Star Wars Episode 7

[THGhost]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

It just seems to me that for relaunching a franchise, you should really try to do something more original than what we've seen.

Perhaps the sequels will be? The first one may have just been to test the waters. If they tried something new to begin with and it bombed, then what?

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by THGhost

Perhaps the sequels will be? The first one may have just been to test the waters. If they tried something new to begin with and it bombed, then what?

It's a fair point. Especially considering how the last trilogy bombed, and did admittedly try some fairly new things and angles.

[THGhost]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

It's a fair point. Especially considering how the last trilogy bombed, and did admittedly try some fairly new things and angles.

Baby steps, man. Baby steps. Plus it's also Disney and JJ's way of telling us that they're going back to the franchise's roots with the storytelling. I can't believe people are actually complaining about that.

Screen Junkies' reactions to the movie seems pretty darn positive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh_84ExOdhU

[chrisdude]

I'm not a huge SW fan (despite me and my friends being first in line, eight hours before showtime), but I liked it alright. I certainly can't point to anything special about it, and it doesn't seem anyone else here has, either. I think the Jurrassic World comparison is spot-on. It was a very safe, "give them what they want," kind of sequel. And I found myself, many times, thinking, "Yep. That's what they do in Star Wars." And if they want to play it safe with the reintroduction of the franchise, I can understand that. But, doesn't it seem to kind of awful to essentially burn one in order to make people comfortable? When we have nine of these movies, no one is going to point to this one as one of the best. It was still fun and exciting, and I had a great time..

My eyes are still set on Rogue One.

[MikeandRaph87]

Spoiler:

It delivered. Samples of old and new.Good back story with more to tell. It was good to see see something for a X-wing fighter to do and add characterization with Poe. BB-88 and Chewie provided much of the humor without understanding a word.Captain Phasma did not do much. Snoke was teased much like Thanos. He had the same music played as what was played during the telling of Plageuis's story so it has to be him. Han brings everyone together, but the theories dating back to the Spring were true. So Kylo/Ben is Han and Leia's son and the plot device that causes Han and Keia to separate and Luke to go into exile for failing to control the darkside's hold on his nephew. Its going to take time to absorb the neccessity of Kylo doung what Vader could not. In that I mean Vader while injuring Luke could not kill him while Kylo played Han to kill his own father. I don't like it. I guess it was neccessary. The thing is it makes mecwant Kylo to die for this. Vader was badass and its ha4d to see him go, but you are made to want him to. What if he learns to control his temper tantrums and kills Luke too? Yes, Rey, Luke's daughterwill kill her cousin not twin brother to end it all. Its a guarantee i exoected more thsn a 30 second shot of Luke being handed his first light saber. No dialog at all. He knew who she was and what he had to do. He will probably reject the saber and it will be hers to train.

I enjoyed Revenge of The Sith if only for the twin duels at the climax. Say what you will about Menace and Clone though leave Sith out of it.

I will go back on Monday for a second viewing to observe what I missed and absorb it all.

I bet the first trailer, the teaser will accompany Rouge One next May. Principal photography is about wrapped on Episode 8 already.

[NinjaPug]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

Spoiler:

It delivered. Samples of old and new.Good back story with more to tell. It was good to see see something for a X-wing fighter to do and add characterization with Poe. BB-88 and Chewie provided much of the humor without understanding a word.Captain Phasma did not do much. Snoke was teased much like Thanos. He had the same music played as what was played during the telling of Plageuis's story so it has to be him. Han brings everyone together, but the theories dating back to the Spring were true. So Kylo/Ben is Han and Leia's son and the plot device that causes Han and Keia to separate and Luke to go into exile for failing to control the darkside's hold on his nephew. Its going to take time to absorb the neccessity of Kylo doung what Vader could not. In that I mean Vader while injuring Luke could not kill him while Kylo played Han to kill his own father. I don't like it. I guess it was neccessary. The thing is it makes mecwant Kylo to die for this. Vader was badass and its ha4d to see him go, but you are made to want him to. What if he learns to control his temper tantrums and kills Luke too? Yes, Rey, Luke's daughterwill kill her cousin not twin brother to end it all. Its a guarantee i exoected more thsn a 30 second shot of Luke being handed his first light saber. No dialog at all. He knew who she was and what he had to do. He will probably reject the saber and it will be hers to train.

I enjoyed Revenge of The Sith if only for the twin duels at the climax. Say what you will about Menace and Clone though leave Sith out of it.

I will go back on Monday for a second viewing to observe what I missed and asorb it all.

I bet 5he first trailer, the teaser will accompany Roufe One next May. Lrincipal photograohy is about wrapped on Episode 8 already.

Episode VIII doesn't start principal photography until next month.

[MikeandRaph87]

I saw news that Mark Hamill had to go to Ireland for principal photography a little over two month ago and posted a photo of
him with lucky fans in pub over there

Spoiler:

Also, a map to a person? Who would create said map?

http://m.nydailynews.com/entertainme...icle-1.2364275

[NinjaPug]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

I saw news that Mark Hamill had to go to Ireland for principal photography a little over two month ago and posted a photo of
him with lucky fans in pub over there

Spoiler:

Also, a map to a person? Who would create said map?

http://m.nydailynews.com/entertainme...icle-1.2364275

They only filmed one scene early because that was the only time filming on that island is available. Principal photography starts in January.

[Peanut]

Just got back. Loved it. Straddles the line between familiar and new in a way that I think won't upset or please everyone, but will allow everyone to have a good time regardless.

Now I need to see it like 10 more times.

[Leo656]

Just got home from seeing it. Odd bit of a lucky break, I think the regular showing was sold out or something, so we ended up getting 3D tickets for $7.50 each. No idea why! Guy just said "Yeah I'll just charge you the Student price for the 3D showing." That was neat. Wasn't bad or great as far as the 3D, better than some I've seen for sure. I was surprised the place wasn't more packed for the 10pm showing.

They did run the TMNT 2 trailer before the movie. The audience completely no-sold it, other than a guy a few seats down groaning "Oh, god" about halfway through.

Y'know... I'll agree with everything Zarius said, while completely disagreeing that any of it actually matters towards the negative. I really don't think it does (Come on, "the scene aboard the freighter was padding"? It was basically the stand-in for the trash compactor scene in the first one, a brief divergence from the plot for a moment of tension that is quickly resolved and never spoken of again. Yes, it was yet another throwback moment in a movie that was crammed with them, but it was ALSO just as harmless in the big picture, AND it moved the plot forward. SO HUH. ).

Everyone knows me as pretty much the hardest-to-please movie fan on the forums, "the guy who hates everything and likes to ruin everyone's fun", but honestly, I can't find anything actually wrong with the movie. I can't. It's not "flawless" by any stretch but I can't find anything that I would actually take points off for. A few things come close, sure. And there's things I either wouldn't have done or would have done differently. I'm on record as saying, if this movie was bad I would find that just the most hilarious thing, but it's not bad, it's honestly really, really good. It's REALLY good.

I'll talk a little bit, and please keep in mind that even though I love Star Wars I've been 100% neutral on this thing until today.

- I really liked all the characters. Like, a whole bunch. Some reviews have said that Finn over-acts towards the beginning but I really don't think so. I believe him as someone who's maybe been conditioned for all this since childhood or whatever but is just plain shell-shocked by the horror of it all in real life, in taking part in it. I bought it. I didn't really care much about him at all from the trailers and everything but I gotta say, of all the new characters I think I had the most fun watching his journey and I can't wait to see what happens next. I also think it's a strong character with a strong message, that we can overcome our "conditioning" and be whatever we want to be. Powerful stuff. I thought he might be as extraneous as most of the "sidekick" characters from the prequels were, but nope. Good stuff there.

- I dig Kylo and his whole thing. I know, I keep hearing how the EU did the whole gimmick better, and probably, but I generally don't watch Star Wars movies with any of the EU in mind anyways. It's not that I don't like the EU stuff, I do, but it's never been "officially" married to the movies anyways and I've always been realistic about that. I always knew they were gonna make more Star Wars movies, that were most likely going to ignore/contradict the books, comics, etc., and that it was always a "When, Not If" kind of thing. So I leave out anything about what "originally" happened in the EU to any of these characters, it's Professional Fanfic and that's that. So anyways, the one big thing I will agree with Zarius on, is the "reveal" should have been handled more as he described. Movie made it kind of anti-climactic in their handling of it. Especially the "Oh, hey, by the way, guess who he really is" bit of dialog exposition. But they're all guilty of that, every last Star Wars movie has clumsy crap like that, I just absorbed the information and let it rattle in my brain as I wondered how it would be addressed towards the end.

What I really liked about Kylo Ren was that he was very insecure and emotional, you understood it and it really came through in his performance. He was everything Hayden SHOULD have been in the prequels, if Hayden had the slightest bit of a personality. For all the talk over 6 movies about how the Dark Side is driven by emotion and rage, other than Anakin's whining in II and III we never really get to see or feel any of that. I'll say again, what we see of Kylo Ren in this movie is everything they should have done with Anakin, from the outbursts to the self-doubt to the jealousy to doing something horrific in order to purge himself of the Light Side. This more than anything feels like a huge "Yeah, We're Sorry" gesture to the fans. Better late than never, I guess. Again, I really want to see what happens next.

- There were a lot of fun moments and a few "laugh-out-loud" ones as well, but on the whole the "humor" and tongue-in-cheek stuff was toned down about ten notches from the Prequels, and that's great. It was very self-aware - VERY, very self-aware - but it never tried to beat you over the head with how clever it was like the Prequels did at times.

- I thought the visuals were awesome. The landscapes were terrific and they struck a great balance between the CGI and practical effects. It's a great-looking film. It looks SO much better, and more consistent than the Prequels, because there is absolutely ZERO instances of gratuitous, "LOOK WHAT WE CAN DO WITH COMPUTERS NOW!" bullsh*t that was about 50% of the entire Prequel Trilogy. I don't know if the industry's somehow finally gotten all that out of their system (doubtful) or if Abrams just has more f*cking restraint, but whatever, good f*cking job.

- Good ending, left me wanting more in a good way. Selfishly, I wanted more Luke, but I knew going in that this film was about saying goodbye to at least one old character and getting the new generation into their roles quickly, so I'm satisfied with what we got.

There's things I can tell some people won't love. They DEFINITELY hit that "Original Trilogy Flashback" button really goddamn hard, and every few minutes. And it's blatant. "This is that scene you liked in IV, and this is our Cantina Scene, and here's that one famous scene from Empire, and here is that exact same scene AGAIN an hour later - that was a cool scene, right? - See, it's all the big Iconic stuff you liked about Star Wars and none of the stuff you cry on the internet about!" If it were a comic book, it's be "Ultimate Star Wars". And I can tell that's going to annoy people, and it happens an absurd number of times but I honestly think that's okay. It's very safe and very familiar but you have to expect that at this point, given all the crap the franchise has taken from "fans" over the last ten years. This was a no-risk/all-reward project for Disney from the very beginning, and given the fact that even with the Remix Shuffle turned on, it still functions perfectly well as a Good Movie all its own, you have to say they made a good decision. They can add more twists and turns in the next one; this one was all about winning back the audience at any cost. So it's safe. It's also extremely well-done. Sometimes Safe is Smarter.

It definitely feels more like a Star Wars movie then the Prequels, for sure. They were so sterile, everything anyone said or did just moved the plot along to the next scene and it wasn't always very engaging. This one actually has moments of depth and intrigue. It never dragged, and while I can't say I was surprised by a single thing that happened, everything that happened made me want to see what happened next. I never had any moments where I threw up my hands and said "What the f*ck, movie?!", and I usually do.

I liked it, I like the new direction and I'm now very much looking forward to the next one. Take a picture, this never happens.

[Turo602]

Saw it, enjoyed every bit of it. Though a lot of the plot felt like borderline ripoff of A New Hope which didn't really hinder my experience but certainly feels cheap to me. The cinematography is easily the best in series and the characters are very likeable. Not a huge fan of Kylo Ren at this point but he definitely had his moments. While the film definitely has its flaws it surely gave me chills and goosebumps throughout. Can't wait for more.

[Klunk1234]

Originally Posted by THGhost

It wasn't for me today. Early showing on launch day and only about 1/3 of the room was full. Go see it before the kids get out of school, you should be fine.

THGhost: Thank you for your suggestion. I finally watched.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Turo602

Saw it, enjoyed every bit of it. Though a lot of the plot felt like borderline ripoff of A New Hope which didn't really hinder my experience but certainly feels cheap to me. The cinematography is easily the best in series and the characters are very likeable. Not a huge fan of Kylo Ren at this point but he definitely had his moments. While the film definitely has its flaws it surely gave me chills and goosebumps throughout. Can't wait for more.

I strongly feel that it's the best-looking and most visually-consistent film in the series. The only thing that was a little weak, was whatsername from the cantina or whatever with the bug-eyes, she looked like a leftover Prequel character sometimes. I forgot to mention that. I liked the character enough to not care, but she stood out more than any of the other visual effects did.

But yeah, looks great. Yeah the whole "Desert Planet/Ice Planet/Forest Planet/King Koopa's Castle" structure was pretty lazy and derivative but at least everything looked fantastic.

[Turo602]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

I enjoyed Revenge of The Sith if only for the twin duels at the climax. Say what you will about Menace and Clone though leave Sith out of it.

I'm with you. I generally think the prequels are very underrated. At least in comparison to the original trilogy. After viewing all 6 films in preparation for this one, I honestly cannot understand where most of this fanbase is coming from. Revenge of the Sith is easily the best of the prequels and in my honest opinion, one of the best in the entire saga. That's not to say that the story or writing isn't flawed because all of them are. But I did enjoy the action sequences, especially the duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin. I also really liked the Order 66 and story of Darth Plageuis the Wise scenes. The birth of Vader and the general set up and transition into the original trilogy was also very geek out worthy.

Originally Posted by Leo656

The only thing that was a little weak, was whatsername from the cantina or whatever with the bug-eyes, she looked like a leftover Prequel character sometimes.

Haha, yeah. I didn't really mind her but It almost felt like they tried making her the Yoda of this movie but she'll never be as great as that little green sex machine.

[Mayhem]

Originally Posted by Leo656

What I really liked about Kylo Ren was that he was very insecure and emotional, you understood it and it really came through in his performance. He was everything Hayden SHOULD have been in the prequels, if Hayden had the slightest bit of a personality. For all the talk over 6 movies about how the Dark Side is driven by emotion and rage, other than Anakin's whining in II and III we never really get to see or feel any of that. I'll say again, what we see of Kylo Ren in this movie is everything they should have done with Anakin, from the outbursts to the self-doubt to the jealousy to doing something horrific in order to purge himself of the Light Side. This more than anything feels like a huge "Yeah, We're Sorry" gesture to the fans. Better late than never, I guess. Again, I really want to see what happens next.

I don't know if you read my review on the previous page, but I agree, and it's nice to see someone else with the same opinion (just use a lot more words to expand upon it heh).

[Bry]

Not getting too in-depth or spoilery here, but yeah, I definitely enjoyed it a ton.

Does it lean very hard on nostalgia? Oh yeah. Is it a "Star Wars greatest hits album" like many are saying? Yeah, pretty much! But I have no problem with that at all. It's reintroducing the world properly for the first time since 1983, and it did that damn well. It looks fantastic, feels "right," and is a blast to watch.

Most importantly, the new characters are all very charming and likeable, and I left the theatre wanting to see more of them. They have personalities! They bicker! Like in a Star Wars movie!

So yeah, I liked it. I want to let it set in a bit more before I make a firm judgment but the movie's exciting, fun, and has actual heart. There's a lot of temptation to pick it apart as a fan, and to go into it with very specific fan-service expectations, but if you check that mindset and make a point to go into it just hoping for a good Star Wars movie it definitely delivers.

[THGhost]

Originally Posted by Klunk1234

THGhost: Thank you for your suggestion. I finally watched.

You're welcome. You'll probably find that the reason a lot movies are packed on launch day is because of kids wanting to see it.

[Blackeyedsonic]

I myself refuse to spend any money on a Disney Star Wars it looks more like a fan fic then a Star Wars movie to me honestly and under mines the first three movies

[Krutch]

It’s easier for me to talk about what I didn’t like than what I did

SPOILERS

Kylo Ren and Rey were my biggest issues.

Rey was too perfect for my liking; she’s all the best qualities of Luke and Han rolled into one without either of their flaws. She can figure out the Falcon better than Han can, is self-suffiicient(can take out two bounty hunters trying to kidnap her by herself), goes from not believing the force even exists to being able to resist(and reverse!) mind probing, mind control, have premonitions, and win a lightsaber fight with Luke’s former understudy. Like… I guess she’s just better than everyone else? Like, she seems as efficient as Luke was at the end of Return of the Jedi.

Kylo Ren, on the other hand, I feel like I don’t know enough about to warrant him killing Han. All I know about him is he was Luke’s understudy and he’s a bit conflicted about being on the darkside. Otherwise, I have no idea who he is or what his motivations are. Why is he so tempted in the dark side? Why does he hold a grudge against Han and Leia? What happened between him and Luke? What does Supreme Overlord have to offer him? I don’t know **** about him! Then he kills Han to fully embrace the darkside, then immediately proceeds to lose a fight with someone who’s never swung a sabre before (yes, he was hurt, but it really diminishes Han’s death when it doesn’t help him).

Luke shouldn’t have been in this movie at all if he didn’t provide any new information. It should have ended with them going to seek Luke out: Otherwise, it was a giant cocktease including him and saying he’s in the movie. It made me imagine and get excited for new scenes between Luke and Han, and now I’ll never see it.

And I wish this movie didn’t feel like a reskin of A New Hope. I kinda knew how the entire movie would play out as soon as it was revealed Kylo was Han’s son, so, it was a little disappointing that there was no curve balls thrown at us.

But thats what i DIDNT like about a movie i really enjoyed. Fin, Poe, B-88, and all the new cast were fun to watch. I liked the humour a lot. The action was fun. The score was great. I’d give it a solid 7.9/10. It falls somewhere between the prequels and the original trilogy.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Blackeyedsonic

I myself refuse to spend any money on a Disney Star Wars it looks more like a fan fic then a Star Wars movie to me honestly and under mines the first three movies

Lol good for you. No one cares.