1. The film’s baddie pursued a ‘let the past die policy’ as part of his self-destructive rage at his various mentor figures. This was not the film’s moral.

I see a lot of people lamenting that the sequels didn’t go for some middle-ground between light and dark, and I think it’s a shockingly terrible idea.

I’m not sure if I’ve misunderstood your point, but in ESB and TLJ - the two SW films where travelling without hyperspace is an issue - the ships involved are still travelling at extremely high speeds and covering vast, multiple-solar-system distances.

They could have had all the nostalgic elements - and all the characters and story beats they went with - with a Republic, a First Order that emphasised its status as a scrabbly military junta, a fledgling new Jedi order, and with a space battle climax that didn’t involve Death Star III targeting Yavin 2.0.

‘Incoherent lies’ - this is nonsense. The pile-on of Rowling is nuts. Her points - that ‘women’ as a defined group shouldn’t be marginalised or renamed, and that the massive increase in gender dysmorphia among young people is connected to social media echo chambers - are relevant, totally reasonable ones.

I’m from the UK, and so have consequently seen a lot of BBC literary adaptations over the years. While HDM is very watchable, it’s also very BBC in its flaws - like the Gormenghast, Dracula (2006), and The War of the Worlds adaptations it makes umpteen changes for the sake of it, and every one of them, without being…

The sequels were always a trilogy, but it was only after VIII was released that the decision was made for IX to be ‘the final episode of the Skywalker saga’.

Abrams’s two films are the only two Star Wars films that feel disconnected from their immediate predecessors - TFA *completely* undermines the note of triumph ROTJ ended on: the Empire’s resurgent (and the film works hard to avoid acknowledging that anything changed in the interim) the Jedi have not returned, and the…

Which British actors have aged badly enough to warrant a scary ellipsis in ‘British men... they do not generally age well’?

The Scott version is ridiculously superior to every other version (not counting The Muppets one, to which it’s merely superior). Bar one moment where the Ghost of the Future ‘glides’ by on a trolley it’s also, imo, the single best depiction of classical ghosts in film or television. The spectres are wry and…

She’s one of the few billionaire’s who’ve donated themselves off the Forbes billionaire list. She survived on benefits as a single mother when she was in her twenties, and has subsequently put her money where her mouth is.

I don’t think it was shitty writing on Doyle’s part. When you read The Final Problem now, it’s fucking nuts that he thought people would accept that as the definitive end of Holmes. His death takes place off screen, and Watson *concludes* that he and Moriarty both went over the falls by reading the ground,…

The backlash against J.K. Rowling, who has literally done more for the social good than any of the people attacking her, is insane, and I do not believe for a second that it’s motivated by anything more than whatever impulse causes bullying, shaming, and witch-hunt behaviour. 

Starkiller is a fantastic excision - the character is the Mary-est Sue in the history of Mary Sues: brooding, carries his lightsaber backwards, Vader’s apprentice, kicks the shit out of Vader, defeats Palpatine, inspires Mon Mothma and Bail Organa to finally start a rebellion.

Because bands at the end of Twin Peaks were a big part of my new music experience this year, on seeing this headline my brain immediately played a sound clip of: “Ladies and gentlemen... the Road House... is... proud to present... Anal Trump!”

Name a fictional president - female, male, animal, mineral, AI, or ghost - who would be worse than Trump. Even the evil ones have redeeming qualities he doesn’t.

I’ve never seen Rudy, but The Simpsons gave me a very clear - albeit probably totally inaccurate - sense of what it’s all about.

I’m not a Star Trek fan (I don’t hate it, or anything), but Jesus Christ did I loathe the ‘destiny’ stuff in Star Trek ‘09. Cheesy, hackneyed nonsense - you could easily have Kirk be motivated or otherwise emotionally connected to his father’s legacy without the trite bullshit about him being convinced it’s a path…

I can see the blu-ray documentary now...

(Muttered) Fucking Kinja.