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[SPOILERS] Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Thread #3) - That's Not How the Force Works

I was thinking about the New Republic during my second viewing, and it is evident that they do have some military, but it's strictly for self defense. It seems like the can't have a standing army and only have a fleet for protection.

Also, with it being a Republic, they would need a vote to take official action against the First Order, hence Leia and Resistance.

Now, I can't imagine why the New Republic wouldn't vote to take Military action against the First Order. Could be they aren'the doing anything overtly illegal, they are "just trying to find Luke Skywalker".
 
It'd be kinda outta nowhere.

That's what the people want, isn't it?!

I just don't see how it'd add anything really. I think they're doing a good job so far of making Rey feel like a strong and independent woman, and having allusions to her liking Finn and then falling for Poe would make it feel more like other terrible shit. The same sorta thing happened with Leia and it's one angle in the OT that I've never liked.
 

Guy.brush

Member
I'm so indifferent about things like this. I don't really have a hard time believing that in a space fantasy that this order has been building a secret weapon within a planet for the past 30 years. Your criticisms are totally fair though to me, for what it's worth.

For me this is just escalating too much, too soon and typical sequel hyperbole stuff that hurts the lore.
IF, as a fraction splinter cell of the Empire you are capable of building something like this into a planet to move it around to suck up suns - why hasn't this been done before? Where are the artificial star systems where the Old Republic terraformed whole systems with this method? This feels like magnitudes bigger deal than anything before.
Hoth? Tatooine, Jakku. Just move these balls closer into the Goldilocks zone of their suns and you have a lovely weather.

This hyperbolic bigger, better, more explosions approach ruins the old movies stakes, at least for me. The rebel alliance had a rag tag camp on Hoth, why were they not capable of doing feats like that?
The biggest flaw to me is not that they introduced something like this, but they couldn't wait for IX to build up to it slowly. It is suddenly ready, fully built and noone knows how it actually flies or moves or shoots or works.
But the Resistance knows how to defeat it with a handful of X-Wings after a 2 minute brainstorming session.
Again retroactively hurting the efforts about the blueprints in ANH and the shield generator shenanigans in ROTJ.
 
I just don't see any chemistry there at all + it would be random + I seriously do think Poe likes dudes (I hope so at least, lol)
I just don't see how it'd add anything really. I think they're doing a good job so far of making Rey feel like a strong and independent woman, and having allusions to her liking Finn and then falling for Poe would make it feel more like other terrible shit. The same sorta thing happened with Leia and it's one angle in the OT that I've never liked.
I wasn't being serious, brehs :p

It is nearly impossible to make that come across in text without any indicators, though. My bad.
 
Nah ANH is a 10/10 film. Does pretty much everything better than TFA, the climatic battle most importantly

ANH is far from a 10/10. I watched all 3 OG movies again and was surprised how much worse ANH is than my memory of it, and how monumentally better Empire is. Mostly what it has over TFA is a much better structure, less cluttered pacing, and the benefit of coming up with all the shit TFA was riffing on.

TFA has better acting, better cinematography, better visual storytelling, and plenty of entertaining moments that surpass parts from ANH. I still like ANH better than TFA, but I would easily buy people liking TFA better, especially if they are not as familiar with the impact of ANH.
 
If they introduce a Love Triangle in Episode 8, chances are it'll be a woman vying for Finn's interest while the two are separated, and we end up with a "will he roll with this woman, or will he hold out for Rey" kinda scenario.

It also depends on how long the break between the two movies is, and what's happened between the two. Han/Leia in Empire took on a little more weight because you got just enough hints that there was somethings seriously brewing between them just under the surface between movies.
 

Teletraan1

Banned
I would say, by far, my biggest issue with Episode 7 was the lack of fleshing out the First Order / New Republic / Resistance dynamic. Just one scene with Leia discussing politics with a New Republic senator (or whatever) would have been enough. Though I can't blame JJ for minimizing her scenes... lol

While I think there needed to be a bit more fleshing out; coming off the prequels which were just jammed with boring space politics It was refreshing to get back to the basics and not dwell too much on the how or why. They have 3 movies to flesh all that out. Jamming all of that into a movie just makes people who aren't as invested roll their eyes. You don't get over a billion in box office sales by showing space C SPAN.
 
Really? You thought the Empire would have a 20x bigger planet sized Deathstar III that is capable of having a flora and fauna and shooting its targets in real-time through hyperspace after their massive defeat at the battle of Endor and loosing their Emperor and hold on the galactic economy?

I think TFA has really good elements in act1 and the new cast is lovely but that starkiller base thing totally destroys the 2nd and 3rd act and with it the stakes and coherent nature of the movie.
It would have been enough if Kylo's STARDESTROYER would have featured as climactic vehicle, capable of destablizing a sun to the point it becomes unstable. It would be more fitting to the state the Empire is in also. Sneaky (ancient) stealth weapon on board their last remaining big ships.

Kevin J. Anderson had an even bigger super weapon into his Jedi Academy trilogy, the Sun Crusher on which Starkiller Base is obviously based. And then he even had the Hutts build a shitty low rent super weapon in Darksaber because why the fuck not. It's better to just accept that super weapons are just dime a dozen in the Star Wars universe.

Of course none of that is canon now so oh well.
 

JeTmAn81

Member
I feel like they won't do a love triangle, to avoid repeating that dynamic from the OT. It'll just be Finn and Rey figuring things out between them.

Kevin J. Anderson had an even bigger super weapon into his Jedi Academy trilogy, the Sun Crusher on which Starkiller Base is obviously based. And then he even had the Hutts build a shitty low rent super weapon in Darksaber because why the fuck not. It's better to just accept that super weapons are just dime a dozen in the Star Wars universe.

Of course none of that is canon now so oh well.

Those were fine in the books. You can do anything you want in a book/comic/game, but in the movies you need to be really judicious about what you give to the widest possible audience.
 
If they introduce a Love Triangle in Episode 8, chances are it'll be a woman vying for Finn's interest while the two are separated, and we end up with a "will he roll with this woman, or will he hold out for Rey" kinda scenario.

It also depends on how long the break between the two movies is, and what's happened between the two. Han/Leia in Empire took on a little more weight because you got just enough hints that there was somethings seriously brewing between them just under the surface between movies.


With Han out of the way, I could totally see Leia try her chance with Finn.
 
Nah, this ain't true. That post-game celebration in the Falcon was definitely "I think I like you," for one example.
Ehhhh. I think that's more people can't help but think there's something there because it's a girl and a boy more than anything actually being there. Rey's just excited to have a friend.
I just don't want the "tough girl turns out to be a lesbian" thing to happen. It is almost starting to turn into a trope (in before someone avatar quotes me).

I mean I "would" like it if it happens, but I just hope it doesn't become something like the "tough girl" trope.
Dude, there aren't enough gay female protagonists for anything to be a trope at this point.

And besides, the "tough" aspect I think you're thinking about is different from Rey being capable.
 
For me this is just escalating too much, too soon and typical sequel hyperbole stuff that hurts the lore.

I do wonder if they did it this time so that they could move away from it in the next ones. I DO think it makes sense for this budding order to have a scary weapon, even if its samey, you can't instill fear across an entire galaxy without something crazy, at least not to the level they're after. And it did serve the purpose in pretty much destroying the entire Republic in this film which is kind of a major event. I'm not sure if it was the entire Republic that was wiped out or just one system of Republic-concentrated planets, but it was definitely a severe blow, at least that's what I got out of Hux's speech.

I think with the Republic taking that beating and then the FO taking the beating of Starkiller being destroyed that things are going to spiral out into new directions after this. But like I said a few posts back, all of this did feel right to me.
 

Blader

Member
While I think there needed to be a bit more fleshing out; coming off the prequels which were just jammed with boring space politics It was refreshing to get back to the basics and not dwell too much on the how or why. They have 3 movies to flesh all that out. Jamming all of that into a movie just makes people who aren't as invested roll their eyes. You don't get over a billion in box office sales by showing space C SPAN.

More than that, it'd adds virtually nothing to the film. I think a handful of people have convinced themselves that better understanding the nuances of the Resistance's place in the galaxy or how the New Republic's bureaucracy impedes support for the Resistance or action against the First Order would flesh out the story in some great way, but I really think, in the end, it's kind of a pointless digression. The political landscape doesn't mean anything to Rey, Finn or Kylo Ren's arcs, to Han's journey and death, or to the search for Luke. It's background noise -- and for the people really interested, there's background material to get into it.
 
How much time we expecting to pass between TFA and VIII? I think it'll be maybe half a year.

It will start at the end of Rey and Kylo's training, so 1 week.


Realistically, I would say 1 year. Finn recovers, Rey and Kylo are fully trained, and the First Order start taking over planet systems all over the galaxy with the New Republic gone.

I can see the miltary capabilities of the First Order swelling within a year.

But I would think the first Order would still try to find Luke Skywalker. I can't imagine they would just stop the hunt.
 
- when Chewie is crying alone at the end, have him be near R2D2. This will give some plausibility to why R2 suddenly woke up.

Someone I talked to mentioned why this may have happened. They said it was because Rey was there. Which makes sense, in a way. But him magically waking up having the rest of the map has been one of my biggest issues with the movie.
 

Interfectum

Member
While I think there needed to be a bit more fleshing out; coming off the prequels which were just jammed with boring space politics It was refreshing to get back to the basics and not dwell too much on the how or why. They have 3 movies to flesh all that out. Jamming all of that into a movie just makes people who aren't as invested roll their eyes. You don't get over a billion in box office sales by showing space C SPAN.

Yeah true, I just wanted something like Leia asking the New Republic for more funding, New Republic balking saying they don't want to piss off First Order. Leia blaming them for First Order existing in the first place, etc. Just a quick scene somewhere. But yeah, all of this might be pointless if it gets fleshed out over the next two movies.
 
Ehhhh. I think that's more people can't help but think there's something there because it's a girl and a boy more than anything actually being there. Rey's just excited to have a friend..

Nah. I'd suggest you have to stretch to go "you're gonna be my friend" after the facial expression she's wearing (and the slight shift of expression as she finishes giving him her name) and the slow way the camera is pushing in on her face. That's not a "we could be friends!" type of move.

That she gets right back down to business almost immediately afterwards when the ship breaks sorta points to this as well.

It's not a "they're a girl and a boy" thing, especially since the first time they meet she hits him in the face with a stick. There's a specific reason she's giving that performance, and the camera is making that move, and it's to hint that she's thinking somewhere in the back of her head that there might be something to this. She's just more guarded about it than he is, which makes sense considering their characters.
 

Braag

Member
I really hope they recast Kylo Ren in the next two movies. The casting for the rest of the characters is so spot on, so it makes it stand out even more how they botched the villain. Adam Driver's acting is Hayden Christensen level bad, but at least Hayden had good looks to soften the blow a bit. It's not a good sign when people in the theater giggle when Ren pulls off his mask for the first time. Yikes.

Worst casting decision since Mark Ruffalo took over as the Hulk.

Umm what... I thought he was great.
 
Someone I talked to mentioned why this may have happened. They said it was because Rey was there. Which makes sense, in a way. But him magically waking up having the rest of the map has been one of my biggest issues with the movie.

Nah, it wasn't Rey that woke R2 up. It was BB-8.

The story group’s thinking went back to the 1977 original movie, when R2-D2 accessed the Empire’s mainframe as the heroes searched for the captured Princess Leia. “We had the idea about R2 plugging into the information base of the Death Star, and that’s how he was able to get the full map and find where the Jedi temples are,” Arndt said.

“But the idea was that in that scene where R2 plugged in, he downloaded the archives of the Empire, which was referenced by Kylo Ren,” Abrams said. Thirty-eight years later, in both our own and galactic time, that data becomes useful in The Force Awakens when a new droid approaches the dormant R2.

“BB-8 comes up and says something to him, which is basically, ‘I’ve got this piece of a map, do you happen to have the rest?’” Abrams said. “The idea was, R2 who has been all over the galaxy, is still in his coma, but he hears this. And it triggers something that would ultimately wake him up.”

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/20/jj-abrams-answers-burning-question-about-r2-d2-star-wars-force-awakens
 

Interfectum

Member
I do wonder if they did it this time so that they could move away from it in the next ones. I DO think it makes sense for this budding order to have a scary weapon, even if its samey, you can't instill fear across an entire galaxy without something crazy, at least not to the level they're after. And it did serve the purpose in pretty much destroying the entire Republic in this film which is kind of a major event. I'm not sure if it was the entire Republic that was wiped out or just one system of Republic-concentrated planets, but it was definitely a severe blow, at least that's what I got out of Hux's speech.

I think with the Republic taking that beating and then the FO taking the beating of Starkiller being destroyed that things are going to spiral out into new directions after this. But like I said a few posts back, all of this did feel right to me.

Well I think the current story is that the New Republic was war weary and defunded all military operations but defense. Leia was against this and formed the resistance to keep an eye on the First Order, whom the New Republic didn't bother to finish off.

Now that the First Order has proven Leia to be right, what's left of the New Republic will most likely go whole hog into war mode with the Resistance taking the leadership role.

Depending on how decimated the New Republic is, we could be looking at a more even war this time (New Republic vs. First Order). Rather than a rag tag rebellion vs an Empire.
 
Umm what... I thought he was great.

Not only was his acting great but his looks fit the character too. When the mask comes off, you don't see a grizzled, scary, badass, you see a young troubled man. You see Han and Leia's son, someone who looks like they should be a nice good guy, which makes it all the more tragic that he's not.
 

Ambient80

Member
So if the running theory (at last I checked) is that Rey is Luke's daughter, does Leia know who she is? How in touch with the Force is Leia, and could she sense it within Rey?
 

Teletraan1

Banned
but but someone snickered in the theater when he took his mask off!!11

I almost want to go see it again to see if the reaction was the same. There was very audible laughing from multiple people in the theater when the mask came off. I think it was just his facial expression. I wish I had a screen grab of it. For some reason the guy reminded me of JP from Grandma's Boy just as he took the mask off. He didn't really bother me or anything afterwards and his later maskless scenes were pretty solid.

As I said earlier de-masking is always a letdown. I cant think of a single example of a non comedy de-masking that was satisfying. From Vader to Cobra Commander they have all sucked.
 

Nairume

Banned
I was a little confused by the Leia hug at the end. Rey wouldn't even know who Leia is or what she looks like right? I can't remember if she and Han ever talked about her.
They did off screen.

When Finn and Poe go to the command room to talk to Leia about rescuing Rey, Leia explicitly says that Han already told her everything about Rey.

How in touch with the Force is Leia, and could she sense it within Rey?
She was able to sense Han's death.
 

foxtrot3d

Banned
I was a little confused by the Leia hug at the end. Rey wouldn't even know who Leia is or what she looks like right? I can't remember if she and Han ever talked about her.

You know what, I actually forgot the fact they hadn't met until that scene so now it's doubly hilarious to me.
 

PopeReal

Member
One guy out of over 200 laughed in my theater. I assume it is that guy who goes around town telling everyone how awesome the latest transformers was.
 

Ashhong

Member

But he doesn't wake up the first time..he wakes up on his own later after Rey arrives.

They did off screen.

When Finn and Poe go to the command room to talk to Leia about rescuing Rey, Leia explicitly says that Han already told her everything about Rey.


She was able to sense Han's death.

But then does Rey know Leia? Are we to assume Han showed her a picture or something so Rey would recognize her? Maybe Rey sensed the force in her?
 
One guy out of over 200 laughed in my theater. I assume it is that guy who goes around town telling everyone how awesome the latest transformers was.

Nah, it's that guy who goes on messageboards later and tells everyone how the whole theater was laughing with him.

Same dude usually thinks of something funny on the way to the parking lot and then writes it up as if some other guy in the theater actually said it out loud and the crowd rewarded him for it with uproarious laughter.
 

Interfectum

Member
While I think there needed to be a bit more fleshing out; coming off the prequels which were just jammed with boring space politics It was refreshing to get back to the basics and not dwell too much on the how or why. They have 3 movies to flesh all that out. Jamming all of that into a movie just makes people who aren't as invested roll their eyes. You don't get over a billion in box office sales by showing space C SPAN.

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awkens-deleted-scenes/

Damn, there WAS a scene with Leia and the New Republic. He shouldn't have cut that out.

Her appearance set up the Galactic senate, with Leia having a conversation with Korr Sella (played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers), the dark-haired woman who is featured in the balcony scene when Starkiller base blows up Hosinian Prime.

As usual, Leia did not waste time on small talk: “You need to go to the Senate right away. Tell them I insist that they take action against the First Order. The longer they bicker and delay, the stronger the Order becomes.” She leaned toward the other woman. “If they fail to take action soon, the Order will have grown so strong the Senate will be unable to do anything. It won’t matter what they think.” Sella indicated her understanding. “With all respect: Do you think the senators will listen?” “I don’t know.” Leia bit down on her lower lip. “So much time has passed. There was a time when they were at least willing to listen. And of course, the Senate’s makeup has changed. Some of those who were always willing to pay attention to me have retired. Some of those who have replaced them have their own agendas.” She smiled ruefully. “Not all senators think I’m crazy. Or maybe they do. I don’t care what they think about me as long as they take action.” The emissary nodded. “I’ll do all I can to ensure the Resistance gets the hearing we deserve. But why don’t you go yourself, General? An appeal of this nature is always more effective when delivered firsthand.” Leia’s smile thinned. “I might make it to the Senate, yes. I might even be able to deliver my speech. But I would never, never get out of the Hosnian system alive. I would have a terrible ‘accident,’ or become the victim of some ‘deranged’ radical. Or I would eat something that didn’t agree with me. Or encounter someone who didn’t agree with me.” She composed herself. “I have total confidence in you, Sella. I know you will deliver our message to the full extent of your considerable abilities.” The emissary smiled back, grateful for the confidence the general was expressing.”

I wonder how bad Fisher's acting was there. lol
 
A few edits to the film I would make:

- Cut out Snoke saying "your father, Han Solo". Just leave it at "your father". Have the audience make the connection when Han tells Leia that they saw their son.

- Have the Vader Mask with Kylo scene happen after Rey is captured but before she is interrogated.

- Cut most of the dialog in the Han and Leia scenes. Reduce the amount of exposition in the first han/Leia scene. In the second scene before Han leaves, cut the dialog to just say "bring him home, he still has light in him".

- Edit out Chewie in the Leia/Rey hug.

- when Chewie is crying alone at the end, have him be near R2D2. This will give some plausibility to why R2 suddenly woke up.

Agree with all of this, especially about the Han and Leia relationship scene, which was too much of a blatant information dump.
 
So if the running theory (at last I checked) is that Rey is Luke's daughter, does Leia know who she is? How in touch with the Force is Leia, and could she sense it within Rey?

I'll put it this way:

When Maz Kanata asks "who's the girl?" in her pub, the scene cuts. So we know Han talked about Rey with Maz, and then Maz shows up in the basement where the lightsaber is. This is the scene that gives most people the impression that Han knows who she is.

However, later in the film we hear that Han told Leia about "the girl" (when Leia first meets Finn), but that part of their conversation is likewise cut from the film. What exactly did Han tell Leia?

On top of that, Han says that he didn't find the Falcon "by coincidence," but we're apparently supposed to believe that it's a coincidence that he didn't check out the precise part of Jakku where Rey was living when he was first looking for it - the girl whose past he knows but won't tell her about.
 

Nairume

Banned
But then does Rey know Leia? Are we to assume Han showed her a picture or something so Rey would recognize her? Maybe Rey sensed the force in her?
Leia's a public figure. Even with Rey being somewhat sheltered, it's possible that she'd have seen images of her before.

But also, given they explicitly reference something that happened off screen, it's not much of a stretch to assume that they probably communicated with each other while en route back to the Resistance base.
 

Ashhong

Member
R2 was in low power mode. He wakes up when they return to D'Qar. It takes him that long to start apparently. He's like my damn laptop.

This is probably the correct reason, but it's just poor timing. They should have shown him wake up immediately, or at some point before Rey arrives. Timing his awakening with Rey just leads people to believe the two are related.

Or at least show some hint of R2 coming out of low power mode when BB talks to him.

Leia's a public figure. Even with Rey being somewhat sheltered, it's possible that she'd have seen images of her before.

But also, given they explicitly reference something that happened off screen, it's not much of a stretch to assume that they probably communicated with each other while en route back to the Resistance base.

Hm...I doubt the first possibility but the second could work. Still feels weird in the moment when watching the movie though. What do you mean they explicity reference something off screen?
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I'll put it this way:

When Maz Kanata asks "who's the girl?" in her pub, the scene cuts. So we know Han talked about Rey with Maz, and then Maz shows up in the basement where the lightsaber is. This is the scene that gives most people the impression that Han knows who she is.

However, later in the film we hear that Han told Leia about "the girl" (when Leia first meets Finn), but that part of their conversation is likewise cut from the film. What exactly did Han tell Leia?

On top of that, Han says that he didn't find the Falcon "by coincidence," but we're apparently supposed to believe that it's a coincidence that he didn't check out the precise part of Jakku where Rey was living when he was first looking for it - the girl whose past he knows but won't tell her about.

He also offers her "a job". But more likely, he wants to keep her close and safe since she got of Jakku - something she probably wasn't meant to do.
 

Trurl

Banned
So if the running theory (at last I checked) is that Rey is Luke's daughter, does Leia know who she is? How in touch with the Force is Leia, and could she sense it within Rey?
Han's look when Rey said she had never seen green before suggested he knew something. It was as if he felt guilty.
 
Ren took they betrayal super personally. Is Ren, Finn's secret love stalker?!!?!!!??

The First Order practically won.

But then Finn came in and screwed everything up.

Now there Ultimate weapon is moments from being destroyed, A new Force user is there to oppose them, his father got brought into the fight after years of running and is now dead at his hands, and they are still uno closer to finding his old master Luke Skywalker.

All because a Stormtrooper helped a Resistance pilot escape.

I'd be pissed too.
 
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