SpilkaBilka

Smoking Lizard said:
The point stands – it’s laughably absurd for a military general to send a combat fighter pilot to retrieve a piece of intelligence. Absurd. If you can’t or won’t agree on that or see that, well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that point. But seriously, I think there’s no real argument there. That point of the movie was just silly.

You keep saying this, but WHY is it absurd? Is it so unreasonable to believe that it was so important for the map to not fall into the hands of the enemy, that they decided to use a courier to retrieve that information? Like, maybe the FO could intercept the transmission and then they’d be able to find and kill Luke? Maybe Max von Sydow doesn’t have the capability/expertise to send encrypted transmissions to the Resistance?

Why was Leia hand-delivering a piece of intelligence to Alderaan?

Found this after 1 minute of googling:

“The Defense Courier Service (DCS) is established under the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), and is a global courier network for the expeditious, cost-effective, and secure distribution of highly classified and sensitive material.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Courier_Service

I always thought (a bulked-up) Russell Crowe would’ve made a good Anakin. 6’0" might not be tall enough though.

Like earlier posts suggested, I imagined a tall, masculine, rugged alpha-male with dark features who also had some kindness in his face.

He would be a great warrior, a real adventurer, who was overall a good bloke, but who occasionally had a hot temper (but NOT whiny!).

An important part of the story would be him following old Obi Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade, which, inexplicably, we did not get in the PT.

Knightmessenger said:
Maybe some characters would not have shot first because they thought it to be immoral or against principle. Nausicaa (from Studio Ghibli’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind) is one such character who comes to mind. Or maybe even Obi-Wan or Luke Skywalker. But Han Solo never was or pretended to have any sort of Jedi code or morals.

What I think is hilarious about not wanting to make Han cold-blooded is that Obi-Wan kills one guy and slices off another guy’s arm before they even fire a shot!

It’s funny, I feel this way about TFA already. I’ve seen it 3 times and I think there are things I saw in the first viewing that weren’t in the 2nd or 3rd (very minor thinges though). But I guess this is not the appropriate place to discuss TFA.

A couple things I dislike/don’t understand about the scenes at Maz’s castle.

1. Maz says something like ‘I’ve been around for 1000 years, I’ve seen the sith, the empire, the first order. The first order is spreading and we must all join the fight to stop it.’

So, the sith and the empire weren’t worth fighting against, but the first order is? Vader, the emperor, 2 death stars weren’t a big deal? What is it about the first order that makes them more dangerous? The movie can’t show us this in any meaningful way, it just has Maz tell us this. I don’t buy it.

2. I’m not sure I understand Finn’s character anymore. He completely freaks out about the first order and just wants to flee to the outer rim. Based on how he’s acted before this scene, it seems like he should want to join the resistance.

These 2 things are especially confusing in light of the fact that we know almost nothing about the politics of the galaxy! How powerful is the first order? The republic? The resistance? what is the scale of the conflict?

Yeah, I agree for the most part about the rathtars. The first time I saw TFA, I was really enjoying myself, and this scene completely pulled me out of the movie, and I immediately thought, ‘dammit, they failed. This is no longer a SW movie.’

They didn’t make me think of the prequels, but I hated that they were cgi. They just made me think of generic sci fi schlock.

I guess they were kind of a fast-moving combo of a dianogah/mynock/sarlacc.

The fact that it dragged Finn around forever but ate everyone else immediately was stupid but not surprising at all.

The scene bothers me less after 3 viewings though. The idea that Han and Chewie smuggle monsters around is kinda cool, and so is seeing the monsters escape, but it wasn’t executed well.

Alderaan said:
The popular idea that Prequel #3 was actually a good movie is the most ridiculous Star Wars thing I’ve ever heard.

Yep. I think it was actually the worst prequel, and they were all terrible.

This is minor, but I can’t help it. Before the briefing at the rebel base, is it ever established that Finn was stationed at the Starkiller?

It just seems to come out of nowhere at the end of the movie that in addition to being this hero, he also knows that the weakness to the thermal oscillator is in sector 45 or whatever.

Also it’s super convenient and coincidental that the first order just happens to discover the location of the rebel base right before this big battle by tracking one of their scout ships.

Wes Anderson would make an amazing sw movie. I’m not even joking.

I think I saw one of the symbols on boba fett’s armor on one of the flags on Maz’s castle.

http://img03.deviantart.net/737e/i/2012/184/f/d/star_wars_mandalorians__boba_fett__symbol_wp_by_chaomanceromega-d55un5s.png

Saw it again today (3rd viewing).

The peaks and valleys of the movie have kind of evened out for me. The parts I loved I think are just pretty good, not amazing. The parts I disliked don’t bother me as much. Overall, I think it’s a pretty good, but not great movie.

A couple notes about pacing. I wish more time was spent with Rey on Jakku for world building.

where the pacing really does not work for me is the destruction of Hosnian Prime, and then the attack on Maz’s castle. It all kind of happens at once. One moment Ren is on thr bridge of the star destroyer watching the Starkiller fire; two minutes later he’s attacking the castle.

Then the rebels show up. It’s just too much. I don’t think they should’ve shown up at all. Just have Han, Chewie, and Finn escape to the rebel base.

Also seems weird that Leia would show up at that battle at all.

Something that just came to me- we see that Ren is pulled to the light, so he prays to Vader’s mask to help him stay down the dark path.

Does he know that Vader eventually turned to the light? Maybe if he continues to worship Vader and his mask, he will be pulled to the light?

Also related to this, does Vader’s mask have any force “imprints” like Luke’s lightsaber does?

How has no one on this site made a “and then the DSIII blows up” joke yet???

The ROTJ line I never understood was Vader saying ‘leave them to me, I will deal with them myself.’ Then several seconds go by… then the Falcon gets clearance.

What was Vader doing in those few seconds? Standing there and just thinking about it?

I get the plot reason for it. It’s just that it’s a couple more coincidences to add to the pile in a movie that has so many coincidences.

It’s hard to describe, but I didn’t really like the “set up” of having spies there. Also, for many reasons I won’t get into here, the Maz sequence just kinda took me out of the movie for a while. Pacing is one of them.

Again, let me just say, these are minor points. Overall, I think it’s a VERY good movie, but one that has some big problems. I’ve only seen it once but I’m dying to see it again (seeing it in a couple days). Absolutely can’t wait for it to come out on blu ray, and for Episode VIII.

To me, it kinda felt like “well, we have to put a Cantina scene in the movie.” It felt shoehorned in and not necessary. Maz could’ve been based anywhere, really. Didn’t have to be a bar.

Not huge things, but I also wasn’t really a fan of 1) First Order spies being there, 2) a Resistance spy being there, and 3) Finn seeking transport with a couple guys like Ben and Luke were trying to do in ANH.

Something that bothered me about Rey and Finn’s escape in the Falcon- they leave the planet, but don’t jump into hyperspace, right? So wouldn’t the FO Star Destroyer still be around to attack them? Do we see the FO again in that area?

My memory is very hazy… I know they made an urgent escape into hyperspace with Han… was that because the FO was chasing them, or for some other reason? (I just don’t remember).

The rebel pilot helmet that Rey put on while she was eating- I’m pretty sure it had the red rebel insignia that was on Luke’s helmet, but I don’t remember any other details. Do you think it’s supposed to be Luke’s, or just a generic rebel helmet?

Heh heh… http://i.imgur.com/JPy1a0B.jpg

GroovyLord said:
While we’re talking, could you expand more on why you hate the 93 version? Just curious. Do any of the added effects stand out as particularly bad etc?

I can’t remember all of the differences, but the one that stands out the most to me is the sound of shattering glass as Luke/Han/Chewie destroy the sensors/cameras in the detention block. I hate that sound (also hate the sound of Lando destroying the core of the 2nd Death Star!).

Eh, I really don’t think it’s much of a stretch for a total rookie to be in Ren’s unit.

Ren is basically attached to that Star Destroyer, right? So I would assume he uses the best troops that are stationed on that ship. Surely his troops have suffered casualties- Finn was the next man up. Like Silverwook said, maybe he aced his training.

And what makes you think Ren’s troops are “elite”? (If there was dialogue that indicates this, I apologize, because I didn’t catch it. Lots to process in this movie). They look the same as all the stormtroopers in the rest of the movie. If there was an elite unit of stormtroopers (say, the equivalent of Seal Team 6 or something), wouldn’t they be the best equipped, maybe have different armor, weapons, etc?

TPM 2.5/10
AOTC 2.5/10
ROTS 2/10
SW 10/10
ESB 9.5/10
ROTJ 7/10*
TFA 7/10**

*Very hard for me to assign a grade to ROTJ. It has major flaws, has many examples of bad filmmaking, but also has some very entertaining and iconic parts. And it’s the conclusion (well, I guess not anymore) to the greatest story ever told.

**I’m still processing TFA. It will take many views and months (years?) to really process it. I gave it the same grade as ROTJ. Do I like it as much as ROTJ? I don’t know yet.

Alderaan said:

Just compare the Rebel attack on the Death Star in the original film to TFA. In Star Wars it very much came across as a real military battle, albeit on a small scale. This film had nothing like that, it was just yippee pew-pew we did it. No tension. Nothing.

100% agree. It was action schlock. No setup, no tension. Not much care or thought was put into it.

ROTJ has a repeat of the Death Star, which is a negative, but at least the battle is pretty exciting and tension-filled.

Yeah, I forgot the specifics, I just remember that there was some in-hyperspace communication.

hydrospanner said:

One thing I still am not to fond of is the pull out of light speed behind their shields in order to bypass them… not only did it feel incredibly rushed but it seems like the Star Wars equivalent of Treknobabble, and if it was that easy why bother disabling the shields at all? Couldn’t the X-Wing squadron have just done the same thing to lead into their attack?

Yeah, I really didn’t like that aspect either.

I also hated that they kept saying the word “oscillator”- it just sounds like a word out of scifi, which does not fit in the SW universe (for me, anyway).

I know this is very nitpicky, but: I don’t think it was ever explicitly addressed in the OT, but I always assumed that when a ship was in hyperspace, it wouldn’t be possible for it to communicate with the outside world. Whether the ship is going FTL, or whether it’s in some kind of “hyperspace dimension” or whatever, I never thought they’d be able to radio other people. I think there’s a scene in TFA where the Falcon communicates with the Rebel base while in hyperspace, right?