Centerfield wrote: How much of a downer is that? Han, after all the character growth he supposedly went through, is hanging on as a septuagenarian smuggler? And Chewie is happy to be along for the same going-nowhere ride decades in, still looking for that one big score that can really save their necks? Without even their cool ship to brag about. I don't think Han went back to being who he was in ANH (answering ESS, not Edgy). He originally smuggled to find fortune. He's now smuggling to escape pain. Like I said before, taking our proud hero who was a general at the end of Episode 6, and bringing him back not as a dignified leader, but as a septuagenarian smuggler was a risk. In my opinion. So let's see where they take the story from here. If the main plot of the second movie is repeated attempts to escape the FO with the Falcon's malfunctions being a plot tool, and then capped off by a big reveal of family ties, then I think more will start falling in line with Vic. Centerfield wrote: 3. Daisy Riddle is a star. Tough, vulnerable, funny, compelling. You can't take her eyes off of her whenever she is on the screen. And it's not just because she's easy on the eyes. Even the way she eats her green meal on Jakku is compelling. If you asked me before the movie, who is worthy of taking over the Falcon, I would have said no one. Never. Impossible. But when she did it, it was seamless. When she called that lightsaber, it made you want to stand up and cheer. I agree with much of this. (Yes yes, it's like 7 months later and I _just_ saw it) the 'reboot' was kind of a given. They want to make Star Wars eternal, and so they tied into the first movie and want to build from there. Sure, if they'd just called it Star Wars without Leia/Han (and Luke?) we all would've seen it, but by directly tying into our emotional investment in those characters allows them to tie us to the new characters that are going to take the story forward. Rey taking over the Falcon (and Chewie!) was perfect. Like you said, there was no way to do that and they did. Now Chewie and the Falcon can exist in the other movies without feeling like they're just shoving them at us for nostalgia's sake. They're free to evolve. Han didn't regress, he basically became Obi Wan. Him reverting to smuggling wasn't a reboot, it was him retreating after his son/Protégé turned and his friend fled. (all the Jedi went into hiding) It's not surprising that there were a lot of similarities and overlaps for a movie in the same universe picking up after 30 years or so. (And how much time has passed in-universe? was that clear?) And yeah, they over did it. Let's make another Death Star, only BIGGER. They did abandon the 'find Luke' plot halfway through, and I could've done with some Luke scenes, some preview of episode 8 about what he's up to. I'd like to see less looking back in episode 8, but they still have a lot of explaining to do on what happened between then and now and what the world is like. There was A Lot of predictability to this movie, I felt like I knew the next lines multiple times, and I'm not even a big Star Wars geek. And there are going to be a lot of similarities in the next movie too, almost inevitably. I hope they break from the mold, but I'd be surprised if we don't get a Rey training with Luke while the rest of the heroes are threatened by the new enemy of the film. If I had to guess, this ends with them realizing they're needed and Luke and Rey both departing to return to the main story, instead of Yoda trying to persuade Luke to stay and ignore it.