Movie Reviews 2.0

Dr Evil said:
33 seconds in.

I think this is Luke speaking to Rey, it wasn't on this movie so perhaps it's in the next. I think it could be him saying it to her on the island or a flashback of when she was just a small child...
I do not see her being something else than a Skywalker and I think it's more likely she is Luke's instead of Leia's, but some waiting in front of us is :)
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Whoa! Missed that one! Lol my Star Wars black out was more than I thought. Lol. Hmm. Yea that can definitely work out with Rey, but it also works out with Kylo technically. But man lol. Whoa! Pumped!
 
iroboto said:
Whoa! Missed that one! Lol my Star Wars black out was more than I thought. Lol. Hmm. Yea that can definitely work out with Rey, but it also works out with Kylo technically. But man lol. Whoa! Pumped!
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Yeah there are many scenarios for that. To me it sounds like Luke is saying that as in a "teacher of the force" position, it could be him saying it to young Kylo, but not to the adult Kylo imo. Technically it could just be Luke saying that "yeah our family is kind of big on this force thingy" but you seem to have it too... As in Rey being totally unrelated, but I'm sticking to my theory at the moment :)
 
Yea there was a lot of fan service. It's essentially the same formula as Abrams' Trek movies. Lots of familiarity but mixed with originality.

I really enjoyed the movie. Looking forward to seeing where the story goes. I enjoyed the new characters and how the originals were utilized. It's also just a much better movie than the prequels. Humor, characterization, the works.

I would have preferred something other than another planet killer mega base and trench run though. :)
 
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I haven't seen the movie yet - please keep using those spoiler tags guys, please!

But regarding the CGI, my opinion is that as CGI got technically better and directors started using it more, and for more and more outlandish scenes, which would just never be even remotely possible to shoot in the real world, CGI also started to kinda look more and more 'fake', even though the quality of the image might have been as 'technically perfect' as it can be. Our brains 'know' that as good as it might look, something clicks and the brain screams FAKE!!11!!!1 and this started happening years ago.

Uncanny valley for sure, but I'll reserve judgement on SWTFA until I see it.
 
I didn't really see anything off about the CG. I suppose the supreme leader looked a bit cartoony though. Nothing else bothered me.

I can't believe someone would say the prequels were superior in this regard, with all those terribly cheesy CG sets and aliens.
 
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spoilers

I think somebody involved played TIE Fighter. Poe mentions the TIE can be switched between mag pulse, missiles and laser cannons.

And at least one EU related thing, with the govt being called the New Republic. I may have missed more but I haven't read any EU novels in about 13 years... They certainly didn't follow much of it though, which is generally a good thing I think.
 
I'd honestly be surprised if there was only one such person on the staff :D
Most people working in the movie industry today, and probably even JJ himself, were probably just the right age when those games were released. It's also widely known that Spielberg himself is a gamer.

I also noticed that they had a new-old sound effect for the X-wings firing proton torpedoes. It's basically the same sound you hear when Luke does his first dive attack on the first Death Star, although at that time it was for the lasers I think.
 
Saw Star Wars. Abrams did a much better job with Star Wars than he did with Star Trek. It has some modern touches to the look of the movie, but I'd say it pretty faithfully recreates the aesthetics of the original trilogy. The movie, at its worst was maybe along the lines of the cheesier parts of Return of the Jedi, but the good parts where very good. I'll see how I feel whenever I watch it a second time, but I'd put it pretty close to Return of the Jedi in overall quality/entertainment. I was worried that I was going to like it, but feel like they should have just left it all alone, but it's a worthy addition to the series. Recently I tried to go back and watch the prequels, and they're just unwatchable garbage. There's really no comparison. George Lucas lost his grasp on what made the originals so good, which was a strong character-driven story. This one delivers. The new cast is great.
 
Also, I thought the visual effects were done really well. There were a few animated characters I didn't like, but overall it seemed like the world of the original trilogy, where the prequel movies felt like much more of a departure.
 
Finally saw The Force Awakens. Overall, it's a lot of fun, and well made, but the script, my God, the script! First, so much of it is "borrowed" from the previous trilogies that it's a little silly, and much more importantly:

WTF were they thinking when they made Rey so ridiculously powerful without any training whatsoever? It's completely inconsistent with the Star Wars universe, and everything we know about Jedi and the Force. There's no way in hell any untrained force sensitive person should be able to hold their own against Kylo Ren in a duel. Worse than that, even Finn lasts a while against him, when he doesn't seem to be particularly strong in the Force, if at all. We're talking about the Kylo Ren who effortlessly stops blaster shots in mid-air, something only Anakin was shown to be capable of in Episode V (sort of). This tragically diminishes the awe-inspiring nature of Jedi and Sith. Honestly, it kind of ruined the end of the movie for me. For all his faults, I don't think Lucas would have ever approved this.

Oh, and a third, bigger Death Star, really? With yet another major, obvious weakness that can only be exploited by small ships at close range, with yet another shield generator that must be disabled from the ground? Come on.

Finally, killing Han was not a bad plot device—if a somewhat predictable one—but he's going to leave a gaping hole in the rest of the trilogy. He's easily the best Star Wars character in my opinion.
 
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Alexko said:
Finally saw The Force Awakens. Overall, it's a lot of fun, and well made, but the script, my God, the script! First, so much of it is "borrowed" from the previous trilogies that it's a little silly, and much more importantly:

WTF were they thinking when they made Rey so ridiculously powerful without any training whatsoever? It's completely inconsistent with the Star Wars universe, and everything we know about Jedi and the Force. There's no way in hell any untrained force sensitive person should be able to hold their own against Kylo Ren in a duel. Worse than that, even Finn lasts a while against him, when he doesn't seem to be particularly strong in the Force, if at all. We're talking about the Kylo Ren who effortlessly stops blaster shots in mid-air, something only Anakin was shown to be capable of in Episode V (sort of). This tragically diminishes the awe-inspiring nature of Jedi and Sith. Honestly, it kind of ruined the end of the movie for me. For all his faults, I don't think Lucas would have ever approved this.

Oh, and a third, bigger Death Star, really?
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I agree that they should have done those battle scenes differently, but perhaps we can turn a blind eye to it partly because Kylo did take a direct hit from Chewbacca's powerful weapon just before the battle, so at least he was somewhat compromised in the battle, but yeah everytime Kylo took the mask off, he just seemed puny sith. And no wonder Luke looked depressed at the end when seeing Rey, at that point in his Jedi training, he couldn't even spell his name yet :)
 
Alexko said:
Finally saw The Force Awakens. Overall, it's a lot of fun, and well made, but the script, my God, the script! First, so much of it is "borrowed" from the previous trilogies that it's a little silly, and much more importantly:
...
Click to expand...

I thought Kylo Ren was just toying with Finn until Finn managed to land a grazing shot. As for Rey, it didn't bother me at all. She shows signs of being special, like her insane piloting maneuver in the Millenium Falcon. When Ren tries to read her mind, fight or flight kicks in, and she saves herself. It's like some parents throwing their kids into the pool to teach them how to swim. Some kids figure it out real quick. She knows of Luke Skywalker and the Jedi, and seems to have great interest in the lore. So once she believes she can use the force, she starts to try different things she may have heard about. Ren, on the other hand, seems somewhat weak. He's not powerful like Darth Vader. Most of the movie he's torn between the dark and light, and not fully committed. When he's defeated his master says he will bring him back to finish his training. He's not a fully trained or powerful force user either. Rey is powerful and raw. Kylo Ren is more trained and weak. The rest of the trilogy is where it's going to get interesting. Can't wait to see it.
 
Dr Evil said:
I agree that they should have done those battle scenes differently, but perhaps we can turn a blind eye to it partly because Kylo did take a direct hit from Chewbacca's powerful weapon just before the battle, so at least he was somewhat compromised in the battle, but yeah everytime Kylo took the mask off, he just seemed puny sith. And no wonder Luke looked depressed at the end when seeing Rey, at that point in his Jedi training, he couldn't even spell his name yet :)
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Agreed Dr Evil.
I forgot that Ren was also injured and bleeding pretty badly.
 
I enjoyed the fight between Fin and the stormtrooper with the lightsaber resistant stick. Apparently they are well trained in different forms of combat. So being able to somewhat go toe to toe with wounded Ren is not inconceivable. The original trilogy portrayed stormtroopers as morons, but the prequels and this movie sure have changed that.

The fixation on the bowcaster for much of the movie was probably supposed to make us think Ren was badly hurt when he neglected to block its bolt.

I do think Ren seems like Anakin of Episode 3 but nowhere near as powerful.

I'm waiting for the popular Mara Jade character concept to be utilized by JJ. ;) The stormtrooper Captain Phasma had me thinking about this. But clearly she's not force sensitive. On that topic, Rey is likely Luke's kid, and Mara and Luke did eventually have a kid in the silly books, so maybe that's similar to what the movies will do.
 
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Scott_Arm said:
I thought Kylo Ren was just toying with Finn until Finn managed to land a grazing shot. As for Rey, it didn't bother me at all. She shows signs of being special, like her insane piloting maneuver in the Millenium Falcon. When Ren tries to read her mind, fight or flight kicks in, and she saves herself. It's like some parents throwing their kids into the pool to teach them how to swim. Some kids figure it out real quick. She knows of Luke Skywalker and the Jedi, and seems to have great interest in the lore. So once she believes she can use the force, she starts to try different things she may have heard about. Ren, on the other hand, seems somewhat weak. He's not powerful like Darth Vader. Most of the movie he's torn between the dark and light, and not fully committed. When he's defeated his master says he will bring him back to finish his training. He's not a fully trained or powerful force user either. Rey is powerful and raw. Kylo Ren is more trained and weak. The rest of the trilogy is where it's going to get interesting. Can't wait to see it.
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There would need to be a really, really convincing explanation for why Rey is able to pick up so much, so quickly, because no one else in the first 6 episodes or in the Extended Universe that I know of has ever pulled off anything like this. I mean, a Jedi mind trick without any training? Kylo may not be naturally very gifted, but you'd expect him to be since he's got Skywalker blood and apparently destroyed Luke's academy or something. Plus, he displays some pretty remarkable abilities, though the script gives him little opportunity to shine, since he barely gets involved in the fighting, apart from the end.
 
Maybe, just maybe ... Rey was trained when she was younger but was involved in an accident which removed those moments from her memory.
 
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