Star Wars: The Spoiler Thread

[gonelong]

I'm kind of surprised by all of the negative reactions to the film.

As a standalone movie, it was fine. As part of a franchise it was pretty disappointing.

The good:

• Fight scenes after Snokes death and with Luke and Ben. Phasma fight scene too.
• Island caretakers - amusing and right in line with Star Wars supporting players.
• Rey - I like her story arc.
• R2D2 showing the "Help me ..." clip to Luke.
• Luke going out with 2 setting suns. Nice work

The bad ...

• Snoke, Phasma, and Holdo - death of characters with no impact. *meh* We hardly knew ya. Hopefully Holdo is dead. Hopefully Phasma is not.
• Good vs. Evil is a timeless theme - I don't care for the politics of the day so blatantly injected into the saga.
• Kamakazi hyperspace - really? Running out of fuel?
• Oh yeah, that Akbar guy died over there somewhere.

The ugly ...

• Leia uses the force, for the first time in any meaningful way, and it's to save herself. *ugh*. By flying through space 1/2 conscious. *sheesh*. One of the most kick-ass heroines in cinema history and they have relegated her to a furrowed brow, a worried look, and "patience". Criminal.
• R2D2 and C3PO are main characters- a common thread across Star Wars history - and they have been sidelined. Stupid.

[klw]

One thing the major deaths set up for the next movie are that neither Rey nor Ben have an obvious Master who can advance their training.

[Larry Schuler]

Damn. I just saw this. I haven't read through all the comments here yet but Johnson just sliced the Star Wars mythology in half with a light saber of darkness. I know it hurts now but I'm confident JJ Abrams will use this dark bottom as a foundation for the safe, light "perfect" finale to this trilogy. You can't have three perfect movies in a row. This meta attack on the rebels, the franchise, and the fans is what will allow us all to stomach the last one. Of course, I could be completely wrong but I feel like Johnson did his job a la Laura Dern and did what the franchise needed instead of being the hero. All hail, porgs.

[RedTeamGo!]

[*] Snoke - death of characters with no impact.

I cannot disagree with this enough. Snoke’s purpose in the story is to be the Sith master killed by Kylo Ren. “A master and an apprentice. Always two.” Ren had to kill a master in order to become the master himself. They always talk about this in SW, but they actually showed it in TLJ. Loved it.

[RedEye]

Ren had to kill a master in order to become the master himself.

Agree with this though I also think it would have been nice to see a little more of what Snoke could do. He didn't even manage to get up from his chair! Though I suppose it wouldn't have been so shocking and disorienting had he managed to do so. Johnson actually had me thinking for a minute that Kylo was going to flip as well.

I thought Luke's story arc was one of the strengths of the movie. Also, he's not a murderer plain and simple. He's a guy who freaked out for a second and thought about killing for the greater good of the galaxy. Then he thought better of it -- unless you believe Kylo's version of the flashback. Which brings me to my next point...

Don't get why everyone online is freaking out about Rey being "nobody" -- most of all because Kylo is the source for that info, and he had blatant ulterior motives for telling it to her. My guess is that her backstory ain't that simple. She could both be "nobody" and be a force sensitive relative of one of the big families somehow. This question is far from answered completely.

[MWM]

I'm in agreement with CE's views on this movie. I feel like it tarnishes the original trilogy so much, that I don't really want to watch it anymore. That could be one of the unintended consequences of the direction they're taking it...... less viewership of the originals. I told my son that if Luke was killed I was done with the movie. He's 15 and was in total agreement.

If this is really what happened to Luke Skywalker, it makes him a much less compelling character in the originals. Maybe even not compelling at all.

Mark Hamill was surprisingly good in this movie. That was one of the pluses. Unfortunately, Laura Dern was just awful.

[RedTeamGo!]

I don’t get it...this movie is going to stop you from watching the OT?

Absurd.

I think nostalgia is really clouding how people perceive the OT. Luke literally uses the dark side of the force to defeat Vader.

[gonelong]

I cannot disagree with this enough. Snoke’s purpose in the story is to be the Sith master killed by Kylo Ren. “A master and an apprentice. Always two.” Ren had to kill a master in order to become the master himself. They always talk about this in SW, but they actually showed it in TLJ. Loved it.

They killed a label (Master), not a character (Snoke).

GL

[LoganBuck]

I liked the film in the theater. It was enjoyable in the moments. But the more I think about the movie and where it fits in the overarching saga, I was not happy. I don't think this one will have a very good replay value.

Things I liked.
BB8
Porgs
Benicio Del Toro

Things I disliked
-The stupid white bronco spaceship chase.
-How Poe Dameron was written
-Admiral Ackbar being essentially killed off screen, and replaced by Holdo because of some weird gender agenda in the writers' room.
-Literally days have passed since The Force Awakens. The First Order and the Resistance must have been in continuous battle, for the grand shape of the Resistance to be in such distress.
-Rose, her character was pretty much written like this, "Hey we need to tack on a female person of color, and the audience better like her, or they are dumb." Seriously what purpose did her character serve? If you took her out of the story the only thing you would have to change, is her saving Finn at the end.
-When did Finn and Rose have time to learn how to become pilots?
-The entire resistance fits on the Millennium Falcon? Did they have to throw the weird chess game overboard?
-When did anyone get the Millennium Falcon the maintenance she so badly needed in TFA? It was at a the Resistance base for hours during TFA.

The Ugly
-I hated Leia going all StarLord and then they let her back onto the ship with the effort I might open my patio door.
-The First Order has this awesome ship we have never heard of before, the dreadnought, it immediately gets destroyed in the dumbest possible way.
-Stuff happening off screen.
-The characters not explaining themselves leaving other characters and the audience in a vacuum, Holdo, Luke, Rey, Leia. For 2.5 hours a couple of lines of dialogue could have cleaned so much of the movie up.
-R2D2 is apparently an old Ipad, that only works when it is plugged in.
-Luke Skywalker, THE major character of this franchise was not done right by how we arrived at that ending. I would have been ok with the major plot points of Luke's story in TLJ, had it not been botched so badly. Instead we get cranky crotchety Luke, who apparently has heart issues from surviving on a diet of Alien Walrus Ostrich Cow Milk, and weird sea creatures. Dude eat a cruciferous vegetable every now and then. He obviously was getting his cardio.

[RedTeamGo!]

They killed a label (Master), not a character (Snoke).

GL

Yes, that’s what I’m saying

- - - Updated - - -

Just saw it a 2nd time. It was much better the 2nd time.

The portrayal of Luke made a lot more sense after a 2nd viewing.

[Larry Schuler]

Things I disliked
-Admiral Ackbar being essentially killed off screen, and replaced by Holdo because of some weird gender agenda in the writers' room.
-Rose, her character was pretty much written like this, "Hey we need to tack on a female person of color, and the audience better like her, or they are dumb." Seriously what purpose did her character serve? If you took her out of the story the only thing you would have to change, is her saving Finn at the end.

Female AND Asian?! I'm surprised you didn't walk out before the end credits.

[LoganBuck]

Female AND Asian?! I'm surprised you didn't walk out before the end credits.

The point was that it didn't feel organic, it felt forced. There is a difference.

[RedTeamGo!]

The point was that it didn't feel organic, it felt forced. There is a difference.

I don’t get the complaints about the diverse cast. Who cares about this stuff? Why does it matter? People said Finn was forced in TFA because he was black. Maybe he got the role, because, I don’t know...he’s great?

If Rose was white and hot it would feel organic?

Re-read your post about it not feeling organic from an Asian person’s perspective...

“Wait...if someone that looks like me is in Star Wars it feels forced?”

[RedTeamGo!]

While I am on this subject, a cousin of mine didn’t like how there were a bunch of women in power in this movie. He said there should have been more men in power.

I said to him “curious. Did you have a problem with how literally every character in A New Hope was a white man except Princess Leia who was a damsel in distress?”

He didn’t respond.

[LoganBuck]

I don’t get the complaints about the diverse cast. Who cares about this stuff? Why does it matter? People said Finn was forced in TFA because he was black. Maybe he got the role, because, I don’t know...he’s great?

If Rose was white and hot it would feel organic?

Nope it would feel like when they tacked on the Admirals daughter in Star Trek Into Darkness. Tacked on.

Finn was not forced into anything in my opinion. Lando wasn't forced into anything either. Rose and Holdo felt forced.

Admiral Ackbar was essentially replaced by Holdo. How is white washing Admiral Ackbar a valiant cause?