16 replies to this topic

[DGaius]

The last few months I've been surprised by the lack of a Star Wars topic. Now that The Force Awakens is opening up around the globe, I figured it'd be a good time to open one. Keep in mind to use spoiler tags untill the 25th of december (which is the final release date outside of 9th of january in China). Other rules apply too, keep it civil and no shitposting. Good arguments, no memes. You all know the drill.

 

I saw TFA today, I thought it was fantastic. Deffinately 'nerdgasmed' a couple of times. Sure there's some disnifying going on (or disnification if you prefer that). And if you weren't expecting that by now, you've been fooling yourself. All the signs were there.

 

I am curious to see various reactions from fellow fans. IMDB and Rottentomatoes reviews are very positive. I've also seen a particular place on the internet so ass-blasted that it was both sad and funny. So what about you guys? Blown away or butthurt beyond belief?

 

 

My spoiler filled first impressions:

Spoiler

• There was a sincere lack of Tie interceptors, Tie defenders, A-wing and B-wing upgrades;
• T-70 is kickass;
• Disnification was pretty bad at times, but not nearly enough to ruin the experience. I knew it was going to happen anyways;
• Jacen Solo...erm Kylo Ren was nice;
• I very much liked the upgraded tech on basically everything and the lack thereof in the falcon. It really made her stand out between the other ships;
• Holy shit dat new stardestroyer;
• Suncrusher...erm starkiller base feels a bit to much like a rehash;
• Harrison Ford will probably feel better now that his request to be killed off has been honered after all those years;

What I liked most is that there's a sense of a new atmosphere. I don't really care this movie went into A New Hope territory. The Phantom Menace did too (attacking a droid controlship anyone?) and a lot of you will feel that movie did a terrible job at it (I can't hate it as much, as it was the first movie I saw in a movie theather and my first star wars movie aswell. Just glad there's more to explore). In a sense, this is me seeing A New Hope for the first time (if you want to make that comparison). The original trilogy and prequal trilogy had their own distinct atmosphere and feel to them, but still were Star Wars (again debatable). This sequal trilogy has this too. And I am suprised at how familiar it felt compared to the books in the extended universe (new republic, general Organa, upgraded X-wings, Suncrusher, Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren aka Jacen Solo, Rey Skywalker aka female Ben Skywalker/Jaina Solo crossover, etc.). I do think I will re-evaluate this movie once episode 8 comes out. I am expecting episode 8 to be different from both OT and PT. But if it isn't then I guess I'll join the legion of butthurt fans. For now though, I am not interested in the Anthology movies at all. Screw those. I want episode 8 like a spoiled brat.

[mmeier]

Luckily, I was on a conference in the US and thus got to see the movie earlier than the rest of Germany. And at this point I just don't have any idea what I'm supposed to think about it. I'm not as butthurt (to stay with DGaiu's) as I was after Episode I. I was one of those guys who were livid when they announced a "reboot" instead of just using one of the myriad incredible stories from the EU.

 

Comparing it to the prequel trilogy, TFA is of the same quality and Star Warsness (and this was where his language skills left him...). A big bonus is that there is no angsty teenager in it. And no Jar Jar Binks.

 

My advice to all Star Wars fans: Go in with a positive attitude. Ignore everything you feared because it was produced by Disney and directed by Abrams. Because then, like me, the homage to A New Hope will make you keep a broad smile on your face and a warm glow on the inside during the whole film.

 

Finally, I have to ask again: Why not dip into the EU for it's stories? Why not make a film adaption of Truce at Bakura, for example? It would have a completely different outlook, with the Empire/Sith not being the viallains for once. Or, if you wnated new characters, why not jump forward to the Vong invasion? Oh what I would give for a movie adaption of the Koornacht Crisis...

[Zero]

A big bonus is that there is no angsty teenager in it.

 

Why not dip into the EU for it's stories?

Um, yeah there was.

 

And they did, everything is ripped off of post-Yuuzhan Vong war with different names and small tweaks to make it a JJ Abrams original

[Azo 'Salcam]

It was AWESOME!

 

I give it a nine out of ten!

I give it this rating because of these minor reasons:

 

• The movie was somewhat quiet. This is Star Wars, we need more music.
• There were too many "awkward silence" moments. Something would happen lets say, and then everyone is just standing there, not saying anything. Its like, ".......uhm movie? Ya still there? *tap* *tap* *tap* yes?"
• Lastly, some sounds were too hushed. If a blaster or laser went off, the sound was either not there, or was too...whispered. I admit some sounds that NEEDED hushing were hushed, but everything else needed to be louder is all.

Otherwise, this movie went far beyond my low expectations, I'm heavily impressed! I just hope Disney and Mister Abrams do a bang up job wit whatever direction they are going.

 

Also good to see elements of the Expanded Universe are being used. So they may have somewhat dismissed the EU from being canon per say, but they use its legacy, and that's okay by me.

[Aunt Gruntie]

I saw it in a 70mm Imax screen, was not disappointed.

 

Also they were playing music in almost every single scene, not sure what you're on aboot skimisher...

 

Spoiler

Everyone I went to see the move with thought the sith lord was some sort of giant at first, almost broke my suspension of disbelief right there until it was revealed to be a hologram.

Took me forever to figure out Kylo Ren's name, it was explicitly mentioned like once or twice?

That stormtrooper character whom I forgot the name of, I thought at first his character wasn't that great, but he really grew on me, proly my favourite new character, sorry Rey.

[Fleet Admiral agigabyte]

I give an eight out of ten. Also, Skirmisher, nothing needed to be any louder. My ears were ringing after some battle scenes.

[mmeier]

Hm. Back in Germany, just saw it a second time. And I think I need to revise my initial judgement.

 

Spoiler

Okay, first of all: A little bit more background would have been in order. How the hell are the Rebels reduced to a small base and a few X-Wings again, 30 years after the victory at Endor, while the First Order/Empire is still in the business of building moon/planet sized battle stations?

 

On the First Order as the new villains...really? To me, the second time around (probably after the initial Yaaaayyyyy Star Wars! wore off) they looked like a clown troupe. They would have been a perfect fit as the villains in a Spaceballs reboot. Supreme Leader Snokes? That name alone ruined my suspension of disbelieve.

 

And don't get me started on Kylo Ren. He simply doesn't work as a villain. Right at the beginning, when he interrogated the pilot on Jakku. No person would have survived talking to Darth Vader like that. Or at least not without being flash frozen and shipped of to Jabba the Hutt. And his temper tantrums? At least when Vader lost it, he executed incompetent admirals or something.

And he got himself defeated by someone completely untrained. Or did I miss the part where Rey trained first with one of the most experienced generals of the Clone Wars and then with the former grand master of the Jedi Order?

In short: It seems to me the Sith are slipping.

 

But it was not all bad: The new good guys worked out great. Having a disillusioned former stormtrooper is a nice idea. Even though Finn might have had a little bit more character development. Perhaps a trauma or two, considering that he was supposed to have been brutally indoctrinated at a young age.

 

I also quite liked the hommages. When the last instalment of a series was ten(?) years ago, that is actually fine. As long as it doesn't continue in the next episode.

 

So yeah...my initial assessment seems to have been coloured by a general "Yaaaaayyyyy, Star Wars!" feeling on my part. After seeing the film a second time I became quite disillusioned. A 3/10 at most.

 

What I would like to know: How did the film work for people who've never seen the previous episodes, or at least haven't read anything from the EU? Or just younger people, who haven't already spend nearly two decades with a kinds of Star Wars films, TV shows, games and especially books?

[Azo 'Salcam]

I saw it in a 70mm Imax screen, was not disappointed.

 

Also they were playing music in almost every single scene, not sure what you're on aboot skimisher...

 

Spoiler

Everyone I went to see the move with thought the sith lord was some sort of giant at first, almost broke my suspension of disbelief right there until it was revealed to be a hologram.

Took me forever to figure out Kylo Ren's name, it was explicitly mentioned like once or twice?

That stormtrooper character whom I forgot the name of, I thought at first his character wasn't that great, but he really grew on me, proly my favourite new character, sorry Rey.

 

 

I give an eight out of ten. Also, Skirmisher, nothing needed to be any louder. My ears were ringing after some battle scenes.

Hmmm....must have been the theater I was in then. I'll definitely need to watch it somewhere else, so I can get the same experience you guys and gals got.

[SternuS]

I can't believe I'm saying this right now, but holy shit, this movie was bad.

 

Spoiler

The characters are some of the less charismatic protagonists/antagonists I've ever seen. Rey could've been a great character, but is, shockingly, a girl that can do everything, fight everything, pilot everything and be a Jedi. I guess it's okay, but at least Luke was a farmer that could barely use the lightsaber (and he didn't until episode V); a supergirl is not what I was searching for in this character.

 

Fynn is great, the best new character of this movie. Has a good backstory and comes into play with a unique personality. I really like his character. 10/10

 

Kylo Ren...what can i say, I understood the "this-is-not-Darth-Vader" idea going on, I like the fact that he is depicted as an immature man, but...the conflict between his inner light and the dark he wants to pursue could've been a great storytelling factor; sadly, it is not used at all, instead they take it as a plot device to kill off Han Solo.

 

Speaking of which, Han's death could've been epic, but sadly again, he died only to make up for the evil side of Kylo when JJ realized they hadn't explored it deep enough.

 

Sound effects and visual effects are awesome, really well done.

 

P.S. the antagonists are blank and plain as the rocks in my garden. The General is a mere shadow of Tarkin, doesn't ring any bells, doesn't have the authority of any of the past generals. Same goes for the Supreme Leader. Palpatine being a man created this conflict between a man and another man, the idea that it was one of our kind, one like us, that could become the greatest evil in the galaxy, was a concept that gave us some reflections to make. A monster just doesn't have the same feeling...oh it's a monster, boo! Scary stuff!

 

Overall, this movie could've been a masterpiece, but the poor characterisation of 4 protagonists out of 5 sinks this movie's experience.

 

Disappointed.

[Aunt Gruntie]

kinda spoilerish theory about 7:

Spoiler

I saw an interesting theory that Snoke is actually Darth Plagueis (Plagueis was Palpatine's mentor, and Palpatine betrayed and killed him), and Plagueis may or may not have created Anakin (and created the "prophecy") to destroy Palpatine's Empire so he could now come back and take over the Empire.

 

This is interesting because in Ep 3 Palpatine tells Anakin that Plagueis could control life and death and even create life. So it could be that Snoke basically played dead after Palpatine "killed" him. That would explain why Snoke looks so weird and zombie like.

 

So Plagueis is canon, but this theory is still a tad of a stretch, but would be really interesting if true.

 

@SturnuS/mmeier

 

Spoiler

I think you have to remember that the Emperor in Ep 4 had around 5 minutes (probably less) of screen time, and had very few lines. Ep 5 and 6 greatly expanded on his character, and made him interesting. But if you just go off of Ep 4 Palpatine does almost nothing. I will give you that Palpatine I think had more presence in 4 than in 7, but still, I think my point stands.

 

Also I really think there's a lot that's not been revealed about Rey's character that might possibly explain why she is so good at everything. However, if you just look at 7 in a vacuum I would agree, that Rey is far too good. Also very few scenes had much tension because Rey is so good at everything.

 

As for Kylo, I liked his story arc in Ep7 and I'm interested in where is character goes from here. However, they could have done more with it, but I think they're saving it for the next movies. Which I would agree is bad storytelling, but great for business.

As for what mmeier said about Kylo, I think Kylo is being portrayed as a much more experienced Sith who is still trying to come to grips with who he is. Several times Kylo looks for direction from his "father figures", either from Snoke, or from Darth Vader to whom he says "show me again the power of the darkside". That in itself has a lot of implications. Either that Anakin in death somehow went back to the darkside after killing Palpatine. Or more likely that Snoke is manipulating Kylo through Darth Vader (cus you know he's related to the guy) and quite possibly is impersonated Anakin in order to maintain control of Kylo. So I'm really interested in Kylo's character arc because of all this

[Zero]

i rate a solid 9/11 for explosive ending

[Fleet Admiral agigabyte]

i rate a solid 9/11 for explosive ending

/rekt

Spoiler

Like the Republic.

[Whitehalomango]

I finally saw it while going on a roadtrip around and I have to say it was pretty good. I think the main thing that annoyed me was how quickly they killed of 'The Republic'. It should have being a sad moment when a few trillion people died but we have no idea about them, like how are they helping the rebels, what kind of people they are, etc. The entire Republic and a few trillion people were only in the movie to showcase a new Death Star. The other thing is how weak the Rebels are. I could have sworn they had a massive fleet a movie ago and now, now they have like 10 X-wings on a little planet somewhere.What happened man? When did things go so wrong?

[Fleet Admiral agigabyte]

I finally saw it while going on a roadtrip around and I have to say it was pretty good. I think the main thing that annoyed me was how quickly they killed of 'The Republic'. It should have being a sad moment when a few trillion people died but we have no idea about them, like how are they helping the rebels, what kind of people they are, etc. The entire Republic and a few trillion people were only in the movie to showcase a new Death Star. The other thing is how weak the Rebels are. I could have sworn they had a massive fleet a movie ago and now, now they have like 10 X-wings on a little planet somewhere.What happened man? When did things go so wrong?

No, they're the Resistance now. Totally different.

Although yeah, I agree with everything you said.

[KhevaKins]

I think they didn't explain what the Resistance was and what the difference was between the New Republic, Rebels and Resistance. What follows is what I have pieced together. Might make sense, might not.

 

Spoiler

I think 'the Resistance' is kinda like a coalition of forces taken from the New Republic created to specifically resist/appose the First Order.

Not separate from the New Republic as a whole, but with one clear intention/mission, resisting the First Order.

Why the New Republic had a separate fleet and didn't just give all their ships to the Resistance (and so why the resistance only had T-70s) could be although the Resistance has been given a lot of trust and minimal to no oversight the New Republic didn't want to commit all their ships.

 

Plus, other movies had underdog Rebels, this has underdog Resistance. We make good Starwars?

 

Now, Starkiller Base didn't destroy Corusant or whatever. They blew up Hosnian Prime as well as the moons and other planets in that system (orbiting that sun), which I guess was the Republic captial at the time, but the capital planet changed. So they didn't blow up multiple important planets, just one important planet and the other planets in the same solar system.

You see ships in orbit exploding, which can be assumed as the Republic Fleet. I don't think that is the entire New Republic fleet (although I don't hear it stated otherwise) but only the fleet in that sector and the only fleet committed to helping the Resistance when the time came. There were probably other fleets but they would of taken too long to get there.

 

They way they act in the movie just made it seem like all was lost or something and it confused me, hence the rant.

 

Also, how could they see the sun laser streak across the sky and the explosions of the other planets? They are, like, SUPER far away, right?

[Aunt Gruntie]

 

 

Spoiler

Also, how could they see the sun laser streak across the sky and the explosions of the other planets? They are, like, SUPER far away, right?

 

I thought the same thing, but, well, it looked really cool seeing it from their perspective on a planet so there's that.

[Fleet Admiral agigabyte]

I thought the same thing, but, well, it looked really cool seeing it from their perspective on a planet so there's that.

Normally the Rule Of Cool isn't my thing but this time it was.