The Force Awakens [SPOILERS Included!]

[hoyatables]

Saw it twice - 10 AM Friday with a theater full of Gen Xers cutting work and seeing the movie solo, and 11 PM Saturday night at a theater full of millenials. More on that later.

I loved it - as a film, as a Star Wars movie, and as pure entertainment. Holds up very well the second viewing (and I will almost certainly see this many, many times, so I am happy about that). Brief thoughts:
- The new characters are intriguing and well acted. Loved the Poe and Finn dynamic. Rey lights up the screen every single time.
- The reintroduction of old friends was everything I could have hoped it would be. At the 10 AM showing with the people who grew up on the original trilogy, you felt a collective experience of joy each time someone showed up, starting with the Falcon.
- The death was powerful. The way Han touches Ben's face . . . unbelievable. And the pacing to get to that moment was really well done. From the moment Han and Chewie split up I knew something bad was going to happen. Then I saw the catwalk over the chasm and thought "Oh no, nothing good has ever happened over a chasm in Star Wars."
- Maz Kanata was a fantastic character, I just want more. Hoping she comes back.
- The Force dream sequence was intense - I was overwhelmed the first time and couldn't take it all in. Still missed things on the second go-round. One thing I thought I caught -- and I was particularly happy that I did -- was the voice of Alec Guinness saying "Rey..." right at the very end. apparently Yoda and Ewan Ben were also in there but I didn't catch them.
- Brilliant move taking Luke off the chessboard.

The film captures everything we love about Star Wars -- joining in the middle of the action, a lived-in universe, little moments (like Rey making dinner), big action, and FUN.

I don't think it is a rehash of A New Hope. It does borrow on plot elements, but Star Wars has always done that and, quite frankly, once you have a universe with a "Death Star" it is somewhat hard to top that except with a weapon that can destroy multiple planets.

I have read quite a bit of people complaining about unexplained things, like Rey suddenly being a Force genius or R2 just happening to wake up at the end with the rest of the map. I'm not bothered by those things - I didn't feel like anything came completely out of the blue, and it is the first movie in a trilogy - some mystery is to be expected.

With Rey, it is clear there is more to her than orphan girl on Jakku. Perhaps she started as a trainee at Luke's academy and was taken away. Or perhaps she is just like her family (?) and really strong in the Force. Lest we forget, Luke did blow up the first Death Star with zero training. And it's not like he trained for months with Yoda. Watch Empire again - he is on Dagobah for as long as the Falcon is in the space slug and then limping along to Bespin. But anyway, I think it is perfectly reasonable for a hardened and experienced fighter to quickly draw on her new strength and power for a little bit of extra edge against a badly wounded and not-fully-trained bad guy.

I like Kylo Ren. I liked him even more on the second go-round. I love that he is imperfect. He is the perfect millenial villain - self-absorbed, entitled prick who idolizes the wrong types of heroes and is easily manipulated. We all knew / know someone like him. I have no problem hating him and yet also desperately wanting him to find the light. Far far better than the "Sith of the Month" club we got in the prequels.

The movie feels a little bit like "what if Han was the Jedi and Luke was the sidekick." Which does leave me a little worried for what to do with Finn's character in future films. I'm not sure what makes him special - heart of gold, sure, but he doesn't have any particular special skill - he can't fly, he's not a particularly great fighter, and he wasn't high up enough in the First Order to be of strategic value. This will be a challenge for future installments. But Finn and Poe had such fantastic chemistry together than I could easily see the two of them on a strike team as a great way to spend some of Episode VIII.

So happy we only need to wait 18 months for Episode VIII (and we get a Rogue One movie in the interm).

[HometownHoya]

Dec 21, 2015 22:25:59 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Dec 21, 2015 13:34:05 GMT -5 aleutianhoya said:

I'm not entirely sure that Han and Leia didn't recognize her. Leia greets her emotionally when she sees her (which, I think, doesn't come until the very end, right?). If I'm remembering it right, the scene works in the context of the plot, but also would work in the context of larger recognition. And Han begins acting as a father figure toward her very quickly, which isn't entirely otherwise in character (he also doesn't know anything about her backstory but apparently knows that she shouldn't go back to her home planet). His offer to take her on works in terms of the plot but also would work if he wants to protect her.

It would certainly be possible that they, too, want to protect her by not telling her of her parentage and, thus, want to avoid seeming to recognize her.

In any event, it seems almost impossible to me that she's not a Skywalker. But we shall see.

So I can see the theories that she's a Skywalker. But did I miss anything in the movie -- other than her amazing aptitude that points to that our that she was previously trained?

It felt like a cheat.

And upon further reflection, kylo ren still sucks.

I agree with KC that it will be hashed out in the next episode but there were definitely hints in the flashback scenes.


Also try to remember the Anakin from Episodes II and III, a winy little bitch, much like Kylo Ren is (hell even Luke was a bitch at times). He's not a fully formed Darth (in fact he isn't even a Darth) and doesn't have control over his emotions, light or dark.

There is definitely a TON of room for character growth for nearly ALL of the characters in the movie. I would have preferred a longer movie but I hope the next 2 episodes don't suffer from bloat because not enough was explained this first time.

[kchoya]

Something no one is really talking about because the movie is receiving near universal praise: the movie doesn't suck. The fear that we'd have another prequel-level disaster, or that JJ Abrams would lens flare everyone to death never materialized. Even better, Episode VIII could be, well, even better:

Why J.J. Abrams now regrets deboarding the Star Wars chair before Episode VIII

J.J. ABRAMS recently read the script for Episode VIII of Star Wars. And he had a reaction to it that his lifelong friend, “The Force Awakens” actor Greg Grunberg, had not ever heard from the director over their decades together in the industry.

“He read it and said something he never, ever says,” Grunberg, who plays pilot Snap Wexley in the new film, tells The Post’s Comic Riffs. “He said: ‘It’s so good, I wish I were making it.’

[thebin]

Always thought it was weird that JJ so quickly announced he wouldn't be doing the second flick given that directing new Star Wars flicks seemed to be his dream job.

[TC]

Dec 21, 2015 13:34:05 GMT -5 aleutianhoya said:

I'm not entirely sure that Han and Leia didn't recognize her. Leia greets her emotionally when she sees her (which, I think, doesn't come until the very end, right?). If I'm remembering it right, the scene works in the context of the plot, but also would work in the context of larger recognition. And Han begins acting as a father figure toward her very quickly, which isn't entirely otherwise in character (he also doesn't know anything about her backstory but apparently knows that she shouldn't go back to her home planet). His offer to take her on works in terms of the plot but also would work if he wants to protect her.

And Han starts explaining to the midget orange alien woman who Rey is and they cut off screen. I'm convinced she's Luke's daughter, except that runs afoul of the whole "Jedi supposed to be abstinent" / connections to people are bad for Jedi garbage that birthed Vader.

Also, Han pretty much offers Luke a job in A New Hope just like he offers Rey one in Force Awakens :

"That's right, yeah! I got some old debts I've got to pay off with this stuff. Even if I didn't, you don't think I'd be fool enough to stick around here, do you? Why don't you come with us? You're pretty good in a fight. I could use you."

[This Just In]

The film brought in another $153 million over the Christmas weekend for a total of $544.6M after only ten days. In the process the film has become the fastest movie to eclipse $1 billion world wide and could beat Avatar's record of $760 million domestically and 2.8 billion world wide.

[TBird41]

A minor complaint, as I enjoyed it a lot for the reasons you've all written out, but was anyone else bothered by the small amount of people/fighters on the missions? You're facing an extinction level event and the only people you include on the strike team to take out the shields are Han, Chewie (neither of whom you've seen in years) and some dude you just met? Same with the fighter raid--there were like six or seven x-wings that attacked the base. That's all you're going to send?

[hoya95]

I saw it in a pretty empty theatre on Christmas Eve. I'm assuming it loses a lot without a cheering crowd. It's fun as a nostalgia trip, but as a stand alone movie? I just can't imagine many people are really going to want to sit through this in five years. Just watch the originals again.

[This Just In]

Dec 28, 2015 16:55:19 GMT -5 hoya95 said:

I saw it in a pretty empty theatre on Christmas Eve. I'm assuming it loses a lot without a cheering crowd. It's fun as a nostalgia trip, but as a stand alone movie? I just can't imagine many people are really going to want to sit through this in five years. Just watch the originals again.

I saw it in a full theater and it added an extra dimension to the viewing experience...
The crowd cheered when Han Solo & Chewbacca first appeared plus when Princess Leia showed up.
Also a big clap for when Rey was fighting Ben Solo at the end but that was primarily due to what happened with Han Solo. 

[CTHoya08]

Dec 28, 2015 12:44:23 GMT -5 TBird41 said:

A minor complaint, as I enjoyed it a lot for the reasons you've all written out, but was anyone else bothered by the small amount of people/fighters on the missions? You're facing an extinction level event and the only people you include on the strike team to take out the shields are Han, Chewie (neither of whom you've seen in years) and some dude you just met? Same with the fighter raid--there were like six or seven x-wings that attacked the base. That's all you're going to send?

That also bugged me. I'll echo the sentiments above about the confusion regarding "New Republic," "Resistance," and "First Order." That seems like something that could have been explained in a couple of sentences in the opening crawl. I also thought that repeating a Death Star plot (but kind of burying it until late in the movie, so it wasn't clear what was going on) was kind of lame. And I know that real science doesn't exactly govern the Star Wars universe, but why would you need to burn up a planet after destroying the star it orbits? Shouldn't killing the star do the trick?

All that said, I did really enjoy the movie. Unlike the prequels, it was fun, and felt like it was a relative of the originals. I'll refrain from posting (or repeating) other minor complaints, because the overall experience was a positive one for me.

[thebin]

Yep, was a bit bothered by what I saw as small scale in the extras dept. I saw this more in scenes that were clearly all human actors like the initial raid. I just felt like I was going to see a camera crew any second. Might have gone a little too organic to move away from the horrible CGIed to death second trilogy. But it seemed a bit tv-movie in scale sometimes for a $150mm movie.

Didn't have that problem with the dogfights which were amazing.

This movie I assume is on track to smash Avatar's box right? How little staying power did that silly movie have for such immense financial success? Does anyone under 15 even know that film? I actually think the sequels might be in danger of bombing. Think Cameron waited way too long and the movie seems to be on fumes in the cultural footprint dept.