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

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I was able to avoid all spoilers going into the movie and I guess EVERY DAMN PLOT POINT including the character histories.

Am I a genius or is this movie simply very predictable?
It was predictable
 
So...who was the old guy in the beginning on Jakku? Was it the guy from Episode lll who yelled "nooo" when the storm troopers killed that teenager jedi in the jedi temple?
 
Lapidus' Beard said:
Just saw it and left kinda disappointed. It mirrors A New Hope way too much, making it predictable and dull. But on the positive side, it was very well executed and it had some really funny moments/dialogue.
The new characters are really good though, I hope the next one will be a bit more on the original side.
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My wife was telling me that Disney bought the franchise off George Lucas for a vast sum. JJ Abrams was on orders to go cautious as they want to make 4 more! Not sure of her source for that.

We really enjoyed it though would watch again.
 
Tony Redgrave said:
I'm still in denial over Han's death.

Intellectually I know it was a good idea, it parallels Obi Wan's death, it gives gravitas to the finale of movie, Han's character arc needed a conclussion specially given Ford's age etc.

Emotionally though, they just KILLED Han, we'll not be seeing him again in VIII-IX and that makes me extremely sad, specially seeing they portrayed him well and Ford was (IMO) truly great.

R.I.P. friend.
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This was the hardest part of the movie to stomach, twice. I know that Ford always said he'd only do another Star Wars movie if Han Solo gets killed, so I sort of expected it, but I expected it in the second or third movie, not this one. It felt like the worst possible way for Han to go, like Kylo was stabbing my childhood. I'll be honest; a big part of what makes Star Wars...Star Wars is Han Solo. I'm not sure what the next movie will be like without the one-liners and Ford's perfect delivery of them. Seeing Rey with Chewbacca in the Falcon was just...weird. Didn't totally sit right with me.
 
Lapidus' Beard said:
Just saw it and left kinda disappointed. It mirrors A New Hope way too much, making it predictable and dull. But on the positive side, it was very well executed and it had some really funny moments/dialogue.
The new characters are really good though, I hope the next one will be a bit more on the original side.
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I can forgive mirroring A New Hope... For a lot of young people, this will be the first Star Wars movie they see. So it makes sense. They can't make a movie aimed solely at the 30-year old hardcore fanbase. The movie was an introduction to the universe and the characters.

But the real problem with the movie... Why did C-3PO have a red arm??
 
Migrant said:
They explained what happened. Poe said he was thrown clear of the wreckage and woke up that night. It's a little sloppy how we're supposed to just roll with him showing back up, but it's not too much of a stretch to assume how he got back to the Resistance.
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That ship he flies off in is the one Rey looks at in the distance.

Maybe.
 
sono said:
My wife was telling me that Disney bought the franchise off George Lucas for a vast sum. JJ Abrams was on orders to go cautious as they want to make 4 more! Not sure of her source for that.

We really enjoyed it though would watch again.
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A recent article I read in Time (or was it Vanity Fair?) kind of backs that up. It describes the head Disney guy meeting with JJ Abrams and basically telling him "careful, we paid 4 billion for this thing." I expect Abrams was under serious pressure to make TFA safer than he might have wanted to.

No complaints here, personally.
 
Also, I was expecting to have a big smile when Luke showed up but instead the only thing that went through my head was "Damn"

Not that I didn't like that scene. I actually liked it a lot. They could've had him show up during the fight and save the day. And this signifies to me that the route they're going with Luke is something I've felt always felt about him. Which is that I never felt Luke was a full jedi and was never going to reach that level that say Obi Wan was. I mean how could he? He didn't complete his training. So instead of having him be this awesome wise powerful jedi that some were expecting, I like it that he's still inexperienced and that inexperience is what fucked Kylo up. Luke was in over his head (with good intentions) thinking he can train new jedis. And now we have two of the most powerful force users that he's responsible of.


This makes me want to see what they're going to do with him in the next film. His character is the one I want to see more of. I still believe this is his story.
 
sappyday said:
It was way too fast. Luke and Han didn't even become friends until the end of ANH.
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But Poe and Finn are not Han and Luke. Poe came off as a pretty upbeat, positive, friendly guy. Finn desperately wanted for some actual human interaction (but perhaps did not know it).
 
Lapidus' Beard said:
Just saw it and left kinda disappointed. It mirrors A New Hope way too much, making it predictable and dull. But on the positive side, it was very well executed and it had some really funny moments/dialogue.
The new characters are really good though, I hope the next one will be a bit more on the original side.
Click to expand...

I thought the first 45-50 minutes that focus exclusively on the new characters were perfection. When Han and Chewie arrive it gets a bit uneven, and starts to drag at points. None of the old cast are bad, there's just too much pointless nostalgia pandering.
 
I liked it but in many ways the film felt hamstrung by being made by a Star Wars fan.

Certain things just seem inconsistent with what we know from the original films and because there's not much rhyme or reason, come across as simple imitations of the themes and actors from the original films:

The First Order are just Empire 2.0, there's no explanation for who they are or what their motivations are, the extent of their powers or why they're still around after the Emperor was defeated.

The New Republic is some extras in Chandrilla. Why, if the Empire was defeated, is the New Republic not the official opposition of the First Order? The name "Resistance" also implies an underground movement against an occupying force, but the actual balance of power is never addressed. The Resistance, despite being on the winning side of history, are scrappy underdogs with rag tag equipment again, just because. Their base is overgrown again, just like it was on Yavin, remember that guys?

With this lack of world building, it feels so uninspired, just retreading old tropes for the sake of familiarity. This is actually something the film did worse than the prequels.

Of course there's another planet destroying super weapon but somehow it's barely of any consequence that billions of people just got murdered when they destroy Chandrilla.

It annoys me how proficient Rey is with the force with zero training.

It annoys me how lazy the infiltration of Starkiller Base was. The shields were lowered because we bumped into Captain Phasma, who just complies when asked at gunpoint without any resistance and is dispatched offscreen with another reference to ANH. This, despite Phasma being presented as a powerful, merciless figure who fully subscribes to whatever the ideology the First Order has. If Phasma does't return it strikes me as such a waste of good character design.

Speaking of character design, Snoke sucks and we shouldn't have seen him. The film showed its hand too early with Kylo as well, we should have seen his face first when he encounters Han.

Lastly, what the hell was going on with that last shot before the credits, The one thing all the films managed to do, even the prequels, was establish lasting final shots before the credits. The last show in TFA was just weird, it looked like something out of a TV movie, spinning aerial shot of an inadequately staged area. Fuck.

I did actually like the movie, BB 8 stole the show for me, but god damn ther more I think about it the more things I find wrong with it.
 
Saw it today. I liked it, and I thought the new characters are great. Story was a bit meh, but the laughs worked. Phasma was lame as shit though.
 
Yea, how the deathstar 3.0 was handled is poor. It's the definition of bigger and badder. I was thinking the whole time "there is no chance they're going to destroy that thing" because I thought it would be too much like A New Hope and it would undermine how much of an achievement that thing is. Like christ at this point the resistance shouldn't have to worry about those things.
 
Finn was one of the odder characters of the film for me to look at.

For one, his personality is the diametric opposite of what I'd expect. He says how he was programmed to do certain things, from birth apparently since he didn't so much as have a name...and yet he has a great deal of social skills. No social grace, true, but he's very expressive, he's got good humor, he's sexually active (in the sense that he's thirsting for Rey, not that he's necessarily having sex). I mean, I'm not familiar with how Stormtroopers spend their off time, but if he came off as so very normal when his past suggests he's not that at all.

And I do have a quibble with how they ended the film. His character arc is that of someone whose running away, clearly a parallel to Han Solo, but he's running with fear rather than because of greed. He overcomes this because while he's willing to run away for fear of his own life, he'll go into the heart of enemy territory for his friend. So that's really cool and everything.

It's just that he gets his footing tripped out from under him because of his being unconscious for the last of the movie. I think at the very least he should have gotten some closure by being awake to see Rey go willingly of her own accord to find her identity. As it is, it feels like he was dropped out of the movie. He didn't get a chance to reap the rewards of his character arc.

Though I'm sure dumb people are gonna make a host of beta male bullshit jokes on this because Rey doesn't seem to reciprocate his feelings for her. That's not what I mean. I just mean that he gets to see his friend home safe, where she thanks him, so he knows he made a difference. I don't like him missing that, just waking up to find out she's gone off on her own. It's just kinda sad for him, somewhat belittling his accomplishments.
 
sappyday said:
Yea, how the deathstar 3.0 was handled is poor. It's the definition of bigger and badder. I was thinking the whole time "there is no chance they're going to destroy that thing" because I thought it would be too much like A New Hope and it would undermine how much of an achievement that thing is. Like christ at this point the resistance shouldn't have to worry about those things.
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I also thought it would survive. I thought the rebels would damage it and keep it from firing, but destroying it this early seemed like a waste. If they keep following the OT, the next movie probably won't have a big, bad space station at the end. But the third one should have something, and it can't be an even bigger Death star :P

CaviarMeths said:
Just to be clear, you are suggesting that people who did not connect with the least developed character on screen simply do not like black people, yes?
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Finn had much better development than Rey.
 
Lapidus' Beard said:
Just saw it and left kinda disappointed. It mirrors A New Hope way too much, making it predictable and dull. But on the positive side, it was very well executed and it had some really funny moments/dialogue.
The new characters are really good though, I hope the next one will be a bit more on the original side.
Click to expand...

Yep. Felt way too much like a recap of A New Hope with bits of The Empire Strikes Back to get people new to the franchise kind of caught up with the general mythology with a small preface to a new story (which would potentially be the next two movies). I did like the new main charactera, althiough I just wish they had more to do, especially Rey; who was just mirroring basically everything Luke already did.

It also seemed like Harrison Ford was really enjoying playing Han again, because he nailed it. Was this mainly because he was so excited that Han was going to die, and he would never have to bother with the character again? Carrie Fisher on the other hand seemed totally disinterested as though she didn't even want to be in the movie. Probably because she hated losing so much weight for the role (she said as much in interviews).

OmnipotentO said:
Fucking loved it. Cross lightsaber hilt still stupid af though. I'm never getting over that.
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I disliked the design up until seeing the movie. I thought I'd never get over it, but by the time the movie was over, I did. It was based off of a very old design, and the "guard" wasn't meant to be a guard at all, but rather used to vent unstable energy. It was basically a design before the lightsabers we all know were perfected. I feel like it really fit Kylo Ren in a way. He wasn't really skilled with its use and seemed trying really hard to wing it at copying the Sith. Considering the more modern lightsabers were supposed to be somewhat representative of a Jedi's (or Sith's) skill level, the one he cobbled together fit his somewhat skilless mimicry rather well I think.
 
Hoping in 8 for a scene of Luke with Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin as ghosts teaching the new Jedi,
when the perspective switches to Kylo he is seeing Vader there and what he hears starts as a slightly dark side edge and grows from there.
 
Razgriz-Specter said:
Hoping in 8 for a scene of Luke with Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin as ghosts teaching the new Jedi,
when the perspective switches to Kylo he is seeing Vader there and what he hears starts as a slightly dark edge and grows from there.
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yeah anakin's ghost at the end of ROTJ was just there for shits and giggles, anakin is still evil !
thinking.gif

anakin and vader are the same thing, there's no "vader ghost" that is evil
Maybe ren could see palpatine's ghost but don't think he can do it
 
Loved it, sure it had its problems but it was a decent start to the new series of movies. Some random thoughts/questions:

1. The very first words spoken are "This will begin to make things right". Does anyone else think this is a jab from J.J. at either the Prequels generally or Lucas specifically?

2. Leia chooses to keep her adopted last name of Organa 30 years after learning the truth about her lineage. Why not Leia Skywalker? Especially as she has a living sibling with the same name.

Sorry if these have already been asked/answered, massive thread is massive.
 
dapperbandit said:
I liked it but in many ways the film felt hamstrung by being made by a Star Wars fan.

Certain things just seem inconsistent with what we know from the original films and because there's not much rhyme or reason, come across as simple imitations of the themes and actors from the original films:

The First Order are just Empire 2.0, there's no explanation for who they are or what their motivations are, the extent of their powers or why they're still around after the Emperor was defeated.

The New Republic is some extras in Coruscant. Why, if the Empire was defeated, is the New Republic not the official opposition of the First Order? The name "Resistance" also implies an underground movement against an occupying force, but the actual balance of power is never addressed. The Resistance, despite being on the winning side of history, are scrappy underdogs with rag tag equipment again, just because. Their base is overgrown again, just like it was on Yavin, remember that guys?

With this lack of world building, it feels so uninspired, just retreading old tropes for the sake of familiarity. This is actually something the film did worse than the prequels.

Of course there's another planet destroying super weapon but somehow it's barely of any consequence that billions of people just got murdered when they destroy Coruscant.

It annoys me how proficient Rey is with the force with zero training.

It annoys me how lazy the infiltration of Starkiller Base was. The shields were lowered because we bumped into Captain Phasma, who just complies when asked at gunpoint without any resistance and is dispatched offscreen with another reference to ANH. This, despite Phasma being presented as a powerful, merciless figure who fully subscribes to whatever the ideology the First Order has. If Phasma does't return it strikes me as such a waste of good character design.

Speaking of character design, Snoke sucks and we shouldn't have seen him. The film showed its hand too early with Kylo as well, we should have seen his face first when he encounters Han.

Lastly, what the hell was going on with that last shot before the credits, The one thing all the films managed to do, even the prequels, was establish lasting final shots before the credits. The last show in TFA was just weird, it looked like something out of a TV movie, spinning aerial shot of an inadequately staged area. Fuck.

I did actually like the movie, BB 8 stole the show for me, but god damn ther more I think about it the more things I find wrong with it.
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I completely agree with all of your complaints, and I also agree that it's still a good movie.

Other than the lack of world building, my main concern was that Snoke is a soulless CGI character that I just don't give a fuck about.
 
Rey being under-developed is probably my biggest gripe with the movie. She's supposedly the main protagonist, but Finn had a much better arc during the movie. Finn goes from a coward with "nothing to fight for" who just wants to run away:
John-Boyega-as-Finn-in-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens-277203.jpg
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To someone who chooses to fight, because now he has people he cares for and wants to protect:
0c704673f9cd31695be0b147d131c3b2ce4a9f21f182fb4fb42638b055c7059f.png
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There's of course nothing unique or inventive about this character arc... It's classic movie stuff, but it works. Rey, on the other hand, just goes from "awesome" to "even more awesome". She obviously develops her powers with the Force, but I'm talking about emotional development and motivation. The only emotional struggle she overcomes is a strange obsession with waiting for her parents to return on Jakku. That was basically her only character flaw, otherwise she was kind of a Mary Sue, instantly awesome at everything.
 
sirap said:
It's possible, but I don't see them going with that for the sequels. If Rey is to be the main force weilding protagonist, it makes sense for her to have an ordinary, roguish sidekick/love interest to balance things out. At least, that's what the writer in me would do.
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Why do I get the feeling Rey is being shipped with Ren
 
Zany said:
2. Leia chooses to keep her adopted last name of Organa 30 years after learning the truth about her lineage. Why not Leia Skywalker? Especially as she has a living sibling with the same name.
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Leia also chooses not to become a Jedi so I think that explains why she keeps Organa. Vader may have redeemed himself in the end, but she grew up hating him and everything he stood for. She probably doesn't want to embrace that aspect of who she is.
 
Shuggananas said:
yeah anakin's ghost at the end of ROTJ was just there for shits and giggles, anakin is still evil !
thinking.gif

anakin and vader are the same thing, there's no "vader ghost" that is evil
Maybe ren could see palpatine's ghost but don't think he can do it
Click to expand...
No im not saying they are separate.
Its 100% Anakin being good but Ben already has a bit of darkness in him from jealousy or something else..
That darkness clouds his vision and slowly leads him to joining the Knights of Ren where Snoke then begins pushing further.
 
Migrant said:
Leia also chooses not to become a Jedi so I think that explains why she keeps Organa. Vader may have redeemed himself in the end, but she grew up hating him and everything he stood for. She probably doesn't want to embrace that aspect of who she is.
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I still wonder what aspects of the EU are kept alive, atleast symbolically. I mean, Kylo Ren is obviously basically Jacen.

I hope Jaina is around somewhere too.
 
Migrant said:
Leia also chooses not to become a Jedi so I think that explains why she keeps Organa. Vader may have redeemed himself in the end, but she grew up hating him and everything he stood for. She probably doesn't want to embrace that aspect of who she is.
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What was adoptive fathers name? Bail Organa right? It just as simple as being raise by someone your whole life. She knows Luke is her brother she knows she's a Skywalker. It's Organa is her name. It's all she's known for years
 
Hado said:
Am I the only one who thinks Snoke is a pretty terrible name?

Like, Snoke could be literally the name of Lisa Simpson's next cat.
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I was discussing this earlier, and I agree. It continues the tradition of having intimidating names (or names meant to be intimidiating), but...well, spoken out loud, I kept hearing Smoke, which is obviously the association they're wanting you to make. But while smoke is dark and noxious...it's also not exactly menacing.

But written out, for some reason, I read Snoke as Snook, which immediately makes me associate it with Snookie.
 
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