Star Wars: The Thread Strikes Back

[Reply #440 on:]

I have to say the more i watch the trailer the most i like it...

a bit too many lens flares at the start.... but i kinda like it overall..

now to try to destroy hipe and remain pesimistic..  because im beginning to think this might actually work ...and i had to many disapointments allready for a long time

. I don't believe we have seen Lupita Nyong'o's character yet, either.

We have... 

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she is in the poster

[Reply #441 on:]

Why don't you stop watching and analysing the trailers, and save yourself for the film itself? 

[Reply #442 on:]

believe me.. i really try not to

still not nearly as obsesed as some people im seeing arround framefreezing everything and allready ploting the entire movie ahead

[Reply #443 on:]

I think the lack of Luke is obvious: they want to make his reveal a big deal in the movie.

[Reply #444 on:]

How possible do you think it is that JJ Abrams is going to actually make Luke turn out to be the advertised big bad in disguise in an attempt to make an iconic twist for the new trilogy?

[Reply #445 on:]

How possible do you think it is that JJ Abrams is going to actually make Luke turn out to be the advertised big bad in disguise in an attempt to make an iconic twist for the new trilogy?

That would be a horrible, horrible idea. 90% of the plot in the original trilogy is about Luke resisting the dark side. Suddenly making him the villain because reasons wouldn't be the smartest thing.

[Reply #446 on:]

Surely it turns out Luke is the bad guy?

[Reply #447 on:]

Maybe he's the good guy but the galaxy has gone bad.

[Reply #448 on:]

Five bucks says the New Death Star blows up Tatooine

[Reply #449 on:]

Five bucks says the New Death Star blows up Tatooine

i would pay millions for it to blow Endor

[Reply #450 on:]

How possible do you think it is that JJ Abrams is going to actually make Luke turn out to be the advertised big bad in disguise in an attempt to make an iconic twist for the new trilogy?

That would be a horrible, horrible idea. 90% of the plot in the original trilogy is about Luke resisting the dark side. Suddenly making him the villain because reasons wouldn't be the smartest thing.

I agree. But we're talking about the same guy who actually thought switching the roles of Kirk and Spock from Wrath of Kahn in the emotional climax of Into Darkness was clever.

I can totally see the studio going "No that's a horrible idea" and then Abrams going over their heads and presenting the idea to Lucas who went "YES AWESOME" and then convinced the studio to let him do it.

[Reply #451 on:]

If he does turn out to be the Bad Guy, there will surely be some slowly-revealed justification, e.g. he's doing it for the greater good, or he's sacrificing his soul to save someone he loves, etc.

[Reply #452 on:]

Absolutely. It could be done very well. But if that is the case and they intend for it to be a twist, they're doing a horrible job of not making it super easy to guess.

On the other hand, if leaving him out of the advertising is a deliberate attempt to get people to guess that he's the bad guy, only to have a huge reveal that he's simply been in exile or something, then....that's genius.

[Reply #453 on:]

I'll just leave this here.

[Reply #454 on:]

So, I'm going to the very first showing of TFA at my local cinema, 00:05 on the 17th December. Very excited.

[Reply #455 on:]

So, I'm going to the very first showing of TFA at my local cinema, 00:05 on the 17th December. Very excited.

Lucky you.. in 2 hours all tickets for the 18 were gone.. only 3D passes were avalaible and i refused as i dont want to see this movie first in 3D (dark, blurry and with 3D glasses on top of my regular glasses) so we had to go for the 19th

[Reply #456 on:]

I'll probably wait a few days before seeing it, and then go at an unpopular time (like 10 AM-ish).

My hype can wait a bit longer.

[Reply #457 on:]

I was going to see Jurassic World after the crowds died down, but it slipped my mind (it doesn't take much...) and will be getting it on blu-ray.  It's entirely possible that I'll do the same for Force Awakens.  Unless most everyone here raves about it, in which case I'll likely go UrL's route and see it some weekday morning.

[Reply #458 on:]

I'll just leave this here.

You are a bad man, and I have no regrets over having laughed a lot at your video. Well done.

[Reply #459 on:]

I'll just leave this here.

You are a bad man, and I have no regrets over having laughed a lot at your video. Well done.

The George Lucas part killed me the most.

[Reply #460 on:]

I've managed to avoid all trailers, but I couldn't resist watching this one, thanks

[Reply #461 on:]

Im going to submerged mode


im eating quite a lot of spoilers and im trying activelly to avoid them...

they are everywhere

[Reply #462 on:]

Saw a trailer during a commercial break on my boring regional news channel, of all places.  Fortunately I managed to avert my eyes and avoid assimilating spoilers.


J J Abrams was asked recently which of the many rumours and fan theories about Force Awakens was his favourite...

[JJ] I’m sure there are some I don’t know, but the one I heard that I think is so great is that Jar-Jar is a Sith...

link

[Reply #463 on:]

T-minus 6 hours and 20 minutes until I see The Force Awakens! Cannot wait.

[Reply #464 on:]

Lucky bugger, I'm seeing it in 22 hours and 40 minutes.

I just got spoiled about a major plot point, so I hope you're able to go in blind like I was wanting to

[Reply #465 on:]

Enjoy, guys!  If the crowds have thinned a tiny bit after Christmas I'll try to see it on the 29th or 30th.  Otherwise I'll just bide my time... <insert image of Palpatine steepling his hands, with a slightly malevolent smile>

P.S. I will literally be wearing earplugs in the theatre line, to avoid spoilers :)

[Reply #466 on:]

"Well thank you Mr Blow The Picture For Me"

[Reply #467 on:]

T-minus 6 hours and 20 minutes until I see The Force Awakens! Cannot wait.

Hurr, when you posted this I'd not long gotten back from seeing it.

Wow, what an ending! Who would've thought that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father!

But yeah I liked it and thought it was fun and stuff. There, spoiler-free review!

[Reply #468 on:]

Well that was pretty fucking awesome.
If I had to rank the movies from best to worse it would be
5,4,7,3,6,2, The Clone Wars Movie and 1

My only complaints for The Force Awakens is minor nitpicks that people probably don't care about

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1: Luke's appearance pissed me off, it felt like a giant middle finger to the fans. "You want to see Luke? Alright, we'll keep him out of every trailer, only give him a minute of screen time, and absolutely no lines."
2: I felt some of the dialogue was forced when revealing Kylo Ren is Han Solo's son
3: Rey and Finn really didn't attempt to shoot Kylo Ren when he was just standing there after killing Han Come on, you had a good shot of hitting him.. Movie logic I guess...
4: So R2D2 just happens to wake up at the very end in order to complete the map for Luke's location? That was pretty damn convenient
5: A lot of buzz was given toward Captain Phasma, yet, she hardly had anything to do. Felt like a lot of her scenes was deleted from the final count..
6: Was already spoiled about Han's death. Not the fault of the movie, but I'm still pretty pissed off that was spoiled for me..  

8/10.

[Reply #469 on:]

My only complaints for The Force Awakens is minor nitpicks that people probably don't care about

We are talking about Star Wars. Belief me, there are no "minor nitpicks that people probably don't care about". Even the slightest details can cause hordes of mom-basment dwelling sci fi freaks rush into the fray, shouting their infamous battle-cry "NERDRAGE!!!"

Anyway, I am a huge fan of the classic trilogy, and the new movie unfortunately did not do it for me at all...

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There is a line between "paying tribute to a classic" and "just repeating something".
Episode VII unfortunately did not walk that line for me. The plot was de facto elements from episodes IV and VI clobbered together, but mostly things we have seen before. Pupil kills his father figure: Vader/Ren Kenobi/Solo, yep, we got it. There is important information put into a droid? Yep. Said droid is found by some kid on a forsaken planet? Yep. Etc, etc, etc... . Many fans of the classic trilogy actually gave the Prequels credit for at least TRYING to do something new (that did not completely work). While episode VII is basically some recycled hybrid formed from IV and VI. The classic trilogy established the used/dirty look, and showed a sci  fi universe heavily influences by legends, fairy tales and mythology. The prequels had the ambition to show a pre-civil-war society, that was different from the later one. Episode VII should have had the courage to visualise a post-war-society, instead of opting for a mere "Okay, the Emperor as Bossmonster was killed, but there is enough left to go on with business as usual. No changes here".

[Reply #470 on:]

Enjoyed the film lots, was a fan of Kylo Ren before going in but I appreciate him even more after seeing the film.

Some thoughts (spoilery as fuck, obviously):

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• The plot was, like almost everyone else is saying, just another retelling of A New Hope. Did we really need Death Star 3.0?
• Great acting from the 4 newbies (Ridley, Boyega, Isaac & Driver). All of their characters are welcome additions to the SW universe, imo. I loved the bromance between Finn & Poe.
• I like how the Stormtroopers actually felt scary/dangerous in this one. I prefer their new look to the classic Stormtrooper one (bite me), and that riot trooper with the melee weapon was great. Disappointed with the lack of screen time Captain Phasma received, her character was pretty useless in this film. Gwendoline Christie confirmed she'll be back for the sequel(s), though, so maybe we'll get to see her utilised properly.
• Great sound editing, especially on the lightsabers. John Williams' score, however: poop. Nothing memorable or new brought to the table for this one.
• Han's death felt kinda rushed for me, and it also wasn't too shocking because I had a feeling he would be killed off based on the fact that Ford wanted the character to die in ROTJ.
• The relationship between Kylo & his parents had almost no backstory/build-up, it was just so rushed and seemed like an unnecessary thing they put in there just as a way of getting Han killed off. It would have been more awesome if Rey (who we assume is Luke's daughter?) was the one who turned evil whilst in Luke's Jedi classes & became the new Sith who has to fight Luke. Kind of a reverse of the relationship between Luke and Vader.
• No backstory whatsoever on the Knights of Ren, plus no backstory about Snoke (who looked kind of shitty for me; he seems like he'd fit in more with a Lord of the Rings film than a SW film, but maybe that's just me). I feel like we need more information about the First Order, when/where they were formed, where Snoke came into the picture, how Snoke got to Kylo, what is the ultimate goal of the Order, etc.?
• Mark Hamill's name does not deserve to be in any of the advertising for this film. Roughly a minute of screen time and not a single line spoken. R2-D2 needs to be removed from the poster, too, because he gets roughly less than 5 minutes of screen time.
• The map plot is convoluted and doesn't really make sense.

Lots of questions are brought up by the end of the film, but I think we needed a lot more questions answering about the events that occurred in the 30 years after ROTJ before we start to build up this fresh universe.

[Reply #471 on:]

Saw it this afternoon and really liked it, especially the acting from the new cast members. Only minor nitpick was the obvious reusing of a certain item from the ot and the cgi characters kind of stuck out like a sore thumb

[Reply #472 on:]

I also enjoyed it.

The new characters are excellent and I feel like this movie did a great job of "passing down the torch" so they won't have to rely on the fan favourites in the future.

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Kylo Ren was great. He fills the bitchy role that Anakin had without being annoying or obnoxious, and has fairly believable motivations. His "obsession" with Vader also makes sense now that we know that he's Vader's grandson.

The humour was on-point, I thought. BB-8 was pretty cute and amusing and I thought C-3PO's introduction was hilarious.

Only thing I didn't really like was R2-D2 randomly waking up to finish the story, which came out of nowhere. I noticed all the parallels to A New Hope as well but it made sense for this particular story since it's introducing so many new characters. I swear though, I fill flip out if the next one has yet another giant planet-sized superweapon.

[Reply #473 on:]

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i agree that kilo worked where Hayden Christiansen failed because his tantrums were intentionally funny. My favorite minor characters were the two "eh, fuck" storm troopers

[Reply #474 on:]

Okay, I'll throw in my thoughts.

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I'm starting with the negatives, because I want to focus on the positives, which should show you how much I loved this film.

Many of these have been said already (but not by me, so such words are meaningless)
- How did the Starkiller Base move about? That confused me. It was only after they established for the second attack that they needed to drain the energy of Hoover up the sun that I thought to myself "so how did it work before?"
- I'm glad the prequel-esque notion of heavily explaining the politics behind the Republic, their support for the Resistance, and their relationship with the First Order is downplayed, but when so little time is actually given to establish the Republic its destruction is totally underwhelming. Was that Coruscant? Er, no, actually, it seems. Might have made more sense if it was. Instead the Republic is just a particular local government, with too few ties to the Rebel Alliance to give it the impact it should have had. That said, more on this later.
- The OT was often set on the fringes of the galaxy, but what the OT and PT managed to succeed in doing is give the plot the sense of galactic importance. TFA seems more like a local dispute, even if one of the parties has converted a planet into a massive, sun-sucking, system-ending superweapon.
- Monsters rabidly capture and devour normal people in seconds but when one person is equipped with Plot Armour then the monster panics and runs about the ship not sure what to do with him - giving the hero enough time to plan and execute a rescue (-cliché).
- Phasma turns out to be nearly a non-character. She could have easily been replaced by a snooty officer, with other lines being delivered by normal stormtroopers. Nothing is really shown to demonstrate her as the fearsome or elite warrior that the publicity portrayed her as. Don't get me wrong, I really want to see her again, but as a worthy foe.
- "Poe, I thought you were dead!" "Nope!"
- Finn mercilessly kills all of his former comrades, without any compunction. Luckily for the galaxy, the only one he seemed to ever care about was shot dead by Poe.
- R2D2's "don't wake me up until the plot's ready"
- John Williams' score is completely forgettable. I barely registered it as even existing. That is sad.
- By the end of the OT there were a wide variety of characteristic Rebel fighters and Imperial TIES, so it's a bit disappointing that 30 years later the galaxy has "progressed" to just X-Wings and TIE Fighters.
- Snoke; silly name. Also, it seems unfortunate that Andy Serkis has been typecasted as motion-capture artist instead of simply being allowed to be known as a brilliant actor. Don't get me wrong, the character is great (bar his name) and the acting fantastic, but Snoke doesn't need to be CGI, and it didn't look very convincing either, unfortunately. If they made Simon Pegg utterly unrecognisable with minimal CGI, they easily could have done the same with Andy. Heck, he's so rarely seen in the flesh as it were, they could have gone with a minimalist approach to the make-up.
- Yes, a fair bit of it was a rehash. That said, it did not rub me the wrong way anything like JJ's rehash of the radiation chamber scene from the Wrath of Khan.

And now the positives:
+ The visuals were absolutely superb
+ The new cast were fantastic, I really like all the main characters.
++ Rae is a great female lead - strong willed, skilled but not bitchy. Only some parts did I umm about Daisy Riley's acting. I've seen some complaints that she's a Mary Sue and to a point I do identify where they are coming from, but I don't agree.
++ Finn, apart from my earlier views, is otherwise excellent and thoroughly likeable. His slightly "woooh!" personality seemed potentially jarring at first, but never actually irritated. A neatly woven mixture of comic relief with seriousness.
++ Poe - if Ace Rimmer's personality was actually tolerable it would result in Poe. A mixture of cocksure, arrogance, exceptional skill (look mum, no Jedi powers! Wow!) and genuine heroism. What a guy! Love his bromance with Finn too.
+++ Now there are some complaints I've seen that are screaming about the film's PC emphasis - three leads, one's a woman(!!!!!!), one's black(!!!) and the white guy may possibly be gay! OMG Political Correctness gone mad! At the risk of sounding totally sanctimonious, but I thank God that He has blessed me so that I can see those characters as merely good characters, and not shit myself over possible "political" or social commentary or connotations.
++ Kylo Ren is great. From the trailers I was not convinced at all, but actually his delivery is spot on.
+++ I also liked the dynamics of General Hux. Now, Hux, I almost sniggered a bit during his glorious, rousing speech before the weapon fire, but I guess like Tarkin he is actually the main servant\agent of Snoke, while Ren is just Snoke's Personal Favourite, running about doing his own thing. People unfairly compare Ren with Vader later on in the series; Ren's still very inexperienced. Yeah he should have more prowess then Rae, but I really don't think he's actually supposed to be a full-on master of the force or anything.
+++ Ren murdering Han Solo (difficult to write about anyone murdering Han Solo) was played really rather well. And yet, despite this act that he felt necessary to complete his journey to the Dark Side (his line about not knowing whether he had the courage to do it was brilliant in hindsight) I still wonder whether his allegiance is set in stone now, and that he may yet be hit over the head by the Hasbro-copyrighted Redemption Stick possibly long before the finale of this trilogy.
+ Many, though not all aspects of the film work well when thought through.
+ The destruction of the Republic's capital, though barely more than a side-show in this movie, actually sets up great challenges for the heroes in the future. Although little is still known about the exact make up of all the galactic players, it strikes me that a crippled Republic will leave the Resistance heavily exposed while the First Order is far from defeated. It strikes me that the Resistance is in far weaker a position than the Alliance was at the end of ANH. They're basically pinning all their hopes on Luke Skywalker coming good now, whereas in the past Luke was just a figurehead of a larger movement.
+ All in all, it succeeds in being a stand-alone movie while beautifully setting up the films that will follow it. I think those who are concerned that the whole thing is unoriginal will be rewarded by Episode VIII and IX. Or at least I hope so.

At any rate, I'm very much looking forward to the next one!

Yay!

So there

[Reply #475 on:]

It was very cool and a good, solid movie on its own.

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I did enjoy most of the the throwbacks, especially to the classic lines, but while interesting, the plot was bit too much similiar to original trilogy (especially another "Death Star" comes and goes). And Kylo Ren was really interesting character with different perspective to dark and light side, when compared to Darth Vader.

The things I didn't like were the humor half the time and some character development and dialog at beginning. Maybe not enough subtlety.

[Reply #476 on:]

One other thing I'll give VII credit for is that it was very tightly paced. There was barely a dull moment and it was interesting the entire way through. No trade negotiations whatsoever!

[Reply #477 on:]

Yeah, I found that it didn't really drag on at all like the prequels seemed to do a lot.

[Reply #478 on:]

Even the original trilogy suffers from padding. The beginning of A New Hope drags on forever before Luke meets Obi Wan. And Return of the Jedi is almost 2/3rds material not related to the main plot. The Empire Strikes Back is the only well-paced of those three.

[Reply #479 on:]

Perhaps it's a generational thing.  Seeing A New Hope during opening week, it certainly didn't seem to drag on in the least.  It was a new and very different sort of sci-fi film to us and it took a while to acclimate to its setting.  The pacing at the beginning reinforced the believability of Luke wanting to get the hell away from that farm in the middle of nowhere and out from under the control of his aunt and uncle but it didn't seem unduly slow.

The machinery looked well-used, and the sets looked like they were shot on location and it really drew the audience in.  The John Williams score helped a lot, too.  The only real jarring exception that I recall was the stupid pyrotechnic effect on the first R2 unit.