Star Wars

[Ben_j]

Fun fact, in the "forceback" when Rey touches Luke's lightsaber and you can hear lines from Yoda, Luke, Obi Wan, etc... You hear Alec Guiness' Obi Wan saying "Rey". This was obviously not a new recording of Guinness, since he's dead. They instead took a line from the old movies where Guinness says "Afraid" and cut it to get the middle part so that it comes out as "Rey"

[androidgeoff]

Just like in the beginning of Not Another Drugstore where the Chemical brothers edited an NBA broadcast with Hubie Brown saying, "now next you plan to dunk it" into "exit planet dust"

[Csar]

Watched it today. Was mildly impressed. Losing my gift card with a code for another movie didn't make it more impressive.

[inchemwetrust]

Apparently Abrams won't be directing the other films? (heard on howard stern interview) These franchises can either improve or go to shit when this happens. I guess if they keep up the art direction and same script writer it might survive. And Lucas not liking the 'retro' feel of it pffft. let it go. I thought it was a good balance.

Agreed! The writers gotta stay, but the next film.....i dont know man! The film can better or just another 'Episode 2'!

[Wolkenkrabber]

Some interesting reviews on IMDB

Spoiler

...many of them negative. This is one of the shorter ones that perhaps reflects what many are thinking:

spoilers inside: Please tell me i'm wrong for hating this.
1/10
Author: daveszaero from London
19 December 2015

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The Plot...

Lonely, abandoned kid, barely existing in some desert junk yard, Accidentally (destiny) becomes a key figure. Father/son struggling to rekindle after a betrayal. Must stop super planet weapon from destroying peaceful planets by sneaking into the support site and taking down the shields. don't forget to hit the achilles heel and fly off before it all goes boom.

Did the writers have any new ideas, other then overt political correctness?

Despite the warm and fuzzy cameos and some new faces, There was no political intrigue, genuine suspense nor interesting fight sequences. We spend the whole movie waiting for the relationships to be confirmed without any interesting twists.
END

I guess JJ got the look and feel of the film right - no boring discussions about trade disputes,  but the story was kinda similar to the original 1977 film.  There's a review entitled "It's not a sequel but a remake" currently at the top of page 1 of the reviews HERE which goes into more detail. There are also comments about how Han Solo went out (assuming he's gone) with a whimper instead of a bang, which are difficult to argue with.

[Wolkenkrabber]

Maybe I need to get off IMDB...pretty soonNOW.  This comment on Rey's character is probably overthinking things, but it did make me smile:

Spoiler

To put it mildly. We are expected to believe a 5 year old girl is just dropped off on some planet, then 15 years later she is living alone in the wreck of an AT AT working as a scavenger. With, apparently, no parental figures around. So how does this work the first few weeks, as a 5 year old? How did she survive the slavers and sex traffickers? How does she acquire food and shelter? Where did she get the posh accent? Why is she eeking out miserable existence as a scavenger when she has lethal martial arts skills and is a masterful mechanic? Why doesn't she do what the vast majority of girls do in that situation, find some man or become a prostitute/drug addict?

But I'm supposed to believe, going by what the movie tells me, that she has grown up on her own. Taught herself all her skills on her own. Surviving on a planet full of villains and apparently no police force, on her own. And yet she's the sweetest, cleanest posh girl you are likely to meet in the entire galaxy.

Thank you JJ. Thanks for not insulting our intelligence.

[WhiteNoise]

^I've seen it twice so far, and that's still my quibble. We know nothing about Rey's background. I assume (hope) the future films will address this in more detail - it's such a gaping hole, hopefully intentionally.

But the whole movie has an issue with dropping you in the middle of things. Not that the other films didn't do that, but we were given time to learn about R2D2, C3PO, Luke, Leia, and everyone else in turn as they're introduced. We got to see who they were before they were thrown into events. Here, we're at best "told" the background of Fin, Rey, Rylo, etc. making it harder to care about what they go through.

Spoiler

Especially Han and Leia's relationship, what Ben did to it, and Han's final confrontation with his son - it's relegated to a single awkward conversation and a sudden death scene. This should be heartbreaking!

And the film is so fast paced, I never felt sucked into the world or story as I did in any of the first 6 films - maybe because I saw them as a kid, but it just feels a lot harder to immerse into the world of Star Wars with this film than it did with all the others. I wouldn't have minded 10 more minutes of runtime. Only from making some scenes a few seconds longer. Hold on a shot for a while. Take your time!

Finally, the plot of this film lifts SO much from Episode 4, it practically plays out as an alternate version of Episode 4! If the next film borrows this heavily from Episode 5 I'm going to be annoyed.

All this being said I did like it. Great action sequences, very entertaining and well realized characters (even if we know very little about them), nailed the visual style of the old films too (though there was less "new" to get into thanks to that). It was thoroughly entertaining, funny, exciting, all that.

[whirlygirl]

I saw it a third time this past weekend. I haven't seen a movie this many times in the theater since I was in junior high, hahaha! I am... A bit embarrassed to be nerding out so hard over this movie. I understand people are annoyed at how closely this resembles A New Hope, but as that was my favorite of the Star Wars films (and was my first movie-going experience), I am not the least bit bothered by the borrowed nostalgia. The repeat viewings also give me a chance to notice things I didn't catch when I was too dazzled the first time around. It also gives me some leverage when trying to digest the plethora of theories and commentaries floating around.

It does have plot holes, and there are questions left unanswered and the film could have benefitted from being a tad longer to bring us up to speed with the character's back stories. However this is just a new beginning and I believe the gaps will tighten and there will be answers to our questions as the new leg of the Star Wars journey moves forward.

[Wolkenkrabber]

^I've seen it twice so far, and that's still my quibble. We know nothing about Rey's background.

Well in the screenplay....
The Force Awakens
Obviously don't click this if you haven't seen it yet.
Personally I don't agree with the conclusion that they sort of come to about Rey.

[sandelic]

None of you was bothered by fact that anyone now in that universe can just pick up lightsabre and, with no training at all in force,  parry Sith apprentice?

[TJEFFS2000]

Yes! That was my beef! Maybe that's always been the case and I wasn't paying attention. Also Fin with no Force successfully fights Kylo Ren (?!?!?)

[ThePumisher]

Kylo Ren is weak, thats why

[Ben_j]

Yes! That was my beef! Maybe that's always been the case and I wasn't paying attention. Also Fin with no Force successfully fights Kylo Ren (?!?!?)

Kylo is badly injured (remember how Chewie's crossbow sends all those stormtroopers flying ?) and upset (he just killed his father).

[satur8]

None of you was bothered by fact that anyone now in that universe can just pick up lightsabre and, with no training at all in force,  parry Sith apprentice?

I figured Finn had the same combat training as the First Order trooper wielding the riot control baton. Finn was a fully trained trooper set in the sanitation area, not  a janitor as people elsewhere have said. Ren at full strength should have been no match, but I could suspend belief between the injury and training. And Finn did  get sliced up in the end.

[ThePumisher]

(he just killed his father).

No more spoiler tags?

[satur8]

No more spoiler tags?

It's been three weeks. Many people have seen it 2+ times. At this point everyone that cares has had plenty of time to go or should know to stay off links that stay 'Star Wars'. 

[satur8]

Except China. Sorry China.

[Champiness]

Just like in the beginning of Not Another Drugstore where the Chemical brothers edited an NBA broadcast with Hubie Brown saying, "now next you plan to dunk it" into "exit planet dust"

Now obviously I have things to say about Star Wars but I'd never heard that anecdote about Not Another Drugstore? I'd always that thought that was part of Justin Warfield's little "exit planet dust and fly from planet nine" monologue? Or are you talking about something different?

[Wolkenkrabber]

New 'trailers' for the old trilogy.

[ThePumisher]