Official Star Wars Thread

A lot of my friends were going to see the movie tonight; so, in spur of the moment decision making, I bought a ticket as well for 10:10 PM. Should be good.
 
Saw it, loved it.

I guessed the death pretty early on, when we were getting so much Han. Pretty sure the girl is Luke's daughter, but mostly, I love me some Poe Dameron. He could shoot down TIE Fighters all day. In fact, can I have a movie that is all that?

BB-8 is a masterpiece. So little Luke made me sadface, but looks like more Luke to come.

Definitely going to see it again.
 
Saw it last night, incredibly good. It lived up to my expectations. Good story, good characters (new and old), really good acting, good special effects, and a good setup to episode VIII. It really checked all the boxes it needed to in a really good way. I cannot recall any "bleh" moments in the entire film. For a movie of that length, it really went by fast.
 
So here are my first, rough impressions... I'm sure a lot will change, so bear with me. It's too soon to make up my mind about it.

I think my expectations grew too much over the 3 years of crazy anticipation... It's very harsh and unfair, but I'm just disappointed that the film wasn't perfect. Can't help it, but it's more my problem than any giant fault of the film... I'm sure that I will focus on the positives more when I see it for the second time.

Generally it was a lot simpler than I imagined, which underwhelmed me. It was way too safe. The most interesting things are left behind the scenes and it seems that the truly new stuff will kick off properly in VIII. The Force Awakens sets things up, but the events of the plot give us hardly anything seriously new. That's bad for hardcore fans, but perfect for newcomers.

What stood out:
- Opening crawl hyped me up big time. I liked how central Luke was.

- First part of the film was fantastic. They introduced Finn really well and Poe was an instant badass. Sequences of Rey's life on Jakku were fascinating. The whole scavenger 'culture' was very interesting. And she lived in an AT-AT wreckage, how cool is that!

- I buy Rey as the main character.

- BB-8 was so good! I can't believe how much personality this droid had.

- Harrison!

- Kylo Ren was GREAT. I freaking loved the scene when he raged and smashed that console! Notice the difference between him and any Sith we know. They all were very stoic whereas he's a maniac! Very cool. Also, we're familiar with characters being tempted by the dark side, but being tempted by the light is something new! Good idea. The 'grandfather scene' was brilliant.

- Lightsaber fight was amazing. Completely new approach. I liked how dirty it was. All the minor wounds... Very realistic. My one problem is that Rey and Finn, who were untrained, managed to use the lightsaber so well. This, however, could be explained by Finn's stormtrooper training and Rey's skills with her staff...

- Luke teaching new Jedi?! Oh man, that was probably the most fascinating thing. The big question is - how are they going to fill the blanks? We have to know more about this! I really hope for flashbacks in Episode VIII and some really good books about it. Please, don't fuck this chapter of the story...

- Rey's backstory (parents stuff) and destiny is very intriguing. I think there's a chance she's Luke's kid, whom he abandoned when he decided to vanish.

- Who the hell was Max von Sydow?! He seemed like an important character. This has to be explained in future!

- The reveal of Kylo's real name was powerful. Small thing but it got me.

- Visually everything was jaw-dropping. J.J. did a great job at directing.

There's more for sure, but I can't wrap my mind around everything after seeing it just once...

Some dislikes, disappointments and questionable stuff:
- The whole thing with Starkiller base. Death Star rehash was way too obvious. I think it wasn't original enough to serve well as a standalone plot point in TFA.

- I found it far-fetched that Rey was able to pilot Falcon so well...

- Finn annoyed me sometimes... I didn't like his goofy bits, there was too much of that. It felt like he was overacting. Moreover, the chemistry between Rey and Finn didn't seem natural... I think that the development of their friendship was a bit rushed. I don't know, I'm not sure about this. I need to see it again to say...

- Exposition was forced at some points. I mean sometimes it was too obvious that characters spoke more to the audience than to each other.

- Captain Phasma did basically nothing in this film. I'm not saying the character is wasted, because probably we'll see her again in VIII, but it surprised me how small the role was for such extensively marketed character.

- The scene of Han's death was overly staged IMO... They tried to make it look more dramatic than they needed to. You know... That bridge, Chewie, Finn and Rey watching from distance... Maybe it's just me, because Han's death was something I predicted and basically took it for granted long ago. Good for me, because otherwise it would be very difficult to deal with... :p

- Why/how did R2 wake up so suddenly? Minor thing, but it puzzled me instantly...

- I knew Luke's role was going to be small but I didn't expect it to be like that... I really hoped to see him in some action like Yoda in AotC.

By the way, let me mention my screening itself... I'm a guy who can't tolerate disturbances in cinema. Chatter (and even close presence of strangers) annoys the hell out of me. So guess what. A school trip came. A large group (5 full rows) of kids at the worst possible age (13-15 probably) who were behaving like animals and flat out idiots. Now the worst part. During the film some of them kept walking out and back in the auditorium and one of them shouted
'Han dies.' Loud, so everyone could hear it.
I shit you not, that's what happened. I don't even know how to comment on that. The kid's behaviour knocked me out of the movie for like the last third of it.
 
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We had a bunch of kids behind us and they were annoying as hell while waiting for the movie to start .. but luckily they shut up once it started.
 
Probably a great film for PlayClassics people. I'll go myself somewhere between Christmas and the new year.
 
bearfan said:
We had a bunch of kids behind us and they were annoying as hell while waiting for the movie to start .. but luckily they shut up once it started.
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I moved a couple of rows forward as soon as I saw them coming. Best decision ever... I actually liked being close to the screen.
 
That's the first track from the soundtrack. Main theme sounds so different. My right ear feels abused :P I know that's how orchestra sits, but this time it feels somewhat more isolated.

I haven't listened to the whole soundtrack yet, but I remember very little music from cinema, that's a bad sign... I only remember that Rey's theme is great. (Relistening now - it's amazing).
 
Srogyy said:
That's the first track from the soundtrack. Main theme sounds so different. My right ear feels abused :p I know that's how orchestra sits, but this time it feels somewhat more isolated.

I haven't listened to the whole soundtrack yet, but I remember very little music from cinema, that's a bad sign... I only remember that Rey's theme is great. (Relistening now - it's amazing).
Click to expand...
I thought the score was pretty weak unfortunately nothing really stood out other than 'Rey's Theme', 'Snoke' and 'The Jedi Steps'
 
I'll have to listen to the soundtrack, but during the movie not a lot of music really stood out to me. Say what you will about the prequels, the soundtracks for those had some excellent pieces
 
I loved it. I saw the Han death coming but it was still shocking and a good way for the character to go. The whole sequence that followed up until the new death star explosion had me in chills the entire time. The lightsaber duel was a nice mix of the flashiness from the prequels but with the emotional power of the originals. Very ideal for 2015 action standards.

The new death star was kind of lame. I'm kinda conflicted on this more than anything else in the movie really.

The good things about new death star:
  • They made a point to acknowledge that it obviously looks like a Death Star and differentiated the two things within the movie. I liked that they were conscious of this and at least had an in-universe explanation for it.
  • When the thing fired up and attacked the Republic, that was really cool. In fact, having the special effects capabilities that we have now to do something like that almost justifies rehashing the death star again. Compare this to Alderaan in ANH. By the way, was that Coruscant that got destroyed?
  • The interior wasn't really Death Star like. It was a cool environment.
The bad things
  • It's still another death star. It was cool and all but it's still a bit too rehash-y.
  • The way they destroyed it and the whole subplot around it pretty much mirrored ANH exactly.
But again it was such a minor detail in the grand scheme of things that it didn't effect my enjoyment at all.


Definitely some parallels to the original Star Wars, something I was worried about going in, but it didn't feel like a rehash overall. And remember this is a series created by a guy who said this when making the prequels:
There's going to be parallels with the old stuff. I thought it was a good mix of fan service, new stuff, and added to the lore.

I wish we would've gotten to see Luke more but he's going to be a huge part of Episode 8 and that makes me really excited.

Score was good, couple of new pieces stuck out to me.
 
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Can we all agree that lightsaber duels are way better without both sides constantly backflipping for no particular reason? :P
 
Yes!
They were more impressive than the originals technically but maintained that emotional intensity.
 
Only for premieres and stuff. My theater was very quiet yesterday.
 
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