joepinetree

I don't particularly care about Rey's parents, but the whole thing is undeniably a shaggy dog story.
But I think the re-watch podcast was spot on on most other stuff. The things that bugged me weren't necessarily that this wasn't "my" star wars. But everything that was new was just undercut. Several potential "whoa" moments just go nowhere (Rey+Kylo, sellers dealing with both sides, etc). It would have been as if after ending Empire the way that it did, ROTJ started with Jabba just accepting a bit of cash to let Han go and Yoda just went "nah, Vader is lying to you, he's not your father."

All the Chickens said:

I thought it was terrific. A perfect blend of suspenseful storytelling, drama, and some comedy thrown in to make one of the better SW movies. I did have a few issues, Snokes quick demise before we learn anything about him being one of rhem.

Here is my crack at why critics overwhelmingly loved this movie while some of the SW diehards absolutely hated it:

I think some of the diehards who are so against it are coming into the movie with very specific expectations of what Star Wars needs to be and what they want to happen, and when it doesn't go that way it's complete nerd rage. To me that is a bad way to look at movies, or at least to view them.

This movie literally tells it's characters and the audience multiple times to LET GO OF THE PAST.

It tells you to let go of the past, and then immediately undercuts that very message by having Yoda coming in and convincing Luke, Rey taking the Jedi books and becoming literally the last jedi, setting up the same old light versus dark conflict, etc.

It literally backtracks all the potential new directions. Luke thinks the jedi must die, and is convinced otherwise by Yoda. Rey and Kylo say that they can go beyond the old light versus dark, only to go back to light versus dark. And we go back almost exactly to the beginning of the new hope: new order as the empire with a dark side force user as leader, scattered rebels with a young force sensitive person learning to use their powers from a recently deceased jedi master.

I have it on good authority that Jim's real name is Joey Joe Joe Jr Shabadoo.

emnofseattle said:

CretanBull said:

The charges against Manafort are much more serious than I'd thought they'd be, it could be he's being over-charged to put pressure on him to flip....I don't think any of the Manafort or Gates stuff hurts Trump in anyway, unless they know things and flip for a deal.  The Papadapoulos stuff is way more threatening to Trump and that seems to be getting the least amount of coverage.

Or, this whole thing has been a waste of time from the start, has revealed only paperwork issues by principals other then the purported subject of the investigation and thus Mueller needs to prove it wasn't a waste of time to begin with. Because nothing of this is in any way related to the initial allegations, none of it points to criminal activity by Trump, and none of it shows actual coordinated intereference with an election 

Ah, yes, receiving $75 million from a foreign government, stashing it in offshore accounts and not declaring a cent of it, either in terms of the source or of taxes: a "paperwork issue."
Question: at which point does tax evasion and money laundering stop being just a "paperwork issue?" Or is this something that can only be decided after seeing if there is a D or an R next to the name?