First of all, the cinematography and visuals were stunning. Good pacing. Score was great aswell. The acting was great, Del Toro did feel a bit out there but isn't he always. Really liked the story, if you thought TFA was too similar to ANH you will like this one. Maybe a bit too much humor but it didn't bother me all that much.
I went in trailer and spoilerfree and the movie suprised me a few times.
- Opening battle was intense. Really liked the look of the new bombers, Poe is a beast in the cockpit as always. And I liked the "afterburner" added to his X-Wing, I think it added to the feel of the Resistance being desperate and trying new things, the FO did not see that coming. And Trolling Hux was epic!
- Mark Hamill was stellar, what a stellar effort. I think all his scenes worked really well. The scenes with him and Rey on Ach-To were good, and some subversions to how the master/apprentice angle usually works. Chewie knocking down the door when Luke is ignoring/refusing to train Rey was great. [emoji4] He refuses to train Rey at first, then agrees to teach her three lessons. It's clear he is jaded and dissapointed, very critical of the jedi order and the fact everyone hopes they can be brought back to save the republic since at the height of their power the lost everything to Palpatine. Blames himself for Kylo falling and the destruction of the Jedi. Wants to die and be left alone until R2 shows him the holo of Leia from ANH.
- The FO chases the Resistance through space, Resistance ships are faster so they can keep a distance where the FO lasers can't damage them, but are low on fuel and can't jump to hyperspace since FO can track them through space. May sound a bit cheap, but it actually works and it gives Finn/Rose a purpose, finding a code cracker to get past the shield on Snokes flagship and disable the tracking. Canto Bight looked great. Rose was actually a good character, gave some good insight on "regular" people in th SW universe. Good chemistry with Finn. Del Toro does betray them to the FO in the end, causing the Resistance to dwindle down to a few transports fleeing to Crait.
- Porgs are comedy relief, meh. Kids will love them.
- No backstory for Snoke, felt dissapointed with that.
- Kylo Ren and Rey are connected through the Force, and interact through it at a couple of times throughout the movie. At first it put me off but it worked quite well actually, both of them believing the other can be turned, and giving backstory on what happened to turn Kylo to the Dark Side. We see the same scene regarding the destruction of Lukes jedi temple, first being told by Luke to Rey saying that he confronted Kylo due to sensing his darkness and he brought down the roof on Lukes head, killing the other students and taking some with him. Then Kylo shares with Rey through the Force his version, that he woke up with Luke lightsaber in hand ready to kill him (looking absolutely demonic through Kylos eyes) and he managed to fight him off. Rey then confronts Luke about this. Luke and Rey fight with staffs, then Rey draws her lightsaber and points it at Luke (again, flirting with the Dark Side).The truth seems to be somewere in between, Luke did briefly consider killing Kylo after sensing the darkness in him, but it passes quickly, however he admits he failed Ben and takes responisiblity. Talk about a different point of wiew indeed. Really liked this part of the story.
This comes to a head when Rey goes to Kylo thinking she can turn him. They tease us with both Kylo turning good and Rey bad, and a Resistance admiral uses hyperspace to destroy Snokes cruiser (a bit cheap and new) but in the end Kylo KILLS SNOKE! Holy ****! His smugness got him in the end. After a awesome battle with Rey and Kylo vs the Praetorian Guards we get another standoff between Kylo and Rey, Kylo despite killing Snoke wants to take over the FO and let all the Rebels die. They have a force push battle over DV saber and it breaks, Kylo passes out, Rey leaves. I really thought for a second that Kylo was going to turn good again, happy he did not however he is not 100 % free of doubt. Hux arrives and begins to draw his gun before Kylo gets up. Kylo force chokes him to cement his leadership of the FO and orders all forces to attack Crait.
- Luke is dissapointed and decides to burn down the Force tree and the jedi books within. Yoda as a force ghost appears and first it appears he tries to stop him, then he uses the force to set the tree on fire with lightning.
- Final stand on Crait, a old Rebellion base. FO attacking the base (with a Death Star derived cannon pointed at the gate), Resistance defending within. Sends out distress call, I was really expecting allies to arrive and have a massive space battle but nope, wrong again.
Resistance tries to attack with crappy old speeders, goes about as well as you can expect but the Millenium Falcon sweeps in to save the day. Chewbacca is and Ace pilot and Rey gunning down TIEs. Kylo Ren lets his feelings rule him (again) instead of making good decisions yet again and sends of the TIEs because he hates the sight of the Millenium Falcon. We almost get a heroic sacrifice from Finn (really thought that was coming, wrong again) but Rose stops him. The cannon fires, shatters the gate and the FO prepare to move in but Luke arrives, walks out to face Kylo. Kylo in a brief moment of clarity orders everyone to fire on Luke (a barrage of laser fire) but Luke emerges unscathed so again letting his feeling rule goes out to face him. Luke avoids him, berates him, and apologises for failing him and it finally turns out he was a Force projection. Rey, Leia, Poe and the few Resistance member left escape on the Falcon, with Kylo having a tantrum again. Luke becomes one with the Force.
- Space Battles were great. Opening battle was great, alot of destruction all around. Kylo blasting the hell out of the hangar of the Resistance cruiser kills of alot of pilots. And the bridge of the cruiser is taken out (Kylo can't do it because he senses Leia but his wingmen fire and Leia is blasted into space.) I really thought they were going to kill her, but Leia uses the Force (finally) to pull herself back on board. The FO taking out the transports after they abandon ship was brutal aswell.
-Man I did have a little cry seeing Mark and Carrie together on the big screen again. Great scene. And seeing Carrie and her daughter together was great aswell.
- Was that the Jedi books from the tree I spotted when Finn pulled out a drawer on the Falcon while caring for Rose at the end?
Some things that bothered me:
- The go into hyperspace and cause destruction to the ships in your path scene. Feels like that approach should have come up before. Although it was worth it for the Stunning scene with no sound.
- The humor was a bit much.
- No backstory for Snoke.
- The fact that Reys parents were nobodies. Kylo must have lied right.
. Phasma again get little screentime and dies (?) by falling into a big fireball on a ship thats falling apart.
- BB-8 piloting a AT-ST. Looked cool, but a bit to much.
- BB-8 taking out 5 guards. Seemes unplausible.
- Porgs.
All in all, I really liked it.
My new list:
ANH
ESB
TLJ
R1
ROTJ
TFA
