I rewatched it last night and it’s clear that Ren is just fucking with Finn. The second Finn actually manages to land an unexpected blow, Ren just uses the force to disarm him, something he could have done from the start. During the fight, Finn’s actions are almost entirely defensive.

hahah thanks, good summary. I totally missed the “free speech - freeze peach” thing. It’s been a long year, what can I tell you?

there’s almost nothing there. From the very beginning of the film, ideas and concepts are set up but never fulfilled. Relationships developed, but not really paid off.

Have to agree. I’ve been a Williams fanboi for 40 years, but the TFA sountrack lacked flavour and coherance. The only stand-out themes are the old ones. The Resistance theme is rambling, and nothing else ever emerges. Hard to believe this is the same universe that inspired Princess Leia’s theme and the Emperial March.

Although apparently Star Wars isn’t that well known in China.

That doesn’t bother me at all. All the good long-form and original story-telling is on TV. The only thing cinema brings is a bigger budget. So let them do their high-budget tour-de-force movies in the cinema, and in the meantime we get much better quality stuff on TV. That works for me.

I noted that one too, just a breath-takingly simple 3D shot.

It really is, rather than which one is the most obnoxious.

Just as a point of contention, that study they released a while back about roles in movies showed that the race representation was about in line with societal norms, but gender representation was way out of whack (although, caveat, it didn’t study the ‘weight’ of the roles, just counted numbers).

It was her according to IMDB.

Yes, she was an anonymous Republic red-shirt.

I get the feeling that you can’t just change the script easily for a movie like this, because so many things flow from it. A substantial re-write to accomodate changes in a way that feels integrated would imply a lot of design re-works, new story-boards, more CGI elements and of course $$$.

You sir are bang on. Poe was the warm heart of that movie.

Then we should abolish the death penalty and give murderers a good raping! It’s the only thing they understand.

They have a word for people who have never learned how to lose and therefore cannot do it with any semblence of grace. Australians.

Sorry, I’m an old, what’s the “freeze peach” thing about?

I seem to recall (and I’m digging deep here) that in the novel version of ANH (written by Lucas), it was heavily implied that Luke “bulseyeing Wamprats in his old T-60” or whatever was him using his force abilities unknowingly.

Naw. She was in a UK sitcom recently (see Catastrophe seasons 1 and 2), and she was bloody hilarious. She can do it. But for some reason this time she just didn’t.

Fair point, undoubtedly true.

I wonder if it’s libellous if you thought it was true when you said it, later found out it was false, but failed to disavow what you initially said?