Fun fact about the origin of porgs:
The island where they filmed the Jedi Temple scenes was full of puffins. It was cheaper & easier to edit them all into porgs (& then add a few porg gags) than it would've been to clear them off of the island or edit them out completely.
A few responses to IAN....
Spoiler.
Who makes a base with only one exit?
For that matter, how did the infantry get into the trench without raising the gate!?
What was the point of keeping the shuttle plan secret? Mutiny in that situation was basically inevitable even if you didn't have a hotshot.
THIS THIS THIS A MILLION TIMES THIS.
If Holdo had just bothered telling ANYONE else the plan, it would've worked perfectly. Poe wouldn't have sent Finn & Rose off to Casino Night Zone, which means the prison codebreaker would never have gotten involved, which means the plan would've stayed secret. Literally the only thing gained from this subplot is the little Force-attuned kid at the end.
Since when does the Empire care about protecting its TIEs?
Despite being in power, the First Order is not as well-equipped as the Empire was, & they just lost a bunch of resources at Starkiller Base.
How the **** did the Republic go from controlling the galaxy to being routed that quickly? I know they lost some planets to Starkiller base at the end of the last movie, but surely that wasn't their entire navy.
It's not that it was their entire navy; it's that it was their entire leadership (the Resistance is not officially endorsed by the Republic)....& a huge chunk of their population. Starkiller Base blew up ALL the central planets of the new Republic.
And a response to IRHP:
Spoiler.
He caught a huge force-thrown object and hurled it back, did he do that in the original trilogy?
He picked up an even bigger object in the original trilogy. In fact, I was expecting Luke to mimic that feat here.
And Val:
Spoiler.
Was General Hux this big a bitch in VII?
Almost. His Nazi rally speech was really his only menacing moment; the rest of the time he was standing next to either Kylo Ren or Snoke & thus was completely out of his depth.
I had a blast with this movie. Wish there had been non-3D tickets available, though, so I could've turned my head without the picture blurring.
For that matter, how did the infantry get into the trench without raising the gate!?
Also, why was that door so big? It looked like AT-ATs could've just about made it inside, and I don't recall ever seeing planet-side Rebel hardware much taller than maybe 15-20 feet. Unless they're landing cruisers there or something (can you even do that in this universe?) it seems both pointless and almost suicidal when your entire strategy revolves around not being seen.
Since when does the Empire care about protecting its TIEs?
Despite being in power, the First Order is not as well-equipped as the Empire was, & they just lost a bunch of resources at Starkiller Base.
I get that, but the impression I got from the movie was that that handful of ships was basically all they had left to clean up before being in complete control. Since all of the Resistance fighters were destroyed and we don't see the capital ships doing much of anything to the TIEs (not that I noticed, anyway), I'd think it'd be worth the risk of losing a couple cheap fighters to cripple the ships. If they can't defend their bridge or hanger bay, they probably can't defend much of anything.
Yes, it has it's flaws, as any movie does, but I honestly thought it was one of the best Star Wars movies yet and it baffles me that fans are actually petitioning to have it wiped from existence.
Here's the things I really liked:
Spoiler.
- The motif of moving on and letting go of the past to make way for better things. It's not just something the characters have to do, but the movie itself does as well. I'm glad they're opening up the story to be about more than just the Skywalker lineage and old faces. Yoda destroying the Jedi texts and Luke sacrificing himself just to give a future Jedi and the Resistance a chance to escape was the perfect exemplification of that.
- The fact that it actually subverted so many expectations. People are upset that Luke wasn't a wise old teacher ready to teach the ways of the force, but that would've just been another Luke/Yoda movie which everyone's already seen. And I like the fact that Rey wasn't the daughter of some legend, she was just... a nobody, and that is SO much better because, again, we need to move on from this “because destiny” mentality. Screw destiny, the force is with anyone and everyone.
- The aforementioned scene in which Kylo tries to convince Rey to join him. Probably the most powerful scene in the movie. Kylo is such a tormented character, and the fact that he holds out his hand and says "please" to Rey, shows that even he isn't sure of what he's doing, but he took a gamble and hoped Rey wouldn't let him do it alone. After all, she’s the only one who would understand him. And it would be SO easy for her to say yes, being a girl with no past and seemingly no future after the greatest Jedi just turned her away. But she doesn’t, and that says so much about the strength of her character. The dynamic between these two is so good and I can’t wait the see what they do with it next.
- So many shots in the movie were pure cinematic art. Leia being sucked out into space. Kylo and Luke staring each other down, the freaking silence during the light speed ramming...
- The fight between Kylo and Rey vs. the First Order Guards, the fact that you know it's about to happen and then it just... starts. It's perfect.
You're right, actually, she did. I guess that scene was more about Yoda showing Luke that being a Jedi isn't necessarily about following some old doctrine, when experience and failure can be far better teachers. I do wonder how the texts will come into play later though, since Rey kept them.
