Don’t know what the etiquette is for something like this - so no spoilers in the opening post. Suffice it to say, I have just got back from the European Premiere in London (itself an interesting experience, walking the red carpet past JJ Abrams and Adam Driver signing autographs and posing for photos, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew being interviewed by the assembled press, etc).
I wil say this. I am not a diehard fan of the series (but have seen all of the other 6 films and jumped at the chance of a ticket through work) but I thought this was a pretty decent film, hitting what might be expected and familiar beats and maintained a pretty sharp pace. There are criticisms to be made, I think (one plot development is telegraphed almost as soon as the relevant scene starts, for instance), but I’ll leave most of that to those who have greater investment in the series than I do. As a film in and of itself though, I thought it was fun, with more than a couple of genuine LOLs that I didn’t feel undercut the characters or the overall feel of the originals. A good modern blockbuster.
I assume some others will have seen it by now. Have at it.
I assume I am missing something here but, not that I could see. Both he and Kenny Baker don’t look too well to be honest. Also, Gwendoline Christie is super tall - she’s probably taller than Mayhew now that he’s walking with an aide and a stick.
I’ll be seeing it Friday morning. I have a ticket for 7 AM on the 60-foot-tall Imax screen at Pacific Science Center (which was actually my second choice, since Cinerama sold out too fast).
I am so looking forward to it and I will report my opinions at some point on Friday.
I won’t spoiler box anything, so turn back now if you need to.
Well, I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I won’t bother ranking the old movies with this one. I need to see this one many more times before thinking about that. The point is, it equals the old ones.
I’m disappointed Luke has no lines. His moment was powerful, extremely powerful. Mark Hamill nailed the “reveal”(hood back) moment of his character. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a line at one point and I can actually understand the final decision to simply show him, but wow, I was stunned. I was predicting at least one brief line.
Adam Driver was unbelievable in the moment where(or just before, actually) he kills Han. So was Harrison Ford. I know in the future, it will be painfully obvious, but I actually began to feel my heart rise with joy when he dropped his helmet. He actually sold me on the redemption, even though it wasn’t there. Great moment for a great actor. I’ve never seen him in anything before.
Loved the special effects. It looked very much like models, which I love.
I did not, however, notice any music that blew me away. I had little ability to pay attention to the music, though. I was focused on the story and acting.
Loved that this was filmed on 35mm film. There really is something about it that makes it match the old films in image. The prequels look like crap, even though Phantom Menace was made on film. There is just way more sets in this movie and it helps a ton.
I’m not sure what to say. I may not give this an A+, but at least a nice solid A.
I thought it was merely a 3/5 movie*. It started better than that - the early parts with Finn’s and Rey’s backstories before they meet was really well done but once they grab Millenium Falcon and blast off the movie suffers from almost constant action with no pauses. There’s other flaws as well like not very impressive bad guys (though the fascist speech scene was good), a copy of the old trench run scene re-enacted almost exactly same way and yet another gigantic planet-busting superweapon. The early parts of the movie felt like it was building something new in the old, loved Star Wars universe but the later parts are just copied stuff from the old movies, fanservice.
Maybe it was the pressure of dealing with absolute massive piles of money that boiled away all originality, hard to say. It was still definitely way better than episodes I-III and I enjoyed watching it but I wasn’t blown away. Action looked good even though there was too much of it and some scenes were plain boring like the combat scene at the forest planet which IMO served little purpose. The romance between Finn and Rey seemed a bit hasty, though with Finn him falling for her so quickly after escaping his oppressive stormtrooper life at least makes some sense.
Even though I was a bit disappointed I think they are in a fairly good place for the next movie.
*(A quick informal poll at our RPG club’s IRC channel gave me three people who thought it was not too bad and one who went into nerd-rage and started flipping tables. Nobody loved it.)
I thought it was a decent movie. A decent Star Wars movie, but probably not a super standalone movie because there’s too much fanwank in it for non-fans, in my opinion.
I enjoyed it a lot but I admit I predicted a lot of it including Kylo Ren’s identity and the death of Han. However I also admit I spend more of my spare time thinking about Star Wars theories than I ought to as a grown up with a job.
Great effects. Loved the abandoned AT-ATs etc on Jakku. Fairly decent acting.
Overall 8 out of 10 from me. I look forward to seeing this thread develop.
I thought it was dreadful. I was about to walk out.
Good bits: Lovely cinematography, set piece vistas etc. and battle effects, and the 1000 year old bar lady was beautifully realised.
Bad bits: Acting and dialogue was for the most part cringeworthy (BB-8 had all the best lines), plot made very little sense, too much of that superficial referencing of earlier movies. It could have done with a script editor or indeed a script writer. Also the XTREME nature of things, supermegahyperdeathstar, fucking snore. I think the Star Wars franchise needs to be put to bed.
It was a better movie than Episode 1 or Episode 2 but I think perhaps Episode 3 has the edge on it. It didn’t help that I went to see it in an overly hot cinema at midnight and in 3D, the 3D was for the most part pointless, occasionally lovely and several times downright irritating.
Most of the reviews are right in that there are maybe one or two too many callbacks and structural similarities to the original Star Wars, but I think that’s buried enough under how many things that were right, cool, thrilling, and spectacular for that to matter.
My thought immediately afterward was "People who liked the Tim Zahn Heir to the Empire novels will like this movie. It has the same balance of new and old, if in a different mixture.
I utterly love the new characters, they were compelling, and thought Han and Chewie dominating the returning character moments was the right move, all things considered, though I expected way more Luke.
I also like there’s plenty of directions they can go in the future, with hints and implications of all sorts of story to explore and explain.
The Han death scene is, I think, going to be the crux of this whole movie and the reaction of people to that scene is likely to be indicative of that person’s reaction to the movie as a whole. Not that it will necessarily lead people’s views of the film but it neatly encapsulates the film as a whole, I think.
As the scene started, with the framing and the presence of Rey, Finn and Chewie at a distance from Han and Ren, it’s set up as the Obi-Wan sacrifice scene for Ep 7. Right from the outset, it seemed obvious to me that Han was about to die and, contra Mahaloth upthread, the actors, nor the dialogue, ever made me believe that there was a chance of a switch from that. As it played out though, I could feel my heart beating faster - it was the Obi-Wan scene with the stakes raised a touch (largely because of the relationship we already have with Han) - but the fact that I noticed this suggests I was never really absorbed in the moment. By the end, the actors brought it round for me and Ford’s final moment with his son before falling off the walkway (like Luke in Empire) was great.
The scene sort of sums up my feelings on the film overall. It’s an amped up version of the original Star Wars, with the major moments hitting almost all of the same plot points and, on occasion, borrowing from Empire (Finn appears to be have been left in a version of Han’s state from the end of Empire, for instance). As a consequence, it is pretty fun but you can see the joins between this and the original film and, as such, there is a criticism to be made about the originality of the story. I think it has been left in a good place though - there is a chance to take things in a slightly different direction in the remaining films and it will be interesting to see where they go from here.
That said, I am sceptical on the arc of Ren - it seems almost certain (given the music cue when Rey hugs Leia at the end) that Rey is related to Ren and either she or Leia will redeem Ren before the end of the 3rd film, shortly after which he’s going to die. He wants to be his grandfather, so there’s something to be said for this as an end to tie things together with the original trilogy - but I hope they come up with something different and more interesting. Right now, it just seems too obvious.
I made the mistake before watching it of wondering just how many callbacks, homages and lazy rip-offs Abrams would put in the film and since the answer is tons I kept getting pulled of the film to work out were each piece came from.
I mean when your movie starts with hiding information in a droid and ends with X-wings attacking the weak spot on a planet busting death ball it is probably time to go home and rethink your life.
But that aside, I loved the new lead characters, Rey in particular is an outstanding and her backstory was wonderfully presented with just enough bits and pieces to give it depth without having to resort to exposition. The emotional impact of Han’s final scene and Luke’s reveal was powerful and I think it sets the stage for a brilliant episode eight.
And one last thing that bugged me, when they compared the new superweapon to the Deathstar they only showed the first and not the larger second one. Possibly because this is the fourth time that the climax has involved fighters going after a magic win button, two deathstars, one death planet and a droid control ship.
Overall it is a good Star Wars movie and a solid start for the third trilogy.
There was too much scenery-chewing by Ren. I was reminded of the young Severus Snape. But also of a whining child. I did like the scene where he’s destroying the holding cell and the two troopers turn around and walk the other way.
And ‘Snoke’? Really?
BTW apparently Snoke is a female, yet played on screen by a male. I’m guessing the offenderati will be out in force soon.
At this time, I’m not able to attend a movie in a movie theatre (one of my children was at the midnight Batman screening in Aurora where the shooting took place. Thankfully he is ok, but I can’t bring myself to enter a movie theatre yet). So I see no point in protecting myself from spoilers for this movie. So thanks for doing this, I really did want to know.
Now that I’ve been told that they kill off Han Solo, I believe I will stick with the Star Wars movies I know and not watch these at all. I would have had an interest in seeing them if the original characters had been blended into the story, but it appears that isn’t to be the case.
It’s good to hear that the movie is well done and I’m sure an entire new generation or two will love them.
Yeah, in retrospect it was obvious. I guess what I meant is that Adam Driver did a good enough job in that moment that the thought did enter my mind that maybe, just maybe they had an original enough idea to convert the villain in the first movie. It would have been bold and hugely surprising. If Kylo Ren had actually turned back, it would almost be one of the huge twists in movie history; the crowd would not know what to think. I love the scene, but it does play out as expected.
