Saw it again. I dislike it less. Which is faint praise. And likely owing to a magnificent performance by Mark Hamill. Truly a great performance with lousy material.
Plus I do like the cast a lot.
But it remains very disjointed. It undermines the OT. I think the bad guy should have been Palps in some way. If snoke was actually Darth Plagius who survived Palps betrayal and Palps has a presence as a force ghost especially as a relation of Rey’s. It connects all three trilogies and it makes the OT connect to this Trilogy better.
As it is, we had the happy ending of Return and how on earth did Snoke and the first order rise?
Luke is critical of the Jedi from the PT era and rightfully so for allowing Sidious to rise and turn Anakin. But he did the same thing. He said he knew Snoke had already turned Ben so that means Snoke was a known bad guy back when Luke was training Jedi. Why would he allow that?
Luke would never abandon the fight either. Knowing Ben turned, he would never run off leaving Leia and Han’s son to run roughshod with a band of Jedi trainees. It’s almost irredeemably bad of Luke.
I can buy Luke hiding if he felt HE was somehow the problem. In Jedi he even says I shouldn’t have come, in jeopardizing the mission. But hide out of shame? Come on.
It just makes no sense.
Even small things seem designed to minimize the previous films in favour of the new kids. His line about not being afraid enough when he saw the same power he saw in Rey, it doesn’t make sense. Firstly he momentarily considered killing his own nephew. But imagine if that line was I saw this raw power before, in the Emporer...in my father. And I wasn’t afraid then. I saw it in Ben and I see it in you. And I’m afraid.
Way meatier. Pays heed to the precious films. It’s a great line because Luke told Yoda one empire that he wasn’t afraid and Yoda replied “you will be”.
They showed Luke’s ship on the island. That seemed like a foreshadow. Luke should have actually showed up. What difference does it make? To show us he’s so powerful he can force project? Great.
Instead have him actually show up. Have him force repel all the blaster fire. Have him crush a walker with the force. Have him toss aside another. And then engage in an epic duel with Kylo. Show us Kylo gaining power through his hatred. Have Luke sort of lose because he won’t kill Kylo but is shocked and overwhelmed by the dark side in Kylo. Kylo escapes. Luke is hurt and then realizes Kylo cannot be saved. Even better have liea pleade with luke to save him and then she realizes he can’t be saved and her admitting this to Luke absolves him of his guilt.
Get rid of the whole casino sub plot Maz admits she could do the job but is too busy with a union despite? Okay we get it funny funny but what’s more important? Pointless cameo
or have describe someone they need and when they go on the mission to find him (maybe he’s in prison), it’s Lando. Del Toro is awesome minus the stuttering but that whole subplot was terrible
This was a scrip with some good stuff but it was half baked and needed more time.