This movie was everything it needed to be. A perfect first step, in my opinion. Spoiler It's tough for me to say either way on who exactly Rey is. I can't really see Leia having another kid, without Han knowing. I guess they could go the, "once I lost my son to the dark side, and me and Han separated, something happened" bit, but I don't know if they would do that. With that being said, I don't see how she could be Luke's daughter either. One thing that made Luke a hero in the originals was that he didn't follow in his father's steps. He refused to make the same choices his father made. If Luke had a child, then he would have made the same choice his father made. Then again, maybe that is why he is hiding. And maybe that is also why she was left with a "family" on Jukka. Now Luke can make another choice against his father. Instead of trying to lead her to the Dark Side (like Vader) he will lead her to the Light Side. I'm leaning towards Luke being the father. Also, I have no problem at all with them using A New Hope as a driving force, but like someone else said, they should make their own path on the next two. That's why I'm kind of glad JJ Abrams is passing the torch.
I think Abrams held base but there arent many memorable "that's no moon" scenes outside the major plot points. Music was similar. I don't remember the bat music but I remember cantina. There were many love notes left by Abrams for the original movies but the tone of the movie was more serious than the campy attitude of Lucas movies. Campy moments are hit and miss. 8.5/10
Imagine Christopher Nolan directing the next movie, master Luke teaching Rey the force, Liam Nelson- Christian bale- batman begins style... I wish!
This movie. This f****** movie. That's how you do Star Wars. None of this special effects crap like the prequels. I'd move this film ahead of VI as far as rankings go and would only be behind IV and V.
Love Rey. Thought Fin was okay. Overall, the movie was awesome. I'm not sure I can wait a couple of years to see what the hell happens next.
Your in luck! I read somewhere that the next one is supposed to be released in May of 2017, you only need to wait 1.5 years. :grin: It's 8:17 am Saturday morning. T minus 6 hours 13 minutes and counting till its show time for me.
In movie therms, 3 movies makes a trilogy. In book terms, 3 books makes a trilogy. Just like the hobbit, but that is my narrow way of seeing things.
i got back from watching it last night and absolutely loved it my thoughts on what people have said so far and my own Spoiler on it being too similar to episode IV - yes it is at times, but it was almost needed to have something familiar for audiences to hold onto and identify with. The prequel trilogy destroyed the concept of the force in TPM with the whole midichlorian thing. Having it mirror episode 4 was a good thing in my opinion. Lucas has said the prequels were to mirror the original so its shouldn't be too much of a surprise to see the same mirror them in the sequels. Rey and BB-8 were absolute gold in this film. The acting across the board was top notch. I didn't feel much of an emotional interest towards Finn the same way I felt with Rey and Kylo Ren but he played his role really well. I did like the fact that JJ stayed away as much as possible from well known actors for the lead roles to create a bit more of the illusion. As for what seems to be a lot of what people are also upset about is how both Finn and Rey were able to hold their own against Ren in the forest. Finn was a trained storm trooper so he knows how to fight much better than the average person. Ren was critically injured by Chewie's bowcaster as well. I mean despite that it seem like Ren was just messing around with Finn during their fight. Rey was a different story. Her ability to control the Force so well seemingly out of the blue appeared to be a stretch but I do not believe it so. The title itself refers to the Force awakening. In the scene where she see the memories of Luke when she touches the light saber she sees what seems to be herself being abandoned on Jakku as a child. I believe she actually did receive some training from Luke as a child and was the lone child survivor from Ren's massacre. Luke wanted to hide her (again mirroring Obi-Wan's desire to hide Luke and Leia from Vader/Palpatine) so he left her on Jakku and it looked like used the Force to suppress her memories and training. She exhibits a lot of the same abilities Luke and Anakin did when they were young (piloting etc) prior to being made aware of their connection with the Force. I think the one key difference to her vs Luke is that she believes in the Force much more than Luke did early on. Remember she was eager to learn about what happened with the rebellion (she has an old Rebel pilot's helmet) and when Han told her and Finn that it was all true she seemed not stunned but happy. Everything she hoped and believed to be true actually were. Remember in Ep 5 when Yoda tells Luke to raise his x-wing out of the swamp he tries but cannot and when Yoda does he says "I don't believe it" to which Yoda replies "That is why you fail" Belief in the Force is huge in your ability to manipulate it. Rey had a much stronger belief in the Force (which probably allowed her to "hear" the lightsaber) which allowed her to stop Ren's mind interrogation at its most crucial point. The ability to control the storm trooper in the interrogation room with her mind tricks, I would say she probably read Jedi's could do it and believed she could. One thing again which goes back to her having being possibly trained prior to being abandoned on Jakku, maybe she was taught early the mind tricks. Another thing I believe she probably has used mind tricks in the past before unknowingly as well. BB-8 was an unique droid in the middle of the desert in an area where she and others were collecting scrap parts to exchange for food. Anyone would covet a droid such as BB-8 - the guy was willing to give 60 rations for BB-8. How did she acquire BB-8? By talking to the Tuskan Raider-esque looking guy into letting it go after it was captured. I mean given the circumstances it would make no sense to let a prize like BB-8 go free being they were talked out of it. What intrigued me was it also seemed that Ren knew who she was even before she did. I believe she may have been the next "super user" of the Force the way Anakin was. Ren is obsessed with Vader and wishes to be as powerful as him I think he sought out to kill the young jedi mainly to kill Rey at an early age so he would in fact be the most powerful and not her. Ren clearly seems more interested in Rey than anything else - the same way Vader obsessed over finding Luke in Ep 5/6 sometimes more than what the actual mission was. Ren is still learning himself as Snoke said he needs to bring Ren in to finish his training. So an badly injured ren going up against a pretty well trained Rey (she grew up defending herself with her staff) who know is some what attuned to the Force shouldn't be too surprising that the battle ended in a draw or a small victory for Rey. Ren himself doesnt appear to be that skilled of a swordsman and his burst of anger where he trashes the area with his lightsaber indicates that. One thing that is somewhat consistent in all the movies is that both Jedi and Sith have a huge amount of respect towards their weapon and only use it for combat and training. This was the first time we've seen a person use it to destroy things out of anger. Ren is powerful in a time where there are no more Jedi outside of Luke, but he is not a powerful Sith himself at the moment. His struggles with the light side I found to be very intriguing and gave depth to his character. But even in the First Order Ren isnt the 2nd in command the way Vader was to Palpatine. General Haak was Ren's equal in the first order when it came to reporting to Snoke. That seemed like a nice twist on things to show that force users as a whole do not command the same respect or fear that they once did. Also FWIW I do not believe Rey to be Luke's daughter. It seems like that would be the case, but I don't think so. The last thing I think Luke would want is to follow in his father's footsteps and do that things that led to Anakin turning towards the dark side. For that matter I can't think of any Jedi outside of Anakin that was married (maybe in the books which I havent read, but not in the movies) It would seem marrying or having a child would be something Luke would want to stay away from as much as possible. Rey's parents though? No idea. You would think could it be another one of Leia's kids, but she would have known about Rey when they met. The one thing that intrigues me though and it may be kept for episode 8 is that in one of the trailer for the movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCc2v7izk8w) Luke is talking to someone about how the Force runs in his family. Not sure if that was a line just for the trailer or was something that was cut from the final version of the film. But the fact he said "and you have it" doesnt seem like it was something just made for the trailer. It would seem like he would be saying that to a family member and not just a random person. Maybe to someone who doesn't know they are related to Luke the way it is being said. I guess a case could be made for either, but I feel that Rey isn't Luke's daughter. The only thing I felt was a bit off was Ren's idolizing of Vader for the Dark Side. I know only Luke know's what happened with Vader in the throne room, but I would think even if the rest of the universe viewed Vader still as one of the most terrifying Sith Lords who died in the collapse of the second death star Luke would have told Leia of the redemption of their father. There would be no reason to hide the fact that Vader was able to become a Jedi again (as evidenced in RotJ at the end when you see him standing next to Obi-Wan and Yoda's force ghosts. Leia would have passed that information down to her son to show that despite the power of the Dark side even Vader wished to abandon it and come back to the light. It makes a good story to "finish what you have started" but there seems to be a glaring flaw. The only thing I can think of is that Ren's knowing this as not as the way Vader was redeemed but sees it as the way Vader was destroyed as coming back to the light side. Killing Han was Ren's way of ensuring he doesn't befall the same fate his grandfather did. Also it seems pretty arbitrary/convenient for R2 to suddenly come alive at the right time. If it was in "sleep" mode you would think C-3PO or BB-8 upon telling it that they have a partial map to Luke would have woke R2 up right then and there. Though I did like that R2 was in it but so pushed in the background because at least in the other movies it was R2 that helped out so much and helped advanced the plot. In that regard BB-8 was just there and needed protection and didn't do anything to help the resistance outside of holding the map (I mean R2 fixed ships, opened doors, hid light sabers, attacked people as well) But just waking up like that just felt pushed in there, again super minor, but I felt if he woke up upon hearing about possibly knowing where Luke was it would have made more sense. I think the next two episodes will be more unique and interesting. We will have a Jedi and a Sith both in training. Its interesting that its now Luke that has taken on the Yoda role of being the elusive Jedi Master on a far away planet. I thought the ending with the reveal but nothing else was a perfect way to end the film and IMO the best ending of any of the films with the exception of ep 5.
oh god I hope they dont do this. If the film was still all with LucasFilm I would feel that they would not but now since its with disney all bets are off with that.
Never watched any of the originals, saw Force Awakens a few nights ago thought it was good. One question: where's yoda?
I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. Need to see it again and let a few months pass before i can truly rate it, but as of now i feel like it's 3rd best in the series now. Nothing will ever surpass ESB. ANH is the original, so that's sort of 2nd by default though i find it too slow at times. TFA was much more engaging from start to finish than ROTJ which i feel like the only amazing parts of that movie are every scene with Vader and the Emperor and the duel at the end and the cremation scene. It had it's moments, but i feel the Jabba Palace, Sarlaac, and Endor scenes are all very mediocre. Everything sucks about the prequels except the costume, alien and location/structure designs. Of course John Williams brought his A game for the prequels. Spoiler One thing i can say about TFA is that i feel they went safe and tried to remake ANH with elements of the other 2 original trilogy movies. I totally understand why they did that, and now we can move on to 2 more truly original films in the series. The new actors playing Fin and Rey did a tremendous job and if they have to carry the series from here on out, i have confidence they will. I was surprised how likable Finn was. He had the theater laughing quite a few times, but i think Chewy got the loudest laughter. Very cool to see Chewy in on the action finally. Spoiler I wanted to see him rip the arms out of storm troopers sockets after raging from the loss of his old friend. Adam Driver did a great job as well. BB8 was every bit as adorable and funny as the first time i saw R2. Some things i didn't like: Spoiler Snoke looks like a generic CGI charatcer. Very disappointed in his design. Reminds me of that Harry Potter villain in full CGI. Just not a fan. His voice wasn't that menacing either. Andy Serkis's Caesar voice from POTA is more intimidating. Cpt. Phasma was just there to look cool just like the original Boba Fett. Carrie Fisher's voice is unrecognizable at this point though i'm glad she didn't have much of a role. Not enough Poe Dameron. He was awesome and deserved more screen time. I hope he is part of the main cast for the next 2 films. Lupita's Maz kantana also was poorly designed. Bad cgi. In a film that had so many costumed Aliens, her and Snoke throw you off with their obvious full cgi design. It looks too obvious. There was absolutely nothing about her character that called for her to be CGI (Same with Snoke-but who knows-maybe there's a reason for him to be CGI yet to be seen). The alien costume designs looked amazing for other characters, so i don't understand why Maz couldn't have been a little person dressed up in costume with Lupita dubbing the voice. Blasphemy i'm sure, but i feel like John Williams didn't bring anything new with this film. I don't remember anything original other than the piano like theme. It mostly felt like the OT score, which is amazing and all but there should be a new sound for the new generation. Perhaps i was caught up in the film that i couldn't pay attention much to the score. That's actually what ill do later. Listen to the entire score closely and see if it changes my mind. That's all i can think of for now.. Spoiler Luke looked amazing! Am i the only one who thought he looked dark? He's been flirting with the Dark side since ESB and Han said Luke blamed himself for Kylo Ren. Perhaps he's been meditating in solitude at the first ever jedi temple in order to stay strong and keep the dark side at bay.
Spoiler There's no need for Yoda force ghost to pop up randomly. Now that Luke is back for the next film-i'm almost positive we will see him.
Rey's parentage is obviously the biggest mystery coming out of this movie. Spoiler It at this point it seems clear she's a Skywalker, but there really seems to be no strong evidence either way as to her being Luke or Leia's daughter, the film dropped hints both ways. One reason I am leaning towards Luke is because we have the unknown element of her mother in that equation, because as is it seems very strange that any of the 3 characters we know would be OK leaving her in the awful situation she was in. It also seems pretty clear to me that Ben snapping is what led to her being sent away. The draw of having a brother sister conflict be at the center is one of the strongest reasons why I might think she's Leia's daughter, but nobody seemed to have any clue, or show any signs about it. It would seem Leia or Han would have reacted in a greater way.
Even Kubiak would have directed a less conservative flick. the whole thing felt like a giant punt. it gets points alone for memory lane stuff, and the star wars name - otherwise I would say a 4 or 5. so basically 6/10 the 5th best, maybe 4th best of the lot, but that's not really saying much now is it? he ded
I'm going to watch it tonight at the new movie theater in baybrook mall. Never been so pumped for a movie.
