Am I REALLY the only one disappointed with TFA?

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Just a casual observation, but some of the negative nellies is this thread are also huge EU fans and I think are still waiting for the Trawn trilogy...

That's always your observation though, despite no one saying they wanted the EU stories in any form. If someone liked some of the EU, you assume that's why we didn't like TFA. Every time anyone mentions Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order you say it's the EU fanboys, despite them setting that up in ROTJ. After seeing TFA, If they could have done Heir To the Empire 20 years ago, then heck yeah it would be a much better story than TFA. No one on here, that I've seen, has been asking for those stories, they're not gonna happen. TFA is just an average movie IMO.

I liked the Prequels, but I see and admit they had problems. People are defending TFA like it's the best SW movie ever and dismiss any of the glaring faults in it.

 

[Jeyl]

Just a casual observation, but some of the negative nellies is this thread are also huge EU fans and I think are still waiting for the Trawn trilogy...

No. Just Thrawn... and his pet.

 

[NeoRutty]

Aside from ESB, if you're a Star Wars fan you have to allow and dismiss glaring faults...

 

[Jeyl]

Aside from ESB, if you're a Star Wars fan you have to allow and dismiss glaring faults...

Are we really encouraging that future Star Wars productions should actually include more This kind of material because the other entries had them?

A fan who always dismisses faults will likely do more disservice to the franchise than those who don't. You think Lucas didn't get the message from fans who said that that Jar Jar Binks was a glaring flaw when he dramatically reduced his role in the next installments? Nobody should classify a glaring flaw as not being a big deal, because why would anyone not want to improve something where it's most obvious? Thinking should never be the problem.

 

[CessnaDriver]

TFA was nothing but faults to me. I mean one glaring after another, be it new characters, old characters, plot.... brutal like a sledgehammer. Even down
to minutia like bouncing the Falcon around like it's an indestructible child's play toy.
I - don't - get - it. :confused

 

[NeoRutty]

Are we really encouraging that future Star Wars productions should actually include more This kind of material because the other entries had them?

I was responding to the remark that everyone is praising TFA and ignoring all the flaws. They're not ignoring any more flaws than are in any of the other films... I don't see any flaws in TFA that I can't find one just as bad in Jedi, or ANH. If you

It's all opinion. Some people can't let it go that the falcon didn't crumble to dust when it hit the ground in the dessert. It didn't even register to me. It's a giant steal ship, that had no speed going for it when it dug up a few feet of sand. Maybe it would do major damage?... I dunno.

It still looks weird to me that the Death Star exploded as it did in the vacuum of space.

But I don't let it ruin an experience for me.

 

[The Wook]

Okay, so call TFA a "soft remake" of ANH. I can agree that the similarity of TFA and ANH is closer than it should have been. I guess I'm just more willing to forgive it.

I am not willing to forgive it. TFA is a sinfully cynical, lazy, and uninspired rip-off of George's original Star Wars.

However, just for the sake of argument, let's say I was willing to forgive that sin. I would still loathe the film. Why?

* the protagonist was an absurdly powerful MaRey Sue who incredulously beats down a near Sith Lord who can stop laser blasts in mid-flight and toss her 30 feet in the air against a tree with a flick of his finger, and she does so with a weapon she'd never wielded before in her life
* the soundtrack sucked
* ford phoned in his performance and once again was emasculated by by the script by not knowing his ship as well as a teenage girl who'd never flown it, and by suffering a punk's death
* i didn't realize carrie fisher was a ventriloquist
* chewie mask wasn't right--looked cgi--not a hair outta place--too small--head wrong shape--eyes looked cgi'ed at times
* chewie acted out of character, in egregious ways (the OT chewie would NEVER dispute han in the face of peril the way he did on that freighter--i cringed)
* cgi monsters were totally fake looking--that whole scene was embarrassing to watch
* distracting scottish accent
* unnecessary characters (finn: necessary for the agenda, but not the story. i'm all for a black lead, but give him a relevant role, not a token one that's irrelevant to the story.)
* boring cantina creatures
* poor lighting
* chewie's way underplayed reaction to han's death (he shoulda been ripping stormtrooper arms outta sockets!!!)
* leia snubbing chewie
* chewie's adoring look at rey in cockpit en route to luke...it was cringe-worthy
* poor editing and breakneck pacing
* telegraphing plotlines
* falcon taking no damage (it shoulda been in pieces--regardless of shields)
* ridiculously heavy-handed parallels to the third reich
* hux--annoying as hell
* kylo face reveal premature (shoulda happened on catwalk w/his father)
* kylo helmet heavy as an anvil--so stupid
* driver was miscast (his acting was fine, but he looks nothing like ford or fisher)
* solo and finn spot rey across a huge expanse, and then boom, they find her around a corner--gimme a break!
* levity misplaced in perilous moments/scenes that should've been fraught with tension, thus removing all tension. so cartoon-ish.

I know I'm forgetting stuff, but wow, as you can see, EVEN if I were to forgive the film's sin for so egregiously ripping off ANH, the movie would still be a turd.

The Wook

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

There's no question that many of the plot points were similar or identical to the OT, particularly ANH. Every single professional review that I've read recognizes that fact.

The positive reviews mention that fact in one of two ways: 1) they love the similarities and think they helped make TFA a great movie or, 2) they acknowledge that the similarities are a problem but we should overlook them because it's a fun movie.

The negative reviews focus greatly on these same similarities and feel that such close copying (I've seen it referred to as blatant plagiarism) is lazy and failed to give us something new.

I have difficulty still, so many months later, classifying where I am. I enjoyed the film. I am so glad Star Wars is back. I rate the movie a B+ yet I am disappointed.

Many who acknowledge the similarities and are okay with them say that Disney had to play it safe. I'm clearly in the minority but I interpret this choice as incredibly risky. I believe strongly that if at any time before December 18th, we had a leak that the movie would be about a force sensitive youth, abandoned on a desert planet who finds an escaped droid carrying vital information...etc. (we all know the comparisons), that people would have gone ballistic. However, that clearly didn't happen.

While I don't like the similarities, I was most let down by the reduction of our original characters and their efforts from the OT. My interpretation of TFA basically nullifies the accomplishments of our heroes in the OT. I don't subscribe to those that say it's okay because "history repeats itself." If that's the case, what's the point of any of it? If the story is going to be in more or less the same place in another thirty years, why should I care?

I'm glad Star Wars is back and I liked the movie but was ultimately disappointed (what a conundrum!). I hold Stars Wars to an incredibly high standard, perhaps an unfair one, and that's why TFA let me down.

 

[Bryancd]

The ROTJ happy ending had to be altered to allow for a better narrative direction for an entire new series of films. Happily ever after makes for a dull tale if it has to perpetuate.

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

The ROTJ happy ending had to be altered to allow for a better narrative direction for an entire new series of films. Happily ever after makes for a dull tale if it has to perpetuate.

There are a myriad of ways that the story could have been continued without nullifying what they accomplished together in the OT. That our heroes are almost literally exactly where they were when we first met them, for me, diminishes the OT that this is all built on.

 

[Solo4114]

The ROTJ happy ending had to be altered to allow for a better narrative direction for an entire new series of films. Happily ever after makes for a dull tale if it has to perpetuate.

Exactly. The problem is in bothering to tell any story past "happily ever after" at all. If you say "And then what happened?" the answer is either:

- "Everything went horribly wrong, and new heroes had to come help the old ones to fix it."

or

- "Nothing. They grew old and died. Go to bed."

 

[CessnaDriver]

The ROTJ happy ending had to be altered to allow for a better narrative direction for an entire new series of films. Happily ever after makes for a dull tale if it has to perpetuate.

Nope. They could have gone forward 100 years or more and started fresh, been a brave and creative choice. The restored Republic under threat again, perhaps
even from baddies in another galaxy rather than always internal BS and sneaky religious cults.

 

[Bryancd]

Nope. They could have gone forward 100 years or more and started fresh, been a brave and creative choice. The restored Republic under threat again, perhaps
even from baddies in another galaxy rather than always internal BS and sneaky religious cults.

That was non-starter. After the issues with the PT, you don't spend $4B to acquire a franchise and then make your first effort almost entirely divorced from that very franchise in the mind of the casual fan. I'll repeat, you provide the familiar iconography and characters and situations to ground your story and then move forward.

 

[niennumb1]

I think we all know there is no such thing as happily ever after. You can have big wins in life, but life is forever a roller coaster.

One threat goes away, 3 more pop up. There is no eternal peace in the world. Someone or something else will always pop up to throw off the balance of life's inner peace you try to maintain. It's not being a negative Nancy, it's true.

 

[Bryancd]

There are a myriad of ways that the story could have been continued without nullifying what they accomplished together in the OT. That our heroes are almost literally exactly where they were when we first met them, for me, diminishes the OT that this is all built on.

Any option which continued to somehow validate the end of ROTJ while trying to create a story with actual jeopardy and including the OT characters wouldn't have been as interesting as what we got. People complain that TFA failed to take chances yet I would posit that their handling of the OT characters post ROTJ lives was extremely risky and I find it more compelling. Sure I had hoped things had worked out better for them but they are fuctional characters and are tools for storytelling. So I sit back and let go of my preconceptions and say ok, tell me a story you want to tell.

 

[NeoRutty]

"ford phoned in his performance and once again was emasculated by by the script by not knowing his ship as well as a teenage girl who'd never flown it, and by suffering a punk's death"

Okay I'm stopping here... I mean jeez man, there is something other than the movie itself that's got you riled up.

I've NEVER heard ANYONE say that Ford phoned it in. Are you kidding me?

Any credit I've given your other complaints is now gone.

And of course she knew the modifications that were made... She helped make them!

If I don't see my car for 15 years, try hitting the gas and nothing happens, I'm pretty sure the guy who did all the mods would be better at instantly assessing why.

And killed while trying to help his son. What a punk.

- - - Updated - - -

Exactly. The problem is in bothering to tell any story past "happily ever after" at all. If you say "And then what happened?" the answer is either:

- "Everything went horribly wrong, and new heroes had to come help the old ones to fix it."

or

- "Nothing. They grew old and died. Go to bed."

"Happy Endings are just stories that haven't finished yet."

-Some Guy.

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

Exactly. The problem is in bothering to tell any story past "happily ever after" at all. If you say "And then what happened?" the answer is either:

- "Everything went horribly wrong, and new heroes had to come help the old ones to fix it."

or

- "Nothing. They grew old and died. Go to bed."

I actually feel that this could have been simply addressed in the crawl to allow for the successes of the OT to have mattered. We see no tangible effects that the OT made any difference. A couple of sentences in the opening could have completely shifted my point of view regarding this criticism.

Happily-ever-after was not possible in order to have new movies and we needed to have the original characters back but show that the OT mattered. Couldn't this multi-billion machine come up with something more? Therein lies my disappointment.

 

[Bryancd]

I actually feel that this could have been simply addressed in the crawl to allow for the successes of the OT to have mattered. We see no tangible effects that the OT made any difference. A couple of sentences in the opening could have completely shifted my point of view regarding this criticism.

Happily-ever-after was not possible in order to have new movies and we needed to have the original characters back but show that the OT mattered. Couldn't this multi-billion machine come up with something more? Therein lies my disappointment.

The success of the Rebelion defeating the Empire was the validation. That had nothing to do with the strory being told in TFA and was therefore not necessary.

 

[The Wook]

"ford phoned in his performance and once again was emasculated by by the script by not knowing his ship as well as a teenage girl who'd never flown it, and by suffering a punk's death"

Okay I'm stopping here... I mean jeez man, there is something other than the movie itself that's got you riled up.

I've NEVER heard ANYONE say that Ford phoned it in. Are you kidding me?

Nope, nothing but the movie itself made me dislike it so.

Ford totally phoned it in. All he gave a frack about was his enormous paycheck. The guy hates Star Wars. Haven't you seen any of his interviews from the nearly 30 year period where he was not under contract, from '84 to '12? All negative respones, or simply non-responses to anything brought up that was Star Wars related. He derisively referred to the character as "Ham Yo Yo". When Disney recruited him for this film, with a contract befitting a King's ransom, he suddenly changed his tune, and started saying positive things, and yukking it up with fans, and even doing parody sketches on Kimmel, etc. I don't buy it for a second. He was acting. He did a much better job acting like he liked Star Wars, than he did acting in TFA itself.

The Wook

 

[NeoRutty]

I can't imagine what he would have had to do to be more like Han Solo in that flick. That's just crazy talk.

You crazy, brah.