Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Kreugen

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So they left a shitload of stuff open for sequels/flashbacks/EU to keep people busy making wildly inaccurate guesses for a couple of years. The only way they can call this a self-contained movie is if you just skip to the action scenes. Which is fine. Hell, maybe it actually works better for people without the backstory of six movies and mountains of discarded EU filling their heads. (JJ said Kasdan was constantly urging him to keep it vague)

I'm about 100 pages behind here but here are some nutter theories for fun:

1) The whole betrayal thing was staged to get someone close to Snoke. It can either be going completely off the rails or, even crazier, exactly as forseen. Rey was kept away as a backup. It rhymes, see.

Evidence of this is Kylo's issues keeping the dark side up. Demigod one minute, limp dick the next. He's faking it, or at least he started out that way. As implied I doubt he's ever met Snoke in person, because Snoke isn't dumb and wanted proof of his commitment. But now he's likely gone past the point of no return.

Of course, Luke would have to have known that Snoke is someone REALLY important for all this trouble to make any sense at all.

This entire plot was done in the (initially canon) Dark Horse comic sequel to ROTJ.

2) Rey was actually remembering training she hasn't had yet. INCEPTION. Hearing Ben and Yoda is a pretty big tip off that she was getting a LOT of help.

It also helped that she was fighting someone who wasn't fully committed to the dark side, who just had himself a good cry before stabbing his dad and then having his guts shot out. And Kylo also apparently has body image issues because he turns into a pussy when he removes his helmet and reveals his glorious unmatted hair.

Hell, if Rey is a Mary Sue, what does that make Luke? Vader at that point had a dueling record of like, 25,000-2. Luke had fought a wampa and a flying ball. Vader wasn't trying to kill him, but he still had to beat Luke to a pulp and hack his hand off to end it.

3) Death Star 3.0 may have been a bit eyeroll but it was needed for the story because with one shot it removed a repeat of the prequel problem of incomprehensible battles between massive armadas spanning thousands of planets and brought the scale back down to something resembling the scope of originals. With the Republic essentially gone now the movies can stay scaled WAY back from the kind of stuff in the Clone Wars cartoons.

I mean, those fucking sweetass X-Wing dogfights in 7 vs that mess of shit in the opening of 3.. lol?

By keeping the scale smaller and the sides more even, Stormtroopers can be far less retarded. Tie Fighters can be capable fighting machines instead of throwaway pieces of shit that lose 100-1. You can actually follow what the fuck is going on.

Hopefully that one shot knocked them back into the stone age to keep the movies from escalating to clone wars levels of absurdity. The sides are even again, and much smaller.

Okay I'll stop.
 

khorum

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I saw it again over the weekend and they actually show some of the Republic Fleet getting blown up in orbit over the Hosnian planets. I think one of them even looked like a star destroyer.

Hell, during his speech at that Nuremberg-rally ceremony they held before firing the starkiller, Grand Moff Weasley even mentioned the destruction of the Republic and "Their cherished fleet".

So yeah at least they try explain why the Republic didn't have a bazillion ships stomping starkiller.
 

khorum

Murder Apologist
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I saw it again over the weekend and they actually show some of the Republic Fleet getting blown up in orbit over the Hosnian planets. I think one of them even looked like a star destroyer.

Hell, during his speech at that Nuremberg-rally ceremony they held before firing the starkiller, Grand Moff Weasley even mentioned the destruction of the Republic and "Their cherished fleet".

So yeah at least they try explain why the Republic didn't have a bazillion ships stomping starkiller.
 

Kreugen

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Also, lol at everyone jumping when she touched the lightsaber. That shit was loud as fuck.

EDIT: As a result of the giggling crowd I apparently missed whatever Ben/Yoda say during her vision.
 

Qhue

Trump's Staff
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I only today realized that Poe Dameron is also the crazy AI-inventor guy from Ex Machina and stars as Apocalypse in the new Xmen movie.

I did recall hearing before that he had been in Ex Machina and briefly wondered: "as who? There's only like 6 actors in that whole movie...maybe he was the pilot?"
 

Khalan

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Yeah also check him out in the HBO series "show me a hero" Its a 6 parter, and he kills it. The guy can really do anything
 

Dworkk

N00b
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Batman vs Superman will be DC's highest grossing movie ever.
1st of all that's a pretty low bar

2nd I doubt it. Saw the trailer last night when I went to see SW TFA. Color me unimpressed

3rd SW TFA was good, it was great the first time I saw it back in 1977 fourth best movie of the saga
 

Jive Turkey

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Saw it for a third time this afternoon. I honestly think I could watch it 10 more times; I didn't find a single minute to be boring.

Couple things: There was some talk about who the guy with Rey was in the vision as her parents flew away in the spaceship. Not sure if it's been settled here, but it's definitely the fat rations guy. Take a look at that flabby hand she's holding.

JJ has talked about cutting out the scenes at the Resistance base with Maz. In particular the scene where Maz hands Leia the lightsaber from the first trailer. I was trying to follow the various hand offs of the light saber to see where that could possibly have been. Finn is given it by Maz and retrieves it after the battle outside her temple. Then we don't see it again until the final confrontation with Kylo. But if you watch that scene carefully, it almost seems like Finn takes it off Rey after she's knocked unconscious from the force push into the tree (the sabre is covered in snow hinting that it came from Rey lying on the ground rather than already being on Finn.. I could be wrong on this point)... Either way, how the heck does the handoff from Maz to Leia even fit in? Did Maz take it back from Finn, hand it to Leia who then hands it back to Finn?? (who then possibly hands to it Rey at some point on Star Killer Base?)
 

Jive Turkey

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One thing I wish they emphasized more was having Chewie go beast mode after Han dies. I would've liked to hear some crazy angry battle cry and him tearing the place and the stormtroopers apart. He does do that a bit - and him detonating the explosives was satisfying - I just wish they made it a bit more savage
 

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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They filmed both scenes knowing there might be some cuts, and went with the other one. Both don't have to be in the continuity.
 

Royal

Connoisseur of Exotic Pictures
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Chewie didn't take a chance on letting his emotional loss and outrage compromise the mission or hurt his chances of surviving it.

Also that was a hell of a shot he got off with his bowcaster. He connected from pretty long range.

chewies-bowcaster-teaser.png
 

Jive Turkey

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They filmed both scenes knowing there might be some cuts, and went with the other one. Both don't have to be in the continuity.
Ah, I was under the impression it was filmed one way, then they realized they didn't need Maz in the editing portion and just cropped her bits out realizing there would be no continuity issues either way
 

Jive Turkey

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Chewie didn't take a chance on letting his emotional loss and outrage compromise the mission or hurt his chances of surviving it.

Also that was a hell of a shot he got off with his bowcaster. He connected from pretty long range.
And ya, I guess that's fair... still, it would've been pretty cool to see him rage
 

Jive Turkey

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Another fairly insignificant thing I noticed on the first watch was they used a different take of Han saying "Chewie... we're home" in the movie than what they showed in the trailer
 

intelnavi_sl

shitlord
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1
I like how they blow up some planet in a 5 second scene and make you think it's Coruscant because they suck at providing any sort of background. And JJ couldn't write a better story than a 3rd deathstar? Holy fuck, Harrison fucking carried the movie tho.

Overall - Nice action, shit story.
 

Lithose

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Hell, if Rey is a Mary Sue, what does that make Luke? Vader at that point had a dueling record of like, 25,000-2. Luke had fought a wampa and a flying ball. Vader wasn't trying to kill him, but he still had to beat Luke to a pulp and hack his hand off to end it.
Luke, by the duel you're speaking of, had trained with Yoda. And still ended up, as you said, smashed to a pulp. Luke was also a naive idiot in the first movie who was scolded multiple times for being a naive idiot. In addition, the first time we see Luke he's getting his shit kicked in by sand people, getting bullied by a drunk guy with Obi-Wan saving him and running away again after Obi-Wan saved him. Yeah, he has his heroic moments, blowing up the Death Star, swinging with the Princess away from storm troopers ect. But through most of the movie we see him as a dumb farmer with a glint of something greater, but he certainly gets his ass kicked a lot. (He really had the feeling of a idealistic know nothing kid taking steps into a large world.)

Eventually, in the second film, he holds his own against Vader for a LITTLE while. Until Vader gets cut and then is like "fuck this shit" and chops his hand off and bitch slaps him. Even after his training with Yoda, he's still no match for the villain, he still can't save his friends and he still needs to be rescued by the very princess whom he rescued in the first movie.

Meanwhile, contrast the above with Rey. Her first fight is her beating the fuck out of four dudes. She then is out flying Tie Fighters, speaking strange languages, knowing the mechanics of the Falcon better than the people who owned the ship and in general just trusted and liked by everyone around her due to her competence (Compare that to how Han saw Luke through the first movie.) She is just good at everything, she doesn't come of as naive, she comes off as worldly and competent.

Rey is a Mary Sue from what we know so far (I only use that term because there is nothing to explain how awesome she is). This doesn't make the film bad though, it will hopefully be explained within the series. However, she is very very different from Luke, she is far more competent and has far fewer flaws. She'salreadya hero; watching her was more like watching someone "remembering" she is indeed a bad ass hero (IE "Awakening") than someone, like Luke, who islearningto become a hero. From her flash backs, the explanation for this is probably planned. She's probably some secret weapon of the force, or something; but her entire arc lookedverydifferent from Luke. If their intention was to have her be similar, well, they certainly overcompensated (And if they don't offer explanation beyond she's just that good, then 'd say she's a silly character). Because Luke in the fist movie was very much a naive country bumpkin until the very end, and everyone in the movie treated him that way.