That look in Mark's eyes. LOL!
I didn't fundamentally disagree with Rian Johnson on how he envisioned Luke except for the end.
Unlike Tyrone Magnus, Luke Skywalker was never one of my idols. We saw more Mark than Luke like we saw more Harrison than Han in Ep 7. I didn't mind that. Hamill is way funnier in real life than how Luke is written.
The 5 Reasons Luke Skywalker Is A Complete Idiot
Luke will need to have closure and that's with death. So making him a more pessimistic Yoda from TESB made sense. But since Carrie's death, I didn't expect it to be so soon. It's like me expecting Iron Man to die because nothing lasts forever and RDJ is getting older. We can't expect new adventures of Luke Skywalker at Hamill's age.
Still, I don't buy into these new characters. I can clearly understand making Rey to appeal to a different demographic. I saw many females in the theater. Asians also make up 60% of the world population, and I'm glad SW is trying to diversify and the galaxy doesn't consist of mostly British males. Even the robots are Brits. I don't mind Finn being black, Poe being Latino, and Rose being Asian.
There were just some questionable moves I didn't agree with. And with JJ back to direct IX, I have as much confidence in him as Justin Lin did Star Trek: Beyond and Jony Ive back in the Apple design team. It sounds like I hate The Last Jedi and I don't. Planning to see it again next week to catch all the Easter eggs and let it marinate in my mind. It moved faster than TFA and was longer that I can't remember everything.
Every movie I have seen, and I've seen thousands, has flaws. I can point them out for even The Godfather I & II. No perfect film like no perfect OS or smartphone. I like movies like Wild Hogs and Hot Tub Machine, so it's not like I'm a film snob.
All these complaints like people who don't like the latest iPhone keynote. Guess what? We're slaves because we're diehard fans. Day 1 for many of us no matter how much we complained about the previous one.
We just have to view these franchises as episodic. Your favorite TV shows won't always have an episode you like. Some will just be better than others. Think of them as 2+ hr episodes. Some of us will probably get to SW Ep XV or XX by the time we are old.
Disney is going to milk this franchise like MCU forever and ever like Apple will continue to offer products forever and ever.
Theater experiences
TPM - 3x, Day 1 (morning, 9am)
AOTC - 2x, Day 1 (midnight)
ROTS - 3x, Day 1 (midnight)
TFA - 2x, Day 1 (eve, 9pm)
TLJ - 1x, Day 1 (eve, 7pm)
Only Rogue One wasn't a Day 1 (more like Day 4) but those last four minutes really saved the movie from me disliking it because there wasn't much character development and that movie needed to be a two-parter.
When Luke saw Princess Leia's hologram again from Artoo and saw Leia again as a hologram, that was sweet.
Canto Bight was nice to look at.
"Do you think we missed?" - Hux
"I changed my hair." - Leia
Nice to see Amilyn and Leia being like old homegirls.
I really want to know more about DJ.
There were a number of quips and small nuances I really liked from it. It's the longest SW film ever at 2 hrs and 32 min. That's about 20 min longer than average and pacing was definitely not an issue like it was in TFA and R1. It took us to several places with many beautiful shots.
TPM
1-3 viewings - like it
After 4 - it's ok
Vader has a bowl cut. Yippee! "I'm a person and my name is Anakin."
AOTC
1-2 viewings - like it
After 3 - hate it
^ Worst SW film to me especially once we got to the conveyor belt. Very good first 20 minutes.
ROTS
1-3 viewings - love it
After 12 years - still like it but no longer my fav SW film.
All the prequels are skippable. Natalie Portman had to deliver the cheesiest lines for it but wins an Oscar six years later. Can't blame the actors and actresses for the typical crap dialogue since '77.
TFA
1-2 viewings - like it
After 3 - dislike it more
TLJ
1 viewing - like it so far
For anyone who still likes The Force Awakens and this Sequel Trilogy is for a new generation of SW fans, you will enjoy The Last Jedi even more. This trilogy isn't really catered for someone like me who recently turned 37. I do believe it will hold up better with repeat viewings than TPM, AOTC, and TFA all did. Enjoy, kids.
Childhood dreams do come true...