If there’s anyone I would ever wish to waste away with ALS, and become a prison in their own body before it shuts down on them...it would be Grover Norquist.

TLJ is likely destined to become the Star Trek Nemesis of the franchise, but with more lasting damage to the brand’s core fan base.

The thing is, if I wanted my tropes to be subverted, I would have stayed home and binged The Expanse, or gone out to see Blade Runner 2049 again. If I’m going to a Star Wars movie, I expect it to have a certain structure and tone.

Depends on the circumstances. If the “terrorist attack” in question was legitimately an IS cell looking to take a cheap shot at some innocent Russian civilians in a bid to get into Paradise, I guess I’m cool with us helping stop it.

I’d agree with that.

Unless Rey’s parents aren’t actually nobodies. I get that the democratization of the Force is an obvious theme in the movie, but Kylo Ren isn’t exactly a trustworthy source of information, especially when twisting the truth could suit his purposes.

Could a Jedi master pull a trick like that and zip through space with the Force? Maybe, I guess. But we have no prior indication that Leia has any control over the Force beyond some latent communication abilities. Plus, she was unconscious from the blast, and exposed to the vacuum of space for what, a couple minutes?…

“That $22 million enabled contractors to build a low-key Nevada warehouse for what they claimed was unidentified artifacts obtained from UFOs...”

I wouldn’t say that it sucks, but it’s definitely a Star Wars movie for people who are kind of tired of Star Wars movies.

It was a fun, unexpected ride for 2.5 hours, but I don’t see it aging well in the context of Star Wars films. If The Phantom Menace stands out for some of it’s cheesiness and excessive CGI, this one’s going to stand out for overly on-the-nose humor and trying too hard to deviate from the expectations of a Star Wars…

Thing is, there isn’t really much of a Resistance left to try or execute anybody. There’s only like a dozen of them left; they all fit into the Millennium Falcon. That’s barely a club, much less an army.

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

I’m all for being reasonable and cautious, but this seems... excessively alarmist, to put it mildly.

I was really expecting Leia to stay behind and pilot the cruiser instead of Holdo. By not writing her out in a blaze of glory, they’re going to have to do a time jump on Episode 9 if they’re not going to CGI Carrie Fisher in.

I would agree that it tried to be a little too hip for Star Wars, and that the sarcasm was a little more Deadpool than Han Solo. And Leia zipping through space like Mary Poppins thing made no f’ing sense. But the Kylo/Snoke twist was pretty brilliant, and seeing some more light and dark nuance in Luke and Rey…

In related news...scientists discover that water is, in fact, wet.

My guess is that this will prompt discussion of further consolidation in the entertainment business. Netflix, NBC Universal and CBS Viacom all have more reasons for concern, and Amazon seems to be willing to throw down cash to expand into non-core businesses.

Man, I bet Marvel feels silly now for trying to kill off the mutants and force the Inhumans down our throats...

Wow, this move solves a problem nobody has. Between the cable company, DirecTV, Dish, and half a dozen decent streaming services...I’m pretty sure we have plenty of TV programming competition.