"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

I haven't seen it in a while, but I don't remember Lloyd being as bad as you do. I probably disliked Hayden Christensen more. But I'm OK with agreeing to disagree.

Of course Jar Jar was horrendous. I didn't brush him off, I mentioned him as one of the film's greatest downfalls.

But as a whole, Episode II was so boring, I thought it was far worse than I. General Grievous was dropped into the film and then just as quickly dispatched. You barely had time to even figure out what his purpose was (in fact, having not watched it in a few years, I can't right now remember why the hell Obi Wan went to find him in the first place). Darth Tyranous was the central villain in the climactic lightsaber battle and, yet, he was introduced just a few minutes before the battle began. Also, it made no sense that he was so damn old.

It's really too bad they bungled the prequels so badly because there's a good story to be told in there. Hell, you could probably recut the trilogy down to two movies and make it half decent.

 

Here is a really good walk through of how the prequels could have been good. I'm not going to link to all three videos here, but you can get to Episodes II and III from this first one.

 

Eps. I and II can be boiled down to about one hour of decent material.

Ep. III stands OK on its own.

 

Watching it for a third time tonight and I'm convinced Rey is Luke's daughter. Not going out on a limb, I know, but I don't read online fan theories or potential spoilers, so it was really just watching and noticing more that I found the connection so striking.

The lightsaber duel with Ren gives it away. As most everyone knows, one of the hallmarks of Star Wars was that John Williams assigned each major character his or her own theme music. When Rey calls the lightsaber out of the snow (sound familiar?), they play Luke's music from the original. She also uses several of his attacks, similar thrusts that Luke used against Vader. It all just looks and sounds so much like Skywalker that I'll be stunned if she's not his daughter.

Then, of course, you get into her piloting skills, desert planet origins and trusty droid sidekick ... it will be a major upset if she's not his daughter.

 

Somewhere, I read that JJ Abrams said Rey's parents were not in TFA.

I'm sticking with Kenobi kin.

 

I also re-watched it recently and had the same thought. But what made me feel that way were Leia and Han. Obviously, Han took a liking to her and wanted to keep her around. That isn't convincing by any means, but it made me think he viewed her as family. What really clinched it was the way Leia hugged Rey before she left to find Luke. It wasn't a good luck hug. It was a long-lost family member hug. Even Rey gave a look of "why is she hugging me for so long?" She may not have known, but she "knew" that Rey was family.

Also, I swear it looked like Luke was standing in front of a gravestone when Rey approached him, the way a man might stand solemnly over a dead wife's. I mean, why else would he just be standing randomly in the middle of the island.

I toyed with the idea that Rey could even be Leia's daughter/Ren's sister. But the only way that would make sense is if Leia and Han decided to hide their daughter because they saw how poorly the training of their son had gone and didn't want Ren coming after her. But Ren and Rey seem to close in age for that to be a possibility.

Full disclosure: I was drinking Fireball on a flight while watching it again. I was full of good ideas.

 

Why would Leia give up Rei. DIdn't her upbringing tell her anything? Ren and Rei are not too far apart in age. It's not like they had to hide her to protect her from her brother. She would have grown up with him and watched go the Dark Side. Luke would have tutored him while she was about his age.

This is Star Wars, the original premise was that this was a mash-up of the 50's war movies with the Sci-Fi serials and the pirate movies of the 30's and 40's with some Robin Hood and King Arthur thrown in. Don't over think it. It's actions adventure and the plot is secondary.

2 real options:
1. Rei is Luke's daughter. He didn't know her, but sensed her and then went into seclusion to save her from becoming a Skywalker, All Force, part light and part dark.

2. Back to Episode 1. Rei is Jesus. Her mother was impregnated by the same Force that that begat Anakin. Her mother and step-father left her behind, either to save her from dark forces, or temporarily but were killed or imprisoned before they could collect her. Luke and Rei are related through their unknown sperm donor

 

Yeah, I dismissed this idea almost as soon as I thought of it. If Rey and Ren were a little more spaced out age-wise, I think there might be something to it. But seeing how early Rey is abandoned on Jakku, it doesn't really work.

I think part of me is anticipating another big family-related reveal between Rey and Ren, and saying "I am your brother!" is a hell of a lot more interesting than saying "I am your cousin!" So my nerd brain was just trying to make it work.

 

I just got "10 Cloverfield Lane" from Netflix and was reading some of our reviews here. Had no idea there was a "Cloverfield."

Got a kick out of these two and wondered if the poster still feels the same way about Abrams after "TFA." To be fair, the posts were from 2008. I also don't think the poster is still active here.

 

Remember that Luke and Leia are twins, and twins tend to run in families, especially along the female line.
A woman who is a fraternal twin, is 2.5 times more likely to give birth to fraternal twins:
Understanding Genetics

I married a person with twins in her family. Although she is not herself a twin, she has twins in her family just one generation removed, which she failed to tell me about until we found out she, herself, was pregnant with fraternal twins.

 

In an unrelated note, Luke and Leia would be twins who are different ages as a result of time dilation inherent in long-distance, hyper-light space travel:
Star Wars: why Princess Leia is nearly two years older than twin Luke Skywalker

The article alleges they would be the first twins of different ages, but I think it would be safe to assume that in a reality in which hyper-light travel is possible there would have been previous sets of multiples who experienced the same travel/time dilation factors.
Star Wars: why Princess Leia is nearly two years older than twin Luke Skywalker

 

The "Rogue One" reviews are starting to trickle out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/movies/star-wars-rogue-one-review.html

I've heard that there is no crawl and no John Williams theme in this one. I like that. The crawl and the soaring "Star Wars" theme should announce majestically that we are back to the main narrative.