Star Wars Megathread

[11B4V]

Well put.

[Sheilbh]

One great example from the film was when [spoiler]Rey uses Sith Force Lightening to blow up the Transport that had Chewbacca was on. For a split second I was like "oh now this might be interesting." Of course it didn't matter at all and of course it was made stupid. Later when the Finn and Poe were about to be executed I was like "even if their heads all got shot off it wouldn't matter" and of course something stupid happened that made no sense.[/spoiler]

On this. [spoiler]I don't mind the it not mattering. What annoys me is that they've got ages in that fucking desert and at no point do they show another transport. It just felt lazy. Similarly with Finn and Poe with Hux's 2 minute resolution of what I think was an interesting character in the other two. That could have been developed so it didn't just plop out. As I say I think the issue is this is effectively parts 2 & 3 of the Abrams project in the space of one film, when it would have been better, even if it was reversing what happened in the Johnson film to build on and from what it left.[/spoiler]

[ulmont]

OK, went and saw it.

Maybe my expectations were low, but it was really not that  bad.

I agree, although you really have to suspend disbelief for literally everything directly or indirectly related to a logistics question [spoiler](starting with the rise of the First Order while the New Republic was doing...??? and continuing through to "how do you assemble all those fucking volunteer ships at the hidden planet at the same time?")[/spoiler].

I find it helps if I imagine Star Wars being a campfire story that is being put on film exactly as told around the campfire...i.e., over the top in space operatic fashion.

...it's still miles better than Starcrash.

[spoiler]What annoys me is that they've got ages in that fucking desert and at no point do they show another transport. It just felt lazy.[/spoiler]

See above re: logistics.

[Berkut]

Me and Jake were trying to calculate how many crew would be needed for all those secret Star Destroyers....

[Habbaku]

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Imperial_I-class_Star_Destroyer

About 50,000 for the I-Class, and that's without any teams that are experts in the world-destroying cannon. If we assume that each ship is running at half-strength and the Stormtrooper assignments are heavily reduced as well, we're still sitting at ~25,000 per ship, multiplied by, what, 200 vessels? So just 50 million loyal Final Order crew and ST conscripts!

Fucking kill me.

[The Larch]

I also thought about where they got the crews for those hidden ships as well. 

[Syt]

To play devil's advocate: they do have cloning technology there [spoiler]as shown with Snoke.[/spoiler] 

[The Larch]

To play devil's advocate: they do have cloning technology there [spoiler]as shown with Snoke.[/spoiler] 

And a military academy too? 

[Syt]

To play devil's advocate: they do have cloning technology there [spoiler]as shown with Snoke.[/spoiler] 

And a military academy too? 

[Habbaku]

To play devil's advocate: they do have cloning technology there [spoiler]as shown with Snoke.[/spoiler] 

But they make it plain that the people are "recruits". If they were [spoiler]clones, as you propose, then surely we'd see copies to make the point? To my view, the clones were literally only Palpatine's bloodline and involved no one else.[/spoiler]

Also, when do we get to drop fucking spoiler tags? It's been three weeks!

[Sheilbh]

[spoiler]What annoys me is that they've got ages in that fucking desert and at no point do they show another transport. It just felt lazy.[/spoiler]

See above re: logistics.

Yeah. It's not the logistics that annoys me it's more the Agatha Christie thing. You have to show the reader/viewer the elements of a solution.

[Barrister]

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Imperial_I-class_Star_Destroyer

About 50,000 for the I-Class, and that's without any teams that are experts in the world-destroying cannon. If we assume that each ship is running at half-strength and the Stormtrooper assignments are heavily reduced as well, we're still sitting at ~25,000 per ship, multiplied by, what, 200 vessels? So just 50 million loyal Final Order crew and ST conscripts!

Fucking kill me.

During the movie, I briefly thought it would have been more interesting if, much like Palpatine himself, they were some kind of undead crew members, whom even the First Order was uneasy working with.

But no.

[Habbaku]

That sounds like an interesting idea, but unless it happened in a previous movie in the series, JJ was never going to use it.

[Habbaku]

Also, can we all pause and take a moment to appreciate just how diverse and accepting the First Order was? Women, men, blacks, white, Asians, old, young, and even a Ginger at the very top! Truly the fascism of the future.

[Barrister]

Okay, saw the movie yesterday with the kids.  It was too long for Josh in the end, but the other two really liked it.  Unlike someone else's kids, they keep talking about the movie today, so it had some kind of impact.


I have had several thoughts rattling around in my head, so here they are in no particular order (spoilers abound, so big space if you want to skip):















-the first half of the movie was just plain boring.  They're running around doing this useless scavenger hunt, when supposedly they only have 18 hours to defeat the big bad evil.

-you know, I liked TFA.  I really liked TLJ.  But in retrospect this completed trilogy has given me new appreciation for the prequel trilogy, because at least they gave us a coherent and plotted out story over the three movies (though still TPM doesn't add much).

-thinking about it, the ending of TFA kind of handcuffs Johnson and TLJ.  Luke is all alone on Ach-To, after hiding out for decades.  When Rey gets there... what other possible storyline is there really?  As Luke puts it, he's not going to ride out with his laser sword and take on the first order.  Which all leads to one of TROS's flaws - that two of the main leads, Poe and Rey, haven't even met each other until this movie!

-but similarly though, the ending of TLJ kind of handcuffs JJ again.  In order to follow the storyline from TLJ, the Resistance is down to only enough people to fit on the Falcon.  In order to continue with that you have to follow with how that somehow lights the spark in the galaxy, with new force-sensitive people rising up... which could be a very interesting movie to see!  It might even be a Star Wars movie - but it's not the finale to the previous 8 movies.

-there's nothing inherently wrong with bringing back Palpatine. Heck Darth Maul makes a come back after being cut in half AND being dumped down a large shaft.  But you shouldn't be introducing the big baddie of a trilogy in the opening acts of the third movie.

-so Rey's a Palpatine.  Again, there's nothing inherently wrong with that being the plot twist.  But it feels unearned.  All the best plot twists, once revealed, have you slapping your knee going "oh it's obvious!  I should have seen that coming!".  Luke being a Force Projection at the end of TLJ was well earned - there were plenty of clues that something was up.  Rey being a Palpatine was not set up in any way I could tell (because they never had an overarching plot to start with).  And yes, the the way, Darth being Luke's father wasn't well set up either, but that was a different era.

-Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is easily, hands down, the most interesting character of the trilogy.  I like the under-stated symmetry that Kylo WAS able to do what his grandfather Annakin could not - save the life of someone he loved.

-okay, so Harrison Ford coming back did catch me by surprise.  Thought that scene was quite well done.

-I suppose it's kind of inevitable, but still kind of annoying, how they have to keep upping the stakes in each movie.  First it was the Death Star, then a new larger Death Star, then an entire planet capable of killing multiple planets, then a fleet of hundreds of planet-killing star destroyers.

-final battle was Fan Service galore... and I liked it.  I'm sure I only picked out half of the voices of Jedis.  There's Wedge!  and Nien Numb!  And the Ghoest from Rebels (which I've only just started watching).

-General Hux being the spy.  I liked it.  An unexpected twist, since they kind of set up that other General to be it.  Shame they promptly had Hux killed.  He could have been a fascinating character in ongoing movies.  I kind of Werner von Braun figure perhaps if he defects to the Resistance.


-so going forward... the Last Order fleet is destroyed, and the First Order is now leaderless, but it should still be an ongoing concern, right?  I do hope they keep moving the storyline forward, and not just keep pumping out prequel movies and storylines.