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Star War: The Force Awakens Review Thread

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A

Ashhong

Member
Bobby Roberts said:
Looks like, while almost every critic is talking about (and looking at this film through the lens of) the fandom's level of appreciation for the film, what's ACTUALLY happening is what I thought would bear out:

This is Star Trek '09, but with Star Wars. It's a greatest hits mixtape that works really well for current fans, but will work better for people who don't really give a shit, or are complete newcomers.

"The Fans" are getting hung up on the echoes and the familiarity, while the people who don't have that familiarity are just enjoying it for what it is. Meanwhile the media is telling everyone you have to already be a fan to even enter the theater.

it's kinda weird watching it play out.

(Abrams has now made two really good Star Wars movies. It's just the first was called Star Trek. And it was honestly, just a tiny bit better than this one is)
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This is exactly what I am expecting. I enjoy Star Wars but don't really give a shit about any changes and stuff they do to the franchise, lore wise. Fully expect to enjoy this movie. Same happened with Star Trek. Never watched a single movie, loved 09 and enjoyed Darkness. I imagine force awakens is mainly about building a new audience and continuing the franchise past the 40 year old fans of the OT
 
L

liquidtmd

Banned
Bobby Roberts said:
"The Fans" are getting hung up on the echoes and the familiarity, while the people who don't have that familiarity are just enjoying it for what it is. Meanwhile the media is telling everyone you have to already be a fan to even enter the theater.
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Nailed it.

Its a weird duplicity at the moment.
 
D

DontBeThatGuy

Member
-griffy- said:
Fury Road is what happens when circumstance allows a crazy director with specific talents and immense creativity 15 years of pre-production to hone his vision down to two hours. Definitely an anomaly.
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Miller basically came of age as a director during a time in aussie film history where all kinds of off the wall weird shit was produced, and yeah, give him a lot more maturity(while still keeping the energy of that era of film alive), better tools and a much bigger budget, and you get the beautiful insanity of Fury Road.
 
S

Secret Fawful

Member
Charles Foster Kane said:
I'm torn. I think I want him to do a sequel to Fury Road more. I need that sequel!
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Eh, I'm mostly kidding. I couldn't see Miller working on Johnson's vision for the movie instead of his own. But hypothetically, working on Star Wars now would give him good pre-production time for Fury Road 2. He'd already have a potential four years of prep laid out for Star Wars.

Nah, it'd never happen.
 
A

Already Torn

Banned
Tertullian said:
Surely no one is suggesting that just being different is automatically better than being safe. Metroid: Other M was different. M Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender was different. Command & Conquer 4 was different.
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I really liked Creed despite the fact that it was Rocky with a few tweaks here and there. I think the reason this Star Wars rubs me the wrong way is that it all seems much more exploitative. Like Creed seemed like Sly Stallone wants to keep inspiring people. Star Wars seems like it wants to make money.

"Are you a fan of Star Wars? Show you like Star Wars with this Facebook profile picture filter, courtesy of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters December 18th!"

I don't know if this is the case and I probably didn't explain how I feel very well, but that's just the way things like that and "Chewie, we're home" have made me feel. It's my problem, not yours and not JJ's.
 
O

orthodoxy1095

Banned
zsynqx said:
Not a Kermode fan? I actually really enjoy him, even though I often disagree with his opinions..
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Exactly. I often strong disagree with him in fact, but I love listening to what he has to say. He's usually got something interesting that at least makes me think a little more!
Fixed2BeBroken said:
why do people hate into darkness so much?

i enjoyed it
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It felt like a cheap retread without much heart and with the addition of all kinds of junk that made no sense.
 
C

Chezzymann

Member
From my impressions after reading reviews it seems like the movie is a homage to the original star wars while introducing new elements and setting up things for the rest of the trilogy. I'm not really put off by nostalgia moments as long as they're well earned, and as long as the movie is different enough from the originals to not be a carbon copy clone I'm fine with it. So will I probably enjoy this?
 
G

gamechanger87

Member
ViewtifulJC said:
Lol at all those sub 90% RT predictions
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dead2.gif
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
Having now seen it, I can comfortably say that while this may have a shot at opening weekend records, this thing ain't coming close to Avatar.

It just really doesn't seem like something that's super rewatchable.
 
T

Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!

Member
Bobby Roberts said:
Looks like, while almost every critic is talking about (and looking at this film through the lens of) the fandom's level of appreciation for the film, what's ACTUALLY happening is what I thought would bear out:

This is Star Trek '09, but with Star Wars. It's a greatest hits mixtape that works really well for current fans, but will work better for people who don't really give a shit, or are complete newcomers.

"The Fans" are getting hung up on the echoes and the familiarity, while the people who don't have that familiarity are just enjoying it for what it is. Meanwhile the media is telling everyone you have to already be a fan to even enter the theater.

it's kinda weird watching it play out.

(Abrams has now made two really good Star Wars movies. It's just the first was called Star Trek. And it was honestly, just a tiny bit better than this one is)
Click to expand...

There's obviously way more people who give a shit about Star Wars then gave a shit about Star Trek in 2009 though (sorry Star Trek fans!). The other difference is also obviously that the original Star Trek movies just weren't as good as the original Star Wars ones. I mean, Wrath of Khan was pretty good, but A New Hope was an actual best picture nominee.

So, there may be more push back from the hardcore Star Wars fans, because there's just more of them.
 
Z

zsynqx

Member
orthodoxy1095 said:
Exactly. I often strong disagree with him in fact, but I love listening to what he has to say. He's usually got something interesting that at least makes me think a little more!.
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Yep, I even watch his reviews of films I have no personal interest in. His rants just kill me.
 
O

Oersted

Member
Tertullian said:
This conversation started when someone said "worst thing you can do is design a film around satisfying fanboys."

He said worst. The worst thing you can do is build a derivative movie for hardcore fans. There is literally nothing worse you can do than that.

But that's obviously nonsense. There are many things you can do that are worse than that.
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Its one of the worser things,but I agree, there is far worse.
 
L

Liquidsnake

Banned
Anth0ny said:
Agreed. A spiritual "retelling" of ANH is exactly what this franchise needs right now.

I'd expect them to start deviating from the originals more and more as time goes on.
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So Finn wont be frozen in carbonite inthe next film?

I love all the reviews, Thank you JJ. Let us not forget where the franchise left of on the late 90's. It was in a bad place, and ruined/confirmed what we thought about a certain director.

.
 
IISANDERII

IISANDERII

Member
Perfect Cha0s said:
I'm completely okay with the most common criticisms. Setting up good characters and creating good jump-off points for VIII and IX while connecting the OT to this trilogy are exactly what this film had to do, and has seemingly succeeded at. That it apparently is heavy on the callbacks to the OT doesn't really take away from that, IMO, but I can entirely understand that it might bother some people.
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Sounds like what he did with Star Trek and its sequel.
 
C

Can Crusher

Banned
So many sequels get blasted for being essentially remakes of earlier entries, but somehow it has the total opposite effect on this one.
 
B

Blader

Member
Can Crusher said:
So many sequels get blasted for being essentially remakes of earlier entries, but somehow it has the total opposite effect on this one.
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Sequels that get blasted for being remakes of previous movies usually have a lot of other problems going on. Maybe this one is just executed better than other retreads?
 
C

Charles Foster Kane

Rosebud
Can Crusher said:
So many sequels get blasted for being essentially remakes of earlier entries, but somehow it has the total opposite effect on this one.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen it, so I don't know if I'll have a problem with it, but I don't think the fact a sequel has a lot of callbacks to earlier films is a problem. Depends on how it's implemented and if the movie works.
 
Stiflers Mom

Stiflers Mom

Banned
maquiladora said:
If I wanted something different I'd watch something that wasn't called Star Wars for a start.
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This +1000...

There is so much other Sci-Fi stuff around.

Star Wars hasn't been Star Wars since I was 8 years old in 1983.

Just let them get us back to the movie universe we all love first, and then try something ambitious with it.
 
S

samn

Member
I tried to watch Avatar again

gave up 10 minutes in

and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep in the middle of it at the theatre, I remember there being this block of time that was just a blank
 
D

Dead

well not really...yet
Kid Kamikaze10 said:
Avatar is rewatchable? Or am I missing the joke here?
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This a joke?

You dont make $3 Billion dollars without people seeing a movie over and over and over again. There probably hasnt been a movie in the past 20 years as rewatched in cinemas as Avatar, besides Titanic.
 
I

Ithil

Member
Sounds like it's an enjoyable and safe return to form, like a good foundation for a new trilogy without too many risks. Probably exactly what it needed to be.

The second film of the OT is the best one, after all, not the first.
 
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