Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD * — Page 113

darklordoftech said:

brash_stryker said:

luckydube56 said:

 

 Nice work.

I actually like the concept of the new enemy built off the old.  Kind of like the Romans building their civilization off the Greeks.

I know nothing so take it for what its worth.   But there does seem to be a lot of respect being paid to Darth Vader by this new villain.  This new empire seems a bit more of a religious bureaucracy.  Or maybe just more zealous to the last man.

The old empire was Hitler + Wehrmacht.

The new empire seems Hitler + SS.

If that makes any sense.

The only problem with that ancient symbol being a precursor to the Empire symbol is the Prequels. As darklordoftech rightly pointed out, the Empire symbol is previously the Republic symbol in the Prequels, so it's a symbol of good subverted to be a symbol of evil. I personally don't think Palps would keep a symbol of the old Republic as his new Empire's sigil though, and yet that's what we got in the Prequels. Goody.

Isn't this the opposite of what we said in our discussion?  Neither of us said anything about the prequels and you said, "I'm not suggesting it's a good idea."

Discussion? I indeed said I wasn't suggesting it was a good idea. That's not to say that it isn't one. It's just not the point I was making. I was just pointing out the superficial link between the designs and speculating about the design team's mindset.

You said in your other post that you liked the fact the symbol of the Empire was the symbol of the Republic Ben remembered. It's the Prequels that introduced that, which is what I was referencing above.....

I'm not down with all this speculation and the brain bending questions left unanswered.  

From what I've seen, there is real environment in the movie and to me THAT was the charm of the Original Trilogy and Phantom Menace (not including Jar-Jar of course).  THAT is what makes the movies special for me.  Tangible places and things that tie themselves to the real world, not that CGI crap.

I am happy to see that JJ Abhrams is honoring that.  Like new Star Trek or not, he made them with the real world in mind and to me that made them enjoyable on their own.  

I am excited for Christmas.  I WILL be at the midnight premier with my daughter.

May the force be with us all.

:)

Harmy said:

I'm personally not too excited. There were some bits I liked and there were some I didn't. Some of the character moments were nice but in the last shot, it didn't click for me as seeing Han again, I just saw Harrison Ford, I don't know why and Chewie looks really weird too.

And the VFX shots reminded me of this video by MVerta about VFX shots grounded in reality, which was a hallmark of the original movies. The crazy camera moves, while cool, just don't read as reality. It looks sort of incogruent with not only the original movies but, from what we've seen so far, also with the live action in this new movie.

I actually totally agree with everything you said here Harmy, those were my exact thoughts as well when I saw new teaser, Chewie looks kinda plastic and his eyes remind me of the CG eyes of the Ewoks from the ROTJ SE, he looks very weird. There was also something about Harrison Ford in that shot that felt like he was playing himself rather than Han Solo.

The CG shots of the millenium falcon have me a little worried as well to be honest, it doesn't quite look real to me and I don't know why, the CG of ships in Guardians of the Galaxy looked far more convincing to me, I hope that by the end of the year the CG of the ships is at least at the level of GOTG. That combined with the insane OTT camera moves makes everything look a little too much like a video game cutsequence for my liking.

There was stuff I liked as well of course, that first shot with the partially buried star destroyer was fantastic IMHO, when Vader's helmet appeared I was grinning from ear to ear. Loved the Luke voiceover of course. Sets look great, nice and real, which is a massive improvement on the last two prequels. The new young actors look like they can actually act which is great as well.

Not a big fan of the new stormtrooper helmets, they look a little too non theatening to me (perhaps Disney wanted them to be more kid friendly?) to me in comparison to the more intimidating original trilogy helmets. There was the teal and orange colour scheme throughout but of course its early days and that will most likely chaange, I hope they go for a more naturalistic look for the final release.

Very happy that BB-8 is real, you can feel that he's real in that shot in the teaser and it really makes all the difference IMHO. That was my highlight during the celebration, when he came on stage, absolutely fantastic. Was I the only one that noticed how much he sounded like wall-e though?

All in all I am cautiously optimistic, its definately shaping up to be much better than the prequels, I just hope from now until the release they can ground the CG of the ships flying around a little more, dirty them up and make them look more substancial and real by the time its released theatrically. Fingers crossed that shot of Chewie will be improved so he looks more real and less plastic, the eyes need work so they look less weird and he could use a few grey hairs so he looks slightly older than in the Original Trilogy IMHO. In the shot from the teaser he looked even younger than he was in the OT.

SilverWook said:

 That was definitely me.

Not me, unfortunately. Life has made me far too jaded. And the crossguard lightsaber still sucks. (=P)

Edit.

1anakin said:

Jedit.

 FTFY

Ronster said:

I think it looks Good! And it feels Good! So it must be Good!

 Relativist!

New editedTrailer (teaser 1 + 2 combined) with new music and sounds and color balanced for better result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10YVIIL_sqk&feature=youtu.be

Yeah, I find it really hard to be excited about the trailers. It's not down to one aspect in particular (although it all looks too "crisp" for my liking), but it was mostly just... OK, and I think it's partly because I'm worried about the overall direction of the movie (which I'll get to in a bit).

The Han and Chewie scene didn't bring a tear to my eye, I have to say. It seemed like really obvious manipulation to me, and it's the sort of thing that's been done thousands of times before (not with Han and Chewie, obviously, but in various things). I feel bad for saying that; I certainly don't want to take a great moment away from anyone (but I don't think by saying that I will), but I'm just being honest about my reaction.

Overall, I'm worried about the overall set-up of the film. I really hope the Rebels aren't still fighting the Empire, having never beat them. I don't mind an EU-type set-up, with the former Rebel Alliance being in control of the galaxy, but with (large) pockets of Imperial resistance (so the tables are turned). Or, perhaps they defeated the Imperials, but now a new Imperial-style resurgence has appeared. Or some other set-up I haven't thought of. But to have the Rebels never having won, and still fighting the Galactic government? I realise that this may be realistic for a galaxy-wide conflict, but it's incredibly depressing, and harms the optimistic feeling to the original films (makes the Rebellion seem futile, especially the last push to defeat the Emperor). I really hope this isn't the set-up. Star Wars is cool because it's positive; too many movies/TV are grimdark; let's leave the "realism/pessimism" to other properties.

It's also a little depressing that Han is still wearing the same old outfit when he's 70 (I know it's not exactly the same, but it's very much the same style). It's certainly possible he might do this, but it's just a bit sad. It's like he's gone nowhere all this time. I don't want to see him with a pipe and slippers, but something a bit more dignified, something to show he'd moved on, perhaps? I hope that in the film he has moved on, and he dons a Rebellion-era outfit for a specific purpose. Let's hope it's that, rather than him never having changed (figuratively or literally).

So I guess I'm not worried about anything explicitly shown in the trailers, but about what it may all mean. I wonder if the proper trailer will assuage some of my fears.

I'm sure it will be a better film than the prequels, though.

grainger said:

Overall, I'm worried about the overall set-up of the film. I really hope the Rebels aren't still fighting the Empire, having never beat them.

 For sure the resistance and the first order are not the respective rebels and empire, especially since they mention the new republic in the description of the battle of jakku for the Battlefront game.

I would guess that the new republic has simply struggled to maintain control over all they desire, with empire themed groups rising up over the years.  I'm a little confused as to how they are going to make it look like stuff happened over the last 30 years, and yet not feel sad because the ST didn't come in the late 80's when it should have.

I saw an interview on Youtube from 1980 or thereabouts in which the interviewer and Mark Hamill implied what Silverwook is saying. I don't remember what interview it was, however, so I can't link you to it.

Interesting to see the youngest reactions.

https://youtu.be/KWQPo34LUvg

Best part is at 1:03 with the timing of Kylo Ren's force push