Star Wars Episode VIII

Well, now that I've seen it on BD, I guess I'm gonna have to read this whole thread.
Quick review first:
Mostly enjoyed it.
Daisy is terrific and very enjoyable to watch.
Nice to see Luke again - he always was an asshole, tho.
The casino side trip was ridiculous.
Benny the Bull!!
Too many call-backs to Empire and Jedi to be believed. Do they think this is what we want to see, or don't these writers have any original thoughts?
Leia Poppins!!
How did such attractive people as Han and Leia have such a hideously goofy-looking child?
The hyperspace-jump ramming was an amazing-looking effect, and the choice of minimal sound and music over it was perfect.
60km-wide starships? Why???
Poe Dameron is the most boring character-who's-supposed-to-be-hot since that "fighter jock" the network forced Straczinsky to add to Babylon 5 (who he killed off as soon as he could).
Fun lightsaber action, fun space battles. Not horrible, not great.
I liked the bit with kid with the broom at the end.

Maybe exposure to the dark side of the force is uglying him up. It sure didn't do Snoke or Anakin any favours.

I don't mind him that much, but I do kind of suspect his continued existence is the result of pandering and/or tokenism, so there's at least one young white male good guy. I've seen some stores where their Force Awakens swag featured Finn and Poe but no Rey, and other stores where it's just Rey and Poe without Finn.

Finally watched this tonight.

Enjoyed it overall, but it could've used some editing IMHO. Felt really slow at times.

I can't say yet whether I like it better than TFA, but I still like Rogue One best of these new films.

I will say that Snoke's guards looked stupid as hell. Whenever they moved it looked like something out of a Power Rangers episode.

What I wondered was: why are they fighting at all? Snoke's dead. They totally failed at guarding. They're unemployed. They should be sucking up to Kylo Ren for a job in the new regime. They shoulda been this guy (click the image):

Yeah. If we knew who Snoke was and who the guards were, we could speculate about the reasons for their loyalty.

Good thing we got a whole backstory for Snoke.. oh wait.

The guards knew the secret Dracula resurrection ritual for Snoke, but it needed Kylo and Rey's blood to do it.
But, now that they're dead, the secret is lost forever.

If they'd practiced actual fighting instead of just posturing and posing Snoke might still be alive.

I enjoyed this discussion of the movie's strengths and weaknesses.

Eh, the truth is Lucasfilm (Kathleen Kennedy) hired Johnson before having any real plan and before TFA was even in theaters and Johnson's only major credit was Looper and it sucked. Rian Johnson is a hack writer and director. You know who could have made a good sequel without rehashing Empire and Jedi, Dave Filoni, but lets not pick someone who's experienced with Star Wars.

I don't know what sort of low grade hash you're smoking, but Looper was great.

Yes, Looper was solid.

Disfigured by the dark side (like Snoke, but not as extreme).

It's a shitty explanation, but I think it's explained in the extended universe stuff (according to Wookiepedia). Something about their armor and being able to resist lightsaber blows scarred their brains or something.

Considering they worked directly under the old supreme leader, perhaps they thought one of them could take Snokes place once his murderer was disposed of.


Other than plot efficiency, there's no good reason why Kylo Ren should automatically become leader of the First Order. Other than General Hux, there's got to be other senior officers out there with a claim to the job. Even the rebellion had some other leadership so Poe wasn't immediately put in charge while Leia was incapacitated.

This was my thinking upon re-watching it too. Kylo Ren took over simply because General Hux couldn't fight against his Force powers, and for the time being, it was wiser to just go along with Kylo Ren rather than fight him and possibly die. And it was the final act, as you pointed out it made more sense plot-wise. I think we'll see more of a power struggle in the next movie between Hux and Ren.

I hope I'm wrong, but I could easily see an RTJ style cop-out ending in the next movie where Hux and Ren kill/mortally wound each other so Rey doesn't have to get her hands dirty.

I hope you're wrong, too!

Given that TLJ (largely) threw out the Star Wars playbook, surely they can continue trying fresh ideas with Episode VIII.

If the First Order was real, Ren would have Hux executed and both his family and any supporters consigned to prison camps...

Pretty much everything invoked in TLJ from those movies was twisted in a new way that fit comfortably into the story. Part of the intensity of the experience for me was picking out all the little echoes and watching how they were made new instead of being a throwaway callback or a cheap plot shortcut.

The exceptions (that come to mind) would be the Falcon going through the canyon -- which, at that point, was the best way to go rather than have that sideplot overshadow the main event -- and the Pit of Evil, and even there, the circumstances were different and the message was different.

I gave the movie a second viewing tonight and liked it...slightly better...but it still feels so damn slow. Trim 20 minutes from the run time and at least it would move.

This film may become the one I end up watching the fewest times. As poorly plotted and acted as the prequels were, they're at least visually interesting to watch from time to time if I catch them on cable.

TLJ is just...meh...to me.