THe Last Jedi DVD review

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Synopsis: Rey finds a very grumpy and bitter old Luke, Leia and Poe try to keep the Resistance together, Kylo Ren shows off his (awesome) pecs. Wackiness ensues.

Glad I paid only $7.00 for this one...and it wasn't worth it. There are so few GOOD things is this jumbled mess of a "story" that I can count them on one hand. Adam Driver's pecs was one of them. Luke's goodbye scene with Leia was another. John William's score was the third.

Speaking of John William's score, in a documentary video about the recording, they mention the reprise of the X-wing from the swamp theme...where was this scene in this movie, when Luke (or Rey?) lift Luke's X-wing from the water at the island? Maybe I had been in the catatonic state I was in for most of this abortion when that scene happened...

Rian Johnson couldn't direct his way out of a wet paper bag based on this mess. His so-called "writing" was even worse.

Not to mention he ruined and literally shat upon ALL of the legacy characters, badly. Leia slapping Poe, Luke acting like a total douche for most of the film, C3PO acting like a traitor, (oh, and Leia's clunker of a line telling C3PO to "Take that worried expression off his face" WTF?) The list goes on.

The battle scenes were so jumbled which made it hard to follow the "action", and some shots literally were so out of place they looked like trims from a totally different film.

Oh, and most of the star field backgrounds (especially the opening and closing titles/credits) were so cluttered... they really looked like static on an old color tv. At least the opening crawl text was better than RoS was. That brings the count of good things to 4.

I am what one would consider a Star Wars fan, but this piece of steaming deserves to have every print, negative and dcp destroyed forever. (With the exception of the highlights I mentioned above.) It is a major embarrassment to what was once a great franchise. KK needs to have the bitch slapped out of her for her roles in the entire Disney versions cock-ups.

Ratings? I almost don't want to bother, but:

Story: negative 5 out of plus five
Visuals: 2 out of 5 (What's with the "Ballantyne shimmy" on the opening crawl and end credits?)
Sound: 3 out of 5 (seemed to be lacking in dynamic range)
Acting: 2 out of 5 (mainly due to shit writing and directing, "Rose" was extremely annoying)
Overall: negative 1 out of plus 5

As a side note, I finally bought a 4k tv just prior to this review. It did help on visual quality even with dvd's and of course BR's look even better (I watched TRON: Legacy as my first movie on it, it was stunning and looked like 3D. ) I do need to spring for an upgraded BR player that can do 4k.

The ONLY reason I bought this dvd is to have the complete collection to satisfy my OCD. I don't see this one getting a repeat viewing.

[Marcel Birgelen]

My favorite part is still that one scene where Admiral Holdo (the purple haired one) hyperdrives her cruiser right through the bad guy's supership and not only destroys his entire fleet, but decades of Star Wars lore, all remaining logic and all remaining suspension of disbelief in the process. It was around that moment that I realized that Rian Johnson must have hated Star Wars as a kid and what I was watching was just a parody of Star Wars.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

My favorite part is still that one scene where Admiral Holdo (the purple haired one) hyperdrives her cruiser right through the bad guy's supership and not only destroys his entire fleet, but decades of Star Wars lore, all remaining logic and all remaining suspension of disbelief in the process. It was around that moment that I realized that Rian Johnson must have hated Star Wars as a kid and what I was watching was just a parody of Star Wars.

Speaking of which, the WORST was the whole frozen "Leia-Sickle" bit.... a record low point in cinema history. It was the most pointless and stupid scene in an already pointless "story."

Even a high school parody of Star Wars would be galaxies better than this was.

Speaking of galaxy, Carrie did a wonderful bit in her stage show ("wishful Drinking") about her likeness being merchandised. The highlight was her description of the Leia Slave girl statue on a rotating dais. She points out the detail of "my anatomically correct, though shaved.......Galaxy Snatch" as visible up her dress. She was a wonderfully down to earth (ironic, isn't it?) celebrity or has she once said, "crazy old broad." RIP Princess, your star still shines bright.

[Mike Blakesley]

It would be interesting to sit a group of people down who have NEVER seen Star Wars in any form, and show them the whole series of nine movies and get their reactions. (Although it would be hard to find such a group, the way the franchise has infiltrated our world.) If I was doing such an experiment, I wonder if it'd be better to run the movies in the order they were released, or in episode order.

My friend Keith, the Star Wars geek, and I have had this discussion about the best way to bring a new fan into the SW world. My wife thinks SW is "okay" but she's never really gotten into it, but she thinks that she might get into it if she really gives it a chance. I maintain they should be watched in release order, but that Episodes 1, 2 and 3 should only be included if the "newbie" is really intrigued by the first three and wants to know more back-story, or would prefer to just "move forward." I feel like if a person watched the series in episode order, the newbie might be turned off by the first couple of films, which are okay if you like galactic politics, but to me they work better if you know the basics of the Star Wars world to start with.

[Bobby Henderson]

I really wish the un-altered versions of the 1977, 1980 & 1983 movies could be restored. Most of the "special edition" inserts done in the mid 1990's (with further meddling done in later years) seems to stick out like a sore them even worse over time. I can't even watch the scene where Darth Vader picks up the Emperor and throws him to his death in the SE of the SE version of Return of the Jedi. That added "noooooo" thing is like fingernails on a chalk board. The SE alterations are as if someone took a classic rock song made in the 1970's and added some modern day auto-tune re-mix shit into it, and then claim they meant to do that back in the 1970's but the technology wasn't available then. Much of it just doesn't work.

[Geoff Jones]

I really wish the un-altered versions of the 1977, 1980 & 1983 movies could be restored.

The un-altered versions have been restored. They've been restored by fans, who have given them more love and care than LFL ever would.

[Marcel Birgelen]

If you need a pointer, you only need to look here.

Project 4K80 is also almost finished, really can't wait to see that!

We've watched both the DNR version of 4K77 and 4K83 in our screening room. It looks marvelous. The DNR version almost has a 70mm-feel to it, since it removes a lot of the noise and grain. THIS is the proper way to watch the originals. And yeah, we just did that and since I own a legal copy of the original trilogy on almost any given consumer format that was ever released, I didn't feel bad for LucasFilm or Disney. Heck, Disney should pay the poor chaps that put their efforts into this and did a better job than they could ever have done and release it on 4K on Blu-Ray as a special collectors edition: I'd gladly pay a premium for it...

Speaking of which, the WORST was the whole frozen "Leia-Sickle" bit.... a record low point in cinema history. It was the most pointless and stupid scene in an already pointless "story."

Yeah, that part ranks high up there, but the movie had so many lows, it's hard to properly rank them all... I don't now why that entire scene was necessary either, because it was just one of those many instances of bad taste and a general FU to the audience, committed by the director himself. I guess everybody expected this to be a cheap, but definite story exit for Leia's character after her unfortunate untimely demise...

It would be interesting to sit a group of people down who have NEVER seen Star Wars in any form, and show them the whole series of nine movies and get their reactions. (Although it would be hard to find such a group, the way the franchise has infiltrated our world.) If I was doing such an experiment, I wonder if it'd be better to run the movies in the order they were released, or in episode order.

My wife was a proper Star Wars virgin... or at least almost... yeah, she heard about it, she'd actually seen one of the Ewok movies once, but wasn't able to relate those to Star Wars. She'd also been in the Star Tours attraction in several Disney parks, but she'd never seen one of the Star Wars movies.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to show her the movies in Episode Order. I can tell you, for someone who isn't into Star Wars already, this doesn't work at all. The first movie is completely confusing... On one hand, it's essentially a movie made for little kids and on the other hand it's a movie containing a lot of "space politics", which no child in the intended target audience will ever understand.

The second movie is mostly an intergalactic romance story told in the most cheesy and wooden way.

After "Epiode 2", I had to abort the mission, she was done with Star Wars. It took more than a year to eventually return to the original trilogy, which she actually liked. Once we viewed the "despecialized editions" years later, she clearly indicated that she liked those much more than the "clean versions" of the original.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

My wife was a proper Star Wars virgin... or at least almost... yeah, she heard about it, she'd actually seen one of the Ewok movies once, but wasn't able to relate those to Star Wars. She'd also been in the Star Tours attraction in several Disney parks, but she'd never seen one of the Star Wars movies.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to show her the movies in Episode Order. I can tell you, for someone who isn't into Star Wars already, this doesn't work at all. The first movie is completely confusing... On one hand, it's essentially a movie made for little kids and on the other hand it's a movie containing a lot of "space politics", which no child in the intended target audience will ever understand.

The second movie is mostly an intergalactic romance story told in the most cheesy and wooden way.

After "Epiode 2", I had to abort the mission, she was done with Star Wars. It took more than a year to eventually return to the original trilogy, which she actually liked. Once we viewed the "despecialized editions" years later, she clearly indicated that she liked those much more than the "clean versions" of the original.

Great discussion guys, thanks for joining in on the fun.

I agree with you all about introducing a noob to the saga, and the best order I came up with is show Eps. 4, 5, 6, forget 1, show 2, 3, and MAYBE 7, and throw 8 and 9 in the fireplace.

My one wish would be for the despecialized editions to be released on bluray so I can enjoy them on my shiny new tv, (I have lousy internet service out here, actually using my cell phone's severely data limited hotspot), but we know that the MH and LFL would shit a ton of bricks if they got out that way. Now, if I were in charge to the rights to this saga, I WOULD license the despecialized editions, with a percentage to the creator, and laugh all the way to the bank with the MILLIONS of dollars they would generate.

But we all know that logic, common sense, and making movies to entertain, are not in the studio's playlists anymore. Greed is the only thing they worship.

[Bobby Henderson]

The un-altered versions have been restored. They've been restored by fans, who have given them more love and care than LFL ever would.

I still want a retail product on disc. Yeah, fans have done a lot of work on projects like 4K77. But, IIRC, those projects have used old release prints to harvest the imagery and audio. A commercial effort from Disney, using original negatives or best surviving elements could be better. I don't know how George Lucas continues to figure into the situation. Didn't he sell off all of his rights to the Mouse House? If Disney now has the final say on the matter they're leaving money on the table (a lot of it) by not releasing proper de-specialized versions of the original 3 movies on Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray.

[Marcel Birgelen]

My one wish would be for the despecialized editions to be released on bluray so I can enjoy them on my shiny new tv, (I have lousy internet service out here, actually using my cell phone's severely data limited hotspot), but we know that the MH and LFL would shit a ton of bricks if they got out that way. Now, if I were in charge to the rights to this saga, I WOULD license the despecialized editions, with a percentage to the creator, and laugh all the way to the bank with the MILLIONS of dollars they would generate.

Even with a mediocre broadband connection, you'd be able to download them in a day or so, just let it download on the background.

If you have a somewhat recent TV, chances are you can play 'm right from your TV. Put the MKV files on your USB stick and put them into the USB slot in your TV and usually, a popup comes up, asking you to play the content on that USB stick. And if your TV doesn't have the option to play form USB, your BluRay player may as well have that option.

I still want a retail product on disc. Yeah, fans have done a lot of work on projects like 4K77. But, IIRC, those projects have used old release prints to harvest the imagery and audio. A commercial effort from Disney, using original negatives or best surviving elements could be better. I don't know how George Lucas continues to figure into the situation. Didn't he sell off all of his rights to the Mouse House? If Disney now has the final say on the matter they're leaving money on the table (a lot of it) by not releasing proper de-specialized versions of the original 3 movies on Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray.

George Lucas sold all the rights to Star Wars he had to Disney and Disney now even owning 20th Century Fox, they even own all the distribution rights to the original trilogy. George Lucas never really wanted to re-release the original cuts of the original trilogy either, so it looks like we're facing a dead-end street.

But, the 4Kxx projects have sourced their content from 35 prints and done a frame-by-frame restoration. I even somehow doubt Disney could ever do a better job themelves, because of the time that has been invested into this. You should really give them a look, Star Wars hasn't looked that good in over 40 years. Before the 4Kxx projects, there were the Harmy Despecialized editions. Those took content from lesser sources like 16MM prints and the Laser Disc edition, but you hardly can compare both editions when it comes down to the end-result. The only reason to own a retail product, is because it's the only way to fully, legally own it, not because it's better, because I somehow doubt Disney would ever do a frame-by-frame restoration. If they would release the original cut, then probably one that has been run through some automated cleanup processes and color timings, with only minimal work done on the parts that really badly need it.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Marcel. I would love to do the downloads, but my data limit for the entire monthly billing cycle is only 20gigs, which has to cover all of my email, Youtube, forums and auction site usage. It tends to go quickly. And, being cell tower based, does only 4gLTE at its best speed, and is often slower.

And you are also correct that no way would the MH take the time, or money, to do a proper restoration with original elements. That is why my take on it would be to license the 4k restorations and pay a license fee plus percentage per unit sold.

I also should add that it is the 4k series I'd like to get on BR, not necessarily the despecialized. I got those crossed up in the earlier posts.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yeah, if you're stuck on a mobile plan, I can understand that you want to use your data allotment for other stuff. Getting around with 20 gigs of data a month with all the stuff constantly wanting to update is a pretty interesting affair already. A few months ago I was stuck for two weeks with a limited dataplan on a remote site that didn't have any fixed broadband yet. The data allotment was 150 Gigs, which sounds a lot, until you have to divide that over 6 or so workstations, I gues we burned a third of it just on Windows and application updates. The irony in it was that the 4G on that site easily pulled 250 MBit down, so getting to that 150 Gigs was no problem at all... One trick that helped was the bandwidth limiter in the firewall we used, that way I could reduce the bandwidth to e.g. YouTube, in such way it still worked, but YouTube wouldn't start pulling in videos at 4K as a default, which really hits hard on your usage.

Maybe someone can burn the 4Ks to BluRay for you, which should be perfectly possible. Buying them on BluRay may be somewhat more difficult and a pretty shady affair, as they legally don't exist.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The Last Jedi? Not if it's up to Disney! But I am holding out for the episode that combines the famous Disney cartoon characters with the live action stuff.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

^^^ Looks like Mark is off his meds.....

[Marcel Birgelen]

The Last Jedi? Not if it's up to Disney! But I am holding out for the episode that combines the famous Disney cartoon characters with the live action stuff.

It was about time for a sequel to the Star Wars Holyday Special!