We went Friday night, just at the local theatre but it was packed. Its fun to be in a film ‘event’, full of dedicated fans, hooting and clapping at the good parts or cameos.
Space battle is top notch. The whole ‘third act’ was superb, cutting between the stealing of the plans and the battle in space. Ending could NOT have been any better. It was very satisfying how this film ties the other stories together, even leaving in some of the odd parts from the original films (such as the erroneous Death Star graphic visual, with the laser centered on the equator).
Robot was great. Asian mystic Jedi-wannabes were great. The big bad lightsaber guy in the ending was more menacing and evil than ever.
Definitely going to see it a couple more times on the big screen over the holidays!
The newly revised ranking (according to me, myself, and I):
- Empire
- ANH
- R1
- TFA
- RotJ
(the prequels are too low to be ranked)
If I had to find a weakness it would be with the spacecraft in general. Rehashing of older themes, nothing really fresh - I know its only 15 years or so past RotS and days before ANH so there’s not much more to expect. The stolen black Imperial shuttle was kind of cool and stealthy looking. But the U-wing fighters remind me of this:
