Star Wars: The Force Awakens (WITH SPOILERS-- SEEN IT? PLEASE DISCUSS IT HERE)

David_D · December 2015

For those of us that have seen it, have at it! (Will combine this with the other thread in a few weeks, as we usually do with big movie releases like this).

Only have a moment to post, but I will say: Loved it. Was left with some world building questions about the gap between VI and VII. (And I know they have many books and comics to sell us to fill that gap), but I think if you were to watch from VI to VII, as a film viewer, they don't quite justify the state of the political and military landscape. But, if they made those cuts to instead make the mythic, character moments breath, then I think that is smart. I think the latter is more important than the former.

Excited to see it again.

And was excited to tell my five year old, Star Wars loving daughter (who prefers to talk out and know the whole story before she sees something-- like a tiny @Matt) that the biggest happy surprise in the movie is that Rey was the Jedi (to be), not Finn. Excited to see the torch/lightsaber of hte saga passed to a woman. Especially as the father of a daughter who loves Star Wars.

(And I also told her she can't tell any of the kids or grown-ups at school. She is a five year old that knows from spoilers.)

What did you think?

Torchsong · December 2015

I think the saga is in good hands with this new generation of characters.

Finn - I hope we haven't seen the last of him. I'm pretty sure we haven't. I love the whole idea that he's a defector from whatever conditioning the Empire/First Order puts their "recruits" through. Best humorous lines came from him.

Rey - How do you not fall in love with this character? Like David, I was happy to see the lightsaber getting passed to a woman, and it was great seeing the Force develop within her. "And you drop your gun!"/"Aaaand I drop my gun..."

Phasma - I feel a bit cheated here, because there was a lot of buildup for this character who honestly didn't do much except repeat orders and spout about five lines. I seem to recall Gwendolyn Christie (the actor who played her) saying there's more to her story, so hopefully that's to come in future episodes.

Kylo Ren - It's Anakin without as much whiny! Loved the idea that he wants to carry on in Vader's footsteps, but isn't completely sure how to go about it...and that temper!

BB8 - Wasn't nearly as obnoxious as I thought she might be. A good surrogate R2D2 for when R2D2 isn't available. Yes, there's a school of thought that claims BB8 - a robot - is a female. Roll with it. :)

Poe Dameron - He's the guy you just "like" because he's awesome and a hotshot pilot. Can't have Wedge Antilles? I'll put Poe in my corner any day of the week. Hopefully he shows up in the Rogue movie offshoots of this series.

My wife cried when Solo died...we both could see it coming a mile away but it didn't take the sting of it away. I love Han - who doesn't? - but to me the main Star Wars movies are always going to be about the fall/rise/fall again? of the Skywalker clan. That's why that final scene for me was the absolute perfect ending. Rey holding the saber out as if to say "You're needed" and Luke leaving it up in the air as to what happens next.

But the best part of the movie...

One of my favorite aliens - Nien Nunb - is IN THIS MOVIE! He's in the credits! He's still around! Yes, I screamed when I saw him. :)

This one's up there with Empire as far as the movies go...

Matt · December 2015

I'm hoping it plays as well as it read, but I like how Han essentially was Kenobi & Luke was Yoda. Yoda went into hiding just as Luke did following his failure. Han's death was to propel another character's journey.

was it in the books or movies that revealed Han was a former officer for the Empire? He left following the arrest of Chewie. Sounds similar to Finn.

Will Ben & Rey be relatives (cousins or siblings)?

I figured Han would die in this one. Harrison wanted out after Empire & kinda disowned the character for years following Jedi. This would be a way to entice him to return one more time. Plus, the trailers heavily featured Harrison. He also advised he wasn't trying to be Alec Guinness...hinting (to me) a death.

Without giving spoilers in the other thread, it seems like what hurt the prequels was we knew what happened in the original trilogy. It seems as though, not only do we not know what happens in the finale of Episode IX, the original trilogy seems like the prequels for this trilogy. Obviously, it happened before, but now we're getting the set up for VII-IX.

I'm hoping to squeeze in a showing next week.

M

Matt · December 2015

David_D said:

And was excited to tell my five year old, Star Wars loving daughter (who prefers to talk out and know the whole story before she sees something-- like a tiny @Matt) that the biggest happy surprise in the movie is that Rey was the Jedi (to be), not Finn. Excited to see the torch/lightsaber of hte saga passed to a woman. Especially as the father of a daughter who loves Star Wars.

Sounds like your daughter is wicked smart if she thinks that way!

M

luke52 · December 2015

Loved it from start to finish.

Loved Rey, loved BB8, loved Poe, loved Kylo Ren. I like the idea of Finn, Stormtrooper sickened by what the Empire (or First Order) do and stand for, but I feel something was lacking there. He was my only slight nit pick. Up there with the originals for me.

Wanna let it digest now, see it again and will post any more thoughts here later.

luke52 · December 2015

Oh and loved that Rylo Kens name was Ben. Awesome.

Planeis · December 2015

Liked it a lot. I ignored almost all of the promotion except the trailers. The one gripe I have is just how little of Luke there was. He was the number one thing I wanted. As it became clear he wasn't going to be in it much, I was ok with it. But, the tease they gave us was just too much.

alienal · December 2015

I saw it last night here in Japan. A fairly big crowd in the theater. Like others mentioned above, I liked all the new main characters. Felt like a passing of the torch from the old to the new. Rey: Yeah, she's such a spunky character. I liked when Han nods his head toward her as she's climbing around trying escape. Even before Finn turns and looks, I figured it must be her. And wait, the Force must be VERY strong in her to be doing the stuff she did with no training as far as we know. And whose child is she? Luke's? (She seemed to have his old flight helmet.) She's not another one of those midi-chlorian kids born without a father is she? Poe Dameron: yeah, he is a cool guy. Liked him from the beginning. Kylo Ren (Ben): yeah, that temper is what is most interesting. And he's quite two-faced, pulling the bait-and-switch on Han. (That reminds me: did anybody see the latest Big Bang Theory? Bob Newhart putting a light saber through his own body? That's a spoiler...LOL!) And Finn: like someone said above, he had the funniest lines (I was the only one laughing in midst of the Japanese audience who, I assume, were reading the sub-titles which must not be as funny). It was interesting how he lied, bullied, and eventually tells Rey the truth about himself then finally shows his true allegiance. To me, there's no question that he'll be back, he's just recovering like many Stars Wars characters do, Speaking of which, loved all the callbacks to the original trilogy: the Falcon, the hidden storage passage, the "trash compacter" line, the desert scenes, the bigger than a Death Star Starkiller, etc. I, too, wished to see a little more of Luke, but since he was mentioned about 20 times before he appears, I can forgive that. All in all, it's the beginning of a nice new trilogy for the new generation of fans.

luckymustard · December 2015

Planeis said:
Liked it a lot. I ignored almost all of the promotion except the trailers. The one gripe I have is just how little of Luke there was. He was the number one thing I wanted. As it became clear he wasn't going to be in it much, I was ok with it. But, the tease they gave us was just too much.

The tease you're talking about was shown to us in the first teaser trailer, right?
Let's talk about that segment/scenes/vision either way...
First, was that part of it future or past?
Same for the Knights of Ren shot?
With R2 there seems like it would be future, as R2 was with the Republic/Resistance. And Reyand Chewie took R2 with them to Luke's hideaway plant/island.

Planeis · December 2015

Well. As for the vision, I believe that was the past. But no, the tease I'm talking about was at the end. The number one character I wanted. I told my wife a year ago that the number one thing I wanted was to see Luke and get some sense that he was happy and healthy. Welp.....

Mr_Cosmic · December 2015

luckymustard said:

Planeis said:
Liked it a lot. I ignored almost all of the promotion except the trailers. The one gripe I have is just how little of Luke there was. He was the number one thing I wanted. As it became clear he wasn't going to be in it much, I was ok with it. But, the tease they gave us was just too much.
The tease you're talking about was shown to us in the first teaser trailer, right?
Let's talk about that segment/scenes/vision either way...
First, was that part of it future or past?
Same for the Knights of Ren shot?
With R2 there seems like it would be future, as R2 was with the Republic/Resistance. And Reyand Chewie took R2 with them to Luke's hideaway plant/island.

I think it was the past. We were seeing the Knights of Ren just after slaughtering their fellow "Padawans." Luke and R2 amongst embers and ashes could be them viewing the aftermath. Shortly after he leaves R2 with the Resistance. I'm sure Luke had some "Force Sight" that told him they'd need him in the future so he instructed R2 to be dormant until a certain time. I'd like to read the book to see how they cover this stuff.

David_D · December 2015

Mr_Cosmic said:

luckymustard said:

Planeis said:
Liked it a lot. I ignored almost all of the promotion except the trailers. The one gripe I have is just how little of Luke there was. He was the number one thing I wanted. As it became clear he wasn't going to be in it much, I was ok with it. But, the tease they gave us was just too much.
The tease you're talking about was shown to us in the first teaser trailer, right?
Let's talk about that segment/scenes/vision either way...
First, was that part of it future or past?
Same for the Knights of Ren shot?
With R2 there seems like it would be future, as R2 was with the Republic/Resistance. And Reyand Chewie took R2 with them to Luke's hideaway plant/island.
I think it was the past. We were seeing the Knights of Ren just after slaughtering their fellow "Padawans." Luke and R2 amongst embers and ashes could be them viewing the aftermath. Shortly after he leaves R2 with the Resistance. I'm sure Luke had some "Force Sight" that told him they'd need him in the future so he instructed R2 to be dormant until a certain time. I'd like to read the book to see how they cover this stuff.

I'm listening to the audiobook in my travels this weekend. That is the section I am most interested to hear.

Mr_Cosmic · December 2015

Let us know what it says!

DoctorDoom · December 2015

That movie was so good. So, so good.

The humor here really worked, and I didn't find it annoying at all. I was smiling thought the thing!

DoctorDoom · December 2015

alienal said:
I saw it last night here in Japan. A fairly big crowd in the theater. Like others mentioned above, I liked all the new main characters. Felt like a passing of the torch from the old to the new. Rey: Yeah, she's such a spunky character. I liked when Han nods his head toward her as she's climbing around trying escape. Even before Finn turns and looks, I figured it must be her. And wait, the Force must be VERY strong in her to be doing the stuff she did with no training as far as we know. And whose child is she? Luke's? (She seemed to have his old flight helmet.) She's not another one of those midi-chlorian kids born without a father is she? Poe Dameron: yeah, he is a cool guy. Liked him from the beginning. Kylo Ren (Ben): yeah, that temper is what is most interesting. And he's quite two-faced, pulling the bait-and-switch on Han. (That reminds me: did anybody see the latest Big Bang Theory? Bob Newhart putting a light saber through his own body? That's a spoiler...LOL!) And Finn: like someone said above, he had the funniest lines (I was the only one laughing in midst of the Japanese audience who, I assume, were reading the sub-titles which must not be as funny). It was interesting how he lied, bullied, and eventually tells Rey the truth about himself then finally shows his true allegiance. To me, there's no question that he'll be back, he's just recovering like many Stars Wars characters do, Speaking of which, loved all the callbacks to the original trilogy: the Falcon, the hidden storage passage, the "trash compacter" line, the desert scenes, the bigger than a Death Star Starkiller, etc. I, too, wished to see a little more of Luke, but since he was mentioned about 20 times before he appears, I can forgive that. All in all, it's the beginning of a nice new trilogy for the new generation of fans.

Oh wow.... I Thought Japan is usually last on the movie export list!

(I may be thinking of Avengers)

luckymustard · December 2015

Mr_Cosmic said:

luckymustard said:

Planeis said:
Liked it a lot. I ignored almost all of the promotion except the trailers. The one gripe I have is just how little of Luke there was. He was the number one thing I wanted. As it became clear he wasn't going to be in it much, I was ok with it. But, the tease they gave us was just too much.
The tease you're talking about was shown to us in the first teaser trailer, right?
Let's talk about that segment/scenes/vision either way...
First, was that part of it future or past?
Same for the Knights of Ren shot?
With R2 there seems like it would be future, as R2 was with the Republic/Resistance. And Reyand Chewie took R2 with them to Luke's hideaway plant/island.
I think it was the past. We were seeing the Knights of Ren just after slaughtering their fellow "Padawans." Luke and R2 amongst embers and ashes could be them viewing the aftermath. Shortly after he leaves R2 with the Resistance. I'm sure Luke had some "Force Sight" that told him they'd need him in the future so he instructed R2 to be dormant until a certain time. I'd like to read the book to see how they cover this stuff.

I'm 10% into the digital copy that I preordered months ago.

bralinator · December 2015

So, has anyone seen the film that also read the Marvel mini-series "Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Shattered Empire" and did it have any connections?

Mr_Cosmic · December 2015

bralinator said:
did it have any connections?

God no. Ok, to be fair I read it before I saw the movie but I don't remember anything. It was really a poor story, imho. I'll have to revisit it again to see if I missed something. It literally takes place the moment RotJ ends and is about finding...trees.

On a somewhat related note I listened to Star Wars: The Perfect Weapon. It's a short story that was billed as having connections to the new movie. I started listening before seeing the movie and couldn't figure out how it connected. During the movie you see the main character of the book and she has one line. So, I guess it does connect..but not in a huge way. It's a really good story though.

David_D · December 2015

bralinator said:
So, has anyone seen the film that also read the Marvel mini-series "Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Shattered Empire" and did it have any connections?

There were not big connections. Like the Star Wars: Aftermath novel, it is one of what is sure to be many things that take place in the gap between VI and VII. So it is mostly establishing that, despite how big of a victory and celebration we saw at the end of ROJ, that the Empire was not yet defeated.

Oh. And I think you actually see Poe Dameron get conceived.

DoctorDoom · December 2015

David_D said:

Oh. And I think you actually see Poe Dameron get conceived.

Kinky.

Greg · December 2015

Just got back from seeing and it I loved it. It felt like Star Wars more than the prequels ever did.

alienal · December 2015

@DoctorDoom
Yeah, we usually are last to see most movies. However there have been exceptions (for example, I think we saw the 1st and 2nd Amazing Spider-man movies BEFORE the U.S. got them, perhaps because it was a Sony movie.). Anyway, Disney AND Star Wars are pretty much world-wide properties, with great popularity in almost every market so, I guess they decided to release them at the same time. Well, only one day later here.

batlaw · December 2015

Saw it today. Mostly loved it. Nothing terribly unexpected. Perhaps a tad too derivative of the original. Kindve predictable but I expected as much but done well and as good as I expected. Maybe not as good as I hoped? But not at all disappointed. A few nit picks but nothing too serious. I'm just glad I was happy with the new actors/characters (Rey Finn Poe) But especially Rey. Much more charisma charm and talent than I expected. Can't wait to see it again. 3 1/2 - 4 out of 5 stars. Probably just below RotJ? Better than all the prequels combined.

jaydee74 · December 2015

I liked this. A whole lot. As a matter of fact, I saw this yesterday and I still can't stop smiling. I love the new characters. I think they are instant classics and I love their journey in this movie. I love the usage of the classic characters. They were used just right and I loved their interactions with the new characters. For whatever reason, I love the fact that Han is just realizing how awesome Chewie's bowcaster is. I loved the plot and there are just so many moments that were awesome in this movie. I think after one viewing, this could be my new favorite of the series.

DoctorDoom · December 2015

alienal said:
@DoctorDoom
Yeah, we usually are last to see most movies. However there have been exceptions (for example, I think we saw the 1st and 2nd Amazing Spider-man movies BEFORE the U.S. got them, perhaps because it was a Sony movie.). Anyway, Disney AND Star Wars are pretty much world-wide properties, with great popularity in almost every market so, I guess they decided to release them at the same time. Well, only one day later here.

That's awesome! And thanks for explaining!

DoctorDoom · December 2015

I also have to say, I feel like they avoided a lot of stupid tropes, like the "tragic misunderstanding" one or the withholding information one.

With prodding, Finn was honest about where he came from. And Rey and the Rebels accepted him.

None of this "how can we ever trust him?" Time wasting stuff!

Mr_Cosmic · December 2015

DoctorDoom said:
I also have to say, I feel like the avoided a lot if stupid tropes, like the "tragic misunderstanding" one or the withholding information one.

With prodding, Finn was honest about where he came from. And Rey and the Rebels accepted him.

None of this "how can we ever trust him?" Time wasting stuff!

That's a good observation. I thought that's where they were going with it and it was refreshing not to go down that road.

Planeis · December 2015

Indeed. And they didn't try to recreate the whole "I am your father" surprise. They doled out the information about Ben in pieces over the course of the movie. Not one big surprise

David_D · December 2015

Planeis said:
Indeed. And they didn't try to recreate the whole "I am your father" surprise. They doled out the information about Ben in pieces over the course of the movie. Not one big surprise

Agreed. And I like how much weight it ended up giving that single line. "Ben."

jaydee74 · December 2015

I loved how they just gave you the information about Kylo. It was fantastic. I also loved that one scene where Kylo looks like he's actually praying to the burned Vader helmet. It was so fantastic. There is something about that character that is so interesting and cool and you can see his conflict throughout the whole movie and I just liked his arc in the movie and I cannot wait to see him in the next movie.

bralinator · December 2015

I really enjoyed it and was thrilled to see so much of what I've loved about the saga. It is far and away better than the prequels, and I got a bit misty when Leia and Han reunited on screen for the first time in 32 years. Glad the death of Han didn't get spoiled for me either.

My only quips would be I wasn't really impressed with Snoke. Don't know why. Just seemed too CGI for my taste. It seemed 'off' in a film that used so many wonderful practical effects. My other complaint is that Rey's character comes off as a bit of a 'Mary Sue' (an idealized fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through extraordinary abilities as the personification of wish-fulfillment.) She immediately knows how to fly the Falcon as good as, or maybe even better than, Han Solo the very first time she gets in the cockpit?! She can take on Kylo Ren the first time she fires up a light saber? It stretched beyond the limits of credibility for me and took me out of the story unnecessarily, and yes, I realize I'm discussing fantasy science-fiction here.

I really loved that all of the aesthetics were spot on, the music was gloriously perfect, and the effects were top-shelf, as was the acting. I was delighted to see the Millennium Falcon again, and of course seeing Han and Chewie, and Leia, and C3PO and R2-D2 was tremendous. I also like BB-8, Finn, and Maz Kanata a lot. I didn't think we got enough of Poe, but that will happen later. Sorry to see Lor San Tekka (Max Von Sydow) gone so soon. Maybe Episode VIII will tell us more about how he got the map and his connection to Luke.

This story needed to happen for the saga to continue with Disney at the helm, in order to transfer the mantle to a new generation. And it did so much better than Star Trek: Generations did when they did essentially the same thing. Star Wars is an epic saga of mythic proportions, but I think JJ may have played it a little bit too "safe" overall in regards to ticking all the fan-service boxes and re-telling the original tale. The real test of myth-making lies in the ability not to repeat, but to reinvent. JJ Abrams didn't really do anything ground-breaking here, but it does have me looking forward to the next installments. JJ has always been good at making me want to see more of the story that I'm not being told. 4 out of 5 stars for me and the 3rd or 4th best film out of the 7 installments.

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