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re: Star Wars discussion (SPOILERS GALORE!!!)
Posted on 12/21/15 at 10:22 am to Farmer1906
Posted on 12/21/15 at 10:22 am to Farmer1906
DONE! Now a spoilers thread
1
Posted on 12/21/15 at 10:23 am to AgBQ00
Posted on 12/21/15 at 10:24 am to Farmer1906
Don't hate me because I have a 1979 millinium falcon
Posted on 12/21/15 at 10:41 am to Old Sarge
Briefly...work is not cooperating with me slacking off right now.
I really loved this movie. It was fun and even with repetitive plot was very fresh and a good way to introduce new characters.
I LOVED the imagery of the dark/light side play out in lighting on Kylo's face as he and Han are on the bridge.
I also LOVED the rebirth of the star at the end showing that light is still active and still in the galaxy.
Will get more into it later.
I really loved this movie. It was fun and even with repetitive plot was very fresh and a good way to introduce new characters.
I LOVED the imagery of the dark/light side play out in lighting on Kylo's face as he and Han are on the bridge.
I also LOVED the rebirth of the star at the end showing that light is still active and still in the galaxy.
Will get more into it later.
Posted on 12/21/15 at 10:42 am to Old Sarge
quote:
Don't hate me because I have a 1979 millinium falcon
Not hate. Hate leads to suffering. But I am pretty jealous.
And back to why TWA is awesome with spoilers.
This was Solo's swan song. He was the best character in the OT and they gave him the ending he deserved. We saw him as the lying cheating smuggler that he was. He didn't get the storybook ending with Leia, but their reunion on screen was good. Solo was also the same guy yet wiser and older and a real believer in the force when he was the opposite in the OT. When he confronts his son and ultimately bites the bullet, it really builds up Kylo Ren's character. Han Solo's death propels Kylo into the Darth atmosphere as far a villains go.
Moving on from Han, the new trio(Poe, Fin, & Rey) of good guys are all studs. All well acted. All interesting. And you care for them immediately. We saw Anakin's character built up over 3 movies and no one gave a shite when he burned to a crisp, but you better believe we were on pins and needles hoping Fin didn't die.
I've heard complaints about this, but I loved how they left us wanting more and asking questions. We know so little about Luke, Snoke, what happened between Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens, Is Rey Luke's daughter, who are the knights of Ren, how did the First Order get so powerful, what happened to the other Jedi Luke trained, etc.
A couple of quick likes/random stuff without going into huge detail.
-The droids role was perfect. Not too just and just the right amount of comic relief.
-Its refreshing to not have Kylo as this perfect all powerful type. You could see him lose his cool and be immature.
-The references to the OT were great and not overdone. EX: trash compactor
-When Kylo froze the blast mid air, holy shite that was badass
-It just felt like Star Wars again.
Posted on 12/21/15 at 10:54 am to Farmer1906
I done really disagree with any of that
That's why I didn't give it a C
Perhaps my expectations were just higher than yours, acting was poor and fishers had one too many face lifts, she had 100 layers of make up on.
Han wouldn't have died that way, he would have had one hand on his blaster and should have been seen drawing it and perhaps grazing his son on the shoulder as the sabre went through him.
Better yet, he holds up the detonator to the bombs and presses it as the sabre is in him.
That's why I didn't give it a C
Perhaps my expectations were just higher than yours, acting was poor and fishers had one too many face lifts, she had 100 layers of make up on.
Han wouldn't have died that way, he would have had one hand on his blaster and should have been seen drawing it and perhaps grazing his son on the shoulder as the sabre went through him.
Better yet, he holds up the detonator to the bombs and presses it as the sabre is in him.
Posted on 12/21/15 at 11:02 am to Old Sarge
I thought the acting was excellent with the only exception being Fisher. Her lip was distracting.
Han was a changed person. He became a family man and had it torn apart by the dark side and his son. He knew exactly what he was doing. He went to tell his confused, arrogant son to stop acting like a punk and to come home. This was his last ditch effort.
Han was a changed person. He became a family man and had it torn apart by the dark side and his son. He knew exactly what he was doing. He went to tell his confused, arrogant son to stop acting like a punk and to come home. This was his last ditch effort.
Posted on 12/21/15 at 12:01 pm to Farmer1906
Things that struck me very early in the movie...
The scale of everything. The star destroyer crashed on Jakku was jaw dropping to me. It just struck me and was awesome.
The Battle Scenes Were amazing. Loved the reaction Poe had to the performance of the tie fighter.
The over arching story has me excited for the next movie. Could we possibly have two from the Skywalker line doing battle to balance the force?
How will Kylo's training play out. He just about had an arm hacked off at the shoulder, are we seeing him become more and more like his idol Vader?
The viewpoint he holds of dark being right and light being wrong and his struggle with the light needing forgiveness is an interesting twist to this story.
The scale of everything. The star destroyer crashed on Jakku was jaw dropping to me. It just struck me and was awesome.
The Battle Scenes Were amazing. Loved the reaction Poe had to the performance of the tie fighter.
The over arching story has me excited for the next movie. Could we possibly have two from the Skywalker line doing battle to balance the force?
How will Kylo's training play out. He just about had an arm hacked off at the shoulder, are we seeing him become more and more like his idol Vader?
The viewpoint he holds of dark being right and light being wrong and his struggle with the light needing forgiveness is an interesting twist to this story.
Posted on 12/21/15 at 4:21 pm to AgBQ00
Poe's "so who talks first" line may have been the best part of the entire movie. This got back to the comedy that the OT had. I want more Poe in the sequel. He was originally supposed to get killed off before JJ changed things.
Posted on 12/21/15 at 6:18 pm to Farmer1906
Did they ever explain how he got rescued/back to the rebels? If they did, I missed it.
Posted on 12/21/15 at 7:28 pm to ISEN_AG
He just said he came to in the ejection seat and the wreckage and Fin was gone so he found his way to civilization iirc
This post was edited on 12/21/15 at 7:34 pm
Posted on 12/22/15 at 10:31 am to AgBQ00
Took a half day yesterday and went and saw it. I thought it was great. 8/10 My only complaint was wanting to know more about what happened prior to TFA. I felt like there was a huge chunk of story telling they could have done. Im sure it will all be explained in the upcoming movies but, damn it, I want to know now!
Fisher's acting was a bit cringe-worthy. Her man voice and mouth were distracting.
Fisher's acting was a bit cringe-worthy. Her man voice and mouth were distracting.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 10:36 am to rugbyag
quote:
8/10
So you gave it a B like me
Posted on 12/22/15 at 11:01 am to Old Sarge
Yeah.
But reserve the right to change my ranking pending on the next films as my main critque was lack of information of what was going on. This will likely be remedied with the new films.
But reserve the right to change my ranking pending on the next films as my main critque was lack of information of what was going on. This will likely be remedied with the new films.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 11:03 am to rugbyag
quote:
Took a half day yesterday and went and saw it. I thought it was great. 8/10 My only complaint was wanting to know more about what happened prior to TFA. I felt like there was a huge chunk of story telling they could have done. Im sure it will all be explained in the upcoming movies but, damn it, I want to know now!
I wanted to know more too. So I ended up buying some of the comics & books between them.
Disney is getting more and more of my money.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 11:06 am to Farmer1906
What were the books called? Disney is likely getting more of my money too. Which is ok, my grandparents buy my sons disney stock as birthday presents.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 11:10 am to rugbyag
Shattered Empire (comics) - right after Jedi
Star Wars The Force Awakens: Before the Awakening - a kid's book, but it focuses on the lives of Rey, Finn, and Poe before the events of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Aftermath: Star Wars: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens - again right after Jedi. This may be the lowest reviewed item I've ever purchased. We'll see how much I can actually read before I give it away or permanently put it on the shelf.
Star Wars The Force Awakens: Before the Awakening - a kid's book, but it focuses on the lives of Rey, Finn, and Poe before the events of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Aftermath: Star Wars: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens - again right after Jedi. This may be the lowest reviewed item I've ever purchased. We'll see how much I can actually read before I give it away or permanently put it on the shelf.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 11:40 am to Farmer1906
So TFA is breaking just about every record. Highest midnight showing. Highest opening day. Highest opening weekend. Highest Monday. It'll probably be the highest week 2 and maybe even the end up as the highest grossing movie of all time. Currently it is Avatar with 780.5 M domestic & 2.788 B world wide.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 11:45 am to AgBQ00
I liked the movie, but I didn't love the movie. And I really wanted to love it.
Plot:
I avoided watching all the trailers--no easy feat--because I wanted to see the movie completely spoiler-free. Unfortunately the effort was for nothing because half the plot was recycled from Episode IV. It's one thing to want to echo the past thematically. But at some point it becomes plain lack of originality.
Another visit to a desert to find a force-sensitive youngster whose parents are gone.
Another Empire/First Order search for a droid that has vital information.
Han Solo is back to smuggling, and pissing off his clients, who then hunt him down.
Another evil force user who speaks with a robot voice due to his helmet.
Another cantina scene that's partly a vehicle to display the staggering diversity of alien life.
Again the girl gets captured by the evil mask-guy and the other heroes mount a rescue.
Another older mentor (Han) is killed by a loved one who betrayed him after being seduced by the dark side.
And the biggest crib of them all (both literally and figuratively): Another Death Star. Which yet again is destroyed by a small group of fighters flying through a trench.
I can understand that Disney may have felt the need to reconnect the franchise with it's fans after the disappointment of the prequels, and maybe they felt the safest route was to update the movie that started the craze in the first place. And judging by the reactions I've read online, that was probably shrewd on their part. But personally, the rehashed plot pulled me out of the movie experience.
Performances:
Han Solo - Harrison Ford is still good, but he was too old to play Indy in Crystal Skulls, and he was too old to play Han in this movie. Too old, at least, to play the running, jumping, fighting, physical rogue that Han is supposed to be. Delivered some good lines, but most felt kinda hokey (maybe I'm too jaded on this, though). You knew he was dead as soon as he stepped on that bridge to go after Kylo Ren. However Ford made it seem his character knew that, too, but decided he would be willing to sacrifice himself just for the chance of redeeming his son.
Leia - Time has not been kind to Carrie Fisher, but everyone gets old, even Leia.
New Heroes (Rey/Finn/Poe) - Felt the plot rushed them along too fast to allow them to organically flesh out their characters and portray a believable arc. Poe got in some good lines, then was gone for most of the movie. Finn goes from being indoctrinated-from-birth drone of the First Order, to suddenly having a conscience and risking his life to ditch the FO in a way that would surely piss them off. Then decides, once he's escaped the clutches of the FO, he has to go back to Starkiller base and risk his life to rescue a girl he's just met and barely even knows.
And Rey... I know the title of the movie is the "Force Awakens", but what was portrayed in her character was "the Force springs fully formed from nothing". It would have been enough of a stretch to believe she could out force-pull Kylo Ren, then beat him in a duel, despite him being a powerful-enough force user to freeze a blast bolt in mid-air, being of the Skywalker lineage himself, and having trained for years in using the Force (albeit incomplete training). But I could have believed that maybe he was greatly weakened from taking the shot from Chewie's bowcaster, as well as from his fight with Finn.
But the Jedi mind trick... One day she thinks Jedi are a myth. The next she's using a mind trick she not only has never practiced, but one she's never even seen done before. At most, she had HEARD that the "mythical" Jedi could do stuff like this. But without any instruction or example, she pulls it off on the first person she targets.
Droids (BB-8, C3PO, R2-D2)
BB-8, or a character like it, was always going to be in the film. Disney was always going to want a cute, cuddly droid for toy sales. The bowling ball design seems a bit impractical, but then so is the design of 90% of everything in the Star Wars universe. Overall, I thought while a little corny, they succeeded in what they were going for: sidekick/pet/comic relief. His "thumbs up" to Finn got a chuckle out of me.
C3PO - Not as fun as in the Originals, but nowhere near as lame as in the Prequels.
R2-D2 - The one character who is enjoyable in all 7 Star Wars films.
New Baddies (Kylo Ren/Darth Snoke/Captain Phasma):
Kylo Ren - Driver is goofy looking, and made me think he should have been on the cover of some boy-band fan magazine, but that's not his fault. They pretty clearly were going for a Dark Side version of Luke from Ep. IV, or even a Dark Side version of Anakin from Ep. II. I don't really care much for that character, but I think he largely pulled it off. The big problem is that I think the Star Wars franchise hasn't devised a believable conversion to the Dark Side since Ep. VI. The turning of Anakin in the prequels was laughable. He suddenly discovers that his buddy Palpatine is really the evil guy who is behind all of his suffering, and what does he do? Why, joins him, of course!
Kylo's fall, what we know of it, doesn't seem quite that bad, but just "wanting to complete his grandfather's work" and "having too much Vader in him" seems weak. Maybe future films will expand on this and improve it, but for the present it just felt kinda lame.
Darth Snoke - Bland character they tried to spice up by making him a giant (or a giant projection).
Captain Phasma - Tacked on character that seems to exist in this movie purely to give the heroes a way to lower the shields of Starkiller base. So important that while the role was written for a man, they made the character female because the internet was mad that there weren't enough chicks in the cast.
The Ending - Finding Luke was a powerful scene that moved me despite the rest of the movie leaving me a bit cold. As a minor nit-pick, they lessened the impact of the moment by dragging it out with the forced circling distance shot that seemed to go on forever.
All-in-all it was still entertaining for what I hope was a reset by Disney of the SW universe. At a minimum, there was no Jar-Jar Binksery in this movie. They've basically finished the stories of all the original cast members save Luke, so perhaps now they'll be able to take more time in character development. Looking forward to the forthcoming sequels.
Plot:
I avoided watching all the trailers--no easy feat--because I wanted to see the movie completely spoiler-free. Unfortunately the effort was for nothing because half the plot was recycled from Episode IV. It's one thing to want to echo the past thematically. But at some point it becomes plain lack of originality.
Another visit to a desert to find a force-sensitive youngster whose parents are gone.
Another Empire/First Order search for a droid that has vital information.
Han Solo is back to smuggling, and pissing off his clients, who then hunt him down.
Another evil force user who speaks with a robot voice due to his helmet.
Another cantina scene that's partly a vehicle to display the staggering diversity of alien life.
Again the girl gets captured by the evil mask-guy and the other heroes mount a rescue.
Another older mentor (Han) is killed by a loved one who betrayed him after being seduced by the dark side.
And the biggest crib of them all (both literally and figuratively): Another Death Star. Which yet again is destroyed by a small group of fighters flying through a trench.
I can understand that Disney may have felt the need to reconnect the franchise with it's fans after the disappointment of the prequels, and maybe they felt the safest route was to update the movie that started the craze in the first place. And judging by the reactions I've read online, that was probably shrewd on their part. But personally, the rehashed plot pulled me out of the movie experience.
Performances:
Han Solo - Harrison Ford is still good, but he was too old to play Indy in Crystal Skulls, and he was too old to play Han in this movie. Too old, at least, to play the running, jumping, fighting, physical rogue that Han is supposed to be. Delivered some good lines, but most felt kinda hokey (maybe I'm too jaded on this, though). You knew he was dead as soon as he stepped on that bridge to go after Kylo Ren. However Ford made it seem his character knew that, too, but decided he would be willing to sacrifice himself just for the chance of redeeming his son.
Leia - Time has not been kind to Carrie Fisher, but everyone gets old, even Leia.
New Heroes (Rey/Finn/Poe) - Felt the plot rushed them along too fast to allow them to organically flesh out their characters and portray a believable arc. Poe got in some good lines, then was gone for most of the movie. Finn goes from being indoctrinated-from-birth drone of the First Order, to suddenly having a conscience and risking his life to ditch the FO in a way that would surely piss them off. Then decides, once he's escaped the clutches of the FO, he has to go back to Starkiller base and risk his life to rescue a girl he's just met and barely even knows.
And Rey... I know the title of the movie is the "Force Awakens", but what was portrayed in her character was "the Force springs fully formed from nothing". It would have been enough of a stretch to believe she could out force-pull Kylo Ren, then beat him in a duel, despite him being a powerful-enough force user to freeze a blast bolt in mid-air, being of the Skywalker lineage himself, and having trained for years in using the Force (albeit incomplete training). But I could have believed that maybe he was greatly weakened from taking the shot from Chewie's bowcaster, as well as from his fight with Finn.
But the Jedi mind trick... One day she thinks Jedi are a myth. The next she's using a mind trick she not only has never practiced, but one she's never even seen done before. At most, she had HEARD that the "mythical" Jedi could do stuff like this. But without any instruction or example, she pulls it off on the first person she targets.
Droids (BB-8, C3PO, R2-D2)
BB-8, or a character like it, was always going to be in the film. Disney was always going to want a cute, cuddly droid for toy sales. The bowling ball design seems a bit impractical, but then so is the design of 90% of everything in the Star Wars universe. Overall, I thought while a little corny, they succeeded in what they were going for: sidekick/pet/comic relief. His "thumbs up" to Finn got a chuckle out of me.
C3PO - Not as fun as in the Originals, but nowhere near as lame as in the Prequels.
R2-D2 - The one character who is enjoyable in all 7 Star Wars films.
New Baddies (Kylo Ren/Darth Snoke/Captain Phasma):
Kylo Ren - Driver is goofy looking, and made me think he should have been on the cover of some boy-band fan magazine, but that's not his fault. They pretty clearly were going for a Dark Side version of Luke from Ep. IV, or even a Dark Side version of Anakin from Ep. II. I don't really care much for that character, but I think he largely pulled it off. The big problem is that I think the Star Wars franchise hasn't devised a believable conversion to the Dark Side since Ep. VI. The turning of Anakin in the prequels was laughable. He suddenly discovers that his buddy Palpatine is really the evil guy who is behind all of his suffering, and what does he do? Why, joins him, of course!
Kylo's fall, what we know of it, doesn't seem quite that bad, but just "wanting to complete his grandfather's work" and "having too much Vader in him" seems weak. Maybe future films will expand on this and improve it, but for the present it just felt kinda lame.
Darth Snoke - Bland character they tried to spice up by making him a giant (or a giant projection).
Captain Phasma - Tacked on character that seems to exist in this movie purely to give the heroes a way to lower the shields of Starkiller base. So important that while the role was written for a man, they made the character female because the internet was mad that there weren't enough chicks in the cast.
The Ending - Finding Luke was a powerful scene that moved me despite the rest of the movie leaving me a bit cold. As a minor nit-pick, they lessened the impact of the moment by dragging it out with the forced circling distance shot that seemed to go on forever.
All-in-all it was still entertaining for what I hope was a reset by Disney of the SW universe. At a minimum, there was no Jar-Jar Binksery in this movie. They've basically finished the stories of all the original cast members save Luke, so perhaps now they'll be able to take more time in character development. Looking forward to the forthcoming sequels.
Posted on 12/22/15 at 11:49 am to Mirthomatic
quote:Phasma should've been that stormtrooper wrecking Finn's shite with the space-mace
Captain Phasma - Tacked on character that seems to exist in this movie purely to give the heroes a way to lower the shields of Starkiller base. So important that while the role was written for a man, they made the character female because the internet was mad that there weren't enough chicks in the cast.
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