"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

One of the best parts of the new trilogy is the new actor playing Chewie. I know much of it is sound effects. But he picked up and not only did justice to Peter Mayhew, but expanded on the role.

His reaction to both Han’s death and Leia’s death was emotional and captured the moment.

Chewie was a big star in the three movies. And the Solo movie too.

Big guy has been though a lot.

 

My nerd alert: there was a six-book series in the early 1990s that dealt with the emperor’s son and grandson. The son had three eyes and had been banished at birth.

As for social life, one of the “key scenes” in the prequels takes part when palpatine takes Anakin to a play.

 

I don't count nuthin' that wasn't on the movie screen. Never picked up an EU book, never watched a cartoon, etc etc.

I took the scene of Palpy taking Anakin to the opera house to basically just be a setup to deliver the story of Darth Plagueis. I didn't gather Palpy was a big operagoer otherwise.

 

It's bizarre that the ninth movie has some oddly good callbacks - like I think Rey's power to heal was kind of meant to be a light-side equivalent to Darth Plagueis - but for everything like that, there was something "meh" like Palpy having a completely unmentioned until now son, daughter and granddaughter. Before Rey's parentage was revealed, there was always speculation that she was a secret child of Obi-Wan, which I figured they wouldn't do because the guy is living in a cave in 4, and there's no real romance between him and a lady in 1 through 3. Johnson's decision of "she's actually related to no one" fits in better with the past movies than this.

Ben Lindbergh has a review of the flick on The Ringer, and it probably contours most strongly to my opinion of the stuff I've read. The movie's fine. It's entertaining. But it takes out some of the impact of 6, and ultimately the "new" trilogy didn't have a point outside of "more Star Wars!"

 

That’s a fair review, now that I’ve had a day to think about the movie.

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi did have a relationship of sorts with Mandalorian Duchess Satine Kryze during his time as Qui-Gon Jinn's padawan and again during the Clone wars. This was all referenced or shown on the animated Clone Wars series. I don't know much more than that because I've only seen a few episodes, but that show and Star Wars: Rebels are both canon.

There was also a woman who was into him in the novel Kenobi, which gets into part of his life on Tatooine.

It is at least possible he had a child based on things that were set up in the current canon.

I don't have a huge problem with Rey being a Palpatine. Having her related to no one doesn't really fit in with The Force Awakens at all.

 

You can ignore that stuff if you want, but it negates some of your complaints as irrelevant. Like it or not, there are animated series, comic books an novels that are canon.

 

The 8th didn’t either. Not really. It just ran parallel how most critics view politics and the world.

As someone with zero emotional buy-in to Star Wars, I feel like I’m objective about it: The Last Jedi thrilled critics because it was transgressive, subversive and different and it was staunchly progressive in its worldview.

Rise of Skywalker hews closer to tradition and lore. Nostalgia. It doesn’t want change so much as a return to the familiar. Progressives don’t like that - they desire to see the world reborn, remade with new, better, cooler rules - and the critical consensus reflects it.

What I find interesting is the backlash “kind of the same thing, but still good” vibe. I mean, that’s life. That’s art too.

 

Oh I called it! Maybe not here (I don't want to look) but I have possible proof I had this theory. I especially thought this when I saw it the second time.

Finn Was Not Going To Tell Rey What You Think In ‘Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker’

 

One more thing: when Johnson chose to make Luke an cynical, beaten down asshole - and Disney let that happen, which still surprises me - all bets for any fidelity to The Last Jedi we’re off. There are compelling things about that movie, but the sheer excitement I sensed from people coming out of The Force Awakens, especially that final scene, was sizable. Undercutting that was an act of war to fans.

 

To be fair, they did explain how he got that way. I actually enjoyed most of that version of Luke, including him finding his way back to his old self by the end of the movie.

 

I thought Palpatine was Anakin’s father of sorts. Close.

The biggest myth destroyed was that Lucas had a 9 film story planned. The first one was so great and such a hit that he started writing the 2nd and 3rd movie after the 1st, which was Flash Gordon meets the Three Musketeers. Obi Wan and Yoda went from vital and strong to old men in 17-18 years? No. They just changed the story. It was all made up as each movie was written.

This was a good movie, a little too drawn out and but the Rey Ren bond was very good.