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Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens


Blarghagh

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Open at your peril:

 

 

Okay so... eh. I just came home from cinema and I'm not exactly sure what to make of it yet. Some parts were great, others... not so much. Ben Solo is a terrible replacement for Darth Vader, and the scene where he kills his father is so terribly obvious that I just had to laugh. There's absolutely no emotional impact in the death scene of one of the most iconic characters of the entire Star Wars universe.

 

Aso, Ben is a terrible noob who almost gets owned in light saber combat by a force-insensitive deserter and then REALLY gets owned by a novice force user without any formal training what-so-ever, and we're supposed to believe he's the one that wiped out Luke's Jedi academy? Yeah, riiiiiight.

 

Much of the movie is also extremely conservative - it is painfully obvious that everyone involved did not want to repeat mistakes made in the prequels so the end result is a mash-up of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, often without the fun of the former and completely without the emotional impact of the latter.

 

 

Still, in spite of all that, much better than the prequels were, but that is not saying much...

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No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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Saw TFA a few hours ago in a nice cinema, not often you can watch a movie with a Gin and Tonic in your left hand!

 

A few spoilers and opinions:

 

 

 

The moment where Kylo Ren kills Han Solo is a GREAT feelbad moment. I can almost sympathize with the people who wanted him to survive, because Harrison Ford is great in the movie. Chewie survives though, and is seen as Rey's second pilot at the end of the movie. She seems to keep the Millenium Falcon as well.

 

The movie is very much laid out like a remake of ANH. Emphasis on very much. I liked it but if you've watched it 500 times you might think the formula is rather trite at this point.

 

Characters use the force a lot more than in ANH, but this is done in a tasteful enough way.

 

There's not only Captain Phasma but at one other moment we get to see/hear a female Stormtrooper.

 

I was VERY positively surprised at the swordfighting, which was my worst fear otherwise. It feels real and very visceral compared to the prequels, where the swordfighting mostly felt like absurd, embarrassing filler taken out of the worst imaginable Hong Kong B-flick. Definitely better than most movies in this regard, not perfect though. Dogfights feel like in both the PT/OT - no big differences there as far as I can see, but then, I am no pilot.

 

It's true that Luke only is seen at the end. He has no lines but still a powerful entrance when he is first shown on screen. The music at that point is sort of dark and ominous, which makes it interesting. It is heavily implied that he is alone at some sort of Jedi temple. Why he is disappeared is still 100% unknown except that it was in response to Kylo Ren going bananas and killing everyone at his Jedi academy. It is said that Luke blames himself for this, but IMO that is not reason enough to run away like that as I see it - there is something more to this. It is clear that Rey is a powerful, gifted force user and she is connected to Luke in some way, but it is not clear how. Rey and Kylo are NOT siblings. Finn does not use the Force in the movie.

 

Someone on Reddit posted that Snoke's name is not used in the movie. This is WRONG. His name is said at least three times. He only figures as a hologram, so we have no idea of his size in reality.

 

First character with Scottish accents in a SW movie I think, several of them (minor).

 

For some reason the FO speaks of the Resistance as being "traitors" (might have deep meaning storywise, could be just a pointless phrase, like "cultural marxist" or whatever), but they end up attacking the Republic first, whom they claim are becking up the Resistance. The Resistance also appears to refer to the Republic as their allies.

 

Hux refers to Kylo Ren simply as "Ren" once (so unclear if "Ren" is a title like "Darth"). "Ben" is his real name though (Han Solo says it once). Kylo Ren talks to Darth Vader's helmet, although it doesn't talk back to him in any way. He's clearly been duped by Snoke somehow.

 

We still have no idea how Lor San Tekka found the map fragment.

 

Characters:

  • Rey: Very capable and independent, in a good and believable way. I would have made her perhaps slightly less emotional. She uses the force and is on track to become a powerful Jedi if Luke trains her I guess (Kylo also offers to, and Snoke wants to get hold of her - this does not appear to be his plan at first though). She is tempted by Kylo Ren to join the Dark Side - my bet is this will be something to follow up in later movies.
  • Finn: Skilled with blasters. The "good guy" or "normal guy" of the movie. Has some nice moments when he improvises (he makes two big lies in the movie which both are crucial to propel the story forward). Fights with a lightsaber twice, but gets whipped both times. Does not use the force in the movie. Unclear if he will end up using a lightsabre or not, I bet not.
  • Poe: They weren't kidding when they said ace pilot. When this guy goes on screen, expect TIE fighters to blow up left and right. Unlike Rey and Finn who are new guys on the block, Poe appears like a hardened veteran who always wins his battles. "Cool guy" of the movie.
  • Kylo Ren: IMO the best role of these four. Kylo is a villain who is very conflicted. Unlike Darth Vader who felt basically like just a guy with an evil streak in a black suit doing his job, or Palpatine who was a cackling "evil wizard" stereotype, Kylo is a very believable villain whose real-world inspiration might have been Anders Breivik or Varg Vikernes. Unlike Anakin in RotS who felt like a normal guy who just made more and more unexplainable mistakes and errors of judgement, Kylo Ren is truly disturbed. He does absolutely appear like a guy who could be redeemed in the sense that he leaves the FO, but even if he does, he will still fundamentally be a guy with serious mental issues. He's clearly been duped by Snoke, and converses with Vader's helmet for some reason (getting no replies). I'm struggling to find something to compare Kylo with, for some unexplainable reason I'm thinking of Scorpio from Dirty Harry (the common denominator being that both are believable psychopaths I guess). The character of Kylo is definitely a dark and very tragic take on mental disorder, I'm positively surprised to see something that mature in a Star Wars film. If you know anyone who has serious mental issues of certain types, then Kylo will resonate very powerfully with you.
  • Han Solo: Harrison Ford is old. Still, I was positively surprised by how likeable he is in the movie. Has a lot of screentime.
  • Leia Organa: Has the voice of a chainsmoker. Appear more mild and motherly than in the OT. Still the same I guess, but her being ****y is not as striking as when she is this young woman as in the OT.
  • Hux: I thought this guy would be a Tarkin at first, but he is very much a demagogue. IMO this guy captures the platonic ideal of "fascist dictator" better than any actual fascist dictators I can think of. He's excellent, but not a very subtle character.
  • Maz: Sort of mirrors Yoda I guess. Not a trained Force user though. Voice seems a bit off, but that's been said before.
  • Phasma: Humiliatingly gets captured. Last seen in a trash compactor on a Starkillre base set to explode. Probably survives though, I guess (as does the other bad guys who we do not see escaping).
  • Snoke: Biggest disappointment of the movie by far. Basically just a scarred pale orc/voldemort/generic CGI villain. Probably not human, or at least deformed. Huge wasted opportunity for something cool. Always shown as a hologram sitting on a throne and only shown when Kylo, Hux or both report to him. It doesn't appear he has any kind of plan (he always seem to react to stuff happening as if he hadn't anticipated anything) other than finding Luke for some unknown reason. He does, predictably, take an interest in Rey though. For all the Snoke is Plagueis theorists, I silently thought "that's no Muun" when I saw him. Plagueis could easily have been retconned into not being a Muun though, IMO very believable. It is very unclear what Snoke contributes to the FO, and where he gets his authority from, other than that he is clearly a powerful force user. You don't just become a leader of a remnant of the Empire just like that, so there must be a story behind that. Notably, Snoke takes suggestions on what to do from Hux, in some sense Hux appears to be the actual leader making most decisions, while Snoke is a grey eminence of some sort who only is interested in very specific stuff.
  • Luke: Only shown for a short time. Says nothing, but ominous music plays when he is introduced. Clearly something very severe has happened in the past and Luke appears even more "dark" than during his darkest moments in RotJ.
  • Chewie: Not much to say. Maybe used a bit more for comic relief than earlier.

 

 

"Well, overkill is my middle name. And my last name. And all of my other names as well!"

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What you though about alien languages?

 

 

 

Nothing which sticks out as being very different from the OT. Rey has a few lines in some alien language close at the start. Languages in Star Wars are sadly not seriously developed as far as I am aware, but I like the sound of them. Snoke does not speak an alien language.

 

 

"Well, overkill is my middle name. And my last name. And all of my other names as well!"

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What you though about alien languages?

 

 

 

Nothing which sticks out as being very different from the OT. Rey has a few lines in some alien language close at the start. Languages in Star Wars are sadly not seriously developed as far as I am aware, but I like the sound of them. Snoke does not speak an alien language.

 

 

 

 

That was more or less what I guessed, but as I know one of the people that made the languages, I was interested to hear what people though about them.

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I thought it was a good movie overall.

 

 

 

The only thing I find unbelievable is Rey who's never picked up a lightsaber before pretty much beats Kylo Ren. And this is the guy who killed Luke's Jedi academy. It would be like seeing Luke in ANH kicking Darth Vader's butt.

 

Otherwise is was pretty good.

 

 

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Saw it earlier today. I'll not spoil anything, except to say that it's better than the prequels. original.gif

Saying it was better than the prequels isn't spoiling anything... it's like saying the sun rises tomorrow :p

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein
 

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Seems Abrams didn't **** it up. Kind of a shame in some ways. :p

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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I thought it was a good movie overall.

 

 

 

The only thing I find unbelievable is Rey who's never picked up a lightsaber before pretty much beats Kylo Ren. And this is the guy who killed Luke's Jedi academy. It would be like seeing Luke in ANH kicking Darth Vader's butt.

 

Otherwise is was pretty good.

 

 

Another Chosen One, I guess.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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Given how incredibly similar this was to Episode 4, I hope Episode 8 will contain the following:

 

During showdown between the protagonist chick and the evil dude, he cuts her hand and says: "Rey, I am your cousin. Let's go bowling!" She's actually Luke's daughter. *drumroll*

 

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