Star Wars: The Force Awakens - with **SPOILERS**

[RiK]

When's the next one coming out?

May 2017

[VNVObit]

Just back with a wide grin . Loved all the references back to New Hope. BB-8 was R2D2 all over with suitable noise conveying mood.

Debating whether or not to take my son to it next

[The Caffeine Kid]

When's the next one coming out?

May 2017

On the 4th I hope

Really enjoyed it even though I'd been ever so slightly spoilered in knowing that something unpleasant was going to happen to a certainly space cowboy.

Went to see it yesterday before it got more spoilt for me and glad I pushed the boat out and went even though I was a loner and went by myself.

[RiK]

Making the stop-motion for the holochess :-)

[funkstar]

My better half dragged me in to see this (despite me being much more into Star Wars than her) and... 'twas great! Yes, some plot subthreads were resolved just too easily*, but the good guys were instantly likable, the humour worked, and I'm actually excited about where this could lead.

I'm also so happy that it didn't descend into green screen CGI bullshit, prequels style. Actual sets! Character designs that are not all CGI! Running! Trees! Snow! And no fucking midichlorian bullshit!

Look, I'm not happy that 1313 was cancelled (why has Disney always been terrible when it comes to videogames?), but Disney sure looks like the best thing to happen to Star Wars in a long time: I wanna see this movie again. I haven't said that about a Star Wars movie in 30 years.

* My favourite example was that an (ultimately successful) attack plan to take down a planet-sized installation is conceived of, agreed upon and set into motion literally seconds after seeing the layout plans for the very first time. "A New Hope" at least had the alliance poring (offscreen, but still) over the death star maps to find a weakness.

[Governmentyard]

* My favourite example was that an (ultimately successful) attack plan to take down a planet-sized installation is conceived of, agreed upon and set into motion literally seconds after seeing the layout plans for the very first time. "A New Hope" at least had the alliance poring (offscreen, but still) over the death star maps to find a weakness.

In fairness they did have Finn to tell them exactly what to do and thy'd have had to have a go in any case, otherwise they'd have been dead.

[Yak]

Just got back from seeing it and we very much enjoyed it. Yes it's a bit New Hope but IMO that's no bad thing - it felt like proper Star Wars, good guys, bad guys, lightsaber fights and X-Wings, good bit of humour throughout to elicit the odd chuckle, and no tedious stuff about the politics of Empire. And the last bit reminded me of the trip up High Hrothgar to see the Greybeards .

And that little alien lady with the hots for Chewie made me chuckle too .

Hopefully Luke gets a *slightly* bigger part in the next film .

[gilesgoat]

So ok seen it too ...

My first impression been " but .. but .. but it's almost a copy of the first one .." .. my SECOND thought was "HOW MANY TIMES someone studies to be 'a good Jedi' and then miserably fails and goes into the dark side ?" .. sounds like both Obi Wan and Skywalker are not such good teacher maybe ..

Overall .. what REALLY IMPRESSED me mostly was 'the graphic look' .. this time someway it really felt like "this is like the original OLD Star Wars" .. it had "something" in that look making it feel "very credibly retro"

It's not a bad movie .. but certainly after seen ALL the other ones makes you think things like :

1. How many times a student to be 'a good jedi' fails and becomes evil ?

2. How many times do they have to fight the dark lord, empire, first whatever .. "fooking hell they always keep coming back" ?

3. How comes at some point 'the rebellion/resistance has finally a mega-win', peace should be all over, then again you have 'the evil something' that is nearly like 10 to 1 with "the good" how comes "the evil" gets so incredibly strong and powerful so quick ?

4. How comes a spaceship the size of a big planet that has only ONE really weak point is almost totally devoid of defenses ? I mean literally "the just walked into Mordor" and almost no one was there, they had all time to put bombs and such you would have expected alarms and huge amount of defenses in such places.

5. What has done Skywalker to piss Han's son SO much to become evil ? Obviously something must have happened.

There certainly are a number of plot holes .. quite a bit of cheesyness all over .. you defintely see "ok it's a Disney thing", I bet they are going to make a fortune selling toys of that small robot ( that reminds me a bit of B.O.B. of Black Hole ).

I was wondering also if "Finn" is some sort of mini cheese cross reference to Hacklberry Finn or such ..

That evil thing on that throne also reminds me of that statue of Abraham Lincoln or such.

Wonder if there are many puns/weird references hidden to pick up ..

I suppose also that Leila did not really changed ( much ) her hair and that jacket of Han wasn't new at all ..

So the new Jedi is going to be female it seems.

[Mayhem]

1) If you read some of the EU (no longer canon) and beyond, it's more common than first appearances. As Yoda said in EP1, "Anger, fear, aggression, to the dark side they lead."

2) It may be that Snoke is actually Darth Plagueis, and thus not someone "new", we just hadn't seen him on screen before (reference Palpatine telling Anakin about him in EP3).

3) Starkiller Base was done in secret, over the last a LOT of years... the heroes didn't know about it until it charged up its laser and fired. The Empire never really went away, parts of the remnants signed a peace treaty with the New Republic and de-armed following the battle of Jakku (about a year after DS2 was blown up). The remainder is what eventually formed into the First Order we see in EP7. The Empire was HUGE... you can imagine that even a part of it left fighting would be substantial.

4) That's what the shield was for. If nothing can supposedly get in... until Han figured out how to get around it, using lightspeed!

5) Hopefully we'll find out in EP8. Wasn't the only question left hanging.

Wonder if there are many puns/weird references hidden to pick up ..

There's bound to be a fair few. For example, Finn's trooper designation was FN-2187. Cell 2187 was where Princess Leia was being held on the Death Star!

[k345y]

A distinctly mediocre movie, SFX aside.

JJ has proven to me now that Star Trek can be rebooted with the proper casting to carry over the strong character drive it demands but as for Star Wars, you can't improve on the already best.


Biggest flaw with SW:TFA is Kylo Ren, he's just shit and Adam Driver has the wrong face for the role, despite his acceptable acting. I don't give a shit if he's troubled or torn, he's a bad guy and bad guys don't fuck about with pussy mental anguish. I wanted a proper golden age of the silver screen baddie, not a perceptive exploration of a metrosexual sensitive baddie. Killing Han didn't even make him appear as a 'monster' it only served to make him look contrived and attempting to be deliberately complicated. He's also waaaaay to lanky to befit the physique of how the grandson of the greatest villain ever should be like.

Nice try Abrams, only he could have got as close as he did but the cigar is still unlit.

[Daniel]

A distinctly mediocre movie, SFX aside.

JJ has proven to me now that Star Trek can be rebooted with the proper casting to carry over the strong character drive it demands but as for Star Wars, you can't improve on the already best.

On the contrary.
I did not like what JJ did with Star Trek, but I think he is perfect for Star Wars. I loved the The Force Awakens, especially the first half. JJ is really good at building drama by piling tight action sequences on top of each other. Perfect for Star Wars, not so much for Star Trek.

Technically I think the movie looked great, except for some artifacts from the 3D production (I saw it in 2D). In some places it looked like it was filmed with two cameras with different focus (which it probably was) and at one point I could clearly see the seam between the two.

[gravy]

exploration of a metrosexual sensitive baddie.

Hollywood liberal elite brigade up to their usual ruining everything antics no doubt!

[anon76235]

It political correctness gone mad "guys"

[TFO]

* My favourite example was that an (ultimately successful) attack plan to take down a planet-sized installation is conceived of, agreed upon and set into motion literally seconds after seeing the layout plans for the very first time. "A New Hope" at least had the alliance poring (offscreen, but still) over the death star maps to find a weakness.

In fairness they did have Finn to tell them exactly what to do and thy'd have had to have a go in any case, otherwise they'd have been dead.

And he is a sanitation engineer...

[VNVObit]

* My favourite example was that an (ultimately successful) attack plan to take down a planet-sized installation is conceived of, agreed upon and set into motion literally seconds after seeing the layout plans for the very first time. "A New Hope" at least had the alliance poring (offscreen, but still) over the death star maps to find a weakness.

In fairness they did have Finn to tell them exactly what to do and thy'd have had to have a go in any case, otherwise they'd have been dead.

And he is a sanitation engineer...

that was also in a ground assault squad! thought the engineer bit was to get the trash compactor joke in