Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD * — Page 204

I don’t mind the plot really - i think it helps tie together new fans with old fans after years of the PT forcing them into separate camps.

This sets up 8 and 9 to have complete plot freedom because 7 introduced us to the new characters with an almost overwhelming star wars feel.

emanswfan said:

I’ve kept saying I was going to leave, but I’m pretty much “f*** it” since being sick in bed for days makes you a bit bored. Twitter reactions have been almost all very positive, with only a few worrying tweets.

This Pastebin description is making the rounds, and it hasn’t exactly been entirely confirmed yet, but if it’s real, it’s worse than I could have imagined. Better than the prequels, sure. But doesn’t sound anywhere as good as the originals.

Here are random spoilers for STAR WARS Episode VII which I saw today. Just because I want to ruin your fun:

The first line of the opening crawl is “Luke Skywalker has disappeared.”

And so has the original Star Wars.

I didn’t expect much but that breakdown of the plot does not impress, glad I’m not emotionally invested in these new adventures. The trailers and tv-spots only gives me a SW-greatest hits feeling. Another rehash of SW’77 and a struggle between cousins? Well, it’s all about the execution I guess. The new generation of kids will probably love it…

Who screams Wilhelm ?

Who’s “got a bad feeling about this” ??

Just saw it.

Ummmmmm… it was alright. It has some very good moments and honestly there’s nothing that sucks either.

It was good to see familiar faces although it took some time to see the first one. The beginning was a little stretch for me, there wasn’t much of calm moment, you was suppose to care about the characters from the beginning. I mean… the new characters could’ve had a little more depth to them. I still don’t know who Rey is, she could be evil for I all know! And a stormtrooper who has had an empty life… But still they go on an adventure, and there was a great pilot in there somewhere too.

Harrison Ford kicked ass as Han Solo, no “I’m too old for this” Indy 4 crap, he pretty much continued where he left off. Carrie was fine, they had some chitter chatter together, it was alright. They really had us waiting for Luke, not much to say about that. There was good humour in the movie, I enjoyed it. The First Order left me a little cold, the officers were pretty awful/uninteresting, they seemed more like from fan spoof or something. The villain was… at times great. Not sure about how I feel about him being Han & Leia’s son… And of course Han’s death… a girl next to me cried when it happened. It was pretty expected but then again… I think he was the best part of the movie and one the best parts in the trilogy, so not sure if I wanted to see him go. It was sad.

Just from seeing the movie, the score was pretty bland. I don’t remember any new theme to hum, and the first 30 minutes could’ve used more silent moments as the music was blasting a little too much without any specific themes. Props to JJ for not using distracting lens flares or shakey cams.

This needs to be rewatched for sure. The OT didn’t, I knew right away that those were the best ever. Now, my hopes were extremely high as I’ve waited for this for 20 years, some people more. Has this been the best movie I saw in 20 years? I really wished to say yes yesterday but I don’t think I can’t. It was alright, pretty good. Not bad at all. Some of the things just seemed to just happen in SW universe, they didn’t feel SW. Then again, some very much did. Maybe it just because of my expectations, I don’t know.

Anyways, here was just some of my thoughts. There was applause in the beginning, couple of times in the middle and at the end so the crowd enjoyed, hopefully you too!

Oh, and I thought of posting a TFA OT.com review thread but that is forbidden. Instead, I came to EPISODE VII!!! spoiler thread and when skimming to quick reply if I read Luke is Rey’s dad then F you. Seriously.

I just saw it and the worst I can say is that it didn’t blow me away, so at least that’s something. Then again, like most people here, I’ve been anticipating this for well over a year, so it’s hard to judge so shortly after. This is definitely a film I must re-watch soon.

It’s kind of funny really, you can almost tell who wrote what in this film. Whenever Han says something, you can tell it’s Kasdan. But whenever some reference or quote from the old appears, it’s uncomfortably similar to Abrams Star Trek reboots, fun and geeky at first, but when you stop to think of it you realize how gimmicky it is.
I feel like the first half of the film does really well at being original, and I personally really liked both Rey and Finn. However, when it comes to the Starkiller Base part, you kind of get this déjà vu feeling. Also I was kind of disappointing by all the CGI, but then again it was to be expected. I had just hoped that it would have been a bit more practical. However, having said that, what was practical was really great, it was just sadly overshadowed quite a bit. I’m curious about how the editing process was done, because Abrams have been bragging about these practical effects for so long, yet so much of it was pushed into the background.

(Oh, and SORT-OF-SPOILER, Snoke’s appearance kind of pissed me off at first, then it made me chuckle. At first it seems like he really was about 20-feet tall, but then it was revealed that he was only a hologram-projection.)

My view of TFA is for the moment closer to my expectations about a year ago, before I got caught up in all the hype;
it was good, not great, it was better than the PT, worse than the OT, it was flawed, but fun, it had a proper Star-Warsy in atmosphere, a few to many geek references, but there was enough new in it to redeem it. It was impossible for this film to live up to our expectations anyway, so it’ll obviously feel kind of disappointing at first, but I think most people here will warm up to it eventually. And on the more cynical side, at least we have a new Star Wars film to argue about.

Just got back from the theatre. I hate NuTrek, the prequels, but this film was great. If you read the plot, you will be disappointed but the execution is excellent and the leads really carry the film.

But I would be lying if it wasn’t flawless. A THIRD planet destroyer is ridiculous and some of the pacing is a bit off. The film is much stronger playing off its original parts.

Oh and the lightsaber battles are really great. They’re very brutal and you feel how powerful these contraptions are. The aerobics of the PT are no more.

Damn! I have to wait till friday to finally watch it! The cool part is that I’ll discover it the same day as our friends in America and the rest of the world =)

Oh, fyi, no Fox fanfare. Just a silent Lucasfilm logo -> A long Time Ago… And then the Star Wars theme kicks in.

Bad robot logo is at the end of the credits.

No hidden scenes in credits.

csd79 said:

Just got home from a midnight screening (in the UK). I was ready to fall in love with everything SW again, but actually this movie got me angry more than anything. There are many great moments in it, but then it constantly switches back to meh.

The whole story is not designed to make all that much sense, good luck for the authors of the sequels to tie everything up. Some basic things are just left hanging in the air (if there is a new Republic now, how the First Order and the Resistance came to be etc). First I thought that Rey was a Jedi student as well and after Kylo’s turn to the dark side she was placed on Jakuu with her memories suppressed to hide and protect her, and the Falcon was there as sort of an escape option in case she gets in trouble. But no, it’s all just a coincidence.

All in all it felt like scenes from a never-before-seen SW movie cut into a long episode of Dr Who. After every good moment there comes a letdown. Can I have my money back? Also how is that OT restoration comming?

While I agree that some plot points fell flat, I don’t agree that the whole movie suffers because of it.

I also don’t agree that leaving things up in the air is necessarily a bad idea. I thought it was great that they DIDN’T go into some exposition-ladden dialogue about how the First Order and Resistance came to be. We get enough information to move the plot along but the rest is left up to our imaginations - much like the original Star Wars.

I think it’s also quite obvious that Rey has had some Jedi training and has been “awakened” by her interaction with Kylo Ren. As far and I can make out, she was put on Jakku to stay when the Knights of Ren came into power because she was too young to be a Jedi. (Notice that R2 ‘awakens’ when Rey arrives on the Resistance base and only then does he spill the beans about Luke’s whereabouts). Perhaps there are more Jedi spread across the galaxy and their powers are awakening as well! Lots of questions and lots of material for the other directors to tackle.

csd79 said:

if there is a new Republic now, how the First Order and the Resistance came to be

We don’t know where the galactic empire and the rebel alliance come from at the beginning of Star Wars, either.

DuracellEnergizer said:

csd79 said:

The whole story is not designed to make all that much sense, good luck for the authors of the sequels to tie everything up. Some basic things are just left hanging in the air (if there is a new Republic now, how the First Order and the Resistance came to be etc). First I thought that Rey was a Jedi student as well and after Kylo’s turn to the dark side she was placed on Jakuu with her memories suppressed to hide and protect her, and the Falcon was there as sort of an escape option in case she gets in trouble. But no, it’s all just a coincidence.

The Force works in contrived ways.

Do you plan on watching the movie with an open mind? I’m getting an angry old man, yelling at sky vibe here.