Star Wars Episode 7 and Disney buy Lucas Film

[blackmocco]

Saw it again last night and with all the weight of expectations removed, ended up enjoying it immensely. It's got some issues, as voiced here and which I can agree with, but I'm with Joe - the stuff that works more than outweighs the stuff that doesn't. Good times. Great foundation to build on. More please.

[radiator]

Ugh. Asking that a film be coherent and  make sense on a basic story level is NOT the same as expecting 'Shakespeare'. Plenty of films manage it just fine.

[PsychoGoatee]

As always with opinions on entertainment, it's all personal taste. Personally I do think the movie is coherent and as mentioned earlier it still felt plausible to me even with the coincidences etc. I'm as hard to please as any of us fans on here, I just happen to really like the movie a lot.

[ThryllSeekyr]

I think too many people are expecting Shakespeare

Speaking of.....

Verily, a New Hope & the rest of double-trilogy in Shakespearean verse



Seeing as there seems to be a ongoing theme about slavery, then I might assume that the Force is made up enslaved being, people, aliens and droids. You can't see them, because your supposed to see them and the special effects takes care of keeping that illusion alive.

So, Jedi not matter wether they are good or Sith are the ultimate slavers using these people that act under the will of George Lucas now J.J. Abrams and his crew of assistants and script writers, scene editors and to organise and direct them all and they aren't really needed, because it's all done with special effects.

That's just how I think it works.

That is the magic!

[TordelBack]

I'm now desperate to see it again.  Curse you, Luca...errr, Abrams!

The more I reflect on things, the more I think I was a bit overwhelmed by and during the first viewing - particularly in the intercutting sequences, where my attention seemed to get stuck on one thread, at the expense of the other. 

From reading others' commentaries, there seem to be whole sequences I zoned out and missed.  One thing I seem to be confused about is Maz Kanata (great character, BTW*). [spoiler] A lot of her material from the trailers seems to have been cut... her handing the lightsabre to Leia from the second teaser obviously wasn't there, but also a lot of her portenious dialogue with Rey/Finn from the VO seemed absent.  And what happened to her, did we see her escaping the stormtroopers?[/spoiler]

Can clearer heads confirm if I missed it somehow, or did her role change quite significantly during editing?

Oh, and [spoiler]what was the deal with those walkers/four legged spiders in the distance on the Starkiller planet just after Han & Co arrived? Did we see those again? [/spoiler]

*Maz was one of the biggest reliefs for me - I was convinced[spoiler] she was going to take off the goggles and headgear and be revealed as Yoda's species, just the Loyalist variety [/spoiler].   

[ThryllSeekyr]

You can't see them, because your supposed to see them and the special effects takes care of keeping that illusion alive.

Correction.....You can't see them, because your not supposed to see them and the special effects takes care of keeping that illusion alive.

[Hawkmumbler]

Did [spoiler]Phasma survive as well, come to think of it.[/spoiler]

[auxlen]

Oh don't all start moaning about it. Fucking hell!

What he said!

[auxlen]

[spoiler]Did Phasma survive as well, come to think of it.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I believe she has been announced as in episode 8.[/spoiler]

[TordelBack]

[spoiler]Did Phasma survive as well, come to think of it.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I believe she has been announced as in episode 8.[/spoiler]

Aye, but so has [spoiler]Ford.[/spoiler]

[radiator]

It's common practice these days to make deliberately inaccurate announcements in order to prevent spoilers.

IIRC, [spoiler]Aaron Taylor Johnson[/spoiler] was touted as having signed a three-picture deal with Marvel to keep his character's [spoiler]death in AoU[/spoiler] under wraps.

Similarly, I had heard that [spoiler]Adam Driver[/spoiler] was not signed up for Episode 8, so I assumed he would be [spoiler]Darth Mauled in TFA[/spoiler].[spoiler] It's weird when you're watching a climatic showdown between hero and villain, and hoping that they both survive.[/spoiler]

[Colin YNWA]

I've diligently avoided this thread (so apologise if I go over old ground here I'm reviewing before reading back) and other sources of potential spoilers since the first trailer. I've tried to manage expectations and go in fresh with an open mind. The almost (seemingly) positive reviews (I've seen no more than star ratings to avoid anything I didn't l know) sneaked into my noggin and so as I wondered in this evening after only deciding to go this morning I'd had my positivity tweaked up. Damnit

So yeah don't know if what I will say meets a chorus of agreement or gets me run out of town... So yeah don't know why I bothered to avoided spoilers either cos it was so bloody reverential to the original trilogy it was embarrassing. Even the bits that weren't 're-imagined' bigger and better were bloody telegraphed to the extent that it removed much of the emotional impact of the key moment of [spoiler]Han's death. By that stage I was more concerned about whether Chewie would be taken down with him!
[/spoiler]
This shouldn't have been made for me but it bloody well tried to do that and in wrapping itself in so much fan service it very much utterly missed its mark. This should have pleased but challenged me, his should have slyly acknowledged me but made me reflect that it was for a new generation. This should have been like seeing your first true love across the street and getting all giddy cos she smiled at you. Rather it was like seeing your first true love and having her (or him) try to snog you even though you are now happily married to someone else and well lets be honest time hasn't done them any favours.

This utterly lacked the courage of its convictions and by doing so did the old stuff a lot worse than it was done before.

I wish I could say that Han and Chewie ruled the film as clearly it was first and foremost a tribute to them and they almost did as both were played brilliantly BUT nothing, nothing was added to them. Well except that moment when Han and Leia met, that was quite wonderful, that was the smile across the street. By far the best thing was the two new leads loved them. Even there though it was at times fumbled. Example, 'New Hope' was about someone trying to escape to a bigger world so here someone thought 'We'll oh so clearly do a switcheroo on that one... for like an hour then flim flam that'. Anyway yeah I do have a new hope (fucking terrible pun intended in just the way this film did) this has got the desire to be the Bootleg Beatles out its system and lets the future films BUILD on what was magnificent in the past not retread it.

So yeah new character (well the leads) good.

I get that the original was about redemption and family BUT really did this need to try to use that so poorly by twisting it. Garrr this is turning into a rant so better stop...

... oh except the film lied to me. LOADs about the beginning suggested that it had buried the past. That shot of the speeder thingie driving past the Star Destroyer crashed and half covered should have been the opening shot and set the theme. There were other similar ideas, it wasn't Tatooine, that could have worked etc etc.

Oh right still a rant so I'll spare you all the specifics (so many and may return to them in the morning, be warned put me on ignore!) , and leave with this thought I've always been able to allow Star Wars movies their concidences and awkward plot moments. I've always been able to let them slip by, after all it was probably cos of the force. This stretched credibility beyond breaking point, it really did... it really bloody did...

I need to sleep don't I... Thank fuck I've been made a big Mad Max fan again this year!

[Colin YNWA]

Oh and no one told me Neil Gaiman CGI'd to look twenty years younger was the main baddie!

[radiator]

Oh don't all start moaning about it. Fucking hell!

What he said!

Here's some more moaning for you guys:

Why was Rey [spoiler]selected to locate Luke? They barely know who she is.[/spoiler]

Rey being [spoiler]an ace star pilot comes out of nowhere and makes no sense whatsoever, given that it is firmly established that she has never travelled far from Jakku. Eg: her reaction to arriving on a lush, non-desert planet.
[/spoiler]
Why such an emotional scene between [spoiler]Leia and Rey? Correct me if I'm wrong, but they didn't even have a single scene together before that, did they? And yes, I know they were pushing a surrogate father/daughter thing between her and Han, but they'd known each other for like what? An afternoon? You could say the same of Luke and Kenobi in the original movie, but that's not quite true, as it is established that Luke had known 'Old Ben' for many years prior to the events of the film.[/spoiler]

The fact that Finn [spoiler]lied about his level of knowledge regarding Starkiller Base was brushed off as a jokey thing, but if you think about it for a second, he essentially jeapordises the mission (and thus the fate of the Resistance and the galaxy) because he lied so he could rescue Rey? That's a total dick move and really weakens his character in my opinion. It's also another thing that portrays the characters in the film as not really seeming to take the Starkiller as gravely seriously as it warrants, contributing to an overall lack of peril and tension. Damn I wish that whole thing wasn't in the movie.[/spoiler]

And finally, they better have a damn good reason for why [spoiler]Luke was in exile. And before anyone says it, yes, I'm aware a reason is given in the film, but the way it's presented reduces Luke Skywalker to a coward who abandons the galaxy to The First Order's domination. As I say, they better have a damn good reason, but I suspect they haven't, because from doing a bit of research it appears that the reason he's in exile was changed when Abrams rewrote Michael Arndt's script.[/spoiler]

Honestly wish I could gloss over these things like the rest of you - and if it were just one or two things I could - but when it is dozens of plotholes, inconsistencies and contrivances piled up like this it makes it impossible for me to ignore. It's not nit-picking, it's fundamental story problems. I expect better writing than this.

Regarding Maz Canata(?): [spoiler]Apparently she was supposed to have a much bigger role (I think she was supposed to tag along with Han, Rey and Co on the Falcon even), but Abrams was allegedly unhappy with the actresses' performance and drastically cut her role down. Which would explain why she suddenly disappears from the film.[/spoiler]

[Colin YNWA]

By last scene, do you mean the one that's lifted straight from a Rock video. I was expecting a certain character to turn around with an electric guitar in his hands.

I wish I'd just said that rather than my longwinded, almost certainly nonsensical rant. You win the thread. GOLD!