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The Force Awakens: Official Review Thread - ** SPOILERS ** — Page 4

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Mock the man who played Ming the Merciless at your own peril! 😉

I do find it interesting this is the second time he’s died on a desert planet.

At least the Boba Fett rumor was completely bogus.

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Would have been nice to see some ships on the resistance side besides just the x-wings. They could have finally showed some b-wings in action or included some new ship models we haven’t seen before alongside them.

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This is another small thing that annoyed me. In the trailer there is a shot of the X-wing flying behind a TIE-fighter and blasting it to pieces, and you can actually hear the laser blasts and impact damage. Was I mistaken that in the movie there was no sound? Was it just loud obnoxious score, or am I misremembering?

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nightstalkerpoet said:

kt7000 said:

In a similar manner to the PT, just give it a couple of months/years after the hype dies down to where people’ll start seeing it for what it “really” is to where the faneditors have to step in to fix it.

I disagree with this to a point. The desire for an edit of this is probably pretty strong right off the bat for many of us. The difference between this and the PT is that there is A LOT of stuff that can be kept, and a light trimming with a few music changes and a tacked on Fox Fanfare could do wonders, as opposed to complete story reworking required in the PT. This film is a rehash definitely, but it’s a rehash of a movie (and more vaguely the whole trilogy) that most of us love with a plot that we can generally accept.

http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?15340-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens-Fanedit-Ideas-Thread-(Spoilers)&p=267288#post267288

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hydrospanner said:

Would have been nice to see some ships on the resistance side besides just the x-wings. They could have finally showed some b-wings in action or included some new ship models we haven’t seen before alongside them.

There was the transport ship that Leia arrived in. The Resistance base seemed like a smaller outpost than the Rebel bases we saw in the OT. I doubt the majority of the fleet was there. Probably a bad idea to have all your ships in one location anymore.

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Alderaan said:

This is another small thing that annoyed me. In the trailer there is a shot of the X-wing flying behind a TIE-fighter and blasting it to pieces, and you can actually hear the laser blasts and impact damage. Was I mistaken that in the movie there was no sound? Was it just loud obnoxious score, or am I misremembering?

Trailers rarely reflect the final sound mix of a film.

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The lightsabre calling a force sensitive happened also in the first episode of Star Wars Rebels to Ezra, so looks like they were introducing this in the cartoon so the “kids” would get that this can happen.

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I saw TFA last night, and I thought it was pretty good. Definitely far better than the prequels, although not as great as the original trilogy. But I like how Abrams took elements from the OT and made them into something new, which to be fair, what what the first Star Wars movie did back in '77.
Bottom line, can’t wait for Episode VIII to come out

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Don’t feel like sifting out the relevant quotes, but RE: Leia - she wasn’t given anything to do, but once the decision was made to make Kylo her son, there was no way to not have her there. Hopefully Johnson finds a better way to integrate the character, because unless they kill her off as well, we’re going to have to at least check in with her as Kylo’s arc progresses.

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I think I agree largely with everyone on here. Was lucky enough to see the only IMAX 15/70 print in Europe at the Science Museum London on thurs with a selection of fans and non fans. Mostly we all laughed and cried and whooped in the same places. It’s a pretty joyous return to a very familiar galaxy that Phantom Menace didn’t quite pull off and that the next two prequels totally ignored. It was fun, fluffy and very innocently emotional. The two brit leads did great- hooray!
There’s a bit of sag in pacing in the middle, but the beginning was terrific and the end was a kinda messy triumph. The overt references got me by the heartstrings but I understand others who found them annoying. It’s a total rip of of SW 1977 but with enough innovation to allow you to forgive it almost anything. Snook or Snoke was crap, Starkiller base was a cop out, but it never lingers on its flaws long enough for you to get annoyed. the moment Rei picked up Luke’s lightsaber I was in bits. As has been said, Carrie wasn’t great, not quite convinced by Lupita Nyong’o’s orange lady-Yoda. Harrison was incredible and Peter Mayhew very nearly stole the show as a wonderful, if rather unconvincingly youthful Chewie.

I wish Disney had asked Christopher Nolan how he processed and printed his Interstellar IMAX prints. This version seemed to have been digitised rather than blown up from 35mm negative, it didn’t look as good as that format can look, which is a shame. Still better than 3D though! The escape from Jakku IMAX scene was only impressive enough to make you miss the IMAX 70mm in the rest of the film, and probably wasn’t really necessary at all.

I don’t think a new SW film will be this special again, simply because the schedule of spin-offs looks like it’s going to oversaturate and normalise the whole thing. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Merry Xmas from London!

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Alderaan said:

Yeah I thought he was terrible and I hated all of those scenes. The first part of the film I started liking was when we meet Rey.

Arguably worse though was the First Order general. That was by far the worst acted part in the whole movie. What an awful casting decision.

I thought Domhall Gleeson was fantastic. Underused, a bit. But his excessively fascist speech was dark and great.

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generalfrevious said:

I saw TFA last night, and I thought it was pretty good. Definitely far better than the prequels, although not as great as the original trilogy. But I like how Abrams took elements from the OT and made them into something new, which to be fair, what what the first Star Wars movie did back in '77.
Bottom line, can’t wait for Episode VIII to come out

The fact that this is your opinion of the film is by far the biggest plot twist of the film. 😛 I’m glad you enjoyed it.

And I agree that Carrie wasn’t really used for much in the film. But I think the need to use her (let’s be honest, JJ didn’t have a choice), was probably a burden on the production. She doesn’t act anymore. She was never given more than a line at a time. There was one line that basically had a jump cut in the middle of it to stitch together the parts she did a bit better. I’m not judging her for this, it’s Star Wars mania and nostalgia that had her back. And I was happy to see her. But there’s no way around the fact that she was a weak link, acting wise. The way that they utilized her was simply damage control.

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towne32 said:

Alderaan said:

Arguably worse though was the First Order general. That was by far the worst acted part in the whole movie. What an awful casting decision.

I thought Domhall Gleeson was fantastic. Underused, a bit. But his excessively fascist speech was dark and great.

I thought he was the worst thing in the movie. Hopefully he died there.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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Wow, people here are surprisingly nitpicky about acting all of a sudden.

I personally can’t say that I noticed anything wrong with anyone’s acting. At least no more than the original films, which, let’s be honest, also had their mediocre and even phoned in acting moments (and I’m not just talking about ROTJ).

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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LexX said:

I thought he was the worst thing in the movie. Hopefully he died there.

Yeah I agree completely with this. I mean compare him to Tarkin/Peter Cushing. Terrible casting and terrible acting.

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Have to say though that Daisy and BB-8 stole the show. I don’t want to be too critical because the movie is not all bad. The plot is just a joke, but there are things I like, and Rey’s character was definitely the strongest in the entire film.

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I just came from the movie theatre. I hated TFA less than any of the prequels. Unfortunately I have no idea what the movie was about. Not sure if it’s because I’ve seen a dubbed version and something was lost in the translation, but I seriously can’t understand what did I just watch.

  • What was the New Order? Who exactly are they and what’s they’re position in the movie Universe? Are they at the same level as the Empire? I though so at the beginning, but then they say something about a New Republic. So what are they - some kind of a cult? Because they seem to have lots of resources and a good military. Can anybody please explain me what are the positions of the New Order and the New Republic in the “chain of command” of the universe?

  • Who are now the stormtroopers? OK, they’re definitely no longer the clones of that Australian guy, because our hero is a black guy. So are they volunteerly in the army? So why did the guy desert his army? And I noticed they actually mentioned clone troopers but again - who’s the army of the picture?

  • What was the BFG of the movie? You know, the new Death Star? Was it a planet? Or a big space station? Because it had trees and stuff. And aparently its own atmosphere.

  • Also - why was the new Death Star in the movie? It was stupid, pointless and had nothing to do with the story, it feels like the only reason they put it to the story was so that they can blow it up and have a “cool” action sequence.

  • Who was the story villain? Were it the uniform guys? Or was that just one uniform guy? Cause one of them seemed really important, he yelled at the stormtroopers in the trailer shot. ANd there was also one uniform guy who reported to the CG guy together with the Vader wannabe. Or was the Vader wannabe the villain ? I guess so, cause he killed Han Solo. Also, should it be a great reveal that he’s Han and Leia’s son? If so, why did they tell it in the beginning in the discussion between the CG guy and the DV wannabe? Or is the villain the CG guy? I thought that Abrams and Kasdan know that “less is more”.

  • Was Chewie CG? Seriously, every time he was on screen I could only thing about the fact that he looks CG.

  • What relationship should the girl and the black guy have? They have absolutely no chemistry together, but suddenly they hug and kiss. Should they be in love or just friends?

My impressions : the first part of the movie, when it’s a mix of 2 personal stories of a guy who doesn’t want to kill people and a girl who is trying to make some money so that she can buy food is really, really good. The second part of the movie, when it’s a story about trying to run away from the New Order and find Luke Skywalker is really good. Then it suddenly feels like we switched to a poorly executed fan remake of the Death Star battle, this part is a horrible mess and I’m not sure what it was about.

So I don’t know, I’m glad I’ve seen it but I don’t really know if I want to see it again.

PS BB8 was GREAT !

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LexX said:

towne32 said:

Alderaan said:

Arguably worse though was the First Order general. That was by far the worst acted part in the whole movie. What an awful casting decision.

I thought Domhall Gleeson was fantastic. Underused, a bit. But his excessively fascist speech was dark and great.

I thought he was the worst thing in the movie. Hopefully he died there.

Gleeson was great, I think the problem with his character was it was a straight rip off of General Tarkin, so his presence grated a little. On the acting of the others, Daisy and John aren’t the greatest thesps in the world, but nor was Mark Hamill (like when he wanted to pick up those power converters?) They float on the positivity and and lightness of Kasdan’s script. One of the really horrible things about the prequels is how Hayden and Natalie are continuously struggling with dense, brooding, dull, clunky, unhappy writing - they’re not believable, or likeable for a second because of it. Rei, Finn and Poe are instantly fun to watch!

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I liked Gleeson too, but he felt underutilized. It was interesting to me that two of the big baddies (Ren and Hux) were young people. I felt like there was probably some interesting background motivation for them and the First Order, but we didn’t get much in the way of that. I wish instead of some of the Snoke stuff we got at least one scene like the Death Star briefing where we got to see Hux and Ren interact with other First Order officers.

The cast on the whole was fantastic I thought. Ridley, Boyega, Driver, and Isaac nailed it. Can’t wait to see more of them. Ford was better than he’s been in a long time. Daniels stole the screen with his limited screen time. Fisher was a weak link, but not terrible as some are saying. Hamill owned the whole movie with his 30 sec perf. Seriously, that’s the part that’s really sticking with me. I never thought I’d call the sight of a 64 year old man beautiful, but that’s exactly what he was (incredible hair). Seriously, I’ve seen Mark in so many interviews since 1983, but this truly felt like the first time seeing Luke since Jedi. Chills and tears.

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generalfrevious said:

I saw TFA last night, and I thought it was pretty good. Definitely far better than the prequels, although not as great as the original trilogy. But I like how Abrams took elements from the OT and made them into something new, which to be fair, what what the first Star Wars movie did back in '77.
Bottom line, can’t wait for Episode VIII to come out

Frevious liked the movie? There is a Santa Claus! 😃

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I saw it Thurs night at 7:30 and again last night with my dad. I really liked it. The biggest thing that is did to fix the flaws of the Prequels was characterization and chemistry among the new people. Poe was my favorite, but I’m partial to X-Wing pilots. Maz was a cool addition, and her place seemed more like a pub/old fashioned inn vs a bar. My favorite line from her was calling Chewie her boyfriend.

I was very resistant to Luke only having one scene, but Mark Hamill managed to do more with one look than Hayden Christensen did with two whole movies.

Props to them for getting Ackbar’s voice actor back. That is a perfect example how much care and appreciation was put into making the movie.

Was it perfect? No. However, I care about those characters and I really want to see what happens to them next. As part one of three, thats the most important thing.

It seems like people are really embracing the new characters. In fact, the big question people ask me now about Star Wars is, “Are Finn and Poe gay lovers?” And really how the f*ck would I know? My second husband left me for a man, so my gaydar isn’t exactly what you’d call Death Star level quality. ----Carrie Fisher

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pittrek said:

I just came from the movie theatre. I hated TFA less than any of the prequels. Unfortunately I have no idea what the movie was about. Not sure if it’s because I’ve seen a dubbed version and something was lost in the translation, but I seriously can’t understand what did I just watch.

  • What was the New Order? Who exactly are they and what’s they’re position in the movie Universe? Are they at the same level as the Empire? I though so at the beginning, but then they say something about a New Republic. So what are they - some kind of a cult? Because they seem to have lots of resources and a good military. Can anybody please explain me what are the positions of the New Order and the New Republic in the “chain of command” of the universe?

  • Who are now the stormtroopers? OK, they’re definitely no longer the clones of that Australian guy, because our hero is a black guy. So are they volunteerly in the army? So why did the guy desert his army? And I noticed they actually mentioned clone troopers but again - who’s the army of the picture?

  • What was the BFG of the movie? You know, the new Death Star? Was it a planet? Or a big space station? Because it had trees and stuff. And aparently its own atmosphere.

  • Also - why was the new Death Star in the movie? It was stupid, pointless and had nothing to do with the story, it feels like the only reason they put it to the story was so that they can blow it up and have a “cool” action sequence.

  • Who was the story villain? Were it the uniform guys? Or was that just one uniform guy? Cause one of them seemed really important, he yelled at the stormtroopers in the trailer shot. ANd there was also one uniform guy who reported to the CG guy together with the Vader wannabe. Or was the Vader wannabe the villain ? I guess so, cause he killed Han Solo. Also, should it be a great reveal that he’s Han and Leia’s son? If so, why did they tell it in the beginning in the discussion between the CG guy and the DV wannabe? Or is the villain the CG guy? I thought that Abrams and Kasdan know that “less is more”.

  • Was Chewie CG? Seriously, every time he was on screen I could only thing about the fact that he looks CG.

  • What relationship should the girl and the black guy have? They have absolutely no chemistry together, but suddenly they hug and kiss. Should they be in love or just friends?

My impressions : the first part of the movie, when it’s a mix of 2 personal stories of a guy who doesn’t want to kill people and a girl who is trying to make some money so that she can buy food is really, really good. The second part of the movie, when it’s a story about trying to run away from the New Order and find Luke Skywalker is really good. Then it suddenly feels like we switched to a poorly executed fan remake of the Death Star battle, this part is a horrible mess and I’m not sure what it was about.

So I don’t know, I’m glad I’ve seen it but I don’t really know if I want to see it again.

PS BB8 was GREAT !

The impression I got is the Resistance is a covert army fighting the New Order on behalf of the Republic, they don’t publicly sanction the Resistance, but are probably funding them secretly. It’s the worst kept secret of the Cold War era the galaxy is in a the beginning of the film. The New Order is the splintered remains of the old Empire regrouped and reformed under the leadership of this Snoke guy.

New Order troopers are kids indoctrinated when very young. This is mentioned when the bad guys discuss Finn’s defection. (We even see Finn’s personnel file with a photo of him as a child.) Clones are merely mentioned as a lament for the good old days. It was Finn’s first mission, so seeing innocents massacred made him question his loyalties.

We had multiple villains in Star Wars before. Snoke is the new Emperor, Kylo Ren is trying to walk in Vader’s footsteps. Phamsa is the new Boba Fett, in that she’s mysterious. Everyone else is either a Tarkin or a Admiral Piett. They aren’t going to survive more than two movies.

I did think a lot of the New Order officers wandered in off the set of Raiders though. 😉

Asking the bad guys in the Star Wars universe not to hollow out a planet into a massive superweapon is like asking nations on Earth not to want to build nuclear tipped missiles.

Chewie’s fur is a little different, as he’s a little older now. I don’t think he’s CG. Fur is hard to render. If Peter Mayhew’s stand in did the heavy lifting in the movie, he’s been studying the Wookiee master well, as Chewie acted like Chewie.

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lovelikewinter said:

I saw it Thurs night at 7:30 and again last night with my dad. I really liked it. The biggest thing that is did to fix the flaws of the Prequels was characterization and chemistry among the new people. Poe was my favorite, but I’m partial to X-Wing pilots. Maz was a cool addition, and her place seemed more like a pub/old fashioned inn vs a bar. My favorite line from her was calling Chewie her boyfriend.

I was very resistant to Luke only having one scene, but Mark Hamill managed to do more with one look than Hayden Christensen did with two whole movies.

Props to them for getting Ackbar’s voice actor back. That is a perfect example how much care and appreciation was put into making the movie.

Was it perfect? No. However, I care about those characters and I really want to see what happens to them next. As part one of three, thats the most important thing.

They did get Ackbar’s voice actor back? Props to them if they did. I was hoping they would since he resurfaced in that interview a few months back, and you don’t even have to be in the same place to do a dubbing session these days.

I liked Maz too. Kind of like Yoda and Gunian from Star Trek TNG combined. I hope she comes back.

And yeah, Mark was wonderful without saying a word. 😃

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New Order troopers are kids indoctrinated when very young. This is mentioned when the bad guys discuss Finn’s defection

Hm, I don’t remember this, so I guess it’s one of the things which were “lost in translation”.