x105Black

Last 3 movies I saw were... 1. Thor: Ragnarok 2. Blade Runner 2049 3. Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi I liked them in that same order.

After watching the movie, I felt disappointed. Overall, I liked it. It was good. But there was so much not to like, so many big things. It felt like Rian Johnson wanted to subvert things so badly he decided to subvert everything. Here are a few negative points about the movie: Humor: Yes, all Star Wars movies have humor. The Original Trilogy had humor. Much of it was wry, sarcastic, witty, and timeless. The Prequel Trilogy had Jar Jar Binks bumbling through battles, C-3PO in a Battle Droid factory, and well, just bad humor. This movie was more like the Prequel Trilogy in this regard. The humor seemed more like a bunch of lame memes that didn't hit right rather than the clever humor of the Original Trilogy. While I'm glad they included humor, it was used too often to break the tension of a scene. And when the tension is broken in every suspenseful scene, it takes you out of the moment and makes things feel anticlimactic. Someone mentioned the dusting of Luke's shoulder. That was the worst one for me. He might as well have dabbed. Like Luke throwing the lightsaber over his shoulder, it didn't fit the tone of Star Wars, and would have been better suited to the tone of Thor: Ragnarok or a Guardians of the Galaxy movie (both of which were much better than Episode VIII). Poe's joke with Hux at the beginning, BB-8 plugging holes like a cartoon character in a sinking boat, the shirtless Kylo Ren joke, the BB-8 AT-ST buffoonery, pumping BB-8 full of coins, Hux's incompetence throughout the movie, all of these were bad jokes. Luke tickling Rey's hand with the leaf, the Jakku is basically nowhere joke, Finn waking up in the bacta suit, the joke about C-3PO's nervous expression, these jokes worked much better. But there was so much more comedy, like the Rebel Scum line, Yoda, the rock that destroys the cart, some scenes with the Porgs, and more. This makes it hard to accept even the good humor in this movie out of sheer volume. Force Powers: I think they went a bit overboard with the force powers. I don't really mind Leia being able to Force Pull herself to the door, but she should have suffered quite a lot more damage than what was shown, and should have probably died out there in space. I also don't really mind Kylo and Rey being weirdly connected through the force. I was hoping that it would be explained as a familial connection. I didn't really like how it was explained as a force power of Snoke being able to bridge their minds. And finally, Luke's interstellar astral projection didn't work for me. He should have just left Ahch-To with Rey and actually fought Kylo Ren on Crait, especially if he was going to die immediately afterwards anyways. Payoff: There were so many things that failed to pay off in this movie. Right from the start, we get no explanation about how anyone survived the destruction of the Starkiller Base. They built up Snoke, but then killed him off really easily and early. He never even got out of his chair. I think it's fine to kill him off in this movie, but give us a little more of who he is, where he came from, and a death that actually feels like a climactic moment for such a purportedly important and powerful character. They built up Rey's origins in The Force Awakens with all the questions about her, and her searching for her parents, only to have her be a nobody. The main characters of the Star Wars movies are always part of the Skywalker bloodline. Rey is clearly the protagonist of these movies, while Kylo is the villain. This can only be saved if either Kylo was lying, or if Rey and Kylo hook up at the end of the trilogy. There are so many other heroic characters in the movie that are not from special bloodlines that I don't get what would be bad about the story if Rey was. And it would tie together much better with the trilogy of trilogies as a whole if she was in some way related, especially after years of building the mystery, but instead the answer just falls flat, with no payoff. Phasma's death also lacks payoff. Like Snoke, she didn't get enough time. The battle she had with Finn was too short and anticlimactic, and she falls down into a pit like some Wile E Coyote cartoon. Ackbar died in such a way that I wonder why they even included him in the movie in the first place. Wasted Time: A lot of time was wasted on plots that ended without a satisfying climax. This could fit into the above header about a lack of payoff, but it was something else. The whole side mission to Canto Bight was pointlessly drawn out. They spent all this time on Rose's backstory, and on the slaves and horses, when they really should have just been picking up DJ and bringing him back. And I don't know why they bothered including Maz at all. Meanwhile you have the unnecessary mutiny led by Poe, which could have been avoided if Holdo had just been upfront about things in the first place. And maybe she would have if they had let Leia die when she was blown out into space. Instead they show Holdo as a traitor, when we could have used all the wasted time showing her actually being a competent leader, making us care a bit more about her heroic sacrifice. There are certainly more things I could say about this, but I've already said enough, and most of it you will have read from other sources. I might have liked it more in an empty theater, but there was a lot of reaction from the crowd. But I do feel that the movie was beautifully made. It looked great. There were a lot of scenes that worked really well, like Holdo destroying Snoke's huge ship, and maybe I'll make another post about that later. I actually enjoyed a lot of it and had a good time watching it despite my many complaints. If I were to score it now, it would get a 2/5, and rank somewhere near the bottom of all Star Wars movies, below the Christmas Special and Ewok movies where I rank a couple Prequels and the animated Clone Wars movie. That could go up with more time and / or more viewings, but it could go down like my scores for the Prequels have since their initial release. I went into the movie very excited, wanting to love it. Maybe I had over-hyped it for myself. Maybe I had too many expectations about what I thought I would see, and too many ideas about what I wanted to see. But all of that aside, I left the theater disappointed because the movie just had bad pacing, bad jokes, and little payoff to the big questions raised by The Force Awakens. But it's canon now, so I will have to find a way to reconcile my feelings about this movie with my feelings about Star Wars as a whole. That said, I don't think I have any interest in watching Rian Johnson's upcoming trilogy at the moment.

375 Castle looks really good. They are all well done. Still, something with minifigures would have been appreciated.

rob-ot5000 is reliable. When he has information, it tends to be true.

I think the tower looks rad. Also, Art Nouveau might be cool to see. Furthermore, here's the quote about faces for those that didn't want to click: Fair enough.

I disagree, mostly because that set you linked to is not close enough to a Light Cycle to satisfy the Tron fan in me.

Fair enough. Female-oriented themes are getting the best shield designs lately. Too bad so many are stickers.

Depends on your definition of "confirmed." No official confirmation, but at least a couple of reputable people have stated that there will be a Wizarding World CMF series in 2018. So the line-up next year will be LEGO Batman 2nd series, Anniversary theme, then Wizarding World.

Don't forget Cloud Cuckoo Land... It'll be a shame if that shield is a sticker.

Much better, in fact.

Light Cycle is exciting, and the Tron IP is great. Maybe we're one step closer to Daft Punk! (I can dream.)

And don't forget rob-ot5000...

Me too.

Well at least I know I won't be missing out on any dark turquoise.

These are really clever and unique designs! Nice job on creating these characters!

Yes, I fully agree.

That's too bad. Yes, Phosphorescent Green would have been perfect for Dr. Phosphorus.

Could make for a fruitful Bricks & Pieces order!

Well, they're not terrible. I'd get them.

True, and a shame. I hope they are working on solving this problem. I'd be fine with that.

Yeah, I'm hoping he is at least glow in the dark, but would have preferred a translucency. Even better, a new color that is trans glow in the dark... But I still like the design and will get him anyways.

I thought it was the original one at first, but I didn't know that it was able to stand up. Very cool.

Phosphorus is easily the one I'm most interested in. The Wonder Twins look great. I am a fan of Jor-El and Zod. I like the Apache Chief a lot. And it looks like that's a new mermaid tail piece for Batman that lets him stand up. All around, it's a good looking series.

I can attest to this being fact.

Looking forward to this set. A red one would be nice as well, and the idea of a solid ribbon is a good one.