Star Wars: Episode 7, 8... and BEYOND!

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
It reminded me a bit of Journey. Journey also had that prominent flute sound in a lot of tracks + the desert setting ofc x)
 

Ghost X

Moderator
:awesome:

Just seen the film...

I could just be getting old, but I almost couldn't contain my excitement in the cinema while watching the film. Pretty sure that hasn't happened to me before to that extent simply watching a film. JJ Abrams (and team) got it sooo right. The critique of it being a new new hope? Go home, folks, you're drunk. It was a new star wars movie, doing a good job following the style of the original trilogy! Not that bullshit prequel nonsense :awesome:. At the very least, it was different enough to not bother me. Dare I say it... perhaps superior in many respects.

I was fully immersed for most of the film, but I didn't find some relationships convincing (eg: instant-best-buddies, Poe and Finn), there was some corny stuff, and off-putting acting, but nothing major. I didn't like the CG appearance of Snoke and Maz. Should keep that as practical effects. Being a casual fan, these characters also seemed kind of "thrown in" to me. Maybe later films will give them more context. Same can be said for the people after Han that got attacked by the tentacle monsters. Might read up on that later, I guess.

Rey being Luke's daughter probably would be good for the story and seems heavily implied, but in other ways is odd. Anyways, she'd probably eventually have to take out Kylo, where there'd be an extra element of tragedy; cousins fighting each other with some kind of tension going on with auntie Leia and uncle Luke. I get the impression Leia will probably just ditch her son though :P.

For me the exciting bits were all related to Rey pwning with the force. From the moment you could tell Kylo was struggling against her the first time, I was her number one fan, and though the rest was predictable (jedi mind tricks, and snatching the lightsaber), it was super rewarding :awesome:.

Han's death was tragic, but easily foreseeable (someone forgot to screw on the cap of the foreshadowing container). It'll be interesting to see Chewie's character develop without Han. They're like two peas in a pod, and I'd find it hard to imagine him having as much of an enjoyable relationship from a viewer's perspective with Rey and Finn, etc. Poor Chewie :(. Hopefully he doesn't take a backseat in the adventure either now.

It'll be interesting to see how Finn's character develops too. He doesn't seem to fit anywhere yet, story-wise. His injuries don't seem superficial either. It looked like a line was deeply carved out of his back, or something like that.

BB8 was good. Fits in very well.

Phasma's role was over-hyped for this film. Hopefully she'll have some kind of stronger role in future films.

Kylo... I hope he develops into a more impressive villain. He seems quite pathetic at the moment, where as I prefer my villains be more formidable. I did enjoy his rivalry with Hux. I suspect Hux's days are numbered though :P.

I'd like to see the "good guys" take the upper hand in the next episode, and it ending very tragically in IX, but with the good guys prevailing.

4/5 stars
 
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Kuroto

Pro Adventurer
I went to see it again last night. I still enjoyed it though I was really tired from not sleeping enough the two nights before.

I still think the ending is my favourite part of the movie. I wasn't at all disappointed that Luke didn't have a bigger role in this film, because you can already see that he is going to have a big role at least in the next film. I think it was a good idea too, because now they can still have some nostalgia effect on the next film. I really can't wait to find out what happens next. I'm quite sure Rey is going to have to persuade him in helping the resistance because he probably isn't ready to just train new jedis straight away.

It's funny that I didn't get the nazi wibes from the First Order the first time I watched the film. Now that I saw the film a second time it was so clear. So much Nazi.

Also I really think that Kylo Ren alreay knows who Rey is. The first time someone tells that there was a girl helpping BB-8 he reacted really strongly. I'm pretty sure he probably knows that she is the daughter of Luke and therefore is probably envious that she is more likely to be stronger with the force than him. And since they both are (most likely) grandchildren of Vader I can see how he would see this to be unfair.

Even though it had been only about two days since I last saw the film, I still cried in few parts. :'( One of the two was when Han Solo dies. It is so heart breaking to see Chewbacca's reaction when he sees him die and I think it was really satisfying to see him hit Kylo Ren (though I'm also super glad he wasn't able to kill him). Also I do hope that they keep Chewbacca in the up coming films. I feel like he has always been the sidekick of Han Solo and I would love to see him as an independent character like he was in the end of the film.

I feel like I still have to go and see this film one more time. At least. Also I can't believe that one Stormtrooper was Daniel Craig. I saw the film twice and the thought never even crossed my mind! :D

EDIT: Also, did anyone else notice how much they used the Force Theme in the film? I feel like it was used really often. I'm not complaining though, I really like it. :)
 

Pixel

The Pixie King
OH --
• I wanna know who Ben/Kylo Ren thinks he's talking to when he's talking to his grandfather. That scene where he's talking to Vader's helmet makes it seem like he's communing with Anakin's Force Ghost, but I'm almost certain that someone is deceiving him (Snoke, Palpatine, etc) rather than it actually being Anakin's Force Ghost.
• Seeing what actual Dark side mentor training looks like, maybe with some of the history of the Knights of Ren as well when Ben goes to complete his training with Snoke.
• During Rey & Luke's training, we get to see more details about what happened at the Academy -- both positive and negative.
• Finn & Poe Dameron being best bros, and spending time with Leia and the Droids as we dig into more details about the Resistance and the First Order, and Finn gets to discover who he is and can be apart from Rey.
• Phasma taking up a bigger role when she comes back and being a more personal enemy to Finn.




X :neo:
I took that as schizophrenia or something. We know he was a troubled teen. I figured parts of his personality are torn between dark and light.
 

Lord Noctis

Harbinger of Darkness
AKA
Caius Ballad
So, I saw this movie thursday night, and I've been just letting it process for a while now, and I think I've got my thoughts in order now.

I loved this movie so much, even as more the flaws become apparent in hindsight I still think this is one of my favorite movies ever. Not better than the OT, but capable of hanging with them. While it certainly borrowed a lot of its plot from previous films, it also had plenty of new stuff.

Han's death is the most emotional scene in the movie by far, and I thought it was done perfectly. Chewy's rampage afterwards was amazing, and the brutality of the following lightsaber battle made this one my favorite movie climaxes in years.

The soundtrack is more subdued than I'[m used to from John Williams, but it compliments the film perfectly, and I happily purchased the soundtrack.

If this movie is in any indication of this new trilogies quality then we are in good hands.

Oh, and I am firmly in the camp that thinks Rey must be Luke's daughter.
 

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
I've been feeling a massive urge to get into the new EU stuff. :wacky:
I should continue reading those Marvel Star Wars comics :monster:
 

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
So, regarding Snoke.

There's apparently a theory that he might be Darth Plagueis?

The music from Episode III when Palpatine talks about him and Snoke's theme from Episode VII are very similar...



 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
@Tets: If that's true, that would be AMAZING and
explain his massive head wound and facial scar. It would also give a venue to explore the, "Plagueis created Anakin from the Force to kill Palpatine" storyline that was very lightly teased at a few times -- especially with Ben & Rey pretty much embodying the Dark and Light aspects of Vader/Anakin. This is all additionally assisted by Kyle Ren's comment that, "the Supreme Leader is Wise" since "Plagueis the Wise" was literally his title.

So yeah, I'm 100% on board with this, and with Rey being Luke's kid -- especially after researching her heart-to-heart with Maz, and how it fits in with all this.

Also, just saw it a second time. Still love every second of it.




X :neo:
 

Charles Xavier

Pro Adventurer
Wouldn't it have been funny if...

... during the very last scene where Rey confronted Luke, Luke opened his mouth about to utter his first word, but then the movie abruptly cut to the closing credits?

So, regarding Snoke.

There's apparently a theory that he might be Darth Plagueis?

The music from Episode III when Palpatine talks about him and Snoke's theme from Episode VII are very similar...




Holy Christ, I didn't think of that! Good going there, Tets, I'm beginning to lean towards that possibility. However, if that does turn out to be true, then...

how could he have possibly survived his death at the hands of Palpatine?
 
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Jason Tandro

Banned
AKA
Jason Tandro, Doc Brown, Santa Christ, FearAddict, Thibault Stormrunner, RN: Micah Rodney
First spoiler-free. Now some of you may have seen this, but for those of you who didn't this is how I described this movie on my Facebook:

We open on a bloody carcass tied to a chair, his beard tattered and charred, the crimson river still flowing freely down what remains of his face. In his former life he'd been a writer and hailed as a creative genius, but that was all behind him now. He had betrayed his fans, the creative community, but most importantly he had betrayed himself.


A man walked into frame, sinew still wet against his iron gauntlets. He has a regimented, unnaturally calm demeanor for the savagery he has laid upon the man. His jaw is set, his eyes narrowed in repressed anger, and he speaks with a slight tremor in his voice. With a single extended finger he points to the final shot of The Force Awakens before cutting to the title card bearing his name. While it reads JJ Abrams, many will recall it simply as "The Savior".


"And that, Mr. Lucas," the man says extending an accusatory finger to the bound pulp. "Is how you make a Star Wars film."



Now on to the actual spoilery comments:

First off Rey is clearly Luke's daughter. At first I figured she was Kylo Rens' brother so we could get a Luke / Leia dynamic, but it works better this way since we get to see the offspring of the original Luke / Leia dynamic... well... Luke and Leia. But yeah between the comments from Maz(?) "now it calls to you", and the fact that Luke appeared in her Force Flashback.

I'm still waiting for the end of Episode VIII when Ren says the dramatic line: NO REY. I AM YOUR COUSIN.

Also, Droid, Please! Haha. We all know you wanted to drop the N bomb without dropping the N bomb. That said, that is one of my favorite lines in the movie, so it gets a pass from me.



Now some minor, minor gripes:

It's very easy to tell this is an Abrams film as I have to admit I did roll my eyes a little bit at the latest super weapon. Honestly, guys we don't need a Death Star for it to be a Star Wars film. Source: Empire Strikes Back, still the best Star Wars film in existence featured no Death Star. And what does Abrams do? What he always does. Take something awesome from the original source material and make an insanely gigantic version of it. If he did a reboot of the Bible Noah's Ark would measure 12,000 cubits long instead of 300.

Poe Dameron- If we didn't see him get fucked up in the beginning, one might begin to question his skill as a pilot. No, no, wait I'm still going to call it into question. He's too perfect. Luke was a Jedi, a prodigy of a pilot, and even he took a few shots to the stern in NEW HOPE and got shot out of the sky by a walker that can't turn its head in EMPIRE. Han Solo constantly was getting out of scrapes. Even Lando managed to break a hopefully optional antenna off the top of the Falcon during the Death Star run in JEDI. Then you have Poe Dameron who- upon entering an X-Wing, becomes untouchable and able to pull off aerial stunts with such speed and precision that Cirque Du Soleil is calling bullshit.


They killed Han Solo. God damn it they killed Han Solo. I guess the prequel trilogy tried its hardest to metaphorically kill the original movies the sequel trilogy is now trying to do it literally. Guaranteed, this will happen. Luke will die of old age since they are turning him into the Yoda of this trilogy (Like poetry. It rhymes.) Leia may die but I think if they kill all three of them off people would begin to call foul. Then again, it is Abrams directing...


Kylo Ren = Darth Snape.


I have to say the surface team deactivating the shield was done in a really anti-climactic way. Basically this sub female baddie who you see gets captured, betrays the supposedly order driven society she is a part of to lower the shield at gun point, then gets tossed in a trash compactor where we never see her again for the rest of the film. Basically there was a problem and it was immediately and painless resolved. Remember how tense JEDI was when ships were getting blown to pieces as Han and friends tried to take control of the shield generator? How every second counted? Well the artificial 15 minute movie timer does not work the same and does not draw in the same amount of fear. Here's the thing. I, Joe Moviegoer, Know the weapon isn't going to finish firing. What made JEDI tense was that the weapon WAS in fact firing at the time and was killing ships. I knew they would win in the end but I was nervous wondering how many people were going to die before the end. But with this, the shield is down before they send any fighters in whatsoever... Not really buying it.

All the above notwithstanding, this film was fucking astounding. I don't need to say that do I? Abrams completely understands what it is to be a Star Wars film, even if at points he borders on being a parody of Star Wars rather than a sequel ("And you'll drop your weapon" , "And I will drop my weapon." ) He knows that we need a story that motivates us to care about the characters. We need stakes. We need intimidating evil. Most importantly we need to be dazzled and this film was full of moments that fucking blew me away as a lifelong Starwarsfan.

- The wreckage of the Battle of Jakku was amazing to look at as Rey scavenged through it.
- Seeing the Millenium Falcon the first time was just an "uhhh so awesome" moment.
- Droid Thumbs Up. Adorable.
- Executing a landing from hyperspace was just one of the coolest concepts I've ever seen.

And everything else it was just impossible to pin down why, but this FELT like Star Wars again. I loved every minute of it, even the stuff I griped about earlier.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
So, regarding Snoke.

There's apparently a theory that he might be Darth Plagueis?

The music from Episode III when Palpatine talks about him and Snoke's theme from Episode VII are very similar...




Holy Christ, I didn't think of that! Good going there, Tets, I'm beginning to lean towards that possibility. However, if that does turn out to be true, then...

how could he have possibly survived his death at the hands of Palpatine?

I'd
the scarring on his face, and that utterly enormous gash going down the center of his skull have something to do with how he managed to appear dead. i.e. he didn't ACTUALLY teach Palpatine everything he knew.


Also, on a very different note, while not shown in the movie,
His parents were both veterans from the Battle of Endor, so he was born to and raised by two people who could guide him into being an all-around amazing Resistance member & pilot. So yeah, the tl;dr is that he's most likely awesome because he was raised by two people who could've and likely had taught him all of that from as soon as he could fly. Also, unlike Luke, Anakin, or Rey (who are also great Force-using pilots, they all have another extremely large skill set, but piloting is Poe's whole jam.

(Also, they had one of the last two tree saplings from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant planted at their home, so… while I don't think he's Force sensitive, I think that the Force is probably with him).




X :neo:
 
I don't understand why death star architects build extremely narrow bridges to span bottomless chasms and then don't put in any guard rails. It made me think of "Galaxy Quest".
 

Dark and Divine

Pro Adventurer
AKA
D&D
Watched it today. Nothing more to say that hasn't been already said, but i loved it!

Definitely a return to form for Star Wars, right through the big door.
 

Jason Tandro

Banned
AKA
Jason Tandro, Doc Brown, Santa Christ, FearAddict, Thibault Stormrunner, RN: Micah Rodney
Vis a vis the Snoke is Plagueis rumor.

Didn't Palpatine talk about how how Plagueis could use the Force (I refuse to use the M word because that is literally the worst thing to happen to Star Wars including Jar Jar) to create life? Could overcoming death really be that different?
 
It was alright. I won't go into too much depth, but
basically a lot of stuff was underwhelming (the silver armored storm trooper captain for one). Thinking back, I can't really think of many moments that I remember. Aside from trailer shots, I can think of maybe less than 10 things that stuck out to me as "that was cool" or, "that looked great".

And the whole roptar? Ruptor? Whatever those things were called, just cut that out. It was too cg and "blarg! Imma get u im ma monstur!1!", and decided to carry Finn around for some reason instead of killing him like it did everything else.

Also another thing that really bugged me, EVERYONE is young. Even most of the First Order staff, aside from a handful of older people. It robs it of its weight to me, and feels more marketing oriented than actual world building.

I also don't really care for Abrams as a director. He's fine. Workmanlike. But he's nothing to write home about, and this only helped solidify my thoughts. I don't get why he gets so much more praise than any of the other hundred directors that produce decent movies, but you don't care who directed them because anyone could have.

Now I know I've been shitting on it, but it's good. Go see it. I just dont see people really talking about the shitty parts all that much, and there's a good chunk of them in this.
 
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Lex

Administrator
Vis a vis the Snoke is Plagueis rumor.

Didn't Palpatine talk about how how Plagueis could use the Force (I refuse to use the M word because that is literally the worst thing to happen to Star Wars including Jar Jar) to create life? Could overcoming death really be that different?

I read a fan theory that
if they're going down this road with Plagueis that he may have been the one behind Anakin's birth (re: the M word and the stupid "immaculate conception" thing, since he can "influence the [m word]") so they might say he's the be-all-end-all villain because he's the reason for all of the dark side in the Skywalker family (including influencing Kylo Ren)

Not sure how much I like that idea.
 

Jason Tandro

Banned
AKA
Jason Tandro, Doc Brown, Santa Christ, FearAddict, Thibault Stormrunner, RN: Micah Rodney
^
Said theory has been in place since Episode III released. There's visual symbolism and such but it's heavily implied that Anakin was bred by Plagueis in Shmi for reasons of taking down Palpatine.

If you have about 6 hours to kill watch the Plinkett reviews (redlettermedia) of the prequel trilogy. The man is not only darkly hilarious but he make a lot of really really good points.

And no, that time frame isn't a hyperbole, he seriously spends about a feature length movie's worth of time dissecting each film. But it's time well spent.

Here's the Episode III review. I recommend watching the other two first of course.

 

Shadowfox

You look like you need a monkey
Plinkett's SW prequels reviews are legendary. The Red Letter Media youtube channel also posted their review of TFA yesterday.

Now that I've had a chance to ruminate a little more on the movie, I have to say that another colossal weapon of mass destruction in a Star Wars movie is pretty tiresome. You'd think that after last two got blown up in the OT, people'd learn their lesson.

I was reading through NeoGAF's TFA threads over the weekend, and their speculation about Rey's lineage is really interesting. Notably, that
Rey could be a Kenobi instead of a Skywalker.

One of the posters mentioned that James Arnold Taylor (voice actor for Kenobi in the Clone Wars series) and later Ewan McGregor had dubbed in a disembodied voice calling out Rey's name during her flashback.

Then there's another post about how the music used during the scenes where Rey draws upon her Force abilities is the same music used for Obi-Wan in previous movies.

Obviously, we can't say for sure if all that's true or not at this point in time, but of all the theories regarding Rey's family, I find this one more novel and appealing.
 
It seems to have become fashionable to dismiss the prequels, but I always quite liked them. The first three SWs were exciting space-romps with all that Joseph Campbell stuff thrown in, but in some ways the prequels were dealing with a more difficult question: why does a man deliberately choose evil? I liked Hayden Christensen and I thought he did a good job of portraying a man whose intelligence wasn't equal to his Jedi abilities; I thought the woman who played his mother was luminous; I liked the concept of Amidala as an elected child-queen who was literally and figuratively burdened by tradition; I liked the fact that
Obi-Wan raised and trained Anakin as a kind of memorial to his own beloved master, despite knowing that it wasn't really a good idea, which meant that his relationship with Anakin was borne out of duty rather than love and had an ambivalence about it that Anakin sense, and which ultimately contributed to his choosing the dark side
. So, psychologically, I think the prequels were pretty rich.

For me, Lucas has a much more fertile and original imagination than Abrams. I agree with Interslicery: Abrams is a solid journeyman director, but he doesn't have Lucas' genius. Nothing about this film made me go "wow". The battle sequences in particular didn't have the same power. That said, it was a lot of fun, I loved the two young leads, the space bar with the jazz band was cool as always, and it's good to know that
Admiral Akbar is still alive
.

Question about Storm Troopers: why are they all human? Is it because totalitarian regimes like their cannon fodder to look uniformly disposable? Most aliens would not be able to fit their heads inside those helmets. In all the films, IIRC, the "good guys" include persons of all species, but those who are called to the dark side are only ever human. Nobody on the Death Star was an alien, and neither is anyone on the current planet-sized death ray.
 

Jason Tandro

Banned
AKA
Jason Tandro, Doc Brown, Santa Christ, FearAddict, Thibault Stormrunner, RN: Micah Rodney
Um... that was kind of explained in both this movie and in Episode II. The original stormtroopers were a clone army of Jango Fett. Presumably (though not neccesarily) the stormtroopers in the original trilogy were the seed of the same troops. The First Order also mentions using a specially bred Clone Army.

As for why use Clones? Controllability, expendability, cheapness. They aren't viewed as human life. Even the Trade Federation just used massed produced Droids.

Also with respect to your looking into the prequel trilogy the questions asked were interesting enough but they weren't followed through to any sort of logical conclusion. Again, refer to the Plinkett reviews. "Anakin wasn't seduced by the dark side, he was tricked into being evil." :monster:

The idea of what point of view works and are the Jedi really that much better than the Sith (the old schism between Lawful Good and Lawful Evil) would have been fascinating but you need a better role to see it play out. When Anakin is being driven along by simply a single fear of loss, admittedly (And this is the only time I'll ever say anything good about the writing in the prequel trilogy) a well set-up fear, doesn't convey the gravity of that decision.

The whole point behind Darth Vader in the original trilogy was that he was supposed to be this entity that won the friendship of our early stage BIG GOOD = Obi Wan. From what we know of Obi Wan we can assume that young Anakin was a wise, kind Jedi just like him. A student certainly but age doesn't dictate character. But throughout the entire prequel trilogy except the first movie he's already courted the Dark Side. The films don't show, they tell.
 
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