Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

kitsune · Dec 17, 2015

Just came home after watching this. Enjoyed it immensely

- Spoilers for the movie inside
Obviously they killed the EU, but I feel like they sure got inspired by it. Ben/Kylo felt a bit like Jacen/Caedus to me, in that he idolises his grandfather and makes his ultimate sacrifice to fall to the dark side fully. On the other hand, Rey was very much like Jaina - strong in the force, apt at mechanical things. It's heavily hinted that she's Luke's daughter but I still hope she's Kylo's twin. We'll see I suppose
All in all I found the movie really enjoyable. Some guy behind me whined after it ended "you barely saw Luke!", "it was a rom-com" but I feel like this was very much Starwars in its essence. Everything should not be explained from the getgo. This is not Luke Skywalkers story, that ended with Vader

Phoenix Prime_sl · Dec 17, 2015

Got spoiled a bit by some random douchbag on facebook posting in EVERY thread of a page I followed. Still can't wait to see this tonight in Imax. Freaking rest of the world getting the movie before the US. Should a been a global release at the same time.

latheboy · Dec 17, 2015

I'm home and not sure how I feel now...
I can't find the spoiler button on my phone so can't really talk about it.

Runnen · Dec 17, 2015

Sylas_sl said:
I haven't seen it yet so I wasn't comparing it to anything. I'll be watching it on sunday. What I was referring to specifically was this paragraph:

that paragraph is straight up Deja Vu from right after phantom menace came out and people were just bewildered with what they just saw, and couldn't really comprehend the level of terrible compared to the level of hype they had before they saw it, so they just tried to rationalize the failure of the phantom menace.

It gives me cause for concern, so my hype level is declining. nbd.

Nothing will stop you from being concerned or hyped, so I suggest you see the movie and make your own opinion.

That said, I understand your concern based on similar comments after TPM came out, but I'd like to develop the argument a bit further.

When TPM came out, I was 17 and after I saw it I was at first pleased by all the shiny, and only realized down the line that it was not all that good, then in fact kinda meh, then downright terrible.

And yes, you go through stages of grief over it, because you felt betrayed, then try to rationalize it and convince yourself it's still not what you really think. Except it is.

We are now 16 years later, and I've since seen many, many movies, learned much of the tricks and tropes of cinema and I can tell you I definitely did not go into this movie with the hype or expectations that I had for TPM. True, I was hopeful because the trailers seemed good and competently-made, but you can never tell if the other 120 minutes of the movie beside the trailer will be good or not.

I can absolutely tell you that I don't feel like I'm trying to justify or rationalize anything. If anything, right after the movie ended I didn't feel happy or cheerful about what I saw, I was contemplating what I saw and trying to analize what I felt about it because it also gave me a weird feeling.

Over a day later and after sleeping on it, I am now certain that the weird feeling is because it's something new added to a story I thought had ended 30 years ago (back when ROTJ was my favoritest movie ever!, now it's ESB 'cause I'm old ya know). The more modern cinematography, the more modern dialogue also push that weird feeling because we have grown used to a certain type of line delivery, to the fucking screen wipes (as far as I noticed there are NO screen wipes in this one). It's a new, modern Star Wars, and it feels like a sequel, not a reboot.

Izo · Dec 17, 2015

At work after a real 3D experience. Wow. Solid, 7/10, +1 for nostalgism. Light saber fights were awesome. Loved the x wings. Loved the MF. Ending was powerful. Oooooooof, right in the feels.

iannis · Dec 17, 2015

TPM is the only movie that I've watched in the theater and thought, "Who the fuck edited this? I think I might be able to do better, and I don't know the first fucking thing about it".

That's how bad TPM was. I took my little brother to it. I feel like I accidentally scarred him or something.

Neki · Dec 17, 2015

Don't worry guys, this movie is not even in the same ball park as TPM, it's not even in the same universe.

It's in a galaxy far far away in terms of better quality.

Fadaar · Dec 17, 2015

ohkcrlho_sl said:
I thought they were going to disregard all that crap. Well.....at least is a minor thing imo
Thanks. Going to see it in 9 hours

They reference the Clone Wars early on in A New Hope as well, so it's not like the prequels invented it.

Malkav · Dec 17, 2015

Saw it this morning, was fucking awesome!

Neki · Dec 17, 2015

Morrow_sl said:
I have to disagree on Kylo. He wasn't an emo bitch. He was unstable, volatile, full of anger and he had what I can only describe as a "mature real-world angst" and most importantly, he felt human. Now that I've had time to digest the film and sleep on it. Kylo is much better than I originally thought. He did a great job. Both times he raged were fantastic and real. You mean to tell me people don't rage like that over much stupider shit? I guarantee half of us here have raged harder at video games than he did when he went crazy with the lightsaber on the control panels. People don't tear up before killing their fathers? Cmon man, you're just being triggered about Hayden, but he isn't Hayden. I think the only thing about him that really bothered me was his mask voice, it was just a little annoying.

Maybe you are right. I just feel that Kylo started off as dark and powerful and you-don't-want-to-fuck-with-me aura but by the time the film ended, he was weak and got his ass beaten down by a... well.... not even a Jedi Apprentice but Rey who was not even trained to use a light saber.

His masked voice was perfect for me. I just didn't like it when he removed his helmet and showed his face. You didn't get to see Darth Vader's real face until the end of ROTJ and that worked since it kept him as mysterious. Why is there even a need for Kylo to have a helmet? I know I am nitpicking here but it's little things like that that prevented it from taking this movie to the next level.

Muligan · Dec 17, 2015

What was Snoke's screen time if someone doesn't care to share in a spoiler tag (if necessary). Just curious how he is used in this film.

Neki · Dec 17, 2015

Muligan_sl said:
What was Snoke's screen time if someone doesn't care to share in a spoiler tag (if necessary). Just curious how he is used in this film.

Briefly. In just two scenes I think. Added up, I don't think it was more than 10 mins

Morrow · Dec 17, 2015

Neki_sl said:
Maybe you are right. I just feel that Kylo started off as dark and powerful and you-don't-want-to-fuck-with-me aura but by the time the film ended, he was weak and got his ass beaten down by a... well.... not even a Jedi Apprentice but Rey who was not even trained to use a light saber.

His masked voice was perfect for me. I just didn't like it when he removed his helmet and showed his face. You didn't get to see Darth Vader's real face until the end of ROTJ and that worked since it kept him as mysterious. Why is there even a need for Kylo to have a helmet? I know I am nitpicking here but it's little things like that that prevented it from taking this movie to the next level.

I wondered the same thing, but I think it's just about his obsession with Vader. So he made a helmet that was similar. Pretty stupid if you ask me, and it'd limit your combat awareness, but they also wanted to create a "unique villain" and redo the whole Vader thing, so yeah, you know.

I just stupidly realized that obviously Rey was trained. When she touched Luke's lightsaber she had all those visions, which were obviously memories. So yeah, she was training alongside Kylo (hence why when "a girl" was mentioned, Kylo got all antsy) and a bunch of others under Luke. Kylo went dark side upon learning about his grandfather and being told "NO! bad boy, you don't want to know about him." So of course, that's all he wanted to know about and became obsessed with Vader and killed all the apprentices, just like his grandfather but Rey managed to escape, possibly with Luke's help. Luke erased her memory (and probably implanted some false ones about parents coming back to get her, yadda, yadda yadda, to keep her safe on the isolated planet of Jakku, just like what was done to him). Hence him being so pensive and sort of disturbed at the end when he sees her. He's like "ahh fuck, I knew this day would come." Still, she woulda only been trained as a very young girl, so that doesn't explain her kicking Kylo's ass... unlesssss, wait for it, wait for it, she has some super strong force dna lineage because she is Luke's daughter. She'll have to save her cousin Kylo from the dark side. Guarantee it.

Also, where the fuck was Lando? He was a god damn General in the Rebel Alliance. I guess they don't like casting wife beaters.

ohkcrlho · Dec 17, 2015

Fadaar_sl said:
They reference the Clone Wars early on in A New Hope as well, so it's not like the prequels invented it.

one thing is clone wars, that luke asked about but there was never a mention of clone troopers.
Other thing is the atrocity we saw in the prequels called clone troops

skribble · Dec 17, 2015

Got back from seeing it and thought it was ok.

I actually thought Harrison Ford was pretty weak in this and would have been happier if he had much less time and more of it was spent on the newer characters. I must be pretty oblivious but the whole 'she was trained before' plot washed right over me, now that I think about it thats actually really cool and adds a lot of depth to her character and the plot. I think if they had expanded on this arc more and just cut some of the harrison ford stuff the movie would have been a lot stronger for it. I did like it on the whole though and the ending left me pysched for the next one. Im actually sitting here stewing because I hate when movies feel like they need to spell things out for the lowest common denominator, and here I am missing all of that about her past training. But I do think the movie did lack a bit of depth that could have been fleshed out, and a throwaway line such as Yu Shu Lien's 'You've been trained at Wudan?' in crouching tiger hidden dragon with both Ren and her looking surprised could have been added. Or maybe something different if Ren is supposed to have been trained with her, whatever. Because I know to myself, and probably to the vast audience she seemed to go from 0 to jedi very quickly. Again, maybe its just me being retarded and missing that whole thing, but I do think it could have been handled better.

Neki · Dec 17, 2015

Oh and another nitpick

Captain Phasma looked badass in the trailer but did absolutely fuck all in the movie. Such a wasted character. You could have replaced her with a generic storm trooper and it wouldn't have made a difference. Come to think of it, that storm trooper that dueled Finn did more and had more character than Phasma.

faille · Dec 17, 2015

Neki_sl said:
Oh and another nitpick

Captain Phasma looked badass in the trailer but did absolutely fuck all in the movie. Such a wasted character. You could have replaced her with a generic storm trooper and it wouldn't have made a difference. Come to think of it, that storm trooper that dueled Finn did more and had more character than Phasma.

Agreed, but I put that down to the baffling decision to have so many bad guys it was impossible to give them enough screen time to develop them all. The general guy, anyone remember his name?, should have definitely been cut out and had his character consolidated with Phasma.

Izo · Dec 17, 2015

Fuck. When's episode VIII: we want yo money? Because Disney can have it. Now.

Muligan · Dec 17, 2015

Neki_sl said:
Oh and another nitpick

Captain Phasma looked badass in the trailer but did absolutely fuck all in the movie. Such a wasted character. You could have replaced her with a generic storm trooper and it wouldn't have made a difference. Come to think of it, that storm trooper that dueled Finn did more and had more character than Phasma.

I don't think she's receiving the treatment BobFett did in the originals. He really just roamed around and would say a line or two but overall, he's cool to us because of hindsight and knowing all we know now from everything in the comic to video game universes. I haven't seen it yet but I heard this comment elsewhere and I honestly expected to her to be minor in the beginning. My hope is that once we look back after all 3 are release, we'll want a spinoff. However, no reason they couldn't have made her more impressive and at least gave her a "moment" that planted the seed she's going to be a force to be reckoned with. I think I always felt that about BobaFett. His presence was just awesome on screen.

Morrow · Dec 17, 2015

Neki_sl said:
Oh and another nitpick

Captain Phasma looked badass in the trailer but did absolutely fuck all in the movie. Such a wasted character. You could have replaced her with a generic storm trooper and it wouldn't have made a difference. Come to think of it, that storm trooper that dueled Finn did more and had more character than Phasma.

Yeah! Why the fuck wasn't it Phasma that he was dueling? That scene was stupid. This stormtrooper randomly pulls out an electroblade used specifically for lightsaber combat. Lol wtf? Why would stormtroopers have those if jedis are basically myths at this point? They really pushed the hype on phasma and then she was nothing, even bad. She'd really deactivate the shields instead of taking a laser blast to the face? Ugh

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

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