Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Post-release)

[KrangPrime]

there used to be a time where I would sit in front of star wars in one viewing....now my attention span is so short.. sigh..I do hate it.


Watching Force Awakens in pieces....

even though It did repeat too much of a new hope.. I did like the movie. unlike most sequels and reboots, it got enough right to be enjoyable.

I just got passed the force vision with the light saber.

is there any transcript of what all the voices say? especially the fading one as the vision ends?
I CLEARLY heard Yoda this time on my sound system. I didn't the two times I saw it in the theater.
And I was so anticipating, I missed hearing Ben that first time around too..


Who did the voice of the alien seated to the left of Finn as he was trying to negotiate rim transport?
sounded like a clone wars voice.

 

[cboath]

As much as the original trilogy was about the redemption of a villain, with Vader once again coming back to the light side, this trilogy will be the rise of a villain and how Ren needs to shed the remaining light within so that he can be the "Vader" he wants to be. So to me it makes perfect sense that while he has been able the master the physical and mental control of the force, he is still struggling with his emotional control.

There were a few key scenes where this was shown quite clearly.

Yeah, other than the OT wasn't about the redemption of a villain. it was the story of Luke. Only after george envisioned and scripted the prequels did the OT suddenly become about vader's redemption. The needle on vader was 100/0 (evil/good) through 2 1/2 of the OT. Only at the tail end of Jedi did he waver at all.

 

[ww12345]

there used to be a time where I would sit in front of star wars in one viewing....now my attention span is so short.. sigh..I do hate it.


Watching Force Awakens in pieces....

even though It did repeat too much of a new hope.. I did like the movie. unlike most sequels and reboots, it got enough right to be enjoyable.

I just got passed the force vision with the light saber.

is there any transcript of what all the voices say? especially the fading one as the vision ends?
I CLEARLY heard Yoda this time on my sound system. I didn't the two times I saw it in the theater.
And I was so anticipating, I missed hearing Ben that first time around too..


Who did the voice of the alien seated to the left of Finn as he was trying to negotiate rim transport?
sounded like a clone wars voice.

There's one on YouTube - Force Awakens Vision Audio or something like that.

 

[RougeAvenger81]

The Force Awakens......For Rey, absolutely. That part is clear. For Kylo, yes he has his power, yes he has some skill, but you can tell he is still very conflicted to an extent. Right up until the point he kills Han. That's his awakening. His full transformation to the Dark Side. He gave in fully. That's my take on it. I like him as a villain and think Ep. 8 will be even more promising.

I'm not going to get into the argument of, "it's a rehash. It's a rip off." I refuse to nitpick the film. I enjoyed it immensely. It had a lot of similarities, but it also told a story of two sides, light and dark, beginning their journeys.

 

[Brent M]

Maul was nothing other than a menacing pile of make-up and poorly choreographed action sequences. There was nothing extreme about him.

Poorly choreographed action sequences? I'm hoping since you posted that on April 1st it was your idea of a joke because the Maul/Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon lightsaber duel was the best fight scene in any of the 7 films(and this is coming from someone who pretty much hates everything about TPM except for that scene).

 

[Jeyl]

The Force Awakens......For Rey, absolutely. That part is clear. For Kylo, yes he has his power, yes he has some skill, but you can tell he is still very conflicted to an extent. Right up until the point he kills Han. That's his awakening. His full transformation to the Dark Side. He gave in fully. That's my take on it.

If the number of innocents that Kylo Ren kills without remorse or regret isn't enough to be a part of the dark side, than what's the point?. So he killed Han. Ok. I guess that means he won't feel bad about killing more innocent people now? See how I'm having a hard time seeing this as a 'transformation'? What's the difference?

 

[joshvanrad]

No, I was totally serious. The choreography is so flourished that looking at it with any amount of criticism shows that the fight is complete rubbish. It's 3 dudes dancing around like some sort of laser ballet.

 

[Bryancd]

If the number of innocents that Kylo Ren kills without remorse or regret isn't enough to be a part of the dark side, than what's the point?. So he killed Han. Ok. I guess that means he won't feel bad about killing more innocent people now? See how I'm having a hard time seeing this as a 'transformation'? What's the difference?

Killing nameless faceless villagers or lackeys is one thing, committing patracide is a totally different kettle of fish. That was a the death of Ben and the birth of Kylo for real. Sure Kylo was well trained in the dark side but his confrontation with Han was his true awakening just as it was when Rey closed her eyes in the fight with Kylo and let the Force in.

 

[Jedi2016]

Yeah, other than the OT wasn't about the redemption of a villain. it was the story of Luke. Only after george envisioned and scripted the prequels did the OT suddenly become about vader's redemption. The needle on vader was 100/0 (evil/good) through 2 1/2 of the OT. Only at the tail end of Jedi did he waver at all.

The difference here is that they actually do have several films worth of story arc already thought up, and were able to properly lay the seeds in TFA, something George was never able to do.

 

[Zombie_61]

No, I was totally serious. The choreography is so flourished that looking at it with any amount of criticism shows that the fight is complete rubbish. It's 3 dudes dancing around like some sort of laser ballet.

I agree. I have no training whatsoever in fighting with swords or staffs, and even I could see most of the duels in the Prequel Trilogy movies make no sense from a combat perspective. They look good at a glance, but when viewed with a more critical eye you realize many of the moves are designed not to disable the opponent, but merely to look good and make the blades meet here, and here, and over there, and down there, and up here, and over there again. Say what you will about the duels in the Original Trilogy movies being slow and awkward, but at least they look like there are two people trying to defeat each other and/or survive.

 

[SVTStingRay]

in this day and age of awesome special editions (im looking at you LOTR/Hobbits), the bluray extras are lacking at best, even the main documentary secrets of the force awakens is a total joke. it almost makes me miss lucas

 

[Cookiee Monsta]

in this day and age of awesome special editions (im looking at you LOTR/Hobbits), the bluray extras are lacking at best, even the main documentary secrets of the force awakens is a total joke. it almost makes me miss lucas

Yeah, when I finished watching the hour long doco I was like "IS THAT IT!!" Best featurette was about BB-8.

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

If the number of innocents that Kylo Ren kills without remorse or regret isn't enough to be a part of the dark side, than what's the point?. So he killed Han. Ok. I guess that means he won't feel bad about killing more innocent people now? See how I'm having a hard time seeing this as a 'transformation'? What's the difference?

What Bryan already wrote. And it is a classic, to boot. There is that oedipus theory where every boy wants and needs to defeat his father. It seems Ben somehow had issues with his father/parents. Those issues probably have driven him towards the dark side. Now he kills his father, what greater "victory" is possible? Great greek tragedy material, I say. Just like "No, I AM your father." was. Just kind of in reverse.

By the way, a lot of the motifs in TFA seem to be mirror images of what we got in the OT. And that, at least for me, is different enough.

 

[niennumb1]

I agree. I have no training whatsoever in fighting with swords or staffs, and even I could see most of the duels in the Prequel Trilogy movies make no sense from a combat perspective. They look good at a glance, but when viewed with a more critical eye you realize many of the moves are designed not to disable the opponent, but merely to look good and make the blades meet here, and here, and over there, and down there, and up here, and over there again. Say what you will about the duels in the Original Trilogy movies being slow and awkward, but at least they look like there are two people trying to defeat each other and/or survive.

I have to agree. What I appreciated about TFA's saber battles were that they were purely objective moves with a purpose... KILL. No overly special techniques. When someone's trying to take another down, they're doing so in the least about of moves possible and doesn't require twirling or some synchronized dance. You could easily see Kylo was going for it every time, making those really hard hacking motions toward his opponent. It goes back to how the old films were. The fighting was much more focused in getting the blade to hit the other guy. The only time I can remember there being an attempt in being showy was Luke during the Bespin fight doing the one twirl, where Vader very quickly schooled him shortly after that that crap wasn't gonna fly and Vader never did any of that when dueling Luke.

The energy in TFA's saber duels were high and exhausting in the exertion of energy used to try and take down Finn and Rey. It was all a very legit sequence to me.

 

[karmajay]

I agree on the Ren awakening stuff. Yeah he was a bad dude at the start but he was still very conflicted. He says so himself! He is not sure he can commit to the dark side. Even when he kills Han he seems a bit surprised that he went through with it. I'm sure we will see that he is more focused in the next film because of it. OR maybe we will see he regrets it so much that he will move away from the dark side? Who knows!

While I enjoyed the PT saber battles I can agree they were mostly for show.

 

[Solo4114]

I have to agree. What I appreciated about TFA's saber battles were that they were purely objective moves with a purpose... KILL. No overly special techniques. When someone's trying to take another down, they're doing so in the least about of moves possible and doesn't require twirling or some synchronized dance. You could easily see Kylo was going for it every time, making those really hard hacking motions toward his opponent. It goes back to how the old films were. The fighting was much more focused in getting the blade to hit the other guy. The only time I can remember there being an attempt in being showy was Luke during the Bespin fight doing the one twirl, where Vader very quickly schooled him shortly after that that crap wasn't gonna fly and Vader never did any of that when dueling Luke.

The energy in TFA's saber duels were high and exhausting in the exertion of energy used to try and take down Finn and Rey. It was all a very legit sequence to me.

Actually, there's one possible explanation for the showy/spinny moves you see in the PT: it's all based on countering enemies with blasters, and specifically multiple enemies with blasters. Nobody's training to fight one-on-one duels. They're training to create what amounts to a lightsabre "wall" and fluid movements that can be constantly in motion so as to make it harder to be hit in the first place.

The problem is that this style isn't particularly useful (so it seems) against an enemy who is moving in largely angular, direct attacks, unless you are so much faster than them that you can effectively anticipate their moves and are redirecting their attack energy. Even then, the problem with this style is that you're ultimately waiting for a moment to execute a strike, and delaying things in the meantime. And you burn a LOT of energy doing it, whereas the OT style is much more about an economy of movement, especially the ANH duel. It's less flashy, but it's more effective.

Spins and such, I think, are more designed around bo/quarterstaff fighting (and spear fighting, to a lesser extent), where the spins make sense because you're moving a big, heavy hunk of wood around and trying to get it into position again quickly. In that case, a spin makes more sense than trying to move this heavy weapon backwards, instead of letting momentum take care of the movement for you. With the more economical ANH style, you're making killing strokes, or trying to knock the enemy's blade aside so that you can follow up with a killing stroke, but I suspect you're letting the impact and controlled rebound of your blade off of the enemy's blade be the thing that lets you work it back into position for the kill stroke.

 

[Riceball]

Spins and such, I think, are more designed around bo/quarterstaff fighting (and spear fighting, to a lesser extent), where the spins make sense because you're moving a big, heavy hunk of wood around and trying to get it into position again quickly. In that case, a spin makes more sense than trying to move this heavy weapon backwards, instead of letting momentum take care of the movement for you. With the more economical ANH style, you're making killing strokes, or trying to knock the enemy's blade aside so that you can follow up with a killing stroke, but I suspect you're letting the impact and controlled rebound of your blade off of the enemy's blade be the thing that lets you work it back into position for the kill stroke.

Spins and such are more of a kung fu thing, particularly wushu, I don't know what the exact reasoning behind the but I don't think that the weight of the weapon has much to do with it. A staff or even a spear don't weigh all that much, I'd say nor more than a typical sword and possibly less so it's not a weight issue. What could possibly be a factor is power generation, the spinning of the body might help generate more momentum but I doubt that since taekwondo (which I've taken) and what I've seen of Shaolin kung fu don't have any fancy spin moves with the staff. Ultimately, it's all flash and no substance since spinning and twirling really does nothing more than burn energy needlessly and exposes your back to your opponent.

 

[Solo4114]

Spins and such are more of a kung fu thing, particularly wushu, I don't know what the exact reasoning behind the but I don't think that the weight of the weapon has much to do with it. A staff or even a spear don't weigh all that much, I'd say nor more than a typical sword and possibly less so it's not a weight issue. What could possibly be a factor is power generation, the spinning of the body might help generate more momentum but I doubt that since taekwondo (which I've taken) and what I've seen of Shaolin kung fu don't have any fancy spin moves with the staff. Ultimately, it's all flash and no substance since spinning and twirling really does nothing more than burn energy needlessly and exposes your back to your opponent.

Sorry, I don't mean spinning like Luke's spin/pivot thing. I'm talking about spinning the staff around you. So, like, you execute a swing moving from left to right, and then spin the staff so that it swings around behind you somehow to end up back on your left again, never changing the overall direction of the move. As opposed to, say, swinging it left to right, and then stopping the forward momentum of the staff to swing it right to left. I could see where it ends up conserving more energy to let the staff complete a motion around you than to try and stop it and redirect it.

Swords are different, too, because you're dealing with a blade (assuming an edged, rather than just pointed blade like a foil). The blade needs to be "pointed" at the target for the sword to cut, so I'd expect to see fewer spins of the weapon itself because the whole point is to get the blade into a position where it can cut.

Lightsabres are supposed to have omnidirectional blades, though, which makes them a weird cross between a staff (where any surface can hurt you) and a sword (where the point is to slash/cut or stab). Plus, the blade can apparently block incoming blaster fire, so twirling it/spinning it in front of you kinda creates a wall. Basically, I'm talking about the kind of fighting you see in the opening sequences of TPM, where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are whirling and spinning their sabres all about, and are pivoting and spinning themselves, too. The difference there is that they're facing battle droids and incoming fire from multiple directions, so being able to block/redirect that fire from multiple angles makes sense, hence the reason for some of the flashier moves.

Although Obi-Wan totally does needless twirls/spins, too.

 

[Sourdoh]

Flashiness for flashiness' sake ...

 

[Too Much Garlic]

The PT duels always felt like going for the blade of the opponent, where the OT duels were going for the body by knocking the opponents saber out of the way. One felt like it was meant for show, whereas the other was deadly serious. That's why there's barely any impact felt with the PT duels... they never really feel like they are serious. There is very little emotional impact thrown into the fight - even Obi-Wan's fight with Maul. You get the emotion from both characters as they prepare to go at it, but the moment their sabers meet, it's the same "hit his saber here, then go there to counter" - never going for the body to end the fight. The emotion is diluted and makes the fight pointless flashy spectacle.