[SPOILERS] Star Wars: The Force Awakens - It's True. All of it.

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DeadOnions said:
Much better than expected and Kylo is what Anakin should have been. JJ is definitely more suited to Star Wars than Star Trek.
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It's funny you should say that because I left thinking Ben really is Anakin done right. Drunk on the dark side without looking like he's asleep at the wheel like Hayden Christensen was for 2 movies.
 
Napoleonthechimp said:
I thought it was a boring movie that relied too heavily on nostalgia. If you're indifferent to Han Solo, Leia, and Luke then this movie ain't going to do much for you IMHO.

And I didn't think either actors sold the anguish that I felt should be present in the scene between Kylo Ren and Han Solo. After that whole thing I was pretty much just "okay".
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You have to like/love star wars to like/love this movie too ;) I dont see a the issue with involving this old characters. Its the first movie of a trilogy.
 
Napoleonthechimp said:
I thought it was a boring movie that relied too heavily on nostalgia. If you're indifferent to Han Solo, Leia, and Luke then this movie ain't going to do much for you IMHO.

And I didn't think either actors sold the anguish that I felt should be present in the scene between Kylo Ren and Han Solo. After that whole thing I was pretty much just "okay".
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I dunno, Han, Luke and Leia weren't the best parts of the movie. Yes it's too nostalgic but the new actors hold their own.
 
Violet_0 said:
hypothetical question - how well would you have to time the moment you switch off the hyperspace drive when you're in a spaceship that travels at lightspeed or faster so you break through the shield that encompasses the planet but don't actually crash into said planet? My guess is that by the time you shout "Cheewie, now!" (or whatever it was) and the co-pilot can react, you are long, long dead

also, another hypothetical question, wouldn't a ship that crashes into a planet at the speed of light or faster make one hell of a kinetic bomb?
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Ya that would have to be timed exceptionally well (by a computer), don't think anyone's going to give out about it too much.

And ya, that ship at light speed would smash to planet to tiny tiny pieces.
 
loved it, felt like star wars, unlike the prequels

eot said:
I dunno, Han, Luke and Leia weren't the best parts of the movie. Yes it's too nostalgic but the new actors hold their own.
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the best part of the film was the finn/bb8 thumbs up

I'm gonna gif that when the bd's come out
 
Your hatred for Christensen is going far too deep.

Adam was good, but he is in no way "Anakin done right". He's something else.

Christensen did play his part as he should. Not only did have literally no room to shine with the writing he had to deal with, but Lucas himself ordered him to act it like this because it was his vision for the character.

You don't like Anakin, it's not like Hayden actually ruined the character, he was written this way.

And Adam had several cringe worthy parts too. Having an helmet for 60% of his scenes probably helped. He nailed the Han scene though. Which is all that mattered.

Sibersk Esto said:
The android twins have the most random name pun ever. "Lapis Lazuli"? What do they have to do with stones?
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Obviously a reference to the color of their piercing blue eyes.
 
This is what I posted on my Facebook page after getting back from watching. It's spoiler-free, but didn't want to post in the other thread just in case there was something I'd overlooked.

TLDR: Slightly better than the best of the prequels, but at the cost of being considerably less interesting and characterful.

So... Force Awakens.

Good news is, it's not terrible. You can probably guess what the bad news is. It's marginally better as a straightforward watch than the best of the prequels, but discernably worse than any of the original trilogy. The dialogue doesn't clunk as loudly as Lucas' frequently baffling efforts, but lacks any punch or wit or personality.

That's true of the movie in general: everything's played totally safe, stripped of flavour and conviction, and left to wander from scene to scene, hoping the action provides sufficient distraction from the fact what little plot there is has been copied wholesale from New Hope (only BIGGER!) and the small number of new ideas, while giving the movie a welcome if faint breeze of freshness, seem to have nowhere to go but into further repeats of old, already completed character arcs.

Visually, the movie's by far the least interesting of the seven to date. Abrams may copy the plot, arc and wiped transitions of previous movies - and, of course, John William's phenomenal original score and some solid new material - but has no grasp of the conceptual or visual language that makes space operas sing. While not as soulless as Abrams' previous work, there's no vision or thematic purpose to guide Force Awakens to a higher path. It simply plays out its sequence of action scenes - not always coherently - then promises a sequel and ends. Space opera has never really been about plot. It's about larger-than-life tropes playing out in fascinating landscapes and cultures, billowing with grandeur and melodrama. Force Awakens may be a little dustier than the over-polished prequels, but the series' character has been ruthlessly sanitised and hollowed out.

The planets in Force Awakens exist only to necessitate a change of scenery: there's little of the weird, the macabre, the salacious, the noble or the grotesque about them. For all Lucas' flaws, his movies, prequels included, felt lived-in and tangible, where every planet was full of weirdness bumping into strangeness, an appealingly messy mix of disparate cultures, politics, traditions and prejudices in both the margins and the machinations of the central storyline. Abrams offers little of that, relying on a half-hearted reprisal of the famous cantina scene to do the job.

Of the main cast, Harrison Ford is the most engaging, recapturing just enough of Solo's sarcastic sparkle to offer one of the few traces of genuine personality to survive the relentless purges. Carrie Fisher looks uncomfortably frail and Mark Hamill, well... he's in it. John Boyega's the best of the newcomers on the light side, though like the stiff but adequate Daisy Ridley, doesn't have much by way of a character to play: I could tell you more about Amidala or Anakin's personality and beliefs in the prequels than I could either of those two, and Ridley in particular is undermined by immediately having to play through some painfully self-conscious I DON'T NEED NO PATRONISING MAN material that is funny first time (Boyega gets a diversity joke of his own, amusing if strainingly contrived) and irritating when repeated over and over again in the space of a minute or two. You don't deserve credit for social consciousness if you're constantly demanding validation rather than letting the work and characters speak for themselves.

On the dark side, Adam Driver's unusual casting works in the movie's favour, drawing laughs at his first unmasking but turning that disconnect between his masked and unmasked selves into something more interesting. Domnhall Gleeson is hilariously terrible as Moff Mk.II and Andy Serkis' Emperor Mk.II looks like a steam-ironed Gollum or discount Voldemort and suggests none of Palpatine's political insidiousness or manipulation. Gwendoline Christie's Phasma is barely an afterthought, getting maybe four lines and a few minutes of screentime at most.

Lifelong Star Wars fans will probably ride a wave of relief that they're seeing an entry in the series which is merely repetitive and flat, rather than actively, challengingly, interestingly bad. Force Awakens never rises above passable and only occasionally descends below that same level, although its tone-deaf bungling of its ballsiest move verges on the unforgiveable. I suspect that once the hype dies down, the movie will start taking some hits when judged on its own merits. Having re-watched all six previous Star Wars movies prior to this one, Lucas at least somewhat mitigated his myriad flaws as a writer by creating a universe as lively as it was vast, a work of unquestionable personal passion and vision. Abrams hasn't just wiped the Expanded Universe from the canon, he's contracted Lucas' one.
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Just back from it now. Decent movie. Weak 2nd act but overall really enjoyed it. I think there might have been a problem with the sound at our cinema because some of the explosions didn't really make a noise...anyway...

Yeah Han dying. Ford asked lucas to kill the character off in empire and the fact he's been a central part of the marketing made me think they could do it and they did. Kylo Ren was excellent but came across a little bit like a petulant teenager. Nit picking tbh. Really looking forward to Luke taking that lightsaber in the next installment.

Was the big bad guy actually the emperor?
 
maquiladora said:
I'd watch the shit out of an Adventures of Finn and Poe standalone movie. Holy shit, talk about charismatic and likable dudes. Brilliant acting/writing/character direction.
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Agreed.

This films makes it seem so simple to have a likeable cast, yet many blockbusters fail to do so. Poe is a natural badass and Finn is a great "I am new to this, what will I do?" type of lead. And the chemistry of the cast in general feels natural.

Now that I type this, this is something Marvel's MCU also manages to nail quite often. Maybe Disney knows who to put in charge for these type of things?
 
Lashley said:
Well, guessing it was their son was easy, the name wasn't even close though
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It wasn't a guess. Janus was obviously used to mask the real name. Janus is a two headed god. So obvious a play on Driver being
Hans son and a bad guy
. So it stops the real name being leaked all over the place.
 
Just seen it and loved it. Laughed and even shed a tear at the end.
A question though: if Finn worked in sanitation, why was he also a Stormtrooper and sent into battle?
 
Slaythe said:
Your hatred for Christensen is going far too deep.

Adam was good, but he is in no way "Anakin done right". He's something else.

Christensen did play his part as he should. Not only did have literally no room to shine with the writing he had to deal with, but Lucas himself ordered him to act it like this because it was his vision for the character.

You don't like Anakin, it's not like Hayden actually ruined the character, he was written this way.

And Adam had several cringe worthy parts too. Having an helmet for 60% of his scenes probably helped. He nailed the Han scene though. Which is all that mattered.
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It's fine if you disagree, not too bothered but that is legitimately what I left the cinema thinking. In a perfect world this is how I would've liked to have seen Anakin develop. I don't hate the prequels, I don't hate Anakin and I don't Hayden Christensen.
 
Anyone find it weird how Finn went from uncomfortable pointing a gun and watching team-mates die to happily SHOOTING THE SHIT out of them in the hangar bay while shouting woohoo. They were your coworkers bro.
 
Messypandas said:
Anyone find it weird how Finn went from uncomfortable pointing a gun and watching team-mates die to happily SHOOTING THE SHIT out of them in the hangar bay while shouting woohoo. They were your coworkers bro.
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I don't think Finn ever cared about anyone in the First Order. To him they are all murderous monsters, he wasn't like them.
 
Messypandas said:
Anyone find it weird how Finn went from uncomfortable pointing a gun and watching team-mates die to happily SHOOTING THE SHIT out of them in the hangar bay while shouting woohoo. They were your coworkers bro.
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Not really, they just got through massacring an entire village.
 
Slaythe said:
Your hatred for Christensen is going far too deep.

Adam was good, but he is in no way "Anakin done right". He's something else.

Christensen did play his part as he should. Not only did have literally no room to shine with the writing he had to deal with, but Lucas himself ordered him to act it like this because it was his vision for the character.

You don't like Anakin, it's not like Hayden actually ruined the character, he was written this way.

And Adam had several cringe worthy parts too. Having an helmet for 60% of his scenes probably helped. He nailed the Han scene though. Which is all that mattered.
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To be fair, if you've ever seen Shattered Glass, Life as a House or anything else with Christensen, you'll see him playing the exact same character. The dude is fucking awful.
 
xandaca said:
This is what I posted on my Facebook page after getting back from watching. It's spoiler-free, but didn't want to post in the other thread just in case there was something I'd overlooked.

TLDR: Slightly better than the best of the prequels, but at the cost of being considerably less interesting and characterful.
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Disagree with everything.
 
xandaca said:
This is what I posted on my Facebook page after getting back from watching. It's spoiler-free, but didn't want to post in the other thread just in case there was something I'd overlooked.

TLDR: Slightly better than the best of the prequels, but at the cost of being considerably less interesting and characterful.
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I just have to disagree almost on all parts, nice write up though. I don't have time to write full answer so here's quick one.
I think Gleeson was great very nice touches in he's performance, Driver nailed as Kylo Ren, he felt very real. Finn and Rey were good, Finn really felt original character with own personality and Rey is fascinating as with mysterious background. Phasma was underused sure.

I really enjoyed locations, they felt real but still out of this world. I really hated most locations in prequels, too much designing to make them outlandish.

Sure movies relied a LOT to nostalgia, but I think it worked and set the tone for this trilogy. I get feeling movies are in great hands.
 
xandaca said:
This is what I posted on my Facebook page after getting back from watching. It's spoiler-free, but didn't want to post in the other thread just in case there was something I'd overlooked.

TLDR: Slightly better than the best of the prequels, but at the cost of being considerably less interesting and characterful.
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While I obviously have a bias since I disagree with you a fair bit, the need to say that things will change to align with your opinion is ridiculous. Just undermines whatever points you're trying to have since it comes off like you're scared of being different.

But seriously, less personality than the prequels is insane lol
 
maquiladora said:
I'd watch the shit out of an Adventures of Finn and Poe standalone movie. Holy shit, talk about charismatic and likable dudes. Brilliant acting/writing/character direction.
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Real shame Poe ended up doing fuck all though. I would've much rather see him and Finn together for most of the movie than Rey and Finn.

BronsonLee said:
I'm going to enjoy laughing at this damn movie, aren't I

First with that, then with Rey being all I DON'T NEED NO MAN, and finishing up with Finn Holding Dem Ls
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Poor Finn, but yeah he holds them like a champ.
 
xandaca said:
This is what I posted on my Facebook page after getting back from watching. It's spoiler-free, but didn't want to post in the other thread just in case there was something I'd overlooked.

TLDR: Slightly better than the best of the prequels, but at the cost of being considerably less interesting and characterful.
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Hmm no. Don't agree, this movie is definitely in my top 3. Gleeson for example was good in his role, I thought the way he portrayed this Moff that is not afraid of his Sith counterpart was great.
 
Awesome movie, fun to watch throughout. I just hope they're more open to taking chances on the next two. I really, really don't want to see a fourth Death star, lol. Also, what's Finn going to be doing in the next movie? Rey is so much better than him at everything! But I prefer Finn as a character.
 
I DON'T NEED NO PATRONISING MAN material is really not how I pictured people taking Fin and Rey's first scenes together. It'd be funny if it wasn't sad.
 
LNBL said:
Hmm no. Don't agree, this movie is definitely in my top 3. Gleeson for example was good in his role, I thought the way he portrayed this Moff that is not afraid of his Sith counterpart was great.
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Yeah I thought Hux was just fine. He played a great space nazi.
 
So instead of a power trio like Luke, Leia, and Han, are these films only gonna have Rey and Fnn as the leads? I'd like Poe to be in there but from this film it looks like Rey and Finn work best as a duo.
 
I think the stormtroopers having white blaster rifles looked tacky, I wonder why they went with white instead of black like the other movies.
 
WadiumArcadium said:
I loved Rey's "STOP TAKING MY HAND".
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I loved it when he freaked out when she started running towards him. The comedy really was on point. Everything about the lighter side of this movie was just warm and cosy. Cheesy as fuck but it really was like coming home. I'm happy we have this movie and I'm super happy that we have more to look forward to.

lastplayed said:
Yeah I thought Hux was just fine. He played a great space nazi.
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He was basically spitting into the camera during his big speech and sold it really well.
 
Hagi said:
I loved it when he freaked out when she started running towards him. The comedy really was on point. Everything about the lighter side of this movie was just warm and cosy. Cheesy as fuck but it really was like coming home. I'm happy we have this movie and I'm super happy that we have more to look forward to.
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The first funny moment with Poe and Kylo about who starts talking was great too
 
George Oscar Bluth II said:
*Han moves head in direction of Rey to Finn*
Finn *Imitates Han*: What is this? Why do you keep doing this?

That moment was hilarious.
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I liked Finn, but I felt he was borderline too much on the humor. Especially this part. When anyone does what Han does(pointing and looking at something with their face) You look where they are looking. Its not really anything new, or confusing. Small nitpick. I just think Finn could have been dialed back just a tad bit. Like just be a tad more serious in a situation like that. I enjoyed the humor though.
 
xandaca said:
This is what I posted on my Facebook page after getting back from watching. It's spoiler-free, but didn't want to post in the other thread just in case there was something I'd overlooked.

TLDR: Slightly better than the best of the prequels, but at the cost of being considerably less interesting and characterful.
Click to expand...
I liked your review. Very well put.
 
Vol5 said:
Kylo Ren was excellent but came across a little bit like a petulant teenager
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I wasn't even really kidding when I called him Prince Zuko. The parallels are downright uncanny and I feel like it's super obvious where they're going with his character. Or maybe they'll surprise me, but that seems rather unlikely
 
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