I guess I didn't feel the critical acclaim from my 'media sources'. In retrospect, I can see the parallels too.

 

Avengers 2 was hyped, then some people got pissy about it, then they appreciated the fun of it. More or less the same thing, though JW was a better example, it - like TFA - being a new sequel to an old, established franchise.

But you know, opinions are like assholes - everyone's got their own.

 

To be fair they did make a point of showing Rey beating the shit out of some goons with a big metal pole. It's not like she's a complete novice at fighting in that fashion. It's the blaster she doesn't know how to use.

After watching it again I'm looking even more forward to the next movie. It's implied a few times ("Master of the Knights of Ren" and the scene of him killing his fellow apprentice) that there's a whole band of aspiring Sith waiting in the wings.

Rey being left on that desert shithole with the jerk fatass at about age 4 was also made pretty explicit by her vision with Anakin's lightsaber, so I expect that to be addressed in future films. The notion that she's a nobody was never likely in my mind but I feel after watching that scene that we're certainly going to get a backstory for her that is significant.

 

A lightsaber and a staff are very, very different. Knowing how to use one does not make one at all proficient in the other.

 

If you rewatch that scene and actually look at her movements, you can see how clumsy she is with it. The problem is that her clumsiness up and disappears when she starts using the force.

 

Her being guided by the Force is the only reason I'm not frothing at the mouth. Even so, however, if it were that easy no Force-sensitive would need years and years of training.

The scene was bullshit, but it had a couple of elements that made it just barely bearable.

 

My head canon is that, once immersing herself in the Force, she was allowing it to guide her movements.

But someone trained and honed in Lightsaber combat will just be quicker/ more efficient, cutting out that extra 'listen to the force' step of the process.

I dunno, thinking like that made me not hate it.

 

That 'Force enabled power' has been kicking around since the early 2000s with Jacen in the NJO books. At least he was built up as extremely competent though. That's my biggest gripe with the book. Rey's surrendering to the Force and becoming a BAMF.

 

Disney may or may not have spoiled Rey's heritage in the Disney Infinity game. Kylo Ren supposedly says "Face me, cousin", but because there's lasers firing during it and later he says "curses" people are arguing that he didn't say cousin. http://www.geek.com/news/disney-infinity-mightve-spoil-reys-identity-before-star-wars-could-1643090/

 

I'll be really surprised if they don't end up being cousins.


On another note, has anyone read the tfa novelization? Is it worth reading?

 

I heard it was pretty terrible.

 

Already confirmed days ago as false by a Lucas story person.

He only says Curses

 

There's a theory that Snoke might be Darth Plagueis, Palpatine's master that he apparently betrayed (as Sith are wont to do). This is based on the fact that Snoke's and Plagueis' themes are very similar.

Palpatine was supposed to have killed him, but then again, he was supposed to be messing with life itself.

 

I'd rather the Sith remain dead. He could be a former Inquisitor or something.

 

I'd be fine with Plagueis... but I'd rather he be a new character. Some ancient dark side power that awoke when both Palpatine and Vader died.

 

I don't see them bringing in Plagueis, he's only mentioned in the prequels (canonically) and they seem to be treating those movies like they have polio.

 

Just saw it tonight, a lot of what I say will probably have been repeated before, but so be it.

Despite trying to keep my expectations rather low, I was disappointed.

The good first.

It's a very fun action/adventure kind of film. The fights and action sequences are, while not stellar, fun and exciting. The dogfights are awesome. The bits with the TIE fighters on Jakku especially were fun, both the fight in the Falcon and the bombardment, though I was rather confused since TIEs can hover and strafe sideways which they do in the movie itself but that didn't really occur to me until afterwards, so the scene was still good and didn't break my suspension of disbelief.

The main characters and acting are all really well done. Rey is awesome (though the Mary Sue allegations do have merit), Finn is hilarious while still being a good character, and I actually found Kylo Ren to be rather refreshing as a villain, though I feel the movie stumbled somewhat with its depiction of him, especially his mask reveal. The scene with Han and Kylo was well done, definitely the defining moment of the movie. I feel like a lot of the characterization could've been done much better, but it was still a net positive. Hopefully they expand it further in the next movie.

Finn's bit of being a stormtrooper was definitely cool and rather unique, though not without its flaws.

Solid fanservice with Han, Chewie, the X-wings and such, the destroyed Star Destroyer shots and a lot of other stuff I can't name right now. In general, I didn't think they overdid it.

But, well... The Force Awakens has the unique position of being the first good movie that is ruined for me by nitpicks. It's hard to point at a single thing that ruins the movie, but there are simply a dozen different things that make it unenjoyable for me.

The plot is a straight rehash of A New Hope, as many have noted, straight down to the bigger Death Sta- I mean Starkiller, and Tatooi- err, Jakku, and the exhaust por- err, some other convenient vulnerability. To some this might be little nods back to the originals, but I just found it to be frighteningly unoriginal.

The lack of exposition and the general scale of the movie was really, really jarring. The complete lack of information on the First Order and the situation with the New Republic and the Resistance (why do they only have a few X-wings? They're fighting a force with a planet-laser) is rather disorienting, and the pace of the movie makes the galaxy feel tiny. The capital of the Republic is wiped out and no one even seems particularly upset, perhaps to match the audience's lack of attachment to the throwaway system and its five seconds of screentime. The conflict is now between the First Order (not to be confused with the Empire, which they share the exact same aesthetic, ships, weapons, soldiers, and role with) and the Resistance (not to be confused with the Rebellion, which they share the exact same aesthetic, ships, weapons, soldiers, and role with) and none of the wider situation is explained, either through direct exposition or the general tone/mood.

Now, in reality, there is a perfectly decent explanation for much of this if you want to look for it. It's just not in the movie.

The Empire still exists, its just a rump state without a military, the First Order is a splinter of the Empire that took most of its military forces into the Unknown Regions, the Resistance is pretty much just the support Leia could get to take on a renegade militarizing force, the New Republic is war-weary and unwilling to antagonize the First Order, but all of this shit is unexplained in a brand new movie. The total lack of perspective really, really hurts the film, since one of the things I love most about Star Wars is the overall universe.

As Jon put it in irc, the prequels had too much politics but it felt like this one had too little.

The pacing is off - too much happens in the movie. The entire scene in Han's freighter was pretty fun, but served no real purpose aside from some character interaction that could have been done in less time and possibly with greater effect. I also can't help but think that the bar scene is rather overdone and drags out too long.

The First Order felt rather cartoonishly villainous, a group that literally abducts and conditions children into soldiers, slaughters villages, makes a giant planet-laser, etc. etc. Also the really ineffectual Snokes projection. Not a huge complaint, but something that made me roll my eyes once or twice.

The lack of the mysticism and morality of the Force and the Jedi also really bugged me, since its been a major part of literally every movie. Sure, there aren't much in the way of actual Jedi in the movie, but that's something the writers really should've considered. Han could've been an easy way to manifest this, breaking out some of Luke's old "Jedi knowledge", but instead the closest thing we've got is the bartender lady spouting off about the Light Side versus the Dark Side despite the fact that no one but the Jedi really talk in those terms... Not to mention the uber-important lightsaber she happens to have in her basement...

Kylo Ren is literally the only person who mentions any of it, and even then it is rather tantalizingly brief, though I did enjoy the reversal of him feeling the "temptation of the Light" and finally "triumphing" over it at the end of the movie, despite the fact that it clashes with what we know of the Force.

I think that lack of morality/mysticism is one of the biggest reasons I didn't really get a Star Wars "vibe" from the movie - it felt like another Disney action film with Star Wars stickers instead of Marvel. That's not to say it wasn't good just... I don't know, maybe I demand more because of how much I love Star Wars.

Usually, most of this is stuff I'm able to rationalize away or ignore, but all of these nitpicks just really, really stood out to me. It just didn't feel like Star Wars to me is probably the biggest one. There's a entertaining, fun, rompy action adventure flick in there but all the holes just jump out at me. I don't know, maybe another watching will clear up some things, but I was terribly, terribly disappointed by my first.

 

I hope Snoke is Jar Jar Binks

I almost hope Snokes turns out to be Jar Jar Binks.
In the first film(prequel), his actions cause them to land on Tatooine and is also the cause of their meeting with Anakin. In the second film, he is the one who gives Palpatine absolute power. His clumsiness could merely be an intelligently designed cover as it allows him to cause trouble for the jedis without being suspected. Along the way, he manipulated events so that Darth Sidious could become emperor, and when that was done he stepped back. Since the empire has fallen, he once more has to actively manipulate events by forming the First Order.

It probably would be a bit too unbelievable, but it would also be hilarious.

 

Yeah, the Darth Jar Jar theory's been doing the rounds lately, since that Reddit post. Personally I feel it's a bit unlikely, given that the prequels had no need to set up a villain that wasn't even mentioned in the OT when they already had Vader and Palpatine to develop.

 

When did Luke spent years and years training with the Force during the movies? Because I can't remember for the life of me.

And those reviews on IMDB? It's hilarious, because while the make good points on the lack of information and the pacing, they are furious with Disney because... it's not the movie they wanted. Oh no, It’s an origin story doing homage to the original. Better yet, they say it has bad dialogue and bad acting.

Fucks sake, you ate just whining because its just not the movie you wrote in your little head and is convinced thats it better than anything else someone could come up. Call the music old? You wanted techno? Call the special effects bad? Now you are just running out of things to say. Basically, there are some people that have a subjective problem with the movie, but just can’t accept that because theeey know what Star Wars is about (and only they), so they are desperately trying to pass it as objective criticism.