Well is he actually at that Jedi Temple, or just somewhere else while he's still searching?

 

Well they're using the ruins of an ancient monastery so I imagine it's the place, just different than the EU had it.

 

I thought he stopped looking after his tragedy and went into exile somewhere else.

 

I thought the tragedy was what made him start looking.

 

Enjoyed it. The pacing and distances really were off though, it definitely took a lot of the tension out of the movie. The whole New Republic/Resistance thing seemed pretty messed up too. Seemed like the New Republic was only one planet and a few moons? Seemed a waste of time to introduce them as a concept then blow them and their entire fleet up in the space of about five minutes. I feel like a better set up there would have been a cold war-esque situation with maybe a few elements of their military running an unsanctioned war against the New Order in opposition to political paralysis or...something. Probably one of those parts where people got too attached to the OT.

Still, pretty keen on Rey as a character though. It's almost enough for me to get over my disappointment over the cutting of Jaina Solo and Mara Jade. It's a good start anyway.

 

I see that I agree with most of you. I think the future movies would be better off if Kylo Ren killed his mom too. Can't buy her as anything other than a little old lady with a lot of make up on.

Maz Kanata supposedly owned that place for a thousand years. MCs show up, it's gone in fifteen minutes. I would've been so pissed.

 

My main problem with it was the music. Nearly every important scene, I was kinda expecting some theme and it didn't come, so it broke my immersion a little every time.

Apart from that, I'm very satisfied with the movie as a whole. Basically every scene was a ripoff or a nod to a scene in the original trilogy, but somehow it still works (well for me at least, I've got a friend complaining on facebook that he has paid for Star Wars VII and got to see Episode IV).

As has been said, Ren feels like a Teenage!Snape with a ridiculous issue with control. Finn's proficiency with a lightsaber was bullshit but I can get behind him receiving a little training with stormtroopers.

About Rey, I'm hesitating between her being Luke's daughter, or being born as Anakin. That would explain how the Force came so naturally to her after she tried once.

I want moar banter between Rey and Finn. I was laughing my ass off every time they weren't going all sentimental.

 

I did enjoy both of the characters but that was another area where everything just seemed to happen too fast for me. It felt like they'd only known each other for a few minutes and were much more attached to each other than I could buy.

I mean fine, it might be realistic what with the fact that they have both apparently lived pretty lonely, inhuman lives to that point. I guess two emotionally stunted psychological disaster areas like those two should probably have been would cling to their first really human acquaintance. But they didn't feel like people who'd lived their entire lives alone or being brain washed. Finn felt closest to it as he clearly had no idea how to actually function in the world at the beginning of the film, and clearly has a very childish perception of romance, but Rey felt mostly normal, if sheltered.

Again, though, minor quibble.

 

Overall verdict: I enjoyed it.

Some cons though; like previously mentioned the galaxy feels way too small, the editing made it seem like it all takes place in the same system. Travel is done in an instant and that planet-killer didn't make it better with the shot being visible across the galaxy (and what was with the introduction/destruction of the republic in less time than it takes to say "Fire at will, Commander."?

Didn't think I'd say this after ep 1-3 but more background on the political state of the galaxy was needed, I shouldn't have to go digging that up in reddit hype posts, a short paragraph in the opening crawl would have sufficed.

Starkiller base felt completely unecessary, it shows up and goes pewpew and while reloading the resistance starts "planning" the counter attack, all of which felt like it took place in a coffee break. "ok we go in and shoot that thing, it seems important, everyone ok with this? Great, top notch work everyone." I would have been fine if the map was the focus of the entire film and they just skipped the deathstar 3.0 wannabe and the final act was an attack to get them back before the First Order could solve the puzzle and find Luke.

Chewie and Leia, talk about a big fucking missed opportunity.

I'll see if I catch anything more on the second viewing tonight.

 

I just got back from the cinema.

What a wonderful, wonderful movie.

I cannot wait to see the next one.

I loved everything about it. Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo, all good characters.

 

Poe needed more screen time- I imagine next movie will be "Finn and Poe, Bro's in Action" while Rey is off being a jedi.

 

Hoping to see the movie tomorrow. Have managed to remain relatively spoiler-free.

 

Just saw it. Overall, I enjoyed it, though I had quite a few nitpicks. Didn't read much of the thread, so this might be just repeating some.

The romance between the new mains was incredibly fast and forced.

The lightsaber combat was pathetic. That Dark Vader wannabe is supposed to be half-trained? He looked like he's had a sword for a few months. Seriously, the black guy was able to resist him, and the girl who's never used one before managed to beat him, injured though he was. There was no grace, skill, technique, speed, force superiority. Slow and pathetic.

The new super Deathstar. Why in all the loving fuck isn't your multi planet buster protected by a few star destroyers and a few thousand fighters? The rebel force seemed incredibly small, yet still managed to destoy the weak spot. Sigh.

The First Order was a bit too obviously evil, and the new head honcho, Snookie or whatever, felt like a bad Palpatine knockoff.

It might be a bit telling that I can't remember any of the new main character's names.

Geh. Overall, I really liked it, and feel like I have to watch the sequel, but quite a bit of stuff bothered me.

Music and sound effects were superb btw.

 

I enjoyed it very much, I personally think it was a great movie with great characters, especially Finn, Rey and Kylo. I also think the action in the movie was great.

With that said though, there were a bunch of things that bothered me about the movie.

Specifically the plot, it was too fast paced at times, specifically the travelling from planet to planet, that was badly executed, it just felt it didn't take enough time.

Furthermore I feel like the movie needed more explanations on galactic politics (I'm not thinking senate meetings and stuff, but more like explaining what's going on in the galaxy, who the major players are, how they compare to each other, why the Republic and the First Order aren't directly at war and stuff like that). I also think they should have explained the consequences of the destruction of the Republic's capital, which they just sort of glossed over as if an entire planet and it's moons weren't just completedly destroyed.

I personally think Starkiller shouldn't have been introduced in this movie, it just sort of came out of nowhere and it was destroyed too quickly and too easily. They should have waited with introducing that super weapon to the next movie, where they would have the time to truly introduce Starkiller base as a massive threat, and have the movie revolve around destroying it, rather than having it be destroyed a few hours after it's grand introduction to the galaxy.

With all this said though, I think the characters, the action and the humor make up for the bad plot.

 

I have hopes that Snoke is Jar Jar.

 

I have hopes that stupid meme will die soon.

Anyway, these problems with the movie being too fast moving and the world feeling too small -- both were problems that also plagued the recent Star Trek movies. So basically I think the real problem with this movie was JJ Abrams.

 

All in all, I liked it. Was it good enough to stand on its own? Gods no, but that's miles more than the best thing that could be said about any of the prequels. It was entertaining, and well, I'm happy with that.

Didn't like Kylo Ren any time the helmet was off - I took the "He had too much Vader in him" line to just be shitty writing until the moment Ren took off his mask and started talking and suddenly was literally just Prequel Anakin. Found the confusing-as-shit geopolitical (Galactopolitical?) landscape distracting. If one interprets Ren to have been taking his fight with Fin seriously then it's just outright stupid, but it kind of looked like he was intentionally fucking around the whole time, to me - but then, what's the point in that fight scene? Rey was the movie's saving grace, and even then her Chosen One status just doesn't feel like it belongs in Star Wars. She's a girl who Vader's lightsaber has chosen so completely that it'll just fly to her hand on its own, who learned mind-reading and -control from ten seconds of it being used against her. Neither of the actual Chosen Ones before her were one tenth that magical, and one of them was a virgin birth.

Complaints out of the way though, I really liked it. Pleasantly surprised.

 

My fiance could not take Kylo Ren seriously as she knows him as the goofy hipster from "Girls" but personally I liked where he was.

He was menacing and mysterious to start with. We find out his heritage and it's not as mysterious. He takes off the mask and he appears normal, but obviously torn. His scene on the bridge with Han was predictable, but I think that is more because Ford is seventy fucking three and they obviously had to sideline him somehow. He fights and gets beaten and next movie I imagine he will fall all the way in. I look forward to seeing him with completed training, hopefully bulked up and filled out so he's less of an awkward teenager body type.

Overall a much more convincing fall to the darkside than Hayden Christensen.