I saw "The Last Jedi" today!

[Nunavut Pants]

The suicide move wasn't necessarily FTL -- remember, the SW hyperdrive pops people into hyperspace, at least once from a dead stop.

To me, the "hyperspace" is just the mechanism for FTL travel. Obviously the ship wasn't completely in some other (bubble?) universe, as it sure as heck interacted with the other ships in the area, so calling it "FTL" will do at least for me.

And the point remains--I hate that the tactic is an insta-kill Deus Ex Machina type of thing. "Oh, push that button and all the bad guys die." Uhh, why didn't they push the button years earlier?

I am sure there will be some sort of explanation, likely having to do with everyone being stationary (relative to each other, I'm guessing) but I still hate that way of resolving things. It's lousy story-telling IMHO.

[EricKei]

Well, you don't really NEED to use a ship -- a can of ravioli will do the job.

https://www.facebook.com/jon.glenn.3...24876240919055

[Mental_Mouse]

The suicide move wasn't necessarily FTL -- remember, the SW hyperdrive pops people into hyperspace, at least once from a dead stop. On the other hand, the ship could have used the hyperdrive in a fashion that shunts the energy into motion, or prepares for a "normal" jump by boosting to speed.

It probably wouldn't work too well against a target that was maneuvering, or ready to do so; in this case they had a target that was "stopped" relative to them (matching their course), wasn't expecting any such tactic, and (as it turned out) had some internal distractions which might have interfered with responding to the situation.

ETA: Various science fiction authors and sites have evaluated possible future weapons. The general attitude seems to be that in any realistic context, energy weapons and lasers are for the birds -- what you really want against spaceships are missiles with maneuvering and tracking capability, but if you run out of those, basic kinetic weapons are cheapest for the punch. One complication is recoil; another is, it turns out it's really hard to hide a spaceship from an infra-red telescope. Of course, SW is hardly realistic, and the energy bolts seem to come with the ambient technology.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I would also think a Death Star would be incredibly expensive.

Right there is one reason movies like that could go over budget. Best to stick with CGI.

[Tanasi]

Yeah, I disliked the "All the stuff you spent the last half-hour doing? All meaningless." And I really hated the end of the escape sequence. Uhh, you mean a ship going light-speed can be a super weapon that kills anything in its way? So why aren't light-speed missiles the most common weapon in the universe? Why didn't the Empire use those on planets instead of the massive Death Star type beams?

There is some merit to a light speed bomb. I haven't seen the movie and won't until it comes out on video. Currently in the USAF inventory there is a kinetic bomb that is just a steel bomb skin that is filled with a high density concrete. With a seeker head and tail drop it from 25K+ feet high precision and lots of energy no explosion. Other than the forward motion of the bomb from the air craft the only other force is gravity.
Now the same thing should be possible with a FTL ship and a much large kinetic projectile moving at or near light speed. It should punch the crust without much of a problem, however moving that fast it could punch out the other side without doing too much damage.
That should be a good question to pose to Stupendous Wave on yousetube.

Not to mention they are a one-time use item, where as death stars are multiple use, barring outside interference.

With a FTL weapon there couldn't be a defense since you wouldn't know from which direction it would be coming. I also would think an FTL drive would be common enough to not be that expensive, after-all Han had the Falcon and he stayed broke. I would also think a Death Star would be incredibly expensive.

[protege]

where as death stars are multiple use, barring outside interference.

Plus, Death Stars are just so freakin' cool

[Ironclad Alibi]

... Maybe light-speed drives are just THAT expensive that they don't wanna waste them on projectiles...?

Not to mention they are a one-time use item, where as death stars are multiple use, barring outside interference.

[EricKei]

In all of the prior works of which i'm aware (read: the stuff that's now non-canon), the reason you have to be exceedingly careful with light-speed calculations is that any collisions are invariably *mutually* fatal. Which wouldn't be an issue with missiles. Maybe light-speed drives are just THAT expensive that they don't wanna waste them on projectiles...?

[Nunavut Pants]

Yeah, I disliked the "All the stuff you spent the last half-hour doing? All meaningless." And I really hated the end of the escape sequence. Uhh, you mean a ship going light-speed can be a super weapon that kills anything in its way? So why aren't light-speed missiles the most common weapon in the universe? Why didn't the Empire use those on planets instead of the massive Death Star type beams?

[Ceir]

Crossposting my thoughts from another board, 'cause discussions are different in different places!

So, finally got to see TLJ - all in all, an enjoyable, if rather distinctly flawed movie for me; and more specifically flawed than TFA was. Despite the upcoming paragraph, I did enjoy it, and certainly it was worth seeing on the big screen.

It's far easier to talk about the specific things I tripped over rather than the general 'lots of stuff' I liked. Some of the humor fell flat, some of the stuff that wasn't intended to be funny was, but the most damning thing about the movie is, IMO, TvTropes' old favorite: Poor Communication Kills. Granted, the Star Wars 'verse runs on the stuff sometimes - it was certainly responsible for some of the dumber bits of the old EU - but TLJ kinda takes a cake it didn't want to. It's unfortunate that my brain latched onto it so strongly, but: if someone - Leia, purple-haired admiral lady, literally anyone had told Poe about the whole plan with jumping ship on the stealth transports and using the cruiser as a decoy, three-fourths of the movie wouldn't have happened. I'm not a writer, I don't know what I would have replaced it with, but...yeah. I won't say it killed the movie for me, but that more than anything dragged it down.

After one viewing, on my high-low scale:
Empire
New Hope == Rogue One
Return of the Jedi == Force Awakens
Last Jedi
Attack of the Clones
Phantom Menace == Revenge of the Sith

[EricKei]

Finally saw it last night. It was worthy.

Yes, PORGSSSSESSSS! We wants it, yessss!

They don't fit the usual form of the SW stories, which is both disappointing and really cool.

It's my understanding that this direction was taken after people complained that the prior one was essentially a reboot of A New Hope Naturally, this has many a fan up in arms. Sometimes, ya can't win for losing. Still better than ep1-3.

[Nunavut Pants]

My own feelings:
- It was too long. I am not sure what could have been cut, but it was rather more than two hours, which I feel is too long for most movies.
- The various twists were effective, but a bit difficult to digest. They don't fit the usual form of the SW stories, which is both disappointing and really cool.
- I hate hate hate HATE when the writers pull up a "super duper move" from nowhere that is uber-powerful and cannot be countered, etc. etc. etc. (See the "Picard Maneuver" in ST:TNG for an example.)
- I got distracted by trying to place the actress who played the 2nd-in-command of the rebels. I finally figured it out, but it took me out of the story for some time.
- I really don't know how they are going to deal with how some real-life events will affect the in-movie events.
- It was still a ton of fun and very enjoyable to watch.

[mjr]

I liked it, too, in spite of some Facebook acquaintances getting into a huffy "It was terrible, how could you like it?!" snarl about it.

There's a guy I work with who is a BIG Star Wars fan. His cube is decorated with all sorts of Star Wars stuff. He said he really liked the movie, except for one scene, which he said was the worst of the whole movie.

Cinematography was brilliant. My favorite shot of the movie is the one involving Snoke's ship. You know the shot I'm talking about.

Yeah, I thought that one was pretty cool, too.

When I started seeing the porgs showing up in the adverts, I was prepared to hate them on principle. Then I saw them in the movie and I was like, "Goddammit, I want one."

I'm sure my wife has seen the porgs in commercials, but since she hasn't seen the movie yet, I haven't asked her what she thought of them. They look like a mix of something like a gerbil and a penguin.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I liked it, too, in spite of some Facebook acquaintances getting into a huffy "It was terrible, how could you like it?!" snarl about it.

I thought some bold decisions were made, story-wise, and I liked the way the "balance" was addressed.

Cinematography was brilliant. My favorite shot of the movie is the one involving Snoke's ship. You know the shot I'm talking about.

When I started seeing the porgs showing up in the adverts, I was prepared to hate them on principle. Then I saw them in the movie and I was like, "Goddammit, I want one."

[Ghel]

I loved the movie so much.

It seems like a paradigm shift for the Force. It takes everything we thought we knew about it and puts a new perspective on it. Particularly that scene at the end you refer to.

I like that nobody is perfectly good or evil (Snoke may be the exception). Everybody has flaws. Even Kylo Ren has positive qualities.

I loved Rose Tico. She reminds Finn (and us) why the Rebellion is needed.

I'll stop there for fear of getting into spoilers.