Star Wars Force Awakens Spoiler Filled discussion thread (no spoiler tags, you've been warned)

[Hawki]

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, and if people enjoyed it then I'm glad. I'm not saying people shouldn't have fun with the movies. The original films were supposed to be fun adventure serials, after all, based on Flash Gordon. It makes sense for the new movies to be fun adventure movies. I was just disappointed by the execution. I hope the other films are a little more ambitious, with J.J. hopefully being less involved. Now that the "safe" one is out of the way, maybe we can get some more interesting movies.

I'm actually kind of hoping/betting on the latter. While Rey's arc is botched given how easily she beat Kylo, in theory, Ep. VIII is in a position to mimic Empire - Luke training Rey, and Snoke training Kylo, whereas presumably in both cases we'll learn more about the Force, and hopefully have some worldbuilding. While I actually rank Empire lower than most, it's undoubtedly the most meditative in the OT, which isn't that uncommon - the Two Towers is the most meditative/slowest of the LotR trilogy, and more recently, 'The Well of Ascension' (book 2 of the Mistborn trilogy), is far more meditative than book 1. There's exceptions to this (e.g. the Matrix is far more meditative than its sequels, and Mockingjay part 2 is more meditative than its predecessors), but if you're mimicking the OT, then Ep. VIII does stand a chance of bringing the sequel trilogy into its own.

 

[Zontar]

The internet is a beautiful thing at times.

"I will finish, what you started"

 

[Tuga517]

1. Rey isn't bad, and the actress does a pretty good job, but I never felt really impressed by the character. I don't know if there was a problem with the character, or if Finn was just so fantastic he completely steamrolled her in the character department.

I think the biggest issue was that she was made too perfect and too competent. After watching it a second time (watched it alone yesterday, with a few friends today. Hey, 8$ Imax is 8$ Imax) I honestly felt that had she been removed from the story it actually wouldn't adversely effect the quality at all, and I hate to say it but a Fin/Poe dual-protagonist movie would have been much more interesting in my opinion since, even though Poe is a clear Han Solo clone he was just so fun to watch bouncing off Fin.

That being said, I think what would have made things better would be having Rey make more mistakes like with the alien creatures on the cargo ship where she THINKS she knows everything, but that leads to something not going right. She also should not have known how to use the force at all, because it made her unbelievable. Luke after 3 years of training on his own without a master could barely make a lightsaber come to him from a few meters away, she could not possibly have the mind trick and telekinesis after only a day. The biggest grip I had with her, though, was her fight with Ben. It was the exact opposite of what it should have been. It should have been Ben initially having trouble getting the upper hand as he tried to convince her to come with him to meet his master, and when he realizes she wouldn't do so he then instantly starts to win since he isn't holding back, and the planet deteriorating should have had her be the one saved from death at the end.

Ben though was handled well for what he is in the story, but I think he should not have taken off his helmet until his confrontation with Han.

Exactly it makes no since that ray after having a connection to the force for a few hours was able to channel it so fully when everyone else even the chosen one needed years of training to be competent. There are others arguing that Ben may not have been trained with a lightasber but we know during the conversation between Han and Leigh that he was sent to and trained by luke and as shown in episodes 1-3 the children were trained from a young age to wield a lightsaber so he has experience. I can't see him being trained by two masters one light one dark and no one teaching him how to use the weapon essential to both orders yet someone taught him force pull push how to stop a laser shot and mind torture but lightsaber training well he was sick that day right? You are right they did too much to make Ray perfect its hard to get behind an underdog that already beat one of the main villains can completely shrug off mind torture and come out of a battle like that completely unscathed with zero training hell shes more of a threat than anyone on the dark side at the moment. Luke had to struggle to overcome everything came to her in a day. I was hoping for something truly original from this but it just seems like episode 4 with a few tweaks here and there it wasn't bad but it also wasn't what i was hoping for.

 

[e033x]

It's so funny that all the reviews whose headlines I have read (but no further!) have been like "ahmegerdawesomeawesome6/6", and everyone here is like "ahmegerddisaster!".

I just came home from seeing it, and I haven't actually decided if I think it is a good film or not, I'm going to watch it again tomorrow, to see if I get a better grasp of what is going on, but what I can say is that it was very interesting to watch it. Thing is, the way I see it, the movie is either really shallow, or really clever, but either way based on a genuine understanding of what Star Wars (especially A New Hope) was.

The whole movie was basically a "star wars collage", with everything, including the characters, cut into pieces and glued together in different combinations. For example Poe the Pilot Guy was the "hotshot pilot Luke" combined with a little bit of Biggs (the reunion at "not Yavin IV"), a little bit of Leia (getting rescued-ish) and a smidgeon of something new (bromance...). It is also clear references to "the hero's journey" (and thus an understanding of ep. IV), both protagonists spend the first half of the movie just wanting to get the hell out of dodge (which actually seems really sensible), but both eventually steps up to the challenge. I can also see a sort of parallel in Ren, which has what he percieves to be a "hero's" journey, complete with doubting, wanting to go back (maybe?) but eventually overcoming his fear. All in the span of a single scene, which is quite impressive. Same as many other, I saw it coming, but the way it was presented was really good, and, interestingly, the only time I felt any certainty on what was going to happen in the whole movie.

Another interesting thing is the matter of perspective. Most of the movie is shown from the perspective of the two protagonists and the one antagonist, with a few shots given to the robots, the imperial officer-guy and (of course) our dear returnees from the previous movies. All three main characters (Finn, Rey, and Ren) are portrayed as young, not knowing what the fuck is going on (for Ren, at least after he takes off the helmet), being woefully incompetent at whatever they're doing (especially with lightsabers) and, most importantly, having grown up with the legend of the previous Star Wars films (especially Rey). My hypothesis is that what happened in the previous movies is just that: the legend the current main characters have grown up with, and thus, probably isn't what actually happened. at least not exactly. Yes, Solo says "everything is true" but has no further comments on what everything is. The thing I am basing this hypothesis on is the way the deeds of the movie they rehash are split up, and the main characters not being the ones doing the most important things, like actually destroying the Death Star Mk III - Unlike the original. A typical trait of legends based on real things is that the actions of alot of people is condensed into a single hero. The thing that might throw a wrench into my little thought experiment is that we have a host of characters on screen that were actually there. Luke, Leia, Han and R2D2 (C3PO is as clueless as ever, and doesn't count). But very little is actually said about the past by these characters. Som hints of a rocky relationship between Han and Leia, something vague about a betrayal that drove Luke away, and speaking of which, he doesn't actually say a word in the entire film.

So, tl;dr: It might be a sort of deconstruction of the original into what can only be described as the most clever reboot ever, seen from the eyes of someone who doesn't have a clue whats going on. Which mirrors the audiences feelings. Which makes it a Star Wars movie about our perception of Star Wars movies, which is so totally meta.

I might be overanalyzing things a wee bit, but I'll see it again tomorrow, and try to get a better handle of things. Either way, it will be really interesting how they go forward from this.

Also, it reminds me a bit of the James Bond reboot, especially Skyfall, in the way it frames the story in a more down-to-earth gritty and real kind of way, and tells the audience "out with the old, here is the new, which is sort of the old, just for real". Or something. I'm really tired, it is literally the middle of the night for me.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

6) Did anybody get where the bad guys came from, at all? Why are we back to Emperor/Vader/Moff & Death Star? Who are these people? At no point is the Rebellion's victory in Return of the Jedi acknowledged. What happened that everything sucks again?

A lot of people share the same view, but in reality, the Rebels never really won. Sure, they killed the emperor, killed Darth Vader, and destroyed the second Death Star, great, cool, good job, rebels. However, the entire Galactic Empire wasn't inside that Death Star when it was destroyed, and so too wasn't the Empire's fleet. All the Rebels did at the end of Return of the Jedi was cut the biggest head off of the multiheaded beast that was the Galactic Empire, and I would put money on there being more than enough generals/soldiers/ships/dark jedi to fill the void that the Emperor and Darth Vader left behind. Hell, that is probably where this Snoak guy came from.

This video pretty much sums it up.

Yes, we've all thought that and had a good laugh about it. But nobody ever took that loophole at face value. Everything about Return of the Jedi indicates that the Empire has been crushed for good.

 

[Zontar]

Yes, we've all thought that and had a good laugh about it. But nobody ever took that loophole at face value. Everything about Return of the Jedi indicates that the Empire has been crushed for good.

The central figurehead and centre of the state may have been killed, but keep in mind that control had become more regional all the way back in Episode 4, with the movie straight up saying that government and military administration had become the responsibility of the Moffs, so having the First Order and other such powers rise from the different Moffs territory makes sense.


The ending of Jedi only indicated a major defeat for the Empire had occurred, but it by no means implied the Empire was over. It had already become decentralized enough to survive its leadership being decapitated, which is probably why the Republic wasn't at war with the First Order: it was all a part of the balance of power between the different powers in the galaxy where the Republic doesn't want to get all the Imperial factions united against them.

 

[djl3485]

I liked the movie but I had a ton of problems with it. I read the Thrawn Trilogy in the weeks leading up to the movie and that was possibly the worst thing to do. All the things the Thrawn trilogy takes into consideration for new bad guys, the force awakens just forgets.

1) If the rebels won and the new republic is a thing, where is the first order getting all these troops from?
2) Where are they getting the resources and money to fund a giant sun eating planet?
3) Where did Snoak come from? Yes Palpatine wholly ignored the Rule of two but that was all EU so it's not canon. Who trained this new sith? (I assume this will be explained in the other movies)
4) Why is a bargain bin Jacen Solo our new bad guy? And really Ben? I presume after Ben Kenobi a character Leia never met and Han knew for like a week.
5) I repeat why is Kylo our bad guy? You know how Darth Vader was essentially the Emperor's attack dog? Kylo is like a jack russell terrier someone put blades on, we got like a full minute of him just angrily waving his sword about when his guys failed.
6) How was Rey, someone who never touched a lightsaber before able to fight a trained dark jedi in one on one combat? And don't say Kylo wasn't trained, he was trained enough to screw over all of Luke's other padawans and presumably Luke.

1. It was stated in the movie. The troops were kidnapped as kids and brainwashed.

2. The Empire wasn't completely destroyed with the destruction od the 2nd Death Star and the death of the Emperor. The First ORder rose from the remains of the Empire, so it's safe to say they still had control over some planets and systems.

3. I'm sure this will be explained. My theory is this is Darth Plagueis. I know Sidious said he killed him in his sleep but Sidious also said of Plagueis "...He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying". So it's possible he is still alive.

4. This is just a weak complaint to me.

5. Did you see the things he did with the force? Stopping a laser blast mid-air? Getting the information out of Poe? And on top of that he's not even fully trained. Darth Vader was feared throughout the galaxy...probably more so then the Emperor; also his grandfather so he obviously admired and obsessed over him.

6. He wasn't fully trained. You are assumming he attcked head-on and gave them notice. You can kill a bunch of people if you take them by suprise. Then you ahve the Knights of Ren, which were probably other padawans that helped out.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

The internet is a beautiful thing at times.

"I will finish, what you started"

That is beautiful. It's even more fitting considering the actor playing Kylo Ren has the same sort of baby face as Justin Trudeau.

OT: I liked for pretty much the same reasons people have already listed, but I felt it aped off of A New Hope a little too much for my tastes. Like the prequels were not good movies, but at least they were doing their own thing .

 

[Jadak]

Ya know what's been nagging at me is the relationship between The Republic, The First Order and, The Resistance. It doesn't seem like The First Order is directly at war with The Republic until they use the power of...their planet to destroy...Coruscant? I feel like I missed a lot of details when it comes to where people are and who these people are.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hosnian_Prime

Not Coruscant, but that was one of my issues with how that was presented as well. By that point in the film, the New Republic has barely been established as something that existed (beyond the fact that apparently they're worthless enough that there needs to be a distinct resistance group). At least with Alderaan, we had Leia to be the conduit for the emotional impact of the loss (plus, we weren't on the 3rd planet buster at the time, helps to not be repetetive).

At least it was s visually cool scene, albeit one that doesn't make sense. How is anyone seeing those planets blowing up in the sky? They're in another solar system aren't they? Space isn't small, nobody not there is going to be seeing that shit in that detail, and not for some time. JJ needs to get his sense of scale sorted.

 

[Kirke]

I was thinking a bit today about the story, and I realized that the new death star thing contributes nothing to the plot. The movie would have worked much better without it.

First off, Finn and the Millenium Falcon already have a reason to infiltrate the enemy - To rescue Rey. Second, the New Order has that huge star destroyer, making it the setting of the climax would have tightened the story significantly. Third, if the urgency and the space battle are still wanted, why not have the New Order launch a direct assault on the resistance base? They know where it is, and the resistance fleet apparently conists of a flight of X-Wings. Very little in the story is really changed, but you avoid the stupidity of making another Death Star. Seriously, that never works!

However silly the story is, though, and it is silly. I still liked the movie. The characters and acting are great. The moment where Rey and Finn are both really exited about their escape from Jakku sticks out in my mind. I also like that Kylo Ren isn't just another Darth Vader. They could have been lazy there, but they weren't.

Oh, and Chewies reaction to Han's death felt very nice. I almost expected him to jump down and rip Kylo Ren apart.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yes, we've all thought that and had a good laugh about it. But nobody ever took that loophole at face value. Everything about Return of the Jedi indicates that the Empire has been crushed for good.

The central figurehead and centre of the state may have been killed, but keep in mind that control had become more regional all the way back in Episode 4, with the movie straight up saying that government and military administration had become the responsibility of the Moffs, so having the First Order and other such powers rise from the different Moffs territory makes sense.


The ending of Jedi only indicated a major defeat for the Empire had occurred, but it by no means implied the Empire was over. It had already become decentralized enough to survive its leadership being decapitated, which is probably why the Republic wasn't at war with the First Order: it was all a part of the balance of power between the different powers in the galaxy where the Republic doesn't want to get all the Imperial factions united against them.

Again: nothing in the movie suggests the fight is anything but over. We can speculate and make excuses all we want, but the movie should be the one doing that, and it doesn't even try.

 

[Zontar]

Again: nothing in the movie suggests the fight is anything but over. We can speculate and make excuses all we want, but the movie should be the one doing that, and it doesn't even try.

I disagree, Jedi makes clear that in the final battle over Endor the Rebel fleet is outnumbered and outgunned by Imperials. We see a few Star Destroyers be taken out, but most of their similarly size ships are also seen destroyed, so there's no reason to assume that most of the military infrastructure of the Empire has been destroyed, as no implication has been made that it has.

 

[Joccaren]

Kylo Ren's use of the force sucked. Even Vader needed to keep his hand using the force to do things like force deflect blaster bolts without his lighstaber, or force choke someone. Ren? Nope, wave hand once, walk out of room, down the corridor, go on a coffee break, have a wank, play some videogames and - oh, I forgot to stop choking/holding/whatever, and then bam the power ends. That's just lame. You should have to actively be using the force to use the damn force, not just have used it once ages ago and for some reason its still fucking going.

I actually really liked that. It more than ever gave the impression that the Force is more than just hand gestures.

Eh, I never got the feeling it was hand gestures to begin with. You had force speed to accelerate yourself [Rarely if ever shown in the movies], force jumps that were shown, force sensing as shown in episode IV, and the prequel lightsaber fights IMO established the force pretty well as more able to be passively used as well, with a lot of the fancy choreography to me implying great use of the force to sense what your opponent was doing with their attack, none of which required hand gestures.

The issue is with feedback. Imagine when force jumping, you didn't need to bend your legs, you sort of just flew up without doing anything. Force running you didn't need to run, you just sort of flew forward without doing anything. It'd look incredibly stupid and weird, yet that's basically what Kylo Ren does. There is no feedback to his actions, no cause and effect. It also then takes the piss out of every other force user in history. Darth Vader must have SUCKED at using the force, since he had to keep his hands choking someone in order to force choke, and the emperor was lame as needing to keep his hands outstretched to keep force lightning going, rather than shooting one bolt and having the rest magically appear out of thin air at the position he was standing in like what happens with Ren.
It just overall didn't fit and just made a mockery of the force in general. I felt like copying Han at many points "That's not how the force works!". Its just illogical and seems done more to go "Look we've got cool NEW force thing, see, we're so different" than because its actually a good idea, or fits in with the force.

Oh, and something I forgot to mention earlier, Rey, whilst a questionable character... Wrong actor for it. Nothing against the actor as a person, but a very sort of almost posh British accent, very polished and pampered looking, and we're supposed to expect that she grew up on Jakku, with all these rough sounding mercenaries and aliens and shit, and all the sand and dirt and lack of water, and somehow keeps perfect skin and makeup, and has a very light and clean accent. Like. What? It kept throwing me off for the entire first half of the movie. Once we got to everything else in the movie - sure, it was fine - but with her coming from Jakku the whole thing was just... Wrong.

Why did the Empire leave a giant weak spot on their space station? Again? When two of their stations had already been destroyed?

Uuuuhhhhhhh..... They didn't?

I mean common, they did several bombing runs and didn't even scratch the damn thing. I don't think we can call that a "Giant weak spot". Even after actually damaging it through sabotage, it was STILL operational. Its a fucking bomb shelter cross bunker, and you're complaining its a giant weak spot?
Was Hitler's bunker in WWII a giant weak spot? So glad we just hit it with 1 convenient bomb at the start of the war to end it all.

What, do we want the thing to be completely invulnerable with no weakness at all so that the empire has to win and all stars in the galaxy are destroyed, because we can't have a doom station that can be destroyed, that would mean its got a giant weak spot?

Like... This complaint, to me, makes no sense. It was not at all a giant weak spot like the exhaust port in IV, and in VI it was an unfinished Deathstar so of course its going to be covered in weak spots, though I don't know if they improved the design or not and they tried to cover it with a shield to protect it. The giant weakspot thing has been done once, otherwise its been defended fairly well, just the Rebel heroes manage to remove those defences so the station becomes vulnerable.

Like, not to sound hostile, which I guess this kind of does, but I'm more just incredulous as to how it can be considered a giant weak spot when a good 15 minutes of bombing runs, granted whilst under attack by Tie Fighters, sabotage, and an extra bombing run on the sabotaged area, did nothing to stop this 'giant weak spot'.

Why did some random old lady have Luke's blue lightsaber, when it was lost at Bespin, and the only ones who knew or cared were Luke and Vader?

Why do the characters act like Luke, and the Jedi, are some ancient myth?[/quote]
I think Disney probably forgot that Luke had a green lightsaber, and gave him his original blue one, and its meant to be his green one that he had in the latter years. I don't think its meant to be the one lost at Bespin, I think its just they don't really care what colour lightsaber they give Luke - though I could of course be wrong.

He saved the universe a few decades ago, not ten thousand years in the past. Most of the people who saw him are still alive. The Jedi had an entire order just a few years ago. There are historical records. The Vietnam War is further away from us then the rebellion is from these people. Why would people think Luke was a myth?

Imagine you read in a history book that Merlin the wise came and used his magic to win the Vietnam war. Would you question that, or go "I read it in a book", or "I heard someone say it", "So it must be true". Now imagine you were living in Madagascar and heard this, and you had lived in Madagascar all your life. Coming from a first world country that probably participated in the Vietnam wars, and being told of the brave men and women who fought in them, not the space wizard who fought in them, is very different to living in complete isolation from the rest of the world and hearing of these wars and space wizards, despite never experiencing anything like them yourself.
The same is true here. Most characters in the movie were not part of the Rebellion, and did not see the fight. Even those who were part of the Rebellion, only a handful would have seen Luke, let alone him using his force powers. The major characters who were around then do know, its just everyone else doesn't because they weren't there. Everyone knows and believes in Han Solo though, because he was just a normal person, not a space Wizard. Its why he gets the response of "You're THE Han Solo" instead of "You actually exist?", though I think a little of that is thrown in because, well, she's lived on Jakku her whole life and doesn't know any better.
TBH, this part of it made sense. Space Wizards are weird. Even if Luke had a small order he began training up, that order was hardly familiar to the entire galaxy - it was probably a myth itself to many. I'd honestly be more surprised if everyone, including the orphan from the middle of the abandoned desert who wasn't even alive at the time, knew exactly who Luke Skywalker was and believe him and space magic was 100% legit.

 

[Veylon]

I disagree, Jedi makes clear that in the final battle over Endor the Rebel fleet is outnumbered and outgunned by Imperials. We see a few Star Destroyers be taken out, but most of their similarly size ships are also seen destroyed, so there's no reason to assume that most of the military infrastructure of the Empire has been destroyed, as no implication has been made that it has.

In fairness, there's a pretty huge time gap between the movies.

It's sort of like looking at Russia in the middle of WWI and then coming back in 1948 and objecting that there's no way they could possibly occupy Germany given all the setbacks they'd had.

 

[Do4600]

Again: nothing in the movie suggests the fight is anything but over. We can speculate and make excuses all we want, but the movie should be the one doing that, and it doesn't even try.

I disagree, Jedi makes clear that in the final battle over Endor the Rebel fleet is outnumbered and outgunned by Imperials. We see a few Star Destroyers be taken out, but most of their similarly size ships are also seen destroyed, so there's no reason to assume that most of the military infrastructure of the Empire has been destroyed, as no implication has been made that it has.

It at least makes the implication that they retreated, why else would fighters be dropping fire works over endor if the imperial fleet destroyed the rest of them. If you watch the special edition edits you have even more proof, as you see people all over celebrating, this shows that it wasn't just a local victory but a galactic one. At the very least it was enough of a victory to look like a turning point in Jedi.

Imagine you read in a history book that Merlin the wise came and used his magic to win the Vietnam war. Would you question that, or go "I read it in a book", or "I heard someone say it", "So it must be true". Now imagine you were living in Madagascar and heard this, and you had lived in Madagascar all your life. Coming from a first world country that probably participated in the Vietnam wars, and being told of the brave men and women who fought in them, not the space wizard who fought in them, is very different to living in complete isolation from the rest of the world and hearing of these wars and space wizards, despite never experiencing anything like them yourself.

Yeah, but 55 years ago there were Jedi all over the goddamned place before Anakin killed them all. So not only did Merlin fight in Vietnam but there were hundreds of Wizards in embassies and governments all over the world before WWII. It doesn't work anymore, the prequels killed the mythical nature of Jedi.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

So I just got back from seeing it, and...I didn't think it was very good. Like I'm not sure it was even better than Phantom Menace.

It was basically just A New Hope again. Like almost scene for scene and plot point for plot point it was just A New Hope. JJ did the same thing with the two new Trek movies. Not so much write his own movie as redo a pre-existing one, and never as good.

I'll get the good out of the way: it sounded like Star Wars, in that it used the same sound effects board. Rey was awesome and it was nice to see Han, Leia and Cheewie and Luke for like a minute.

The rest...Finn was okay, but he felt scripted and they cut a major scene in my opinion. He was supposed to report to Miss Shiny(gutter ball there, JJ) for a review and sometime during that review he decides to leave. Run away from literally the only life he's ever known and help someone he has been raised to believe since birth is a terrorist. And they just use a throw-away line of "Oh he is going to be reconditioned." and a slightly awkward scene where nameless stormtrooper rubbed some blood on him. No follow up there, either on who that trooper was(sister? Brother? Lover? Best friend? Squash coach? WHO?!) or on the fact he becomes besties with the man who shot his old besties. I guess its like the Necromongers. You keep what you kill.

The pilot dude I liked for the 3 scenes he's around for.

BB-8 I was all set to hate as the obvious toy cash in and I was pleasantly surprised I only found him incredibly annoying.

How the fuck does everyone know who Han Solo is, but Luke Skywalker is a myth, as are the Jedi and Force(despite the fact a Sith lord is still kicking) and the fucking Falcon ends up in some dude's backyard and no one noticed?! Ever?! For like what, a decade or two? However old Rey is minus 5 years. Seriously?

Vader Jr. is a complete non-character. I mean he was obviously just cosplaying as Vader and took it too seriously. And him being Han and Leia's son was just weak. I mean for fucks sake, is there any big bad in Star Wars that isn't a SkyWalker?! It just feels like really lazy writing to connect them. I mean we have an entire Galaxy worth of lore and characters, and yet its always a SkyWalker. Never just some random dick who is also a Sith. Nope, has to be a SkyWalker. They're the only family in the entire Galaxy that ever do anything! Like later seasons of Supernatural when the Winchesters are related to like everyone from history. Not enough they fight evil and save the day, no they also have to be related to Mega Hilter and give birth to Neo Hitler.

Also the big fucking Sith Lord? Who the fuck is that?! Where did he come from?! Was he Palpatine's boss? Vader's college roommate?! How did the New Republic let a 3rd Sith Lord come to power and how the fuck did he get to Ben Solo in the first place? What, was Big Sith Man just a camp councilor and befriended Ben when Han wouldn't return his phone-calls?! And why the hell did Ben need to leave to train? Why couldn't Luke train Ben near his family instead of in the backyard of a giant evil alien?!
I mean its like if the next Avengers movies they just have Captain Mega Death Lord as the main villain and everyone just shrugs as if its totally normal and he's a fully developed character.
It seems like he was only made Han's son as a means to get Han killed because Harrison really wants to stop. I mean he tried to get Han killed in Jedi and they even filmed a few scenes, so I'm guessing that's how they convinced him to come back. They'll kill him off and we need to find a "Right in the feels" way to do it. And he looked like a complete dork with his helmet off. I mean wow, I actually laughed out loud when he took his mask off. He's like a Jonas Brother going through a rebellious emo phase.

The music wasn't anything to write home about.

The lightsaber battles were absolutely pathetic.

The action was...decent, but I still feel dirty. Like some Disney suit sat JJ down and said "Okay, here are the six rides we've planned out for the Star Wars park. We want you to write in scenes that match these."

In closing, I'll say the I'm guessing romantic relationship between Rey and Finn was really sweet and likable, if completely forced and rushed.
And if you enjoyed this movie, know I am 100% jealous of you. I wish I could see it as something more, but to me JJ spent too much time trying to make it a Star Wars-y movie and not enough time trying to make it a good movie.

 

[cathou]

So, i must admit it was fairly good, but it's only an intro movie. there's much loose thread everywhere that need to be tied in in the next movie.

they say that their stormtroopers are pickup as babies and raised to be perfect figthers. ok, fine, but it mean that for 15 to 20 years they didnt had troops ?

the death of solo was very predictable, but still do the thing. but who in the hell desing thoses mile long catwalks without any safety rails ?

There's a particularity in the version that i saw that i guess is only in this version. i saw the french canadian version of the movie. the original movies were dubbed in France back then, and for some reason, C3PO was called Z6PO in France, however in the canadian french version they return to the original C3PO name. in episode VII, when han see C3PO for the first time, C3PO say : oh Master Solo, do you remember me, i'm C3PO, formerly called Z6PO.

 

[kurokotetsu]

I was preparing a rant. A long rant point by point. I still mihgt do it later... But I will say this:

I really really enjoyed it.

My rant was about defending it, but basically I will say this. I felt like I was seeing Star Wars. It was fun. I liked the characters. I liekd the battles. I liked the ffects. I liked the sound design. I liked the visual design. I had fun and teared up at Han?s death (even if predictable as the mentor figure), I like the idea of a similar Star Wars to Episode IV butwith twists (the mystery is the hero?s identity not the villain, as most parts know of it, they don't care about talking about it pretty openly). Simply I liked it. Will it ever be as watching the first trilogy again? no, nothing will capture that sense of awe and wonder. But it felt like the univers and as a tribute. Are there unanswered things? Yes, of course, but there is supplementary materials and two more movies (which as a difference to A New Hope they are planned for since the inception of the project) to dig deeper into the originos of the First Order, Snoke, Kylo Ren, the New Republic, etc. s it is normal that it isn't as self contained. I like how aware of what it is and what they are doing it feels. I liked it, and later I might respond to some of the complains (e.g. Luke might have not trained ben Solo in lightsaber combat techniques as the Sith might be presumed to be extinct by the end of RotJ as evidenced by a non Force user damagin him, even while woudned in a duel, and also Finn is explained to be the best of the best almost in the supplementary materials, which means that he might hold himslef in a fight agaings the tonfa guy and Kylo) but I have to say I liked it and would see it again.

 

[Pyrian]

At least Death Star 3 finally had a big ol' fighter-proof cap on its self-destruct button.

Han mocking the death star was almost fourth-wall-breakingly perfect. Yeah, yeah, take down the shield, blow it up, we've done this before. Indeed we have, Mr. Ford.

Finn is awesome:
"Stay calm. Stay calm." "I am calm." "I was talking to myself."

People throw "Mary Sue" around a bit too frequently, but for once I think the accusation seems justified (Rey's sudden force masteries). I hope we find there's more to this "Awakening" business or something. Maybe all those light-side force ghosts were up to some tricks. "Hey Obi-Wan, that whispering business took too long. Let's just implant the knowledge directly."