Star Wars Force Awakens [Spoiler thread]

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Hm. Must say I'm glad the self-proclaimed "Dread Lord of the Idiots" was not in the audience with me watching that movie, then. :lol:

Well why settle for being an ordinary lord if you can do better

Besides, I couldn't pass up on using that clip once she starts talking about the story being in a desert.

 

[Radu094]

...a small fragment of what the empire used to be [...] why the FO would spend all its money building wonder weapons

Or build a weapon several orders of magnitude bigger than the Death Star 2.0, which the Empire built whilst having most of the galaxy's resources at it's disposal.

It's like ISIS suddenly building a carrier 10 times the size of USS Eisenhower. Because f*ck logic; the movie was good: "look how cool the new black TIE fighters look.. whoohoo ! "

</rant> Couldn't hold it in anymore...

 

[SolarLiner]

Well, it seems I'm one of the few that liked it. I was surprised by the quality of the picture in itself, from the design to the styling to the composition. Having seen his take on Star Trek, this really was a step up from his previous work (not counting the series he directed), and his "Mystery Box" style works quite well on the film.

 

[fsci123]

One thing that bothered me was the cantina music. It was a scene full of weird aliens and bizarre sports and things yet they couldn't find any music weirder than garbled reggae. They should've thrown in some ultra exotic electronica in there tbh.

 

[Artlav]

Or build a weapon several orders of magnitude bigger than the Death Star 2.0, which the Empire built whilst having most of the galaxy's resources at it's disposal.

Maybe it's the case of "work smarter, not harder"?

I.e. the Empire built a WHOLE moon from scratch, while the first order just fed an existing planet to Von Neuman machines or something.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

...

HOW THE HECK DOES REY UNDERSTAND BB-8. I mean, Poe, I can understand, if he's been with him long enough. But Rey's probably never interacted with an astromech droid day in and day out for years. So, how does she do it? Anakin and Luke still relied on some sort of translator to interact with R2-D2, even after years together.

That said, I want BB-8. He's as cool as R2-D2, but in a much more compact package.

 

[Linguofreak]

Overall, I thought the concept was generally good, with weak execution at points.

As for Han's death scene, it's quite plausible that the plot was constrained by the number of movies Ford was willing to sign on for, and the fact that he had apparently wanted Han to have a death scene in RotJ. It was well executed, and didn't entirely come out of left field either (as often happens when a key character in a series is killed off for teh dramaz).

I was rather disappointed by what they did with the TIE fighters (for what they needed for Poe (sp?) and Finn's escape scene, I would have rehashed the visual looks of the TIE bomber, like they did with the X-Wings, and used that for the escape). I also would have liked to see a bit more of a force mixture among the TIEs in the battle scenes.

I didn't mind the degree to which the plot ran similarly to Episode IV (it did differ at key points, notably Ren as an explicitly wannabe Vader), though I do agree with those who say that Death Star round 3 was a weak point. However if I had been advising Lucas on Episode IV, with the certainty that the story would span 9 movies and a bunch of tie-in books, games, etc. (instead of just the one that was all Lucas knew he'd doing before the box office results came back from IV), I would have advised him that the first Death Star was a mistake for a series of that scale, because it leaves the question "why don't they build another" with no great answer. Of course, then Episode IV would have been a vastly different movie, even if the flavor was largely the same.

To finish, I'd say that what most impressed me about the movie was that it actually made the whole "Solo kid turns to the dark side" bit work. If you had told me a year ago that they would use, and in so doing basically canonicalize, any element of the post-New-Jedi-Order expanded universe as a key plot element, and that that would not ruin the film, I wouldn't have believed you. NJO was where my headcannon took leave of the Expanded Universe, and I never would have thought any part of it could have been made to actually work.

 

[SolarLiner]

CinemaSins's Jeremy review sums up pretty much my view of the movie:

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

As for Han's death scene, it's quite plausible that the plot was constrained by the number of movies Ford was willing to sign on for, and the fact that he had apparently wanted Han to have a death scene in RotJ.

I thought that was rather amusing. It only took him 32 years, but Ford finally got them to kill off Han Solo. :lol:

Im just picturing him walking off set the last day of shooting, muttering "That took long enough"

 

[jedidia]

Finally saw it. My friend summed it up best:

"This was a really cool remake!" :lol:

I did have a lot of fun, because the movie had a lot of energy. And it wasn't the usual "moar and faster action"-increase, the energy came mostly just from pacing and characters. And I always like that in a movie.

HOW THE HECK DOES REY UNDERSTAND BB-8.

She understands Chewbacca as well. Must have a talent for languages :lol:

 

[Lmoy]

She understands Chewbacca as well. Must have a talent for languages :lol:

Some Force-sensitives are exceptionally good at learning new languages, which is especially convenient for protagonists.

 

[jedidia]

Yeah, just noticed that Howard Taylor summed up my feelings about the film pretty nicely:

More amazingly, almost everything that was done well in Episodes IV, V, and VI was done better in Episode VII.

And I mean "better."

Not "bigger" or "louder" or "more." BETTER.

 

[Lmoy]

Not "bigger" or "louder" or "more." BETTER.

I felt it was more the opposite of this. Longer movie with bigger, louder, more dramatic aspects, but everything felt like a cheap rehash of the originals, somehow managing to be less impactful.

 

[Izack]

I've just returned from the theatres. My feelings are... mixed. I'll say neutral for now, leaning on positive. A lot of things I liked a lot, and a couple things I really hated.

My biggest gripe can be summed up thusly: Han should have worn a ing condom. Without having it spoiled beforehand, I was already expecting him (or possibly someone else) to die, I just wish it had been more impactful or meaningful than just pointing out what a petulant, brainwashed emo douche his son is. An angsty pubescent Special Snowflake who has lightsaber temper tantrums is not a villain I ever wanted to see in this franchise. :rant:

Whew. Okay. That said, there were a good many things I really enjoyed here, more than I care to list at this time of night. I just needed to get that rage out of my system.

 

[jedidia]

everything felt like a cheap rehash of the originals

oh, everything was a rehash, alright, and I sure would have appreciated more originality plot-wise. I couldn't call it a cheap rehash though. The characters felt more intimate, the acting was superior, the pacing more regular (well, for the most part).

An angsty pubescent Special Snowflake who has lightsaber temper tantrums is not a villain I ever wanted to see in this franchise.

This is kind of interesting, and I guess it will be one of the causes for a split base after this movie. I really liked kylo ren as a "villain wannabe". It depends on where they'll take this in the future, but for this movie, I thought it was perfect.
No, he's not threatening or intimidating as Vader was, but I never found vader to be particularly interesting, until the final minutes of rotj.

In the end, it all depends on what they're going to do with emperor Goldemort, I guess. After this movie, he'll have to take over as main villain, with Ren becoming more of an "evil protagonist" with his own journey, otherwise the follow-ups might lack some tension. Rey kicked his ass all over the floor, so I would expect to see him grow as much as we'll see her grow, and that's what I find interesting.

Also, it would be funny if Goldemort turns out to be yoda-sized :lol:

 

[statickid]

...This is kind of interesting, and I guess it will be one of the causes for a split base after this movie. I really liked kylo ren as a "villain wannabe". It depends on where they'll take this in the future, but for this movie, I thought it was perfect.
No, he's not threatening or intimidating as Vader was, but I never found vader to be particularly interesting, until the final minutes of rotj.

I think he's more interesting because in this movie he's not as flawlessly predictable as the usual confident and collected force-master type villain. Really more of a student put in a position of power. not quite so one-dimensional, I didn't expect him to try and convince rey she needs a teacher, I suppose in retrospect, in the context of the story, a natural force user is probably someone of potentially great value and one wouldn't pass the opportunity to recruit them.

In the end, it all depends on what they're going to do with emperor Goldemort, I guess. After this movie, he'll have to take over as main villain, with Ren becoming more of an "evil protagonist" with his own journey, otherwise the follow-ups might lack some tension. Rey kicked his ass all over the floor, so I would expect to see him grow as much as we'll see her grow, and that's what I find interesting.

Also, it would be funny if Goldemort turns out to be yoda-sized :lol:

Rey kicked his ass, but it's important to remember KR had a blaster wound that was prominently bothering him and bleeding quite a bit at the beginning of the scene. Also he basically won the fight when he offered to be her teacher, and only lost after she had a chance to re-focus.

I agree in the interest of then both growing in maturity. It's probably the stage the writers are trying to set for the story. I personally hope that we will finally see someone build a lightsaber. The setup is perfect, Rey returns Luke's lightsaber, she'll need one of her own to become a jedi, plus building one is traditionally part of the jedi training. I'd lay money down it's a significant part of the plot in the next movie...or they'll just skip it again like they did for anakin :/

 

[MaverickSawyer]

I personally hope that we will finally see someone build a lightsaber. The setup is perfect, Rey returns Luke's lightsaber, she'll need one of her own to become a jedi, plus building one is traditionally part of the jedi training. I'd lay money down it's a significant part of the plot in the next movie...or they'll just skip it again like they did for anakin :/

If Rey doesn't do a double bladed saber to match her salvaged quarterstaff, I will be very disappointed.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

That would be very interesting: the protagonist having the special saber since in all the movies, the only special sabers or saber-like weapons have been in the hands of the bad guys (Darth Maul's double-blade, Dooku's bent-hilt, Grevious's guards' electrostaffs, the Storm Trooper's electro-thingy in this one, Kylo Ren's cross-saber)

 

[Andy44]

I think Ren's immaturity doucheness is a key plot point.

This kid is powerful and dangerous, but he's not Darth Vader at all. He's a pawn of the creepy holo guy Goldemort or whatever his name is who's manipulating him.

I hope Ren doesn't "turn good" or something. That always bothered me about Darth Vader. You don't get to massacre entire planets and then suddenly become a good guy in the last five minutes of your life, not without answering for it. You're pretty much committed by then, like it or not.

 

[Pipcard]

Would've been really silly if Snoke was actually as big as his hologram.