At the end of the video in this article George Lucas is at the Star Wars premiere, and he says:
"Sometimes they see the material very differently than you do. I learned that when I added seven frames to show that Han didn't shoot somebody in cold blood"
Holy shit. That movie actually happened. Me cutting off all Internet aside from TLS (aside from this thread) and YouTube channels to keep me occupied at work to stay 100% spoiler-free was worth it.
I went to a 9am screening this morning. I was hoping there would be a big diehard crowd, but there were only about 10 people. I might go again tomorrow to experience it with a packed theatre.
The movie was near perfect. I'm so glad Lucas had minimal involvement. No clunky dialogue or cutaways to "funny" stuff going on in the background for the sake of it.
I saw it last night and I absolutely LOVED it. I'll do a little spoiler free review first:
I'll start by saying that I was prepared to hate this movie when it was announced. Why? Two words: Expanded Universe. I have long been a fan of the Expanded Universe novels and comics. I had always taken them as cannon because George Lucas, himself, had stated they were. When it was announced that the new Star Wars films were going to ignore the EU and that, in fact, Disney was completely throwing out the EU I was disappointed and upset. I do understand that the books were dependent upon the films and not the other way around. It was just disheartening. I felt bad for the authors and artists that had spent so much time and love in writing all of these great novels and comics that are now nothing more than fan fiction. I felt bad for fans, like myself, that spent a lot of money and time in buying and reading these novels and comics.
So, like I said, I was ready to hate these new films. However, when the teaser trailer was released for The Force Awakens I found myself daring to believe that JJ and Disney were going to do this right. Subsequent trailers only strengthened that belief. Hearing spoiler-free reviews of the film made me feel even better about it.
The Force Awakens was phenomenal. From the start to the finish it kept me staring in wonder at the screen. I smiled through the vast majority of the film. I laughed. I cried. I was in awe. It was magical. It has something that the prequels just do not have. A certain warmth. Maybe that's a bit of nostalgia creeping in for seeing the original cast. Or maybe it's that somehow JJ managed to capture lightning in a bottle again.
I can't say enough about how much of a difference it made that JJ chose to shoot on location instead of shooting against green screen. JJ's choice to use more practical effects instead of CGI also brought a certain sense of reality, warmth, and depth. All of these things were extremely lacking in the prequels.
It brought warm, nostalgic feelings to my heart when I saw the original characters. It was like coming back home. It felt right and it was a true joy. At the same time, I fell in love with the new characters. The actors all turned in terrific performances. I think their performances are a testament to having a real director helming the film. While I love George, I don't think he understands how to give proper direction to his actors. JJ was able to get the most out of his cast. They made you care about them.
The score by John Williams was spot on. While there really isn't any truly standout individual pieces, there are a lot of callbacks to the scores from the original trilogy. Again, it evokes a sense of nostalgia and really brings back the magic of the original films. In my opinion, NOBODY else should be able to compose a Star Wars film. Unfortunately, time catches everybody and they will have to find a new composer but, IMO, nobody will ever compare to John.
This is the film that I have been waiting for since Return of the Jedi. This was worth every dime spent on tickets. Disney can take all of my money if they continue to make quality Star Wars films like this. This was an amazing experience. I can't wait to see it again.
From the very bottom of my heart, thank you so much to JJ Abrams and Disney for bringing me back to that galaxy far, far away and making me feel like a kid again.
Okay...on to the spoilers. Avoid if you have not seen the film!
First of all, I need to get this out of the way. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay.
I wanted to leap out of my seat and scream that, the moment Rey called Luke's lightsaber to her. I was SO amped for that moment. I have to agree with an earlier remark, I believe Tets may have brought it up, that neither Kylo Ren/Ben nor Rey or Finn knew how to fight with the lightsabers. They both were very inexperienced. It was actually a really neat twist.
I'm so glad that they chose not to have Rey kill off Kylo. He's a good villain. A conflicted villain. I'm very excited to see where their story goes from here.
Han's death made me cry. Even though it was incredibly predictable. The moment that Leia asked Han to bring their son back if he saw him, I knew he was going to die. I actually started crying when Han walked out onto the bridge and yelled "Ben!" I knew what was about to happen but I held on to a small hope that Han was going to turn Ben. The scene itself was very well executed. I loved Chewie's reaction. I hope that even though Han is dead that Chewie continues to be apart of the films going forward.
I noticed my wife tearing up when Finn went down to Kylo Ren. She thought he was dead. I actually teared up too. I quite like Finn. He and Rey make a great team. The scene where they are celebrating and talking over each other after Rey had piloted the Falcon through Jakku while Finn was manning the laser cannon was outstanding!
Rey is going to be a bad ass. I can't wait to see what she can do once she receives some training.
I really wanted to see more of Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma. I feel like they were both sorely underutilized. I feel like the trailers were sort of misleading about Captain Phasma. It seemed like they were sort of building her up to be a bad ass and she really just got punked out. Poe seemed rather one dimensional. I hope they give him some backstory love in future films.
I very much enjoyed the character of Kylo Ren. I loved his little temper tantrums. It shows his lack of maturity and how young he actually is. He's very undisciplined. It's not hard to see how he was so easily manipulated by Snoke. I would like to learn more about the Knights of Ren and see others from his order.
I LOVED BB-8! He was cute and had a lot of truly heart warming moments all to himself. I LOVED the scene where Finn is trying to convince BB-8 to tell Rey where the Resistance base is. When Finn gives him the thumbs up and BB-8 responds by producing a lit torch...awesome moment.
Snoke. He might be the character that I liked least. I didn't particularly care for his design or execution. I love Andy Serkis but Snoke was just meh. In a film where JJ relied so much on practical and makeup effects, Snoke's CGI character was really weak by comparison. I hope there's going to be more to Snoke than meets the eye.
If I have any complaints at all about the film, they are minor. I think one complaint was Rey's inexplicable knowledge of how to use The Force all of the sudden and without training. When she used The Force to block Kylo Ren out of her mind, I was buying that. She's clearly Force adept and she's strong willed enough that she could hold him out. However, when she just started using The Force suggestion on that stormtrooper, I was like "mmmmkay, what the fuck?" How did she know that she could do that? She hadn't seen anybody else do it before? Also, when she used the Force to call the lightsaber to her. That was another "mmmkay" moment. Maybe this knowledge of The Force will be explained in future films. For now, it kind of made me think it was questionable.
The Starkiller base, while being a cool concept, was just a bit over-the-top for me. The whole sucking a sun's power until it burns out and the fact that Starkiller base was an actual planet was just bizarre. I don't know. I might be overthinking it a bit.
The sound effects just seemed a little off to me. Maybe it was just the auditorium I was in. Or maybe it's that Ben Burtt didn't work on the film. I don't know. The blasters didn't have their trademark sound except for a few times. The lightsaber sounds seemed a tad off too. I could be wrong and it's not really anything major. Just something that I noticed.
I was a bit put off by Luke not appearing until the final 30 seconds of the film and then not getting a line but I can live with it. These films aren't really being built around the original cast. They are being built around the new characters. The original cast is taking a backseat. I'm not too fussed about it.
I'm not sure where you can put Luke in that movie without the focus entirely shifting to him. He has to play an important role in these movies because of who his character is and the obviously iconic role he played in the first trilogy. I was really happy with how it ended. I think even if he'd showed up at the end it would have been a "oh he's here to save the day" moment and we'd have connected less with our new protagonists. I do understand people expressing disappointment, but I suppose I'm happy about it because this confirms he has a larger part to play throughout the whole trilogy. When I think about the fact that we won't see Han again, it makes me incredibly sad - though I think he'll have a part to play in terms of "what Kylo Ren did" moments with the characters discussing it. I can't wait to see that develop.
If he had any sort of focus in this movie, I really think he would have died. As it stands they seem to have made him the new Yoda, which makes sense. I still want to know where Rey fits in in all of this, you just know she's an important piece of some puzzle they hinted to but you don't have enough pieces yet. Gah! As for her using the force - I suspect she's known all along she had a connection with the force and had been suppressing it. She knows something. Gah! I want more!!!!
Oh also,
that BB8 thumbs up moment - whole audience laughing. Such a great moment.
I'm kind of miffed by Han being killed off, though. Did Harrison Ford only want to do one movie or something? (I had heard a rumor a while back that he didn't even want to do Episode VII but that could be a false rumor)
lol You saw my spoiler tag typo? I was hoping no one had noticed.
I thought it might be something like that. I guess I'm not surprised but I am a tiny bit disappointed. Like, I would have maybe saved killing him off for the next movie, because I would have liked to have given him a chance to interact with Luke and Lando.
But it was nice to see him with Leia and Chewie, though.
I did. I actually went in to edit it for you but when I clicked "edit" you'd already changed it. I must have refreshed the second of your initial post.
Well I saw it! I was very, very satisfied. It lived up to my expectations, and most importantly, I really fell in love with the new characters. There were a lot of big choices-- that Poe's meme clearly pointed out--that I had a problem with as a fan, but ultimately I think they were used in service of the story. I think they were done right, even though some were a bit peeving.
That being said:
WOWZA! Han's dead. It was cool to see him as the sort of star of this movie, and I'm sure it'll be even cooler to have Luke back in a big way in the next one. I was disappointed we didn't see him, but once we got deep into the movie and there was no Luke in sight, I realized they were probably going to save the Luke reveal until the end.
In typical Abrams fashion, all the questions I had walking into the movie are questions I still have: Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? What are the Knights of Ren? Who are Rey's parents? I don't remember having as many questions at the end of A New Hope. That was a real close-ended story that was opened up again in a meaningful way for the sequel. This has a little more shameless sequel bating. :/
But really the only thing I had a problem with was the fact that the factions weren't explained very well. It's easy to understand the goals of the Resistance and the First Order, but it's hard to understand why they've been fighting over the course of thirty years? They have a Star Destroyer, and they have enough resources to build the new Death Star, but outside of that I really don't get the impression that the First Order has a foothold over the galaxy.
We also never see the Republic, and while I think the scene where it gets destroyed packs an emotional punch, like--I don't know what the Republic is. What's more, the characters don't seem to care afterwards. All the good in the Original Trilogy is undone.... and then onto the next action setpiece! I was also initially really concerned that Coruscant was among the planets destroyed and they just weren't going to show it, but I read recently that the New Republic is in a different star system than in the prequel trilogy. Mon Mothma's planet was the one that we saw onscreen.
The greatest plus of the movie: I think Kylo ren was great. He could've come off as a one-dimensional character, but instead, he was a genuinely conflicted and dangerous bad guy that I can't wait to see more of in the new movies. His scene with Han was probably the best scene in the movie. Also really dug that his name was Ben. Hearing Han shout "Ben" on the bridge was super cool. Cool nod to the expanded universe, and watching this movie, in general, I think there seems to be room for a lot of the original EU to be reincorporated into canon. Which is exciting! If there's room for Thrawn in Star Wars canon I'd love for him to be there.
I'm so glad I was in a packed cinema, because I burst out laughing and everyone else did too. That was a such a great moment. In fact, there were so many great moments throughout the film. My head (and heart) are still buzzing but all I can do is echo everyone else's thoughts. I adored Finn and Rey, and loved the relationship between the two. They seriously chose two great actors and the chemistry really is there. Their excitement at each other after the Falcon run was just so beautiful ... I just wanted to hug them both and join in. I felt it. That was pure emotion right there. And Finn's face and expression when he was all like 'I'm with the Resistance? ... I AM with the Resistance'. Gosh. I love the guy.
Han's death got me as well, even though I also saw it coming. I heard he agreed to do only a single film if he could be killed off, because he wants to go and do Indiana Jones while he still can. Don't know how true that is, but this rumour has been going around for a while about the Indiana Jones thing.
I love what the film gave us. It was a fantastic nostalgic trip whilst also setting the franchise up for future development. However, one of my friends who I saw it with wasn't quite so enamoured. He thought that they played up the nostalgia far too much and that the film didn't tred any new ground. I can't completely disagree with him, but I felt that the film achieved everything it needed to do. We have a whole future of films now to worry about expanding and going into detail about certain things - he was expecting way too much too soon.
I'm on the fence about Kylo Ren. My friend thought that he should have schooled Finn and Rey in the lightsaber fight. I kept reminding him of his emotional temperament and the fact that he didn't finish his dark side training - however, the fact that he has any training at all should have seen him wipe the floor with Rey. As much as I loved the moment where she grabbed the lightsaber with the Force, I have to concede that point to him. Though I argued that Finn must have had lightsaber defence training like the other Stormtroopers had, so he would know how to fight with one.
I do think the Death Star rehash could have been left out of the film and it would have been better for it, but I still love everything that we got. I just can't complain. It was a glorious film and I'm excited for the future of the franchise.
So there're some places that are lambasting that this is just "A New Hope 2.0" so I started digging around from what I remember from last night to just make general Star Wars references.
• Droid with info for Rebels (4)
• There was a cantina/hideout where a song was played (4 somewhat 6)
• There was a big battle station that they took out (4, 6)
• Trench run into station (4)
• Flying into superstructure of station (6)
• Powerful Force user from a Desert planet (1, 4)
• Desert planet w/ parental tragedy (1, 2, 4)
• Planting charges to destroy something (6)
• Character killed in front of others w/o resistance (4)
• Garbage masher (4)
• Force visions (2, 3, somewhat 5 & 6)
• BBEG via holo projection (1, 2, 5)
• Planet blown up (4)
• Character torture/interrogation (4, 5)
• Leia commanding trooper (4, 5, 6)
• Badass left to unconfirmed death (6)
• Pilot & droid relationship (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
• Hidden Jedi hermit (5, 6, somewhat 4)
• Hidden map to something (2)
• Trained vs. untrained passionate lightsaber battles (5)
While there are similarities, a lot of it is just Star Wars being Star Wars. Also, as the first film in the new set of Episodes, what we're mostly seeing here is setting being built, and giving it JUST enough trajectory for the next chapter to run full forward with everything that we've got. We get an obliterated New Republic, an injured First Order, and a reinforced Resistance, and new Force users all set on a path that's freshly laid out. I think that those were the things that just gave the sense of a familiar setting to put the new characters in because there's a LOT of new stuff.
• Force powers beyond ANYTHING we've seen from the previous generation (HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT. Kylo Ren stopping a blaster bolt mid-fire).
• Character who only wants to do the right thing, but very much isn't an amazing badass yet (Finn is just so adorable and terrified of the place he came from).
• Dark side user struggling with temptation to the light (this is shown as a two-way street for the first time ever).
• Non-Force user ace pilot. (Seriously. Poe Dameron is fucking AWESOME)
• Non-Force user fighting with a lightsaber.
• Traitor to the Empire/First Order who stands up against their oppressors (I fully expect an epic Finn Vs. Plasma fight to happen eventually)
• A TRUE Dark side & Light side rivalry relationship with both characters more or less at the same level of power, and both going (back) into training under a Dark/Light master.
Also, I LOVE that Ben & Rey are the dichotomy of Anakin Skywalker:
• Rage & frustration working as the right hand of the ex-Empire as the literal legacy of Vader.
• Tech genius and crazy powerful force user from a desert planet fighting to protect someone who cares about them.
aaaand because of that, I'm both hoping that Rey is and isn't Luke's kid. Like... I'll be happy either way whether or not it's a literal battle for the true Skywalker legacy.
But also, the diversity amongst the cast really made me so happy. It had the right mix of humor, nostalgia, fun, and new things that I have literally not been this excited about Star Wars since I was a kid. This was just the best.
So, I have seen the movie. Groot's final sacrifice to make sure Katniss and Ed Stark got the
Right, okay, actual review time. Rey IS Luke's daughter. They didn't say it. But they SAID it. She doesn't know it. He might not know it. But it's there.
BB8 was glorious, especially the thumbs up, and his use as comic relief was excellent because he was in the background dealing with crap rather than in the foreground influencing stuff like Jar Jar was, and that's why I think Jar Jar didn't work in the movies (Clone wars handled him much better)
Like Vader, I also was a huge EU fan, but unlike him, I'm glad that it's not here. It was getting way too bogged down in Bullshit by the end, and what it seems they've done is take some of the best AND the worst ideas of the EU and made use of the CONCEPT of those things rather than those things.
Jaden being sith? FUCKING STUPID. Kylo Ren being Ben Solo (Ben Organa? Just Ben?) was handled really well.
Likewise, they took the Dark Apprentice of Luke, the Imperial Remnant, Luke's child, all these ideas, and did something with them.
Even Han's death is an inversion of Chewie's stupid as fucking hell demise in the EU. Instead of dying to dropping a moon on him, Han's death at Ren's hand leads to the formation of a new sun as the planet itself ignites. Han had the most Metal funeral pyre in existence, man.
Also, Leia sensed it happen.
Speaking of Leia, seeing her working with the resistance as a General, and insisting on that title was awesome. If you look closely, she's still wearing a ring on her right hand ring finger. It seems Han and Leia split because of guilt over Ben, not because they actually split up.
Oh, and as a rule as a rule, never shout BEN! when a mentor character is around in Star Wars, they will die. It's also a good idea not to be a hero's uncle.
• 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.
For me funnesy moment was when Kylo was freaking out about Rey being gone and calling for guards but the guards around the corner were lke "noooooope" and speedwalked away.
