After repeatedly hearing about how awesome The Force Awakens is, I started to feel a lot like Mubato from 'Zoolander'... I must be taking crazy pills. At first, I was hesitant, believing that I was just too old or to critical to enjoy it, but the more I thought about it, the more and more I thought the entire thing was just lame and unoriginal. Here's my reasoning... 1. The main character was bland and the typical jack-of-all trades. There's literally nothing she can't do. She's winning 1v5 fights in the beeginning, she can fix and pilot an outdatted star vessel, she can speak wookie, and she learns and defeats an exprienced Sith Commander - Kao Ren- literally IN...HOURS. Is this supposed to be an inspiring character? 2. The Empire, in this movie, has WAY too much power. As usual, why ver would the extremely powerful Snook get off his ass to do anything when he can delegate seemingly very important matters to inept, apparently half-trained underlings? Not even that, he has vast military power. He walking around on a mulit-planet destroyer that... 3. Seems to recycle the same obscene, pathetic weakness of the other Death Stars. Do these people learn? I can see it happening the first time, but...come on. It's basically the same plot. The weak spot is in a particularly easy-to-get-to position. 4. Kao Ren was extremely undrwhelming. Granted, I got some chills during the earlier scenes when, like 'Lost', I thought he was building up to something big. H genuinely seemed like one of those striding juggernaunts you simply could not fight alone or in a group, you had to come out with an on-point plan that still left you with a 20% chance of survival. This is Kao Ren, the leader of...what is he the leader of? He was the only dark force wielder I saw besides Snoke? Ah well. This guy gets taken down fairly easily by a noob. No. No, no, no, no, no. On top of that, he seems to do everything wrong. EVERYTHING. It would have been bettr if they put a 13 year old kid in it's place, because that's what it felt like- a kid placed in charge of extremely important things. This, however, might be a reflection on of an inept society where people rise in rank based on birth or status than anything else. Indeed, he was paired with a co-commander, so... Oh, and he was bat down by a Janitor. Prsmuably one not trained in anything remotely Jedi... Ugh... 5. A little too many nods to the old films. One or two is cute, but there was a little too much of this for my tastes. The point of this movie was to...start a nw chapter. A story should evolve, not repeat itself. This one, I felt, tried to much to appease what might have been the anticipation of a poop-load of angry fans. 6. Where are all the Jedi? Where are all the Sith? This is a battle of extreme import going on and yet you do not feel the enormity of it. You never get the sense that high stakes are on the table. Actions of enormous consquence are done without any resounding echo. At least in the first movies, Obi Wan's ghostly description of hearing millions of souls cry out and be silenced at once...left you with a sort of echoing realization of the deeply cruel thing that just happened. Here...it was a passing event. On to more kiddie-saber action. And while all this was going through my head, I was thinking th Abrams is a pretty crafty dude. He's definitely going to throw m for a loop in the end. And while I was watching it, my utter hopes seemed to be on this on this imagined twist in my head that...the Janitor- Finn- was the actual Jedi. Think about it. he displays a moral conscience superior to that of anyone so far. He's the only one who shows REAL progression in the story. He was a Stormi at first, but he left when unable to continue on that path. He has barely any skills. However, he starts to find his own charactr- at first lying to save his own skin and ingratiate himself under the protection of another faction, but then he begins to dvelop more and more confidence and as the story progresses, he dvelops an increasingly...powerful resolve. Even in the face of the Empires forces- that which scares the crap out of him- he always returns to fight for the things he cares about. He is the epitome of the Jedi's true code. he doesn't want to fight. He fights because he must. And truly, not just some contrived plot that gives him an excuse to go pulling out limbs and such. Not only this, but there were some scenes in the movie which really had me wondering like when he picked up th sword and was pretty good with it, though not great. THIS is a good character. He doesn't just master things in an instant, he's got a learning curve, but he DID have the heart to try, despite this. Also, one of the really good parts about this move was the chemistry between the Jedi Girl and the Janitor. Unless I'm mistaken, they can cook a screen just with looks. The reunion of Solo and Leia was also pretty warm and touching. Not a perfect family, apparently, but despite a troubled past, the ties that bind still held in their own kind of way... I'm still thinking somewhere down inside that Finn is going to break out in the later stories as OP. The Jedi-girl...she's a little broken. Waaaay to easy to be interesting. Perhaps this was Abrams attempt to also not make anyone mad by creating a female that had to be saved by a male. I don't know. It's a little too easy to fling criticism on people's work and not understand the complexity of what it must have taken to even get what was put out...out. But this was hyped to be a really good story. A newer beginning to the new beginning. I was really hoping I was going to see some of the depth of the Jedi lore discussed in the film. The mystery and the history. I was disappointed. But...there's always hope.
Totally unoriginal. All they did was take the props out of storage and dust them off. New Death Star - lets just enlarge the old Death Star and put them side by side. How creative was that? Old DS could blow up planets. Guess what the new DS can do. New Death Star has the exact same weakness as the old one and was destroyed in the exact same way. Hey we found Luke Skywalker. Who cares, we don't need him any more. Same x-wing fighters, same spool fighters. Darth Vader was the most feared man in the universe and will be installed in the villain hall of fame. This guy is like the third string quarterback who's only been with the team a couple of weeks. No Yoda like creature, No Jabba, no Jarjar. The cast was empty of anyone interesting. The droids, old and new, were mere props with nothing to do. It would have been better if they hadn't used Hans Solo and company and if the story had a plot and a bit of drama.
She is a Jedi so of course she has abilities beyond normal people and she also happens to be the daughter of Han and Leia so it would make sense she could understand Chewie, also the reason he liked her so fast because she's Hans kid. She also may have already had Jedi training when she was younger but something happened to her memory. Either way Kylo Ren wasn't trying to kill her and he was wounded by a bow that they make a point to show how powerful it is. She doesn't beat him, she survives. Why do they have way too much power? They don't even have clones they are just brain washing regular people. We have no idea when that star base was first being constructed and there is 30 years in between this movie and the ROJ. Just because the emperor died doesn't mean the rest of the empire scattered across the galaxy all just surrendered. The rebels were not that strong. Also most empires lose because of being over confident and cocky. They did have to get into the base and turn off the shields which required landing directly after coming out of light speed. Also if Snoke is the last Sith would he really want to expose himself considering that no one knew the whereabouts of Luke or the fact that the New Order only exists because the rebels defeated the Emperor and Vader? All Jedis are supposed to start very young, he is in his late 20's and turned to the darkside as a teenager. The force in the hands of someone who is conflicted always results in unpredictability and mistakes. He is torn throughout the whole movie though we are not entirely sure what about. The whole reason Rey was in exile is because her brother had too much Vader in him, they either feared for her safety or feared she might go down the same path. It's not like Snoke has a list of siths he can call up who are more experienced and powerful, though I'm sure there will be other villains, you have to remember this is after the end of the Sith and the Jedi or so people thought. Snoke didn't have a lot of options on who to recruit. There were certainly a lot of similarities to the first series of films and it was hard to ignore but isn't that how life tends to go? History may not repeat itself but it does rhyme. Do you not remember how aside from Luke Leia was the last of the Jedi? Or that the Emperor and Vader were thought to be the last of the sith? This is the beginning of a new chapter so it's going to start out smaller and sloppier, things will pick up in the second movie and I think what will be revealed will make this first movie look better. Also I think Finn is going to be the new solo. He starts out bad turns good but is still conflicted and wants to look out for himself so he goes to leave but then decides he has to save the girl and then lies about knowing how to do it. He's good guy who lies to get things done, sounds a bit Han soloish to me, also probably why Rey likes him.
Yeah, that's why Disney spent $4 billion on acquiring the rights from Lucas and the movie is well over a $billion in revenue after breaking numerous box office records.
That is Disney's problem....The franchise has simply always sucked...People seem to be over-awed by the SPFX...God forbid that 1D story-telling and 1D characters get in the way of special effects...So stupid...
She is force sensitive, but she is untrained. Simply grabbing onto the force doesn't mean you can automatically do anything you want with it, you need training. A LOT of training. Luke is probably one of the most powerful Jedi in the universe, but he wasn't nearly as powerful as Rey demonstrates after having just learned to even grasp the force hours ago. Also, even though Kaylo Ren was not trying to kill her, he was still totally out-matched by Rey. He had a wound, yeah, but even with this, even with just the force alone, he should have been able to tie Rey up into knots. He's been training ever since he was a child. Unlike Rey, he's received training from Jedi legends- some of the most powerful people in that universe. Rey has never had any training and even considering the possibility of having been trained sometime in her past, this still doesn't match up since she was able to forget this training. Kaylo has been training continuously. Always. He helped kill all the other Jedi students like him. He's been an Imperial Commander hunting down and destroying the rebellion. He should have had far more experience and training. Rey is just God-mode if not Demi-God Mode. How much power and resources must you have to build three Death Stars- moon-sized, planet-destroying bases, each larger and more powerful than the last in the span of about 50 years? I'm thinking a lot. They have a rather large space armada- inexplicably non-present during any of the rebels rag-tag assaults- and the only force that seems to even be presenting a challenge to them is the rebellion who are consistently pressured to the verge of death before pulling off a hail mary victory that doesn't even destroy the empire, apparently, as much as it just sets them back a little. But just the Death Star alone is vast power. It's like being able to destroy an entire country in a single stroke. In the latest one, these guys just destroyed 4 or 5 planets at once. All people are torn between the light and the dark at all times. There is no point where there is no temptation, which is a subtle point in the philosophy of the force. Luke is drawn to the dark side and Kaylo is drawn to the light. However, when Luke lost, he lost against a much more experienced Jedi- Darth freakin Vader. When Kaylo lost, he lost against a person who didn't even know what the force was let alone how to control and balance herself with it. Whatver weakness and imbalances kaylo might have had, Rey should have had the same and more. No, friend, I get what you are saying, but this is a movie and history does not repeat itself so finely. The themes repeat, but the enivornment and the situation and the people differ. In this movie, the themes were repeated by the same people in the same situation basically. Instead of getting new characters and new stories, we get Han, Leia, and Luke 2.0, the Death Star 3.0, the entire story 2.0. Nothing really was different in this story. Evn considering that this is how life is, this is a movie. I don't go see Die Hard 2 to go see Die Hard 1...know what I mean? No, this wasn't just sloppy. This was very bland and very lame. That it's a children's movie is no exscuse. I've seen cartoons handle adult themes far better than this. And, it's not just starting out. It's the seventh chapter of an ongoing story decades in the making with plenty of plot already drawn out for it. In order to enjoy the first movie you have to watch the second? Not. I didn't have to watch Star Wars V to enjoy Star Wars IV. Didn't have to watch X-Men 2 to enjoy X-Men 1. Things might be better in the second movie, sure, but they should have been good in the first one as well. I can't tell people what to like, but I certaintly won't be throwing my money at it. In retrospect, Finn's progression was also a little bit accelerated and a bit hokey. He takes on Kaylo Ren and actually wounds him. This is another person who knows nothing about either the force or light-sabers, so I'm not sure if this is the improbable strength of Finn or the ridiculous weakness of Kaylo- one of the main villains. However, I did note how Kaylo stopped and stared directly at Finn in the opening part to the movie and I don't think Finn picking up a light-saber was just happenstance or he wouldn't be shown on movie posters holding a lightsaber. He was a good, actually original character and I think he's definitely going to be a Jedi- maybe even in some way connected to Mace and I was actually hoping that his ability was going to reveal itself in the first movie as a sort of twist by Abrams, but not so. Rey turned out to be super-powered (even by Jedi standards). I mean...I can even make the argument that the entire franchise really sucks. It's a really hokey, B-rated story and compared to things like Herbert's Dune, it's infantile. But back then, Star Wars had capitalized on a sort of B-movie mix of what was at the time new themes of Asian mysticism, and the mix of swords and sorcery and space. A cowboy, a talking horse, a samurai, a princess, and a hermit set out to defeat the Black Knight and the Evil Kingdom. I still likd the movie because I was a kid and it was more about the experience than the plot and such (like Night Rider), but I really had high hops because you really see an improvement in the quality of some kids entertainment and storytelling and I was hoping that Abrams would reinvent Star Wars smartly...giving more depth, complexity, and excitement from a lore that has great potential, but- at least for this movie- it bombed. It was kinda just a digitally remastered Star Wars IV.
It's not the quality, it's the brand. If people are willing to pay big bucks for mediocre products, it's considered a good investment. Disney was well-aware of the hyper-sensation surrounding Star Wars. ven though the prequels sucked, they still generated enormous retinues and people were still over-enthusiastic about seeing Star Wars seven. To me, the magic of the series ended with The Empire Strikes Back, but it fills seats so...
I agree that people buys brands even when the brands no longer perform (that's why Disney is buy up brands like Marvel, Muppets, Pixar and Star Wars), and I agree that The Empire Strikes Back was Star Wars pinnacle, but I was arguing against spotdoggs's comment: So, no, I don't believe it ALWAYS sucked.
We don't know that Rey had no force training. I've heard a theory that she had been a youngling at one time.
I'm in the Luke's daughter camp. Really hoping for a skywalker/Kenobi angle but I seriously doubt that. It would certainly explain her strong abilities though
True, but how much training could she have possibly had to have been able to use the force so effectively after an apparent period of amnesia, if that theory is true? And not only that, she's still only a young kid, but she exhibits advanced control of the force and advanced use of a lightsaber. It's not just a question of training, it's that she is as good as people who have been training for years.
Well Leia is a Skywalker too, so in terms of her abilities it would make sense either way. There are just too many issues I would have with her being Lukes daughter. Here is my take on things at this point. Luke isn't hiding. He's protecting something. If you go into hiding you don't make a map and stand on the X. The only reason to be at the end of that map is to get there first and protect whatever is at the X. The main part of the map was already in the New Orders possession and they got it from the empires archives. Why would the empire already have part of the map to a place where Luke wasn't even hiding yet? He didn't go into hiding until after Ben turned to the dark side. And Han said those who know Luke best said he went to find the first Jedi temple. There is something at the temple Kylo Ren want's and I think Darth Vader was looking for it to. Remember the whole reason Anakin turned to the dark side was to prevent Padme from dying during child birth. He wanted the power to stop people from dying and even bring them back to life if they did. Someone close to Ben died and when he started exhibiting signs of the dark side they sent him to train with Luke. Luke told him what happened to Vader hoping it would help him understand the danger but instead he saw a way to fix whatever happened, to save or bring someone back. That is what he meant when he said he was going to finish what Vader started, that's also why Rey made that statement that he was afraid he would never be as strong as Vader. In fact I believe her saying that is the reason he killed Han. He knew he needed to do something that would help him give himself over to the dark side entirely, he may also have blamed Han for whoever it was that died. Lucas Arts said Kylo Ren is 29 and Rey is 19. I think Ben was sent to train with Luke at about 8-9 maybe even earlier. He turned to the dark side at about 16 when Rey was 6. Han and Leia hid her on Jakku, possibly even from Luke to protect her from her brother and Snoke. Now, obviously this is all speculation but there are things that don't make sense if she is Lukes daughter. If Luke had a daughter she would have been around Luke wherever he was unless he just knocked someone up and said ok now I need to train Jedi so I'll you in a few years. Who ever placed her into hiding did so because of Snokes appearance and Ben turning to the darkside. That gives six years plus 9 months for Ben to know Luke had a daughter before everything went to hell. However, if she is Leia and Hans daughter they had while Ben was away, especially after showing signs of the darkside they would have far more reason and ability to hide her existence from Ben. The old man on Jakku that some say was there to watch over Rey mentioned how he called Leia Princess rather than General showing a clear tie to her. Also I don't think the Falcon being there was much of a coincidence either. I think Han knew exactly where she was but could not tell her who she was for one reason or another. He was pretty quick to offer her a Job and to me showed signs of pride at some of the things she did and could do.
Yeah it's fun to speculate but I actually hope I'm wrong, I'd rather be surprised. Either way I'm clearly a fan and am excited to see where the story goes.
I agree, upside-down-cake. I see it as fantasy - not as interesting as sci-fi might be. "The Martian" is far more engaging. With a few escapes, it actually sticks to modern technological ideas and known physics. How does the spacecraft work? NASA can tell you. How did the farming work? Biologists can tell you. Etc. The result is that there are issues in the movie (and even more so for the book) that are actually interesting to talk about. In fact, it even forms a basis of sorts for understanding what a manned mission to Mars would face.
I watched this movie last night and it was worse then I could of possibly imagined. I knew it was gunna suck because JJ Abrams directed it. He wrecked the last 2 Star Trek movies he made. It was predictable, boring, and bland. Anyone who said it was "awesome", is a total lame-o. It was worse then eps 1, 2, and 3. JJ Abrams knows how to make a movie look good, but thats about it. I saw a story on how it was a kids dieing wish to see this movie... I can only imagine how disappointed he was....
I enjoyed it but I had some problems. Mostly with the super fast pacing. When they were celebrating the destruction of the new death star...ahem... I mean 'star killer', I was like 'holy crap, what's going to happen in the third act'. Turns out 2 hours had flown by. Certain moments (like Han Solos big one near the end) needed a breath afterward to let it sink in. Barely acknowledged. Also, did everything happen right next to each other? I hated how space travel seemed instantaneous. As for some of the criticisms, they were explained, just not outright. The reason why Rey and Finn could fight Kylo Ren, was because he took a shot from (the previously shown to be super powerful) Chewies gun and was bleeding everywhere. Couple that with the conflict between his dark and light sides, meant that he was not at full capacity. Also Lukes Sabre just 'happening' to be at that club where Rey just 'happened' to be at because Han needed help was a bit to much of a stretch. Honestly, this movie just feels like it will be a lot better when the 2 other movies are released. Too much of a 'part 1' and not enough of a 'standalone' film.
To me, the first Star Wars was a quantum leap in special effects and positive energy ideology. This new movie was very nostalgic for me. Looks like Luke has evolved into the next Obiwon for the next movie. I miss Yoda.
