CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Caravan of Courage, The Battle for Endor and...the animated Clone Wars movie?
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Thread starter SAUSAGEMAN
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SAUSAGEMAN
Registered User
[youtubehd]Kr799BxUszw[/youtubehd]
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Episode 3 - Watching this close to Episode 2 it's kind of remarkable how much better it looks. There must have been some serious advances in CGI in those three years (obviously beig shot digitally helped too, I know.) Anyway, sorry, but I still like it. It's an enjoayble movie with some great action that's never boring (unlike Episode 2 which is boring as fuck at times.) Yeah Anakin's storry could have been done better, his acting still isn't great, Pamde is annoyingly sidelined for most of the movie (pregnant women are useless!) and the line "she lost the will to live" is baffling bad, but it's a fun space romp, Ian McDiarmid is great, GENERAL GRIEVOUS IS GREAT and I like it so there.
SAUSAGEMAN
Registered User
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
The AV Club gave it a B, but I think it's that reviewer who gave The Avengers a C+ or something.
Eggs Mayonnaise
All In With The Nuts
He gave it a letter grade of B, but the review itself was quite flowery and loving, so it's like a B with spooj on it.
The Tomtrek
Love Wookiee
I saw a Star War last night (well, this morning). I liked it.
Remember when you first heard the news that JJ Abrams was going to direct a Star Wars film, and you got a good mental image of what that film would probably be like, based on his general style and his treatment of the Star Trek films?
The good news: It's exactly that film.
The bad news: It's exactly that film.
But for real though, it was very enjoyable but it didn't really give me that "classic Star Wars" feeling that it might have been going for. I'd put this down to two reasons:
1) JJ's style is very different to Lucas' (or even Kershner's or Marquand's) - it's a lot more energetic, a lot faster paced, and overall more "modern". And the film doesn't shy away from that "modern" feeling (that's not necessarily a bad thing). Same with the script, which is a lot more quippy, with off-the-cuff one liners coming at a fast pace. That's not too bad from the new characters, but it does feel a bit strange coming from someone like Han.
2) I am no longer 8 years old.
BUT the best thing about this film is the performances. Daisy Ridley has so much energy and excitement in her performance it's impossible not to like her. Jon Boyega, too, comes off as funny and likable. But the biggest surprise was Adam Driver, who gives a much deeper performance than the trailers would have lead you to believe. Even Harrison Ford looks like he gives a shit.
The plot, though, is not as hot, and gets less and less focused as the film goes on. It never turns bad, in fact nothing in the film is outright bad, it's just very much an afterthought next to the character stuff in this film.
OVERALL: I liked it. It's not as good as Star Wars, obviously, but I liked it. It's a JJ Abrams Star Wars film in the exact way you'd think it would be. Complete with Greg Grunberg.
I'M GOING TO SAY MORE IN SPOILERS BUT SERIOUSLY DON'T READ THIS UNTIL YOU SEE THE FILM (I'M LOOKING AT YOU WACKY) BECAUSE THESE ARE ACTUAL SPOILERS:
Remember when you first heard the news that JJ Abrams was going to direct a Star Wars film, and you got a good mental image of what that film would probably be like, based on his general style and his treatment of the Star Trek films?
The good news: It's exactly that film.
The bad news: It's exactly that film.
But for real though, it was very enjoyable but it didn't really give me that "classic Star Wars" feeling that it might have been going for. I'd put this down to two reasons:
1) JJ's style is very different to Lucas' (or even Kershner's or Marquand's) - it's a lot more energetic, a lot faster paced, and overall more "modern". And the film doesn't shy away from that "modern" feeling (that's not necessarily a bad thing). Same with the script, which is a lot more quippy, with off-the-cuff one liners coming at a fast pace. That's not too bad from the new characters, but it does feel a bit strange coming from someone like Han.
2) I am no longer 8 years old.
BUT the best thing about this film is the performances. Daisy Ridley has so much energy and excitement in her performance it's impossible not to like her. Jon Boyega, too, comes off as funny and likable. But the biggest surprise was Adam Driver, who gives a much deeper performance than the trailers would have lead you to believe. Even Harrison Ford looks like he gives a shit.
The plot, though, is not as hot, and gets less and less focused as the film goes on. It never turns bad, in fact nothing in the film is outright bad, it's just very much an afterthought next to the character stuff in this film.
OVERALL: I liked it. It's not as good as Star Wars, obviously, but I liked it. It's a JJ Abrams Star Wars film in the exact way you'd think it would be. Complete with Greg Grunberg.
I'M GOING TO SAY MORE IN SPOILERS BUT SERIOUSLY DON'T READ THIS UNTIL YOU SEE THE FILM (I'M LOOKING AT YOU WACKY) BECAUSE THESE ARE ACTUAL SPOILERS:
So Kylo Ren was a really good character, I thought. I was really impressed that they just dropped the "son of Han and Leia" information in the middle of a sentence instead of making a big thing of it. Because not only was it really obvious anyway, but it actually allowed them to do something with that relationship (unlike say, Empire, which had to wait until Jedi to deal with the "Vader is Luke's dad" fallout).
And they do great things! I really liked how Kylo Ren was basically a big Darth Vader wannabe, he put on the mask and changes his voice for no other reason to be like his grandpa, and instead of calmly and menacingly killing off officers when things go wrong he just has big temper tantrums with his lightsaber. And they play with the idea that he's torn between the light side and the dark side, to the point that you think the film could actually end with him turning good.
But he doesn't. Instead he kills Han Solo, his dad.
And I think it's to the detriment of the film that Han Solo dying didn't seem like a big shocking emotional moment, but rather felt like going through the motions. Which isn't to say it's not a good character moment for Kylo Ren, it is - it's a really effective way of showing just how far down the dark path he's willing to go - but the moment itself just feels like "Well Harrison wanted out of these films so, well, here you go".
Which is weird because at that point of the film, during the third act, the character stuff between Han, Kylo, Rey and Finn is by far the most interesting stuff going on. There's a whole giant battle scene also going on but the film doesn't really seem to care.
When the trailers first came out for this film, there was a lot of praise saying that it was really good how little of the plot they gave away. After watching the film, it seems the reason for that is that the film itself has no idea what the plot actually is.
Is it the search for Luke? Sort of! Until that gets forgotten when the threat of the Starkiller base is introduced. Except there isn't any reason to care about the Starkiller base other than the film going "It's like the Death Star BUT MORE". The planets it destroys mean literally nothing to the audience. There's no real sense of threat to the final battle, and the film sort of forgets that's even happening later on when it's more interested in what the main characters are doing. It's like it wants to have the climax of Star Wars and Empire happening at the exact same time, and as a result you end up not giving a shit about whether or not the X-Wings will hit that convenient weak spot the Starkiller base has for no reason at all (seriously, "small thermal exhaust port right below the main port" is crystal clear next to the technobabble they use to justify this new weak point).
And as such when the base blows up there's no big sense of relief, because there was no tension, because it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that they'd win anyway, and you're not sure why it would be bad if they didn't.
Again this doesn't come across as bad, just really unsatisfying.
And then Luke turns up for about five seconds at the end, which is fine I guess. Except I really feel JJ blew the last shot. Instead of a carefully set up tableaux that the other films had (well, sloppily set up in the case of Jedi) it just irises out in the middle of a 360 aerial shot, so the film doesn't really have a big, satisfying ending like you would expect. It just sort of ends.
Also: Captain Phasma is the Boba Fett for this film. In that she looks good, was hyped a lot in the marketing, and then does shit all in the actual film.
And they do great things! I really liked how Kylo Ren was basically a big Darth Vader wannabe, he put on the mask and changes his voice for no other reason to be like his grandpa, and instead of calmly and menacingly killing off officers when things go wrong he just has big temper tantrums with his lightsaber. And they play with the idea that he's torn between the light side and the dark side, to the point that you think the film could actually end with him turning good.
But he doesn't. Instead he kills Han Solo, his dad.
And I think it's to the detriment of the film that Han Solo dying didn't seem like a big shocking emotional moment, but rather felt like going through the motions. Which isn't to say it's not a good character moment for Kylo Ren, it is - it's a really effective way of showing just how far down the dark path he's willing to go - but the moment itself just feels like "Well Harrison wanted out of these films so, well, here you go".
Which is weird because at that point of the film, during the third act, the character stuff between Han, Kylo, Rey and Finn is by far the most interesting stuff going on. There's a whole giant battle scene also going on but the film doesn't really seem to care.
When the trailers first came out for this film, there was a lot of praise saying that it was really good how little of the plot they gave away. After watching the film, it seems the reason for that is that the film itself has no idea what the plot actually is.
Is it the search for Luke? Sort of! Until that gets forgotten when the threat of the Starkiller base is introduced. Except there isn't any reason to care about the Starkiller base other than the film going "It's like the Death Star BUT MORE". The planets it destroys mean literally nothing to the audience. There's no real sense of threat to the final battle, and the film sort of forgets that's even happening later on when it's more interested in what the main characters are doing. It's like it wants to have the climax of Star Wars and Empire happening at the exact same time, and as a result you end up not giving a shit about whether or not the X-Wings will hit that convenient weak spot the Starkiller base has for no reason at all (seriously, "small thermal exhaust port right below the main port" is crystal clear next to the technobabble they use to justify this new weak point).
And as such when the base blows up there's no big sense of relief, because there was no tension, because it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that they'd win anyway, and you're not sure why it would be bad if they didn't.
Again this doesn't come across as bad, just really unsatisfying.
And then Luke turns up for about five seconds at the end, which is fine I guess. Except I really feel JJ blew the last shot. Instead of a carefully set up tableaux that the other films had (well, sloppily set up in the case of Jedi) it just irises out in the middle of a 360 aerial shot, so the film doesn't really have a big, satisfying ending like you would expect. It just sort of ends.
Also: Captain Phasma is the Boba Fett for this film. In that she looks good, was hyped a lot in the marketing, and then does shit all in the actual film.
whisky
Boobie inspector
I concur with most of what Tomtrek has said, which isn't something I get to say very often.
Most of what I have to say is going to be spoilery, so here we go.
Most of what I have to say is going to be spoilery, so here we go.
Just back from seeing it, the falcon has never looked better, although it does seem to be bordering on indestructible at times.
Some of the dialogue is a bit too hip and modern, droid please, but got to move with the times I guess.
The death that most of us knew was coming was handled well, and I feel the next movies will do fine with the newer cast front and centre.
I enjoyed this film loads while I was in there, but I came out slightly disappointed.
Its the lack of Luke that took the edge off for me, they talk about him all the way through the film, the whole basis of it is a search for him, and when they finally get to him at the end he doesn't even get a line?
Bet he was glad to have grown that beard for his twenty seconds of screentime.
One thing I forgot to add, 40 years of hanging around with Chewie, and this is really the first time Han has used the bowcaster?
Some of the dialogue is a bit too hip and modern, droid please, but got to move with the times I guess.
The death that most of us knew was coming was handled well, and I feel the next movies will do fine with the newer cast front and centre.
I enjoyed this film loads while I was in there, but I came out slightly disappointed.
Its the lack of Luke that took the edge off for me, they talk about him all the way through the film, the whole basis of it is a search for him, and when they finally get to him at the end he doesn't even get a line?
Bet he was glad to have grown that beard for his twenty seconds of screentime.
One thing I forgot to add, 40 years of hanging around with Chewie, and this is really the first time Han has used the bowcaster?
whisky
Boobie inspector
I have just realised something
that is going to make that end scene even more annoying than it already is.
When episode VIII comes out, its going to be three years later in movie time as well as our time, we are never going to get to know how that first conversation went.
When episode VIII comes out, its going to be three years later in movie time as well as our time, we are never going to get to know how that first conversation went.
Fuddlemiff
Is this real life?
Is it?
I enjoyed it overall. It's really fun, well paced, looks amazing and is well paced. And it certainly left me wanting more.
I enjoyed it overall. It's really fun, well paced, looks amazing and is well paced. And it certainly left me wanting more.
It felt like a greatest hits album or something. In a similar way to what he did with Trek, JJ took everyone's favourite elements of the existing movies and combined them. The Death Star and Hoth battles were pretty much turned into one. A lot of the time this was too much fun to be a problem, but there were a few instances where it felt like no one had really considered why things were happening. They had to happen because they were bullet points in a top 10 list of the coolest SW scenes.
So the Death Planet whatever blows up other planets (including a bunch we didn't care about except that it looked horrific for the inhabitants). But what happens now there's no nearby star to feed off? It looks way too big to go into hyperspace.
I'm not well versed enough to know if anyone should really be able to pick up a lightsaber and use it, but Finn going up against two trained swordsmen and giving them a run for their money and Rey being able to both duel and use the force as well as she could annoyed me. In Rey's case it was more that it occurred to her what to do, rather than her inate ability. She thought Luke was a myth, but she used the force to get a guard to release her. How would she know that was a thing?
Daisy Ridley's lovely and she was very good, but she has a very cut glass accent for someone in the arse end of the universe. I reckon a British director would've asked her to sound a bit more common. (No, I didn't miss the bit about it being in a galaxy far far away)
I know Harrison Ford's supposed to have said he'd only return to Star Wars if he was killed off, but I still find it disappointing. He brought a lot to this movie.
Admiral Ackbar being visibly older was a nice touch.
So the Death Planet whatever blows up other planets (including a bunch we didn't care about except that it looked horrific for the inhabitants). But what happens now there's no nearby star to feed off? It looks way too big to go into hyperspace.
I'm not well versed enough to know if anyone should really be able to pick up a lightsaber and use it, but Finn going up against two trained swordsmen and giving them a run for their money and Rey being able to both duel and use the force as well as she could annoyed me. In Rey's case it was more that it occurred to her what to do, rather than her inate ability. She thought Luke was a myth, but she used the force to get a guard to release her. How would she know that was a thing?
Daisy Ridley's lovely and she was very good, but she has a very cut glass accent for someone in the arse end of the universe. I reckon a British director would've asked her to sound a bit more common. (No, I didn't miss the bit about it being in a galaxy far far away)
I know Harrison Ford's supposed to have said he'd only return to Star Wars if he was killed off, but I still find it disappointing. He brought a lot to this movie.
Admiral Ackbar being visibly older was a nice touch.
whisky
Boobie inspector
I have a theory on Rey
that is not as simple as "She is Luke's daughter" and ties the OT with the PT.
What if when Luke went into self imposed exile and no longer used the force, the force itself made another woman pregnant like it did with Anakin.
Anakin never knew he could use the force until Qui Gon showed him, and Obi Wan taught him.
Maybe Rey never knew she could use the force too, when she was near Anakin's lightsaber, the resonance of something that was used by another person created by the force drew her to it, and started activating her hidden talents, but they were still largely dormant until she was mind probed by Anakin's own grandson.
There were clues in that scene that instead of probing her mind, she had in fact probed his, and learned everything of the force from him, then later in the fight, when she called the sabre to her hand, everything suddenly snapped into place.
Sure, he was trained, but only his mother was a Jedi, if Rey is truly a child of the force, then she would be as strong in it as Anakin was before he started losing his limbs.
That is why she bested him so easily, because she is the new chosen one.
R2's low power mode could only be turned off by proximity to a Skywalker, and Rey might not be one by birth, but by the will of the force.
What if when Luke went into self imposed exile and no longer used the force, the force itself made another woman pregnant like it did with Anakin.
Anakin never knew he could use the force until Qui Gon showed him, and Obi Wan taught him.
Maybe Rey never knew she could use the force too, when she was near Anakin's lightsaber, the resonance of something that was used by another person created by the force drew her to it, and started activating her hidden talents, but they were still largely dormant until she was mind probed by Anakin's own grandson.
There were clues in that scene that instead of probing her mind, she had in fact probed his, and learned everything of the force from him, then later in the fight, when she called the sabre to her hand, everything suddenly snapped into place.
Sure, he was trained, but only his mother was a Jedi, if Rey is truly a child of the force, then she would be as strong in it as Anakin was before he started losing his limbs.
That is why she bested him so easily, because she is the new chosen one.
R2's low power mode could only be turned off by proximity to a Skywalker, and Rey might not be one by birth, but by the will of the force.
Fuddlemiff
Is this real life?
I guess that goes most of the way to explaining it. I'm not sure they'd use the virgin birth type thing, but the thing about Rey probing Kylo rather than the other way around is interesting. That hadn't occurred to me. I'm watching it again next week, so I'll add this to my list of things to pay attention to (mostly I'll be looking in the background of shots at easter eggs).
whisky
Boobie inspector
Someone on another board said something that hadn't occurred to me, but could well be another possibility.
What if she was cloned from Luke's hand? I mean if the found the sabre, the hand would probably be with it, I mean obviously she is not a boy, but if you had the technology to clone a baby from a hand swapping the gender wouldn't be too hard. Could be another reason why she has such a connection with that sabre.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
My favourite part of Return of the Jedi is when the Gungan says "WESA FREE!"
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
So yeah I finally saw it and I'm not using spoiler code since everyone else has already seen it.
It was basically Star Trek (2009) but with the "Star Wars" skin installed. It was enjoyable while watching it but left me with a lot of "what did that mean?" and "why did they do that?" type questions. There was a lot of "CAN THEY CAPTURE THE FEEL OF STAR WARS!?" questions going in and they did to some extent. The characters were good and likable and played by good actors. They obviously tried really hard to get this part right since it was the biggest problem with the prequels (not that the prequels didn't have good actors, they just didn't always get used well.) The humour was mostly funny (BB-8's thumbs up got the biggest laugh) but some lines felt a bit out of place in Star Wars. On the other hand where I don't think it captured the traditional Star Wars feel was the action. All the action scenes were really short and just there to transition into the next part. This made it fast paced yeah but I don't think it had a truly memorable or original action moment. The best was the TIEs chasing the Falcon through the crashed Star Destroyer but even that seemed short. In the future I think we'll be talking about "Lucas Star Wars" and "After Lucas Star Wars."
Daisy Ridley was great. Even when there were problems with the writing (SEE BELOW) she was always so damn likable. She was the best thing about the whole movie.
Finn was good and had funny lines. It is a bit weird that he's supposedly a stormtrooper conditioned from birth to serve the First Order but never once seemed conflicted in the film. And I don't know why they released two posters with him holding a lightsaber giving the impression that he's a Jedi. It's not like him being a stormtrooper was a huge plot point that had to be protected.
Kylo Ren was interesting because he clearly wasn't meant to be a new ultimate badass Sith guy. I liked the idea of him being conflicted and tempted by the light side. It's a shame they didn't really play up the conflict more as it was only in the one scene he had with Han that it seemed like he might turn good. And they could have explored why he actually wants to be evil. At least Anakin had the whole "wanting to stop death" thing but Ben just wants to be evil because...it's cool?
Harrison Ford! He was good! He definitely felt like an old Han Solo would. Chewie! Some good Chewie humour and he got to shoot lots of people. 3PO was...there. His voice felt off but I guess that's just Anthony Daniels being old. R2 being asleep for most of the movie and just waking up because it was time for him to wake up was lame.
I notice no one's mentioned Carrie Fisher yet. Is it because...she wasn't very good? I mean she couldn't move her face anymore and her voice was completely different (really noticable since I'd just watched the original movies) and it was nice they got her in the movie but it really didn't feel like we were watching Leia.
Supreme Leader Felicity Smoak was terrible. I don't care if he isn't really a giant and just used a big hologra to scare people, it still looked like something that belonged in Harry Potter.
Commander Hux was meh. He felt like a kid playing dress up as an imperial. Kind of like Kylo, so I guess that was on purpose and the First Order are supposed to feel like stupid young people trying to be evil? But that could have been expanded on a lot.
I liked Poe Dameron a lot at the start and then he just disappeared for most of the movie and showed up again in an action scene which was confusing because it made you think "wait, isn't that the guy who died?" and then he just says "oh, I didn't die, I just left my jacket behind for no reason!" to explain it.
Maz's voice acting was good but she didn't seem like someone who was a thousand years old?
BB-8 was cute af.
ANYWAY, I liked the start a lot and then the stuff with Rey alone on Jakku was actually the best part of the movie. Even though it was kind of just another Tatooine at least it had all the older Imperial stuff lying around to make it look different. And she looked cute in that helmet. Then Han shows up and there's some really funny interactions but also some monsters that look like they belong in Men In Black and I don't know why they were in there.
Then about halfway through the movie the story changes from "where is Luke Skywalker?" to "oh there's another Death Star." Seriously Starkiller Base was so poorly set up. It appears for the first time out of nowhere then destroys a whole system of planets(?) and we don't know what those planets are other than that one looks like Coruscant and has Freema Agyeman on it. Oh and you can see them from Maz's planet but if that was a planet in the same system how the fuck was it not destroyed too? Or is this just JJ not understanding how space works.
Yeah the whole political situation was SO POORLY EXPLAINED. Like they didn't want to talk about politics at all because THE PREQUELS HAD POLITICS OMG so we don't really find out what the Republic is, how it relates to "The Resistance" (which is a stupid name) and what The First Order actually want. It was just "some planets have been destroyed, let's move on to the next bit!"
The attack on Starkiller Base felt like something out of a Star Wars video game where they just redo the story from the original movies except this is actually a new movie.
Han died and it wasn't really a big deal and Leia runs up and hugs a girl she doesn't know instead of Chewie!?
I liked how the lightsabers looked against the snow.
It was a bit disappointing how the Resistence ONLY had X-Wings and the First Order ONLY had TIE fighters. Did they think people would be confused by new spaceships?
So about Rey...I don't mind her beating Kylo in the duel because he was hurt and she was already showng to be a good fighter. And she used the Force to be a better fighter the same way Anakin used the Force to be a better podracer and Luke used it to destroy the Death Star, so that's fine (though she was so aggressive at the end it was almost like she wa using the Dark Side but that didn't come up in the movie.) And I know there's some people who are just sexist and don't want a female Jedi in THEIR Star Wars. BUT by the end of the movie she's already really great at Jedi stuff, she's the new captain of the Millennium Falcoln, she's best friends with the coolest dude (Chewie) AND she can understand droids and Wookiees...you don't have to be sexist to think that's a bit much. It reminded me of Kirk going from Cadet to Captain of the Enterprise within a few days in the first JJ Trek. But Daisy was so great that Rey never annoyed me.
Sorry I wrote so much but it's not like a new Star wars comes out every year!
It was basically Star Trek (2009) but with the "Star Wars" skin installed. It was enjoyable while watching it but left me with a lot of "what did that mean?" and "why did they do that?" type questions. There was a lot of "CAN THEY CAPTURE THE FEEL OF STAR WARS!?" questions going in and they did to some extent. The characters were good and likable and played by good actors. They obviously tried really hard to get this part right since it was the biggest problem with the prequels (not that the prequels didn't have good actors, they just didn't always get used well.) The humour was mostly funny (BB-8's thumbs up got the biggest laugh) but some lines felt a bit out of place in Star Wars. On the other hand where I don't think it captured the traditional Star Wars feel was the action. All the action scenes were really short and just there to transition into the next part. This made it fast paced yeah but I don't think it had a truly memorable or original action moment. The best was the TIEs chasing the Falcon through the crashed Star Destroyer but even that seemed short. In the future I think we'll be talking about "Lucas Star Wars" and "After Lucas Star Wars."
Daisy Ridley was great. Even when there were problems with the writing (SEE BELOW) she was always so damn likable. She was the best thing about the whole movie.
Finn was good and had funny lines. It is a bit weird that he's supposedly a stormtrooper conditioned from birth to serve the First Order but never once seemed conflicted in the film. And I don't know why they released two posters with him holding a lightsaber giving the impression that he's a Jedi. It's not like him being a stormtrooper was a huge plot point that had to be protected.
Kylo Ren was interesting because he clearly wasn't meant to be a new ultimate badass Sith guy. I liked the idea of him being conflicted and tempted by the light side. It's a shame they didn't really play up the conflict more as it was only in the one scene he had with Han that it seemed like he might turn good. And they could have explored why he actually wants to be evil. At least Anakin had the whole "wanting to stop death" thing but Ben just wants to be evil because...it's cool?
Harrison Ford! He was good! He definitely felt like an old Han Solo would. Chewie! Some good Chewie humour and he got to shoot lots of people. 3PO was...there. His voice felt off but I guess that's just Anthony Daniels being old. R2 being asleep for most of the movie and just waking up because it was time for him to wake up was lame.
I notice no one's mentioned Carrie Fisher yet. Is it because...she wasn't very good? I mean she couldn't move her face anymore and her voice was completely different (really noticable since I'd just watched the original movies) and it was nice they got her in the movie but it really didn't feel like we were watching Leia.
Supreme Leader Felicity Smoak was terrible. I don't care if he isn't really a giant and just used a big hologra to scare people, it still looked like something that belonged in Harry Potter.
Commander Hux was meh. He felt like a kid playing dress up as an imperial. Kind of like Kylo, so I guess that was on purpose and the First Order are supposed to feel like stupid young people trying to be evil? But that could have been expanded on a lot.
I liked Poe Dameron a lot at the start and then he just disappeared for most of the movie and showed up again in an action scene which was confusing because it made you think "wait, isn't that the guy who died?" and then he just says "oh, I didn't die, I just left my jacket behind for no reason!" to explain it.
Maz's voice acting was good but she didn't seem like someone who was a thousand years old?
BB-8 was cute af.
ANYWAY, I liked the start a lot and then the stuff with Rey alone on Jakku was actually the best part of the movie. Even though it was kind of just another Tatooine at least it had all the older Imperial stuff lying around to make it look different. And she looked cute in that helmet. Then Han shows up and there's some really funny interactions but also some monsters that look like they belong in Men In Black and I don't know why they were in there.
Then about halfway through the movie the story changes from "where is Luke Skywalker?" to "oh there's another Death Star." Seriously Starkiller Base was so poorly set up. It appears for the first time out of nowhere then destroys a whole system of planets(?) and we don't know what those planets are other than that one looks like Coruscant and has Freema Agyeman on it. Oh and you can see them from Maz's planet but if that was a planet in the same system how the fuck was it not destroyed too? Or is this just JJ not understanding how space works.
Yeah the whole political situation was SO POORLY EXPLAINED. Like they didn't want to talk about politics at all because THE PREQUELS HAD POLITICS OMG so we don't really find out what the Republic is, how it relates to "The Resistance" (which is a stupid name) and what The First Order actually want. It was just "some planets have been destroyed, let's move on to the next bit!"
The attack on Starkiller Base felt like something out of a Star Wars video game where they just redo the story from the original movies except this is actually a new movie.
Han died and it wasn't really a big deal and Leia runs up and hugs a girl she doesn't know instead of Chewie!?
I liked how the lightsabers looked against the snow.
It was a bit disappointing how the Resistence ONLY had X-Wings and the First Order ONLY had TIE fighters. Did they think people would be confused by new spaceships?
So about Rey...I don't mind her beating Kylo in the duel because he was hurt and she was already showng to be a good fighter. And she used the Force to be a better fighter the same way Anakin used the Force to be a better podracer and Luke used it to destroy the Death Star, so that's fine (though she was so aggressive at the end it was almost like she wa using the Dark Side but that didn't come up in the movie.) And I know there's some people who are just sexist and don't want a female Jedi in THEIR Star Wars. BUT by the end of the movie she's already really great at Jedi stuff, she's the new captain of the Millennium Falcoln, she's best friends with the coolest dude (Chewie) AND she can understand droids and Wookiees...you don't have to be sexist to think that's a bit much. It reminded me of Kirk going from Cadet to Captain of the Enterprise within a few days in the first JJ Trek. But Daisy was so great that Rey never annoyed me.
Sorry I wrote so much but it's not like a new Star wars comes out every year!
SAUSAGEMAN
Registered User
i haven't seen it