ST Poe Dameron/Oscar Isaac Discussion Thread

I think they are trying to make him into Han Solo, but not only was he unique but Han wasn't a dissident rebel passionate about a cause - he was a mercenary passionate about himself, and only got involved by mistake.
He actually seemed like a different character in TROS - but then again, everyone did!

 

I can just imagine Pablo’s thoughts when JJ and Chris told them they were adding that.


€¥£%#¥&$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Spoiler: SPICE!!

Spoiler: THE FORCE!!

 

I don't get it?

 

A spice/force joke in the (former) spice runner thread. JJ said the forceback was like an acid trip once.

I just remembered 'Mandy', featuring Nicolas Cage. A bad, bad film, and insane; but I laughed during the scene above when I saw it.

Nicolas Cage and spice, you don't know where he ends and it begins.

 

Fair enough, thanks for clarifying.
I get the spice "trip" reference now.
Although your reply probably raises more questions than it answers

 

I get that Poe is a minor miracle worker in the cockpit, but what exactly was the plan when he asks, and is granted, permission to blow something up in TLJ? Realistically what are their ~10 remaining fighters going to be able to accomplish against armada the First Order has assembled against them at that point?

 

I noticed in the TROS novel the FO occupied many planets including the Yavin system.

So, no kriffing wonder Poe was in a bad mood the whole movie!

 

Poe led an attack that successfully destroyed a First Order dreadnought (A FLEET KILLER) and then once the Resistance fleet is tracked through lightspeed does anyone thank him for destroying the ship that, if left intact above D'Qar, would have decimated the entire Resistance fleet in less than a minute?

No, they just pretend like he still made a bad decision and then the movie carries on...

 

Actually, I thought that as well, although his flippancy regarding how many had died still rankles.

I think that was what got Leia so angry, she was older and wiser, and thirty years ago probably would have been one of those clapping him, but as a middle aged woman she saw the flaws in what he did.

 

She's not even THAT upset with him. She slaps him and demotes him, but then she is immediately jovial with him right after the Resistance fleet is tracked through lightspeed. I might get some flack over this, but usually RIAN JOHNSON films don't make a lot of sense once you put them under the microscope. And TLJ leaves me thinking "wait, what" too many times throughout its bloated runtime for me to even attempt to decipher character motivations. The characters are written too inconsistently.

 

More then no fighters would be able to do, that's for sure; remember point defense in Star Wars seems to suck pretty bad and ships seem to rely on their fighter compliment for defense agianst other fighters.

That still does'nt exuse disobaying direct orders.

Their only "ridiculously poor in combat" becuase their not being used the correct way; if you used a bunch of B-24 Liberators to carry out a close-range bombing run of a battleship while exposed to heavy enemy fighter attack the same thing would happen.

And anyway, the quality of the bombers is'nt the issue, it's that Poe disobayed orders and got peaple killed.

He does'nt seem to have much issue with her until she starts being rude to him, and even then it's only dipicted to be annoyance at not being told the plan until he gains reason to think she's a traitor.

He disoboyed direct orders. It does'nt matter if he lucked out and, for totally unforseen reasons he had know of predicting, his disobedence ended up being benficial - hindsight does'nt excuse flagrent insubordination.

If the FO had'nt been able to track the Resistence (remember, a thing nobody knew they could do at the time of the attack) the Resistence would be down several valuable aircraft and a number of even more valuable pilots while the FO would only have lost one of several such dreadnoughts; at this stage in the war the Resistence needs to start husbanding men and material and looking at the risk vs. reward of any given engagment - Poe was'nt looking at the big picture, while Leia and Holdo were, and learning to do that rather then throw away lives and equipment needlessly was the point of his arc in the film.

Well, she still has a close relationship with him (he's essentially a surrogate son) and she knows he can do better, so of course she's not going to sit their stewing in anger - especially when their are bigger and more immedate concerns that require both of their attentions. I'd say she's probobly more disapointed then anything else, honestly.

 

If a higher ranking officer tells you not to do something and you do it anyway, yes that higher ranking officer has reason to be upset. But if it turns out that you were right and that higher ranking officer keeps on pretending that what you did wasn't right in the long run, that's just bad leadership. Not being able to admit you were wrong is a terrible quality from military leadership.

Once the Resistance realizes that the FO can track their fleet through lightspeed, and they all still pretend like Poe is a terrible leader, that's reason for complaint.

His arc would be fine if it grew from anything and led to anything. In TFA, Poe is a pilot and military commander that Leia trusts at least enough to send him on a solo mission to get the map to Luke. Then in TLJ, Poe is suddenly some brash pilot who apparently can't be trusted to make even the most base of military decisions. And then by the end of TLJ he still sends a bunch of people on a suicide mission, only to call them all back AFTER they start getting picked off one-by-one. And then even under Poe AND Leia's leadership, if it hadn't been for the sheer luck of Rey managing to survive until the end, the entire Resistance would have been gunned down by the FO Army.

Poe's arc went from "his bad decisions got people killed" to "his bad decisions got people killed, but he's very sorry about it"

No, they're poor in combat because they move at a snails pace for no reason. An old WWII bomber moved very quickly and only seemed like it was moving slowly relative to the ground. These weird things that Rian Johnson cooked up make no sense. In a galaxy that has been in a state of war for DECADES, who in their right mind would think, "Hey, let's make something that drops tons of bombs, but moves at the speed of a brisk walk, and is seemingly made of tissue paper."??

 

In a real-world militery Poe would still be court martialed even if his insabordination had unforseen benifits (though they'd probobly factor in those benifits during the hearing); that's the point here - it does'nt matter one ounce if concidence led to his disobidence being benficial, the point is that he was disobident to being with and ingored the direct orders of a direct superior.

Poe is'nt really a leader at that point to begin with, and not only does the movie never claim he's terrible, the only person who has an issue with him after that point is Holdo, who is'nt dipicted in a positive light herself and (like him with her) does'nt handle the situation with him correctly.

That it does'nt grow or lead to anything is your opinion. Plenty of peaple disagree.

Nothing in TFA conflicts with his TLJ dipiction (he was already pretty brash and cocky in the first film, for instance - hell, his entire character in that movie can be boiled down to "handsome cocky fighter jock sterotype") and it's never said he can't be trusted; only Holdo distrusts him, with everyone else (including Leia even after she punishes him) having zero issue with his abilities.

That's the point - the Poe at the start of the movie would have keep pressing forward and gotten everyone killed even after realizing that it was a futile sucide attack. He's grown and learned to view the bigger picture, evolving from a front-line fighter to a leader-in-waiting.

Those bombers moved pretty fast - they went from not even being visable on screen to being halfway between the Resistence and FO fleets (which was a pretty considerable distance) and then close the rest of the distance in less then two minates of screentime.

Their only "slow" if you compare them to, say, X-wings and A-wings, but then agian a B-24 is slower then a P-51 or a P-38 (and considering that the Starfortress are older ships dating back to the civil war, it would actually be like comparing a B-24 to something three-ish decades newer like an F-4 Phantom)

Blame Lucas, he's the one who decided to model Star Wars fighter combat on WW2 dogfights.

And the galaxy has'nt been at war for decades - it's been at peace for decades, and the Starfortresses are heavy strategic bombers designed late in the civil war to bombard planetery targets. The suck in TLJ because their not being used correctly.

The cargo pilot aspect is still part of Wedge's backstory in canon as well (along with the youth working at a fuel debot and Mala, though she's only said to have been "hurt" by the Empire, not killed) - he's not expressly stated to be a smuggler, though, but I would'nt be suprised if they put that back in and even brought back Booster and Mirax at some point, given how much everything lines up with the original backstory.

They did'nt change anything, they just added new information; his parents are still Rebel heroes and he was still raised as a citizen of the New Republic, neither of those things have changed.

Prior to TROS their was a huge blank space in Poe's life between the age of eight (when his mother died) and around 31 ABY (when he joined the Resistence. According to the TROS VD he joined the Spice Runners in 18 ABY when he was sixteen, so it fits pretty neatly into that big blank space and leaves plenty of time for him to join the Republic Military by the time he's twenty-nine in 31 ABY.

 

He is a squadron commander. That is a position of leadership.

Poe acts the same at the beginning of TROS as he does at the end of TFA. Even toward the end of TROS he ends up leading a bunch of people on a suicide mission (which apparently his "arc" taught him not to do anymore) and is only saved because Lando just so happened to be able to rally the entire galaxy in the span of about an hour.

For a movie that came out AFTER he sold Lucasfilm and that was written and directed by a completely different person? No, I won't be blaming Lucas for any of the faults in a movie he had nothing to do with because that wouldn't make any sense.

 

Not senior leadership, which is what I thought you were saying.

Of course he does, becuase Abrams essentially "zeroed out" all the characters and rolled back the bulk of their character devolopment from the prior film.

They did'nt have a choice - it was go all-in for a last-ditch desperate attack and hope Lando was able to gather reinforcments to help or essentially just stand by and let Palpatine win without a fight.

He's the one who established the rules and mechanics for how starfighter combat works in Star Wars (that it's essentially WW2 fighter planes IN SPACE! that maneuver as if their in atmosphere rather then zero gee). All Johnson did was (like Abrams before and after him) follow suit with how such things have long since been established to work dating all the way back to the very first film, so yes, it makes perfect sense to "blame" GL for that, just like it makes sense to "blame" him for lightsabers being swords with blades of energy, the Dark Side being evil and Tatooine having two sons.

Frankly their a lot of things in Star Wars dating to well before Disney came along that are at least just as bad (and maybe even worse, depending on your persepctive) then the Starfortresses, so I'm a little suprised peaple ever took issue with them.

 

And yet the First Order is so concerned about them that they refuse to commit any fighters to the attack in spite of the fact that resistance no longer has any of their own fighters.

You’d think there’d be a difference between saving everyone’s lives by disobeying orders and getting everyone killed by disobeying orders. And there is, he gets immediately forgiven for killing everyone.

The quality of the bombers is an issue because they’re so ridiculously bad that assigning people to them is already getting them killed. Using them properly seems to mean against completely undefended targets. It’s not like the Resistance is going to be targeting civilians. If they’re good for anything it would be the Star killer base attack the day before but for some reason they didn’t use them then either. Whatever the case may be though they definitely were blowing up for nothing if he retreated when he was told, which is my whole point.

His first words are “that’s Admiral Holdo??” and the fact she’s seemingly so incompetent is why he doesn’t respect her authority in the end. It seems like if she had just been reasonable with him he would have listened. So to me it seems it’s mostly her fault that he felt the need to mutiny and not some overconfidence after saving the day the first time. Again, this fact never gets addressed by anyone in the movie.

 

Where is this stated? Kylo and his two wingmen were able to fly around apparently unmolested, so why would other fighters be so impared?

He's not forgiven until the end of the movie, when Leia seems to reconize his learned to see the bigger picture and promotes him back to commander.

The after effects of his disobaying orders are'nt relevent to the fact that he did; militaries are'nt social clubs were you can decide which rules to follow and which ones to ingore, you don't get to chose when to listen to your CO and when to tell them to F-off based on how you think things should go down without facing consqences, even if your insabordination has unforseen benifits, and frankly Poe got off lightly so I don't see what the big deal is; even before they learned about the tracking device his punishment was simple demotion and a grounding, not a immedate, one-way trip to the brig.

Ground targets. Their strategic bombers. You don't use those to attack naval units at close range, you use them to saturate bomb immobile targets from high above and outside of the range of defensive fire - it just goes to show how desperate the Resistence was compared to the Alliance.

The Starfortress were'nt on D'Qar in TFA - they were on the Ninka and only arrived (along with the rest of the Resistence fleet) after SK Base was destroyed.

Poe did'nt know that, though, and neither did Leia or anyone else save for the First Order. Poe does'nt get credit for his insabordinatation having accidental benifits, and Leia does'nt lose points for ordering a retreat when she did'nt known that it would have led to disaster.

Um, yeah? Becuase he knows who she is. By all indiactions he actually seems pretty impressed with her until she dismisses him, and even then his issue is only annoyance until he gains reason to think she's a traitor later on when he discovers the ships refuling.

Probobly, but at the same time I doubt any rational person would have thought he would run off and start taking matters into his own hands behind their back.

It's both of their fualts, insomuch as they are both responsable for their own individual actions and they both handled their realtionship with each other poorly. But Poe's the one who actually did something wrong*, as opposed to Holdo who just showed bad judgmenent when it came to her personal interactions with an sabordinate.

*Honestly it's actually amazing that Holdo did'nt throw Poe in the brig as soon as he threw a temper tantrum on the bridge and started making paranoid accusations of treason, to say nothing when he admited to taking matters in his own hand and sending two peaple off on an unauthorized mission that ended up endangering anyones lives - for all the critism she gets for how poorly she handled their interactions she was actually far more generous then anyone in a IRL armed force would be when faced with those kinds of things.

Um, the conflict between Poe and Holdo is pretty prominant in the film, and the fact that Holdo's distrust of Poe comes from his earlier actions is also stated.

 

Poe gets dragged through the mud for no reason in TLJ other than Rian Johnson had no idea what to do with his character. Poe suffers from what I have dubbed MARTY MCFLY SYNDROME.

In BTTF, Marty is a well rounded guy who mostly lacks self confidence, but by the start of BTTF2 he has morphed into a character who loses his cool from being insulted (being called a chicken) and is no longer capable of making logical decisions. This is just so Marty can have an "arc" by the end of BTTF3. And don't get me wrong, I love the BTTF franchise, but that weird character quirk always stuck out to me because it was never established in the first movie. (I do have a theory about it though if anyone is interested)

Nothing about Poe in TFA would lead you to believe he's a guy who acts the way he does in TLJ. He was entrusted to go, alone, to get the map to Luke. He leads a fighter squadron with precision, and he never makes bad decisions or goes against orders. Then, suddenly in TLJ, he is disobeying orders and talking back to his superiors. And, much like with Luke, no information is ever given to the audience about this sudden change of personality. We're just expected to accept it because reasons...

There's a reason why TLJ was largely ignored in the following episode; because it was the cinematic equivalent of wheels spinning in mud.

 

I'd say he had plenty of idea of what to do with him (as evidenced by the fact that he did do plenty with him - and more then Abrams did in the prior film too boot), it's just that some peaple (like you) don't like the choices he made.

That's fair - I don't like some of the character choices Abrams made in TROS or Lucas made (regarding Anakin) in the PT* - but that does'nt mean their was actually anything wrong with those choices. If I paint a picture and you don't like that I used the color green rather then the color blue it does'nt make it a bad painting.

*or that Lucas and Filoni made in TCW prior to the de-canonizition of the EU, or that the EU made itself during its latter years, ect...

The Back to the Future films are comadies. I think your reading to much into things.

It's funny you say that, becuase to me everything about Poe in TFA led me to believe he was a guy who would act the way he does in TLJ. I've seen the type of character archtype he repersents (the handsome, cocky flyboy) enough times to reconize it right away.

Look, you watched TLJ and you went "oh my good! They ruined Poe! This is completly out of character based on what we saw in the prior film!" while I watched it and went "yup, that's Poe. 100 percent in character based on what we've previusly scene of him." Really what it comes down to at the end of the day is that I liked what they did and thought it made sense, while you did'nt like it and did'nt think it makes sense.

And? So becuase we never see him back any bad decisions in TFA or act insabordinate in that film it means he's incapable of making bad decisions or being insabordinate ever? He's barely in the first film at all (and never put in a position in that film were he would have cuase to fluant authority or disobey orders), and we learn essentially nothing about him other then that he's a cocky ace pilot and a loyal follower of Princess Leia who she trusts (all three being things TLJ retained).

That's A) just an opinion and B) not a reason to go out of your way to ingore what it set up - it would be like ROTS ingoring everything it could get away with from ATOC just becuase (some) peaple did'nt like that latter movie. I don't know it if was pride or a cynical desire to try and please as many peaple as possible (I suspect the latter over the former), but whichever it was I defiantly think the decision to ingore, rather then work with and improve, hurt the film - after all, when life gives you lemons you don't throw them out the window.

 

They recall Kylo's squadron(I wanna say he still had one wingmate left at that point but I could be misremembering) because they "couldn't cover them at that range", not that I think that makes any sense either, practically speaking. And in fact all the plot armor lacking TIEs are indeed shot down by the ships' defenses, so clearly the Resistance ships have better anti-fighter weapons than the poor dreadnaught. Now, if you look at how much damage just the 4 TIEs managed to do they clearly could have overwhelmed the Resistance with fighters no problem if they had chosen to, but then the movie would be over so the First Order suddenly develops a strong aversion to taking any casualties.

After they zap him unconscious for leading a straight up mutiny, they take the time to fawn over how much they like him and his rebellious streak. He doesn't get punished for the mutiny at all, even though it directly leads to massive casualties, which flies in the face of being so strict that saving everyone's life doesn't warrant acknowledgement if you disobeyed orders to do it. The demotion itself is fine, it's the fact that they only focus on the bad part of his choice without acknowledging that there was a significant good, and then aren't consistent when he does something that's the same but much worse in outcome.

Outside the range of defensive fire in Star Wars? What is that, from orbit? Not the mention the fact that even with escort the entire squadron was lost to enemy fighters so good luck finding anything of importance to bomb without running in to those.

Well that's convenient considering the small window of time between the two movies. But the point remains where the one actual time they maybe could have been useful they apparently didn't get there fast enough anyways so what's even the point of these things?

If the accidental benefit is single-handedly saved the galaxy(under TLJ's premise that the galaxy is doomed if the Resistance is wiped out), then yeah I would want some credit for that if I was Poe. Especially because it wasn't just pure luck or anything, it's danger to their fleet was precisely why he disobeyed orders to blow it up. Saving them in a future battle wasn't an accident, it was intentional. The accident was how soon that battle was.

He's pretty clearly judging her on her unprofessional looking attire, and although that's not what caused him to mutiny it feeds his overall negative impression of her when she starts making questionable leadership choices.

Why not? She thinks of him as being impulsive and knows he's been demoted for taking matters into his own hands once already just that day.

I agree but my original point is that Poe's fault in this is not treated by the movie as driven by his success the first time he disobeys orders, because the movie never acknowledges that it was such a success. Instead it's just painted as something Poe does all the time because it's a character flaw of his.

She definitely should have been less generous if that was the route she was going to go, which is part of what ultimately makes her seem so incompetent to many audience members, even though Poe's perception of her incompetence is supposed to be wrong.

I'm talking about the fact that Poe was right the first time. That's what never gets acknowledged, not even by Poe in his own defense.

 

The thing about TLJ is that scenes are trying to convey one thing to the audience, but there is conflicting and contradictory information being given as well. It's not that there isn't enough information being given to support how the film is trying to convey Poe, it's just that there is contradictory information being given as well.

Poe disobeys orders, starts a mutiny, and risks the last members of the Resistance by sending Finn and Rose on a mission that results in failure. Okay, that's enough information being conveyed to the audience by Rian Johnson to support how Holdo views Poe. ...but then Holdo and Leia are jovial about the whole experience immediately afterward. So, as an audience member, what am I supposed to be feeling?

Holdo, on the other hand, is supposed to be the leader who steps up in the absence of Leia, has to put Poe in his place so he can learn his lesson, and ultimately be the catalyst for Poe being a better leader. ...but again, she jokes with Leia immediately afterward. So does Holdo just think the whole think is cute? "Isn't it funny that Poe made a decision that drastically lowered moral to the point of mutiny and put all our lives needlessly at risk? I like him too, Leia." Again, as an audience member, what am I supposed to feel?

Poe's "arc" is just a symptom of this movie. It's not that there isn't enough information to support his arc, it's just that there is enough information to also contradict it.

Plus, he's supposed to learn that he can't always just attack the FO and expect luck to save the day because it costs lives; lives the Resistance can't afford to lose. So having the climax of the film be a situation where the Resistance either has to attack in a last ditch effort that will cost lives, or just sit in a cave and wait to be blown up doesn't support that arc. Most writers find a way to show growth in the final climax. Poe's "growth" is just luck. He's lucky Luke decided to skype-fight Kylo and he's lucky Rey was able to move all the rocks out of the way. It's not a well-written story and Poe is a glaring symptom.

 

Presumably from the same height (or slightly higher) as an IRL strategic bomber.

Agian, becuase they were'nt being used right.

If you tried to do a close-range bombing run on the IJN Yamato with a bunch of B-24s and only a meager escort, in the face of superior enemy air attack, the end result would probobly be much the same.

Dating back to the final days of the Galactic Civil War, when the New Republic besieged stubborn Imperial holdouts, the Slayn and Karpil MG-100 StarFortress heavy bomber saw reduced manufacture during the decades of peace that follows. Disarmed versions of the vessel see continued use in planetary civilian services, as the modular bomb magazine can easily be repurposed for remote cargo drops, wildfire suppression and the deployment of mining explosives.

That's from the TLJ VD, and that's what their shown to being doing in the Cobalt Squadron book set concurrently with TFA.

Not to mention the Resistence can't really afford to be picky. They take what they can get.

Poe did'nt know about the tracking system, so as far as he knew the fleet was safe as soon as it jumped away and he was just throwing away lives for immedate benafit of destroying a ship the FO had more of. His insabordination does'nt get excused becuase he was lucky.

Oh yeah, clearly. I mean, it's super obvious. How could I miss it!

Oh come on - not only is that a huge assumption not actually supported by anything in the film, but Leia also wears a gown and he did'nt seem to have any issue with that.

There's a pretty big leap from "disobayed orders during a mission that was already underway" to "planning, organizing and ordering missions of his own accord and fermenting disloyaty amid the crew" - whatever else Holdo thought of Poe she clearly did'nt think he was capable of those things, as evidence by how she reacts when she finds out.

She's either bad becuase she's to hard on him, or bad becuase she's too leniant on him. Man, Holdo can't win, can she?

Probobly becuase he A) was'nt right, just lucky. And B) that was'nt felt to be relevent to the plot.

It's still pretty bad, since they had three ships (one of which was over 3000 meters long) and they only managed to destroy two (or was it one? I honestly don't remember) out of three fighters at the end of their attack run.

It doubt it had anything to do with casualties; if anything Hux simply wanted to play with his food and did'nt want to let Kylo get all the glory by taking the kill for himself (honestly I would'nt be surpised if Kylo's attack run was'nt even planned as was something he did of his own inititive).

God forbid someone respect a person dispite disagreeing with them and understand why they did what they did, amright?

At that point their's like what, a dozen peaple left? And their all backed into a corner making a last stand. Leia reconizes that Poe learned (a very costly) lesson from his experiences and gained valuable and much needed perspective, and that's why she promotes him back at the end.

That's a fair point, I suppose (at least regarding the bolded).

Well, I got plenty of information, and saw nothing contradictory

I think your misinterpreting her character; she supposed to be antagonistic force, albeit one who, like the protagonist, is also valid and justification in their actions. It's not "Poe bad/Holdo good" it's "Poe and Holdo both have points but neither handles the situation right and both make mistakes" - or at least that's how I read the films.

That, despite their differences, Holdo respects Poe and understands why he did what he did? Even if she does'nt agree with it?

To you, maybe. Agian, though, I did'nt feel that way.

Um, yeah it does, becuase the Poe at the start of the film would have just carried through with the attack even once it became clear it was pointless and gotten everyone in the squad killed. At least by retreating he would be able to save lives and, ideally, find a way to get to the Falcon (which he did).

Poe's growth takes shape and occurs before Luke projects himself to Crait, so it has nothing to do with luck relative to those events.

"It's not a well-written story IMO"

Come on, I know you some of you guys hate TLJ, but I never understood the logic between acting like a film is actually poorly-written just becuase one did'nt enjoy it; I think ATOC was had some of the worst writing and logic of any sci-fi film ever made, but I don't go around acting like that's anything other then my opinion.

 

TLJ is a movie where Finn asks how Rey will find the fleet and Leia says she has a tracking device and then IN THE SAME SCENE the FO tracks the Resistance fleet through hyperspace and not one person thinks that Leia's tracking device could be how.

TLJ is a movie where hyperspace tracking is unknown tech to the Resistance, but they also have a hologram that is already programmed to zoom into Snoke's ship, have the tracker flash a few times, and then zoom back out. Who programmed this hologram to do that? Did that programmer know the FO had a hyperspace tracker and didn't bother to tell anyone else. Was it just a good guess that the flux capacitor looking thing was the tracker. How awkward would it have been if Finn, Rose and DJ all got to the "tracker" only to find out it was just a coffee dispenser.

TLJ is a movie where the laser blasts arc for some reason???

TLJ is a movie where the writer didn't like the main badguy so he just killed him off without explaining where he came from. Much like 'Da Maniac' from It's Always Sunny just having a bucket of chestnuts in his car, Palpatine just has a bucket of Snokes on Exegol.

TLJ is a movie where the writer decided a low speed chase through space would be a good idea to hinge a plot around. Also, even though no one can escape due to lightspeed tracking, Finn and Rose in a shuttle, and Chewbacca aboard the Falcon can pop in and out of the riveting action with ease. The story is a mess.