Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Post-release)

Tom, your desire to feel attacked when my opinion differs from yours is bonkers, it is my opinion that haters did not get the point of this film, with all the crap in the world at the moment and all the war and terror to be able to escape back to a time that was perfect is an amazing achievement !!
And I'm vitriolic about it

If calling haters a knob makes you feel you have to retract to a place where no haters are allowed then that's up to you.

By definition a knob in the UK is a term used with silliness rather than distain

So don't get too upset, it also wasn't directed at you its just the way I feel, freedom of speech and all that jazz !!!

It's all good. Sorry if I made a big deal about it. Just had to sell my Dan Laws AtAt set it took four years of waiting to get. It's just put me in a bad mood.

Sorry.

Tom
 
That's because you attacked folks for having a different opinion than you. Calling someone a knob has many meanings - any cuss word could be called "silly," that doesn't make it right to do so.

I'm not sure if you know what vitriolic means or if I'm misreading the way you used it. With all due apologies, based on your definition of 'knob' it's not very surprising.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from the consequences of said speech. Nor does it apply to a private forum. Moot points, but points nonetheless.

Instead of attacking folks for not having the same viewpoint of yours (which ya know - war and terror often comes from), why not just talk about what you loved about the movie? If you see a comment you disagree with - why not talk about that point and try to explain what you saw differently?

It's a great movie. Some people don't think so - tell them what you liked about it rather than dissing them.



I appreciate the support guys but I was being way to sensitive. It's really no big deal.

I just waited 32 years for this movie and it's not what I was hoping for with the exception of lots of the Falcon. That was awesome minus the silly crashing (actually awesome crash) then taking off no problem, that was silly. This combined with no end in sight to money troubles has made me cranky. Plus I have a 5 and 7 year old who love Christmas so faking a lot of joy is tiring.

Tom
 
You've just described the exact feelings of those of us that loved the prequels, and we get torn down for liking them.

I have heard of your kind but never met one.:lol

I may get ripped for this but I was hoping the Jar Jar is Snoke/Plageous thing was gonna happen. That would have been so awesome and made the prequels much cooler.

I love that people like the movie. I just wish I was one of them.

But I am an odd duck because Ewoks rule.

Tom
 
This might be of interest to certain people. And I'm quoting directly from The Art of SWTHA , which,unlike previous "The Arts of....." actually details the development of the concepts,design and previsualization against a timeline and the evolution of the script and story. And the thing is you cannot blame JJ for some of the elements that have found their way into TFA.Alot of the choices had already been made for him.

"In a pivitol meeting on May 30th 2013, Carter picked the brains of his collective Visualists for Neo Imperial schemes and motivatioins.Jame Klyne recalls "Dennis said 'Well its called Star Wars where is our big thematic war in space?" And he then mentioned "What if they had the ability to take the energy of a star?"
The Forces darkside feeds off fear.And there is no more a base human fear than fear of the dark.Muren wondered if what if the Neo imperialists found a way to plunge the galaxy into darkness,metaphorically and actually by winking stars out of existance,one by one. The Star Killer sun crushing super weapon concept was born"
For any of you that don't know Dennis Muren was the visual effects supervisor for all of the OT and PT films and was part of a strong old school team led by Kathleen Kennedy to help develope creative concepts for the film. So the 3rd DS is NOT JJs idea and choice.Bit of a shock. He joined up in MAY after he had finished with ST:ITD and hadn't taken up scripting duties yet.
Infact I'm forming a conclusion that alot of the things included were as a result of him NOT saying no to people. He is the opposite of George in that he is a very inclusive director who is more of a collaborative person than a singular "visionary" and I suspect he recieved an awful lot of input from others about what should go into the story and didn't or couldn't prevent alot of them remaining in there. Rather like what happened in STITD. Some of the story work was very advanced when he took over.
You can of course say then hes not a strong enough director , but, given the huge pressure TFA put upon him, he was always going to be caught between Disney,Lucasfilm and the small matter of a $4 billion investment.
TFA is not a perfect SW film. Not in the same way TESB was, and many of the critisms raised here are entirely valid. Going to see a thing many times and then declaring it perfect doesn't remove the fact that for alot of people who really invest in how this universe operates that certain parts felt like a bad fit . Its a hugely strong return ,with some outstandingly great choices in character, casting , cinematography, set and prop design and visual effects in my opinion but it has some noticeably disappointing narrative ( and other) weaknesses. Most of which have been pointed out by many people here and elsewhere. So it ain't an "A" star but its a strong " B plus" from me. For people new to the series or who just wanted a great time without thinking to hard about whats been before ,then its an epically thrilling adventure like ANH was to some of us forty years ago.
The issue is not that Disney, Lucasfilm and JJ failed in anyway with this.They didn't ,not by a massive margin and this film contains amongst many other good thing some of the most thriling moments I've seen in the franchise yet. Many people were aching for TFA to flop horribly just to have something to fill their internet voids with and it isn't going to, so they are reduced to concentrating disproprtionately on the elements that didn't work for them.
BUT, going forward with the whole franchise, with the success of TFA safely acknowledged , Disney and LF now have the safety and time to experiment and devise much better scripts and stories without suffering and putting the pressures on everybody that may have flawed some of the things for some in TFA.
So a balanced "debate" on what people liked (or loathed) about it is only going to strengthen further franchise releases.
 
Last edited:
Detenten I agree as soon i saw it i was like i want that vest and i am a Guy LOL LOL So working on that for my first crossplay ever :) Rey is Epic!
 
This might be of interest to certain people. And I'm quoting directly from The Art of SWTHA , which,unlike previous "The Arts of....." actually details the development of the concepts,design and previsualization against a timeline and the evolution of the script and story. And the thing is you cannot blame JJ for some of the elements that have found their way into TFA.Alot of the choices had already been made for him.

"In a pivitol meeting on May 30th 2013, Carter picked the brains of his collective Visualists for Neo Imperial schemes and motivatioins.Jame Klyne recalls "Dennis said 'Well its called Star Wars where is our big thematic war in space?" And he then mentioned "What if they had the ability to take the energy of a star?"
The Forces darkside feeds off fear.And there is no more a base human fear than fear of the dark.Muren wondered if what if the Neo imperialists found a way to plunge the galaxy into darkness,metaphorically and actually by winking stars out of existance,one by one. The Star Killer sun crushing super weapon concept was born"
For any of you that don't know Dennis Muren was the visual effects supervisor for all of the OT and PT films and was part of a strong old school team led by Kathleen Kennedy to help develope creative concepts for the film. So the 3rd DS is NOT JJs idea and choice.Bit of a shock. He joined up in MAY after he had finished with ST:ITD and hadn't taken up scripting duties yet.
Infact I'm forming a conclusion that alot of the things included were as a result of him NOT saying no to people. He is the opposite of George in that he is a very inclusive director who is more of a collaborative person than a singular "visionary" and I suspect he recieved an awful lot of input from others about what should go into the story and didn't or couldn't prevent alot of them remaining in there. Rather like what happened in STITD. Some of the story work was very advanced when he took over.
You can of course say then hes not a strong enough director , but, given the huge pressure TFA put upon him, he was always going to be caught between Disney, ILM and the small matter of a $4 billion investment.
TFA is not a perfect SW film. Not in the same way TESB was, and many of the critisms raised here are entirely valid. Going to see a thing many times and then declaring it perfect doesn't remove the fact that for alot of people who really invest in how this universe operates that certain parts felt like a bad fit . Its a hugely strong return ,with some outstandingly great choices in character, casting , cinematography, set and prop design and visual effects in my opinion but it has some noticeably disappointing narrative ( and other) weaknesses. Most of which have been pointed out by many people here and elsewhere. So it ain't an "A" star but its a strong " B plus" from me. For people new to the series or who just wanted a great time without thinking to hard about whats been before ,then its an epically thrilling adventure like ANH was to some of us forty years ago.
The issue is not that Disney, Lucasfilm and JJ failed in anyway with this.They didn't ,not by a massive margin and this film contains amongst many other good thing some of the most thriling moments I've seen in the franchise yet. Many people were aching for TFA to flop horribly just to have something to fill their internet voids with and it isn't going to, so they are reduced to concentrating disproprtionately on the elements that didn't work for them.
BUT, going forward with the whole franchise, with the success of TFA safely acknowledged , Disney and LF now have the safety and time to experiment and devise much better scripts and stories without suffering and putting the pressures on everybody that may have flawed some of the things for some in TFA.
So a balanced "debate" on what people liked (or loathed) about it is only going to strengthen further franchise releases.

Cool, I'll have to get that art of book, Murren suggesting that TFA really was a STAR WARS film is interesting, & JJ gets the hate

The ILM guys are the ones who are pitching the ideas, it's John Knoll's suggestion about Rogue One

J
 
Honestly, its a great book with some absolutely beautiful illustrations. It also shows just how much making these kind of films has changed in ways I didn't guess. When you see some of the concept choices made they got most of them spot on, others are just way, way out there and no way SW . I dread to think what would have happened if they had been used .
Other things that people have noticed ,like Reys AT AT home changed quickly as the script did. Originally the four engine craft that was stored in her "garage" which looked so brilliant was dropped as she was made to be appear more down on her luck and constrained by her circumstances, and so the At At was made simpler, and the more complex visual effects sequences (such as her towing the X wing ) then disappeared. What is surprising to me is just how many concepts in the film were generated by and in Lucasfilm well before JJ took over scripting duties and Ardnt departed .The idea that he and Kasdan came up with the entire script in isolation is totally misplaced.

PS Interesting link to Entertainment Weekly on some deleted scenes many have noticed and what happened to Maz after the attack:

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/22/star-wars-force-awakens-jj-abrams-deleted-scenes
 
Last edited:
I only got around to seeing this last night but managed to avoid any spoilers before then. I liked it but didn't love it.

The strongest element of the film, suprisingly to me were the new characters, they were all excellent. Strong pathos and terrific performances and chemistry.
Overall the art direction and general look of the film was handled very well.

The story itself was not very original, far too much retreading - another death star / droid carrying vital information / Rey on Tatoo . . .sorry Jakku ect
Han and Chewie had some cool moments but they felt a bit creaky a lot of the time. The scene on the freighter with those pirates and monsters could have been cut out.
It did not sound very faithful to me. Ben Burt's iconic sounds seemed muted or slighty modified and the score was flat and forgettable. . . very strange.

It was not the sequel to RotJ I had always hoped for and felt alittle disjointed from the OT to me, depsite all the nods and familiar iconography. However as the begining of an entirely new, seperate trilogy it was a good start.


PS It was much better than any of the awful Prequels
bigsmile.png
 
... Seen the movie 5 times this past week...Mainly because my friends, who know I'm an insane SW fanatic, keep inviting me. It's like asking an alcoholic if they would like one more drink! I just say "Hell Yeah!!!" ... Whether it's Hennessy or Schlitz... That being said, I find myself really really enjoying the Abrams stuff more and more.... It's the opposite feeling I had for the prequels, which I hated more and more with each viewing. I am actually starting to even like the large Meatballs of Death scene... Strange... I'm also enjoying the communal experience of it all. The quasi-SW fan loves it! Kids love it! Women love it! My 17 year old daughter who I raised on SW, and then in her early teens she rebelled and became a super-Trekkie, and hates what Abrams did to Trek. Absolutely LOVES the new Wars!... She even asked me to help her put together a Rey cosplay!... Wow!... This is the most Divisive, bringing together film I have ever known.
 
All of these posts say the same thing I said a couple pages back, I think.

If you came out of this movie not loving it... go see it again! The film improves upon itself with multiple viewings. You are doing yourself a disservice if you only saw it once and "liked it, but didn't think it was all that great".

If you flat out hated it... well, I don't know quite what to tell ya.
 
I just hope Kylo doesn't lose his helmet !

I took it to be a Sith/Knights of Ren relic or something as It doesn't seem Kylo has been in enough battles for the helmet to have acquired as much damage if he got it new...

He made it himself, but it was his first time doing Pep and it came out a bit rough. He asked for help but everyone told him to use the search function.
 
Back
Top