Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens (unofficial thread)

I've scheduled a day off to catch a matinee showing of Star Wars VII today. Looking forward to spending $15 for a small popcorn and sitting next to a guy dressed as a Storm Trooper (sarcasm)...but it's part of Americana, and duty calls. If I can sit through Frozen with a 5 year old, I can endure getting hit with an errant plastic light saber while the previews role.

 

Spoiler Alert

Luke isn't hiding. He's protecting something. If you go into hiding you don't make a map and stand on the X. The only reason to be at the end of that map is to get there first and protect whatever is at the X. The main part of the map was already in the New Orders possession and they got it from the empires archives. Why would the empire already have part of the map to a place where Luke wasn't even hiding yet? He didn't go into hiding until after Ben turned to the dark side. And Han said those who know Luke best said he went to find the first Jedi temple. There is something at the temple Kylo Ren want's and I think Darth Vader was looking for it to. Remember the whole reason Anakin turned to the dark side was to prevent Padme from dying during child birth. He wanted the power to stop people from dying and even bring them back to life if they did. Someone close to Ben died and when he started exhibiting signs of the dark side they sent him to train with Luke. Luke told him what happened to Vader hoping it would help him understand the danger but instead he saw a way to fix whatever happened, to save or bring someone back. That is what he meant when he said he was going to finish what Vader started, that's also why Rey made that statement that he was afraid he would never be as strong as Vader. In fact I believe her saying that is the reason he killed Han. He knew he needed to do something that would help him give himself over to the dark side entirely, he may also have blamed Han for whoever it was that died. Rey is Bens sister. Lucas Arts said Kylo Ren is 29 and Rey is 19. I think Ben was sent to train with Luke at about 8-9 maybe even earlier. He turned to the dark side at about 13 when Rey was 6. Han and Leia hid her on Jakku, possibly even from Luke to protect her from her brother and Snoke.

Edited to say Han says "Those who knew Luke best". He goes out of his way to avoid letting Rey know certain things like the fact that he was a person who knew Luke best. It also helps highlight the fact that even though some people think Luke went into hiding, this is not the case.

 

Good movie. Worth seeing in a theater, unless you happen to have a home theater of equivalent fidelity. Tempted to get into some plot elements, but I'll avoid that.

Abrams was destined to make this movie as he kept trying to turn Star Trek into Star Wars. For the most part...considering the hype and commercialization of the franchise, this is a respectable homage to the original episodes.

If you are even remotely familiar with the original trilogy, but skipped the prequels trilogy, you will enjoy this movie.
You don't need to be a devotee of the entire SW franchise to follow the story..it's a very familiar one.

 

I disagree. It stunk. New Death star same as the old Death Star only bigger. How creative is it to just enlarge what already existed? And they destroyed it the same way they did the first one. You'd think the guys that built it would have learned something about the first one's weakness. Same X-wing and Spool fighters. New bad guy - not nearly as scary as Darth Vader. All they did was take everything they had out of storage, dust it off and throw it on the screen. Their technology hadn't advanced at all in the last 30 years. No plot. Luke is seen for all of 5 seconds when he's no longer needed. It would have been better if the old stars were left out and if there was a story to tell.

 

I didnt like it. it was "A New Hope: PC version" Better graphics same story except a New hope felt more epic.

 

In Abrams defense Lucas got creative in Episode I and that gave us a lame plot, too much CGI, bad acting, Jar Jar Binks (I kind of liked him since my dad does) and more and it was panned by critics and fans who liked the original trilogy and it went downhill from there.

So why would Abrams risk going off a formulae that worked it clearly did again this movie is making a killing?

Seriously its not on par with the original series but far better than the prequals as far as I am concerned.

 

Star Wars is a long-term franchise. This was probably the swan song for what remains of the original cast in the first trilogy. So for someone like me, a teen-ager when the first episode of the original trilogy was released in 1977. I was 13, an age right in the wheel house of the intended audience...young males. The special effects were something never seen before and the story, basically good vs. evil, something a teen could follow. Nothing convuluted.

I believe Abrams who is 49 years old, target audience for this most recent Star Wars episode were his peers in 1977 who are now middle aged...it was an homage to that first experience. Younger audience members, particularly millennials, experience Star Wars much differently than folks like me. The 2nd trilogy was basically ignored...this never happened. Here's a salute to the original....That's what I saw...which of course will be different experience than someone half my age who experiences Star Wars more from the 2nd trilogy perspective.

I'm old enough to recall when Star Wars was not even on the radar....it was brand new. George Lucas gave audiences a brand new, special effects laden experience with a plot simple enough not to bore a teen-aged audience. Star Wars itself was an homage to Saturday afternoon Space operas like Flash Gordon that again...appealed to teen-age males.

I thought this most recent film was a trip down memory lane...one final time. I liked it.

There will be many, many more episodes...this remains a viable money making franchise and it won't end any time soon. Perhaps the next episode will cater more to millennials who are too young to have been excited about experiencing something truly original to them.

Frankly, I'm much more of a Star Trek "fan" than I ever was Star Wars. I like Star Wars, but Star Trek and it's tv spin-offs has more depth than theatrical releases, cartoons and legos. I always disliked Abrams Star Trek vision...I thought well he's trying to turn Star Trek into Star Wars. This recent Star Wars movie was his destiny, it's what he wanted to get his hands on...well since he was 11 years old and saw Star Wars for the first time. All in all, considering that sort of pressure, it was a good job.

Everyone has the right to criticize and opine about how they view the movie...ultimately it's a subjective experience.

 

Spoiler Alert!

Definitely some connection to Obi-Wan. It's not in the obvious things, but the more subtle. Obi-Wan's original theme plays at one point during Rey's battle with Kylo Ren. Seemed like a huge clue to me.

Obi-Wan restores the lightsaber to the Skywalker line when he gives it to Luke initially. In an example of a common 'mirroring' thing that happens in movie storytelling, it's fitting that someone connected to Obi-Wan performs that action again when Rey gives Luke the lightsaber at the end of "Force Awakens".

We first see the Jedi mind trick when Obi-Wan uses it in 'A New Hope'. I think it's another clue when Rey uses it to get the guard to release her restraints. Not because it's unique to Obi-Wan (it isn't), but because the 'Force Awakens' in many ways mirrors 'A New Hope'.

 

Just adding that I can see where a Kenobi/Skywalker ancestry would go a ways toward explaining the speed with which Rey is learning to use the Force.

I don't buy Rey being a product of the union of Leia and Han, despite the fact that Leia also has Skywalker ancestry, being Luke's sister.

 

Can all see the sims with EpIV, but if viewed as indicators of the story it informs as to the nature of the dark side. You have to view these things in the religo-spiritual context of Sith v Jedi as pure manifestations of the Force. Otherwise your just being an armchair critic pointing out the coffee stains on the rug. I think this new one sets a great stage to reveal some more interesting details about the dark side, and challenge the forces of the light side to rally and struggle to finally overcome. These days story arcs are really better spread out over many movies so I hope it gets better not worse. If they'd focused on changing too much in this movie it would have been destopian Star Trek with light sabers, so by being overly familiar it implies some deeper nature and connection across the original trilogy and this new one (and even the prequels to a minor extent).