So I wasn’t intending to see this twice in the theatre, but friends of mine were going and wanted to go as a group. I wasn’t opposed to it. Hell, I think I even saw Phantom Menace twice. But seeing it again with the knowledge of the film helped me pay attention to more scenes.
So, Poe is definitely the worst thing to happen to the Resistance. I honestly have no desire seeing him in Ep 9, but I know he’ll be a hero and possibly redeem himself in that movie. I don’t know if my attitude toward him can truly be reversed, but we’ll see. It is interesting how the movie portrays him as every other maverick hotshot who, unlike all other maverick hotshots, had been hoisted by his own petard. It makes Poe a very unlikable character, but it does add something to the story.
I initially was not fond of the idea of Luke even thinking of killing his student. I was in agreement with fanboys who claimed that it was against his character. But you know, how many thought experiments have started with the question of whether we’d be willing to kill Hitler before he rose to power if we had access to a time machine? Luke was confronted with a Sith in the making, and he had a chance to end a lot of suffering. The fact that he overcame that instinct was a testament to his compassion. It’s just that Kylo woke up at the wrong time and assumed the worst (not entirely inaccurately either).
Also, since the Jedi were warriors, they have to react quickly to avoid getting killed. When you detect a threat, then getting into a fight response is appropriate. He didn’t expect to see Snoke’s influence. He must have suspected something unless he has a habit of reading the minds of each of his students (creepy). I’ve come to terms with this, and I’m actually satisfied with how these scenes played out, but the movie honestly could have played out the scenes better.
The Holdo sacrifice is still awesome. Even seeing it a second time, it was breathtaking. It was a great use of visual and audio. A co-worker of mine had an issue with how long it took her to come to this idea, costing the Resistance valuable people. It felt like a long time in the first viewing, but it didn’t seem that long on my second. In my second viewing, I saw a lot of technical flaws with that scene. One scene showed like six or eight remaining ships, but then later we saw at least 15. The whole scene was inconsistently shot, and I wish the director did a better job with it. It deserved a better build-up for such an awesome climax.
The Kylo/Rey story is the most interesting thing. I had felt that Kylo was grossly undervalued in Ep 7. He was mocked by the fans for being too emo, but he honestly showed more angst and doubt during his tutelage in the Dark Side than Anakin ever did. The story held up well in Ep 8. I rather enjoyed the oblique way they handled the Snoke angle. It was all built up to resemble the throne room from Ep 6, and they turned that scene on its head. The only thing I didn’t like is that Snoke had zero development. We have no idea how he came to be. Hell, we don’t even know how he corrupted Kylo. That’s a major oversight, but the rest of the franchise has its share of underdeveloped characters, so that’s just par for the course.
On my second viewing, I realized that there was another hint that Luke was not really there with Kylo. I figured it out right away when he miraculously survived several heavy blaster shots, but then I remembered on the second viewing that his lightsaber was taken by Rey. Of course, Kylo wouldn’t have known that, but the audience did. I had hoped for other details like the wind not blowing his hair/clothes or him not casting a shadow. Alas, that was a level of detail the director did not consider or chose not to focus on. It was still a powerful scene as you got to see the fanatical hatred Kylo had toward Luke.
My second viewing brought even more hatred to the end of the Finn/Rose arc. I still dislike her saving his life at the cost of the structural integrity of the door, but hey, the whole theme of this movie is people doing stupid personal shit at the expense of other people’s lives. But on top of that, Finn and Rose were stranded without a vehicle probably only 100 yards away from an AT-AT. Now, while all focus was on Luke, perhaps Finn was able to drag Rose back to the base, but before Luke came out, there were battle-ready gunners perfectly capable of blasting the rebels right in front of them (no quarter, no prisoners is what Kylo commanded). Such a huge plot hole.
I can’t disagree that the casino scene is unnecessary, but it did present a new facet of the war: those who profit off of it. There was a Force-level amount of luck that Maz has a trusted codebreaker within range of the Resistance shuttles (and why can’t they all take the shuttles to go hide and mingle in with that planet?), but it turns out there are two people with that level of skill in that city. Amazing! While I did enjoy the twist that DJ sold out the Resistance (not that much of a twist considering he was already an amoral thief), everything building up to that was so horribly contrived. Ultimately, the point of this arc was to cement the attraction that Rose has for Finn and present a way for the First Order to locate the cloaked transports. The latter could’ve been accomplished through any other scene.
Finally, I think the biggest crime is the underutilized talents of Mark Lewis Jones as Captain Canady. I honestly had no idea that I needed this man in my life. His IMDB entry is actually pretty impressive, and I’m not surprised that he’s a theatre veteran. He commanded my attention immediately when he bellowed orders from the bridge of the dreadnought. His death was truly a tragedy in this movie. I know that rewrites are cost-prohibitive and difficult, but if I were directing this and watched Captain Canady at work, I would demand a rewrite where Canady pursues the retreating fleet and hurls insults at them like some sort of space-faring Ahab. Giving us this character and then snuffing him out is probably the biggest set of cinematic blue balls I’ve ever experienced. I weep for this loss.
The movie is still flawed, but it’s still enjoyable. There are scenes that could’ve been shot better (Leia’s use of the force, BB8 somehow subduing and tying up three guards, Jedi ghosts summoning lightning [my unofficial Fight Club theory is that Luke set the fire and imagined Yoda doing it, but I’m not married to it]), but I’m mostly okay with the movie.