Star Wars: Ep VII The Force Awakens - *spoilers*
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Watched it last night, want to hear what you guys think. Throwing spoilers in the title because I think it'd be difficult to review without spoilers eh 
My personal opinion
- It's fun. Really enjoyed it. Good subtle jokes for old fans all over the film.
- Stormtroopers actually FEEL like a threat and an elite force they're suppose to be!
- Not very convincing character development.
- Light sabre feels heavy in this episode. It doesn't look easy when the bad guy deflected blasters. And the fight scenes really suggest the weight of it. Unlike Ep 1-2-3 where light sabres looked weightless. Which one do you guys prefer? I think it sort of make sense seeing the size of the tilt.
- Pace was a bit repetitive. Almost the same pace through out the film. Fast action, fast action, a bit slow down, repeat repeat repeat.
- Not very impressed with the main villain. His power was real cool when he stopped that blaster mid air, but, do we need another emo kid? I mean we already had that with Luke and Anakin.
- Not impressed with the ending either... I mean that whole trip in the end. Could have been much cooler to just leave that part out I think. Maybe end it like Ep5 where we see Lando took off and leaving us in wonderment.
My personal opinion
- It's fun. Really enjoyed it. Good subtle jokes for old fans all over the film.
- Stormtroopers actually FEEL like a threat and an elite force they're suppose to be!
- Not very convincing character development.
- Light sabre feels heavy in this episode. It doesn't look easy when the bad guy deflected blasters. And the fight scenes really suggest the weight of it. Unlike Ep 1-2-3 where light sabres looked weightless. Which one do you guys prefer? I think it sort of make sense seeing the size of the tilt.
- Pace was a bit repetitive. Almost the same pace through out the film. Fast action, fast action, a bit slow down, repeat repeat repeat.
- Not very impressed with the main villain. His power was real cool when he stopped that blaster mid air, but, do we need another emo kid? I mean we already had that with Luke and Anakin.
- Not impressed with the ending either... I mean that whole trip in the end. Could have been much cooler to just leave that part out I think. Maybe end it like Ep5 where we see Lando took off and leaving us in wonderment.
Replies
I feel that they did a reasonably good job with the initial world building, it's a very Star Wars movie set in a very Star Wars universe, and there's a fair amount of attention paid to the source material. Kylo Ren's character drives the film and is quite well presented - he's actually a character with conflict and motivation (unlike Anakin from the prequels, that is not a fair comparison at all) - he's a moody, disturbed teenager with a lot of power and his over-the-top behaviour exemplifies this. It's hard to pick out specific positives, but like I said before, overall it is a very good film.
My biggest issue with the film was how terrible Daisy Ridley's acting was and how poorly written Rey is; amongst one of the worst characters in the series to date, which is annoying as she's the lead (though mercifully doesn't get too much screen time in reality) - I really hope she's better presented in the next film, because I feel she could actually ruin it. Captain Phasma is equally awful but is basically a non-character so it doesn't matter anyway. My second biggest irk was the CGI character (Maz Kanata), who's so badly composited that it's really, really jarring; the quality would have looked poor in the 90s, let alone now. What's worse, is the character added very little to the plot and had absolutely no reason to be CGI at all.
Smaller nitpicks, I found some of the shaky-camera action scenes to be annoying and out of place; they're suited for modern action films rather than Star Wars. The overly mobile camera in the first forty-five minutes or so was disorientating at times and a lot of the camera movement was superfluous to the point of detrimental. I also don't get why they'd introduce the fact that a New Republic had formed on Coruscant with a new Senate, literally to blow it up only two minutes later and never mention it again. On a last note, I feel they should have let Finn die at the end, it would have made the ending much more bittersweet and poignant.
I hate the last scene tho. Rei pointing the tilt like that, **** looking at Rei like that... I dunno, maybe there's a deeper scenario at play here that I don't get.
I felt Poe Dameron's character was overdone - we get it, he's supposed to be an ace pilot, but we really didn't need things like the scene where he flies through an entire cloud of Tie Fighters and takes out something like 10 of them in as many seconds, it's beyond the suspension of disbelief. He's kind of another character that just didn't need that kind of level of attention or exaggeration, it added nothing to the plot except detriment.
Edit: Rey is a Skywalker, Luke knows it. I would have assumed she was Leia's daughter, but Kylo Ren's lack of acknowledgement oft he fact, nor Leia, nor Han suggests that she must have been Luke's offspring, likely hidden at the same time that he went into hiding. To top it off, she's just found him, and is carrying Anakin's lightsaber. It's a hell of a moment if you think of it like that.
So with that warning. Here we go. I haven't seen it yet but I have read everything and watched some leaked footage.
They are def taking a lot or borrowing some major plot points from the expanded universe with Han/Leias son being a force wielder and slipping to the dark side. Jacen Solo I believe was his name in the books. Ben was actually Lukes son, named after Obi Wan. So instead of having the brother sister combo again it is an interesting twist to make it cousins. Rey is Lukes daughter. Who is the mother though? Where did she go? Is she still out there also in hiding or was she killed, more on this later.
As for Rey using the force. My guess is she was Lukes student when she was younger but the events that took place at the new Jedi Temple lead to Luke taking her, hiding her and all that to keep her safe.
The biggest thing that I can't wait to see develop is Snoke. Which my guess is not his real name. My guess Snoke is actually the Sith Master Darth Plagueis. While the book that came out regarding him may not be canon according to Disney any longer he was still referenced in Revenge of the Sith.
So with that being said there are all kinds of possibilities surrounding Plagueis. Some believe he created Anakin along with his apprentice Darth Sidious (The Emperor). However, the force saw what they were trying to do and balanced it out in Anakin making him half light/dark. Plagueis didn't teach Palpatine everything though and knew Palpatine would betray him. I mean come on he killed him in his sleep. Plagueis was known as a very wise but not really strong person. I think that he knew that Palpatine with his political career could go really far and help wipe the Jedi out leaving the Universe weak for Plagueis eventual return. So with Vader and Palpatine both dead, Luke being the last known force wielder in existence and also having no knowledge of Plagueis at all, Darth Plagueis found a way to return to a physical form and find a new apprentice, Kylo Ren. They want Vaders saber badly. I think Plagueis hasn't fully returned/recovered yet and is using Kylo Ren because of his lineage/blood line and needs the saber to fully return. I don't know.
Luke is in hiding now because of the events that took place with Kylo killing all the students that we see in the flashback when Rey touches the lightsaber that was once owned by Anakin (Vader) taken by Obi Wan on Mustafar and given to Luke in A New Hope. Maz Kanata tells her some cryptic messages and tells her to move forward. We also see Rey as a little girl asking someone to come back, you hear Vaders voice.
So the ending is basically Rey bringing that saber back to Luke which will my guess lead to her learning who she really is, who Luke, Kylo Ren, Leia, etc are, her training and lead into the next movies events.
I also dislike how Han Solo was introduced. It just seemed way too much like a contrivance (even though Solo said it wasn't a coincidence, which only really shows that the script writers knew the entire thing was problematic.) They could have introduced him earlier and established the fact that he was looking for the Falcon. Him and Chewie could have been in the process of stealing it just as Rey and Finn were making their escape and somehow they escape together. Sure, it would still have been a coincidence, but I think it would have worked better.
There was basically a bunch of very coincidental turns in the story, R2D2's awakening was probably the worst. It was just like "well we need something to happen late in the 4th act to set up the sequel... this is basically all we could be bothered to come up with." It was very much a situation of the script demanding something should happen, instead of everything fitting together naturally. Personally, I think R2 should have been with Luke all along.
All that said, I really enjoyed, it has some really great moments, amazing music, the comic relief generally worked well (at least there were no big eyeroll moments) and it totally had that Star Wars-feeling. It's going to be interesting to see what the general impression of it is after the hype has cooled. Right now I think it's at least better than Return of the Jedi, and none of the original trilogy were really masterpieces of storytelling anyway. It was always a case of the sum being greater than its parts - same goes for Force Awakens.
It'd be more fun if she did the mind trick thing, it kind of worked, and then it went horribly wrong somehow.. because she didn't have the propper training. Like the storm trooper had a seizure or something
Kylo losing to Rey was so much bullshit though, he literally stands there staring at her for 10 seconds while she tries to focus, he could have just kicked her off the cliff at that point.
Fun movie, not great, pretty much what I expect from Abrams
R2-D2 awoke because the missing portion of the map had returned along with Rey - he had been waiting specifically for that at Luke's command. The last piece of the map had always been on Jakku along with Rey, so that Rey could use it and track down Luke when she was ready. How the map piece came to be in the refugee / Poe Dameron's hands is however a mystery.
And as for where she saw that stuff before. She was having it done to her moments before. She had Ren in her mind, and when he tried real hard, she fought back and realized she has some sort of power she doesn't understand yet. But she was inside Ren 's mind as well. With the whole 'you'll never be as good as vader'.
For once I'm glad I saw it in 3D Imax, most of the scenes were highly complemented by the size of the screen and the sense of scale. The cinematography was amazing, I was very pleased with the opening shot but the best has to be Han approaching Kylo on the bridge as the last few rays of sunlight shine down on them. Brilliant
There are negatives that people have brought up that I agree with though - the entire scene with the tentacle monsters was way too in-your-face cgi and didn't feel very Star Warsy, but at least the cgi was good and the creatures felt threatening. The trench run callback I actually enjoyed, though some people thought that was relying too much on the OT again. Apparently they changed some lore regarding hyperdrives which messes with established rules or canon or something. All in all I think the ANH/ESB callbacks were to win old fans over, and I am won over, so I hope Rian Johnson takes the story in new directions for episode 8. Definitely going back to see it multiple times
First, Finn held his own for too long against Kylo Ren. He was a storm trooper, his weapon was a blaster. He shouldn't be able to use a lightsaber out of the blue... If the movie had shown him holding that Stormtrooper's melee weapon in the beginning, that should have been fine.
Rey kicking Kylo Ren's butt was total bullshit. Maybe she's not just a totally random scavenger girl, but until you shows otherwise, I call bullshit.
Lastly, why no Y-Wings ??? Y-Wings are know for firepower. If you need something big destroyed, you bring Y-Wings with you. X-Wings are cool, but it's a versatile fighter. Y-Wing is the bomber. And A-Wing is the interceptor.
I feel like Rey should of had some sort of Jedi/combat training that explains how quickly she picked up Jedi tricks, there's many ways it could of been done, I just don't feel like she had to be tough and was good with a spear was good enough. Maybe a some "hippie" taught her to meditate or something.
The blend between GGI and puppets wasn't as good as it should of been, some puppets were too obviously puppets, which I'm sure was a bit intentional, but they did go too far.
Finn and Rey's backstory and character development could of been better. Rey was too good at everything for no real reason. Okay I get she knows the inside of Empire ships from salvaging them, but that's the only knowledge really justified.
I saw it in 3d (bought the ticket without realizing, should of known because it was the only show not sold out). 3d definitely isn't worth it, and was more distracting than beneficial. It actually kinda ruined some vistas and nice compositions and cinematography.
Maybe make it a common believe that Han's son turned to the dark side and Luke had to kill him... now that would totally put tremendous weight on all 3; Luke Leia and Han... Han might even turn into an enemy that we just can't get ourselves to hate. Luke probably can't get himself to face Leia and thus wasn't helping her with her rebellion. And imagine the shock when Kylo turn out to be Han's son all along in later episode.
Also Luke to run his ass away ALONE, that just doesn't sound right. I mean there's still resistance forces fighting the Empire obviously and supporting one sounds more like what he would do.
If he REALLY had to go into hiding, I imagined it should be for the safety of his pupils and not himself. Maybe there are young kids he's training and Rey could have been 1 separated from them when he was trying to escape with other kids. I was really hoping to see Luke in ancient ruins, kinda like Jedi Enclave or Temple we see in Knights of Old Republic doing something meaningful such as training new generation of Jedi in secret... not standing on a cliff looking sad and grumpy.
I would have laugh so much if it was him instead of luke at the end. Missa was waiting for tussa. I mean 99,99% of the planet hates him, but he's THE disney character. (ok that wall-e robot was cute as hell too)
We went see star wars with the company's fans
At first, I wasn't convince by Darth Emo, but then I remember how anakin looks when he starts going crazy, he just take after his grand-pa but with a bigger chin. We didn't have much chance here, it was either going to be Darth Emo like anakin, or the classic " I wanna be the strongest and control the galaxy" kind of bad guy.
Rey was pretty boring and lame? she felt like a little 12years old girl the entire movie, i guess they pay some kind of attention so she wouldn't be too much like Ahsoka ? Also i'm pretty sure Rey is luke daughter, Talking to droid is #1 Skywalker attribute. And it's not star wars without weird incest, plus kylo ren totally have the hots for Rey.
Overall i really enjoy the movie, except the part where jarjar binks wasn't there and c3p0 had only 1 line. Yes, I love annoying character. Also this is a love/hate issue for me, they went for the old school look to fit the movie, but i kinda of really enjoy the look of ep I-III with the crazy dress, medic droids and stuff like that, they went back to the past, and I know it's the outher rim, might not be as advance blablabla, but it they can build a star killer they can do everything.
Oh sweety, You should know by now that falling down a space bridge doesn't kill you.
All video effects are top quality, everything else is so bad. I am not sure how SW fans will receive that Disney movie, since in not anymore a true SW.
So,
- new "Emperor" is called "Snok"??? WTF? And is a worst CGI character from many movies...
- Luke leave his light saber in a chest on a lost planet.. WTF??
- the new bad guy use a mask for fashion, and remove it anytime anyone ask?? Really?
- one storm trooper starts to feel and be human in all ways.. really??
- our heroin carry a bunch of junk but stops that vehicle far away from the delivery point, just to drag them 30 seconds???
- the 3th Death Star now is a planet 10 times bigger.. and draw one of the Sun power into.. really??? Is this made for 5 IQ levels???
- the new order generals looks more like in a fashion presentation or teen movie.. really??
- new heroin have zero Jedi training, but is better that everybody else.. ok?
Personally, I think since Disney took over, SW is over now, and will get even worst.
2. Luke didn't "leave" his saber anywhere. He lost it in ESB when he lost his hand. Someone found it, not luke.
3. He uses the mask for intimidation, just like everyone else, stormtroopers included. Sometimes removing the mask is more intimidating than not, or in the case of the bridge scene, more psychological. He removed the mask twice, and only twice, and both times for a specific effect.
4. I doubt it's just one, it's clear they have a system in place for "non-conformance" in the ranks. They even said this was Fin's first offence in this regard and that he had been instructed (but implied never attended) reconditioning. Fin is likely going to be a tipping point for the resistance in learning how to unravel the stormtroopers programming, at this point that's his only real reason for remaining in the story.
5. Yes, unfortunately the movie was absolutely fan-service to the old guard of fans, and it drew possibly too heavily on A New Hope for it's theme/inspiration. However, this isn't the first time it's happened. The Death Star in Return of the Jedi was roughly 3 times bigger than the one in A New Hope.
6. What? They wear almost identical uniforms to the Empire, with different badges.
7. Where to begin with this one... holy shit this might get rough:
On Rei as a character -
She is clearly Lukes daughter, and as boring that might be as a plot device, it is what it is. It also allows her to:
1. Learn how to fight with a lightsaber RIDICULOUSLY fast. Luke was supposedly able to learn moves and techniques after only seeing them once, it stands to reason that his daughter might be similarly inclined.
2. Luke's journey to becoming a Jedi was very brief (when compared to the regimens shown in the prequals and even if we discount those, Yoda is explicitely clear in ESB that Luke is both too old and they haven't got enough time to train him properly), yet he was able to defeat a sith lord within the space of a couple of years AND resist the emperors call to the dark side. Again, his daughter might be similarly powerfully possessed.
3. She's absolutely NOT better than everyone else. Let's make this very clear right now. Kylo Ren outmatched her heavily, in skill and power. He "lost" their battle of wills in the torture chamber because:
a - he in a scene shortly prior was very clearly doubting his own strength, and as we all know, ones mastery of the force especially for the dark side is predicated on one's self belief.
b - was taken completely by surprise. Rei didn't really beat him, she said something that shocked him and he stopped immediately. He could have kept pushing and probably won.
In their final encounter together, Kylo Ren was wounded (and quite badly too) by Chewbacca. He absolutely demolished Fin (who managed to get in a lucky hit) and proceeded to do the same to Rei. By the time Rei started to gain the upper hand, Kylo Ren was already suffering from the effects of both prior injuries, and more importantly, unlike Fin who he took care of quickly and efficiently BECAUSE HE COULD, was explicitly under orders NOT TO KILL. He was to bring Rei to Snoak. Remember how the storm troopers in A New Hope were terrible examples of soldiers who were... Actually just following orders not to kill anyone? Same rule applies here.
Anyway, sorry you didn't enjoy the film, but your reasoning is heavily flawed. There are many reasons one might be disappointed in this film, but the ones you listed aren't them.
For example:
3P0 and R2 being in the film just because "they have to be" as fan favorites, they serve zero purpose.
Question about the death planet, did it absorb a different sun for when it destroyed the Republic planet? Did it move to a new one? How are there plants on a planet whose sun was weakened and completely absorbed?
Pretty sure you can fire multiple salvos before a Sun is used up.
The bestiary and characters felt very old school SW, the lightsaber battles had much more weight than in the prequels, much closer to the original "medieval" looking saber duels.
The acting of Han and Leia was just perfect, theyonly have a few minutes together on screen but you could feel all the love and sadness the 2 characters share. Kylo was great too, miles ahead of angry-face Anakin.
I think the only moment I didn't really like was the encounter between Han and Kylo. I knew Han was dead the moment their conversation began, it was a little too obvious. It didn't prevent me to get teary eyed when Han looks at Kylo a last time just before falling from the bridge.
I can't wait for the next instalment
Why did they have to change the name from Jacen Solo to Ben Solo...
The finale to One Punch Man was better than The Force Awakens.
Taken from a young age, isolated from family, programmed by the doctrine etc.
Rey is not Kylo Ren's sister, that much was made fairly obvious in the film by the way other characters treated her. If she's anyone's descendant, it has to be Luke, especially as it would seem that Luke set up the map and was expecting her to follow it to find him, and because of how she reacted when in proximity to Anakin's / Luke's lightsaber. Finn is unlikely to be a Skywalker, and also likely not related to any existing character. He doesn't have a surname because he doesn't have a name at all. He was born into the First Order and indoctrinated from the beginning.
Some speculate that it might even have been Kylo that left Rey on Jakku, and who maybe saved her from another Knight of Ren in the rainy scene of the force back (vision). Depends whose memories those were
edit: OK seen the movie a 2nd time now and he doesn't say anything. It probably was in the novel
Same for Leia who doesn't look like she cares or feel anything for Rey at all.
I think the lightsaber visions and the final shot makes it quite clear she is related to Luke.
On the whole I really enjoyed it and would watch it again......a few times. If it just had the "7-Step Film Directing Formula" it would be perfect but maybe that's not how today's audience is I guess? they need constant action or they switch on their smart phones.
P.S. Also if Chewbacca had a little grey hair that would have really sold it for me