Support NeoGAF

[OricWindstar]

good stuff, I mean I didn't see him during my many exclusive visits to the set or anything. I don't know where they get their information from but he's listed in the cast on its imdb page. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

I'm not saying it's true one way or another, but IMDb isn't the most reliable source.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

imdb was probably updated by someone who saw all the other entertainment news sites running with EW's article, which, again, seems to suggest that you know it's Daniel Craig because you can recognize his voice, which is weird because it sounds nothing like him, and Stormtroopers get ADR'd anyway.

It could be him in the suit though, but of all the cameos we've learned about, Craig's is the only one that hasn't been outright confirmed by people on the record in the production.

Then again, the fact nobody's gone on the record to deny it, either, probably says something too. Or at least, that they haven't gone on the record since the first time both Abrams and Craig went on the record to deny it back during shooting.

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Great post, Veelk.

 

[DarkJediKnight]

Originally Posted by GungHo

There's three sides to the Force. The Light side. The Dark side. The Bro side. Finn and Poe are powerful in the Bro side, just like Chewie, Han, and Lando before them. They can't throw boxes around or read people's minds, but when the time is right, they can move mountains by being in the right place at the right time.

This is Truth right here! Never thought of it that way.

Remember that it was Lando and his piloting skills that took down the 2nd death star - no force, just guts and bravado!

The Bro-Side moves mountains indeed.

 

[Hawkian]

I'm not saying it's true one way or another, but IMDb isn't the most reliable source.

that makes perfect sense to me, I guess no one on the production crew that has named themselves has confirmed it so it isn't confirmed. Now I wonder if he cares enough to debunk it if it isn't true.

 

[Veelk]

Getting away from the ridiculous notion of comparing Finn and Jar Jar on any sort of serious level, just wanna re-quote this Veelk post, because that guy is almost always on point.

That's some good shit right there.

Great writing and scorched earth against the Mary Sue label IMO.

Great post, Veelk.

Thank you all, I appreciate the kind words. I'm just sorry my posts are always so obnoxiously long. If I could make the points I want to make more succinctly, I would.

 

[Discotheque]

You'll never get it out of craig anyways, lol have you seen the responses he gives to reporters?!

But maybe abrams will finally confirm one of these days

 

[Aceun]

as a matter of fact, outside of having the skillset that you'd assume a stormtrooper to have (shooting and missing, getting shot at and immediately dying), he literally has zero skills. like i said earlier, he kinda knows a few things about the first order's setup but otherwise he's just used as a plot device to get things from A to B. Rey is a mix of han and luke, Poe takes the exceptional pilot thing that anakin and luke had, but Finn? As of now, he's just a plot device and not much else.

And again, i prefaced these comments with the fact that I like the character in spite of all these things. But I'm not sure where they take him from here. Like, what does the rebellion do with him when they have hundreds/thousands of others on their side who are much more capable? Han had the Millennium Falcon, Leia was a tough as nails princess, Luke was strong with the force and good pilot. They were all useful in some way and worth keeping around if you were the rebels.

I think for me Finn grounds the movie and gives it humanity. I like the fact that Finn isn't this "super good at something" hero. He's brave, period. He goes through his own arc of being a fish out of water, wanting to run and ultimately stands his ground WITHOUT being the best pilot, light saber wielder, force user, etc.

Sometimes you just need someone who is brave. If we're looking at it from the perspective of the monomyth, he's the ally. He's the Samwise Gamgee to Rey's Frodo. That's important to not only the storytelling, but to the character himself.

There's something special that can be found in the mundane.

 

[Starsailor]

Well i'm french so for you it could be good to know:

Star Wars 7 made the third most starting of all time for our country in one week, and the top "non-french" movie.

3,8 Millions of entries.

1- "Bienvenue chez les chtits" ( French movie, 4,3 millions in one week)
2- "Les Bronzés 3" (BAD french movie, 3,9 Millions in one week)
3- Star Wars VII (3,8 millions in one week).

 

[VistraNorrez]

but the stakes were high and they clearly explained why. the star killer was charging and about to blow up where the resistance were because they (first order) discovered the location of the resistance and the resistance knew it.

Stakes where high, but tension was low. We've seen this situation 2 (and arguably more) times in the saga. We don't just know that good guys are going to do destroy Starkiller Base, that's a given, we know how it's going to be done. I've seen the movie twice and I have a hard time really remembering much about the ships assaulting the base.

posted this in the box-office thread earlier, but I think it's the editing in the last 30-40 minutes, as Abrams tried to get the film down from 2:35 to 2:15 that really hurt the sense of impact and weight the film had been building up to.

As far as the pacing at the end goes. I was recently reminded how Lucas put the big battle (Hoth) at the start of ESB to keep it away from Vader's big reveal. He thought a huge battle cutting between the Luke/Vader material would lessen that reveal. That makes sense to me, because Han's death, while tense, did not have the emotional impact I expected. And as I said earlier, I think the Han Kylo stuff kind of made the ship battle on Starkiller forgettable.

 

[DodgerSan]

Aftermath has a lot of terrible reviews because it was targeted by by the Bring Back Legend crowd. It's by no means brilliant but its better than those reviews suggest.

It's still set thirty years before the film though and doesn't feature any of the main characters in any more than a cameo role.

New Republic: Bloodline that comes out next March will be the closest time-wise to the film. Claudia Gray did a good job with Lost Stars so I have high hopes for it.

This is something of a reductionist argument. I agree some of that was going on, but compare the reviews for Lost Stars. If it was all simply the bring back EU crowd it would apply across the board. Sometimes a badly written book is just a badly written book.

Saying that, Afternath us a weird one. The writing is awful, but that's a separate issue from the story being told. The main story is fairly inconsequential, at least from the hero side, but the Imperial stuff is interesting.

Where it really comes alive for many people though is in the "Interludes". These are small vignettes showing the state of the galaxy and have some fascinating world-building going on.

I would advise checking it out if you're interested, but this is a case where the audio book is much, much better, as the narrator actually reads aloud the punctuation that is implicit but not included on the page.

 

[mjc]

Quick question, sorry if it's been asked: Are we to assume that when Kylo took off his helmet during Rey's interrogation, that he set it on a bed of Vader's ashes?

 

[Kitschkraft]

Finn's problem is that he's kind of a third wheel of the group. Poe is an exceptional pilot, Rey is clearly a pastiche of luke and han as pilot/mechanic/jedi/chewie's bff, but finn? Finn was just a clumsy ex-stormtropper who has a crush on rey and knew a couple of things that weren't the most important of details.

I hope they do a better job developing Finn because even with him being a chump in TFA Boyega's charm still makes you want to cheer for that character. He's just kinda not really adding much to the whole thing

Yeah, this was the most disappointing thing to me. He didn't get any of the skills that the universe seems to cherish. Once again, he's definitely not "The Han", Han..gives him a weapon in the bar I guess? Aside from that, Finn seems mostly a nuisance to him. How about that scene where Finn runs and tells Han that Kylo has captured Rey, and he's just like "yeah whatever".

And depending on how the work through this coma thing, it's even possible that he doesn't get any growth between movies....YIKES.

 

[Hawkian]

You'll never get it out of craig anyways, lol have you seen the responses he gives to reporters?!

"Why would I ever bother doing something like that? Fucking hell! Play an extra in another movie.”

flawless

 

[Mega]

as a matter of fact, outside of having the skillset that you'd assume a stormtrooper to have (shooting and missing, getting shot at and immediately dying), he literally has zero skills. like i said earlier, he kinda knows a few things about the first order's setup but otherwise he's just used as a plot device to get things from A to B. Rey is a mix of han and luke, Poe takes the exceptional pilot thing that anakin and luke had, but Finn? As of now, he's just a plot device and not much else.

And again, i prefaced these comments with the fact that I like the character in spite of all these things. But I'm not sure where they take him from here. Like, what does the rebellion do with him when they have hundreds/thousands of others on their side who are much more capable? Han had the Millennium Falcon, Leia was a tough as nails princess, Luke was strong with the force and good pilot. They were all useful in some way and worth keeping around if you were the rebels.

I know people joke about the Stormtroopers being wack because they can't kill the heroes (plot reasons), but in canon they're better trained and superior fighters than anyone else. You can see this in ANH when they quickly overcome the Republic forces aboard the corvette and in TFA when they easily overrun the entrenched and armed villagers. I see Finn providing valuable skill as a natural leader and tactician. If Han and Leia can rise in ranks with no military experience, then Finn should do it in a breeze. He already showed quick thinking and improvisational skills. He held his own against against a Force user. I don't see how his actions throughout render him useless. And finally, there's a small chance he will develop Force powers.

About Poe... as a pilot, he's more of a Wedge Antilles than a Luke. Wedge had no Force powers and was just a straight-up WWII ace inside a spaceship, technically far ahead Luke in combat skill. Luke on the other hand had Force-guided precision and seemed simply only "above average" as a pilot. Compared to real flying feats of WW aces, I wouldn't call Poe "OP" or "Legolas" as some have. Legolas was implausibly superhero-like and bullshit in the world of LOTR.

 

[Toxi]

Listening to the soundtrack, the only music that really stands out is Rey's theme ("The Scavenger").

Definitely the weakest of the films' soundtracks; for all the flak the prequels get, I can remember so many great distinctive pieces of music: Not just "Duel of the Fates" and "Across the Stars", but other stuff like the "The Droid Invasion".

 

[The Elite]

Quick question, sorry if it's been asked: Are we to assume that when Kylo took off his helmet during Rey's interrogation, that he set it on a bed of Vader's ashes?

That's a crazy idea but it's never implied.

I could see Kylo having Vader's ashes though. Rubbing them all over his face and body.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Finn helps further the story quite a bit.

The entire strike team mission on Starkiller Base is basically his idea.

 

[WadiumArcadium]

This is something of a reductionist argument. I agree some of that was going on, but compare the reviews for Lost Stars. If it was all simply the bring back EU crowd it would apply across the board. Sometimes a bad book is just s bad book.

You have a point, I could have worded it better. Aftermath was the first major post-ROTJ novel and it gained a lot more attention from that group because of that. It's by no means my favourite of the novels they've put out so far, but a lot of the 1 star reviews were just people shitting on it without having even read it. Wendig has received some pretty disgraceful abuse from that group, there's definitely a correlation there.

Lost Stars was a young adult novel that's popularity has increased because of good word of mouth. It didn't attract as much attention because it wasn't really in conflict with the old EU stories like Thrawn.

 

[Jarmel]

Yeah, this was the most disappointing thing to me. He didn't get any of the skills that the universe seems to cherish. Once again, he's definitely not "The Han", Han..gives him a weapon in the bar I guess? Aside from that, Finn seems mostly a nuisance to him. How about that scene where Finn runs and tells Han that Kylo has captured Rey, and he's just like "yeah whatever".

And depending on how the work through this coma thing, it's even possible that he doesn't get any growth between movies....YIKES.

I don't think Finn's in an actual coma. He's just unconscious because part of his spine probably got severed.

 

[OricWindstar]

Thank you all, I appreciate the kind words. I'm just sorry my posts are always so obnoxiously long. If I could make the points I want to make more succinctly, I would.

Nah man, that was a great write up, length and all.

Also guys, Finn is the best character. You guys need to show some respect.

 

[Hawkian]

Quick question, sorry if it's been asked: Are we to assume that when Kylo took off his helmet during Rey's interrogation, that he set it on a bed of Vader's ashes?

I certainly did not interpret it that way.

In my estimation the pedestal with soot/gravel/ash/whatever that he sets the helmet on was (from a filmmaking perspective) included to give the audience the information that the helmet seems to be incredibly heavy. Though this isn't explored further in the film, I hope it is mentioned in the sequels or some external material because it's an interesting detail.

 

[Toxi]

Quick question, sorry if it's been asked: Are we to assume that when Kylo took off his helmet during Rey's interrogation, that he set it on a bed of Vader's ashes?

That's what I assume. He already has Vader's charred helmet, would make sense he has the rest of Vader's remains too.

 

[dem]

Came back last night from this. Hate to be so hyperbolic to say this movie felt very close to Indy 4 compared to Indy 1-3.

It has a promising and intriguing start and first act but once the movie gets going, it just falls apart. It feels too fast for its own good, compresses time too much and features a climax it just hasn't build towards enough nor has it earned the character drama of Kylo and Han.
There is so much wrong with how JJ compresses time, the complete vagueness of vast parts of the background and plot, world building logic flaws and also mistakes in character bits which you would think he could nail.

1. COMPRESSION OF TIME AND CONVENIENCE OF COINCIDENCES

After a promising start where Max Von Sydow is wasted we have Rey and Finn steal the Falcon and head out into space.
(Feels weird how the movie cycles around Jakku so much, the First Order goes down to Jakku, goes back up, then Finn goes back down, then they go back up. Then Rey wants to go back down.)
Having escaped what seemed like 5 minutes ago, suddenly everyone in the whole galaxy got a mail from the First Order to search for BB-8. Both arriving pirate parties know what is going on and we get a weird time wasting action scene with tentacle monsters in non-descript freighter corridors noone gives anything about.
(There probably was more to those Raid guys's pirate party scenes and JJ decided to cut it as the movie would have derailed even more at this point.)
Then we head to Takodana which feels like a really unmotivated stop for Han. Goggle lady Maz gives some exposition while at the same time Snoke is discussing BB-8 (!) with his underlings and how they now need to head to Takodana and kill everyone.
Would Palpatine have discussed ridiculous things like R2D2? Snoke at this point feels more like a cheap reacting Voldemort instead of a Machiavelli scheming Palpatine.
Snoke is basically
"Ok now we need to accelerate our plans and crush the Republic - fires shots at the Republic, crushes the Republic"
"Ok now we need to accelerate our plans and crush the Resistance - proceeds to fire on the Resistance base"
Holy shit has this guy a badly planned out master scheme. Why didn't he do it before? (and how bad is he at training his wannabe Vader?! Didn't he have like 10 years to train the guy?)

Anyway so after 30 minutes on Takodana we get another very small scale pewpew assault of a "division" of the First Order troops which feels more like a bunch of cosplayers with paintball guns. (who decided to paint the Stormtrooper rifles like white plastic?)
And then suddenly as if everything in the fucking galaxy is right next door even Leia and Resistance guys show up and manage to somehow force the "division" of First Order troops to retreat.

So how does this work exactly? It feels like Finn and Rey escaped the planet an hour ago, they have a quick tentacle monster encounter and head to Takodana and then suddenly the First Order and the Resistance both manage to be there super fast after spies in the Mos Eis..er pirate castle cantina inform them?
I mean Leia was there like 30 minutes later to save the day. How small is this universe?! In the OT the hyperspace travel times were kept vague at least or in the case of ANH they actually travelled a long time through the hyperspace tunnel before arriving at Alderaan.
With every scene where characters arrive from a distant corner of the galaxy 10 minutes after being called it makes the world building look so broken.
Why are there poor people on desert worlds making a living on scraps if all they would have to do is hop to the next lush green watery world full of culture and all it would take is 10 minutes of travel time on a cheap rusty freighter?

2. NOSTALGIA AWAKENS
No need to list them all here, but the unbelievable number of callbacks and references was just grating.
The Falcon run through the pipes and tunnels inside the Imperial vessel, the "Don't get cocky kid" moment of shooting down Ties in the Falcon (btw why do Finn and Poe Dameron not need TIe pilot breahting apparatus?!), the Falcon being tractor beamed into the bigger vessel, hiding underneath the Falcon floor panels, seeing the door before the "stormtroopers" break in, the hydrospanner moment, the Kesselrun quote, it was just way too much. From the moment they found the Falcon the movie was in full on self-reference mode. This was borderline Terminator Genisys territory at times.
What saved it once in a while is the witty character banter and BB-8's cuteness but the whole thing felt like kids playing with their parents old history and retreading their paths, down to the last fucking rhyming trash compactor joke to help sequel bait Phasma and that Death Star announcer voice running the remix tape on Starkiller base of "We think they have split up".

3. CHARACTER MOMENTS & CAST
The movie does have some functioning nice character bits with Finn and Rey and also Han feels like Han at times, but it also has some real head scratchers.
Finn goes from "I can't kill" to "Wohoo lemme blast my ex-comrades left and right" real fast.
He also seems like nothing could separate him from Rey until he needs to disappear for her vision, so he goes into "I need to go to the Outer Rim" mode for 5 minutes and then comes back more motivated than ever to not get seperated from her again.
Another weird one was Leia and Chewie. So Chewie's partner of 40 years JUST died, they come home. There is Han's wife, the princess and he just walks past her, without even throwing a look and ends up as a background character in a group scene.
Leia meanwhile comes up to the girl she met 5 minutes ago and gives her a deep hug. Huh? I know Leia called Chewie "a walking carpet" in ANH but quickly bonded with the fellow and now not even any type of scene after Han is dead? This felt super weak.
While the new primary cast had some really good moments, the bad guy casting seems like they didn't think ahead too much.
Everyone survived. Hux, Phasma, Kylo and Snoke and none of them even remotely feels as menacing and "real" as Tarkin, Vader or Palpatine. How they will turn this bunch of wannabes into proper EPVIII villains has to be seen.

3.A) STARKILLER BASE
Isn't a planet sized, atmosphere-possessing forested snow world as the new Death star being a bit nonsensical when it comes to travel? Does the whole planet including the trees jump into Hyperspace?! How does it get to other star systems?
This thing singlehandledly manages to make the Star Wars universe become smaller again, as it seems to be able to destroy a bunch of distant worlds in real-time with people on planets in other systems being able to watch the event.
You can feel the writers trying to be clever with this thing. "Hmm how about it literally swallows the light, sucks it up and then it turns dark?! Let's do it!" Everything surrounding that thing not only bent and fundamentally broke the laws of physics (which is totally fine if it would keep in line with the world building) but it also felt like something you would expect in a LordofTheRings movie and not in StarWars. It felt too mythical, too fantastical to make sense. And it all is commandeered by a 30something year old wannabe General trading blows with another 30something wannabe Vader. How did this thing come into existence? Where did the funding come from? When ANH gave clues that the Death Star is this bueraucratic instrument of terror, with the senate possibly giving financial support, the First Order is a cult of freaks with 15x the resources of the Empire? The movie showed the audience nothing for them to "earn" that superweapon.

3.B) MOVIEKILLER BASE
Where is it in space? You don't get a feeling for why this thing is a danger. Where is it in relation to the warmed up Yavin IV Reb..er Resistance base, where is it in relation to the unanonymous "New" Republic's core worlds? In ANH Lucas did the whole slow approach around the gas giant Yavin and the audience could see on a clean infrographic how long until the Death Star would be in a direct fire line. This builds suspense and a sense of urgency.
In TFA starkiller base is SOMEWHERE and we have to take the director's word for it being a now or never situation. And it also seemingly has some weird magic beams that can arc around stuff instead of having the need for a direct fireline (and the beam seemlingly is like 1000x times faster than the speed of light)

Then onto the battle plan: In ANH Lucas included Death Star plans as its weakness, something we normal audience can relate to. Of course! If the rebels get the blueprints, they will find a weakness to exploit.
In ROTJ we had the exposed Death Star II under construction, dependent on a shield coming from the moon below. Simple stuff that even Reagan could grasp and give the audience a plausible justification of why a bunch of rag tag rebels were capable of destroying a Death Star 2 times.
Now in TFA they have Death Star III aka Starkiller base. This thing is like 15x times bigger, has no weaknesses, nothing set up in the plot in act1 or act2 to give any indication of how to defeat it.
So we get a cookiecutter rebel pilot briefing scene around the same Yavin IV looking big battle plan room. Truelly democratic the resistance has a brainstorming meeting with everyone participating.

There is Ackbar, the weird looking other guy from ROTJ, another general, a fat pilot, Leia, Han, C3P0 and Finn enthusiastically chiming in with ideas and after some hard 2 minutes of thinking they know how to defeat it!
"Doesn't this thing have a compressor, or resistor, or shield generator or other Stark Trek techno bubble thing?!"
Sure it does! Easy we assemble 8 X-Wings and destroy the compressor, or resistor or generator or whatever it is.
So much wrong with this whole thing.
First: The First Order didn't think of ships bypassing their shield by coming out of Hyperspace directly above the planet? Super weak excuse. Coming out of hyperspace seems to be fucking common in the Star Wars universe.
Second: The Resistance has what feels like 8 X-Wings to finish off the ultimate doomsday weapon? Even the absolutely desperate rebels in ANH had more ships and knew that Y-Wings and B-Wings are used for bombing runs.

4. STAYING VAGUE
TFA gave off this feel that the writers were not knowing where this thing is headed, the Disney shareholder promises deadline loomed and they needed to come up with something that works to keep people interested in the brand for years to come.
So we get this super vague plot where the Republic is non existent, the First Order motivations stay non existent, where Rey's past feels like not even the writers know what is in store for her
(and even admitted as much in an Interview where they stated that it is now in Rian Johnson's ballpark).
This flashback feels like it was the maximum they dared in order not to write themselves into a corner. So we get a movie that guarantees people will go see the 2nd one to see how the mystery of vague stuff gets resolved and then even if EpVIII will be lackluster they will also jump into EPIX.
It feels a bit like Pirates of the Caribbean I-IV but without a coherent self contained first movie.

CONCUSION
I could continue with smaller things like the music being really weak, the Falcon bouncing like a physics defieing toy against scenery in every other scene or how the set design was just a rehash of Tatooine, Bespin walkways and Death Star corridors but this is already a wall of text. Just needed to write my thoughts down in order this movie somehow keeps up the hype and I get sucked into believing it was somehow on
par with the OT later on. It wasn't. Like at all. It had a nice primary cast, the chemistry was there, the OT banter was there, but holy shit at the gaping holes in the plot and world building, the obvious JJ disregard for basic physics and logic, the mystery box of vagueness and reference overload.
Really hope Rian Johnson can make something out of "Missing in Action" Wizard Luke and that whole "who murdered the younglings at the academy?" flashback mystery box setup.

Watched it last night. I'd say this post sums up most of my thoughts on the movie.

Decently fun romp.. but really hard to take the story seriously.

 

[Toa TAK]

Can't believe I missed another great Veelk. Keep them coming, dude, regardless of how long you think it is.

 

[Blader]

Hmm. It seems to just confirm that he does play a stormtrooper but I don't see anything that directly points to him being "Scavenger Scum" trooper besides speculation. I don't think Pegg ever stated that. I assume it's him though.

Glad Abrams confirmed McGregor.

EW's source(s) said that that was the trooper played by Craig.

 

[WadiumArcadium]

Quick question, sorry if it's been asked: Are we to assume that when Kylo took off his helmet during Rey's interrogation, that he set it on a bed of Vader's ashes?

I assumed it was the ashes from Vader's suit that Kylo collected when he grabbed Vader's helmet.

 

[Pops Maellard]

Listening to the soundtrack, the only music that really stands out is Rey's theme ("The Scavenger").

Definitely the weakest of the films' soundtracks; for all the flak the prequels get, I can remember so many great distinctive pieces of music: Not just "Duel of the Fates" and "Across the Stars", but other stuff like the "The Droid Invasion".

Definitely. I feel guilty about admitting this, but I still enjoy the soundtracks from the prequels. TFA has Rey's theme, but nothing else is memorable. I was really hoping that one of the later trailer themes would make an appearance, but nope.

 

[Pandy]

imdb was probably updated by someone who saw all the other entertainment news sites running with EW's article, which, again, seems to suggest that you know it's Daniel Craig because you can recognize his voice, which is weird because it sounds nothing like him, and Stormtroopers get ADR'd anyway.

It could be him in the suit though, but of all the cameos we've learned about, Craig's is the only one that hasn't been outright confirmed by people on the record in the production.

Then again, the fact nobody's gone on the record to deny it, either, probably says something too. Or at least, that they haven't gone on the record since the first time both Abrams and Craig went on the record to deny it back during shooting.

It sounds exactly like him. My only point of doubt would be whether it's him in the suit or not.

This is Truth right here! Never thought of it that way.

Remember that it was Lando and his piloting skills that took down the 2nd death star - no force, just guts and bravado!

The Bro-Side moves mountains indeed.

While Luke boarding the 2nd Death Star did allow him to save Vader from the Dark Side essentially Lando and Wedge, with help from Solo on the ground, would have destroyed the Death Star and killed the Emperor and Vader anyway.

There's no reason to suspect anyone in the SW universe doesn't think Lando is the supreme hero of the Rebellion.

 

[Blader]

Definitely. I feel guilty about admitting this, but I still enjoy the soundtracks from the prequels. TFA has Rey's theme, but nothing else is memorable. I was really hoping that one of the later trailer homes would make an appearance, but nope.

The prequel soundtracks are legitimately great. TFA's is totally forgettable.

It sounds exactly like him. My only point of doubt would be whether it's him in the suit or not.

The rumor, and the one since confirmed by EW, is that it was Craig who ran over to the studio (apparently right next door to where they were shooting Spectre) and went into costume. So if nothing else, it's him in the suit at least.

 

[Subtervotion]

People are comparing Finn to Jar Jar?! Either trolling or just moronic.

Finn was my favorite character. Just the fact that he has a unique back story to any other Star Wars character makes his character great.

Or maybe my expectations were just bested. I thought he would be some resistance spy disguised as a storm tripper on a secret mission. But being a storm trooper with a conscience makes his character way more interesting, imo.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Definitely. I feel guilty about admitting this, but I still enjoy the soundtracks from the prequels. TFA has Rey's theme, but nothing else is memorable. I was really hoping that one of the later trailer homes would make an appearance, but nope.

The soundtrack does grow on you a little after repeated listens. Granted, I've been looping it basically for the last 2 days.

What helps is that the For Your Consideration soundtrack on the Disney site features a) more music and b) different arrangements than what's on the actual CD, and there are some new tracks (and some arrangements of existing tracks) that make the score better.

It sounds exactly like him.

No it doesn't. The man does a shit American accent, and it's not even really the same vocal tone. The EW article points to the voice as confirmation, while describing the voice as "clipped british dialect" or something like that. Him being in the suit makes sense, as it's not much more than a couple hours at Pinewood. I don't buy it being his voice, because why bother to take the time flying him into LA to do the ADR when you've got about 15 people already hired specifically to do all the Stormtrooper dialog sitting right there?

 

[Pops Maellard]

The soundtrack does grow on you a little after repeated listens. Granted, I've been looping it basically for the last 2 days.

What helps is that the For Your Consideration soundtrack on the Disney site features a) more music and b) different arrangements than what's on the actual CD, and there are some new tracks (and some arrangements of existing tracks) that make the score better.

Will definitely give it a listen; I've just listened to the Spotify track list so far.

 

[Alucard]

but the stakes were high and they clearly explained why. the star killer was charging and about to blow up where the resistance were because they (first order) discovered the location of the resistance and the resistance knew it.

same (as in explained) with the stuff with the 2 groups going after han and chewie. maybe you just werent paying attention

Yeah, it's why I'd like to see it again to see if some of my gripes still hold up or if they'll dissipate now that I know the arc of the movie. My initial impression was that they didn't do a good job of really establishing Starkiller Base and that it felt shoehorned in.

 

[JaseMath]

Wonder if we'll ever see a Director's Cut of this. 25 minutes worth of extra Star Wars material is something I want in my life.

 

[Toa TAK]

Wonder if we'll ever see a Director's Cut of this. 25 minutes worth of extra Star Wars material is something I want in my life.

Like a Special Edition?

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

While Luke boarding the 2nd Death Star did allow him to save Vader from the Dark Side essentially Lando and Wedge, with help from Solo on the ground, would have destroyed the Death Star and killed the Emperor and Vader anyway.
.

I've seen it discussed and I believe it, Sheev was using battle mediation during the final space battle in ROTJ. Everything goes to shit (A-wing hitting the Super Star Destroyer et al) once his concentration is broken and he is killed.

 

[Theodoricos]

I've seen it discussed and I believe it, Sheev was using battle mediation during the final space battle in ROTJ. Everything goes to shit (A-wing hitting the Super Star Destroyer et al) once his concentration is broken and he is killed.

Correct, that's confirmed in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy.

 

[cubicle47b]

Those 20 extra minutes could make a huge difference if they focus on character motivations and show travel/down time. If it's Poe killing entire fleets of Tie Fighters I'll pass.

 

[shortsFortallPeople]

Wonder if we'll ever see a Director's Cut of this. 25 minutes worth of extra Star Wars material is something I want in my life.

i've posted this list numerous times but i'll do it again

here is the long and exhaustive list of director's/extended cuts that JJ has made throughout the years:

 

[TheOctodad]

Correct, that's confirmed in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy.

That's not canon anymore though...

 

[Skellig Gra]

Wonder if we'll ever see a Director's Cut of this. 25 minutes worth of extra Star Wars material is something I want in my life.

That's doubtful. Directors have very little control over there Disney projects especially after the movie is out.

 

[zethren]

I'd rather watch TFA's saber duels a hundred times than any of the fights in the prequels.

And J.J should be commended on how infrequently he used the sabers, it gave them far more impact.

Quoting for another page, because YES.

Lightsaber fights were almost meaningless in the prequels. They really did take the note of the OT in this way, and in many others, and it just made for a much more enjoyable Star Wars return.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Wonder if we'll ever see a Director's Cut of this

This is the director's cut. Disney didn't push these decisions on him. He made them himself.

It is really funny, as Toa pointed out, how many Star Wars fans are asking for a Special Edition without using the words Special Edition.

 

[Jarmel]

This is the director's cut. Disney didn't push these decisions on him. He made them himself.

It is really funny, as Toa pointed out, how many Star Wars fans are asking for a Special Edition without using the words Special Edition.

I think there's a difference between an Extended Cut and going back and adding things into already existing scenes.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I think there's a difference between an Extended Cut and going back and adding things into already existing scenes.

Not really.

 

[Sub_Level]

Quick question, sorry if it's been asked: Are we to assume that when Kylo took off his helmet during Rey's interrogation, that he set it on a bed of Vader's ashes?

That part felt off. The sound design was really loud and forceful but the actor didn't seem to put it down that harshly, likely due to not wanting to break the prop.

 

[Jarmel]

Not really.

I find there to be a world of difference.

 

[WadiumArcadium]

That part felt off. The sound design was really loud and forceful but the actor didn't seem to put it down that harshly, likely due to not wanting to break the prop.

Driver described it as really uncomfortable so I'm surprised he didn't try to.

Adding extra scenes? I swear George did that with the special editions.

 

[Ether_Snake]

I think I've figured it out. Snoke isn't Plaugas, but Plaugas was Snoke all along. It turns out that Snoke is the ancient and ultimate evil and the source of bad midichlorians in the world. He's been fighting his counterpart and adversary (who currently goes by the name of Maz Kanata) and source of good midichlorians throughout eternity, continually being reborn under different names. This is why Maz says that she had heard the First Order's name many times before, because they are all Snoke. Snoke created Anakin from the force and midichlorians to create the ultimate dark side force person, and is now training Kylo Ren as the ultimate payoff of that decision. But what he wasn't counting on was that Maz Kanata manipulated the force and midichlorians to create Padme, so all of Anakin's children also have the force of all good in them. Then Maz Kanata will make the big reveal that Rey is the good force inside of Maz Kanata reborn while Kylo Ren is the bad force inside of Snoke reborn, and then they fight.

So in your universe the Wachowskis made the new Star Wars movies.