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Disney buying LucasFilm, Releasing Star Wars episode 7 in 2015 Disney buying LucasFilm, Releasing Star Wars episode 7 in 2015

12-19-2015 , 02:00 AM
Spoiler:
Seemed obvious to me that Rey is Luke's daughter.
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12-19-2015 , 02:01 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ntnBO
III > V > VI > I > IV > VII > II
you are absolutely insane
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12-19-2015 , 02:04 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Melkerson
**** spoilers at this point. As several have said, if you haven't seen it and read this thread, you deserve what you get.

It just flies in the face of everything we've learned about jedi training and what we are told about Ren: he's Leia's kid (so force is strong in him), he's was trained by Luke at a young age and has been at it for at least a decade judging by his apparent age, had more training by a powerful Sith (who probably wouldn't have bothered seducing him with the dark side if he was a force donk), and does some pretty impressive **** that we don't see any other jedi ever doing (e.g. stopping the blaster fire in mid-air. Maybe others could have done it too, but considering there were about a million times that skill would have been useful to various Jedi, it's telling that they show only him able to do it).

And even if Rey is super strong with the force, it can't be enough. Young Anakin was essentially the most force sensitive being in the universe and it obviously took him a great deal of training to even be reasonably competent.

/rant

Despite the above, I still enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one.
Spoiler:
Snoke said he now has to complete Kylo's training. This implies to me that he intentionally left gaps when training his apprentice. Which actually makes a lot of sense if you consider how Sith Lords are consistently killed by their apprentice and that there isn't a Jedi Council to oppose them.

Kilo Ren will come back in the next film a much tougher villain.
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12-19-2015 , 02:07 AM
Latest box office numbers point to a $123m Friday and a $245m weekend.

The current records are $91m Friday (Harry Potter 7 part 2) and $208m weekend (Jurassic World)

The opening weekend record in December is $84m (The Hobbit).
Disney buying LucasFilm, Releasing Star Wars episode 7 in 2015 Quote
12-19-2015 , 02:27 AM
Agreed there was way too much reliance on coincidence, but I guess that was true in the original Star Wars as well (and ridiculously so in the ****ty prequels).
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12-19-2015 , 02:27 AM
Spoiler:
I thought the acting and dialogue was pretty bad. Every character but Hon and Rey seemed to way over act their scenes. Almost every other line was some sort of comedic relief during the action scenes which fell pretty flat for me other than a few good ones. (Thumbs up by BB8 and an interaction between Hon and Chewie)

I liked the parallels to IV, but they should have had an actual plot/story that was apart from a rehashed version of IV.
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12-19-2015 , 02:29 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigPoppa
Agreed there was way too much reliance on coincidence, but I guess that was true in the original Star Wars as well (and ridiculously so in the ****ty prequels).
Spoiler:
Crash land Tie fighter on desert planet. First civilization you see happens to have BB8 and the force user Rey instantly. No search or journey just right there in front of you as you are dying for water.
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12-19-2015 , 02:38 AM
Everything in Star Wars is very coincidental. Han taking his old ship back was random as well. I guess it's what you call fate....
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12-19-2015 , 02:40 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by kep
Spoiler:
Snoke said he now has to complete Kylo's training. This implies to me that he intentionally left gaps when training his apprentice. Which actually makes a lot of sense if you consider how Sith Lords are consistently killed by their apprentice and that there isn't a Jedi Council to oppose them.

Kilo Ren will come back in the next film a much tougher villain.
Yeah, I considered that as well, just thought my rant was long enough.

It doesn't matter because even a Padawan level Jedi/Sith would still be light years more advanced than Finn or Rey. IIRC, Obi-Wan was still technically a Padawan when he defeated Darth Maul. Anakin was a Padawan when he defeated Dooku. Granted, those guys were pretty close to being Jedi, but their training was probably not quite complete either.

Basically, "not complete" can mean anything from almost no training, to almost all of it. Given the type of stuff Snoke had him doing, I think he was closer to the latter.
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12-19-2015 , 03:28 AM
not sure if people itt are wearing rose-colored goggles WRT to ranking this behind all the OT films, or i am clouded by recency bias. I did watch all the other movies recently though. I guess it comes down to personal taste in the end. I was cracking up, cheering, and getting much more psyched during this movie than the OT. Obv the prequels are WOAT, except ep. 3
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12-19-2015 , 03:43 AM
melkerson

you're a ****ing moron
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12-19-2015 , 03:45 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by capone0
Everything in Star Wars is very coincidental. Han taking his old ship back was random as well. I guess it's what you call fate....
this is explained by the Force which is a convenient plot device but still not totally out of line. The Force is kind of like a neutral type God force in the Star Wars universe, other than the fact it has a way of making things happen for the good guys. Even though there's supposed to be balance blah blah.
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12-19-2015 , 03:57 AM
agree with most of Shuffle's points. disappointing

OT forever
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12-19-2015 , 04:15 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuffle
Well here's my way too long review that takes itself too seriously. Just xposting this from the lounge.

Characters:

Spoiler:
Daisy was great. Easy on the eyes, decent acting. Liked her character a lot, but I think the development of her force powers could have been paced better. That part seemed backloaded.

Finn was just ok. Thought he had good moments but he was erratic in others. Started out scared and contrite, then he was selfish, then he was altruistic, then he was daring and reckless, then he was providing comic relief. Just all over the map and felt like he was the creation of 10 different writers, which he may very well have been.

Han was terrific. He had most of the best dialogue in the film. The scenes late in the movie with Leia were a struggle though, and Chewbacca was shockingly underused to the point it was painful for him to even be included at all. They could have cut him and replaced him with some random X-wing pilot and it wouldn't have made any difference, that's how poorly his role was handled.

The bad guys ... I thought Kylo was fine. Surprisingly liked him more than I thought I would. Captain Phasma was a joke. Snoke looked like he belonged in the Lord of the Rings, I mean he was nearly the only thing in TFA that was prequel-level bad. The First Order general was also terribly acted and whoever made that casting decision should have been fired on the spot. Some guy who looks like he's 25 is the most senior military official in a galactic empire? Really? That dude has to be some producer's nephew or boyfriend, can't be any other explanation.


Pacing:

Spoiler:
This was my biggest complaint with the film, even more than the re-hash stuff. When I got out of the theater I made the remark that it felt like I just got off a jerky wooden rollercoaster. There was just too much stuff going on in the film in too little time. Just didn't slow down in the right spots when the film could have used a breather. Not enough poignant or reflective moments. Dialogue often seemed rushed and was sometimes hard to follow.


Score:

Spoiler:
Terrible. Honestly can't believe it, John Williams wtf? Can't remember anything memorable except the original force theme and the original Leia's theme. All of the new music was not only completely forgettable, but worse, it was often loud and intrusive.


Other complaints:

Spoiler:
I constantly found myself hating the blocking and framing in this movie. The camerawork was terrible, and there was one scene I remember in particular where the camera was spinning around for seemingly no reason at all. Just nauseating work from Abrams. Editing was mostly terrible too.


Things I liked:

Spoiler:
Some of the action/flight scenes like when the Falcon was being pursued on Jakku. Some of the Tie-Fighter vs. X-wing shots late in the movie. The updated hyperspace graphics were great. Pretty much any of the slower, character establishing scenes with Rey. Film should have focused more on her, in my opinion.


Breaking down the plot:

Spoiler:
I thought the first scenes were terrible and then the movie strengthened some after that. The old man with the McGuffin seemed so poorly thought out and was poorly acted. The pat shot of Kylo turning and staring down some random stormtrooper (who happened to be Finn) was lame. Can you ever picture Vader stopping in his tracks to give a random stormtrooper 2 ****s of time? Really? Should have just cut all these dumb ****ing scenes out of the movie, they were basically pointless. Finn and Phasma **** was all pointless. Everything in the first ten minutes or whatever was terrible.

Thankfully after all that bull**** was done, we meet Rey and the story really settled down and got quite good for awhile. Honestly I think they should have just started the movie with her and made it mostly about her, she was by far the strongest character in the entire cast. Film was great for the rest of Act I on Jakku, and the escape on the Falcon at first act climax was really well done. That whole sequence was one of the highlights, if not THE highlight, of the entire film.

After that, Rey and Finn get picked up by Han and Chewie in some freighter. What are they doing on this junk freighter and what are the odds they happen to come across the Falcon soon after it takes off for the first time in years and years? This part of the plot was really poorly handled; all of the dialogue with the two smuggling groups was bad; then there were cartoonish CGI monsters. More prequel ****. **** off. About the only good thing in this part of the movie was Han Solo being Han Solo. "Move, ball" got me to laugh out loud.

Anyway, what happened next? Oh yeah, the gang goes to Maz's place. Most of the CGI characters in this movie looked terrible (like Snoke and the junk dealer on Jakku). If any of them were well done, it was Maz but honestly I'm not even sure on that one. She was also, apparently, dumb as rocks, considering she was supposed to be some kind of sage.

So after that, Kylo comes and blows everything up and kidnaps Rey. I liked the scenes between the two of them on the ship, but found myself doubting the casting decision of Kylo. Just didn't look very villainish when he was unmasked. Gave off the whiny prequel Anakin vibe that everyone hates. Keep the mask on dude, it's much more intimidating.

Speaking of Kylo, did anyone else buy him being Han and Leia's son? Just didn't seem to work at all for me. Should have been Luke's son, in my opinion.

Finally we get back to Rey and she starts to learn the force. Loved this part of the movie, but again I thought it was too backloaded. Needed better pacing, foreshadow her growing force sensitivity earlier in the film. Don't give it all to us in the last 30 minutes ffs.

So yeah after that the third act consisted of parts that either sucked completely, or were on the verge of being well done and then got ****ed up. Everything with Rey on the ship was great. The Rebels' plans for attack were not believable. Han flying at light speed and being able to manually stop his ship in time in a planet's atmosphere and then pull up in just enough time to crash land and stop on the edge of a cliff? Really? Isn't that the kind of lame bull**** they put in Pirates of the Caribbean or Indy 4? How the **** does a Galactic Empire's secret weapon get infiltrated by one ****ing ship? And a crew of 3 is able to blow up a ****ing military installation with millions of bad guys on it? I mean all of this **** was ****ing dumb as hell.

The last interesting part of the main action was the lightsaber battle between Kylo and Rey. I kept wondering why in the hell is Kylo not wasting this chick with little effort? And then it happened. He told her he wanted to train her. Finally an old school added dimension to a lightsaber battle, cool as hell right? Rey fights him off, and this scene really worked for me. And then Abrams ****ed it up. As soon as Rey fights off Kylo for an instant, the fissure in the ground should have separated them immediately. It ruined the whole ****ing scene for her to suddenly start beating this dude's ass and nearly kill him even though she's never used a lightsaber before. Damn that was brutal.

Anyway the final shot with Rey and Luke was pretty good. I still don't like the idea of people looking for Luke and being able to find him off some damn map. He's Luke ****ing Skywalker, he'll come around and find you when he's damn well and ready. And Leia's cameo felt forced and unnecessary. And nobody says "The Alliance" or "Rebels" the entire film. They get called the "Resistance" every time, and that's a nitty thing that probably only tilted me.


Final Thoughts:

Spoiler:
Plot was poorly thought out and not focused enough on Rey. Should have made Kylo be Luke's son. I don't know, probably a lot of other **** most of you don't care about.


I'd give TFA a 6/10 rating. Probably would rate the series as follows:

Empire Strikes Back: 10/10
Star Wars: 8 or 9 / 10
Return of the Jedi: 8 or 9 / 10
****ty prequel #1: 2 or 3/ 10
****ty prequel #2: 1 / 10
****ty prequel #3: 1 / 10

The Force Awakens: 6 / 10

Just OK. Better than the prequels, not as good as the originals. Probably good enough to make most people happy as long as you don't expect a masterpiece.

Also:

Spoiler:
Loved the new droid. BB-8 was great.
nod nod nod

Spoiler:
would have loved the final fight to end as you suggest. it would leave doubt with us for the rest of the movies if she will be seduced or remain good and righteous. plus you cannot say for a second that Kylo couldn't easily dispatch two untrained fighters. the second i saw him get wounded i knew they'd use that as some ploy as that he's weak.
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12-19-2015 , 05:22 AM
The best compare and contrast with the OT is how the rebels relate to the weapon.

In Star Wars, the rebels have for months/years been trying to get data on the death star, but in 7 they are like WTF they have a weapon the size of a planet?

It just caused huge narrative dissonance for me and made the world I am supposed to buy into seem very incomplete and jarring.

Even if you ignore the above what happens next is where 7 really suffers. Before the attack on the DS we get a robust pseudo military briefing, and a solid robust pseudo militaristic attack full of believable dialogue like "Red leader to Base 1" and "Pick up your visual scanning" "All deflectors to front" etc etc etc.

What happens in 7 is horrible in comparison. The planning stage is like something out of the Famous 5 or the A team, and before you know it the X wings are attacking going yehaaa pew pew pew. The attack lacked any gravitas when compared to the Death Star attack.

Its all very rushed and kinetic, could have done with just five more minutes of exegesis and development imo.

That said, some have complained about the camera work. I saw this in 3D and thought it had some of the best use of 3D I have seen in a film, it used the 3D to build immersion, there was one shot looking down the bow of a X wing that was fantastic, not go hey guys look its 3D, though there was one funny obviously gratuitous 3D shot were the First Order star destroyer seemed to come out of the screen and take up half the cinema, which was a nice knowing use of the technology for humorous effect.

Speaking of humor no one has mentioned the GOAT scene, Ben Solo is freaking out with his light saber and two Storm Troopers come round the corner, hear that he is made and then look at each other and walk the other way.

Even with all the problems its a solid 8.5 for me. JJ makes films that are just fun spectacle without going into the shallow excess of Michael Bay. Would not be surprised if some of the massive plot holes such as where were the Republic never get filled in as they are always a feature in JJ films and he often just leaves them to hang.

Had a great time at the cinema with my family but the film lacked the sharpness of detail in plot and dialogue to push it from really good upto elite. 8/8.5

Last edited by O.A.F.K.1.1; 12-19-2015 at 05:44 AM.
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12-19-2015 , 05:29 AM
The GOAT scene is obviously

Fin: We'll use the force!
Han: That's not how the force works!

Close 2nd is BB8 thumbs up
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12-19-2015 , 05:37 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by kep
Snoke said he now has to complete Kylo's training. This implies to me that he intentionally left gaps when training his apprentice. Which actually makes a lot of sense if you consider how Sith Lords are consistently killed by their apprentice and that there isn't a Jedi Council to oppose them.

Kilo Ren will come back in the next film a much tougher villain.
I was under the impression that Sith Lords like there apprentices to get beat up a little and feel genuine hard core pain. This gives them a greater pool of anger and pissed off ness to draw on which is the source of a Siths power.

Falling into a lava pit was the making of Darth Vader for example.

Also he has just killed his Dad, which is probably a Sith prerequisite for Lazer fingers 1001.

Last edited by O.A.F.K.1.1; 12-19-2015 at 05:43 AM.
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12-19-2015 , 05:45 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmakin
this is explained by the Force which is a convenient plot device but still not totally out of line. The Force is kind of like a neutral type God force in the Star Wars universe, other than the fact it has a way of making things happen for the good guys. Even though there's supposed to be balance blah blah.
Surely it balances the bad guys having a weapon that can blow up a planet. Bad guys were getting some love to.
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12-19-2015 , 09:41 AM
Huge lol at 1/10 for episode 3. Heck even 2 had some good moments and wasn't worth 1/10 and Darth Maul is enough to make 1 at least a 3/10
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12-19-2015 , 09:51 AM
All three prequels are straight up bad movies, solidly in the 1-3/10 range for me. One half way decent light saber battle tacked on here or there does nothing to make up for leaden dialog, characters that have no depth, and stories that aren't engaging.
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12-19-2015 , 10:09 AM
Episode 1 was imo by far the worst. The story was weird and very badly paced. I still don't understand what Palpatine his plan was to take control. I understand it worked, I just don't understand how he planned it. Pretty much everything had the "fake 3D" feel. The positive things for me were the pod race (and even that aged really bad) and Darth Maul. Darth Maul was overall quite unimportant and the lightsaber battle looked like dancing more than anything. The only really good thing about the movie was the scenes at the end where the lightsaber battle had to be paused due to the barrier things, and then when Kenobi had to watch as the other 2 fought.

Episode 2 was a little bit better but once again suffered from a weird and bad story. The movie also lacked a main villain. All action scenes again looked and felt like "fake 3D". Imo the ending would have been awesome if they had gotten the special effects right, but they didn't. Seeing Yoda fight was still awesome. Besides the Yoda fight everything is really forgetable.

Episode 3 imo is a fine movie if you accept that Anakin's transition was not handled very well. People will say that that is the single most important thing of the movie and they're not wrong, so it's a major flaw. But outside that it really is a great movie in my opinion. And they finally nailed the special effects. Episode VII still looks a lot better though.
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12-19-2015 , 10:14 AM
I can accept saying 3 is watchable (not to me, its dire puss), but great, of course everyone has their own subjectivity, but saying 3 was great is an analogue of saying poo tastes gooood.
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12-19-2015 , 10:44 AM
Nah. 3 is second or third best in the series.

Jedi is largely a mess really. Lolewoks
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12-19-2015 , 10:47 AM
nothing gets people riled up like saying you enjoy the prequels.
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12-19-2015 , 10:49 AM
5, 4, 7=3=6, 1, ......, ........, 2
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