Star Wars

[TheMightyEthan]

Oh yeah, forgot about him.  He looked better than the other one.

[TheMightyEthan]

[Hot Heart]

Tried to avoid as much of the marketing, discussion, etc. as I could and went in with low expectations...

 

...and I really liked it.

 

 

My only major gripe is that it emulates the first film so much that it's almost like a remake. From the very beginning: Droid with McGuffin, orphan on desert planet, Sith guy captures resistance member to be rescued, the list goes on...

 

That said, I liked a lot of the new stuff as well as the twists on the old. When Ren was trying to grab that lightsaber but Rey was stopping him, my brain was yelling, "YES!" So great to have a female jedi lead, in conjunction with what I can assume was a clever ploy in all the promotion making you think Finn was the "force user".

 

There are a lot of clumsy bits in there, for sure, and I'm skeptical about where they can take things now (if they're just going to re-do the whole original trilogy's beats or what...) but it's a thrilling and pacy bit of cinema with some great action, levity, character interaction and spectacle.

 

I am intrigued by the "Rey's parents" theories though (well, all two of them). If she is Han and Leia's, it could be a little far-fetched, but I could see how it would work and certain elements of that would be a more interesting take.

 

[Mal]

I just got done and yes I did get spoiled on both things I came across.

Overall it was good, easily top three. No complaints really. I'll dig into the thread later and post a better write up.

 

 

Kind of a bummer I got Han's death spoiled but the sadness of it all was all the same, especially when Han touched Kylo's face. I actually didn't think I would care that much for Han... The entire sequence was done quite well, so much so that I want the zoomed out shot when Finn and Rey came in as a wallpaper. I still don't think Kylo is truly lost to the dark side yet. Dude's a mess and everybody called or act out to him on it. I seriously want to know what happened with Luke's attempt to restore the Jedi till the beginning of the movie. The entirety of the Knights of Ren wasn't in the movie except in that flash back. Are they all turned Jedi trainees*?

 

With the dark side in mind: Snoke's look was the other one that I got spoiled with. His reveal still had some surprises since his size which then turned out to be a hologram. We also got some good long looks of him. More on Snoke later*.

 

Now about the map bit: I can buy it. Look back on this schematic map. That slice could be in the unknown region. The movie just never said it. Additionally, there might be some major issues with using hyper space to get to such an incomplete map which involves running into things if calculations are off. The only safe and fast way to travel via hyper space is through known and well traveled hyper space lanes. Of course, the movies never go into detail of such things so using it as a plot point is problematic.

As for who Rey truly is... everything seems to either point to Luke or Leia as being one of her parent. She's kind of insane with the Force if she can grasp it so quickly. She brute forced her way through a mind trick without anybody ever teaching that to her! Hell, she beat Kylo at telekinesis and blocked out a mind probe. So with just knowing that she is Force-sensitive and knowing about the popular Jedi skills, she pulled shit off. If not from the Skywalker family then who? If she is from someone else then they have to expand on it in the future movies.

Also I got to mention the newer Force abilities shown. Freezing a blaster bolt? Mind probing? Me likey.

 

More later but now for the * which is about Snoke with some canon expand universe stuff. So in it goes into another spoiler in case you guys don't want to be spoiled.

 

 

 

Is Snoke the Grand Inquisitor? The Grand Inquisitor was never named and should've died in Rebels but if he didn't and got 30 years to age then Snoke would be like how I expect him to look. That's reason one. Reason two is about the rest of the Knights of Ren. Besides Kylo, the rest weren't in this movie besides in that one flash back. They scream Inquisitor-like to me. They're not Sith but are force sensitive people trained in the dark side by Sidious and Vader, and were used as top Imperial agents. Specifically to hunt down Jedi who survived Order 66. Snoke or one of the other Inquisitor seems like the only plausible dark siders left after Sidious and Vader deaths.

 

 

This movie is such a fucking tease.

Edited December 19, 2015 by MaliciousH

[deanb]

 

Also it turns out

 

Lukes home is a UNESCO World Heritage site which probably explains the minimal set dressing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skellig_Michael

I was wrong in my location of where it was at, but not by overly much.

 

[TCP]

 

HOW WAS IT THAT GOOD?!?!?

 

I just. I just. I CAN'T EVEN. I JUST. FUCK. WHERE'S EPISODE 8?!?!

 

 

 

Ok ok, I've had time to gather my thoughts. Here goes.

 

I fucking loved every single second of it. Every single second. Could I have done with more Luke? Absolutely. I was waiting for Rey to say "...Dad?" or something, but I suppose that can wait for the next movie. The humour was great. The story was fine, felt very A New Hope in terms of scale and scope. I'm so excited for Episode 8, the stakes are going to be so high. Here's hoping JJ does another one. Can we give him episode 9 instead of that fucking Jurassic Park guy??

I guess Harrison Ford only wanted to do one movie, sucks to see him go out, I was afraid they'd kill one of the original trio, but I was hoping we'd at least get a scene with all three of them again. 

The new characters were great. Rey was awesome, Fin was great too. I really liked Poe, I could have used more of him. BB8 stole the show, every time BB8 was on screen, it was great.

 

Questions:

So Han totally said Ben right??

That girl that was constantly next to Leia, and is standing with her and 3PO at the end when Rey and Chewie leave, is she suppose to be another Solo kid? She looks too much like Leia to be a coincidence.

Who was that old guy at the beginning, I figured he must be an original trilogy character, like a Wedge or someone of that calibre, but he didn't look familiar.

 

Were the rumours of Hayden Christensen in episode 8 ever taken seriously? With Kylo Ren being so Vader obsessed it would make sense for him to appear as a Force Ghost.

 

 

 

 

Unrelated Star Wars question:

When the Emperor was telling Anakin the story of the Sith who could create life, and then he looked at Anakin, were we suppose to assume he impregnated Shmi Skywalker??

 

Did people clap?

Yes, almost everyone did. Not me though, I was in too much shock.

 

It's at 1 or 2 for me. Maybe 1. Ranking is:

 

1 TFA

1 TESB

3 ANH

4 ROTJ

4 ROTS

6 AOTC

9 TPM

Quoted for truth. Edited December 19, 2015 by The Cowboy Poet

[Mal]

More thoughts.

 

I actually hoped that the Starkiller Base was only knocked out of commission for x numbers of years, not destroyed. The way it exploded was cool but come on. If we see another Starkiller base, I'll explode like the original Death Star. Please, pretty please, have Snoke be in a Star Forge. That way he can mass produce ships and... Death Stars in mass. How many times does the New Order Empire got to have their totally kickass but one of a kind superweapon get destroyed before they say "Fuck it." and make a Star Forge or something churn stuff like SSD and Death Stars out like clockwork? Note, I am actually unfamiliar with how the Star Forge of the old EU operates... by all accounts it was supremely powerful since it make ships so easily.

 

Also, about Rey... I like this theory. It doesn't require Rey to be anybody kid and it explains why she got to know and use her Force abilities so quickly. The only problem is that Kylo should've know her. It kind of punch a hole in my alternative version of this theory: Rey was part of Knights of Ren or at least helped them during the massacre. One thing that stood out to me was just how aggressive Rey was during the final fight. Though I guess you can chalk it up to her being untrained in the Force... UGH. Seems like I'm going in circles.

 

Questions!

 

Who was the guy Kylo killed in the beginning? Also was the star system that was destroyed housed the New Republic capital, right? So was it Chandrila? It was Hosnian Prime.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

That is the greatest thing I've seen all day.

[TheMightyEthan]

Questions!

 

Who was the guy Kylo killed in the beginning? Also was the star system that was destroyed housed the New Republic capital, right? So was it Chandrila? It was Hosnian Prime.

 

 

Wait, it wasn't Chandrila? Then why did they make such a big deal about how they were going to take out the New Republic government. That doesn't make sense if they were just destroying some random-ass planet.

 

[Mal]

 

Questions!

 

Who was the guy Kylo killed in the beginning? Also was the star system that was destroyed housed the New Republic capital, right? So was it Chandrila? It was Hosnian Prime.

 

 

Wait, it wasn't Chandrila? Then why did they make such a big deal about how they were going to take out the New Republic government. That doesn't make sense if they were just destroying some random-ass planet.

 

 

Apparently they expanded on some lore in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary. The capital changes every few years base on a vote. Like what the hell man. That book only came out TODAY.

Speaking of capital... anyone else kind of bummed that we spent only like five seconds looking at a city? While pretty, most we got was the middle of nowhere.

 

Also to drive it home... I refuse to follow the hints that Rey is Luke's kid. Waaaaaaaaaaaay to blunt.

 

Edited December 19, 2015 by MaliciousH

[CorgiShinobi]

I guess this is the rare instance where one should hide from the Internet. I've had two things spoiled for me by just casually browsing. Article titles and ads just couldn't contain their load and are gushing with things like, "So why did JJ Abrams decided on X event for character Y?!"

[TCP]

I gotta say, I really like how in the trailers 

 

they faked everyone out with the whole Fin being the new Jedi, when really it was Rey doing all the ass kicking.

 

[deanb]

@TCP:

 

Yeah it was Ben, I imagine as in "Ben Kenobi"

 

As for Ford he's wanted out for a long time, hence being frozen in carbonite (it was unsure if he'd be back for RotJ).

 

No idea on the old guy, we've being questioning too. It has been 30 years, plenty time for Luke n co to meet new people and them to be old too I guess.

 

 

The old canon used to be that it was Plagueis who was fucking about with the force and accidentally made Anakin. New canon is "huh?"

 

@Mal:

 

Yeah, Ackbar specifically said it would just disable the gun, but nope it blew up instead. I imagine given the difference in dialogue and events that maybe it was studio meddling?

 

I think there's definitely some kind of memory wipe*, but honestly she was shown to be pretty sufficient at fighting already. I imagine spending your life since a kid on a hostile planet will do that to you. What would be more surprising is Finn, who is force sensitive at best, and a sanitation worker trained in blasters being able to use a lightsaber.

 

*Though also the whole "not remembering everything from childhood anyway" stuff.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah,

I thought it made sense that Rey was at least decent with a lightsaber, what I thought was weird was Fin being decent.

 

I must not have paid enough attention to the trailers, because I always thought Rey was the force user.

 

[Hot Heart]

 

I did think it was weird that Finn could "use" the lightsaber, but I suppose his conditioning as a stormtrooper included all sorts of combat training? Like the guy who could go against him with that baton thing.

 

Well, he wasn't brilliant with it anyway. I'm surprised he lasted that long against Ren, but I suppose Ren was actually heavily injured.

 

 

You know, it was a great feeling, watching it in the cinema and then I kind of started to be a bit down on it on reflection.

 

 

Maybe it's a combination of it being too similar to IV, and seeing comments about Rey being too much of a Mary Sue.

 

 

But now I'm actually kind of excited, what with all the theories and Rian Johnson being involved in the next installment as well.

 

 

I'm hoping this was just them playing it fairly safe in order to get the ball rolling before they go and do some cool, new stuff.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

 

Yeah, Fin being able to use it okay against Storm Troopers was fine, it was when he was able to hold his own (for at least a little while) against Ren that I thought it got hard to swallow.

 

[deanb]

Don't forget we get this guy in the next film

 

@Hotheart:

Yeah I reckon it's playing safe to be sure, especially given the general (sometimes OTT) backlash to the prequels

 

[TCP]

When I left the threatre yesterday, my main thought was "so this is what it's like to go see a good Star Wars movie in theatres for the first time".

[danielpholt]

 

Yeah, Fin being able to use it okay against Storm Troopers was fine, it was when he was able to hold his own (for at least a little while) against Ren that I thought it got hard to swallow.

 

 

 

A wounded Ren. He was leaking blood at a fairly alarming rate by that point. Fin seemed to be fairly well trained, I don't hate the idea that he knows how to handle himself with a sword.

 

And he still got his ass handed too him, it's not like he won this duel.

 

[deanb]

 

She looks so much like Kiera Knightley in this. Also more posting this for how bad Carrie Fisher is at spoilers(there isn't any in the clip).

 

Also John Boyega is kinda cool:

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, the whole movie I was thinking she was an off brand Kiera Knightley.

[TCP]

I love that Carrie Fischer just brings her dog with her everywhere, even on sets, she had him at the Conan Star Wars special too.

 

 

Kiera Knightly who played a decoy/doppelgänger of Natalie Portman HMMMMMMMM........... what could that mean. She has to be Luke's daughter right?? This is going to annoy the shit out of me till Episode 8. If she was Han and Leia's they would have told her, and Kylo could have figured it out too. Unless she's some sort of secret descendant or female clone of Obi-Wan (think X-23), which would explain why she heard Obi-Wan's voice in her vision. But you can't go out of your way to have her family be such a mystery, not reveal who they are, and not have them be something special/familiar.

 

[Mr. GOH!]

Just saw it. There's a considerable amount of JJ Abrams fuckery and it was tough to watch Carrie Fisher's plastic surgery-immobilized face, but I really enjoyed it. Can't wait for VIII. I'll post more when I'm back at my comput.

[TCP]

Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, Carrie Fisher doesn't really look, or sound, like Leia anymore, but I didn't think her performance was that much worse than her previous acting in SW films, she was never really a great actress but regardless it was still great to see her as Leia again, if for nothing else than nostalgia. 

[Mr. GOH!]

I have no problem with her aging, just the plastic surgery immobilization. I have significant issues with the writing, but I'll post that stuff later.

 

The new heroes and villains all knocked it out of the park.