The Force Awakens (and Star Wars more generally) [SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY]
 

MOD EDIT: This thread was split off from 'I Have Just Seen... VII' after this post.

Watched the midnight showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It was outstanding. Exceeded every expectation and more. Simply a must watch.

Are the spoilers going around on the internet true?

I don't know what spoilers you're referring to, there's probably millions. Best not to mention them at all at the moment just in case.

I saw Star Wars yesterday. I was blown away by how good it was. Did an awesome job of modernizing the franchise. I can't wait to watch it again.

I saw Star Wars today. It's a one huge fanservice, and it's good at what it intends. However, if you expect anything more than a fanservice from this movie, you will be dissapointed. 7/10

I figured this would be the case. They built up so much hype.

It's definitely not 8.9/10, as IMDB states. Not at all. I think the score will go down in the following weeks.

EDIT: As I am thinking about this now, I have second thoughts about that 7/10 I gave it. Maybe 6+/10

It's a fun space adventure and people should go see it. Despite some problems it's really hard not to enjoy yourself. When it finished I looked around to a theatre full of smiles, which is pretty rare.

Yeah, it is fun. It's just not amazing.

I really thought it was amazing honestly. It felt like a proper Star Wars film. Yeah it had some questionable decisions. But that didn't get in the way of my enjoyment.

Again, it was everything I was hoping for and more.

I'm pretty sure 99% of the audience knew going in, it was going to be a very fan service film. It has the original actors in it for god sake! :lol:

I would love to talk more about it but... well spoilers.

Everybody knew this. That doesn't change anything.

It had many, as well as some lore-errors. It mostly copied the ideas from the original trilogy, and didn't offer that much new ideas, story-wise.

The fact that a movie is fun doesn't necessarily make it a good movie (the opposite is right as well)

Well, this makes me feel good. I almost bought expensive tickets for it.

Vexen. Don't let someone change your mind about a film just people they don't like it.

It's a very fun movie regardless what we've all said. It shouldn't stop you.

Yeah I still recommend it even if it isn't an amazing work of art. If by expensive tickets you mean premiers or something then fair call, but it's still worth making it down in my opinion. This is a pretty meaningless statement, but it's a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig step up from a prequel

I saw it. I think the comic relief was a little too frequent, and the story was slightly lacking. It certainly exceeded my expectations. You can expect me at the next starwars movie. Overall, it was a good movie.

Now I just have to wait for Hateful Eight. Quentin Tarantino's movies are never disappointing.

Saw the new Star Wars. I enjoyed it, but I was underwhelmed, especially considering its good reviews. I don't like the direction it's gone in, I think they should have explored the demise of the empire properly - from what I remember (it's been a while since I've seen the old films), the last film ended with the death of the two great figureheads of the empire, and with the empire losing a lot of control, but not with the total annihilation of them. In a way, they sort of did that, but with too much focus on this big new villain - the story around him and how he came to be I find to be a bit tiresome and random. Felt like fan-fiction with a big budget. I suppose they have two more films to try and change my mind with.
I can't discuss anything else, as I've forgotten how to use spoiler tags, but I have to say, even though I enjoyed it, I can't see myself ever watching it again.

you type "spoiler" in square brackets, say a spoiler and type "/spoiler" in square brackets.

I knew it was something simple. It's almost as simple as I am.

Yeah I reckon they're going to explore a lot about the past in the next film. Explain how the First Order came to be and what happened to the rest of the Empire.

...and for the love of GOD explain the New Republic and the Resistance. Ugh.

Personally, I think I would have continued it from a stage where the empire was almost totally powerless, with the numbers of its supporters significantly reduced, bringing the whole thing full circle, making the old rebels the new empire and the old empire the new rebels, perhaps with the new "empire" being as similarly and insidiously undemocratic as the old, with an apparently benign opportunist similar to the Emperor at the helm. I'd present it from the point of view of the old rebels, who we'd be with at first as we watched them obliterate the last of the Empire, but eventually we'd realise that we were seeing a similar process that saw the Empire take over, and then we'd start rooting for the old Empire, as they'd become the heroes fighting for democracy.

I think that way, it'd be possible to draw parallels with recent(ish) events (for example, the violent removal of Gadaffi in Libya only paved the way for an even more chaotic country) and would carry a pertinent message. I think Star Wars is a great opportunity to teach the public about the basics of politics whilst remaining an entertaining and action-packed spectacle. I hope the new films seize that opportunity.

He's right, it does make no sense how the Empire were completely destroyed yet now the First Order are just as powerful as the Empire were? I thought they were formed out of the remnants of the Empire?

The prequels spent a lot of time on politics and that's partly why they were such boring pieces of shit.

Politics wasn't the problem of the prequels. I mean, there was too much of it, but the films were boring because the characters were flat and poorly written. They could have put a lot more politics in TFA while keeping a fun pace.

I thought the sequels were good in concept but bad in execution. I don't regard them as good films, but I have to admit that I enjoyed them. The casting was piss-poor, though... Vader especially. Such an important character, such a terrible portrayal (wasn't impressed by his dialogue either)... also the Jedi seemed like fools apart from one or two, and seemed too weak and dispensable in the clones film. I found myself more interested in Kinobi's development than Vader's, which I think is a reflection on Vader's actor and writing, considering it was meant to be the story of his descent into evil.

I see that as kinda the point, though. That (in addition to the corruption and small-mindedness) is why The Force needed them to be wiped out in order to bring balance.

That's a fair point, actually. I just felt that their prowess in combat should have been just a little bit more intimidating than it was. Supposedly powerful characters seemed to spend a lot more time falling into traps and getting the shit kicked out of them than perhaps they should have, from what I recall.

It's hard to begin saying what could have been done differently when they're just so badly written. I mean shit.

Fuck.

One thing I'm sure we can all agree on is the fact that the lightsaber duels in the prequels were badass, with awesome choreography.

"You're so beautiful"
"That's because I'm so in love"
"No, it's because I'm so in love with you!"
"Then love has blinded you?"


Badly written? What're you talking about? That is top-notch and realistic dialogue.

Don't make me do the sand quote because god damn I will.

And there's a video floating around of how silly the lighsaber choreography is because they aren't even going to hit eachother with most of the swings they do. The can be exciting, but on the whole I'm pretty bored by it these days. The fight at the end of TFA was much more "badass" because when Rey was jabbing for Ren you know she was trying to fuck him up.

I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.

The other side of it is that the characters and stories are so boring that the lightsaber duels lack any sort of emotional impact. The duels in the OT are interesting because they’re between characters with emotional conflict (Obi-Wan and Vader, Luke and Vader) and tie in to that conflict. The prequels were primarily written with “this lightsaber duel must look cool” so extra adrenaline gets pumped in but they forgot to make the characters have any interesting conflict.

Anyway I haven’t seen TFA yet so see ya

I split this conversation off to its own thread so that people can feel more comfortable posting spoilers. Have at it, people.

Luke is Darth Vader's father

https://archive.is/G4tqQ - "Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Pre-Sexual Fantasies of a Broken Boy"

This is so horrible

Some people just see what they want to see in this movie

Okay so I'm a bit late to the party but I finally saw the film.

First of all can we all agree that Han Solo dying was heart breaking, if not slightly predictable from the moment Han walked onto that platform.

Secondly, I think what people are saying about the the First Order being as powerful of the Empire isn't true. I think the whole story is downscaled from the epic saga of the original three films. From what we know, the First Order is largely engaged at creeping around in the shadows, picking skirmishes with the Rebels and the 'Republic'. How they built super-mega Death Star 2.0, is lost on me however. Considering the Death Star took decades and much of the Empire's strength to build...that being said maybe DS 2.0 was already in the works back when the Empire was around.

Also what planet was destroyed halfway through the movie? What was the relevance and why should we care? Was it supposed to be an Alderaan-esque test of capabilities?

I'm interested to see the universe expanded upon. A lot of people complain J. J. Abrams has played it safe and scratched the surface of the world but I feel like this first film was just setting the stage for the real story.

We can't. I saw it coming from the first scene of him in falcon. I didn't feel exactly anything special at that scene. It's been done so many times before in movies.

I think First Order is not as powerful as Empire depite having a better weapon of planet destruction than Empire

It was a republic city planet. It seems like a big deal to me.
Also, if you ask questions like "Why should we care?" about a movie, then the movie does something wrong.

Except the first movies didn't have to. They showed you can have a full story in one movie.

Also, how exactly did they set up the stage, really? Through character development? There wasn't much of it there, really. The world? The world is pretty much established through 6 movies that came before. The enemies? They're basically space nazis, they don't need a set-up-the-stage movies.

This. And that's perfectly fine with me. He didn't have to play it safe and I think everyone has seen A New Hope. But I think it's a good way to revive the series. A reminder of the older fans and a way to some what tell the story to younger people who haven't seen Star Wars. That's just my take on it really.

Yes that's true, but bare in mind A New Hope was made original as a single story.

To me, they set the stage for the future of the characters. Most importantly Rey and Ren. The starting point of this new story. You come away from the film asking lots of questions. What's Luke doing on that planet? Why is Rey so strong with the Force? What'll happen to Ren now he's been physically and mentally scared, Who's Snoke? SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THE NEW REPUBLIC! and so on...

All of that, or at least a large portion of that, could be explained in one movie. It had many scenes that were made mostly for fx beauty, but could be shortened/revamped/cut, story-wise.

Also, I can explain to you why Rey has such strong force powers.

hint: it has something to do with her missing parents (lazy writing)

just kidding

............

it's because of midichlorians

This is a spoiler thread now. No need to use tags.

Han Solo's death was sad because it was the death of Han Solo, the pop culture icon. It was sad because of what happened, but this actual movie didn't do much to make us care. They gave it a crack with him father-figuring Rey, but honestly with the intense pace of the movie that was grasping at straws from the start.

The criticism of not caring when the planets blew up is good. That was really dumb and a big off-putting moment for lots of people. I feel like that scene was just rushed in for extra drama and that it was never supposed to actually fire. Either that, or it was going to be a bigger part of the trilogy, which is what I called when I saw there was a new death start because I thought they would do more than rehash like that.

You can't excuse the holes in this movie because it's part of a trilogy. A good movie can leave you with questions, but this movie doesn't do it in a meaningful way. The conclusion did nothing for the development of the characters, and there's no reason for this movie to not have a good ending. Rey fighting Ren was an example of exactly the same problem as Han's death - when she pulls the lightsaber to herself we get excited because that's a Jedi thing. When she force mind controls that stormtrooper for no established reason it's exciting because that's what Jedi do! Both of those things could have had significance to her character, but they don't because they were lazy and just played what the audience knows and has seen before for excitement.

Now, I'm not saying that's a a bad thing in a movie with "Episode 7" in the title, but that's not a good excuse either. It just relies on everyone loving Star Wars too much.

I saw. I enjoyed. I have no desire to watch it again.

Bring on Episode 8.

So many things they could have improved on. I really think that the inclusion of Kylo Ren was pointless. He was the least interesting of all the characters and the whole "kylo is our son, Han" was an extremely stupid side plot with no relevance. It might matter later on, but I don't really see the point of this, as of now.