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

[DiFabio]

LOTR is better than Star Wars as films, characters and stories go. Middle Earth is much more accessible, relatable and tangible than random planets sprinkled throughout a galaxy. Star Wars has lightsabers, blasters and cool starships though. It's a tough one.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

LOTR trilogy was a masterpiece- the modern age SW OT in my opnion!

LOTR is a superior trilogy, imo. It didn't have the same impact on pop culture SW did back in the 70's, nor does it have the same amount of fans, but as films, I'd say they are superior, and the third film was arguably the best in the trilogy, unlike SW OT. It's strange how not long after the last LOTR film came out, people forgot about those films.

 

[cmiller99]

Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King - great movies

ANH, ESB - great movies

ROTJ - good movie

LOTR wins for me.

 

[WWEJedi]

Attack of the Clones > The Lord of the Rings

Not even debatable.




(LOTR 1978 that is )

 

[xipotec]

View attachment 232504

Time to let this go......

 

[lttgtimaatisgdaicfi]

Never had any interest to watch any of the LOTR movies again. Those seemed to go the way of Avatar which was crap.

 

[Darkseed]

Never had any interest to watch any of the LOTR movies again. Those seemed to go the way of Avatar which was crap.

Isn't LoTR about the little guys with big hairy feet that walk..........and walk..........and walk.............and walk..............and walk. When they stopped walking it was good.....the ranger guy and the elf with the arrows were pretty kick ass....so was the little bald guy obsessed with the ring.

 

[The Ween]

Never had any interest to watch any of the LOTR movies again. Those seemed to go the way of Avatar which was crap.

 

[jye4ever]

When Maz was trying to get Ren to take the saber, she told Rey no one would be returning to Jakku for her.

Did I hear Luke's name mentioned during that scene?

 

[Asta]

Looked blue to me.....seriously, especially in the elevator when Chewie handed his jacket to him.

Wasn't it brown, until Chewie handed him a blue one in the elevator? Hence's Han's quizzical expression at the at moment.

It was another of those knowing in-jokes.

What exactly did Han fall into when he fell off that bridge?

A big pile of empty cardboard boxes. He's coming back for Episode VIII.

 

[Khev]

When Maz was trying to get Ren to take the saber, she told Rey no one would be returning to Jakku for her.

Did I hear Luke's name mentioned during that scene?

She said "the people you're waiting for will not return. But there is one who might..."

And Rey said, "Luke..."

I wonder if Rey was one of Luke's padawans but was so young that she remembers neither being trained by Luke nor Kylo slaughtering her classmates, or she repressed it. Kylo killed all but her, Luke gave her back to her parents, her parents whisked her away to Jakku but for whatever reason had to make a hasty departure.

If she was a young child and Ben Solo was 10 or so years older than her then it's feasible that they wouldn't recognize each other as adults.

 

[Khev]

Saw this a third time, once again in digital IMAX (second time was 2D) and man, 3D is the way to go. I think when discussing the film it's easy to dismiss Snoke and Maz but they were fine in the context of the movie, especially Snoke. Maz wasn't anything particularly cool but she was inoffensive and had very little screen time. Definitely not in the category of ewoks or gungans.

This movie is fantastic. So much to love.

Funny continuity error I noticed this time: When Rey and Finn are outside the Starkiller base and then run to that big ladder to get a vantage point on Kylo and Han you can see Rey wearing Finn's (Poe's) jacket. But then when they get to the top and look down the jacket is back on Finn. Apparently chivarlry died somewhere between the bottom and the top.

One thing that struck me was how much Luke's lightsaber seemed to behave like the One Ring or a Palantir. You (or at least Rey) barely touch it and get these violent visions. SW has always borrowed from Tolkien so this wouldn't surprise me. I almost got the impression that Luke's saber was *pissed* that Kylo killed Han and was all "I don't THINK so" when he tried to retrieve it with the Force.

It seemed to take the initiative in giving Rey her vision and you could almost interpret the scene where she catches it as it *choosing* her instead of her suddenly manipulating it to fly into her hand. You don't actually see her reaching out and using the Force, only the saber resist Kylo and then zip past him straight to Rey.

But I did have to chuckle at the fact that the Resistance base had a Rey sized designer salvage outfit, complete with the capri pants she likes and the arm coverings that only she wears.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

One thing that struck me was how much Luke's lightsaber seemed to behave like the One Ring or a Palantir. You (or at least Rey) barely touch it and get these violent visions. SW has always borrowed from Tolkien so this wouldn't surprise me. I almost got the impression that Luke's saber was *pissed* that Kylo killed Han and was all "I don't THINK so" when he tried to retrieve it with the Force.

I just realized something, that's Luke's original saber from ANH and ESB The one he was holding when he got his hand cut off, so how did it get there? I forgot he lost it. Does he still have the green one?

 

[karamazov80]

On balance, I do think LOTR are better dramatic films. But they can't capture the imagination of children like Star Wars has/does. I also got a bit tired of the large-scale, mostly CG battles (I think LOTR blew its load early with the great battle where Boromir died, and went downhill from there), while I never got tired of the battles in Star Wars/Empire/Jedi.

 

[Khev]

I just realized something, that's Luke's original saber from ANH and ESB The one he was holding when he got his hand cut off, so how did it get there? I forgot he lost it. Does he still have the green one?

That's what Han asks and Maz says "That's an interesting story...for another time."

And an impression that I got this viewing regarding the "politics" of the movie is that you have the First Order and the Republic, each with their own standing armies/fleets. The "Resistance" I now believe is essentially an organized force of galactic vigilantes that show up and strike at the operations of the FO, assumedly to prevent (or "resist") their expansion.

Three reasons:

1. Before the Starkiller weapon is fired Hux makes that angry speech to all the legions and he says something to the effect of "the Republic, who in secret supports the treacherous Resistance, bla bla bla..." His statement suggests that the Resistance operations are "off the books" so to speak with regard to the Republic.

2. When the weapon is fired and destroys the planets you see a large group of ships vaporized above the main city. C-3PO later laments "without the Republic fleet we are doomed..." giving further indication that they are two separate armies.

3. When Kylo is interrogating Rey she asks "where are the others" and Kylo says, "you mean the criminals, thieves and murderers you call friends?" or something like that once again suggesting that the Resistance isn't an officially sanctioned military force.

 

[rushmore223]

Didn't Luke throw his green saber down the same shaft the Emperor ended up being thrown down, or was it just thrown aside? Either way, I'd bet it got blown up with the DSII.

 

[DiFabio]

I doubt they ever explain it, and if they do, it'll be a total BS explanation.

In the OT, it was just his dad's lightsaber, plain and simple. Nothing special about it, completely ordinary. The lightsaber was always something I was skeptical about since the beginning. The fact that it gave her visions was also, for me, kinda lame.

Still, I guess when they were writing the story they needed a "newb" character to have a lightsaber to confront the baddie. Considering Obi-Wan and Vader were dead and the story revolves around Luke's disappearance, I guess they needed some kind of relic lightsaber since the new characters couldn't make their own. Still, I think it would have been more appropriate if they just used Luke's green lightsaber. That story is more plausible, like he lost it at the camp when Kylo And the Knights of Ren murdered everyone. Maybe Maz found it or something.



Having it be the Revenge of the Sith/A New Hope/Empire Strikes Back lightsaber just makes it feel like this galaxy is small or something. Bad enough everyone is related in some way.

 

[DiFabio]

Didn't Luke throw his green saber down the same shaft the Emperor ended up being thrown down, or was it just thrown aside? Either way, I'd bet it got blown up with the DSII.

He retrieved it. He has it hanging on his belt at the end during the Endor ewok celebration.

 

[cmiller99]

A big pile of empty cardboard boxes. He's coming back for Episode VIII.

Maybe the Imperials finally caught on that they were suffering more fatalities from bottomless pits than they were from the Rebels, and decided to put fifty stories of mattresses at the bottom of each bottomless pit.

 

[rushmore223]

Maybe the Imperials finally caught on that they were suffering more fatalities from bottomless pits than they were from the Rebels, and decided to put fifty stories of mattresses at the bottom of each bottomless pit.

Seriously, what engineering firm/architect is planning these bases?

I can just see it now, "these plans are pretty good, but what we need are big open spaces"

"you mean large communal areas?"

"No, I'm thinking chasms, lots of chasms. With narrow walkways going across them, and bridges that just end for no reason."

"How about if we build the walkways without handrails?"

"Now your talking! Handrails are for wusses!"