Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

[Joe]

Yes, it deals with the stealing of the plans to the first Death Star. No Bothans! Though if this were my movie, I'd kill just one or two.

[InsertWordHere]

Checking to see if anybody else has seen the Honest Trailer for TFA . . .

I love that their least favorite moment was also my (and probably a whole lot of other people's) least favorite moment. Still not over the skipped Chewie/Leia hug.

[VCRTracking]

Yeah, J.J. explained that it was a mistake in blocking and that Chewie was trying to get Finn medical attention, but c'mon. It would have made way more sense to have Rey be the one frantically making sure Finn was taken care of and to have a quiet moment of grief between Leia and Chewie, his wife(ex or not) and best friend.

Edited April 8, 2016 by VCRTracking

[benteen]

I had no issue with Chewie rushing Finn to get medical attention since he could physically carry him and move quickly.  But yeah, you can’t pass up a Leia/Chewie scene.  It would be emotional and have the history of the original trilogy behind it.

[Jediknight]

I didn't mind Chewie not hugging Leia.  I took it as him not being able to face Leia after Han's death, he felt he failed both Han and her.

[Spartan Girl]

I didn't mind Chewie not hugging Leia.  I took it as him not being able to face Leia after Han's death, he felt he failed both Han and her.

That makes a lot of sense.

I'm planning to show my parents the DVD tomorrow. They've asked if it was at least better than Batman vs Superman and I didn't hesitate in telling them that it's WAY better.

[VCRTracking]

If You Think Rey and Finn’s Relationship Is Adorable, You Might* Owe It to Harrison Ford’s Leg Injury
*Unless you're Harrison Ford, probably.

 

I loved that Rey and Finn(after a initial meeting) liked each other and were friends early on instead of bickering.

Edited April 20, 2016 by VCRTracking

[VCRTracking]

This comment on the injury story at Comic Book Resources WINS:

 

I guess that means the Warp Core needed to fall on Chris Pine for Star Trek Into Darkness to make any sense.

 

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by VCRTracking

[snarktini]

Leia's life is so sad. Her father turns to the Dark Side. Her mother dies of a broken heart or something. Her home planet is destroyed by the Empire, along with the man who raised her as his daughter. Her son turns to the Dark Side and kills a bunch of younglings. Her brother disappears and her relationship with Han is broken. Han runs away with Chewie, then he comes back only to be killed by their son. Yet she's still the only one of the trio that stayed and kept fighting.

 

Oh, wow, this. Good insight.

[ParadoxLost]

On ‎4‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 10:27 AM, benteen said:

I had no issue with Chewie rushing Finn to get medical attention since he could physically carry him and move quickly.  But yeah, you can’t pass up a Leia/Chewie scene.  It would be emotional and have the history of the original trilogy behind it.

I haven't been keeping up with anything outside of watching the movie and I don't need a 'hey, your speculation is wrong' because of casting or whatever.

But I didn't even notice that Leia and Chewie didn't hug because all that stuff where luke's lightsaber was calling to Rey has me pretty much convinced she is a Skywalker.

So I took that scene as Leia's son drove Luke away and murdered Han and Leia's knows that Rey is Luke's daughter so she hugged the only family she has left even if Rey doesn't know it.

Edited May 1, 2016 by ParadoxLost

[VCRTracking]

I prefer when the Rifftrax guys make fun of really low budget Z movies like they did on Mystery Science Theater 3000 more than big budget movies but I really want to see this one.

[SmithW6079]

On 4/5/2016 at 6:57 PM, Lantern7 said:

Checking to see if anybody else has seen the Honest Trailer for TFA . . .
 

 

Hopefully, we'll get trailers for Empire and Jedi in the near future.
 

Awesome. There's also a 20-minute CinemaSins "Everything Wrong With..." video on "The Force Awakens."

[VCRTracking]

Oscar Isaac interview in Rolling Stone and it's confirmed he ad libbed Poe Dameron's snarky lines in the opening scene with Kylo Ren:
 

Quote

 

Isaac is in the movie's opening scenes, and his loose, jazzy dialogue was the first, highly welcome clue that these new films would be more human in tone than George Lucas' prequels. All of the funny lines – including one about Poe being unable to hear Adam Driver's Kylo Ren through his helmet, and the "who talks first" exchange – were added in reshoots, and Isaac improvised some of them. He's always pushing to complicate and deepen Poe, who started as little more than a charming archetype. "We're making shit up as we go," he says.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/oscar-isaac-the-internets-boyfriend-becomes-a-leading-man-20160518#ixzz49AVn4vmE
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

 

[Watcher0363]

On 5/1/2016 at 11:23 AM, SmithW6079 said:

Awesome. There's also a 20-minute CinemaSins "Everything Wrong With..." video on "The Force Awakens."

 

I have said it plenty of times around the World Wide Web. It is a shame what they have done to Star Wars and Star Trek. They have turned them into Young Adult Chick Sci Fi. With really bad plots of derivative fiction and even worse science. That CinemaSins is really a great break down of what I posted here http://alteredegos.net/index.php?topic=13413.0 , back in January. I am not happy with what is happening with my childhood sci fi. C'est la vie for old guy me.

[JessePinkman]

Quote

Well at least the females are faring better in the Young Adult Chick Sci-Fi that is the Force Awakens. As for the minorities, all we get is the wise cracking garbage man, err, sanitation engineer straight out of the Compton sector. The only things missing from his ghetto, err, urban performance was some old guy calling him a big dummy and a Tupac reference. Okay he was chivalrous enough to try and hold the snowflake's hand when they were running from the bad guys. I am assuming that is where he got the skill to wield a lightsaber. Touching the hand of a snowflake who is a Clueless Cinderella Warrior Girl, is good like that.

This is gross but I'm not surprised, c'est la vie indeed. 

People need to accept that the world is moving at warp speed, either piggyback on the Enterprise and catch up or fall behind and keep quiet.

[SmithW6079]

47 minutes ago, JessePinkman said:

This is gross but I'm not surprised, c'est la vie indeed. 

People need to accept that the world is moving at warp speed, either piggyback on the Enterprise and catch up or fall behind and keep quiet.

So you support suppressing opinions that differ from your own? Why else would you tell someone to accept change or shut up?

[JessePinkman]

1 minute ago, SmithW6079 said:

So you support suppressing opinions that differ from your own? Why else would you tell someone to accept change or shut up?

One, I didn't tell anyone to shut up (I made sure not to, that's rude). You know what I support? People not wasting their time screaming into the wind because things have dared to change in the last 30 years.

[stealinghome]

Personally, I'm just still waiting on a detailed, convincing explanation of how Rey is any different from A New Hope Luke aside from gender. It's not like either of them are mysterious orphans stuck on third-world planets who are far more powerful than they understand (hence the orphan-ing), miraculously win battles they shouldn't win and save the Galaxy because of those powers, and then go searching for a teacher for those powers...oh wait.

Edited May 20, 2016 by stealinghome

[VCRTracking]

Quote

miraculously win battles they shouldn't win and save the Galaxy

That comment people use to defend Rey bugs me because nobody thought that was a miraculous win before The Force Awakens. They set it up that Obi-Wan taught him to use the Force instead of his visuals and it payed off. Also he had help from Wedge and Han during the battle. Without them he would have been killed.

[stealinghome]

24 minutes ago, VCRTracking said:

That comment people use to defend Rey bugs me because nobody thought that was a miraculous win before The Force Awakens. They set it up that Obi-Wan taught him to use the Force instead of his visuals and it payed off. Also he had help from Wedge and Han during the battle. Without them he would have been killed.

I can't entirely agree because the whole point of the Rebels' win in ANH is that it's basically a miracle. No one, even most of the Rebel pilots, thought they could destroy the Death Star. Very similar to how basically no one in the Resistance thought they could win.

I agree that Luke had help, but Rey also got some big assists from Han, Chewie, and especially Finn.

[VCRTracking]

I'm talking about the final fight. I can accept her skills with a staff on Jakku as the reason she was able to defend herself against Kylo Ren initially. She's running and being beaten back. But her using the Force to get the lightsaber and then beating Kylo Ren back from the cliff was just too much. I have to fanwank she suddenly remembered prior training as a little girl for that to work. Also Rey didn't need help escaping from the interrogation room.

Edited May 20, 2016 by VCRTracking

[KatWay]

I really like Rey and don't mind that she's awesome but I actually agree that she advances much faster than Luke. He was nowhere near her level in A New Hope, it wasn't until after his training with Yoda that he got good. Rey received no training whatsoever and mastered those skills in like a day.

I do hope/think it'll turn out that she had training as a kid and fell back on that, it would make a lot of sense.

[absnow54]

I think Luke and Rey's powers were on the same special snowflake level, but I do agree with those who found Luke's road to discovery much more plausible than Rey's, because he had Obi Wan guiding him over several scenes, whereas Rey only had a brief scene with Maz Kanata. I think within the context of the film alone (I'm sure we'll learn more about Rey's past and abilities in the next two movies...) they could have taken more time to explain Rey's innate senses, instead of boiling it down to Maz telling her that she has the Force and knows how to use it. 

[anna0852]

I think Rey was using those innate senses long before she left Jakku. Unlike Luke, she's been on her own for a very long time and never had the luxury of any sort of parental guidance. Not to mention, those flashbacks we saw imply she was Jedi student as a young child and may also just now be expressing lessons she's already learned. 

[absnow54]

I think in that case, they could have shown her using her innate Force sensitivity on Jakku, like inadvertently Jedi mind tricking a full portion for her haul, or using the force to reach a junked part that's just out of reach. I don't know, I feel like Rey was cheated out of that part of her journey. I find her to be a compelling and interesting character, but I understand the argument about her proficiency in the Force coming too easily. The flashback you gave is a good example, I just feel that a few more seeds could have been planted.

[Zuleikha]

She's running and being beaten back. But her using the Force to get the lightsaber and then beating Kylo Ren back from the cliff was just too much. I have to fanwank she suddenly remembered prior training as a little girl for that to work. Also Rey didn't need help escaping from the interrogation room.

What's wrong with the idea that Rey is simply stronger at using the Force than Kylo Ren is? In addition to the high probability that she was trained as a young child before being abandoned on Jakku, she generally does things she sees Kylo Ren do. Nothing in the movies suggests that using the Force is actually that complicated to learn for the Force sensitive. Luke receives barely any training from Obi-Wan and Yoda, and most of it consists of encouraging him to move past his self-doubt. Since Rey sees Kylo Ren do things, she doesn't have the same doubts (also, she's a more self-possessed personality). Heck, we  see Anakin use the force intuitively as a young kid in Phantom Menace, and Clone Wars also shows small children using the Force intuitively. Leia's shown to use it intuitively in both Empire Strikes Back and The Force Awakens. The get-them-young-and-train-them-for-decades stuff seems to be about severing emotional bonds with the family, building those bonds with the Jedi council, and teaching them they type of physical fight skills that we don't actually see Luke, Kylo Ren, or Rey do. 

Kylo Ren is also shown to have a lot of raw power but problems with mental discipline and control. His moments of strength come when he is in absolute control of the situation. Rey rattles him because he's not used to being fought with the Force. Rey is also shown to excel at self-control. Plus, Kylo Ren is shown to be bleeding out into the snow after being shot in the gut with the powerful bowcaster. He was going to be getting weaker and weaker over the course of a physical fight.

[SmithW6079]

19 hours ago, JessePinkman said:

... catch up or fall behind and keep quiet.

 

18 hours ago, JessePinkman said:

One, I didn't tell anyone to shut up (I made sure not to, that's rude). You know what I support? People not wasting their time screaming into the wind because things have dared to change in the last 30 years.

Sorry,  I didn't realize telling people to "keep quiet" actually meant "state your opinions and I'll refute them."  

[Perfect Xero]

I got the sense that we were supposed to view that scene not as Rey out pulling Kylo Ren, but as the Lightsaber itself choosing Rey over Ren. That saber represents the good person that Anakin Skywalker was, not the monster he became as Darth Vader, so it rejects the Vader fanboy.

[stealinghome]

8 minutes ago, Perfect Xero said:

I got the sense that we were supposed to view that scene not as Rey out pulling Kylo Ren, but as the Lightsaber itself choosing Rey over Ren. That saber represents the good person that Anakin Skywalker was, not the monster he became as Darth Vader, so it rejects the Vader fanboy.

Oooh, I had never considered that before, but I really like this interpretation! Especially since Ren was all proprietary about the saber. I do think that Rey's lightsaber being Anakin's might continue to be important.

Side note, I really want Kylo Ren to meet Anakin's force ghost someday, just so Anakin can shake his head and roll his eyes like "you're an absolute moron." Ren's whiny emo tears would be amazing to behold.

[Perfect Xero]

On 5/20/2016 at 11:14 AM, Watcher0363 said:

I have said it plenty of times around the World Wide Web. It is a shame what they have done to Star Wars and Star Trek. They have turned them into Young Adult Chick Sci Fi. With really bad plots of derivative fiction and even worse science. That CinemaSins is really a great break down of what I posted here http://alteredegos.net/index.php?topic=13413.0 , back in January. I am not happy with what is happening with my childhood sci fi. C'est la vie for old guy me.

I'm pretty sure that CinemaSins is supposed to be a satire/parody of people who nitpick movies to death and misunderstand (willfully or not) the context of scenes in order to find more things to complain about. I mean when the very first "sin" in the TFA video is "Reading," it's pretty hard to think that you're supposed to take any of it seriously.

[VCRTracking]

Bonus footage of the TFA auditions sketch from last November's SNL episode Matthew McConaughey and Adele. Worth it for Daisy Ridley and John Boyega:
 

[Morrigan2575]

That was great, thanks. I remember years ago they did tjat for A New Hope.  I believe it was with Kevin Spacey as host.  

[Mabinogia]

The more I see of the more I love John Boyega. He is unbelievably charming and funny and talented.

[Danny Franks]

Is it deliberate on SNL that the celebrity guests are infinitely funnier than the regular presenters? Who are not funny in the slightest, of course.

[VCRTracking]

Kate McKinnon's great and I like Taran Killam.

[DollEyes]

John Boyega has been cast as the lead in Pacific Rim 2, the sequel to the Guillermo del Toro movie about giant, human-controlled robots fighting sea monsters. 

[supposebly]

Finally watched this. I've never been a big Star Wars fan, so I didn't have a problem waiting for the Netflix release.

I liked it, overall, except that Leia/Rey hug at the end. And the fact Leia sent a complete stranger to Luke instead of going to get her brother herself.

Loved seeing Han and Leia meet again and their sorrow over the loss of their son. I was unspoiled, so I was completely surprised by Han's death. Partially, because he hadn't had much opportunity to be much of a father figure in my opinion. I liked the scene. It was just ambiguous enough that Kylo Ren's plea could have been to Snoke or to Han, so it's not entirely clear to me what "helped" him commit patricide in the end. Han's "anything" or his own desire to follow the dark path.

He does remind me of a young Severus Snape. I guess it's the hair and the black costume.

Snoke? Whoever came up with this name should be fired.

I'm glad they didn't do this fake animosity thing with Rey and Finn but showed a genuine liking early on. I just watched ESB and the back and forth between Han and Leia is so irritating.

[Jediknight]

37 minutes ago, supposebly said:

I liked it, overall, except that Leia/Rey hug at the end. And the fact Leia sent a complete stranger to Luke instead of going to get her brother herself.

Rey isn't a complete stranger, she's Luke's daughter.  I'm not abandoning that speculation.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Jediknight

[supposebly]

I think Leia would have told her (and the audience) that before sending her. I actually would prefer Rey not to be a Skywalker. Overall, they've been quite a disturbance in the force. ;-)

I'd like her to be one of Luke's former apprentices that survived somehow. For me, if that were true, it would make more sense to send her alone.

[benteen]

Quote

I liked it, overall, except that Leia/Rey hug at the end. And the fact Leia sent a complete stranger to Luke instead of going to get her brother herself.

Leia is the leader of the Resistance.  She can't go out looking for Luke herself.

[Zuleikha]

Also, I don't think Rey was sent to Luke just to find him. I think she's hoping to train with him. Leia has already chosen not to do that.

[VCRTracking]

[DollEyes]

For those who subscribe to Starz, TFA will debut at 9 P.M., EST on all five channels. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

On September 7, 2016 at 0:41 PM, DollEyes said:

For those who subscribe to Starz, TFA will debut at 9 P.M., EST on all five channels. 

 I just finished watching it, and I'm so disappointed that I found it underwhelming. I wanted to love this movie; I expected  to love this movie, but I didn't.

What I did love was everything Han, Chewie, Leia, BB, and 3-CPO. And of course seeing The BEST JOKER EVAH! Luke at the end.

I saw the original trilogy as a wee and loved them all. The prequels for the most part, have been bleached from my brain.

I didn't find Ren, menacing or scary.  Just a petulant little postule who I wanted James Earl Jones's Vader to bitch slap. I kept muttering he only wished he was as awesome as his grandfather, and that he looked like a kid playing dress up with his "Vader" mask.

Was it just me who found the characterization so thin with the new heroes? That there was so much more of it with Luke, Leia, and Han? As well as the stories in the original?

Though I wasn't in a theater, I fucking cheered when Chewie shot Ren. And though I'd been spoiled about Han, I still cried.

And based on everything I've read here, I guess both Ren and Finn are alive? I thought that Ren had killed Finn, and that Rey had killed Ren, before he fell down on the maw of the mountain. 

Dammit.

Edited September 11, 2016 by GHScorpiosRule

[VCRTracking]

There's no way they were going to kill Ren and Finn in the first movie. Ren was only wounded and Snoke told General Hux to get Kylo Ren to leave Starkiller. Finn was shown in a coma and Rey said goodbye to him before she went to find Luke at the end.

I thought Poe while funny and charming was not that developed but Finn and Rey I thought was pretty fleshed out for one movie.  Remember Luke, Leia and Han had three movies to develop.  Rey's backstory is a mystery but I still found her life living alone on Jakku and waiting for her parents compelling. Also Finn as the runaway stormtrooper. I agree with complaints that there were too many callbacks and similar story points from the first Star Wars but the humor, action and new characters made it enjoyable.

Quote

Though I wasn't in a theater, I fucking cheered when Chewie shot Ren. And though I'd been spoiled about Han, I still cried.

I don't think anybody cheered in the theater the times I saw it. People were just in shock. The biggest cheer at the end was when Luke's lightsaber flew to Rey's hand.

[Joe]

2 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I didn't find Ren, menacing or scary.  Just a petulant little postule who I wanted James Earl Jones's Vader to bitch slap. I kept muttering he only wished he was as awesome as his grandfather, and that he looked like a kid playing dress up with his "Vader" mask.

Yes, that's the point of him. He's trying to be Vader, but doesn't quite have the same oomph. By those standards, Adam Driver did very well with him.

[VCRTracking]

Agreed.

BTW in case you hadn't seen this GHScorpio, from when Adam Driver hosted SNL last January:

[Lugal]

I expected to go in disappointed and I was still let down.  This movie had all the flaws that J.J. Abrams' movies always have (crappy plotting, coincidence, lack of scale, overuse of fanservice and so on). I was spoiled, but I still didn't feel anything for Hans' death, it was thrown in there because like Obi-Wan in the original, the old mentor had to die. TFA felt like some teenager's bad fanfiction (like Abrams' movies usually do).

I thought Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were good and Rey and Finn could have been very interesting characters in the hands of a better storyteller.  I liked Poe Dameron, but he wasn't really in the movie enough to get a good sense of him.  But it pisses me off that we're never going to get a scene of Luke, Leia and Han all together again.

After I finished, I reread Heir to the Empire and realized how much better a sequel that it was.  Grand Admiral Thrawn could have mopped the floor with Kylo Ren.

[Kromm]

22 minutes ago, Lugal said:

I expected to go in disappointed and I was still let down.  This movie had all the flaws that J.J. Abrams' movies always have (crappy plotting, coincidence, lack of scale, overuse of fanservice and so on). I was spoiled, but I still didn't feel anything for Hans' death, it was thrown in there because like Obi-Wan in the original, the old mentor had to die. TFA felt like some teenager's bad fanfiction (like Abrams' movies usually do).

I thought Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were good and Rey and Finn could have been very interesting characters in the hands of a better storyteller.  I liked Poe Dameron, but he wasn't really in the movie enough to get a good sense of him.  But it pisses me off that we're never going to get a scene of Luke, Leia and Han all together again.

After I finished, I reread Heir to the Empire and realized how much better a sequel that it was.  Grand Admiral Thrawn could have mopped the floor with Kylo Ren.

Question: Is this post concurrent with when you actually saw it (recently) or did you see it late last year/early this year and are posting about an experience back from then?

I'm curious, because having read the Zahn book would tend to peg you as a SW superfan, whereas only seeing TFA now, 3/4 of a year later would do the very opposite. 

BTW: I DO agree with most of what you actually said. Add to that, to me the biggest issue is that they saw the reactions to the prequels and emerged with the notion that those mainly failed because they weren't enough like the original films. In other words, a vast oversimplification of why those failed. So they awkwardly constructed a sequel that was nothing but loose, badly implemented parallels to A New Hope.  And frankly... people "fell" for it (so psyched to see practical effects--which WERE really good, and the original cast, that most of them happily ignored the endless number of flaws). 

The only truly great "new" thing in the film was Daisy Ridley, who in the midst of a script that didn't deserve it, turned out a performance that totally worked. Boyega was good too, but the problem with his role is that it seemed like an awkward insertion--his character was actually something that doesn't really parallel anything in the original, but because so much else in the film was stuck in that mode, it wound up feeling like his role was just to give Rey someone to play her scenes off of. I mean the idea that the Stormtroopers under those helmets had lives and identities is a good one, but also a wasted one if it isn't central to why things are happening in the movie. The Imperials by and large were faceless (and mostly voiceless) in the originals for good reason. They were standins for Nazis (even the name "Stormtrooper" was all about that). If you dig into that an explore it, then it can't simply be a side-story which just supplies character moments. It's got to feed into the main plot too, and I don't think it did.

I've said it before here, but Kylo Ren was just the pits. Whiny and emo does not work for a villain. And if we were supposed to feel a conflict between light and dark, it failed, because we were absent any images of why anyone viewing should want any fate for him other than a lightsaber to the brain. Han and Leia TALKING about their lost kid, and us finding out its him, didn't have any resonance other than us feeling sorry for Han and Leia for losing the decedent lottery and popping out a total loser. I hate to mention it (because it goes totally against the narrative structure of any previous Star Wars) but some freaking FLASHBACKS might have actually helped. We needed a connection with Ben Solo to not be totally disgusted with Kylo Ren. And we didn't get one. 

[VCRTracking]

Quote

After I finished, I reread Heir to the Empire and realized how much better a sequel that it was.  Grand Admiral Thrawn could have mopped the floor with Kylo Ren.

I'm really glad they made Thrawn canon and that he'll be appearing in Star Wars Rebels: