So it went as planned and TLJ was seen. Fully prepared for TROS now but first...
- TLJ looks great, it's a pretty movie to watch with excellent shots
- The intro sets up the stakes pretty well, the Resistance is really in a pinch so up to that point the plot makes sense
- All elements that bring it down are introduced within the same 5 or 10 minutes.
-> Finn meets Rose
-> Skywalker tells Rey he won't train her
-> Holdo becomes the new leader
- The movie could've been easily 'fixed' at certain points, the scene where Luke enters the Falcon for example. It ends with him saying to R2 he's not going to help. Would've been perfect if at that point he realized he should help
- The Casino scenes were even worse than I remember. I had forgotten all the CG aliens stomping about and the heroes never interacting with the Master Code breaker
- Some things that to me would be a big deal to certain characters (such as the revelation to Finn that the company that supplies the Tie's also supplies the X-Wings to the Resistance) are never brought up again, if I was Finn I would have some serious questions
- The movie sometimes forgets to use the correct terms, the Resistance/Rebellion are mixed (while in TFA it was consistently 'Resistance')
- Finn's sacrifice is probably the most wasted opportunity of this film, would've given him a complete arc and Finn dying would have an effect on Rey too
- The movie has two endings.
-> The first ending is when Rey and Kylo defeat Snoke and Rey escapes, while Holdo blows up the Star Destroyers with a Light speed sacrifice
-> The second ending of course, the scene with the salt planet and the ending of the film
- Obviously the 'first ending' is great. In fact, the second ending was totally unnecessary. There was no need for Luke to confront Kylo or the rebels to be at a shitty base waiting for their doom. Not to mention with their fleet in tatters,
the First Order wouldn't have been able to so easily attack the new rebel base.
- The first ending seems to be part of a different movie than the second ending or vice versa.
Second ending could work if Kylo and Hux would disagree on strategy and in the end Kylo decided: "Fuck all this, I'll take them out myself" and he headed out alone or with some of his loyalists as a Sith super soldier, while Hux tries to get the First Order back into fighting shape as a plan B. Knowing that the Resistance only has a few ships, very few weapons and no Jedi (except for Leia, who is no match for him) Kylo could've done that. Lo and behold, when he arrives to kill the remaining rebels, hopelessly held up in a base Luke appears to save Leia and they fight..... However you write this though, there's a big piece of motivation missing for Kylo to not just assume control of the First Order but also continue Snoke's plan. Especially after his 'Let the past die' lecture to Rey.
So if we divvy up the film in segments
Intro: B (this could've been JJ's work, just 'classic' Star Wars)
Mid: E- (this is where the film falls apart completely and even gets boring at times)
Ending 1: A (possibly the best sequence in the entire movie is Rey facing down Luke and all she does next, while the heroes try to execute their plan, the plan not working is actually a surprise that works well)
Ending 2: D (this doesn't work at all so the movie doesn't end on a high note bringing it down a notch)
Hard for me to say if TLJ is worse or better than AOTC. AOTC sucks but some of the reasons why it sucks are fairly inoffensive compared to TLJ.
