It took everything ‘The Force’ has to make me watch this movie. After sitting through 2 hours and 33 minutes of agony and a few entertaining trailers for movies which seemed like much more fun, the only thing I can say is, a literal fight between stars would have been more entertaining.

Okay, that’s perhaps a bit too harsh. There are some memorable space battle scenes in the movie. But, is there anything in this movie that makes it different from being a rehash of ‘The Empire Strikes Back?’ I really didn’t find anything. Here are 4 reasons why you just shouldn’t bother wasting your time or money watching ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’:

Character Growth

When you have a trilogy, you’d expect the main character(s) to grow as the series progresses, right? But, what do you see Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo/Ben (Adam Driver) do throughout the movie? The same stuff they did in the Force Awakens.

© Lucasfilm Ltd.

Okay, they do find different ways of doing it, but they’re still stuck in the same rut. Remember how they stretched out ‘The Hobbit’ into 3 movies? Looks like they’re doing the same thing here.

© Lucasfilm Ltd.

But, to give credit where credit’s due, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) have pretty decent character growth in this movie.

Lightsabers

When you’re going to watch ‘Star Wars’, you want to see tons of lightsaber action, right? ‘Rogue One’ barely had any lightsabers but then they gave us an epic minute or so of Darth Vader slaughtering rebels and all was forgiven.

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If the same happened here, if Luke stood up to a battalion of First Order troops and ‘Forced’ the shit out of them, all would have been forgiven. Instead, we get some poorly choreographed battles that probably had George Lucas dreading his decision of selling to Disney.

Porgs

This is actually one of the few things that the movie has going for it. So, why is it one of the reasons not to watch ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi?’ Well, when one of the main reasons to watch a movie about space battles looks like this

© Lucasfilm Ltd.

It’s not great news now is it?

(The next point contains spoilers so if you want to see the movie first, go and do that before reading any further.)

Skywalker

The original trilogy focused on Luke Skywalker. The prequels focused on Anakin Skywalker. This trilogy focuses on ‘Rey from nowhere’. While this would have been fine if Rey was a flawed character or a character who we could grow with. But, when you’re so deep into Star Wars, there are hardly any secrets left. We loved Luke even more when we learnt that Darth Vader was his father. We didn’t really care for Rey much when we learnt her parents were nobodies.

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The Skywalker name is synonymous with Star Wars. Where are they now? Thanking their lucky stars they don’t have anything to do with this new trilogy anymore. But, you don’t have to take our word for it.

Here’s Mark Hamill talking about how disappointed he is with the new Luke Skywalker:

I’m not necessarily saying that this is a bad movie. It’s a good movie. Critics seem to love it too. But, is it a Star Wars movie? Of course not! Just ask any hardcore Star Wars fanboy what they thought of the movie. In fact, they hated the movie so much someone actually started a petition to get it remade.

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The petition has since been removed but it had more than 45,000 signatures before that happened. As for Disney, they’ve already earned well over $500 million from the movie within a week so I don’t think they’re going to be phased by what I have to say anyway.

Salman Khan Has Once Again Topped The Forbes India Celebrity 100 List. Shah Rukh Khan And Virat Kohli Took The Second And Third Spot Respectively With Priyanka Chopra Named As Only Female Celebrity In Top 10 List

Superstar Salman Khan has once again maintained the top spot in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list for the second consecutive year. The “Badshah” of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan and India’s cricket captain Virat Kohli took the second and third spot respectively with actress Priyanka Chopra named as only female celebrity in top 10 list.

The 2017 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List rankings are based on estimates of entertainment-related earnings of celebrities. The period under consideration is October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. The methodology for calculating the ranking may have changed this year (to exclude the “fame” quotient), but the list’s top three names have remained constant.

The 51-year-old Salman, for the second successive year, grabbed the top spot, despite the subdued box office performance of his film “Tubelight”. The actor earned Rs 232.83 crore, backed by endorsements of several consumer-facing brands. In fact, his earnings constitute 8.67 percent of the total earnings- Rs 2,683 crore-of the top 100 celebrities for the year.

Shah Rukh Khan, with Rs 170.5 crore, also retained his position at number two as did India’s cricket captain Virat Kohli, with Rs. 100.72 crore, at third spot. But although the top three held on to their ranks, their cumulative earnings declined by almost 20 percent, down to Rs 504.05 crore compared to last year’s total of Rs 626.52 crore.

Joy Chakraborthy, CEO – Forbes India and President – Revenue, TV18, said, “We are delighted to present yet another collector’s edition of Forbes India which will hit the stands soon. Over the years this list has established itself as the definitive benchmark of who’s making what in the entire entertainment world.”

“This year’s Celebrity 100 list is based on a revised methodology focusing on the celebrities’ earnings, thus reflecting in better representation and hence a well-rounded Celebrity list of 100.” The revised methodology this year, focusing only on a celebrity’s earnings (compared to the previous combination of ‘fame’ and ‘earnings’), has increased representation from the prolific South Indian film industry.

There are 13 actors from the South this year as against 11 last year. The number of Bollywood actors is down from 35 to 33, reducing their cumulative earnings by 13 percent from the previous year.

Shuttler PV Sindhu (Rs. 57.25 crores) was the highest money gainer (in percentage terms), as her total earnings soared nearly 17 times, propelled by several brand endorsements following her 2016 Rio Olympics silver medal. There is one woman in the top 10, Priyanka Chopra (Rs 7; INR 68 crore), as she continued to make her mark internationally.

The overall earnings of the Celebrity 100 declined this year, from Rs. 2,745 crore in 2016 to Rs. 2,683 crore this year.

Their Dreamy Italy Wedding And An Exotic Honeymoon In Finland, Virat Kohli And Anushka Sharma Hosted Their Delhi Reception At The Durbar Hall Of Taj Diplomatic Enclave Last Night For Their Extended Family And Friends In The Capital

Their dreamy Italy wedding and an exotic honeymoon in Finland behind them, it was finally time for Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma to bring their love story to desi turf. The couple hosted their Delhi reception at the Durbar Hall of Taj Diplomatic Enclave last night for their extended family and friends in the capital.

The function kickstarted when Kohli and Sharma walked out, hand-in-hand, to the special enclave set up for the media and posed for the shutterbugs. With Sabyasachi at the helm of their styling, it wasn’t surprising to see the actor go the traditional way — Sharma beamed in a red Benarasi from his Peeli Kothi collection complete with red bindi, sindoor and mogra in her hair. She paired it with a heritage uncut diamond choker and jhumkas. Kohli chose a black textured bandhgala with 18 karat gold buttons teaming it with a handwoven brocade churidaar and a hand-embroidered antique Kashmiri Pashmina shawl.

The festivities reached a high when Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked in around 9.40 pm to wish the newly-weds. The couple had visited the PMO on Wednesday to extend an invite to Modi. Among Kohli’s cricket friends, Suresh Raina was the first to arrive. Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Arun Jaitley and other dignitaries were expected to make their presence felt at the reception, till the time of going to press.