As per usual I've divided these, check the bold!
Right so wasn’t that really surprising?
I feel like Rian just looked at all the theories and questions out there and if you imagine them as a chess board, he just threw that board and all the pieces away like Luke does with the lightsaber Rey gives him.
(I mean come on Luke, 2 years we’ve been waiting to see you take the thing and you toss it aside like garbage, hilarious moment but also not on).
I think the movie made it pretty obvious that the theme of the movie is failure, Yoda even says it (he, by the way, did not fail, what an epic scene!) So we should expect pretty much everyone to fail, which makes for annoying storytelling, but Rian successfully made a frustrating movie about failure, which I guess means it was successful?
Characters in the movie, key moments and how they fail?
I think the movie made it pretty obvious that the theme of the movie is failure, Yoda even says it (he, by the way, did not fail, what an epic scene!) So we should expect pretty much everyone to fail, which makes for annoying storytelling, but Rian successfully made a frustrating movie about failure, which I guess means it was successful?
Characters in the movie, key moments and how they fail?
So Luke for most of the movie is a depressed idiot who thinks because he had a moment of weakness that inadvertently created the thing he feared (Kylo Ren) that he should go die in Ireland... Luke was always a little pathetic for a series hero, but this one took it to whole new levels. So Luke for the first 2/3s disappointed me, it’s like he didn’t grow as a person in over 30 years at all. Luke failed Ben Solo, and fails Rey and Leia for most of the movie too.
Rey is fantastic in this movie. She is a little less perfect in this one, just a little, because she mistakenly believes Ben Solo is a good guy. She fails to convert him to the Light side of the force.
I don’t know if I believe Kylo that her parents are nobodies and sold her for food, I wouldn’t trust him. I think there is still scope for JJ to add another twist and shock us again with who they are. I do love the idea of her as a sort of chosen one that is born of the light as the darkness becomes too strong which was hinted at.
Snoke fails too. He fails to kill Rey or Luke, and he fails to notice Kylo turning on him, as well as failing to notice the lightsaber turning towards him.
Since seeing this one I am convinced Snoke is Palpatine’s master. If you remember back to episode 3, Sidious is telling Anakin about a Sith who learned to stop death and create life as they watch the bubble opera thing? His master was called Darth Plageius and Palpatine said he killed him... but how exactly do you kill someone who can cheat death? Also, Snoke’s disfigurement looks an awful lot like scares from a lightsaber blow to the head and force lightning (like Palpatine after his conflict with Mace Windu his face looks sort of melted and we know Sidious’ weapon of choice was force lightning.)
Since seeing this one I am convinced Snoke is Palpatine’s master. If you remember back to episode 3, Sidious is telling Anakin about a Sith who learned to stop death and create life as they watch the bubble opera thing? His master was called Darth Plageius and Palpatine said he killed him... but how exactly do you kill someone who can cheat death? Also, Snoke’s disfigurement looks an awful lot like scares from a lightsaber blow to the head and force lightning (like Palpatine after his conflict with Mace Windu his face looks sort of melted and we know Sidious’ weapon of choice was force lightning.)
If you remember, as Snoke died he bragged about knowing exactly what Kylo was thinking. Either his arrogance at his own power (which is a lot and adds to my thought that he trained Sidious, the previous strongest dark side user we’ve seen) that arrogance blinded him to Kylo’s real intentions or it was his plan. If he is Darth Plageius then he can regenerate in time. So big woop. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in 9 and that we learn it was all part of a greater plan to cement Kylo’s dark side resolve which it seems to have achieved. I think we may learn that he spent the time from before episode 1, when Sidious “killed” him to the Force Awakens honing his power and becoming even stronger, moving beyond the Sith in the dark side, something beyond the power of ambition, hate and selfishness.
I was very disappointed by the Finn and Rose storyline. Obviously, they both fail. Rose is a very loveable character but besides for igniting rebellion in the young broom floating boy’s heart in Dubrovnik (Canto Bight?) their story accomplished nothing and was pretty pointless. It’s like Rian needed something for Finn to do, found nothing and made up a crap side mission for him that if it were deleted from the movie would take nothing away. Even if it was cool to see the streets we walked down for Jon and Catherina's wedding on the big screen.
In that vein Captain Phasma was, again, disappointing. She has been on screen for all of 10 minutes across both movies yet she is shown as a main character all the time. Again, Rian couldn’t come up with anything for her. We were promised she would come into her own but her role was pretty much the exact same as the Force Awakens. Her absence would have taken nothing from the movie.
Also, she was left on Star Killer base as it exploded, but survived and now she’s been left on Snoke’s SHIELD logo ship as it exploded but I bet she’ll survive. I hope she dies again in 9 it would be like how people lost an arm a lot in all the Old movies. She failed to kill Finn or Rose in this one, and maybe failed to die again too.
I also need to point out that no one lost an arm! Is it even Star Wars. Also, I currently don’t remember anyone saying “I have a bad feeling about this.” Tut tut Rian! [He says it is there, but I can't remember it, unless it is BB8 that says is to Poe at the start in beeps].
Poe is potentially the most interesting character in this one. He is rash and wants to know everything, he disobeys Leia’s orders and arrests her replacement (more on that below) Admiral Holdo(?) and almost gets everyone killed. Again, a whole lot of failure there.
The Resistance fails to not get blown up, a lot.... And though they blow up the Dreadnought (Fulminatrix, apparently), they lose so many. As Leia remarks, "many heroes, no leaders".
Leia fails to rally support to come to the aid of the Resistance, "use my personal codes," but nothing comes of it and then she loses hope.
Hux fails to win, again.
Kylo Ren fails at everything except tricking Rey and killing Snoke, his failure on Crate/Krait/Krate, the salt planet, as he takes over as Supreme Leader Emo Kid is astonishing, and we get this glimpse in Hux's eyes that he will attempt to overthrow Kylo (when he was out after Rey's lightsaber exploded Hux would have shot him had he not woken up).
The First Order fail to wipe out the Rebellion (which it is again now, it's no Resistance anymore, the First Order rules supreme, as the opening crawl informs us).
DJ fails to have morals.
Chewbacca fails to eat porgs or stop them taking over the Millennium Falcon.
C3PO fails to get his odds of surviving out without being told to shut up by Poe.
Above I said Yoda doesn't fail. The only other two characters that don't fail are R2D2, who successfully convinces Luke to come to Leia and the Resistance's aid by playing the old hologram of Leia saying "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope", one of the most moving scenes in the movie. The other is BB-8, who is just so badass in this movie. He shoots chips in a casino, steals a space craft and a walker. It was actually great.
Things I really Loved.
Poe was annoying most of the movie, but then at the end there is a great moment where he leads people to safety instead of a war they cannot win. Everyone looks to Leia and she looks behind here, a comical and perfect moment that allows us to see Poe becoming something of a General himself for 9.
When Luke comes! Like... Wow... He gives the dice from the Falcon to Leia and she mentions about changing her hair, that was great. Then he goes out and faces the First Order alone (something he told Rey he couldn't do, and it was ridiculous of her to expect him to). Then all these guns fire on him and after that he still stands so Ben faces him alone and he just ducks and dives until he has an Obi moment and allows Kylo to strike him down, but he isn't there, he is still in Ireland! Legend.
The kid that force pulls the broom to himself at the end and swings it like a lightsaber, showing the Rebel symbol on his ring! Perfect end!
Leia's use of the Force to bring herself back aboard the Raddus. It was very interesting, she is seconds from death and almost like instinct pulls herself back on board her ship.
The Raddus being named for Admiral Raddus from Rogue One, he was the one that looked like Admiral Ackbar.
Yoda, just all of it "Page turners they were not." I want a Yoda movie!
Porgs! They are cute and funny! I love when the one screams as Chewy does in the Falcon!
The boy with the broom!
The chase scene through Canto Bight, Dubrovnik.
How much Ireland was in it!
R2 and the hologram!
When Admiral Holdo goes to hyperdrive and crashes into Snoke's ship. The scenes there are like paintings they are so beautiful as the ship is being ripped apart and there is no sound. Those shots were just beautiful, destruction can look nice, who knew?
John Williams and the music, the use of well known Star Wars themes (Imperial March, The Emperors theme, the Force theme, Leia's theme, brother and sister theme from Return of the Jedi, Rey's theme, the March of the Resistance. It was a great soundtrack!
Gareth Edwards, director of Rogue One, is the guy in the trench that is told that the planet is a salt flat by his colleague next to him. That was good!
The parts played by Carrie Fisher's dog, Gary (Canto Bight scene) and Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie. Billie was in Force Awakens but you'd hardly notice. She had many scenes in this one and it was good to see her becoming less one dimensional and more of a character. I hope she is a leader in the Rebellion in episode 9. It's nice she went from a cameo in 7 to a role in 8.
Things I did not like:
How Admiral Ackbar dies and it's just like... whatever.
Finn and Rose's story and Finn and Rose kissing...
Poe's mutiny. The whole Poe as a wreckless and feckless idiot. I love his development and him stopping Finn from rushing to help Luke, and he notices Luke is giving them time to escape. But I don't like how we had to get there.
Phasma's lack of importance.
Luke goes and becomes one with the force after a Force projection Lightsaber battle with Kylo... I want to see him fight one more time.
The Rebellion is now the size of the Millennium Falcon.
Questions I still want answered:
Who is Snoke?
Who are Rey's parents really? Is Kylo lying?
What happens to Leia?
Can Poe use the Force? Is that why he is such a good pilot?
Where is Lando?
What is the extent of what a Force Ghost can do? Yoda destroyed things and hit Luke, can all ghosts do that? Just Yoda?
Can a Sith be a Force Ghost? Could Sidious or Maul return and physically interact with their environment in 9?
What does Kylo plan to happen next? Is this all part of Snoke's plan?
Is Rey now a Jedi? Will she train broom boy? Yoda says she already has all the knowledge the ancient Jedi texts contained, so...?
Are the Jedi still ending or are we back to the light-side, dark-side dynamic?
What happens with the hyper-space tracker? Can they track the Millennium Falcon? How do they survive?
What happens the Jedi Order now?
Is this a way to move past the past and have a new Jedi and Sith order? That isn't based on Eps 1-3?
The Resistance fails to not get blown up, a lot.... And though they blow up the Dreadnought (Fulminatrix, apparently), they lose so many. As Leia remarks, "many heroes, no leaders".
Leia fails to rally support to come to the aid of the Resistance, "use my personal codes," but nothing comes of it and then she loses hope.
Hux fails to win, again.
Kylo Ren fails at everything except tricking Rey and killing Snoke, his failure on Crate/Krait/Krate, the salt planet, as he takes over as Supreme Leader Emo Kid is astonishing, and we get this glimpse in Hux's eyes that he will attempt to overthrow Kylo (when he was out after Rey's lightsaber exploded Hux would have shot him had he not woken up).
The First Order fail to wipe out the Rebellion (which it is again now, it's no Resistance anymore, the First Order rules supreme, as the opening crawl informs us).
DJ fails to have morals.
Chewbacca fails to eat porgs or stop them taking over the Millennium Falcon.
C3PO fails to get his odds of surviving out without being told to shut up by Poe.
Above I said Yoda doesn't fail. The only other two characters that don't fail are R2D2, who successfully convinces Luke to come to Leia and the Resistance's aid by playing the old hologram of Leia saying "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope", one of the most moving scenes in the movie. The other is BB-8, who is just so badass in this movie. He shoots chips in a casino, steals a space craft and a walker. It was actually great.
Things I really Loved.
Poe was annoying most of the movie, but then at the end there is a great moment where he leads people to safety instead of a war they cannot win. Everyone looks to Leia and she looks behind here, a comical and perfect moment that allows us to see Poe becoming something of a General himself for 9.
When Luke comes! Like... Wow... He gives the dice from the Falcon to Leia and she mentions about changing her hair, that was great. Then he goes out and faces the First Order alone (something he told Rey he couldn't do, and it was ridiculous of her to expect him to). Then all these guns fire on him and after that he still stands so Ben faces him alone and he just ducks and dives until he has an Obi moment and allows Kylo to strike him down, but he isn't there, he is still in Ireland! Legend.
The kid that force pulls the broom to himself at the end and swings it like a lightsaber, showing the Rebel symbol on his ring! Perfect end!
Leia's use of the Force to bring herself back aboard the Raddus. It was very interesting, she is seconds from death and almost like instinct pulls herself back on board her ship.
The Raddus being named for Admiral Raddus from Rogue One, he was the one that looked like Admiral Ackbar.
Yoda, just all of it "Page turners they were not." I want a Yoda movie!
Porgs! They are cute and funny! I love when the one screams as Chewy does in the Falcon!
The boy with the broom!
The chase scene through Canto Bight, Dubrovnik.
How much Ireland was in it!
R2 and the hologram!
When Admiral Holdo goes to hyperdrive and crashes into Snoke's ship. The scenes there are like paintings they are so beautiful as the ship is being ripped apart and there is no sound. Those shots were just beautiful, destruction can look nice, who knew?
John Williams and the music, the use of well known Star Wars themes (Imperial March, The Emperors theme, the Force theme, Leia's theme, brother and sister theme from Return of the Jedi, Rey's theme, the March of the Resistance. It was a great soundtrack!
Gareth Edwards, director of Rogue One, is the guy in the trench that is told that the planet is a salt flat by his colleague next to him. That was good!
The parts played by Carrie Fisher's dog, Gary (Canto Bight scene) and Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie. Billie was in Force Awakens but you'd hardly notice. She had many scenes in this one and it was good to see her becoming less one dimensional and more of a character. I hope she is a leader in the Rebellion in episode 9. It's nice she went from a cameo in 7 to a role in 8.
Things I did not like:
How Admiral Ackbar dies and it's just like... whatever.
Finn and Rose's story and Finn and Rose kissing...
Poe's mutiny. The whole Poe as a wreckless and feckless idiot. I love his development and him stopping Finn from rushing to help Luke, and he notices Luke is giving them time to escape. But I don't like how we had to get there.
Phasma's lack of importance.
Luke goes and becomes one with the force after a Force projection Lightsaber battle with Kylo... I want to see him fight one more time.
The Rebellion is now the size of the Millennium Falcon.
Questions I still want answered:
Who is Snoke?
Who are Rey's parents really? Is Kylo lying?
What happens to Leia?
Can Poe use the Force? Is that why he is such a good pilot?
Where is Lando?
What is the extent of what a Force Ghost can do? Yoda destroyed things and hit Luke, can all ghosts do that? Just Yoda?
Can a Sith be a Force Ghost? Could Sidious or Maul return and physically interact with their environment in 9?
What does Kylo plan to happen next? Is this all part of Snoke's plan?
Is Rey now a Jedi? Will she train broom boy? Yoda says she already has all the knowledge the ancient Jedi texts contained, so...?
Are the Jedi still ending or are we back to the light-side, dark-side dynamic?
What happens with the hyper-space tracker? Can they track the Millennium Falcon? How do they survive?
What happens the Jedi Order now?
Is this a way to move past the past and have a new Jedi and Sith order? That isn't based on Eps 1-3?
