Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

[Prediction? Pain.]

Ok...I'm still bitter about the overall approach to The Last Jedi, but there were still many things I still liked. Having JJ Abrams back at the helm gives me a lot of hope for IX, though.

This teaser is bad ass.

Billy D ****ing Williams. Hell yeah!

And that laugh at the end....HOLY. SHIT. Shivers....

I'm really curious how they'll incorporate Palpatine into all of this. I wonder if he was behind Snoke the whole time....maybe he had a parachute under his robe in Return, who knows...

I'm super stoked. My feelings on The Last Jedi are mixed. Based solely on the high of nostalgia, I enjoyed it when I saw it in the theater. (Seriously, it probably took me close to half an hour just to come down from the euphoria that the damn title screen evokes. (Saw it in a legit, six-story, 4k laser-projector IMAX theater to boot. Freaking incredible.)) Sure, the random jokes were dumb, the Leia Poppins scene was a head-scratcher, and Luke's death was random and his character arc didn't jive, but STAR-EFFIN-WARS, dude!

But on drive home, once I wasn't stoned out of my mind on that sweet Star Wars juice, the plot holes really started to irk me. And as I dwelt upon it over the following weeks, I became ambivalent. There were elements I still appreciated, but there were lots of issues, the most major being a nonsensical departure from what the entire damn series is about -- the Skywalkers.

But I'm ready to move on and it looks like Abrams is, too. Here's to getting some legit plot development and -- please, dear God -- getting Luke a worthy send off.

That is one of the big theories right now. That when Palpatine was talking about the Sith who conquered death that it was due to the fact that he learned how to basically take over bodies and he was getting Anakin ready for it. That is why he wanted Luke on the Death Star instead of Vader.

I understand what Rian was doing and it had to be done at some point but you don't just break from the entire Skywalker plot right after reintroducing the characters after 30 years.

I typed up a long post on Sixpack about it. They way they tried to interject humor into some scenes was kind of cringe worthy. Luke throwing away the lightsaber doesn't fit the character or the scene. On top of that, why is Rey the one who goes to him and not Chewie. He doesn't know Rey. The whole milking scene was just creepy.

Rey becomes a Jedi in like 3 days. She was basically faster at it than Anakin or Luke, Anakin was made from the force so this makes zero sense. I get having to speed things up but the time line just doesn't work out very well.

The entire plan to basically empty the ships then ram into a Star Destroyer could have been told to Poe since he is a senior leader of the Resistance. Leia would know that Poe wouldn't just sit around on his hands. He is begging to know they are doing something and they just ignore him. On top of that, the plan is to use one of their top military minds to kamikaze the ship. Other than Leia, she is supposed to be the most important person in the Resistance. They could have used a droid or some low level private and it makes a ton more sense.

I am not even talking about the Rose/Finn side quest that was a complete waste of time unless it was to introduce the force kid at the stable or Benicio's character who turned on them. They could have completely cut that out of the film and you wouldn't even notice. Also, Phasma went out like a bitch but I guess it does harken back to Bobba Fett getting accidentally knocked into the Sarlacc Pit. Supposedly one of the best warriors in the galaxy killed by a janitor.

I overall like the new characters, Kylo is kind of emo but ok, I like Rey, Finn, and Poe. Rose is optimistic which you need in the movie.

I also liked the opening with Poe being a badass in the XWing but the joke about not hearing Hux just went on too long. It was kind of funny at first but then just became cringeworthy.

Yeah, that's a much better description of my stance than the one I just gave. I agree with all your takes. (I don't know jack about the legends or apocryphal stuff, though. As long as it makes sense, rock on, Abrams.)