Good point on Ackbar and Grape Lady... She felt like kind of a waste to me too, and Ackbar's been at this **** since The Clone Wars. I would've liked to have seen him go out a hero now that you mention that. Hmmm.
Anyway, I saw the film again this past weekend... I noticed some things I hadn't before. It also reinforced my thoughts on some of the things I see people arguing about.
One of the biggest fights I see is Leia's force powers, and everyone thinking she flew... The boys and I talked about that whole thing and one of them thought she was flying too, but I pointed out the notion of simply lifting rocks, and how pulling herself to the ship is more or less the same thing as pushing something just in reverse, so why is that so tough to fathom? It blew their minds to rethink it in a simpler matter... I was made fun of for being a turbo nerd for about 15 minutes at dinner, but they agreed.
Overall all 4 people I took, who are passing fans at best, enjoyed the film... even my gf liked it though and she's pretty critical. She likes Rey a lot, and Leia. The boys like Rey too though and that was nice to see them not hating a female character just because she's a female character. I'm glad to know they are not that abnormal despite me warping them growing up.
There was a lot of discussion after this film... We didn't talk a lot after TFA I recall, and we weren't able to see Rogue One together. They really enjoyed this film though. They find the arguments on social media comical (that's where a lot of it appears to be taking place). I explained to them some of the sites with anti-Disney sentiments and they just laughed and used the term "neckbeard" which I'm still having trouble getting, but admittedly I am old.
The boys didn't like Canto Bight much, and we all agreed it was the best point to go pee if you needed to as it was sort of a midway and dull portion. It had a few moments, but it lacked a lot of substance, and could've just as easily been time filled with established characters and perhaps even Rose herself being used as the "hacker" or whatever DJ was. DJ was weird, not bad, just weird, and felt like he wasn't used well... Did he live? Did he get away? Will he come back? I kinda hope so because I like the actor, but at the same time I feel like he's worthless too the way they used him. I dunno what to make there, and neither did they...
The only other gripe we all seemed to have was some of the humor was forced and went from funny to annoying. The boys mentioned Luke brushing his shoulder as kinda out of place too (I liked it).
They started to question Luke saying see you around kid, but I told them about Han, and Luke, and how that fit so absolutely perfectly for what it was, and who it was said to, that it was almost one of those oddly emotional moments to older fans. I saw some supposedly rabid fans who were claiming that was dumb but seemingly forgetting it's been around before... I can't believe guys flipping out about TLJ citing that line as "dumb" and too modern and stuff, totally forget Han said it. Just funny I guess.
If the kids on Canto Bight are something in 9, I accept that sequence a lot more.
I'd have liked to have seen/heard something of Max Von Sydow's character too... His relationship with Luke and stuff, how he had the map piece... People seem to have forgotten all that and now I kinda wish it came up. Not a huge bummer but it's one of those things I'd like to know more.
The hate on Snoke's end is perplexing to me the more I see that bitch getting made... I agree with StBrianOM on that, personally. I mean Snoke's backstory is bound to be fleshed out more at some point. I'm ok with that.
I do think Hux got jerked around a little too much by force users, but I can see the point being made that he's just a dude, and he's at these people's mercy, and I think he's maybe getting the hint that he doesn't have Snoke to protect him from Ren now... His attempt to draw his pistol was pretty cool though and reinforced who his character really is too. He'll still be plotting if he can.
That's about it. I like TLJ a lot. I like it more than TFA and I liked TFA. ANH, ESB, and R1 are my top 3, but then there's a solid faceoff between ROTJ, TFA, and TLJ, with ROTS on their heels... then AOTC and TPM bringing up the rear. Hell even the Clone Wars movie goes up above those two for me.
