Topic: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

[Corbomite]

Little boys like toy spaceships and light sabers more than little girls, even if you make female stars.  This is where Rey is a flop.

Well, there's at least one little girl and her mother who disagree with you:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/06/entertainment/star-wars-monopoly-wheres-rey-feat/index.html

Sure, some little boys do want to grow up to be girls, but who wants to be Finn?

Why don't we let the story play out before condemning someone who has literally no life experience, up to and including not even being worthy of a name. Those troopers were fodder to the extreme. Only one trooper had a name at all (what do you know, another female!  ). At least the clones knew what they were bred to be right from the start. These poor saps are victims of cult brainwashing. At least Finn had the temerity to walk away when he felt remorse at what he was experiencing. After that he was a fish out of water.

From what I've seen, JJ is good at specific moments, but his overall arcs seem to lack the emotional and structural "ummph" that these stories require to be memorable. That said, he wasn't the only writer on this, so there is responsibility all around.

[Tulwar]

What does this film give us?

Scenery?  The same desert we saw in most of the other films, but less.  At the end, there's a little bit of an ancient Scottish village.  In between, we get a little bit of a nondescript forest that could be anywhere, so it's even hard to tell that the film has changed venue, when the fighting breaks out.

Spaceships?  OK, the new X-wing is kinda cool.  The TIE fighters and imperial cruisers are pretty much the same as what we saw in the original film, the MF just got rectangular exhausts, and the few incidental spaceships along the way were pretty nondescript.

The costumes pretty much didn't change, except the storm troopers hats, and they were no improvement.

The new characters stank on ice.  The film never gives you much reason to care about Rey.  Finn's part is so badly written I won't even begin to go into it.  The new pilot Poe, hardly has a part in the film.  Darth Vader Junior completely fails as a scary villain.  The mysterious ubervillain, is a gollem want-a-be.  Just what is Harrison Ford doing in this film, playing the same swashbuckling pirate he did when he was a young man?  We grew up loving Hans Solo, so why do they have to make him such a (explicative deleted) loser?  Luke, Leia, C3P0, R2D2 all get forced cameo appearances.  BB8 seems to be little but a parody of R2D2.  All of them deserve no label other than "FAIL."

The plot is the most contrived garbage I've ever been subjected to.  I won't break it down entirely, but the search for Luke gets dropped at the very beginning, and gets picked up at the very end, leaving one to ask, "Why bother in the first place?"  Of course, that also begs the question of why Luke would abandon everybody.  It never bothers to explain what the First Order is, or give the slightest clue of what the political situation is.  It also rehashes the original trilogy in the most forced and inorganic way imaginable.

I cannot remember hearing a single note of the musical score.

Nothing in this film rewarded me for showing up at the theater.  Why would I subject myself to the showing of another installment of this garbage?  Star Wars is dead.

At least with Star Trek, JJ Abrams murdering this series gives it's new owner carte blanche to do what ever they want.  That's a healthy thing.  With Star Wars, we have a huge success for Disney, that leads down a very dark path.  There is no hope for Star Wars.

[Corbomite]

The writers talked about why Luke was MIA for the first film. They found that in all the other versions they wrote that whenever Luke showed up he took over the movie, and they wanted the new movie to be about the new characters, not the old. Their hearts were in the right place, but they were in too much of a hurry to make the movie and didn't think it through very well. This is what comes from setting release dates before your script and talent are even lined up.

[EschelonOfJudgemnt]

Not feeling bad at all about missing the new movie, based on y'alls feedback.

I have a couple of versions of the original trilogy on VHS.  I keep hoping that they will drop the '3 pack' of either of the Star Wars trilogies on DVD down from $34.95 at WalMart, but it hasn't dropped at all.  And Han shot first!

I have the same problem with Enterprise.  I have the first season, but the second and subsequent seasons are too pricey...  I don't mind paying as much as $20 for a season if it's a good series (the 'reboot' Dr Who's can be had for about this, up until Season 8+), but yeah if they want 'full price' years or even decades after release, yeah I generally don't buy in.

Still intrigued about Rogue One though.  Hopefully JJ isn't anywhere near that one.  Gareth Edwards is the director, anyone know anything about him?

[TarMinyatur]

I went into the theater a few weeks ago with very low expectations. And at the end of the movie, I felt that "The Force Awakens" wasn't too bad. I liked the mysteriously talented Rey and the defective, compassionate stormtrooper Finn. It was good to see Chewie and Han after all these years... General Leia and C3PO had limited roles, but they were ok. The battles involving X-Wings and Tie-fighters and the Millenium Falcon were fine and inevitable for Star Wars. The scenes involving Han's contraband tentacled beasts felt forced, and were forgettable.

But as the weeks have passed, I've felt injured by this movie. The senseless violence of the First Order and this inexplicable Darth Vaderish villain was a step above my tolerance level. This film is inappropriate for children, IMO. Why is Kylo so angry? Why does he wear a helmet and use a voice modifier when he has no need for them? (Vader/Anakin needed his black helm -- he would die without it.) Then there's this Emperor-ish Supreme Leader giant that seems to be animated directly from the Hobbit or LOTR. So this ogre is determined to destroy peaceful worlds. The universe simply isn't big enough for the light and dark sides? I'm pleading for complexity, something dynamic.

The StarKiller is so unbelievably stupid and unclever that I'm almost at a loss for words. It has an Achilles heel, called a "thermal oscillator". Huh? Fill a planet's core with 100% of the energy of the nearest star such that night falls? Gimmie a break.

Despite all this, I will probably see the next episode because I like Mark Hamill and the character of Luke Skywalker.

[Corbomite]

Then there's this Emperor-ish Supreme Leader giant that seems to be animated directly from the Hobbit or LOTR.

The CGI/motion capture was very poor on Snoke. It looked  like CGI, which in this day and age is pretty unforgivable if you're trying to look realistic. The size was just the hologram though. He isn't really that big.

Many people are trying to figure out who Snoke really is. I'm voting for Jar Jar. It's revenge for all those horrible things fans have been saying for sixteen years. Only he could make the first order so pathetic! 

[Javora]

But as the weeks have passed, I've felt injured by this movie. The senseless violence of the First Order and this inexplicable Darth Vaderish villain was a step above my tolerance level. This film is inappropriate for children, IMO. Why is Kylo so angry? Why does he wear a helmet and use a voice modifier when he has no need for them? (Vader/Anakin needed his black helm -- he would die without it.) Then there's this Emperor-ish Supreme Leader giant that seems to be animated directly from the Hobbit or LOTR. So this ogre is determined to destroy peaceful worlds. The universe simply isn't big enough for the light and dark sides? I'm pleading for complexity, something dynamic.


Despite all this, I will probably see the next episode because I like Mark Hamill and the character of Luke Skywalker.

I kind of felt the same way.  I think that the Vader worshiping is what led Kylo to wear the helmet.  But then to me that makes the Kylo character too weak to stand on its own.  Was also a little let down on the seemingly lack of rage from Chewie when Han died.  Is Chewie slowing down in his old age?  Obviously Kylo was too messed up to stop Chewie from killing a couple of storm troopers and blowing a huge hole in the side of the building.  However Chewie stops attacking Kylo after taking only one shot at the person who just killed a life long friend?  If I was the CEO at Disney, I'd be seriously reconsidering keeping JJ on for the next movie.

[knightstorm]

Many people are trying to figure out who Snoke really is. I'm voting for Jar Jar. It's revenge for all those horrible things fans have been saying for sixteen years. Only he could make the first order so pathetic! 

http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Darth_Binks?file=Emperor_jar_jar.jpg

[d4v1ks]

http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Darth_Binks?file=Emperor_jar_jar.jpg

 

[Lieutenant_Q]

But as the weeks have passed, I've felt injured by this movie. The senseless violence of the First Order and this inexplicable Darth Vaderish villain was a step above my tolerance level. This film is inappropriate for children, IMO. Why is Kylo so angry? Why does he wear a helmet and use a voice modifier when he has no need for them? (Vader/Anakin needed his black helm -- he would die without it.) Then there's this Emperor-ish Supreme Leader giant that seems to be animated directly from the Hobbit or LOTR. So this ogre is determined to destroy peaceful worlds. The universe simply isn't big enough for the light and dark sides? I'm pleading for complexity, something dynamic.


Despite all this, I will probably see the next episode because I like Mark Hamill and the character of Luke Skywalker.

I kind of felt the same way.  I think that the Vader worshiping is what led Kylo to wear the helmet.  But then to me that makes the Kylo character too weak to stand on its own.  Was also a little let down on the seemingly lack of rage from Chewie when Han died.  Is Chewie slowing down in his old age?  Obviously Kylo was too messed up to stop Chewie from killing a couple of storm troopers and blowing a huge hole in the side of the building.  However Chewie stops attacking Kylo after taking only one shot at the person who just killed a life long friend?  If I was the CEO at Disney, I'd be seriously reconsidering keeping JJ on for the next movie.

Chewie was probably involved in raising Ben Solo, if there is such a thing in the Star Wars Universe, I would imagine that Chewie may have been Ben's God Father.

[knightstorm]

why kylo ren turned to the dark side
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3IjHPIH6JQ

[EschelonOfJudgemnt]

Soooo, The Force Awakens DVD hit retail this week, and I went ahead and picked it up (on sale at WalMart of course).  I bought the 'no extras' version to save some coin.

While I don't hate it (it certainly was much better than Episode III, which I am on record as 'I won't get those 2+ hours of my life back'), It did leave me feeling a little flat.  Lots of reasons to reawaken old memories, and I loved seeing the Han/Chewie dynamic again, but at the end of the day it didn't leave me wanting more. 

The 'Kylo Ren plot twist' thingie seemed like another of JJ's rabbits.  Appears out of nowhere, doesn't seem to be thought through all that much, simply introduced for 'wow factor' and fails miserably in the process.  And revealed waaaaaay too early.  The 'Luke, I am your father' moment in Empire was true brilliance, as NO ONE saw it coming.  This one... not so much.

There were some enjoyable moments in this movie, so i don't mind owning it.  But yeah it's a mere shadow of Episodes IV-VI, which although dated now still hold up quite nicely.  They need to restore the 'Han shot first' thing in the re-releases though...

Seeing the Lucasfilm logo at the beginning, without George Lucas at the helm, seemed inappropriate to me.  Yeah, it's not his company anymore, but George had no part in this movie, other than providing a backstory to draw from.

Overall, I give it a 'D' for effort, giving the FX guys an 'A' for some of the amazing backdrops (specifically the 'beached' Star Destroyer and Walker).  Didn't like the tweaks to some of the 'classic' craft, and was wondering where the other fighter classes were (A, B, Y wings), but then JJ likes to change everything.  The 'new and improved' Star Destroyer/Flagship looked a bit busy to me, in comparison to the clean lines on the originals.

Didn't mind the 'female lead' at all, but then I'm also a Black Widow fan (Scarlett Johannsen does an awesome job with that character).  When Family Guy starts teasing your franchise for only having two women in the entire universe (Episodes IV-VI), you know there's a problem (they forgot to count Aunt Beru though).  Episodes I-III had Padme, but few other notable women characters as well.  Hollywood has had a history of sexism, so it's good to see them making an effort to correct that.  Sometimes they do over-correct, sure, but there are a lot of lady sci fi fans out there as well.  Just go to any ComicCon...

In other sad news, we lost the voice of Admiral Ackbar this week, Erik Bauersfeld.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/05/473073158/star-wars-voice-actor-who-as-admiral-ackbar-warned-its-a-trap-dies-at-93

[Lono]

It's funny - because I find this trailer more moving then the actual movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCc2v7izk8w

The FEELS!