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Red Letter Media - The Star Wars Awakens Review

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Coffee Dog said:
I wonder if this is actually as thorough as the prequel reviews, considering how glowing Mike was after seeing TFA.
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I've watched the first 15 minutes so far and its a lot more than just a review of the movie. There's a lot of backstory about how this movie happened and I think he's damn spot on in his characterization of Lucas leading up to the sale of the franchise to Disney. He even says in the beginning that this is more of a 'State of the Star Wars Universe' review than it is of just the movie.
 
Also I hope they point out how the plot isn't just a rehash of IV, but the conflict is an unjustified excuse for more movies. When they could have just built on top of VI's ending and made something new, they took the safe way out and broke down its conclusion to reset everything to zero. The power of the First Order is just too unbelievable for me, so they just come off as an excuse to have the Empire again.

I actually think the movie is fun as you watch it, it just falls apart completely when thinking about it afterwards.
 
GAMEPROFF said:
Do they continue the kidnapping plot?
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Nope.



Also, it's been years since I've seen the full Plinkett reviews, so I can't really remember what the hell went on there anymore.



Plus, as much as I've looked forward to this review, I'm going to be annoyed if people start regularly linking this video as a form of an "auto-argument" in future SW threads much like the prequel reviews. This is whether this is review ends up being positive or negative.
 
Valkyri von Thanatos said:
Also I hope they point out how the plot isn't just a rehash of IV, but the conflict is an unjustified excuse for more movies. When they could have just built on top of VI's ending and made something new, they took the safe way out and broke down its conclusion to reset everything to zero. The power of the First Order is just too unbelievable for me, so they just come off as an excuse to have the Empire again.

I actually think the movie is fun as you watch it, it just falls apart completely when thinking about it afterwards.
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This was my biggest gripe. Not that it felt like a rehash (which it did to me, but whatever), but that it squandered so much potential for more interesting stories to be told following the events of Jedi. As is, it really does just feel like a reboot and that the original trilogy barely matters.
 
Spent the opening minutes eviscerating Lucas even after he's literally divorced himself from this franchise. lol. Mike's prequel salt is eternal
 
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Tom Nook Sawyer said:
This was my biggest gripe. Not that it felt like a rehash (which it did to me, but whatever), but that it squandered so much potential for more interesting stories to be told following the events of Jedi. As is, it really does just feel like a reboot and that the original trilogy barely matters.
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It's a near-total rehash. But yeah, only showing what the OT characters built since Jedi for a few seconds, as a reaction shot, bothered me much more.
 
It does eventually become a review of TFA, right? Or is it just him going off on the prequels and "ring theory" for 2 hours?
 
TheXbox said:
Spent the opening minutes eviscerating Lucas even after he's literally divorced himself from this franchise. lol. Mike's prequel salt is eternal
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Never forget "white slavers."

Anyway, I forgot this was even a thing. Time to make some popcorn and straddle in. The opening extended metaphor alone was good stuff. xD
 
I wasn't keen on the review at first, but then he started getting to the point and going to town on the revisionisms over the prequels.
 
DrForester said:
It does eventually become a review of TFA, right? Or is it just him going off on the prequels and "ring theory" for 2 hours?
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20 minutes in and it hasn't mentioned TFA once.

I think we're in for 2 hours of RLM shitting on internet critics I've never heard of.

So far so disappointing.
 
45 minutes in and he's still going on about Prequel revisionism.


It's still funny, but I'm beginning to think we've been had.
 
Tom Nook Sawyer said:
This was my biggest gripe. Not that it felt like a rehash (which it did to me, but whatever), but that it squandered so much potential for more interesting stories to be told following the events of Jedi. As is, it really does just feel like a reboot and that the original trilogy barely matters.
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Indeed. He touched on VII being really just a reboot in the trailer for the review, so I expect he'll bring up that criticism. I really do think they chose one of the most boring and repetitive story possibilities for VII, which is a shame because the technical composition of the film is pretty good, a little too breezy and unfocused, but still done well enough.

The plot and every original trilogy character (or ones related to them) was just botched so badly that the film would be better off without them in all honesty. Both of those aspects were caught in a limbo of trying to be a tribute to the originals while also disregarding them that they come off as forced. The OT characters really seem to have been included for fan service, and not to actually do anything with them to develop them, in most cases they regressed.

TAJ said:
It's a near-total rehash. But yeah, only showing what the OT characters built since Jedi for a few seconds, as a reaction shot, bothered me much more.
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I agree. Having another Empire and
Death Star 3.0
seemed really contrived, but the amount of progress they wiped out to restart is more disappointing. They could have even made nearly the same story without undoing nearly everything the OT built up. It seems like an insult to the accomplishments made in those films, especially with how nonchalantly the progress is wiped away.

If it was focused on that tragedy, the story and film could have been much better, but they just gloss over it like it was nothing. I guess they were too scared that fans would rage because they weren't seeing a fun adventure film, so they decided to have the tragedy, but barely tocuh on it and instead try to pretend it didn't even happen
 
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