Okay, so now that a brand new Star Wars film is OUT there for you ALL to despise, please, come here to FLOOD us with all the things about TLJ you secretly always quietly appreciated and rooted for despite never having ever said any of it in two years, now that you're hating the freshest film!

...

What? What am I talking about, you ask? idk, seems like this happens with every new movie so, just come here to show us that good old fashioned fabricated love.

I appreciate that TLJ was so **** that it caused even disney to recognize that the **** EU lore was the best bet for a sequel trilogy.

I also appreciate the many hours of entertainment it created by letting me read people try to justify its merits and failing.

I understand the legitimate criticisms. And not every movie is for everyone. I personally hated Infinity War.

TLJ is still my 2nd favorite Star Wars movie.

The best thing I can say about The Least Jedi is that it allowed me to appreciate the Prequel Trilogy more.

The overreliance on increasingly dated CGI effects may be unfortunate, but at least they had a cohesive narrative, world building, character development and, you know, actual storytelling.

And they didn't take a drinker's p**s all over the original trilogy's characters and events, either.

The Rise of Skywalker may be going down like a jaded dockside strumpet at 11:30pm, but The Least Jedi led it to that unenviable position.

1. Visually, I loved it. Mentioning it risks rehashing arguments about the Holdo manoeuvre but I've never heard anyone say that the cinematography and sound of that moment are anything but jaw-dropping.
2. Adding new resistance characters to the fleet. Not just because X-wing cards, but fleshing out the fleet beyond the two or three pilots you follow in The Force Awakens (yes, they're almost all killed immediately before someone says it. I'm arguing that I liked introducing them)
3. Moden Canady. I like the idea that the first order does have the odd old git leftover from the original Empire; it's nice to see someone who comes across as actually competent rather than snide or shouty (I like Pryde for much the same reason. I know Gleeson is actually mid-thirtys but since he's playing a 'General' he feels ridiculously young). Yes he's obviously ultimately going to lose because it's star wars and he's the bad guy but beating a competent bad guy makes the victory more meaningful.
4. The dreadnought - given the whole thing about planetary shields in The Empire Strikes Back preventing bombardment and leading to the comparatively scrappy ground assault and blockade action, the Empire/First Order deciding "we need a proper bombardment ship which can take out shielded ground targets" makes sense - if, for example, Paige hadn't destroyed it, then the Battle of Krait would have gone very differently and consisted of Kylo and some stormtroopers casually checking the corpses for loose change after Crait base was flattened from orbit.
5. Kylo's initial attack run during the chase scene. A force-user using awesome piloting skill to drop.....proton rockets? I guess?...into the launch bay of an enemy ship before it can launch its fighters is a genuinely clever idea, and one that needs someone with Kylo's piloting skill to pull it off at the speed he had to fly at to do it before anyone launched, so the resistance aren't expecting it.
6. The scene with Phasma executing her own troopers when Finn tells them what she did. Yes, I know this is a deleted scene, but I really wish it had been left in. It goes a long way to explaining why Phasma is still around, and the casualness and ease with which she drops her own troopers helps underscore that she is genuinely someone to be scared of, as opposed to just someone in shiny armour.

Disney lost me less than half way through The Farce Awokens. Really made me appreciate the prequels more.

6 hours ago, Sithborg said:

TLJ is still my 2nd favorite Star Wars movie.

Yup. Same.

6 hours ago, Sithborg said:

TLJ is still my 2nd favorite Star Wars movie.

10 minutes ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Yup. Same.

It's a very tough call for me between Empire Strike Back and The Last Jedi as my favorite.

I recently finished a Star Wars marathon leading to Episode 9 (I have yet to see the last episode though) and I can say that Episode 8 is the one I enjoyed watching the most out of the 10 (including Rogue One and Solo).

But then again, Empire Strike Back has been my favorite for the last 30 years+ so it holds such a special place for me. I grew up watching it countless time, especially when the Original trilogy was the only Star Wars content we had (excluding the Ewoks movies and Holiday special....) so if we wanted to get into the universe, the OT was our only option (and a good one at that!). It is one of the movie that defined who I am.

So, the questions I've been asking myself recently regarding Star wars: Is Episode 5 my favorite because I think it's still the best or because of all the fond memories and nostalgia I have for it growing up? Do I think The Last Jedi is better just because I watched episode 5 so many times that it doesn't surprise me as much as it used to (out with the old, in with the new?).

It's so hard to stay objective when comparing something you grew up with that has Nostalgia on his side against something new that gets you really deep.

What I did like in TLJ was the whole Rey/Kylo dynamic but it fell short when she didn't join his side. I said it before and I will say it again, TLJ should have ended with Rey joining Kylo. She grabs his hand, *BOOM* Credits. No Krait, no Luke holo-jedi, no stupid crashing into Finn to save him (so stupid). That would have been the ultimate cliff hanger.

4 minutes ago, Jo Jo said:

What I did like in TLJ was the whole Rey/Kylo dynamic but it fell short when she didn't join his side. I said it before and I will say it again, TLJ should have ended with Rey joining Kylo. She grabs his hand, *BOOM* Credits. No Krait, no Luke holo-jedi, no stupid crashing into Finn to save him (so stupid). That would have been the ultimate cliff hanger.

When the movie did character development for these two, it did it well. That's about the only praise I have for it though.

If there was one scene I actually liked from the show, it was the one I had told you about @KCDodger on the other thread before it had been deleted for no reason. I actually loved the scene with Yoda's force ghost returning to talk some sense into Luke, and how he tries to teach him that Masters can learn from failure. It is such a true statement because to get anywhere, one has to try, and if and when we fail, to try again. Failure can be a good experience if we can learn and apply where things went wrong.

I find it ironic that Disney made a scene like that in TLJ, but here we are.

I appreciate that the dumpster fire of TLJ existing gave us a beauty of TROS. TROS was made that much better by giving TLJ a collective middle finger.

I liked Canto Bite and DJ; I thought they were interesting additions to the Star Wars universe.

Overall, my favorite SW Movies besides Empire are Solo and Rogue One , as I tend to be more interested in the stories that revolve around the non-force users that inhabit the universe. Canto Bite and DJ fall into that sort of area and caught my imagination. I also like the points brought up by DJ about weapons dealers during the time line, as someone that created and sold star-ships during the days of Star Wars Galaxies and played both sides of the GCW.

TFA: Hey remember this, when you were kids?

TLJ: Time to grow up!

ROS: lolz nevermind

TLJ will end up being looked upon as the best in the sequel trilogy, and the future will not be kind to JJ Abrams.

4 hours ago, XPav said:

TFA: Hey remember this, when you were kids?

TLJ: Time to grow up!

ROS: lolz nevermind

TLJ will end up being looked upon as the best in the sequel trilogy, and the future will not be kind to JJ Abrams.

I have long said that The Last Jedi will be looked upon kindly.

Rise of Skywalker let down every promise of the Sequel Trilogy, and I do mean every single promise. Bitter, hateful men behind keyboards wrested the star wars trilogy back in their filthy hands.

And what do we have?

We have an apology as our final Skywalker film.

I am beyond angry about it.

32 minutes ago, KCDodger said:

I have long said that The Last Jedi will be looked upon kindly.

Rise of Skywalker let down every promise of the Sequel Trilogy, and I do mean every single promise. Bitter, hateful men behind keyboards wrested the star wars trilogy back in their filthy hands.

And what do we have?

We have an apology as our final Skywalker film.

Which never should have needed to be made, considering how TLJ could have been MUCH better with the potential given in TFA before. History will NOT be kind to how Disney has treated the stories and fanbases to the most one of, if not, the most prolific franchise of all time.

4 hours ago, Captain Lucas said:

Which never should have needed to be made, considering how TLJ could have been MUCH better with the potential given in TFA before. History will NOT be kind to how Disney has treated the stories and fanbases to the most one of, if not, the most prolific franchise of all time.

eh

I think the best thing TRoS did is eliminate any need whatsoever for TLJ to exist. You can skip from TFA to TRoS and not lose anything of value.

5 minutes ago, McFoy said:

I think the best thing TRoS did is eliminate any need whatsoever for TLJ to exist. You can skip from TFA to TRoS and not lose anything of value.

Apart from Luke Skywalker, of course. Who Ruin sacrifice d on the altar of his own giant-headed ego.

13 hours ago, KCDodger said:

I have long said that The Last Jedi will be looked upon kindly...

I liked Last Jedi a lot, and like it more in the wake of RoS-- not just relatively speaking, either.

The cave sequence in Last Jedi was the visual representation of Rey coming from nothing, from no one. With RoS saying "actually she was a Palpatine", what does that mean for the cave sequence? It makes the cave sequence-- and Kylo's plea to Rey that "you're no one-- but not to me"-- less valid, less meaningful, retroactively.

Given the choice between how that looked and felt and what RoS did with the change of direction, it's easy for me to say the Last Jedi approach was more satifying. It's consistent with the character flaw Rey has estabished in the first movie-- her loneliness, her longing to be part of something beyond herself. RoS does less with that idea. It tries to return to the idea of "the family you choose", and botches the execution of said idea while adding in a lot of weirdness, plot-wise. Let Kylo's temptation for Rey be that he's the only person who gets her, the only person who values her for all that she is. That's a heck of a lot more seductive than "your grandpa was evil so you should be evil too". (After all, Rey was training with Luke and Leia-- she knows first-hand lineage ain't the thing that determines your alignment! Why are we relitigating this?)

@KCDodger May want to update the thread title that this contains spoilers, and is no longer just discussing TLJ

24 minutes ago, ChahDresh said:

...T he cave sequence in Last Jedi was the visual representation of Rey coming from nothing, from no one. With RoS saying "actually she was a Palpatine", what does that mean for the cave sequence? It makes the cave sequence-- and Kylo's plea to Rey that "you're no one-- but not to me"-- less valid, less meaningful, retroactively.

...not really.

The cave sequence remains perfectly fine

Rey is looking for answers about her heritage. She sees a long line if herself. Palpatine has been involved in cloning from the beginning. He cloned an army, he cloned Smoke, et cetera.

Rey saw what she asked for. Kylo's revelation s remain accurate... from a certain point of view.

11 minutes ago, kris40k said:

@KCDodger May want to update the thread title that this contains spoilers, and is no longer just discussing TLJ

The "Appreciation" part of the title just kinda flew over a lot of people's heads, didn't it?

2 minutes ago, Derpzilla88 said:

The "Appreciation" part of the title just kinda flew over a lot of people's heads, didn't it?

It continues to get the appreciation it deserves.