Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review
Dec. 17th, 2017 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaI enjoyed it.
I wasn’t entirely certain at first how I felt because it went in directions that I wasn’t expecting but the more time I have to think about it the more I like it. I definitely loved how funny it was.
+ Leia was wonderful. I loved her optimism at the end with Rey. More than anything I wanted a couple very specific things Leia related things from this movie:
1) A Luke/Leia reunion. So unbelievably happy about that scene. There was no hug but the holding hands and him touching her face, and the kiss, and him giving her back hope was so much what I wanted. I was honestly afraid that their reunion wouldn't have been planned for this movie and then we got this and it was the perfect reunion. I'm getting teary-eyed thinking about it. It was so tender and loving. You could feel the warmth and strength of their bond and love for each other. I loved it. I also really loved that moment of connection between the two of them after he opened himself to the Force again and they felt each other even while she was in a coma. ♥
2) Leia using the Force (in an overt way) is something I’ve always wanted. Among the group that I saw it with there was a lot of ridicule over Leia propelling herself through space (or superman flying as someone said) but I don't care, I loved it. Admittedly it looked a bit silly but Leia saving herself from the vacuum of space by using the Force to propel herself back to the ship was awesome and badass. I also loved her sensing Kylo during the attack on her ship and Luke during her coma.
and the one I didn't get:
3) a Kylo/Leia reunion. :( :( I was hoping that there would be a meeting but I guess that was meant for 9 and it makes me so sad. I really love that moment where they felt each other in the Force and Kylo hesitated to fire on her... and then couldn't do it. I knew he wouldn't and I liked how that played out. I think she was going to have a big role in whatever was to happen with Kylo/Ben, the movies have been building up to their meeting, and now that can’t happen. So at the very least I hope we get an implied scene between them. Like, he walks into the room where she is and we see the back of a body double as he approaches her and it cuts away or we watch from a distance with Leia's back to the camera?
+ I’m not sure where they are going to go with Leia in the next film. Hopefully they don’t start with her being killed off screen. That would piss me off. I also really hope that we feel her presence in the movie even if she can’t physically be there. It’s clear she was supposed to die in 9 but with Carrie’s death I’m now hoping that she actually survives the entire thing. I’d love if we had a final scene of her (back to us/in the distance) with Ben walking over to (newly returned from the dark). She has lost and suffered so much and for it to end with her getting her son back, a hope she has clearing clung to for so long, would just be really nice.
+ I loved Luke. Luke's death... a part of me was expecting it. But also with Carrie Fisher's death I didn't really think they'd kill him off now. Luke's my favourite so it feels weird to say but I actually loved how his death played out. I loved him bringing hope with his last stand, him embracing the legend of Luke Skywalker to save everyone, the way it's already started to spread across the galaxy, the fact that he was force projecting himself, his last moment with the double sunset... it was perfect and felt really appropriate.
+ I have fingers crossed and am looking forward to Force ghost Luke in the next movie. In fact the more Force ghosts the better. Episode 9 was clearly supposed to be Carrie/Leia’s movie (sniff) but with her gone I’m really hoping TPTB retool and bring Luke back in a significant role. I want him mentoring/advising Rey and trolling the hell out of Kylo. In fact the more I think about it the more I want Luke troll haunting Kylo not out of hatred but out of a new sense of hope in saving him from his darkness.
+ The reunion between Luke and R2D2 was wonderful. I loved so much R2D2 playing Leia's original message that started this whole thing and Luke's response.
+ I thought Luke/Rey were pretty great. I loved his defiant grumpiness with her and her stubborn refusal to leave him alone. The feel the force scene and Luke hitting Rey with the leaf made me laugh. I am disappointed that we didn’t get more of him training her.
+ Rey was wonderful. There was a little moment with her smiling at the rain that I loved. I loved her practicing with the lightsaber. I rather love that she immediately goes to investigate the dark scary hole. I thought her Force lifting the rock slide out of the way and saving the Resistance was a great culmination of her path in this movie and a nice passing of the hope torch from Luke to Rey.
+ Holy crap, Rey/Kylo Ren was amazing. I loved the Force bond and how all those sequences were shot. They were some of my favourite scenes. I loved that her first reaction to seeing him was to try shooting him and then the slow change in how she saw him because during their interactions. I loved the way that Rey began calling Kylo “Ben”. I loved how perfectly in sync they were during the fight and how well they worked together. I loved how flustered Rey was by seeing Kylo shirtless. I loved the fireside scene in Rey’s hut where they slowly touch hands through the force. ♥ I loved the intimacy of that scene. I loved Kylo essentially asking Rey to rule the galaxy with him. I loved the vulnerability Kylo showed in his scenes with Rey especially since he seems full or intimacy/abandonment/trust issues.
I’m happy that even if it was started by Snoke to manipulate Rey it’s made clear at the end that the bond still there. Rey shuts the door in Kylo's face but that doesn't mean the end of the connection between them. Nor does it necessarily speak to Rey’s continuing thoughts and emotions with regards to Kylo. She was torn up by him choosing the dark and has turned from him because that is not a path she will follow him on but that doesn’t have to mean that she has given up on hope or him. I loved the composition of that final shot with Kylo kneeling and looking up at Rey.
I also thought Kylo taking the mantle of Supreme Leader and attacking the Resistance felt less like a definitive choice and more like him once again throwing a tantrum because Rey rejected him (after he chose her over Snoke) and that last scene with the dice and Rey showed how conflicted he still was.
Another thing I liked was how yin/yang Rey and Kylo came off with all the talk about balance and how perfectly they were balanced against each other and I would love if that’s how it ends. Kylo redeeming himself to a degree by dropping/turning on the First Order [in line with his desire to leave the past] but surviving as a Force balance with Rey and the two of them creating a new order of Force users.
+ The fight in Snoke’s throne room was great. From Rey’s confrontation with Snoke to Kylo’s betrayal to the two of them fighting side by side against the Praetorian guard I loved it all. I loved Rey throwing Anakin’s lightsaber to Kylo when he was in trouble. I loved Kylo's expression when Rey got injured, and earlier his expression when Snoke was torturing her. Someone I saw it with came away positive that he's in love with Rey and I can absolutely see it too. The only negative is that I wish Kylo had used some of the force powers we know he has or had been given a reason for why he couldn’t.
+ Luke vs Kylo was great. I loved that Luke was all ‘nah’ to repeating Han’s words. I loved his final “See you around, kid”.
+ I loved the symbolism of Rey and Kylo fighting for Anakin’s lightsaber and it resulting in the lightsaber breaking in two. Fingers crossed for Rey getting a saberstaff in 9 made from the broken pieces since she took them.
+ I liked the twist of Kylo killing Snoke not to take down the First Order/turn good but him trying to destroy the past and its legacy and start over. I also thought his taking over the First Order and going full tantrum on the Resistance was completely in childish character. I love his emotionally messed up, incompetent, over-reacting ass. Adam Driver was amazing.
+ I loved how Ben Solo's turn played out. If I’d know about this going in I probably would have been set against the whole idea from the start because ‘Luke would never!’ but actually the way it happened worked for me. For Luke it definitely came off to me as an instinctive reaction to the darkness he’d just read in Ben’s mind. He didn’t enter that hut with the intent to kill Ben. He read the darkness in Ben’s mind, reacted in fear to the implied danger and then as soon as he realized he had ignited his lightsaber felt shame and regret over it. He was never going to kill Ben. But it was also a nicely complicated situation where both Luke and Ben failed and messed up. I absolutely buy Luke’s version of events but I don’t think Kylo’s were a lie. That moment from two different points of view would obviously come off very differently and I found Ben freaking out upon awakening to find Luke standing above him like that completely understandable. His choice to follow that up by murdering most of his fellow jedi in training, not so much.
+ I love how Force bonds work in this and I can’t wait to see where this goes. There is no way it's all over now.
+ I love that Han was very much there as a presence in the reunion scene between Leia and Luke via his dice from the Millennium Falcon.
+ I liked that even though Rey and Finn literally only had one very short scene together they were both very much in each other’s thoughts throughout the movie. The hug was really lovely.
+ I really liked Rose. She was very sweet and clearly someone with a deep sense of right and wrong and desire to help others and make things better. I loved the thread of her mourning her sister but also taking strength from her sacrifice. I loved her love for the cat/horse creatures. I'm glad she survived.
+ I loved the Finn/Rose meeting. Her hero worship was cute, I loved her tasering him as soon as she realized what he was doing and then their moment of connection after Finn told her about the ship tracking was great (though very shades of Finn/Rey in the previous movie.)
+ I loved everything with Poe and Leia. I loved that moment where he stands beside her medbed and holds her hand. I loved her shooting him for mutiny and then her gentleness with him during the escape.
+ Vice-Admiral Holdo was fabulous. I wasn’t certain at first but the reveal that she did have a plan, a great one at that, completely turned me around on her. As did her decision to stay behind on the ship. I loved her heroic self-sacrifice moment. She was so smart and brave and loyal. I loved the twist on the expected with her actually being right in the end.
+ I loved that moment between Leia and Holdo. It very much seemed like Holdo was a previous protégé of Leia's and you could see the love and loyalty between them. I want to know more about their relationship. Definitely shipping it.
+ Poe trolling Hux at the beginning was hilarious while also being very in character.
+ Chewie with the porgs was adorable and funny. I love that he basically adopted a bunch of them.
+ The porgs, the salt-fox creatures, and the horse/cat creatures on Canto Bight were all great. Cute and shown just enough to be loveable without becoming annoying. I really liked that the salt-foxes had a hand in helping the Resistance escape.
+ I loved Poe’s demanding “where’s my droid” and his joyful reunion with BB8 at the end.
+ I loved the reveal that Yoda was trolling Luke with his whole spiel about how the burning jedi tree ‘had nothing that Rey didn’t already have’ – and then we see at the end that she stole the books, lol.
+ This movie did really great with gender. It's something that stuck out - there were female officers/staff in the First Order, female pilots and staff in the Resistance, Leia had surrounded herself with women and the three most important characters in the Resistance storyline were women. Paige got a great hero moment at the beginning. Plus all the background women at the casino and even women on Luke's isolated island hideaway. It was great.
+ BB8 was great. Loved pretty much everything with him especially him 'fixing' Poe's ship and his scenes on Canto Bight.
+ Finn’s fight with Phasma was good but too short and I wanted more. I did enjoy his moment at the end where he was so determined to protect the fortress and take out the canon and I’m so glad that Rose saved him because I was actually worried for a minute.
+ I liked how Snoke died – Kylo cutting him in half and that he didn’t see it coming - and that it was his hubris in thinking that he controlled Kylo completely that destroyed him. I don’t even mind that we don’t actually learn anything about him because it feels appropriate. In the end it doesn’t really matter because he’s simply another person who wants power and is willing to do anything to get it.
+ The fish-nun people being so done with Rey and her nonsense amused me. Their looks up at her when she dropped the rock on their cart made me laugh.
+ There were some really amazing visuals, especially on Crait. I also loved the shot of the Supremacy exploding in silence. The cinematography was wonderful.
+ I loved that whole opening sequence with Paige.
+ I liked that last little bit on Canto Bight with the kids replaying Luke’s lasts stand against Kylo Ren and the little jedi slave boy with his Resistance ring looking to the stars.
+ Hux had two moments I really enjoyed – him reaching for a weapon when he saw unconscious Kylo and his sarcastic “do you think you got him” after Kylo’s firing barrage on Luke.
+ I liked the Poe/Rey meeting. Maybe it was just me but it felt very flirty. Maybe Poe is just like that with every new person he meets.
+ Luke bursting in on Rey and Kylo's moment in her hut made me lol because it came off so much like an angry dad interrupting his daughter and her boyfriend.
+ I have to admit: I want a Kylo Ren redemption. I thought that this movie would set that up and the fact that it didn't has left me very uncertain if they are going to redeem him. Not because Kylo has chosen the darker path, he's clearly still conflicted and haunted by the ghosts of his past, but because with his murder of Snoke he is now the only one left as a main bad guy. Sure, there's Hux and the First Order but unless they really do something different that really isn't enough. And there isn't really anyone else that could take Kylo's place. It makes me think that there are only two likely potential ends for Kylo are: a) Kylo commits to the dark till the very end and is killed by Rey, or, b) Rey does manage to turn Kylo at the very end (a la Luke and Vader) and perhaps he even helps her to take down the First Order before dying in the process. The latter, and its retread of Vader, is not really something I want. Not only for him but also as the end of the Skywalker story. That said there were a couple hints that make me think that he could still be redeemed. Rey had a vision where she saw him choose light. Leia actually loses hope that he can be saved and it's Luke who comes in to reassure her that there is always hope. I honestly have no idea where the next movie is going to go with him.
+ I’m in this weird place where I actually liked Finn and Rose’s side trip to Canto Bight and yet I still feel like the movie might have been better if it had been cut or shortened? It didn’t mesh with the rest of the movie and kept dragging the pace down and as a whole I don’t know that it was actually necessary. The whole plan subplot should have been streamlined with Finn/Rose going straight into being undercover on The Supremacy and it would have added even more tension to that plotline. That said what I did like about it was Finn being confronted with the fact that the First Order aren't the only ones doing evil, the movie tackling war profiteering, the cat-horse creatures who were super cute, Rose who had a bunch of nice moments, BB8 and everything with the kids.
+ I was disappointed that Rey isn't a Skywalker, and that she didn’t even have any special connection to anyone else. I wanted her to be a Skywalker! That said I did like how that tied back in to the little potential jedi boy on the casino world, and the way it shows that literally anyone can be a jedi. She wanted to be special and she is but not because she is a chosen one or from the legacy family. Kylo tells her that “You have no place in this story” and this movie was all about showing he was wrong. She’s the hero, she’s the new hope for the future, because of who she is as a person and the choices she’s made. Anakin was simply a slave boy from a desert world and he changed the galaxy, Rey is a simple abandoned child from a desert world and she is changing the galaxy and that little slave boy from the casino world has it in him to change the galaxy as well. It was a good message. But I’m still a little sad that she isn’t a Skywalker. I mean why cast someone who looks like she could fit into the family!?
+ The Knights of Ren were completely missing this movie but the implication in the flashback that they are all former jedi students of Luke's who sided with Ben when he destroyed it has left me excited about their potential presence in the final movie. I want to know more. Like, Ben blows up his hut and 'kills' their Master and that somehow led to most of the other students dead, some of them leaving for the dark side with Ben and the temple on fire. ... How?! What the heck happened that night? Did some of the students accuse Ben of murdering Luke and attack him. Did it turn into an all out fight with some taking Ben's side? And if the Knights are Force uses what exactly was their place in Snoke's First Order? Can any of them be saved? Actually it occurs to me that we haven't seen any of the Knights which makes me wonder if they're all dead. That would be disappointing. Prediction for the next movie: Rey is going to gather and train/learn with some new jedi recruits and there will be a big final epic lightsaber battle between Kylo Ren and his Knights and Rey and her new Jedi's. Fingers crossed!
+ Kylo’s “You come from nothing. You are nothing. But not to me.” to Rey was cruel and I wanted her to punch him in the face. I like that she didn’t fall for it for a second. And yet at the same time I loved the whole scene.
+ Poe really messed up which was an interesting and unexpected direction for his storyline to go. I didn’t dislike it nor did it make me hate him but my feelings about it are complicated. It was a theme in this movie that people make mistakes and fail, and we get a Yoda visit to make it clear. Finn/Rose fail in disabling the tracking device (and in fact their presence reveals the true Resistance plan), we get Luke forced to finally confront his massive screw-up with Ben, Rey fails in her mission to turn Kylo Ren, Holdo/Leia’s plan failed in part because of their secret keeping, Kylo failed in turning Rey to his side and in trying to destroy the Resistance but with all of that Poe’s mistakes and failures stuck out so much more. His insubordination basically the entire movie from ignoring a direct order from Leia that leads to a destroyed Dreadnaught but also takes out all the Resistance bombers and kills a lot of Resistance fighters in the process to his secret plan with Finn that inadvertently reveals the true plan, and once again gets a hell of a lot of the Resistance killed, and the fact that he mutinied at all felt more in your face than the others. Perhaps because Poe is very much set up as Leia’s chosen successor I feel a lot more critical about how he messed up especially how badly he screwed up with what will soon be his charge. Maybe because we don’t get a lot of Poe dealing emotionally from all the Resistant deaths his impulsiveness caused. Maybe because his arrogance and attitude with Holdo annoyed me. Probably all of the above.
+ The time line in this movie was deeply messed up. So it starts immediately at the end of the last film and essentially takes place over the course of a couple days? Finn and Kylo both heal that much in that short of time? Rey only knew Luke for days? Finn and Rose went to the casino planet, did everything they did there, came back, and infiltrated the Supremacy all in 12 hours???
+ One of the biggest issues I had was the lack of any real mentoring/training of Rey and of relationship building between Luke and Rey. It was really disappointing. Even doing a training montage would have helped a lot.
I think this and the timeline issue both could have been easily solved simply by not having the Ahch-To and the Resistance plots running concurrently. Instead the Resistance plot is happening in 'real time' and taking place at least several months after the first movie while the Ahch-To starts immediately where the previous movie ended, speeds through those months till it and Rey re-converge with the 'current' timeline. You wouldn't even have to change any of the scenes themselves or the order they are in.
You could make the passage of time subtle background instead of anyone saying anything. So at the beginning Kylo is still wounded and by their final Force meeting he's completely healed. Rey's clothes could subtly change every new time she's on screen. Chewie could be shown for 1 minute here and there (or at the end of every island scene) where the change in his relationship with the Porgs shows time passing. I envision a scene where Rey is ready to leave for the Supremacy and she enters his room on the Falcon to find him napping while covered in Porgs. [And crack myself up every time I imagine it, lol.]
With Luke and Leia you'd still have them sense each other when he reopens himself to the Force except you'd go from him saying her name to her back in her TFA outfit in a location that's clearly not the ship. When Leia is blown out of the ship Luke senses it on Ahch-To, lifting his head and saying her name, perhaps it echoes across the screen when we close in on her floating in space.
+ I’m still so sad that this is how the future turned out for Luke/Leia/Han. :(
+ I’m not a fan of the fact that Luke did end up repeating old mistakes instead of going his own direction post-OT. But mostly while the reason why Luke chose to cut himself off makes sense - shame for what he did, guilt for what it caused, perhaps fear too - it doesn't feel like enough of a reason to cut himself so completely off from Leia and to ignore all the trouble happening in the galaxy. I don't know how well I would buy Luke being tempted by the dark side but him being afraid of himself would have worked better as a reason for him to close himself so thoroughly from the universe and his loved ones. Instead isolating himself from the consequences of his mistakes and abandoning Leia is something I’m having a hard time with.
+ I wish we'd had more of Luke interacting/re-bonding with R2D2 and Chewbacca. A short scene with Luke and Chewie sitting around a fire talking about Han (Leia/whatever) or a hug and "I've missed you too" would have been perfect.
+ I loved Holdo's choice to stay behind and then her decision to lightspeed into the Supremacy to save the others. But I wish it had played out a little differently. First, I wish that as soon as the first transport was blown up she had run for the controls but for reasons it took her a little longer to get things working. Or she could have changed direction and positioned herself between the transports and the Supremacy. Either way she waited far too long to act. Second, if it were possible to take out ships by simply lightspeeding into them then the Resistance could have taken out the First Order pretty quickly at this point. There should have been an explanation there. Like, if Finn and Rose's mission had failed in its goal but succeed via them causing chaos and getting the shields down inadvertently during it and that being what allowed Holdo's final desperate gambit to work the whole sequence would have worked better for me.
+ I’m meh on the Rose/Finn kiss.
+ So where did the darkness that Luke sensed and feared in Ben come from and how did it get so bad under Luke’s presence? Leia believed Snoke was the cause and there is the implication that Snoke was influencing Ben since childhood but if so why didn’t Luke notice sooner and put a stop to it? I feel like we’re still missing some pieces here that lead to that disastrous final confrontation. I also wonder if some of the horrors and darkness that Luke saw in sleeping Ben’s mind that night weren’t actually a projection from Snoke? We’ve seen that he can do long-distance Force things [force bond, influencing young Ben] so this makes sense to me. Not that Ben didn’t have darkness in him but that in that moment Snoke laid a trap for Luke and stoked his darkness/fear at just the right moment.
+ I think killing Snoke could have been a little better if we hadn’t seen the Skywalker lightsaber turning as Snoke narrates and instead you’re left in suspense about how Rey is going to get out of this and will Kylo actually go through with it.
+ I’m guessing that Holdo was keeping the plan close to the vest to prevent any possible information breaches but at a certain point keeping quiet is far more damaging than saying something would have been, and that point was reached even before Poe’s mutiny. Hell, he was being the instigator and she knows that as Leia’s protégé he’s safe so why not simply take him aside and tell him the truth? Poe is a loose cannon but that would probably have been a good reason to keep him closer than to ignore and push him away.
+ I didn’t like Leia slapping Poe. That was so unnecessary and didn’t work for me in any way.
+ del Toro’s character was rather meh.
+ Captain Phasma felt wasted. She didn’t have near enough screen time and her confrontation with Finn was too short and not given enough room to breathe.
+ This movie felt a lot more disjointed than TFA. We've got so many different threads happening with only a little overlap and whereas in the first it was very focused on Rey and Finn this movie is all over the place and giving a lot more people in different places more screentime and it didn't entirely come together.
+ I wasn’t a fan of the Resistance being wiped out to such an extent that the survivors all fit inside the Falcon with room to move around. I was also really sad when no one came to help them even with Leia’s code.
I wasn’t entirely certain at first how I felt because it went in directions that I wasn’t expecting but the more time I have to think about it the more I like it. I definitely loved how funny it was.
+ Leia was wonderful. I loved her optimism at the end with Rey. More than anything I wanted a couple very specific things Leia related things from this movie:
1) A Luke/Leia reunion. So unbelievably happy about that scene. There was no hug but the holding hands and him touching her face, and the kiss, and him giving her back hope was so much what I wanted. I was honestly afraid that their reunion wouldn't have been planned for this movie and then we got this and it was the perfect reunion. I'm getting teary-eyed thinking about it. It was so tender and loving. You could feel the warmth and strength of their bond and love for each other. I loved it. I also really loved that moment of connection between the two of them after he opened himself to the Force again and they felt each other even while she was in a coma. ♥
2) Leia using the Force (in an overt way) is something I’ve always wanted. Among the group that I saw it with there was a lot of ridicule over Leia propelling herself through space (or superman flying as someone said) but I don't care, I loved it. Admittedly it looked a bit silly but Leia saving herself from the vacuum of space by using the Force to propel herself back to the ship was awesome and badass. I also loved her sensing Kylo during the attack on her ship and Luke during her coma.
and the one I didn't get:
3) a Kylo/Leia reunion. :( :( I was hoping that there would be a meeting but I guess that was meant for 9 and it makes me so sad. I really love that moment where they felt each other in the Force and Kylo hesitated to fire on her... and then couldn't do it. I knew he wouldn't and I liked how that played out. I think she was going to have a big role in whatever was to happen with Kylo/Ben, the movies have been building up to their meeting, and now that can’t happen. So at the very least I hope we get an implied scene between them. Like, he walks into the room where she is and we see the back of a body double as he approaches her and it cuts away or we watch from a distance with Leia's back to the camera?
+ I’m not sure where they are going to go with Leia in the next film. Hopefully they don’t start with her being killed off screen. That would piss me off. I also really hope that we feel her presence in the movie even if she can’t physically be there. It’s clear she was supposed to die in 9 but with Carrie’s death I’m now hoping that she actually survives the entire thing. I’d love if we had a final scene of her (back to us/in the distance) with Ben walking over to (newly returned from the dark). She has lost and suffered so much and for it to end with her getting her son back, a hope she has clearing clung to for so long, would just be really nice.
+ I loved Luke. Luke's death... a part of me was expecting it. But also with Carrie Fisher's death I didn't really think they'd kill him off now. Luke's my favourite so it feels weird to say but I actually loved how his death played out. I loved him bringing hope with his last stand, him embracing the legend of Luke Skywalker to save everyone, the way it's already started to spread across the galaxy, the fact that he was force projecting himself, his last moment with the double sunset... it was perfect and felt really appropriate.
+ I have fingers crossed and am looking forward to Force ghost Luke in the next movie. In fact the more Force ghosts the better. Episode 9 was clearly supposed to be Carrie/Leia’s movie (sniff) but with her gone I’m really hoping TPTB retool and bring Luke back in a significant role. I want him mentoring/advising Rey and trolling the hell out of Kylo. In fact the more I think about it the more I want Luke troll haunting Kylo not out of hatred but out of a new sense of hope in saving him from his darkness.
+ The reunion between Luke and R2D2 was wonderful. I loved so much R2D2 playing Leia's original message that started this whole thing and Luke's response.
+ I thought Luke/Rey were pretty great. I loved his defiant grumpiness with her and her stubborn refusal to leave him alone. The feel the force scene and Luke hitting Rey with the leaf made me laugh. I am disappointed that we didn’t get more of him training her.
+ Rey was wonderful. There was a little moment with her smiling at the rain that I loved. I loved her practicing with the lightsaber. I rather love that she immediately goes to investigate the dark scary hole. I thought her Force lifting the rock slide out of the way and saving the Resistance was a great culmination of her path in this movie and a nice passing of the hope torch from Luke to Rey.
+ Holy crap, Rey/Kylo Ren was amazing. I loved the Force bond and how all those sequences were shot. They were some of my favourite scenes. I loved that her first reaction to seeing him was to try shooting him and then the slow change in how she saw him because during their interactions. I loved the way that Rey began calling Kylo “Ben”. I loved how perfectly in sync they were during the fight and how well they worked together. I loved how flustered Rey was by seeing Kylo shirtless. I loved the fireside scene in Rey’s hut where they slowly touch hands through the force. ♥ I loved the intimacy of that scene. I loved Kylo essentially asking Rey to rule the galaxy with him. I loved the vulnerability Kylo showed in his scenes with Rey especially since he seems full or intimacy/abandonment/trust issues.
I’m happy that even if it was started by Snoke to manipulate Rey it’s made clear at the end that the bond still there. Rey shuts the door in Kylo's face but that doesn't mean the end of the connection between them. Nor does it necessarily speak to Rey’s continuing thoughts and emotions with regards to Kylo. She was torn up by him choosing the dark and has turned from him because that is not a path she will follow him on but that doesn’t have to mean that she has given up on hope or him. I loved the composition of that final shot with Kylo kneeling and looking up at Rey.
I also thought Kylo taking the mantle of Supreme Leader and attacking the Resistance felt less like a definitive choice and more like him once again throwing a tantrum because Rey rejected him (after he chose her over Snoke) and that last scene with the dice and Rey showed how conflicted he still was.
Another thing I liked was how yin/yang Rey and Kylo came off with all the talk about balance and how perfectly they were balanced against each other and I would love if that’s how it ends. Kylo redeeming himself to a degree by dropping/turning on the First Order [in line with his desire to leave the past] but surviving as a Force balance with Rey and the two of them creating a new order of Force users.
+ The fight in Snoke’s throne room was great. From Rey’s confrontation with Snoke to Kylo’s betrayal to the two of them fighting side by side against the Praetorian guard I loved it all. I loved Rey throwing Anakin’s lightsaber to Kylo when he was in trouble. I loved Kylo's expression when Rey got injured, and earlier his expression when Snoke was torturing her. Someone I saw it with came away positive that he's in love with Rey and I can absolutely see it too. The only negative is that I wish Kylo had used some of the force powers we know he has or had been given a reason for why he couldn’t.
+ Luke vs Kylo was great. I loved that Luke was all ‘nah’ to repeating Han’s words. I loved his final “See you around, kid”.
+ I loved the symbolism of Rey and Kylo fighting for Anakin’s lightsaber and it resulting in the lightsaber breaking in two. Fingers crossed for Rey getting a saberstaff in 9 made from the broken pieces since she took them.
+ I liked the twist of Kylo killing Snoke not to take down the First Order/turn good but him trying to destroy the past and its legacy and start over. I also thought his taking over the First Order and going full tantrum on the Resistance was completely in childish character. I love his emotionally messed up, incompetent, over-reacting ass. Adam Driver was amazing.
+ I loved how Ben Solo's turn played out. If I’d know about this going in I probably would have been set against the whole idea from the start because ‘Luke would never!’ but actually the way it happened worked for me. For Luke it definitely came off to me as an instinctive reaction to the darkness he’d just read in Ben’s mind. He didn’t enter that hut with the intent to kill Ben. He read the darkness in Ben’s mind, reacted in fear to the implied danger and then as soon as he realized he had ignited his lightsaber felt shame and regret over it. He was never going to kill Ben. But it was also a nicely complicated situation where both Luke and Ben failed and messed up. I absolutely buy Luke’s version of events but I don’t think Kylo’s were a lie. That moment from two different points of view would obviously come off very differently and I found Ben freaking out upon awakening to find Luke standing above him like that completely understandable. His choice to follow that up by murdering most of his fellow jedi in training, not so much.
+ I love how Force bonds work in this and I can’t wait to see where this goes. There is no way it's all over now.
+ I love that Han was very much there as a presence in the reunion scene between Leia and Luke via his dice from the Millennium Falcon.
+ I liked that even though Rey and Finn literally only had one very short scene together they were both very much in each other’s thoughts throughout the movie. The hug was really lovely.
+ I really liked Rose. She was very sweet and clearly someone with a deep sense of right and wrong and desire to help others and make things better. I loved the thread of her mourning her sister but also taking strength from her sacrifice. I loved her love for the cat/horse creatures. I'm glad she survived.
+ I loved the Finn/Rose meeting. Her hero worship was cute, I loved her tasering him as soon as she realized what he was doing and then their moment of connection after Finn told her about the ship tracking was great (though very shades of Finn/Rey in the previous movie.)
+ I loved everything with Poe and Leia. I loved that moment where he stands beside her medbed and holds her hand. I loved her shooting him for mutiny and then her gentleness with him during the escape.
+ Vice-Admiral Holdo was fabulous. I wasn’t certain at first but the reveal that she did have a plan, a great one at that, completely turned me around on her. As did her decision to stay behind on the ship. I loved her heroic self-sacrifice moment. She was so smart and brave and loyal. I loved the twist on the expected with her actually being right in the end.
+ I loved that moment between Leia and Holdo. It very much seemed like Holdo was a previous protégé of Leia's and you could see the love and loyalty between them. I want to know more about their relationship. Definitely shipping it.
+ Poe trolling Hux at the beginning was hilarious while also being very in character.
+ Chewie with the porgs was adorable and funny. I love that he basically adopted a bunch of them.
+ The porgs, the salt-fox creatures, and the horse/cat creatures on Canto Bight were all great. Cute and shown just enough to be loveable without becoming annoying. I really liked that the salt-foxes had a hand in helping the Resistance escape.
+ I loved Poe’s demanding “where’s my droid” and his joyful reunion with BB8 at the end.
+ I loved the reveal that Yoda was trolling Luke with his whole spiel about how the burning jedi tree ‘had nothing that Rey didn’t already have’ – and then we see at the end that she stole the books, lol.
+ This movie did really great with gender. It's something that stuck out - there were female officers/staff in the First Order, female pilots and staff in the Resistance, Leia had surrounded herself with women and the three most important characters in the Resistance storyline were women. Paige got a great hero moment at the beginning. Plus all the background women at the casino and even women on Luke's isolated island hideaway. It was great.
+ BB8 was great. Loved pretty much everything with him especially him 'fixing' Poe's ship and his scenes on Canto Bight.
+ Finn’s fight with Phasma was good but too short and I wanted more. I did enjoy his moment at the end where he was so determined to protect the fortress and take out the canon and I’m so glad that Rose saved him because I was actually worried for a minute.
+ I liked how Snoke died – Kylo cutting him in half and that he didn’t see it coming - and that it was his hubris in thinking that he controlled Kylo completely that destroyed him. I don’t even mind that we don’t actually learn anything about him because it feels appropriate. In the end it doesn’t really matter because he’s simply another person who wants power and is willing to do anything to get it.
+ The fish-nun people being so done with Rey and her nonsense amused me. Their looks up at her when she dropped the rock on their cart made me laugh.
+ There were some really amazing visuals, especially on Crait. I also loved the shot of the Supremacy exploding in silence. The cinematography was wonderful.
+ I loved that whole opening sequence with Paige.
+ I liked that last little bit on Canto Bight with the kids replaying Luke’s lasts stand against Kylo Ren and the little jedi slave boy with his Resistance ring looking to the stars.
+ Hux had two moments I really enjoyed – him reaching for a weapon when he saw unconscious Kylo and his sarcastic “do you think you got him” after Kylo’s firing barrage on Luke.
+ I liked the Poe/Rey meeting. Maybe it was just me but it felt very flirty. Maybe Poe is just like that with every new person he meets.
+ Luke bursting in on Rey and Kylo's moment in her hut made me lol because it came off so much like an angry dad interrupting his daughter and her boyfriend.
+ I have to admit: I want a Kylo Ren redemption. I thought that this movie would set that up and the fact that it didn't has left me very uncertain if they are going to redeem him. Not because Kylo has chosen the darker path, he's clearly still conflicted and haunted by the ghosts of his past, but because with his murder of Snoke he is now the only one left as a main bad guy. Sure, there's Hux and the First Order but unless they really do something different that really isn't enough. And there isn't really anyone else that could take Kylo's place. It makes me think that there are only two likely potential ends for Kylo are: a) Kylo commits to the dark till the very end and is killed by Rey, or, b) Rey does manage to turn Kylo at the very end (a la Luke and Vader) and perhaps he even helps her to take down the First Order before dying in the process. The latter, and its retread of Vader, is not really something I want. Not only for him but also as the end of the Skywalker story. That said there were a couple hints that make me think that he could still be redeemed. Rey had a vision where she saw him choose light. Leia actually loses hope that he can be saved and it's Luke who comes in to reassure her that there is always hope. I honestly have no idea where the next movie is going to go with him.
+ I’m in this weird place where I actually liked Finn and Rose’s side trip to Canto Bight and yet I still feel like the movie might have been better if it had been cut or shortened? It didn’t mesh with the rest of the movie and kept dragging the pace down and as a whole I don’t know that it was actually necessary. The whole plan subplot should have been streamlined with Finn/Rose going straight into being undercover on The Supremacy and it would have added even more tension to that plotline. That said what I did like about it was Finn being confronted with the fact that the First Order aren't the only ones doing evil, the movie tackling war profiteering, the cat-horse creatures who were super cute, Rose who had a bunch of nice moments, BB8 and everything with the kids.
+ I was disappointed that Rey isn't a Skywalker, and that she didn’t even have any special connection to anyone else. I wanted her to be a Skywalker! That said I did like how that tied back in to the little potential jedi boy on the casino world, and the way it shows that literally anyone can be a jedi. She wanted to be special and she is but not because she is a chosen one or from the legacy family. Kylo tells her that “You have no place in this story” and this movie was all about showing he was wrong. She’s the hero, she’s the new hope for the future, because of who she is as a person and the choices she’s made. Anakin was simply a slave boy from a desert world and he changed the galaxy, Rey is a simple abandoned child from a desert world and she is changing the galaxy and that little slave boy from the casino world has it in him to change the galaxy as well. It was a good message. But I’m still a little sad that she isn’t a Skywalker. I mean why cast someone who looks like she could fit into the family!?
+ The Knights of Ren were completely missing this movie but the implication in the flashback that they are all former jedi students of Luke's who sided with Ben when he destroyed it has left me excited about their potential presence in the final movie. I want to know more. Like, Ben blows up his hut and 'kills' their Master and that somehow led to most of the other students dead, some of them leaving for the dark side with Ben and the temple on fire. ... How?! What the heck happened that night? Did some of the students accuse Ben of murdering Luke and attack him. Did it turn into an all out fight with some taking Ben's side? And if the Knights are Force uses what exactly was their place in Snoke's First Order? Can any of them be saved? Actually it occurs to me that we haven't seen any of the Knights which makes me wonder if they're all dead. That would be disappointing. Prediction for the next movie: Rey is going to gather and train/learn with some new jedi recruits and there will be a big final epic lightsaber battle between Kylo Ren and his Knights and Rey and her new Jedi's. Fingers crossed!
+ Kylo’s “You come from nothing. You are nothing. But not to me.” to Rey was cruel and I wanted her to punch him in the face. I like that she didn’t fall for it for a second. And yet at the same time I loved the whole scene.
+ Poe really messed up which was an interesting and unexpected direction for his storyline to go. I didn’t dislike it nor did it make me hate him but my feelings about it are complicated. It was a theme in this movie that people make mistakes and fail, and we get a Yoda visit to make it clear. Finn/Rose fail in disabling the tracking device (and in fact their presence reveals the true Resistance plan), we get Luke forced to finally confront his massive screw-up with Ben, Rey fails in her mission to turn Kylo Ren, Holdo/Leia’s plan failed in part because of their secret keeping, Kylo failed in turning Rey to his side and in trying to destroy the Resistance but with all of that Poe’s mistakes and failures stuck out so much more. His insubordination basically the entire movie from ignoring a direct order from Leia that leads to a destroyed Dreadnaught but also takes out all the Resistance bombers and kills a lot of Resistance fighters in the process to his secret plan with Finn that inadvertently reveals the true plan, and once again gets a hell of a lot of the Resistance killed, and the fact that he mutinied at all felt more in your face than the others. Perhaps because Poe is very much set up as Leia’s chosen successor I feel a lot more critical about how he messed up especially how badly he screwed up with what will soon be his charge. Maybe because we don’t get a lot of Poe dealing emotionally from all the Resistant deaths his impulsiveness caused. Maybe because his arrogance and attitude with Holdo annoyed me. Probably all of the above.
+ The time line in this movie was deeply messed up. So it starts immediately at the end of the last film and essentially takes place over the course of a couple days? Finn and Kylo both heal that much in that short of time? Rey only knew Luke for days? Finn and Rose went to the casino planet, did everything they did there, came back, and infiltrated the Supremacy all in 12 hours???
+ One of the biggest issues I had was the lack of any real mentoring/training of Rey and of relationship building between Luke and Rey. It was really disappointing. Even doing a training montage would have helped a lot.
I think this and the timeline issue both could have been easily solved simply by not having the Ahch-To and the Resistance plots running concurrently. Instead the Resistance plot is happening in 'real time' and taking place at least several months after the first movie while the Ahch-To starts immediately where the previous movie ended, speeds through those months till it and Rey re-converge with the 'current' timeline. You wouldn't even have to change any of the scenes themselves or the order they are in.
You could make the passage of time subtle background instead of anyone saying anything. So at the beginning Kylo is still wounded and by their final Force meeting he's completely healed. Rey's clothes could subtly change every new time she's on screen. Chewie could be shown for 1 minute here and there (or at the end of every island scene) where the change in his relationship with the Porgs shows time passing. I envision a scene where Rey is ready to leave for the Supremacy and she enters his room on the Falcon to find him napping while covered in Porgs. [And crack myself up every time I imagine it, lol.]
With Luke and Leia you'd still have them sense each other when he reopens himself to the Force except you'd go from him saying her name to her back in her TFA outfit in a location that's clearly not the ship. When Leia is blown out of the ship Luke senses it on Ahch-To, lifting his head and saying her name, perhaps it echoes across the screen when we close in on her floating in space.
+ I’m still so sad that this is how the future turned out for Luke/Leia/Han. :(
+ I’m not a fan of the fact that Luke did end up repeating old mistakes instead of going his own direction post-OT. But mostly while the reason why Luke chose to cut himself off makes sense - shame for what he did, guilt for what it caused, perhaps fear too - it doesn't feel like enough of a reason to cut himself so completely off from Leia and to ignore all the trouble happening in the galaxy. I don't know how well I would buy Luke being tempted by the dark side but him being afraid of himself would have worked better as a reason for him to close himself so thoroughly from the universe and his loved ones. Instead isolating himself from the consequences of his mistakes and abandoning Leia is something I’m having a hard time with.
+ I wish we'd had more of Luke interacting/re-bonding with R2D2 and Chewbacca. A short scene with Luke and Chewie sitting around a fire talking about Han (Leia/whatever) or a hug and "I've missed you too" would have been perfect.
+ I loved Holdo's choice to stay behind and then her decision to lightspeed into the Supremacy to save the others. But I wish it had played out a little differently. First, I wish that as soon as the first transport was blown up she had run for the controls but for reasons it took her a little longer to get things working. Or she could have changed direction and positioned herself between the transports and the Supremacy. Either way she waited far too long to act. Second, if it were possible to take out ships by simply lightspeeding into them then the Resistance could have taken out the First Order pretty quickly at this point. There should have been an explanation there. Like, if Finn and Rose's mission had failed in its goal but succeed via them causing chaos and getting the shields down inadvertently during it and that being what allowed Holdo's final desperate gambit to work the whole sequence would have worked better for me.
+ I’m meh on the Rose/Finn kiss.
+ So where did the darkness that Luke sensed and feared in Ben come from and how did it get so bad under Luke’s presence? Leia believed Snoke was the cause and there is the implication that Snoke was influencing Ben since childhood but if so why didn’t Luke notice sooner and put a stop to it? I feel like we’re still missing some pieces here that lead to that disastrous final confrontation. I also wonder if some of the horrors and darkness that Luke saw in sleeping Ben’s mind that night weren’t actually a projection from Snoke? We’ve seen that he can do long-distance Force things [force bond, influencing young Ben] so this makes sense to me. Not that Ben didn’t have darkness in him but that in that moment Snoke laid a trap for Luke and stoked his darkness/fear at just the right moment.
+ I think killing Snoke could have been a little better if we hadn’t seen the Skywalker lightsaber turning as Snoke narrates and instead you’re left in suspense about how Rey is going to get out of this and will Kylo actually go through with it.
+ I’m guessing that Holdo was keeping the plan close to the vest to prevent any possible information breaches but at a certain point keeping quiet is far more damaging than saying something would have been, and that point was reached even before Poe’s mutiny. Hell, he was being the instigator and she knows that as Leia’s protégé he’s safe so why not simply take him aside and tell him the truth? Poe is a loose cannon but that would probably have been a good reason to keep him closer than to ignore and push him away.
+ I didn’t like Leia slapping Poe. That was so unnecessary and didn’t work for me in any way.
+ del Toro’s character was rather meh.
+ Captain Phasma felt wasted. She didn’t have near enough screen time and her confrontation with Finn was too short and not given enough room to breathe.
+ This movie felt a lot more disjointed than TFA. We've got so many different threads happening with only a little overlap and whereas in the first it was very focused on Rey and Finn this movie is all over the place and giving a lot more people in different places more screentime and it didn't entirely come together.
+ I wasn’t a fan of the Resistance being wiped out to such an extent that the survivors all fit inside the Falcon with room to move around. I was also really sad when no one came to help them even with Leia’s code.
