Did not like. Mark Hamill was right, it was an incorrect portrayal of Luke Skywalker. I thought that in the context of the sequel trilogy as a stand-alone it was a fine characterization. But as far as being contextualized in the grander scheme of Luke throughout the OT and the ST it was abysmal. There was nothing traumatic enough for Luke to want to murder Ben. Vader destroyed a planet, tortured his friends, and murdered his entire family and not once did he give into the urge to want to kill him in ROTJ. It was also an utter betrayal of Yoda's teachings. Yoda and Ben didn't go into hiding until the Republic, the Chancellor, the Chosen One and indeed the galaxy itself had turned against them. Luke ****ed up the galaxy and instead of attempting to fix it like a Jedi he goes to cry and ***** about it.
At the very least it would have been interesting if Luke was attempting to destroy the Force Kreia-style because he saw the vicious cycle. But this Luke was a betrayal. At least Han's death made sense and his characterization was in the realm of the character. Luke was mischaracterized.
I liked his stance on why the Jedi needed to end as they are the same reasons that ive been preaching for years; the Jedi Order was FAR from perfect and it was their hubris and rigidity that caused their spectacular demise.
I like the flashes of Force that we saw from him; casually exploding the stone hut, schooling Rey easily in the stick fight, the couple of moves he exhibited in his brief lightsaber encounter with Kylo
I wasn't a fan of the Force projection however and I hated him dying from... exhaustion??? He went out in an even worse way than his mom did!
And i was blase about his attitude in general, I get not wanting to train the kid after his failure with Kylo but he was a coward straight up and the whole waiting to die thing wasn't in Lukes character at all.
And the HUGE problem was with Luke even considering killing Ben in his sleep... Luke Skywalker would NEVER do that in a million years, not to his sisters kid especially and that bs about sensing darkness in him was hogwash; this is the guy that persevered and turned the baddest man in the galaxy good again so to say I didn't buy it is an understatement.
All in all hes was a mixed bag for me to say the least but at least Hamill brought some great acting to the role; hes improved so so much as an actor since the last time we saw him as Luke 30 odd years ago.
what does that have anything to do with the character that we saw in the OT?? Romanticized or not Luke would never try to kill his nephew especially in his sleep! This is the guy who was all alone in the thought that he could bring Vader back to the light, the same guy who had a chance to kill Vader after a straight up fight and didn't take it because he knew it was wrong, you think that all of a sudden he'd try to kill a KID IN HIS SLEEP because he "sensed" darkness in his future?? Hell No, that isn't the Luke we knew in the OT at all
It was shitty writing to the extreme and an abysmal effort to explain why Luke is out of the spotlight. There are a bajillion reasons they could've kept Luke out from outshining the new characters without gutting his character entirely. Even more asinine is how a quick talk with Yoda is all it takes for Luke to see the error in his ways. Makes you wonder why Yoda didn't show up as a force ghost at ANY PREVIOUS POINT . . . like maybe PRIOR to Luke's decision to go into exile.
Last edited by Dark-Kenshin on Dec 15th, 2017 at 11:01 PM
That's not a small moment of weakness lol. He took the long walk to his hut drew his lightsaber and was mid stroke before having a small moment of strength that stopped him.
I like that stance too, but they did nowhere near enough legwork to justify Luke adopting that viewpoint and certainly didn't do enough to make it relevant to the film given that it ultimately doesn't go anywhere. Right after Rey rejects his offer, it's as if a piece of the screenplay gets cut out of the movie and Kylo is right back to first base. Really, it would've been better had Kylo been the one to articulate the feelings Luke was expressing. It would've tied strongly to Kylo's position to put aside the past as well as his idea to let the Jedi AND Sith die. Bada bing bada boom, he finally finds his calling, the little diaper boy wannabe Vader routine is gone and we have ourselves a gray force wielding antagonist that not only can be taken seriously in episode IX but has the means to be the best antagonist in the entire series.
There's no "final version," just two different accounts. We don't need to take Luke at his word. Frankly, he's not trust worthy anymore. Even compared to Kylo.
Mmm I don't think so. The look on Luke's face and how he rather quickly reaches for his lightsaber without hesitation after he looks into Kylo's mind seemed more like confirmation that he needed to act rather than a spur of the moment decision. But I've only seen it once so you may be right that I am conflating the different versions and there was some hesitation in between.