Huh? 
I liked it. It was well cast, and there was good chemistry between the major characters. The plot was very derivative of the original, but after the prequels, I’m pretty okay with that. The bit where the ground opened up between Rey and Kylo was pretty contrived, and I was disappointed by the way Poe Dameron disappeared for the entire second act. I really liked the interactions between him and Finn, and wanted to see more of that.
Rey was hearing the voices of the slaughtered Jedi children coming from Anakin’s light saber, wasn’t she? Creepy as fuck. Probably my favorite moment in the movie.
Yeah, where the hell did that nose come from?
Too old? It’s been exactly 32 years since Jedi. That’s exactly the right age.
32 years for us, only 30 for the characters on the screen.
Somehow “Starkiller” while menacing, doesn’t quite resonate as menacingly as “Death Star”.:dubious:
BTW, and I know most of Star Wars is astromicallly ridiculous, even for this movie to assume a minuscule semi-artiifical planet could harness the energy of a star to create a death ray is asking fans to stretch their sci-fi disbelief a BIT much.
Carrie Fisher smoked a few cigarettes? Try several other chemicals. Im shocked she’s not even 60 yet.
And yet it was filmed 18 months ago.
When Han got killed, one person near me in the theater started shouting: “Oh fuck! Oh fuck no! No!! Fuck fuck fuck! NO!!!” By the time he was done, many others had joined in.
It was a crushing moment for those of us who have waited since 1983 to see Luke, Leia, and Han romping around the galaxy together, at least for five more minutes, and now we know it will never happen.
Too much to say about this movie. I had my criticisms. But, for fans like me, nothing compares to the Star Wars franchise as a movie-going experience. The original Star Wars (1977) is a movie I have long called the greatest movie ever made. The Force Awakens is that movie on steroids, played back at high speed. Some of the magic is gone, unrecoverable, but the Lucas-esque flaws of the prequels have been expunged. I’m still processing what I just saw, but I already know I’m going to rate this movie higher than anything not called Star Wars.
It was nice seeing Skellig Michael in Co. Kerry feature as Luke’s exile planet. I wonder if there’ll be an increase in tourists, it’s somewhat inaccessible.
A few thoughts after seeing it:
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I loved it, every damn minute of it. My wife, not a huge SW fan, loved it too, and my 10-year-old son declared it the best Star Wars movie ever, and would brook no argument.
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The film, IMHO, embraced its fantasy roots far more than any other SW movie, including the first, and I’m all all in favor of all. If you want science fiction in your Star Wars, well, you’ll always have the prequels. Enjoy your midichlorans, because from this point onward the series is pure swords-and-sorcery.
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Star Wars was never about originality. It was always about taking old elements and mashing them together into something presentable, and this film does that exceedingly well. Take the character of Rey - sure, it’s another variation on the Chosen One theme, but it’s one played extremely well: unlike losers like Luke Skywalker (or Harry Potter or dozens more), who are usually carried forward by their far more competent costars, Rey is smart, brave and unusually competent, and I’m pretty sure that here character would do just fine even if Destiny wasn’t there to give her a hand. Even her “rejects here fate” moment is logical and well-done, and she never fucking whines about it. What more could you want?
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Solo’s death was tragic and utterly necessary. Everybody dies in the end; you can’t say Han Solo didn’t live a full life.
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I liked the fact that Poe Dameron wasn’t in the movie more (although I admit his return could have been handled better). Poe’s a simple man - he’s brave, he’s witty, he likes people, he’s the best damn pilot in the Republic. He’s a good character to have around, but he’s not interesting enough to be one of the leads. If they’d given him some more screen time, they’d have to give him some sort of conflict, and the film already had enough conflicted characters. “Cool supporting character” is a good niche; I hope he stays there.
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Again: I fucking loved this movie.
Poe Dameron is definitely the Lando Calrissian of these new characters. He’ll be a plot facilitator I think.
Close enough, though. How old do you think Kylo Ren is? 28?
I missed it–when did she interact with Anakin’s light saber?
That’s not cool.
Either you made it clear it’s not a real spoiler or you didn’t.
If you did, then people now know Chewbacca doesn’t die.
If you didn’t, then they’re going to go in thinking they know something that’s going to happen, which will change the viewing experience in many important ways.
I thought it looked Irish. The stonework reminded me of the Aran Isles.
Agree 100%. This is the only one thing that I really didn’t like. Unless they have big plans for him in the next two, there’s zero point to his character and no backstory presented as to who he/she is. I suppose you can say the same with how the Emperor was revealed in Empire, but this lacked the same impact. In the original trilogy, the existence of the Emperor did not dilute the sinisterness of Vader (perhaps because we saw Vader as the primary antagonist for a full movie before that), but I felt like Ren’s character was diluted by this. The story would have been more powerful for me if it was only Ren who was the “supreme leader” and driving the First Order himself.
I kinda agree that I would have preferred a completely new plot rather than the much recycling of plot elements from prior movies. However, there was enough of a new story arc and interesting new characters here that give me a new hope in this trilogy.
Ridley and Boyega nailed their characters - good onscreen non-sexual chemistry.
Carrie Fisher seemed to want to be battle-hardened and war weary but came off a bit cold. Ford’s Han Solo was probably better than ever.
Did anyone else noticed that Luke’s eyes were bloodshot at the end? Not sure if that is just what Mark Hamill looks like now, but I am hoping they were trying to project that he had been crying or lost sleep over the events of the movie (sensed through the Force, of course).
–Joe
Oh shit.
That is actually a really plausible speculation.
Huh. Far from being cold, I thought she came off as too much of a mother hen type!
And the Ben backstory is just a re-hash of the first 99/100 of Vader’s biography.
I was being a bit of a smart aleck, but yeah, he’s probably meant to be in his late 20s/early 30s. And my point was that means he’s too old or just barely young enough to be Han and Leia’s son, so the grandson crack that someone else made was a bit :dubious:.