Am I REALLY the only one disappointed with TFA?

I think when the other two sequels & Rogue One come out & we see the deeper things that are hinted at in the film brought to light,.... there will be folks very embarrassed by the superficial remarks that are being made now.

In the meantime,...threads like this will go round & round,....nothing new will be said

J
 

Most of the TPM reviews were very middle of the road. Rolling Stone and Variety as well were not very enthusiatic. TFA is 4-4.5 stars on average, totally different ballgame.

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-19990519

http://variety.com/1999/film/reviews/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-1117499730/

It's ok to not like the film, but don't try and revise history.
 
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I think the one cringe worthy like for me is Fin yelling "Now that's some good piloting!" or whatever he yells after watching Poe knock out a bunch of ties...
...

I´ll have to watch and listen closer next time I watch TFA, but I think he was referring to him, Han and Chewie not getting blasted away when they did the attack run on the FO troops in front of Maz´ cantina. The X-Wings took out a lot of troops right in close proximity to them. In addition I got the impression that the line may have been a setup for a dialogue happening later when meeting Poe at the base. We did not get that dialogue.

TFA does have quite a few bumps, it is far from perfect editing wise and actor direction wise.
 
I´ll have to watch and listen closer next time I watch TFA, but I think he was referring to him, Han and Chewie not getting blasted away when they did the attack run on the FO troops in front of Maz´ cantina. The X-Wings took out a lot of troops right in close proximity to them. In addition I got the impression that the line may have been a setup for a dialogue happening later when meeting Poe at the base. We did not get that dialogue.

TFA does have quite a few bumps, it is far from perfect editing wise and actor direction wise.

No, it was Finn who said that after the long tracking shot of Poe in his black X-Wing blasting TIE's and troopers.
 
I actually kind of understand the "But it was supposed to be happily ever after!" line of thinking. I get the notion of being disappointed at having been sold a bill of decidedly fantastical or un-real goods, only to have someone then give you an down-note ending and say "Ah, but that's more realistic."

I felt that way at the end of How I Met Your Mother. To my way of thinking, the show went to great lengths to ground its humor at times, but also great lengths to create outrageous, wacky situations. Moreover, the entire story had been set up as one thing, and ended as something else. Even though the show kind of telegraphed the ending, I still thought it was a storytelling mistake, given the nature of the show that had been running for the past 10 years.

So, yeah, I get the idea that the end of this film -- and much of the setup for it -- was deeply unsatisfying to people. Two observations, though:

1. This is ultimately what happens when you have a movie industry hell-bent on answering the question "And then what happened?" The way of the world is that people eventually die and happy endings don't always stay happy. Whether that's because the prince or princess eventually dies, or because of something worse, the fairy tale ending is just that: a fairy tale. It's kind of the same way that Doctor Manhattan responds "In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends," in Watchmen. So, as soon as it was announced that Disney was making Episode VII, I had a hunch that the "happy ending" of ROTJ wouldn't last. It can't, after all. If ROTJ ended with everyone happily ever after, what conflict is there left to resolve in any sequel?

2. Given that a sequel was announced, I think it was ultimately unrealistic to expect or hope that it wouldn't feature the OT characters. I know, at one point I was vehemently against it, particularly given my hunch that bad things would happen to my childhood heroes. I know that I certainly advocated for the story to be set hundreds of years in the future, precisely to avoid any issues with what happened to our heroes, or the ending of ROTJ. But as I say, that's a pretty unrealistic and narrow fan-centric perspective. To the vast majority of audience members and potential audience members, Star Wars is Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca. It may be more than that, but at the very least, it is those things. It's X-wing fighters and giant battle stations that need destroying, and dark Jedi/sith dudes in black with red lightsabres fighting Jedi with blue lightsabres. If you do a Star Wars movie that doesn't have those things in it, the casual audience member will think they're just watching some generic sci-fi movie that's really just a knock-off of Star Wars. They won't "get" the continuity.

I guess I'm more skeptical than that. I think it was Disney pandering to the people who hated the Prequels while trying to reboot for a new generation of fans. They essentially reset all the main characters. Leia is back with the Rebels. Han is a smuggler again. Luke is alone again (and not doing his job making a new Jedi Order...). That's why they followed the ANH formula almost scene for scene. Yeah some stuff is new, but they literally made a scene with a lightsaber in a box just like ANH! I get why some people didn't like the Prequels. I did, though I agree about a lot of the faults. At least there was new content there. I can actually remember the names of the planets in those movies. Coming out of TFA, all I know is Jakku and that's only because I heard the name before the movie. They just aren't memorable like the other SW movies. Are SW fans that dull that if you throw in some familiar characters, X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Millennium Falcon, and some explosions and they'll just cheer and eat it up? It looks like it from here.
 
You know, they could have at least gave the not-Empire it's own look. Storm troopers, TIEs, Star Destroyers, black helmet guy, death star etc etc UGH!!!! That would have helped break it up a little, forge it's own style.
 
Is that sarcasm? I thought it was nice to see the old stuff. And tech wouldn't change that much, a modern touch, not far removed from our real world.
 
It had to be said...
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I read Dennis Lawson was asked to do a cameo but he refused. I've heard he's a bit of a tool but who knows...
 
As I noted on another thread:
It was a good movie in it's own right, just not something that followed on the direction of the past. I know that rubs some the wrong way, myself included to a certain extent, but the movie did well with the direction it did take and I am sure that it will like the past original trilogy, get better given it follows the same formula of the original trilogies.
By that, I mean the Force Awakens follows the plot lines of the first trilogy closely. This is what in part hurts the new franchise, Instead of there being tangible changes from the ending of the original trilogy, history repeats itself with both sides still duking it out and nothing seemingly accomplished. I think that rubbed people who loved the original films wrong.
And just as in the original trilogy, Luke had to go to Yoda while others had to deal with the empire after the death star was blown up; now you have another jedi in training and others dealing with a new death star blown up. Deja vu.

JJ did great with the blending of special effects and practical effects, great job. But as noted earlier here, the props designs and logic in the mechanics was lacking. Half turbines on the new X-wings, Falcon bouncing off everything like a ping pong with no damage, characters all with legendary capabilities appearing at all the right moments to solve problems, you can tell the writers and design guys just did not care about the minute things that Lucas ALWAYS cared about. He sweated the details, in this new movie, the "Eh, it's just SW geeks watching, who cares" type of attitude is showing. Even George's second trilogy with ploy holes and bad story telling worked because the designs and universe were completely detailed, hard thought WAS put into it completely. This was sloppy in comparison. it relied on the past films conveying the characterization of the new film's characters by copying the same formula.

New enough for the latest millennial generation, but weak to those who were around for the first movies. And I say that because frankly, this film leaned on the past to push it into the future. That's the problem and that was caused by a bit of laziness and lack of creativity. A fun movie, but nothing new, the strength of what made the franchises of the past so good.
 
I don't think generally the designs are as good as the OT, there are some standouts like the new X Wing and Tie.

Completely disagree. The prequel tech is hideous. The SR71 Blackbird ships, tiny Jedi fighters, round base ships, goofy submarines and the General Grevious wheel - just awful.
 
Some of the things I have to say may be said allready. don't know, didnt read all the 9 previous pages.

This movie was made for the big no brainer audience, that want to have a good night in the theater, want great special effects, a good laugh and don't bother to much about the story.
Biggest problem I have with TFA is that it mocks the intelligence of the dedicated star Wars fans that do think about everything around it.

Of course in every SW there are arguments of things physically not possible. Here are the BIG issues in this one:

1. The Star Killer planet uses the energy of a whole sun each time. How did it charge the 1st time? The only reason why the whole sun is sucked up is probably because one of the writers said: "It would be cool to kill Han Solo at the moment the last light of the sun disappears, so it'll be a metaphor for the full transition to the dark side of Kylo Ren". And everybody involved said:"yeah that's cool, let's move on to the next scene". Thus a string of impossible things was created:

2. All the matter of the sun is sucked into the heart of the planet. This means the gravitational pull of the planet will increase so dramatically during intake, everyone will get squashed like grapes. It will be impossible for the Millennium Falcon to escape it's gravity.

3. The matter of the sun is so condensed in the heart of the planet, it might turn into a black hole, imploding the whole planet.

4. When the power of the sun at the end can no longer be controlled, it releases gradually, giving our hero's the time to escape. It would go supernova in an instance in my honest opinion.

5. When the sun's power is released, it doesn't go supernova, but just becomes a sun a bit bigger than the planet. There's no huge amounts of matter released into space. It was a SUN, thousands and thousands times bigger than a rocky planet. Where did the rest go?
 
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