Star Wars: The Force Awakens (12/18/15)

[Gully Foyle]

Tell me they just did not just repackage the best parts of episode 4 and 5 and resell it to us.

What did you expect from JJ Abrams and Disney?

Something trailblazing and visionary?

Was the Falcon really there by coincidence? That does seem a stretch

I chalked it up to a what-the-hell plot contrivance to get the new cast into the Falcon.

Then there's another immediate plot contrivance that has them meeting the Falcon's former owners in orbit around JackU.


Just like Abrams's Nu-Trek, this film's frenetic pace helps divert attention to its ad-hoc plotting.
Its pace is so quick it rolls over the Mad-Libbed nature of its script. (Han transports exotic deadly aliens now?)

I notice the force-sensitivity of characters is still dictated by the demands of the plot.
Kylo detects the presence of Han at a distance initially, but then walks right past him out on the catwalk and Han has to literally yell his name to get him to turn around.
Leia seemingly feels Hans death an entire star system away . . . yet can't use that incredible sensitivity to pinpoint her own brother.

__

 

[GasparZizou]

Gaspar, I honestly thought you would hate this movie. I'm shocked you found some positive!

there was a lot of positives in this, I want to give it a 7 but there's something keeping me from doing so, it still stands in the same spot as Jedi, maybe a tad below, definitely feels like the next one will be better.

If anything it has 2 clear weaknesses imo: the fact that it got many plot points from the OT and I thought the villains were very weak, Kylo may be the least compelling "sith" apprentice in the entire franchise.

Production values though, those are on the roof.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

Still 95% RT meter and 8.8 imdb... which is really freakin' high as far as imdb ratings go.

I have to admit the hate does really come off as "hipster cool kid".

Or objective criticism.

 

[GasparZizou]

(Han transports exotic deadly aliens now?)

I agree with most of what you say, but this doesn't look like a problem to me, he went back to smuggling because of the stuff that happened, seems very in character to me.

Kylo detects the presence of Han at a distance initially, but then walks right past him out on the catwalk and Han has to literally yell his name to get him to turn around.

He does? I thought force sensitivity was very consistent here.

Leia seemingly feels Hans death an entire star system away . . . yet can't use that incredible sensitivity to pinpoint her own brother.

Because Luke doesn't want to be found? Leia might be slightly sensitive enough to be reactionary or recipient, but not to pin point anyone systems away, I don't think there's a single Jedi who can do that, much less Leia.

Same way Ben Kenobi felt Alderaan while they were still traveling at light speed.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

Finally saw it, it was a solid 6.5/10, it looked like SW, but it felt like tumblr fanfic, felt less authentic than the EU, most of it anyway, I've seen some people who said the prequels felt more like SW, I agree, although this is better than the prequels, but only because they played it cowardly safe, and before anyone says I hate it because it's too much like the OT, no, it's because they're literally stealing from the OT.

Kylo was such a ****** character, I suppose he's supposed to be a ****** character, a whiny retarded brat, maybe the sequels will make more sense of him, he was visually cool, he had cool powers, but as a character he wasn't imposing, his "motives" are dumb and I don't see them being explained to the point of not being a spoiled brat, it actually made me cancel my SHF POs.

Han's death should not detract from the from the movie, Rey, Finn and Poe were great, and yeah, it made 0 sense that Leia hugged Rey instead of Chewie.

I have no problem with Rey beating an injured Kylo, specially if Rey is sensitive to the force.

Snoke was eh.

The rest was very enjoyable, it was structurally solid, honestly it wasn't the second coming and it didn't quite wash away the prequels, it was just, there, it felt quite unnecessary but it's definitely much better than Jurassic World, I'm ok with this movie being popular as opposed to JW or TG.

Same score I gave the film

I liked Crylo Ren though. I thought he had a cool voice with and without the mask, unlike Vader without the mask.

 

[DiFabio]

I chalked it up to a what-the-hell plot contrivance to get the new cast into the Falcon.

Then there's another immediate plot contrivance that has them meeting the Falcon's former owners in orbit around JackU.


Just like Abrams's Nu-Trek, this film's frenetic pace helps divert attention to its ad-hoc plotting.
Its pace is so quick it rolls over the Mad-Libbed nature of its script. (Han transports exotic deadly aliens now?)

I notice the force-sensitivity of characters is still dictated by the demands of the plot.
Kylo detects the presence of Han at a distance initially, but then walks right past him out on the catwalk and Han has to literally yell his name to get him to turn around.
Leia seemingly feels Hans death an entire star system away . . . yet can't use that incredible sensitivity to pinpoint her own brother.

__

Hnnnnnggggg


Some of those things I didn't even think about. ****.

 

[GasparZizou]

Same score I gave the film

we agree on most stuff lately

First reaction though, could possibly increase on second viewing, I don't see it going down at all.

 

[DiFabio]

First reaction though, could possibly increase on second viewing, I don't see it going down at all.

That's what happened with me. Kinda meh the first time I saw it, then I appreciated more the second time and thought it was pretty good. That's it though, I feel like I've gotten Star Wars out of my system since the lead up to this thing was so excessive, like it was beating me over the ****ing head.

Ironically, this is the first Star Wars movie where I have no desire to buy or collect any collectibles or toys.

 

[Lejuan]

A hologram needs to be viewed in a huge chamber huh?

 

[DiFabio]

A hologram needs to be viewed in a huge chamber huh?

They were just aping the Emperor scene from Empire I think.

How about that holo technology, people look real now! I also dug the Tony Stark technology like those fancy diagrams and layouts you can walk around and through.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

I really didn't like Snoke. They should have done something more creative with that character. Phasma was the worst though, not only did she not do anything, she almost seemed nice. I had high hopes for her and she ended up in the garbage disposal...where she belongs I guess.

 

[pturtle]

Finally saw it, it was a solid 6.5/10, it looked like SW, but it felt like tumblr fanfic, felt less authentic than the EU, most of it anyway, I've seen some people who said the prequels felt more like SW, I agree, although this is better than the prequels, but only because they played it cowardly safe, and before anyone says I hate it because it's too much like the OT, no, it's because they're literally stealing from the OT.

Kylo was such a ****** character, I suppose he's supposed to be a ****** character, a whiny retarded brat, maybe the sequels will make more sense of him, he was visually cool, he had cool powers, but as a character he wasn't imposing, his "motives" are dumb and I don't see them being explained to the point of not being a spoiled brat, it actually made me cancel my SHF POs.

Han's death should not detract from the from the movie, Rey, Finn and Poe were great, and yeah, it made 0 sense that Leia hugged Rey instead of Chewie.

I have no problem with Rey beating an injured Kylo, specially if Rey is sensitive to the force.

Snoke was eh.

The rest was very enjoyable, it was structurally solid, honestly it wasn't the second coming and it didn't quite wash away the prequels, it was just, there, it felt quite unnecessary but it's definitely much better than Jurassic World, I'm ok with this movie being popular as opposed to JW or TG.

The Rey beating Kylo thing has been bothering me the most, with all the info we have, it just doesn't make sense to me. In fact the entire last battle doesn't make any sense to me, Kylo should have killed both of them in two seconds.




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[Veil1]

I'll put in my two cents.... if it's worth that. I went with my company, so the audience was great and didn't detract from the viewing. My thoughts: I really, really enjoyed it, but acknowledge the swiping of the outline for A new hope. If I hadn't heard that critique before I saw the movie, I may have missed it while watching the movie because of the good time I was having. So this movie did it's job in my eyes. The new actors did a great job, and I enjoyed their characters (Really enjoyed Finn, and was a little surprised because the trailers really made him feel a little flat). Really looking forward to seeing the next one.

 

[GasparZizou]

That's what happened with me. Kinda meh the first time I saw it, then I appreciated more the second time and thought it was pretty good. That's it though, I feel like I've gotten Star Wars out of my system since the lead up to this thing was so excessive, like it was beating me over the ****ing head.

Ironically, this is the first Star Wars movie where I have no desire to buy or collect any collectibles or toys.

Yeah I feel like I'm being StarWarsed out too, I mean, I liked it and probably will like it more on a second viewing but I don't particularly care about it.

Same with the toys.

 

[GasparZizou]

I really didn't like Snoke. They should have done something more creative with that character. Phasma was the worst though, not only did she not do anything, she almost seemed nice. I had high hopes for her and she ended up in the garbage disposal...where she belongs I guess.

Yeah, much like Star Killer being Death Star x4, Snoke is Sheev x4, it's just bigger, without any real originality or good design for that matter.

They totally gave the shaft to Phasma, she was a total non-character and a wuss.

The Rey beating Kylo thing has been bothering me the most, with all the info we have, it just doesn't make sense to me. In fact the entire last battle doesn't make any sense to me, Kylo should have killed both of them in two seconds.

It doesn't bother me, Kylo was badly injured to begin with, Finn had training and injured him even more before being rightfully BTFO and Rey was a decent street fighter, who was sensitive to the force (which can help predicting the opponents' moves), plus, she had been in his head before.

I think it was a solid fight and I wouldn't say Kylo jobbed.

 

[Gully Foyle]

They were just aping the Emperor scene from Empire I think.

Which itself was aping The Wizard Of Oz's throne room scene.

In fact the entire last battle doesn't make any sense to me, Kylo should have killed both of them in two seconds.

At the very least one would think that Finn would quickly bite the dust.

How could he hope to successfully wield an ancient energy weapon that he's had no experience with?
Have you ever seen a neophyte attempt to manipulate just a pair of wooden nunchuks? Now imagine a plasma blade.
Seems like Finn would be just as likely to chop off his own arm/head as to defeat a Swizzle-stick Stormtrooper or Darth Schnozz.


___

 

[DiFabio]

My problem isn't that she won the fight, but that she can do all that force stuff within hours of hearing about "da foooorce".


I got a kick out of Han's reaction to Finn's supposed naivety. "That's not how the Force WORKS!" Well really? How does it work? All 7 movies are all over the place with the Force. It just seems like a script crutch at this point. I've come to the conclusion that I don't really like the Jedi or the Sith or force users because now they're like super heroes with special blood or something.



And yeah, Snoke does nothing for me, visually or character wise. I thought the little orange sage woman was stupid too. Like something out of a video game. Say what you will about the Prequels, but they actually had really great character and creature designs, CGI and practical. In fact, I'd even say the same thing about the prequels environments, planets and vehicles. Everything in the Force Awakens were just carry overs of the OT that were revised (and made to look worse, imo). I think the TIE pilots were the only exception. They looks awesome. Movie and acting was far better than the prequels though, obviously.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

The Rey beating Kylo thing has been bothering me the most, with all the info we have, it just doesn't make sense to me. In fact the entire last battle doesn't make any sense to me, Kylo should have killed both of them in two seconds.




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Yeah, he's very powerful. He was shot with a blaster from behind, so he had to be fast enough to turn to stop the blast in mid air before it even got close to him and he also immobilized Poe as well as the blast itself, all within a second or less. Even Vader never did something like that. When Han Solo shot Vader, he was facing Solo waiting for him and he had plenty of time to react , and not only did Solo's shot made contact with Vader's hands, he didn't even immobilize Solo, just took the gun from him. What Kylo Ren did against Poe was master level force skills.

 

[tbay]

No one laughed in my screening that I noticed, but I think there was an audible surprise that he was just some guy. Also, fortunately, there was no one cheering at this or that that I noticed. The girl sitting next to me said "aaaawwwww" about 50 times, though, sometimes inappropriately


Don't doubt the Fabio, folks!

My audience was awesome. So glad we didn't have any cool kids wanting to show that they were not into the "big thing" right now......

They
Cheered at the crawl, Han and Chewie showing up, Leia showing up, laughed at appropriate moments, cheered when Kylo went against Rey.

No D'bags making fun of a movie to be "the bad boy" . We had alot of young kids too. I think the later shows will have a lot of people there who will just go to riff on star wars.

I had a pretty quiet audience (quiet enough that I heard Han say "Ben") so no one laughed. I have to say that I loved Kylo in all of his appearances with his mask on but that feeling did weaken considerably every time he took it off. I have no problem with him not being scarred or menacing and just looking like a regular type dude (although his new scar can't hurt his badassness, of course). I had a problem with his demeanor. I guess it's the illusion of the mask and voice but he felt like 2 different people with and without the mask.




My butt hurts big time right now and the only thing that'll cure it is for Rey to massage it

I watched a late showing at an old school theatre so it attracts a lot of d'bag hipsters (if I remember correctly you can even buy alcohol), so I'd say the theatre had about 90% 20 something hipsters so I'm thinking my audience wasn't in line with most. The audience was cheering extremely throughout (opening credits, when Rey and Finn found the Mil falcon, Han Solo's first appearance, when Rey used the force, etc) and they jeered some of the previews (they heckled the "Joy" preview). It could have been groupthink too. As much as I didn't like the character I was still surprised that this audience was willing to ruin the experience for people who liked him. My girlfriend's theory is that some people laughed when they recognized Kylo Ren was the guy from the show "Girls" (a show I know nothing about). Either way, this is why I hate watching movies on the first night.

 

[GasparZizou]

My problem isn't that she won the fight, but that she can do all that force stuff within hours of hearing about "da foooorce".

I'm guess that's what they meant by "awakening", she awakened to the force with the lightsaber, I'm guessing she's really powerful, but honestly, didn't seem like she did much to me, just won a fight against a dude who had leg and arm immobilized while being able to repel his force attacks at some level.

And yeah, Snoke does nothing for me, visually or character wise. I thought the little orange sage woman was stupid too. Like something out of a video game. Say what you will about the Prequels, but they actually had really great character and creature designs, CGI and practical. In fact, I'd even say the same thing about the prequels environments, planets and vehicles. Everything in the Force Awakens were just carry overs of the OT that were revised (and made to look worse, imo). I think the TIE pilots were the only exception. Movie and acting was far better than the prequels though, obviously.

No argument there.

Yeah, he's very powerful. He was shot with a blaster from behind, so he had to be fast enough to turn stop the blast in mid air before it even got close to him and he also immobilized Poe, all within a second or less. Even Vader never did something like that. When Han Solo shot Vader, he was facing Solo waiting for him but he also had plenty of time to react , and not only did Solo's shot made contact with Vader's hands, he didn't even immobilize Solo, just took the gun from him. What Kylo Ren did against Poe was master level force skills.

You make a good point, that makes it look very inconsistent, although I would suggest he was dealing with the trauma of parricide.

Also I would suggest Vader didn't do all that because he had more finesse, he didn't need to immobilize Han, just take his gun, where is he gonna run to?

Kylo seems like what the Anakin of the prequels would've been like as Vader instead of Vader himself