Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Blzer]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Curious, as I'm watching the first six episodes for the first time:

Does this one have the "Powerpoint" scene transitions, where the screen slides or twirls into another scene? I figure with a different director this could change, but if it is still there then I guess it's just a true SW staple (one that I am not very fond of). Favreau did this with IM1 as well. Didn't really work for me.

It would be a small nitpick all the same, but I'm wondering how attached Abrams was to doing things that Lucas also did.

[SinisterAlex]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Curious, as I'm watching the first six episodes for the first time:

Does this one have the "Powerpoint" scene transitions, where the screen slides or twirls into another scene? I figure with a different director this could change, but if it is still there then I guess it's just a true SW staple (one that I am not very fond of). Favreau did this with IM1 as well. Didn't really work for me.

It would be a small nitpick all the same, but I'm wondering how attached Abrams was to doing things that Lucas also did.

There's a few generic swipes between important scenes in The Force Awakens but nothing as crazy as Lucas's movies.

[DonkeyJote]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

The way the movie is shot and lit is very different from any other Star Wars movie. It's much closer to Abrams' Star Trek movies in that regard than to the originals or prequels.

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[JazzMan]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Yep my brother spoiled it for me...so pissed. I was planning to use my winter break to watch all 6 of the others because I haven't seen them before and want to. And then at some point watch this one. Maybe when it comes to Blu-Ray or something. And was so pissed he had to spoil some of it for me. And he hasn't even seen the movie just heard it from people.

Asking for no spoilers while waiting to watch it until it releases on Blu-ray is asking for trouble in the first place.

[BDKiiing]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Asking for no spoilers while waiting to watch it until it releases on Blu-ray is asking for trouble in the first place.

Pretty implausible to think going spoiler free until it comes out on DVD and Blu Ray is possible. Especially with the internet, or any communication, for that matter.

[DonkeyJote]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Yeah, I think asking to be spoiler free beyond the 1st of the year for the most anticipated movie in a very long time isn't realistic

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[jfsolo]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

I told all my pals, that unless you pull a Henry David Thoreau, good luck making it past the first weekend. Sadly that's how people are now.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

I saw it last night. A fair comparison would be A New Hope or Return of the Jedi (if you're being generous to ROTJ) and it obviously beats the ever-loving piss out of Episode I and II. Its not Empire, but Empire had a lot of emotional investment with the characters so we'll see how 8 fairs later.

Spoiler

At times I felt like we were going through an updated, shuffled around remake of A New Hope. All the callbacks were great and the more subtle things really made the biggest impact to me, but all the major beats of the movie felt like A New Hope 2.0. From the start to the conclusion all the older scenes kept flashing through my mind. A droid with a macguffin. New players unwittingly being thrust into the midst of a war. An old man confronting the personification of his past failings. A bombing run on a planetary assault weapon. Even though it was distracting at times it was still one hell of a ride and I have to admit to having a smile plastered across my face for the duration of the film.

I do admit some of the similarities were distracting to me. I kind of rolled my eyes at the start of the film with Poe and BB-8 and with the examination of the Starkiller's architecture and defenses. When Kylo Ren stepped out onto the same platform as Han I immediately felt Obi-Wan's presence. This is one thing that bothered me the most as it undercut what should have been a major emotional loss, but it just felt like another beat to hit. At the end of the film I left feeling like I already know how the major beats of the trilogy will pan out yet I'm still waiting on the edge of my seat for May 2017.

As for the new cast I loved the three main characters and each one has a nice twist to the complexity of their character that the original trilogy never even tried to reach for. Ren is what Anakin should have been in the prequels; he's a boy with a man's strength and power, but he's emotionally stunted. Even though Finn was great and Rey is still essentially a blank canvas Ren is the most intriguing character to me. I'm curious about the Supreme Leader and would love to see more development from the second rung characters like Poe, Hux, and Phasma, but Ren is the big draw for me to the rest of the series.

For now I'm ignoring all the little bits and pieces that can be picked apart (the same as any other movie), but it was great to see Star Wars being Star Wars again.

[ehh]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

The wife and I saw it at noon on Saturday, surprisingly the theater had less than 30 people. Guess enough people were holiday shopping at that time and seeing it later in the day.

Tons of spoilers...

Spoiler

I really, really enjoyed the movie despite its issues and the valid complaints that some people have. I'll be seeing it again this week to see what other small things I missed during my initial viewing (and there were a TON of things to pick on up, as everyone has mentioned).

What stood out the most to me was that the acting as a whole was much better than I expected. Some of the writing was cheesy, to pay homage to the original trilogy, but the acting by Rey, Poe, Finn, etc was so good. People seem to be happy with Ren's character but I was a little iffy on him - I think it was more the character than the acting for me. Could have used more Poe, I'm sure he'll slide into the Han role nicely for the final two films.

Some ridiculous things that I'd probably bash in another film I simply let slide like the whole absurd thing about the bad guys having ANOTHER Death Star-ish thing and the scene where the good guys are planning their attack...it was bordering on parody/satire of the original trilogy.

What are some people's speculation on Rey? I thought for a while that she was Han & Leia's daughter and it'd be Brother vs Daughter but that's not possible. Her being Luke's daughter is too obvious and easy. Perhaps she was the last other "top student" along with Ben Solo before Luke's school went to hell and Luke hid her to keep her safe.

Either way, it was special to see another great, new Star Wars movie in the theaters. The nostalgia was strong, even if if JJ essentially re-wrote ANH with a dash of ESB, but it was an entertaining movie that sets up the final two episodes nicely.

[mestevo]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Still kinda feel like this was written or brainstormed initially as a reboot and then they said 'wait! Let's make it 30 years later, sprinkle in older characters' etc.

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[ChaseB]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Perfectly said man. This drives me crazy on so many levels. Keyboard heroes. Ugh. Anyways as far as your questions goes early showings are usually pretty decent. I remember I saw Age of Ultron on I believe the first day and the 11am showing had something like 15 people in it. Of course it wasn't Winter Break but still.

Not to completely derail the thread, but it's hardly a generational thing in terms of the "internet age" we now live in. Like it's not one age group doing this, it's people from EVERY age group who do shenanigans like this -- if we're throwing around the accountability issue.

Anyway, obviously it depends where you live, but I went at 11:30 p.m. opening on Thursday night with some friends and it was barely half full. I think very late or very early is the way to go, and then just try to find a theatre (if you can) that's not the "main" theatre for your town.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Yep my brother spoiled it for me...so pissed. I was planning to use my winter break to watch all 6 of the others because I haven't seen them before and want to. And then at some point watch this one. Maybe when it comes to Blu-Ray or something. And was so pissed he had to spoil some of it for me. And he hasn't even seen the movie just heard it from people.

Probably doesn't need to be spoilered, but I'll do it just to be safe:

Spoiler

Betrayed by your own family? Sounds familiar.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

The wife and I saw it at noon on Saturday, surprisingly the theater had less than 30 people. Guess enough people were holiday shopping at that time and seeing it later in the day.

Tons of spoilers...

Spoiler

I really, really enjoyed the movie despite its issues and the valid complaints that some people have. I'll be seeing it again this week to see what other small things I missed during my initial viewing (and there were a TON of things to pick on up, as everyone has mentioned).

What stood out the most to me was that the acting as a whole was much better than I expected. Some of the writing was cheesy, to pay homage to the original trilogy, but the acting by Rey, Poe, Finn, etc was so good. People seem to be happy with Ren's character but I was a little iffy on him - I think it was more the character than the acting for me. Could have used more Poe, I'm sure he'll slide into the Han role nicely for the final two films.

Some ridiculous things that I'd probably bash in another film I simply let slide like the whole absurd thing about the bad guys having ANOTHER Death Star-ish thing and the scene where the good guys are planning their attack...it was bordering on parody/satire of the original trilogy.

What are some people's speculation on Rey? I thought for a while that she was Han & Leia's daughter and it'd be Brother vs Daughter but that's not possible. Her being Luke's daughter is too obvious and easy. Perhaps she was the last other "top student" along with Ben Solo before Luke's school went to hell and Luke hid her to keep her safe.

Either way, it was special to see another great, new Star Wars movie in the theaters. The nostalgia was strong, even if if JJ essentially re-wrote ANH with a dash of ESB, but it was an entertaining movie that sets up the final two episodes nicely.

Regarding Supreme Leader:

Spoiler

I think the Supreme Leader might be the character I'm most curious about. My theory is that Kylo Ren was too young to overthrow the Jedi Academy on his own (if I'm doing the math right, he was likely around 10 years old at the time). I think Snoke may have been a teacher at the academy or something that got Ren to turn, and the two of them overthrew the academy together and fled.

I'm also very curious to find out what happened to Snoke considering it looks like something pretty horrific happened to his face. Also, if I recall it correctly, they mentioned something about how Snoke is only using Ren until he gets the power he needs and then he'll discard Ren or something like that. That line/Snoke's face made me think of Voldemort before he got his body/power back; that something horrific happened to Snoke that has left him deformed and while still powerful in the force, not PHYSICALLY powerful at the moment. I think he may betray Ren at some point and become the ultimate bad guy that Rey, Finn, etc. are trying to defeat.

Regarding Rey:

Spoiler

Like you, I've crossed Han/Leia's daughter off the list. I think Luke seems the most likely still, but I agree that it feels like they were trying to make it too obvious. I also have a problem with the timeline that would be involved for Rey to be his daughter. Given the fact that she appears to be roughly 18-20 years old, the fact that she was abandoned at 5, and the fact that this movie takes place 30 years after ROTJ, this means that in the 15 years after ROTJ:

- Luke starts the Jedi Academy up again.
- Luke meets a woman, decides that it's okay to act on his love for her.
- Impregnates her
- Actually has the child (Rey)
- Begins teaching her the ways of the Force up until she's 5, at which point Ren destroyed everything and probably killed the mother.
- Luke dumps Rey off on Jakku either with someone who has also been killed or completely abandoned as a 5 year old.

This would also mean that they're introducing us to a mother that nobody has ever heard of before, which is fine, but just doesn't feel right to me.

At any rate, I think it's possible that Rey is Luke's kid, and I certainly think they WANT us to think that's the case, but it feels a little sloppy to me.

I think there's still a decent chance that Rey is:
1. A child that was conceived by the Force like Anakin.
2. Related to some less-obvious Star Wars character.

[mestevo]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

My theory on Snoke that I have nothing but Marvel mythos to backup:

Spoiler

Snoke as he exists now is a pure manifestation of the dark side, the coalesced will of the Vader and Emperor (or even more, could be what makes the dark side truly evil, and is the source of corrupted jedi and others over the ages and Vader/Emperor were just 2 'victims') and he intended to train Kylo Ren to the point that he can either use him as a vessel or as a subordinate to find him a vessel when he's ready.

This comes from a story in X-Men where the evil of Magneto and Professor Xavier were expelled from their monds, and then later on returned as a being called Onslaught

Either way, I hope his origin is at least half as interesting as that and I'd be surprised if he doesn't somehow have ties to the prior movies.

[redsox4evur]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Probably doesn't need to be spoilered, but I'll do it just to be safe:

Spoiler

Betrayed by your own family? Sounds familiar.

And that's what he told me in the spoilers...LOL. And it would be pretty easy for me to not see spoilers. Don't play games online that much and if I do I can easily mute. Don't follow any people on Twitter that could spoil the movie, same goes for Facebook. And I am pretty much waiting for my website to get it uploaded so I can download it and then watch it later.