Star Wars Episode IX - SPOILER THREAD

[DaneMcCloud]

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker had its premiere last night at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Non-Spoiler reviews and Twitter mentions are trickling out and they're overwhelmingly positive.

I'll be seeing the film Thursday night, 6:30pm PST but I'm not sure if I'll have time to post because we're traveling for the holidays, leaving at 4am the next morning. If I can't post Thursday evening, I'll get to it at some point over the weekend, maybe after I've seen it a second time.

It's a Spoiler thread but let's try to keep the real spoilery stuff in the Spoiler Tags through the weekend, just so we don't ruin the movie for someone that accidentally clicks on the thread.

Let's hear it!

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

I considered the possibility she might be his daughter when he asked the question. But his delivery of, “Let’s go find out.” just seemed off to me (and plenty of others from what I’m reading). That’s why I said I don’t know. And I consider this to be a bit more ambiguous than the examples you gave. JMO.

Sure, I understand that it's more ambiguous but it's also, at least in my mind, a "Connect The Dots".

Lando's family was captured and taken by the First Order. Lando connects with a woman that is roughly the same age as his child would be at this point in time, who was also captured by the First Order after birth, became a First Order Trooper, mutinied and escaped, only to be reunited with her father.

From my understanding, the scene in which Lando realized that she was his daughter was edited out because it was "too on the nose".

I won't be surprised if the novelization goes into further detail.

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Sure, I understand that it's more ambiguous but it's also, at least in my mind, a "Connect The Dots".

Lando's family was captured and taken by the First Order. Lando connects with a woman that is roughly the same age as his child would be at this point in time, who was also captured by the First Order after birth, became a First Order Trooper, mutinied and escaped, only to be reunited with her father.

From my understanding, the scene in which Lando realized that she was his daughter was edited out because it was "too on the nose".

I won't be surprised if the novelization goes into further detail.

Did I just completely miss this little nugget last night with everything else going on in the film or is this something found in the EU?

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

I considered the possibility she might be his daughter when he asked the question. But his delivery of, “Let’s go find out.” just seemed off to me (and plenty of others from what I’m reading). That’s why I said I don’t know. And I consider this to be a bit more ambiguous than the examples you gave. JMO.

Eh, I didn't pickup anything other that's my daugher. They look a lot alike. Postures the same. Sitting the same direction. If it were anything else, they would have blocked it way differently.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

Did I just completely miss this little nugget last night with everything else going on in the film or is this something found in the EU?

Lando mentioned it in the movie.

Honestly, there's SO much happening in the film that it's easy to miss little nuggets such as this one, which is why I liked the movie SO much better during the second viewing.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

The scene was cut but Jannah is Lando's daughter.

I'm not singling out you but it infuriates me to no end that some people need everything spelled out for them onscreen.

That's why Lucas added the scene in the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back in which Vader is shown on Bespin saying "Prepare my Star Destroyer for my arrival" because people complained "but how did Vader get back to his ship"?

It's why Lucas included the scenes in which Leia is seen as a baby on Alderaan and Obi Wan is seen dropping off Luke to Owen and Beru, two scenes that were completely unnecessary because we already knew their stories! But a certain segment of people need to see it on screen for it to have happened.

It drives me crazy that people can't use their brains...

Yeah, I hear you. This movie did a lot of beating the audience over the head with things. I get why they did it. There was less in TLJ and it got blasted by everybody. So back to the beating you over the head.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Eh, I didn't pickup anything other that's my daugher. They look a lot alike. Postures the same. Sitting the same direction. If it were anything else, they would have blocked it way differently.

Hey! I forget to check in with you, so my apologies. It was a crazy, crazy (but great!) Christmas time, with more than 20 McCloud's together for the first time, maybe ever.

Did you enjoy the film?

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Yeah, I hear you. This movie did a lot of beating the audience over the head with things. I get why they did it. There was less in TLJ and it got blasted by everybody. So back to the beating you over the head.

Yeah, that's why in my initial post, the night before it opened wide, I mentioned that there was no way they could keep up the pace for the second half of the film.

Personally, I really enjoyed (no, LOVED) the fast pacing of the first half of the film. My daughter thought it was too much and was happy that it slowed down a bit in the second half but the breakneck speed didn't bother me a bit.

But yeah, there was a ton of information thrown at the audience in this film which is why I recommend at least two viewings (and I'm sure I'll watch it countless times once it's released digitally).

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Lando mentioned it in the movie.

Honestly, there's SO much happening in the film that it's easy to miss little nuggets such as this one, which is why I liked the movie SO much better during the second viewing.

Yeah, there is a lot going on and doing so pretty quickly. Had I caught that bit about his family I still would have thought the delivery of the line awkward but, I certainly wouldn’t have questioned my initial thought about a family tie.

I’m definitely going to have to watch it again.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Hey! I forget to check in with you, so my apologies. It was a crazy, crazy (but great!) Christmas time, with more than 20 McCloud's together for the first time, maybe ever.

Did you enjoy the film?

No biggie. My buddy was pretty adamant that we see it, so I went.

I had a good time. There was a few times where I thought, "cut the shit." But a lot of it was done well.

It had problems, many of which were necessitated by the hard left they decided to take after TLJ. I would have much rather have seen the realization of Johnson's story, especially after what Pants posted about his original script.

All in all it was enjoyable, but fell short of what the story could have been IMO.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

Yeah, there is a lot going on and doing so pretty quickly. Had I caught that bit about his family I still would have thought the delivery of the line awkward but, I certainly wouldn’t have questioned my initial thought about a family tie.

I’m definitely going to have to watch it again.

Just to clarify, he didn't mention it when meeting Jannah; he mentioned it earlier in the film and IIRC (which I'm probably not), it was just after meeting Poe & Finn.

So basically, it was a setup that paid off later.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Yeah, that's why in my initial post, the night before it opened wide, I mentioned that there was no way they could keep up the pace for the second half of the film.

Personally, I really enjoyed (no, LOVED) the fast pacing of the first half of the film. My daughter thought it was too much and was happy that it slowed down a bit in the second half but the breakneck speed didn't bother me a bit.

But yeah, there was a ton of information thrown at the audience in this film which is why I recommend at least two viewings (and I'm sure I'll watch it countless times once it's released digitally).

Yeah, that's probably a better way to look at it. In the theater, I thought to myself, "My GOD this is made for ADHD kids." After it slowed down I didn't think about it too much, which I probably should have. Rather than it being that they were moving shit along fast as hell so nobody will stop and think about how dumb some of it was, rather than it's speeding towards the point in which we really need to pay attention to.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

All in all it was enjoyable, but fell short of what the story could have been IMO.

I felt that way after the initial viewing. As a matter of fact, when my brother bought 16 tickets for us to see it on the amazing X Screen at B&B in Olathe, I wasn't really even interested in going. But my youngest couldn't make it to the Thursday premiere because she wasn't feeling well and wanted me to go the night before Christmas Eve, so I went.

I'm glad that I did because I just sat back and enjoyed the film, far more than I did the during the initial viewing. I think the biggest thing for me the first time is that it was SO different than what I expected story-wise that my mind was playing catch-up the entire time.

Since I knew what was going to happen during the second viewing, I turned off my brain and just enjoyed it for what it was and I have to say, I really, really liked it much better than the previous two Episodes.

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Just to clarify, he didn't mention it when meeting Jannah; he mentioned it earlier in the film and IIRC (which I'm probably not), it was just after meeting Poe & Finn.

So basically, it was a setup that paid off later.

I knew it wasn’t right there at the end. I’m guessing it was when they were all in that “tank”. But I’m just not recalling it. I was probably distracted by the annoyance of the Poe and Finn characters (maybe it was the writing maybe it was the actors, or even both but, whatever it was I’ve never cared for them).

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

I knew it wasn’t right there at the end. I’m guessing it was when they were all in that “tank”. But I’m just not recalling it. I was probably distracted by the annoyance of the Poe and Finn characters (maybe it was the writing maybe it was the actors, or even both but, whatever it was I’ve never cared for them).

I didn't like Finn in this movie, at all.

I don't know if it was because of JJ's direction or if Boyega felt that since his character was Force-Sensitive, he needed to be more "serious", but his "charm" in TFA, the only thing that even made his character even remotely worthwhile, IMO, was gone.

He seemed stiff and wooden. Unfortunately, Oscar Isaac came off similarly, IMO, outside the scenes with Zorri Bliss, who was another under-utilized character (but not as badly under-utilized as Maz Kanata).

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I felt that way after the initial viewing. As a matter of fact, when my brother bought 16 tickets for us to see it on the amazing X Screen at B&B in Olathe, I wasn't really even interested in going. But my youngest couldn't make it to the Thursday premiere because she wasn't feeling well and wanted me to go the night before Christmas Eve, so I went.

I'm glad that I did because I just sat back and enjoyed the film, far more than I did the during the initial viewing. I think the biggest thing for me the first time is that it was SO different than what I expected story-wise that my mind was playing catch-up the entire time.

Since I knew what was going to happen during the second viewing, I turned off my brain and just enjoyed it for what it was and I have to say, I really, really liked it much better than the previous two Episodes.

Yeah, could be. I'm sure I'll watch it again when it hits digital. It's not the total tire fire that some are suggesting, but neither was TLJ, in fact, I liked TLJ better, but I'm obviously one of the few.