Hardcore Legend

Lord Haseo said:

Hardcore Legend said:

SilverWook said:

And we’re back to nostalgia being a bad thing again? Why else make sequels to a nearly forty year old movie in the first place?

Because there is more to tell of the story? The search for Luke is the McGuffin that drives the story of Rey’s journey towards the Force.

Lord Haseo said:

Hardcore Legend said:

SilverWook said:

Why would the movie not do something that pleases fans? Some of us old geezers have waited 32 years for that moment. Seeing Luke again was the emotional payoff.

It was a payoff because it was nostalgia.

And because it was a natural end to the story the film presented. Also why can’t it be both? Why can’t we live in a world where there are multiple reasons for something existing?

I just disagree. I don’t think it is the natural end to the story. I guess it comes from your perspective on who the story is about. To me, the story is about Rey.

Having the first line in the crawl be “LUKE SKYWALKER HAS VANISHED” in conjunction with the map to him being the mcguffin leads me to believe the plot is centered around him. Just because Rey is our main protagonist doesn’t mean the film is mainly about her.

Again, I guess that comes from your perspective about who these films are about. If you look at them as 6 film overlaps with the PT and OT being about Anakin Skywalker and the OT and ST being about Luke Skywalker, then I see where you are coming from. If you look at the trilogies as being about each generation (PT-Anakin/Obi Wan, OT-Luke/Leia, ST-Rey/Kylo), then I lean more towards the film being about Rey (and Kylo).

joefavs said:

Hardcore Legend said:

I just think it’s unnecessary. People would have moaned if the film ended with the lightspeed jump now because so much was built up about Luke, but in 10 years when you are rewatching the trilogy, it would make more sense.

Should people’s home viewing a decade after the fact have really been the top priority, though?

I get what you are saying but that is like writing this movie like a TV show series finale. I did not mean that it should be moved to the next film to make the next film better. My point with the ‘rewatching the trilogy’ part is that in 10 years when you’ve got 2 other films with Luke Skywalker in it, the ‘coolness’ of getting to see him again will not be as important and presenting the film in the best possible (storytelling) way would take precedence.

It’s just a personal preference. I don’t prefer as literary devices in films wedged in cliffhangers and flashbacks.

SilverWook said:

And we’re back to nostalgia being a bad thing again? Why else make sequels to a nearly forty year old movie in the first place?

Because there is more to tell of the story? The search for Luke is the McGuffin that drives the story of Rey’s journey towards the Force.

Lord Haseo said:

Hardcore Legend said:

SilverWook said:

Why would the movie not do something that pleases fans? Some of us old geezers have waited 32 years for that moment. Seeing Luke again was the emotional payoff.

It was a payoff because it was nostalgia.

And because it was a natural end to the story the film presented. Also why can’t it be both? Why can’t we live in a world where there are multiple reasons for something existing?

I just disagree. I don’t think it is the natural end to the story. I guess it comes from your perspective on who the story is about. To me, the story is about Rey. Rey reaches the climax of her character arc when she defeats Kylo. The resolution of the story is returning Finn to the Resistence with the Falcon. Her part in the plot wasn’t to find Luke Skywalker.

I’m going to use ESB again as a reference: Luke and Lando agree to meet on Tatooine to find Han, Lando implies that he is taking the Falcon to find Han. It ends with Lando disembarking, the fleet breaking up and Luke/Leia looking off leaving the audience knowing where everyone is going but not having to actually see them get there. The TFA equivalent would be the Falcon landing on Tatooine and us seeing Boba Fett taking Han off of Slave I into Jabba’s palace, high helicopter spinning shot and SCENE.

Lord Haseo said:

No it wouldn’t because they’re still in the midst of fighting a war.

Aren’t they still fighting a war in ROTJ when they go to rescue Han?

DominicCobb said:

Hardcore Legend said:

Lord Haseo said:

Hardcore Legend said:
The film would have been much better if they had cut to credits as Rey makes the jump to lightspeed.

How? The entire movie would have felt like a waste if we didn’t see Luke. Secondly, the scene wasn’t even that long so I’m confused as to how such a brief scene effects the rest of film.

The film isn’t about Luke Skywalker. It is about the search for Luke Skywalker. Nothing says they have to actually meet Luke Skywalker once they discover where he is. They have an entire trilogy to flesh out that storyline. It would be like ending ESB with the entire gang landing on Tatooine and walking up to Jabba’s palace.

What the fuck?

The story is about the search for Luke so obviously the conclusion is the finding him.

ESB is not about the search for Han.

You are correct about ESB not being about the search for Han and that is a valid point. The final scene just seemingly doesn’t fit with how any of the other Saga films end. It takes the falling action of Han’s death/the duel/Starkiller base and inserts another rising action (meeting Luke) for what seems like nostalgia purposes.

It was nice to see Luke Skywalker, don’t get me wrong, but we didn’t actually need to see that cliffhanger. Now they are either going to have to eliminate the customary time jumps that we see in Star Wars, continue the story as if no time has passed or have a midstory jump ahead/use a flashback which are storytelling devices that also don’t fit into the Saga.

I just think it’s unnecessary. People would have moaned if the film ended with the lightspeed jump now because so much was built up about Luke, but in 10 years when you are rewatching the trilogy, it would make more sense.

SilverWook said:

Why would the movie not do something that pleases fans? Some of us old geezers have waited 32 years for that moment. Seeing Luke again was the emotional payoff.

It was a payoff because it was nostalgia. If you remove Luke and Rey staring at each other, the story still has the same result. They found the map of where Luke Skywalker is hiding and Rey has taken the first steps on her journey in the Force.

Lord Haseo said:

Hardcore Legend said:
The film would have been much better if they had cut to credits as Rey makes the jump to lightspeed.

How? The entire movie would have felt like a waste if we didn’t see Luke. Secondly, the scene wasn’t even that long so I’m confused as to how such a brief scene effects the rest of film.

The film isn’t about Luke Skywalker. It is about the search for Luke Skywalker. Nothing says they have to actually meet Luke Skywalker once they discover where he is. They have an entire trilogy to flesh out that storyline. It would be like ending ESB with the entire gang landing on Tatooine and walking up to Jabba’s palace.

The focus of the story was Rey, much like getting the Death Star plans to Obi Wan/the Rebellion wasn’t the focus of ANH. I just feel like it was tacked on at the end to please fans who wanted to see Luke as a
Jedi. The initial viewing, it seems cool to see it however in subsequent viewings it seems like that walk up the stairs and meeting would have been better placed in the next film.

Having watched the film again today, I still am struck by how the biggest event that felt out of place was the reveal of Luke. The film would have been much better if they had cut to credits as Rey makes the jump to lightspeed.

The staircase with twirling helicopter shot felt so out of place.

On further viewings, Harrison Ford didn’t seem so old. The pacing actually seemed much quicker. The Rey duel with Kylo seemed less unrealistic and more inspiring. The only thing that still seemed completely ridiculous was how important the captured Resistance members were (Poe/Rey) and how they were both being guarded by exactly one First Order trooper each time.

Things I had never noticed before:

• The troopers searching for Rey/Finn/Han/Chewie said “We think they’ve split up” ala ANH
• Finn crashes on Jakku and as that is happening, Hux says to deploy a detachment to look for the escapees. Finn then proceeds to walk across the entire friggin desert and makes it to the outpost before the FO arrives.
• Kylo does seem to know who Rey is from the very beginning.

Was ‘despatched’ chosen intentionally or is it a typo for ‘dispatched’ in the Episode 3 crawl?

How much attention to including ‘canon’ are you paying as the original episodes are being called back on for Star Wars Rebels and may be used in future films/shows.

I’ve watched the show in its original format and love it. I’m really excited to see these film cuts. I want to give them to a friend who has never seen the show.

Great idea and the trailers look fantastic.