joefavs

This one’s always been near and dear to my heart.

In relation to the other Star Wars movies, eighty something. In relation to every movie ever, seventy something.

The thing is, they didn’t treat Kylo’s parentage like a huge reveal. Snoke just dropped it into conversation midway through the movie. I actually thought it was pretty savvy of them to get that out of the way upfront, because it would have been a pretty weak twist if they’d tried to build it into a huge moment.

I got in a very minor fender bender on the way home from the theater that took longer than it should have to sort out, so I’m simultaneously too jittery and too drained to write about this movie in any kind of detail, but in spite of some nitpicky stuff, I really liked it and am absolutely foaming at the mouth to see what comes next. I know that it’s lightyears better than the prequels, but I’m going to have to see it again probably several times before I can figure out where I place it in an overall ranking in relation to ROTJ. Right now, though, I’m just breathing a sigh of relief and basking in the full knowledge that they pulled it off.

Update: I showed up around quarter to three and it was dead. I went to the mall and tried to do some Christmas shopping (no luck) and grabbed a quick bite at the food court. Went back to the theater at 4:30, still dead. It’s now five, and I’m at a bar down the street waiting for my buddy to roll in. I think it might be providence that the universe has given me an opportunity to cushion my expectations with a little booze, all things considered, but the moral of the story for anyone seeing the movie tonight in more westerly time zones is maybe don’t worry too much about getting there early.

Ah, mine’s at 7:30 and I’d planned to go at 2:00, but the other night I saw someone say “I’d show up at least an hour early” so I’ve been wondering if that was overkill. My friend is meeting me when he’s off work at 5:00, but that sounds kind of risky to me so I want to go ahead of him. I think I’m still going to go for 2:00. If it’s dead, I can finish my Christmas shopping at the mall across the parking lot. I’m really kind of hoping for a line though since that’s a pop culture experience I’ve never had. I was too young to drive myself to the very first showings for the prequels or Lord of the Rings, and the only thing that’s happened on that scale since then was Harry Potter, which I was never into. I was, however, working concession at the largest theater in Boston for the midnight premiere of Harry Potter VII II, and even though that was probably the closest thing to combat I’ve ever experienced, the folks who lined up for that seemed to be having such a great time. So yeah, I’m hoping for some amount of festivity.

Today’s the day! Trying to figure out how early I should show up since I’ve got nothing going on today. Folks who have already seen it, what’s the line situation been like?

towne32 said:

Did the ‘leaked’ track titles end up being real? I quickly started to scan them and then stopped myself. Without naming them, were they spoilery?

Yeah, those were legit. There’s nothing on the level of “Qui-Gon’s Noble End”, but they imply a lot if you’re already familiar with the rumors going around elsewhere. I don’t know how much they’d give away for someone who’s completely unspoiled. If you’re seeing the movie in the next couple of days and you’ve managed to avoid all the spoilers this long, I’d stay away just in case, but I fell off that wagon a long time ago.

If you can find a way to listen to just “Rey’s Theme” though, treat yourself. Best thing Williams has written in a long, long time, and not at all what I expected.

I’ve been listening to the soundtrack all day and it’s somehow made me feel less spoiled. Not only do a handful of music cues seem to contradict things I thought I knew, it also reminded me that the plot is really only a part of a much larger picture. The music is this whole other rich dimension that I haven’t been giving much thought to at all. I’m now feeling confident that there will be plenty to surprise and delight me, even if I do already know many of the story beats.

I’m two tracks in myself. “The Attack on the Jakku Village” is a little prequel-y, but “The Scavenger” is the best thing I’ve heard from JW in years, maybe decades.

EDIT: holy hell, Rey’s theme.

Mithrandir, is your consistent misspelling of Abrams’s name a joke I don’t get? Autocorrect? It’s been bugging me for months.

I’ve got the day off, so I think I’m going to drive by the theater several hours early to see if there’s a line. If there is I’ll get in it, if there isn’t there’s a couple of museums in town and an enormous comic shop I can kill time at. I’m realizing that I’ve never had the chance to do a Star Wars premiere properly (I was 9, 12, and 15 for the prequels, so I could never drive myself to the very first showing), so I’m kind of looking forward to the experience, discomfort and all.

How early would you guys recommend arriving, anyway? I don’t have any idea what to expect. I’m going on Thursday at 7:30 to the Showcase in Worcester, MA, which isn’t a very big theater (no IMAX), but is bigger than anything in the surrounding towns - I live about half an hour away, but I bought my tickets for there because none of the closer theaters use MovieTickets.com or Fandango and they couldn’t tell me when they were going to start selling advance tickets when I called. I’m thinking a lot of people in my area may have gone the same route. I really wish there was some way to gauge how mobbed it’ll be in advance. I’ll be damned if after all this waiting I end up in the front row.

Looks like they just invited everyone camping outside the Chinese Theater into the premiere. The movie will be well and truly spoiled in a few hours. I’m out till Thursday night. See you guys on the other side.

EDIT: That article actually might have been bogus. I’m not taking chances, anyway.

TK428 said:

                                                 Can't. stop. watching.

Finn’s dodge has me even more excited than Kylo’s fancy move. This is going to be messy and I love it.

Han’s new ride:

Here’s the link to the imgur page, it may be a little easier to make out the text there.
http://imgur.com/a/Ts0sp

Also, it’s since been deleted, but someone claiming to be a projectionist for tonight’s premiere posted on Reddit a couple hours ago that they’d just watched the film to make sure there aren’t any technical problems. He said the MSW outline is accurate up until the last half hour or so of the film and that no one claiming to have insider info has gotten it right. He urged everyone to stay away from spoilers for the next couple days because as of now, no one is actually spoiled on the end. I don’t know if I believe him, but I want to enough to take his advice.

I kind of like to think Luke only THINKS he can understand R2, but he really has no idea and is just projecting.

The only reason I haven’t gone on lockdown yet is I’m hoping the score leaks. I am dying to hear more than a snippet.

Just want to say that having watched this all the way through last night on a better TV than I was using the other day, my problems with the 35mm stuff that I mentioned were far less noticeable.

This is allegedly Snoke from the Art of The Force Awakens book. Surprise surprise, it seems like the Plagueis tracing was indeed a fake.

ZkinandBonez said:

An Ithorian!

EDIT: Also, looks like the big CGI droid from the trailer will be practical for at least some shots.

What do I look like, some kind of thing-naming guy?

Maybe keep these threads running for a short time as a sort of safe space for people who haven’t seen the actual film yet and start a new one for those who have?

There’s an awful lot of flicker on the shot with the skiff speeding off after Jabba’s barge explodes (approx 0:36:10). I know you said a lot of the 35mm tweaks would probably have to wait until 2.5, Harmy, but this really jumps out at me. If that and the gate weave at the Ewok celebration I mentioned a few posts ago were the only fixes of that nature in 2.0, I’d be happy with that.

DavidMerrick said:

I don’t know if this entirely puts the kibosh on the “Finn will die” rumours but he’s one of the four actors listed on IMDb’s Episode VIII page.

I absolutely hope Finn does not buy it. It would be a slap in the face to tons of black kids who might find a role model in Finn or John Boyega himself, especially when there’s a dearth of leading roles for black people due to discrimination in Hollywood. I would easily forgive plot holes or Abrams copy and pasting the story of the very first film, but killing Finn off before the end of this first movie would be an awful bait and switch.

I think I brought this up last time the possibility of Finn dying came up, but a few months ago when everyone was talking about Tatiana Maslany and Gina Rodriguez and that other actress I don’t remember circling a part in Episode VIII, weren’t they supposed to have done chemistry reads with Boyega? I know that was never confirmed, but it seemed reasonable enough. I’ve never for a second thought Finn would die, though. With all of that talk about how they’re passing the torch to the new characters, I doubt they’re going to kill one of the two or three most prominent of those new characters immediately.

EDIT: Here’s the Chinese trailer in HD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crcBXyVJAi4