So here are my VERY SPOILERISH thoughts. Seriously legit spoilers here, DO NOT read if you haven't seen it yet. Close the spoiler thingy now
Also it's going to be mostly negative, but really I liked it and I recommend seeing it, but I guess I can't explain the positives as clearly as the negatives in my mind. I do not think it is better than the OT by a long shot (I did not grow up on the OT either, being 28 that I am now). It was miles better then the prequels though.
Minor: Ship handling was a little crazy, they seemed to actually drift sometimes. I know it's in the atmosphere as opposed to inspace but really it just seemed out of place. Minor for me though, still looked pretty damn cool. Other then Poe's crazy rape everybody run when he killed like every tie fighter that you could see on the screen. That was nuts, I know they were trying to establish that he's crazy good but seriously that was just unbelievable. And the MF flying like that after apparently years of not flying and before that some abuse. It's a damn freighter, even non-freighters that size can't fly that good!
Semi-Minor: The sillyness. It was a little too silly, it has some genuine humor moments and while that's a bit out of place in what I think of Star Wars it was still alright. But overall it seemed kind of light hearted, and it feels like the characters are a little too upbeat when they are just in and out of what would be some hard situations.
Semi-Minor: Rey's duel with Kylo Ren. First off I want to say thank ****ing god we didn't get the jumping and twirling crazy over the top acrobatics display that was saber fights in the prequels. I feel like it could have been better, but overall massive improvement and better than the OT just stiff sort of "broadsword fencing" feel. But this ****ing duel. Kylo was beating the **** out of Rey till he just made her suddenly open a tap to a bunch of force power.
Glossing over the cheesiness of that, up to that point she was getting her ass handed to her in the saber duel. But after she's a ****ing saber master apparently. I understand that the force would give her powers of insight and being able to see attacks coming and also increase her reaction speed already. And I know she was also pretty decent with the staff too, but really it's two completely different fighting styles. It was just really jarring going from really inexperienced saber fighter to grand****ingmaster level saber handling. To quote the movie "That's not how the force works". I felt like if she instead used force powers like a force push, or smacking stuff into him etc it would have better shown off her "instant" force power-up.
Semi-Minor: The god damn oscillator. Seriously it's been twice before that ****s blown up on some sort of super weapon like that. And sure at least they didn't leave a god damn hole in this time but it felt woefully undefended. Sure they were losing, but something that size and what is an critical part of what seems to be a premier military base for the new order should have run a train over that tiny fighter wing. The defenses seem light, especially the anti-fighter defenses. You can say "oh but it's got a shield they didn't put much to it". NO, ****ing nobody designs **** that way.
You might see in videogames where a battleship is weak to smaller ships cause it only has larger weapons but that's ********. Even now something like that would have been goddamn bristling with weapons to handle everything from ground troops and on up and in massive numbers. THEY BUILT A ****ING PLANET BEAM FOR GOD SAKES PUT A FEW MORE MISSILE LAUNCHERS IN THERE. Also why the **** is there no flak? Everything flies so close it seems like it would be a goddamn massacre for fighters. Seriously anti-fighter defenses that we have nowadays, or even in WW2 would have done a better job against the fighters in the movie.
Semi-Minor: Captain Phasma taking down the shield. ****ING WHY. Seriously, I completely expected her to just lock it or alert the base or something. Why the hell did she turn them off. And why would anyone ever not assume that after they did what was asked they'd be likely killed anyways. ****ing real :|
Major: Not explaining anything. Seriously they reference so much **** that's not explained at all. I understand you can't explain everything because then it will just lead to more things that need to be explained then you're on the explain-train with no stops. But some stuff needs to be explained instead of just told and believed. For example it references that Kylo did some **** and probably killed all of Luke's other padawans. When Rey touched the saber and had the flashback it would have been the perfect moment to show some of this, I was shocked it didn't. And maybe he could taken a bit of damage or turned a little more sithy so he wasn't such an Andy Sandberg/Napolean Dynamite looking mother****er.
Same with Finn. He says he had to leave cause he's seen/done some bad ****. But what appears to actually be his turning point is when his fellow stormie dies. Who is this person? Does he care about this person? I imagine attachments would be frowned upon in the trooper lifestyle that's alluded too. Did he really not care about the person and was just sick of doing messed up ****? Maybe show a TINY bit of the relationship between Finn and this fallen trooper that made him finally decide to desert.
A lot of the not explaining **** is because of the next problem I had.
Tragic: The pacing. This ****ing pacing. It's crazy quick. It's not just the fighting that's frantic it's the whole damn movie. So much stuff happened way too quickly. I was just at a loss how quickly stuff got thrown in. And I think nothing shows this more than the end. So they're looking for this ****ing map, which apparently isn't just a dot but also the trail of Luke Sky walker. Apparently though it was a dot to like his exact location, and the editing made it seem like the entire flight time from entering light speed to exiting was less than a minute. It took hours to get to Alderaan before but they just got there essentially instantly. Was he like right next door the entire time?
Really I thought the movie should have fleshed out the back explanations a little more. I'm not asking to explain why Han lost the falcon, that can be left up to the imagination considering they showed he went back to his old ways. But a little bit about the first order. Did the rebels really do that ****** a job? Cause this isn't that far after the OT, but apparently the Imperials are stronger then ever and apparently everyone is already afraid of them too so it's not like they were hiding :| And why are they so afraid of the Republic Fleet? They should have shown it, and why is it all on the home planets? Something as large as the republic might have the bulk stationed home but it would have ships deployed everywhere really.
And their planet beam really was very sudden. Honestly I thought the setup it had was all great. What I would have preferred is if the movie actually ended with the resistance (or really the republic fleet) trying to take on Starkiller base but failing, hence then leading to the resistance. If ****'s so dire they need a resistance Han wouldn't have just been smuggling, and Luke probably wouldn't have left everyone high and dry no matter what happened. Give the damn bad guys a bone and have them come out on top in the TFA and setup the next movie.
It could have started with finding out about the First Order which managed to stay hidden and building up their forces. Then underestimating them attacking Starkiller base and failing. Which would had led up to a second movie about scrapping together any remnants of the republic fleet and making the resistance, and Rey's journey to find Luke Skywalker and I guess bring balance back to the force. At the rate it's going I expect Rey and Luke to be back and her well into her training and Kylo undergone whatever transformation he's going to go through within like the first 20 minutes of the next movie :|
I had other issues too but I think that's enough, and like I said I still enjoyed it. But it was also a constant barrage of disappointment in what could have been while I was watching it ;p I guess that's a bit depressing but v0v!
