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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

DollEyes

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benteen

benteen

(edited)

Bail Antillies and Bail Organa were established to be different characters.  Bail Organa did appear in TPM played by another actor, seconding the motion to remove the Chancellor from office but the scene was cut.

Edited by benteen
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Danny Franks
Danny Franks

So I just saw it. Loved it. Was it 100% original and new? Hell no, but the iconography and themes of the original trilogy were used well. I got a huge kick out of crashed Star Destroyers, collapsed AT

Proclone
Proclone

It doesn't.  It's the classic hero's journey.  The hero is living a normal life then is called to adventure (finds out they're special), generally refuses the call at first and then goes on an adventu

SophiaD
SophiaD

There's "brave" and then there's "extraordinarily brave."  First off, Finn didn't have to do any of this.  He could have quelled his loathing for killing, "gone along to get along," and become just an

stealinghome

stealinghome

It doesn't have to, I don't think. They could easily skip straight to Rey being trained by Luke or what have you. I don't think will, but they definitely could.

I'm actually not at all expecting Episode 8 to pick right back up with Rey holding the lightsaber out to Luke. I'm guessing we'll rejoin Rey and Luke a few days (maybe even hours) later.

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Zuleikha

Zuleikha

It's inconvenient for them to acknowledge it. They want girls in the princess silo and boys in the superhero silo. Among the many reasons that I love Frozen is that Elsa's popularity among both girls and boys has made it harder for Disney, Hasbro, parents, and childhood educator to cling to the argument that boys won't like girl characters and girls would rather be a demure princess than have superpowers. I'm excited to see that Rey is helping demolish this more.

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Skyline

Skyline

 

 

Toys based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens reaped $700 million in the United States, retail research firm NPD Group announced Wednesday, Reuters reports. While the newest Star Wars installment was released on Dec. 18, toy sales from the franchise started early with Disney promoting “Force Friday” on Sept. 4, when retailers launched the merchandise early to create buzz for the film.

Toy sales, led by Star Wars merchandise, were strong overall, up 6.7 percent for a total industry take of $19.4 billion last year, NPD reports. Toys from the Star Wars franchise—including light sabers and BB-8 droids—sold more than those of movie franchises “Jurassic World,” “Minions” and “Avengers.”

 

 

http://time.com/4188070/star-wars-the-force-awakens-toys-700-million-2015/

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feverfew

feverfew

(edited)

 

I still can't believe Disney didn't produce merchandise based on the main character! But. I was in the Disney store today, and this cute little girl with bows in her hair went strait for the Kylo Ren figure. Her dad tried with both an Elsa-doll and a BB8, but no dice. That was a major moment of "Huh?" for me :)

Edited by feverfew
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DollEyes

DollEyes

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Disney definitely dropped the ball where Rey merchandise is concerned. If there had had anything Rey-centric in that Disney store, chances are that little girl wouldn't have gone near the Kylo Ren doll, plus the dad might have saved a fortune for all the therapy she'll eventually need.

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HeySandyStrange

HeySandyStrange

Other then the obvious sexist angle, I wonder if Disney was banking on the current trend of villians/anti-heroes becoming more popular then the main hero? Loki being one recent example of that. It's almost like Disney didn't watch the movie beforehand and see what most of us saw, that Rey is capable and likable while Ren is more whiny and childish rather then compellingly dark or complicated. They dropped the ball big time.

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feverfew

feverfew

Disney definitely dropped the ball where Rey merchandise is concerned. If there had had anything Rey-centric in that Disney store, chances are that little girl wouldn't have gone near the Kylo Ren doll, plus the dad might have saved a fortune for all the therapy she'll eventually need.

 

It probably won't be as bad as that :) She was a bit too young to have seen the movie, so maybe it was just the flair and dramatics of his outfit? As a tomboy myself growing up I would definitely have gone for the sword instead of the pretty dresses. But you're right, six-year-old me would have loooved Rey, and I'm pretty sure lots of girls (and boys!) would have liked the chance to own one. Badly done, Disney, badly done.

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stealinghome

stealinghome

Other then the obvious sexist angle, I wonder if Disney was banking on the current trend of villians/anti-heroes becoming more popular then the main hero? Loki being one recent example of that. It's almost like Disney didn't watch the movie beforehand and see what most of us saw, that Rey is capable and likable while Ren is more whiny and childish rather then compellingly dark or complicated. They dropped the ball big time.

It will be very, very interesting to see how the merchandising for Episode 8 goes. You would think Disney would learn from their mistake here, but you would also think they would have learned from many things before now.

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HeySandyStrange

HeySandyStrange

It will be very, very interesting to see how the merchandising for Episode 8 goes. You would think Disney would learn from their mistake here, but you would also think they would have learned from many things before now.

 

What gets me about Kylo Ren, it almost feels like he was created purposely to be the perfect "Gothic romantic bad-boy villain" for the teen girl and/or boy set. Like they did scientific studies to pin down exactly what would make the teens pant and go nuts on tumblr, yet instead they tried to market him as a Darth Vader type cool, menacing bad guy. If that was the case, they should've not let him take off his mask and throw tantrums. I can't help but think that JJ and the scriptwriters had a bit of a laugh on Disney by making Ren the antithesis of the "cool" villain.

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Perfect Xero

Perfect Xero

(edited)

I feel like Kylo was made by grown men to be somebody that grown men would like to see get his ass kicked at the end of the movie. He starts off looking cool, but reveals himself to be a whiny punk who never grew out of his whiny teenager phase even though he's 30. He had the guy we all wish had been our cool Uncle for a father, but all he does is complain about him (and ultimately kill him) even though there doesn't seem to be anything his father actually did wrong.

 

I think those things just happen to overlap with a lot of the things that make a "romantic" tortured Gothic figure for some younger women/teens.

Edited by Perfect Xero
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benteen

benteen

(edited)

I do admit I've felt at times that the portrayal of Kylo Ren as a Vader fanboy was an inside joke about Star Wars fanboys.

 

I was in the Disney store recently and I saw a Rey costume and shirt and her character was in the figure collection sets they were selling.  She's not invisible but Disney really does need to step up her presence in a big way when it comes to merchandise.

Edited by benteen
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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

I was reading through the John Williams message board and someone was saying how great the cue "The Jedi Steps" was at the end but they didn't like the final shot done form a helicopter. They thought it looked something out of "HIghlander" and very 80s! I have to admit I wasn't too big a fan of that shot either. Too shaky and out of place style-wise. What'd you guys think?

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Perfect Xero

Perfect Xero

A minor observation on the whole "Ben" thing.

 

I feel like there's a thematic link to the fact that Ben was the name that Obi Wan used to hide his true identity as a great Jedi Knight to be dismissed as a "crazy old man". Meanwhile, underneath his helmet and black robes, Kylo Ren is just Ben.

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lion10

lion10

The writers are going to have to work hard for me to sympathize with Kylo Ren in Episode 8. Killing an entire academy full of students and joining the space Nazi organization is pretty extreme. Even if his back story is "my parents sent me away at a young age", won't cut it.

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ulkis

ulkis

The writers are going to have to work hard for me to sympathize with Kylo Ren in Episode 8. Killing an entire academy full of students and joining the space Nazi organization is pretty extreme. Even if his back story is "my parents sent me away at a young age", won't cut it.

 

I don't know if they will try to make us feel sorry for him. Nothing is really going to cut it. Sorry, but you can't tell me Luke, Leia, and Han didn't dote on him, even if they were a little overly busy trying to run the galaxy and all.

 

I think they might say he was brainwashed.

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Danny Franks

Danny Franks

I don't know if they will try to make us feel sorry for him. Nothing is really going to cut it. Sorry, but you can't tell me Luke, Leia, and Han didn't dote on him, even if they were a little overly busy trying to run the galaxy and all.

 

I think they might say he was brainwashed.

 

I don't think they can succeed, and I don't think they'll really try. As you say, this petulant child has cause grievous hurt to the heroes of the original trilogy. Hell, he's killed one of them. There isn't a way for him to come back from that. Any smart writer will understand that and not try to redeem him like this is some cheap TV show that needs to stretch its concept beyond credulity, and knows that the villain is really popular with fans.

 

I've said it before, but I think Kylo Ren's logical trajectory is to become even more evil, to challenge and depose Snoke, and being leader of the First Order by the end of Episode VIII. At least, that's how I would write it. If Rey is training with Luke, if Finn is recovering and hopefully learning how to lead men, then Kylo Ren needs his own storyline that isn't simply about hunting them. So give him one where he chafes under Snoke's yoke, where he acts out like the manchild he is, and where he finally masters the Force in such a way as to take Snoke unawares and kill him.

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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

From The Daily Dot:
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' sound designer explains how he helped rework a major scene

Excerpt:
 

What’s the scene or sequence that gave you the most trouble, whether for technical or creative reasons? Is there a scene where you go, “Oh my god, I can’t believe that we finally finished that.”

I know that there was a concern at one point where we were like, “Oh, the character of Rey, we really want to make sure that she comes into her own,” as far as the … [we wanted to ensure that] it’s a slow build about her Force powers. I know that...how J.J. had cut the sequence, he’d moved around the scene between her and the stormtrooper that she does the Jedi mind trick on. One of the things that we did to solve that is we brought Daisy back into the studio and we had her perform—because she says the first thing, “I want you to unhook these”—I can’t remember the exact dialog. But “I want you to”—

“You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open.”

Exactly! There you go. That line—she says it three times, I think. And she had played it very strong from the beginning. She just was confident that she was going to do that from the very beginning. We were like, well, it might be a nice thing to have her kind of feel this inside of her, like, “I don’t know why I’m being compelled to say this, but I’m going to do it anyway,” enough for her to verbalize it. We wanted the first couple of appearances of that to be different. So she came in, and we worked on it to try to give her a trepidacious read of those lines, and it totally fit.

 

 

From the Los Angeles Times:

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' sound editors and mixers discuss crafting BB-8 and Kylo Ren's voices

Excerpt:
 

The team had to differentiate a number of audio cues, including Ren's use of the Force. "Kylo is very raw with his power and not a very refined person," Acord says. "He's a little hot-tempered and we wanted to reflect that aurally. At the very root level of Ren's Force we used the purr of a cat ... slowed way down to a low rumble."

 

When Rey realizes she has powers of her own, the sound team based the characteristics on a beating heart. "When Kylo tries to use the Force on Rey and she starts to push back, I felt like her power came from within, so I created a calming sound that was similar to a rhythmic heart," adds Acord.

 

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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

(edited)

Blu Ray trailer. I'm looking forward to the deleted scene of Kylo in the Millenium Falcon.

 

 

ETA: From Good Morning America, a sneak peek af the hour long "making of" documentary on the Blu Ray:
 

:

Edited by VCRTracking
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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

So there are now a whole lot of high quality GIFs from TFA on Tumblr now which means an HD copy of the movie has already leaked and is now ready to torrent. I won't be torrenting because the last time I did I got malware on my computer that was a bitch to get out so I've quit.

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SnoGirl

SnoGirl

That video is impressive. And made me love The Force Awakens a bit more.

Its sort of funny to see who was echoing each other. Loved that Poe echoed Leia at the beginning. Hope he's not secretly brothers with Finn, since his scenes lines up with Luke's (I'm only kidding).

I loved that Rey's echoed a lot of the character's from a New Hope. I really liked that she lined up with Kenobi a couple of times, that's my favorite theory for her lineage.

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Dandesun

Dandesun

I really wonder do they WANT him to seem like a whiny pissbaby? Or is that just a by product of the emo hair and daddy issues? Because on the whole Kylo Ren is ridiculous.

 

Well... that's pretty much what Anakin was.

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Zuleikha

Zuleikha

Well... that's pretty much what Anakin was.
Anakin had a lot of serious trauma and very legitimate reasons to have issues with the Jedi Council (are you a Clone Wars watcher?)

 

With Kylo Ren, I think there's a lot we still don't know about his relationship with Snoke, Leia, and Han, or why he think the Empire/First Order is better than the Republic. I love to make fun of him as much as the next person, but I also think he's an interesting character and an interesting type of villain. 

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Danny Franks

Danny Franks

Anakin had a lot of serious trauma and very legitimate reasons to have issues with the Jedi Council (are you a Clone Wars watcher?)

 

In the movies he was a whiny, entitled baby who threw tantrums because he wasn't allowed to do whatever he liked. After-the-fact damage control in the cartoons doesn't really make up for that, in my view. The movies just never set him up as a sympathetic character, or even someone to care about at all. I never felt there was any tragedy to his fall, because he was never admirable or worthy in the first place.

 

I think Kylo Ren is already more interesting and emotionally complex than Anakin, and already has a more layered, nuanced character. He's actively trying to be evil because he idolises Anakin and because he is angry at his parents. As was mentioned in this thread, he strikes a disturbingly contemporary chord as a Columbine style 'troubled kid' who has gone off the deep end. There may be more to his motivations, but even if there isn't, he already makes more sense than Anakin ever did.

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Zuleikha

Zuleikha

In the movies he was a whiny, entitled baby who threw tantrums because he wasn't allowed to do whatever he liked. After-the-fact damage control in the cartoons doesn't really make up for that, in my view.
Everything in Clone Wars is consistent with the movies and the movie portrayal of Anakin. Clone Wars simply has better writing and more time to show Anakin in his strengths. But even if you don't watch Clone Wars, the growing up enslaved, traumatic loss of mother, Jedi harshness and dubious morality are all there. Personally, I don't think that adds up to either whiny or entitled. 

 

I think Kylo Ren is probably whiny and entitled, but I agree that it adds up to a compelling character, who is very of our moment. I don't think he sees himself as trying to be evil, though. His anger when he called Finn a traitor during the lightsaber duel felt too genuine. I think he, like Hux, is a true believer in the First Order, and he's also a true believer in the Dark Side. But what he thinks he's accomplishing that justifies all the death to get there, that I have no clue. I wish I did. My one quibble with TFA is that it didn't set up the political situation at all.

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Jediknight

Jediknight

(edited)

I think Kylo Ren is already more interesting and emotionally complex than Anakin, and already has a more layered, nuanced character. He's actively trying to be evil because he idolises Anakin and because he is angry at his parents. As was mentioned in this thread, he strikes a disturbingly contemporary chord as a Columbine style 'troubled kid' who has gone off the deep end. There may be more to his motivations, but even if there isn't, he already makes more sense than Anakin ever did.

Exactly, let's take a look at the main villains we saw before Kylo.  You start off with Darth Maul, now Maul is obviously very evil looking, he looks like the Devil.  You look at Dooku, he's played by Christopher Lee, not much else needs to be said.  You've got The Emperor, a man in power who will kill everyone who opposes him, and destroy planets.  You've got Vader, Vader's that tall imposing figure who wears all black and is somewhat a personification of Death.  Those are all faces of evil, they immediately click in your mind that they're the bad guys.

 

Kylo Ren on the other hand, is the face of evil we've seen far too often in real life.  He came up in a loving family, without the mask you wouldn't think he's a villain, but he is a villain.  He doesn't have the obvious look of evil, but he's somebody who idolizes evil, is an entitled whiny brat, can't control his emotions, throws temper tantrums over the smallest things, and has no regard for life.

Edited by Jediknight
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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

(edited)

In the recent season finale of Star Wars Rebels(which is fantastic) Vader tells Ahsoka his former apprentice that "Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him." which I'm assuming meant the writers probably had seen The Force Awakens because Kylo Ren tells his father Han Solo that his son is gone and that "he was weak" so I destroyed him. The difference is that when Vader tells Ahsoka it's the truth. Anakin Skywalker IS gone. Darth Vader is completely different from the whiny of the prequels and the more likable character in Clone Wars series. Even if he hadn't been burned and needed to wear a mask that made him sound like James Earl Jones, he'd still be this yellow eyed Sith Lord walking around choking people. Kylo Ren I feel is still Ben. It doesn't mean he's a good person or that he's not evil but that's the difference from Vader.

Edited by VCRTracking
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tanita

tanita

Exactly. No matter how much he tries, i feel that Kylo has been unsuccessful in destroying Ben. He even did what Luke couldn't, kill his own father to become stronger, but it actually made him even more conflicted, made him more weak. That is rich material for the future of the franchise.

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Danny Franks

Danny Franks

(edited)

Exactly, let's take a look at the main villains we saw before Kylo.  You start off with Darth Maul, now Maul is obviously very evil looking, he looks like the Devil.  You look at Dooku, he's played by Christopher Lee, not much else needs to be said.  You've got The Emperor, a man in power who will kill everyone who opposes him, and destroy planets.  You've got Vader, Vader's that tall imposing figure who wears all black and is somewhat a personification of Death.  Those are all faces of evil, they immediately click in your mind that they're the bad guys.

 

Kylo Ren on the other hand, is the face of evil we've seen far too often in real life.  He came up in a loving family, without the mask you wouldn't think he's a villain, but he is a villain.  He doesn't have the obvious look of evil, but he's somebody who idolizes evil, is an entitled whiny brat, can't control his emotions, throws temper tantrums over the smallest things, and has no regard for life.

 

Yes, this. Fangirls swoon at his handsome face and flowing locks, trying to twist their way out of the narrative and have him be the tragic, misunderstood and wounded boy who is really a hero. Because once you see him, he doesn't have the obvious signifiers of being a villain. Just like most villains in real life don't. He's the entitled, amoral rich kid, the disaffected, anti-social youth, the douchy fratboy, the Nice Guy who won't take no for an answer. He seems to fit all these real world archetypes in ways that Vader and Maul and Dooku didn't. That resonates with people.

 

Exactly. No matter how much he tries, i feel that Kylo has been unsuccessful in destroying Ben. He even did what Luke couldn't, kill his own father to become stronger, but it actually made him even more conflicted, made him more weak. That is rich material for the future of the franchise.

 

I don't think it made him more conflicted, but it just wasn't the magic pill to him becoming strong that he believed it would be. Because Kylo Ren isn't strong. He is mentally weak and unable to control his emotions. His insecurities seem  to be a big part of why he behaves as he does. You don't magically get strength by killing a tormentor and/or unwanted influence in your life. That's a child's way of thinking, which is why it suits Kylo Ren down to the ground.

Edited by Danny Franks
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ElDosEquis

ElDosEquis

Liked the movie, it was a good blend of SFX, acting and storyline, I was prepared to be disappointed but was surprisingly entertained.

 

I could really GAF about all the machinations regarding Kylo Ren  - I am mad that he killed Han Solo, upset that Admiral Ackbar died on the DVD release date of the movie, "It WAS a trap" and think that Daisy Ridley is a good looking gal. I hope someone lets Snoke know that Black Stormtroopers Matter.......Rogue One looks like its gonna be fun.

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