Star Wars: The Force Awakens Reactions - SPOILERS HERE ONLY

[AxB]

Wouldn't it be funny if in 20 years time they came out with a special edition of the Force Awakens, where they've changed it so that Kylo killed Han in self defence because Han shot at him first? And then JJ said, well, with the romance between Ben Solo and Rey in episode 12, I didn't think that would work if Ben was a cold-blooded murderer, so this is better for everyone really.

 

When you watch the special editions on Blu-Ray, the added picture quality really makes all of George's 'improvements' stick out as being not supposed to be there. In pre-HD, it was harder to tell and you had to rely on your memories of the old versions to compare them.

[Matt D]

I'm probably the only one who cares but Todd Alcott's (holywood scriptwriter who has an interesting write up of Phantom Menace (And a hundred other movies) from the perspective of breaking down act breaks and Protagonists and what they want) started to pick apart Force Awakens to see what makes it tick:

 

Rey

Kylo

Finn

[goodhelmet]

Those were great reads. 

[Death From Above]

Wouldn't it be funny if in 20 years time they came out with a special edition of the Force Awakens, where they've changed it so that Kylo killed Han in self defence because Han shot at him first? And then JJ said, well, with the romance between Ben Solo and Rey in episode 12, I didn't think that would work if Ben was a cold-blooded murderer, so this is better for everyone really.

 

When you watch the special editions on Blu-Ray, the added picture quality really makes all of George's 'improvements' stick out as being not supposed to be there. In pre-HD, it was harder to tell and you had to rely on your memories of the old versions to compare them.

 

I'm so glad I have the version of the DVD releases where you can watch either the original or the Lucas Did Things release. I was surprised to find out this isn't something they've actually done that often. I mean there seems to be a Star Wars set out every couple years but apparently most don't have this option.

[Jingus]

Having just watched it, what fucking idiots claimed Rey is like Cena? She fucks up a lot. Cena would've cut Kylo Ren's head off and triumphantly posed with it. Rey goes to a double countout with the main villain.

There is one HUGE plot hole: where the hell did they get the map to Luke? He's apparently hiding out on some planet in the middle of nowhere, someplace which isn't even on the current starcharts. How did anyone find out where he was?

[Jrag]

Having just watched it, what fucking idiots claimed Rey is like Cena? She fucks up a lot. Cena would've cut Kylo Ren's head off and triumphantly posed with it. Rey goes to a double countout with the main villain.

 

 

Ok.  For one, you're being a dick and there is really no reason for it. Chill out bro, or you will force me to be really mean over the internet!

 

 2. She clearly has him beat and the earth splits apart.  Which is fine and all, because they did a good job protecting Kylo with the prior injuries.  

[steve]

JJ claims R2 got his portion of the map when he was jacked into the original Death Star back during ANH, but they never explain that in the movie.

 

It doesn't bother me though, when the Star Wars universe is literally built on the foundation of space magic. If we accept that, then how can there be any plot holes, really?

 

"Why did X happen?"

 

"The force."

[Death From Above]

Cena is more like Skywalker. He did a job for the Sandpeople on their debut before regaining the heavyweight title of Tattooine from the Rancor.

[EVA]

Having just watched it, what fucking idiots claimed Rey is like Cena? She fucks up a lot. Cena would've cut Kylo Ren's head off and triumphantly posed with it. Rey goes to a double countout with the main villain.

 

Ok.  For one, you're being a dick and there is really no reason for it. Chill out bro, or you will force me to be really mean over the internet!

 

 2. She clearly has him beat and the earth splits apart.  Which is fine and all, because they did a good job protecting Kylo with the prior injuries.

Ha, yeah, that was nowhere near a draw. She burned his face off his candy ass.

[stro]

JJ claims R2 got his portion of the map when he was jacked into the original Death Star back during ANH, but they never explain that in the movie.

 

It doesn't bother me though, when the Star Wars universe is literally built on the foundation of space magic. If we accept that, then how can there be any plot holes, really?

 

"Why did X happen?"

 

"The force."

That's....really dumb and makes no sense. What the movie actually showed on screen sure seemed to imply that Luke gave however you give a droid a piece of a digital map. And then R2 woke up because someone heavy in the force and probably a Skywalker was around him and needed it to find Luke. JJ's explanation is dumb as shit and at odds with what he showed in the movie.

[TheVileOne]

I'm probably the only one who cares but Todd Alcott's (holywood scriptwriter who has an interesting write up of Phantom Menace (And a hundred other movies) from the perspective of breaking down act breaks and Protagonists and what they want) started to pick apart Force Awakens to see what makes it tick:

 

Rey

Kylo

Finn

 

Here's another reading of the film by Indiewire's Andre Seewood of how the film pioneers "hyper-tokenism"  with Finn.

 

Hyper-Tokenism: 'The Force Awakens' While the Black Man Sleeps

 

 

[Bear Wyatt]

 

I'm probably the only one who cares but Todd Alcott's (holywood scriptwriter who has an interesting write up of Phantom Menace (And a hundred other movies) from the perspective of breaking down act breaks and Protagonists and what they want) started to pick apart Force Awakens to see what makes it tick:

 

Rey

Kylo

Finn

 

Here's another reading of the film by Indiewire's Andre Seewood of how the film pioneers "hyper-tokenism"  with Finn.

 

Hyper-Tokenism: 'The Force Awakens' While the Black Man Sleeps

 

[EVA]

I am greatly amused at the amount of people who refuse to believe that JJ Abrams, the King of Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants Plotting - by his own admission - tossed a half-baked plot point into his Star Wars movie. Like, it would be one thing if his track record was for immaculate plotting where everything adds up in the end, but it's exactly the opposite: This is what he does. He cares more about how a scene makes you feel than the logistics of getting to and from any particular scene. Go watch any if his movies or TV shows, and it's the exact same as you see here.

It's a good movie. It's not a perfect, unassailable movie. The R2 thing is one such assailable point. But you can still like the movie even if everything doesn't add up in a satisfactory manner.

[TheVileOne]

The honeymoon period for The Force Awakens is officially over for the ISWC!

[odessasteps]

There has to be a way to blame vince russo, right?

[The Nature Boy]

Could you imagine if Vince Russo had written this movie?

 

Rey would've turned heel at the end and joined Kylo.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Surprised no-one's considered a Poe heel turn in the next ep.

 

No reason why Kylo lets him live, accidentally gets rescued, looks like he dies but then somehow lives although no plausible means of rescue around..

[goodhelmet]

The honeymoon period for The Force Awakens is officially over for the ISWC!

 

ISWC? And why is it over? 

[Jingus]

Poe living was something I was grumpily counting on from the instant his "death" happened. If Lost taught us anything, it's that nobody dies unless you're looking right at them when it happens.

As for Rey beating Kylo: so what? One novice (who apparently must have a sky-high midichlorian count) kicked another novice's ass for a brief moment. Kylo didn't go into the fight anything close to fresh, he'd just been shot in the gut with Chewie's bowcaster, he was bleeding all over the place; and putting up with the PTSD of just having killed his own father probably wasn't helping his concentration either. And then Finn came at him first, leaving Rey with the oh-so-herculean task of finishing off a tired, badly wounded man who was in the midst of dealing with the worst emotional turmoil of his entire life. Impressive for a first-day padawan who'd never had any formal training, sure (and boy, does The Force Awakens shit all over the idea that Jedi should be trained and mentored) but hardly any more impressive than, oh, flying a spaceship you've never flown before and out-piloting all the other veterans in the dogfight and finally blowing up a massive battle station. Which Luke AND his dad both did.

And the burn on Kylo's face wasn't some life-altering maiming. In fact, it looked suspiciously EXACTLY like Tyrion Lannister's sexy facial scar on Game of Thrones (replacing a much more hideous wound as it was described in the book). I know why they did it, to give him a kayfabe psychological reason why he'll feel like he NEEDS to always wear the mask now (I guess Abrams had been reading old Dr. Doom comics before writing that bit) but it's hardly a disfiguring injury, I've seen wrestlers get cut worse than that in worked matches.

[Jrag]

Surprised no-one's considered a Poe heel turn in the next ep.

I threw it out there somewhere in this mess of a thread! I'm really hoping for an evil Poe in the next one. Would be a good twist that breaks away from the originals.

[Matt D]

 

The honeymoon period for The Force Awakens is officially over for the ISWC!

 

ISWC? 

 

rec.sports.pro-dejarik

[_MJ_]

I saw it today.  You guys are on page 18 so nothing I say is going to illuminate anything.  Of course, I like to hear myself talk and think out my thoughts so here I am typing away.  I am going to guess we've passed the dissection of the plot phase and maybe we're in the  "why it wasn't that good" phase so I'm not going to go too deep into the plot right now.  I'm still on a high.

 

For me, the best thing about this movie are the new trio leads.  Hands down.  That component alone made this so much more enjoyable for me than the prequels.  I understand the prequels were a darker story and blah, blah, blah, but John and Daisy were such a breathe of fresh air.  As soon as they excitedly expressed awe and joy over defeating a couple of First Order fighter ships, I was all in.  Yeah, I'm easy but even some of you cynical bastards have to at least like one of them now.  Po(Oscar) didn't get much, but I like the developing bro relationship between him and Finn.  He'll probably get more to do in the next one. 

 

I know you don't need likable leads to make a good movie but it should be a requirement for this franchise.  I think they hit a homerun with John and Daisy as Finn and Rey.  I hope they keep it up; please no awkward dialogue. 

 

Harrison Ford was obviously fun too.  I get why they decided to do it, but I did want them to keep him around long enough to get one more scene between Han and Luke.  Just one.  Oh well.

 

As for the plot...okay, I'll definitely say the map objective wasn't exactly the most thrilling or creative plot device in the world.  Plus, I'm sure there are some hardcore fans not thrilled with Rey winning the Rylo fight. I thought it was cool, but I rarely get bent out of shape about these type of issues; "her dragonball z power level isn't at his experience level so it doesn't make sense for her to out duel him".  Okay, I'm just being a jerk now.

 

I need more time to process the movie, but my main issue was that the First Order didn't strike too much fear or malice in my heart as the main villains.  If history tells us anything, the second one should correct this concern.

 

I can't wait for the next one.

Edited December 25, 2015 by _MJ_

[goodhelmet]

 

 

The honeymoon period for The Force Awakens is officially over for the ISWC!

 

ISWC? 

 

rec.sports.pro-dejarik

 

 

You answered one question that results in another question. 

[Josh Mann]

I saw it today. You guys are on page 18 so nothing I say is going to illuminate anything. Of course, I like to hear myself talk and think out my thoughts so here I am typing away. I am going to guess we've passed the dissection of the plot phase and maybe we're in the "why it wasn't that good" phase so I'm not going to go too deep into the plot right now. I'm still on a high.

For me, the best thing about this movie are the new trio leads. Hands down. That component alone made this so much more enjoyable for me than the prequels. I understand the prequels were a darker story and blah, blah, blah, but John and Daisy were such a breathe of fresh air. As soon as they excitedly expressed awe and joy over defeating a couple of First Order fighter ships, I was all in. Yeah, I'm easy but even some of you cynical bastards have to at least like one of them now. Po(Oscar) didn't get much, but I like the developing bro relationship between him and Finn. He'll probably get more to do in the next one.

I know you don't need likable leads to make a good movie but it should be a requirement for this franchise. I think they hit a homerun with John and Daisy as Finn and Rey. I hope they keep it up; please no awkward dialogue.

Harrison Ford was obviously fun too. I get why they decided to do it, but I did want them to keep him around long enough to get one more scene between Han and Luke. Just one. Oh well.

As for the plot...okay, I'll definitely say the map objective wasn't exactly the most thrilling or creative plot device in the world. Plus, I'm sure there are some hardcore fans not thrilled with Rey winning the Rylo fight. I thought it was cool, but I rarely get bent out of shape about these type of issues; "her dragonball z power level isn't at his experience level so it doesn't make sense for her to out duel him". Okay, I'm just being a jerk now.

I need more time to process the movie, but my main issue was that the First Order didn't strike too much fear or malice in my heart as the main villains. If history tells us anything, the second one should correct this concern.

I can't wait for the next one.

I felt like I didn't know enough about the New Order and their objective, but it's also fine to simply establish them as Bad People and save the Bond Villain exposition for E8. I said to my wife after the movie all the NR rally (Obvious symbolism was obvious BTW) needed was a bunch of MAKE THE GALAXY GREAT AGAIN hats.

Plus bogging too deep into process stories is the thing that killed the prequels most. So I get why they went the other way. When Disney gets its investment back we'll get insight on process.

On the whole, all the nitpicking doesn't diminish the fact it hit a lot of the high notes it needed to and allowed me to nerd out about a dozen times. If a movie can make you do that ONCE, it's the price of admission right there. Imagine how a dozen made me feel. In spite of the JJisms it was entertaining as hell.

[The Nature Boy]

I wouldn't be surprised if Han comes back in ghost form for one last scene with Luke or in some kind of a dream sequence. I'd be surprised if we don't get another Harrison Ford/Mark Hamill scene.