sycasey 2.0

Yes, but it's so she can complain later about how much I don't help out. You gotta think three moves ahead.

My wife did get me MoviePass for Christmas. I'm not sure she knows what she encouraged me to do.

Hah, same here. Don't have kids.

Now there are grown adults who are too young to remember it (and boy does that make me feel old), but the long period in between Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace (1983-1999) was a time when there was very little Star Wars marketing around. Don't get me wrong, the movies were still cultural touchstones and all, but there wasn't much to market outside of niche stuff for the hardcore fans. There was a brief frenzy in 1997 when the Special Editions came out in theaters, but that only lasted as long as the movies were playing. So yeah, these days it can definitely feel like Star Wars is everywhere all the time. But as others have pointed out, that's not much different from every other nerd franchise they're running into the ground. I just try to look at them as movies: some good, some bad. At some point this fad will run its course and we'll just be left with those.

Before seeing The Last Jedi I would have probably said no, but then I saw it and loved it. So I guess it is still possible.

I'd be first in line for Hard Ticket to Hoth. But only if they had a great theme song.

I understand this problem, but for me the positive result of the proliferation of Star Wars is that it helps take the piss out of it. Everyone's hopes and dreams don't have to be piled on to one movie every three years. Different filmmakers can take a crack at telling a story within the universe, and you can take the ones you like and leave the ones you don't. They are just movies. But then again, that's always how I viewed Star Wars: just movies. A couple of them are great. Some are good. Some are bad. I never got super-nerdy about the Star Wars "brand" or cared about any of the expanded universe stuff.

I would argue that the original trilogy are a lot like this. The jokes were more old-fashioned vaudeville than modern snark but they definitely swung back and forth between comedy and weighty drama.

Yeah, I thought that was perfect for putting you right in the space where this movie wanted to live. Obviously not everyone could get on board.

Precisely. People love Empire now, but given some of the upheaval it did to the Star Wars universe at the time, I wouldn't have been surprised to see an extremely split reaction among fans. It's also tonally and structurally very different from A New Hope and leaves a lot unresolved at the end. Apply that to the current Twitter environment and you might see something very similar to the current Last Jedi battles.

I suspect that over time people will come to see this as the best of the post-Lucas movies (though that also depends on what else is made after this), and that's based on the critical reaction being much more positive than the divided "angry fan" reaction. Usually that bodes well for the future. It is probably not the best Star Wars movie overall; the OT has yet to be dethroned, and probably will never be. That said, I think you are right that the big issue is the difference between the actual movie and the "perfect" one that people had written in their heads.

It also makes me wonder if we would have seen this same freakout for The Empire Strikes Back or The Phantom Menace or even The Star Wars Holiday Special if social media had existed in those days. Is it something about The Last Jedi specifically or just modern Internet outrage culture?

If someone just doesn't like Star Wars, period, then I'm not going to be surprised if they don't like this movie. I suppose the reaction that most fascinates me is from people who call themselves Star Wars fans and are downright angry about the new one. And in many cases it seems like they're angry about the new movie doing things that were almost certainly done in previous movies (including the "good" ones). It's been strange to watch.

Anyway, here are some pieces I really liked that go over why they found The Last Jedi meaningful. https://filmcrithulk.blog/2017/12/15/the-force-belongs-to-us-the-last-jedis-beautiful-refocusing-of-star-wars/ https://bittergertrude.com/2017/12/20/this-is-not-going-to-go-the-way-you-think-the-last-jedi-is-subversive-af-and-i-am-here-for-it/

I disagree with literally everything here. I liked the dialogue/humor and thought most of it landed with the audience I saw it with. Just the right touch of irreverence. I thought the acting was generally good (maybe the best Hamill has ever been outside of voice acting). I don't dislike any of the main characters, Finn and Rose included. The cutesy stuff seems no cuter than what you find in any other Star Wars movie. Same for "spiritual BS," which is pretty much what the entirety of The Empire Strikes Back is about. By the same token, the "slow chase" is no worse an example of slow-burn plotting than ESB, a movie that literally stops itself for the entire second act so Han and Leia can have romantic entanglements inside a giant worm on a floating asteroid, while Luke talks to a tiny frog man about the Force. The Last Jedi gives a reason for why the First Order can't just destroy the Resistance ship immediately and also for why they don't see the escape pods. I mean, either you get on board with the plot of the movie or you try to re-write the whole thing yourself. As for Luke:

And yet, it still feels like there was a lot of padding.

This is a Sophie's Choice of a vote. Both of these movies are all-time Top Five comedies for me. Either would be a slam-dunk "Yes" for the Canon if considered by itself. I see and even agree with the argument that Holy Grail is the more iconic film and better entry point for people new to Monty Python, therefore it should be Canon. But I have to go with my heart, which says that Life of Brian is the better film and possibly the greatest film comedy ever made. People need to be steered towards this movie, the most brilliant satirical treatment of religion and politics (and the intersection thereof) ever put to screen. Put it in the Canon! Everyone also needs to watch this debate program about Life of Brian, done around the time of its release. It features John Cleese and Michael Palin defending their work against two stubborn older religious men (Mervyn Stockwood and Malcolm Muggeridge, which sound like names for Harry Potter characters) who see it as blasphemy. The debate section starts at around 18:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKWVuye1YE Cleese seems to decide very quickly that these guys are lost causes and starts having fun with them, while Palin looks like he's about to blow his top at any moment. The crowd is clearly on the Pythons' side.

I would not have expected this before seeing the movie, but it's Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Not just because I thought it was a surprisingly interesting/nuanced take on the Star Wars franchise and blockbuster filmmaking in general, but because the fan response has been so polarized about it, so I've been in constant Internet discussions/arguments about its merits. In general I'm not bothered if people didn't like a movie I liked, but the reasoning behind the dislike for this one has fascinated me, and I've been slightly obsessed with getting to the bottom of it. Sure, some of it is just horrible sexism/racism, but beyond that there is a way this movie really messed with people's expectations in such a way as to make them furious. I didn't expect to see THAT from the Disney-owned Star Wars franchise in this day and age.

The cover art for Second Sight always fascinated me when I went to video stores as a kid. So Dan Fielding and Balki Bartokomous are in some kind of action-comedy together? And Balki is Electro or something? What is this? Never pulled the trigger on renting it, though. So this should be a fun watch for me.

Still a lot of stuff I want to see (like Phantom Thread, Call Me By Your Name, I Tonya, etc.), but for now: 1. Lady Bird 2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi 3. The Shape of Water 4. Get Out 5. The Florida Project 6. Dunkirk 7. Lucky 8. Coco 9. Blade Runner 2049 10. Ingrid Goes West 11. The Big Sick 12. The Disaster Artist 13. Thor: Ragnarok 14. Logan Lucky 15. Wonder Woman 16. It 17. Baby Driver 18. The Lego Batman Movie 19. Spider-Man Homecoming 20. John Wick: Chapter 2 And of course the order could easily change. If Twin Peaks: The Return counts as a movie then it's in the Top 10 somewhere. I have mostly avoided seeing crappy movies in theaters (time is precious when you have a 2-year-old), but I guess xXx: The Return of Xander Cage is bottom of the barrel for my 2017. Thanks for making me watch this, Paul.

Just saw The Shape of Water and will also nominate that.

Pure. West.

I'd argue that a film like American Psycho uses an unlikable protagonist to make a point about modern society, toxic masculinity, capitalism, etc. It knows its protagonist is a bad person and builds that into the narrative. I see no such self-awareness in Love Actually.

It's creating a dialogue with the formula from the OT and subverting it in certain specific ways, not throwing it away completely. Throwing it away wouldn't be possible anyway, since the reason people go to see these movies is because they are called "Star Wars."

I will second this call for The Last Jedi to also be considered in any year-end conversation.