Disney Star Wars EpVII Dec 18 2015

[Chris D]

2 days...

I just started a new job, with training in another city, so I had to return the tickets I had to the marathon. Will have to watch the regular.

One of the hardest things right now is NOT reading anything about the movie. Already, I've seen a couple "insider hints" giving away plot info. I want to be completely surprised by this one.

[Ovation]

My wife scored a pair of tickets to a special screening. I'm taking my son (she has little interest anyway). Good news is it's on Saturday so I won't have to wait too long. Bad news is the start time is 9AM (not a typo) and it's not just down the street.

[Chris D]

[Chris D]

Oh, I'd still go in a heartbeat, dude.

Day before premiere release, and it's getting a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes

[Chris D]

It's here! Now up to 95% on the Tomatometer, and "Certified Fresh". Lots of very good reviews coming in, and breaking box office records. I think I'm going to see it Monday.

If you see it, please post your reviews. But PLEASE BE CAREFUL POSTING PLOT INFORMATION, and when in doubt, use spoiler tags!

[Ovation]

Only 12 more hours to go for me.

[Ovation]

Spoiler-free comment: Easily the best since Empire Strikes Back.

[P-Dub]

Soundtrack question. Is it worth purchasing the soundtrack on iTunes or should I find a good old CD? I still have my CD player and my car still has a CD player as well, just isn't used as much. But my new laptop doesn't have a CD player. And my older CPUs are dying/dead.

[Chris D]

[Ovation]

:agree::2guns:


:rofl:

[Chris D]

(and no, that's not a suggestion that Qui Gon returns in Ep VII)

Saw it today. HUGE sigh of relief. I was very nervous about this one, with the change of directors and franchise purchase by Disney. But it was very good, potentially (I know some will say definitely) better than any of Ep I - III. I can't help but post a big review here.

First thing, if you haven't seen it yet, I HIGHLY recommend that you go into the movie without hearing ANYTHING about it. NOTHING. I had stayed away from fan websites and stuff, but even so, just seeing certain things about the movie (even the cast list) gave me clues about plot twists in the movie, or if nothing else, that certain plot twists would NOT take place. Imagine if someone had told you before Ep V that Vader was Luke's father. So... do whatever you can to stay ignorant before watching the movie. Go see it right away before you do hear spoilers! I'll do my best here to put everything in spoilers in a separate post, and only openly talk about basic info. But even still, you may want to stop reading now.

Two things I was most worried about, that ended up being great: (1) that Disney would skew the overall work as a SAGA. Whether Disney made this one of their typical sequel crappy cash-cows, or tried to make it super politically correct, (note: some of that DID happen in this movie, but surprisingly it didn't detract much) or make it something else that didn't fit into the overall saga. I know today's movie audience generally does not think big picture, and wants each movie to be a 100 minute entertainer by itself. But this movie not only fits in the saga, it fits VERY well, as I'll talk about more. (2) Second worry I had was that JJ Abrams wouldn't capture the right "feel". I really like his other work, particularly what he's done with the Star Trek reboot, but anytime you switch directors in the middle of a series, you're always in danger of style mis-matches. Well, have no fear, Abrams does this right.

Ep VII has everything we've come to love about the SW universe and its films--adventure, moderate action, faith, friendship, family, rascally "scoundrel" character behavior, opposition to fascist governments, light romance, starship dogfights, quirky aliens, innocence in the face of oppression, and above all, the archetypal struggle of good vs. evil. (it can be said there is no other film series as basic in this archetype) I thought Abrams struck a perfect balance of comedy, drama, action, and "camp". Over and over, I keep going back to George Lucas saying his original intention with Star Wars was to make a campy Saturday morning Space Opera. It was never intended to be Ben Hur, or Gone With the Wind, Spartacus, etc. There was always supposed to be an element of campy fun, and it's here. Now, this movie also has a dark element, like Ep V, or Ep III. But it's a good blend.

A few old faces return, but the majority of the cast is new, and it's not a tired sequel, wearing out the same stories and jokes. And no Jar-Jar. I would say that the cast is 99% perfectly cast. There were only a couple smaller actors that I thought didn't quite work in their roles. FWIW, no surprise to anyone that Carrie Fisher is back as Leia again. She looks a little worse for the wear--drugs can be hell on the body. But she plays the part great.

I do agree with the PG-13 rating, which disappoints me. Ep IV - VI, and Ep I-II are all kept lighthearted enough, that they are all PG, and fully suitable for kids. Some people complained that Ep I-II were TOO targeted at kids. But hey--most of us here are SW lovers, because we were exposed and hooked as young children. Ep III was the only one previously to be PG-13, being more intense with the Jedi slaughter and Vader's rampage. Similarly, there are intense parts of Ep VII here that warrant the PG-13 rating. Some may be unavoidable. But the thing that's giving me the greatest hesitation in taking my 12 year old daughter is a monster scene that is more out of the movie "Alien", than Star Wars. SW monsters have always been moderately tame, ala Sarlaac, or the Rangkor, where it was thrilling, but not horror-scary. I thought this monster scene was not warranted for this film, and is unnecessarily prohibitive to young children. (no further information given here)

Overall, I loved the movie. There were a few slow parts, a few parts I would have done differently, but overall a great work that assuaged my fears of what it was going to be. I can't wait for Ep VIII, 18 months from now. The SW franchise is definitely on the right track, and now just needs to be kept so. But still, I'm going to worry some all over again, since Abrams was a one-hit work with Star Wars, and there will be ANOTHER new director for Ep VIII!!!

Good visuals, good sound. Some GREAT CGI - it's really come such a long way. I saw this in IMAX 3D, which I do think is worth it. Abrams himself doesn't put a lot of stock in 3D, but commented that several 3D scenes really added another layer of depth to the work, that surprised even him. I would agree. Two particular scenes pop into my memory, one being in the typical facility-bottomless-cavern that appears in every SW film, and the other being a space shot of a star destroyer-like ship that really jumps out of the screen.

I give :45: out of :5:, with an absolutely enthusiastic recommendation for any fan or casual SW viewer. I do have to urge caution, though, for younger viewers.

[Chris D]

To anyone who has not seen the movie yet, do not read the spoilers in this post.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Do not hover your mouse over the text.

Don't do it.

You've been warned.


Wow. So the first "plot twist" that I mostly managed to escape before seeing the film, is the identity of Kylo Ren. Since people have aptly pointed out that Luke Skywalker is not in movie trailers, or even the movie posters, I heard a couple suppositions that Kylo Ren was actually Luke Skywalker, gone bad. I made the "mistake" a few years back of surfing through the Star Wars Wookiepedia, and found that in Star Wars canon books, Luke does go bad for a while in the future, and thought Abrams might be incorporating that now. But then the cast list flashed before my eyes as I was looking for a theater, and I saw that Kylo Ren was played by Adam Driver, so I knew he wasn't Luke. I thought it was still well played the way they revealed his identity, and thought that Driver did a GREAT job. On that note, I really enjoyed the character development of Ren in the film, unheard of levels for a SW villain other than Vader. One of my greatest desires from the prequels was that Lucas didn't develop Darth Maul more as a character--one of my favorite villains. Of course, given the role of Ren, the depth of development is fairly necessary.

As I said in my previous post, I thought the casting was virtually perfect. John Boyega played a GREAT Fin. And Daisy Ridley is a perfect Rey. It's pretty obvious that she's the Luke Skywalker of this third trilogy, and perfectly captures the same boyish (now girlish) innocence, coming from a world of nothing, to a fascination as she is first exposed to the force, to now what is obviously a padwan learning stage. They're even using John William's Luke theme when she's on screen. I thought it was great when Fin drew the saber in the forest fight against Kylo Ren. At least he had some combat training, even if it was not in the light saber. But when Rey picked up the saber, staring evil in the face in sheer defiance, no formal training, it was beautiful, and brought me to tears. She played the fight scene wonderfully. Of course, there are questions of how she could fight so well, and especially how she learned force techniques (i.e. mind persuasion over the stormtrooper) so quickly, without anyone having taught her. But this seems to be very intentional, and makes me wonder if we're going to learn something in Ep VIII like she's Luke's daughter, and therefore one of the greatest force users ever. I think it's pretty evident she's not another child of Han and Leia.

The super-pilot Poe Dameron was also well played. I wasn't a big fan of casting Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux. I kept seeing him as Bill Weasley from Harry Potter, or his meek character in "Ex Machina", or his also-meek character in "About Time". Too young to be a First Order general, too. (although that could create a whole different conversation on where the First Order really came from, if the Empire supposedly was totally wiped out in Ep VI) On that note, I thought the scene with him speaking before the assembled First Order army was also a little ham-handed, going WAYYY over the top with Nazi symbolism. We get it.

I was also disappointed in Gwendolyn Christie as Captain Phasma. She has definitely proven herself as Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones, and I was looking forward to her performance. But Abrams kept her covered up in the film, and her role is questionable too. I wonder if we might see more though, in the next movie(s). And then there's Greg Grunberg, who shows up as an X-Wing pilot. You'll definitely recognize Greg from "Heroes" where he's a mind reader. Didn't think his casting fit.

Did you know, though, that Daniel Craig (James Bond) played the stormtrooper that Rey (questionably) mind tricked into releasing her restraints, and leaving the cell?

My brain keeps trying to process--is Han really dead? Very interesting plot point, continuing the connection and struggle of son against father, but now in this case, Kylo Ren needed to kill Han in order to complete his transition to the Dark Side. (note that I still suspect that he's good inside, and like Ep I - VI was the damnation and redemption of Vader by Luke, I wonder if VII-IX will be the damnation and redemption of Ben Solo by Luke and Rey) But are they REALLY going to kill off Han? No plot device in the next episode, where it didn't really happen, or like Luke in Ep V, he falls out an escape chute from the chasm, and is healed? That's just such a drastic move in the SW universe. I think I heard that Harrison Ford wanted to be done with the character, though.

The scene at the end, of finally finding Luke, is somewhat iffy. Rey's climb up the hill was rather overt, like however many Kung-Fu movies of climbing up the mountain and/or temple, to find the sensei. But I still thought the scene was fine. I thought Hamill and Ridley actually played it very well, not speaking a word, but saying volumes on their faces. Note that although Hamill only appears in 2 or so minutes of the film, and doesn't say a single word in the movie, he receives film second billing. Even higher than Carrie Fisher. Ok... I appreciate the strategic use of character, to develop the plot of "The Search for Luke", in addition to him feeling completely responsible for the rise of the Knights of Ren and death of new Padawans.

What's up with C3P0's red arm? Don't get it.

And did anybody notice that this was the first SW film to NOT start with the 20th Century Fox fanfare, before the "Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy..." screen?

[P-Dub]

Must resist the temptation to look.

[JohnA]

Just for that, I'm gonna tell you the ending.

The butler did it........ OOPS, wrong movie. Never mind!

[Chris D]

Well... we can at least tell them that Jar Jar dies in the end, right?

[Kevin P]

We finally saw it today, and I loved it. Very entertaining. Chris's observations above are spot on.

I think they designed it in such a way that people who've never seen the originals can still enjoy it, but it's even better if you did. It was nice seeing some of the old characters again.

Spoilers below

Some scenes are total rehashes of ones from the original movies, to the point of feeling deja vu. For example, one scene where Rey was in the forest, I was half expecting an Ewok to appear. The overall storyline is very similar to A New Hope, just with new characters, and some original characters filling new roles.

I had mixed feelings about Kylo Ren. He struck me as a Darth Vader wannabe. Part of that deja vu thing from the original trilogy I guess, but then Vader is a tough act to follow.

I was surprised, and a bit shocked, when Han was killed. But if you watch it carefully, it's possible that he could have survived--the lightsaber could have missed all vital organs, and he could have landed somewhere after falling to be rescued, like Luke in Ep V. I guess we'll find out in 2017. I wonder if Harrison Ford asked for too much money or something so they killed him off.

Although Luke only had like a minute of screen time, and no lines, he had second billing in the credits. I bet he made those demands to Disney before he would take on the role.

The origin of Rey was left a mystery, probably on purpose, but my Force vision is thinking she's Luke's daughter. Another thing we'll probably find out in the next episode.

I liked Finn. The concept of a stormtrooper defecting is quite the departure from the way stormtroopers were depicted in the prior 6 films--clones with no individuality. It was refreshing to see this.

[Ovation]

A few observations re: spoilers in previous post.

Ford only came back because Solo dies. I'd wager his return as .0001%. The stormtroopers in this film are seized when young, not clones, as per Finn/Phasma interaction. Kylo Ren is not yet a fully formed Sith (or whatever they're calling themselves these days), so his uneven nature as a character represents an interesting contrast to the (at the time) fully formed villain Vader was in the first movie in 1977.

[P-Dub]

Ahh, finally saw it. Enjoyed all of it, even if it did look familiar at times. But what do you expect from Star Wars? It checked all the boxes.

The only sad part was that someone spoiled a major event in the film for me. I had done so well in avoiding spoilers. I wasn't really going out of my way, but didn't look at the above spoiler tags and avoided all the reviews. But a 'friend' on FB had to make a comment about someone's phone going off during a crucial point in the movie.

So in the true spirit. Please do not watch the following unless you have seen the movie. You have been warned.

[youtube]JbpgM-JTang[/youtube]

[aud19]

SW-Force Awakens 7/10

Hard to judge this one... It's definitely better than Ep I-III but they also didn't tread any terribly new ground either which was a bit disappointing. Though not surprising.

I quite liked Rey, though I wasn't particularly fond of Ren who came off is a bit of a sniveling, petulant little @#$% (and given who his father and mother are, doesn't seem to fit IMO but rather seemed more convenient to fit a narrative). Fin was a nice departure though and was played well IMO.

I also quite liked the first ~half with the character development etc but then the finale seemed both a bit rushed and a smidge anti-climactic.

All in all it was a good, fun watch and had a comfortable Star Wars 'feel' to it which was probably the smart way to go. It has it's hooks in me enough that I'm interested to see another. Hopefully the middle episode of this series is also as strong as the original.