Star Wars-The Force Awakens Thread (Contains Spoilers)

[ZoSoRose]

Im numb, 10/10

[bran]

Still haven't seen it but I've got to say I disagree with A New Hope being held in such high regard. I watched it a couple of years ago having not seen it in maybe a decade. Could be barely get through it. 3CPO could not be any more annoying (on par with Jar Jar Binks), the dialogue is extremely flat (save for a few Han Solo lines), and the plot has more holes than I care to recollect. Moreover, it's just hard to align the lightsaber fight between Vader and Obi One with every other lightsaber fight in the series. The only thing it had going for it was the climax (blowing up the death star). I use to love the movie as a child and teenager, but now that I'm in my 30s, I can't see myself getting excited to watch it again.

I'd be interested to hear people's re-evaluation of A New Hope (i.e. actually watch the movie, don't base it on your memory) after seeing The Force Awakens.

im watching it now for the first time so i can give a run down after. 3cpo is annoying as hell so far....

[downzy]

Still haven't seen it but I've got to say I disagree with A New Hope being held in such high regard. I watched it a couple of years ago having not seen it in maybe a decade. Could be barely get through it. 3CPO could not be any more annoying (on par with Jar Jar Binks), the dialogue is extremely flat (save for a few Han Solo lines), and the plot has more holes than I care to recollect. Moreover, it's just hard to align the lightsaber fight between Vader and Obi One with every other lightsaber fight in the series. The only thing it had going for it was the climax (blowing up the death star). I use to love the movie as a child and teenager, but now that I'm in my 30s, I can't see myself getting excited to watch it again.

I'd be interested to hear people's re-evaluation of A New Hope (i.e. actually watch the movie, don't base it on your memory) after seeing The Force Awakens.

im watching it now for the first time so i can give a run down after. 3cpo is annoying as hell so far....

Nice...

I think the problem for me is the prequels. As bad as they are, they also contributed to me looking at A New Hope in a negative light. Anakin goes from doing flips and performing acrobatics to being barely able to swing a light sabre against Obi One (I'll give a pass to Obi One, since he's an old man in ANH, but by this respect, shouldn't Vader have annihilated him in ten seconds ?).

Then there's this:

[Bono]

As I've already said in the non-spoiler thread, just saw it and thought it was great for the most part. A solid 4/5, with the biggest complain (like most others have) being that it recycled too much from the original film. I definitely like all 3 installments of the original trilogy better, but still thought this was a tone of fun and I already can't wait to see it again!

I may be confused because I just saw it but I think this was better than Return of the Jedi. I've never really cared for the entire opening scene at Jabba's palace in Jedi and in TFA the begining starts with such intensity and the ending is arguably the best ending in the franchise in my opinion so.... I'd give this for now an edge over Jedi. It is funny though because when they were detailing their attack on Starkiller Base I thought Hmmmm..... I've seen this movie before haha

Favorite comedic moments: BB-8 giving the "thumbs up," C-3PO cock-blocking Han and Leia like he did in Empire Strikes Back, Finn going "yeah, of course I'm with the Resistance...This is what we look like." Chewy bragging to that Resistance lady and her sarcastically responding to it, and that little bit about throwing Phasma into a garbage shaft (tho her character and actions were poorly done, but I'll talk about that further down).

BB-8 was better than I thought he'd be. I thought there was a risk of him being too cheesy but he was actually really funny, with the moment you describe being his funniest. C3PO "cock blocking" Han and Leia as you put it was classic C3PO and a great way to introduce him into the movie. My favourite funny moment though was when Han said he'd talk his way out of it like he always does and Chewie basically calls him on that and Han gets mad

Favorite epic moments: The opening crawl (that text alone is better than all three prequels combined), Han's intro where he jumps into the Falcon and pulls his gun out (my theater applauded it, and rightfully so!), the ending sequence where Rey is walking up the steps (so much suspense, I and the people around me were breathing so intensely), and of course, Luke...just Luke...oh, Luke!! Oh yeah and seeing the Republic planet from the prequels get blown up was fucking awesome!

All great moments for sure. Seeing Han and Chewie board the Falcon that way was epic. I've never teared up at a movie before but I will admit to doing so when Rey was approaching Luke. I think a lot fo that had to do with us seeing the torch being passed from the characters we grew up with to the new generation, especially after Han had died. Not sure if it counts as an epic moment but I really liked Rey's "dream sequence" or visions when she found the lightsaber. Reminded me a lot of Luke's confrontation with the vision of Vader on Dagobah. Also the scene when Kylo Ren was trying to draw information from Rey with the Force and she realized he couldn't and instead of retreating she became defiant and actually started reading his mind. That was pretty bad ass.

Favorite character: Poe Dameron. Even though he isn't in it much, absolutely everything he did was loveable and memorable. Hope to see much more of him in the sequels. Ben Solo/ Kylo Ren came close with his crazy temper that differentiated him from Vader and just overall intimidating presence, but it was hard to accept him as the biological genetic offspring of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher once he had the mask off. That's not really Driver's fault, tho. He still tried his best with what he had and that was almost good enough. Finn, Rey, and BB-8 were all also very likable, but I still gotta go with Poe as my top choice and Kylo/Ben as a close second.

Dameron was cool but I don't think I liked him as much as Rey or Finn. For me Kylo Ren was the best character. I was hypnotized by him when he spoke. He sounded so sinister and evil and he spoke in such a deliberate and intimidating way it was awesome. Kinda like Bane from Dark Knight Rises buy WAY BETTER. I like what they did with his character. Vader has such big shoes to fill so I'm glad they didn't make Kylo Ren this new Vader but more someone who's struggling to aspire to be him. Like he's lost and he feels the dark side is his way to go and it's the easy path. I loved how he killed Han and that was his way to "ease his pain". Atari said he can't see how they carry the next two films with Kylo ren as a villian and in my opinion he's completely wrong. Kylo is a great villian because in some way he's relatable ina way Anakin(from the prequels) never was. I even liked him with his mask off as you could see the pain and anger in his eyes.

Least-favorite moments that tried to be comedic: None. I thought all the jokes were great.

I had one. The entire scene when Finn rescued Poe I really didn't like any of their dialogue between them. It came off too much like Will Smith and Martin lawrence in like Bad Boys or something. Just too much "too cool" stuff. Not sure if it was meant to be humerous but it was a part that for me fell flat.

Least-favorite moments that tried to be epic: Not necessarily Han's death itself, but just the fact that it didn't seem to have much of an impact on the other heroes as I thought it should've. Apparently there are deleted scenes of Chewy slowly coming to terms with it more and Leia giving a speech to the rest of the Resistance on Han not dying in vein. Wish they left those in. Also while I loved the way Starkiller base's destruction looked, as well as the new trench run and the way the heroes escape, and how it self-destructs, it just didn't feel "new" enough for me. In the end it will always just be Death Star 3.0 and because of that it really was not as suspenseful as it was meant to be.

I agree with this. Although I felt the death scene itself was perfectly done and it felt so satisfying to know Han died that way and not in some explosion or even in some cliche self sacrafice. I like the look in Han's eyes. Harrison Ford absolutely nailed Han in this movie. Not once did it feel like he was reprising a role. He simply is Han Solo. BUT like you said the impact on the other characters felt almost non existant. Chewie should more emotion on Hoth when he thought Han had died in the cold. I would've liked to see Chewie go crazy shooting everyone and then needing to be brought back to reality and even "dragged" away by Finn ala Frodo being dragged away by Boromir after Gandalf had died. Somehow the emotion among the other characters was lost. Also woldve liked to see Chewie hug leia instead of Rey. have him see her and fall to his knees and hug her around the waits. Have Leai shed a tear for fuck sakes haha. Having said all that even as predictable as Han's death was I thought it was perfect. Someone had to die.

Least-favorite character: Phasma, which is funny cause I already knew she and Hux weren't in it much, but I ended up liking Hux a lot more. His friction with Kylo/Ben wasn't overdone, his "Hitler-style" speech was spot on, and he didn't really sound or act as cliché and Tarkin-ish as I thought he would. Phasma, on the other hand, was fuckin useless. Especially when they have her shut down the shields and as soon as they turn away she just got up and started bitching to them instead of, you know, hitting them with a surprise attack while they were distracted with their little convo they were having there.

Phasma was absolutely useless and was made even worse when she spoke. Horrible. Not sure what they were thinking with her. Also she was just suddenly gone. Guess they threw her in the trash compactor. But yeah that character sucked because it was under utilized, made to look like a complete wimp and he voice really sucked. Hux on the other hand was pretty good in his limited role.

Overall: this movie was still great the more I reflect on it. Pacing was pretty good tho I felt there were one or two questions left unanswered that could've at least use a little more hinting at. I'm glad I ended up enjoying this movie so much regardless of the fact that I read all the spoilers beforehand. Some of the things in the leaked plot from back in May that had me worried were actually cut from the final film, and I thought that was great cause it made it more streamlined and focused, tho I really do wish those scenes about reflecting Han's death were still left in there tho. But all in all, this movie was wonderful and I really can't wait to see it again asap.

Agreed the pacing was great. There were some scenes I didn't like though like how everything seemed a bit too easy for the main characters getting around on Starkiller Base. It's like they knew the place like the back of their hand. The only real compliants I have are that and it's very minor, thse stupid CGI aliens on the freighter that were attacking Han and the gang looked fucking stupid and were so out of place in this movie. The CGI of Starkiller base when showing it from a far kinda looked cheap and the dialogue between Finn and Poe when escaping Starkiller Base are really my only issues. Other minor things I can overlook. All in all I really enjoyed it and I'm so happy Star Wars is good again. I'd give it a 4/5 and I can't wait to see it again. Hopefully a matinee tomorrow.

Edited December 18, 2015 by Bono

[Bono]

the problem is you guys actually put stock into the prequels. Don't and problem solved.

[RussTCB]

Waiting at a theater for a 4am showing is an odd feeling.

[Bono]

Waiting at a theater for a 4am showing is an odd feeling.

what's the lineup like? I couldn't beleive tonight we showed up at 5:30pm and walked right in, very firts people into the theatre had out pick of any seat in the place. About 15 minutes later people started pouring in fast and it was packed about 45 minutes before it started

[ZoSoRose]

Going to.bed, will wrte review tomorrow

So happy

[Bono]

I didn't see anything bad about Brienne the maid of Tarth's voice as Captain Phasma at all. She spoke the way she normally does, she was just almost non existent in the film. She has like 4 or 5 lines the entire film and her screen time is less than 3 minutes.

Doubt anyone would even remember the character unless they were reading speculation online for the past year.

wrong thread dude. Starting to enter spoiler territory there.

[RussTCB]

Waiting at a theater for a 4am showing is an odd feeling.

what's the lineup like? I couldn't beleive tonight we showed up at 5:30pm and walked right in, very firts people into the theatre had out pick of any seat in the place. About 15 minutes later people started pouring in fast and it was packed about 45 minutes before it started

There's only my 3 friends and I plus one other dude right now with 20 mins to go.

I'd say about 25 people walked out of the 1am show before this though.

If it's good enough, I may just sit my ass here and watch it again directly after.

I don't have anywhere to be til the record store opens at 930am lol

[bran]

ok i finished watching star wars: a new hope for the first time. the first thing i can say is i really enjoyed the movie a lot more than i ever thought i would. I pretty much knew the plot in parts from just years of listening/reading things people had to say on the subject plus watching the family guy episodes now i have no knowledge of the prequels or the next two movies but i would give the first star wars a solid 8.5/10 would watch again.....

now a couple of things

-storm troopers are dumb as fuck throughout the movie.

- why not destroy the pod at the beginning of the movie? i wouldn't take the chance of information getting away even if it appeared to be lifeless..

- i would definitely melt down 3cpo the annoying piece of shit, although he did have one of my favorite lines in the movie when luke and company are in the trash masher and 3cpo calls them on the transmitter and hears them screaming " they are dying r2-d2, i was too late" thought that was funny

- harrison ford/han solo is a badass

- princess leia is pretty calm about alderaan being blown up

- the ending felt kind of rushed

- why didn't the empire just blow up yavin? instead of waiting to pass around its orbit to get a line of fire on the moon with the rebel base?

these are just minor quips and comes with the territory of any kind of fantasy/sci fi story.

tomorrow is the empire strikes back.

[RussTCB]

Ended up with another 20 or so in the showing. The news was on the scene as we were leaving. Kinda wanted to go get on camera but decided against it.

Absolutely love the movie.

[Randy Jesus]

Rey = Luke

Finn = Leia

Han = Obi-Wan

Kylo Ren / Ben Solo = Hayden whatever his name as Anakin turns into Vader in Episode 3

Poe = Han

General Leia = Admiral Akbar

Admiral Akbar = Jar Jar Binks in Episode 3.

Death Planet = Both Deathstars put together

Captain Phasma = Head idiot Stormtrooper.

Chewbacca = Weak

R2D2 = Nothing really

C3PO = Nothing really

BB-8 = R2D2

Snoke = Papatine + the one who shall not be named + The Great and Power Wizard of Oz.

Luke = Obi Wan + Yoda + Silent Bob.

Storm Trooper watching Rey = James Bond + Storm trooper.

Edited December 18, 2015 by Randy Jesus

[Randy Jesus]

Empire = WWI Germany

First Order = Nazi Germany

[Cosmo]

Snoke = Plagueis. I still believe.

[Powerage5]

ok i finished watching star wars: a new hope for the first time. the first thing i can say is i really enjoyed the movie a lot more than i ever thought i would. I pretty much knew the plot in parts from just years of listening/reading things people had to say on the subject plus watching the family guy episodes now i have no knowledge of the prequels or the next two movies but i would give the first star wars a solid 8.5/10 would watch again.....

now a couple of things

-storm troopers are dumb as fuck throughout the movie.

- why not destroy the pod at the beginning of the movie? i wouldn't take the chance of information getting away even if it appeared to be lifeless..

- i would definitely melt down 3cpo the annoying piece of shit, although he did have one of my favorite lines in the movie when luke and company are in the trash masher and 3cpo calls them on the transmitter and hears them screaming " they are dying r2-d2, i was too late" thought that was funny

- harrison ford/han solo is a badass

- princess leia is pretty calm about alderaan being blown up

- the ending felt kind of rushed

- why didn't the empire just blow up yavin? instead of waiting to pass around its orbit to get a line of fire on the moon with the rebel base?

these are just minor quips and comes with the territory of any kind of fantasy/sci fi story.

tomorrow is the empire strikes back.

I believe there's a minimum charge time between bursts from the Death Star, and blowing up Yavin to get to Yavin IV would take longer than orbiting the planet.

Empire will blow your fucking mind - truly one of the greatest films ever made.

On the topic of clapping at TFA, and I don't consider any of this spoiler info since it's all readily known from trailers/casting...

- People cheered at the Lucasfilm logo, as well as the beginning of the opening crawl

- People cheered at the first shot of the Millenium Falcon

- People cheered at the first shot of each recurring character, including the droids

- People cheered at the credits

[Powerage5]

I absolutely fucking loved the First Order rally on Starkiller Base - very Nuremburg Rally-ish, even down to the salutes.

[Cosmo]

Just found out Daniel Craig is the stormtrooper that calls Rey "scavenger scum" right before being a victim to her jedi mind tricks! AWESOME!

[Powerage5]

I just found that out too - fucking awesome

[Dan H.]

There's a more than 24 hour charge time on the Death Star weapon. If they had shot Yavin I supposed there was a good chance that the debris would also destroy its moon, but their orbit only takes about 20 minutes, so I'm guessing they preferred to just ride the orbit to the moon rather than waste their attack

[Dan H.]

Empire Strikes Back 10/10

A New Hope 9/10

Return of the Jedi 7.5/10

The Force Awakens 7.5/10

The movie was really good. I don't mind that it followed A New Hope beat for beat. I mean a lot of the old movies took plot points from old sci-fi serials and applied them to a new over arcing plot, so this movie just kinda did the same.

Effects were amazing. There was the one scene Powerage and others had mentioned where they were on the freighter with Han and the aliens he was carrying looked just completely awful. I also thought that whole scene was unnecessary. It felt like a lot of padding and filler just to give us a feel for Han again, but that could have been done quicker and with some dialogue to break from the constant action.

The acting was great, Adam Driver stole the show as Kylo Renn. I was worried because he looks like kindof a whiney loser in the flesh, but they wrote Kylo's character to match Driver's acting style, and it ended up working out perfectly. You can tell that he is a parallel to Hayden Christenson's Anakin.

Han's death, whatever. We all knew it was coming, it felt a little rushed, but the dialogue between him and 'Ben' was amazing.

I thought there was a lot of unnecessary quirky one liners. Always been a problem for me with newer action movies, and this one clearly isn't immune. At least it's not as distracting as The Avengers.

I thought it was weirdly convenient that R-2 had the missing piece of the map, and woke up at just the right time. Thought it would have been cooler if they had stolen the rest of the map from The First Order before they destroyed the Starkiller Base. Oh well, at least they gave R-2 something to do.

That last shot was so fucking bad that I lol'd in the theater. The one with Luke and Rey standing in silence for an awkwardly long time? Why didn't they cut that just slightly earlier? Would have been way better.

Other than that it was great. Great acting, dialogue, effects, and action. The film moves a little quickly but that's good for a Star Wars movie. Most fun I've had at a theater in years.

I have minor complaints about some of the characters and under explained lore, but I suppose none of them can really hold any water until we see where the next movie takes us. (Captain Phasma will play a much bigger part in the next films, for those of you who also felt Gwendolin was insultingly under utilized)

[Powerage5]

Empire Strikes Back 10/10

A New Hope 9/10

Return of the Jedi 7.5/10

The Force Awakens 7.5/10

The movie was really good. I don't mind that it followed A New Hope beat for beat. I mean a lot of the old movies took plot points from old sci-fi serials and applied them to a new over arcing plot, so this movie just kinda did the same.

Effects were amazing. There was the one scene Powerage and others had mentioned where they were on the freighter with Han and the aliens he was carrying looked just completely awful. I also thought that whole scene was unnecessary. It felt like a lot of padding and filler just to give us a feel for Han again, but that could have been done quicker and with some dialogue to break from the constant action.

The acting was great, Adam Driver stole the show as Kylo Renn. I was worried because he looks like kindof a whiney loser in the flesh, but they wrote Kylo's character to match Driver's acting style, and it ended up working out perfectly. You can tell that he is a parallel to Hayden Christenson's Anakin.

Han's death, whatever. We all knew it was coming, it felt a little rushed, but the dialogue between him and 'Ben' was amazing.

I thought there was a lot of unnecessary quirky one liners. Always been a problem for me with newer action movies, and this one clearly isn't immune. At least it's not as distracting as The Avengers.

I thought it was weirdly convenient that R-2 had the missing piece of the map, and woke up at just the right time. Thought it would have been cooler if they had stolen the rest of the map from The First Order before they destroyed the Starkiller Base. Oh well, at least they gave R-2 something to do.

That last shot was so fucking bad that I lol'd in the theater. The one with Luke and Rey standing in silence for an awkwardly long time? Why didn't they cut that just slightly earlier? Would have been way better.

Other than that it was great. Great acting, dialogue, effects, and action. The film moves a little quickly but that's good for a Star Wars movie. Most fun I've had at a theater in years.

I have minor complaints about some of the characters and under explained lore, but I suppose none of them can really hold any water until we see where the next movie takes us. (Captain Phasma will play a much bigger part in the next films, for those of you who also felt Gwendolin was insultingly under utilized)

This. I can't believe so many people are calling this the best final shot of any Star Wars film. The ending is satisfying, but that final tracking shot is arguably the worst shot in the entire film.

[Dan H.]

Empire Strikes Back 10/10

A New Hope 9/10

Return of the Jedi 7.5/10

The Force Awakens 7.5/10

The movie was really good. I don't mind that it followed A New Hope beat for beat. I mean a lot of the old movies took plot points from old sci-fi serials and applied them to a new over arcing plot, so this movie just kinda did the same.

Effects were amazing. There was the one scene Powerage and others had mentioned where they were on the freighter with Han and the aliens he was carrying looked just completely awful. I also thought that whole scene was unnecessary. It felt like a lot of padding and filler just to give us a feel for Han again, but that could have been done quicker and with some dialogue to break from the constant action.

The acting was great, Adam Driver stole the show as Kylo Renn. I was worried because he looks like kindof a whiney loser in the flesh, but they wrote Kylo's character to match Driver's acting style, and it ended up working out perfectly. You can tell that he is a parallel to Hayden Christenson's Anakin.

Han's death, whatever. We all knew it was coming, it felt a little rushed, but the dialogue between him and 'Ben' was amazing.

I thought there was a lot of unnecessary quirky one liners. Always been a problem for me with newer action movies, and this one clearly isn't immune. At least it's not as distracting as The Avengers.

I thought it was weirdly convenient that R-2 had the missing piece of the map, and woke up at just the right time. Thought it would have been cooler if they had stolen the rest of the map from The First Order before they destroyed the Starkiller Base. Oh well, at least they gave R-2 something to do.

That last shot was so fucking bad that I lol'd in the theater. The one with Luke and Rey standing in silence for an awkwardly long time? Why didn't they cut that just slightly earlier? Would have been way better.

Other than that it was great. Great acting, dialogue, effects, and action. The film moves a little quickly but that's good for a Star Wars movie. Most fun I've had at a theater in years.

I have minor complaints about some of the characters and under explained lore, but I suppose none of them can really hold any water until we see where the next movie takes us. (Captain Phasma will play a much bigger part in the next films, for those of you who also felt Gwendolin was insultingly under utilized)

This. I can't believe so many people are calling this the best final shot of any Star Wars film. The ending is satisfying, but that final tracking shot is arguably the worst shot in the entire film.

Would have been perfect if they had cut it right after they showed Luke(one time, only once) when she pulls out the lightsaber.

[rocknroll41]

ok i finished watching star wars: a new hope for the first time. the first thing i can say is i really enjoyed the movie a lot more than i ever thought i would. I pretty much knew the plot in parts from just years of listening/reading things people had to say on the subject plus watching the family guy episodes now i have no knowledge of the prequels or the next two movies but i would give the first star wars a solid 8.5/10 would watch again.....

now a couple of things

-storm troopers are dumb as fuck throughout the movie.

- why not destroy the pod at the beginning of the movie? i wouldn't take the chance of information getting away even if it appeared to be lifeless..

- i would definitely melt down 3cpo the annoying piece of shit, although he did have one of my favorite lines in the movie when luke and company are in the trash masher and 3cpo calls them on the transmitter and hears them screaming " they are dying r2-d2, i was too late" thought that was funny

- harrison ford/han solo is a badass

- princess leia is pretty calm about alderaan being blown up

- the ending felt kind of rushed

- why didn't the empire just blow up yavin? instead of waiting to pass around its orbit to get a line of fire on the moon with the rebel base?

these are just minor quips and comes with the territory of any kind of fantasy/sci fi story.

tomorrow is the empire strikes back.

I believe there's a minimum charge time between bursts from the Death Star, and blowing up Yavin to get to Yavin IV would take longer than orbiting the planet.

Empire will blow your fucking mind - truly one of the greatest films ever made.

On the topic of clapping at TFA, and I don't consider any of this spoiler info since it's all readily known from trailers/casting...

- People cheered at the Lucasfilm logo, as well as the beginning of the opening crawl

- People cheered at the first shot of the Millenium Falcon

- People cheered at the first shot of each recurring character, including the droids

- People cheered at the credits

Those are the exact same moments people cheered at my showing too

[Dan H.]

posted in wrong thread

Edited December 18, 2015 by Dan H.