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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2019-12-31, 20:22

I finally saw it today!

And… I enjoyed it despite it hitting several predictable notes. I certainly could see myself watching this movie a second time some time later; I can't honestly say the same for Episode 8 or any of the prequels. I just spent the last hour reading the novels in this thread and I think I just have a few additional comments to share and questions to ask.

It's not my favorite Star Wars movie, but it easily beat my bottom-of-the-barrel expectations I had going in, and I'm pleasantly satisfied with how they generally tied off the loose ends (or maybe that they tied off loose ends).

Things I liked that I don't think have been mentioned here:

- I loved Luke's "treat that with more respect" comment regarding his light saber and the following snide glance, an obvious but very-well deserved jab at the previous movie.

- I was glad to see Rey climbing through the crashed death star. An obvious callback to when we first saw her introduction as a scavenger in TFA, this somehow felt to me like when she was "in her element". Alone and exploring in a dark, dangerous place. I kind of get Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones vibes. Granted, Daisy Ridley isn't exactly ripped with upper body strength, but she did make it look pretty natural as if she'd been doing some kind of training regimen. I wish we could have seen more of her wandering through places alone like this.

- I was so relieved that they dropped the forced love thread with Rose.

- Thank the gods that they made practically no references to the events of Episode 8. Other than Luke being dead and Rey having the old books, were there any Episode 8 callbacks? Did I just blissfully tune them out, or did they actually pretend that movie didn't happen?


Some things I didn't like:

- Absolutely everything about Rey and Kylo/Ben's relationship. The sacrificing of each other for the other felt so shallow, meaningless, and predictable to me, more than anything else in this movie. This relationship is something I've never understood through this trilogy. These two characters have no reason to have chemistry beyond the tired old trope of "bad guy and good girl must fall in love". To the best of my recollection, they were never set up to have any common ground. Did I completely miss something here along the journey?

- I really wish Leia would have died sooner, perhaps even off-screen at the very beginning of the movie. With every single scene she was in, I was taken out of the moment and my brain kicked into editor mode asking questions about how much they had to edit or rewrite or reshoot or splice to fit Carrie Fisher's recorded scenes into the narrative. Almost every single word she said could have been cut and the story would have unfolded the same way.

- I still hate these all-CG characters. That tiny troll who reprogrammed Threepio? That nutsack of a face Maz Kanata? These things aren't even in the uncanny valley. They're past the horizon way over there down in the unbelievable gorge. I don't understand how Disney/Star Wars does these characters so badly. Maybe it's some kind of sick homage to the CG abominations in the "remastered" original trilogy of the 90s and the prequels.


And finally some general comments, unfulfilled wishes, and questions:

- I desperately avoided spoilers and predictions ahead of my viewing, and I am very grateful for having done so. It felt good to be surprised a few times by particular cameos or events.

- Was the force healing the only connection here to The Mandalorian?

- I wouldn't have noticed the two women kissing at the end if not for social media getting their knickers in a twist and spoiling that ahead of time. I'm pretty sure it's normal for people to embrace, hug, and kiss in a moment of extended celebration. If it was a man and woman kissing in the background, nobody would bat an eye. I guess there would have been even more outrage if this was a few decades ago, but the rate of social progress here just makes me kinda sad.

- I would have liked the Force healing to have a more visible and tangible effect on the donor beyond "I'm kinda weak for a little bit and just when the writing needs it". It would have been great to see some part of Rey's body char, weaken, or wither as she donated her "life force" to the snake monster and Ben. If you haven't seen The Witcher yet (you should!), it does a good job of demonstrating this idea when its sorcerers cast magic and have to pay somehow with life.

- I had no problem with the (re)introduction of Force healing, but maybe that's because I watched The Mandalorian. To me, this felt just like when we were first introduced to Palpatine's Force lightning. Just more ancient voodoo space magic that nobody should try to think too much about!

- The timing of the "ghosting" of Leia and Ben and (not) Rey kind of makes sense if you think of their Force life juice somehow tying them all together. Rey's life was still in Ben and could be why she didn't totally pass while he was alive, and Leia was still an un-ghosted corpse while her life force was diddling around with Ben's katra. I know it's a stretch and very imperfect (let's not think about the giant snake monster), but this all "clicked" in my head canon when Leia and Ben ghosted out at the same time.

- If Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter, who is the grandmother? There's a whole Pandora's can of worms that I hope we don't get an answer to. Did Palpatine have a legitimate lover years ago? Was he cloned? Did he rape some poor woman? (I mean, he is evil…)

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Originally Posted by pscates2.0
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