The Force Awakens: Official Review Thread - ** SPOILERS ** — Page 17

Alderaan said:

Cyclista, that was an opus that could have benefited from some editing, but I’m often guilty of that too. I always enjoy reading someone’s heartfelt feelings on this forum.

Anyway, I agree about Han’s death being handled very poorly. I said the same thing to my family about Chewie, that it was like he screamed for a couple of seconds and then whoops, guess life goes on and he’s back in the copilot seat taking off with Rey.

I also wondered why on earth Leia and Rey were hugging each other at the end. The two didn’t even know each other. I failed to notice as you did, however, that Leia and Chewie should have been together. You’re absolutely right. They should have been. Remember Han telling Chewie to take care of her after he was gone in Empire? How the fuck did that get missed?! That’s just another bullshit example of Disney trying to force new characters on us. They want to pass the torch from Leia to Rey, and that’s fine. I’m all down for that. But make it happen naturally in the fucking story universe. Don’t give us a lazy, incompetent plot, and then just put two characters together at the end who don’t even know each other.

lol I’m still editing it now.

But yeah, it was fine that they wanted to show a torch being passed and a bond being formed - we all wanted that because Rey was a successful character. But the expense of Leia’s and Chewie’s relationship was unforgivable.

I liked the battle of the minds between Rey and Kylo. I thought that scene was very well done.

The Jedi mind trick scene was not successful with me, because it took me out of the film to think to myself, “wait? how does she know that? she doesn’t know that…”

It felt like Rey was reaching into the audience and using our film knowledge from previous movies to teach herself something she otherwise didn’t know and had no way of knowing. I’m sure they will retcon this in the next film and say she was trained as a little girl and had her memory erased, but that’s just so lazy that I find it offensive.

ZkinandBonez said:

Alderaan said:
Remember Han telling Chewie to take care of her after he was gone in Empire? How the fuck did that get missed?! That’s just another bullshit example of Disney trying to force new characters on us. They want to pass the torch from Leia to Rey, and that’s fine. I’m all down for that. But make it happen naturally in the fucking story universe. Don’t give us a lazy, incompetent plot, and then just put two characters together at the end who don’t even know each other.

That was three decades ago, in a very, very different situation. When he said that she was a prisoner of Vader in Cloud City and Luke was running into a trap. It was a moment of great hopelessness.
Thirty years later in TFA Leia is general, and I don’t think she needs a Wookiee to follow her around while all the time at this point, especially now that she’s surrounded by hundreds of soldiers 24/7. Also Han came “back-to-life” in ROTJ so I think that “deal” stopped counting then.

You’re forgiven for not actually reading my absurdly long post. The topic wasn’t some guardianship debt or other; it was the utter disregarding of friendship ties between Leia and Chewie specifically regarding what would certainly have been a sharing of grief over Han’s death. Chewbacca and Leia loved Han more than anyone else did, and the movie just completely blanked on what without question would have been a strong bond - unless we hear later from Leia something like “yeah, I never actually liked Chewie, I just hung out with him because of Han” which would be FUCKING AWFUL.

Yeah - I’m very much hoping for an alternate take or a deleted scene, or a new scene in the next movie.

The editing in this film was seriously the worst. People rarely talk about editing when they discuss movies, but if I ever criticize anything in this film, the editing surely has to be at the top of the list.

I don’t agree it was “the worst” but I will +1 that it seemed slapped together at times. I’ve certainly seen far, far worse.

You know what would be super cool? Remember when Interstellar did a special thing and sold unlimited viewing tickets? Not the same, a different special thing, but it would be cool if a longer version of TFA with more detail and scenes got released in theaters in a month or so for hardcore fans. I think that hasn’t ever been done before - just added in the dvd or whatever. This would be way cooler.

It would just be cool in general if movies were released (again. in theaters) in long and short versions sometimes, where applicable. We have 3D and non-3D versions now, not too different.

personal opinion :

We all live in a society that is fast , we have learned to seek speed but not quality , that is why episode vii fits to the needs of the people of today , for example , rey becomes a jedi way too soon , we learn that kylo is the son of han way too soon , an unexperienced stormtrooper almost makes it against kylo and then in an instant kylo is almost being defeated by amateur rey , also rey does not know how to fly the falcon but after 10 seconds she can fly it low and curve it in a way that fin can actually destroy a tie fighter…it all makes sense because this is the internet generation , you download apps every second to your phone and after few seconds you expect it to be installed and working , you go out using your turbocharged car to go faster to your destination ( examples of such cars fiat 500 turbo , golf tsi , yrl turbo , colt czt , astra turbo , audi turbo , mini cooper s , etc etc …there is a great amount of rushing into things nowadays ( fast food , fast coffee , fast transportation , etc etc and that spoils the movies too , so i believe the appropriate title for this movie could very well be ( star wars the force speeds up) , lol , i am a great fan but i would expect a new trilogy , not a trilogy zipped in a 2 hour film. Also very predictable , i bet you that luke is going to die in the next film and then reappear as a ghost.

Alderaan said:

The editing in this film was seriously the worst. People rarely talk about editing when they discuss movies, but if I ever criticize anything in this film, the editing surely has to be at the top of the list.

Or maybe they just say “eh, who cares, the general public just wants some flash and bang and anyone who really cares is over at ot.c or fe.o and they’ll just make whatever cut they want”

9_9

lluukkee said:

personal opinion :

We all live in a society that is fast , we have learned to seek speed but not quality , that is why episode vii fits to the needs of the people of today , for example , rey becomes a jedi way too soon , we learn that kylo is the son of han way too soon , an unexperienced stormtrooper almost makes it against kylo and then in an instant kylo is almost being defeated by amateur rey , also rey does not know how to fly the falcon but after 10 seconds she can fly it low and curve it in a way that fin can actually destroy a tie fighter…it all makes sense because this is the internet generation , you download apps every second to your phone and after few seconds you expect it to be installed and working , you go out using your turbocharged car to go faster to your destination ( examples of such cars fiat 500 turbo , golf tsi , yrl turbo , colt czt , astra turbo , audi turbo , mini cooper s , etc etc …there is a great amount of rushing into things nowadays ( fast food , fast coffee , fast transportation , etc etc and that spoils the movies too , so i believe the appropriate title for this movie could very well be ( star wars the force speeds up) , lol , i am a great fan but i would expect a new trilogy , not a trilogy zipped in a 2 hour film. Also very predictable , i bet you that luke is going to die in the next film and then reappear as a ghost.

Blorrrghhh, I hope this is not the case. People being too busy or ADD to digest or care about information cannot be good for the world.

Yoda Is Your Father said:

Disney, if you’re listening, I’d buy an unlimited TFA pass in a heartbeat. And I’d also pay to see an extended cut in the theater.

+1 FTW

SilverWook said:

There really wasn’t time to mourn Han, they still had to finish the task at hand and get the hell out of there. In the original film, there was but a moment for Luke to mourn over Ben’s death and then the TIE fighters attack.

There was more time than that here. And it still explains zero about wtf did not happen between Leia and Chewie and DID happen between Leia and “Oh look some girl I’ve never met! She looks prime to share my grief over the horrifically sad death of my best friend and lover of many decades with!! not like any other old friends who I wouldn’t know were around BECAUSE I TOTALLY IGNORED THEM AS THEY BOTH APPROACHED AND WALKED PAST”

“But YOU… random stranger… HUG TIME!!”

So I’ve been hanging around these forums for a few years now…lurking in the backgroud, I guess you could say…and I thought it was about time I chimed in with my thoughts. I’ve seen TFA twice now and I can safely say thst it is a great film but more importantly it’s a great Star Wars film.

First time I saw it was on day one amidst all the hype and even though I was crazy excited I found myself looking for something wrong. It was a case of once bitten, twice (or thrice, thanks to the prequels) as shy. I didn’t beleive it could be as good as I was seeing so I nit picked at the plot. As it has been pointed out by a lot people, the movie can feel like a remake of Star Wars with a bit of Empire thrown in for good measure. Other things that I wasn’t taken by were Rey’s quick grasp of the force, the Starkiller base (death star mk. 3), Leia and Rey’s hug at the end (did they know each other) and a few other little things.

But upon my second viewing I allowed myself to watch it, hype aside, and really enjoy it. It has something that the prequels sorely lacked (among many things but specifically…), interesting characters and a sense of wonder and magic. The best thing I took away from the OT was the amazing characters and their struggles and successes in this crazy universe of Star Wars. The fact that the force was mystical and not everything in the story had to be explained in silly detail and at great lenght. The characters in these new adventures feel real, I’m invested in what will happen with next. And back to the remake point. I think they nailed it, it’s just the right side of familiar without going overboard. The whole Starkiller thing becomes a bit of an afterthought in the grand scheme of things (“How do we blow it up? There’s always a way to do that”). All the new main character’s nail it as well. Rey is a great lead, John Boyega was brilliant (really interested to see whete Finn goes), Adam Driver’s take on Kylo Ren is fascinating, in particular, and Poe Dameron is kewl. It left me wanting more.

I guess the best thing on my part was that I left the cinema with a smile on my face and a real buzz about the future films.

Oh yeah…why was Luke just staring at Rey for an unnatural amount of time…just take the goddamn lightsaber!

He doesn’t want it. He considers his ministry to the new Jedi a failure because it resulted in the perversion of his best friend’s son. This is also why he removed himself from civilization. He may even know his lost student just killed his best friend. He retired in shame, which means removing himself from activity - activity for a Jedi is wielding that thing she wants him to take.

as i said earlier , it is like …come on i cant wait 3 years to learn that kylo is the son of han , also cannot wait for rey to be trained like luke , give me all that now , today , asap …like in my real life …facebook , twitter etc instant information at your service , so jj understood that

You’re retconning. This movie was just finished, and this is a review thread, not a fanfic or fanedit brainstorm thread. There was no evidence for either of those conditions visible.

Also maybe this community uses their imagination a little too much out of necessity because so much after ESB was shit and the only way to suspend disbelief was with a frigging crowbar. Lets apply higher standards to this round of films.

lluukkee said:

as i said earlier , it is like …come on i cant wait 3 years to learn that kylo is the son of han , also cannot wait for rey to be trained like luke , give me all that now , today , asap …like in my real life …facebook , twitter etc instant information at your service , so jj understood that

Try using the quote button at the comment you mean to reference so everyone knows which comment you are referencing.

(that came off snarky, sorry didn’t mean it that way)

Alderaan said:

The Jedi mind trick scene was not successful with me, because it took me out of the film to think to myself, “wait? how does she know that? she doesn’t know that…”

What about when Luke pulled his saber with the force in the wampa cave? We hadn’t seen the force used like that yet and no on screen explanation is ever given to tell us how he knows how to do it.