RokerLegend
Striker
The scenes were cut from the film.
I would absolutely class myself as a die hard Star Wars fan and I loved it, I think some fans go in particularly to analyse it too much and poke holes in it. For fucks sake, it's a sci-fi film that was predominantly aimed at kids and is set 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away'. If you're not prepared to suspend your disbelief and go in and enjoy it for what it is then I'm not sure why you would be there watching it. I definitely get the sense that a lot of people go in with the express intention of tearing it to bits to feel superior.
So this is my take on it,
1) Yes, the Leia part was far fetched but it was obvious they weren't going to kill her off that early, even before Carrie Fisher died a lot had been made of what a big role she had in this film. I'm an unashamed Carrie Fisher fan so I was too pleased that they'd saved the character to care too much about how they did it, it was a very small part of a very long film and it seems people are fixating on it to slag the whole film off. I thought I'd be too emotional through the whole film but I was ok until the part where she's united with Luke and they're talking about Han. The part where Luke holds her hand and says no-one is ever really gone was unbelievably poignant with the benefit of hindsight.
2) The interactions between Kylo Ren and Rey were really good. Adam Driver plays the conflicted character so well, especially in comparison with the awful acting of Hayden Christensen in the prequels. I did feel the tension of not knowing whether he would turn away from the dark side was really well done. I think in those scenes with the two of them I do find myself wondering whether he was telling the truth about Rey's parentage or whether he was trying to coax her to the dark side with a lie. But i also wondered whether it was a reference back to Anakin's childhood.
3) Luke trying to kill Kylo was also totally plausible to me too. I thought it made clear that it was a fleeting thought by him and that before he had a chance to walk away Kylo woke up and reacted. Showing it from both sides was really well done, seeing Kylo as a scared kid and then comparing it to the angry young man unable to cope with the conflict in his head made perfect sense to me. Also the fact that Luke would have reacted to him in that way was also true to his character in my opinion, he was often shown in the original films to be conflicted in the same way as Kylo only he was seen as being close to being drawn to the dark side rather than the other way round.
4) I actually like the side plot with Canto Bight, Star Wars has always played with the moral lessons. Thinking that a massive amount of kids will be watching I thought making the point that a lot of people were making an obscene amount of money backing both sides with arms and equipment will hopefully have made them leave with some food for thought. The scene with the little boy at the end that made the link that's been in all the films about having hope was a great way to finish.
Anyway that's what i thought, I'll be going to see it again so whether i change any of those opinions or pick up anything i didn't notice first time round remains to be seen. I don't think anything I've put will change the opinion of anyone who has already written it off though.
Or people could go and just think it’s shit.