Star Wars Episode 7 and Disney buy Lucas Film

[Magnetica]

I deliberately avoided this thread completely before I saw the film.

Right from the word go I thought  "this is great, way better than the prequels". Indeed I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was the most action packaged Star Wars yet.

Yes the [spoiler]lets below up the a third Death Star which has a convenient flaw a decent shot from an X Wing can target did make me go "ok so they have used that plot in 3 out of 7 movies now".[/spoiler]

It was only days after watching it that it occurred to me just how many coincidences it relies on. For me that is the weakest bit. I really don't mind that they haven't explicitly[spoiler] told us who Rey is. Like many on here I assume she is Ren's sister or cousin, but am happy for that to be revealed [/spoiler]in the next one.

But you know what, I still really enjoyed it and want to see it again.

Another thing the trip to the cinema revealed to me is that there is a new Star Trek film coming out next year. That is really great news (but I guess some of you on here already knew about it). I had assumed JJ would be doing more Star Wars (but he is't - well at least not the next one ) and would therefore be too busy to do more Trek. Glad that isn't the case.

[Mattofthespurs]

Just got back from the cinema (with my 11 year old Son) and, like many others, I have avoided this thread.
Nothing really much to add. I've seen all 7 films on their first run at the pictures (I saw the original, first movie, 3 days after it came out. In fact I had 4 Star Wars figures before I had even seen the film) and just wanted to say that I, and my Son, absolutely loved it.
Yeah, it's got some plot holes (many of which, I think, will be addressed in the future movies) but I was able, quite easily, to be able to switch my brain back to that of an 8 year old boy and just revel in it.
And having avoided the spoilers I have to say that [spoiler]when Han dies is the biggest shock I think I have ever experienced in the cinema. Bigger than 'I am your Father' (which he doesn't actually say), and bigger than Bruce Willis being dead in The Sixth Sense, which I had kinda figured out anyway. Fuck you JJ.[/spoiler]
Thought the new cast were exceptional and Daisy is just gorgeous and very talented (which is a bit creepy because I'm old enough to be her Father.)
Loved it, loved it, loved it. A great new James Bond and a great new Star Wars movie in the last couple of months. I feel very spoiled. 

[Mattofthespurs]

The other thing I loved is that the trailers are cut in such a way that they don't actually give anything away.

[blackmocco]

As fun a movie as it is, I honestly can't believe that some people are seriously entertaining the notion that TFA holds a candle to the OT.

Ah man, it easily leapfrogs Jedi for me. I think yourself and Colin are being very hard on it. I agree there's some obvious deficiencies with the movie's plot and direction, stuff that prevents it from being 100% perfect, but it's so much better than it needed to be to keep me happy. If we're honest, most of the Star Wars movies don't hold up to any kind of intense scrutiny. The stuff that worked for me far outweighed the stuff that didn't and really, I'm just thrilled the characters themselves were so successful. Second viewing in, it didn't matter to me so much about the laziness of the Starkiller base. I just wanted to spend more time with these characters. It's a perfectly effective, if not completely successful, new Star Wars movie which, if nothing else, has built a great foundation for more to come. That's the reason people are so satisfied, I would think.

And frankly, after a year that vomited Jupiter Ascending and Jurassic World upon us, I'd say that's a good reason to be thankful enough...!!!

[JamesC]

As fun a movie as it is, I honestly can't believe that some people are seriously entertaining the notion that TFA holds a candle to the OT.

Ah man, it easily leapfrogs Jedi for me. I think yourself and Colin are being very hard on it. I agree there's some obvious deficiencies with the movie's plot and direction, stuff that prevents it from being 100% perfect, but it's so much better than it needed to be to keep me happy. If we're honest, most of the Star Wars movies don't hold up to any kind of intense scrutiny. The stuff that worked for me far outweighed the stuff that didn't and really, I'm just thrilled the characters themselves were so successful. Second viewing in, it didn't matter to me so much about the laziness of the Starkiller base. I just wanted to spend more time with these characters. It's a perfectly effective, if not completely successful, new Star Wars movie which, if nothing else, has built a great foundation for more to come. That's the reason people are so satisfied, I would think.

And frankly, after a year that vomited Jupiter Ascending and Jurassic World upon us, I'd say that's a good reason to be thankful enough...!!!

I think Jedi's the best one!

[SIP]

?........darth vader does say "I am your father".

[blackmocco]

As fun a movie as it is, I honestly can't believe that some people are seriously entertaining the notion that TFA holds a candle to the OT.

Ah man, it easily leapfrogs Jedi for me. I think yourself and Colin are being very hard on it. I agree there's some obvious deficiencies with the movie's plot and direction, stuff that prevents it from being 100% perfect, but it's so much better than it needed to be to keep me happy. If we're honest, most of the Star Wars movies don't hold up to any kind of intense scrutiny. The stuff that worked for me far outweighed the stuff that didn't and really, I'm just thrilled the characters themselves were so successful. Second viewing in, it didn't matter to me so much about the laziness of the Starkiller base. I just wanted to spend more time with these characters. It's a perfectly effective, if not completely successful, new Star Wars movie which, if nothing else, has built a great foundation for more to come. That's the reason people are so satisfied, I would think.

And frankly, after a year that vomited Jupiter Ascending and Jurassic World upon us, I'd say that's a good reason to be thankful enough...!!!

I think Jedi's the best one!

And I have plenty of friends who would agree with you!

[SIP]

I love Jedi......a bit like temple of doom,  it might not be the best but seems to be the most fun to re-watch.

[blackmocco]

The Ewoks are dead, according to science.

""The aftermath of this impact would be to obliterate everything on the surface. No Ewok could withstand an impact of that magnitude," Minton concluded. "Every forest would ignite into a global firestorm." This also would certainly have annihilated the most important members of the Rebel Alliance celebrating their ultimate victory over the Galactic Empire. Whoops."

http://www.iflscience.com/space/death-star-iis-destruction-may-have-doomed-ewoks-say-scientists

[JPMaybe]

?........darth vader does say "I am your father".

Yeah, the common misquotation is "Luke, I am your father" when he actually says "No, I am your father"

[Mattofthespurs]

?........darth vader does say "I am your father".

I may have had some mulled wine this very...erm...afternoon.

[sheridan]

Yes the [spoiler]lets below up the a third Death Star which has a convenient flaw a decent shot from an X Wing can target did make me go "ok so they have used that plot in 3 out of 7 movies now".[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Young Anakin taking out the droid control ship[/spoiler] was pretty similar as well...

[ThryllSeekyr]

Very nearly went to see this last night and after I got off my make-shift bed on the floor of the lounge room (After feeling a bit lagged, like I have been for the last fortnight.) I found my these Star Wars themed pajama bottoms, (Only other way to other way describe then,  being blue in colour with repeated images of Star Wars logo along with R2-D2 on them. Brought them earlier this year along with this white/grey long sleeve top with a larger picture of R2-D2 on it.) and a my Driza-Bone long coat along with my Slaine beanie on top. Couldn't find a pair of shoes, and only had a pair of thongs handy.

Sitting at the computer before I leave prepare to leave the house. I see it's really ten past nine at night and I would know it because there is still light outside at around about seven thirty when I put my head down early.

The last session at the local was about to start and I couldn't bother my father (He doesn't feel right!) to drive me in or wait for a Taxi and de-cloaked and de-be-capped. Because I was sweating and thought.....

Maybe today, this morning or afternoon or night....

[TordelBack]

Yes the [spoiler]lets below up the a third Death Star which has a convenient flaw a decent shot from an X Wing can target...

This doesn't happen, of course[spoiler] - there is no 'shot in a million', like Luke's or Anakin's. The base proves entirely snub-fighter proof, until Han deactivates the shields (as he did in Jedi, admittedly), and even then not until Chewie blows the regulator up from the inside. And that is one costly mission. The X-Wings only prove effective against a breach created by other means, up to that point they're gnats biting an elephant. The plot may be the same, but the vulnerability is different.[/spoiler]

[radiator]

If we're honest, most of the Star Wars movies don't hold up to any kind of intense scrutiny.

I'm hearing this a lot, and I have to respectfully disagree. Yeah, there's probably some pretty whacky plot stuff in the OT when you really break it down, but to my mind there's nothing that really leaps out of the screen and slaps you around the face in the way that happens a lot in TFA*, especially in the second half of the movie. Events in all three original movies seem to me to follow on from each other in a fairly logical manner from start to finish and hold up pretty well under scrutiny. For example in the first film, the characters and MacGuffin all come together in a perfectly logical, organic way - in TFA, not so much; you have to swallow several pretty hefty coincidences right off the bat.

Ah man, it easily leapfrogs Jedi for me.

Personally I think TFA is the weaker film simply because of how derivative it is of the originals, and how a lot (but not all) of it's 'punch the air' moments only have potency because of how heavily they lean on our shared nostalgia. I just can't imagine any single scene in TFA being anywhere near as enduring or iconic, long term, as Jabba's palace, or the speeder bike chase, or Luke vs Vader round 2.

I think yourself and Colin are being very hard on it.

Should stress that I'm mostly being critical about plot stuff, and that while I think the script and plotting - on some levels - is objectively weak, I liked almost everything else in the movie. I obviously care about it or I wouldn't be going on about it so much. I'll probably see it again at some point and see if these things bother me as much second time round.

I'll be interested to see how people look back on it in a few years time. My feeling is that, much like with Abrams' Trek movies, once the initial glow of hype dies down I think people will reappraise it and the general consensus will be slightly more critically in hindsight. Just my opinion.

*Fully appreciate that I may be blind to glaring faults through overfamiliarity though.