Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (USE SPOILER TAGS!)

[Dragon Lee]

Just saw it. Great film! Very light and easy to digest. Gives u just enough to wanna come back for more and believe me, we're all coming back!!! 4/5

[FilmKoala]

I saw it yesterday and I'm not sure I can add anything to the discussion that hasn't already been discussed to death, but I have three gripes with the film:

[Show spoiler]- They borrowed way too many elements from ANH, it almost felt like a remake at times. That bothered me quite a bit. A droid has important information that needs to be given to the rebellion, I mean the resistance and falls into the hands of our unsuspecting hero who escapes on the Millennium Falcon. The Empire, I mean the First Order starts using their weapons to blow up Alderaan, I mean some planets and now our heroes must infiltrate the Death Star, I mean the Starkiller Base to destroy it. Our heroes accomplish this just seconds before the rebel base gets destroyed. Oh and don't forget the cantina scene, and various other moments that were ripped from the OT.

[Show spoiler]- All of the planets in the film lacked creativity. I love the concept of Jakku being a junkyard planet but was there any reason it needed to look exactly like Tattooine? The second planet with the cantina was a cross between Naboo and the forest moon of Endor. And the Starkiller planet was just a Hoth clone. If they weren't going to be using those actual planets why didn't they go crazy make make these new ones really unique?

[Show spoiler]- Kylo Ren is kind of a whiny *****. I'm not a fan of his at all, he's an incredibly underwhelming villain coming off of the 6 previous films. I wasn't even that into him when he was wearing his mask but once he took it off I was just done with him. Unfortunately he survived at the end of the film so now we have to deal with him for the rest of this trilogy. I just hope that whatever Snoke does with him to finish his training in between films makes him a lot cooler because he's awful at the moment.

With that said I definitely enjoyed the film. I loved Rey and Fin, I thought they were great and they may end up becoming my favorite characters in the entire series.

[Dreamliner330]

Originally Posted by FilmKoala

I saw it yesterday and I'm not sure I can add anything to the discussion that hasn't already been discussed to death, but I have three gripes with the film:

[Show spoiler]- They borrowed way too many elements from ANH, it almost felt like a remake at times. That bothered me quite a bit. A droid has important information that needs to be given to the rebellion, I mean the resistance and falls into the hands of our unsuspecting hero who escapes on the Millennium Falcon. The Empire, I mean the First Order starts using their weapons to blow up Alderaan, I mean some planets and now our heroes must infiltrate the Death Star, I mean the Starkiller Base to destroy it. Our heroes accomplish this just seconds before the rebel base gets destroyed. Oh and don't forget the cantina scene, and various other moments that were ripped from the OT.

[Show spoiler]- All of the planets in the film lacked creativity. I love the concept of Jakku being a junkyard planet but was there any reason it needed to look exactly like Tattooine? The second planet with the cantina was a cross between Naboo and the forest moon of Endor. And the Starkiller planet was just a Hoth clone. If they weren't going to be using those actual planets why didn't they go crazy make make these new ones really unique?

[Show spoiler]- Kylo Ren is kind of a whiny *****. I'm not a fan of his at all, he's an incredibly underwhelming villain coming off of the 6 previous films. I wasn't even that into him when he was wearing his mask but once he took it off I was just done with him. Unfortunately he survived at the end of the film so now we have to deal with him for the rest of this trilogy. I just hope that whatever Snoke does with him to finish his training in between films makes him a lot cooler because he's awful at the moment.

With that said I definitely enjoyed the film. I loved Rey and Fin, I thought they were great and they may end up becoming my favorite characters in the entire series.

Kylo is great,

[Show spoiler]he has rage issues which reminds me a lot of The Force Unleashed and its nice to see the anger issues.

I think the story is well written and pretty well fleshed out. I think the decision to play it safe and

[Show spoiler]have a similar story to ANH (while borrowing elements from the other two) was the right decision as to stay far away from the stink of the prequels. ANH is 38 years old. Using a lot of the same elements can be forgiven. It did NOT feel like a remake.

[SuperFlyHighGuy]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner330

Kylo is great,

[Show spoiler]he has rage issues which reminds me a lot of The Force Unleashed and its nice to see the anger issues.

I think the story is well written and pretty well fleshed out. I think the decision to play it safe and

[Show spoiler]have a similar story to ANH (while borrowing elements from the other two) was the right decision as to stay far away from the stink of the prequels. ANH is 38 years old. Using a lot of the same elements can be forgiven. It did NOT feel like a remake.

Well seeing the original several hundred times, it's difficult to not notice

[Show spoiler]every single story point or theme that has been reused in this one and make it seem like a "re-imagining", in the least. But like you said, it's been almost 40 years and we all knew that a remake was inevitable, I think this film is about as good of way of pulling that off that we could have hoped for.

[Det. Bullock]

Originally Posted by RickDee

How about give it some time? There are two films left.

[Star Wars Geek mode ON]
In epIV the rebels have two types of ship, not just one, it feels weird to me because I still play a lot of Star Wars spacesims like X-wing vs Tie Fighter, the resistance seems to have X-wing T-70 only (in the OT were T-65) but no other kind of ship, which is weird as the Rebel Alliance had also the two "bombers" Y-wing and B-wing which could carry more torpedoes and had ion cannons to disable ships, which the X-wing has not, essentially I saw a squadron which could do only dogfighting and limited bombardment/torpedoing and nothing else.

Now, these being T-70 not T-65 could justify the absence of an interceptor class fighter like the A-wing as the T-70 is presumably a bit faster than the old T-65, but they don't seem to have ion cannons and presumably they have the same warhead payload of the T-65 as the hull structure seems to be the same, so the Resistance would still need a bomber/tactical fighter like the aforementioned Y-wing and B-wing but there seems to be none in the movie itself, even just sitting in the background at the base, which makes of an inherently less versatile starfighter complement.

Of course the First Order fighters make more sense as their Tie Fighter while having the same basic outline of the classic Tie Fighter seem to be very differend under the hood (so they are probably faster and can double as interceptors) and assuming that they kept the same imperial mindset probably their tactical/bomber fighters are used sparingly, but again it would have been nice to see one or two parked in the hangar at the start.[Star Wars Geek mode OFF]

[4K fanatic]

Originally Posted by Gamma_Winstead

Well gee, seeing as it was never hidden, I don't see WHY you wouldn't have seen it coming. They flat out tell you, several times, that

[Show spoiler]han is the father of Kylo/Ben.

As to your other points, sure, you can nit pick this film to death. But you can do that to the other films in the series as well. They've never been perfect.

You also must feel soooo clever talking about Lost, but guess what? The only episode JJ EVER wrote or directed was the pilot. He never had anything to do with the show outside of the first episode. Maybe do your research before trying to critique someone for something they had nothing to do with.

The way they presented the narrative section of the story dealing with Han and his son wasn't up front either. It was never addressed that my son is a new order sith, so it was kind of hidden. If it wasn't the Abrams really used his cinematic devices to hide this fact- with dramatic music and such when he calls him son or when he calls him dad/father- please, this flick, and I call it flick because it doesn't deserve to be called a film, is an obvious cash grab at old geeks like myself and older who grew up on the films and a cash grab at the new generation with great special effects, casting, etc. Disney didn't do this for art or because it was great movie screenplay that deserves a massive investment, they did it for their portfolio and ensure their vast investment produced dividens to stockholders. I could do with half the f/X and 90% more story. Luke is now Yoda- a prop to make you believe the training of these wanna be Jedi is believable.

I found some very similar reviews to my own on IMDb. Like exactly,

[Ray_Rogers]

Saw it yesterday at the IMAX Dome cinema thing at the San Jose Tech Museum. Thought it was decent and am willing to see it again in proper non-dome projection (it was a bit out of comfortable FOV to me, for my liking).
Of course being a STAR WARS fan again but not since I was originally, not buying anything of it anymore except tickets and only borrowing what needs to, I enjoyed it more than TPM and AOTC. So, already, for me it'll be The OT, The ST, then dead last The PT when it's about my preferences to the STAR WARS Saga. As an aside, I've also been watching STAR WARS Rebels through a friend and consider it as a great interim for the period between the PT and the OT. Regarding the PT, I fully consider KotOR I & II (II especially with the cut content patched back-in) to be vastly superior to it even though it's now considered part of the Legends continuity.
Far superior acting direction for TFA over the Prequels and much more enjoyable. Still going to play the random STAR WARS video games, of course, on my computer.
I wouldn't mind seeing TFA again and it sucks

[Show spoiler]Han is dead now, won't have a reunion with Luke and Leia

. Even then I've no desire for owning the Blu-rays, DVDs, or any format for STAR WARS for awhile, I might change my mind way down the road.
Bring on ROGUE ONE, Episode VIII and Episode IX. Yeah, I was rambling on there a bit.

[Show spoiler]Of course I'm still a fan of Indiana Jones and will never sell anything of it. Still need to reread the Bantam Books including the Marvel and Dark Horse comics.

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by 4K fanatic

The way they presented the narrative section of the story dealing with Han and his son wasn't up front either. It was never addressed that my son is a new order sith, so it was kind of hidden. If it wasn't the Abrams really used his cinematic devices to hide this fact- with dramatic music and such when he calls him son or when he calls him dad/father- please, this flick, and I call it flick because it doesn't deserve to be called a film, is an obvious cash grab at old geeks like myself and older who grew up on the films and a cash grab at the new generation with great special effects, casting, etc. Disney didn't do this for art or because it was great movie screenplay that deserves a massive investment, they did it for their portfolio and ensure their vast investment produced dividens to stockholders. I could do with half the f/X and 90% more story. Luke is now Yoda- a prop to make you believe the trains of these wanna be Jedi is believable.

You must have ADD or something.

[Show spoiler]Snoke specifically says nearly twenty minutes into the film that Kylos father is Han. Han and Leia have several conversations about their son. The very first scene even references Kylos lineage. It is not portrayed as a twist.

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by Gamma_Winstead

You must have ADD or something.

[Show spoiler]Snoke specifically says nearly twenty minutes into the film that Kylos father is Han. Han and Leia have several conversations about their son. The very first scene even references Kylos lineage. It is not portrayed as a twist.

It was more for emotional impact anyway compared to the last word you typed.

[Show spoiler]Wasn't a twist to anyone that Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is Han's son but yeah, emotional impact.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by brps3

I actually 100% agree with his opinion. Rey did more in this movie than Luke and Vader and Han did in the original 3 combined. I agree you're telling me that a junk collector knew more about the Falcon than Han? Could fly it and make it do cool maneuvers? And then with zero training what so ever stands up to a bad a$$ Sith warrior? Yeah I agree the "girl power" thing was a bit too strong here. But............I still think the movie rocked and I want to see it in 3D now.

I'm so tired of reading this crap.

[Show spoiler]Anakin flew a podracer with no training at all when everyone said humans couldn't do it. Obi-wan and Yoda trained Luke for like a day each and he still stood toe-to-toe with Vader ("impressive... most impressive"). Also Kylo Ren is a young spoiled brat who was wounded and fighting with emotion. Also Rey obviously trained herself how to fight to some degree, since she kicks ass earlier in the movie with a stick.

Stop hating on the badass chick hero. Give little girls their cool jedi FFS.

[Underworld54]

Wow it seems Daisy was a virtual unknown when cast as Rey...didn't have an imdb page and she only had 200 Instagram followers.

[Underworld54]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I'm so tired of reading this crap.

[Show spoiler]Anakin flew a podracer with no training at all when everyone said humans couldn't do it. Obi-wan and Yoda trained Luke for like a day each and he still stood toe-to-toe with Vader ("impressive... most impressive"). Also Kylo Ren is a young spoiled brat who was wounded and fighting with emotion. Also Rey obviously trained herself how to fight to some degree, since she kicks ass earlier in the movie with a stick.

Stop hating on the badass chick hero. Give little girls their cool jedi FFS.

Rey is awesome! Time to let a bad ass Star Wars chick have the Star Wars spotlight.

[GC Riot]

Ugh! I get so pissed off when this happens.
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni59319564/...inkId=19815464
People should get paid for the work they do, not because of who they are. Those numbers are just all kinds of unfair to the leads...

[Underworld54]

Originally Posted by GC Riot

Ugh! I get so pissed off when this happens.
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni59319564/...inkId=19815464
People should get paid for the work they do, not because of who they are. Those numbers are just all kinds of unfair to the leads...

It's a breakthrough role for Daisy, I'm sure from here on out she'll be a very very well compensated actress.

[Geoff D]

It is what is, Ford's a legitimate superstar so if you want him in your movie - any movie - you gotta pay. As for the youngsters, they've still earned more money for one gig than I've accrued in my entire working life thus far so I don't feel sorry for them in the slightest. They're getting a fraction of a point each as well, so the more $$$ the movie makes past a certain point then the cheques will start to roll in.

[GC Riot]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

It is what is, Ford's a legitimate superstar so if you want him in your movie - any movie - you gotta pay. As for the youngsters, they've still earned more money for one gig than I've accrued in my entire working life thus far so I don't feel sorry for them in the slightest. They're getting a fraction of a point each as well, so the more $$$ the movie makes past a certain point then the cheques will start to roll in.

Yay for capitalism?

[Tony208]

You'd think the leads of a Star Wars movie would at least make a million.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by GC Riot

Yay for capitalism?

Sure, why not.

[jetjaguar4]

Not surprising she got paid the least. She was an unknown actor with very little experience. That's just business.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Tony208

You'd think the leads of Star Wars would at least make a million.

Their initial paycheques reflected their noob status, it's as simple as that. But, as with J-Law on the Hunger Games movies, a first payment of a few hundred grand (my heart bleeds) will contractually embiggen into millions as they become more integral to the franchise.