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SW The Force Awakens [SPOILER THREAD]


Ghent

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first off, i really loved the movie. as a massive fan of the series, they delivered. it just felt like a star wars movie, which is something the prequals never came close to. we saw the obvious connection to ANH between ren/luke and luke/han, with the latter being a father figure and both dying.

it was a little unsettling seeing ren use the force and come to grips with her powers so fast. i thought luke caught on quick, damn! this speeds up her development WAY more, i feel like shes on an empire strikes back level of jedi, and it's just the first setup movie for the trilogy. 

overall though, i genuinely loved it. i had a smile on my face the entire time and kept thinking, i cant believe im watching this.  

 

also, i saw it with my friend who hasn't seen ANY of the movies. he didn't like it and called it disney bullshit because of a women taking the lead just because she was female, finn being black, and the overall ending with the good guys winning. this is coming from someone who doesn't like any kind of marvel/dc/superhero/type movie so it was understandable. still a downer though lol

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I think that the shadowing of ANH was almost necessary to set up the sequels since it had been 30 years since where it left off.

While it left it very open ended I'm not too upset,otherwise it either would have been a longer movie or it would have felt more rushed.

I also think that while rey used the force, i also think she used her combat skills more so. Yes she picked up the force quickly but i don't think as quickly as people think. She used it to get into kylos head when she was captured which was weak but enough to frighten him, when they fought she relied on her fighting skills and then channeled what little she had into fighting a weak and vulnerable kylo.

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Just got back and I'm overwhelmed. I loved it. I have issues with it, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Can't wait to go back and watch it again.

I agree with everyone saying it felt almost like a remake of A New Hope, which bothered me. Basically another Death Star, and it even had Poe flying through the trench with a TIE fighter chasing him through it.

Some parts felt a little rushed, and I thought that things moved along way too quick. I didn't like how massive of a coincidence it was that Han Solo found his ship like five minutes after Rey flew it away from the planet.

Hated the "where did you get that?" "that's a story for another time" line. Fuck that.

Is Kylo Ren's name Ben? I thought that's what Han said, but I wasn't sure and he never repeated it. I like the name, but it massively fucks with my head, because in the books Luke has a son named Ben. Han has a son who falls to the dark side in the books, but his name is Jacen. Seems like a confusing and unnecessary change. Then again, if they named him Jacen people would be up in arms over the fact that his story is totally different than his book story.

Also, was C-3PO fatter than usual? I couldn't help but thinking he looked fatter every time and I saw him, and I've been watching a Star Wars movie every night for the past week so his look is very fresh in my mind. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I didn't like the idea of a fucking robot gaining weight.

Other than that, I loved it. Loved it loved it. And I loved that they totally tricked us into thinking Finn was going to be the Jedi but then it turns out Rey's actually the Force sensitive one and she kicks serious ass. I can't rank it yet in comparison to the other movies. I'll have to let it set in a little and watch it again. But it was very good, and I can't wait to watch it multiple more times in the theater.

 

BUT HAN SOLO :'(  :'(  :'(  I actually thought Han was going to die in this trilogy, but I didn't think it was going to be in the first movie! I'm not against Han dying, at all. I like it when characters don't have "main character invincibility." But I would have liked him to stick around longer.

I was also right about Luke hardly being in the movie at all. But he was actually in it less than I expected. I didn't expect him to have zero lines of dialogue. I wonder how much money he made for that 20 seconds of silent screen time. Haha.

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Another thought:

yeah we have some issues with this movie. But start making a list of issues you have with, like, Ep2.

youll see pretty quickly how minuscule the negatives are in this movie.

i personally would have slowed down the pace a bit and filled in the blanks of the last 30 years better. But it's a trilogy and the movie still worked phenomenally as is.

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My jaw dropped for literally like two minutes when the lightsaber went through his chest and then he fell to his death. I couldn't believe what I just saw. But it was a good scene. Very powerful. I saw right through Kylo's bullshit about him being controlled and asking Han for help. I think Han saw through it too, and I think he knew that lightsaber was going to go through him when Kylo didn't loosen his grip.

I think what I'm saddest about is not being able to see any interaction between Han and Luke in this trilogy.

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You brought this up on your blog Cheerios and you were right, no 20th century fox fanfare was pretty awkward haha. They didn't even replace it with anything. It was just an awkward blank space followed with Lucasfilm.

I kind of expected Disney to make their own little jingle to throw in there.

of no consequence to the movie obviously, just weird for a person who has seen these movies hundreds of times

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Haha yeah that felt so weird. I think there definitely should have been something other than just silence. But it's not a big deal. Still messes with my head though.

Leia pretty much played the role I expected her to play in this movie, but I'm kind of sad that she's not a Jedi Knight or something similar. After Return of the Jedi I always imagined her being trained in the ways of the Force. I think it would be bad ass to see Leia in a lightsaber duel.

Speaking of lightsaber duels, I really loved how nobody really knew how to use a lightsaber in this movie. Kylo was the most skilled clearly but he still sucked in comparison to what we've seen in the other movies, and he got sliced all over the place and got shot. I liked that he was a more vulnerable villain and not an unstoppable Vader 2.0. And I liked his temper tantrums just going berzerk slicing up shit at random when he was pissed.

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I'm truly happy you guys loved this film, and thought I'd provide why I didn't just for conversation sake. I am in zero way trying to ... convert you to the dark side or play like you guys are wrong and I am right. 

 

To me the script/progression felt incredibly rushed.... There was so much room for epic twists.  This part of my issue with the film does come down to me wishing it went how I would have done it, and I recognize that but I just don't understand why Snoke mentioned that Han was Ren's father in what I felt was a quick-almost casual tone. Why not hint that Ren's going to be face to face with his biggest challenge,  and make the big reveal that he's Han's son at the end when Han confronts him. That would have been such a bigger moment. You'd be yelling in your head, asking why an unarmed Han is walking to confront this psycho, to find out he's his son. 

I disliked "Finn" a lot.  I found it a bit awkward how quickly he developed feelings for Rey. It came off a bit creepy to me.  I didn't
understand at all why he felt compelled to tell her he was with Leia and the others when none of that concerned Rey, as she wasn't involved in that world herself. 

I didn't understand how Rey 

1. Knew exactly how to play the Jedi card with those storm troopers...

2. How the hell she was already so powerful as a Jedi. When the Storm trooper opened the door and started walking away she told him to drop the gun in almost a mumble and he did.  That whole thing didn't make sense to me. 

3.  So many of the "binds" the characters found themselves in, to me, were met with solutions that came off incredibly "written". Like when Rey saved Finn from getting eaten by whatever the fuck that creature was.  Why was he the only one who wasn't picked apart immediately? She just happened to find a machine-thing that can close doors, and then close it as the creature went through it? 

4.  So much of the "conflict" in this film resolved itself way too fast in my opinion. Han, after leaving Leia or getting cast away, or whatever for so long finds himself face to face with her again, and almost immediately they're really chill with each other, and cracking smart-ass jokes. 

5. The R2D2 thing at the end made no sense to me. They have that climax battle, it ends and then R2D2 snaps out of his funk in the blink of an eye with the last missing puzzle piece to locate Luke? 

6. I cannot for the life of me understand why the fuck they'd allow Finn to connect with a blow to Ren, regardless of Ren being worn out and beaten down some. It takes so much threat away from Ren. I was sold on the character at the beginning, when he was ruthless. Perhaps give him some traits that act as a flaw to his goal of being dedicated to the dark side, but they went overboard in my opinion. 

It didn't leave me with many "what if's" at all. It's one hundred percent clear as far I'm concerned that Rey is Luke's daughter. Because she has an accent.  This felt like another great missed opportunity... To lead on it's clear she's Luke's son, only for you to find out she too is Han and Leia's, and the final showdown happens between brother and sister, not cousin. 

And let's say she is not Luke's daughter. Making her Han's would have been an super cool plot twist, while leading you to be sure she's Luke's daughter only to find out she's not his, but some other Jedi we don't know... Would NOT be a super cool twist.

I thought the new characters were way too mirrored with the old ones. 

Poe - Han

Rey - Luke

BB8 - R2D2

Fin ..... ... - Leia

The similarities between not just the characters but to A New Hope were pretty awkward to me too. Probably more so, because with the way things look I can't help but see the same thing happening with the next installment, in comparison to The Empire Strikes Back...

Luke trains Rey/Yoda trains Luke
Luke tells Rey he's her father/Vader tells look he's his father

I can see so many more mirrored scenes... Ren seeking out Finn, to get to Rey... etc

Could I be wrong? Of course, but I guess one of the reasons I disliked this movie is because it made me fearful, for these reasons, what the future episodes hold, when I wanted so bad for it to make me hopeful. 

At the very end, I kept asking myself if I really didn't like it, and then Leia looked at Rey and said "May the force be with you." That's when I nodded and came to turns with the fact I was not a fan. 

Don't hate me! Parts of this may be confusing, but it's just me typing out the thoughts that bounced around in my head at the time. 

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12 minutes ago, Aria said:

And I'm cringing at the thought they'd consider having Finn meet his father, Lando. That wouldn't happen though, right? Too far. 

I really hope this doesn't happen, and I considered it too.

I agree with a lot of your points. Especially that it felt rushed. Except I liked Finn. But seriously the R2-D2 thing made no sense to me either. What made him turn back on? If it was the fact that BB brought the last piece of the map back he should have turned on way earlier. I don't know if I missed something there...

Also, I'm guessing they just casually mention that Ren was Solo's son because if it was some massive reveal people would be comparing it nonstop to Vader revealing that he's Luke's father.

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This movie did feel a lot like a rehash of things we've seen before. I wonder if Abrams was just afraid to take risks. But I give him props for killing off a beloved main character.

I'm not convinced Rey is Luke's daughter yet. Whether she is or isn't, I wouldn't be surprised either way. I hope it turns out that she isn't to be honest. Though at the same time it seems weird to me that they'd make a new trilogy and not have the main character be a Skywalker.

Still, I loved it. Maybe not one of my favorite Star Wars movies, but I really liked it a lot. We'll see how I feel after a few more viewings. I'll probably see it many times in the theater.

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I really loved this film, though there was a couple of things I didn't like. Below are some of my thoughts:

Good:
- Superb chemistry between Finn and Rey, thought both characters were absolutely superb. BB8 too
- Han's death scene was brilliant, the way they showed him plummeting off the walkway was perfectly done imo
- They got the balance right between new characters and old, was great to see Han, Leia, Luke, R2 and C3PO (and a few others)
- The locations were incredible, Maz's temple in particular looked amazing, and I loved the snowy forest at the end. Looked spellbinding in the lightsaber-twilight
- I like how various things were left open for interpretation, presumably for Eps VIII and IX (Rey's background, Snoke's background, Kylo's future, Luke and Leia reunion, how Maz got Luke's lightsaber etc.)

Bad:
- I don't like how Rey was a match for Kylo in the lightsaber duel. OK she may be Luke's kid, and she may have some semblance of the force, but I thought it was meant to take extensive training to even become half-competent with a lightsaber. It kinda undermines the skill it takes to become a Jedi imo
- I didn't think the score was as noticeable in this film as in previous films
- The whole finale of someone deactivating the shield, then fighters flying in and blowing up the main generator was a bit samey (already seen it in Eps 4 and 6), could have been a bit more original
- I didn't think Chewy was as likeable in this instalment for some reason

Questions:
- Aria, are you saying Finn is Lando's kid? Where are you getting that from?

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13 minutes ago, ruaraidhlando45 said:

- I didn't think the score was as noticeable in this film as in previous films

- I didn't think Chewy was as likeable in this instalment for some reason

I agree with both of these points. As I was walking out of the theater I remember specifically thinking that the score wasn't very memorable this time around. Kind of disappointing.

And yeah for some reason I didn't care much for Chewbacca at all this time. Except right after Han died and he went on a badass stormtrooper killing spree. Other than that one moment, it didn't feel like Han's death impacted Chewbacca very much at all. They were best friends. Chewie didn't seem too sad about it.

I'm dying to go back and see it again already. Haha.

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