It’s just a pity that none of it worked very well onscreen; speaking only for myself, Poe’s commendable yet foolhardy impulsiveness kind of negates any effective distrust-plot. It just plays like something weird is going on, on a meta level.

The EW review contains this gem, regarding the music:

I know that it’s a total and perhaps horrible generalization to make, but I at first imagined Oprah being Whatsit because that’s who Alfre Woodard played in the TV movie. And I loved her in that role.

“I understood that reference.”

I must say that I was wearied by the whale’s constant folding of its flippers across its throat.

A Swinton Tild’ing Hairline

I don’t know if it’s just the main character’s hair, but none of these references are evoking the appeal of the original films or games or whatever. Even as bait to a naked trap, this whole marketing angle is failing.

I can only think of one of his themes from the new films—somehow, the music from TFA and TLJ hasn’t really sunk in for me—but “Rey’s Theme” is monstrously memorable in the best way.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Life Day is that it’s a day. In fact, it’s a life.

He never got to train in the mo-cap simulator room.

What if one complains about both? I don’t hold Star Wars to rigorous standards of logic or physics or what have you, but I definitely think that there’s a continuum of how well or poorly it can do its thing.

I think that Revenge of the Sith has a lot of legs up on The Last Jedi. The only thing better about the latter, for me, is that it has no Anakin and Padme, although some of TLJ’s characterization isn’t too much better.

This seems like an odd pick but I trust Jenkins, so I’m definitely no less interested.

The original film certainly does have its genuinely dark, scary moments.

How is this not called The Rocketeen instead?

The fact that Captain Marvel is going to be here in barely a year is almost hard to believe. No one other of these films feels to me as though it has been on the schedule for as long, always out of reach in the relatively distant future.

Who from Humans is in Black Panther?

Somehow, I found the Black Panther finale to be refreshing, maybe because there wasn’t any ubiquitous beam into space or torrent of destruction. A bunch of people fighting works pretty well for me if the story has built up to it. As others have said, though, the CGI holds it back. I was having some Hobbit 3 flashbacks.

Black Panther is good, is very good. The most I’ve thoroughly enjoyed an MCU film in years. What a cast! (Subsection: Trailers: Jurassic World 2 looks exceedingly unpromising, Solo reinforces how much Star Wars films stand out with their sound design, and I love the honeycombesque graphics touches with Ant-Man & The…

I watched it for the first time a year or two ago. Wonderful cast and great feel.