What did you think of The Force Awakens?

[Khev]

Actually Christmas is a traditionally big business day for movies at the theater. Has been for some time.

 

[Cocoboloboy]

to Khev

 

[Khev]

 

[Cocoboloboy]

You know what though, now knowing the thought process behind that scene I appreciate it more whereas before I didn't much care for it.

 

[a-dev]

Holy crap, I commented in the other thread a couple days ago how much the pirate/rolly-polly sequence felt like some wacky mid-80's sci-fi throwback and that it's probably what we might have seen if Episode VII came out three years after ROTJ (1986.) And now I see in the Art of The Force Awakens book that the production designer stated flat-out that he used 1986 as a reference for that sequence! It was literally a deliberate Big Trouble in Little China/Little Shop of Horrors version of Star Wars! I can see people not loving that idea but I think it was freaking brilliant.

And that means I also properly guessed the thought process for those scenes so you are all free to bow to my superior filmmaking wisdom.

 

[karamazov80]

I think the best way to be different than Empire will be to have another Super-weapon and to have the good guys win at the end. No cliffhanger.

If we get ANOTHER Death Star, then I swear I'm gonna throw my drink on the ground and just leave

I do think that if the next two installments are sufficiently "original" then people will have a lot less of an issue with TFA's parallels to ANH.

I believe that what Abrams accomplished with TFA will go down as one of the most amazing things in cinema, ever, at LEAST from a business standpoint. Here Disney had gone and paid $4 *BILLION* for a franchise that had been beaten and bloodied and stigmatized as being so tainted and divisive and if TFA turned out to be a Genisys-type kickstarter I can't even imagine the ramifications on all things SW going forward, and hell, Disney itself.

This was truly the make or break moment of the entire saga, possibly even moreso than ESB was. And Abrams delivered. Talk about clutch!

I just looked at a couple of the prequels, and accounting for inflation, Part 1 made about $92 million opening weekend, and Part 3 made about $113 million. There were differences, in that 3D tickets cost proportionately more than regular ones, and I'm not sure if those others had a Thursday release. But still, it does make Force Awakens impressive from a commercial standpoint.

However, after seeing (read: finding a way to sit through) Jurassic World, I would take care not to inflate commercial success with quality of the film

 

[Khev]

I would take care not to inflate commercial success with quality of the film

Well I certainly wasn't implying that it did. Quality-wise Ex Machina was probably the best sci-fi film of the year (the last several years even) and I think it made about five bucks.

 

[Adolfo]

If we get ANOTHER Death Star, then I swear I'm gonna throw my drink on the ground and just leave


I just looked at a couple of the prequels, and accounting for inflation, Part 1 made about $92 million opening weekend, and Part 3 made about $113 million. There were differences, in that 3D tickets cost proportionately more than regular ones, and I'm not sure if those others had a Thursday release. But still, it does make Force Awakens impressive from a commercial standpoint.

However, after seeing (read: finding a way to sit through) Jurassic World, I would take care not to inflate commercial success with quality of the film

You'll get the Death Cube like the Borg

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

It was ok.

 

[YoNoSe]

 

[KR DynobotPrime]

Thought it was amazing!! Better the second time!

 

[rjszar]

It was very good, not great. Certainly felt like the Star Wars from when I was a kid. Kylo Ren lacked the impact as a villain that Vader had though, so I wasn't wowed. I get it that Ren was supposed to fall short of Vader, but without the previous movies, this would not have been a good stand alone movie.

 

[karamazov80]

Well I certainly wasn't implying that it did. Quality-wise Ex Machina was probably the best sci-fi film of the year (the last several years even) and I think it made about five bucks.

Well you said that what he did was amazing, but a squad of trained monkeys made almost as strong of a financial impact with Jurassic World. Maybe that is also amazing, but I just think it's sad.

 

[Khev]

Well yes any billion dollar global profit is technically amazing (even for those dreadful Bayformers films) but I don't believe any of them had the uphill battle given to Abrams.

 

[Niltusk]

This movie was pretty entertaining, but did not pace like a Star Wars flick to me. The attack on Jakku at the beginning made me think of old BSG for some reason. I will say, I like Boyega and Ridley waaaay more than I expected to.

 

[KingGrayskull]

Best SW film ever. Yes, I said it! E 1-3 sucked big time, E 4-6 was great and totally epic as a 3-part and will always be THE original SW-saga. But E 7 is the best film on its own. IMO

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

Loved it

 

[WhisperCloud]

It was average at least for me.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Holy crap, I commented in the other thread a couple days ago how much the pirate/rolly-polly sequence felt like some wacky mid-80's sci-fi throwback and that it's probably what we might have seen if Episode VII came out three years after ROTJ (1986.) And now I see in the Art of The Force Awakens book that the production designer stated flat-out that he used 1986 as a reference for that sequence! It was literally a deliberate Big Trouble in Little China/Little Shop of Horrors version of Star Wars! I can see people not loving that idea but I think it was freaking brilliant.

And that means I also properly guessed the thought process for those scenes so you are all free to bow to my superior filmmaking wisdom.

That's pretty funny. But yeah, those things were so retro...

My thought was that JJ took the original design of the failed but built animatronic "Dianoga" from 1976 which Lucas cut because, in his own words, it looked like a big, giant brown poo. Only he didn't say poo.

 

[Darth Snoopy]

I loved TFA.