Finished my second viewing. Not much changed opinion-wise. I still think it’s at least two movies crammed into one and done so at the expense of both. Leia, Poe, Finn, and Rose could be one film. Luke, Rey, Chewie could be another. Not sure where Kylo fits in. I just don’t find him interesting. The Snoke and Phasma stories are just more needless cramming of partial ideas.
As a narrative, it’s all over the place. I’m fine with two story lines at once and I think Empire Strikes Back did it fantastically. Films and TV shows have been doing it for decades and doing it well. This felt jarring at times. The switches seem to come at odd places and kill the momentum and engagement. Also, there seems to be so many that none are given any room to grow and they end up feeling rushed. In fact, the whole film feels rushed to me.
I was better with the Ahch-To portion of the film. It wasn’t as foreign feeling. That said, I felt even more so that Rey is nearly a one-dimensional character now. Sort of an audience surrogate so Luke isn’t just standing on the shore conversing with the ocean. She becomes even more so as the film goes along. Hopefully IX will give her some depth. Daisy has the chops for it.
The Rose and Finn storyline still interested me and I think both are on their game here. As I said before, I really hope Ms Tran gets a substantial role in IX. She has much more to offer and definitely has the chops. She and Finn work well together. The Canto portion still looks and feels like Lucas Prequel to me. BB-8 shooting slot machine coins is terribly prequel. Same for the kids at the end. The last scene looks like it was shot on a Broadway stage. Their home, clothes, and makeup look fake dirty.
Liked the Crait portion even more than the first time. There are some great visuals and they aren’t the ones they may have intended, not for me anyway. I thought a lot of the darker shots, particularly some of 3PO and Luke were nicely done. Even if they were for just a few seconds, they still worked for me. I’ll try to post some screen-grabs. Overall, I don’t dislike it and will certainly watch several parts again.
Still like the Porgs. 😃