TheSagaContinues

One thing you need to never forget about movies: They never follow logic, even if the said "logic" was in an earlier movie of the same type or even in the same movie itself.

So,  with that said FTJ. We would all fry Finn right away if we were Kylo, but that's because we are logical people. Kylo Ren was never logical in any way.

I rebuke this false equivalence!

Kylo Ren is an idiot with a derpsaber and a dark Jedi cosplay outfit. He does not stack up against any legitimate Star Wars villain.

Too emo.  Needed more kick the dog moments.  Seems like he is the bad eguy in this movie "just because".

Ren is a product of the emo generation we have now where words hurt more then actions. Vader,  Maul,  Palpatine,  and even Dooku were scary because they acted harshly,  without remorse.

Kylo Ren is just a deeply conflicted boy that was seduced by a big bad man,  ie Anakin 2.0 with now even deeper emotional issues.

I'm calling it now: Episode 9 he will pull a full circle Vader and kill Snoke himself,  but this time the anti hero survives.

Live action emo Kylo Ren https://twitter.com/KyloR3n

I really wish han didn't die

I really don't want to see any of these new characters.  F*** them.   Finn and ray can all go die.  I just want to see han & chewie & luke

I'm glad Han's gone.  Maybe not as harshly as that sounds but Han was a pretty significant part of this movie and if Harrison Ford really wasn't into the role then he got a massive send off because of it.  I don't doubt he helped sell tickets but as far as a story goes I'm not sure there was a lot left for Han to do.  Even if he is supposed to be part of redeeming his son he can do that as well from the dead as if he were alive.

I don't know what he was paid but I'm thinking Mark Hamill could have been the most overpaid character.  We all know that Luke is HUGE but I'm thinking there were extras in the film who had almost as much screen time and everyone who spoke a line out did him there.  I hate to diminish his importance to the franchise but as far as the movie goes he could have been gone without losing much.

There were a lot of little niggling things that bugged me about this movie.  I enjoyed watching it, but I'm just going to lay out a few things that are sticking for me.

1.  Getting this out of the way quickly, because I'm a HEMA geek:  The crossguard saber is NOT an impractical design, but Kylo's insistence on not using it to his advantage was totally stupid.  You have to know a little about longsword fighting to know this, but an amateur who knew how to use the crossguard could have ended Rey or Finn in the opening exchange and several times after.  My wife felt the same way.  You have a crossguard, use it.  Maybe he was holding back with Rey since he knows they're cousins?

2.  The political situation between the Republic-Resistance-First Order:  This wasn't clear to me from what I saw in the movie.  After thinking about it, it seems the Republic and First Order are in some sort of cold war; and the Resistance is a sort of "mujahadeen" fighting against the First Order with covert Republic assistance in a sort of proxy war?  What the hell is going on here?

3.  Another death star?  Really?  Why aren't the important bits deeper within the planet?  It feels like this is just a reboot more than a sequel.  If that's the case, it is barely excuseable, but so be it.  No emotional buildup (like in Ep4) or payoff in the destruction of an entire star system.

4.  Kylo Ren is too emo.  As I said earlier, this guy is not terrifying or scary.  Just like the prequels ruined Darth Vader for me, by turning the guy under the mask into a little b*tch; let's just say Kylo is following Vader's footsteps in more ways than one.  What I could see them doing which could salvage him is if they really play up the conflicted basketcase angle.  If he descended into a Joker-like mix of competence, ruthlessness, and insanity, he could be absolutely terrifying.  Still, he had his moments in the film where he stood out as a potentially well-conceived character (depending on where he goes).

5.  The First Order rolled over too easily.  Maybe they were caught off guard by the emergence of these new heroes.  To remain credible though, they need to lay an Empire Strikes Back smackdown in the next movie.  The good guys can't win like this again until the end without making the First Order look like a paper tiger.

6.  What does Finn bring to the hero table?  Every character has something extraordinary that they bring to the table except Finn.  Is it virtue? Perspective?  This isn't a negative; I think the series needs the regular guy.  The new Old Republic expansion suffers exactly because everybody is too bad*ss. 

7.  Captain Phasma could have been so awesome.  She could have been The Dragon to Kylo Ren, but like so many other bad guys in this film, she just rolls right over as soon as the plot needed it.

8.  Han's death felt forced.  Everyone knew it was coming when it happened and it seemed like they just shoe-horned it in.

9.  Did anybody feel like Snoke was too...Voldemort?  Also too CGI.  Beasts on the freighter too CGI also.

10.  It feels like a lot of things were cut in the editing stage.  Maybe too much, as the movie just seems disjointed.

11.  Snoke may be Plagueis?

12.  I'm not sure why Kylo kept beating on that boltcaster wound of his.  Maybe he was doing it to numb or help ignore the pain (done that myself);  Or maybe using the pain to psych himself up or draw on the dark side.  Either way, I loved it, but it left questions.

13.  Finn had two of what I like to call "token black guy moments" (one especially) with his dialogue in the beginning half of the movie that took me right out of it.

14.  Hux would have been so much better and believable as an older Tarkin-esque character.

There are other things, but those are the main things.  Thoughts?  Am I off base, or missing something that would make these things make more sense?  Please explain for me if so.