Here is a really cool website that tracks airplanes in real time. I've been watching tankers and helicopters fighting multiple fires today in my area. As of right now they are fighting the CZU fire with multiple helicopters just west of Boulder Creek https://www.flightradar24.com/37.09,-122.08/12 . Also fighting the SCU fire with multiple large Air-tankers including the 747 global supertanker, currently dropping around Henry Coe state parkhttps://www.flightradar24.com/37.39,-121.51/11. Also a couple copters fighting that fire just south of Livermore.

(edit) I see North of San Francisco there are quite a few helicopters and small planes fighting the fire in the Point Reyes area. https://www.flightradar24.com/37.99,-122.85/11

So many fires right now

I still have a hard time getting into these new movies with Rey as the protagonist. The first movie started off promising but the Last Jedi really killed it for me. Rey will probably end up choke-slamming the Emperor back down the nearest reactor shaft without breaking a sweat, so, I'm just going to see it for the space battles...

No, sorry, but Jediism is an established and legally recognised religion. Questioning this being tagged religion is as reasonable as questioning Passion of the Christ being tagged religion.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jediism

I thought they strongly implied Leah was the relative Rey was waiting for on the dump planet, making her a Skywalker.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but @ant is right.

@lucky760, I really hope Rey doesn’t turn out to be a Skywalker. That would be boring.

I think it’s more likely that “Skywalker” will become a title for a new type of force user.

So who here thinks Rey is a Skywalker?

/raises_hand

Best Frampton by years with this, but Wiki says Alvino Rey and Gilbert Wright each invented different versions of the effect separately in 1939. All news to me.

San Louis Rey Fire-Horse Ranch has been added as a related post - related requested by newtboy on that post.

Extremely cautious about this one after Ep. 7 turned out to just be a cash-grab rehash of elements from the original trilogy. I refuse to board the hype train this time around. If it's good I'll be pleasantly surprised. At the very least, it will be interesting to see if the most common Internet theories about Rey's origins are correct.

RedSky, I'm with you 100%. What I meant was how the 2 movies met my expectations differently. I think most SW fans had much higher expectations for SW7 than R1. SW7 is so much more important, it needed to carry the SW story forward, while R1 is more of a cash-grab than anything else. I don't mean I'd rate R1 better than SW7.

My reaction after seeing SW7 was like "what the hell Disney? Must you mess up the ending? It could've easily been much better. But I like Rey & co and I'm so happy seeing the old crew." While R1 was "That was meh. But it wasn't as bad as the reviews said."

That's mainly because I'm really lenient with R1. You said "The characters were bland and underdeveloped" which is true but it's something I accepted before going into the cinema. We all know they'll die at the end, the ending was known for decades. They really are throwaway characters that Disney can't bring back. So I treated it as an unimportant popcorn movie than a proper SW Sci Fi, and it was a better than most blockbusters.

This teaser/trailer is weak. Yeah there's a little bit of intrigue, but it isn't giving me any sense of excitement. Gee, even the Transformers teaser/trailer is better than this.

I hope SW8 will be better than SW7. SW7 was a minor disappointment. Kylo Ren was laughable as a main villain and the ending duel set-piece was the weakest of all lightsaber duels, it's garbage non-sense.

I enjoyed Rogue 1 more than SW7 for some reason. Although I like Rey more than Jyn.

hah! Why am I thinking of Star Wars: The Force Awakens with the character Rey dragging her salvage across the sand?

"What you brought me today is worth... hmmm, one quarter portion."

No.
Bad Rey. Bad Fin.
Do that again and it'll be the sarlacc pit for you.

There are a LOT of similarities. It definitely blurs the line between "reboot" and "homage", but I'd argue that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I think it will take a few years for me to digest and figure out where I think it ranks in my personal assessment of the Star Wars movies.

That being said, I'm excited about the future of Star Wars again -- the prequels came very close to destroying any optimism that I had in that regard.

For the moment, consider Episode VII but ignore the plot and parallels / homage / blatant copying between it and A New Hope. In all three prequels combined, there wasn't a single character that was interesting; that we could identify with. Anakin was annoying -- in kid form and adult form. Ewan McGregor did OK with the material and directing he was given, but the script and writing in general did NOTHING to connect prequels Obi-Wan with the original trilogy. Padme, Jar-Jar (ha!), Palpatine, Dooku, etc. -- not a single memorable, interesting character that made me want to learn more about them. Sam Jackson's Mace Windu was probably the closest, but didn't get enough screen time or depth to really establish interest.

Already I feel confident in saying that in terms of characters, Episode VII is massively, overwhelmingly better than the prequels. Rey, Finn, and Poe are each individually far more interesting than every character from the prequels combined. AND, I want to see how those new faces interact with the old stars also. Luke, Leia, even Chewbacca (my personal favorite of the OT) all seem like they will continue to be very important to the story moving forward -- and continue to develop their own story arcs in addition to the new cast.

The Force Awakens wasn't *perfect* -- I tend to think it leaned a bit too much on revamping A New Hope also -- but it was very good and very entertaining. And I am definitely excited about the future of Star Wars again.

I dunno, it's certainly not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't think its appeal rests solely on Star Wars nostalgia. I saw it with a friend who's never even seen the original trilogy, and he still loved it. I don't think the reviews or the word of mouth would be as strong as they are if it were just a nostalgic wank-fest (which it is to a certain extent, don't get me wrong).

As for your Kylo Ren issues -- the guy had been shot by Chewbacca's blaster, which is established earlier in the film as having some pretty serious stopping power. So he's injured during the Finn/Rey fights.

Have to disagree with Star Wars.

Without the massive appeal the series built, this movie wouldn't get many good reviews at all. The plot is an insane jumble of random events and plotholes that should have been embarrassing. To enumerate a few:

1) Randomly Melennium Falcon happens to be at the right place, right time (I can buy this, barely, because it's fun)

2) Before they can even have a full conversation (something the filmmakers seemed determined to avoid, even though, as this list shows, dialogue can make riveting cinema) HS and Chewie burst in. I could buy into this, if not for the rapid-fire pace of these events, as it is it just seems random and things are starting to get silly.

3) Before THEY can even have a full conversation not one, but two gangs HAPPEN upon the group, for no reason, except some executive was apparently worried about giving the audience a moment to reflect and MAYBE develop some connection with the characters.

4) Kylo Ren kicks ass. He's the only Force master EVER to stop a blaster bolt mid progress. He's got some serious juice!

5) Kylo Ren can't fight his way out of a paper bag (a bag named Finn) narrowly winning the fight and merely wounding the otherwise fairly useless ex-stormtrooper.

6) Kylo Ren is BEATEN by some chick with no training whatsoever! (Don't get me wrong, I like Rey, but the good guys are SUPPOSED to be weaker than the bad guys, and what's the point in Jedi training if she already kicks Evil's ass? )

7) WTF is up with this whiny Emo? He is, bar-none, the worst villain of the entire SW series thus far. It's not surprising that they defeat him, he's so useless, what's surprising is it takes them so damn long to beat his whining Emo shitty-at-lightsaber-duelling ass.

IMO the whole film was a hot mess that reeked of far too much studio interference which turns artistic vision into "more explosions!"

In summary, and this is totally true, my ten-year-old son, who loved the first 3 SWs (I won't let him watch the prequels) when asked what he thought of it replied, "Too many explosions." This is the mediocrity paradigm of big-budget Hollywood films at it's pinnacle.