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A real disappointment on first viewing. The opening third is good, nice even pacing to set the story and has the feeling of the first trilogy that many people have alluded to. The second third is where it all starts to come to pieces as the story just gets unnecessarily bogged down, and the final third just feels rushed and lacks dramatic impact due to the lagging middle and a general weak narrative as a result of giving Daisy Ridley too much screen time, and underusing the rest of the bloated cast. The score was also noticeably poor.

The good.

John Boyega was good in his role, despite the lack of him having anything to get his teeth into. Before viewing I felt Han Solo would die, as I just didn't know where his character would go in the sequels, and I felt his death could give the villains real menace. However, it was poorly executed with Ren looking weaker as a result, rather than stronger or more menacing.


The bad.

Luke only gets 1 min screen time at the end, and the segment just felt tacked on. In fact, I'm pretty sure this segment was mooted at some point as a post credit scene, but they decided against it so they could have Mark Hamill on the poster.

Daisy Ridley wasn't very good, and her character has way to much screen time. OK, it’s Star Wars, but are we really supposed to believe she goes to slave/mechanic to a self-taught Jedi over a few days, and as a result was able to kick Ren’s ass?

Destruction of the Death Star. So they cobble a plan together in 1 min, fly in and blow it up. This is what I’m talking about with pacing. It took 15-20 mins in this film, whereas RotJ spent 90 mins building the narrative. I'm not even sure why they needed another Death Star shoehorned in, the finding Luke narrative was plenty strong enough to carry the film. It felt like an executive decision rather than a writing one. And why did it need to be bigger? If it can destroy a planet, it can destroy a planet, being bigger doesn't make it more menacing. Finally the battles, especially the Death Star one, were a bit messy, and felt more like the prequels.

Overall, I did enjoy the movie, but no more than the prequels.

Pretty good points you raise.

The one spoilerish bit I heard before going into it was that it took after A New Hope and also set up this trilogy using the original trilogy as a template.

With that in mind it seems pretty easy to draw a lot of parallels between characters and predict how their arcs will go.

Rey/Finn are the new Luke/Leia combo (except genders reversed)
Poe is the new Han.
Maz Kanata will be the new Yoda.
Snoke the new Sidious.
Kylo the new Vader.

I'm stating some of the obvious I think and it isn't that black and white but it felt like watching the same thing with the next generation of characters.

I haven't read any more but I was left a little unsure if it was... implied?... where Rey came from. Was her vision on Takodana when she grabbed Luke's lightsabre telling us that she is Luke's kid, or just a Jedi to be? My gut at first also told me that Rey might be another Han/Leia child, as it would create the sibling conflict between her and Kylo but that is probably stretching it, might have been due to Kylo presence in her vision.

Also thought an even bigger Death Star was kind of meh. Sure gave Abrams a lot of opportunity to do landscape shots of explosions and eruptions.

Oh and the humour. Felt like too much slapsticky chuckles for a Star Wars movie. That is definitely Abrams influence.

The new cast is phenomenonal, and they have great chemistry together. I loved the movie right up until Han Solo was introduced. After that, it got a bit clunky. Too much rehashing of the original. The writers must've been lazy. I really enjoyed it, it seemed like Abrams was up to the task, and the cast nailed everything. The script just wasn't on the level as the rest of the production. I did love the ending, though. Thought that was the perfect amount of Luke Skywalker. I'm looking forward to the next installment quite a bit. It was so close to being great. Just fell short.

My guess is that Rey will turn out to be related to like Obi-Wan somehow.

Oscar Isaac was ridiculously underused

OP is dead on. Thought Daisy was quite good though



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Yeah, I mean the 10-15 min scene with the monsters and gangsters was just pointless, didn't move the story along, and could have been lifted from any sci-fi movie. I agree that's where things started going off the rails. Before that, it was excellent.

I'm probably being a bit harsh. The chemistry with Ford was excellent. I just didn't think she gave a performance any fresh-faced newbie out of stage school couldn't have given.

Oh yeah and Phasma - what was the point, other than to market a toy??

Agree with the death star and luke's screentime, pretty disappointing, especially luke.

But i thought it was a very good movie, i liked the new cast, han solo and really loved Kylo Ren as a character, glad he's not dead. But also disappointing how rey beat him at the end, it was to easy and Kylo was portrayed to weak there. Also the reveal about Kylo being han's son could have been better.. Glad i saw it the 16th already, getting spoiled about han's death would have pretty much ruined the movie for me. Going again this sunday

The ending with Luke was my favorite part of the movie. So much that I'm glad that's his only scene. He's out on this planet living an ascetic life, and Rey asks him to return to the fight. And it's all unspoken. It was perfect to lead into the next movie.

I really do think the next one can be great. This first one introduced a truly wonderful new cast, and it started off like gangbusters. Instead of running with that thread, it went and brought back old characters, and then just essentially copied the plot of the original from there out. If the next movie just puts all the new characters together, and doesn't try to remind the audience how good the OT was in lieu of like anything else.. it'll be amazing.

Just going to assume Rian Johnson will deliver. If he is able to make the kind of Star Wars I think he can make, it'll be a genuine classic. Abrams made about what I figured he'd make.

Yeah well, mabye it was. I just really wanted to see more of him. Its going to be a long 2 years

Overall I really liked it. Very good acting by the majority of the cast and a fantastic ending/lead-in to Ep VIII with Rae and Luke. I had a bad feeling about this being Han's swan song heading into the movie but the scene was incredibly well acted by both Harrison and Adam Driver.

Agree that my biggest nitpick is when Finn, having never been in a light saber duel before, holds his own for more than about five seconds against someone so strong with the force as Ren. That should have been a massive Ren curb stomping from the start. I was more OK with Rae holding her own and getting stronger with the force as the fight went on but to give her essentially a clean victory over someone with Ren's supposed power was wrong. It was as if she gained the same level of force control and power it took Luke to acquire in three movies over multiple years in a few days.

Looking forward to seeing what the ultimate relationship between Rae and Ren is and Luke's return. enjoyed it quite a bit and would see again.

You can make the argument that Finn has been trained to fight all his life as a stormtrooper, just the same as you can make the argument that Rey had Jedi training when she was 4.

I think both stretch the credibility of the plot very thinly though, especially given how force sensitive and strong Ren is made to look in the first half of the film.

You should also take into account that Ren was hurt. They tried to imply that he was not close to 100%. Often hitting himself as in "come on body, hold up".

I think Rey might be Luke's daughter. I kind of prefer if she is not related to anyone in the Star Wars universe, but they kept playing Luke's theme with her on screen. It could mean that her character is like Luke's, but they played it so much, I think it might mean she's Luke's daughter.

I liked the final scene. Awesome.

Finn was fantastic in the movie and Han was really good too.

I don't mind the new death star. I think it makes sense schematically. If you know how to build those structures, why not keep building them. This one is an improvement over the previous one.

Very happy with the movie, I look forward to seeing it again on Christmas.

First off I agree with the light saber duel between Kylo and Finn - that definitely should have been a beatdown of Finn from the jump.

Next, after Han dies I could have sworn that Chewy went nuts and blew himself up with the detonators when he had to blow the thing (whatever it was) up to make the new Death Star weaker. And I liked that ending for Chewy and that that would have been cool to go out with his ace and have a soldier's death at the same time.

Lastly, WHAT THE F&*$ with Captain Phasma? All of the teasers and previews that I have watched for a year now and drooling over this new 'super trooper' and she ends up being nothing, really nothing at all!!

Eh, no real issues for me, Carrie Fisher wasnt even trying to act is maybe the biggest issue.

Otherwise, I grinned like a kid through pretty much the whole movie.

9/10

Thought Ridley was great. Also, hers is like Luke's story arc in A New Hope though. He goes from farm boy to condescendingly mocking Han about not believing in The Force 15 minutes after he discovered it, and without any real training is able to avoid the pursuit of Sith Lord Darth Vader and blow up the Death Star.

I agree it's a little preposterous but I still think it can fun to suspend disbelief for a little bit. That wasn't any different in the original trilogy. It's probably going to turn out she's Luke's daughter or something so her natural Force abilities are very high or whatever.

Considering it's Abrams, I wouldn't be shocked if we got some flashback scenes and more back story with Kylo/Ben and his parents in the next movie. That story has to be told at some point and before the actors get any older, right?

Still processing, but the biggest positives for me is that it felt like Star Wars and it's the first movie/show since 1983 that I didn't know where they were going.

Thought it might be Chewbacca instead of Han that bit it, but it makes sense that's probably the only way he'd get Harrison to return because he wanted Lucas to kill him off in Jedi.

Did think there were some logic fails in the fights too. They showed Kylo to be incredibly powerful earlier. He could stop bullets in mid air and freeze people, so the Fin fight shouldn't have been a fight at all, but I can accept it as whatever it was.

Isn't that like "heros overcome challenge together" to build the emotional resonance later in the film when you feel something when Rey is taken prisoner and Finn want to go rescue her, and they fight Kylo Ren together and stuff? Finn's actions have to make sense later. If you skip the 10-15 minutes of escaping from the monsters and gangsters then why does Finn even give a **** about Rey at all?

I'm harping on this but I almost think you have to see Episode VII as a reaction to the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy. How did the 15 minutes or so in A New Hope from the point when Han and Luke dress as Stormtroopers to their escape from the trash compactor really 'move the story'? Well, it gets Leia out of her cell but you could do that way faster. Formally it doesn't do much. But it seems like the typical "Act II protagonist experience thing that challenges or encourages them and by overcoming challenge build bond and emotional resonance with each other."

The Prequel Trilogy frequently fails because it DOESN'T have that. Often the protagonists are split apart for huge segments of the movies. If you wanted to give a **** about Obi Wan and Anakin's friendship, you had to watch the Clone Wars animated series, because Lucas made the bizarre decision to use Qui Gon's relationships with Anakin and Obi Wan for emotional resonance in Episode I and then split up the protagonists for most of Episode II and III such that you probably don't give two ****s about Obi Wan and Anakin falling out by Episode III since you hardly saw them doin' adventures together before that.

Put differently, that scene is: audience, go ahead and give a **** about the relationship between Finn and Rey (and by proxy their new mentor Han Solo), here's some adventuring where they accomplished something together to make you feel for them

Ford is a good bit older than Fisher and Hamill too. By the time Episode IX films he'd be almost 80. Did he have to die? Maybe not. But since Star Wars is going to continue forever into the endless future it seems, I also don't want Star Wars to become endless fan service where just watch the same heros doing battle in wheel chairs, or alternatively, where you never get that gut punched by never having the beloved heros die.

So I think there was just a natural pressure to conclude Han's story because Ford is like, old, and similarly, it made for some palatable drama and pain for the audience.

I do agree with the criticism that at points, Abram's made decisions that make Kylo Ren look weak, but a point in "Kylo Ren is a bad bad dude" favor is that he iced his dad, just like that, light saber to the gut or whatever. That should set up nicely either his eventual redemption ("look how bad he was, and look how far from the depths of evil he came!") or even just his continued credibility as a bad guy.

So killing off good guys shouldn't just be to sucker punch the audience, THAT'S a cheap decision. So killing Chewie or Han should have some other meaning. Like in this case, it builds the villain. I think Abrams decision to have his Dark Side villain son kill him builds up the Kylo Ren character.

They needed to name drop Kylo more. I had no idea what his name was after the movie, while I did with everyone else.

She's pretty clearly a Skywalker imo, I guess her past is the big reveal later in Episode VIII/IX.

That's possible, sure. I figured they would've mentioned something about Luke having a family. Unless I missed it..? Although, if they did that, it'd be really easy to figure that out.

Maybe he vanished because he knocked up a chick on Jakku. You try paying child support on a Jedi salary.

"Rey, I am your deadbeat dad" is quite catchy, I must admit.

I was thinking Rey was Kylo's twin sister right up until Han called him Ben (EU refererence).