I can't believe someone else remembers those. Thanks for reminding me. So many lazy Saturday afternoons spent watching all of those.

It's a little tough to put my finger on what the problem is, but here's a try:

Yeah, in my post below (above?) I mention that the appearance of the old characters didn't entirely work for me, but this was the one exception, and all the more striking because of what the movie has done with him. I actually thought, "Finally, it's Luke Skywalker, and boy am I glad to see him," rather than, "Oh…

While I'm still not ready to call it a great movie, I think we're in agreement about what it does best. My reply to Hank Toms just now could just as easily have been a reply to this.

And this, by the way, touches on what I liked best about The Force Awakens. It does Lucas' "poetry and rhyme" thing, but with somewhat more sophistication and wit than Lucas brought to the prequels. I was happy with the way it hit all the beats of the original (although the Death Star surrogate was pretty dumb),…

Right. A kid who wanted to be part of something bigger, became the most important part of it, and yet ends up disillusioned, isolated, and burdened with the weight of regret.

And I'll accept both.

I can't tell if that's wry commiseration, or (gentle?) mockery.

I just saw this yesterday, which makes me hopelessly late to the conversation, but the thing that surprised me most about The Force Awakens is how sad it left me feeling.