About that first battle scene in TLJ

Reminder: All of the FO ships were broken in half. They were likely limited in their ability to get their ground assets onto Crait.

 

Every Star Wars movie to date, has felt big and grandiose.
Rian made it smaller and more intimate.
It was clearly a risk and it didn't always pay off but I really appreciated it being different in that way.

 

Not even sure the Crait Battle counts as a battle. The skimmers didn't do anything but get shot. If Chewie and Rey don't show up, Poe probably doesn't have a chance to say, "this is a bad idea, let's turn around".

One of the ironies though of the first battle, is that while everyone regards Poe's assault on the Dreadnaught a failure, if he doesn't do it, the Dreadnaught would have been present at Crait and available to wipe out the old Resistance Base. I guess folks can argue that maybe the shuttles leaving wouldn't have been noticed without the failed mission; I still tend to think they would've been noticed (despite the incompetence of the FO leadership)

 

Just occurred to me:

If anybody thinks the FO incompetence is unrealistic, just research the British during the Revolutionary War. GW should have been caught and the Continentals all hanged numerous times. Many a military can be mighty and great, but also bumbling as well.

 

Probably. I don't think the amount of ground forces seemed problematic, though- that's still a ton of walkers!

It's just that, the walkers didn't seem to really do anything. (This is the one part of the movie I haven't seen sober yet, though, so I will obviously need to look at it again).

Hmm, that's an interesting thought. Maybe that's why some people find the tone to be off.

For what it's worth, I thought his technique did wonders for the smaller character work. It just didn't translate well to action, in my opinion.

 

I counted 2 FO AT-ATs, 11 AT-M6s 2 AT-HHs & the big @$$ canon. Not a bad deploment from a ship that got hit by something going FTL.

 

That's fair.
And I think it certainly is jarring to a point, being a Star Wars film but also feeling so tight.

I don't think the change sacrificed any of the typical Star Wars goodness so I'm personally okay with it.

 

Not so much unrealistic as overwrought. I have much more substantive issues with the movie than this, the gravity on the bombers, the incompetence of the FO were small nits for me, and there is a general requirement that we suspend some disbelief to be a part of the movie (there were some moments though where the incompetence is overwhelming). I'm probably one of the few people who actually enjoyed (up to a point) the exchange between Hux and Poe because it demonstrated Hux's arrogance which was reflective of their superior military posture. He was smug because they had them beaten strategically and he knew it.

 

The internet Hux-Kylo parodies will be awesome for the next 2 years.