Man... I really wish that Chewie hadn't shot KR/Ben and he had been able to dominate in the fight against Finn and Rey. I wanted him to go full sith rage mode after completing his 'fall' by succesfully killing Han. The end of the film would have been so much more fulfilling if their escape had been skin of the teeth success.

I also wish they hadn't spent quite as much time nostalgia wanking. Little bits here and there would have been fine. That time could and should have been devoted to new exposition.

Other than that, I loved it. 8.5 out of 10.

 

Great movie, with a few weak points that have already been covered. My favorite shot were the TIE fighters with the sun in the background. The imperial forces appeared at least somewhat more competent.

I personally like that Luke's attempt to create a new Jedi order failed. That clears the dilemma that the old Jedi were somehow wrong for a thousand years with their dogma of no attachments. Turns out, they were right all along, Force users with personal attachments turn into whiny Dark Siders more often than not.

That also explains why Luke has gone into his exile/pilgrimage. Guilt, and maybe an attempt to create the real Jedi again. Might also be a source of conflict for Rey, she either has to become a proper Jedi and forsake personal ties, or choose a "normal" life.

 

Question: Is there even an IMAX 2D for the movie? Watched it in 3D, and hated how the glasses pinched the nose. Movie was amazing though. The amount of screentime they gave BB-8 was obvious how they were trying to push merch on the moviegoers.

...and it worked cause I want one of my own.

Cameos were fun -- people I recognised: the folks from the Raid, that cop fella from Heroes, and Daniel fucking Craig for some reason.

 

I watched it 2D.

 

In IMAX though?

I thought the 3d in this movie was the least annoying and unintrusive I have ever seen in any movie. Usually it leaves me with a headache, I had slightly tired eyes after this, which was gone after 30 minutes.

The glasses at my theatre were nice and large, both of the people I went with had no problem putting it on over their regular glasses.

Overall, I loved it, a couple of interactions felt a bit forced but that aside I thought it was great.

I don't really get why some of you are annoyed with how the fight between Fin, Ray and Kylo played out. It's obvious that his training is lacking, most of his knowledge seems to be around force powers. For example, reading thoughts, force stasis etc. Also; he is torn, which clouds his judgement and ability to connect and let the force in. Yes, he did just kill his dad, but he probably feels regret and self hatred over this, I actually think he wanted to get hurt or die during the fight.

I liked the camera work during the Lightsaber combat, less spinning more heavy swings.

 

I watched it in regular 3D, and it was fine. Not worth the extra money, but not a complete waste of time as it often is.

 

General thoughts:

Rey is bestgirl, she's so dope and kicks all kinds of ass, whoever said saberstaff here, that would be fantastic, seeing more forms of saber is really fun imo and it's the only real loss in the EU purge other than Thrawnbooks.

Finn and Poe are great bros and I want more of them together in Ep VIII.

Luke's intro was good, I'm glad there were no words

Ren was a really interesting villain and as long as the subsequent films establish him as no longer a whiny punk I'm good with that being in this one.

I'm glad that they let Ford out like he (probably) wanted, poor guy was stuck in SW - I'm really glad Han went back to being a smuggler, far better than what I remember of him in the EU

I loved the movie, currently trying to figure out what sort of fic to possibly write, maybe finishing reading the Aftermath novel will inform that call.

I'm so back in on Star Wars, can't wait to see what they do in games now as well (new ones) considering the quality of the film.

 

Rage Ren was good. Every time he took off his helmet I said, "You look absolutely nothing like Han and Leia. Not even close. So he was obviously adopted." All other times he seemed far too much like a kid trying too hard and failing all the time. I expect a big personality change in him for the second movie, especially from Snoke's "I need to complete his training." quote. If there's not, then he officially sucks.

Rey. *sigh* I really liked that she's the go-to person instead of Fin. Fin just rubbed me the wrong way. He's good for comic relief. They've pushed the "she's obviously Luke's daughter" vibe so much that it's too obvious, so she's probably Obi-Wan's illegitimate granddaughter through... Mace Windu's lopped off hand or something.

Poe. Every time i see him I think of his character in Ex Machina, and I keep waiting for him to pop up really drunk, humping one of the droids. Nah. He was good.

Physics was once again the slapped-around redheaded bitch of Star Wars scriptwriters. "Physics? What Physics?"

Plot. Majorly disappointed that it was a major rehash of Ep. IV. Just tweaks here and there to keep things fresh. No, it didn't work. It was still a major rehash. Very disappointed, JJ.

So,
Script: 5/10
Acting: 8/10
SFX: 10/10
Just having new SW material out there: 10/10

Overall: 8.25/10 Would see again.

Definitely eager for the book version so some of these new characters can be fleshed out better.

Edit: never mind. The Kindle edition was released on Friday and here's a snippet of one of the reviews.

Doesn't this defeat the whole purpose of buying the book... for extra backstory? *sigh* Mega-let-down.

 

Saw the movie. Even having never actually seen the original trilogy from beginning to end, I know TFA is pretty much Ep. IV 2.0. But it didn't bother me. I approached the movie like I do Mission Impossible: turn brain off, have fun.

I can agree with a lot of people in the thread on some things: Kylo didn't finish the film as badass as he began and Rey's Jedi coming-out was very conveniently timed, but overall, one of the best films of the year imo.

I loved how Finn kind of stumbled his way into badassery, though he's just starting. I actually enjoyed the hell out of his brief saber fight with Ren.

Of the baddies, I hoped that Phasma would have a bigger role. Liked her way more than Hux. Snoke was your generic Supreme Baddie. I liked Kylo because of the drop on the Kickass Leaderboard by the end. He's learning to be evil. He absolutely stole the scene on the bridge, though that was probably intentional.

Was surprised by the well done humor. Finn was great at that. Also think he and Poe should buddy up again.

10/10 because it was great fun. Will probably see it again.

 

Saw it tonight. Most of my thoughts are already in this thread, so I'll be brief.

Likes:

- Rey. Everything about her, basically. I loved her since the first trailer and nothing has changed on that front.

- All the acting, for that matter.

- The general look of the movie.

- Relatively subtle fan service like the band.

- The depiction of the Force. I liked the "back to basics" approach to it, with less acrobatics and more direct use against people. Less physicality, a more spiritual approach with people using it to sense things.

- Fight choreography.

- The character arcs.

- Holding back Luke.

- No large scale new Republic or new Jedi Order.

Dislikes:

- The music was disappointing. There wasn't really any new epic theme, but they also held back on going full blast on the old themes.

- JJ Abrams' interview statement that Rey has a connection to a famous Star Wars family. I get that he wanted to misdirect and make the movie a surprise, but the result was that I spent the entire movie waiting for a revelation that never came, and that meant I left feeling oddly unsatisfied.

- The depiction of the Force. I disliked that Rey won the final fight against Kylo Ren. Not only does it not make much sense for her to beat him when he's trained and she isn't, but also it seems poorly paced. Kylo Ren feels defanged. Rey confronting him in Ep 8 after being soundly beat the first time would have been far more narratively satisfying than coming into the second fight as the favourite. To be clear, my problem is not that Rey was able to use the Force quickly, but that Kylo Ren wasn't able to best her even with that.

- Confusing interstellar geography.

- Unclear relationship between the Republic and Resistance.

- Superweapon and the predictability that comes with it.

- The "Luke problem" remains unresolved: either Snooke is less powerful than Luke, in which case Luke should be able to deal with him with little drama, or Snooke is more powerful than Luke, in which case we're left wondering where Snooke was during all those years Palpatine was around. With Kylo Ren having limited Force abilities he doesn't seem to be able to make up the gap either.

General:

- Mixed feelings about Kylo Ren as a character. I have an innate dislike of "everyone's related!" but they executed it pretty well.

- Obviously the structure and plot were very ANH. That's fine for this movie, it achieved what it needed to. But I hope in 8 and 9 they do their own thing rather than redo 5 and 6.

- Some of the early pacing felt odd - they were planet hopping and on the run for too long, I think. They should have met the Resistance earlier.

- The "quest for Luke" idea is neat but I think it was badly concluded... far too rushed and oddly paced after the climax.

 

Warning you now Taure ep8 is gonna have the first order kicking ass and the reveal of Luke (or snookie) being Rey's father, then ep9 is gonna have Finn in a mankini tied to a Hutt's bed post.

#spoilerz

 

Thats something I never thought I would picture in my head. Disgusting...

 

fixed that for you

 

It was ok.

 

Hm. Probably will get smashed because of this, but: No, didn't work for me.

A brief summary why (take heed, I will lay focus on the negative points, even if they may don't have that much of an impact. However, some do. And the others added up on that):

Rey is able to do anything. She knows more about the Falcon than Solo. She is better in using the force than the Great Evil Kylo Ren, and in using the light saber, too. What shall we expect in the next movie? Her training Luke how to fight? I have nothing against strong female personalities. But I dislike those who will never lose because they are so incredibly uber-uber-uber-strong.
Luke didn't fight Vader in Ep. IV and lost in Ep. V. What development are we to expect here? Her besting him even more devastatingly?

This lead storm trooper in silver, trained from birth to fight for the imperium, brings the shield down because his/her (don't know, don't really care) life is threatened. Yeah, pretty great how loyal these people are.

Oh, and Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren. At first, he was intimidating. Then he had little tamper tantrums and generally behaved how Anakin behaved in Ep. II. And, to be honest, he was not that intimidating back then. Additionally, as previously mentioned, he always loses. The only thing he manages is killing his defenseless father (which was in my opinion the best scene in the entire movie. Simply ... goosebumps. But that couldn't make up for the other parts).

A third Death Star. Oh, I mean "Starkiller". Hey, we've inflated it, it's completely different now! And it's a planet fueled by sun energy. While that was somewhat creative, I can't get behind this theory. If you use sun energy, the sun is gone one day. What do you do then? Use another sun's energy? Where do you get that from? And how? Maybe I missed it, an explanation would be welcome.
Apart from that, the second Death Star in Ep. VI was already one too many. This third one ... when I heard the rumor I couldn't believe this complete lack of creativity. I still absolutely can't. And it was sooooo obvious it would get destroyed. I mean, you can't let the evil guys getting away with being able to destroy absolutely every planet at any time.

The Millenium Falcon is by the way a really wondrous machine: After years of standing as "garbage" on Jakuu, it is able to fly with lightspeed just fine. Oh, and it gets miraculously directly detected by Han, which I found just a tiny bit unbelievable. But that also might be due to the slightly off pacing (which I didn't found that bad, but I sometimes noticed).
And those creepy tentacle monsters eat everything on first sight but Finn. I know, Hollywood and Disney dramatics, but for me it simply makes it unbelievable.

Oh, yes, Tattooine is now named Jakuu. Now that is a big change. Not.
(I know these are different planets. But they are just sooooo similar.)
In general, this was more or less a rehash of Ep. IV with a few additions. I really had my hopes high for some more originality.

Then we had a few design nitpicks. The Yoda-replacement reminded me of E. T. and I would have really liked to have an answer on how the FUCK she got that lightsaber (and not this "You don't want to know"). And, you know 40" Gollum is still Gollum. Although I am indeed curious on the background story of this guy.

The music was really disappointing. Even Ep. I and II, which I disliked, had far better music than this one. But I think he used the ideas he had for such a story back then for Ep. IV. and VI.

And we all learned: When you jump out of your crashing spaceship, only your jacket stays there. I know, a really tiny nitpick, but it was one for me.

What did I like? As already mentioned, I liked the scene of Han's death. I also liked Finn. I liked the acting. I liked the lightsaber fights choreography and I really liked the last seconds of the film.
But it simply rubs me the wrong way that this is basically Ep. IV 2.0.

Now, one last question: If Luke wants to disappear, why does he leave this map? I hope we get an answer to that in the next movie.

EDIT: Now, not that brief. But that's basically it. I can understand why many people like this film, it meets the tone of the old trilogy much better than the PT.
But, while this is better than Ep. I and II, I like all the other films better. Sorry

 

I mean, Ani was building Protocol Droids and pod racers when he was nine. Seems like an innate understanding of tech and awesome piloting skills run in the family.

;-)

You're points aren't 'wrong' though, but as you've said, you're focusing on the negatives.

It's not a perfect movie.

 

Just seen it.

First impressions: relied far too much on fan nostalgia and reused about 5 plot devices. Kylo ren should have battered fuck out of rey and Finn. Dislike the idea that the force gave her super powers. Should have held off on a duel between them till she had actual training. The acting was very good. Rey and Finn are great. So war Poe, hope he gets more screen time.

I thought Finn was going to be force sensitive too. Kind of disappointed that he wasn't.

Rey's almost Messiac presence is a bit tiring. I think if they were going to have to force a lightsabre battle then they should have had Luke come back, saved the Rem-Rey fight for the sequel when she's actually been trained up and doesn't take a 5 second pause in which she should have been disembowelled...

 

Kylo Ren did eat a blaster bolt that one shot stormtroopers.

 

I had similar thoughts about Kylo Ren's character even though I did like his original presentation. Very Vader-esque.

But therein lies the problem. The writers were faced with presenting Kylo as a literal Vader Mark II (which would have been pretty underwhelming) or doing what they did and put him on a somewhat parallel character arc to the protagonist Rey.

He was never going to live up to Vader as a villain, so even though his level of badassery was reduced significantly as we learned more about him I feel like this was the better option than simply presenting him as full on steeped in evil.

While the whole "he is Vader's grandson" was incredibly predictable, at the very least we can say it is a great way to make his presence in the story plausible. When I first watched trailers I was a bit perturbed by the fact that apparently there's a new Sith running around out of nowhere. Now we know why he is so strong in the force and where he got some training (Luke).

Snoke or whatever the hell his name is just sucks. I don't know what they're going to do to explain him but if they try to sell him as some sort of Sith who was just dicking around while Palpatine conquered the galaxy I'm going to be a bit upset. Personally I'm hoping he's some sort of Empire remnant with what was a relatively deep understanding of Palpatine and Vader. Maybe a higher up in their inner circle. I would prefer him to not actually be an accomplished force user but rather someone who thinks they know what the Dark Side is about.