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

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My only complaint about the film was that it was a bit too fast paced. I liked a lot of the slow moments that gave you breathing space.
I can relate to this.

Other than that it really was great IMO. I saw it Wednesday at 2:30 pm CET. It was the first time I went to the movies alone, but definitely not the last (best thing I've ever done I think). It was also the first time I saw a Star Wars movie in a theatre, and one of very few premieres I've gone to. Even here, in a tiny town in northern Sweden there was some cosplay (one fella was dressed as Boba Fett) and of course everyone cheered as soon as the logo came up and the main theme started playing. It was one of the best cinema experiences I've had for sure.
 
Honestly don't get people saying it's a carbon copy of ANH. It's much more of a remix of various ideas from the whole trilogy.

There's just as much stuff inspired by ESB (The Kylo/Han Scene, The vision sequence, the Yoda-analog, the Ice Planet.)

And the finale is actually closer to ROTJ's than ANH's. Where you've got a ground team, led by Han, trying to disable the shields so that the fighters who are struggling overhead, can get in.
 
Plot similarities aside, I think the Starkiller Base being an actual planet was pretty cool.
I didn't get that from the trailers (thought the speech was elsewhere) and didn't catch it before the speech scene (when I went like "WTF where are they? Oh... It's an actual planet!"), so I thought it was just another Death Star-like structure.
 
and they saw hosni prime blowing up from takadana with their bare eyes?
bullshit
it looked like that planet was in the same star system, and even then it would not have been that big, but half the galaxy away?

This whole planet blowing up business was a bit of a problem (visually) for me.

At first I thought the weapon was blowing up 1 planet with a couple of moons around it.
 
Honestly don't get people saying it's a carbon copy of ANH. It's much more of a remix of various ideas from the whole trilogy.

There's just as much stuff inspired by ESB (The Kylo/Han Scene, The vision sequence, the Yoda-analog, the Ice Planet.)

And the finale is actually closer to ROTJ's than ANH's. Where you've got a ground team, led by Han, trying to disable the shields so that the fighters who are struggling overhead, can get in.

As Bobby Roberts said it: "Beginning of ANH, middle of ESB, end of ROTJ". Obviously it isn't that direct but the general idea's there.
 
The moment I got chills on for some reason was when Han and the gang were captured but then you see the X Wings coming in from the distance....fucking chills and the biggest grin.

I had a huge shit eating grin through all of the movie. And I am pretty sure everybody in the cinema had that as well...
 
Anyone else find Ren whiny and annoying? I feel like I really need to get that off my chest. I thought his whole spaz-out moments were borderline comedy also. Very childish and angsty. Not what I'd want from a leading villain.
 
For once I'd definitely say the edit seemed too short. Will be interesting to see a Director's Cut if it happens.

Nah. Nothing really indicates that Abrams wasn't able to enact his vision. The fast pace, and any cut scenes, were probably his own choosing.
 
Supreme Leader Snoke could be a scarred and deformed Jar Jar.

tim-and-eric-mind-blown.gif
 
I do have to say that the dumbest thing about the movie was everyone on the Resistance planet seeing the weapon blow u p the Republic.

JJ needs to learn how big space is and how it works. Least in Star Trek you could say Spock was on one of Vulcan's moons.

No you couldn't, it was very clearly a planet, they specifically said so and JJ even said it was just for dramatic effect. But that's Star Trek and the universe is relatively young. Science isn't taken for granted and things aren't magic.

In this, you clearly saw several planetary bodies in close proximity to each other. It's Star Wars, they can do what like. Magic exists here, science is a long-won battle. This is an old galaxy, they can put planets where they like. SW is science fantasy, not fiction.
 
For once I'd definitely say the edit seemed too short. Will be interesting to see a Director's Cut if it happens.

If anything it seemed too long with too much shit jam-packed into it. The space pirates bit was particularly useless and not good from any possible vantage point. I seriously mentally checked out during that bit.

I doubt there's much worthwhile material left in the cutting room floor. It's just a poor script that wasn't given time to be properly developed.
 
For once I'd definitely say the edit seemed too short. Will be interesting to see a Director's Cut if it happens.

I agree. At the end I was thinking to myself that it could have used another 20-30 minutes to flesh out some of the scenes. The non-stop pace reminded me of Mad Max which is not what I was expecting out of a new SW movie.
 
Anyone else find Ren whiny and annoying? I feel like I really need to get that off my chest. I thought his whole spaz-out moments were borderline comedy also. Very childish and angsty. Not what I'd want from a leading villain.

I think that was the entire point. To make him like a petulant, confused and angry child. Him losing his shit and lashing out is exactly what most 18 year olds do when angry
 
Honestly don't get people saying it's a carbon copy of ANH. It's much more of a remix of various ideas from the whole trilogy.

There's just as much stuff inspired by ESB (The Kylo/Han Scene, The vision sequence, the Yoda-analog, the Ice Planet.)

And the finale is actually closer to ROTJ's than ANH's. Where you've got a ground team, led by Han, trying to disable the shields so that the fighters who are struggling overhead, can get in.

Even with some of the similar set-ups and visual cues, the movie feels different enough to me that I really can't relate to to "this is just a total retread of the original movie" complaints.
 
I think that was the entire point. To make him like a petulant, confused and angry child. Him losing his shit and lashing out is exactly what most 18 year olds do when angry

Yeah. I get it, I guess I'm just not sure it's the right character to use in a movie that needs to set a compelling villain? Just my opinion of course.

Edit: Maybe they realized there was no way they were ever going to top Vader and just decided to go a completely different route?
 
everything about their interactions was such a breath of fresh air.

So many times this. The fact she'd kicked those guy's asses at the start by the time Finn reached her, and the telegraphed "he has a secret" argument that actually never happened. In fact everyone was like jesus dude you're a legend, don't worry about it.
 
Anyone else find Ren whiny and annoying? I feel like I really need to get that off my chest. I thought his whole spaz-out moments were borderline comedy also. Very childish and angsty. Not what I'd want from a leading villain.

I think that was precisely the point.
 
Anyone else find Ren whiny and annoying? I feel like I really need to get that off my chest. I thought his whole spaz-out moments were borderline comedy also. Very childish and angsty. Not what I'd want from a leading villain.

I think he's deliberately meant to come across as a whiny child to be honest, but it's a really odd choice.

Personally I found it hilarious that everybody in the empire is now apparently super evil british.
 
Anyone else find Ren whiny and annoying? I feel like I really need to get that off my chest. I thought his whole spaz-out moments were borderline comedy also. Very childish and angsty. Not what I'd want from a leading villain.

I thought it was an interesting take. Like he wants so much to be like Vader, but he's too petulant and lashes out. Vader kept his cool as far as we've seen (Nooooooo! aside).
 
Yeah. I get it, I guess I'm just not sure it's the right character to use in a movie that needs to set a compelling villain? Just my opinion of course.

I don't think he's going to be the villain. I would bet money that they're going to do a Reverse Vader on him. Part of the point behind the OT is that no matter how bad you are, you can still come back from it. You are always redeemable.

He's supposed to be volatile and lashing out because he's a dark side Jedi that doesn't understand how to control the things that are meant to give him power. The Sith were evil, but their teachings were important to controlling the Dark side of the Force.
 
How in god's name is Snoke supposed to be practical? The reason he is CG is because that design can't be done practically unless it were a puppet, and then you have Andy Serkis there for no reason.

They could do part-CGI. Something like Jeff Bridges in Tron 2.0. I still think his design is doable. Lord of the Rings had loads of super-complicated designs done in makeup/prosthetics, so I think it's possible....unless he is actually like 30 feet tall, then that might be harder. But even then, some camera tricks could make it happen. Either way, I still think the CGI looks teerrriibbllleeeee.

Agreed on Phasma, she was kinda eh.

But Poe? Poe was awesome, intensely likable, and commanded the screen every time he was on it.

Poe was good, but outside of being the owner of BB8 and being the top pilot, his story contributions are meh. It seems like they bifurcated Han's character and made Rey/Poe out of him.

I dunno, we spent a good few minutes with Rey before she met BB8, where we really learned all we need to about her life. Granted, more time for breathing room on the Falcon.

"Rey is poor, her family's gone, GUYS LOOK HOW RAD A PILOT SHE IS!" It was tooooo fast for me. At least with Anakin we learn that he's a tech whiz. With Luke we know he has a moral center. With Rey we just know her circumstances more than her character. Just like two or three more scenes to build up her "skills/attributes" tab on Wikipedia, basically.

He was injured and just struggled to kill his father. Maybe he just sucks at fighting since he used his force powers to freeze people in place.

I guess...but even then I suspect Snoke is one of the strongest dark side folks left and has trained Kylo Ren to some extent, so he should still be able to do some damage. He's figthing with one hand while Finn is fighting with two, largely defending Kylo's attacks. There was a sort of fight psychology going on that was sorely missing when Rey decide to become basically a Jedi...it was weird to me. I wanted to see her get her ass kicked and almost die only to have the planet crumbling save her. It sorta happened, but I still think she looked too strong in the fight for someone using a lightsaber for the first time.
 
I think he's deliberately meant to come across as a whiny child to be honest, but it's a really odd choice.

Personally I found it hilarious that everybody in the empire is now apparently super evil british.

Go back and watch the original trilogy with this knowledge, everyone was super space british, on both sides.

edit: the funniest parts are watching Leia randomly forgetting she was space british
 
I think he's deliberately meant to come across as a whiny child to be honest, but it's a really odd choice.

Personally I found it hilarious that everybody in the empire is now apparently super evil british.

That actually raises another great point. From all the main guys (phasma, Hux, and Ren), I wouldn't want any of them being my leadership lol.
 
I'm fairly certain that the Snoke we see is just a visage and whoever it really is will look vastly different. It would make sense for an evil leader to want to have an imposing and terrifying look to him when he's on the job.
 
They didn't destroy the Republic, just a major star system in it.
They destroyed the Capital of the Republic and its entire fleet.
We are basically reset to a Rebel Alliance vs the (new)Empire.

It was Abrams way of saying the prequels are dead, forget they exist. Love that we never have to see about those characters ever again. Think about it, Jar Jar was there.
What the heck does it have to do with the prequels? The entire point of the OT was for the Rebellion to overthrow the Empire and put a better government in place.
This basically destroys the success of the entire OT struggle yet asks us to care while these new characters do it over again.


Basically the only thing that can redeem that for me is a new capital being declared on Chandrila or Coruscant and Leia possibly declared Supreme Chancellor for the remainder of the conflict.
 
harrison was really workinbg it though. it's like he never stopped being han. carrie to some extent, but her expression never changed.

also why the fuck didn't she get on the falcon to go see luke? I guess she wants to mourn on random forest moon not yavin iv or whatever? but not to go find her brother? bugged me a little
 
I don't think he's going to be the villain. I would bet money that they're going to do a Reverse Vader on him. Part of the point behind the OT is that no matter how bad you are, you can still come back from it. You are always redeemable.

He's supposed to be volatile and lashing out because he's a dark side Jedi that doesn't understand how to control the things that are meant to give him power. The Sith were evil, but their teachings were important to controlling the Dark side of the Force.

That's pretty cool. It's helping rationalize it for me a bit.
 
To the bolded...

- I'm fairly certain they're going to go with Rey having some sort of PTSD. She was definitely one of Luke's original padawans before Ben Solo flipped his shit and murdered the new Order. It wouldn't surprise me if she has some general idea/training of the Force. She clearly has suppressed memories of her time before Jakku, unless we wanna go with everything she saw when she touched Luke's saber as a force vision--but I saw some of it as remembering her own past.

- As for Finn, he wasn't event that good at using a lightsaber. None of them were, in fact. Most of them were swinging it like a goddamn laser club instead of a sword and that was perfect. They all had some level of melee weapon training, which makes sense given everyone's background. Finn was a soldier and should have some kind of combat training, Rey was using it like she'd use her staff weapon.


Yeah, that part about Rey could make sense.

I still think Finn held his own against Kylo a little too well. Yes, Kylo clearly showed he was still "green" in terms of being a walking death-machine and he was hurt but I think he could still get rid of Finn with relative ease.

I wish they had shown Finn getting through the fight by being more resourceful, like using the environment / trees / throwing stuff, etc.to dodge Kylo instead of standing his ground in lightsaber combat.
 
I thought Kylo Ren was fantastic. Sure, less intimidating than Vader, but very very interesting in a different way, with the potential for more depth than Vader had. Adam Driver killed it.

I think my personal favorite character is a toss up between Kylo and Poe, but I love all of the new cast a lot.

Honestly, this movie probably has the best cast of any Star Wars film.
 
SO glad Han Solo is dead. Out with the old please!

It was fun but too much retread of the original trilogy. And just because you use the force, doesn't mean you are awesome at a lightsaber. That to me screams "I don't know Star Wars!"

Saw it in legit IMAX, none of my friends noticed the difference. Had I not known which scene it was, I wouldn't have noticed it. Rather seen it in digital cause then we wouldn't have dust and fuzzy scenes.

Also, funny how everyone was pumping up Captain Phasma and she was such a throwaway character that did nothing. I know she is still alive and will do stuff in next film but she did less than Boba Fett.
 
harrison was really workinbg it though. it's like he never stopped being han. carrie to some extent, but her expression never changed.

also why the fuck didn't she get on the falcon to go see luke? I guess she wants to mourn on random forest moon not yavin iv or whatever? but not to go find her brother? bugged me a little

well true, she could have gone with here brothers daughter, but for me its more important that she let lukes daughter Rey go to him than bring her along. That last scene would not have been as good if Leia was there. That Father Daughter connection we got when Luke looked at her for the first time since he left her all those years ago on Jakku was amazing.
 
My impression is that Phasma was always meant to be a fairly minor figure that was going to be a man and then when they decided to switch the gender (after complaints that there appeared to only be one new woman in the cast at the time), they began to promote the character as much more important than ever intended, at least in the first film.

Hopefully she gets something to do later.
 
I agree. At the end I was thinking to myself that it could have used another 20-30 minutes to flesh out some of the scenes. The non-stop pace reminded me of Mad Max which is not what I was expecting out of a new SW movie.

Definitely

If anything it seemed too long with too much shit jam-packed into it. The space pirates bit was particularly useless and not good from any possible vantage point. I seriously mentally checked out during that bit.

I doubt there's much worthwhile material left in the cutting room floor. It's just a poor script that wasn't given time to be properly developed.

I can see that. So either a cut to slow the pace or add some content to thicken the plot beats.

Nah. Nothing really indicates that Abrams wasn't able to enact his vision. The fast pace, and any cut scenes, were probably his own choosing.

As a general notion there will have been input and adjustments made for studio reasons so I'm sure he had some changes he'd like to see.
 
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