been reading up on all the random bits of info and canon and found out that apparently Daniel Craig was the Stormtrooper Rey used the Jedi Mind Trick on?
and that Bill Hader is the voice for BB-8???
Just realized that it is totally possible for Rey to both be Obi Wanâs granddaughter as well as Lukeâs daughter and now that is the only reveal that is going to be satisfying to me. Also really hope they donât give her a dead mom for dramatic purposes, but ⌠thatâs usually how these things tend to go
The Rey thing doesnât make any sense for Han and Leia to not know her etc etc.
I enjoyed it!
I had the âSolo killed by Kylo Renâ forcibly spoiled to me so I regret not feeling anything for when the moment happened. Then again, itâs clearly an echo of A New Hopeâs Obi-Wanâs death so itâs pretty telegraphed there too.
The chemistry with the new actors were really great and I enjoyed their dialogue with each other. Their lines were quick, snappy, and natural compared to the awkward Lucas-style in the green screened Prequels era.
I liked Kylo Renâs characterization as a Darth Vader otaku. Heâs got the sick voice modulation, cool Sith rags, red lightsaber, and all the hottest Vader burnt mask merch. He tries to talk all cool and robotic like how he probably imagines Vader acted, but then when heâs upset, he just throws giant temper tantrums like a big baby. Also how his journey is an opposite of Anakinâs where heâs getting tempted by the Light Side when heâs already in the Dark.
Also in the neo-Empire, I liked that Kylo Ren wasnât the top ranking villain in the organization. Just like in ANH where Vader serves below general Fuyutsuki (lol), Kylo Ren was an equal or lower ranking that the other hat-wearing, speech-giving guy. Their dynamic was nice and it was nice to see how the power structure worked in the new evil organization.
Man, I really enjoyed how much was hinted at or shown rather than said. So much show, donât tell. Such a departure from Prequel Trilogy, and much more of a return to the Original Trilogy.
Like the ending shot where Rey is just pleading to Luke with her eyes while trying to give him his lightsaber back - I loved that it had no dialogue and it was communicated entirely in her expression and music.
Speaking of music and sound, I enjoyed how Force powers = Bass. When Kylo Ren is trying to read Reyâs mind, that bass just went to 11 and it really worked. Didnât need any visual effects, just the actors doing physical acting and some SFX.
Most of all, I really enjoyed how it built off the Original Trilogyâs world and felt like a natural extension. It really felt like I was back in âStar Wars,â which is something I didnât know I missed or felt could return/be inside again. Iâm really looking forward to seeing where they take the characters and universe now that itâs been re-established.
What will the scale be like in the second movie? I want to see the entire fleet of The New Order (was that its name?), more cool Stormtrooper uniforms, and other lavish attention to detail.
Man, speaking of uniforms, it was really cool seeing how detailed they got with their Stormtroopers. Loved how squad leaders (I assume) had the single shoulder pad, and then the leaders above that have red shoulder pads. Appreciated the detail of the heavy artillery guys having extra pouches on their fronts and backs for ammo. Also the return of the special TIE Fighter pilot uniforms and the winter area COBRA-style uniforms. Also that single traitor-screaming guy who had an anti-lightsaber club that swung around was really cool. I was disappointed the Silver Stormtrooper captain lady didnât get to show off, but Iâm looking forward to what they do with her or what other writers/games/movies/etc will do with her if she falls out of the main movies.
Anyway, my predictions:
- Silver Stormtrooper lady ends up becoming the next Darth Vader/Dragon/Strong Right Hand Lady
- Kylo Ren becomes Benedict Cumberbatch
- Rey and Finn go podracing
- the glasses alien lady comes back with a giant treasure box and inside is Han Solo, preserved in Carbonite. When Rey asks her where she found him, she replies, âWell, thatâs a story for another time.â
Iâm probably gonna watch it again soon. I want to see it in stupid ridiculous IMAX 3d - I only saw it in the regular format. I wish 3D glasses fit comfortably over regular glasses though.
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Whenâs Dexter Jettster making his glorious return?
it would make sense that Silver Stormtrooper would become the new big bad if Kylo Ren turns Light Side in the next movie.
[fake edit] - ok her name is Captain Phasma, which is something youâd think iâd remember more considering how awesome that name is
Try to see it in stupid ridiculous GLORIOUS 70MM as well! The 3D is post-process.
Also, calling it now: Mads Mikkelsen is playing a younger version of Max von Sydowâs character in Rogue One
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I fear Phasma wonât be doing anything, since she appeared all of three times before she was shoved down a garbage chute. Off-screen.
sad to report my hope for force awakens being my favorite in the series did not come true. my favorite part was the obsessively fastidious attention to universe continuity, even making all the computer shit look like weird old '70s computers. and, as i mentioned on lboxd, giving all the dudes crazy feathered mullets.
i wonder if this means one of the off-shoot movies will give a ret-con explanation for how technology got so much shittier in the 20 years between episodes 3 and 4.
Producer has gone on a lot about having big plans for her in future installments.
Depression caused by pouring all of the Empireâs resources into moon-sized space stations.
Rey is our first hint that the galaxy has become a scrapperâs paradise. While fat cats live it up on Coruscant the little people are stripping spacewires out of a Detroit than spans lightyears.
oh i also wanted to ask was coruscant one of the planets that gets blown up by the new sun gun?? i couldnât tell for sure but it looked like it was and i gotta say if sequels are supposed to ramp up the stakes off-handedly blowing up a planet with like a trillion people on it is a pretty gross way to do so :-/
The Internet says itâs not.
Thatâs still five whole planets though.
5x the blowup.
I really liked this movie but didnât love it. Yet certain moments are really stuck in my head and wonât go away, like the lightsaber duel between Rey/Ren (take that whiny cishet evil white boy!!). That was an excellent sequence. Daisy Ridley was just a fantastic bit of casting.
My main complaint is that the whole thing felt a little thin⌠there was perhaps a bit too much action. It ended up feeling mostly like just the setup for the next movie(s), rather than a self-contained story as in ANH. Like the whole film was just there to write Harrison Ford out of the picture (it really didnât seem like he wanted to be there). Obviously thatâs an exaggeration, but thatâs kind of the only thing of consequence that actually happens. Right? I mean those planets got blowed up, but what/where even were those planets? There was no connection built up with the viewer. Alderaan it was not.
So by the time Beard Skywalker finally appears, Iâm like, okay, now itâs getting good! Then it ended. The upside of this is that I am totally stoked for Rian Johnsonâs Episode VIII. Heâs a much better director than Abrams, and will hopefully bring an edge to this new trilogy that this one lacked (IMO). What Iâm saying is that this was A New Hope (obviously), and Rian Johnsonâs gonna give us The Empire Strikes Back.
Other complaints (because those are more interesting than praises): the whole Supreme Leader character was too Dumbledore/LOTR for my Star Wars taste. Design-wise, he looked just like the albino orc general in The Hobbit movies. I would have appreciated a little more creativity in the creature-department, in general. The best of them were just recycled from the OT (it was fun seeing where those ET-looking guys from the Mos Eisley cantina live).
I wish I hadnât seen it in 3D. It was really pointless. Also, who was the old guy in the beginning who looked just like Obi-Wan Kenobi? Were we supposed to know?
Still, this gets the full Five Bags from me.
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Thinking about it more the next day â the force awakens really doesnât hold up at all to thinking about it more than 5 minutes, to a kind of an astonishing degree. Too much bad storytelling, too much sloppy writing. They cast it extremely well, they shot it well enough, it had some personality to it, but wow, they really didnât write that movie for shit. I guess it doesnât matter if movies are written well, though â audiences donât seem to ever care. Itâs just weird seeing the decline in movie writing in my lifetime â like, whatâs next? How much worse is it going to get when the people raised on this stuff are writing stuff?? Silver lining: Iâll be dead by then. YAAAAAY!
This is a really crucial point:
Reyâs a wonderfully quirky character, but sheâs just too talented at everything necessary for her to be a Hero. If the next film is about her training to use the force, would it have hurt for her to merely show great potential here and have Han teach her a trick or two about how to handle the Falcon instead of having her be The Best at everything? Has she ever even flown a starship before? Or how about having Chewie show her how override the bi-linear motivator while growling furiously for her to hurry?
Thereâs something slightly obnoxious about overly competent characters. As an audience we like to have weaknesses to latch on to as well; weakness is humanity. Hell, Luke spent most of the original trilogy being knocked around and was a complete failure throughout The Empire Strikes Back!
In trying so hard to create a Strong Female Characterâ˘, they failed to make her seem human. An inhumanly competent woman is better than a damsel-in-distress, but itâs still frustrating, lazy writing.
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After listening to the score on YouTube at work I appreciate more how much new and different music there was. We donât hear, for example, the march at all. The winds and percussion in Reyâs theme are fantastic at building the âfreshâ and âstirringâ emotions this movie sorely needed. The sparing reuse of the extant music is less manipulative than the new music for me.
Captain Phasma was actually the one of the first cast members to be confirmed for ep viii though.