Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Post-release)

I heard Ben also. Which thrills me.

One thing I really appreciated about this movie was that I feel it aged with me, in a way the PT didn't. Which is to say, when I saw the OT I was a kid, innocent. Seeing this at 40, a parent, with a few divorces and a lot of failures under my belt, it was nice to see a movie that addressed the concerns of older people. In a way it's a drag our heroes didn't get to live happily ever after post ROTJ, but on the other hand, the real me knows life isn't like that, and I appreciate JJ giving us a more mature take on the fairy tale. While still giving us the fairy tale. Man this movie had to do a lot of heavy lifting!

There was a lot to take in, and I'm kinda overwhelmed. How long has Luke been gone? Kylo musta been pretty young when he wiped out the academy, or...?

Graflex turned on by the red button

I'm glad most people here liked the movie as much as I did. I also frequent the jedi council forums, and while a lot of people there enjoyed the movie, a number of them truly deapised it as well. I guess you guys here are generally more objective.

Now to adress the following question:

cayman shen said:

How long has Luke been gone? Kylo musta been pretty young when he wiped out the academy, or...?

Click to expand...

It all depends. If Tey's abandonment on Jakku is directly related to the events of Kylo and the disappearance of Luke, it could be as much as 15 years (she seems to have been around 5 back then, and now around 20)
That would make Kylo at least around 30 years old, because I doubt a kid under 15 could wipe out a bunch of Jedi. But that would mean he'd have been born only mere months after Endor. (Fun fact: Poe Dameron was concieved the night of the victiry celebration on Endor, as is implied in the Shattered Empire comics)

I guess some questions will be answered by different media soon, and some (central ones) will have to wait until the next installment.

Anyway, I really loved the movie.

RockBottom said:

Anyone else recognize Daniel Craig immediately as the stormtrooper Rey mind tricks?

Click to expand...

I thought that too.

The thing that makes me think Rey is a Skywalker, is her fighting technique, only two people in 7 movies have used that both hands and head hight, stabbing straight forward with the lightsaber technique, Luke and Rey.

I'll save most of my comments, but do agree with the formula that this had a bit too much echo on the original.

Found Daisy's character to be the better acted part of the film.IMO

My spoiler free thoughts on TFA? Once again, I still prefer the overall mythos of the films to the movies themselves. The plot seemed like a hurried fan fiction in some places, the acting was a bit iffy in some places, and the dialogue was atrocious in some places. Some characters were also extremely underused.

I should also point out that I really went in without any preconceived notion, like I did with Jurassic World. I didn't have hopes to get up, nor did I think it was going to be a steaming pile of crap. It sparked my interest in several places, but it had me rolling my eyes in others: another moderate film.

I saw it tonight at a 7pm showing, with my graflex!!! I had brought it just in case as I did not know for certain the theater's policies for costumes/props. I saw a few costumed fans so grabbed it went inside! There was a small costume competition before the trailers and a 501st member in full armor there and helping with the contest.

The movie itself, I liked it a lot. Way better than the PT. Now beforehand, I had only seen the trailers but I figured the one who was going to die, was the one going to die but wasn't certain until the scene began. I had heard rumors of Rey being a Solo and was glad it was not true(well thus far), and was taken aback by the reveal of Kylo Ren being a Solo(the entire theater audibly gasped). The amount of humor almost took me out of it at times, but I did find it funny. I think the only REAL problems I had with this film was the lackluster score and the too "earthly" vernacular used by the characters, but it still beats "Are you braindead?!" from TPM.

I do think that Rey may be Luke's daughter. Her flashback of being left on Jakku seems to coincide with Luke's self imposed exile and I could see him trying to "protect" her by leaving her there...but the father in me couldn't do it. MAN, you really buy into Rey's trauma of being left there and wanting to return to wait for her family. On Rey's abilities, I hadn't thought of her being a prior student but her age would've gotten her some training...I don't know how she could've not known the truth about Luke & co if she was either though but you know...force stuff(mind wipe or such). I did think that maybe when Kylo was trying to pull it out of her and she looked inside his mind that maybe she dipped into some of the training as well while she was there. Of course another thing(throwaway) could just be that it was all "the will of the Force" guiding her.

I didn't like the baton weapon, never been a fan of weapons that can withstand a lightsaber. Oh, those long looks...Luke and Rey, Rey after getting Luke's lightsaber...just. Too. LONG. Kylo stopping that blaster bolt in mid flight...what happened to it?! It kind of gets forgotten...I kept waiting for him to send it into someone or somewhere at least...and it looked to me that his lightsaber was destroyed in the fight with Rey but I couldn't tell for sure. Maybe he will use Vader's in Ep VIII.

Will be seeing this again for sure.

I loved in Rey's force vision you see the carbon chamber's corridors in Bespin,.......where the sabre was lost,....& found

Why did R2 come out of hibernation at the end of the movie,......was it his mission to wait for Rey? and bring her to her father

J

Kylo released the blaster bolt once he started walking back to the ship.

I honestly forgot all about the mid-air blaster bolt being held back. I think that may have been the first moment when I was like "oh, okay then" during the film. Even Vader didn't stop the blasts like that. It just seemed to not really coincide with anything we previously understood in the movies...

Had a blast with it, but agreed with this line from an online review:

...a movie that is great fun but whose sequences are held together by outrageous coincidence or through a complete disregard for narrative connective tissue.

Click to expand...

There were a lot of insane "in just the right place at just the right time" moments for me that made the story less organic, but more like a daisy chain of events. Like in the entire galaxy Han just happens to land Rey on the exact planet and take her to the exact bar where Luke's lightsaber was. Unless he knew it was there and the act was intentional (and I missed it). All that said, was incredibly fun and everyone I was with had a blast. Seeing it again tomorrow...

Wanted to love it. Liked it a good bit. Nice to see old friends. No getting around the fact it's pretty much a reboot disguised as a continuation. Yeah, yeah, a couple things left to be unveiled, but sand planet, orphan kid looks to the stars, secrets to be delivered via droid, wizard with a saber, death star 3, I could go on.

It'll set records. Like Bryan said. Good formula. Bring in the old, build up the new.

Oh, and I like Ray's blaster enough to make one.

-Rylo

Enjoyed it and will see it once more, but I feel that Kasdan, Abrams, and Arndt forgot to credit their fourth co-writer who, let's be honest, did most of the heavy lifting--

Just got back from the screening.
Overall it definitely had that star wars feel and miles ahead of the prequels, and one of the best in the series.
The acting was top notch by everyone, and the humor was perfectly timed without going overboard.
It was a bit sad to see age catching up with ford but overall he was still Han Solo.
The chemestry between the new characters was spot on.
Abrams hit some oretty good emotional moments and "helk yeah!" moments.
The villain was also pretty unique and interesting.
An undisciplined, loose canon sith-lord wanna-be with no real training and major psychological issues.
This is what Anakakin probably should have been like in thr preauels, rather than an overgrown whiney brat.


Now the complaints.
This movie moves at a breakneck pace.
Which works well but it came very close to ruining the film.
The original trilogy had many exposition scenes that took its time and let the audience savor the performances and ket the words sink in....while this film did slow down a few times to let characters settle in it still seemed a bit rushed and just as youre letting the dialog sink in the scene cuts.
I will say that Abrams did a good job of developing his characters and moving the story foreard while maintaining this light-speed pace.

The next issue was that the storyline of the film was taken mostly from elements from the original trilogy and stiched together...however this only bothered me for about five minutes since it was done so well that i had a permagrin on my face the whole time and didnt care after a few minutes.

And finally, the music.
Ive always been a John Willliams fan, but it seems like his best days are behind him.
None of the new music was very memorable; just a bunch of musical notes strung together that didnt seem to have a formula, and for some odd reason it didnt sound like John Williams Music...the memorable Star Wars themes were also barely used in the film. Mainly in the opening crawl and the end credits and a few bars during the actual film that came and went before you could even enjoy it.
I dont know if this was Abrams decision or Williams.
One thing i do know is that an intense action scene or enotional moments demand to be complimented by one of the many clsssic star wars themes.

Overall I would say this ranks up a close second to ANH, with ESB being first and RoTJ close behind.

Back from the first showing of the night.
Loved it.
A few gripes, but probably more of a personal thing.
Kylo was AWSOME.
Ill input more when we have a more open discussion.

Kylo with his temper tantrums is what Anakin should have been.

I kinda feel like this is the beginning of the Marvelization of Star Wars - that soon we're going to be headed to a point of, "Oh, look, another one's coming out..." I really am kinda numb to whatever the next big superhero movie is. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for more Star Wars - and I really did enjoy this one - it's just that I personally don't want to gain in quantity at the risk of quality...

JD said:

We don't know her backstory yet though, either. Maybe she did have training and was too young to remember it and it all sorta kicked in?

Click to expand...

Hm...it could be...but I would say no.:unsure

But about the fight with Ren...I remember he was injured.After he killed Han Chewbacca shot him heavy in the side.That could be a problem in fighting and made him weak.

Just got home from the midnight showing and all I can say is that it was everything I could have hoped for and more. I pretty much had a huge smile on my face from start to finish. The only thing I really didn't care for was the look of Supreme Leader Snoke....when they first showed him I immediately thought of Gollum. I wish he'd been more realistic and evil looking like Palpatine, but that's a minor gripe in an otherwise amazing movie. I don't know that I would necessarily put it ahead of ANH and ESB, but it can stand proudly right there with them and far ahead of the rest of the saga IMHO.

Well it's a better remake than Star Trek Into Darkness.

I'm underwhelmed. It's better than the prequels but that's faint praise since that bar is touching the floor. There were a lot of things to like such as the new trio, BB-8, and the more "old school" lightsaber fighting but all of the nostalgia circle-jerking just pulled me out of the film. It's utterly derivative of ANH and RotJ.

I need to watch it a second time. I liked it a lot, and can pretty much live with its flaws. I liked the characters, although John Boyega was IMO a bit over the top from time to time. Overall, good continuation, interesting setups for the upcoming movies.