It really does. I figured a desire to pay off the cost of buying Lucasfilm etc. ASAP was part of their thinking

You know that mocking White Jesus is probably the the whole point of the joke, right?

Problematic? I understand that religious people would be offended but there seems to be an implication that there are a whole bunch of groups that are going to be offended by this. I can’t keep up with Offense Police anymore.

Ever since TLJ unsubtly hammered home the “Kill The Past” motif, I’ve kinda suspected that Disney did the sequel trilogy more out of a sense of grudging obligation than because they really wanted to. I think they’re more interested in building out the(ir own) EU than in the Skywalker Saga itself. Which, frankly, is…

I’m mostly right there with you, but Palpatine’s presence really wasn’t a Kennedy/Iger-mandated twist planned out in advance. I don’t know how anyone could have watched the last two films and come away with the conclusion that Disney did any advance planning for this trilogy.

Everyone sucks in this story. The guy suing sucks because he can’t read. The restaurant especially sucks because they’re only pointing this out because they’re mad about having to keep their people healthy. If that weren’t the reason, they’d have breakouts for the percentage that goes to their lease, and their…

Ehh, everyone is wrong.

So is “subverting expectations” just to subvert expectations. His film was sloppy and pointless in service of just trying to be different. He didn’t have a vision, and it showed. 

Just roll it into the price. Why does it have to be a surprise fee?

You say you are happy TLJ broke free of being a retelling, but TLJ itself was basically a remake of ESB, only the Hoth battle was at the end and it had the climax of RotJ jammed in there. 

Can I join? Force Awakens was just a rethread of A New Hope. I thought TLJ would be better as they had all the exposition done. But it was boring. It was just the ‘culture wars’ buttons it pushed that gave it any heat. I’d had zero expectations that this one would turn things around.

I detect a tinge of resentment in this review, and I suspect that will be the position of most critics, since so many of them absolutely loved The Last Jedi. Fans may well favor the fixes, though, because deep down, familiarity may be what they really want. Star Wars getting a new trilogy at all (when it never needed…

Actually the Army would love it if the Air Force would focus more on drones and CAS missions. The Air Force loves its sexy pointless fighter jets, so much so that they’ve often threatened to cut useful CAS programs (like the A-10) that actually benefit Army infantrymen in the fight.

AV Club has really been sleeping on Chernobyl a lot for these end-of-year bests, and I’m starting to wonder what’s going on. Anyway, I’m going with The Happiness of All Mankind, for how it recruited people to “liquidate” the area of pets (I didn’t even think about that) and of course, its 90 second roof scene.

I’m still rewatching episode 1 of Chernobyl.

FWIW, I’ve definitely received a refurbished iPhone from the Apple store that was tied to another person’s account in some way. Admittedly, this was a few years ago, possibly even before Activation Lock (I can’t recall), but having someone else’s iCloud login pop up during the initial setup was annoying AF to get…

I can’t believe the AV Club still hasn’t done an obituary for Rene Auberjonois, who died Sunday

Its almost like being a “professional gamer” at a young age stunts your life skill growth in other areas. Who would have thunk.

I have yet to meet any fully adult 28 year old.