Arrogance. And again, I don't care how many years he has been training, he has had no one to really train against.
It doesn't seem that someone with Ren's temper and arrogance would first assess his condition before deciding to start a fight. Besides the possibility of Rey receiving Jedi training, she's already proven her ability in combat with her staff on Jakku. Probably plenty of life or death situations living as a scavenger where Kylo might have only experienced simulations. And that's not counting the Force factor involved. She was losing/even until she had the meditation moment while they were locked up. She was channeling the force better than Kylo, who was hurt, waffling between dark/light, and possibly conflicted (if he knew who Rey was and they had history/family tied).
Spoiler "Face me, cousin!" Luke's daughter is a badass! <iframe width="640" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TNXRZd5vkdo?start=1233" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
No one has brought up the fact that Kylo has a poorly constructed lightsaber and Finn and Rey use Anakin's expertly built saber. That could have helped them. Also if Kylo really wanted to kill either of them, he could have just force froze them and then just walked up to them and stabbed them. Roll credits.
Spoiler How long ago did Luke Leave . . . I mean it seems like at least 10~15 years right? Rocket River
Just got back from seeing the movie and pretty good and thoroughly entertained. Within the first half hour it was already better than the prequels. Lucas deserves a lot of credit for the vision but a writing dialogue and getting good acting he just can't do it. JJ Abrams can. Also it was a great move getting Lawrence Kasdan who wrote Empire to help with the script. While set firmly in the Star Wars universe this movie's look is distinctively JJ Abrams look. Lens flares, heat shimmers, close ups of sweat beading on people's brows, and etc.. I caught some of Star Trek Into Darkness the other day and the look and feel of the action is almost the same. It works great here and much better than the somewhat cold and anti-septic feel of Lucas' direction. The heavy use of actual sets and real props like BB8 make a huge difference even in IMAX 3D. The Millennium Falcon looks dirty and grungy and is very convincing as the home of a scruffy nerf herder. Even small touches like making the light sabre blades more flame like and the blaster shots more ragged than clean segments of laser beams add a lot to the feel. Ironically one of the complaints that I have about the Abrams Star Trek is that the sets and the action pieces look too confusing. Lucas' cleaner style and design sense might actually work better for the Trek universe. One complaint I do have though is that Abrams doesn't do hand to hand to combat very well. The swooping ships dog fighting look great and really suck you in but the light sabre duels seem clunky. As a martial artist I don't expect movie fights to be realistic, especially when fighting with blades made of plasma, but like to see a flow, artistry and some skill to the fight. The light sabre duels in the force awakens didn't seem to have much of those and they seemed rather plodding affairs. Just glancing on this thread it looks like we've given up on spoilers so my thoughts on the plot. Overall good and well paced. I like the chemistry between the characters and rather than the characters just filling in spots for the story it does feel like the characters are helping to drive it. A couple of things I don't get though is that Finn is so troubled by witnessing the death of one of his comrades that it starts him questioning what his life is about yet once he decides to switch sides he immediately has no trouble blasting his former brothers in arms in the tail gun of a tie fighter. It seems like he should have a bit more conflict in him. Rae is good as a tough girl coming into her own and Daisy Ridley does a great job alternating being both tough and vulnerable. What I don't get though is how quickly she seems to be able to start using the Force and even wield a light sabre. Like with Finn it seems like her transformation is too fast. I was pleasantly surprised with Han Solo and Leia. I was thinking their roles were going to be limited and almost cameos for fan boys, those roles were C3PO and R2D2. I didn't expect them to be so integrated and important to the story. That said I had figured that this was Han Solo's last Star Wars movie. I wasn't sure he was going to die but as soon as I saw Kylo Ren walking out on the bridge I knew Han Solo was going to die with a dramatic fall involved on that bridge. Just a pet peeve I've always had with Star Wars. Maybe because of my architecture and code enforcement background but what is it with the lack of proper guard rails in Star Wars especially over giant yawning pits full of dangerous equipment? Most of my criticism is minor to the overall movie and a very good reboot to the franchise after the crap of the prequels.
I didn't get the impression that his light sabre was poorly constructed. I think that was more of a stylistic choice like Count Dooku's rapier grip light sabre. The original light sabres from Star Wars, which Luke's obviously is, appear to be loosely based on Kendo bamboo swords called Shinai. That makes sense since the original fighting style with them is a modified Kendo style. As Star Wars has evolved there have been different style light sabres and the fighting styles have changed with different weaponry. The Kylo Ren's light sabre and his fighting style appear to be more based on medieval broadswords down to the cross guard.
Spoiler It is a good movie but overrated as well. If not for the death of Han Solo this movie would have been just a whole bunch of nothing. That was the only thing that gave this any meaning. I hate it when whole movies or books are wasted just setting up a sequel, which is what they seem to have done here. The other complaint I have is that for the huge budget this movie has the action scenes are so poor. The lightsaber duels were so pathetic.
Spoiler I think Kylo just isn't all that powerful yet. Despite serving the Vader role in this film, he is no where near as experienced as Lord Vader was in A New Hope. Kylo is still a young apprentice and requires further training. Also, perhaps Kylo isn't as gifted in the Force as grandpa Anakin and uncle Luke.
Dang. Gleeson is in every major movie right now. Star wars, ex machina, brooklyn, the revenant. Good actor.
This was completely intentional, as none of the three were actually trained in us Ing lightsabers. Rey and Finn never used them before, so why would you think the fights would turn out with "Flow, artistry and skill"? Would've made no sense. This is actually something JJ did really well. As a fellow martial artist you and I very well know how bad someone does during his first times with a weapon.
I don't buy that kylo isn't powerful yet if it wasn't for stopping the laser in the air with the force.
My question is, how come there are no Native American "Indians" in the galaxy? They've covered White, Black, and Asian.
I was always a fan of a pacific islander being used as Jango and the clones. It was the closest look i could relate to and perhaps one day my children could relate to, but now the rumor is that Disney is full on diversifying the cast but taking away a minority and replacing him with another black character. Michael B Jordan as Boba. That really pisses me off. I love MBJ as an actor, but i've got my fingers crossed they keep a pacific islander for Boba. As a hispanic with strong native genes as recently as my grandmother being full blood, i love that Oscar Issac, Diego Luna(Rouge One cast is very diverse) and Benecio Del Toro are going to be part of Star Wars, but all these guys are whiter, more euro hispanics. I'd really like to see a more native american looking actor cast in a decent role.
I've seen a lot of other posts saying the same thing but I think if the light sabre duels are intentionally clunky that is too subtle of a point and detracts from the overall entertainment of the movie. Even if none of them were actually supposed to be that good with From watching other Abrams' stuff I just don't think his hand to hand combat direction is that good. In his first Star Trek where Sulu fights the Romulans with a sword I though also looked clunky even though Sulu is supposed to be a very skilled fencer.
"When you look at Star Wars and Empire, they are very different lightsaber battles, but for me they felt more powerful because they were not quite as slick [as the prequels]. I was hoping to go for something much more primitive, aggressive and rougher, a throwback to the kind of heart-stopping lightsaber fights I remembered being so enthralled by as a kid." - JJ [Abrams] looked at “the confidence” of John Ford Westerns. He took in the “unbelievable scene choreography and composition” of Kurosawa’s High and Low. And he studied “the powerful stillness” of Terrence Malick. “It’s not something I would normally have thought of coming to Star Wars,” he says. The spare visual style of Ford, Kurosawa and Malick points to a key mandate for Abrams’ approach to Episode VII: the distinctive less-is-more quality of the originals.
