We are in uncharted territory with Disney, the new owners of Star Wars. It would be wise not tempt fate and risk the future of this site because some people can’t wait a few months.
The Blu Ray is scheduled for release in April. Kindly keep it in your pants until then?
Where were you in '77?
And if you can’t keep it in your pants, at the very least keep it to yourself and don’t get us involved.
[That_OT_Ruler said:]But I have already started a fan edit of the movie.
I’m glad the link was removed, if I may be so blunt, because working from a bootleg can’t possibly be any good at anything…
I’m using the bootleg as a template, to map out exactly where I want my edits. Then when I get the full HD film with the layers of sound tracks, I’ll finalize and make the full edit. Of course I’m not using the bootleg for a normal edit. xDxD
You downloaded a bootleg, which is piracy. Stop trying to justify that shit.
I have already seen the movie 4 times in the theater I think if he did that, he paid for the boot leg 4x. Boot legs suck anyways quality is horrible. Much better to see the movie in the theaters for the first time. That is my rule… I am not going to mock him if he downloaded one just to make evaluations what he wants to change when he does buy the BD. As long as he already paid his money in the theater. Give the guy a break, all he was trying to tell us all what he planned on changing for his edit…
I still have my ticket stubs :} They are being framed.
Sheeshmagoodles, did you read any of the following posts?
And by the way, he also posted a link.
Digitally change the lightsaber to make it Luke’s Lightsaber. The green one.
Looks like Kylo already has it
On a side note why couldn’t we see this flashback scene it it’s totality? I know they’ll do probably do a Thrawn Trilogy type novel but it would have been awesome fight to see.
My guess is we will see it in one of the other two movies.
Since this movie came out, it has been harder to stick to my lurker pledge. I feel compelled to add several ideas I’ve had in more organized fashion. I know I shared some earlier, and I will repeat some of them here. You see, the more I think about it, the more I enjoy the movie (I’ve only seen it once, since it’s so hard for me to get a babysitter). I find myself becoming more and more defensive about it when reading the criticisms of others. Sometimes it makes me really irritated with the nature of our own forum where we are far too critical of movies. You see, I still enjoy the prequels far more than most here, and simply am grateful that fan editors have made them better, though they will never match the OT. I fall into the camp that really loves ROTJ as well. And with all this, if I had been a more casual fan, never hooking up at this site, I have a feeling I wouldn’t have been so critical of TFA when I saw it if I hadn’t been tainted by the cynical nature of this site. Don’t worry, I love it here, but we’re too harsh at times, I feel.
Anyway, I’m rampling because I’m trying to be quick, so let me share my ideas:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/all-the-backstory-you-desperately-want-to-know-about-th-1751196966
Introduce the concept of the Starkiller sooner. Both Death Stars were mentioned in the respective crawls of their films. The Starkiller appears out of no where, with no reference to its existence until it gets used to destroy Hosnian Prime. That truly annoys me. Just throw it in the crawl and let us be aware of its danger.
On top of that, let us see more Hosnian Prime. Its destruction is almost meaningless to the audience. If we saw Leia’s envoy go there, get to understand the relationship of the Resistance to the Republic, this would truly help the movie. Again, this would probably require different wording in the crawl and the use of deleted scenes we know exist and will hopefully be present on the Blu-ray:
http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awkens-deleted-scenes/
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Centerpoint_Station
Not sure if this is possible, but remove Kylo Ren’s face from the Rey interrogation scene. I’m not sure if he could be shown placing his mask on the table but avoiding his face, or perhaps simply splice in a few shots with his mask still on, because obviously that scene needs to stay, but I really feel the impact of seeing him would have been stronger if we as an audience saw him the first time when facing Han.
Slow down the pace a bit with additional scenes just to pad things out.
Use musical cues from previous Star Wars entries, particularly the prequels, which I think are far better than people credit, and certainly better than TFA.
I don’t remember if this is possible, but it should would be great to remove Phasma’s lowering of the shield. It makes her a weak character who tried to save her own life at the cost of likely millions of her compatriots. She doesn’t do much anyway and was only cool in the beginning. It’d be better to introduce her there, and since I believe there are plans to use her later, save her as a cool character only teased at in this first of the new trilogy instead of wasting her as a weak-willed coward in the end.
I think I do like the idea of Hosnian Prime’s destruction to the end of the movie as well, as that would distinguish it further from ANH and create a powerful ending with some strong emotions for good and ill.
I’m sure there are little cuts here and there that could improve the movie, but I’m not as adamant about these. I read too many complaints in the review thread about too much fan service (I don’t mind mentioning the original Death Star–we are in the same universe with the same characters, after all; it’s not like their history was erased), and too many complaints about the humor. It’s not Jar Jar humor, and all the Star Wars movies have cheesy jokes–that’s part of the appeal! I hate it when editors remove all the humor in the PT, and I’d hate the same done to this. I’d probably suggest little trims in the rathtar scene, particularly how nice the one is to Finn to not devour him instantly as he did the others, and reduce or cut the circling helicopter shot of Luke at the end.
Edit in some shots from trailers, if possible, such as Kylo Ren igniting his saber in the forest.
Find some way to provide a better explanation for why R2 wakes up. Not sure how this could be done, but the fact that he did was far too convenient.
That’s really it. I can’t complain too much about other things and in fact enjoyed some things others did not. I don’t care that Snoke was CGI, though I know there are practical effects purists on this site. This is 2016 and all movies use it extensively these days, and it really didn’t look as bad as people complain. I didn’t mind a number of things and feel people are being way too picky, overlooking equivalent “problems” when they are present in the OT but tearing them to shreds for TFA, as if they theymselves are expert storytellers.
I may have more ideas when I see it again (probably not till BD), but for now these are my thoughts.
All I want is an extended edition with the deleted scenes from the Blu-Ray.
Not enough people read the EU.
I’d probably suggest little trims in the rathtar scene, particularly how nice the one is to Finn to not devour him instantly as he did the others
On the other hand, the scene where Rey explains away her timing with the blast doors as “lucky” has been mentioned by many as being some of their favourite dialogue in the movie. And, others were also carried away by Rathars - it was not just Finn.
What I don’t like about that scene, however (apart from Han and Chewie being smugglers again, and the mirroring of ANH with them being wanted by gangsters whom they owe money…) is the shot of the Rathar rolling after Han, like the big ball in Indiana Jones. That reference takes me out of the movie a bit.
I don’t care that Snoke was CGI
I don’t care that he was CGI, but that the CGI wasn’t good enough to not look like CGI.
When I watched the movie, it wasn’t until the hologram was switched off that I realised that it had been a hologram of Snoke - that Snoke wasn’t a giant.
If the hologram was changed to get coarser scanlines and be more blue and translucent - like the holograms in the original trilogy - then that would
not only make it more apparent that it is a hologram: it would also hide the badness of the CGI.
Darth Lars said:
When I watched the movie, it wasn’t until the hologram was switched off that I realised that it had been a hologram of Snoke - that Snoke wasn’t a giant.
If the hologram was changed to get coarser scanlines and be more blue and translucent - like the holograms in the original trilogy - then that would
not only make it more apparent that it is a hologram: it would also hide the badness of the CGI.
Did you not think this was the intentional effect? If you disagree with the need to dupe the audience like that (it’s almost reminiscent of the strange need to trick the audience into knowing who Padme is), then fair enough. But it wasn’t a slipup that he didn’t look entirely like a hologram, the effect seemed to be intended as a bit of a surprise. The only problem with it is the point that it relies on the fact that Snoke’s appearance was kept secret from us, so the gag is a bit ‘meta’ in that sense as they fake out his reveal.
I agree with people who think they’ll go a step further and either make him end up extra small or that perhaps the image we’ve seen was only a proxy of sorts. These would also be dumb gags, but the latter could mean a better looking villain at least. Seeing Snoke as he’s rendered now in person, interacting with other characters might not look so great.
I liked how he was projected extra-large, that was pretty cool.
Part of me wanted him to be that big and actually in the room. Darthzilla 😄
Snoke getting himself projected extra large would certainly be in character for a megalomaniac ruler, user of the Dark Side or not.
In review threads, I have also seen a complains about the spaceships being ugly: especially the boxy Stormtrooper landing crafts and the craft
that Leia arrives in at Maz’s castle. A space ship in Star Wars should have large engines. Opinions I have seen have been mixed about Kylo Ren’s shuttle.
I think, if possible, the landing crafts could be augmented/replaced with new CGI of a craft more reminiscent of the Sentinel-class landing craft first seen in Shadows of the Empire and then in ANH-SE. The Sentinel-class is somewhat similar to the Lambda shuttle but smaller: the middle part is a box like the boxy landing craft in the movie - rotated 90 degrees so that the ramp is on the side. Cockpit to the left of the ramp, engines and folding wings to the right and a large fin on top of the box.
Alternatively, use reminiscent craft that carry the trooper-boxes underneath, dropping them when they are not far from the ground.
In review threads, I have also seen a complains about the spaceships being ugly: especially the boxy Stormtrooper landing crafts and the craft
It’s a fair point. We should definitely replace them with the Naboo Smoothshuttle!
A ship is only as smooth as her pilot.
Good point, baby.
- Distinguish the Starkiller from the Death Stars. I think this shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s name is “star” + “killer” after all, and besides a reference to early Star Wars concepts/Luke’s original last name, it could easily be changed to a weapon much like the Centerpoint Station of the old EU, which was stationary but fired a powerful beam at distant stars and caused them to supernova. I imagine a little technical wizardry could easily fire that beam at a star instead of the planet, cause a supernova (witnessed from the ground of Hosnian Prime), and have the supernova destroy the system. Meanwhile, remove our heroes actually witnessing this from Takdona.
I had forgotten to mention that if there is some way to remove the sun-sucking plot point (seems like it shouldn’t be too difficult–remove all references to it, and the darkening sky could simply be implied as the day wearing on during battle), it should be done. That is lame on a number of levels. And if this is done, clips of that effect could be run backwards, appearing to be the energy beam striking the distant sun, and used to simulate the supernova I’ve suggested.
“She’s gone from suck to blow!”
That is lame on a number of levels.
Could you explain those levels?
It might work better if the station created a hyperspace conduit to the star of the system they want to destroy and distabilise that star.
With the amount of damage it does in the film to the base’s own star system the weapon would have a very short shelf life (I can’t remember any reference to the base being moveable from star to star).
The problem with this idea is the fast fall of night on the base-world is meant to be a visual countdown to the firing of the weapon but as Ender says it could be explained by natural means.
It would make more sense visually if we saw the base fire and then saw the target sun shrink and the planets blow up rather than the shrinking star being fuel for the weapon.
I would make it a weapon built on a planet instead of an artificial world. The Empire took decades building the first Death Star with all the resources of a galaxy.
Building an artificial planet like that would be noticed and resource heavy. The First Order want to finish their weapon and destroy the Republic fleet and capital. They would only need the gun for that. All the size gags were a bit silly. It would make more sense if the gun was smaller than the Death Star.
To be honest, after seeing TFA for a third time I’ve made my peace with the Starkiller Base. It’s quite a neat idea to have it kill a star while taking the word starkiller… it’s quite clever, in admittedly a wholly unoriginal way.
The main issue I can’t seem to make peace with is the map. That whole mcguffin doesn’t seem to have been thought out.
A) why would someone who doesn’t want to get found make a map to his location?
B) why does Artoo have some of the map and Max Von Sydow have the rest?
C) why does Artoo wake up suddenly out of the blue and remember he has the map?
D) why did no one think to check Artoo all the time he was catatonic in case he had a map to his old owner?
The whole thing gives me a headache and just seems needlessly complicated. The film is so well directed that you go along with it in the moment but after the credits roll it really bugs me.
I think it’s reasonable to assume Luke only wanted to be found by the right person and/or at the right time.
And we’ll probably find out in the next movie.
To be honest, after seeing TFA for a third time I’ve made my peace with the Starkiller Base. It’s quite a neat idea to have it kill a star while taking the word starkiller… it’s quite clever, in admittedly a wholly unoriginal way.
The main issue I can’t seem to make peace with is the map. That whole mcguffin doesn’t seem to have been thought out.
A) why would someone who doesn’t want to get found make a map to his location?
It’s a contingency. He goes off and destroys his ship so he can’t return of his own accord but if the galaxy should ever need him those who know him would be able to find him.
B) why does Artoo have some of the map and Max Von Sydow have the rest?
So if Kylo or Snoke should come looking for him they would have to acquire both pieces of the map. Yet another contingency.
C) why does Artoo wake up suddenly out of the blue and remember he has the map?
JJ Abrams explained this with a in universe explanation but we all know it’s a plot convenience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOCC5I1rhWA
D) why did no one think to check Artoo all the time he was catatonic in case he had a map to his old owner?
Maybe they did and the files were hidden. Like hidden hidden.
I think it’s reasonable to assume Luke only wanted to be found by the right person and/or at the right time.
And we’ll probably find out in the next movie.
Yeah agreed.
I guess my point is that I’d like to see a fan editor streamline the map storyline… somehow. Either so that BB-8 has the whole map, or changing the waking up of Artoo to make it feel less coincidental and random.
Maybe a dialogue such as this could be pieced together from some of C-3PO’s many lines:
C-3PO: You received a transmission?
R2-D2: Beep Boop Beep
C-3PO: From Master Luke?
R2-D2: Beep Boop Beep
C-3PO: For the girl? What girl?
I would have R2 activated by proximity to the saber.