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

[F-ZeroOne]

Its good. Really, really good. In fact, I'm still trying to process it; its probably going to take a second viewing before I can properly grasp it. It was clever in that it had everything you expected, but not in the way you expected. I certainly didn't expect them to leave a couple of loose ends dangling, especially the appearance of a certain someone...

BB-8 was probably the breakout character for me and my Mum; everyone else is great but that little ball had personality and charm coming out of his... audio receptors.

There are niggles; this is not intended to be harsh criticism, its just the way my brain works:

Not sold on Bohemian Vader. Cool lightsabre, needs a haircut.

What the hell kind of name is "Snoake"?!

Even in galaxies far, far away, there is a Scotland.

Captain Phasma was a bit of a disappointment. I hope she gets more to do in the sequels than be stuffed in the trash disposal.

Finn goes from elite shocktrooper to rebel pretty damn quickly. Actually, the whole film is a touch frantic.

So the New Empire has a device that can blow up planets, but does so by draining a sun of all its energy? Why... blow up the planets then?

New Empire still hasn't learnt what guardrails are for. Or to put shields over its blowy-up bits. Or how to shoot straight.

Stormtroopers have certainly improved on how to react to being hit by blaster fire. They should do scorecards.

[guythp]

From what I read, Phasma is in there solely as they liked the outfit (it was one of the designs for Kylo) and they wanted her (whoever she is who plays the character) to be in it.

Good point about the sun killing thing though.. Mind you, if they just drained the sun it'd take away the suspense of a 'countdown to firing' scenario and therefore be completely against the star wars ethos.. It'd be like having a film where a major character doesn't die, or someone doesn't lose a limb (I'm pretty sure Kylo lost something in the final fight, didn't he?).. It'd be total chaos.

[RiK]

From what I read, Phasma is in there solely as they liked the outfit (it was one of the designs for Kylo) and they wanted her (whoever she is who plays the character) to be in it.

It's that blonde woman that plays Brianna in Game of Thrones innit..

[Barney]

Loved it, came away thinking "thank fuck for that".

A few of my own thoughts -

Brienne dropped the shields and capitulated far too easily. She was a hard-ass, and came across as being able to kick the arses off that little rebel collective. I suspect she'll be back and will have been following orders - there's something bigger at play there.

Loved Kylo Ren. I believe he was a good guy desperately trying to be bad, possibly a little unhinged, came across as a confused teenager with way more power than he can handle. He's woefully inadequate in his control of the force - he stopped a blaster shot from Poe, but failed to stop Chewie's Bowcaster - the difference being that he saw Poe's shot, didn't see Chewie's; he was distracted and unaware of what was happening around him. And an untrained force-sensitive kicked his arse. I shall be following his career with great interest, as the saying goes - he's a clown with a fixation on his granddad for all the wrong reasons.

Loved the Falcon slipping under the shields by dropping out of hyperspace in front of a mountain.

Daniel Craig was brilliant, all 30 seconds of him.

Would have liked Snoake to turn out to be an old wizened Gungan.

The sanitation ruse was just to hide what Finn really used to be - I suspect he thinks he'd not be popular if people knew. Seemed to know rather more than a trooper would be required to about the defensive situation though. No biggie.

FX were great. Not too much lens flare, nice CGI that didn't get in the way (as the remade 4 - 6 got) and what was done was very well done indeed. Only two TIE fighters against the Falcon, the breathtaking X-Wings skimming across the water, the water disturbance under the Falcon as they came in to land.

Edit: Also, quite curious as to why Finn can handle a sabre. AFAIK, people with no force sensitivity tend to end up cutting themselves up with them rather easily, as the blade has no momentum or weight - only Jedi/Sith and the occasional droid can handle them. Yet Finn was rather handy with it...

Also, why did that trooper have a sabre-proof weapon? There are no more Jedi - Luke is nowhere to be found, and they know that. The only sabre-wielding character is Ren - why do his troopers carry a weapon that a sabre can't be used against, when the only person they will be called to use it against is Ren? With Luke being such an awesome force-user, it's not going to be much good against him. So why? I don't believe this is an oversight for one minute.

Now all I want is a sequel that isn't Empire - I understand that they had to get the fans back on board after the diastrous mess Lucas made post (and during) Episode 1 trying to please both studios and fans, and the way to do that was to basically remake IV. Which they did, handily and with style. But having established their credentials with this, they need to take the story in a new direction (while of course keeping with the mirroring/rhyming with the originals). And it is for that reason that I'll continue to be cautious about the next one too.

[noodles]

I wanted to like this so much but was thoroughly disappointed. The nerve of even trying to use the <map/message/recipe> in droid at the beginning as a plot device made me stare in disbelief that I was seeing a recycling of the first Star Wars. Sure there are some nice pictures, but the overall impression is that of dismay at something that was obviously the product of writing by committee from a megacorp that would never take the slightest risk with such a cash cow.

The one little detail that really annoyed me was the ridiculous bad guy lightsaber with bits coming out the sides, just grotesque and so obviously impractical if it
could be made at all that it instantly ruined all the saber duels with him in it.

Leia and Han looked like they had been kept in a closet for 30 years, just sad.

To me this is just a weak movie with a huge budget.

[Barney]

The one little detail that really annoyed me was the ridiculous bad guy lightsaber with bits coming out the sides, just grotesque and so obviously impractical if it
could be made at all that it instantly ruined all the saber duels with him in it.

I love it - it added so much to the character of Kylo Ren. Like him, it's flawed (has a cracked synthetic crystal) and due to those flaws the blade is flawed and ragged, and has to have the side outlets to vent the power by all accounts. It's also very, very weak - it barely damages the rooms where he rages in his tantrums. It is, like him, inferior to what it purports to be.

[gravy]

Rey's going to turn out to be Palpatine's daughter isn't she?

Too obvious she'd be Luke's and it lines up the possibility of a complete downer middle film just like the first time around

[Barney]

Rey's going to turn out to be Palpatine's daughter isn't she?

Not unless she's over 30

[F-ZeroOne]

Gwendoline Christie plays Brienne of Tarth in "Game of Thrones" and is the awesome.

Anti-lightsabre (or, perhaps more accurately, resistant) weapons have existed in Star Wars lore for ages - they were in the "Knights of the Old Republic" games. Possibly The New Order were just hedging their bets?

[Dio]

One reason would be because they were troops on Ren's ship and maybe they have orders to deal with him in the event of him changing sides. Since that family seems to be badly stuck in the Revolving Door Of The Force.

[k345y]

It's all shit at the end of the day.

Never will the wow factor be achieved as it was with the first 2.

A New Hope amazed all with opening scene of the ...erm....Imperial Cruiser/Star Destroyer ?


And Empire Strikes Back totally won the Star Wars trick photography with the AT-AT and ST's.

It's never going to get better.

[BillyT]

So I take it most people think Rey is Luke's daughter? Because...

-The force is strong in this one.
-Luke's saber called to her.
-Luke's theme played under her fight with Ren (so I'm told)

If so he's a bit of a git dumping his daughter in the same way he hated to be dumped!

That is just too obvious and a mis-direction that the director wants you to think.

There's a lot of theories on the web about who she is… My favourite one is that she is Kenobi's grand-daughter which has all sorts of possibilities with making the whole series tie up neatly. Don't forget Ben had that light-sabre for over 20 years, his voice was heard in the vision sequence, Rey was very apt at Jedi-mind tricks that Kenobi was good at and so forth. Lot's of clues in the film to point to this.

But she could also be Luke's child and Kenobi's grand-child as well. Basically Luke got together with Kenobi's daughter and they produced Rey which could explain why she has traits of a Skywalker and a Kenobie. And it also explains why she is powerful with the Force.

But for all that to work we need a good convincing back story on how Kenobi fathered a child. He certainly had time on his hands while keeping an eye out on Luke as he grew up.

Why I like this theory is that Ben taught Luke the ways of the force, and then Luke teaches a Kenobi. The roles are reversed. And we get a mirror of the fights between Obi and Darth with the grand-children.

[BillyT]

The biggest thing J.J. Abrams could of done with the franchise was to make Luke fall to the Dark side. That would certainly shake things up. And I hope that will happen as the new films unfold. I know Mark Hammil was asked once what he would like Luke to become. He basically said it would be interesting if he went to the dark side.

Somehow I don't think this will happen but it would certainly make the new films very interesting.

[k345y]

The biggest thing J.J. Abrams could of done with the franchise was to make Luke fall to the Dark side. That would certainly shake things up. And I hope that will happen as the new films unfold. I know Mark Hammil was asked once what he would like Luke to become. He basically said it would be interesting if he went to the dark side.

Somehow I don't think this will happen but it would certainly make the new films very interesting.

That's a great idea. I never even considered it! I'd look forward to that muchly, especially if he does Carrie Fisher in.

[Mat]

Loved it, saw it today at the IMAX in Leicester Square. As others mentioned, I went in completely spoiler free, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wasn't massively enamoured of BB8, but I think that's probably due to over-exposure before the film even came out. A guy at work has the expensive toy one, so the "Wow!" factor was completely ruined. Still some great little character pieces there though, and he was only just a little bit Scrappy to R2's Scooby.

I also had some issues with some of the minor casting, as it was painfully apparent that a lot of people were there purely because they're massive Star Wars fans who also happen to work in Hollywood (most noticeable during the bits at the resistance base).
That sort of stuff should hopefully peter out in the next movie.
And while I like him in other stuff I've seen him in, Domnhall Gleeson was totally miscast. He just doesn't project that elderly-contemptuous-statesman-officer air that I've come to expect from senior bad guys in Star Wars.

Oh, and while Rae is obviously meant to be the proper Jedi, she needs some more fight training on how to move properly. Finn was much more convincing.

But everything else was ace, and I loved how at certain points the movie went "Fuck it, that's enough talky stuff, now let's just blow stuff up in space".
And Poe Dameron, who was pretty much the key component of most of the really cool wars in the stars bits, was a fantastic new addition. I can't wait to see what else they do with his character.

Anybody else stay to the end and notice that fecking GEORGE OSBORNE got a "thank you" in the credits?