Well I'm in the minority, but I do see a trend. I've never been a fan of Star Wars as I never saw the movies when they came out in theaters as a kid. At some point I watched them, can't remember when, but definitely not in theaters. I didn't have a dislike for them either, just never really cared. Went with the family to see TFA - everyone, including myself, liked it. Saw R1 as well - again family pretty much agreed it was OK, but a bit boring and dragging through the first 3/4. Saw TLJ on opening night in a full theater with the family, really enjoyed it as a movie. Theater applauded at the end, and generally the theater audience was very engaged the entire time, with clapping during various scenes and a gasp at the end when it was revealed Luke wasn't really there. Although I enjoyed TLJ, my main gripes were with Snoke being killed so quickly, the Luke breastfeeding scene, and Kylo just not giving off that big-bad evil vibe like Vader. And I didn't know where the story was going for the next part. But I thought that the movie itself was well-paced and kept the interest high, and was enjoyable.

Personally I never understood the gripe about Rey's parents - didn't Vader originally lie to Luke about his parents, saying they were nothing as well, before he found out the truth? Kylo telling Rey that seems like the exact same thing, and I don't see why everyone takes that at face value when it seems like a play just like what happened in the original. I don't see why the next part couldn't make Rey's parents part of the Skywalker lineage.

Saw Solo last night, but realize I'm in the minority when it comes to SW movies as a very casual fan. Really didn't enjoy the first 3/4, was just not interesting to me at all despite a lot of action. I think it needed some more humor as well - many of the attempts just seemed flat. However, my family enjoyed it and the audience generally clapped at the end. There was a good deal of fan service in the movie, but again as a casual SW fan, doesn't really appeal to me that much.

Without giving anything away, I'm wondering if I'm the only person that seemed to think that a sequence in the last 1/4 of the movie on the MF struck me as eerily similar to a sequence near the end of Star Trek VI.

I think the only way IX can be saved is if they find very creative ways to retcon what Rian did, which I do think is possible. They'd have to bring Luke back (he disappeared, didn't appear as a force ghost, so they could come up with something here), and make it so Snoke ties into Palpatine and ends up just his physical body is destroyed and reemerges even stronger (can add to mythos here). And then Rey will have to be the daughter of a major force character (easily done since they could say Kylo was trying to deceive her about her real parents). JJ did say early on that his interpretation of Star Wars 1-9 is that it's "all about family", which Rian promptly destroyed that notion purposefully. If JJ still believes that, it's possible he basically re-does everything and ties it in.

But it's a tall task to do in one movie. With two movies it would be a lot easier to retcon what Rian did and make a stronger arc, but with one .... maybe. It'll have to be pretty long.

This has been reported quite a few times during the last few weeks from a number of sources. The last article from a decent source was about 1-2 weeks ago that stated she was negotiating her golden parachute and would leave by fall.

While it won't satisfy everyone, I do think it's possible to end it on a positive note, but they'd have to seriously consider making it Star Wars 9 and Star Wars 10. I don't think there's a way you do it in one movie, and I think making a single 3 hour movie would be a huge gamble. Unfortunately I think the only way to fix it is to really ignore almost all of TLJ entirely, save for a few things. Unfortunately there's no way to retcon such things as Luke thinking about killing one of his students.

I think just about everyone who actually read the " off color jokes" agrees that they are, at the very least, troubling and offensive. I mean - they aren't even jokes I don't think *anyone* would actually laugh at. And most wouldn't even say they are jokes if you read them - there's no punchline, just random comments about pedophilia, rape, and even a link to a video about preteen girls touching themselves. I think one thing everyone can agree on - there's no way this guy would ever be allowed alone with your children if you were given these tweets - even if it was 50 years ago. Take away the fact he was a famous director, and I think he'd be fired from just about any job if they came across his prior tweets. And no parent would ever let anyone who said those things near their children. It was a very tough position for Disney to be in.

Agreed - this is the biggest inconsistency of them all. I can potentially see Luke going hermit - I mean, ALL the other Jedi Masters, once great heroic warriors, ended up doing the exact same thing. Why not him? I don't see that as inconsistent at all.

But sensing darkness in his nephew and getting an urge to kill him in his sleep? That makes no sense whatsoever and is way off-character considering the events of the original. In a way they ruined Kylo as well with this as well as it doesn't make him seem as evil / dark anymore. Turn the tables - imagine if Yoda, who sensed darkness in Luke as well, almost killed Luke in his sleep? That would've been a really different dynamic.

A New Hope merchandise can still be found in stores as well. Not exactly a reliable indicator.

My point was that just because it says The Force Awakens, doesn't mean that it's actually stock from when the movie came out. Just like A New Hope figures that you see in stores aren't from 1977. Hasbro is still manufacturing Force Awakens figures / toys / etc.

I disagree about Zack - I really can't think of another actor that I think could better play a kid in an adult's (superhero) body. That's a tough role, and while I was initially skeptical with the announcement - after seeing the trailers it appears he is doing a decent job.

Pretty huge overreaction to this online. So they removed the option of people selecting that they don't want to see a movie. Which is about as informative as a poll asking people if they don't want broccoli for dinner. They can still tally the amount of people that DO want to see a movie, which pretty much eliminates troll votes altogether. And then you can have comparisons of those numbers across different movies to gauge interest, which is a much better indicator anyway (ie 20 million people want to see Movie X, compared to only 1 million want to see Movie Y).

It's a bit of a stretch to have to go to France to have a bad review - I've read about a dozen reviews today, all of which were either very positive, or generally positive.

I personally think it's a bit overblown in regards to their being some sort of a financial conspiracy to critics posting positive reviews of TLJ. First - I'd be curious out of those "top critics", how many would even describe themselves as casual Star Wars fans, much less "normal" Star Wars fans? It's hard to view the movie through the eyes of someone that has no real connection to Star Wars. I could be very wrong - perhaps most of those "top critics" were indeed at least somewhat versed in Star Wars.

But in terms of real-life experience - I watched TLJ on opening night at the theater - completely full. At the end of the movie, almost the entire theater applauded. My wife thought the movie was "enjoyable", and my 9 year old thought it was the best Star Wars movie ever (and they've watched them all). When it was over, initially I thought it was pretty enjoyable overall, for maybe 5 minutes until my brain realized how they screwed the whole story up, answered nothing, and left no anticipation for IX. So based on that, I can see how the movie itself could get initial positive reviews, and it not be a conspiracy or biased.

Saw the movie this evening - I'd give it a C overall. First 1/2, even a bit longer, I was quite bored. Movie picked up as it got more towards the finish line. I didn't find the movie really creative at all - it reminded me of a mash-up of many other movies and plots, and I struggle right now to find one thing about it that had some originality. My 9 year old who is an Avengers and Star Wars fan was pretty bored through the first half as well. The movie never really established anything remotely dangerous for the hero IMO. She basically had no weaknesses at all, which again made it so it seemed she was never in any real peril.

Bottom line for me is it reminded me of a "filler" episode of a TV series - something that wasn't up to par compared to other episodes, that really only acted as a bridge to fill in some overall arc and story-line bits.

Unlike others - I actually had some pretty high expectations for this one - but left feeling a bit disappointed. And it's true, the cat is pretty much the best part of the movie.

Disagree - coming in at the end and helping save the day would be the very definition of Mary Sue. It's actually better that she would be integrated and not swoop in at the end when all seems lost. It also lends one to believe she won't be OP and be able to defeat Thanos basically herself. And, honestly, I don't think the EG directors would even do that - they understand how important it is for the original characters to be heavily involved in defeating Thanos, and not a newcomer. I'm pretty sure we'll see a full team effort at the end.

Some notes:

1. Your theater has regular showings, IMAX showings, DBOX showings, DBOX 3D showings (nice theater!).
2. You theater is playing this movie 29 times today, almost every 30 minutes from 11am-11pm there is a showing.

I think it's a bit misleading to say your theater has only sold 6 seats to the hottest time and night of the movie, when your theater has chosen to show it 28 other times today. In comparison, a family movie geared towards children that just opened up yesterday, WonderPark, only has 8 showings for the entire day.

They can't win ... I've seen mostly praise about this, as it's very rare for a large company to backtrack on a decision like this, especially since it seemed so permanent regardless of fans desires.

"Marvel still hasn’t found a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director to take over for James Gunn, but they’ve approached a few people. One of those people was Adam McKay, director of Anchorman and the upcoming Vice. McKay has some Marvel experience – he worked on the script for Ant-Man, and has now confirmed he was up to direct Inhumans before it became a TV series. Appearing on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast (via Geek Tyrant), McKay revealed Marvel big cheese Kevin Feige approached him about directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

"Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi confirmed today he will not take on Guardians of the Galaxy 3, defending former director James Gunn and referring to it as “James’ film.” Waititi was rumored to be the front runner director to replace Gunn on the project, following the latter’s firing by Disney and Marvel Studios in July 2018. “Going into something like that, which has got his stamp all over it, it would feel like going into someone’s house and saying, ‘Hey, I’m your new dad,’” Waititi said, as reported by The Wrap."

I think a lot of it is timing as well. The most anticipated Marvel movie of all time is a month away, and this is the connector movie between them. I know quite a few people that haven't seen a lot of the standalone Marvel movies, but saw IW and then Captain Marvel because they viewed it as important to see before EG. I think if Captain Marvel was made at any time before IW, it wouldn't have done nearly as well.

I just don't know if Solo is truly backlash. I can't quite put it into words, but I just see a big difference in making a movie about the past of a major beloved character in cinematic history, versus let's say a movie like Captain Marvel (or others) about a character that, unless you are really into comic books, probably don't know a lot about. I always thought Solo was a bad idea from the start - that you could absolutely love Star Wars, but still don't have much of a desire to see a movie revealing Solo's past. It's almost as if it takes away some of the original character. Sure I can see TV series, etc, doing it. But a movie is just different. Kind of like if they made a young Indiana Jones movie - even if you love Indiana Jones, I'm not sure you'd like to see a young actor playing him in his earlier days on the big screen. Something just doesn't feel right about that.

Saw Shazam last night - so much more enjoyable than Captain Marvel. Nothing groundbreaking, but just a really good pace and entertaining from start to finish.

That's due to the Disney+ streaming service announcement. Price is shockingly low - $7/month, and includes everything. Investors are eating that up.

Come on now, even haters must admit that at least the title is decent. Especially compared to all the "rumors".

It's hard to respond to rumors that are basically a few Twitter accounts, and "unnamed" movie theater managers. Until there is some actual evidence, I'd tend to go for what is most likely (Occam's razor usually wins out), and that's the fact that Disney wouldn't perform illegal, fraudulent activity (this would fall under investment fraud, inflating numbers to appear more successful to investors) that would mean potentially millions, if not billions, in fines and jail for top execs. It would also be very easily traceable to see who purchased tickets online if pursued, so no easy way at all to cover yourself.

Again, just saying that there is no direct evidence of this at all, and all that you have is a few Twitter accounts and a few "unnamed" theater managers. Hardly anything that you could say is a smoking gun. I tend to take everything with a grain of salt and prefer to believe things where there is at least some decent evidence. Blacklisting the LA Times for a few days is not an illegal activity that would result in fines and jail - it was an action done because they disagreed with their article and took it a bit too personal. I can't find any info of Disney shutting down critical social media accounts, so I can't comment on that.

This explains a lot. We'll never convince you that conspiracies don't exist when you take information and twist it to your own narrative.

So it takes 6 repeated stories from anonymous twitter accounts and "unnamed" movie theater managers to convince you something is a fact?

I just hope that one day we can move past that - would anyone blink an eye if there was a shot of 6 male avengers working together for 30 seconds? It wouldn't even get noticed. You wouldn't think "Damn I wish they wouldn't ram that male testosterone down our face like that! It took me out of the movie!"

They didn't announce a new one, just an updated release date. It was actually announced almost 3 years ago with a planned 2020 release. It's not a reboot - Spielberg directing with Harrison starring, no Lucas involvement.