Star Wars-The Force Awakens Thread (Contains Spoilers)

[Len Cnut]

Stars Wars is for gaylords.

It is certainly a serious business! To criticise this film evokes some, ehh, passionate responses.

I've tried a number of times to watch it, the first one but it's just insulting to my intelligence, i find it difficult to follow it's so uninteresting, it looks like a shit kids TV show from the 70s. Harrison Ford, a dustbin on wheels and what looks like a big hairy bollock poncing about talking nonsense for 2 hours, sod that for a lark.

[Sixes]

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-force-awakens-is-the-least-interesting-star-wars-yet

I think DD and Lenny will find this article interesting

I did

Edited December 22, 2015 by Sixes

[DieselDaisy]

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-force-awakens-is-the-least-interesting-star-wars-yet

I think DD and Lenny will find this article interesting

I did

I re-watched it and was astonished at how close - scene by scene - it follows the original. For example, witness those scenes where Han is planting chargers inside the space shippy planet thing. It is exactly the same as Obi Wan horsing around in the original death star, turning off some generators. And then they both encounter their respective deaths at the hands of a similarly appareled sith lord! Han assumes the Obi Wan role here, guiding the two protagonists through. Witness the scene when the female protagonist is climbing around inside the base - very similar to scenes involving Luke and Leia in the original. And the whole device of the weakness in the super weapon, being it a death star or this new planetoid thing, being an air conduit!! Fly down the air conduit. The dark side always build their super weapons with gigantic conduits just ripe for a X Wing to take advantage haha. Jesus.

It is almost a piss take, it follows the original so closely. I definitely see it as a quasi-remake.

I wonder what the rational was, for following a film so closely, being that blatant?

Stars Wars is for gaylords.

It is certainly a serious business! To criticise this film evokes some, ehh, passionate responses.

I've tried a number of times to watch it, the first one but it's just insulting to my intelligence, i find it difficult to follow it's so uninteresting, it looks like a shit kids TV show from the 70s. Harrison Ford, a dustbin on wheels and what looks like a big hairy bollock poncing about talking nonsense for 2 hours, sod that for a lark.

They are not really very good films with the possible exception of the empire strikes back which is vastly superior to the other two. The acting is excruciatingly bad in the first Star Wars. The third film consists of tedious scenes involving talking teddy bears. And then you have the prequels which are possibly three of the worst films ever made. The only one I'd consider good (of the originals) is the second one.

Edited December 22, 2015 by DieselDaisy

[MEXzilla]

I felt the film re used many of the storylines of the first 3 films, but with different characters. With that said, that is the reason the film works and leaves the sequel in a great spot. I believe this film was suppose to feel like Star Wars to the point people would remember the original trilogy, it was done on purpose. Still those saying it's the same movie really need to rewatch the original and TFA as the films are very different. The characters are different and their back stories seem more developed than those of anybody in New Hope.

Also the directing is beautiful and as well as the cinemetagrophy. The writing does its job, as with most good films it makes the audience(at least the one I saw it with)feel something. Filmmaking is an emotional medium, it's about making the audience feel something and this film brought that adventure feeling back to Star Wars. As for the loose threads in the film, I am assuming that it was done on purpose for the sequel as most 2nd parts tend to be filled with more meat than its predecessor.

Anyways I liked the film and I easily put it next to the original trilogy.

[RichardNixon]

The movie doesn't say what The First Order is, doesn't explain what happened to the Empire, who Snoke is, etc. The film was poorly written.

Again, the story isn't over. I mean, the A New Hope didn't explain the role of the Emperor(again, he is revealed only as a hologram, in the same way as Snoke), who Darth Vader was, the motivations of the Empire, Tarkin's character, the political role of Leia, The Senate, or any well detailed exposition. Those answers came in later films.

It's just one third of a story. A story that was never very intricate to begin with. It's a fairy tale in space, it's never really been about the details and exposition.

This is coming from a guy who thought Spectre "wrapped everything up nicely" I agree, we only get 1/3 of the story. There's two more films before we can bitch about them not explaining shit.

I do believe that SPECTRE wrapped up everything nicely and was a good bookend to Casino Royale. With TFA, I feel underwhelmed and that the writing is half-baked. I enjoyed the film and am looking forward to seeing how everything plays out with the next two films, but TFA was a letdown, imho, while I really liked SPECTRE. A little more background on the First Order would have made the film nuch better. Edited December 22, 2015 by RichardNixon

[DieselDaisy]

There are a lot of dreadful reviews on IMD. The major criticism beyond the obvious (rehash of IV) seems top be how easily the female beats the bad guy.

''Bring back George. We forgive the prequels now'' haha and similar stuff. ''Kylo Ren is worse than Jar Ja''

Edited December 22, 2015 by DieselDaisy

[RichardNixon]

It was neither great nor terrible, imho, but pretty good.

[Cosmo]

Another gripe I have, though minor, is the fact that Abrams makes it feel that everything is close by. Space travel seems so quick, like everything is right there. The rest of the trilogy going forward would benefit from more scenes like the one in ESB when Luke is flying to Dagobah. He's just flying and talking to R2, talking about how he's not meeting up with the others and he's going to manually control the X-Wing for a while. Just little things like this give the galaxy a sort of weight to it. Still a minor thing, when you can assume that a time gap has been filled when they are travelling in the new movie. But scenes like these would still be useful.

Dude... this is actually much more right than not going hypespace. If Luke were to go non-hyperspace between planets and galaxies, the trip would take at least weeks or months if the planet is really close by. If it's another galaxy, could be years, lol.

[Cosmo]

And here's a few answers to some critics I've seen:

1- Kylo Ren: First of all, him being insecure, in training, unstable and unpredictable makes him a lot more interesting and new. You can't have another Vader without it being a ripoff and the sith are yet to rise again, they're just coming back so it makes no sense to have an experienced new guy who always existed like that. It's a fresh approach. He can easily turn into a huge threat like Luke turned into a great Jedi.

2- The First Order and The Resistance: Yes, it was a bit unexplained, but we still have two more movies and really, I don't think it's that hard to imagine what happened at the time. Who knows what they're planning to do in the future with this backstory.

3- How easily Rey beats Kylo Ren: Can anyone say Darth Maul? Count Dooku in Episode III? And they were supposed to be masters. Kylo Ren is supposed to be in training. Plus, wasn't anakin an amazing pilot? Talk about how easily he was shot down in New Hope.

4- Re-Hash of New Hope: Yes, it kinda follows a similar formula. I do agree.

[Conor]

I don't mind that this was similar to A New Hope, it worked well in setting things up. The pace was a lot better than any of the previous films, and it's a lot more accessible to a wider audience. I'll be a lot more disappointed if the next one follows the path of The Empire Strikes Back though, then I'd agree with a lot of the complaints about it being a rehash. I'm not saying it isn't right now, but I don't care. It was an entertaining film that poses questions going forward.

[RussTCB]

That's my thing. I went in wanting to be entertained by a new Star Wars movie and I was, so I'm good.

I don't need everything answered right now and I'm happy to see what develops in the next two movies.

I'm not nearly as nitpicky about movies as I am music. The I lyrics question I had about this one was why R2 waited til the very end to wake up and tell them he had the rest of the map. Even then, I'm still OK with finding out the answer in the next one if they chose to answer it.

[bacardimayne]

Monty Python isn't funny in the slightest, just a bunch of drunk britshits yelling

[Powerage5]

Britshits

[rocknroll41]

I was fine with all the similarities except Starkiller Base. they coulda done sowmthing different there, easily

Edited December 22, 2015 by rocknroll41

[Black Sabbath]

Looks like I'll be seeing it tonight.

[Zeppelin]

Plus it doesn't open in China until January. I think it's already at $560 million or something worldwide.

[downzy]

Finally saw it today (ssshhh, don't tell my wife )

Thought it was fantastic. Tough call right now as to whether TFA or Mad Max: Fury Road is my favourite movie of 2015.

Looking forward to the next film. Can't see too many people watching this movie and not be excited for the next.

[Lithium]

It was good, but it could have been better. I didn't like the fact that Rey's connection to the force was revealed so suddenly, in addition to Kylo Ren being so shitty at fighting with a lightsaber. They could have been more original, but overall I loved the effects, the characters and parts of the story.

[luciusfunk]

I think part of Kylo Ren's lack of fighting skills can be explained by his conflict after killing Han and also getting shot in the side by Chewbacca's bowcaster.

[Dazey]

Monty Python isn't funny in the slightest, just a bunch of drunk britshits yelling

Life of Brian is an absolute work of genius!

[rocknroll41]

I think part of Kylo Ren's lack of fighting skills can be explained by his conflict after killing Han and also getting shot in the side by Chewbacca's bowcaster.

I think Snoke also just never bothered to train him and was just like "here, put this mask on so that you look and sound scary, and use the force to stop lasers and make people freeze and pass out and shit so that they think you know your shit. No other jedi are ever gonna show up so you're fine" but then Hux tells him "yo the random girl just kicked his ass" so then Snoke is like "oh...maybe I shoulda actually trained him...ok I'll do that now"

[Lies They Tell]

It was decent. It didn't feel like a George Lucas movie in any shape or form. That in my opinion is both a good and a bad thing.

The good side of it is that it was absolutely fabulously directed. The movie had great humor, like the original trilogy and the dialogue was way better than on the prequels.

On the other hand Force Awakens didn't really bring much anything new to the table. The plot was almost the same as in New Hope. A secret message is hidden in a cute droid. There's a lonely force-strong protagonist on a desolate desert planet who dreams of more. There's a massive spherical weapon that's used to destroy a planet. The weapon has a weak spot and the rebels destroy the weapon. The hero watches from afar as an older father figure character is slayed.

BB-8 is a copy of R2D2. Kylo Ren is a copy of Darth Vader. Snoke is a copy of Palpatine etc... You get the point. There's almost nothing new.

The prequels can be accused for many things. but not for uncreativity. The prequels had all kinds of imaginative worlds and characters. And the plot had plenty of new ideas. They were completely different compared to the original trilogy and I respect George Lucas for not taking the easy road by copying the old films. Obviously the movies had many flaws. Cheesy dialogue and suff like that. But at least they had balls to try something new.

I don't want to sound like I hated Force Awakens, cause I didn't. I liked it. Overall it was probably better than Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones. But I'd probably put Revenge Of The Sith above it.

Force Awakens had many great scenes. For example the part where Kylo Ren tried to read Rey's mind. Besides I loved Kylo Ren as a character. He was probably my favorite character in the movie. A very complex and interesting character with his inner struggles and rage attacks. Although he was in many ways a Darth Vader clone, he was different enough in my opinion. He wasn't as threatening as Darth Vader. He had a comic side to him, which was cool I guess. The thing that I'm a little worried about though, is that Supreme leader Snoke didn't feel threatening either. He looked pretty funny and I'm not sure if that's a good thing. The original trilogy had two threatening villains. This new trilogy doesn't seem to have even one. How are we supposed to take the dark side seriously if the villains are almost clowns? Where's the tension and excitement? Well I hope that Snoke is scarier in the next movie, as well as Kylo Ren.

Actually Kylo Ren was pretty threatening in the first half of Force Awakens. The way he used the force to stop laser beams and stuff like that. He seemed like a very powerful Sith. And that brings me to the last problem I had with the movie. How on earth could Rey learn the ways of the force so quickly? Kylo Ren had been training since he was a kid and seemed like a very powerful master of the force. But then this Rey beats him in a battle even though she has never used a lightsaber or had any kind of jedi training. Oh well, maybe they'll explain her superpowers in the next movie.

It's just that the starting point for the next movie doesn't seem very interesting. The hero of the story is already stronger than the main villain and now she is joined by another even more powerful jedi Luke Skywalker. Kylo Ren and Snoke seem like the underdogs of the next movie.

On top of all this, the soundtrack for the movie was probably the worst Star Wars soundtrack of all times. It wasn't bad, in fact it was great. I mean it was still John Williams, one of the greatest composers of our times. But compared to previous Star Wars soundtracks, it was pretty dull. Nevertheless I liked the movie and I hope the next one is even better.

[J Dog]

[bran]

So I decided to watch the prequels, I watched the phantom menace last night. I remember as a teen people liked them at release but now it seems like a love hate relationship. I'm not going to be critical one way or another since it seems to turn into a hot debate and I don't want to turn this thread into a fight, I didn't start a new thread since everyone is talking all things star wars anyway and didn't want to clog the section up.

This movie isn't god awful but its not close to the original trilogy IMO or TFA but I found the movie enjoyable but it was marred by bad pacing, bad acting and some mediocre dialogue. 5/10

- jar jar Bink's needs to die

- why doesn't obi wan remember r2d2?

- Darth maul is badass

- anakins dad being microscopic beings is kind of weird

- I liked qui gonn.

- I thought the guy who played obi wan was pretty good

- anakin blowing up the trade federation was a bit much

Episode ll tonight

[AxlisOld]

Dont you do it, bran. Dont watch episode 2.