Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

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Angelwatch

Trakanon Raider
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My wife and I saw it this afternoon. We both loved it. I'm a full fledged Star Wars geek and thought it was great. Easily on par with the Classic trilogy and it blows the prequels out of the water. Yeah it had a lot of similarities to A New Hope but I was fine with that. I managed to avoid all the spoilers but one thing I know is that they were very risk averse with this one. They did not want to fuck it up. Overall they pulled it off and didn't screw it up.

My wife likes Star Wars in concept and actually liked the prequels more... She saw them late though and didn't grow up watching them so the first time she saw the Classic Trilogy was in her late 20s and she saw them in order starting with Phantom Menace. But she love,d this one and thought it was the best. I'm going to just go with that and not try and explain why Empire is such a masterpiece.
 

Sithro

Molten Core Raider
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Honestly, I think we're going to find out that Rey had previous force training, but when shit went down her mind was wiped. Since the Jedi were being hunted again, she was probably put on the planet they'd least expect her to be on and force her to become strong to survive. The force is definitely strong in her, and she's probably Luke's daughter.

Like I said, I feel like a lot of the answers we seek will be in the next films. We're only dealing with a part of the whole puzzle right now.
 

GeneralF

Golden Knight of the Realm
389
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Rey had previous force training, but when shit went down her mind was wiped
Kylo locks sabers with Rey, mentions training; Rey remembers Maz Kanata's words: "close your eyes, let the Force flow through you" (that line was even in the trailer FFS). Then Rey beats up an unfocused and wounded Kylo. Rey was on Jakku for so long the only training she would've got would be waving a baby lightsaber around like those kids in the prequels. I dunno, seems simple to me... maybe I watched the trailer too many times and that line was etched into my brain!

I really enjoyed the movie except for the obvious pacing issues. I think it's something that is lost on many modern movies/tv, where they want a fast rollercoaster ride instead of peaks and valleys in the tension. I think they just tried to cram too much stuff into one movie.. I'm expecting a more complete and better movie on the extended edition blu-ray.
 
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Ehh, was pretty much perfect production. But ....

... the plot was nearly a direct remake of EP 4. These are from me and various sites. These are direct plot copies, not just references ...

1. droid carrying valuable information on desert planet

2. masked antagonist arrives on the scene shortly after the information is handed off, looking for droid

3. desert settlement wiped out by stormtroopers is collateral damage of looking for droids

4. hero tortured to retrieve the information

5. Force-sensitive desert dweller who dreams of more becomes Jedi

6. Worldly old warrior who has to explain the Force to the next generation, and later dies

7. Asshole military officer who holds a comparable level of authority to his Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed antagonist

8. Mostly unseen supreme evil that's pulling the strings from the shadows.

9. Criminal element that's owed a debt by Han Solo and attempts to kill him after he screws up their arrangement.

10. Cantina filled with various alien creatures, where they arrange for help

11. Planet sized weapon used to destroy planets

13. base belonging to the rebel forces on a forest-covered world, gets discovered, then must launch offensive to save it from being blown up

14. Surrogate father figure who is cut down by someone previously close to him, who has turned to the dark side

15. hero watches helplessly from afar as the surrogate father figure is slain

16. Final scene is a coordinated aerial attack on the massive spherical weapon that's monitored from a control room by Leia

17. A trench that X-wings flew through in order to fire on a vulnerability in the weapon and destroy it

18. Shield around imperial planet must be brought down by landing party before air attack can commence (ROTJ)

19. massive explosion that gives the rebels a major victory but likely allows the Force-sensitive, masked, and darkly clothed antagonist to survive to fight another day

20. Force sensitive protagonist leaves at the end to get training from legendary Jedi
 

amigo

Molten Core Raider
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Rey's "training" will be explained in the extended edition; it will include extra scenes with her saying:
Operator, I need a pilot program for Millenium Falcon.
Operator, I need a program for lightsaber-fu.
I know lightsaber-fu!
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Don't get people disliking Solo carrying the movie. Though Ford was great falling into the old role. Some of Finn's comedy came off very forced, but with Han it was all good. Only emotion you felt from Han/Leia reunion was all Ford too.
 

khorum

Murder Apologist
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It sounds like a lot of the disappointment is stemming from the fact that folks either didn't KNOW or FORGOT that Disney hired Abrams to make a soft-reboot for Star Wars after the impressive job he did rebooting Star Trek.

As with the star-trek reboot, he even had a character from the old continuity step in and play the hand-off to the next generation of the franchise---except Spock didn't die like Han does.

If you came in with the expectation that this was intended to be Disney "clearing the slate" and inaugurating their stewardship of the franchise, you wouldn't have been weirded out by the astonishing similarities with ANH in tone and structure.
 

Muligan

Trakanon Raider
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Why is Leia not a Jedi?
We don't know that she hasn't been trained to an extent. I think Luke even refers to that in the original trilogy that "he would show her". It's obvious she is actively force-senstive as she feels...

(just in case)
Hans death

This was a very similar scene and expression Yoda displayed in RotS. I think we'll see some force powers from Leia. Nothing combat oriented but I think she'll freeze Snoke or a death blow from Kylo to save someone before sacrificing herself. I think this will be a good building block to ultimately revealing Luke's powers in part 3.
 

Khalan

Trakanon Raider
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Ok Just got back from seeing it the second time and a few more things I noticed since I wasn't geeking the fuck out.

1) At the start when Finn wakes up on Jakku, you can very clearly see his seat ejected with a parachute. Since when did the Empire/FO care of about Tie Pilots to the point of giving them parachuted ejection seats? Most TIE's didn't even have shield for the very reason that the pilots were a dime a dozen. Maybe since the defeat things have changed.

2) Mox Van Sydows Character has way way more backstory we are not getting, he Knew Luke, knew of the Solo's, Knew Kylo's identity and obviously fought in some capacity in the war along with the Jedi. I am really curious who he ends up being.

3)When Kylo knocks Rey out in the forest, she is holding the GUN han gave her down at her side, so it is assumed when she is knocked unconscious she drops it, but we later see her with the exact same gun at the end of the movie. Small error there, but nothing big.

Regarding Rey's Powers

Ok my main theory at this point is that When Kylo Mind rapes her, they essentially exchange information. He learns about the BB droid, the island and her dreams. And she SEE's into his mind learning about his Vader obsession and other things along with what I predict is memories of Kylo using the force in various ways and more about the essence of the force from him. He essentially "awakens" her latent force abilities when they have the Mind Orgy and grants her some rudimentary knowledge on how to use it.

He even comments on this in the movie right after she escapes when he says "She is just beginning to tap into her power, the longer she is free the more powerful she will become" or something along those lines, and I think between that and he "letting" in the force as per Maz Kanata she becomes strong fast. Also keep in mind that the Lightsaber she holds is a powerful relic with a strong imbuement of the force so her "believing" in the force on top of having it awoken in her by kylo + holding the skywalker force relic opens her up to the force. And we all know as per ANH the force "guides your actions".

DO I think it could have been explained better? Sure but I think there is enough there for it to make sense. Also after re-watching you see how fucking powerful the bowcaster is and realize that kylo is in serious hurt. Finally for those saying Finn held his own. Your REALLY need to rewatch it. He gets owned super fast. Kylo basically dodges all his strikes and Finn is falling backwards the entire time. He only gets the lucky shot in because Kylo is very rough and unchecked and is swinging wildy in anger thus causing him to be very open for the small hit he takes back.