Star Wars Spoilers Thread [Spoilers]

So here's my review: 100% a Star Wars film which belongs with the original trilogy.

It's a transitional film, but it does it well. The new generation is really good.

I think the major death was kinda signposted a bit. You knew it was coming long before it happened. I felt worse for Chewie, but he, Rey, and BB8 make a great team.

Is this the first Star Wars film where nobody gets their hand cut off?

Luke lives in Ireland, eh?

Question: WHY was there a map to Luke, and why was it split into two? I feel like I missed something. For that matter, why a map and not just some coordinates? Seems like a random puzzle set up for the sake of it.

 

[Guest 85555]

When I first heard his classic line, I thought Vader was lying through his teeth (speech grille?) because (a) he's the villain! and (b) he wanted to confuse Luke, persuade Luke to stop fighting / resisting, and get curious enough to actually follow Vader away - to a place where he can better 'persuade' Luke. Such as, in the Emperor's presence.

Vader has no way to know this, but Luke held Uncle Owen in high regard. (Only obvious in retrospect; Owen serves as a barricade to Luke's youthful energy while alive.) When Luke says to Ben's ghost, "...I can't kill my own father...", he had to have images of Uncle Owen swimming before his eyes. Owen WAS his dad / father, in everything but name.

I saw Jedi first because I was a kid when that came out in the theater, so by the time I saw Empire, I knew Vader was his father (and Leia was his sister).

 

[Guest 85555]

In the middle of a war, the night before they initiate a major battle, against superior forces, and on a countdown clock? Maybe THAT discussion would be best left until the day after ... which coincidentally is also after the movie ends.

to all:
Incidentally there are TWO kiss scenes to explain: just before swinging over the Death Star bottomless pit, and in Luke's medical recovery room.

maybe. I think they demonstrated there was time for more petty concerns than having kissed your own sibling. Again, it is only one of the biggest possible taboos out there. It is true it may not be in a galaxy far, far away but to the intended audience, it would very much have been.

 

[MarkB]

Again, it is only one of the biggest possible taboos out there.

Which is a really good reason not to touch upon it at all. Drawing attention to it wouldn't have made it any less awkward, only more visible.

 

[Guest 85555]

Which is a really good reason not to touch upon it at all. Drawing attention to it wouldn't have made it any less awkward, only more visible.

And as I said before, I agree. I think it was the right call not to get into it. But for me the result is it still an inconsistency I can't help but notice. I was never tying to attack the film or that plot point by raising this issue, I brought it up to show that lots of great movies have these kinds of wrinkles in them and it doesn't make them bad (and sometimes the wrinkles are worth it because the twists that create them add so much to the story).

 

[dd.stevenson]

But for me the result is it still an inconsistency I can't help but notice. I was never tying to attack the film or that plot point by raising this issue, I brought it up to show that lots of great movies have these kinds of wrinkles in them and it doesn't make them bad (and sometimes the wrinkles are worth it because the twists that create them add so much to the story).

It's interesting to imagine how much more sympathy you'd get for this position if the kiss and the sibling reveal had taken place in the same movie.

 

[Hussar]

I realize that she wasn't aware he was her brother when she kissed him. But I'd expect the kiss to dawn on them once they became aware of their relationship and have some reaction to it.

Meh, this was a character who spared not a single moment to worry about the murders of his adopted family. And another character who watched her homeworld destroyed, sheds a gasp and never brings it up again. Kissing a sister? Not a big issue.

 

[Guest 85555]

Meh, this was a character who spared not a single moment to worry about the murders of his adopted family. And another character who watched her homeworld destroyed, sheds a gasp and never brings it up again. Kissing a sister? Not a big issue.

Really? I think that was just a function of condensing scenes down to efficiently tell a story. I don't think they were trying to convey Luke was some sort of psychopath who doesn't grieve for loved ones and flaunts social convention. Also his care and concern was converted by having him go back to help them despite the obvious danger. That seems a very strange analysis of Luke as a character. Certainly he was whiny, but I never came away from the movie feeling that he was unmoved by the deaths of his aunt and uncle.

 

[Maxperson]

Really? I think that was just a function of condensing scenes down to efficiently tell a story. I don't think they were trying to convey Luke was some sort of psychopath who doesn't grieve for loved ones and flaunts social convention.

They aren't trying to convey Luke as incestuous, either. You don't get to have it both ways. Either the things that are not mentioned again that any normal person WOULD mention again, including death of family and home world are important and therefore wrong, or they aren't, including the kiss. All three are in the same category, though the death of family and home world are much larger and stronger issues, and therefore much worse "plot holes" when the characters fail to mention them again.

 

[Umbran]

Really? I think that was just a function of condensing scenes down to efficiently tell a story.

I see, so condensing away *GEONOCIDE* isn't an issue, but condensing away a kiss that didn't go anywhere.... isn't? Death of *BILLIONS*. A single kiss.

To mirror your first word... really?

 

[Guest 85555]

I see, so condensing away *GEONOCIDE* isn't an issue, but condensing away a kiss that didn't go anywhere.... isn't? Death of *BILLIONS*. A single kiss.

To mirror your first word... really?

Both Luke and Leia react to those things though. It is an adventure movie, they are not going to play out Leia's grieving process in real time, but we do see her react to the destruction of Alderaan and we do see Luke both attempt to help his aunt and uncle and grieve when they die. These are both tragedies that get acknowledged by the characters. But the incest has no on screen acknowledgement. To the that is an inconsistency. Again, I am not saying they should have acknowledged it. I understand why they didn't and think they were right not to do so. My only reason for bringing up the point is to respond to people criticizing the new movies for consistency issues that are much smaller than things like the Luke-Leia kiss to point out the original trilogy was not this perfect diamond, it had rough spots (and in many ways those rough spots are one of the reasons it is so good, because if they polished it too much, we wouldn't have some of the cooler plot developments).