Michael Ward

I thought a light saber was a life saver.

I didn’t realize Han put Luke inside a tautaun. I thought Han cut into the ground, and there was some weird warm layer underneath the ice on the planet. I thought it was weird, but it’s still what I though happened.

I thought that Leia was killed by the stormtrooper who shot her on the stun setting, but reanimated with advanced science (I was four mind you.)

I thought the escape pod R2 and 3PO used was from the Star Destroyer not the blockade runner.

Even though I was 13 when the series ended, I only bought two issues during the original run. I loved them, and probably read them each 50 times. I’ve picked up a few used issues here and there since. I’ve got the first two volumes of the new omnibus reprints. They are OK. The coloring is bad in the reprints. The art in the originals looks so much better, but it’s a lot cheaper than buying the back issues. I should have bought more as a kid when they we a quarter.

Collipso said:

I believe it was meant for the marvel SW thread.

We have a winner.

TV’s Frink said:

Um…wrong thread?

Yeah, not sure how that happened.

Even though I was 13 when the series ended, I only bought two issues during the original run. I loved them, and probably read them each 50 times. I’ve picked up a few used issues here and there since. I’ve got the first two volumes of the new omnibus reprints. They are OK. The coloring is bad in the reprints. The art in the originals looks so much better, but it’s a lot cheaper than buying the back issues. I should have bought more as a kid when they we a quarter.

Edit: Oops, wrong thread as noted below.

Collipso said:

I left TFA’s midnight screening with my brother and I remember we had the same exact argument (he was profoundly upset with TLJ and loved TFA). He was talking about how Luke had gone searching for the Jedi temple to learn,and how amazing that was and how he was being patient and amazing.

I said that I don’t think Luke would ever flee, and that I didn’t like how TFA treated his character. I do realize it’s a bit unfair to say that because he had 0 lines in the movie, but the idea that he simply fled and his friend died and the Republic died and all he did was… nothing didn’t resonate well with me.

My 9 year old liked TLJ, but we watched Star Wars and Empire last week (he’d seen them before but it had been a while), and yesterday in the car, he suddenly says that he had trouble believing the Luke in Star Wars would act like he does in TLJ.

TV’s Frink said:

If you think Rian Johnson or Disney or Star Wars hates you or ruined your life or ruined everything that came before it (especially the OT), then you’re being ridiculous.

Obviously I agree, but I will add that I do understand people who feel one movie can ruin the series. When I was 9, I was terrified ROTJ might come out and be bad and that would ruin everything. Even in the mid-90’s when I was in my early 20’s, a bad prequel movie would have “ruined my childhood.” Fortunately, by 1999 I was less “ridiculous” as you say.

So I’m not trying to hate on anyone who let’s one bad movie ruin it all for them, but I do hope they learn not to feel that way for their own sanity if nothing else.

ExNihilo said:

On the Original Topic:
I really don’t know how many. I want to say after TLJ, I’m out. But part of me knows I’ll see Episode 9.
TLJ felt like a punch to the stomach.
How many times can you tell me you hate me before I believe it?
Am I in an abusive relationship with Star Wars?
I’ll probably see EpIX because I’m a glutton for punishment.
But who knows, JJ could redeem it all!

When TPM came out, it didn’t bother me that is was terrible because it was just a movie, and it didn’t make me enjoy the previous movies any less. My reaction to TLJ surprised me. It actually made me mad. I had to remind myself it was just a movie and it didn’t matter.

I’ll probably see IX. I’ll see it in theater if either my kids or my wife want to go. I’ve actually seen TLJ twice because my wife didn’t go with us the first time, and she wanted to see it. But I’m not expecting IX to redeem anything. Hopefully it will be great, but TLJ will still stink if it is.

I wish everyone could enjoy Star Wars the way they enjoy Star Trek. No one ever worries about the bad ones spoiling the whole Star Trek series. The bad ones are just the bad ones.

Collipso said:

I guess I really didn’t like TFA’s setups and world building and I’m faulting TLJ for not answering questions that TFA should’ve answered in itself, so I guess I’m not being fair.

“How did the FO get almost limitless resources?” “Wtf is Snoke?” Well that’s more for TFA than for TLJ. TLJ did explain Kylo’s story, for example, even though I didn’t like the part Luke played in it.

Like Mithrandir said several pages ago, what RJ did with Luke was possibly the best way to go given what was setup in VII. The only thing I still disagree with RJ is that I don’t think Luke would ever even consider murdering Ben in his sleep, nor that it’d be something or some kind of instinct that would pass like a fleeting shadow.

I’m still not sure about most aspects of the movie though, but I tend to have somewhat negative feelings towards it. Both sides of all arguments have very good points though, which makes it very hard for me to make up my mind.

I agree. JJ left Johnson in a difficult if not impossible spot. I think Johnson made things worse, but JJ just handed him all the issues he couldn’t figure out how to deal with in his movie.

And as much as I don’t like the way Luke acts in this movie, the Luke-Rey-Kylo-Snoke storyline in this movie is not bad. My biggest complaints are with the Leia-Poe-Finn-Rose storyline.

LuckyGungan2001 said:

I decided a few months ago that my favourite movie is The Evil Dead from 1981. It’s not the greatest film I’ve ever seen based on quality but it is basically criticism proof in my eyes. Every time I try to think of something bad I realise I wouldn’t like the movie as much without those things. Like sure, it has pretty bad acting, effects, storyline and dialogue, but without those things I wouldn’t like it.

I didn’t put it on my list, but I love Santa Claus Conquers to Martians. I genuinely find it to be a good movie which happens to have some poor qualities, but the poor qualities make it even better.

Handman said:

I don’t understand how you could like a tribute to Casablanca that rips the entire ending sequence almost line for line over Casablanca itself. Could you explain why?

Not really sure what to explain. They’re so different that I love them in completely different ways. It’s really just a coincidence that they are my two favorites. I don’t have to like Casablanca better just because Allan quotes it in Play It Again, Sam. I also listed Airplane as one of my favorite movies, and it rips off most of the script for Zero Hour which is a terrible movie.

I used to say Casablanca was my all time favorite, but now I may like Play It Again, Sam a little better.

The Hudsucker Proxy; The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes; One, Two, Three (1961); His Girl Friday; Galaxy Guest; Young Frankenstein, Airplane; Ghostbusters; WarGames; Vertigo; Network; Clerks; Arthur; Twelve Monkeys; It Happened One Night; The Wizard of Oz; Guardians of the Galaxy; The Iron Giant; Romancing the Stone; Raiders of the Lost Arc, Star Wars; and The Empire Strikes Back are some of my other favorites.

Collipso said:

At first I thought “hey, he shaved!” Then I started picturing Luke trimming his own hair with a lightsaber and so I proceeded to look for the green one, naturally, and ended up finding the blue one. Once that happened I was like “wait what?” Then there was the footprint thing, then the snakey moves to dodge Kylo, etc

Good job! Doesn’t it feel good when it starts to dawn on you as you figure it out though?

I remember watching The Sixth Sense (back in '99!–where did the time go?!) as the truth slowly dawned on me, and I was like wait could he be? Surely not. Well, maybe. Yeah, that makes sense now. And that makes sense. My Goodness! HE IS!

It’s a very satisfying feeling I think.

DominicCobb said:

Yes, though I don’t know if I’d really call that fooling. Kylo should’ve known better, the Rebels weren’t fooled, they were inspired. Whether Leia knew something was up is open to interpretation (my guess is she ultimately knew exactly what was going on).

Her knowing would at least explain why she left the dice behind, but my opinion (just mine so everyone stay calm) is that Johnson just creates individual moments without worrying too much if they really fit together into a coherent whole.

So Poe seems to save the entire fleet from the dreadnought one moment and seems to have gotten the bomber crews all killed for nothing the next. And we watch the Jedi books burned up with satisfaction one moment as we know we need to move on from the past, and are relieved to see they survived later. And so on.

Collipso said:

Yep, I know. That’s why it’s unfortunate. She annoyed me in TFA because mostly of the mind trick, and I didn’t really sympathize with her cause or didn’t relate with her struggles and now, the payoffs and consequences in TLJ were much less impactful than what they could’ve and should’ve been.

I agree with all of this though I will add that for all the things I hate about this movie, I like Rey in TLJ and find her a lot more interesting and sympathetic now. Everything I liked about TLJ involved her or Kylo or both.

Plus I’m still not entirely sold on how quickly she picked up her abilities.

Me neither, but at least she’s got some training now–I guess, though it didn’t really seem like much–but it’s more than the last movie where she’s just a natural Jedi or something.

yhwx said:

Rey and Kylo are seen (almost) touching hands via Force projection earlier in the movie, so obviously physical things can be transmitted via it too.

I actually didn’t think they could really touch when I saw that scene. It’s possible, but they were in each others minds.

I’m sure some convoluted fan explanation can be created. Maybe Luke is projecting sensations into people’s minds, and he can project fake images easily but fake sensations of touch are more difficult and have to be limited. There I fixed it.

I just feel that while the movie drops some hints that Luke isn’t really there, it drops others that he is so it’s not just a matter us not noticing the hints that are there.

SilverWook said:

How did they cheat with the dice? I don’t have my copy of The Force Can and Cannots handy…

They could be touched and held.

SilverWook said:

Arguably you can only pin the bomber crews on Poe. 😉

Poe, Finn, and Rose get almost everyone killed. Their plan to disable the tracking not only completely fails, but trusting a complete stranger they found in prison well enough to discuss the plan to sneak everyone away in the small transports in front of him leads to most of the rebels dying when they become sitting ducks.

At first Admiral Purple Hair seems like a complete jerk for hiding her plan from Poe, but since his finding out is what allows him to get everyone killed, in hindsight she was absolutely right not to trust him.

I really loathed this aspect of them film. When Leia seemingly turns leadership over to Poe at the end because she likes bad boys, I kept thinking this is nuts. They should have been executing him without trial for mutiny and treason resulting in the deaths of hundreds not looking to him to lead them out of the cave.

Finn should have been put on his knees and shot in the back of the head too, but at least he got some redemption trying to sacrifice himself for everyone else.

I actually thought Finn almost had a good arc in this movie. The whole killing everyone mucks it up a bit, but I enjoyed seeing him go from thinking only about himself at the beginning of TFA to thinking of Rey at the end of TFA and beginning of TLJ to thinking about everyone at the end of TLJ.

Poe I just hate. He was just boring in the first movie, and arrogantly self-centered beyond all redemption in this movie.

yhwx said:

I didn’t even realize Luke wasn’t there until we saw him on Ach-To in my first viewing. You’re able to be fooled by that scene because you’re invested in his character in that moment. Very nicely done.

I guess. I’d agree completely if they hadn’t cheated with the dice.

Collipso said:

Well I wasn’t fooled by fake Luke not even for a second, but didn’t know how he was doing what he was doing until revealed.

What was he doing again? Was it stalling the First Order so that the 5% of the rebels who Poe hadn’t already gotten killed could sneak out the back even though Luke had no way of knowing that there was a way out the back, and in fact there wasn’t until Rey conveniently created one with the force when she just happened to show up in Falcon which was doubly fortunate since without the Falcon they’d all just be standing around out back waiting to be found an executed?

This was Luke’s plan? Buy the rebels 5 more minutes in hopes that the salvation that’s eluded them the whole movie will show up (now that most them are dead anyway), and of course it does because movie.

SilverWook said:

Six months seems too soon for another SW film,

I’ve been feeling the same way.

I agree with dahmage.

I’m betting on this film getting delayed until Christmas. Anniversary schmanniversary

I checked out after the SE’s in 1997. I didn’t see ROTS until around 2011. I watched it a second time this year just to see if it was as awful as I remembered.

I’ve been interested enough in the new movies to see them in the theater, and they’ve for the most part been an improvement over the PT, but as bad as TLJ was, I can take or leave IX, and I think Solo is probably going to be terrible.

Ryan said:

I hate this scene. It spoils the Jabba scenes in Jedi.

Also, it feels it shouldn’t even be there. I was really glad that Lucas or someone cut that out in 1977.

I think the editors cut it out. They completely recut the film to fix the horrible pacing problems. It seems like I heard that Greedo’s subtitles were used to change his dialogue after the seen was shot so they could put some information from the Jabba scene there.

I think Lucas was going to just have Jabba be a man (not that he might not have planned on making him an alien before it proved to difficult) but that the editors got rid of the scene because it was pointless and slowed the movie down.

There was a reason the film won best editing but not best director.