# Star Wars Episode VII thread (cast announced)



## HeHasTheJazzHands

Star Wars: Episode VII Cast Announced | StarWars.com

'Star Wars' Episode VII' cast revealed: Harrison Ford and original stars joined by likes of Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac and Andy Serkis - NY Daily News



> As expected, original "Star Wars" trilogy stars Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Anthony Daniels (C3P0), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and Kenny Baker (R2D2) are back, confirming what had pretty much been the worst kept secret in the universe





> Newcomers Oscar Isaac ("Inside Llewyn Davis"), Adam Driver ("Girls") , John Boyega ("Attack the Block") , Daisy Ridley, ("Blue Season") and Domhnall Gleeson ("About Time") add an injection of new blood to the biggest film franchise in the galaxy.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Swedish thespian Max von Sydow will add some gravitas to the Zero G setting.
> Performance capture veteran Andy Serkis, best known for playing Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" movies, is also onboard.
Click to expand...


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## Basti

Beat me to it 

Admittedly I'm not one of those hyper-obsessed Star Wars fans but I'm happy to see the original cast in there, plus Andy Serkis and John Williams composing


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## Don Vito

R2-D2 had an actor?? WAT


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Don Vito said:


> R2-D2 had an actor?? WAT



No one can beep-boop better than Baker.


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## Promit

Haven't heard of any of the new blood. I kinda like it that way, no expectations to fight against. (Well except Serkis, but... that's different.) It'll be interesting to see how the original cast are getting along, they've gotten quite a lot older after all. I know Hamill as a gravel-voiced voice-over genius now...


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## Basti

Don Vito said:


> R2-D2 had an actor?? WAT



At least it means that they're not going to go CGI crazy with absolutely everything

Okay so Oscar Isaac i've seen in a few things (most recently Drive) and i like him, he's good. Domhnall Gleeson was Lupin in Harry Potter but other than that i have no clue, they're relatively very uknown actors


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## TrashJuice

Basti said:


> they're relatively very uknown actors



Which is great, IMO. The prequels had lots of big names and ranged from terrible to kinda ok. Never touched the magic of the original trilogy, which had (at that time) little-known actors and focused way more on story and world-building.


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## rockskate4x

stoked for max von sydow. Awesome villian material in the exorcist, shutter island, minority report, etc as well as some live shakespear performances i think.


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## SKoG

rockskate4x said:


> stoked for max von sydow. Awesome villian material in the exorcist, shutter island, minority report, etc as well as some live shakespear performances i think.



Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon!


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## Explorer

I just saw von Sydow in "Three Days of the Condor." I haven't seen that in years. 

After seeing Episode 1 in theaters on its first run, I vowed to never see another Star Wars movie unless it first got great reviews. Lucas hasn't managed it yet. On the plus side, the Robot Chicken parody of Episode III got higher reviews than the actual film, so RC for the win!


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## Xaios

I like Oscar Isaac, he's a good actor IMO. The rest I'm not terribly familiar with.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Also not familiar with most of the newcomers, but I've seen lots of praise for John Boyega for Attack the Block.


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## UltraParanoia

This is going to rule!


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## geese_com

UltraParanoia said:


> This is going to rule!


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## naw38

Adam Driver's been rumoured for a while, and I'm really stoked to see that confirmed. Awesome actor, really ....ing funny on Girls.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Decided to edit the title and make this the "official" Star Wars 7 thread.


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## fenderbender4

Basti said:


> Beat me to it
> 
> Admittedly I'm not one of those hyper-obsessed Star Wars fans but I'm happy to see the original cast in there, plus Andy Serkis and John Williams composing


 
Doesn't John Williams compose everything anyway? Haha.

Anyway, yeah I'm excited. JJ Abrams seemed to do a decent job with the Star Trek movie. The hardcore fans may not be happy with every decision, but the movies are made to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. In some ways, being a super hardcore fan may be the weakest position to take, as the studio knows that no matter what they do with the movie, the superfans will go see it no matter what. Even if only to complain about it.


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## FretsOnFyre

I'm indescribably happy that Andy Serkis is in there.


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## wankerness

naw38 said:


> Adam Driver's been rumoured for a while, and I'm really stoked to see that confirmed. Awesome actor, really ....ing funny on Girls.



He's not just funny, he's got a really weird intensity that's unlike pretty much anyone else on TV, to say nothing of his appearance. I think this is a great casting risk to take if they put him in a major role. 

Attack the Block is a really awful movie but John Boyega was one of the least awful things about it. He was pretty much nothing but sullen and wounded for the whole thing, though. I dunno what kind of character they'd use him as here or what his range is.


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## wankerness

fenderbender4 said:


> Doesn't John Williams compose everything anyway? Haha.
> 
> Anyway, yeah I'm excited. JJ Abrams seemed to do a decent job with the Star Trek movie. The hardcore fans may not be happy with every decision, but the movies are made to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. In some ways, being a super hardcore fan may be the weakest position to take, as the studio knows that no matter what they do with the movie, the superfans will go see it no matter what. Even if only to complain about it.



Everything wrong with the Star Trek movies was as a result of the atrocious scripts, especially in part 2. I think since they're not hiring the same tardbombs that wrote Star Trek that this has a pretty good chance of being good.


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## Alex Kenivel

I have way more faith in Abrams than Lucas. I didn't even watch all the prequels. I watched Abrams' Star Trek over and over, loving how he drops in little nuggets of gold from all over the franchise. I hope the new Star Wars' will turn out as good, if not better!


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## flint757

wankerness said:


> Everything wrong with the Star Trek movies was as a result of the atrocious scripts, especially in part 2. I think since they're not hiring the same tardbombs that wrote Star Trek that this has a pretty good chance of being good.



The problem with the new Star Trek movies is they completely missed the point of Star Trek, which is peace not war. Modern movies are just explosion-fests nowadays. I loved the new movies, but as a part of the Star Trek franchise it missed the mark IMO so I could see why people may not have liked them as much.


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## Xaios

flint757 said:


> The problem with the new Star Trek movies is they completely missed the point of Star Trek, which is peace not war. Modern movies are just explosion-fests nowadays. I loved the new movies, but as a part of the Star Trek franchise it missed the mark IMO so I could see why people may not have liked them as much.



*Nerdrage activate.*

While I won't contest that the new Star Trek movies have their problems (despite the fact that I quite enjoyed them), they haven't deviated *at all* from where Star Trek has been for the past 25 years. Kirk and company _are_ still fighting for peace, but just like nearly every other incarnation of Trek, there are other subversive elements of Starfleet banking on war for various reasons.

- The entire plot of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country revolves around this concept every bit as much as STID.
- Captain Ben Maxwell and Admiral Satie from TNG.
- The entire Dominion War arc from DS9, as well as Section 31. The episodes "In the Pale Moonlight" and "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" REALLY get to the core of Starfleet's willingness to do some damn unsavory things, and they're considered to be some of the very best Trek episodes ever produced.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

I don't have a link at the moment, but TMZ has a bunch of leaked pictures of the sets.


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## StevenC

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> I don't have a link at the moment, but TMZ has a bunch of leaked pictures of the sets.



Here and here:

'Star Wars Episode 7': Millennium Falcon -- HOLY CRAP!! [SET PHOTOS] | TMZ.com

'Star Wars Episode 7' Set Photos -- Super-Secret Pics & Spoilers From The Set! | TMZ.com


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## Captain Butterscotch

I'm so happy that they seem to be going for practical effects wherever possible. There is a tangible difference when the actors are on a set with creatures, environment, and actual props and the look of the movies is so much better. And, from the pictures of the Falcon, Star Wars is gonna look like a future that's well worn and dusty again, not shiny and chromy like the prequels. One thing is that in the original trilogy, the Falcon was already an old ship. It should be _ancient_ by the time these movies come out. I wonder how they'll handle that. All of the leaked pictures are really making me hopeful and excited as opposed to feeling trepidation about how bad they're going to be.


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## fenderbender4

Captain Butterscotch said:


> I'm so happy that they seem to be going for practical effects wherever possible. There is a tangible difference when the actors are on a set with creatures, environment, and actual props and the look of the movies is so much better. And, from the pictures of the Falcon, Star Wars is gonna look like a future that's well worn and dusty again, not shiny and chromy like the prequels. One thing is that in the original trilogy, the Falcon was already an old ship. It should be _ancient_ by the time these movies come out. I wonder how they'll handle that. All of the leaked pictures are really making me hopeful and excited as opposed to feeling trepidation about how bad they're going to be.



I always find it funny how "cool" actors are considered, and how their social currency is extremely high. So by those standards, I always assume actors to be sort of, "cool" and well-composed.

On the other hand you realize that for their job, they dress up in ridiculous clothing and often appear to be afraid of a little green ball (or something similar) on a green screen. In the movie it'll look cool as the green ball turns out to be a giant monster, but I can't help but imagine how funny it must be to be one of the camera crew and see these people *react* to inanimate objects.


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## zappatton2

I just heard that Lupita Nyong'o is part of the cast. Seeing as how she is the only celebrity I can think of that I am crushing unfathomably on, even if these movies are as bad as the 90's Star Wars, I will watch these for her


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## tacotiklah

> Look at what they did with episodes 1-3 and Abrams is involved. I am expecting a 2 hour monologue from Jar Jar Binks, so anything other than that and I am happy



Best comment on that page.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Luke rockin' dat goatee.


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## Xaios

Does that mean he's Mirror Universe Luke Skywalker?


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## SD83

Captain Butterscotch said:


> One thing is that in the original trilogy, the Falcon was already an old ship. It should be _ancient_ by the time these movies come out. I wonder how they'll handle that.



If they decide to respect the extended universe, all those sequel books etc. (which range from boring to awesome, but they do have a rather consistent timeline), that would be no problem. However, it seems they decided to not give a .... about the extended universe. Or at least leave all the "New Jedi Order" stuff out. I'm not happy about that  but maybe the movies will still be awesome.

It seems they are shooting in Germany as well:


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## stuglue

Interested to see this film, yet expectations are low.
Where can the story go after Return of the Jedi? The Empire was destroyed.
Only story I can see is rebels allied to the fallen Emporer harbor thoughts of an uprising against the good guys.


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## Explorer

flint757 said:


> The problem with the new Star Trek movies is they completely missed the point of Star Trek, which is peace not war. Modern movies are just explosion-fests nowadays.



QFT.

Now let's hear from someone in the wrong. (j/k)



Xaios said:


> While I won't contest that the new Star Trek movies have their problems (despite the fact that I quite enjoyed them), they haven't deviated *at all* from where Star Trek has been for the past 25 years. Kirk and company _are_ still fighting for peace, but just like nearly every other incarnation of Trek, there are other subversive elements of Starfleet banking on war for various reasons.



I'll agree that Star Trek changed directions after the original series. I always saw the original series as Greek plays, exploring various societal issues while masking them in an acceptable veneer. The animated series continued this.

And then things got silly wtih The Next Generation, needing a huge cast to cover all the ship's characters resulting from breaking the original characters into multiples (Picard + Ryker = Kirk, Troi + Data = Spock, etc.) The holodeck/rec room, originally from the animated series, became a major plot device. 

And then some screenwriting hawks made it about war. 

I agree that Star Trek abandoned its philosophical origins decades ago. The reboot just continues that abandonment, because yay, explosions!

----

Now, back to the new trilogy which I won't watch until the whole thing is done *and* it gets better reviews (fanbois excepted) than episodes 1-3....


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## Xaios

Explorer said:


> Now let's hear from someone in the wrong. (j/k)



Let us begin.



Explorer said:


> I'll agree that Star Trek changed directions after the original series. I always saw the original series as Greek plays, exploring various societal issues while masking them in an acceptable veneer. The animated series continued this.



I have no argument with you saying that the original series explored societal issues that were poignant at the time. Based on what you go on to say, however, you also seem to be implying that later Trek didn't explore societal issues that were relevant when they came out in much the same way. I can point out of examples that prove that they do. At least, TNG and DS9 did, but I've worn my contempt for Voyager and Enterprise on my sleeve for so long that I don't think anyone will be surprised if I say that they didn't have much particularly meaningful to say.



Explorer said:


> And then things got silly wtih The Next Generation, needing a huge cast to cover all the ship's characters resulting from breaking the original characters into multiples (Picard + Ryker = Kirk, Troi + Data = Spock, etc.)



These comparisons are such oversimplifications that they do injustice to both the TOS and TNG casts. Yes, both Picard have Riker inherited certain traits from Kirk, but those are traits you'll often find in great literary commanders. Picard shares Kirk's penchant for tactical thinking. However, he's also a far more capable diplomat than Kirk ever was and tended to resolve situations using diplomacy rather than violence. It's no coincidence that TOS's military interventionist stance stands in stark contrast to TNG's policy of relative non-interference. Picard also had a philosophical streak that Kirk never did, owing to his background in archeology.

Riker also did start the series with Kirk's intensity and lady-killing tendencies. However, he tended to move away from both as the series progressed, owing to the fact that he was given the sort of character arc that Kirk never got. As an officer, he stands squarely in Picard's shadow at the beginning of the series. He begins stepping out of it to show that he is Picard's equal as a commander in Peak Performance (season 2), then further in The Best of Both Worlds (season 3 + 4). This grows until he stands in open defiance of Captain Jellico's command in Chains of Command (season 6).

Troi = Spock? No. Troi is an empath who literally uses emotions to do her job (albeit badly), whereas Spock is a half-human who generally represses his emotion altogether.

While Data does inherit Spock's general lack of emotion and logical thinking, Data's overall character arc is to become more human and to understand emotion, whereas Spock has always attempted to fully repress his emotions before grudgingly accepting their presence. Data also has to deal with the various criticisms leveled at him for simply being a robot, such as The Measure of a Man (season 2) and Redemption pt. II (season 5), not to mention Dr Pulaski's overall dismissive behavior towards him during her tenure. He even comes to the defense of other artificial lifeforms (The Quality of Life, season 6). By comparison, the worst Spock ever got was a light ribbing for accidentally letting his feelings show (The Trouble With Tribbles), no one ever questions his legitimacy as a life form.



Explorer said:


> The holodeck/rec room, originally from the animated series, became a major plot device.



So what? They manage to wring a few good stories from this, such as the holographic Dr Moriarty's arc (Elementary, Dear Data (season 2) and Ship in a Bottle (season 6)).



Explorer said:


> And then some screenwriting hawks made it about war.



War was the reason that they were able to give DS9 a overarching serialized story. Many modern shows that have come out since have pointed to DS9 as one of the best examples of serialized storytelling in television. Saying that it's "just about war" is also quite an exaggeration. It's about the climate that war creates. The loss of innocence (...Nor the Battle to the Strong, season 5), the forcing of less-than-palatable choices in order to survive and triumph (In the Pale Moonlight (season 6) and Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (season 7)) and the atmosphere of suspicion it can create (Homefront & Paradise Lost (season 4)). Even before the Dominion War Arc began, it covered things like domestic terrorism (In the Hands of the Prophets (season 1)), xenophobia and proxy wars (The Homecoming, The Circle and The Siege (season 2)).


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## wankerness

I can see dismissing the new Trek movies for being shallow and about explosions/violence compared to old Trek, but dismissing TNG and DS9??! Both of those are better than TOS when it comes to richness of ideas and exploring character and philosophical ideas over action. 

But yeah, Star Trek sux, Star Wars 4eva. I am looking forward to these movies even though they're probably going to be more along the lines of the Marvel movies than the original Star Wars movies. Far better that than along the lines of the prequels!

I don't see that anyone's posted this here yet:



> The Boba Fett movie may have cast Temuera Morrison as the fabled bounty hunter for the Star Wars spinoff.
> 
> In a related report by The Inquisitr, one of the rumor out there is that the writer for the Walking Dead video game series will also being writing the Boba Fett movie script. We also know that the Star Wars spinoff will be filmed at Londons Pinewood Studios in 2015 and that Disney is having a hard time transforming the feared bounty hunter into a good guy.
> 
> The Boba Fett movie release date was accidentally confirmed for 2016 when toy manufacturer Hasbro leaked out a list of the entire Star Wars release years:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *2014: Rebels
> 2015: Episode VII
> 2016: Boba Fett
> 2017: Episode VIII
> 2018: Solo
> 2019: Episode IX
> 2020: Red Five*
> 
> 
> 
> At this point all Disney is willing to confirm is that there will indeed be up to three Star Wars spinoff movies but no titles have been announced officially. That being the case, IMDB lists the 2016 spinoff as Untitled Star Wars Project and very little information is available at this point. For example, Gary Whitta is mentioned as screenplay writer as mentioned above (although some believe that Lawrence Kasdan will still be involved somehow) in addition to producer Kathleen Kennedy.
> 
> 
> Read more at Boba Fett Movie Casts Jango Actor Temuera Morrison In 2016 &#8216;Star Wars&#8217; 7 Spinoff
Click to expand...


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## Explorer

@Xaios - By Troi + Data = Spock, I specifically meant Troi doing the reading thing like Spock doing the mind meld. 

Look, you like TNG. I didn't. It could be that I watched and enjoyed the original show for about two decades before TNG came out, so it was clear and amusing to see various elements (like the two glaring examples I posted above, but there are more) being rearranged in TNG. My friends and me played ST TNG TDG and had fun, but I never thought it really got to the level of the original show. 

For what it's worth, I also was very happy when they decided to make some Trek series which didn't just rehash the original series. I thought DS0 and Voyager were pretty neat in conception. 

Bringing it back to the original topic, I think that TNG was like George Lucas trying to figure out how to hold all the lements of the original Star wars trilogy and creating lot of new fans, while those who grew up with the original trilogy felt these new entries just sucked. That's okay, and I'm not offended by those who do like chapters 1 through 3.


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## asher

stuglue said:


> Interested to see this film, yet expectations are low.
> Where can the story go after Return of the Jedi? The Empire was destroyed.



Well, not really. The immediately post-RotJ EU is probably the best, because though the head's been cut off, the Empire is vast, and that was certainly not the entire Imperial Fleet at Endor, so you wind up with a fragmented Empire devolving into fiefdoms and warlords under various different admirals and such, fighting both the New Republic and each other as the NR goes about solidifying itself into a political entity and trying to liberate the Empire's holdings.

Or at least, this is a rational way to do it. I guess you could say that the entire fleet was there, but that seems silly to me. YMMV.


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## crg123

SD83 said:


> It seems they are shooting in Germany as well:




Too bad these are all CGI renderings. They're very good ones, but I work in the digital arts and things such as smoothness of surfaces, shadows, motion and way light is being reflected are a dead give away. Not to mention how things seem to be almost floating around (0:37) and the HUGE ships and death star faded in the distance. It's really well done but unfortunately I don't think they would really put the time and the money to actually building all of that.

Would be awesome if it was real though! I'm only stating this for the people who thought the footage was 100% real, I thought it was obvious but a lot of people seem to think its real haha. Sorry to break dreams.


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## Xaios

^ I don't think *anyone* actually ever believed that was real. Even someone as obsessed with practical effects as JJ Abrams isn't going to build functional imperial walkers and transport shuttles that can actually fly. 

"O'Hare Airport, this is shuttle Tydirium requesting deactivation of deflector shield."

"Vader's in that terminal!"


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## Dayviewer

Seriously, NO BUMP YET?

Official title/logo revealed:






Release date:
December 18th 2015.

Boom.
And so, I have the first off day I'll schedule in for the next year.

Also, some nice juicy rumors/speculation of Luke in the film:
Star Wars: Episode VII and State of Luke Skywalker - MakingStarWars.net


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## Choop

Was the force ever dormant? It's supposed to be all-encompassing always. Whatevs. Not the worst title ever, it's probably just referencing the fact that there will be new characters who have strength with the force.


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## Zsharp

Dec. 18th feels far as it is, plus a whole year? gahh I want to hop into one of lucas' own cgi'd time machines and fast forward myself to the release date!


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## Varcolac

My body is ready.

The 18th is the last day of term. Finish work, go directly to the cinema with the biggest screen and best sound system I can find, purchase popcorn, sit back, relax, prepare for that opening fanfare.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, 
far away....


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## Dayviewer

First teaser will come to select movie theaters in the US on friday, somebody better bring a damn camera


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## Captain Butterscotch

Teaser Trailer




REJOICE! I am so goddamned aroused right now.


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## flyingV

HOLY SHIT THOSE X-WINGS ARE BEAUTIFUL
_my panties are soaked_


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## RustInPeace

I feel tingly, seriously.


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## ZeroS1gnol

I liked it! So glad that it has the old school starwars aesthetic, contrary to the prequel BS.


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## hairychris

I really, really, REALLY hope that it doesn't suck.


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## Aviator

First of all, I never understood all the hate about pre sequels. I liked them, especially the third one. But on topic. That red lightsabre looks odd ...


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## Captain Butterscotch

I'm totally loving the cross guard saber.


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## asher

They're atrociously written and mostly atrociously acted in? 

I don't have much beef with the aesthetics of them though, aside from one or two designs trying too hard to be a fore-runner to some OT ship.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands

Captain Butterscotch said:


> I'm totally loving the cross guard saber.










I've seeing a TON of hate for it, but I love the overall aesthetic of it. It looks so... chaotic. It fits perfectly.


Aviator said:


> First of all, I never understood all the hate about pre sequels.



You need some Mr. Plinkett in your life.

http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-1-the-phantom-menace/
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-ii-attack-of-the-clones/
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sith/


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## Varcolac

Hnnnnnnnngh.

All my feels. From the dude popping up in Stormtrooper armour, to the awesome speeder bike, the atrociously cute droid, the X-Wings, the dropship full of Stormtroopers, the crossguard 0v d00m...

Then THAT FANFARE. THE FALCON. TIE FIGHTERS. 

I am so very excite for this. Much win. Very awakening. So Force.


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## protest

I am so ....in ready.

EDIT: I LOVE the look of this. I love how dark the imagery is with the troopers and whoever the sith dude is. Hopefully they'll actually keep the same villain through all 3 movies.


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## asher

Haven't watched the full trailer yet. Cross guard saber is... a little silly, perhaps, and possibly not all that useful considering that it seems *impossible* for saber blades to slide along each other (they always! seem to catch where they contact), but it's such a minor thing.

And it looks kinda neat.


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## Captain Butterscotch

#BringBackJarJar


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## asher

Captain Butterscotch said:


> #BringBackJarJar



So what you're saying is we need a shot of that Sith guy's trophy room on his ship and a Gungan skull to be on the wall, a-la Predator?


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## Captain Butterscotch

That was sounds so much more satisfying than anything I was thinking of


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## Aviator

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> I've seeing a TON of hate for it, but I love the overall aesthetic of it. It looks so... chaotic. It fits perfectly.
> 
> 
> You need some Mr. Plinkett in your life.
> 
> Red Letter Media Star Wars: Episode 1  The Phantom Menace :
> Red Letter Media Star Wars: Episode II  Attack of the Clones :
> Red Letter Media Star Wars: Episode III  Revenge of the Sith :


No, I remember them as good movies and I don't want to ruin that for me


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## hairychris

Needs to beat this:


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## Don Vito

I forgot about the Clone Wars being an actual cartoon. I only recall the cg version.

Trailer was awesome.


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## thedonal

That trailer did get shivers along my spine BUT it did feel a little fan made on first view. I think it was the x-wing interior shot and the pilot helmet design. 

Although....


I've got a GOOD feeling about this..


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## SD83

I'm really trying to keep my expectations low after Episode 1-3 (I don't think they were THAT bad, but not even average scifi and far from a decent continuation of the legend) and, most of all, the fact that they apparently decided to not give a .... about the existing extended universe once again, but that trailer made me smile. A lot.


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## Quiet Coil

Sign me up. Reading the X-Wings series right now (yeah yeah, non-canon) and the action shots of the fighters over the water and the Falcon pulling crazy maneuvers looks sweet.

Yeah the cross-hilt saber thing is cheesy, but everything else about that shot (setting, stance of the character) look cool.

All in all, I'm down.


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## FretsOnFyre

I really like the crossguard saber, to be honest. And you just have to love the Falcon's first appearance...


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## TedEH

The thing I don't like about the gif with the crossguard saber isn't the saber itself, but the fact that the trees/snow/etc don't seem to be reflecting much of the red light. I could have sworn that snow and wet trees were much more shiny.


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## asher

TedEH said:


> The thing I don't like about the gif with the crossguard saber isn't the saber itself, but the fact that the trees/snow/etc don't seem to be reflecting much of the red light. I could have sworn that snow and wet trees were much more shiny.



I feel like not in a storm like that they wouldn't be. Depends on the condition of the snow to some extent...

I finally watched the full thing. X-Wings get me way too excited 

also, totally jumped when the first guy finally popped up, because I wasn't sure it was working right and turned the sound up a bunch.


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## TedEH

asher said:


> I feel like not in a storm like that they wouldn't be. Depends on the condition of the snow to some extent...



Maybe you're right. It just looks to me like the smoke/fog/etc in the air is lit up, but none of the environment behind it is. At the same time, maybe it's a work-in-progress kinda thing.


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## asher

I rewatched the gif a couple times and stuff does light up, but it's at the very bottom of the frame.


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## TedEH

Yeh, it's there, it's just a little more subtle than I was expecting. I was looking mostly at the trees themselves at first.


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## Joose

December 2015??

That is so far, far away...


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## Randy

re: desert scene in the opening

'We ain't found shit!'


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## MFB

Only thing I really dig about the trailer was the new Storm Trooper helmets. Cross-Guard Saber is OK, but it's got nothing on the Tonfa Sabers.


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## RustInPeace

The new lightsaber looks intimidating and menacing.. all crackly and shit


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## mperrotti34

Ya to be honest that trailer was not that great. It sure as hell left me with questions though. All I have to say is that (1) it better not suck and (2) it better not contradict anything in the previous movies


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## MFB

It's not a trailer, it's a TEASER.

As in, it's TEASING you as to what will be shown in the trailer _at a later date_


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

mperrotti34 said:


> Ya to be honest that trailer was not that great. It sure as hell left me with questions though.



Sounds like the _teaser_ trailer did its job then!


----------



## Electric Wizard

The trailer gave me some hope. Obviously it didn't show much, but it gave me the feeling that the tone might be a little bit more serious than the prequels.

I think it's funny that some people are bent out of shape about the cross-guard saber. I think it's pretty well done, and if you have seen any expanded universe stuff, you know there are way more wacky things that they could have gone with. IE:


----------



## asher

The EU being non-canon, mind, and full of some excellent but also lots of objectively terrible stuff


----------



## Choop

The concept of the cross-guard saber seems kind of dumb just from a practical point of view (same with a lot of EU stuff tbh haha) but it's not that big of a deal. The teaser got me hyped, mostly from the x-wing parts and the new stormtrooper look. awww yiss!


----------



## asher

I WANT A NEW GEN X-WING AND TIE FIGHTER GAME NOW AAAAUUUGH


----------



## Quiet Coil

I'd say the cross hilt makes a good bit of sense, keeps the enemies blade from sliding right down and slicing your knuckles off. I just think it looks stupid 

Anybody else notice the flat "snow shovel" dish on the Falcon? Makes sense seeing as how the round dish got sheered off flying in the tight confines of the second Death Star. And while I think I prefer the original round dish, I could imagine a lower profile would be desired to keep the same from happening again (plus it kind of keeps within the whole "bucket of bolts" charm).

Good Lord I'm a nerd.


----------



## RustInPeace

asher said:


> I WANT A NEW GEN X-WING AND TIE FIGHTER GAME NOW AAAAUUUGH



With Occulus support


----------



## Jonathan20022

Highest grossing film of 2015.

Calling it.

Also, on my birthday?! Hell YES.


----------



## Choop

Noisy Humbucker said:


> I'd say the cross hilt makes a good bit of sense, keeps the enemies blade from sliding right down and slicing your knuckles off. I just think it looks stupid



I think it would likely pose more danger to the person using it. If it were to block another saber, you'd have to be strong to have it not bump your hand/wrist _at all_. But people will use the force as an explanation for why it works inevitably so whatever. XD


----------



## wankerness

Jonathan20022 said:


> Highest grossing film of 2015.
> 
> Calling it.
> 
> Also, on my birthday?! Hell YES.



Highest grossing film of 2015? I doubt it, whatever is the most generic movie with the most CGI will be, since now China is capable of spending much more money on box office than the US! I'm guessing it will be like this year and be Transformers 5. Or maybe there will be a Frozen 2.

This trailer was pretty awesome, I thought. Everything in it looked cool and was designed for maximum nostalgia of the old trilogy, besides maybe the lightsaber guy. When the X-Wings over the water and the Millennium Falcon showed up and the score started blasting I pretty much got chills!

Maybe the guy with the hilted lightsaber was Luke! After all, someone with a history of lightsaber-related hand injuries might want to modify theirs to be safer to grip! Luke went nuts, and is going to carry on the tradition of very old bad guys. He'll play Luke the way he voices the joker.

EDIT: Someone posted a bunch of leaked concept art, looks like at least some of it is legit, possible spoilers I guess?

http://www.starwarsunderworld.com/2014/10/massive-amount-of-episode-vii-concept.html


----------



## PlumbTheDerps

People seem to be reacting to this movie without considering that the writers, director, and actors are all ....ing awesome. It's not going to suck. It might not be the best thing since sliced bread, but it will definitely be a good and fun movie. I'm hoping for something as good as the first Trek reboot. Second one was mediocre, but Abrams was never a great fit for the Trek movies.


----------



## wankerness

I don't think it's possible that this will be bad, either. It certainly won't necessarily be a masterpiece or anything, but considering who's involved and how much effort is going into it and how much awareness there is of what was bad about the prequels I think at the very least we'll have the best Star Wars movie since Return of the Jedi.


----------



## Quiet Coil

Anybody else notice the crazy split on the new X-wings? Was looking at a screen shot and it jumped out at me:


----------



## asher

Huh. Weird. Not sure I like, but probably not going to be that much of a bother either. I guess the wings might fold flush together or something.


----------



## MFB

asher said:


> Huh. Weird. Not sure I like, but probably not going to be that much of a bother either. I guess the wings might fold flush together or something.



Yeah, they actually sit right on top of each other and form one main intake between the two wings vs. having four intakes overall


----------



## Quiet Coil

One wing in front of the other = Scissor-Wing? Geez I gotta find something else to distract me for the next 12 months.......


----------



## Captain Shoggoth

Someone's re-imagined the trailer as if Special Edition Lucas were at the helm. Lost my shit laughing at the end


----------



## Stealth7

Hopefully it won't be shit like the prequels (which shouldn't be hard ). I like the look of the lightsaber, gives it a medieval longsword vibe.


----------



## FretsOnFyre

Captain Shoggoth said:


> Someone's re-imagined the trailer as if Special Edition Lucas were at the helm. Lost my shit laughing at the end




Ahh, that sextuple saber is a work of art


----------



## Varcolac

I think the added CGI clutter really makes it true to the director's original vision.


----------



## canuck brian

I'm really excited for this and I absolutely love the crossguarded lightsaber. I'd really like to know WHY he popped his lightsabre in that scene though....like who is there?!?!? Who is he hunting???? (plz be Jarjar...)


----------



## Xaios

PlumbTheDerps said:


> I'm hoping for something as good as the first Trek reboot. Second one was mediocre, but Abrams was never a great fit for the Trek movies.



Coming as someone who enjoyed the hell out of both new Star Trek movies, I think it's fair to say that any real issues in STID that people might have really don't stem from the directing at all, but rather the writing. JJ's *directing* was fantastic. Problems with writing can be pointed at Kurtzman, Orci and Lindelof (although I imagine JJ had some input there as well).

And yeah, definitely stoked for the new movie.


----------



## wankerness

STID was perfectly entertaining, it just had some moronic stuff like the UBER-DRAMATIC Khan reveal, which made no sense whatsoever in the context of the movie cause there was no reason any of the characters would have known who Khan was, so basically it was exclusively a dramatic revelation for that percentage of the viewing audience who had seen Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan and a total WTF for anyone else.

I also hated the look of it, besides that scene at the beginning everything was a hideous blue color. It's one of the ugliest movies I've ever seen, right up there with Minority Report (though that one made more sense since it was supposed to be a dystopia).


----------



## Quiet Coil

Genetically-modified-superhuman-torpedoes!!! Giant-evil-twin-Enterprise!!!

Back onto Star Wars, didn't they already pick some other guy to direct episodes 8 & 9? I'm totally down with a new director (worked for the original trilogy as far as I'm concerned) but picking one guy for both seems a bit screwy (not to mention quite premature).


----------



## Bekanor

I'm pretty optimistic about J.J. directing. After all, the new Star Trek films actually appealed to me, which is saying something as Star Trek is the rice cake of the sci-fi genre to me; Punishingly bland, and somehow even more boring than just being bored and doing nothing.


Actually I'll give a pass to the one with Scott Bakula. I like Scott Bakula because his dependably static face and reactions give me a sense of security and belonging. That and the action scenes he does in that show are so hilariously goofy and inorganic it's like watching Gamera fight a giant Ultimate Warrior.


----------



## Captain Shoggoth

Bekanor said:


> I'm pretty optimistic about J.J. directing. After all, the new Star Trek films actually appealed to me, which is saying something as Star Trek is the rice cake of the sci-fi genre to me; Punishingly bland, and somehow even more boring than just being bored and doing nothing.
> 
> 
> Actually I'll give a pass to the one with Scott Bakula. I like Scott Bakula because his dependably static face and reactions give me a sense of security and belonging. That and the action scenes he does in that show are so hilariously goofy and inorganic it's like watching Gamera fight a giant Ultimate Warrior.



everything you just said is ultimate Trek heresy


----------



## Joose

Gotta love Stephen...

How Does The New Star Wars Lightsaber Work? Stephen Colbert Explains.


----------



## Bekanor

Captain Shoggoth said:


> everything you just said is ultimate Trek heresy



Sorry man, it's just how I feel. There's some cool concepts but I just can't get excited about it. 

As for the Scott Bakula one, it's only for Scott Bakula. It's not like it's actually quality or anything, Scott Bakula just makes me laugh.


----------



## Xaios

Mwahaha! 







Bekanor, have you watched any of the old Star Trek movies, based on the original series and/or TNG?


----------



## Varcolac

I like Scott Bakula because his name reminds me of '70s exploitation horror films.

Blacula.


----------



## Bekanor

Varcolac said:


> I like Scott Bakula because his name reminds me of '70s exploitation horror films.
> 
> Blacula.



I have that movie, it's incredible. The combination of vampire stalkings and hot jazz flute licks is a winner.


----------



## Bekanor

Xaios said:


> Mwahaha!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Bekanor, have you watched any of the old Star Trek movies, based on the original series and/or TNG?



Wrath of Khan (original), Generations (I was very young and don't remember much of it) and First contact. First Contact being the cooler of the three. 

I have seen some original series and some TNG and some Voyager and one or two episodes of Deep Space Nine. Out of all of the series I also find TNG to be the most enjoyable but still not something I would go out of my way to sit down and watch. 

I promise I won't mention Scott Bakula again. 


Dammit.


----------



## wankerness

Since this is also the Star Trek thread, I saw that JUSTIN LIN (all his previous credits are fast and furious movies, basically) is announced as director for the new Star Trek movie. To those who hated the two new ones for being too action-driven and silly, you'll be looking back on them fondly when this one gets released!

Here's a positive opinion piece on it from someone who's actually seen the fast and the furious movies http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme...ustin-lin-is-a-perfect-fit-for-star-trek-3/2/

I've never seen a single one, but I've heard the last couple were pretty awesome


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

So, today is Star Wars Celebration and there are some pictures out in the wild already. We're also supposedly getting a trailer sometime today!


----------



## asher

Those are...

less than encouraging.


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

Live Stream


----------



## Varcolac

Captain Butterscotch said:


> Live Stream




AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH why can't it be Christmas already?

Very excite. So very excite.


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

"Chewie, we're home." *cue grown man crying like a child*


----------



## Varcolac

Between this and all the Marvel movies my inner six-year-old is in a world of joy and wonder.

My outer 29-year-old is pretty freakin' stoked as well. 2015 is clearly a good year.


----------



## MFB

The only two things that really did it for me were the first shot and the Vader helmet shot. I'm excited for Han to come back but I've seen Harrison Ford as an old man so it's not too shocking; although it looks like Chewie will be practical effects still so I'm in favor of that.


----------



## mongey

trailer is good. not as epic as the 1st one but it has some great moments . that 1st shot is pretty great 

all in all looks like its on track to at least be decent comapred to the debacle of the 3 prequels


----------



## wankerness

I loved that trailer utterly, total fanboy service there. I can't wait.


----------



## AndrewFTMfan

Need. Time. Travel. Now.

Hnnnnnngggg...


----------



## Bekanor

Nearly cried tears of awesome at the office. Pumped.


Cross guard saber looks cool, .... pretty much everyone on the internet.


----------



## mongey

wankerness said:


> I loved that trailer utterly, total fanboy service there. I can't wait.


 

yeah. It looks like they are focussing on giving fans more of what they want. not some convoluteted crap like the prequels


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

mongey said:


> giving fans more of what they want





mongey said:


> the prequels



u wat m8


----------



## FretsOnFyre

Captain Butterscotch said:


> "Chewie, we're home." *cue grown man crying like a child*



I just played that line over and over. I'm so pumped to see Han back.


----------



## petereanima

Captain Butterscotch said:


> "Chewie, we're home." *cue grown man crying like a child*



I've watched that trailer 3 times in a row yesterday. Manly tears of emotion went down my manly cheeks. I am not even ashamed.

THIS is what I have been waiting for. Good lord, everything in this looks and sounds just amazing, I am having goosebumps all over, from the second the crashed stardestroyer appears over the molten Vader mask up to "Chewie...we're home...". (typing this alone makes me shiver already, what....).

I don't know if I can handle the waiting time...


----------



## groverj3

I've probably watched that trailer 10 times. No joke.

I am excited.


----------



## Rosal76

petereanima said:


> I am having goosebumps all over, from the second the crashed stardestroyer appears....



Not trying to be a Star Wars nerd here but...

Is anyone else here wondering why the Jawas didn't take apart the crashed Star Destroyer for parts?  They had 30 years to do it, right?


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

JJ said that the desert planet is called Jakku during the live stream yesterday.


----------



## Dutchbooked

I think the best would be if Luke turns to the dark side and kills Solo.

I just don't see how it can be any good without an actual replacement for Darth Vader and Luke turning to the dark side is the only thing that can really take the place of Vader.


----------



## flint757

That actually sounds a bit derivative. I'd much rather they scope out new ideas/territory.


----------



## asher

There's a run of comics somewhere in the EU where Luke gets turned... I think by a clone of the Emperor. I think Leia (who has been receiving Jedi training by this point, as it's years after ROTJ) goes to kick his butt and snap him out of it after the resurgent Imperials kick the snot out of the New Republic.

But, EU.

I still think there is plenty of territory to do something fresh, or with a splintered but very present Empire (a la Thrawn).

The EU also has Vader nurturing a number of less powerful pupils in the Dark Side he could use as his agents and such.


----------



## Stealth7

OMFG IT'S HAPPENING!!!  This is going to be EPIC!


----------



## Force

I don't really care which way the story goes, I'm gonna love it.......it's Star Wars ffs.


----------



## wankerness

Dutchbooked said:


> I think the best would be if Luke turns to the dark side and kills Solo.
> 
> I just don't see how it can be any good without an actual replacement for Darth Vader and Luke turning to the dark side is the only thing that can really take the place of Vader.



The whole plot got leaked a few months back from a source that had a lot of credibility due to the evidence included, if you want to go ruin it for yourself! I read it all cause I probably won't remember by the time it comes out and spoilers almost never decrease enjoyment unless you're talking about a movie like Paranoiac or something where the only point of the movie is the surprises.


----------



## groverj3

Anyone else notice that the crashed X-Wing at the beginning appears to have engines that look like the ones in the original trilogy? Since it looks like the "old" model of X-Wing I guess that confirms that they haven't retconned their appearance, and the new X-Wing that the "Resistance" is flying is an actual new model.


----------



## bhakan

groverj3 said:


> Anyone else notice that the crashed X-Wing at the beginning appears to have engines that look like the ones in the original trilogy? Since it looks like the "old" model of X-Wing I guess that confirms that they haven't retconned their appearance, and the new X-Wing that the "Resistance" is flying is an actual new model.


They've said before that everything in Ep. I-VI and the Clone Wars TV show is still cannon, so the original trilogy X-wings are 100% cannon.


----------



## groverj3

bhakan said:


> They've said before that everything in Ep. I-VI and the Clone Wars TV show is still cannon, so the original trilogy X-wings are 100% cannon.



Right, it's just nice to see that kind of consistency.


----------



## bhakan

groverj3 said:


> Right, it's just nice to see that kind of consistency.


Agreed. They seem to be putting a lot of attention to little details like that. it makes me really excited for the movie if they're putting that much care into it.


----------



## groverj3

bhakan said:


> Agreed. They seem to be putting a lot of attention to little details like that. it makes me really excited for the movie if they're putting that much care into it.



The fact that Abrams is supposedly a huge fan, himself, who (supposedly) doesn't like the prequels very much is one of the reasons I've been so optimistic. Early signs point to this probably going quite well!


----------



## HeHasTheJazzHands

There IS a rumor that JJ Abrams pissed off Lucas due to him berating the prequels. 

I'm trying to avoid most spoiler rumors, but if that's true, then take that however you will.


----------



## FRETPICK

Fact Of The Day.


----------



## asher

FRETPICK said:


> Fact Of The Day.


----------



## protest

The trailers alone are better than Episodes I/II.


----------



## Ibanezsam4

if there is one thing in the trailer that rubs me the wrong way is the spring zoom on to the millennium falcon when it flies into the back of the super star destroyer. its gimmicky and JJ is obsessed with it. 

its not very star wars.. especially when the star trek films are filled with them


----------



## Xaios

EDIT: Nevermind, misread.

Regarding the sproingy camera work, JJ is hardly the first to make large use of it. It was all over Firefly and Battlestar Galactica.


----------



## loqtrall




----------



## Captain Butterscotch

It was pretty intense earlier. People were streaming the panel through Periscope and streams kept getting cut off which would make everyone scramble to find another viable stream. Fun stuff. 

But seriously, I think this is the first time I've ever seen Harrison Ford smile about anything at a press event.


----------



## wankerness

If they post the panel somewhere in decent quality let me know, I'd like to see it. That video above is pretty great. I like how this seems to be a very direct "F*** YOU" to the prequels with the huge celebration of all the practical effects, huge props, sets, and location filming. Reminds me of Age of Ultron's very, very intentional focus on avoiding collateral damage and how that seemed like a very direct "F*** YOU" to Man of Steel


----------



## Dana

I can hardly wait.....


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

Sure enough, there is a video of the panel.


----------



## loqtrall

Color me excited.


----------



## mongey

loqtrall said:


>




I hadnt watched that yet

F'n epic


----------



## Dayviewer

So we are 60 days away now, we will have a new trailer tomorrow and pre-sale for tickets starts as well then.
And today, we got a new poster  :


----------



## mongey

I dig the poster. Has that old school Star Wars Poster vibe. 

Getting close now.


----------



## Dayviewer

Managed to get 10 tickets today for the first viewing on December 16 in Amsterdam for me and some friends, gonna be a blast


----------



## asher

Please, no more Death Stars...


----------



## Dayviewer

^ It's quite different than a Death Star actually, knowing the plot, but yea it does resemble one a bit too much.


----------



## asher

Dayviewer said:


> ^ It's quite different than a Death Star actually knowing the plot, but yea it does resemble one a bit too much.



Good


----------



## Dayviewer

^ My god it's glorious


----------



## asher

Needs more Jartroopers.


----------



## SD83

The more I hear about this, the more it sounds like they are just using the same story again. The Rebell Alliance is now The Resistance, The Empire is now The First Order, led by an evil force user who has a student, clad in a black robe, with a face mask, there is another cute android rolling around, not knowing the story that thing on the poster looks way too much like another Death Star (what is it supposed to be anyway? That starkiller base I read about?)... don't get me wrong, I loved the trailers so far, I will definitly watch it, but my hopes went from low (when I found out they decided to more or less ignore the Extended Universe) to stellar ("We're home, Chewie.") to... rather not so high. I'm very sceptical right now how this will turn out.


----------



## awake69

I'm approaching this new one with guarded optimism. I'm just too used to being let down by Star Wars these last two decades.


----------



## wankerness

SD83 said:


> The more I hear about this, the more it sounds like they are just using the same story again. The Rebell Alliance is now The Resistance, The Empire is now The First Order, led by an evil force user who has a student, clad in a black robe, with a face mask, there is another cute android rolling around, not knowing the story that thing on the poster looks way too much like another Death Star (what is it supposed to be anyway? That starkiller base I read about?)... don't get me wrong, I loved the trailers so far, I will definitly watch it, but my hopes went from low (when I found out they decided to more or less ignore the Extended Universe) to stellar ("We're home, Chewie.") to... rather not so high. I'm very sceptical right now how this will turn out.



After the prequels, I think almost everyone WANTS familiarity. If it's a lot like the original plotwise I think most people (not you) will be happy!


----------



## flint757

Personally, I think people have some major rose-colored glasses in regard to the original trilogy (and I'm a fan). I'm not so certain it'll translate so well in a world where CGI is so normal. The originals were largely as successful as they were due to its scope and effects for the time. Neither of those things are nearly as relevant today considering budget size and today's technology. That being said, I'm sure I'll enjoy it either way.

I'd personally prefer they explore new story arcs or at least not walk in the same footprints they've already made once before. That's my least favorite aspects of most sequels, they don't even try to stand on their own most of the time.


----------



## mongey

wankerness said:


> After the prequels, I think almost everyone WANTS familiarity. If it's a lot like the original plotwise I think most people (not you) will be happy!



This

The prequels forgot the originals were just fun movies . not super serious lore to be dissected and justified


----------



## asher

mongey said:


> This
> 
> The prequels forgot the originals were just fun movies . not super serious lore to be dissected and justified



No, they were just sh!t.

While a lot of the EU is equally bad, a significant portion of it is also very good. It's such a super rich setting.


----------



## mongey

Just watched new trailer. Too epic.


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

Guys, I think they might have done it. My hype levels are dangerously high!


----------



## crystallake

Got my opening night tickets this morning. Sounds like Fandango crashed last night after they went on sale.


----------



## wankerness

That trailer definitely looks like a modern movie and should put to rest any fears of "dull retread," at least from a visual standpoint. It ran very counter to the last trailer, which was mostly very restrained (besides the final shot). I guess now that they have most of the effects done they can include them in the trailers!

Much to my relief, though, it also seems to completely lack hideous modern color-grading (ex turning everyone a sickly shade of orange and tinting all the backgrounds blue), it has the same vibrant, natural colors of the original trilogy. I also was overjoyed to see a trailer for a big budget movie without idiotic bass drops and breaks in the sound for dialogue which then are followed with a big Inception noise.


----------



## ghostred7

Fan edit of all trailers together...


----------



## Ibanezsam4

I must admit, when i saw the trailer last night i was a little dubious (after being completely pumped with the previous two). 

it was mainly due to the limitations of camera techniques back in the day, but Star Wars always had a limited and effective cinematic vocabulary when it came to camera shots. the franchise is built on clear but simple wide angle and closeup shots with fast cuts to give it urgency. Lucas messed with this during the prequels mainly for the space battles, but he kept the physical camera work in check. 

So when i saw longer tracking shots (Kylo walking into the woods and turning on his lightsaber, spring zoom on the Millennium Falcon) i thought "oh crap here goes JJ ruining the visual continuity of the film just like he did with star trek." 

after watching the new trailer about 20 times this morning, that feeling has disappeared and i'm as excited as a six year old. started to get a little misty eyed too, but i blame that on an onion cutting ninja in my office.


----------



## ridner

newest trailer is sick!


----------



## awake69

I'm still keeping my sense of guarded optimism with this new trailer. I have to wonder what is up with Luke, since he's the only original cast member who we have yet to see even a glimpse of in any of the trailers (apart from his robot hand touching R2D2). The fan theories are aplenty as to why. 

I know Abrams has professed his love for the original trilogy at every turn through his entire career and that there will be plenty of practical effects and sets. 

So...why can't I be as stoked for this as everyone else seems to be?


----------



## flint757

You'll enjoy the movie more anyhow if you're not super hyped. I guarantee everyone who is hyped to the max is going to inevitably be somewhat let down, even if only ever so slightly. Hype can make a great movie seem only okay pretty easily.


----------



## asher

I kind of want to continue to not watch anything else so I can keep expectations to a minimum when I do finally see it...


----------



## OmegaSlayer

Woah!
I just checked the Italian trailer and realized that one of my best buddies' father is dubbing the New Sith.


----------



## mongey

asher said:


> I kind of want to continue to not watch anything else so I can keep expectations to a minimum when I do finally see it...



I felt the same way about this trailer, but I lasted 18 minutes from when it went onto you tube


----------



## MFB

asher said:


> I kind of want to continue to not watch anything else so I can keep expectations to a minimum when I do finally see it...



I'm on total Star Wars blackout right now. Using Tumblr Savior to block out as much as I can, and scrolling past anything I see on Facebook as well. I haven't even watch the new trailer for fear it gives away anything; which I'm so god damn tired of in this day of movie trailers.


----------



## wankerness

MFB said:


> I'm on total Star Wars blackout right now. Using Tumblr Savior to block out as much as I can, and scrolling past anything I see on Facebook as well. I haven't even watch the new trailer for fear it gives away anything; which I'm so god damn tired of in this day of movie trailers.



Hanging out in this thread is a good way to uphold that policy! 

Hey guys, did you all read the leaked script where 


Spoiler



I actually read it but I forgot everything besides the one major character death already cause all the new names are stupid


happens?!?!?


----------



## lemeker

Having seen the trailer a few times now, I'm really excited. There are still a few things that as a fan concern me. The one scene with the wrecked destroyer...awesome. 

Dude did a hell of a job with the new Star Treks, so I have high hopes.


----------



## wankerness

Don't mention that, the last Star Trek movie is absolutely the last thing I want from this (everything tinted that sickening blue color apart from the planet at the beginning of the movie, all people a gross shade of orange, lens flares everywhere, endless super-violent fistfights, etc). I didn't hate it, but it was a chore and it wanted so hard to be edgy in a way that would not jive with Star Wars. Well, maybe Episode III


----------



## asher

Into Darkness was dreadful. Let's not, kthx.


----------



## Quiet Coil

Genetically modified superhuman torpedoes! Giant evil-twin Enterprise! Yeah no... but hey the first of the ST reboots was decent and JJ's only directing the first of the new trilogy so...


----------



## Xaios

Noisy Humbucker said:


> Genetically modified superhuman torpedoes! Giant evil-twin Enterprise! Yeah no... but hey the first of the ST reboots was decent and JJ's only directing the first of the new trilogy so...



Space wizards! Laser swords! Remote choking! Lightning fingers! Not one but TWO moon-sized planet destroyers!


----------



## flint757

Didn't take long for this thread to quickly go back to an Abram's hate-fest.


----------



## lemeker

I didn't think Into Darkness was THAT bad.....


----------



## asher

flint757 said:


> Didn't take long for this thread to quickly go back to an Abram's hate-fest.



I honestly didn't mean it to 

Just meant that, while the first new ST movie was okay, they're definitely not on the same footing.


----------



## flint757

asher said:


> I honestly didn't mean it to
> 
> Just meant that, while the first new ST movie was okay, they're definitely not on the same footing.



Oh I know and you aren't the only one. He's taken on two gigantic franchises with enormous geek fandom's to match. Likely a ton of people will be dissatisfied irrelevant to the quality of the new Star Wars movie. Hardcore fans are hard to please. The original trilogy was far from the perfect franchise anyhow so I don't really get why people perceive it as such.

I liked the first Trek film better than the second as well and thought they were perfectly good films on their own merit. As Trek films I agree with the geeks that he missed the mark/point on what Star Trek is about, but honestly I don't think many people would have bothered seeing Star Trek had he done it proper justice. Like it or not the movie industry is driven by making money and big budgets require big returns. It's just the way it is until a philanthropist starts a production company. 

As for Star Wars, I'm avoiding all the teasers and trailers as I don't feel like building any hype for this whatsoever. I find I enjoy most movies far more when I'm not expecting anything in particular. Not feeling jaded about people involved in the production helps a lot as well.


----------



## Grand Moff Tim

I'm not sure three negative posts counts as a hate-fest.


----------



## flint757

Grand Moff Tim said:


> I'm not sure three negative posts counts as a hate-fest.



What can I say, I have a flair for the dramatic.


----------



## Quiet Coil

Xaios said:


> Space wizards! Laser swords! Remote choking! Lightning fingers! Not one but TWO moon-sized planet destroyers!



Ah but you see, one of these series started that way. The other not so much...

EDIT: I don't hate JJ at all and thoroughly enjoy much of his work, I just think the writing got a bit out of hand on Into Darkness. Stoked for The Force Awakens.


----------



## Grand Moff Tim

The trailers have me pretty excited for this.

I have to remember to temper that excitement, though. I'm old enough to have been a senior in high school when Episode One came out, and I remember how excited those previews got everyone, too. So uh.... yeah. Trepidation is the name of the game here, boys and ghouls.


----------



## asher

Grand Moff Tim said:


> The trailers have me pretty excited for this.
> 
> I have to remember to temper that excitement, though. I'm old enough to have been a senior in high school when Episode One came out, and I remember how excited those previews got everyone, too. So uh.... yeah. Trepidation is the name of the game here, boys and ghouls.


----------



## wankerness

I was 13 when Episode 1 came out, and I didn't see it for a couple days, so I'd heard so much incredible hate directed towards it already in those few days that by the time I saw it I was like "THAT'S what everyone is having conniptions about?! It wasn't that bad!!!!" If I'd seen it blind, I might have had conniptions myself.

I expect I'll like this a lot and three days later not be able to remember much about it, much like the Star Trek reboot. I've now seen it three times, and I still couldn't tell you what the heck the villain looked like or was trying to do in that movie. In one eye and out the other! I think he was a romulan, meaning he looked like a crabby vulcan? Beyond that, I can't remember a thing. The main cast is all pretty good, it just...I don't know. I guess Marvel movies tend to have the same problem when Loki isn't the baddie. Great heroes, snappy dialogue, but the actual conflicts and villains tend to be incredibly lame. Casting Adam Driver (the best part of the show Girls!) seems like a good step towards having a memorable villain, but who knows.


----------



## tacotiklah

So my buddy hits me up the other night to tell me that he bought tickets for him and a date to go see this. His date flaked, so now guess who's going to go see this? 

Oh yeah, I'm beyond stoked.


----------



## Xaios

Noisy Humbucker said:


> Ah but you see, one of these series started that way. The other not so much...



Have you SEEN the original series?! 

Because the things that you highlighted are a lot less silly than The Squire of Gothos, space Greeks, space Nazis, gun-toting space Romans AND space Lincoln. I'll take giant black ops ships and stealth torpedoes containing cryogenically frozen superhumans over things like that ANY day of the week.


----------



## Quiet Coil

Xaios said:


> Have you SEEN the original series?!
> 
> Because the things that you highlighted are a lot less silly than The Squire of Gothos, space Greeks, space Nazis, gun-toting space Romans AND space Lincoln. I'll take giant black ops ships and stealth torpedoes containing cryogenically frozen superhumans over things like that ANY day of the week.



You know, I was thinking about this for no apparent reason the other day and I came to a similar conclusion. Wasn't there an evil/alternate Spock with a goatee? And toupees that reproduce like rabbits? Yeah, I get you.

Into Darkness just seemed even more "over the top" than the first one which was pretty hopped up to begin with. That said, give me laser swords and space wizards any day!


----------



## ghostred7

JJ cannot do worse than Lucas + Prequel Trilogy. The fact that JJ is going back to practical effects primarily and using CG as a support structure makes the new movie better than the PT by default IMO lol. Hell, even BB-8 (soccer ball droid) is a practical effect as is the toy after it (although a pain in the ass to keep the head upright AND move around LOL)


----------



## Xaios

Noisy Humbucker said:


> Into Darkness just seemed even more "over the top" than the first one which was pretty hopped up to begin with.



For what it's worth, I agree that some of the writing in STID was kinda strained. But the blame for that rests on Damon Lindelof and Robert Orci, not Abrams. Orci was responsible for all the "Evil Starfleet Conspiracy" stuff you see, as he is well known to be a huge believer in false flags and stuff like that. But the directing, action and dialogue more than make up for that IMO. And all the things that people derided as "silly and stupid" when it came out barely holds a candle to the sheer ridiculousness that was TOS.


----------



## mongey

finally succumbed to the hype and am doing a midnight screening with the wife


----------



## tacotiklah

So apparently there's a growing and popular theory that Jar Jar Binks was actually a sith lord, with some claiming that he was partners with, and later abandoned Emperor Palpatine...
'Star Wars': Fans think Jar Jar Binks is an evil Sith Lord - Tech Insider

I want to believe...


----------



## mongey

tacotiklah said:


> So apparently there's a growing and popular theory that Jar Jar Binks was actually a sith lord, with some claiming that he was partners with, and later abandoned Emperor Palpatine...
> 'Star Wars': Fans think Jar Jar Binks is an evil Sith Lord - Tech Insider
> 
> I want to believe...



that makes a me a sad


----------



## SD83

Haven't seen this one here yet, so there you go:


----------



## thedonal

SD83 said:


> Haven't seen this one here yet, so there you go:




I literally had my eyes filling with tears at that one.

OH PLEASE J.J.- DON'T DO A LUCAS!!!


----------



## Dayviewer

I am surprised this hasn't been bumped yet...
I'll be seeing it tomorrow at 10 in the morning! First show in Amsterdam, gonna be awesome 
First reactions from press have been positive as well so far, reviews will go live tomorrow I believe.


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

Stay off the Internet until you've seen this. I got spoiled so damn hard earlier that it almost makes me physically ill.


----------



## wankerness

Captain Butterscotch said:


> Stay off the Internet until you've seen this. I got spoiled so damn hard earlier that it almost makes me physically ill.



Haha, yeah. I read the script summary several months ago so I forgot most of it by now (but do remember one bigtime spoiler), I'm avoiding bad places on the internet till after the weekend. Though I'm tempted to just intentionally spoil it as hard as possible to see if that actually affects my enjoyment, I kind of doubt it would.


----------



## mongey

Just saw it. Loved it.


----------



## Dayviewer

Loved it as well! Thought it was really well done.
Might have a bit too much nods to the originals but what's not to like, going to see it again on sunday, gonna be awesome


----------



## A-Branger

I just came back from it.

now THATS a Star Wars movie F yeah!!!


way too awesome. My only complain.... I miss the first 5? minutes... dam stupid ppl taken ages to order popcorn aaahhhggggg


----------



## gnoll

I've seen it too now and I have to say I REALLY enjoyed it. I think they did a great job with it!


----------



## Varcolac

It's currently sitting around 94% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. 9.4 on IMDB. 5/5 from the Guardian, 4/5 from the Independent.

For context, "The Godfather" is 99%.

It's been out for 15 minutes in this country. I'm seeing it in 16 hours. Better go to sleep. 

***Wookiee noises***


----------



## redstone

I liked it too. Though ... 



Spoiler



Nothing very new in the soundrack. New characters, old themes. Disappointed....

Great atmosphere and characters don't make a star wars movie. It needs epic cliffhangers and unexpected developments. In star wars VII, you can see everything coming without thinking about it. Like a Jedi.

Great characters... but one : Abrams wanted to avoid the traps of 3D.. and made a computer animated sith lord!!

The only unexpected development was the lamest thing ever, R2D2 waking up for no reason and showing the rest of the map.


----------



## Xaios

I'll be seeing it at 7:00PM tomorrow night. Me and some friends who have all pre-purchased tickets are going to annex the McDonalds that is just around the corner at about 4:30 and periodically scout the line. When things start to get hairy, we'll jump in, but until then we have no desire to hang out in freezing temperatures. Thankfully this isn't a particularly populous region, so I'm not expecting lines akin to Lord of Rings when I lived in a larger city.

I was hoping to go into it completely cold as far as reviews and spoilers and whatnot. Alas, it was not meant to be (although I have successfully evaded spoilers). When I checked FB earlier today, what was the the first thing I see at the top of my feed? Naturally, a friend posted the RT score. That's not necessarily a bad thing as now I know it's supposed to be a really entertaining movie, but I would have liked to walk into the theater not expecting anything and discovered it for myself. Granted, it certainly alleviates any anxiety that it might have been a bad movie, not that I ever really expected that to be the case.


----------



## lelandbowman3

Internet ruined it for me. Good to know that there's people in the world who just want to cause random strangers frustration and anger because if they didn't, they wouldn't have a reason to exist.
Seriously, stay off of all social media. I saw on /b/ (4chan) that they were planning on posting spoilers all over the place with any related star wars hashtag.


----------



## wankerness

Varcolac said:


> It's currently sitting around 94% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. 9.4 on IMDB. 5/5 from the Guardian, 4/5 from the Independent.
> 
> For context, "The Godfather" is 99%.
> 
> It's been out for 15 minutes in this country. I'm seeing it in 16 hours. Better go to sleep.
> 
> ***Wookiee noises***



IT's 94% positive reviews, but most of them are 3/4 level and say it's good but rehashed, like a majority of the plot points and scenes are just from the originals. Rottentomatoes always gets misused and people look at the percentage instead of the average score (which in this case is 8/10). So it's clearly good, but it doesn't seem to be the second coming.

Sooo, what I'm saying is that Mad Max's metacritic score is still higher 

I'll be seeing it Saturday. The spoiler that is getting posted everywhere is actually the same thing I remembered from reading an alleged script summary several months ago, so hey, no skin off my back. I can't think of any movie I ever saw that had been "spoiled" where I ended up thinking "darn, I would have liked this more if that had been a surprise," however. I'm still avoiding twitter or any non-policed forums as there might be more surprises in there, but if this is the only one that trolls care about posting I doubt there's much else that would be considered one.


----------



## The Mirror

lelandbowman3 said:


> Internet ruined it for me.



Oh come on, it didn't. 

Just because you know what's happening in a movie doesn't "ruin" it. In fact, I am seeing the movie on Monday, but I already read a full on summary, because I wanted to know what happened in it. 

I'm still as much excited as I was before. 

Spoilers don't "destroy" movies, they are actually a great way to make one even more excited.

Remember the good old days on the school yard, where that one kid already saw the new movie / played that new game and told you everything about it and you were just like "wooow, I want that, too"...


----------



## A-Branger

wankerness said:


> IT's 94% positive reviews, but most of them are 3/4 level and say it's good but rehashed, like a majority of the plot points and scenes are just from the originals. Rottentomatoes always gets misused and people look at the percentage instead of the average score (which in this case is 8/10). So it's clearly good, but it doesn't seem to be the second coming.
> 
> Sooo, what I'm saying is that Mad Max's metacritic score is still higher
> 
> I'll be seeing it Saturday. The spoiler that is getting posted everywhere is actually the same thing I remembered from reading an alleged script summary several months ago, so hey, no skin off my back. I can't think of any movie I ever saw that had been "spoiled" where I ended up thinking "darn, I would have liked this more if that had been a surprise," however. I'm still avoiding twitter or any non-policed forums as there might be more surprises in there, but if this is the only one that trolls care about posting I doubt there's much else that would be considered one.



I wonder how many of those scores are actually true scores and how many are done by nostalgia die hard fans.

I do however think the movie deserves that good of a score.

and for the plot being too similar to the originals. That was kinda the point of this new trilogy. Its the "same story" than the original one, but for one of the new characters instead of Luke. So same background, same main plot, same self discovery path, ect ect. The way it was done, I got nothing against it. If not I was enjoy it thinkng al the time "oohh so XXX is the new YYY now" kinda thing


and not sure what spoilers you guys are referring. But after seeing the movie I can only say that, there are (or could be) a couple of "spoilers" or movie plots out there that ppl could know and would not ruin the movie. But there is another couple of things that I hope you dont know before whatching it. It can ruin not "the movie", but a few good scenes


----------



## Ibanezsam4

lelandbowman3 said:


> Internet ruined it for me. Good to know that there's people in the world who just want to cause random strangers frustration and anger because if they didn't, they wouldn't have a reason to exist.



im afraid someone ruined it for me as well. it was a bitter fan in a comment section hit a few plot points. at first i wrote it off, but then i heard there were accurate spoiler threads on reddit.... if this guy was telling the truth im debating setting up dummy Facebook accounts and spamming the poop out of him


----------



## wankerness

I repeat, you people enraged about spoilers, have you ever seen something that was "spoiled" and gone "wow that would have been good if it was a surprise but since it wasn't I didn't like it?" It seems like something that people get mad about for no reason to me. Well, besides the occasional crappy movie that has nothing to it other than the twist.


----------



## gnoll

wankerness said:


> Sooo, what I'm saying is that Mad Max's metacritic score is still higher



To each their own I guess... To me, Mad Max was a 1/5 movie whereas this one was a 5/5 movie.


----------



## StevenC

I wouldn't worry about spoilers with this movie. If you've seen Star Wars you'll see everything coming a mile away.



Spoiler



I thought it was a good Star Wars movie: Episode IV. 6/10. If this movie had its own story or an ounce of originality, it could be a top 2 Star War.


----------



## Lorcan Ward

I really enjoyed it.


Spoiler



Some complaints about the rehashed plots and characters aswell as spoon feeding the plot twists. Its basically a reboot of A new Hope and The Phantom Menace combined. I really liked Kylo Ren, I didn't expect him to be conflicted impressionable teenager which was a nice surprise. I do love the cold calculated Sith from the games but this was equally as good humanising the characters and villains.



Mad Max - Fury Road ruined cinema for me, I used to go nearly every week but after seeing that nothing will be at that level again. This is the first film I've really enjoyed since. I'd change a lot of things but for a Star Wars film it was really good. 

I avoided the internet yesterday and today in case of spoilers, its not a hard thing to do. Just turn of your computer or phone and go do something else until you see the film. If you get annoyed at spoilers then you shouldn't be searching through comment sections and forums.


----------



## redstone

Lorcan Ward said:


> Just turn of your computer



That's a bit extreme 

Only the big social networks are dangerous. It's not like you'll learn here that Leia killed his brother. 

ooppsie

Just kidding.


----------



## Varcolac

Wow.

Got out of the cinema 25 minutes ago. Report:

Oh.

My.

Gods.

Excellent. I laughed, I cried, I sat with a massive grin on my face during battle scenes, I was drawn in, I was enthused, and most importantly I was thoroughly entertained.


----------



## mongey

Spoiler



I think the rehashed plot points from the originals are actually a smart move on JJ's part. I think it was reassuring that it was going to be a true star wars movie. It was like it held your hand from the start and said "don't worry , we got this " . while the Han twist was a little telegraphed IMHO it was a brave move and the right one


----------



## Spinedriver

I don't know if it's because I've gotten old and/or jaded but 20 years ago I would have more than likely been at the theatre to catch the very first matinee Friday morning. For whatever reason now though, although it's 100% certain I will get to see it on the big screen, I'll probably wait a week for the crowds to die down. It seems that me wanting to see it in a 'not-so-full' theatre now outweighs me wanting to see it as soon as it comes out.


----------



## protest

The best way I can describe it is this: it _truly_ is Star Wars. I hope that makes sense.


----------



## leftyguitarjoe

Definitely worth it. I just got back from seeing it. Its funny, a little campy, action-packed, and other things I wont talk about. Definitely, definitely, definitely worth it.


----------



## wankerness

protest said:


> The best way I can describe it is this: it _truly_ is Star Wars. I hope that makes sense.



Oh, so you mean all the people complaining it's exactly the same as the first movie with the characters swapped out are right?


----------



## protest

wankerness said:


> Oh, so you mean all the people complaining it's exactly the same as the first movie with the characters swapped out are right?



They can suck it


----------



## MFB

MY STRUGGLE IS OVER.

And it was worth every second of for that movie.


----------



## Xaios

Just got out of it. I give it a solid 8/10.

*DISCUSSION OF MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW, DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN IT OR WANT IT SPOILED.*



Spoiler



It's a helluva fun movie, but there were some things I... had reservations about:

- Rey picks up the Force waaaay too easily. In A New Hope, Luke had the benefit, even if quite briefly, of Obiwan's tutelage, the latter being someone who had literally held an unseen vigil over Luke all of his life. Even after Obiwan bites it, he still occasionally gives Luke advice via Force ghosting. Then, even after 3 years of self-teaching, he can still barely pull the lightsaber to himself in the wampa cave on Hoth, and this is someone whom Vader believes has the power to destroy the Emperor mind you, so we have to assume he has more natural talent with the Force than most. Rey, on the other hand, just kinda develops an aptitude out of nowhere, and is able to hang with Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel by the end of the movie, as well as overpower him with the Force. I'll grant that she's shown to be quite good in combat with a staff near the beginning of the film, but that doesn't explain her sudden ability to use the Force at the same level as the person who is basically the second most powerful dark side force user in the galaxy. She exceeds the abilities that Luke took years to get a grip on in a matter of days, all without a teacher. Perhaps one of the future movies will reveal some detail as to why this is, but until that happens, it's still gonna bug me.

- Speaking of Kylo Ren, I found it odd that he worships at the altar of Vader in order to strengthen his connection to the dark side and keep out the Light, when Vader was actually redeemed at the end of RotJ. I tried to rationalize this by saying "well, maybe he didn't KNOW that Vader turned back to the Light in the end," but that doesn't work. Not only is he the son of Han and Leia, but the movie makes it very clear that he was Luke's student before turning to the dark side. He would know.

- The music was oddly forgettable. Even in the prequel movies, the music played a major part in the mood, giving some of the major points in the movie a real sense of foreboding. It never really went dark here, always reinforcing the same action-adventure tone.

- Po was foolish to trust Fin from the get-go, even if Fin's intentions were obviously pure. In A New Hope, once the Falcon escapes from the Death Star, we discover that the Empire has placed a tracker on the ship in order for it to lead them to the rebel base, and that Leia was even savvy enough to suspect they had done that all along. Well, here, both Po and the First Order were searching for BB8. Po should have suspected that Fin was trying to gain his trust in order to lead him directly to BB8, knowing that the Order could put on a show for their escape while Fin played the mole.

- The fact that they could see the hyperspace laser destroying planets in whole other systems from Maz Kanata's planet was quite ridiculous. It's actually entirely reminiscent of how Spock Prime witnessed the destruction of Vulcan from Delta Vega in the Star Trek reboot. And even though I loved that movie too, that doesn't excuse such a bizarre violation of spacial physics.

- I wish they would have spent more time developing Fin. They should have allowed him a whole movie for his disillusionment with the First Order to grow before having him defect. His betrayal of the First Order right near the beginning of the film felt rushed.

- The final lightsaber duel between Rey and Kylo Ren lacked a visceral quality. It was still better than most of the duels from the prequel movies, but the stakes didn't really seem as high. Fin's lightsaber battles just felt more exciting.

- Not nearly enough Captain Phasma.

Now some stray details that I enjoyed:

- I like how Fin is reasonably adept with a lightsaber, despite not being a Force user. On the flipside to that, I liked how Stormtroopers are apparently trained in melee combat against lightsabers.

- Loved the cracking dialogue, especially Fin's.

- It's interesting to see how Kylo Ren is a mirror to Luke. While Luke struggles to keep the dark side at bay and to redeem his father, Ren struggles to keep the light side at bay and kill his father.

- Also enjoyed how Kylo Ren lacks Vader's cool comportment. Vader handles setbacks with a level head, while Ren beats the .... out of whatever he's looking at with his lightsaber whenever there's a setback.

- I also enjoyed how Fin's betrayal of the First Order seemed to be keenly felt by its members, first with a nameless stormtrooper calling him a traitor, then Kylo Ren.

- The camaraderie between Rey and Fin felt really natural, like that between Luke and Han in A New Hope. 

- It was refreshing to see how Maz Kanata, despite not being Force-sensitive, still had insight to offer on the nature of the Force.

- Living in northern Canada, I've met people who were only just seeing trees in person for the first time as we met. Rey's amazement at how much green a planet could have felt quite natural in that light.

- Gotta get me one of those insta-buns that Rey makes in her little cubbyhole.

So yeah, the good still definitely outweighed the bad by a wide margin. But my suspension of disbelief didn't quite escape unmoved.


----------



## Sumsar

*DISCUSSION OF MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW, DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN IT OR WANT IT SPOILED.*

I am also on the 8/10 team  great movie, but with some weird stuff aswell:



Spoiler



Yeah I agree with much of what Xaios said but i want to add:

- The whole mainstory was kinda a ripoff of movies 4 and 6:
The empire (or first order) is after a droid with plans, the empire has basicly made a deathstar version 3 (really is that the best super weapon they could come up with???), and they have to go down on the planet to disable the shield. Also they have to fly down and destroy the thing with TIE fighters all around.
Kinda sounds familiar right?

- Why did they try and recreate the cantina scene?? wtf?

- They are not on tattoine, just a planet that in every way resembles tattoine but is named differently. Again: Could these guys please be a bit more creative??

- Could be nice if they explained some of the details a bit more: For instance, why is Kylo Ren wearing that mask, when he can obviously do fine without it???

- and yeah both (does Finn have the force or is he just doing pretty well with a lightsaber?) takes up the force way to easily.

- Why is the republic, that I assumed formed from the alliance/rebels after episode 6 not helping the rebels, and even why are the good guys representing a rebellion and not the republic? wtf? story line seems to make no sense on that part, again atleast they could have tried to explain it a bit.

- generally some explanation of what has happened in the 30 years between episode 6 and 7 would be nice. I now they do a little, but they could do it alot more.

Things I really liked:

- A lot of awesome references to the other movies done well.

- great sense of humor. BB-8, Han Solo and Chewei delivers most of it and it works really well. None of that Jar jar sh!t

- Graphics: The movie looks awesome, I really like that they have gone a bit oldschool about it instead of turning it into a CGI wankfest like most movies do nowadays. It feels alot more real and realistic.

- the Scenery (apart from the weird tattoine copy, which still looked great with the crashed star destroyer) was also great. No need to make super fancy planets with super fancy weird plants and alien life (which usually looks super fake). Running around in a real forrest with storm troopers after them just works so much better. I also really liked the setting for the final lightsaber dual in the snowy forrest. Was awesome (even with the comments on learning the force to easily).


----------



## redstone

Spoiler



it would have been fun if Rey had bumped into an Ewok after the final fight.


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

I loved this film. Surely this is a redemption from the fart joke that the prequels were. 8/10 here too.



Spoiler



As for Rey picking up the Force easily, from the weird flashback/memory flood thing I kind of have the feeling that she was at the Jedi training place when Kylo and the Knights of Ren slaughtered everything. If those are indeed her memories then that would make her an apprentice Jedi and she somehow blocked those memories/PTSD/Luke did some crap to her noggin. I don't know. It bugs me too.

The other thing that I really didn't like was what everyone else has said in that the plot was a rehashed version of the old movies. Lone person on a sand planet, droid with Super Secret and Very Important Information that has to get to the Rebellion/Resistance, Sith guy in a mask and a dark cape, a big planet sized gun that gets killed with a trench run, and a mentor that dies.

Stuff I liked:

-The saber fights at the end were fantastic. I really enjoyed them, especially the little details like the snow steaming up when they grazed a tree or the ground and the way the light from the blades was on everything. It was very atmospheric.

-The relationship between Finn and Rey wasn't overtly romantic. I'm a huge stickler for shoehorned in relationships in movies and I would've been completely turned off if it ended up that way. It felt like a friendship forged by the events around them and not a huge "omgomgomg I just saw u and I'm in love" kind of thing. Maybe that was just me. 

-The acting was terrific from all the newcomers, and especially Kylo Ren's guy. And Mark Hamill had zero lines, but his acting at the end said _so much_. To me it went from recognition of Rey to the crushing realization that life had caught up to him again when she held out the lightsaber.Really well done, and beautiful location.



---------

Small quibble but, as an Extended Universe geek since childhood and proud owner of a lot of the 6 quintillion books, I would've liked to recognize more alien races.


----------



## russmuller

Oh god.... I caught the most EVIL spoiler of all time. On Facebook, there was a GIF with a gorgeous looking female bottom being squeezed and jiggled. Then right before it loops, some green text flashes for just one or two frames; not long enough to read but long enough to make you do a double take. So it loops and I stare intently.... AND IT'S A SPOILER!!!

I won't repeat it, and I haven't seen the movie so it might not even be a real spoiler, but MAN was I peeved.


----------



## MFB

Captain Butterscotch said:


> I loved this film. Surely this is a redemption from the fart joke that the prequels were. 8/10 here too.
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> As for Rey picking up the Force easily, from the weird flashback/memory flood thing I kind of have the feeling that she was at the Jedi training place when Kylo and the Knights of Ren slaughtered everything. If those are indeed her memories then that would make her an apprentice Jedi and she somehow blocked those memories/PTSD/Luke did some crap to her noggin. I don't know. It bugs me too.
> 
> The other thing that I really didn't like was what everyone else has said in that the plot was a rehashed version of the old movies. Lone person on a sand planet, droid with Super Secret and Very Important Information that has to get to the Rebellion/Resistance, Sith guy in a mask and a dark cape, a big planet sized gun that gets killed with a trench run, and a mentor that dies.
> 
> Stuff I liked:
> 
> -The saber fights at the end were fantastic. I really enjoyed them, especially the little details like the snow steaming up when they grazed a tree or the ground and the way the light from the blades was on everything. It was very atmospheric.
> 
> -The relationship between Finn and Rey wasn't overtly romantic. I'm a huge stickler for shoehorned in relationships in movies and I would've been completely turned off if it ended up that way. It felt like a friendship forged by the events around them and not a huge "omgomgomg I just saw u and I'm in love" kind of thing. Maybe that was just me.
> 
> -The acting was terrific from all the newcomers, and especially Kylo Ren's guy. And Mark Hamill had zero lines, but his acting at the end said _so much_. To me it went from recognition of Rey to the crushing realization that life had caught up to him again when she held out the lightsaber. Really well done, and beautiful location.
> 
> 
> 
> ---------
> 
> Small quibble but, as an Extended Universe geek since childhood and proud owner of a lot of the 6 quintillion books, I would've liked to recognize more alien races.





Spoiler



I don't know, seems implausible that they'd block off the slaughtering of the Order but not her being left on Jaku as a kid.

My biggest concern is the possibility of them forcing Rey and Finn together, like, do we really need that generic pairing to happen? They're the respective leads sure, but that doesn't mean they need to be a thing.


----------



## leftyguitarjoe

Now that I've slept on it, I still love the film. It really felt like Star Wars and I'm very excited to see what happens next. 



Spoiler



I could have gone without the forced exposition scene between Han and Leia. HES OUR SON, YES, OUR SON, WE MUST FIND OUR SON SO OUR SON CAN BE OUR SON AGAIN BECAUSE HE IS OUR SUN". Literally the only scene I didnt like. Coulda lived without the little yellow person too.


----------



## MFB

^ Ditch the S in spoilers and the tag will work


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

I was really excited for more John Williams music but I find myself not really remembering much of it. Some of it was pure awesome. Like Rey's track. and the Finale.


----------



## ZeroS1gnol

Oh my, the movie was great. Loved every bit of it. A major significant piece of popular culture. 

I see minor complaints, but has a Star Wars movie ever been perfect?


----------



## Spinedriver

I still haven't seen it but when a movie like this comes out that appeals to such a broad spectrum of people, it's nigh impossible to 100% please everyone. From the sounds of it, JJ and crew have done the absolute best anyone could have hoped for. I've heard they recycled a lot of ideas from the first movie but it's a pretty rare thing these days to find a movie that doesn't borrow from other movies. "Dredd" was very similar to "The Raid", story wise but it was still a great movie in it's own right. 

Overall though from what I've heard, most people seem to have a few quibbles here & there but in the end they've said that it's a really well made and enjoyable movie and although it'll be a little ways away, I'm really looking forward to seeing it.


----------



## A-Branger

I dont know why so many people get upset with the similarities of this movie vs teh original trilogy.

If Im not wrong, that was the original concept from the start (I remember reading something about it ages ago). Were the original trilogy was around Luke, this new trilogy would be the same story/journey/plot, but around the new character instead of Luke. And all the elements of the old one would fit into this new trilogy.

I went to see the movie with that in mind and I enjoy it a lot. I spend the whole movie finding those "links" like "oohhh so now XXXX is the new YYYY" kinda thing. I know many people would give a bad review to the movie because of that, but I bet you if you watch the movie with the "its a new take to the same story" you would enjoy it way more


----------



## A-Branger

Spoiler



although I did find it odd that she "got the force" so quickly, the first part I though ti was awesome, like Ren trying to get into her head and couldnt and suddenly she backfires to him and read his mind, that was imo suttle but awesome. The end bit I though they went way too far. Like "oohh remember what the crazy old lady said, so close my eyes, relax, and presto!! I got the force!!!!" yeh that was bit too much

also remember Ren is not fully trained yet. They even say that at the end ""bring it to me to finish his training". And speaking off I though it was soo awesome to give him the angry spoil teenager attitude. That helps to explain his reasons to change into the dark side (even his lack of knowledge of it? ) Like hes being influence by a very narrowed vision and limited resources, like he learned by himself kinda thing. Which explains his doggy lightsaber (a fan theory it was rumored in the internet since the first trailer) in which he never had a "master" who tech him how to do it, so he build it the best way he could around the little knowledge he had. Also that explains his "basic" ability with the lightsaber.

Reason why he was able to duel with the other "newbies", as no-one really "knows" how to fight with it. Like two kids playing who just pick up a saber for the first time. Where one of them just had like 2 formal lessons and he thinks hes the best ever!!! just because he "knows" couple of lessons.

thats another thing I absolutely LOVED.... the back to basic "real" lightsaber fights. In the 70's they did the best they could to train the actors, but in the prequels due to the increase demand for faster action/matrix/ninja/kungfu/CGI, the lightsaber fights resulted in a gymnastics parade. Which they looked flashy and awesome, but they clashed so so so bad with the original trilogy. (George Lucas explains that was due to those Jedy had the proper formal Jedi training, Luke didnt really had that kind of training, his was more "basic", and Dark V was more teasing him in his fight).
But in this new movie, the fights were more real, similar to those in the originals, they make sense in the "star wars world".

Of course they would get better in the enxt one as now both sides would get a better training, but I recon they would become more "technical" but nothing jumpy triple blackflips bull crap.


Also to have Fin use the saber has nothing to do with the force. Its a saber, its just a weapon. Every one can grab one and use one. Its the weapon of choice to the Jedi, they mastered. But they dont "need" the force to use it

Also how cool it was Ren got smashed at the end, that would make him more Dar Vader like as he now would maybe have "repairs" to his body to make him more "mechanic"?? helping to conect this new trilogy with the old one.

And I LOVE they killed Han Solo!!... I never though they would do that, didnt saw it coming until the last 2 seconds of it. like "nooo please dont go all cheesy like "come back home son, yes papa", please kill him!.." lol


and hey hey hey..... there wasnt any limbs or hands cut out with the lightsabers!!!!..... the fetish is over!! yay lol


----------



## Spinedriver

A-Branger said:


> I dont know why so many people get upset with the similarities of this movie vs teh original trilogy.
> 
> If Im not wrong, that was the original concept from the start (I remember reading something about it ages ago). Were the original trilogy was around Luke, this new trilogy would be the same story/journey/plot, but around the new character instead of Luke. And all the elements of the old one would fit into this new trilogy.
> 
> I went to see the movie with that in mind and I enjoy it a lot. I spend the whole movie finding those "links" like "oohhh so now XXXX is the new YYYY" kinda thing. I know many people would give a bad review to the movie because of that, but I bet you if you watch the movie with the "its a new take to the same story" you would enjoy it way more



Exactly. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes, out of 265 reviews, there are only 13 to be considered 'bad'. Even then, they do say it's good but they didn't like it because (as you said) too many ideas were taken from the original.


----------



## protest

Going to see it again this morning. $5 tickets. Couldn't pass that up lol.


----------



## A-Branger

protest said:


> Going to see it again this morning. $5 tickets. Couldn't pass that up lol.



Im thinking to do the same during the next week or two. So this time I could sit on a better central seat on the cinema and enjoy it more lol

Ive never gone to the cinema to see the same movie twice. But I feel the need to do it with this one. Weird lol


also forgot to say I watched the first time in 3D at it was pretty awesome. I didnt knew at the time the movie wasnt filmed in 3D. So its all post, but it looked pretty good for it


----------



## wankerness

Spinedriver said:


> Exactly. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes, out of 265 reviews, there are only 13 to be considered 'bad'. Even then, they do say it's good but they didn't like it because (as you said) too many ideas were taken from the original.



To be fair, Star Trek Into Darkness had something like an 87% on RT but is considered a widely-hated movie now where the major creative people involved in it have even apologized for it! Prometheus was similar. There are a lot of rumblings from pissed off fans on the net for other reasons than being derivative, but I haven't read them since I haven't seen it yet. I think we'll have to wait a couple weeks to get a better read on it.

This said, I'm old enough to remember Episode I's release. The initial reviews were almost all positive, the fan reaction to Jar Jar Binks didn't really get publicized until a couple days after release, and after a week or two of being in release it was accepted that the general fans were disappointed. I don't think there's anything like that here, plus obviously the mainstreaming of the internet since then means these kinds of things get out much faster, but the release date was YESTERDAY so who knows.


----------



## flint757

wankerness said:


> I repeat, you people enraged about spoilers, have you ever seen something that was "spoiled" and gone "wow that would have been good if it was a surprise but since it wasn't I didn't like it?" It seems like something that people get mad about for no reason to me. Well, besides the occasional crappy movie that has nothing to it other than the twist.



To be fair, I think movies like Gone Girl or the recent movie The Gift could be 'ruined' by spoilers without the movie being horrible because of the spoiler.


----------



## ghostred7

Spoiler



Things that kept me from absolutely loving it:
Too Disney in the humor department. Too many "Josh & Drake or Wall-E" moments. Felt forced
Fin's modern, inner-city-isms/reactions/dialogue/writing.

Everything else....spot on. Loved some of the nods they gave. Fin rubbing blood on his helmet was almost identical to Sev from Republic Commando (for example). Supposedly somewhere in the film is R2-KT (look it up). The new X-wings, new TIE, new ATs, etc....awesome.

----that's all on that part ----

Being deeply immersed in expanded universe, some of the story line was predictable, even if we didn't really know what they were taking from where. Here's an except of a wiki piece sanitized for name (more later)

## Wiki ##
The grandson of Darth Vader, *redacted* was a Sith Lord who turned against his family and friends, betraying his former principles and leading the Galactic Alliance he once championed into a reign of terror as he attempted to bring order and stability to a fractured galaxy. It was *redacted* desire to protect the galaxy and his increasing willingness to accept any cost in that cause that facilitated his fall to the Sith.
## END WIKI ##

Sounds familiar? 1st removal can either be: Darth Caedus (Jacen Solo) or Kylo Ren. 2nd removal was just the last name of Solo - applicable to both. Can replace Sith/Sith Lord with wtfe Kylo Ren is.


** Stop here for potential (if they're following other parts) Episode VIII/VIV spoilers. Still contains Ep VII spoiler info. Fan boy theory below**


Spoiler



Now...also in that wiki is this: When he was thirteen, he and his twin sister Jaina began attending the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, where their uncle Luke Skywalker taught them the ways of the Force.

Now, we know from the film that Kylo Ren was trained by Luke and his turning is why Luke disappeared. One thing that stuck out during the film. When they mentioned that Fin escaped and he was helped by "a girl." Adam Driver's delivery seemed more than a basic "oh a girl helped him" and more like "there's a girl I know about...and I wonder." It seems VERY curious in his delivery...I can only presume he was told to deliver that way.

IF that's the arch they're going to use....and knowing Rey was deserted by her parents when young (which could even have been a foster parenting, ala Luke & the Lars/Leia & Organa families) as well as her seeing the visions on the saber and quick to pickup abilities (hence Force Awakens), it's POSSIBLE that Rey = Jaina Solo equivalent = Kylo Ren's twin sister.

ALSO: If the the "Force Awakens" it may not only be Rey. Seeing how the troopers are "stolen babies" instead of clones. It's possible that they are also capable of being sensitives. We've already seen trooper + melee weapon. Could we potentially start seeing characters inspired by the Imperial Knights (Legacy comics...look it up lol)? I would *LOVE* to see an all-white saber blade on screen.


EDIT: (this is really reaching) Also, big giant hologram dude (Snoke). I would LOVE for him to be that big. My inner fanboy wants him to be inspired by the Rakata, Kylo inspired by Revan, and Starkiller Base essentially be similar to the Star Forge (or created by something like it)


----------



## A-Branger

wankerness said:


> To be fair, Star Trek Into Darkness had something like an 87% on RT but is considered a widely-hated movie now where the major creative people involved in it have even apologized for it! Prometheus was similar.



wow!! never knew about that  I actually liked that movie lol. But I guess I know nothing about star trek so that could be the reason why.

Prometheus I knew lots of ppl dont like it. Even I do like it too hahaha. But most of the things I heard is because ppl dont get the whole plot of the movie. Its not that hard to understand. Some people relly wants everything dumb down and explained to very last detail


----------



## Spinedriver

The wife was teaching some online classes this morning so she (if you can believe this) actually MADE me go see it. 

Got there for the noon showing and the theatre was half empty. Leaving however, there was a lineup of about 100 people standing in line, so YAY for early matinees !!! 

That being said, since this movie is a setup for 2 more chapters, I really didn't mind some of the 'shortcuts' some of you had mentioned in your "spoiler" posts. Yes, some things were kind of glossed over or were a bit hard to believe but when you look at the original trilogy, this one fits in like it was meant to. Unlike the 3 prequel movies that really fell flat.

Sure a lot of the plot points seem a bit derivative of/straight up borrowed from A New Hope but it's kind of like the old saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same". 

In a nutshell, I think JJ treated this movie like he did the first new Star Trek. He made it as if it was the first time Star Wars was ever made but brought back enough of the original source material to make it neither a re-make or a re-boot. I honestly don't think it could have been made any better.


----------



## mongey

Did anyone see it in 3D ? I'm thinking of seeing it again next week and we did 2d the first time. Wondering if it's worth seeing in 3D.


----------



## protest

ghostred7 said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Things that kept me from absolutely loving it:
> Too Disney in the humor department. Too many "Josh & Drake or Wall-E" moments. Felt forced
> Fin's modern, inner-city-isms/reactions/dialogue/writing.
> 
> Everything else....spot on. Loved some of the nods they gave. Fin rubbing blood on his helmet was almost identical to Sev from Republic Commando (for example). Supposedly somewhere in the film is R2-KT (look it up). The new X-wings, new TIE, new ATs, etc....awesome.
> 
> ----that's all on that part ----
> 
> Being deeply immersed in expanded universe, some of the story line was predictable, even if we didn't really know what they were taking from where. Here's an except of a wiki piece sanitized for name (more later)
> 
> ## Wiki ##
> The grandson of Darth Vader, *redacted* was a Sith Lord who turned against his family and friends, betraying his former principles and leading the Galactic Alliance he once championed into a reign of terror as he attempted to bring order and stability to a fractured galaxy. It was *redacted* desire to protect the galaxy and his increasing willingness to accept any cost in that cause that facilitated his fall to the Sith.
> ## END WIKI ##
> 
> Sounds familiar? 1st removal can either be: Darth Caedus (Jacen Solo) or Kylo Ren. 2nd removal was just the last name of Solo - applicable to both. Can replace Sith/Sith Lord with wtfe Kylo Ren is.
> 
> 
> ** Stop here for potential (if they're following other parts) Episode VIII/VIV spoilers. Still contains Ep VII spoiler info. Fan boy theory below**
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Now...also in that wiki is this: When he was thirteen, he and his twin sister Jaina began attending the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, where their uncle Luke Skywalker taught them the ways of the Force.
> 
> Now, we know from the film that Kylo Ren was trained by Luke and his turning is why Luke disappeared. One thing that stuck out during the film. When they mentioned that Fin escaped and he was helped by "a girl." Adam Driver's delivery seemed more than a basic "oh a girl helped him" and more like "there's a girl I know about...and I wonder." It seems VERY curious in his delivery...I can only presume he was told to deliver that way.
> 
> IF that's the arch they're going to use....and knowing Rey was deserted by her parents when young (which could even have been a foster parenting, ala Luke & the Lars/Leia & Organa families) as well as her seeing the visions on the saber and quick to pickup abilities (hence Force Awakens), it's POSSIBLE that Rey = Jaina Solo equivalent = Kylo Ren's twin sister.
> 
> ALSO: If the the "Force Awakens" it may not only be Rey. Seeing how the troopers are "stolen babies" instead of clones. It's possible that they are also capable of being sensitives. We've already seen trooper + melee weapon. Could we potentially start seeing characters inspired by the Imperial Knights (Legacy comics...look it up lol)? I would *LOVE* to see an all-white saber blade on screen.
> 
> 
> EDIT: (this is really reaching) Also, big giant hologram dude (Snoke). I would LOVE for him to be that big. My inner fanboy wants him to be inspired by the Rakata, Kylo inspired by Revan, and Starkiller Base essentially be similar to the Star Forge (or created by something like it)





Spoiler



I'm as big a fan boy as any, but I'm not as critical as some of you  The only thing that got me was the scene where she uses the mind trick. I don't know how she would have known to do that. All they had to do was throw out a line about mind control or something when they first meet Han and he tells them the force is real. Other than that, and the fact that Chewy and Leia didn't have any scene after they get back from the final battle I didn't have a problem with any of it. Humor was one of the things missing from the prequels.

I also agree with you about Rey. She is someone. I don't know who, but Ren knows or has an idea about it. That reaction was too over the top for him not to know. And like you said it would follow the expanded universe. I also like the fact that they named him Ben since Luke doesn't seem to have a son....maybe a daughter [

I also think that Ren isnt super strong with the force and that was part of the reason why Rey is able to hang with him, and also part of the reason he went to the dark side. Either that or he cut off his training very early on once he started turning.


----------



## A-Branger

mongey said:


> Did anyone see it in 3D ? I'm thinking of seeing it again next week and we did 2d the first time. Wondering if it's worth seeing in 3D.



I saw it and I would say yes. Sadly the movie wasnt filmed in 3D, so its all done in post. But its really well done. Couple times with the big open scenes Iw as like woooooow so depth much perspective


----------



## protest

Spoiler



Did anyone else notice that Luke looked to be standing at a grave?


----------



## ghostred7

protest said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Did anyone else notice that Luke looked to be standing at a grave?





Spoiler



Maybe they're gonna write a Mara Jade backstory and that's whose grave it is?


----------



## wankerness

ghostred7 said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe they're gonna write a Mara Jade backstory and that's whose grave it is?



I'm SURE they're not going to do that, spinoff novels are spinoff novels. To throw her into the mix would counter a lot of other stuff from those books which has already been completely invalidated by the reveals in this movie.

Anyway, I just saw it. I liked it quite a bit. I LOVED the Rae character, she gave such vitality to the movie that might not have been there otherwise. She's got that furrowed brow 90% of the film, and the whole character just matches that facial expression. I darn near cheered when she


Spoiler



countered the mindreading during that rapey interrogation scene.


 She's incredibly fierce and determined and I just loved everything about the character. Although my friend who was with me that hated the movie said afterwards that she looked like Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and I don't think I'm going to be able to unsee it since he was completely right.

Things that didn't work:

CGI tentacle monsters
Irish accents
The entire


Spoiler



starkiller thing. It just wasn't established as nearly as much of a "character" in the film as the first death star, or even the second one. The parallel climax of the fleet bombing the planet and destroying it didn't work for me at all, mainly because A) the starkiller hadn't been established well enough as a threat and there wasn't the intense suspense and obvious threat to our heroes that they had in Star Wars and ROTJ and B) none of the main characters were flying in the fleet, it was mostly a bunch of faceless people including Porkins MK II and that one guy that was in the movie for all of 4 minutes.


A couple of the jokes were too "modern," mostly just Finn doing in-your-face trash talk. I thought most of the other humor was good. There was plenty of humor in the originals and I thought this was very much in the same vein, besides maybe the temper tantrum scene, which I think got the biggest laugh of the film. I loved it.
Oh, and seeing that jerky asian guy from the last couple of seasons of Lost sorta took me out of it for a second. I liked that the film was mostly populated with unknowns. I was extremely familiar with Adam Driver, but no one else apart from the returnees.

Things that did work:

Pretty much everything else. I'm majorly looking forward to the sequel. Unfortunately, that makes me resent the existence of these filler movies in between. I'd almost rather have nothing in the middle than know that they're doing Rogue Squadron films or Han Solo prequels or whatever else they're doing just so I knew all resources were going towards the best possible sequel to this. I'm excited about the new characters and obviously the end was a big cliffhanger.
I also loved that the movie seemed to be spitting in the face of the prequels the same way Avengers 2 was spitting in the face of Man of Steel. I noticed a grand total of zero callbacks to the prequels, unless that one planet was supposed to be Coruscant, while callbacks to the OT were EVERYWHERE.


----------



## wankerness

Xaios said:


> Just got out of it. I give it a solid 8/10.
> 
> *DISCUSSION OF MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW, DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN IT OR WANT IT SPOILED.*
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> It's a helluva fun movie, but there were some things I... had reservations about:
> 
> 1 Rey picks up the Force waaaay too easily. In A New Hope, Luke had the benefit, even if quite briefly, of Obiwan's tutelage, the latter being someone who had literally held an unseen vigil over Luke all of his life. Even after Obiwan bites it, he still occasionally gives Luke advice via Force ghosting. Then, even after 3 years of self-teaching, he can still barely pull the lightsaber to himself in the wampa cave on Hoth, and this is someone whom Vader believes has the power to destroy the Emperor mind you, so we have to assume he has more natural talent with the Force than most. Rey, on the other hand, just kinda develops an aptitude out of nowhere, and is able to hang with Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel by the end of the movie, as well as overpower him with the Force. I'll grant that she's shown to be quite good in combat with a staff near the beginning of the film, but that doesn't explain her sudden ability to use the Force at the same level as the person who is basically the second most powerful dark side force user in the galaxy. She exceeds the abilities that Luke took years to get a grip on in a matter of days, all without a teacher. Perhaps one of the future movies will reveal some detail as to why this is, but until that happens, it's still gonna bug me.
> 
> 2 Speaking of Kylo Ren, I found it odd that he worships at the altar of Vader in order to strengthen his connection to the dark side and keep out the Light, when Vader was actually redeemed at the end of RotJ. I tried to rationalize this by saying "well, maybe he didn't KNOW that Vader turned back to the Light in the end," but that doesn't work. Not only is he the son of Han and Leia, but the movie makes it very clear that he was Luke's student before turning to the dark side. He would know.
> 
> 3 The music was oddly forgettable. Even in the prequel movies, the music played a major part in the mood, giving some of the major points in the movie a real sense of foreboding. It never really went dark here, always reinforcing the same action-adventure tone.
> 
> 4 I wish they would have spent more time developing Fin. They should have allowed him a whole movie for his disillusionment with the First Order to grow before having him defect. His betrayal of the First Order right near the beginning of the film felt rushed.
> 
> 5 The final lightsaber duel between Rey and Kylo Ren lacked a visceral quality. It was still better than most of the duels from the prequel movies, but the stakes didn't really seem as high. Fin's lightsaber battles just felt more exciting.
> 
> 6 Not nearly enough Captain Phasma.



I felt compelled to respond to some of your points. 



Spoiler



1) Luke is little softy in the first flick compared to the badass she is. I "bought it" in terms of the film for the most part. Someone else mentioned that the mind control thing seemed to come out of nowhere, which might be true, but I didn't have any issue with anything else she did, except for that weird part where it did a close up on her face for a long time when she was countering his force abilities or whatever right towards the end. What I THOUGHT was going on there was that she was reading the rest of the map from his mind, but then it turned out that wasn't the case, so I don't really know what was supposed to be going on there. The lightsaber thing at the end was aided by the fact that they repeatedly established that Ren had been wounded - first by getting blasted by Chewie (he's bleeding before he even engages Fin), and then he took some more hits from Fin. And she was giving the impression of being in some kind of rage mode.

Also, it seems very telegraphed that she's Luke's kid, with the lightsaber calling to her and all that sheit. I could be wrong, obviously, but it seems likely.

2) How would he know? Did Luke tell everyone else at the end of ROTJ? I don't remember such a thing happening, but maybe I'm wrong. Even if he did, I'm sure it would be easy to write in something about him hating Luke the most for warping Vader's mind through kung fu treachery or something, and still considering Vader awesome for killing all those younglings.

3) I agree with this. I don't remember a single new theme, just all the callbacks. 

4) There is dialogue late in the film that reveals that was his very first "deployment." It works just fine considering that detail. If he'd been some kind of veteran that steadily got disillusioned and then it happened the same way it did in the movie, I'd agree with your complaint. As is, the guy's just an incredible softy and kind of a coward who immediately realizes he's not cut out for it the second he's thrown into combat and sees what really goes on. I think that's all the backstory necessary to explain his decision.

5) Maybe. I was too busy being impressed by how much more visceral it felt than all the silly flippy stunt sessions that were the lightsaber duels through all the prequels. A lot of the physical effects they had with the sabers interacting with the environment had me distracted, cause they were so cool. I will have to watch it again.

6) Not enough, or too much? She seemed completely pointless.


----------



## setsuna7

Saw it, loved it, gonna see it again.
I agree and disagree with everything you guys said. 
Can't wait for ep 8. All will be explained I hope.


----------



## Spinedriver

setsuna7 said:


> Saw it, loved it, gonna see it again.
> I agree and disagree with everything you guys said.
> Can't wait for ep 8. All will be explained I hope.



_Some_ of it will be explained because they have to save something for Episode 9...


----------



## Lorcan Ward

I'm not sure if its true but the estimated box office this weekend is half a billion. 



wankerness said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> 4) There is dialogue late in the film that reveals that was his very first "deployment." It works just fine considering that detail. If he'd been some kind of veteran that steadily got disillusioned and then it happened the same way it did in the movie, I'd agree with your complaint. As is, the guy's just an incredible softy and kind of a coward who immediately realizes he's not cut out for it the second he's thrown into combat and sees what really goes on. I think that's all the backstory necessary to explain his decision.





Spoiler



It was very unbelievable that he has a panic attack when he first sees some action, then a few hours later starts blowing up all his friends/squadmates and fellow soldiers with a big smile on his face. There were a few parts in the film like this that pulled me away from the film but every Star Wars film is guilty of this which Robot Chicken have made countless skits about.


----------



## MFB

Lorcan Ward said:


> I'm not sure if its true but the estimated box office this weekend is half a billion.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> It was very unbelievable that he has a panic attack when he first sees some action, then a few hours later starts blowing up all his friends/squadmates and fellow soldiers with a big smile on his face. There were a few parts in the film like this that pulled me away from the film but every Star Wars film is guilty of this which Robot Chicken have made countless skits about.





Spoiler



I don't think it was the fact that they were killing people in general, it's that they were blowing away unarmed citizens, women, children, etc... who weren't doing anything to aid the rebellion. Was one person in that Jaku village helping? Yes. So does that mean everyone should die for it? No.

So by him being willing to turn on the First Order and kill them, he feels he's saving X number of other people who would've shared the same fate.


----------



## Sicarius

Saw it Friday with one of my Bosses and another co worker. 

Now that I'm off for winter break, I'm going to have to see it again.

I loved the movie. Loved the characters, loved the writing. BB-8 is adorbs.


----------



## StevenC

Saw it again in 3D last night. Don't bother going to see it in 3D, it's no better and slightly distracting when you're expecting 3D effects. Go see it in 2D.

Also, after seeing it the first time, I thought it was probably the 4th best Star War. But now I've realised that at least the prequels took risks and dabbled in originality. Slipped way down now.

Wankerness, what are the Irish accents you're talking about?


----------



## Spinedriver

I remember hearing in the news a little while ago that George Lucas felt a little put off that JJ & crew never asked him for his input.

Now let's see which is better, ANY of the 3 "prequel" movies he made or The Force Awakens...


----------



## StevenC

Spinedriver said:


> I remember hearing in the news a little while ago that George Lucas felt a little put off that JJ & crew never asked him for his input.
> 
> Now let's see which is better, ANY of the 3 "prequel" movies he made or The Force Awakens...



Let's remember that this movie had 4 writers and the best they could do was rip off A New Hope.


----------



## MFB

And let's not forget that Episode II gave us such gems of dialogue as, 



> I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth



Gee Anakin, thanks for describing the difference between sand and other stuff that's not sand.


----------



## Spinedriver

StevenC said:


> Saw it again in 3D last night. Don't bother going to see it in 3D, it's no better and slightly distracting when you're expecting 3D effects. Go see it in 2D.
> 
> Also, after seeing it the first time, I thought it was probably the 4th best Star War. But now I've realised that at least the prequels took risks and dabbled in originality. Slipped way down now.
> 
> Wankerness, what are the Irish accents you're talking about?



4th best ? Really ? 

The prequels had their moments but as overall movies, you gotta admit they were pretty bad. How the hell would a character that got his tongue stuck in a motor get appointed to the Galactic Senate ??? Revenge of the Sith was the best of the 3 and after only seeing it twice, I can't even bring myself to watch Attack Of The Clones again. Anakin was SO whiny in that movie that it was almost painful to watch.

I think the reason why a lot of the events in the new one seem like "re-cycling" of A New Hope is because it's been almost 40 years since it first came out and it was a way to bring both new people in and old fans back. Much in the same way Abrams made Star Trek in '09. He made it all new but yet included aspects from the original series that kind of brought it full circle.

People love Star Wars for fighter battles, light saber fights and all that stuff. The mistake Lucas made with the prequels was including all of the political stuff. Granted it was a cool idea to show how the Empire was formed but kids could care less about Senators debating trade sanctions, etc... and that's why they fell flat. I'm by no means a 'superfan' (it's been a loooong time since I've watched 4-6 all the way through) but as a standalone movie, the new one is pretty damn good.


----------



## HeHasTheJazzHands

I'm surprised it took this long for the "at least the prequels were original!" argument to make it's way. 

Just because a movie is original doesn't mean it's superior. If anything, if you become "too" original and deviate from the concept of a series (IE, the prequels), then you're guaranteed to piss off a lot of hardcore fans. 

Throw in some overuse of badly-aged CGI where it wasn't needed, and some dreadful writing, and you have a recipe for a bad Star Wars movie. Hell, a bad movie in general. 

There's no way in hell Disney and Lucasfilm were gonna do that. They were gonna play it as safe as they could for this movie given how much hope people had in a Star Wars movie due to the prequels. I can guarantee the next 2 episodes and the spinoffs will be more original since Lucasfilm has their goodwill back.


----------



## StevenC

I'll admit in a lot of ways this was the best Star Wars movie, and if this were a reboot of Star Wars I'd love it, but when it completely lacks its own story I just don't care. I'll also say that really what I meant was originally I put it well above prequels but well below the originals. Now I'm putting it much closer to whatever the higher end of the prequels is.

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth"

What's the difference between that and "I didn't know there was so much green in the whole galaxy"? I'd say the difference is execution. Star The Force Awakens Wars is a well executed bad movie. The prequels are poorly executed definitely, but I'd say they probably have more potential than this. For example,


Spoiler



Anakin and Kylo are the same character essentially.



This movie is nice to look at, and for me, not much more. The prequels make me wonder what could have been with a better director and scriptwriter; S7ar Wars makes me wish someone else came up with the story, say, the guy who created the series. As such, this is as big a disappointment as I-III.


----------



## wankerness

Umm, there's a very big difference in execution between those two characters. There's just no self-awareness on display in any of the prequels. The originals had Han Solo deflating the pomposity of it almost every time it threatened to get too heavy, and the new one remembered that lesson. There's clunky dialogue here and there, yes, but there's tons of snappy dialogue as well - something COMPLETELY absent from the prequels. If they'd ever had a scene like


Spoiler



the stormtroopers creeping back from Kylo's temper tantrum


 in any of Anakin's BS in episodes 2/3, I think they'd have been better for it. They were rotten, tone-deaf movies, and get more rotten every time I watch them. This new one's first impression was great, and I'll see how it holds up on repeat watches, but I am confident that I'll continue feeling like there are just four Star Wars movies and I never need to revisit the damn prequels again.


----------



## protest

This thing stomps all over the prequels, even ROTS. The only reason ROTS was better than the first two is because it was loaded with action, so there weren't as many chances for stupid dialogue delivered without any emotion.

I watched every one with my wife before we went to see this, so that she would know what was going on. We watched the originals and then she wanted to watch the prequels even though I told her she didn't need to... The prequels are bad. I didn't even realize how bad until I watched them right after the originals. Episode III was really the only one that wasn't bad, and like I said that's because it had great action sequences. Episode II had its redeeming qualities, but so many parts put you to sleep. Episode I had Maul and Qui-Gon and that was it.

I don't care that they essentially remade a mashup of Episode IV and VI. The acting was great, and so was the action. There was finally humour again. It was good. Yea it had some things they could have done better, but so does every movie. Those things really don't detract too much from the overall experience. Bottom line is that this is the movie people have been waiting 30 years to see. If the major complaint is that it's too much like the original trilogy, then I don't see that as a complaint lol.


----------



## synrgy

Saw it. Loved it.



Spoiler



I can't believe Han is dead. I almost wish I hadn't seen it, so that I could live the rest of my life happily believing that Han and Chewie both die of old age after sharing endless adventures in the Falcon..

I'm thoroughly convinced Rey is Luke's daughter. They practically spell it out in her conversation with Maz Kanata.

Also, her abilities don't suddenly appear during the interrogation. The scene where she finds Luke's lightsaber is prior to the interrogation, and it's that 'force vision' she has that I think 'awakens' The Force within her, thus setting her up to be able to reverse Kylo's mind-rapey-thing later. Not to mention, the 'natural pilot' and 'natural tinkerer/engineer' character traits are distinctly Skywalker; not Solo.

"You dream of islands surrounded by water.." (maybe not exact quote, but close enough!) Rey's connection to Luke was so strong that she knew where he was before she was even conscious of the thought. Meanwhile, Kylo stole that information from her head, and therefore technically knows the location of Luke, except neither one of them knew what the islands surrounded by water actually represented. Tricky! Kylo's gonna be _pissed_ when/if he figures that out.

Kylo with helmet was awesome. Kylo without helmet was.. Difficult. Maybe it's because I saw "This is Where I Leave You" too recently, but.. Yeah..

It was a bit depressing seeing Carrie Fisher barely able to move her tragically botoxed face.

I agree with whomever posted that some of Fin's dialogue kinda broke the Fourth Wall, for me. It was only a few lines, and I can't quote them from memory based on my single viewing thus far, but he definitely said some decidedly American/Earthling things.

Anyway, after one viewing, I'd say it's far better than the prequels, and I'd put it probably on-par with the originals, even though I highly doubt - due mostly to our ever-waning attention span - that it will stand the test of time in the same way.


----------



## A-Branger

as youtube is blooming with every star wars reference clips and my recommendation box is pack of them I came across with these videos

The first one is pretty old, the last one is recent.

These are an alternative to the sequels. Not sure if the whole plot story was jsut made by this guy or more people, but I must say they look amazing.

Reall good stories that they could have made a far better movies than the current prequels . Even if they still need more refinement, they are pretty awesome. Would love to see this stories as a real movie

Enjoy


----------



## wankerness

synrgy said:


> Anyway, after one viewing, I'd say it's far better than the prequels, and I'd put it probably on-par with the originals, even though I highly doubt - due mostly to our ever-waning attention span - that it will stand the test of time in the same way.



Yeah, I agree with this. If this had come out when I was a kid I'd have gone apes***. At this point, I'll probably forget it pretty quickly, but I'm sure I'd have said the same about any of the originals if they came out today as well. I will see, I guess. I think most of it was fairly memorable besides the aforementioned pointless early CGI setpiece and the whole


Spoiler



starkiller destruction thing.


----------



## synrgy

redstone said:


> I liked it too. Though ...
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> The only unexpected development was the lamest thing ever, R2D2 waking up for no reason and showing the rest of the map.





Spoiler



I submit that it wasn't for no reason. R2 woke up the moment Rey arrived. My guess is Rey's arrival is exactly what R2 was supposed to wait for. (Because she's Luke's daughter, I think.)


----------



## protest

StevenC said:


> "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth"
> 
> What's the difference between that and "I didn't know there was so much green in the whole galaxy"? I'd say the difference is execution.



Yea, execution which is another way to say believable writing and acting which is the common thread of every great movie ever made, and mostly missing from every bad movie ever made. I know what you're saying, but exectuion makes a huge difference. 




wankerness said:


> Yeah, I agree with this. If this had come out when I was a kid I'd have gone apes***. At this point, I'll probably forget it pretty quickly, but I'm sure I'd have said the same about any of the originals if they came out today as well. I will see, I guess. I think most of it was fairly memorable besides the aforementioned pointless early CGI setpiece and the whole
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> starkiller destruction thing.



I think this is kind of why I'm not as critical as some of my fan boy brethren. I basically saw in this everything that sucked me in when I was 7 years old. I take it at what it is, and don't try to over analyze it. I honestly doubt you'll forget it mainly because it's Star Wars, and we don't forget anything about Star Wars lol.


----------



## synrgy

^Ditto @protest. To give an honest opinion of the new movie, as a movie, I feel like I have to remove all my nostalgia from the equation. As an adult, looking objectively back at the originals, they're not particularly great films. The story is obviously there, and the characters are there, too, (save the uncomfortably incestuous bits between Luke and Leia in ANH) but I think most of us can more or less agree that Lucas's dialogue is terrible, and he seems perfectly content with receiving rather wooden performances from his actors. (It's not just Hayden Christensen in the prequels!) I think that has a ton to do with why ESB is the stand-out favorite for many viewers - it was the one Lucas didn't direct.

If Lucas had directed TFA, I can imagine an entire hour of it would have been wasted on boring exposition about all the things that happened between ROTJ and TFA. 

Anyway, before my original opinion gets lost, I'll reiterate that I _really_ enjoyed TFA. All I'm getting at is, it's Star Wars: In the end, it's just a patchwork of all the genre tropes that Lucas grew up loving, and it's practically responsible for the dominance of 'popcorn movies' at the box-office that's taken place in the decades since.

I say all this as a fan. I still have my original toys from the 80's.


----------



## flint757

protest said:


> Yea, execution which is another way to say believable writing and acting which is the common thread of every great movie ever made, and mostly missing from every bad movie ever made. I know what you're saying, but exectuion makes a huge difference.



Agreed, I didn't feel like the quote being compared was actually that bad or out of place either. It's not necessary dialogue, but going from only desert to lush green land the quote makes plenty of sense.


----------



## MFB

synrgy said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> I submit that it wasn't for no reason. R2 woke up the moment Rey arrived. My guess is Rey's arrival is exactly what R2 was supposed to wait for. (Because she's Luke's daughter, I think.)





Spoiler



Alternatively, it could also be Luke reaching out to her through him when he sensed her awakening. Either one is valid.


----------



## HeHasTheJazzHands

For those interested in numbers...

The movie broke yesterday's estimation of $238m domestic weekend gross. It raked in $248M this weekend. 

So, yeah, Star Wars is here to stay.


----------



## Spinedriver

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> For those interested in numbers...
> 
> The movie broke yesterday's estimation of $238m domestic weekend gross. It raked in $248M this weekend.
> 
> So, yeah, Star Wars is here to stay.



I'm just curious as to what Disney's reaction is going to be when the next 5-6 movies come out and don't live up to this one. I'm 100% certain that they'll all do well and more than make their money back but to the business word, the only way is up. Each one of the subsequent movies could make over a Billion dollars but unless they 'beat' the records this one is setting, they'll be shaking their heads in disappointment.


----------



## lemeker

Just got back from the movies. I thought it was really good. It had a bit of what I expected, and some I didn't. I'm not saying anything other than, if you're a Star Wars fan, you can't not see it.


----------



## Don Vito

Dragged myself in the rain to see this movie since I wanted to dodge the weekend crowd. It was fantastic, and it's a shame it wasn't released back when I had a Star Wars boner. The franchise has been so obnoxiously present in society this year that it made me sick. What's great about this movie is that they hit the nostalgia box(like every other piece of Star Wars media), but were able to keep it fresh with the new cast. 

The only thing that confused me:


Spoiler



Is Finn dead? I mean obviously he took a mean slashing, but I found it odd that they carried his body back to the Resistance base without a cover. And if I'm not mistaken, a staff member said something like "he has a heartbeat!", but I wasn't paying enough attention to know if he was referring to Finn or not. Also, before Raye left, she said something along the lines of "I know that I'll see you again someday". I wasn't sure if she mean't that literally, or if she was referring to an afterlife. 

On one hand, it would be lame if they said "oh he just suffered a minor lightsaber wound HE'LL BE ALRIGHT". In that scenario, I would want him to be dead. But on the other hand, he was a great character taken too soon, but that wouldn't be anything new in Star Wars



Another thing


Spoiler



I wanted to laugh when I first saw Kylo's face, but I grew to like him more as the film went on. He looked like somebody's teenage/young adult son, not an evil sith lord, which is the basis for his character's conflict.


----------



## Ibanezsam4

apparently there is a small but vocal minority of SW fans who are livid that this movie exists. 

now i don't want to pick on SW nerds too much, while i don't understand the need to go and buy every EU publication and hold it up as high literature, i get that its a thing and can move on. 

what i don't get is that these superfans lose sight of what these movies are: broad, accessible adventure stories that cross genres and demographics. 

despite all the nerd culture packaging these aren't deeply nerdy films. i think it helps perspective if you have a child or watch these movies with someone who wasn't a fan before. 

for example, i watched the OT with my wife about a week ago, she had never seen them and generally doesn't like adventure and action movies. 

she actually watched these and enjoyed them. will she ever be fan like me? no, but she probably will watch the movies with our kids and whatnot. 

we went to see the new one together, and sure there are some glossed over points and obvious telegraphing which will be filed in (remember these movies are for kids too) but she really enjoyed it. 

tl;dr: if you're butthurt superfan, remember that despite your fandom these films will never be LOTR in space


----------



## synrgy

Don Vito said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Is Finn dead?





Spoiler



Nope! You heard the nurse right. He's down, but not out.


----------



## protest

Ibanezsam4 said:


> apparently there is a small but vocal minority of SW fans who are livid that this movie exists.
> 
> now i don't want to pick on SW nerds too much, while i don't understand the need to go and buy every EU publication and hold it up as high literature, i get that its a thing and can move on.
> 
> what i don't get is that these superfans lose sight of what these movies are: broad, accessible adventure stories that cross genres and demographics.
> 
> despite all the nerd culture packaging these aren't deeply nerdy films. i think it helps perspective if you have a child or watch these movies with someone who wasn't a fan before.
> 
> for example, i watched the OT with my wife about a week ago, she had never seen them and generally doesn't like adventure and action movies.
> 
> she actually watched these and enjoyed them. will she ever be fan like me? no, but she probably will watch the movies with our kids and whatnot.
> 
> we went to see the new one together, and sure there are some glossed over points and obvious telegraphing which will be filed in (remember these movies are for kids too) but she really enjoyed it.
> 
> tl;dr: if you're butthurt superfan, remember that despite your fandom these films will never be LOTR in space



There being so much Star Wars stuff everywhere has been so annoying. It's already everywhere, there was no need to triple the amount. Every time I go into a store with my wife I say this is why we didn't want Disney to have control.

To address your superfan point, I kind of consider myself one. I definitely don't know the most, but I watched Empire so many times I wore out the tape on my VHS, I've played a ton of video games, and read dozens of EU books. I know way more about this sh!t than a grown man should but whatever. I think what it all comes down to is that people in general have become a bunch of whiny, nit picky brats that need to get off my lawn.


----------



## redstone

synrgy said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> I submit that it wasn't for no reason. R2 woke up the moment Rey arrived. My guess is Rey's arrival is exactly what R2 was supposed to wait for. (Because she's Luke's daughter, I think.)






Spoiler



probably not. R2 didn't recognize her and when R2 started to talk C3PO said "you found master luke?" so basically R2 was just processing some datas to make the map since Luke left. And would you believe, the map is incomplete but they just picked up the exact missing part and the heroine arrives right on time to meet luke.


----------



## StevenC

protest said:


> There being so much Star Wars stuff everywhere has been so annoying. It's already everywhere, there was no need to triple the amount. Every time I go into a store with my wife I say this is why we didn't want Disney to have control.



I don't know, when each of the prequels came out, there was just as much stuff everywhere. I don't blame this on Disney, but the owner of the merchandising rights, being smart.


----------



## synrgy

redstone said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> probably not. R2 didn't recognize her and when R2 started to talk C3PO said "you found master luke?" so basically R2 was just processing some datas to make the map since Luke left. And would you believe, the map is incomplete but they just picked up the exact missing part and the heroine arrives right on time to meet luke.





Spoiler



I did just read an interview with Abrams in which he's downplaying the whole thing, so you may well be right. He basically says BB-8 chattering to R2 started R2's waking-up process, which just happened to complete upon Rey's arrival. Then again, this is the guy who kept saying "It's totally not Khan" in all the lead-up to Into Darkness, so misdirection could absolutely be part of the equation.



Either way, I expect more will be made clear, come Episode VIII.

Link for interview *which has spoilers in it* DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS


----------



## MFB

Looks like Funco just gave away some major spoilers with their newest toy


----------



## absolutorigin

While I enjoyed the movie, but fanboy-ism aside, I felt that the story was a bit weak in some regards. More so I felt that they played it "safe" with this first one. Not wanting to go too far into a deep end territory where some aspects may get lost on people. In addition, the bad guys fall for the same plot device every time :rofl.


----------



## Don Vito

StevenC said:


> I don't know, when each of the prequels came out, there was just as much stuff everywhere. I don't blame this on Disney, but the owner of the merchandising rights, being smart.


Oh god, I'm just old enough to remember when Episode 1 came out, and the floods of merchandise that came with it. Pretty sure I had a bottle of Darth Maul shampoo at some point.


----------



## wankerness

Don Vito said:


> Oh god, I'm just old enough to remember when Episode 1 came out, and the floods of merchandise that came with it. Pretty sure I had a bottle of Darth Maul shampoo at some point.



Yeah, I found an old tube of toothpaste with Anakin in podracer gear on it just a couple years ago buried in the closet at my parents' house.


----------



## asher

Saw last night. Solid 8/10 I think, but definitely not higher.



Spoiler



I thought the callbacks were working pretty well, until it became painfully obvious that Starkiller was Death Star 3.0 but with zero tension, and that the raid would be the space fight from IV with the ground attack from VI. Just not enough build to have any worries. They're apparently willing not to pull punches for characters mostly, which I'm cool with, but you have zero doubts about the outcome of the attack.

I really like the new kids. Finn's trash talk dialogue was kinda jarring, but other than that, I think they all did pretty excellent jobs. Kylo's growing on me, too. I'm not counting Poe here, he just fell flat for me, since he just shows up and is Awesome at Everything(tm), you know he's not dead, and then comes back to continue to be Awesome at Everything(tm). I'd be okay with Finn and Rey getting romantic I think, because the setup for that bond feels very genuine to me. But they could also just stay besties.

I like the way the character arcs are moving, tbh. Finn's defection felt quick, but well enough justified. I've got no problems with Rey picking things up as fast as she does, especially if she's part Skywalker; the strongest bloodline of Jedi in centuries, all of whom are also gifted pilots. Remember how Anakin winds up doing stuff in the Naboo fighter by accident in TPM, with some flying experience, but he's way younger? I find it believable that Rey's been around enough machines and ships to pull off what she does, combined with obviously having lots of Force potential and being considerably older. Same with her keeping up with a wounded Kylo, who's clearly not well enough trained.

Maz is awesome.

Han better stay dead, though he was pretty great as always. Scenes with Leia were a little flat, though.

I hope Phasma comes back too, she's got potential to be interesting, and there's certainly enough time for her to have gotten rescued out of wherever they put her.

Carrie Fisher looks alright for what she's been through, but man has her voice suffered 

I like the addition of female Stormtroopers and officers scattered around.

Sadly forgettable score.

The jogging wing split of the new X-Wings is stupid!


----------



## Spinedriver

Don Vito said:


> Oh god, I'm just old enough to remember when Episode 1 came out, and the floods of merchandise that came with it. Pretty sure I had a bottle of Darth Maul shampoo at some point.



Episode 1 ??!!?? I actually went to the theatre to see A New Hope in '77 when it first came out, so I've kinda 'been there since the start' as one might say..


----------



## Demiurge

Just came back from seeing the movie. Some random impressions:



Spoiler



A lot of children in the theater. Damn near all of them screamed and wailed when Kylo Ren killed Han Solo. My first reaction was being impressed with the innocence of children... not being exposed to internet spoilers. To me, it seemed like the worst-kept secret that Harrison Ford has petitioned for Han to eat it since A New Hope; that somehow Han simultaneously died as a hero, a victim of cold-blooded cruelty, and as someone acting out of parental love was at least nice twist.

Moviegoers: no need to applaud at the appearance of every character. Even C3PO- and he is the worst.

It was reported that Snoke was CGI because he wouldn't be 'practical' as a practical effect. All I saw is a dude with Freddy Kruger burns and a big scar on his head. Wouldn't it be hilarious if, while he is projected via hologram like a giant, that he is only 2 feet tall?

The new "Death Star" at first seemed like a better idea: why build a structure whole-hog when you can just terraform an existing planet? But then here comes the stupid: it draws energy from the nearest sun and was apparently only good for two shots since the sun was tapped after charging for the shot at the Resistance's plant. However the First Order feels about the Republic and vice versa, fiscal responsibility seems to not be an issue in this galaxy.


----------



## A-Branger

Demiurge said:


> pressions:
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> The new "Death Star" at first seemed like a better idea: why build a structure whole-hog when you can just terraform an existing planet? But then here comes the stupid: it draws energy from the nearest sun and was apparently only good for two shots since the sun was tapped after charging for the shot at the Resistance's plant. However the First Order feels about the Republic and vice versa, fiscal responsibility seems to not be an issue in this galaxy.





Spoiler



I do also tink it was a cool idea to them build around a small planet rather than built a whole planet out of no-were. And loved the guys jsut standing there in the planet watching the giant ray firing away.

I actually though the idea they steal the energy from a near start (sun) far better than the, massive energy plasma ray just got built inside the death start out of no-where.

The only thing it really really got me upset, was the thing they always make a huge mistake in every movie: "5 minutes till detonation"...... and everyone is inside. You take into acount 5 min would be enough time for them to say "lets go"..."ok"... walk to the door and BAM!! gone.... They did this a couple of times during the whole scene, saying un-realistic time frames. while they still needed to run across different levels inside the thing, go outside, run in the snow, do a whole lightsaber battle, land the ship, run into the ship on a snow filled forest, and fly away

Why they can jsut film 10 different takes of the same guy saying "5 minutes.." "10 minutes".... "15 minutes".... "X minutes" ect ect... so in that way once you complete the editing of the movie you can actually count the real time of it and re-place the shot with the appropriate time frame


----------



## Hollowway

Are we going to keep doing /spoiler/ stuff? I'm figuring most
Of the people checking this thread have seen it - or don't care about spoilers.

Anyway, I saw it last night.


Spoiler



It was decent, and I might have liked it a lot had I not seen the other ones. But rather than rewarding us for having seen the other episodes, I felt we were punished. So much of this was just the original stories retold with different characters. Two guys and a girl, someone discovers they have the force, a bad guy related to one of the good guys, a super old alien who knows a lot about the history of the force, a super big bad guy who runs the entire dark side, a cut little droid, a Death Star, death ray, single point of weakness that will destroy it, planets getting blown up, etc.


----------



## wankerness

Yeah, spoilers are annoying, especially the way this site has them with green highlighting that causes line breaks as opposed to the standard for this format of BB which is to have a clickable "Spoiler" which collapses it all. I kind of feel like once the release date happens they should be done away with if the topic is about it, cause if you click on a topic for something that already came out that you don't want spoilers for you're asking for it!


----------



## Grand Moff Tim

I'm glad for the spoiler tags. I haven't seen it yet, and I'm in no hurry to so long as I'd have to see it here with Korean subtitles mucking things up. I come here to see what people think of it, and it's nice not to have stuff spoiled for me yet.


----------



## ittoa666

Finally got around to seeking the film, and good lord was I happy I went. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My expectations were annihilated by the tasty Star Wars goodness.


----------



## Ibanezsam4

protest said:


> To address your superfan point, I kind of consider myself one. I definitely don't know the most, but I watched Empire so many times I wore out the tape on my VHS, I've played a ton of video games, and read dozens of EU books. I know way more about this sh!t than a grown man should but whatever. I think what it all comes down to is that people in general have become a bunch of whiny, nit picky brats that need to get off my lawn.



this is true. it all just started to get under my skin when details regarding Snoke were announced and a chorus of people would go in-depth on how it had to be Darth Plagueis but their only evidence was "tall, thin, and JJ kept Kahn a secret!!!"


----------



## Varcolac

Ibanezsam4 said:


> this is true. it all just started to get under my skin when details regarding Snoke were announced and a chorus of people would go in-depth on how it had to be Darth Plagueis but their only evidence was "tall, thin, and JJ kept Kahn a secret!!!"



When he's revealed as not being Plagueis, it'll be the best setup for a "that's no Muun" pun.

Badum-tish!

On my way to see it for a third time now. Fanboying pretty hard but I don't care. This is getting all my money, while the prequels got a single ticket and multiple eye-rolls.


----------



## Ibanezsam4

And you win the internet


----------



## Captain Butterscotch

Going to see it on IMAX this time and I'm pretty stoked.


----------



## flint757

Captain Butterscotch said:


> Going to see it on IMAX this time and I'm pretty stoked.



It's worth every extra penny.


----------



## wankerness

Ibanezsam4 said:


> this is true. it all just started to get under my skin when details regarding Snoke were announced and a chorus of people would go in-depth on how it had to be Darth Plagueis but their only evidence was "tall, thin, and JJ kept Kahn a secret!!!"



I don't think it will be plagueis partly because I think these movies are intentionally not including anything prequel-specific!


----------



## thedonal

Well. I was too young to see A New Hope at the cinema, but started my journey with the figures. Saw Empire at the flicks twice. Major fan ever since.

I can watch the prequels, acknowledging how terrible they are and how far Lucas fell from his creative spark in the 70s and 80s.

So I was hoping the new film would make up for all that and tHe trailers were looking promising-bringing tears to my eyes on every watch.

After missing the opening titles due to a last minute nature calling (fortunately, the seal wasn't broken!!), I came in right at the end of the opening crawl. Kind of took the edge off the opening, but might have done a good job in tempering my excitement.

So what can I say about the movie? I laughed, had tears in my eyes frequently and was properly choked up at the end- I could barely talk! For me, the film was as damn near perfect as could be got and FINALLY the Star Wars movie I have been waiting for since Jedi.

Thanks to JJ and Disney for truly delivering the goods and George Lucas for letting go of it. I can't wait to see it again!


----------



## Xaios

wankerness said:


> I don't think it will be plagueis partly because I think these movies are intentionally not including anything prequel-specific!



Normally I would think that's great, but the opera house scene in which Palpatine explains the story of Plagueis to Anakin is easily the best scene from all the prequels.


----------



## thedonal

Xaios said:


> Normally I would think that's great, but the opera house scene in which Palpatine explains the story of Plagueis to Anakin is easily the best scene from all the prequels.



Agreed. Ian McDiarmid gave almost the only solid, consistent performance throughout. He was clearly relishing the part in that scene.


----------



## fps

It was a total rehash, and it was fine, no better. A shame, the first half hour or so was genuinely thrilling.


----------



## wankerness

fps said:


> It was a total rehash, and it was fine, no better. A shame, the first half hour or so was genuinely thrilling.



Yeah, up until the CGI tentacle monsters I LOVED it, I only really liked the rest. It sounds like I liked it much more than you overall, though.


----------



## fps

wankerness said:


> Yeah, up until the CGI tentacle monsters I LOVED it, I only really liked the rest. It sounds like I liked it much more than you overall, though.



I'm just very big on plotting. As soon as a film makes boring choices on that I start watching it in a totally different way- you can see the cogs working, the decisions taken at board level, the risk minimisation. Expectations were high for this one, though I don't know why. There was much to enjoy, with lowered expectations, I just didn't like the storytelling retread in something that had the pre-established audience and reach to do basically whatever it wanted.


----------



## Demiurge

Xaios said:


> Normally I would think that's great, but the opera house scene in which Palpatine explains the story of Plagueis to Anakin is easily the best scene from all the prequels.



Yeah, it was one of the more memorable scenes, but to me it seemed that the strength behind it was the appearance that Palpatine was spinning a tall tale tailored to pique Anakin's interest.

It would also be a monumentally clumsy or lazy retcon to have Snoke be Plagueis. It ruins the sinister-ness of the seduction in the aforementioned scene: it would effectively mean that Plagueis' abilities were actually greater than advertised and that he somehow survived assassination by his apprentice (the most believable part). Then, supposedly Plagueis either sits back and lets Palpatine run the Empire for decades unchallenged (perhaps forgoing vengeance, with it being implied that Palpatine was that assassin) or they pull the, sigh, _it was actually *him* running the show the whole time_ trope. 

Conceivably, if Kylo Ren can be a dark side force-user and not identify as Sith, then Snoke doesn't necessarily have to be one himself, right? In fact, it makes more sense for another opportunistic "faction" to take advantage of the power vacuum that followed the end of the Empire and the emergence of the First Order.


----------



## Rev2010

Saw it today with my wife and brother and sister-in-laws. My brother-in-law thought it was "awesome!". I thought it was "OK". Certainly liked it better than the prequels, or at least the first two prequels, but I didn't consider it amazing, and I love the original three. 

I have to agree with the above about repeating the story but wrapped in a new package, but that's Star Wars really... I mean look at the originals - they rebuilt the Death Star and once again flew in and blew it up two movies later. The lightsaber fight was pretty cool though, but it's also one of those things I just have to ask...


Spoiler



how come it seems anyone can somehow wield a light saber for the very first time and still manage to beat someone that was trained by a Jedi? I mean Fin held himself pretty well and then Rey beats him. Yeah I know he was shot by Chewie but it just seems a bit off. I mean Fin was a storm trooper. But whatever 




Rev.


----------



## A-Branger

Rev2010 said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> how come it seems anyone can somehow wield a light saber for the very first time and still manage to beat someone that was trained by a Jedi? I mean Fin held himself pretty well and then Rey beats him. Yeah I know he was shot by Chewie but it just seems a bit off. I mean Fin was a storm trooper. But whatever
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Rev.




IMO



Spoiler



like I mention before. Because hes not fully trained. Hes like the little fat spoiled kid on the block who just went to 4 clases of martial arts and now thinks hes a black belt ninja and a master of the sword just because he knows 4 basic moves and some bits of theory.

also another thing I mentioned too. To handle a lightsaber has nothing to do with using the force or being a jedi. Its just a weapon. Its their weapon of choice, but is still a weapon every one can use


----------



## wankerness

Yes to all of that. I don't get the hang-ups over these kinds of things anyway, but those things in particular seem to be consistent with the universe of the originals. Not the prequels I guess, where every Jedi was apparently a stunt man attached to wires and every lightsaber fight was retardedly over-choreographed.


----------



## Hollowway

Rev2010 said:


> Saw it today with my wife and brother and sister-in-laws. My brother-in-law thought it was "awesome!". I thought it was "OK". Certainly liked it better than the prequels, or at least the first two prequels, but I didn't consider it amazing, and I love the original three.
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> how come it seems anyone can somehow wield a light saber for the very first time and still manage to beat someone that was trained by a Jedi? I mean Fin held himself pretty well and then Rey beats him. Yeah I know he was shot by Chewie but it just seems a bit off. I mean Fin was a storm trooper. But whatever



Same for me. Everyone else thought it was awesome. I feel the same way about the light sabers. That really made me feel like it was made for a little kid who wouldn't ask too many questions. Plus, Rey


Spoiler



can do a Jedi mind trick with essentially no training? Come on, that was one of the COOLEST things Obi-wan did in IV, and now we're going to act like it's just the first thing you do when you figure out you have the force? There had better be a damn good explanation in VIII why Rey has way more Force in her than anyone in the films until now. I mean, Kylo Ren has been in training for years, and Rey can battle him with her mind all of 10 seconds after she tries. That's just ridiculous and, even in that universe, unbelievable.


----------



## A-Branger

Hollowway said:


> Same for me. Everyone else thought it was awesome. I feel the same way about the light sabers. That really made me feel like it was made for a little kid who wouldn't ask too many questions. Plus, Rey
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> can do a Jedi mind trick with essentially no training? Come on, that was one of the COOLEST things Obi-wan did in IV, and now we're going to act like it's just the first thing you do when you figure out you have the force? There had better be a damn good explanation in VIII why Rey has way more Force in her than anyone in the films until now. I mean, Kylo Ren has been in training for years, and Rey can battle him with her mind all of 10 seconds after she tries. That's just ridiculous and, even in that universe, unbelievable.



yup agree with that. 



Spoiler



The first bit she "battles him" the part where he cant get into her head and instead she gets into him, now that was cool. Shows a "natural talent/gift", but then got worse. The her manipulating others was a bit too much/quick like you say. Still "ok" on my books for a movie, but the end bit they jsut went too far. Like "ahhg Im in a full on saber battle, holding the saber with all my streng to avoid him to kill me... but....remember the 5 second chat you had with that old lady....mmm...close my eyes.....relax...(still remember to hold your lightsaber with all your strenght so you dont die...but relax.....open your eyes slowly.....and.... presto! you just un-locked the FORCE!!!....." that was a big pile of hollywood cheesy crap


and hey, wanna know the explanation for it???..... is... because.... shes Luke's daughter!!!... shes "the chosen one! "

oohh hollywood, making things easier since the begining of times


----------



## fps

A-Branger said:


> yup agree with that.
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> The first bit she "battles him" the part where he cant get into her head and instead she gets into him, now that was cool. Shows a "natural talent/gift", but then got worse. The her manipulating others was a bit too much/quick like you say. Still "ok" on my books for a movie, but the end bit they jsut went too far. Like "ahhg Im in a full on saber battle, holding the saber with all my streng to avoid him to kill me... but....remember the 5 second chat you had with that old lady....mmm...close my eyes.....relax...(still remember to hold your lightsaber with all your strenght so you dont die...but relax.....open your eyes slowly.....and.... presto! you just un-locked the FORCE!!!....." that was a big pile of hollywood cheesy crap
> 
> 
> and hey, wanna know the explanation for it???..... is... because.... shes Luke's daughter!!!... shes "the chosen one! "
> 
> oohh hollywood, making things easier since the begining of times





Spoiler



Totally. Even by Hollywood standards, she didn't have to work for a thing. Kids like that though, the message that you have to work for things has vanished from movies. Now, the Hollywood message is if you haven't discovered you're the unstoppable force of tomorrow at something by the time you're 20, best fall in line, things come easy to anyone who's worth a damn, and if they don't come easy to you, you're no-one. 

I'm also very surprised they tried to show the destruction of Death Star 3 as a triumph. If Finn got away and has a good heart, just how many good people did they murder? It's the equivalent of slaughtering everyone in Russia after WWII.


----------



## A-Branger

yeah Im bit tired of everything in hollywood always has to be "the one" or "the chosen one" ....always done by the most rejected un-popular lonely kid. Cant do much about it since this is star wars, but more for other movies.

Like for once I wanna see like you say, someone actually taking things at his hands and fight for it just because, and no because "it was his destiny" crap.... But then again we kinda have this with Fin in this movie, so well done for JJ


----------



## fps

A-Branger said:


> yeah Im bit tired of everything in hollywood always has to be "the one" or "the chosen one" ....always done by the most rejected un-popular lonely kid. Cant do much about it since this is star wars, but more for other movies.
> 
> Like for once I wanna see like you say, someone actually taking things at his hands and fight for it just because, and no because "it was his destiny" crap.... But then again we kinda have this with Fin in this movie, so well done for JJ



Yup! The lie is that we're all the unique special one. Special kinda cognitive dissonance people have.


----------



## Rev2010

wankerness said:


> Yes to all of that. I don't get the hang-ups over these kinds of things anyway, but those things in particular seem to be consistent with the universe of the originals. Not the prequels I guess, where every Jedi was apparently a stunt man attached to wires and every lightsaber fight was retardedly over-choreographed.



@A-branger - but then how was Kylo Ren such a top character in the First Order? He couldn't possibly get there without being considered powerful by his superiors. I don't think they'd let a spoiled kid with 4 martial arts classes lead in the position he was in. 

@Wankerness - Luke got his ass kicked in Empire and even got his hand cut off! Darth slapped him around and used the force to throw sh*t at him etc. In the beginning of Empire he struggled to even get the light saber from the snow so he could cut himself down and fend off the snow beast. Rey didn't have one ounce of training nor anyone to even introduce her to the force. Let's face it, it was Hollywood using the "super special snowflake" card. 


Rev.


----------



## wankerness

Well, Ren is very clearly not supposed to be anything near Vader level.


----------



## A-Branger

the lightsaber abilities doesnt reflect his knowledge/use of the force. Like I said there are two different things.

Im not saying he only got 4 lessons. Thats an example. but he does have an un-completed training, like Luke on Empire. Reason why his lightsaber is all doggy as he didnt got all the knowledge to properly build one, same as his use of the force and lightsaber techniques. He learned some basics, but didnt learn much after that, just his own "self learning" path


same as when you learn a new activity, or guitar. Before you used to play "good", now that you sudenly have "rules" and techniques on how to play, yes, you play "better" but your overall playing level drops as you still are developing those new techniques, and anyone can come at that point and beat you up if they get lucky. After you keep training, then they got no chance.

Again I see it as the little kid who just started to go to fencing clases and wants to have a duel with you. Hes going to use his new "knowledge" and techniques and in most cases he can beat you up. But as you dont know anything, you just goign to wave the sword at him like crazy and more than a few times you actually are going to win over him as you dont follow "his rules" and you trow him off. Then after a few more months you wont had any chance at all, but for a brief moment you can beat him with no training. 

I see something similar in here with Star Wars. Also remember that in the battle Ren go all loose in his emotions, hes not a trained Jedi to remain calm. He went all emo angry at her, and by default almost trowing away all his training. That plus the hollywood cheesy card of "shes the ONE"


----------



## A-Branger

and how he become a top character in the First Order. Well no matter how basic or develop your use of the force is, you still are more skilled than anyone in the army. See Ray vs the trooper. So any knowledge he has it would be more than enough.

Ren is also under the wing of the CGI dude too, so thats another reason he climbed up.

And if you see the movie you can notice that the Army General guy is still kinda more in command than Ren is and he doesnt give a crap not his afraid of Ren.

Ren is up there, but is not near as in command as Vader used to be


----------



## Electric Wizard

I saw it on xmas eve and have been trying to digest it since then. Overall I agree with most of you guys. It was a solid movie but I think there were some easy changes that could have made things a lot better.

Snoke sounds like a Harry Potter name to me, there were a few lines and/or deliveries that seemed too contemporary to me if that makes sense (whereas the originals seemed timeless), and the pacing was off in general (I get that they don't want a butt-destroying 3 hour film, but it felt rushed).

I'll probably see it again though.


----------



## Hollowway

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed in Ren. I would have liked it WAY more if


Spoiler



he kept his mask on. I mean, if Darth Vader took his mask off in IV and looked like a regular middle aged man, how scary would he have been? The scariness comes from not knowing what's under the mask. They really undermined Ren, and that bummed me out. Like, that's the best they've got at this point? 

And if Rey is Luke Skywalker's son I'm gonna lose my ..... The series is already incestuous enough, we don't need yet another generation here. It's far too obvious that's what they want us to think, so if they actually follow through on that then it's a pretty sad plot. I would much rather we assume that, but then it takes a different turn, as is done in really good books/movies.


----------



## wankerness

Hollowway said:


> Yeah, I was a bit disappointed in Ren. I would have liked it WAY more if
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> he kept his mask on. I mean, if Darth Vader took his mask off in IV and looked like a regular middle aged man, how scary would he have been? The scariness comes from not knowing what's under the mask. They really undermined Ren, and that bummed me out. Like, that's the best they've got at this point?



That isn't a problem with the movie, that's a problem with you wanting him to be more like Darth Vader. It is perfect for the character and completely goes with all of the behavior in his film. He's a gawky, impetuous weirdo. For all the people complaining about the film being too close to the original, this is one area where it definitely wasn't and was stronger for it.



Hollowway said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> *And if Rey is Luke Skywalker's son* I'm gonna lose my .....



If that is the case, that would REALLY be a plot twist!


----------



## protest

Spoiler



Things to consider when talking about some of your comaints:

1) Klyo Ren is possibly the only active force user in the galaxy, which gives him an advantage over everyone, no matter how rudimentary his skills. Battling someone who is strong with the force is something totally different for him.

2) He has been trained, but not very well. He is not able to construct a proper light saber, one of the last tests before becoming a Jedi knight/Sith showing either his lack of power or training 

3) He is injured in the fight and they make note of it several times. Rey is also fleeing from him until the very end and Fin does not hold his own. He gets one shot in while Ren is toying with him and then Ren stops messing around and beats him easily

4) We don't know anything about Rey. We don't know if she was trained at a young age before being dropped on Jakku. I do agree about the mind control scene. To me that is far more out of place than being able to fend off a wounded Ren who, and this is important, is not trying to kill her.. He was given instructions to bring her to Snoke and then wants to train her. He is clearly holding back like Vader in the early part of the first battle with Luke.

5) In IV Luke gets barely anymore training from Obi-Wan than Rey does from the yellow chick. He basically just says don't see, feel and covers his eyes with a visor. Then Luke is able to blow up the death star a couple hours later by using the force to guide his shot. He's also never seen training besides his time with Yoda. From IV to V and V to VI his power jumps but we have no idea how.

I know Rey getting her powers looked fast but asides from the Jedi Mind Trick nothing was really that much of a reach. There also could be an explanation waiting for us about it in VIII


----------



## Given To Fly

I just saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I want to talk about the audio of the film because I had a weird experience. Did anyone else find the audio lacking? In comparison, I saw The Hobbitt: Desolation of Smaug in the same theater complex and I own the movie. The audio creates the environment better than any movie I've ever seen. If something happens on the screen that would create a sound, you hear a sound. Erebor has unbelievable reverb. Mirkwood has unbelievable reverb. 

In The Force Awakens, when a "famous ship" crashes through a forest, hits the frozen ground, and slides across some snow to stop right at the edge of a precipice (I don't know how to do the green out thing) all I heard was "ffsshish, thunk, shissssssssssssssssssh..." What I saw was " (crackcrack...crack)*FFISSSHHH*, *THUNK*(Impact tremor...*thunk*..thunkthunk...thunkshissssssssssssss(screech of metal on ice/rock/whatever)sssshhh..." Also, the whole movie almost sounded like it was in stereo with lazy attempts at surround sound every once in a while on the occasional Tie Fighter. 

Did anyone else experience this? Good movie otherwise.


----------



## protest

Yes! When I saw it again in a different theater the audio was better, but still not as powerful as usual. I'm wondering if that is an attempt to make the DVD's/BR's volume more even? When I watch movies a lot of times there is a huge disparity in the volume of the dialogue and the volume of the special effects and score. That's the only thing I can think of that would explain the lack of punch in the effects and why the music seems to stay in the background. We'll have to wait and see if that's true though.


----------



## wankerness

protest said:


> Yes! When I saw it again in a different theater the audio was better, but still not as powerful as usual. I'm wondering if that is an attempt to make the DVD's/BR's volume more even? When I watch movies a lot of times there is a huge disparity in the volume of the dialogue and the volume of the special effects and score. That's the only thing I can think of that would explain the lack of punch in the effects and why the music seems to stay in the background. We'll have to wait and see if that's true though.



I'm sure they're not taking DVD/BR sound into account here, those sales are such a marginal percentage compared to what they were ten years ago. 

Usually if you have problems like that it's something with your settings and has something to do with using TV (or stereo) speakers to play surround sound mixes and the player/TV deciding to treat the parts with surround sound by just stacking what would be coming out of all 5 speakers into the two, creating immense loudness.  If there's a stereo mix on the disc you can choose, do that! I used to get driven nuts by that too until I figured out the workarounds (and eventually just bought a surround system).


----------



## wankerness

Given To Fly said:


> I just saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I want to talk about the audio of the film because I had a weird experience. Did anyone else find the audio lacking? In comparison, I saw The Hobbitt: Desolation of Smaug in the same theater complex and I own the movie. The audio creates the environment better than any movie I've ever seen. If something happens on the screen that would create a sound, you hear a sound. Erebor has unbelievable reverb. Mirkwood has unbelievable reverb.
> 
> In The Force Awakens, when a "famous ship" crashes through a forest, hits the frozen ground, and slides across some snow to stop right at the edge of a precipice (I don't know how to do the green out thing) all I heard was "ffsshish, thunk, shissssssssssssssssssh..." What I saw was " (crackcrack...crack)*FFISSSHHH*, *THUNK*(Impact tremor...*thunk*..thunkthunk...thunkshissssssssssssss(screech of metal on ice/rock/whatever)sssshhh..." Also, the whole movie almost sounded like it was in stereo with lazy attempts at surround sound every once in a while on the occasional Tie Fighter.
> 
> Did anyone else experience this? Good movie otherwise.



I saw it in a theater with really crappy sound so I can't be sure. What do you think of the sound mixes on the originals? I think they sound amazing on the blu-rays, and they have a lot of presence, but they certainly aren't subwoofer demo material. I wouldn't be surprised if with this movie they were trying to go back to the sound of those instead of the bass-drop insane-o fests that make up modern movies like say, Man of Steel, but I'll have to wait till I see it in imax or something to know.


----------



## asher

Watched Jedi on blu ray last night. Pretty much agree with wank: sounds great, but the loudest stuff is really the music. Not always, but I think the loudest bits were it.

Also, somehow, even without having just watched ANH and Empire (parents did night before while I was out), Vader's death tugged at my feels way more than


Spoiler



Han's death in TFA.


----------



## flint757

asher said:


> Watched Jedi on blu ray last night. Pretty much agree with wank: sounds great, but the loudest stuff is really the music. Not always, but I think the loudest bits were it.
> 
> Also, somehow, even without having just watched ANH and Empire (parents did night before while I was out), Vader's death tugged at my feels way more than
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Han's death in TFA.



That's because


Spoiler



Harrison Ford's acting in that scene was meh at best. He has a presence about him that I enjoy on film, but he's never been a jaw dropping actor IMO. That's not to say he hasn't done some amazing acting, but that I'm not sure he could pull off an emotional death scene. That fall backwards looked stupid. I didn't believe him for a second. It just wasn't good acting.


----------



## Hollowway

protest said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Things to consider when talking about some of your comaints:
> 
> 1) Klyo Ren is possibly the only active force user in the galaxy, which gives him an advantage over everyone, no matter how rudimentary his skills. Battling someone who is strong with the force is something totally different for him.
> 
> 2) He has been trained, but not very well. He is not able to construct a proper light saber, one of the last tests before becoming a Jedi knight/Sith showing either his lack of power or training
> 
> 3) He is injured in the fight and they make note of it several times. Rey is also fleeing from him until the very end and Fin does not hold his own. He gets one shot in while Ren is toying with him and then Ren stops messing around and beats him easily
> 
> 4) We don't know anything about Rey. We don't know if she was trained at a young age before being dropped on Jakku. I do agree about the mind control scene. To me that is far more out of place than being able to fend off a wounded Ren who, and this is important, is not trying to kill her.. He was given instructions to bring her to Snoke and then wants to train her. He is clearly holding back like Vader in the early part of the first battle with Luke.
> 
> 5) In IV Luke gets barely anymore training from Obi-Wan than Rey does from the yellow chick. He basically just says don't see, feel and covers his eyes with a visor. Then Luke is able to blow up the death star a couple hours later by using the force to guide his shot. He's also never seen training besides his time with Yoda. From IV to V and V to VI his power jumps but we have no idea how.
> 
> I know Rey getting her powers looked fast but asides from the Jedi Mind Trick nothing was really that much of a reach. There also could be an explanation waiting for us about it in VIII



That's all plausible, but that's a whole lot of supposition and rationalization. I mean, a lot of the criticism of I-III was that the acting was flat. You could make the argument that maybe that's how reserved people are in the future. Or you could take a WWI film with a guy wearing a digital watch and say that there's no way to know for sure that there wasn't a Tony Stark like character developing them in a secret DARPA lab. The fact is that the story shouldn't have raised these questions. It's ok for a story to leave an audience wondering things, but weak plot points shouldn't be one of them. Sure, we could find out some of this later, but none of the characters acted like anything we odd, in a way that might allude to there being more backstory. So for me I'm still feeling let down by a couple of these things. And if, in VIII they blow up another Death Star thingy with a single weak spot I'm going to seriously lose my .....

Now, it's quite possible I went in with higher expectations than I should have. And I saw this one as an adult, not as a kid, which might explain more.


----------



## TGOD

Man, I STILL haven't seen this yet, and all the spoilers on the internet that I've been constantly running in to (rather negligent friends or complete strangers being dicks) is really starting to completely ruin it for me. It's like there's barely any movie left to watch.

I hope it's worth seeing.


----------



## StevenC

It suddenly all makes sense.


----------



## asher

StevenC said:


> It suddenly all makes sense.



This would legitimately not surprise me at all.


----------



## Given To Fly

wankerness said:


> I saw it in a theater with really crappy sound so I can't be sure. What do you think of the sound mixes on the originals? I think they sound amazing on the blu-rays, and they have a lot of presence, but they certainly aren't subwoofer demo material. I wouldn't be surprised if with this movie they were trying to go back to the sound of those instead of the bass-drop insane-o fests that make up modern movies like say, Man of Steel, but I'll have to wait till I see it in imax or something to know.





wankerness said:


> I saw it in a theater with really crappy sound so I can't be sure. What do you think of the sound mixes on the originals? I think they sound amazing on the blu-rays, and they have a lot of presence, but they certainly aren't subwoofer demo material. I wouldn't be surprised if with this movie they were trying to go back to the sound of those instead of the bass-drop insane-o fests that make up modern movies like say, Man of Steel, but I'll have to wait till I see it in imax or something to know.



Well, you make a good point, all of the previews before the movie were "bass-drop insane-o fests" which didn't really help. (I actually haven't seen the originals in years and I know when I see them again my perspective will be very different.) Perhaps its just me, I like sound, and I feel the sonic detail did not always match the visual detail. Or, maybe I need to see it again. 



Hollowway said:


> Now, it's quite possible I went in with higher expectations than I should have. And I saw this one as an adult, not as a kid, which might explain more.



I think it was impossible not to have unrealistically high expectations going into this movie. 



TGOD said:


> I hope it's worth seeing.



Yes, its worth seeing.


----------



## asher

Given To Fly said:


> I think it was impossible not to have unrealistically high expectations going into this movie.



This is why I stayed the hell away from trailers and would not let myself get excited about new Star Wars


----------



## wankerness

asher said:


> This is why I stayed the hell away from trailers and would not let myself get excited about new Star Wars



I watched the three main teasers/trailers as they launched, thought all of them looked great, and got REALLY excited when I saw the one with "Chewie, we're home." Didn't ruin anything! I guess maybe my expectations were tempered just by having lived through the prequel launches (and having rewatched all three of the wretched things in the last year). Also, I've watched the originals a few times over the last decade, and while I still really like them I certainly wouldn't rate them 10/10 or anything, they're just very solid, very imaginative movies with incredible effects-work that I have a strong nostalgia attachment to. I was expecting to really like it, and I did! I think it's probably on par with the originals (before they got SPECIAL EDITIONED), though since the nostalgia factor is so strong with them, obviously I am not going to have it burned into my brain for the next 20 years of my life. I'm not still a little kid who views every film I see as a transcendent experience!


----------



## coffeeflush

I saw the movie. Paid for best seats in the house in the best theater around my place. 

I did not like the movie, I enjoyed it yes but the plot felt so exploitative, like they took 1 thing from every star wars movie before, mashed it together to make a new one,did a ....ty job at casting (wth was Kylo Ren's character ? cookie dough of the dark side).

Luke had to train with lifting spaceships using the force, Kylo Ren has a tough time using the force to get a light saber. 

Overall I didn't mind the movie and it was a good change from work to go watch it, but in the series of star wars movies, this movie was a giant collection of memes for me.


----------



## MFB

asher said:


> This is why I stayed the hell away from trailers and would not let myself get excited about new Star Wars



I got crazy excited about it without trailers because it's a new Star Wars, but the amount of hype it got while still being 'a movie', is ridiculous


----------



## wankerness

MFB said:


> I got crazy excited about it without trailers because it's a new Star Wars, but the amount of hype it got while still being 'a movie', is ridiculous



I'm just relieved it's doing better than Jurassic World, which was one of the most inexplicable and undeserving box office smashes this side of the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.


----------



## redstone

protest said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> I know Rey getting her powers looked fast but asides from the Jedi Mind Trick nothing was really that much of a reach.





Spoiler



I agree. It's the only trick she learned by fighting an unscrupulous expert in mind control, presumably. Sounds like a way more expeditive method than following jedi classes. I also found it interesting to explore that aspect of learning, or discovering, some aspects of the force.


----------



## ghostred7

Went back and watched it a second time. Definitely liked it better after the 2d viewing when I was able to remove all expectation and the aforementioned annoyances with some of the dialogue/humor choices.

Huge SW fan. After 1st time watching it... a little more than 'meh': 6/10
After 2d time: 8.5/10

Audio in the theater we went to was awesome. 

I have a torrent link to a camrip if anyone wants. PM if you want it. It's watchable, but not nearly as good as watching in theaters. Ex: Sabers look blown out due to the extra light the camcorder picked up. I'd rate video~7 and audio ~6

I will be buying the BluRay when it comes out.


----------



## Watty

Not that anyone cares, but I thought this movie was garbage.


Spoiler



If I wanted to watch A New Hope again, I would have....and not paid $12 or waited several hours in a theater to do it. I actually had tickets to see it a second time opening weekend and gave them away because I was so disinterested in the movie.

The use of parallel structure was overbearing (watching as if it wasn't a remake of ANH, which would have made that even worse), the overt nature of the comedic elements didn't do the movie any favors (that's part of what hurt the prequels), and there were too many plot elements with little to no real support (e.g. mind control with no training, silver trooper turning off shields, etc.). Carrie's voice sounding a chainsmoker and Harrison barely being able to walk around, much less run, made the inclusion of the old characters seem more a cliche than a continuation of the story. I'm sure that there are tons of people who don't really care about that kind of stuff and will love it, but I just didn't care for how this franchise was revived.


----------



## wankerness

Watty said:


> Not that anyone cares, but I thought this movie was garbage. If I wanted to watch A New Hope again, I would have....and not paid $12 or waited several hours in a theater to do it. I actually had tickets to see it a second time opening weekend and gave them away because I was so disinterested in the movie.
> 
> The use of parallel structure was overbearing *(watching as if it wasn't a remake of ANH, which would have made that even worse)*



Not sure what the bold part means, but did ANH really have any parallel structure? I thought it followed Luke the entire time besides the occasional cuts to characters like Darth Vader or Leia before he meets up with them.


----------



## Watty

wankerness said:


> Not sure what the bold part means, but did ANH really have any parallel structure? I thought it followed Luke the entire time besides the occasional cuts to characters like Darth Vader or Leia before he meets up with them.



I meant I was watching as if it wasn't a complete remake of ANH, i.e. I considered each of the times they reused a plot element (orphan on a desert planet, giant spherical "evil" thing, etc.) a separate instance of playing up the connection to the original movie. In my mind, that wasn't quite as bad as watching the entire thing with the realization that all they did was remake the movie.


----------



## Hollowway

wankerness said:


> Not sure what the bold part means, but did ANH really have any parallel structure? I thought it followed Luke the entire time besides the occasional cuts to characters like Darth Vader or Leia before he meets up with them.



I think he means ANH and this one were very much parallel to each other.


----------



## wankerness

Oh, I thought he meant the use of parallel structure through the climax (which is obviously ground well-tread by ROTJ and the prequels).


----------



## A-Branger

well yeah, Han and Leia are old, what would you expect? lol 

I get you other points to not like the movie, but complain about how "old" two characters looked when not only they are "old" but they supposed to be playing "old people" on the screen its a bit too far picky. What? do you want them to be runing and jumping and making backflips? and sounding like a sexy 18yr old?


----------



## protest

Spoiler



Can we stop using these yet? 

Anyway, IMDB has Harrison Ford and Max von Sydow listed as cast members for Episode VIII. I like the idea of flashbacks, but not sure how I feel about Ford being back. Does IMDB list anything before it's official?


----------



## Lorcan Ward

^I think so. If you still haven't seen it yet you shouldn't be reading a thread about it.


----------



## protest

I totally forgot to put that I was talking about Episode VIII in that post at first lol.


----------



## Given To Fly

Given To Fly said:


> I just saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I want to talk about the audio of the film because I had a weird experience. Did anyone else find the audio lacking? In comparison, I saw The Hobbitt: Desolation of Smaug in the same theater complex and I own the movie. The audio creates the environment better than any movie I've ever seen. If something happens on the screen that would create a sound, you hear a sound. Erebor has unbelievable reverb. Mirkwood has unbelievable reverb.
> 
> In The Force Awakens, when a "famous ship" crashes through a forest, hits the frozen ground, and slides across some snow to stop right at the edge of a precipice (I don't know how to do the green out thing) all I heard was "ffsshish, thunk, shissssssssssssssssssh..." What I saw was " (crackcrack...crack)*FFISSSHHH*, *THUNK*(Impact tremor...*thunk*..thunkthunk...thunkshissssssssssssss(screech of metal on ice/rock/whatever)sssshhh..." Also, the whole movie almost sounded like it was in stereo with lazy attempts at surround sound every once in a while on the occasional Tie Fighter.
> 
> Did anyone else experience this? Good movie otherwise.



I'm quoting myself because I know the word that refers to the specific audio I thought was missing: Foley. As I understand it, the Foley mix consists of normal everyday sounds that are not captured while filming. Footsteps are a good example. I'm not sure how you create the sound of trees being snapped in half or metal sliding/scraping across the ground but it would be done by foley artists. The sound made by lightsabers, Tie Fighters, and laser guns would be done by special effects because those are not real things. 

So, the sounds that make a film seem "real" were not very present when I saw the movie. Volume, or levels, were another issue, especially with the spaceships. In real life, a plane gets louder as it passes you because the jet engine is pointed directly at your head. Film makers know this and it would be down right weird not to create this perspective for the audience. I'm not sure how the audio in Episode VII was mixed (Dolby Atmos seems to be the standard now) but it seems some theaters are setup well for it and others are not.


----------



## MFB

Foley artists are such a weird/specific job to be good at, but god damn if they don't help sell the movie.


----------



## Mathemagician

....ing loved it. Fiances a nerd. She loved it too. Such a good movie. It had the whole threshold in a cantina scene, plenty of throwbacks, but felt fun and worth the cash.


----------



## A-Branger

Given To Fly said:


> I'm quoting myself because I know the word that refers to the specific audio I thought was missing: Foley. As I understand it, the Foley mix consists of normal everyday sounds that are not captured while filming. Footsteps are a good example. I'm not sure how you create the sound of trees being snapped in half or metal sliding/scraping across the ground but it would be done by foley artists. The sound made by lightsabers, Tie Fighters, and laser guns would be done by special effects because those are not real things.
> 
> So, the sounds that make a film seem "real" were not very present when I saw the movie. Volume, or levels, were another issue, especially with the spaceships. In real life, a plane gets louder as it passes you because the jet engine is pointed directly at your head. Film makers know this and it would be down right weird not to create this perspective for the audience. I'm not sure how the audio in Episode VII was mixed (Dolby Atmos seems to be the standard now) but it seems some theaters are setup well for it and others are not.



lol you would be amazed on how different are the sounds you see on screen against on how it was really made, even a simple stuff like a tree snap in half can be done with lets say a piece of celery. I saw a doco not long ago about the story on the original films, and the laser beans on the guns were done by hitting a metal cable. Like a big long cable that holds an antena. Lightsabers were a Hum recorded from a doggy equipment thing (Idnt remember what), ect.

Every sound is real, nothing is "made" if that makes sense


EDIT: I havent see those docos posted ^^^, maybe they show there


I worked once doing audio post for a soap opera, like re-constructing the whole soundtrack of sounds but using a massive sound library. Its amazing on how many things are added, and I was doing "quick simple jobs", cant imagine how massive its for a movie. But thats the bummer of that job, You know you did a good job when no one talks of mention about it. ITs when you did wrong that everyone notice it

I didnt notice anything wrong with it. But again I was sitting in the worse seat ever at the cinema, plus prob I was focusing more on the "Its a Start War movie!! yay" and prob more into the cinematography and color grading, VFX, photography of it, as thats my current job. But I would try to pay mroe attention to it next time I see it


----------



## Given To Fly

The second Youtube video is probably the most informative about sound design. You are right that all the sounds are "real" but some are also "put together." Its amazing what grapefruit can sound like within the context of a movie.  

Sound effects aside, watching those Youtube videos makes me appreciate live theater a little bit more.


----------



## Rev2010

A-Branger said:


> well yeah, Han and Leia are old, what would you expect? lol



Them being old didn't bother me at all, but there definitely was something funky with Carrie Fisher trying to speak that was painful t watch. She's only 59, she's not 85, but she sounded like it. Got me wondering if right before each take she got botox injections that tightened up her face too much to move her mouth. Thought I was alone in noticing that lol.


Rev.


----------



## ah_graylensman

Rev2010 said:


> Rey didn't have one ounce of training nor anyone to even introduce her to the force.



That we know of.



Spoiler



I would not be surprised if we find out in Ep. VIII that Rey was partially trained as a child and then had that training put behind a mental block (which Kylo Whine unintentionally destroyed) when she was abandoned on Jakku.


----------



## fps

I thought there was way too much Leia in this movie given they didn't have a clue how to use her.


----------



## jwade

Loved IV V and VI (V being the best of course), didn't enjoy I or II, felt like III was a 30 minute section stretched out to an obnoxious degree. I managed to avoid all spoilers for VII, only watched the teaser trailer. 

Loved VII. Went Tuesday, probably will go again on Saturday. 

I'm left with the obvious questions about the origins of Rey, Finn and Snoke, with wondering why Phasma was so underutilized despite being such a primary marketing focus and having a badass standout name & unique armor. My theory is that


Spoiler



she's part of the Resistance, and is the one feeding info to Leia. 

Regarding Rey, I hope she's not Luke's child. It seems too easy. I'd rather her be related to Palpatine or Obi-Wan. My theory is that if they were to set her up to be part of Palpatine's bloodline, the whole Kylo vs Rey thing would be Vader and the Emperor's grandkids on alternate sides of the Force. I feel like it would have more impact than them going 'oh ps, here's Mara Jade, Luke had a kid and surprise! She's mega-powerful'. That being said, both Luke and Leia clearly recognized her, and Leia even hugged her, when the only other people she showed that level of affection for/closeness with were Han and Chewie. Another quick thought, Max von Sydow's character seemed Jedi-like. He had the same vibe as 'Old Ben Kenobi' in IV, I'm assuming it'd be an easy setup that he was on Jakku watching over Rey.

No theory on Finn's origin. I mean I've seen people saying 'OMG WHAT IF HE'S MACE WINDU'S KID' or 'he's totally related to Lando'. Fully disagree and find those ideas laughable.

As for Snoke, I'm guessing he's a sort of 'evil Yoda', existing undetected for many years sheltered by some Light side of the Force artifact/location, mirroring Yoda's Dark side tree. Additionally, I hope the character is a tiny little Yoda-sized thing, which would be especially fun as he already looks vaguely Gollum-like, and obviously Andy Serkis being the actor behind the character, it'd be fitting.

I've seen a lot of people talking about Han. Not the best acting Harrison has ever done, but still a fairly huge scene. I strongly disagree with everything I'm seeing where people are saying 'maybe Han didn't die!'. Get your head out of your ass, lightsaber through the upper chest. He's not a Jedi, he's an old-ass man. He dead. Move on.



Anyway, this was the Star Wars I wanted to see back when I went opening night to Episodes I, II, and III. I'm glad it exists, and I'm very excited for the next two.


----------



## Ibanezsam4

jwade said:


> I'm left with the obvious questions about the origins of Rey, Finn and Snoke, with wondering why Phasma was so underutilized despite being such a primary marketing focus and having a badass standout name & unique armor.



it seems Disney is going to take the publication route to explain a lot of backstory as to not clog up the movies. 

here's what we've got for Phasma: All New Backstory and Details on The Force Awakens from the Visual Dictionary. - Star Wars News Net | Star Wars News Net


----------



## wakjob

Wow, people are over thinking this.

Grab a bag of popcorn, sit back and enjoy the ride while getting away from this reality for 2-1/2 hours.

A 26 yr. old guy at work has seen NOTHING Star Wars related. He was lent all the movies in chronological order. He said it was really tough to watch books 4,5, and 6 because it looked so old.

So bravo to the new movie of using "parallel structure" to introduce a new gen. to the original narrative and capturing the "spirit" of the same thing that hooked all of us older fans.


----------



## Santuzzo

I'm a huge Star Wars fan, bought the action figures when I was around 9 or 10 (this was in the 80is), and I love the movies (Ep 4-6, ie).
I went to see Ep 7 last week, and I am not sure yet what to think of it. I think I need to see it a couple more times, but I was not blown away by it (as in I did not tihnk it was awesome) ... so my first reaction was like...meh....

That being said, the popcorn was damn good! Well worth going to the movies for!


----------



## StevenC

wakjob said:


> Wow, people are over thinking this.
> 
> Grab a bag of popcorn, sit back and enjoy the ride while getting away from this reality for 2-1/2 hours.
> 
> A 26 yr. old guy at work has seen NOTHING Star Wars related. He was lent all the movies in chronological order. He said it was really tough to watch books 4,5, and 6 because it looked so old.
> 
> So bravo to the new movie of using "parallel structure" to introduce a new gen. to the original narrative and capturing the "spirit" of the same thing that hooked all of us older fans.



But Star Wars isn't meant to be a popcorn movie. The only thing this movie captures from the original trilogy is the story exactly, because it steals it. None of the spirit.


----------



## ThePIGI King

I saw it (finally). I liked it a good bit, but found a whole lot of plot "holes" that have been mentioned. I was a tad bit disappointed with the film in general, and I'm hoping that VIII pulls the problems I had to make it all work out for the better. Just like I enjoy Phantom Menace a good bit because the way it plays the rest of them. So I'm just hoping VII is like I, but, well, obviously better.


----------



## The Mirror

StevenC said:


> But Star Wars isn't meant to be a popcorn movie.



Of course it is. In fact Star Wars (together with Jaws) was the "inventor" of the modern blockbuster/popcorn movie. 

Star Wars' features always were a simple to follow story, following the classic Hero's Journey, with children as it's main audience and a marketing heavily featuring merchandise. (Hell ANHs final battle sequence was partially made with X-Wings from the merchandise sector, because that way the production costs could be lowered).

Star Wars is the classic hero story poeple have been telling each other for thousands of years. 

If anything in this world is a popcorn movie, then Star Wars is.

Oh and before you ask: Yes I grew up with the original trilogy and I love those movies.


----------



## Santuzzo

StevenC said:


> But Star Wars isn't meant to be a popcorn movie.



to me any movie in the movie theater is a popcorn movie


----------



## A-Branger

if you are watching a movie and have popcorn in your lap, then its a popcorn movie

not every teather sells hotdogs, pizzas, and nachos...... how I miss those in mine


----------



## Santuzzo

and damn, that salted pop corn is nice!
never really been much into sweet pop corn but salted pop corn is where it's at for me


----------



## Ibanezsam4

StevenC said:


> But Star Wars isn't meant to be a popcorn movie. The only thing this movie captures from the original trilogy is the story exactly, because it steals it. None of the spirit.



let's get this straight... a series about space monks with laser swords who use magical powers to fight a evil nazi empire in space with the help of strange looking aliens and talking robots is not a popcorn movie? 

this is my gripe with Star Wars fandom. these stories aren't deep, hence their success at the box office - but the super fans have ascribed so much undeserving clout to these films that anything that comes out will be poorly executed in their eyes... because it will not be the LOTR in space nerd adventure they are looking for. <-- this last statement is why the now-defunct EU is stupid IMO. 

take the films for what they are: well executed, deeply emotional, stupid adventure stories. you'll find yourself enjoying them even more


----------



## A-Branger

Santuzzo said:


> and damn, that salted pop corn is nice!
> never really been much into sweet pop corn but salted pop corn is where it's at for me



I wish I had that option, just regular salted/butter-ish popcorn. Being the movie "going to the cinema" fanatic I am, Im actually tired of them and cant even finish a small box now. But give me a butter popcorn microwave ones, and Im all over it. And since I found a brand that sells the salty/sweet flavor ones in bags oooohhh thats heaven


----------



## wakjob

Exactly folks.

Michael Akerfeldt said it best about fans thinking they "own a piece of you".

I think this drove George Lucas crazy. 
You can never make a bunch of nerdy over thinking fans happy no matter how hard you try.


----------



## Ibanezsam4

wakjob said:


> Exactly folks.
> 
> Michael Akerfeldt said it best about fans thinking they "own a piece of you".
> 
> I think this drove George Lucas crazy.
> You can never make a bunch of nerdy over thinking fans happy no matter how hard you try.



its true. granted i think he made plenty of missteps managing the prequels and deserves a lot of criticism for how he made the films... but i also feel he partially redeemed himself in the last 30 minutes of RoS


----------



## asher

ED: In the interest of not being spoilery still, converted this to a URL, not an inline 

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=cf903a8ab38972caf305a564218e700c&oe=573FBCD5

That helicopter spinaround was one of the most unnecessary shots I've seen in a long time though


----------



## Ibanezsam4

asher said:


> ED: In the interest of not being spoilery still, converted this to a URL, not an inline
> 
> https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=cf903a8ab38972caf305a564218e700c&oe=573FBCD5
> 
> That helicopter spinaround was one of the most unnecessary shots I've seen in a long time though



JJ is in love with those shots. a wide angle steady shot would've done just fine i think


----------



## asher

Yeah, he is. Some of the other shots in the movie are really good, too, but that one just was A) way too long B) very jarring. Star Wars doesn't ever do that kind of shot.


----------



## A-Branger

it was sooooooooooo long, so unnecessary stupid awkward long

I get the "extend the shot" as much as you can for movie reasons, but they just took it way too far. Plus the "I gonna walk aaaaaaalll the way up, but for some reason Im gonna stop here at this not "long", not "too short" awkward distance of him. And just right here Im gonna pull out the saber and hold it like Im gonna give it to him, but I cant because Im bit far too long to do so.... but Im still gonna extend my arm as much as I can to see if I reach, even that Im way too far to do so. So maybe we would keep holding my arm fully extended to see if maybe that helps...even when I know it wont"

if she was just naturaly holding the lightsaber i her hand, and maybe, maybe a little gesture of "reaching out/giving it back to him". But no, they needed to fully extend her arm and hold it there at a big distance between them


----------



## USMarine75

IMO the point was him looking at her, as if to say why have you come, and her holding out the lightsaber to say this is why. That way there is no need for dialogue. I quite liked it.


----------



## wankerness

A-Branger said:


> *it was sooooooooooo long, so unnecessary stupid awkward long*
> 
> I get the "extend the shot" as much as you can for movie reasons, but they just took it way too far. Plus the "I gonna walk aaaaaaalll the way up, but for some reason Im gonna stop here at this not "long", not "too short" awkward distance of him. And just right here Im gonna pull out the saber and hold it like Im gonna give it to him, but I cant because Im bit far too long to do so.... but Im still gonna extend my arm as much as I can to see if I reach, even that Im way too far to do so. So maybe we would keep holding my arm fully extended to see if maybe that helps...even when I know it wont"
> 
> if she was just naturaly holding the lightsaber i her hand, and maybe, maybe a little gesture of "reaching out/giving it back to him". But no, they needed to fully extend her arm and hold it there at a big distance between them



I guess you don't go to many effects movies, then? It seems like practically everything expensive is over two hours these days. It's a half hour shorter than the last Tarantino movie, or The Revenant, or even the last frickin Transformers movie. I think practically all of those Marvel movies are 2 hours or more, with the Thor movies and Ant-Man maybe being slightly less.


----------



## TonyFlyingSquirrel

just for Spits & Giggles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPV9NNvtL20&feature=youtu.be


----------



## USMarine75

TonyFlyingSquirrel said:


> just for Spits & Giggles:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPV9NNvtL20&feature=youtu.be



I prefer this one...



... and I think it might be the first djent song ever recorded.


----------



## A-Branger

wankerness said:


> I guess you don't go to many effects movies, then? It seems like practically everything expensive is over two hours these days. It's a half hour shorter than the last Tarantino movie, or The Revenant, or even the last frickin Transformers movie. I think practically all of those Marvel movies are 2 hours or more, with the Thor movies and Ant-Man maybe being slightly less.



lol I do, I actually went to the cinema to watch out those  Im bit of an adict when it comes to go to the cinema.

my point wasnt at the lenght of the movie. I love long movies, and this one felt right.

my point was a the lenght of the final shot. Its so much you can show footage of two character meeting each others without talking before it gets too awkward. Like someone would had talk by any point during that scene, you cant show that much silence. Plus in this kinds of scenes, it makes more of an impact if the shot was short, like you cut the movie just before someone was gonna say something. Plus I felt it was stupid her with her arm fully stretch with the lightsaber, like he is way way too far from you, whats the point? you arent giving it to him, so why not hold it in front of you or just reach out a little like a normal person do. And in top of that you add a full on long helicopter shot with her holding her arm straight out,


----------



## jwade

I fully disagree. I think the long shot was beautifully done, and necessary. It emphasized Luke's isolation, and showcased both her symbolic journey and the incredible location they got to film at.

If you were making a film and were one of the only people that would ever be allowed to shoot there, wouldn't you want to whip out some fancy shots of the place? I sure as hell would've. If anything, I'm surprised they didn't do a seriously long/slow zoom in or zoom out shot.


----------



## synrgy

I loved that shot. There's a ton of emotion to process in that scene, as a lifelong fan, seeing our hero for the first time in 30-ish years, knowing some of the tragedy he's experienced during the interim - let alone that which we saw him endure in the original trilogy, or that which had happened a few scenes earlier, which he may or may not have sensed through The Force..

There's so much going on in his look. "I know why you're here. I know what's happened. It's all my fault. I'm all but taken-over by guilt, shame, and regret. You want me to help you, and save the Galaxy, and though I'm probably the only one in the Galaxy who _can_ save it, I don't believe I can do it without destroying _everything_. Wait, where did you find _that_? 

Oh, my.. You have your mother's eyes.."

What's killing me is the anticipation with which I'm left.


----------



## asher

I loved everything about that ending until the gorram helicopter pano.

SO jarring compared to the style of the rest of the film, and that cut lasted far too long, to boot. Felt very awkward. It would have been a bit abrupt to circle wipe while just looking at Luke's face, and a long distance shot was the way to go I think (especially with that setting, damn!), but _not.a.helicopter.JJ!_


----------



## A-Branger

i dont have a problem with the helicopter. my problem was that by the point they used the heli shot, the scene was already far too long, add in top of that a long heli shot, and now you have two characters standing there doing nothing with her holding the saber with her arm fully strech, while the two of the hold steady,

the first time I watch the film I though it was awkward long, by the second time I watched I felt way way more awkward. Like she gets there, show luke turning around, cut back to her and hold the shot, cut back to him, and hold the shot, cut to her getting the saber, cut to him, cut to her reaching out, cut to him for a long time, cut to her, him, heli shoooooooooooooooooot, aaaaaaand finish. They tried to extend the moment, but without sound/dialog, or action, or movement, its just feel awkward.

Also, that heli shot was actually very very poorly done for a hollywood and big name director, big budget, Star WArs film. the shot/pan, was really jerky. Yes, its hard to "dolly" or in this case "heli" around a subject with an 200-500mm lens (or maybe more), but it can be done and it has been done. Go and watch The Art of Flying, the redbull snowboard movie, its full of this kinds of shots and non of them look jerky and jumpy like if they had a bad tripod head.


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## wankerness

A-Branger said:


> lol I do, I actually went to the cinema to watch out those  Im bit of an adict when it comes to go to the cinema.
> 
> my point wasnt at the lenght of the movie. I love long movies, and this one felt right.
> 
> *my point was a the lenght of the final shot. *Its so much you can show footage of two character meeting each others without talking before it gets too awkward. Like someone would had talk by any point during that scene, you cant show that much silence. Plus in this kinds of scenes, it makes more of an impact if the shot was short, like you cut the movie just before someone was gonna say something. Plus I felt it was stupid her with her arm fully stretch with the lightsaber, like he is way way too far from you, whats the point? you arent giving it to him, so why not hold it in front of you or just reach out a little like a normal person do. And in top of that you add a full on long helicopter shot with her holding her arm straight out,



Oh, yeah, fair enough, I thought you were talking about the movie as a whole. The last shot was sort of silly.


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## flint757

I think I would have liked the ending better had it just ended with R2D2 booting up then going straight to credits. All the cameos felt forced to me and none of them did a great job at their parts.


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## USMarine75

flint757 said:


> All the cameos felt forced to me and none of them did a great job at their parts.



Couldn't possibly disagree more, but hey, that's what is great about movies/music/art... 

I paid no attention to the leaks and trailers ahead of time. Seeing the original actors was a surprise, and brought me back to being a kid with my Dad in the theater watching Empire. It was the same when Leonard Nimoy appeared in the new Star Trek movie, or when the original Bones appeared in the first episode of ST:TNG. [On a side note, people whining about Harrison Ford having trouble running around or Carrie Fisher sounding like a granny can literally go F themselves.]

I also loved all the awesome hidden cameos, not just the obvious reprisals of stars: Simon Pegg, Daniel Craig, Bill Hader, Judah Friedlander, Carrie Fisher's daughter, Warwick Davis, that guy from Heroes, that guy from Lost, all of the GOT actors including Brienne of Tarth, Max Von Sydow, etc! Every time I spotted one (or read about it and then spotted them the 2nd time I saw the movie) it made the movie feel "bigger"... as if it was more of a cultural phenomenon, than just a mere movie.

The same applies for me with the parallel plots. I loved that they re-used a lot of the elements of the original episodes, only bigger. It reminded me of the Battlestar Galactica theme that "all this has happened before, and all this will happen again". 

Sure, there were plot holes and crutches, but all movies have them. For some reason this genre and this particular franchise seem to have the most unforgiving and inveterate fans. [For those of you familiar with Thumb Wars, my wife and kids and I will often race to be the first to call out "I escaped somehow" when we spot one in a movie lol]

My 6 year old and I have seen it twice already in the theater, and I hope Star Wars/Lucas/JJ/et al have given him the same kind of lifelong happy childhood memory, that the original movies did, for me with my dad.


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## asher

Anyone have a good list of those cameos? The only ones I actually know about are Von Sydow and Craig.


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## USMarine75

asher said:


> Anyone have a good list of those cameos? The only ones I actually know about are Von Sydow and Craig.



Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb

19 Big-Name 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Cameos You Probably Missed | NME.COM


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## A-Branger

flint757 said:


> I think I would have liked the ending better had it just ended with R2D2 booting up then going straight to credits. All the cameos felt forced to me and none of them did a great job at their parts.



I think the end showing her traveling there to seek for her "master-to be" was fine.

it would have been better to just cut the movie once Luke reveals himself and turns around. Everything else added after that was just in order to justify Luke's salary for the movie.

in another though, they make it look like a massive reveal thing, but we all knew she went there to search for Luke, hence the secret plans

also, Luke travel alone to meet yoda and train. But in this case, she traveled with Chewbaca. So what hes gonna do during the whole training? sit on the ship and wait? lol


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## StevenC

Interestingly, Ep VIII will be the first Star Wars without any significant time passing between it and the previous one. 10 years between I and II, 3 between II and III, 19 between III and IV, 3 years, 1 year, 30 years.

All because of that pointless scene at the end.


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## Ibanezsam4

A-Branger said:


> it would have been better to just cut the movie once Luke reveals himself and turns around. Everything else added after that was just in order to justify Luke's salary for the movie.
> 
> in another though, they make it look like a massive reveal thing, but we all knew she went there to search for Luke, hence the secret plans



i think you're confusing a reveal for a twist 

but no the look was necessary. seeing the sadness with the glimmer of hope in his eyes. it communicated so much. but then the helicopter happened


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## A-Branger

Ibanezsam4 said:


> i think you're confusing a reveal for a twist
> 
> but no the look was necessary. seeing the sadness with the glimmer of hope in his eyes. it communicated so much. but then the helicopter happened



you know what I meant 

the whole movie was about finding the map to find Luke's location, so we knew he was there, so why they made it look like a big surprise it was Luke at the end when we all knew it was him.

and yeah I agree we needed his reaction, but again,they could show him turn around, take off his hoodie, and show his reaction face, and done!, we didnt need the whole 5 minutes of silence and face expressions that came after, nor the whole lightsaber thing either.

funny how that makes the whole movie plot to be a "the journey to reunite a man with his toy" lol


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## TGOD

FINALLY saw it, and I don't know about Star Wars purists, but I thought it was a blast. I'm a pretty big SW fan (or sci-fi in general), and I thought it was perfectly fine.



Spoiler



I like how people were like "THERE'S NO WAY REY COULD BEAT REN, HE'S SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL AND TRAINED", and completely neglect to mention the fact that directly before that fight, Kylo was shot in the stomach by Chewie's Bowcaster, which is a weapon that would otherwise blow a normal person in to oblivion. I mean, for ....'s sake, the sheer power of Chewie's bowcaster was built up by Han throughout the entire movie.


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## wankerness




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## A-Branger

TGOD said:


> FINALLY saw it, and I don't know about Star Wars purists, but I thought it was a blast. I'm a pretty big SW fan (or sci-fi in general), and I thought it was perfectly fine.
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> I like how people were like "THERE'S NO WAY REY COULD BEAT REN, HE'S SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL AND TRAINED", and completely neglect to mention the fact that directly before that fight, Kylo was shot in the stomach by Chewie's Bowcaster, which is a weapon that would otherwise blow a normal person in to oblivion. I mean, for ....'s sake, the sheer power of Chewie's bowcaster was built up by Han throughout the entire movie.



yeah few ppl mention here the how Rey could battle him so well. But something I forgot about it is that Rey is already a badass on the staff. Remember shes been carrying one from the beginning of the movie. So she already know how to fight, it was a matter to swap the staff for a sword


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## DanicaL

I really hope they focus more on Adam drivers character in the up coming movies. We didn't get to understand why he idolizes Darth Vader so much and he came off kind of like a whiny brat. 

Not a whole lot of motivation.


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