I actually find myself fast-forwarding past everything that happens in Terminus and just following the "Empire" storyline

Star Wars isn't the only franchise that was damaged by movies - I find the Michael Bay Transformers movies to be unbearable. And these guys played them simultaneously and showed that they were all basically the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rfup0XKx7o

Almost looks naturally designed

the more sophisticated technology gets, the more biological it often seems... ?

... where in New York?

good to know, thanks. It sounded vaguely warhammer-y but I only know 40k and that seemed unfamiliar (while simultaneously also being familiar, so...)

ok thanks, I think I get what you mean - I'd never seen that word used as a kind of "verb" before, I suppose usage like this is fairly recent?

... both of them look dangerous as heck

She just sniffs it and walks away.

Just say No to drugs!!!!

oh man that's so true. There's a spot near where I live, every time someone tries to give it a shot I wanted to be able to go warn them IT'S A TRAP DON'T DO IT but it's too late...

with a movie like that it's crucial to understanding the plot.

I dunno, even with all the words I didn't know what was going on!

I missed some words too

right, but it seems to me a good opportunity to introduce Ixians "early" (if they'll be showing up in the future, better early as a set up than "suddenly" later) - the movie is definitely not slavishly following the book plot and has introduced some changes for the movie's purposes anyway

I think we might have gotten a taste of "non-human" creature shapes from the thing the Reverend Mother told to leave (that Piter had said "doesn't understand us") when she was holding the meeting with the Baron (and extracting the "commitment" that he wouldn't kill Jessica and Paul).