WIZARD OF OZ: "Oh you didn't need to ingest those Ayn Rand books Paul Ryan. You've been a superasshole all along!"

Ford wanted killed off because he wanted out and because he thought it would be dramatically weighty; Lawrence Kasdan argued that one of the big three needed to die to give the film extra tension. George Lucas was determined that the film end on as uplifting as possible a note (I think Kasdan talked him into killing…

I'm a little wary of BBC versions of frequently-adapted-properties-that-have-never-had-a-properly-faithful adaptation. They always seem tempted to make changes that straddle safe with the BBC's idea of edgy - for instance, giving Holmwood syphillis in the 2006 Dracula adaptation, or having them find Van Helsing living…

I'm not sure - I was always under the impression that Carrie Fisher was probably the least likely to come back: Hamill's been enthusiastic about Star Wars for most of his career, and has remained an actor first and foremost; Ford has had the busiest career, and while he doesn't much like Star Wars, likes massive…

Having not thought about it in a decade, your comment reminded me of that moment and made me laugh for a good 10 seconds. It's a solid, solid fart joke.

From the sequel, I absolutely LOVE: "Oh, she's a professional agent - she's not interested in shagging!" There are about four reasons it's funny, not including the emphatic, desperate-to-convince-himself delivery.

It could just be naivety and a black and white view of the world -

I agree completely. Dubya's a nice man who in an ideal world would have been the manager of a big hardware or sports shop in a small town; Trump's an evil, stupid moron who was born 55 years too early to fulfil his perfect calling, playing Joffrey in Game of Thrones.

Never quite as badly though. He's got Dubya syndrome - not too long ago, he was actually *relatively* eloquent.

Crazy with insecurity*. He has a photograph of his father sitting behind him in the oval office. "What's that father? I have a right to be here! It's Presidential business! Father!"

Yup - I don't remember my parents encouraging me to like anything. They did suggest things I might like obviously, but it was always a 'I liked this/I know about this thing that's like that other thing you like, take it or leave it' attitude rather than 'this is a hallowed passing of the torch' thing.

COMPNOR

It's not bullshit - was anyone motivated to see Rogue One because they were desperate to see Jyn face down a TIE fighter, Krennic wade through the shallows, or Vader stare at a hologram? I'd rather trailers relied more on footage intended to give us a feel for the film rather than clips lifted directly from it. I've…

Yeah I really hate it, and they saddled Finn - otherwise the best written hero in TFA by a country mile - with several instances of it - 'You've got to be kidding me!', 'Are we really doing this?', 'Did you see that?'

I don't know if it's retconned - nothing happens of any consequence, so there's nothing to retcon.

I agree with Jonathan's point -

Finn needed to survive (if Phasma failed to kill him she'd seem a weaker villain); Phasma needed to survive (her fleeing would be dramatically anticlimactic); and if she'd done it we'd be asking why she was stupid enough to waste time duelling one guy for personal reasons when she should be leading her troops.

I felt that the planet hopping was a silly thing for people to criticise. If they could follow it - which people did - what's the problem? It's all of five minutes, and it quickly establishes scope and a sense of panicky momentum.

I thought the sabotage twist was an extremely elegant and thematically resonant retcon, BUT the Death Star flaw was never a plot hole that needed fixing.

Jurassic Park III is a totally pointless film; The Lost World is what, in a perfect world, a bad film would be - a well made, well cast (Pete Postlethwaite's Roland Tembo is a character who deserves a better film), well filmed failure.