OK, so Star Wars The Last Jedi wasn’t all that good. Hey, it’s happened before, and it will happen again. Need I remind you of such infamous sequels as Rocky V, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and Prometheus (Alien), among others? These please-let-me-forget-what-I-just-saw films are often despised by loyal fans of said franchises. And while the Star Wars brand already had at least one film on this list (1), the immediate fan backlash over Star Wars The Last Jedi (TLJ) has ignited a firestorm that will surely burn for years to come. The question is why? In this article I’m going to give you 15 reasons why I believe TLJ is indeed the worst of the Star Wars films. But rather than just complain, I challenged myself to also come up with 1 reason why it isn’t – after all, this blog is about finding wisdom (often in the most unlikely of places) and TLJ certainly meets the definition of ‘unlikely place to find wisdom!’
Before We Begin – Who Am I?
I am nobody of importance — which, according to TLJ, makes me amazingly similar to Rey (2). Does that qualify me to talk about Star Wars? Clearly not. I’m not a professional movie critic, I can’t tell you why TLJ should/not win an Oscar for Cinematography, and I don’t have a clue why the Rotten Tomatoes website scores between critics and fans are so polar opposite (3) – nor do I really care. The fact is that I’m just an Average Joe (husband, father, worker bee) who was born in 1971 and grew up with Star Wars – which is to say you can probably trust me more than the Hollywood in-crowd who have a vested interest in trying to influence you why TLJ is so great. Like you, I know what I like about the franchise and what I don’t, so for me it’s just about common sense – if something looks like a duck, moves like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. TLJ is that duck.
As a way of level setting with you, here is my rank of Star Wars films:
- Episode 4 – A New Hope (ANH): a true space opera adventure.
- Episode 7 – The Force Awakens (TFA): a controversial rank I know, but I honestly loved this one.
- Episode 5 – The Empire Strikes Back (ESB): everything a sequel should be.
- Rogue One (R1) – the acting on this was amazing and I loved the non-Hollywood ending.
- Episode 2 – Attack of The Clones (AofC): Yoda’s fight scene with Count Dooku was 10 seconds of pure awesomeness!
- Episode 6 – Return of the Jedi (RofJ): a satisfying ending to the original trilogy at the time and ‘Slave Leia’ is an all-time classic.
- Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith (RotS): it wasn’t as bad as people said.
- Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (TPM): Liam Neesom was no match for the bad acting of young Anakin and the I-watch-to-rip-my-ears-off voice of Jar-Jar Binks.
- Episode 8 – The Last Jedi (TLJ): let’s be honest, it’s a mess.
I provided this list so you can get a better perspective of where I stand. Either it will give me credibility with you (4) or you’ll think I’ll totally insane (5).
Now that we have all that out of the way, let’s get started…
15 Reasons why TLJ is the WORST of the SW Films
- It was too formulaic — the entire movie felt overly-scripted, as if the director was following some Star Wars recipe card.
- Step 1: Start with Spaceships chasing each other.
- Step 2: Show the evil old white guy empire villains about to launch a weapon of mass destruction.
- Step 3: Add in the jokes.
- Step 4: Show some cute creatures to get more laughs.
- Step 5: Explain what the force is.
- Step 6: OK, now we need a lightsaber battle.
- Step 7: don’t forget to include a “Join Me” scene.
- Step 8: Show the current ‘emperor’ on the throne.
- Step 9: Have emperor figure torture hero/heroine and create conflict for emperor’s apprentice.
- Step 10: Have emperor figure talk about how he can see into the mind of his apprentice yet have the same omnipotent emperor fail to see his apprentice about to trick him.
- Step 11: Can somebody get those AT-ATs on set again?
- And on, and on…
- Was there anything original about TLJ? (6)
- The Jokes Were Forced – and I’m not talking about a good use of The Force. I don’t mind humor – it’s actually one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Star Wars. There’s the swashbuckling humor of Han Solo that made ANH so great, the eternally classic lamentations of C3PO, and of course the misadventures of R2D2 and now BB8 – all are funny. And while they sometimes rubbed me the wrong way, characters like The Ewoks in RofJ and even (gasp) Jar-Jar Binks in TPM at least had some redeeming qualities (7). The point is, Star Wars has always included humor in the mix. It’s part of what makes the movies so fun. I thought TFA did a really clever job of getting back to the space opera feel of ANH and humor was a big part of the formula for success (The Finn character was especially great at this). But the jokes of TLJ were different. In all the prior movies, the humor was a part of the story, but in TLJ it felt like the story was written to get to the humor. As if the movie was just a series of sitcom skits set up specifically to get laughs – there’s a Seinfeld reference here (8) — and it seemed like the only thing that was missing was the laugh track. The problem is, I didn’t go to see TLJ for a two-bit comedy club routine. Sure some of the jokes were funny (9), but all too often the jokes were not just lame, there were actually insulting to fans. I can think of no greater example (10) than when Rey handed Luke his lightsaber back.
Now mind you, TFA spent the entire movie building up to an incredibly climatic scene — at the end of the movie Rey finally tracks down the long-lost Luke and we witnessed a (very satisfying and emotional) climax. Quite frankly it was awesome and I left that movie eagerly waiting for the next. As fans we spent the next 2 years pondering what would happen next because TFA inspired us as to all the great possibilities of what the Star Wars franchise could become again. So what happens in TLJ? Like so much of the movie, not much — other than a cheap joke. Luke casually tosses the lightsaber (11) over his shoulder and shrugs, with a deadpan expression on his face – there’s a palpable feel in the theater that we are supposed to laugh — only most people don’t. Because most people don’t yet understand that, in TLJ world, things like this just doesn’t matter. But, as Yoda says, “Oh, but you will…You Will” (12). The bottom line – rather than the joke being funny, it was a punch to the gut for fans, leaving us wonder what might have been, even as the director was already plodding along to his next joke. - Something was “Off” — Like many of you, I went in to TLJ with so much hope and excitement. This is because both TFA and R1 were so freakin’ good. Naturally I expected the same from TLJ – or at least a good movie. Unfortunately I got neither. Yes the movie opened with Poe’s battle run and that was actually pretty good. I like the Poe character and, although I thought his Your Mama jokes were a bit over the top I just went with it at the time and everything was great. I enjoyed the opening scene, appreciated the Ball Turret Gunner reference (13), and was moved by the ‘sacrifice of victory’ lesson. But things went downhill from there. Very quickly I realized there was a problem, The Luke-Rey scene was a punch in the gut, the fiasco that was the casino (14) was a complete waste of time, and it quickly became apparent that not only were we not getting answers to questions posed in TFA, but we were soon being told they didn’t even matter. Quite frankly I was confused and about 20 minutes in (as my old friend Han used to say) “I got a bad feeling about this” movie. Yet even then, in spite of my fears, I battled against the dark side and desperately tried to like this movie. I wanted to like it – I really did. And then I didn’t. By the time TLJ ended I realized that the writer/director didn’t care if I liked it or not – in fact he didn’t seem to care about much of anything related to Star Wars or its fans (see #15 below).
- The plot was just plain stupid – So basically the entire struggle in this movie (from a plot, not character, perspective) is that the Rebellion Forces are about to run out of gas and when they do the First Order (FO) ships will catch up to them and destroy them. Seriously, that’s the best you could come up with? OMG that was sooooooo dumb. I’m not gonna spend a lot of time on this one, it is what it is – and it was a complete mess. Did we really need a movie that was essentially a trumped-up car chase? I’d rather have watched yet another Fast & Furious (15) – at least those movies have some excitement. TLJ plot involving the slow-moving ships was akin to watching paint dry — but at least when you paint you have something to show for your efforts.
- No REAL character development – people will dispute me on this and point out that Luke, Kylo, and Rey all supposedly grew on their ‘journeys’ in TLJ; I disagree. Luke’s character was completely destroyed (see #14), Kylo didn’t really develop at all (vs what he was already in TFA), and Rey’s development was a joke (we get a cliche infinity mirror effect and she learns…nothing). And then there is the Finn character — so great in TFA , yet so wasted in TLJ (16) – let’s be honest, Finn’s entire part in TLJ was pointless, right? At least we got something with Poe – awesome in TFA, Poe as least had multiple chances to showcase his personality and carry forward the Solo swashbuckling torch. Poe was good – but he didn’t really develop either and he wasn’t enough to save TLJ. In the end, we got nothing good/satisfying/hope-inspiring from a character perspective in TLJ and all those enticing questions that were asked in TFA were just laughed away as unimportant.
- The Luke-Rey Jedi Training That Never Was — oh so disappointing. Besides the failed lightsaber joke, the storyline with Luke-Rey ended up as much ado about nothing. After a bunch of cliche scenes with Rey following Luke around on his errands (17), the director finally threw us a bone — Luke promised to teach Rey “3 Lessons about The Jedi.”
First we get a nearly verbatim rehash what The Force is from prior movies – OK, at least it’s something (18). Then we get teased a bit with Rey’s visualization about a pit associated with the Dark Side – although this scene is also destroyed with sitcom-style jokes (most notably Luke tickling Rey with a leaf and calling it The Force). We get a second ‘lesson’ about how the Jedi have failed at everything and therefore there’s no point for Rey to become a Jedi – because, like everything else in TLJ, it doesn’t matter anymore. And (surprise) we never get the 3rd lesson (19). All that was ‘promised’ in TFA was thrown away. Would a Rocky-style training montage with Luke-Rey been cliche? You betcha. 
Would it have been 1000 times more satisfying than what we actually got in TLJ? No question. - In Your Face Diversity – Please don’t label a misogynistic racist for bringing this up, I’m not. Sure, I’ll admit I’m about as white-bread as they come, HOWEVER both my immediate and extended family are multi-racial. My wife and I actively teach our children to be proud of their asian heritage and often talk about the value of diversity. I’m all for diversity (20) – it makes the world a better place. But wasn’t TLJ a bit over the top? Was it really necessary to have a woman in every position of authority on the rebel ship? As good as the actress who played Rose was, didn’t it seem a bit like her (ultimately unnecessary to the plot) character was simply a vehicle to showcase an asian character? And did the director have to pair the asian character with the african-american character? It felt too forced. It was unnecessary. Finn and Rose both deserved more – they deserved a genuine reason to be in the story, not a meaningless storyline just to ‘give them a part.’
For example, Finn also deserved to carry forward his storyline with Rey – what happened to their potential romantic storyline from TFA? (21) Additionally — on the “Girl-Power Rules” motif — I honestly appreciated Laura Dern’s (22) ‘I’m extremely calm in the face of adversity’ quiet strength, and her single-handedly ramming her ship into the FO’s ships to save her friends was as badass as they come, but for all the positive lessons that were here, it was overshadowed by forcing so much diversity down our throats. It became too preachy – like much of TLJ — and overshadowed what good could have been. - So you’re telling me Princess Leia can fly? Come on, dude. If you’re gonna kill her, kill her. If not, don’t. We don’t need to see PL wake up in space as if she’s suddenly discovered super powers and literally fly in the vacuum of space like some half-assed astronaut — only to get back to the safety of the ship, lose whatever super powers she had, and end up in a coma.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHoNUc4eooUWhat was the point of all this? It was just odd. Although perhaps I shouldn’t complain – hey at least this unique, right? Unfortunately, whatever new powers PL discovered out in space, she quickly forget because she never used them again – and so we’re back to the same old ‘nothing to see here, folks’ routine.
- Can we get someone on the empire/first order ships who is not an old german looking white man who seems to be smelling something rotten all the time? I loved Grand Moff Tarkin in ANH, and I thought it was clever to see him again in R1 and TFA, but does every high ranking official have to look like a nazi from now on? Can’t we come up with something original for a change? And why do they always have the same “who farted in here” expression? It was time for a change – but TLJ just recycled more of the same.
- What’s with the Star Trek Set Ripoff? For as promising as the new Snoke villain character was in TFA, he was anything but in TLJ (but more on that in Reason #11). While I can appreciate that we finally got to see Snoke in the flesh in TLJ, the result was anything but impressive. To begin with there was his throne room — unless this was some sort of secret shout out to GOT ‘red wedding’ I’m not clear why Snoke’s throne room looked like something out of the original Star Trek Series.
You couldn’t think of anything to put on the walls but red e-drapes? Were Palpatine’s Royal Guards in such desperate need of a job that Snoke was able to pick them up on the cheap? Did it have to be so obvious that they were eventually going to fight Rey and that when they did they would showcase a bunch of cliche versions of ninja weapons? Even the fight scene with Rey-Kylo vs Snoke’s guards was a Star Trek cliche – the only thing missing was the ‘pow,’ ‘blap,’ ‘zok’ effects of the old Batman series. We deserved better. - Apparently Supreme Leader Snoke doesn’t matter either? Again, all the goodwill that TFA built up around an exciting new character was tossed aside in TLJ with the pedestrian dismissal of Snoke.
Somehow we’re supposed to accept that this mysterious man (?24?) who wrested control of the galaxy from the ashes of the old Empire (25), who can see into the minds of people across this galaxy, who can use his powers to force people to do his will (26), who clearly has some ability to control The Force to do Jedi-like things (27), who specifically says he can see into the mind of Kylo Ren and has been controlling him through time and space for most of Kylo’s life – yes that guy can be dispatched with an old parlor trick that’s been played out in movies decades ago? 
So just to be clear, omnipotent, mind-controlling, Supreme Leader Snoke who is currently looking into Kylo Ren’s mind ends up getting killed when Kylo does the old ‘pay no attention to what this hand is doing trick?’ Wouldn’t David Copperfield have been a better choice here? Oh, but it’s all OK because remember nothing from the past matters in TLJ. Actually you don’t even have to exercise your mind to remember that truism because Kylo (now Ben, call me ‘Ben,’ dammit) conveniently reminds us to ‘throw it all away’ (28) when it comes to anything related to the past. “It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter. Blah, Blah, Blah.” The bottom line is that, with a little imagination, Snoke was a potentially great villain who could have powered the dark side of the Star Wars franchise for years to come. And now? Not. (29). Instead it’s clear that this director couldn’t wait to get rid of Snoke so that he could move forward his Kylo-Ren-Is-Now-Ben-Solo-But-Still-The-Same-Evil-Dude storyline along. - That ‘Misunderstanding’ with the Lightsaber between Luke and Kylo. Luke — “What? Is this thing on? Oh don’t mind this.” Where’s the button? Where’s the button? How in the hell do you turn this thing off? “No, it’s not like that, Kylo. I wasn’t about to kill you in your sleep. Wait. I can’t explain. Nooooo.” (30)
- So Many Wasted Opportunities. No need to rehash them all. The biggest one is this – and it’s one that I think could actually have saved TLJ had it played out as it should have — when Kylo/Ben asks Rey to join him, how about instead of yet another rehashing of an already played out numerous times “Join Me” scene, Rey actually takes Kylo’s hand and joins him?
Any number of NEW storylines could have emerged from there (31 – if you read only 1 footnote it should be this one – haha). Instead we’re supposed to be satisfied with the same old thing – Ben becomes the new supreme leader and his generation will battle against Rey and the next generation of rebels using the same tired story line from the past. Nothing new. Originality is apparently dead. - The Destruction of Luke’s Once Cool, Now Woefully Bad Joke Telling Character – And so we come to Luke. I think this is probably the reason I dislike TLJ so much. I honestly feel bad for Mark Hamill – he got a raw deal in TLJ and had to play a part that, as an actor, he didn’t buy in to (32). At least he got paid for his efforts and can move on with his life.
But what about Luke Skywalker? He goes from being one of the all-time heroes of the entire franchise, to near god-like status at the end of TFA, only to end up as a grumpy old man intent on destroying everything he worked for in life, and the entire Jedi legacy he was a part of – yet he can’t even do that right and ultimately needs Yoda’s help there too (see Good Reason #1 below). TLJ turned Luke’s beloved character into a worthless pile of banta poo and tried to get us to turn against him, to ‘throw him away’ so to speak, so that we could move on with the new generation of Rey and the gang. But it was all so unnecessary. I don’t want to dislike Luke, or think less of him for his disillusionment about the Jedi, or his refusal to help Rey & the Rebellion. Why can’t we still have Luke as a hero. Why did TLJ turn Luke into little more than joke-telling fool? It was too much. I refuse to accept it. Mercifully Luke is killed off in TLJ so he at least doesn’t have to deal with this director any more. - TLJ has no soul – TFA did so much to not just restore the franchise to greatness, but also to tease the fans with more breadcrumbs of future possibilities that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. While I never had the time or inclination to engage in all the reddit boards about who Rey’s parents were, where Snoke came from, etc I respected those who did and was happy to see fan interest in the brand back to rabid levels again. The point is that TFA gave us excitement again — it tossed a bunch of softballs to TLJ and set up TLJ for success – all TLJ had to do was swing the bat and it couldn’t help but hit a homerun off of any one of these balls. Only TLJ never swung. It was as if the writer/director of TLJ (33) never saw any of the prior films (and certainly not TFA) and instead had a friend just give him the Cliff Notes version of the Star Wars story – but then not even half way into the tale, W/D apparently said “I got it, I got it.” However once he started writing the script, his friend surely must have reminded him, “But what about X?” and “Remember we need to talk about Y.” But W/D just replied, “I don’t give a flying X@#X care about X, Y, or Z! I’m going to do Star Wars MY way.”
And when his friend reminded him that the fans DO care about X, Y, and Z, W/D vowed to throw it back in our faces — and thus the Kylo Ren “throw is away” speech was born — and the soul of the franchise was destroyed in the process.
OK, I said my piece. That felt good. At least I got those things off my chest. Now I can let it go and move on. Now we can look for the lesson in all this. We can look for something good. Some form of wisdom. Thankfully there IS something from TLJ that is good.
1 Reason Why TLJ is NOT the Worst Star Wars Movie
- Yoda’s Wisdom – TLJ at least did Yoda right (all things considered). We got a classic version of the character and he spouted more wisdom is about 2 minutes than could be found in the rest of TLJ combined. There is a specific piece of wisdom that, although certainly cliche, is still great. And I can already tell you that it will become a corporate/inspirational quote meme/poster/vid clip for as long as the Star Wars franchise captures our pysches. What is that quote? It’s about Failure.
When Luke is at his lowest point in the movie – having failed Kylo/Ben long ago and having failed Rey now, Luke is ready to burn the sacred Jedi Tree/Temple and all the Jedi ‘bibles’ inside. Yet even then he can’t do it. So (shockingly) Yoda does it for him (34). Yoda then goes on to give Luke this wisdom.
“Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.”
I love Yoda so much that, with a bit of effort, you could probably convince me that TLJ wasn’t all bad. It certainly wasn’t a great movie and, so long as I am alive, I’m 100% certain to watch the next installment of the franchise. I’m sure you are too. That’s the thing about Star Wars – no matter how bad they are, we’ll always hold out hope that the one will be better.
Heck, I might even go back and watch TLJ again. I’ve thought of the perfect way for me to get through another sitting…
What do you think? Want to watch it with me again?
Mike’s Notes
- Episode 1 — Phantom Menace was the former bearer of this crown before TLJ.
- Since, despite all the mystery capital built up by TFA about Rey’s backstory, we find out in TLJ that there’s really nothing to know about Rey – her parents ‘were nobodies’ and she ‘comes from nothing.’ Thanks for playing. Nothing to see here, folks, just move along.
- Except to say that it’s obviously an insider conspiracy to prop up the film and get more people to go see it.
- And thus the rest of the article will make sense to you.
- In which case you can stop reading now and save yourself the headache. For that matter, why did you bother even reading this note?
- Other than the total destruction of Luke as a cool character.
- OK, I’m not gonna lie, I can’t think of any redeeming qualities for Jar-Jar Binks. I hated the Jar-Jar character with a passion. He has only 1 good quality — in the Star Wars Complete Saga video game, Jar-Jar’s character can jump really high – that’s the only thing I’ve ever liked about him – and ‘like’ is actually a strong word to use there — otherwise, I can’t stand the meesa-whoosa-whatsa dude.
- It’s like when Jerry lamented that Tim Watley converted to Judaism just to get the jokes!
- I can’t think of any right now but I’m sure I may have chuckled a time or two.
- It’s come to my attention that both this Luke-Rey example was first pointed out by BGR’s Mike Wehner. Kudo’s to him for beating me to the punch – guess I waited too long to see the movie! 🙂
- Mind you this is a pretty historic lightsaber — it tracks back to his father Anakin, Obi-Wan kept it hidden/safe for nearly two decades before handing it off to Luke, Luke did his Jedi training with it, and carries quite a bit of Jedi lore around it. Although as an interesting side note pointed out by my son – in RotJ Luke used his new GREEN Jedi-Master Lightsaber, yet this was his original BLUE (Anakin) saber – so what happened to the GREEN one?
- I improvised here, the actual quote is “Oh, you will be, you will be” during a conversation with Luke in ESB when Luke says he is not afraid.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Ball_Turret_Gunner
- I’m convinced the only real purpose of this part was to have a method for the director to offer his friends a forum for their cameos.
- Actually I only saw the first Fast & Furious but it seemed like a good line to use here. OMG, am I falling victim to the need to be funny like TLJ director? Is this a virus? Did I contract it when I saw the film? Please, someone, help me! I fear I can’t control it, it’s taking over. Noooooo!
- It was as if the writer forgot about Finn during the first draft and when someone reminded him of it, he said “Don’t worry, we’ll have something for Finn” — and so was born the casino storyline. Can anyone say Pod Races? Who wants the Pod Races again? (ref TPM)
- Which are supposed to be funny but are so bad they barely forced a few chuckles. I kept wondering when the guys at MST3000 would show up to save this movie.
- And hey it wasn’t as bad as Liam Neeson trying to explain the Midichlorians to a starry eyed 6 year old who had no clue what he was talking about (TPM). I guess that means TLJ gets 1 win – woo hoo, let’s celebrate!
- Perhaps this was God’s way of showing mercy to his suffering people?
- I’ll even admit that I believe the world probably be better off if women ran it (it certainly couldn’t be much worse) and NO this is not a Trump-bashing thing (give the man a chance already). It’s just a fact that sometimes too much testosterone leads to too many egos with too many misunderstandings. I’m as guilty as the next guy.
- Am I being hypocritical here and complaining because this was a missed opportunity for diversity? Actually no. Because in the case of Finn and Rey it would have been a NATURAL progression of the plot – it wouldn’t have been forced like the rest of TLJ’s fake diversity.
- Much like Galadriel of LOTR.
- Don’t get me wrong, I loved those old Star Treks, but I wasn’t expecting to see such a low budget set on the latest and greatest Star Wars movie.
- We don’t know much about Snoke. There was a fan-theory on about Snoke potentially being Mace Windu – that would have been a very interesting development. Well pretty much anything would have been more interesting than what we actually got!
- As we were led to believe in TFA Snoke and his First Order rose to power in the vacuum created after the destruction of Palpatine and his Empire at the end of 6-RotJ.
- Among other things Snoke claims to have orchestrated events that led to Luke’s mistreatment of Kylo and Kylo bringing Rey to him.
- Such as hold Rey up in the air, throw her all around, and play with her like a puppet.
- Much like Professor Keating warned up about J. Evans Prichards, PhD’s work in Dead Poet’s Society.
- Another Seinfeld reference? Mike, you are such a hack. Sorry. It just fits. In this case we’re left to feel like George Costanza in The Foundation episode when he discovers his dead fiance’s vast wealth that would have been his. And now? Not.
- Any takers for my version being better than the actual scene in TLJ?
- Ky-Rey could have become the latest craze. Ky-Rey could have been a good power couple battling against Snoke (oops, that’s right the director killed him, sorry) or a new series of villains (similar to what Marvel is doing with The Avengers). Or Ky-Rey could have been an evil couple and battled against Poe and the rebel crew (sure it would have taken a bit of clever script-writing but you know people DO get paid for that sort of thing). And if we aren’t going to get a love interest between Rey and Fine then we could have had a lot of play with a potential on-again, off-again love interest between Ky-Rey. We do need something to replace the chemistry between Han and Leia that now seems like ancient history (but which actually came back to us in TFA). And now? Not.
- Numerous media reports have emerged that Mark Hamill did not support the writer’s vision for Luke in TLJ. He is specifically quoted as saying “‘I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize YOUR vision.’”
- Who shall remain unnamed since he doesn’t deserve to be mentioned with the Star Wars franchise.
- Well it’s not all that shocking since TLJ specifically said over and over and over that it wanted to destroy all things ‘past.’
- There actually isn’t a 35th reference. Are you still reading this? Wow, you are a true fan and I appreciate your engagement – be sure to follow my blog and let’s keep in touch.
2018 Resources – A Summary:
My productivity and focus have gone thru the roof after learning about The Am Ritual from Tim Ferris’s book 
My life has changed for the better as a result of Intermittent Fasting. If you don’t know what it is, Intermittent Fasting (as I’m talking about it) is basically not eating for 14 hours (for women) or 16 hours (for men) and then consuming all your calories in the remaining 8-10 hour window. I realize that may sound harsh – and in the beginning, I thought ‘no way’ – but I’m here to tell you that I over a 3-month experiment I learned that Intermittent Fasting has been surprisingly easy and it gives me lots of energy. That said, it’s not a magic cure-all and there are a few important tips to keep in mind if you want to try it.
I think we can all agree that unfortunately good customer service is hard to find nowadays. Here’s my personal list of the best and worst companies for customer service.
is left but it’s not always convenient of possible to recharge and that’s a concern.
The QC25 and QC35 are essentially the same headphone except that the latter is wireless. They are lightweight (0.43 lbs compared to the .57 lbs of the Beats), comfortable (although some have complained of ‘pinching’ after extended use), and do an EXCELLENT job of “acoustic noise cancelling” (ANC) which is basically the same as the Beats in terms of technology (in my non-professional opinion) but better than the Beats in terms of performance (aka the Bose are slightly superior in their ability to consistently cancel more outside noise).
ANC to work well the noise has to be somewhat constant (like traffic, a jet engine, or lots of people talking all together) – then the noise cancelling is great. (FYI, when you go to Best Buy or a store that has a noise cancelling demo, they’ll pipe in a constant noise and that makes the ANC work great). This is true for any noise cancelling phones available today. The Bose are the best at noise cancelling in my opinion but they won’t cancel everything so I don’t want you to be disappointed. This is just the current limits of technology.
Other tidbits: like the Beats, the Bose are a closed loop design so you won’t bother people beside you with noise spillage. Like the Beats, the Bose phones are collapsable. Unlike the Beats, the Bose case IS convenient and allows enough space for the phones and your cords, etc. The Bose also come with an extra ‘airline’ 2-prong adapter which comes in handy on some airplanes with this old style technology.
I bought a newer 30-inch model with SS door and window. Model #20077915. It was around $225 at Lowe’s and it has pretty much everything I wanted including an 800watt HE, remote, meat probe, wheels/handle, front drip tray, integrated control panel, etc, etc. 
That Helpful Dad 