Links - 9th May 2018 (3)

DPM Zahid To M'sians In S'pore: If You Can't Get Leave Then Don't Come Back To Vote
Subtle.

Star Wars 8 The Last Jedi: Andy Serkis ‘Snoke is based on Hugh Hefner’

Mark Hamill NEVER Knew About Luke's Fate in The Last Jedi? (Spoilers) | Star Wars The Last Jedi - YouTube

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi': The 5 Biggest Complaints From Fans - "Director Rian Johnson breaks the most important rule in film: Never waste the viewers’ time. The unspoken agreement between an audience and a filmmaker is that every second of the film is there for a reason. “The Last Jedi” breaks this rule repeatedly by taking us on a number of missions that do not further the plot, and in so doing, undermine the sense of purpose in the plot and the audience’s trust in the lead characters’ judgment. Finn and Rose’s trip to the casino world (which is prequel-level silly) to get the “master code breaker”—whom they didn’t find, but did find sort of(?)—and their harrowing mission onto the command ship all ends up being pointless. So does Poe’s utterly unnecessary takeover of the Resistance ship. After being once again smacked down by Leia, Poe wakes up to learn in about 10 seconds what he should’ve been told by Holdo before the waste-of-time mutiny. The dominant motif of the film is "delay and retreat"; in many ways, the entire film feels like one big delay tactic... The opening sequence in which the daring and increasingly stupid Poe says he’ll “hold” for Commander Hux (played by chronic overactor Domhnal Gleeson) was jarring. I saw this movie twice with two totally different audiences, and each time there were uneasy laughs from fans. The reason is that the humor is simply not Star Wars humor, a comment that many fans made in their complaints"

From Canto Bight to the Resistance's plight, the worst parts of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" - The Washington Post - "Whether you like “The Last Jedi” will depend on whether you simply want to surrender to its pleasures, or whether you want to think hard about it... “The Last Jedi” is full of — and, in fact, depends on — plot contrivances, some of which merely test the forbearance of the audience, others of which actively waste its time... “The Empire Strikes Back” conveyed the immorality of apolitical space capitalism in approximately eight lines delivered with Lando Calrissian’s (Billy Dee Williams) panache, a special effect infinitely more powerful than anything “The Last Jedi” spent in millions of dollars, Del Toro’s mumbling and a half-hour of this over-long movie to get across. The whole thing is just a disgracefully bad bit of storytelling... The original sin of the reconstituted “Star Wars” live-action movies was the choice to replicate the conflict between the scrappy, democratic Rebellion (now the Resistance) and the fascist Empire (now the First Order), rather than to actually move the world forward and explore the problems that would inevitably flow from the New Republic’s attempts to reunify the galaxy and mop up the fragments of the Empire. That decision has been compounded by Lucasfilm’s highly conservative need to replicate the aesthetics of both movements, and the action beats of the original trilogy, sapping our sense that this is supposed to be at least a new phase of an ongoing conflict. And “The Last Jedi” takes this bad impulse to a place that I’m not sure the franchise can recover from in a plausible way... it’s not quite true, as Scalzi suggests, that “You don’t expect logic from ‘Star Wars’ any more than you expect it out of, say, ‘Jason and the Argonauts.’ ” Part of what makes an epic like the “Iliad” continually compelling both as a specific story and as an enduring form that other artists use as the basis for their own stories is the stuff that happens in between the big battles and that make it clear why a conflict unfolds, and ultimately ends, the way it does. You have to understand why the Trojans would accept the mysterious gift of a big wooden horse, even if it means a little divine intervention to tip the scales on their decision-making."

The Last Jedi: A Divisive Film That Broke the Critics - "My first theory is that the critics, those esteemed few who are invited to the glitzy and glamorous global premieres, were simply carried away in the moment... At that very moment, in every premiere around the world, the critics fell foul to a mass hysteria losing the one thing they all hold dear; their complete and unfettered impartiality. The second possibility for their review bonanza is that they feared the wrath of the fans. Not knowing how it would be received by the masses or, assuming that the masses would love the film regardless, the critics bent a knee to a repressed inner fear that should never materialize... finally, a third explanation. 93% of critics really did genuinely love it. They saw in The Last Jedi things that 45% of the surveyed audience (all 120,000 of us) failed to see. But honestly, I find this last reason a stretch because acclaim for The Last Jedi contrasts with the bile poured on Episodes I, II or III. The poor scripts. The weak story lines. The CGI. The wasted characters. All attributes that exist in Episode VIII... when these global professionals are so far removed from the audience (almost 40% removed), there is an obvious and apparent glitch in the industry"

Four Reasons Why ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Isn’t One for the Ages - "“Geez, I didn’t know the Jedi could do that!” But approximately two seconds after you’ve taken the moment in, it also leaves you with the feeling that the reason you didn’t know they could do that is that the film is making up its rules as it goes along. The moment is arbitrary, breathless but superimposed — spectacular in a monkeys-might-fly-out-of-my-butt sort of way. It seals the experience of “The Last Jedi,” a movie in which stuff keeps happening, and sometimes that stuff is staggering, and occasionally it’s quite exciting, but too often it feels like the bedazzled version of treading water. Yet you hang on and go with it, because you’re yearning for something great, and this is what the “Star Wars” universe, in its sleek retro-fitted corporate efficiency, has come down to: Making stuff up as it goes along."

The Last Jedi was more a finale than a middle act. That’s not good for Episode 9.

From Canto Bight to the Resistance's plight, the worst parts of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" - The Washington Post - "“The Last Jedi” is full of — and, in fact, depends on — plot contrivances, some of which merely test the forbearance of the audience, others of which actively waste its time... it also becomes an excuse for Rose to monologue about the immorality of weapons dealers and inequality, and for “The Last Jedi” to suggest that the future of the Resistance lies in some scrappy stable kids (to which I’ll return in a moment). “The Empire Strikes Back” conveyed the immorality of apolitical space capitalism in approximately eight lines delivered with Lando Calrissian’s (Billy Dee Williams) panache, a special effect infinitely more powerful than anything “The Last Jedi” spent in millions of dollars, Del Toro’s mumbling and a half-hour of this over-long movie to get across. The whole thing is just a disgracefully bad bit of storytelling... The original sin of the reconstituted “Star Wars” live-action movies was the choice to replicate the conflict between the scrappy, democratic Rebellion (now the Resistance) and the fascist Empire (now the First Order), rather than to actually move the world forward and explore the problems that would inevitably flow from the New Republic’s attempts to reunify the galaxy and mop up the fragments of the Empire. That decision has been compounded by Lucasfilm’s highly conservative need to replicate the aesthetics of both movements, and the action beats of the original trilogy, sapping our sense that this is supposed to be at least a new phase of an ongoing conflict... it’s not quite true, as Scalzi suggests, that “You don’t expect logic from ‘Star Wars’ any more than you expect it out of, say, ‘Jason and the Argonauts.’ ” Part of what makes an epic like the “Iliad” continually compelling both as a specific story and as an enduring form that other artists use as the basis for their own stories is the stuff that happens in between the big battles and that make it clear why a conflict unfolds, and ultimately ends, the way it does. You have to understand why the Trojans would accept the mysterious gift of a big wooden horse, even if it means a little divine intervention to tip the scales on their decision-making."

'Last Jedi' Grosses Are Collapsing With The Worst Daily Holds Of All 9 Star Wars Movies - "It had retained just 16 percent of its opening day gross, a figure that, as the chart below shows, is well below the holds for The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and the last of the prequels, Revenge of the Sith... In fact, The Last Jedi isn't even holding as well as Justice League did"

'The Last Jedi's Gargantuan $151M 2nd Weekend Plunge Is An Epic Hollywood Choke - "The scale of the catastrophe that is Star Wars: The Last Jedi is difficult to comprehend without comparing it to major, historic natural disasters. Because no other movie has come anywhere close to the picture’s $151.5 million 2nd weekend box office razing, there’s no movie comparison that gives its record-obliterating failure proper context"
Since its low Rotten Tomatoes ratings are due to bots, these must be fake box office numbers too

Liberal identity politics has ruined Star Wars for the fanboys - "a claim the movie is no more than “social justice warrior propaganda”. In media land, one critic gushed The Last Jedi is “the most triumphantly feminist Star Wars movie yet,” concluding it a masterpiece that possesses a “celebratory inclusiveness that seems entirely in the Jedi spirit”... Certainly, watching the movie can feel like you’re playing identity politics bingo. In one scene, a female admiral rallies her troops by heralding the rise of The Resistance, which some conspiracy theorists have interpreted as code for feminism. Patriarchy? Tick! Likewise, the richest men in the galaxy are evil, greedy, white, arms-dealers. White male privilege theory and the evils of capitalism? Tick! In a scene where Chewbacca attempts to eat a deep-fried bird called a porq, other living porqs look on disapprovingly, meat-shaming Chewie. Are they implying Chewie ought to go vegetarian? Animal rights and vegan politics? Tick! Aaagggghhhh! Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Laura Dern, who plays Vice Admiral Holdo, sports purple hair that wouldn’t look out of place on a Tumblr user’s unicorn avatar... the truth is that identity politics is the kryptonite that saps the joy out of all it touches. How long before Harrison Ford comes out as Trans Solo? What price a zero-emissions Millennium Falcon? Will Jabba The Hutt be called out for “fat shaming” the obese?"
Some claim it's not feminist. If so why are feminists so happy with it? (plus the "The Force is Female" T-shirts)
Actually the new Star Wars isn't that SJW. Rose sexually assaults Finn by kissing him when he didn't give his affirmative consent Then again maybe it's only sexual assault when it's done by men
"The original(1977) trilogy already had a female hero and a white male villain, and the prequels already had a female jedi, and a badass one at that" (i.e. people only complain when it's heavy handed)

'The Last Jedi' Is Good. It Just Isn't Magical. - "“The Last Jedi” has a lot to say about the Light Side and the Dark Side, but there is nothing about grief and loss, and it’s banal about democracy. What it does with good and evil isn’t nearly interesting enough. Rey, our heroine, is never truly tempted. That’s boring."

The Last Jedi Is Star Wars for People Who HATE Star Wars - "Star Wars is about heroics and heroism. From the raid on the Death Star to rescue the princess, to the doomed last-ditch battle on Hoth, buying time for the transports to escape, to the intricate plot to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hut, characters risk their lives to save the lives of others or just to fight evil, many times at great cost to themselves. Courage, especially physical courage, is central to the entire trilogy (and is the chief reason the series is so beloved). The Last Jedi mocks courage, heroics, and heroism. Poe Dameron, the cocky fighter pilot, risks his life and the lives of his teammates to destroy the most formidable ship hunting the Resistance, and for this is upbraided and demoted... The total lack of heroism is one reason, but the other is this: This movie is just not epic. And Star Wars is epic"

Mark Hamill Rips His Role In 'Last Jedi': 'He's Not My Luke Skywalker' - "“I said to Rian, I said ‘Jedis don’t give up.’ I mean, even if he had a problem, he would maybe take a year to try and regroup, but if he made a mistake he would try and right that wrong, so right there, we had a fundamental difference, but, it’s not my story anymore,” Hamill, 66, said in an interview posted by Spanish-language movie site SensaCine recently. “It’s somebody else’s story, and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective.” Hamill added: “I almost had to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he’s Jake Skywalker, he’s not my Luke Skywalker.”... “I still haven’t accepted it completely, but it’s only a movie”"

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: the backlash explained - "the film’s strongest characters are almost all women, who usually know the right thing to do, while its most evil characters are white men with complexes about being given what they think they deserve... The Last Jedi spends a lot of its running time telling you that a lot of the things fans have obsessed about since The Force Awakens was released just didn’t matter... What’s interesting about the critiques of The Last Jedi is how often, when you talk about them, many of the above criticisms fall away, and you’re left with a distinct philosophical difference between people who love the film’s insistence that the future can be better if we make it and those who don’t like the way it forces us to grapple with the sins of the past"

Is Star Wars: The Force Awakens feminist propaganda? - "One of the major aspects of Star Wars is that of individuals needing to develop themselves in order to meet challenges.
ey, however, seems to get a pass on much of this. Despite being young and leading a humble, solitary life, she can...
Beat the s**t out of two grown men using a staff.
Fly the Millennium Falcon like a stunt pilot on her first attempt.
Knows how to maintain the Millennium Falcon better than Han Solo. (Recall that her equivalent, Luke, in a similar situation, only managed to squeeze out, "What's that thing flashing!?")
Use force powers with no training.
Defeat the main bad guy in a duel, again, with no training.
EDIT: Speak Wookiee.
Meanwhile, the male support is kind of bumbling, and has an episode of acute cowardliness. The gist of the feminist propaganda is that she does not need to work at anything, she's naturally awesome just by being a woman. Its a characterisation that tends towards idealism and grandiosity rather than realism."

Designing Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Part 1: How Porgs Were Hatched - "Rian [Johnson] had gone to shoot this sequence on Skellig Michael, which is the real island location that stands in for Ahch-To, and that island is covered in puffins. It’s a wildlife preserve and everywhere you look there are hundreds of birds dotted around the landscape. From what I gathered, Rian, in a positive spin on this, was looking at how can he work with this. You can’t remove them. You physically can’t get rid of them. And digitally removing them is an issue and a lot of work, so let’s just roll with it, play with it. And so I think he thought, “Well, that’s great, let’s have our own indigenous species.” We’d already started work on the Caretakers, which again was a brief from Rian. We’d just been told “puffin people.” Yeah, there was going to be this race of people and puffins again were a source of inspiration for Rian. The puffins were sort of a big influence on everything, really."

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Has Saga's Lowest Audience Score - "the critical consensus states: “Star Wars: The Last Jedi honors the saga’s rich legacy while adding some surprising twists — and delivering all the emotion-rich action fans could hope for.” Unfortunately, moviegoers are challenging that belief and are bringing down the film’s audience score while doing it... The Last Jedi‘s audience score is 1 percent lower than the audience score for George Lucas’ Episode II – Attack of the Clones and 3 percent lower than Lucas’ Episode I – The Phantom Menace, both of which are arguably considered the worst installments in the entire saga. Of course, Johnson’s film still ranks 18 percent higher than the audience score for Dave Filoni’s 2008 animated film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars – but we’re not counting animated/non-theatrical films for this. Otherwise, we would need to somehow account for the Star Wars: Holiday Special, too."