SPOILERS AHEAD: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Discussion

Yeah, I'm glad my first time wasn't in 3d b/c I focused more on the movie. Now, I'm ready to go in and dodge, dip, dive, duck, and dodge blasters, light sabers, etc.

 

Sorry about your impending divorce

 

Was very disappointed. While it was better than episode 1,2,3, it was chocked full of corny lines, clichés, and lacked the proper character development. The plot was too artificial and felt like a roller coaster. They failed to move away from the original 3 movies and tried too hard to redo and rehash the old when they should have turned a new page. How many years ago did the rebels "defeat" the empire? And here we are back to square one except now the characters are older.

A few key issues I had:

Spoiler: Major movie spoiler's!

-The plot line was too fast and they tried to do too much in one movie. It should have been slowed down and set the stage for the other two movies. Rey was a good character but she was developed too fast. Ren started out good but he was developed too quickly as well. Should never have taken off his helmet and his relation to Han and Leia should have been divulged at the end of the movie. Han's confrontation with his son and Rey's training with Luke would have been two excellent plot lines for the 2nd movie. On the rebel plot line, they should have kept with the Empire but switched the roles: Rebels were now the republic and the empire was the "rebellion". If they wanted a good space battle, they should have had the battle for Coruscant.

-Rey was the best character and her story had a lot of potential. They should have developed her much more. In fact, the entire movie should have been focused around her. Her growth in the force should have been better over time and the over all drive for her to leave and seek out answers (which ultimately leads her to Luke).

-A secret map to Luke? What, did he run away then email parts of his map out to different people? No sense.

-I didn't like Finn's character. The supporting role should have been a home town friend of Rey's not an awol storm trooper.

-Han and Chewie were annoying at times. Going into light speed out of a hanger and coming out of light speed in the atmosphere of a planet? Come on, this stupid crap never happened in the original. And "loosing" the millennium falcon? Wtf.

-Han's and Leia's relationship was awful. Not sure what was going on there but it wasn't needed for the plot.

-Holy shit, the death star was over done in the original three; we didn't need another super weapon with a stupid weakness exploitable only by fighters

-Po was annoying. Hell, all the pilots were. Since when do children go to battle hooting and hollering like idiots? All of the space battles were weak. Po's x-wing defying physics in the first battle? Flying into the building was worse than Anakin flying into the droid ship and accidently destroying it. I loved how they did it in the original movies; the battles felt real. This felt too much like episode 1,2,3; too animated.

 

Great points Chris.

 

Thanks, glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. My favorite review:
http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/deep-focus-star-wars-the-force-awakens/
The top comment hits the nail on the head:

What makes it so upsetting is that it had so much potential with Rey's character. She was the perfect segue to a new story line, a new hero, and new beginning to Star Wars as was Ren. Unfortunately the good was diluted by the old.

 

I don't fully agree with that, I see alot of the same themes, but there was enough new characters and narrative that it felt like a continuation of the original trilogy and not a repeat. I do hope they fill in 30 years of gaps in the next 2 movies a little bit, though.

 

Not only that. They have 2 more movies to develop characters farther. No need to do it all right now

 

The only thing I found odd was that it was towards the end Death Star part 3. Other than that I loved it (other than Han dying, which I called but I JD chewy dying as well....)

 

True. I was gonna buy that Aftermath book that is supposedly filler, but some of the reviews say its a super horrible book with really crappy writing. So I guess i'll just wait a year and a half for VIII and hope for the best!

 

Yea I was a little bit disappointed in Death Star 3 lol. I don't know if anyone has read the books, but where's Kyp Durron and the Star Killer. Fuck the giant laser beam, a small indestructible ship that can blow up a Sun and galaxy, much more destructive. Especially in the hands of a Rogue Jedi apprentice. Just saying.

 

Do you mean the Legend series?

 

No, I think that was Heir to the Empire? I'll have to go look. Its when Han goes to Kessel as a New Republic rep and they capture him and chewy and make him work the spice mines, they escape with a kid named Kyp Durron and end up having to fly into a cluster of black holes but manage to find the center where an old group of Star Destroyers is hiding and guarding an empire R&D lab and the latest thing is the Sun Killer or Star killer, something like that, and theu grab it and escape and then Kyp goes to join Lukes Jedi Academy but then goes Rogue and steals the ship back and blows up some empire systems, yadda yadda. Way before the Legend series and way before Han and Leia have kids lol

 

Will have to check that out.
Have been reading the Legend series. On Red Harvest now.

 

Legend series is where Jacen takes over as the Republic commandos, right? And then other stuff

 

No every book that came out before April 2014? When they announced vii, became legend series. Everything after that date to start with a new dawn is considered canon

And aftermath wasn't that bad but it really doesn't give u much related to TFA.

 

I liked it.

 

I saw the movie last night. Absolutely loved it, minus one small, small gripe. Still digesting it but it's definitely one of the best, if not the best movie I've seen all year.

Regarding Ray and being an evenly matched opponent to Ren; Keep in mind that he'd also just been shot with a fucking bowcaster lol, which is the about the equivalent of taking a 12g slug to the gut. Impressive that he could even walk. Also, as other have said, he's not a true Sith, only a trained Jedi who's fallen to the dark side.

As far as Ren goes, personally, I don't think he'll come back to the light. In my opinion, him killing his 'ol man sealed his commitment to the dark side.

I'm pretty sure that Ray is Luke's daughter. They dropped hints to it all throughout the movie, the parallels between her and previous Skywalkers (both Luke and Vader) are too common to be coincidence.

 

Agreed! They were hinting at both being Luke's or Hans. With her finishing Hans sentences but honestly with Anakin being big into flying and what not it makes sense for it to travel down the lineage. I'm glad we never say her wielding a light saber in the trailers would've given too much away

 

Also, I'm probably alone in this but I actually like they way that Han died. If you think about it, he was a man bearing a lot of pain in his heart. He'd only ever been a lowly smuggler (albeit a talented one) only to expectantly find a woman to fall in love with and have a child. Then, you lose him to training and then you lose him to the dark side, which is arguably worst than death from the perspective of a parent. Leia thought that he could be brought back, but I don't think Han ever believed it. He made the attempt, sacrificed himself for the sake of the mother of his child, even though he didn't believe it would work. I think he knew he was going to die. I found it pretty poetic.