Wait a minute I just realized. Where’s Constable Zuvio? I didn’t see him at all.
Listening to the soundtrack last night, thanks Amazon.
Definitely better than John William’s PT scores and right up there with the originals. The score has such a freshness and familiarity at the same time. Rey’s theme is so beautiful. I could also tell that they took more time in the recording process, and I really appreciated hearing extra parts added into old themes, like the finale. Also the sound mix was excellent, even on mp3 format, which surprised me. Looking forward to getting my Target edition CD in a few days.
I couldn’t believe that the Japanese trailer used music from the final moments of the movie though, ugh.
EDIT: Actually I think I mean the extended TV Spot, not the Japanese trailer.
The guys at Red Letter Media just put out a wonderful parody of clickbait TFA videos.
https://youtu.be/2HaGe8XcMHA
NSFW, obviously.
First published review:
http://www.geekster.be/star-wars-vii-the-force-awakens-a-new-generation-a-new-beginning/
Seems like the visuals, characters, score, etc are amazing and capture a feel far close to the OT. Bad side is definitely the plot being a bit too much of a rehash, especially of the original movie. As much as I like JJ’s other movies, this does seem to be a pattern of his.
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.”
The first sentence in the movie is “This will begin to make things right”, said by Max von Sydow. Poe Dameron came to him to get the map to Luke Skywalker for The Resistance.
Max von Sydow’s role is just a cameo, he has about 10 sentences before Kylo Ren kills him.
The Empire is now The First Order, The Rebels are now The Resistance, more extreme fraction of the New Republic, who are supposedly pussies. We only see the New Republic planet for a few seconds before it’s destroyed by the Starkiller base.
Almost no one in the movie believes that Jedis and Luke Skywalker ever existed.
Kylo Ren captures Poe and uses the Force to stop laser blast so that it remains floating in the air, frozen in place.
Finn helps captured Poe to escape from the Star Destroyer only because he cannot pilot TIE fighter himself. Poe is an expert pilot, Finn can shoot lasers. They become friends.
Finn’s “real name” is FN and four numbers. Poe starts to call him “Finn” because it’s easier to pronounce. FN likes it.
After 20 minutes, we are supposed to think that Poe Dameron was killed in the TIE crash on Jakku. He reappers near the end (he ejected before the crash) to lead the attack on Starkiller base. He is not in the film very much. Finn wears Poe’s jacket during most of the movie.
Rey meets Finn, they steal the Millennium Falcon from the junkyard and fly away. Han and Chewie catch them soon, followed by two groups of racially-stereotyped space gangsters.
Chewbacca is wounded by space gangsters soon after he appears and spends most of the remaining time doing nothing. Rey takes his place as Falcon’s pilot, proving herself to Han.
Kylo Ren is Han and Leia’s son. He is “Master of The Knights of Ren” but it’s not explained what it means.
Kylo Ren’s real name is Ben. He was trained by Luke but then turned to the Dark Side which was the reason for Luke blaming himself and disappearing.
The Starkiller base charges by draining suns and then destroys whole solar systems. The shot in trailer with Kylo Ren and red flare is the Starkiller base firing. Guess what, the Starkiller base can be destroyed by flying in her trench and shooting the “oscillator” or whatever.
Han meets Kylo at the Starkiller base/planet and tries to persuade him to return with him. “I am torn apart, father. But I know what I must do. Can you help me?” - “Of course, my son.” They almost embrace. Kylo pierces Han with lightsaber. “Thank you, father.” Dead Han falls into the shaft on the Starkiller base. Yes, he is dead. Most definitely.
Leader Snoke is the bald CGI bad guy with large scar across his face. He has snake-like movements but his body is never clearly seen. His motivation or origin is never explained. He gives orders to Kylo Ren and General Hux (who hate each other). Most of the characters don’t know about Snoke’s existence.
General Hux has screaming monologue in front of thousands of Stormtroopers: “We stand upon this mighty weapon you’ve built. Everyone will bow to The First Order. Today will be remembered as the last day of The Republic!” Afterwards, all Stormtroopers raise their fists. Very nice Der Fuhrer moment.
Fan service: Holochess. The levitating training ball from Episode 4. Admiral Ackbar. Rey living in the AT-AT wreckage. “1138” mentioned. Garbage chute and trash compactor mentioned. Kesel Run mentioned.
Simon Pegg plays an alien called Ankar Plutt who took care of Rey when she was very little and her parents disappeared. Now he runs a junkyard on Jakku and buys scrap from Rey. His face and voice is not recognizable.
Apart from Han and Chewie, all the “original characters” (Leia, R2D2, C3PO) only appear after two thirds of the movie, when The Resistance lands on Maz Kanata’s planet.
Maz Kanata (small CGI gypsy) is the new Yoda and explains everything cryptically. Nobody understands her.
Han and Leia see each other for the first time after many, many years and have a touching conversation about their son: “You can still save him.” / “How can I save him when Luke couldn’t?” / “Luke was a Jedi, your are his father.”
Kylo Ren and Rey have duel of wills. Rey wins, telling Kylo: “I sense your fear. You are afraid that you will never be as strong as Darth Vader.”
Kylo Ren talks to Vader’s helmet: “Show me the darkness. I will finish what you started, grandfather.”
R2D2 spends the whole movie powered down and doesn’t do anything until 5 minutes at the very end when it’s discovered that crucial part of the Skywalker map is in his memory, probably but there by Luke long time ago. (It’s not very clear but Luke appears with R2D2 in a flashback.)
Rey has a weird dream/flashback after she finds Luke’s lightsaber in Maz Kanata’s castle and touches it. The dream contains lots of quick imagery and short voiceovers by Yoda and Obi-Wan. Several famous shots in trailers (Kylo and his posse, Luke’s mechanical arm on R2D2) are from this dream montage and are never explained in the movie.
Finn’s origin (his skin color, who are his parents, why he hates the First Order) is never explained.
C3PO’s red hand is never explained. In fact, there are many things that are never explained in this movie…
Both Finn and Rey have lightsaber duel with Kylo in the forest on the Starkiller planet/base. Finn is badly wounded and spends rest of the movie in a coma. Rey finally falls in love with him. (He loved her from the first sight.)
Starkiller base/planet is succesfully destroyed by The Resistance. We don’t know what happens with Kylo Ren (who was there) but he probably survived. Snoke sends the message to Hux to “Bring Kylo Ren to me complete his training.”
The last sentence of the movie is “May the Force be with you”, said by Leia to Rey.
After the last sentence, there is an extended sequence without dialogue: Rey leaves the Resistance base in the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca. They find remote planet where Luke is hiding (because they now have the map), Rey goes to the “first Jedi Temple” (which looks like ruins of some Scottish castle on a rocky island). Luke is there, dressed in old Obi-Wan style hood. Rey returns his sword to him. Apart from this sequence, Luke only appears for three seconds in Rey’s previous flashback. Luke speaks no words in the whole movie and is onscreen maybe for 30 seconds total. He never meets anyone else than Rey.
------------ But it’s not a bad movie. I am Darth Villar.
So I don’t know, I am really hoping this isn’t true, but there are a few tidbits that are correct from info only found out about tonight, and two other anonymous reviewers backing it up. At least I can contain myself to lower expectations.
How do people even accidently post like that?
Really cool look at the score, editing/writing process, and the level of secrecy.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-ot-how-the-new-star-wars-begins/
Well I guess I really did spoil the movie for myself months ago. Leaked images today of a children’s book line up pretty much exactly with the MSW plot outline. Not sure whether it was better to learn of the spoilers’ truth now or at the movie. Oh well, I still think it won’t ruin my enjoyment, as scene/dialogue specifics seem to still be intact. (although definitely those will be over the internet soon enough.)
Although I still suspect nearly 1/3 of the movie to be different from rumors, since some their “spoilers” changed over time.
It’s real now, may I introduce Darth Tater’s successor, Frylo Ren!
That head of Rey is kinda creeping me out.
Have the first movie on bluray, which could go down as the one of the worst transfers ever.
I have fun watching it, it’s really cheesy to me and that’s actually why I enjoy it. Never have bothered to watch any of the other ones though.
First non-spoiler review:
Here’s my non-spoiler review/impressions on the movie. NOSTALGIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Oh boy, how to review a film without talking anything about the story.
My whole plan to see the film was try to avoid any footage of it besides the teasers. This is very difficult especially in my field. I did see the first two teasers as planned, but haven’t seen any of the latest marketing besides a brief bit of a TV Spot, and of course that meme all over my feed, thanks facebook friends. Anyways, based on this, I had no idea what to expect.
Yes, the film is excellent. Hell, its fucking awesome. Its nice to see a decent Star Wars film after the prequels (I know it gets tiring, but there’ll be comparisons here).
Effects: JJ has been heavily emphasizing practical models and effects and there’s actually a lot of it, or the CGI is just so good on certain things. Either way it worked. Obviously there’s CGI, and having seen Revenge of the Sith recently obviously TFA’s CGI beats it. It doesn’t feel like its all over the place, like Lucas prequel films, sorry if it sounds a bit off topic here. The sound design itself is awesome. I mean people will focus on the obviously amazing soundtrack by John Williams, but I very much enjoyed the sounds of the various things in the movie (Spaceships, characters, world, etc). No complaints for the effects honestly.
Cinematography did the job when needed in my opinion. It doesn’t really stand out but there are a few stunning landscape shots. I would be more specific on what scenes, but no spoilers.
Did it feel like a Star Wars movie? There were a few people mentioning to me they were worried about it just being a sci fi movie with Star Wars elements. Its definitely a Star Wars movie, and a great one at that. If the Williams theme doesn’t convince you, then the characters will and the feel of the world. Lots of fan service, but done very well. I’m not exactly a hardcore fan here, but even a casual person might get a few of the references heh. If you feel worried the marketing has spoiled a bit, you’re in for a show. I think their restrained marketing strategy will really please fans. I’d be honestly okay if JJ did the rest of the series, but it’ll be interesting to see how the other directors handle it.
Characters characters characters. How were the new leads like Ridley and Boyega? They were both good, though I think Boyega was better. Had some great scenes. I’m going to avoid talking about the old cast besides saying Ford may have aged, but he’s still Han Solo. I would talk more in this section, but I might be walking into spoiler territory. No complaints about the characters here in general.
Its also nice to have a decent script where the characters aren’t worried about stupid sand or cringe worthy romance bits.
Crowd was perfect btw, they cheered at the right moments. I think they enjoyed it, but I didn’t exactly survey everyone. Though Disney types did hand out some surveys. What does this mean for box office? Seeing the film doesn’t automatically make me the best box office predictor but I can say with confidence that it’ll explode. Anyways.
Its definitely a Star Wars movie.
STAR WARS IS BACK.
If I had to rate it, this is tough because I really love a New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. I think in some ways its stronger then ANH, but that movie was so damn revolutionary that its hard to top for me.
ESB
ANH
TFA
ROTJ
ROTS
TPM
AOTCFinal rating: A
Take this as you wish as this is just one person’s opinion.
This place is certainly going to get interesting after this movie comes out. I expect a very wide variety of opinions here. Hopefully, they’ll skew positive. BTW, what’s going to happen with two Episode VII threads? Will this be the one to continue, or is there going to be new post-movie release made?
New Chinese trailer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECYgD7zylrE
Now that’s Han Solo!
New info on TFA score.
Williams, 83, touts a record 49 Oscar music nominations (and five wins, for such classics as “Jaws,” “Star Wars” and “E.T.”) and may well earn a 50th for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” his seventh score for the franchise.
“When we did the first film in London, we all thought, that’s a nice little film,” Williams says. “It captured the world’s imagination in a way that I certainly couldn’t have anticipated.”
For the new edition, Williams has written a handful of themes for characters including Rey (Daisy Ridley), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Poe (Oscar Isaac), along with “a major march piece” for the Resistance and a choral fanfare for Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) that inspired by a Kipling poem translated into Sanskrit.
And while “there are a few short references” to themes from earlier films, nearly all of the two-hour-plus score is new, Williams says. The recording process was “very luxurious,” he adds, with 12 sessions scattered over a five-month period between June and November.
This is the first “Star Wars” score to be recorded in L.A. “Originally we were going to London, and do it all in the space of two weeks’ time, the way we’ve always done George’s (Lucas) films. That would not have worked in this case, because J.J. (Abrams)’s editing process is very different.”
The composer began work last December and basically continued all year, completing the recording in mid-November. His 90-piece orchestra recorded 175 minutes of music, he says, although nearly an hour of that was discarded, modified or rerecorded as Abrams re-edited the film. Snoke’s theme was recorded by a 24-voice men’s chorus.
Williams says the decision to do another “Star Wars” film was basically simple: Abrams asked him, and he said yes. Abrams — who only heard Williams demonstrate two early themes last December, leaving dramatic and musical decisions up to the composer — “was very enthusiastic about everything,” Williams says.
Those models look amazing. Question, will we be seeing these new models in motion?
The Podracer thing gave me an idea. Try changing the color of the electricity on the electrostaffs to more of the color of that electrostaff-like thing the Stormtrooper has in the new movie coming out.
Actually, I’ve had the electrostaffs that same light blue color since the earliest stages. Again, still not sure if people are fine here with leaving in some specific color changes, though I guess as long as they not major like the yellow lightsabers idea from way back.
Cool, would love to see these. Yeah, for some reason I want to watch old VHS copies again for the hell of it.
Yeh, that reminds me I was thinking about making the electric field between Anakin’s podracer blue instead of magenta (actually that’s how I have it in the workprint version atm) but maybe it will seem like an obvious use of teal and orange color grading.
Each movie seems to have it’s issues, TPM has certain scenes where colors are horribly off from what they should be and seem harder to tweak for ironically having been shot on film and scenes where even regaining doesn’t quite fix the damage done by excessive DNR. AOTC has simply horrid color work, probably because it was the earliest days of digital blockbusters, making some scenes nearly impossible to make look pretty, most of which sections heavy in CG and greenscreen. Sections shot mostly practical outside seem to be easy enough to make look like filmic eye candy. ROTS has decent digital color work, the only star wars movie on the bluray set that has tolerable colors. The struggle is there is simply making things look practical and shot on film, being it is the heaviest in greenscreen and CGI.
In reality the majority of the work for workprints is technically done (like 60% probably), but there are large sequences that seem to be a complete pain to work with, causing me to go through numerous iterations. I’ll probably end up with some sections I won’t be completely satisfied with, but maybe my perfectionism will allow them to be at least noticeable improvements if not complete fixes.
I’m promising to get something of sorts out to see by the end of December, maybe I’ll post large segments compiled together that I’m confident in showing, and ready for critiques to perfect. I wish this wasn’t always taking me so long, and I had taken better advantage I had of the free time and lower stress life I had when I started this project.
You know it would be kinda fun to make an actual VHS copy of the movie, I guess I could do that when the movie came out, play from my computer to my tv which can be routed through to my ten year old VHS/DVD recorder, and then make a fake VHS box like the ones posted online. Would be a fun personal project if I had the time, maybe transfer it back to a DVD to post clips online. I always think it would be cool to experience modern movies on retro equipment.
Edit: Which, a bit off topic, reminds me of how my 30 inch 20+ year old Japanese Panasonic Tube TV I will argue still has a better quality picture than nearly most HDTV’s these days. The colors are perfectly tuned and the black levels so deep. Even running a Blu-ray player through it makes a noticeable difference due to compression/color improvements over DVD.
I know what you mean, yet I have a very strong feeling that there is a ton of stuff that we know nothing about yet.
In addition to a certain someone who has not been featured in any footage or stills, I’m willing to bet several exciting sequences or locations are still being kept under wraps.
Is it a spoiler to reveal that yes, I am in the movie like you were hoping?
I ride up on horseback at the end of the movie and interrupt the wedding for the robot ball and the vacuum cleaner, so I can be the one to give away the robot ball.
Nah, skip the TFA cameo. We need a Ric Olie spinoff movie.
The possibly huge spoilers, MF.com (who leaked the concept art) now listed the entire shooting schedule.
http://millenniumfalcon.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=9790
I haven’t read it for good reason, not sure if it’s just the same as the MSW stuff or not.
Working hard on TPM at the moment, of which I am much more confident in releasing a workprint version of within the next 2 months. ROTS is further down the line of being done with AOTC still proving to be the annoying one of the bunch.
I’ve been making great progress these last few weeks, I just feel like I want to complete draft versions for feedback instead of posting tons of screenshots and clips. With the workprints, I can have the feedback more organized in chronological order, rather than trying to sift through posts to make tweaks.
Honestly for me my only big gripes are having individual half-hour episodes, instead of arcs. The stories tend to feel rushed to me most of the time. That and the animation could certainly be better, although The Clone Wars looked pretty cheap in the beginning too. Although i’ve found the latest episodes seem like a noticeable improvement.
Remember though, Rebels seems most likely to do the same trend with its storylines and grow with its audience. There may be more young adult focused episodes later on.
So … any reviews for Jessica Jones anybody ?
On episode 10 right now. I’m really enjoying it, but I certainly need some time to organize my thoughts. I think Krysten Ritter was perfectly cast for the role. Though I do think the story could be a bit tighter in some places. Still not sure what I think of it compared to Daredevil.