*SPOILER DISCUSSION* Star Wars The Force Awakens *POST HERE AFTER SEEING THE MOVIE*

[CroFlames]

Sitting in the theater for round two at the moment, but still about 40 mins away. Anyone want me to pay attention to any specific detail for them?

[Max Cow Disease]

People who are disappointed with Ren as a villain should wait a movie or two and witness his evolution. We're kind of seeing him in the phase Anakin was at before he was full-on Vader, and many seem to be comparing him to the finished, helmeted, James Earl Jones'd product we saw in the original trilogy.

We're following the bad guy in the more logical order this time, seeing him turn to the dark side and twist in to something vile progressively. I like how they've done Ren up. For example, his teetering-off-the-edge tantrums and aggressive saber fighting style.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Sitting in the theater for round two at the moment, but still about 40 mins away. Anyone want me to pay attention to any specific detail for them?

Is that Max Von Sydow in Rey's dream when she flashes back to being ditched on Jakkuu as a little kid. I think it is. Thus giving a bit of Credence to my theory that Von Sydow was Rey's Guardian dispatched by Skywalker.

[Ashasx]

wrong thread

[gottabekd]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Sitting in the theater for round two at the moment, but still about 40 mins away. Anyone want me to pay attention to any specific detail for them?

The sequence I most want to see again (for the plot points) is the flashbacks/visions that Rey has when she touches the lightsaber. That seems to give the most hints as to what her origin is, and what her connection is to the known characters.

[dammage79]

So who's going to direct 8 and 9 now that JJ is done.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by dammage79

So who's going to direct 8 and 9 now that JJ is done.

8 is being directed by Rian Johnson (most famous movie is Looper) and 9 has Colin Trevorrow attached to it (did Jurassic World).

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

8 is being directed by Rian Johnson (most famous movie is Looper) and 9 has Colin Trevorrow attached to it (did Jurassic World).

Looper was a nice movie. Can't wait to see what he's going to bring to episode 8.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

8 is being directed by Rian Johnson (most famous movie is Looper) and 9 has Colin Trevorrow attached to it (did Jurassic World).

What Trevorrow did with Jurasic world gives me some real hope. Not sure about this Looper Director though.

I heard that Ridley Scott may be the guy directing 9. Which would be amazing.

[DoubleK]

I was able to see it this morning. It's perfect. I had tears in my eyes for most of the movie.

Go see it, you won't be sorry.

I really can't wait to see it in IMAX, it's that beautiful.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[photon]

Enjoyed myself about as much as I have at a movie since I can really remember, and as a gauge for success that's about as important as any other, so the movie is an unmitigated success.

It isn't perfect, few movies are, but it's incredibly difficult to judge and say if some of the deficiencies I felt were actual lacks in the movie, or just a result of the medium and because there's so much depth to the material ANY movie will fall short. To that effect I think I agree with the criticism that I'd liked to have seen a bit less action and a little more drama, I think the original trilogy did a better job of digging a bit deeper into motivations and context, better world building. The world already exists so I can understand that they felt maybe they didn't have to do it, but the world is new to the characters to a great degree.

But since there is so much depth, and much of that provided by other sources, it might just be that it'd be impossible to communicate that in such a short time (which is why things like Clone Wars is so great, they can take more time to explore something).

Still would have liked to see a bit more background on the First Order, the big bad, Kylo's origin, etc. Still 2 more movies though.

Anyway, I did feel that Rey was a bit of a Mary Sue character, I would have liked to see more development in her rather than being so competent right out of the box, or flaws to offset the strengths (i.e. Han is amazing, but still can't stay out of trouble). But overall she was pretty great.

Finn was great.

BB-8 I was a little scared as maybe he was going to be too cutesy or trying to hard to become another R2D2 but they did awesome there.

Saw Han's death coming a mile away, but still was ok with how it happened. I kind of thought they might put a twist in where Han understood exactly what Kylo Ren meant, and was torn between doing what's right and stopping his son from being in pain (even if stopping the suffering meant sacrificing his life and unleashing a fully Dark Kylo Ren on the galaxy).

Once again JJ shows he either doesn't understand or care about distances in space, making the beam of the super weapon and destruction of a star system visible from other star systems, which is hard to overlook these days. The way the resistance figures out the vulnerability with just a few minutes of brainstorming made me roll my eyes. But that stuff was minor.

Looking forward to a second viewing.

[N-E-B]

One thing I really enjoyed was the acting was actually really good. No Hayden Christiansen-esque performances.

[WhiteTiger]

Having thought some more about it...I kinda wish the movie was longer. I'd have sat through a 2 1/2 to 3 hour movie. I'm left wondering what all ended up on the cutting room floor, and hoping for a very solid Director's Cut.

[Finger Cookin]

Run time was already about 2:15. Though it doesn't feel that long at all.

[Finger Cookin]

Also, Rey is no more of a Mary Sue than Luke was a Gary Stu.

[photon]

True, except that Luke took a couple of movies to really become fully Gary Stu and had some training montages to help justify it. It's not a huge complaint, just that I think a little more development there would have added more. And there's 2 more movies so maybe there's more context we're not yet aware of.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Also, Rey is no more of a Mary Sue than Luke was a Gary Stu.

I'd say she is one more than Luke was simply because she did a whole lot more than Luke (and he had a couple little one line fixes to justify how he could do things like 'bullzeye womprats in his T-16'. What is a T-16, who really knew but it was obviously something that you fly). However her knack for all that stuff is much more reminiscent of what just has to be her grandfather so it's kind of forgivable.

[zukes]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Kylo Ren did two really big things for me in this film to show off the potential power he's going to have moving forward. If you keep to the films only, not one Jedi or Sith could stop a blaster bolt with the force, that was a major power move. The best we ever saw from anyone was just deflect blaster shots with their lightsabers and the more skilled ones deflected them back right at the shooter. No way about it, Ren has some serious force power to develop.

What about Vader in the conference room when Lando brings Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids to Vader? Han shoots his blaster several times and Vader uses his hand to block the blaster fire. Pretty sure he is using the force there.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by photon

It isn't perfect, few movies are, but it's incredibly difficult to judge and say if some of the deficiencies I felt were actual lacks in the movie, or just a result of the medium and because there's so much depth to the material ANY movie will fall short. To that effect I think I agree with the criticism that I'd liked to have seen a bit less action and a little more drama, I think the original trilogy did a better job of digging a bit deeper into motivations and context, better world building. The world already exists so I can understand that they felt maybe they didn't have to do it, but the world is new to the characters to a great degree.
...

Still would have liked to see a bit more background on the First Order, the big bad, Kylo's origin, etc. Still 2 more movies though.

I don't know if I fully agree that the original trilogy did that. I think a lot of it was left to our imagination and blurbs on the back of action figure packaging to fill in the gaps. The biggest mistake I think we saw in the prequels was Lucas trying to explain *everything* so there were no loose ends. The loose ends, I feel are what made the original trilogy so much more fun and welcoming to the imagination. If we consider everything we learned from the actual original trilogy about the Star Wars universe and characters, it really isn't much.

I would be content if Lucasfilm / Disney made a few statements or in a canonized novelization of the movie filled in some of the story. The movie itself I think was pretty succinct in the story telling. At its simplest, it is just a story of the battle between good and evil. There is almost an Ayn Randishness about the main antagonists' motivations. They just want to be the best at whatever they are.

[photon]

Yeah that's what I meant when I said if what I felt were deficiencies were instead a result of the medium. We have so much depth and context from other media it's hard to mentally separate what we know from that from what came from the films and judge something independently, so you definitely could be right.