Seen it, loved it, you can kill me now and I'd die happy

Sooooooo Gooooood! My little 7yo fella was buzzing after we left and got home.

Was hard to calm him down to go to sleep :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think I need to watch it again to get a real sense of where it sits for me, but my initial feelings are positive. A lot of my thoughts aren't directly spoilers, but some are so I'll tag them all anyway so nothing slips through.

Pros:
(spoiler level: hardly)
[spoiler]- The pacing and plot was a lot more even-handed and deliberate than the prequels
- Comic relief felt subtle and didn't interfere with the dramatic tone of the film. Again, unlike the prequels
- The alien species didn't feel out of place. One problem I had with the prequels was the sense that the alien races introduced stuck out like a sore thumb. Again, subtlety was key.[/spoiler]

(spoiler level: talkin' about characters, some minor plot or scene reveals)
[spoiler]- Rey as a strong female lead who gives Han a run for his money (and takes his mantle) is excellent. Looking forward to her inspiring a generation of young girls.
- Little nods to the original films were great. Nothing too in-your-face, but touches like the Gonk Droid in the background of the Resistance base were really nice.
- A lot has been said about Harrison Ford's performance, which was very good, but Carrie Fisher was exceptional. She portrayed wearing the decades of pressure keeping the Rebellion afloat and losing her son and husband whilst still maintaining that shimmer of young defiant Leia in her eyes. It was a great performance.[/spoiler]

(spoiler level: that's no moon...)
[spoiler]- Kylo Ren as a flawed villain was incredibly well done. The previous movies never really touched on a volatile and inexperienced dark side force user before. Anakin in the prequels was well trained and competent, even if he was emotional. Kylo's emotional outbursts combined with underdeveloped skill were really refreshing and made Rey's ability to stand up to him a lot more believable and engaging. It really felt like he abandoned his training with Luke to embrace the dark side before he had honed his abilities
- The death of Han was a nice visual and thematic throwback to both the Vader/Luke "I am your father scene" and the death of the Emperor scene[/spoiler]

Cons:
(spoiler level: character discussion and potential triggering independent self-spoilers through lore knowledge)
[spoiler]- I just can't help shaking the feeling that they didn't quite nail Finn. Whilst better than the development of prequel characters such as Padme, I felt his arc came off as a little stilted.
- Predictability. This is borderline, as despite not being a massive fan I am fairly aware of the now non-canon extended universe so some of the things I felt were going to be re-purposed may have surprised others. It is great that they have picked up bits they thought worked and discarded the garbage, but the big reveals of the movie didn't feel like big reveals. I'm optimistic that the subsequent movies will start forging new territory, however. Despite this, the movie hit its beats consistently.
- Snoke being a hologram wont kill off those stupid Jar-Jar is the big bad theories[/spoiler] :lol:

(spoiler level: pretty major scene discussion)
[spoiler]- The final shot lingered a bit too long, almost like they felt they needed to give Luke more than a few seconds screen time but had no other way to shoehorn it in.[/spoiler]

[spoiler] and Darth Maul - they like a good fall in a galaxy far far away [/spoiler]



[spoiler]As a stolen child soilder - mentally programmed from birth, I thought the "stilted" nature suited someone who has no history other than living with the first order. For the first time in his life he is discovering and makeing decisions on his own and his mind is all over the place [/spoiler]


[spoiler]I didnt mind it. The whole story was the journey to this point. Luke has been exiled for 20 odd years and now his daughter/niece? appears on his door step light saber in hand.
Will he heroically jump in to the battle or refuse to help. I know I was waiting for him to step forward and take the light saber but he didnt..... It left us with a few mysterious questions to be answered. [/spoiler]

My only requests for Episode VII are [spoiler]More Poe, maskless Kylo and more Phasma[/spoiler]

Definitely want to see a [spoiler]Poe v Phasma areial show down [/spoiler]

I also did like how they [spoiler]didn't treat Kylo being Han and Leia's son as some massive twist that's left until the end of the movie. It was revealed pretty quickly I felt and done in a matter of fact way that some movies could learn from[/spoiler]

Agree. Like i read elsewhere, Its starwars not M. Night Shymalan everything doesnt have to be a mystery and slight of hand in every movie.

Am I the only who thinks [spoiler]It's bleedingly obvious Luke is Rey's father and that the real mystery will be who her mother is?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]No. There were heaps of hints supporting it. Won't stop people from speculating about a lot of bizarre things though till the next movie[/spoiler] :lol:

Edited by socceroofan4life: 18/12/2015 10:43:42 PM

[spoiler]"BEN!" was such a heart breaking line for me. What a powerful delivery by Harrison. Really i can't appreciate him enough for giving such a fantastic performance in this movie. That entire scene was one of the best in the entire saga.[/spoiler]


Edited by socceroofan4life: 18/12/2015 10:58:55 PM

[spoiler]I liked it but it wasn't great

Pros:
- That scene with Han and Kylo Ren was fucking exceptional, more of that quality acting/writing please!!
- I thought Daisy Ridley was very good
- Practical effects >>>>> CGI
- Ren unmasking himself, not making the big reveal a big deal
- I liked that after Han was killed Chewie managed a shot at Ren which actually hit him (which shows Rens weakness and Chewie's skill and emotion, although I found it strange that Chewie didn't even approach Leia afterwards which would have been a tearjerker)

Cons:
- Phasma was literally a cameo character who could have easily been replaced with a generic stormtrooper (She probs will be more evident in later films)
- Followed A New Hope way too closely
- Not enough info. Interesting storylines were implied or put in vague flashbacks
- There was something about Finn I didn't like
- If the Galactic Republic has been reformed then why the fuck are the First Order so powerful and clearly healthy with funds and equipment? Also, why are the pro-Republic fighters called 'the Resistance'?
- Didn't show how Dameron escaped Jakku
- How the fuck does a wounded Kylo Ren get out of that big station place and end up in front of Rey & Finn outside when both of them clearly had a vertical and horizontal head start? Did he fucking teleport?
- All that hype about Luke and he doesn't even fucking say anything
- I may have missed something but how and why did the First Order arrive and attack Maz Kanata's world?

Also, the scene where Rey tests out her mind-control powers when locked up: that stormtrooper was apparently played by Daniel Craig[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Just saw it, loved it, few minor cons for me though are that it was very predictable and wasn't very original, the story line was so similar to the originals, however that can be expected as it's a reintroduction of sorts. I would hope that the next film has a more original story line.

Personally I'm not convinced on Ray being Luke or Leia's child, but I'm much more interested on who the Supreme Leader is.

Big pro for me is that I didn't find one character annoying or any of the lines corny, which even the originals are guilty of.

Oh yeah Kylo Ren is amazing.

[/spoiler]





Edited by iridium1010: 19/12/2015 03:57:37 AM

[spoiler]This I think had to be done, only because it had to be a somewhat safe re-entry into Star Wars and allows them to provide the groundwork for the movies ahead, which I think will branch off to be completely different from the OT. This movie was partly about righting the wrongs of the prequels, which was necessary imo.[/spoiler]



[spoiler]I've only just started reading 'Aftermath' which goes into how the senate is reformed and everything, but apparently Mon Mothma when setting up the new Republic drastically reduced the military power of the republic and the resistance is what's set up by Leia, with begrudging support from Mothma, to fight the First Order who Mothma doesn't consider high priority for the republic[/spoiler]



[spoiler]Didn't someone, I presume a spy, inform them that BB-8 was there?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I also love that they managed to completely obliterate the new Galactic Senate in one shot and it seemed like no big deal[/spoiler] :lol:

[spoiler]Someone had a really good theory about her being Luke's kid and training with him as a child, but after all the shit with Kylo and before Luke leaves he puts a block or something on her memory so she forgets everything about her being strong in the force and what not. It's only when she touches the lightsaber at Maz's that the block is slightly weakened and she starts remembering things, and then when she's able to get inside Ren's head the block is almost gone and it's just a matter of time. Makes sense with Kylo saying that the longer she evades them the stronger she becomes because of her realising/remembering what she can do and how she was able to at the 2nd time of trying persuade that Stormtrooper

Was also a couple scenes with Han were you felt like he either knew or had an idea who she was.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]One thing that stood out to me that implied her and Kylo had history was when the reporting officer told Kylo that they failed to capture the Droid and he had his lightsaber meltdown and he asked "what else?" and the officer told him there was a girl there as well Kylo flipped the fuck out violently force pulling him towards him and catching him by the next yelling "WHAT GIRL!?" He seemed to me like he was very shaken up at that news. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]Yeah, they've made it bleedingly obvious which I like because her being Luke's kid shouldn't be some big huge shock or twist imo. Who the mother is should be.

Or it's all a massive red herring :lol:[/spoiler]

Oh man the novelisation reveals something much more clearly

[spoiler] So people have read the book and revealed all the extra details. In the book Kylo Ren definitely knows something about who Rey is. And it was implied that he didn't want to kill her, even surprised that she attacked him first.

When he first heard of the girl, he snapped like in the movie, but it was is implied there was more to the story. When he found she was "just" a scavenger, he seemed disappointed but still interested since she has a strong affinity to the Force.

However, in their duel, when she snags the lightsaber from him, he says: "It is you". Which i think pretty damn confirms she is Lukes daughter.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Speaking of the Kylo/Rey battle, I did love that there was no nuance to it, no grace, she was straight up trying to kill the dude with every swing. The amount of times she just goes right for the stab was great and really played on the fact she knew very basically how to handle a sword, but need a whole lot of fine tuning.[/spoiler]

Imo The Force Awakens will be a lot like A New Hope in that the sequels will make it a better and more filled out movie than what it would be if a stand alone.

Yep loved that entire bit of the movie.

Thank you JJ for a great star wars movie.

More I read about it the more I'm hoping Snoke is [spoiler]Darth Plagueis[/spoiler]

Firstly loved the movie. But there were a couple of things that got to me. [spoiler] I didn't love the Kylo/Rey fight at the end. Even though his training isn't finished, he's been trained as a Jedi by Luke and then learnt the power of the dark side of the force. I just can't see him losing a battle with someone with 0 training. Will make sense to a degree though if the theory about Rey also training with Luke but not remembering it is true.

The thing that really got me was that they just glossed over the impact Han dying would have on Chewy. IMO thats the biggest bond thats been broken in the entire series and Chewy looked sad for about 10 seconds and didn't even embrace Leia when he got back. Totally out of character for one of the most emotional characters.[/spoiler]

Oh wow so this is VERY interesting

[spoiler]In the book Snoke also knows who Rey is. He even told Kylo he sensed that he had compassion for her. Maybe Kylo couldn't bring himself to kill Rey (Because she is family) when he slaughtered Luke's students and wiped her mind and put her on a backwater planet so she could never be a threat to him? And that's why he absolutely flips out when he hears a girl helped the BB-8 escape? [/spoiler]

[spoiler] At the end Chewie i think was looking after Finn who was severely injured. I find that understandable. Also i think Chewie did realise he still had a job to do with the explosives that he and han placed. and it wasn't like he could reach Kylo even if he wanted to.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Yeah I understand that part. Was talking more about when they got back on the ship and especially when they got back to the base and he saw Leia for the first time.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Heard a good point about Rey being Luke's kid, is it a coincidence that she kinda looks like Natalie Portman?[/spoiler]

Yup, was thinking that last night.

Was that [spoiler]coruscant[/spoiler] that got blown up? If so it was massively passed over.

I'm also confused about the whole situation with the republic/first order/resistance, it wasnt explained in the movie very well.

Rey's actor reminds me of Keira Knightley



Edited by iridium1010: 19/12/2015 03:21:44 PM

Stayed away from this thread till I saw the movie just now.

Can say there are a lot of aspects I'm not impressed with.

-PB