Vader182 wrote:I've avoided digging into RJ since ultimately it may be a taste thing, but I frankly just don't like his style. Or lack of it. Lots of bland medium shots with uninterseting blocking and movement. TFA's photography is so emotive, so perfectly precise. TLJ has a lot of just point the camera at a direction the actors are in.

Some of TLJ is jaw dropping and the production design is amazing. But, for me, so much of it felt criminally bland. The polite way is to say it is that RJ isn't a "manipulative" filmmaker and a more formal one. But Star Wars is all about emoting kineticism and visceral power from the images. And TLJ is really uneven when it wants to do that vs when it doesn't. He does all these flatly lit medium shots with zero interesting things going on in the frame.

I also hate the way he motivates action and plot and characters and it often feels like they don't do what he wants so he imposes their will onto them. It doesn't always feel organic. IE:

All the bombers are so fragile that if one blows they all blow, like a string of firecrackers. It seems like they all get destroyed because they're garbage, not because of poe ignoring orders to call off his attack. Did Poe ignore orders? Yes. Is he a hotshot in need of being humbled? Yes. But Rian Johnson positions all the bombers blowing up to be "evidence" that Poe is a hotshot. But they're not. If one can easily blow up the others at any time. If Poe's attack -itself- led to all the ships getting blown up, the point would be clearer. But instead, he introduces foreign elements into the narrative.

That's kind of like the US painting the war in the middle east as a response to 9/11.

That's kinda how he handles the whole movie.


-Vader

darthnazgul wrote: How about them out of focus shots?

Vader182 wrote:If folks chime in I'd really appreciate it, I'm super curious how everybody feels about...

The Last Jedi seems to push a Factory Reset to Star Wars in 1977. Think about it... In the final minutes of TLJ, the rebels are turned into a grass roots movement, and the First Order will now rule the galaxy.

Doesn't that sound pretty familiar?

We're entering Episode IX almost identically to how we enter A New Hope. The stage of the galactic conflict is nearly Rogue One era, we've got rebels that are banding together to destroy a military oppressor with unlimited power. That's partially a consequence of how Rian chose not to double down on what's unique about The Resistance and or The First Order and works with that. Instead he says "let's call a spade a spade. This is clearly The Rebels and The Empire." Rian deconstructs these things, he doesn't add to them. So as The Last Jedi comes to a close, Rebels vs Empire are deconstructed to the bare essentials of what they always were in the first place. It's like The Last Jedi goes so far forwards it accidentally went backwards.

As subversive as The Last Jed is, it seems that the state of he Galaxy hasn't been this familiar in 40 years of Star Wars.

-Vader

Vader182 wrote:If folks chime in I'd really appreciate it, I'm super curious how everybody feels about...

The Last Jedi seems to push a Factory Reset to Star Wars in 1977. Think about it... In the final minutes of TLJ, the rebels are turned into a grass roots movement, and the First Order will now rule the galaxy.

Doesn't that sound pretty familiar?

We're entering Episode IX almost identically to how we enter A New Hope. The stage of the galactic conflict is nearly Rogue One era, we've got rebels that are banding together to destroy a military oppressor with unlimited power. That's partially a consequence of how Rian chose not to double down on what's unique about The Resistance and or The First Order and works with that. Instead he says "let's call a spade a spade. This is clearly The Rebels and The Empire." Rian deconstructs these things, he doesn't add to them. So as The Last Jedi comes to a close, Rebels vs Empire are deconstructed to the bare essentials of what they always were in the first place. It's like The Last Jedi goes so far forwards it accidentally went backwards.

As subversive as The Last Jed is, it seems that the state of he Galaxy hasn't been this familiar in 40 years of Star Wars.

-Vader

m4st4 wrote:#StarWarsTheLastJedi dropped 45% from #NewYearsDay MON to non-holiday TUE with $7.9M. Last yr this week, #RogueOne fell a larger 61% from holiday MON to TUE. Global now $1.09B. After 4th wknd, domestic shd be at $575-580M & global will approach $1.25B w/ China launch.

Booyah.

darthnazgul wrote:Well when Avatar is the highest grossing film ever, it's not a good indication of film quality.