little detail to find a way to prove it’s a bad movie.

The problems with the dagger in RoS are the exact same problems. How did people in the past knew that person would be standing in that exact spot? Why did people in the past do all of this? It all seems a little too convenient that all of these things line up, etc. At least in Star Wars some people can see the future. In Raiders? I dunno is seeing the future a power the Ark had? I thought it just melted the faces of Nazis, but whatever I guess.

The convoluted nature of both the amulet from Raiders and the the dagger from RoS are just minor details in an action adventure movie you’re not supposed to think about too much In the end, the Ark didn’t matter (the real treasure was the friends we made along the way!) and the crystal Rey was trying to find didn’t matter either because Luke had another one. The only difference between the two is how you’re approaching these respective movies. With Raiders you’re going into it to enjoy the ride and have some fun. So you don’t really notice how convoluted everything about the amulet was. But with RoS are you going into the movie trying to find something wrong with the movie? Well, congratulations, the movie gave you what you wanted.

But if you approach RoS the same way you approach Raiders (just enjoy the ride) it actually does work as a fun action adventure movie. It gives everyone what they want. Nitpickers get what they want and fans of action adventure movies get what they want too. Obviously it’s nowhere near the level of Raiders of the Lost Ark (very few movies are) but it’s a decent action adventure movie, which a lot of people making Star Wars don’t seem to know how to do at all.

Yeah, it is true Luke isn’t Luke. But he’s kinda a side character… which sucks, because it’s Luke fucking Skywalker and he never even left that fucking island. But Poe and Finn’s motivations make sense. Not that their plotlines were or meaningful, or original, or even interesting. But they’re the only characters where I wasn’t constantly thinking “why the hell are they doing that?”

Has enough time passed since Disney marketed TLJ as being about “strong women” that we can now discuss the misogyny present in the works of Rian Johnson?

The plotlines of the male characters in TLJ made sense. The female characters on the other hand, have no cohesive motivation and they only exist to serve the plotlines of the male characters. Well I guess Rey was motivated to “fix” an abusive asshole after seeing him with his shirt off, but seems slightly problematic to me. But after that she’s relegated to a support role of distracting TIE fighters and moving rocks around while the men try to accomplish the main objective while trying to overcome the obstacles caused by emotional women. Rey could’ve easily blown up the laser since she’s in the Millenium Falcon, the ship that blew up a Death Star. But that’s not a woman’s role, so she’s on support duty. Leia has to hide in a bunker after being in a coma half the movie so there could be a Poe mutiny plotline. The incompetent woman he mutinied against is disposed of shortly after that plotline came to a pointless end. Done with that one, get rid of her! Holdo’s plan involved engineers, but she didn’t tell Rose her plan. What was Rose’s job again? Rian Johnson apparently forgot. She’s a woman she exists solely to be an obstacle for the male characters to overcome. Things only work out when the women learn their place and stay in the bunker or maybe go around back and move some rocks around or whatever. Facing evil is a man’s job!

Shouldn’t be that shocking since it was made by the guy who made Looper, where he fridges Bruce Willis’s wife so hard that it breaks the whole premise of the movie. Like the whole premise is that in the future, the mafia can’t murder people because future CSI catches them every time. But how can Rian Johnson give the male character motivation if according to the premise of the movie, they can’t murder his wife in front of him? Ah well, fuck the premise, fridge the wife. It’s a Rian Johnson movie so no one will question it I guess?

Why does no one talk about this?

Are we still believing the marketing Disney did to compensate for the rampant misogyny inherent in Rian Johnson’s writing?

Point to something that happens in TLJ that didn’t happen in either ESB or RotJ. I guess the AT ATs were walking on a plain of salt instead of a plain of snow LOL.They make sure you know that because gotta make sure everyone know that this movie is different from the other movies!

Mate, when people are saying things didn’t happen in a movie what actually did happen in a movie, then what’s the reason for it?

It’s not “subjective” to say something didn’t happen when I can put a movie onto my screen and see it happening. I wouldn’t say it’s brainwashing to choose to ignore facts to conform with popular memes, but you could consider it be something along those lines if people refuse to do something as trivial as just watching a movie to confirm whether something being said on the internet is true or not.

I would love to actually discuss these movies even if someone had a different opinion on them. But the meme culture has killed real discussion about movies. You have to spend all of your time debunking dumb memes leaving no to actually discuss the movie. The channels are clogged with dumb memes and there aren’t really any discussion groups for people who have actually watched a movie to talk to other people who actually watched the movie.

“Somehow Palpatine reurned” memes only really say “somehow I have opinions about a movie I never saw.” Complete waste of screenspace, but five years later people keep doing it. Will there ever be a time we can actually talk about a movie without it being polluted by inane memes?

Yup. Redletter Media did a bit about Harrison Ford’s delivery of a line in Crystal Skull. On that one they actually used a take that was good for the trailer. In the movie itself (for whatever reason) they used a take which was very flat. In that case we could compare and it’s obviously either the director or whoever editing that fucked up. But there’s many more cases of that kind of thing we don’t know about.

In any case, one line in a movie isn’t something to obsess over. But the internet is all about obsessing over inconsequential shit…

Because I didn’t “look it up”.

I just watched the fucking movie.

Watch the movie. The Republic fleet is discussed. I recall C3PO saying the Republic fleet was destroyed.

Maybe in Legends or some bullshit Disney+ TV shows they do what you’re talking about but in the actual movie, the Republic fleet is a thing that exists. A little unfair to criticize a movie for things that happen in other works.

But that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Starting with the premise that a movie is bad and just making up things to prove the movie is bad while completely ignoring the movie itself.

I missed that part of it, I must’ve been distracted be the movie being almost entirely a clumsy re-hashing of things from ESB and RotJ.

Seems like an extremely boring way to portray a magical force. In good Star Wars movies The Force = Power. Obviously the name tells you that, Star Wars isn’t subtle about things. In our world, power has a tendency to corrupt people. It takes discipline and moral fortitude to avoid being corrupted by power. Same goes for the Force in Star Wars. Removing that eliminates the whole analogy between the Force and political power in our world. It makes it to be just some magical powers some people have and its not big deal. It says power doesn’t corrupt people, it’s just something people have for random reasons and there’s no consequences for people that have that power.

But that’s the nature of TLJ, isn’t it? Rian Johnson was unable to understand the deeper meaning behind anything in Star Wars and thought it was just silly stories about space wizards and went about removing things he didn’t like without any concern about it meaning anything. He was tearing down a whole lot of Chesterton fences, which later had to be rebuilt. And it’s weird, it’s not like anything in Star Wars is difficult to understand the meaning of, they are kinda children’s stories, really. But it seems like he came into it with an arrogance and didn’t bother considering why things are the way they are in Star Wars.

So Rian Johnson thought of Star Wars as just a bunch of random stuff that doesn’t have any meaning to it, so he put a bunch of meaningless stuff onto the screen. This only appeals to those that also see Star Wars as a bunch of meaningless stuff that has no meaning. If you think Star Wars movies are just dumb movies about space wizards than you might like TLJ. But for those asking for more from a Star Wars movie than just a bunch of dumb shit about space wizards, TLJ falls very very far short of the mark. This is why people say TLJ is a movie for people who aren’t Star Wars fans. It only appeals to those that have never thought of what things in Star Wars represent in our world.

Maybe watch the actual movie instead of just consuming clips from online reviewers? It is actually explained. Twice.

Both in the scene before Poe said the line, and immediately after in the same scene Poe says the line. Sure the editting is janky in that movie (and they move past it quickly because Poe doesn’t care about how Palpatine returned) so you may have missed it.

If you were criticizing the movie for janky editing making it difficult to understand what’s going on, then I’d agree. But continuing with saying things to conform to a meme which is you could prove is obviously false if you actually watch the movie is a bit silly at this point.

That’s bullshit. People generally do blame the director when a movie is shit regardless of whether it’s a man or a woman. Does anyone ever say “TLJ sucks, but it’s not Rian Johnson’s fault, it’s a bad movie for mysterious reason, but it’s not Rian Johnson’s fault because he’s a man”?

Patty Jenkins did a pretty good job on the first Wonder Woman which she directed, but didn’t write. Wonder Woman 1984 which she both wrote and directed was a complete turd. After that debacle, LucasFilm wanted to bring on some other writers to help her with the Star Wars movie they were going to spend hundreds of millions on, seems pretty reasonable. She dropped out instead of accepting help in an areas she’s weak.

Seems to me Patty Jenkins just sucks as a writer. But she’s unable to admit that and instead wants to blame everyone else. There’s an audience for the narrative that the man is preventing women from succeeding. Even when the CEO of LucasFilm was a woman, it’s somehow still a man holding her down. But this is coming from the person that wrote and directed Wonder Woman 1984 so I’m going with someone that sucks at a thing blaming everyone else instead of admitting they aren’t good at a thing. And it’s too bad, she could have a lot of success if she was partnered with good writers, but she insists she doesn’t need that.

Mr. Plinkett very famously criticized movies in which the only woman of significance in the story had an arc where she went from being a Queen to a Senator to a trad wife to being dead.

But it’s wrong to criticize movies that have plot arcs like that for women?

Like introducing a self-conscious stormtrooper and then having him unemotionally kill his mates pretty much immediately.

If you paid attention to the movie, Finn doesn’t know how to fly a TIE fighter, because Storm Troopers don’t fly TIE fighters. So when Finn is blasting TIE fighters, he’s explicitly not killing Storm Troopers. In fact in every military I’m aware of, pilots of expensive fighters are always officers. Who abducted Finn from his family? That would be First Order officers. Who is Finn shooting at? First Order officers. Doubtful it would be the same officers that pressed him into the First Order, but it’s easy to understand why he wouldn’t all that broken up about it.

Some online review told you the movie is stupid because Finn is shooting at his friends, but if you think about it at all, that is explicitly not true.

Also consider that a Star Wars movie made you think about the morality of killing Storm Troopers. You might even consider thinking about it more and consider how many wars involve killing people not because they are evil, but killing people simply because they are on the other side and will kill you for the same reason. You may find that the answer to that question is it’s every war that’s like that. That’s what a war is: killing people because they’re on the other side without any consideration to what kind of person they are. Yeah, wars are a bad thing.

Also consider that Finn was indoctrinated and conditioned to be capable of killing people without hesitation. Consider how many militaries in the real condition people to kill other people without hesitation. How many militaries do you suppose do that?

Do you think that if someone realizes they’ve been indoctrinated into something, all other indoctrination and conditioning disappears from their brain instantly? Like it’s a Saturday morning cartoon and someone gets bonked on the head and suddenly they’re a good guy in all things? I think it actually makes more sense that Finn is still conditioned to kill without hesitation than what the internet that says he’s supposed to have some moral crisis about killing First Order officers.

So a Star Wars movie made you the morality of killing people in a war. But you stopped yourself from thinking about it too much because the internet told you the movies sucks. Instead of asking questions and thinking about what’s happening in a scene in a movie, you didn’t think about it because you’re defaulting to the answer “because the movie sucks”. And this is how the internet ruins movies for people, you’re not allowing yourself to even consider why things are happening in a movie because you’re supposed to answer “because this sucks” and stop all thought.

Or introducing a nobody and then make her the child of a somehow™️ returned supervillain.

It’s possible the point of the sequel to explore relationships in the past (shocking!). Something to think about: Why didn’t Rey try to bring Palpatine back from the dark side (as Luke did with Vader)? Luke didn’t even suggest that she try to do this. Why not? There’s seems to be difference between the relationships explored in RoTJ and in RoS. Why is Vader redeemable, but Palpatine isn’t? Maybe think on what the difference is.

Or just go along with the internet narrative and turn off your brain, because that’s easier.

Yeah well if you ignore the internet reviews and marketing and take the movies for what they are, TFA was a solid reboot, checked all the boxes. Not exactly groundbreaking but a good return to form and a fun action adventure movie, which is all Star Wars needs to be really.

TLJ was unoriginal, boring, and the most misogynistic movie in Star Wars. But the marketing said it was about strong women so everyone got on their respective hills ready to die based solely on the marketing. No one was going to change their opinion (which is documented on the internet forever) after they actually saw the movie. So we’re suppose to pretend that it’s good leadership to act like an authoritarian in a Resistance movement (what are they resisting again?) Rey wasn’t relegated to a support role (her only actions are distracting tie fighters and moving some rocks around) and Leia hiding in a bunker from her son is what a strong person would do. Let’s all pretend that Rey thinking she should try to fix a rapey asshole because he looks good with his shirt off isn’t a problematic thing to show to young girls as a positive role model. We all have to pretend the marketing was an accurate representation of the movie forever because we’re idiots that can’t actually look at what’s happening on the movie screen.

RoS is janky, but is actually the most interesting Star Wars movies, mostly because of the challenges placed on it externally. It has some fun action adventure (though very derivative of Raiders of the Lost Ark in the first half). It has interesting themes about relationship with the past, the difference between ancestry and family, the emotional aspects of fascism, and of course the grieving process. Also gives a fairly satisfying ending for Princess Leia, though you have it a lot of leeway on that part (given the circumstances) if you’re not an asshole. But the internet is obsessed with “somehow Palpatine returned” memes (which is all about how Poe is supposed to know or care about the specifics of his return, which is actually explained to us the audience) so the narrative is that it’s the worst Star Wars movie ever!

Rogue One is studio directed garbage (sorry!) I won’t go into details on that one, don’t want to ruin it for you.

Outside of the Original Trilogy, the best two Star Wars movies were the ones JJ Abrams made. Other than those two (and Solo) everyone else failed to meet the bar of being fun action adventure. Everything else is trying to pretentious garbage, and I’m sorry but I’m not taking a movie that seriously when it has toys I played with as a kid on the screen. TFA, RoS, and Solo remembered to have some fun, but that’s something miserable terminally online people that make youtube videos can’t comprehend.

Disney should really just bring back JJ Abrams to make another fun action adventure movie with Rey, Finn, and Poe. People that like Star Wars movies would get another fun Star Wars movie. Youtube content farms would pump out endless videos about how horrible JJ Abrams is. Miserable people would have another reason to go on the internet and complain. Everyone would get what they really want.

What plot threads? People keep repeating that TLJ opened possibilities but no one can explain what possibilities it actually opened.

You wanted Rey and Kylo Ren to kiss in the next movie? We saw that happen and it sucked. What other possibilities did it open?

The resistance is on the backfoot, desperate for an answer.

This was done better in ESB.

Kylo is coming into his power as the big bad and the First Order is adjusting to the sudden power vacuum.

Who cares? We have no idea who Snoke was. Because of this there’s nothing to indicate Kylo Ren is doing anything different than Snoke would’ve done. There’s zero perceptible change because they didn’t bother to spend any time defining the First Order or Snoke.

Other force sensitives are awakening across the galaxy.

I always assume there’s other force users across the galaxy all of the time. I think you’re taking the things you see in a Star Wars movie to be 100% of the events that happen in that Galaxy. For those of us that take it as some of the more interesting stories coming from this massive galaxy of who knows how many people (trillions? quintiliions?) that scene is meaningless. Like, yeah that’s always happening, all of the time. I generally assume that there are many Jedi out there. The movie is calling itself “The Last Jedi” to present the galaxy as something narrow (which is stupid because Leia would be a Jedi FFS, just another thing they would need to fix later) just so you will think it’s interesting to broaden something presented to as being something narrow. It was never narrow, it was only TLJ that attempted to present Star Wars as something narrow. it was always broad, nothing new happened when they suggested it was broader than only TLJ presented it to be earlier in the movie.

Stop comparing the new to the old, especially at such a minuscule, beat-for-beat level.

Why wouldn’t we? First of all TLJ is just ESB and RoTJ thrown into a blender with the point of all of the plot lines they re-hashed removed. Benicio Del Tor is Lando. Kylo Ren kills the old evil guy like Darth Vader did. They have to blow up a super laser. There’s AT ATs walking across a white plain. Ah, but it’s different because TLJ’s version of Lando doesn’t learn anything? It’s different because Kylo Ren doesn’t change? It’s different because they fail to blow up the super laser? It’s different because the AT ATs are walking on salt instead of snow? Sorry, but it’s the same kinda shit just without any point to it. Which makes it boring to anyone familiar with the movies it’s clumsily copy and pasting from.

RoS is way more interesting than TLJ. There’s at least a point to it, at least it wasn’t just blindly copy and pasting things from better movies without even understanding them.