Watched this tonight, first time since the theaters. It's a damn fine movie and I'm really excited to see what's coming.
[Movies] Star Wars The Force Awakens SPOILER THREAD!
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Jeph Jacques had a great summary:
TFA is even more fun to watch the 2nd time because you’re not thinking “please don’t suck, please don’t suck” the whole way through
TFA is even more fun to watch the 2nd time because you’re not thinking “please don’t suck, please don’t suck” the whole way through
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Same here; noticed things I hadn't the first time and it was great.
The movie goes quick too. Does not feel like 2 hours and 15 minutes. We had to pause at one point and I couldn't believe we were already over an hour in.
Spoiler is in the title, so the thread is considered click at your own risk.
Funny thing I've noticed, though most of the film is shared left and right, including the very end, the one major death in the film is something people have been really well-behaved about.
Honestly, having seen it twice in theatres (second time because my girlfriend hadn't seen it), all I saw was more examples of how the movie parallels so close to A New Hope. It was really grating to me. Still enjoyable, but that's all I saw: one giant retread.
I'm actually impressed with how the hit the same beats as a New Hope but with totally different character arcs. It is a different story with the same beats. I find it clever rather than grating, from a writing perspective.
My only complaint was that there were many moments where it was obvious that the reason for a thing happening the way it did was because someone, somewhere said, "At this point in the script, wouldn't it be cool if xxx happened?" And then it was cool, but you could kinda tell it was cool because someone wanted it to be cool here, not because it was genuine cool (as measured on the Fonzimeter).
--Patrick
I agree, especially from a writing perspective. The structure and pacing of the original Star Wars is not easy to replicate artfully. Many movies try to follow similar beats of other films--the best examples I can think of some are some of the shitty animated films that came out in the 90s like The Swan Princess and Quest for Camelot, that tried to ape the beats from successful Disney films, but not actually earning any of those moments, or having logical reasons for them to happen, or understanding why they worked in the first place.
The Force Awakens works both as a sequel, its own story, and executing those elements of the original movie. That isn't something you can do with a copy-paste or by accident.
But even then, The Force Awakens doesn't work exactly as a retread. The big death is in Act 3 rather than Act 2. There's no Act 3 redemption. It has a Yoda-type figure, which isn't something A New Hope had. These are things we remember fondly from the OT and TFA doesn't ape that mark for mark.
There were also a lot of new ideas. I love the fledgling Jedi loose on an enemy ship. The First Order treated her like they had a xenomorph running amok, and in a way a Jedi is much more dangerous. Kylo's lack of control over himself, which is so not Vader. A Stormtrooper who makes a choice between what's right and wrong instead of doing what he's told. There are even standout secondary characters, like Moz Kadan, and especially General Hux, who isn't the kind of character that gets much promotion but was really a boost to the movie.
I know it's easy to praise TFA in the face of the prequels, but I'm going to do it anyway, because even movies I've liked of recent years, like Marvel movies, don't always have scenes that really get you immersed and investing. The panic Finn had when he saw Rey being taken away by Kylo--that felt so real. I was so into the moment that it wasn't until after the scene that I could appreciate the acting. All over this movie, the characters feel so human, which is something Star Wars has been starved of for my entire lifetime until now, since I wasn't even born until after Return of the Jedi.
But this brings back to the beats of the story that Mind Detective mentioned, because that's really fucking important. If you've got a clusterfuck mess like any of the prequel films, what you do in writing is yank the skeleton of the story out, examine it, and ask "is it doing this, this, and this?" Just basic storytelling stuff. If not, that whole mess of details doesn't matter, because at its core it isn't working. The Force Awakens works, at its core, its details, up and down the layers. That it works is far more important than whether we've seen this core before.[DOUBLEPOST=1460302006,1460301924][/DOUBLEPOST]
It was the first weekend since the movie came out on DVD/Blu Ray, so for all of us who didn't buy it digitally last Friday, this was the first real opportunity to watch it. That'd be my guess
.The call backs to New Hope don't bother me as it provides comparison for contrast to the ways it's different from New Hope. For instance, in ANH, the Empire and Vadar are seen as a competent Military body that while bloated and set in it's ways, are run by experienced commanders making smart decisions (looking at Tarkin here). Contrast that with the First Order, who have the shiny uniforms and toys but otherwise look like they are being run by a bunch of Academy frat boys who are young and inexperienced. Their plan is not original because they are copying everything the have from the Empire. Even the older commanders in the Order look like old Empire soldiers who have been brought on to try and make everything like the Empire, complete with Kylo Ren doing his best Darth Vadar impersonation so they have a pseudo Sith lord . Having them have such a similar dastardly plan to the original Death Star shows that they haven't really adapted at all. Even though their base is technically bigger, it still has a flaw that can be exploited showing that they haven't learned anything from the fall of the Empire.
That's a good point. It's not just the story from an outside POV, but within the story we have characters and bodies of government that are trying their best to reclaim the glory of the past AKA make the galaxy great again. Han Solo provides his audience voice of "so it's another Death Star" "so we blow it up, there's always a way to do that."
I'll give the First Order credit though--compared to the exhaust vent on the Death Star, Starkiller Base's oscillator was pretty hard. It took the Resistance fleet to get attention, but their firepower wasn't enough to pierce the thing, then an insurgent team going in on-foot to blow a small hole in the thing, but that wasn't enough to bring it down, and then the Resistance's best pilot had to do a near-impossible slip-in, fly a ring around and blast every support structure, and hope he escaped with his life before that damn building would finally come down.
Something I noticed last night that I missed: when the Starkiller planet is destroyed, the energy stabilizes again into a star. That was a nice touch, though I wonder if the realignment of that energy would have an effect on that system. Probably no worse than the removal of the star entirely, of course.
I know the next movie likely won't get into much politics because no one wants to start THAT again, but with no Senate, I'm curious what state the galaxy will be in, if there are likely to be more wars now or if the different planets will just start a New New Republic. Or join the First Order, which I'm sure is what the First Order wanted.
Yeah, the First Order repeating the Empire's moves is entirely done on purpose. With Luke Skywalker gone for years, they essentially figured that there was no real obstacle to them - they didn't count on the surviving heroes rising once again to the occasion, and they didn't count on a new wild card force user showing up. And as happens when a bunch of overconfident callow youths are running things, it all quickly blows up in their faces. But they still struck a potentially mortal blow to the New Republic - the system that was housing its government and fleet is was annihilated. So it's not so much a retread of ANH so much as it is an evolution of it. And really the story could go in a lot of different directions from here.
"We'll add the swamp in post, just get running."
I came here to post that"We'll add the swamp in post, just get running."
Damn, she's strong."We'll add the swamp in post, just get running."
YOUR FAKE INTERNET POINTS BELONG TO ME, NOWI came here to post that
That's like, two Mark Hamills worth right there.*
*I am not an expert at the metric system.
"We'll add the swamp in post, just get running."
Talented with Photoshop this one is.
--Patrick
I, uh, I wasn't being serious, just in case there was any doubt. But I did get this lovely gif out of it, so I think everything worked out in the end.
That's like, two Mark Hamills worth right there.*
*I am not an expert at the metric system.
I thought Han already filled that role.
GasBandit
Staff member
Han was Obi-wan. Luke is Yoda. Both die.
Yeah. The long term contract he had to sign means he'll be making these movies till the end of time.
I hope
