Re: Star Wars The Force Awakens Thoughts Thread (Spoilers Inside, Beware!)

[Enail]

This thread is a spoiler thread, as indicated in the subject, so by all means feel free to post spoilers. Anyone who wants to discuss the movie but avoid spoilers can start a "no spoilers" companion thread.

[waxingjaney]

Anyone who wants to discuss the movie but avoid spoilers can start a "no spoilers" companion thread.

But if they're avoiding spoilers, they'll never read this.

[Enail]

But they can read the thread title, see it's a spoiler thread, and assume they can start their own if they want a non-spoiler one, people generally seem to feel pretty free to start threads to their taste! Or, you're welcome to start one for them if you're concerned.

[reboot]

I saw it last night with Rooms and some other friends. I think this one might actually be my new favorite, usurping Empire Strikes Back.The characters were believable and had great chemistry, the plot moved at the perfect pace, and the effects were just the right mix of real and CGI.

I really wish Abrams would go back and redo 1-3. Those should have been pretty dark and tragic as Anikin (sp?) arced through his destiny to become Darth Vader instead of whatever the hell it was Lucas did.

[bomaye]

The script and the official novel adaptations have been released and they're adding even more clues to a lot of the mysteries in the movie

[Werel]

Lookin good bomaye

[bomaye]

Does this mean I'm one of the cool kids doing a popular thing?

[Wondering]

The official Force Awakens Monopoly game does not have Rey in it. But it has Darth Vader!

WTF, Hasbro.

[bomaye]

Hasbro, but doesn't has your sis

[Wondering]

Pretty much.

[WJMorris3]

I'm waiting for Hasbro to just flat out say the demographics they care about don't really much care for Rey.

EDIT: They're blaming it on spoilers. Really.

[Wondering]

Yeah, I saw that spoilers thing. It's absurd.

[Archetype694]

How this stuff made it past marketing confuses me. Cause Generic Stormtrooper G-0581 brought so much to the plot.  

- I really loved the Starkiller base. A super-duper giant Death Star that can shoot multiple planets with it's light speed cannon. Giant super weapons and tiny rebels figuring out how to blow it up is in the DNA of Star Wars, you couldn't have this movie without it.

I disliked the idea of a super saiyan death star, it's power source seemed needlessly wasteful. Every time they charged their weapon they condemned that entire galaxy to a becoming a frozen wasteland, killing off it's inhabitants.  From a practical standpoint of running a huge bureaucratic space nazi agency it's an insane waste of resources and future tributes. Nevermind the mass genocide of species.  

I was also annoyed at the lack of fighting forces that were called up. In the aftermath of Empire all you have remaining is a handful of fighters to toss at the enemy's superweapon?! Where are all the capital ships? It should have been a large pitched battle, allowing for scenes with General Leia being all General-ly. Outmaneuvering a superior force with tactics accumulated from a lifetime of leading guerrilla forces. I had hoped Carrie Fisher would get a chance to shine.  

- Really liked how the New Order was shades of Nazi Germany. A saw some political backstory thing for the different factions posted elsewhere that made that even more apparent. That Nazi-Rally while the Starkiller fired was pretty spectacular visually

I do admit I adore the British Space Nazi's that the Empire, and now presumably the First Order represents. It's just something about how they are so politely dastardly. Seeing a Weasly in command was cool as well, go Space Gingers!

[nearly_takuan]

Sometimes it's the marketing staff that's at fault. Like one day at work recently I made an offhand remark that I'd noticed every single one of the stock photos we'd been using to represent various concepts within our app featured white men. Even the ones with multiple people in them just had multiple white men. And we were looking at one page in particular that day which represented our "403 Forbidden" error state, so the background image was of a white man holding up his palm to pantomime "stop". So Marketing Guy, naturally, replied that if it was a black woman in the picture she'd have to be wagging her finger and we'd have to play "mm-mmm" audio. Which is (not) hilarious.

...Anyway. People suck.

I agree: thought it was weird that, even with still somewhat limited resources, the Republic wasn't able to field any large ships. Especially given that in the same amount of time or less the First Order somehow managed to hollow out a planet and build in a Super Soaker that pumps in star-stuff. (Finally an actual justification to use the name "Starkiller" for something, though. Bendak and that Vader's-apprentice kid were lame.)

They really show how, even thirty-some years after the fall of the Empire, its loyalists still have way more resources than the Republic it subjugated. The Resistance can't even get their hands on a galaxy map; presumably the only reason R2-D2 has one is because it hasn't had a memory wipe since before the Republic fell, and of course a proper astromech from a prosperous era should have had one.

[bomaye]

To me, it seemed like the First Order was only going to use it to wipe out the Resistance and and the seat of the Republic. It wasn't meant to be used as a continuous resource, just a means to an end?

[kath]

I was not super happy that the plot followed so closely that of New Hope, even though the general plot is yeah sure, hero's journey. But they didn't take a general plot, they took basically the same plot. From messages in droids to going into the weapon to hopefully blow it up. I don't think "these are timeless bones for a story" works when you're like "the reason I went to see this story is I liked the first time someone did it in this fictional universe, and now I am just experiencing not-quite-deja-vu." I feel like they tipped the teeter-totter between nostalgia and intriguing new stuff towards nostalgia in a  way that sort of undermines some of the new stuff, because they didn't explore its potential as its own thing. They tipped the teeter totter and then the other person got jumped off, maybe.

I was OK with Kylo Ren ... at first I was like "how did this guy get so far up the chain of command" but I have come to the conclusion that the Dark Side uses immature petulance and unreasonable promotions to coerce commitment, and apparently (based on Vader), then  turns them into cold, calculating emotionless evil machines. Which ... I get how that makes sense.

I do wish we had seen Rey as a builder of droids (which we get with Luke and Anakin). It makes sense that she wouldn't keep parts she could trade for food, but I don't think to scavenge you actually do have to know how to work on the machines you scavenge from, so her engineering skillz aren't established before being absolutely necessary to the plot. I did really like Rey and Finn, but I wish they were participating more in a story where it wasn't the same as the old one.

I was also really sad Han died, for a very stupid reason - I really hated having to listen to Luke (and Anakin) for the first six movies, and at least Han wasn't super irritating, so the prospect of 2 more movies with more Luke and minimal Han is not very appealing.  I hope Luke, being an adult, will not be as irritating as teenage Luke, but ... I'm not like "YESSSS, LUUKKKE!!!!!".

Oh apparently that planet wasn't Coruscant, because the Republic is headquartered somewhere else (which is apparently the "Hosnian system").

Also, with the weirdness of the Dark Side Mind Meld scene - it's not like Star Wars shied away from teasing Luke/Leia. There weren't consent issues there, but it was a thing. Still, I think Rey is Luke's daughter - mostly because if she were Han and Leia's, would we not have gotten some sort of indication in that direction (conversation between Han and Leia if it had to be a secret, or excited reuinion).

[Enail]

I was okay with the plot repetition/nostalgia in part because it felt to me like the new movie was almost an audition, to prove to an audience that's been let down before that they understand the original movies and why people love them, and having passed the audition (and passed the torch from the old to new characters) they'll be allowed to continue with the new story they proposed in the audition.

I would prefer it if they were planning to branch out a little and not go with "secret Skywalker child" again, but I can deal with it. And Kylo Ren as a central villain (to begin with, at least ) is guaranteed to make things be and feel different from when Darth Vader was.

[Werel]

Necroing cause I finally saw this. Don't have Strong Feelings about what Abrams did with it, but enjoyed it for the most part.

-Most of my fondness for the Star Wars universe is leftover from playing Galaxies back in the day, so I enjoyed all the moments that felt like SWG (Rey's initial scavving sequence especially).
-Adam Driver is my waifu and I love everything he did with Kylo Ren. All that brattiness, all those tantrums, all that talking-like-dumb-young-Hayden-Christensen-if-he-were-trying-to-sound-smart-on-the-internet. Good stuff, nicely executed manbaby villain, and so stoked that my favorite TV boy gets all this money and screentime
-Giant Voldemort felt a little lame, but I guess it's just cause giant humanoids are not part of the Star Wars universe I'm familiar with and I've had enough Voldemort.
-I liked Finn as The Rookie character. He pulled it off well (even his rookie-actor vibes worked in his favor).
-Rey was okay. I didn't find much to latch onto as far as getting attached to her character, but that's generally how it goes with heroes (they're good! And brave! And true! and... yawn)
-Chewie flipping his shit after Han died was nicely done and got my adrenaline up.
-BB-8 is the new bleeding edge of precious lil emoting robots. Super adorable, really creatively animated.

edit: Oh, and I really liked how light () on lightsaber battles it was. I like it when lightsabers are an occasional "OOH WOW" for seasoning in an otherwise mundane world, instead of the "all lightsabers, all the time" approach Lucas took in the prequels. You know it's a bad sign when you get bored of the franchise's signature weapon.

[Hirundo Bos]

Oh, and I really liked how light () on lightsaber battles it was.

That reminds me of a famous Norwegian translation mistake! When one of the re-edits of the original movies were shown, to an audience very familiar with them, the person writing the subtitles managed to turn "this is your father's lightsaber" into "dette er din fars lette sabel" – where the word for light means "not heavy".

(And in Attack of the Clones, when Palpatine says to Anakin: "Then you will become invincible", it was translated as if he had said "invisible". But I'm off-topicing my off topic now.)

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