Balahkay

As much as I love this score, I do feel like the old themes were overused again especially during the last act. Interestingly, as buried as the music was, the old themes were always audible even during the action scenes. I don’t blame Williams at all for all the repeats but rather I blame Abrams and Disney for being in complete nostalgia mode for the ST. They know people go apeshit when something from the OT is referenced and the music is no exception... “Burning Homestead” in TFA, “Here They Come” in TLJ and several OT music moments in TROS. It’s become rather tiresome hearing the force theme and rebel fanfare during what seemed to be every other scene. Regardless, the original music is excellent especially for a man in his late 80’s. It seems Williams has written more SW music in a 5 year period than he has previously - he definitely dedicated and passionate about SW.

At times, the sound effects were louder than the dialogue. I thought my eyeballs were going to explode during certain scenes. However, the mix in the in released clips is great in that I can hear everything very clearly including the music. Too bad they didn’t mix it closely to the clips for the final cut.

I think all that changed after the Emperor sucked the lives out of Reylo as if he was a dementor. He appeared to become very powerful by doing that instead of being killed.

I think the “Han Solo and the Princess” bit was tracked from TFA. “Peace and Purpose” from TLJ appeared to be tracked as well. What’s amazing is that Abrams had Williams working on this score since March and he still needed to track music from other films.

Looks like it may earn less than TLJ domestically for this weekend.

C-3PO was definitely a highlight even when he referred to the trio as his friends.

Say what you want about Kathleen Kennedy but it must acknowledged that she was probably the main reason why scored the ST. I remember back in 2012 when it was announced more episode movies would be made and so many people thought Williams would never return or was too old. I was doubtful of his return as well but I’m grateful he decided to dew it.

I stayed for the end credits but my mind had checked out of the movie by the time the credits rolled.

My vote is concert arrangement. I don't think what's on the OST wouldn't have worked with the film version without some significant editing. Then again, who knows how much the sequence was edited after Williams scored it.

Fortunately, I was already out of it at that point.

I thought the Fisher scenes looked pretty good. I was expecting something weird like the young Leia from RO. It was obvious the dialogue was written around Carrie's sound bites but it wasn't jarring to me. I think they did they best they could use existing footage and it was very respectful to the late actress. However, I would have liked to see a funeral for Leia (in the same vain as Padme's) instead of the characters hovering over her body covered with a white sheet. What really looked odd to me were the young faces of Luke and Leia - not at all natural or real looking. Their fencing outfits were odd, too.

My theater was half full... first showing in IMAX 3D. But they screwed up and played the 2D verison of the movie instead of the 3D verison so everyone got a free ticket as we were leaving. They also turned on the theater lights a few minutes before the end credits started.

What I don’t understand is why the Emperor waited so many years to make his return. And how do we know that he’s really dead now? Because all powerful Rey killed him?

I’m sure Disney will publish a novel or comic to explain these minor details.

I figured her breath must have become deadly bad after becoming every dead Jedi.

I think The Speeder Chase is meant to be a concert suite (in spite of its name) like Scherzo for X-Wings.

Mine was half full for the first IMAX showing. I don’t think it’ll bomb. It’ll probably do TLJ numbers. It kind of sounded like a new recording to me or they modified the original recording. It actually works for the scene. The AOTC music sounded new as well but I don’t think it was deliberate on JW part.

I didn’t like it but I probably need to see it again. The only interesting parts were those that involved the OT characters aside from the Emperor... who was hammy as ever. More importantly, I could barely hear Williams music for most of it due to overbearing SFX. 😡

Yikes, the score barely audio for about 80% of the movie at my theater. However, the scenes where the music was allowed to shine was very powerful. It was very disappointing that the desert chase music was changed/dialed out/tracked or whatever they did but I did hear a bit of the regular track when the sound effects weren’t overbearing.

I agree with this. I would also like to add that TLJ introduced new characters that ultimately have no significance in ST aside from maybe Holdo who killed herself to save the Resistance. DJ apparently died, Rose has been reduced to a cameo role... and the broom boy with force powers at the end? I don't hate TLJ, but it hasn't acted as a good bridge between TFA and ROTS.

I think it’s cruel for Disney to not inform Johnson that his trilogy isn’t going to happen. It’s pretty clear after all the retconning.

Right now, I place it above TLJ but still below TFA. The introduction of the excellent new themes in TFA (especially Rey’s) can’t be beat. My opinion could change when I see the film tomorrow.

So what’s the melt your mind scene that Smith was talking about?

It’s nice but only because it’s ripping off one of the original SW posters.

Is the FYC still unavailable to download from the Disney site?