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[borghe]

Ok so I'm watching ANH right now. And for the first time in almost 40 years.....

I'm not getting the reverence for ANH Vader outside of his later role in the trilogy. He's really pretty incompetent. He lets the plans escape the ship, in fact never gets them back, doesn't even find out where the rebels are until the Falcon leaves the Death Star, which is then implied to be Tarkin's doing anyway. Throws a tantrum the first time someone poo poos the Dark Side.

Those saying ANH Vader crushes Kylo are drunk. Vader is literally no more competent and much less interesting (in ANH).

 

[Vyer]

was fucking great. Figured the Han thing was coming, but it still was a gut punch anyway. This young girl next to me had a hard time keeping it together for the rest of the movie. Fucking Adam.

Driver did a great job though, and his somewhat whiny, petulant look was pretty much perfect for the character. I love that his anger reaction was basically a tantrum. Doing what he did and acting the way he does drives up the 'love to hate' meter really high.

Boyega was awesome. Really great character. Ditto for Poe.

Not liking the look of Snoke all that much. But I am interested in seeing what's really going on there.

The 'call backs to OT' don't bother me at all, and honestly I think it'd be a little ridiculous to do this sequel trilogy without them. Particularly in this first entry. So I'm glad they're there.

now to wait for VIII....

 

[inm8num2]

Holy shit this thread moves quickly. Got out of the movie about 1.5 hours ago. Liked it quite a bit. Too lazy to say much now, other than:

- The Force Awakens is basically 'A New Hope: Faster and More Intense' (not in a bad way).

- At the end when the Falcon is leaving the Resistance base, there's a shot of everyone watching. On the right of the screen there was a red protocol droid. You could see most of the droid's body other than it's left arm and leg, obscured by someone in front. It would be hilarious if that red droid is using 3PO's arm.

- I liked how the movie ended on a moving shot rather than a still one. Luke's long hair was pretty great.

- When Han and Chewie were setting the charges, someone behind me got up to presumably use the restroom. I had half a mind to turn around and say, "You might want to hold it." She missed Han's death, and when she returned she had popcorn. LOL.

 

[NYR]

I loved most of it other than Death Star x3 and Adam Driver was horribly miscast. He was so out of place and can't act.

You are in the minority with that shit. He was great, Leia was the only shitty acting in the entire thing.

 

[Glass Shark]

I feel like the only person who thought it was clear that Luke isn't her father.

When Maz is talking about her waiting for her parents and she says, "You know the truth, the people who left you aren't coming back for you. But there is one who might."

 

[Ovid]

Kylo also overestimated his powers and probably had his confidence shaken by that as well. He thought it would be so easy to extract the information from Rey but then he got shrugged off.

His confidence was shaky very early in the film.

You could see it when he was trying to get in the good graces of Snoke. Allso rattled during the debrief with Snoke when his general was getting the job done and he wasn't

 

[De_Legend]

I hope we get to see more of Leia, R2 and 3PO in the next film, and Chewie looks like a big part of the new trilogy, for now.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

sheeeeeeeeee

gonna blast through it tonight

Wish it was a better author than Alan Dean Foster (yes, I know his link to prior novels). Matthew Woodring Stover knocked it out of the park with his RotS adaptation.

 

[Tobor]

I had some thoughts about that earlier today...

I like it a lot better than the Luke's daughter theories. Plus, Rey Kenobi rolls off the tongue nicely.

 

[OricWindstar]

It's probably way easier to film a desert planet too

Very true.

 

[JTripper]

So what EU books do you guys want most after finally seeing TFA?

Here are my top 3 requested EU books for the new trilogy:

1. A story about the history of the Knights of Ren; would be even cooler if it were about younger Kylo.

2. Luke's Jedi Academy, or at least maybe what Luke does post-Jedi and pre-academy.

3. Whatever happened on Jakku to make it the vehicle graveyard it is in TFA.


And one just for kicks: A book about how Mas Kanada got Anakin's saber.

 

[aliengmr]

I really liked everything about Kylo until the forest. Cool aesthetic, interesting concept "seduced by the light side" is fun, good rage. Vader's all cool competency but this guy's all hot competency, just seething all over the place. But man that forest. Ren is one of like three (four if Snoke?) Force Users in the whole galaxy, he catches blaster bolts out of the air, and he doesn't just completely ruin Finn, the untrained grunt, in a duel how? The idea that Finn could manage to parry even a single blow from Ren is a joke and totally undermines his menace. He should have been taunting Finn and stalking at him and driving him back laughing at Finn's feeble novice defense.

Then Rey. The Whole Thing with Jedi is confronting the conflict between the Dark and the Light and there she is standing over her hated foe. That's clearly supposed to be a choice: give in to hate and smite this man (like Anakin does to Dooku or to Kenobi), or let him live and maybe redeem himself (like Obi-Wan to Anakin). But then instead of having that choice, a Deus Ex Earthquake makes it for her. What a wet fart of a conclusion to that fight. So instead of learning anything about Rey as far as how does she confront such an emotional conflict, we end up only learning that she's pretty good with a light saber. But maybe she's not that good, a mundane doofus did ok vs Ren just like a minute ago.

If you don't want to give her that choice at least let Ren make some cool escape to restore some dignity to his competency. Or have Hux swoop in to save Ren, poor guy barely did anything all movie.

He was shot, so not in top form. This after killing his father, which he was struggling with.

Seems to me everyone was just competent with melee weapons and not the super choreographed Jedi of old. Even among Jedi there are some that are shit at dueling. Luke had a far better command of the force than he did with a lightsaber. His father was highly skilled at dueling.

I would have been disappointed if Ren rekt everyone. Doesn't make him any less of a threat. Plus I hate the "good guy wins because bad guy is op and defeats himself" trope. Ren is a darkside newb and he fought as such.

Plus, its the first movie of the trilogy so...

 

[Ether_Snake]

Uh, this isn't the case at all. There is zero confirmation that Rey is Luke's daughter. Considering how far they went with misdirection that Finn would be the force user there is no way they will go with something as obvious as that.
Rei is Han's replacement- hence her piloting the Falcon at the end with Chewie and her bond with Han.

It's not impossible that Rey won't be trained by Luke. She is Chewie's buddy now, which could be just because they want more action wherever she goes and not have Rey be monk-like, or it's because she won't be a Jedi. Finn might turn out to be the one.

 

[AlphaStriker]

Appreciated how they flipped the "damsel in distress" meme on its head.

I admit, I was a little disappointed when I saw Kylo carrying Rey onto his ship as Finn got pissed off...thought that, even though it clearly had a great female character, it would dip into that tired well.

I *love* that they completely flipped that on its head and Rey ended up, after all, having to save him.

I also really liked the scene when Kylo Ren was trying to read Rey's mind but she fought him off. Even though she was in restraints, it seemed like Kylo Ren was the one cowering away.

 

[Scientist Supreme!]

Just heard this on a podcast but Chewie and Leia don't interact at all after han's death. Instead she hugged this girl she's never met before.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Somehow I've always known

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQDvsf5lAp0

 

[Brazil]

I had some thoughts about that earlier today...

Nice write-up. Rey being a Skywalker would be boring as hell, so I'll stick to this theory.

 

[Brakke]

Ok also any even vague lingering sense in which these movies are sci-fi must now be relinquished. How did that Star Killer Bolts work? It takes fifteen minutes to siphon an entire star's worth of matter? But mainly: the people on the victim planets saw the bolts bearing down on them, so the bolts were traveling at significantly less than lightspeed. But! They also crossed interstellar distances. So were they in "flight" for decades or minutes? Neither makes sense.

Also the swarm spread apart close to the target system. By what mechanism did this bolt of coronal plasma turn itself?

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

Ok so I'm watching ANH right now. And for the first time in almost 40 years.....

I'm not getting the reverence for ANH Vader outside of his later role in the trilogy. He's really pretty incompetent. He lets the plans escape the ship, in fact never gets them back, doesn't even find out where the rebels are until the Falcon leaves the Death Star, which is then implied to be Tarkin's doing anyway. Throws a tantrum the first time someone poo poos the Dark Side.

Those saying ANH Vader crushes Kylo are drunk. Vader is literally no more competent and much less interesting (in ANH).

It's pretty simple. He's this terrifying dude who you know nothing about who looks and sounds like the space devil. He's choking the rebel dude out 2 minutes into the movie and it kinda sets the tone (along with him choking the imperial officer).

 

[OricWindstar]

Just heard this on a podcast but Chewie and Leia don't interact at after han's death. Instead she hugged this girl she's never met before.

I got the feeling they were basically communicating through the Force. Yeah, I know, that sounds like a copout, but when they hug, Han and Leia's theme plays. I took this to mean that they could sense each other harboring the same pain for someone they both missed.

 

[Hawkian]

I'm happy it holds up really well on a second viewing. There are a couple weaker elements I noticed more, but everything that worked the first time still works. The weakest segment is the escape from the two gangs once the new leads hook up with Solo through the first half of Maz's cantina. The weakest dialogue in the film is here actually, when Finn reveals to Rey that he's not from the resistance. He says among other saccharine lines, "no one ever looked at me like you did before" (not word-for-word). Still nowhere near as cringe-inducing as your standard scene on a couch or a balcony in the prequels. I was also specifically listening for one line I heard called out as "as bad as anything in the PT" in this thread... Poe says, "It's draining power from the sun [or star], but as long there's still light we've got a chance." Frankly it seemed to me like he was speaking completely literally about the time limit on their actions. Like, when it's dark outside we're screwed. I honestly didn't feel any symbolism (let alone overt) coming through that line and had no problem with it whatsoever. Poe really seems to me like one of the characters who cares the least about the Force.

On the other hand, there WAS some pretty blunt symbolism when the sun actually is drained and the light beam being cast on Kylo Ren on the bridge is extinguished right before he kills Han. Again, still miles and miles from anything in the prequels.

My crowd was really engaged at this showing as well, and oddly, while my first (opening showing) group didn't react much to Luke's appearance, this time around it got the biggest reaction of anything in the movie. When he took down his hood people were seriously shouting "Luke is back!" at the screen.

Most of all I think I was happy that so many of the funny moments worked a second time.

THAT'S NOT HOW THE FORCE WORKS

THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THE FORCE WORKS!

 

[Glass Shark]

Star Wars has never ever ever ever been science fiction.

 

[Tesseract]

someone needs to get john williams a super strain of weed for episode 8, dude needs inspiration

 

[JTripper]

Just heard this on a podcast but Chewie and Leia don't interact at after han's death. Instead she hugged this girl she's never met before.

Heard that too on IGN's spoiler-cast of the film. Didn't notice it in the film but wow, yeah that is fucking weird.

 

[Crisco]

Really good movie. Not mind blowing or anything, but about as well done as you could have hoped. It was made to meet very specific fan expectations while washing away a bit of that prequel bitterness, which it definitely did.

 

[De_Legend]

It's not impossible that Rey won't be trained by Luke. She is Chewie's buddy now, which could be just because they want more action wherever she goes and not have Rey be monk-like, or it's because she won't be a Jedi. Finn might turn out to be the one.

Rey not a jedi? Good lord that would be almost impossible imo.

And I don't see Finn being one.

 

[Anton Sugar]

*snip*

It's like poetry.

It rhymes.

Is the standalone Kenobi movie confirmed? I remember reading that McGregor would love to come back but haven't kept up with it.

If so, that's a big part of the story, right there.

Rey may be the new pilot of the falcon but she isn't the hans solo of the franchise. She clearly is the new luke. With fin filling in as the side character that solo was.

I don't know if you can really pare it down to that.

TFA is like they looked at ANH and thought, "Let's use this structure but scramble the character."

Rey has just as much Solo in her *character* as she does Luke, and a lot of Anakin (ugh, young Anakin, I guess). She's a tinkerer, a mechanic, good with ships, amazing pilot (Anakin/Solo), but extremely Force sensitive and has lots of moments that parallel Luke.

 

[OricWindstar]

The weakest dialogue in the film is here actually, when Finn reveals to Rey that he's not from the resistance. He says among other saccharine lines, "no one ever looked at me like you did before" (not word-for-word).

I actually loved that scene. Finn to me is like a really awkward home-schooled kid who's interacting with people for the first time. Socially, he's like a ten-year-old, which makes him talking like that endearing. Same with him yelling "That's one hell of a pilot!" If someone else had done it, would have felt weird, but Finn has an infectious childlike excitement.

 

[Discotheque]

someone needs to get john williams a super strain of weed for episode 8, dude needs inspiration

yeah he was on autopilot for the film.

but this was incredible. it had the same sense of mystery of his earlier music to me. like ET or something. god damn, it's like he woke up in the past for a minute.

 

[Daingurse]

Do we know this for sure? What confirmed that he was not force sensitive? I know you don't technically need to be sensitive to use a lightsaber (Grievous) but still, he seemed pretty capable.

I definitely don't know for sure, but it was the feeling I got from the movie. I would love to be wrong here.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

I had some thoughts about that earlier today...

Again, Luke just abandons a small child in the desert? Really? This isn't the same thing as what happened with him as a child at all. He needs to go in hiding I'm pretty sure he can find someone to give her a good yet low profile life.

 

[borghe]

Then Rey. The Whole Thing with Jedi is confronting the conflict between the Dark and the Light and there she is standing over her hated foe. That's clearly supposed to be a choice: give in to hate and smite this man (like Anakin does to Dooku or to Kenobi), or let him live and maybe redeem himself (like Obi-Wan to Anakin). But then instead of having that choice, a Deus Ex Earthquake makes it for her. What a wet fart of a conclusion to that fight. So instead of learning anything about Rey as far as how does she confront such an emotional conflict, we end up only learning that she's pretty good with a light saber. But maybe she's not that good, a mundane doofus did ok vs Ren just like a minute ago.

I liked it. It was a great moment where you were unsure which way she would go, and instead of going either way ("she IS the chosen one because she let him live!!" or "she gave in to the dark side") they LEFT you wondering and cemented the fact that even a super powerful force wielder needs training.

 

[Anton Sugar]

I also really liked the scene when Kylo Ren was trying to read Rey's mind but she fought him off. Even though she was in restraints, it seemed like Kylo Ren was the one cowering away.

You know, I was listening to Filmspotting today and one of the hosts specifically called out that scene as not working for him, because of how it's edited and he felt the actors couldn't really do everything they needed to do to make it work.

I completely disagree. I loved that moment, mostly due to the performances, but also because that's really the first time Rey demonstrates and start to realize who she is and what she's capable of. I thought it was wonderful, one of my favorite scenes.

 

[eznark]

Adam Driver is a worse actor than Haden Christensen. He was far and away the worst thing about this (otherwise excellent) movie.

His whiny unearned air of superiorty and awful delivery reminded me so much of the boss from Grandma's Boy.

 

[boclfon479]

I like it a lot better than the Luke's daughter theories. Plus, Rey Kenobi rolls off the tongue nicely.

The only problem with Rey being obiwan's daughter is time. obiwan died in A new hope, and there was a 30 year gap between RotJ and TFA. If Rey is about 20, then how could Obiwan have fathered her after RotJ if he died in a New hope?

 

[Nemic77]

Liked the movie. Much better than the prequels and at least on par with ROTJ.

Had some problems with story here and there, but overall it was a very enjoayble Star Wars experience.

It takes guts to only have Luke show up at the last 30 seconds and not have a single line.

I mean, how cool would it have been for Luke to show up at the climax of the last battle. For example when Kylo was trying to force pull Luke's old saber, it would go flying straight into Luke's hands, instead of Rey's. Would have been awesome, in my opinion.

As it stands I can't wait until Episode VIII. Thankfully there is Rogue One to look forward to meanwhile.

 

[MisterHero]

As he should. He failed miserably. Took it upon himself to train others to be Jedi and fucks it up.
This also reminds me of one of the things that I really don't like about the central story of Luke and Vader, his father. Luke was being a selfish git when trying to get Vader to be all nice again. Fuck him. How many had he killed? How much terror had Vader sown throughout the galaxy? And his son, who never actually knew him, wants him to be daddy.
Same in The Force Awakens. Leia wants her son back. But he is a killer (and almost certainly killed children like Anakin did) and all she wants is to have him back?
There is no sense of justice in these films. No sense of right or wrong except in the wide strokes of good vs evil. There's no morality in this cenrtral theme. It's so bloody simplistic you'd think the films were made for children.

On one hand, Anakin and Kylo are mass murderers. On the other, they are/were in such positions to completely reverse the course of their respective wars. And Ben could still do that. So there's room for a little ambiguity.

That would be interesting to see what kind of life Ben could lead after killing younglings but also helping Rey save the Republic.

And then there's Luke. He let billions of people die in TFA. He should've intervened gosh darn it.

 

[jett]

I had some thoughts about that earlier today...

I think the only way she's a Kenobi is if they decide to intentionally swerve the audience since almost everyone will assume she's Luke's. Like you said, Luke being her father is way cleaner and the last thing this new trilogy needs is more unneeded complications.

Making her a Kenobi just seems so convoluted to be honest.

 

[TheOctodad]

I actually loved that scene. Finn to me is like a really awkward home-schooled kid who's interacting with people for the first time. Socially, he's like a ten-year-old, which makes him talking like that endearing. Same with him yelling "That's one hell of a pilot!" If someone else had done it, would have felt weird, but Finn has an infectious childlike excitement.

That's a great description! Yah, Finn is experieicing his "first" a lot of things in that movie. He has a sense of freshness and wonder because he's never experienced it before. No one has ever been nice to him like Poe, no one has ever cared about him. He's like a guy who escaped North Korea...

 

[RoninChaos]

There has to be shit on the cutting room floor. This movie felt too short. Leia didn't even talk to Chewie after Han died.

I also really want to know how they got Luke's saber, stuff about Kylo's training, etc. Why was Finn able to break free, etc. I REALLY want to know this stuff and the movie didn't answer it.

 

[Ovid]

Just got back and kinda underwhelmed. Some quick impressions.

The good:
Rey was awesome. Good acting and fun character.
Lightsaber battle was nice. More honest and not overly choreographed. Really liked the transition to Rey being "the one"


The bad:
Finn was an ok character, but the actor is awful.
Han looked dreadful in action scenes.
Leia's awful acting.
Vader 2.0 acting was so bland. The mask sounded like one of those cheap hasbro toy masks half the time.
Luke being practically nonexistent.
Nothing grabbed me musically.

Overall, I'd honestly rank it dead last. It was just missing the charm of the old movies, something even the prequels got right. Might change with a second viewing, but that's how I feel.

I don't know what to say.

You're entitled to your opinion.

 

[Slaythe]

Adam Driver is a worse actor than Haden Christensen. He was far and away the worst thing about this (otherwise excellent) movie.

His whiny unearned air of superiorty and awful delivery reminded me so much of the boss from Grandma's Boy.

Are you sure you are not mistaking his looks with his actual delivery ?

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

Regarding how Rey somehow knew how to do the Jedi mind trick, I thought it was weird for half a second then remembered something from a bit earlier. When discussing Luke Skywalker, Rey says that she thought he was a myth. Now picture the local areas around Jakku. Very likely you'd overhear something along the lines of, "I hear Luke Skywalker can make anyone do whatever he wants just by waving his hand." Cue to Rey being desperate and knowing she is force sensitive, might as well give it a try. She didn't get it right at first.

 

[howdyjacker]

Just got back and kinda underwhelmed.

You're definitely in the minority with that statement.

 

[Grover Cleveland]

Definitely find myself agreeing with the people who said the soundtrack gets better when removed from the movie.

Still nowhere near Williams' best work, but it certainly has a few moments of sheer brilliance. The obvious standout is Rey's Theme and I could see that getting repeated and expanded upon in the next two movies.

 

[doop_]

Anything on Constable Zuvio. People say he was not in the movie

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

I know Kylo got shot, but I didn't like how he didn't win vs people that had no training. It was still a good scene though.

I really wanted to see Luke take out some people.

 

[truly101]

24 hrs later I'm coming to terms that the 10 year old SW fan in me....

feels were unexpected

 

[lastplayed]

It's unlikely, but I kinda want a KOTOR style twist and make Rey someone who was evil or had bad parents, which is why she was abandoned or hidden away.

 

[James93]

There has to be shit on the cutting room floor. This movie felt too short. Leia didn't even talk to Chewie after Han died.

I also really want to know how they got Luke's saber, stuff about Kylo's training, etc. Why was Finn able to break free, etc. I REALLY want to know this stuff and the movie didn't answer it.

It seems that disney wanted to leave the door open for books, and other movie to milk the stars war franchise