That was such a Joss Whedon kind of line.
You have to admit, this movie gave Chewbacca the best lines he’s had in any of the series.
“This is what people in the Resistance look like. Some of us.”
“You probably don’t recognize me, because of the red arm.”
Chewy rules in the movie. It really is his best appearance.
No, I’m saying that theater was packed solid. I’m not basing that on a theater’s numbers. I’m basing it on having to sit in the front row 15 minutes before showtime.
Finn :smack:
That’s another thing, the character names are so forgettable. I kept thinking, what was his name again? For Rey, Ren and Finn.
And not a single grey hair! I really need to find out who his stylist is.
Chewbacca is, canonically, 230 years old as of Episode VII.
I hope I look that good at that age.
Lupita Nyong’o, on the other hand, really let herself go after her 800th birthday.
heh 
Saw it yesterday. I haven’t read this thread (didn’t want to spoil anything), so forgive anything that repeats what’s been said above (possibly all of it).
1.) Entertaining. I’m not the world’s biggest J.J. Abrams fan (hated Lost), but I liked this better than his Star Trek outings.
2.) As in his Star Trek movies, he tries to bring in as many references to the Original Series as possible (Look! It’s the Training Ball Luke used in the first movie!), but wasn’t as obsessive or as over-the-top as in the Star Trek films.
3.) I liked his idea which really lies at the center of the action, of treating one of the faceless Storm Troopers as an individual – what would happen if one of them developed a conscience?
4.) I’m a compulsive credit watcher. I really didn’t think there’d be any sort of aftercredit sequence, but I wanted to see them anyway. It was good to see so much of the Old Guard back – not just the return of the on-screen actors from the original, but the behind-the-scenes contributors. Lawrence Kasdan co-wrote the screenplay. John Williams did the music. Ben Burtt did sound design. They brought back Phil Tippett to do animation (for the “chess” game on the Millennium Falcon). Kenny Baker was there as a consultant. I didn’t see Ron Cobb listed, but they seem to have used more of his ideas that hadn’t made the first film. Apparently they asked Dennis Lawson to come back as Wedge Antilles, but he turned them down
Playing with these two ideas, this is actually a pretty big change for the positive from the old episodes. Stormtrooper masks symbolize how the soldiers are cut off fromt he people they’re oppressing; at the same time, they act to dehumanize the soldiers behind the masks. Stormtroopers, like zombies and Nazis, are perfect movie villains because they so clearly deserve to die. They don’t have names or faces or identities beyond the “Villain–Please Shoot” banners hanging over their heads.
Finn changes that. Now they’re hapless kids conscripted into a vicious military, who face almost certain execution if they refuse orders. Not quite child soldiers, but not not child soldiers, either. The scene where Finn gets a stormtrooper’s blood on his mask–isn’t this the first time we’ve seen that Stormtroopers can bleed?
It’s not to say that the good guys are bad guys for blasting them, but it makes it a little more complicated.
My eight-year-old’s favorite bit in the movie.
Her second-favorite bit in the movie.
(Her third-favorite bit: BB-8 giving Finn the thumbs-up.)
Yeaaaaaaah right. The only two black characters other than Mace Windu with more than one line in the SW universe; they must be related. :dubious:
I thought that was really interesting too, as was the switch to Finn as a main protagonists rather than Poe the generic dashing pilot. I thought we’d see a story about the stormtrooper who had to fight to overcome his programming, or who even could raise genuine grievances with the Republic/Rebellion. But any commitment to that idea or the idea that stormtroopers weren’t a faceless horde was abandoned when Finn shot a bunch of them dead without even blinking. The descent back into dehumanised drones it’s OK to kill was pretty quick from that point on. How many of these hapless kids did we feel sorry for when they died? For me, it was none.
That’s a really good point, and I didn’t even consider it during the movie. There’s a brief conversation that makes clear that Finn’s behavior is an aberration, but it also makes clear that there are protocols in place for troopers who exhibit that kind of behavior (reconditioning).
On the other hand, “TR-8R” became an instant fan favorite - not only because he’s a badass but because he displayed actual emotion.
…and then got shot, to general approbation.
He thought Finn was a traitor - did TR-8R know Finn personally? Was Finn losing because he was outmatched, or because he was reluctant to go on the attack against an old friend? Could Finn persuade his old buddy Terr to switch sides too? Interesting questions the answers to which don’t matter, because he’s dead now. And as soon as he dropped, the action shifted to the people who really matter, and the rest of their battle with the faceless hordes of the First Order.
His real name was FN-2199. He and Finn were squadmates. Finn called him “Nines”.