Gatsby77

No - it was the original plan. They announced Trevorrow as the director of Episode 9 at D23 in August 2015, more than two months before The Force Awakens was released. Similarly, Rian Johnson was announced as the director of Episode 8 in June 2014, well over a year before The Force Awakens was released.

Disagree that Marvel doesn't always let people follow their passions. Perfect examples of this? James Gunn with Guardians of the Galaxy and Taika Waititi with Thor: Ragnarok. The latter, in particular, was a *huge* risk in that it deviated so much from the traditional portrayal of Thor in the comics. And yet it worked - and reinvigorated the character after a weak paint-by-numbers entry with The Dark World.

The fault here lies with the Star Wars Story Group, not the individual film directors.

Agree with the folks in the video. There was *zero* reason not to include both Anakin and Ben as force ghosts next to Luke and Leia in this scene. Particularly because Anakin's ghost was present at the end of Jedi. And Ben (clearly) deserved to be there.

I didn't mind Leia suddenly being very powerful in the force. Recall that she received Luke's telepathic message all the way back in Empire, and she flew through space in The Last Jedi. Showing her training with Luke was actually a high-point for me. Of *course* she would train to be a Jedi post-ROTJ, once she discovered she was Luke's sister and thus force-sensitive. I *hated* that Luke's ghost caught Rey's lightsaber and chided her about treating it with respect -- just moments after we saw Kylo Ren realize his true destiny and throw away his own lightsaber -- just as Luke had in both ROTJ and TLJ. I've said it before and I'll say it again - the saga is absolutely consistent in portraying that true Jedi mastery = realizing that you don't need a lightsaber after all. The most idiotic part of the film for me was the force healing-bring-back-from-the-dead power. Had that actually been a thing, Anakin could have resurrected Padme and Luke could have saved his father in ROTJ. Clearly made up for this film, and invalidates much of the first six films. Chewbacca should have stayed dead when the cruiser blew up. I *love* Chewie, but that would have given greater weight - and stakes - to the proceedings.

Yeah - my takeaway was they were biting off of Highlander -- with Sideous channeling all of the Sith and Rey channeling all of the Jedi. But in the end, there can be only one.

Just got back.

Umm...comparing Endgame, which amassed 100,000+ audience votes almost instantaneously vs. 1917 having <1,200 audience votes when it's been screening for nearly a month, is comparing apples and hand grenades. The former is suspicious; the latter's not.

Exactly - and a dozen of those reviews are dated Nov. 25-26. It's been screening in major cities throughout North America over the past month. And the dates on the various Twitter reviews reinforce this. Thus, no reason to doubt the audience review scores based on quantity alone.

This is incomplete. NYC crtitics' screening was Nov. 23. The Hollywood premiere / advance screening took place on Dec. 17. Toronto held an advance screening on Dec. 18. It's been around.

I can believe that 1,200 people have seen this film already and voted on it - through sneak previews and the like. It's likely also been released already on military bases worldwide.

Yeah - and the reason Cinemascore's considered the most accurate is that it actually guarantees voters actually saw the film - they're polled as they leave.

Yesterday afternoon, "Rank the Star Wars films" was briefly trending on Twitter. It's worth looking up, but in general Empire was considered the best (duh); Attack of the Clones was considered the worst (barely beating out The Phantom Menace); and The Last Jedi was generally in the top half. Also, folks tended to see Return of the Jedi as merely average - which I could agree with. Here's one such ranking (with which I largely agree): Empire Strikes Back A New Hope The Last Jedi The Force Awakens Return of the Jedi - Rogue One Revenge of the Sith The Phantom Menace - Solo Attack of the Clones

I watched this last night. Can't believe it cost $150 million.

That's a good joke, but don't forget that Luke was also a whiny little person_without_enough_empathy throughout *all* of Star Wars and half of Empire. His arc and portrayal in TLJ is entirely consistent with that of Yoda's and Obi-Wans -- that true Jedi masters tire of war, understand it's not the answer, and (tend to) retreat to the shadows in their later years. From Yoda's "Wars not make one great" introduction and initial reluctance to train him, through to Ben's world-weariness. And Luke's *long* understood that violence is simply the way to the Dark Side. Hence why he throws away his lightsaber during the final battle with Vader in Jedi - just as he again throws it away when presented it by Rey. His portrayal in the TLJ -- as a reluctant, reclusive pacifist -- is *entirely* consistent with how we saw elder Jedis portrayed in the OT.

Great - that's what we need. The amazing screenwriter behind BvS and Justice League.

That's the thing. Solo was just mediocre; servicable - like Dr. Strange or Ant-Man. Which is fine - if we're okay with some Star Wars films being minor one-offs and accepting that not every film needs to be a $1 bn.+ blockbuster event. My issues with it were two-fold: Over-explaining *every* part of the events that played into forming the Solo we met in A New Hope. A previous poster mentioned this - that by the end of Solo he was basically already the Harrison Ford version, with no further growth possible in the intervening years. I felt the same way with X-Men: First Class -- which took the cheap way out by paralyzing Xavier at the end - instantly relegating him to the wheelchair in his 20s. Rather than saving that critical event for the second or third chapter. It prematurely (and needlessly) stunted his character growth. Honestly, plot-wise, Firefly did it better -- and fifteen years ago, on a TV budget. Think I'm joking? Solo's plot was basically "The Train Job" and "Trash" combined, with Qi'ra. standing in for Saffron. Again - it wasn't *bad* but it was a missed opportunity, because it could have been so much more.

How is this any different from CVA? Whatevs. I'm old enough to remember the first Overstreets Grading Guide, where bindery defects / miscuts knocked a book down to VF.

Ghost can be seen at ~1:01 of the final trailer.

Did you see that Ghost is clearly visible in the first trailer for this film as well? To the upper right of the Millennium Falcon in the Rebel armada scene.

8:00 am Eastern, and Rotten Tomatoes is currently holding at 60% positive. That's better than The Phantom Menace but worse than Attack of the Clones. I've got a bad feeling about this...

I can't speak for Image books because I don't recall buying any from newsstands, but my local newsstand in suburban Philly received books three weeks after they were released to comic book shops. This knowledge came in handy for quick comic shop sell-outs like ASM 361 and Man of Steel 18. Also, I know that locally Youngblood # 1 sold out far faster than Spawn 1 did. Spawn # 1 was still available for reorder for several months in my area, whereas Spawn # 2 sold out quickly and thus became a $4 book. In contrast, despite Youngblood # 1's being "limit 5 per customer" from day-of-release, it quickly rose to $7.50 within two months...

While I'm disappointed that this trailer seems to confirm Kazanski's death, this is my most anticipated film of 2020. Really hoping they go the Battlestar Galactica / Space Cowboys route with this - where Chinese or Russian hacking grounds our fleet of drones & F-35s and Maverick is thus called back to combat duty because he's one of the few still able to fly an old-school F-14.

4 days, y'all! I'm getting excited!

You're kidding, right? For the 1980s alone Batman 428 isn't in the same league as either The Dark Knight Returns # 1 or The Killing Joke. I'd think Dark Knight Returns speaks for itself in its impact not only on the popular conception of Batman but on the comics medium as a whole. But The Killing Joke is a perfect example of what Batman 428 could have been, but was not. Bolland art, baseline story, modern Joker origin, and grim/gritty adult story aside, the primary difference is: DC stuck with the key event of The Killing Joke. Barbara Gordon - Batgirl - is paralyzed. And - unlike Robin, who reappears less than three years later - the story and ramifications or Barbara Gordon's paralysis play out over the next 20+ years. Yeah - it eventually got retconned out in New 52, but that doesn't negate that the ramifications of that storyline were felt for decades - particularly with Oracle's presence in Birds of Prey. Meanwhile, both Jason Todd's first appearance and his death are about as important today as Kyle Radnor's first appearance as the new Green Lantern. Fun books, but not nearly as promising or important as they once were.