I guess Snoke is intended as a portmanteau of snake and smoke, but it rhymes with joke and unfortunately evokes Snooki and The Snorks.
Just got back from my second viewing, and I have to say I’ve moved from the haters’ camp into the cheerleaders’ camp, though I understand where both sides are coming from. The first time I saw the film I wanted to unsee it. Now I can’t wait to see it again!
Things I appreciated more (or even more):
–Has anyone else noticed we meet all three main characters masked? A nifty touch.
–The score
–Kylo Ren…genuinely scary
–Rey’s “Classified? Me, too! Big secret” line about her origins
–Poe’s flirty “Suits you”
–Yoda’s voiceover in Rey’s force vision…So serene in ESB and now so creepy
–Han and Leia’s reunion
–Leia’s private moment of grief into “Tell me!” (or maybe “Show me!”?)
Dealbreakers the first time that I learned to look past:
I was really turned off on opening night by Han getting skewered and dumped down a shaft (and then apparently blown to bits?). Felt cruel and brutal, like something out of Game of Thrones. But it did seem more heroic and meaningful this time. They almost escape after rescuing Rey, and Han decides to go back in and set the charges to save the mission. Plus Ford has plenty of closeup moments that indicate he knows confronting Ren could be dangerous, but that it’s something he can no longer run away from.
I also had a hard time swallowing the backstory the first time around–Luke’s failure as a mentor and subsequent disappearance, Han and Leia’s failure as parents and as a couple. These are huge claims to be making about our favorite heroes, and we’re fed so little information about how it all went down. Now that I knew this movie wouldn’t be supplying much by way of answers, only tantalizing hints, I wasn’t as frustrated and just went with it. If this is how the story goes post-ROTJ, it’s handled quite well. Hopefully we’ll get some satisfying answers in Ep. VIII.
Still bothered by:
Every time Han or Leia says the word “Snoke,” it sounds ridiculous and takes me out of the movie.
The novelization is apparently filling in some holes left from the film along with some new things not seen in the movie- (thanks to Darth_Monopoly for the following post)-
The opening is Leia wondering where Luke is and trying to call out to him that she needs him.
Not saying this should have been the opening of the movie, but some acknowledgment or demonstration of Leia using or attempting to use her force powers would have been welcome. It’s the one thing explicitly promised in ROTJ.
When they finally display R2’s map piece and Leia says, “Luke!”, I thought (actually, said out loud to myself in the theatre): “He’s your twin! Why do you need a map? Why don’t you at least try to reach out to him with the Force?”
It was the #2 thing that turned me off the film, next to Han’s nihilistically cruel end.
This film made me angry. Kinda wish I could unsee it.
I did like:
My nuke-the-fridge moment was Han’s death–particularly the manner of it. It felt like a shitty and unfitting way to treat the character. If they wanted to kill him off, couldn’t he have gone out a little more…heroically? Or willingly sacrificed himself for something? Or at least got some dying words or an honorable burial? Getting thrust through by surprise with a lightsaber, looking sadly into his son’s eyes, and falling down a shaft? Yuck. Why not just feed him to the Sarlacc? What’s next–Luke is skinned alive while Leia is forced to eat her own entrails?
For all the tribute the film was making to the OT, that moment is a brutal violation of its spirit.