Star Wars: The Force Awakens Reactions - SPOILERS HERE ONLY

[Raziel]

Another theory: Rey's going to go to the dark side, while Ren moves to the light. I base this entirely on how much rage Rey showed and...

Her accent. British folks are almost always the bad guys.

Yeah, I know that's silly.

Yeah, Disney has a Female sci-fi hero who's now going to be a Jedi that they can milk for years.  No way she turns dark, ever. 

 

Channeling rage, whilst a dark side trait, isn't an automatic path to the dark.  See: Skywalker, Luke in Episode 6.  Its what you do after that's the key.

[Brian Fowler]

Be fair. The Plagueis scene is the very best of Sith, and for my money the second best of the entire prequel trilogy (low bar, granted.)

[Craig H]

So I see where people ignored that I said it was silly.

[EVA]

There was an interview with Kathleen Kennedy where she was asked how they differentiate between the Saga films and the upcoming Anthology films and she said, "The Saga films are primarily the soap opera centered around the Skywalker family."

If that's their guiding principle, I can't see any way the new main character isn't a Skywalker. Ben may have the bloodline through Leia, but he's a Solo. There's going to be someone with name "Skywalker" carrying this thing forward.

I mean, I guess they could really double down on the latent incest from the OT and have Luke tell Ben "No, I'M your father."

[nofuture]

I'm thinking Rey won't be Luke's daughter, but a youngling Luke was teaching when Kylo Ren turned on Luke.  That's how she could pick up on all force stuff so quickly. 

 

I just can't see how they could shoehorn a whole Luke romance storyline into all of this.  I highly doubt Luke was going to any singles bars post-Jedi.

[NikoBaltimore]

Saw it earlier, will have more thoughts later.

But holy shit Han's death did us in. So fucking heavy.

[The Unholy Dragon]

A couple notes now that I've digested more.

When they announced the Kanji I was like "Don't make them stereotype evil Asians." And then it was the guys from the Raid. As stereotypical evil Asians.

I don't understand how Rey wouldn't know the Jedi were real give or take forty years after they were a major sociopolitical power. Border planet or not, that's weird.

In general the film did a REALLY BAD JOB of establishing the status quo. It really feels like the First Order = Empire Mk. II but apparently the New Republic is a thing but after years of war and military strife are pushing for nonviolent solutions and heavily demilitarizing. The First Order are basically Neo-Nazis who the Republic are willing to let be as long as they don't start shit. Leia gets some like minded folks together who see how dangerous the First Order can be and they form an illegal resistance. Bang. But good luck establishing all that clearly with the film alone. But the victores of Jedi aren't lost. The Galaxy is mostly at peace. The First Order are more like the mob in the bad part of town than a governmental power at this point.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the movie basically jumping from one action setpiece to another. Some breathing room would have helped the emotional beats.

Given that basically every space battle in the prequels is terrible I was dreading that, but they made them fun. More Poe/Finn banter would have been great.

This film abused plot contrivances in a way I haven't seen since Dark Knight Rises. It doesn't really bother me at this stage but I would have fucking hated it when I was younger.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I'm thinking Rey won't be Luke's daughter, but a youngling Luke was teaching when Kylo Ren turned on Luke. That's how she could pick up on all force stuff so quickly. .

Bingo. I kinda thought that was obvious, to be honest.

[The Unholy Dragon]

Oh also. Kylo Ren's crossguard has taken a lot of shit, but after seeing how many people have had their fucking hands cut off by lightsabers in this franchise, I think it's brilliant.

[TheVileOne]

Didn't Harrison Ford want Han Solo to die in every Star Was film he ever made? It does explain why they sent grumpy Harrison to do the Euro press junkets for this movie though. He won't be promoting the next one at all.

 

Don't know why they had Mark Hammill lose a bunch of weight for the movie though. I can get that with Carrie Fisher, they wanted her to look like an old soldier, not a comfortably retired person who never did anything athletic in their life. But Luke in that costume and with that beard didn't really need to be skinny at all, did he?

 

Why was it, whenever I was reading Adam Driver interviews a few months ago, the journo would always comment on how he seemed like a real tough, macho guy? Because he doesn't project that on screen at all (nb: I've only ever seen him in this movie. I don't watch any shows about aimless upper middle class twentysomethings). He just looks like a tall-ish lanky guy. I knew he's ex-military and so on, but if we're supposed to see him with the mask off and find him unthreatening, it's good casting on that front. Is it just a case of journalist takes a fancy to interviewee and writes unwarranted gushing praise in feature?

 

Well maybe the payoff here is that Hamill can get a few more on-camera gigs while he's all in shape and stuff.  

[Basara]

With all the talk of Rey being Luke's kid am i the only one that got the impression she might be Han and Leias? 

[Leonidas]

I think there was a connection when Leia and Rey were hugging after Han's death. Got more of a Niece/Aunt vibe to it than Mother/Daughter though. Seriously though, she is related, just look at her. She is the spitting image of Amidala and not unlike young Leia. Just means was she fighting her brother or her cousin?

 

Really enjoyed the film, Harrison Ford is one of those actors who seems to play the same role, different versions of himself in each film. However in this, he really nailed being Han Solo again, markedly different from his other famous characters. When Han walked down that bridge I knew it was over, but my heart was beating out of my chest, couldn't believe they were actually going to do it. Can't wait for more!

[Ace]

On the other hand, Natalie Portman affected a terrible British accent in Episode I, and wasn't a bad guy.

 

It took me years to realize that Portman's ridiculous accent as Queen Amidala was her attempt to mimic Kiera Knightley (who was dressed as the Queen when Padme was posing as a handmaiden,)

[Matt D]

But the victores of Jedi aren't lost. The Galaxy is mostly at peace. The First Order are more like the mob in the bad part of town than a governmental power at this point.

By the end of the movie they feel like they are. This is a loose analogy but it feels like the nazis won WWII and took over the world but an underground overthrew them. Their remnants moved to Argentina and the underground's remnants moved to Israel and both are vaguely tolerated.

Then 40 years later, Argentina blows up the United States and Western Europe in the span of an hour and Israel makes Argentina's attempt to blow them up too backfire. So they win but the places liberated from the nazis 40 years ago and all that they built since are still blown up.

In Star Wars it was London or San Francisco getting blown up. Here it was the entire New Repiblic (and this is after Luke's New Jedi Order was made still born).

It could be that it was just the nearest New Republic system to cut off Resistance support as they put the noose around them but that wasn't made clear enough if that was the case. It sounded like they were taking out the whole thing or at least the seat of it. The movie didn't give us enough to fully understand the stakes. That's fine in A New Hope because we don't have even enough context to ask questions but now we do so it's problematic.

I would have been much more comfortable with the Order targeting the Resistance's system first but the Resistance escaping thanks to Finn (even if countless others in the system didn't) and the then being the only ones who could get to the Starkiller in time to stop it from destroying the New Republic and that being the big victory of the movie.

[MarcosLoura]

 

On the other hand, Natalie Portman affected a terrible British accent in Episode I, and wasn't a bad guy.

 

It took me years to realize that Portman's ridiculous accent as Queen Amidala was her attempt to mimic Kiera Knightley (who was dressed as the Queen when Padme was posing as a handmaiden,)

 

It took me years to realize that Kiera Knightley was in that movie (from 1999 to a minute ago). I always thought that Portman played both characters.

[Brian Fowler]

On the other hand, Natalie Portman affected a terrible British accent in Episode I, and wasn't a bad guy.

It took me years to realize that Portman's ridiculous accent as Queen Amidala was her attempt to mimic Kiera Knightley (who was dressed as the Queen when Padme was posing as a handmaiden,)

Oh. My. God. Just took me sixteen and a half years then.

It took me years to realize that Kiera Knightley was in that movie (from 1999 to a minute ago). I always thought that Portman played both characters.

Don't feel too bad, allegedly when they were in the makeup on set, their own mothers couldn't tell them a part.

[Matt D]

Poe was supposed to die:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/wait-redacted-was-supposed-to-die-in-the-force-awake-1748949179

[Brian Fowler]

That doesn't surprise me at all. Him being still alive felt tacked on, though very very welcome.

[Lawful Metal]

That doesn't surprise me at all. Him being still alive felt tacked on, though very very welcome.

I honestly thought it was some Battlestar Galactica stuff where he dies, but his next incarnation remembers what happened to him. 

[RandomAct]

I only have minor, teeny tiny gripes about the film(mostly around Kylo Ren), but otherwise I thought it was amazing.  I can only imagine that someone seeing Star Wars for the first time here, had the same feelings that we had seeing the originals for the first time.  Probably not much I can add, analysis-wise, but I wanted to mention the theater reaction.  Everyone sits in stunned silence for about a minute during the credits, then we all walk out, still silent, but everyone has this giant smile plastered on their face.  It was quite amazing.

 

I was glad Poe survived, as I feel like he can be the new "Han", since he has that same boyish charm.  I wish they had shown more reaction from Chewy after Han's death, but I'm glad he got a good shot in on Ren.

[TheVileOne]

It's no wonder Poe's return to the plot seemed so hastily written.  Well the whole script was hastily written in about six months from scratch after they tossed Michael Arndt's script into the garbage.  

[goodhelmet]

Is there any idea on what Arndt wanted to do with the film? 

[Craig H]

I dug the hell out of how Poe's return was handled. I was really bummed thinking they had killed off what could have been one of the best characters in the franchise and then in comes the motherfuckin BLACK SQUADRON and Poe starts wrecking shop. I'm trying to think of another time where I was that happy to see that a character wasn't dead and I'm having trouble coming up with something comparable.

Can we please just get one of the one-off movies starring Poe and Finn?

[TheVileOne]

Is there any idea on what Arndt wanted to do with the film? 

 

Apparently all that Abrams and Kasdan kept from Arndt's script was the female lead Rey-type character and a Stormtrooper abandoning his post, Finn.  Those were the ideas Abrams wanted to focus on.

 

Arndt also said this:

 

“Early on I tried to write versions of the story where [Rey] is at home, her home is destroyed, and then she goes on the road and meets Luke. And then she goes and kicks the bad guy’s ass. It just never worked and I struggled with this. This was back in 2012.” Apparently the issue was Luke’s presence was always upstaging everyone in the script. “It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over,” Arndt continued. “Suddenly you didn’t care about your main character anymore because, ‘Oh f–k, Luke Skywalker’s here. I want to see what he’s going to do.’”

 

[Bustronaut]

Just got back and have 3 thoughts:

 

1. Not a fan of Bro Dameron

2. The helicopter shot in the finale was a bit much

3. Why must ever masked character in every movie of the past 20 or so years unmask at some point in the movie?  It doesn't make any sense!  Ren unmasking and just walking around without it killed the character for me.  Leave it for the confrontation with Han at least!

 

The rest of the movie was ok.