Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Nonek]

I wonder how Mr Ren will remain a threat in the next movie of this trilogy? After all he was beaten quite handily by Ray at the end of their duel, though one supposes that might have been Mr Skywalker manipulating her, with all the close up of the eyes and whatnot. Still it seems to be a stumble in maintaining old horse face as a credible antagonist.

 

Edit: The First Order speech, somebody should have pointed the gentlemen to Brian Cox' performance in Killzone, probably the high point of that whole series.

Edited December 29, 2015 by Nonek

[Blarghagh]

Handily? Even with her sudden magical Force powerup, she only beat him because he was bleeding profusely, limping, unfocused from the act of killing his father, and winded because she was his second opponent (the first of which landed a lucky hit) and briefly let his guard down to try to seduce her to the dark side. I assume none of that will be a factor next time, and next time he will apparently have "completed his training" as the giant Wizard of Oz hologram said.

 

That being said, I highly doubt he'll be a straight villain. Teenage villain with daddy issues obsessed with restoring his family honor and a conflict of good and evil inside him? His "conflict" is going to get played up and eventually he'll be a reluctant hero.

 

In essence, he's Prince Zuko from that Avatar cartoon. He's even got the hair, and Rey gave him the scar to match.

 

[Malcador]

I am surprised Finn didn't lose his spine

[Darkpriest]

Ok, I've managed to stay away from the spoilers (aside of ****ing retarded DotA twitch chat "Han solo died") and watched the movie today. I had a blast, i watched it in the 4D theater, so all the fancy stuff like 3D view, smell of smoke, flashes of light, sprinkling water, wind in the hair, and moving/vibrating arm chair (super awesome in aerial fights).

 

I enjoyed the movie, however there were a few scenes that did seem a bit "meh", BUT there were just the few, and this is a huge upgrade in quality of the series after the episodes I-III.

 

I did not really get how Rey started to power up in some scenes or was acquiring random knowledge, like the mind trick, what was not easy for previous initiates, and usually only trained jedi masters were able to do it.

 

Sad to see Harrison Ford go away so early in the trilogy, but i guess someone had to take the dying teacher role of Obi-wan from ep. IV, and the long hair dude from ep. I. and Han was the perfect fit. Also fitting that he died when he finally stopped running from responsibilities and grown up to being a father. Mentality of old Solo died a few moments before, when he decided to step out of that shadow, the body just followed.

 

I'm still getting some vibes that the Finn guy is also some sort of force sensitive person, but i guess that will get covered later on.

 

So bets are, that Rey is Luke's daughter? right? We just do not know the mommy?

 

So, what are the bets for the next doomsday machine? I mean, it will be hard to top a ****ing gun shooting energy of stars...

[Nonek]

Handily? Even with her sudden magical Force powerup, she only beat him because he was bleeding profusely, limping, unfocused from the act of killing his father, and winded because she was his second opponent (the first of which landed a lucky hit) and briefly let his guard down to try to seduce her to the dark side. I assume none of that will be a factor next time, and next time he will apparently have "completed his training" as the giant Wizard of Oz hologram said.

 

That being said, I highly doubt he'll be a straight villain. Teenage villain with daddy issues obsessed with restoring his family honor and a conflict of good and evil inside him? His "conflict" is going to get played up and eventually he'll be a reluctant hero.

 

Hmmm I didn't see it that way, his wounds were powering his rage Sith style, thus why the chap kept exacerbating them by hitting his wounded side, he had finally found focus and made a decision by slaying his father, and to be honest I felt he was just playing with Finn. He might be busy completing his training, but Ray beat him totally untrained and will have Lukes tutelage next time they meet (one assumes,) so the odds are she'll humiliate him then as well. If I were the director at that point i'd have had the splitting apart planet save Ray, instead of the other way around, and maintain some sense of inherent danger in Mr Ren.

 

It would be more refreshing I think to not see him follow a Vader arc, but commit himself fully to the Sith doctrine, and be somewhat of a surprise to break away from what was a rather derivative first showing. However I acknowledge your scenario is far more likely.

[Raithe]

[Malcador]

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awkens-deleted-scenes/

[Hurlshort]

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awkens-deleted-scenes/

 

Well thank goodness for that, the film was already too long.

[Darkpriest]

What? It could last 40min more and i would barely notice it.

[Blarghagh]

If anything I felt it was rushing too fast.

[Hurlshort]

Well congrats for you people and your strong bladders.  

 

Seriously though, the film needs to appeal to a new generation.  Making it 3 hours is a good way to lose that.  I was fairly surprised that both my children stuck it out to the end, but you add another half hour and they might as well make it two movies.

[Nonek]

Intermissions seem to be the obvious solution, when were they dispensed with?

Edited December 30, 2015 by Nonek

[Blarghagh]

Well congrats for you people and your strong bladders.  

 

Seriously though, the film needs to appeal to a new generation.  Making it 3 hours is a good way to lose that.  I was fairly surprised that both my children stuck it out to the end, but you add another half hour and they might as well make it two movies.

 

There's a reason the only movie that didn't flinch from opening the same week was the new Alvin and the Chipmunks, and that reason isn't that this PG-13 Star Wars movie makes a lot of money from children too young to hold their bladders. Box-office comes from teens and young adults - especially those who can use their money to see a film multiple times. You're right that the new Star Wars needs to appeal to your kids but that's not going to happen in a cineplex. They're not even expecting kids under twelve to be there. judging by how terrible the theatre experience is for parents, how much the cost of taking a family to the movies has risen and that a lot of theatres have stopped having intermissions for the kids to take a leak, I'm pretty sure they're actively dissuading you from taking your kids there.

 

Reminds me of a story that I was told when I did some work for a company that made a kid's show once that was an excuse to sell toys, and when they did focus testing most of the kids couldn't even remember seeing the show... but they had the toys. Unless the movie is super boring, they'll want to see it because they like the toys and not the other way around. You think they need a theatre experience to feel the magic of Star Wars? Those Clone Wars toys and legos certainly aren't selling as well as they are because your kids' generation isn't feeling Star Wars, and neither are Hobbit toys and legos selling well because the movies were too long to appeal to them. Jurassic Park isn't so well-remembered by my generation because kids my age were riveted by Jeff Goldblum explaining the ethical dangers of cloning for twenty minutes in a board room, it's because it had some bits with dinosaurs and we loved the toys.

[Malcador]

Well that was weird, forum ate my post, swore I saw it here. Anyway, just was that 3 hours isn't always 3 hours to an observer. TFA flowed quick, so it didn't even feel like the 2 hours it was.

[Blarghagh]

I think Hurl's objections were less about pacing and more about the practicality of kids having to go to the toilet when there's no intermission. But I agree. Fellowship of the Ring (178 minutes) isn't nearly as long as Wrath of the Titans (99 minutes).

[Malcador]

That's why you don't take kids.

[Hurlshort]

It's more about attention span.  I just watched a 3 hour Tarantino film that was slow as heck, but I'm an adult, and I can handle that.  A Star Wars movie as a rule needs to be accessible to a new generation, and you typically don't get that when your movies are super long.  I'd argue that Lord of the Rings is aiming for an older audience, one that can read the fairly hefty books.  

[aluminiumtrioxid]

I just got back from a second showing, my 5-year old did great.  There are a few scenes that really got me a bit emotional, even on a second viewing.  They were handled extremely well:

 

 

 

1.  The moment when Rey mentally fights back against Kylo Ren.  I was impressed at how much they packed into two people staring at each other.

 

2.  Kylo and Han on the bridge.  This is obviously a very important moment, one that could have been botched easily, but it was done right.

 

3.  Rey finding Luke.  It was an awesome end.  It had my 5 year-old on the edge of his seat after a 2 and a half hour movie.  That's special.

 

 

 

Tbh. I lol'd at all three of them.

[Hurlshort]

 

I just got back from a second showing, my 5-year old did great.  There are a few scenes that really got me a bit emotional, even on a second viewing.  They were handled extremely well:

 

 

 

1.  The moment when Rey mentally fights back against Kylo Ren.  I was impressed at how much they packed into two people staring at each other.

 

2.  Kylo and Han on the bridge.  This is obviously a very important moment, one that could have been botched easily, but it was done right.

 

3.  Rey finding Luke.  It was an awesome end.  It had my 5 year-old on the edge of his seat after a 2 and a half hour movie.  That's special.

 

 

 

Tbh. I lol'd at all three of them.

 

 

tbh you are also dead inside.  

[Nonek]

That island which Luke was hiding upon, I was reminded of the small Monk Isles off of the Scottish and Irish coast, where they pursued their faith from an almost hermit like existence. I wonder if it was filmed upon one of them.

[Malcador]

 

I just got back from a second showing, my 5-year old did great.  There are a few scenes that really got me a bit emotional, even on a second viewing.  They were handled extremely well:

 

 

 

1.  The moment when Rey mentally fights back against Kylo Ren.  I was impressed at how much they packed into two people staring at each other.

 

2.  Kylo and Han on the bridge.  This is obviously a very important moment, one that could have been botched easily, but it was done right.

 

3.  Rey finding Luke.  It was an awesome end.  It had my 5 year-old on the edge of his seat after a 2 and a half hour movie.  That's special.

 

 

 

Tbh. I lol'd at all three of them.

 

2 and 3 got a laugh, 2 because of the spotlight and way everything pauses for..The Moment. 3 because the staring went on way too long, became sort of creepy and awkward.

[Leferd]

That island which Luke was hiding upon, I was reminded of the small Monk Isles off of the Scottish and Irish coast, where they pursued their faith from an almost hermit like existence. I wonder if it was filmed upon one of them.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/29/travel/stars-wars-force-awakens-island-skellig-michael/

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

 

I just got back from a second showing, my 5-year old did great.  There are a few scenes that really got me a bit emotional, even on a second viewing.  They were handled extremely well:

 

 

 

1.  The moment when Rey mentally fights back against Kylo Ren.  I was impressed at how much they packed into two people staring at each other.

 

2.  Kylo and Han on the bridge.  This is obviously a very important moment, one that could have been botched easily, but it was done right.

 

3.  Rey finding Luke.  It was an awesome end.  It had my 5 year-old on the edge of his seat after a 2 and a half hour movie.  That's special.

 

 

 

Tbh. I lol'd at all three of them.

 

2 and 3 got a laugh, 2 because of the spotlight and way everything pauses for..The Moment. 3 because the staring went on way too long, became sort of creepy and awkward.

 

 

2 got a laugh out of me thanks to the "I want to be free of this pain" line, which, coupled with the actor's looks, totally made me think "emo teenager".

 

...Kylo Ren in general was a source of laughs, especially at the time when he got shot by a bowcaster (which we've seen to straight-up blow up stormtroopers earlier), which immediately conjured the Black Knight and his catchphrase, "'TIS BUT A FLESH WOUND" to mind.

[Blarghagh]

Reading things like that just makes me think I'm really good at suspending disbelief for purposes of a movie because none of those moments bothered me.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Reading things like that just makes me think I'm really good at suspending disbelief for purposes of a movie because none of those moments bothered me.

 

I prefer to think of it as "enrichening the experience", not "bothering" 

 

After all, everything is better with Monty Python references.