Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Boy, how unpopular does a modern Star Wars movie have to be for me to wait more than two years to check it out? This isn't even a stand-alone; it's the conclusion of the numbered series, and I'd hate to end my knowledge with the unresolved prior episode. Well, what finally spurred me to watch it was a set of diminishing options for passing time on my flight. Most of the remaining movies were either unknown to me, even more panned, or not suited to my mood at the time.

One of the first things we learn is something I never saw coming: Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is back, and not as a ghost. He claims credit for directing the First Order behind the scenes and corrupting Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), whom he now bids kill the last Jedi, Rey (Daisy Ridley). As impressive as Rey was before, she feels that she has a lot to learn before taking on Palpatine. Good thing she still has plenty of allies, old and new, and Kylo isn't as committed as he once was.

Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

I'd read the gist of the 1988 Alan Moore graphic novel by this title long ago: The Joker attempts to drive Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon mad with grief in just one day, hoping to demonstrate how easily a decent man can become like the Joker. More recently, I saw a clip from near the end of this adaptation. It looked so promising that I paid no mind to the viewers' mixed reactions before I decided to watch the whole thing.

The primary reason for those mixed reactions is that while the majority of the 77 minutes is highly faithful, the first third has no basis in that comic or, to my knowledge, any other. In it, the focal character and part-time narrator is Jim's daughter, Barbara, a.k.a. Batgirl (Tara Strong), who gains the quasi-affectionate attention of nonthematic mobster Paris Franz (Maury Sterling). She's in no danger of falling for his charisma, but Batman (Kevin Conroy) doesn't trust her judgment on how to deal with a twistedly playful opponent, since she hasn't dealt with the likes of the Joker (Mark Hamill). In truth, she's more interested in exploring her feelings toward Batman.

Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

So yeah, we've made a family tradition of watching current Star Wars movies on Christmas. Never my mom's first choice, but it beats our previous tradition of dark musicals in my book.

Picking up right where Episode VII left off, Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found the hiding place of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and wants him to train her so she can contribute better to the war. But Luke has grown bitter and disenchanted with Jedi ways and dreads the possibility of creating another Vader-esque Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who has some Force-related connection to Rey. Meanwhile, despite its previous victory, the Resistance is weakening and struggles to retreat from a First Order bent on eradicating it.

The Big Red One (1980)

I had put this film off, because it runs 162 minutes. How serendipitous that I should get around to it on Memorial Day weekend.

The title's emphasis falls on "One," as in the numeral 1, sported in red by the 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in World War II. Writer-director Sam Fuller was a veteran, which may explain why the narrator, Pvt. Zab (Robert Carradine), says he enlisted in order to get book material. His squad has the curious distinction of five men who never die or get badly wounded while the replacements drop like flies.

Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

I considered skipping this review, because it's quite likely that you've already formed your opinion from multiple other reviews if not the movie itself by now. But it's also quite likely that you'll take more interest in this subject than in my usual fare, so why not? And it's not like I never read what other people say about what I've already seen.

In a way, TFA is inherently sad from the get-go: Only a generation after the end of the Empire, the galaxy faces an equal if not worse threat called the First Order. General Leia (no longer going by "Princess") naturally leads the Resistance, but Luke Skywalker has lain low for so long that many think him a mere legend, Han Solo and Chewbacca have been up to their old smuggling and other shenanigans more than heroism, R2D2 has been inert in Luke's absence, and C3PO is only so useful without R2. Taking more of the spotlight now are Rey, who resembles a young female Luke with a bit more fire; FN-2187, nicknamed Finn, a rookie stormtrooper disenchanted with the First Order's cruelty; BB-8, a diminutive droid carrying an important map; and Poe, a pilot and BB-8's master. The most prominent villain for now is Kylo Ren, an open Darth Vader wannabe who may actually outdo Vader's command of the Force. Where is the Jedi who can hold his or her own against him?