Star Wars: The Force Awakens

[Edd Grayson]

If Episode VIII turns out to be TESB v 1.1 I don't think I'll bother to follow it. 

[johnnygobbs]

If Episode VIII turns out to be TESB v 1.1 I don't think I'll bother to follow it. 

SPOILER Episode VII was basically ANH and TESB combined wasn't it?

[Edd Grayson]

 

If Episode VIII turns out to be TESB v 1.1 I don't think I'll bother to follow it. 

SPOILER Episode VII was basically ANH and TESB combined wasn't it?

Not really, it was just the former with a few tweaks, to me. 

[The Dark Knight]

Agreed. There are TESB influences but they're not dominant.

[Catwoman]

If Episode VIII turns out to be TESB v 1.1 I don't think I'll bother to follow it. 

If that happens, I wonder if we'll see (spoiler, highlight this ---->) Rey lose a limb to a lightsaber, maybe Luke's. Family tradition and all.

[Edd Grayson]

If that happens, I wonder if we'll see (spoiler, highlight this ---->) Rey lose a limb to a lightsaber, maybe Luke's. Family tradition and all.

Maybe, but they should make it feel like an homage and not a rip-off.

[Azrael]

As with many others, TFA was the catalyst for a rejuvenation of my interest to all things SW, as well as a movie-marathon, starting with Episode I. TPM and AOTC in particular, I hadn't watched in almost 10 years.

You know what, f**k the prequel bashers.

[Edd Grayson]

As with many others, TFA was the catalyst for a rejuvenation of my interest to all things SW, as well as a movie-marathon, starting with Episode I. TPM and AOTC in particular, I hadn't watched in almost 10 years.

You know what, f**k the prequel bashers.

I think many fans overact about the prequels, but it seems they really want to hate them. I can watch them just fine and there are far worse movies and "reboots" out there. They aren't as fun as the original films, but that doesn't mean they're worthless. I like ROTS a lot, TPM and AOTC less, but they go well together.

And I liked TFA.

[thecolorsblend]

The reception TFA has enjoyed from the core audience has really diminished my opinion of the Star Wars fanbase. If THIS is all it takes to make them happy, they've set their sights entirely too low. It's as simple as that.

The prequels aren't perfect. Hell, they're not even all that good. And the realization of that seems to have sent the core fanbase into mourning such that any half-baked facsimile of Star Wars will be acceptable to them.

That's the only way I can imagine them falling in love with Rey the Mary Sue, Poe the Gary Stu, Finn the Jar Jar Lite, BB8 the Basketball Version of Artoo and so forth.

I mean, this movie's big bad is a whiney, emo pretty boy that probably even Hayden Christensen looks at and thinks "Man, that dude is emo". And, of course, he basically has PTSD or something because that's what fictional characters need to have in order for Millennials to relate to them because they have PTSD from the time Mommy and Step-Daddy took away the go***mn Playstation. To make a clean job of it, I shouldn't be surprised to find out he's a vegetarian when Episode VIII- The First Order Strikes Back comes out.

Darth Vader was the personification of everything evil; Kylo Ren is the personification of everything that's wrong with my worthless generation. But nobody's perfect, I guess.

Han died. I mean, honestly, who didn't see that coming? Ford spent years alternately saying Han should've died in Return of the Jedi and that he'll never play Han again. Disproving the latter requires fulfilling the former in TFA. It was expected and not all that dramatic. To be honest I was more torqued off about the fact that it was happening just to pacify Harrison Ford than I was invested in the fact that this is Ren's Michael kills Fredo moment, the point when the character truly is irredeemable now.

Oh, speaking of Kylo Ren, I'm sure glad the Expanded Universe was scrapped so that we could have a movie where we discover Han Solo's son has turned to the Dark Side. Hacks.

John Williams. I rather enjoy the prequel scores. No, they're not as powerful or iconic as the oh-riginal trilogy but they're pretty solid. There's little or nothing about TFA's score that's memorable and still less that I care to listen to again. Nothing lasts forever. Williams was going to slip sooner or later. Now it seems he well and truly has.

Luke Skywalker. Sorry, I don't buy it. Luke overcame both of his mentors lying through their teeth to him. He refused to give up after the personification of everything evil lopped off his hand and clued him in on his true paternity. He didn't back down when he tried to reach the personification of everything evil and bring him back to the good side. He never compromised on his principles even when facing THE Dark Lord of the Sith. He risked his own life and the lives of all his friends just to save Han.

He wouldn't run off with his tail between his legs just because one of his students developed a hipster devotion to Vader. Especially not when said student is a blood relative (of which he has very few) and the child of his very best friends.

Luke Skywalker would've stood his ground and either killed Ren or gone down fighting.

Ultimately there's very little original about TFA. And what few original things TFA brings to the table are either amped up versions of stuff we've already seen or else unwelcome intrusions. I'd be less offended if TFA wasn't an official numbered entry into the Star Wars saga. If TFA was a standalone movie, I might even have enjoyed it a bit.

But as it is, TFA is everything I wanted Episode VII NOT to be. It's nostalgic in all the wrong ways while simultaneously emphasizing all the wrong characters. If it was a more original story, I'd be okay. If this retread plot centered on Han, Luke, Leia and no one else, I'd be okay. The precise configuration JJ Abrams made, however, is simply unacceptable.

[Catwoman]

Pretty harsh appraisal there, colors. I think the difference between yourself and a lot of fans (myself included) is that we went in either optimistic or with no expectations, while based off your posts in here you went in expecting to be disappointed and it happened. Instead of going in with a broader view you couldn't see the forest for the trees and nitpicked on every single thing. It's no surprise to me that you didn't enjoy it. If someone nitpicked that way about A New Hope they'd say it was crap too. I mean you have a right to your opinion and I'm not questioning that, but it's not exactly hard to see why you came to that conclusion.

I'll respond to the spoilers in a minute but since you questioned why people who are Star Wars fans liked it I guess I can say without spoiling anything that I liked it simply because I did. I didn't overthink it. Instead of going in there with all these preconceived notions of what the movie would or should be I let the characters take the journey while I followed along and I loved it. I found the heroes to be a likable new generation who I'm already emotionally invested in and Kylo Ren to be....well I better save that for a spoiler. I found the action scenes to be exhilarating. Yes there was a bit of a retread of the story of the original, but considering it is supposed to be 34 years after A New Hope (and we're seeing the new baddies coming to power so it's even longer since the rise of the Empire) it isn't at all far fetched that history would have repeated itself in a galaxy with a military history like that after a long period of time. I felt like there was enough freshness to overcome that though but maybe it's just me.

I think the most important thing to remember is that this is part one of three of this new generation. Some people are forgetting that we're going to see an evolution to these characters and the story. Which leads me to the main points I took issues with in your post, Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker.

The Supreme Leader's comment that he will "finish his training" about Kylo should be a signal that we're seeing a baddy that, like the First Order, is in a rising state. This isn't Darth Vader, feared across the galaxy and the baddest son of a bitch ever from the second he appears on screen in ANH. This is a character who is incredibly powerful and with his heritage as Leia's son and Anakin's grandson the potential to be just as bad as Vader was, but much growing left to do to reach that point. Just as we're going to see Rey grow in the force, it looks like we're meant to see Kylo grow and evolve as a Sith. Killing his father and taking the plunge to the dark side seemingly forever was the start of that. I think you got so lost in thinking this was a retread that you figured Kylo was supposed to have reached a Darth Vader level already (which if he was, you're right, he's a pathetic character, but it's obvious from the story that he is growing when we meet him).

As for Luke, I'm pretty sure we're going to find out why he "turned tail and ran" instead of staying and fighting Kylo after he slaughtered the Jedi order he was building in the next movie or Episode IX. It's easy to say the Luke we see in the original trilogy would have stayed and fought, but who knows what he would have done after that? This is 30 years after ROTJ, I don't remember if it was said exactly how long Ben Solo had been Kylo in the movie but based off his age and inexperience it would be fair to say that it was well over 20 years (maybe 25) after ROTJ that he rose up. Luke wouldn't have been a boy anymore, at that point. Age, wisdom, and growing himself as a Jedi knight and master might have taken the warrior we see in the originals out of him. Or at least tamed it. Maybe he was wearied by something, maybe he fled out of grief. We don't know and we weren't meant to know after this movie. Now if we get to 2019 and XI comes out and we don't find out, you can come back and say "Kitty, you're one dumb broad" but til then, I think it's pretty ridiculous to judge that plot point when all we've seen of him in the 30 years since the end of ROTJ is what we get at the very ending.