The Force Awakens...Disappointing (1 Viewer)

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The thing we have to keep in mind now...... it is Dizzney and it's commercial element is more important. Like 400 dollar watches. F'em I say.
Your right Bill, but to be honest i actually thought Disney would make a right balls up of this movie, trying to make it attractive to as many different ages groups as possible but they did an ok job of it i think
 
Just wondering if there would be any interest in a thread on the new super whiz-bang Star Wars movie? Personally I'm a big fan of the Lucas-movies and whay-back-when stood in line for 4 hours to see IV A New Hope. So I had great expectations when Lucas finally gave it up. Needless to say the wanting is always better than the having. I personally find the following totally unforgivable when so much time, energy, and money was involved. SO...SPOILER ALERT stop now if you have not seen the movie. Here is my critique:
Luke destroys a Death Star; Lando destroys a bigger Death Star; Poe destroys the biggest Death Star. While we're on the topic, WHY would the First Order spend quadrillions of ???? on a concept that had failed twice before. The first two Death Stars, took the rebels a full scale invasion force and Luke's use of the force while for the larger and better protected Starkiller all that was needed was a janitor with no special skills, a few run-of-the-mill handheld explosives, a couple not very difficult X-wing blaster strikes and it helped that the Millennium Falcon was able to "fly low."
Anakin kills (the Jedi's) Younglings; Kylo Ren kills (Luke's) Younglings.
Leia, Luke, Han, and Chewie end up in a trash compactor; Captain Phasma ends up in a trash compacter.
Poe and Finn steal a ship they're not supposed to steal from a hanger (did you notice that the ship was "tied-down"?? in an enclosed building??); a young Anakin steals a ship he's not supposed to steal from a hanger.
Luke watches Obi-Wan die; Rey watches Han Solo die. In fact, both she and Finn just stand there and watch not even thinking to fire a single blaster bolt
The Emperor and Snoke both appear (at first) exclusively via holograms.
The Millennium Falcon negotiates tight spaces at top speeds in every film.
There's a den of iniquity on Tatooine, and a visually identical one on Takodana (Maz Kanata's home).
Rey climbs dangerously on the interior of a Death Star, as did Luke.
Han gets shown up (as to military and technical smarts) first by Leia, then many years later by Rey.
Obi-Wan disappears where no one can find him but Luke, then Luke disappears where no one can find him but Rey.
Kylo Ren and Darth Vader use the Force for an interrogation.
The First Order's General Hux is the same Nazi-with-a-British-accent as every Empire officer or petty official before him.
Rey falls in love (we think) with a young scamp, as did Padme.
The Resistance headquarters seems to be the same movie set as the Rebel headquarters from decades earlier.
Poe is a crack shot, like Luke.
BB-8 is the new R2D2.
Kylo Ren is related to Han, just as Darth Vader was related to Luke.
Kylo Ren has such a Force-enabled sense of where his father is in the Galaxy that when his father lands on Starkiller Base, Ren immediately exclaims to himself, "Solo!" Yet a few minutes later, when Ren is just twenty feet from Solo, he can't detect him -- and actually starts searching for him in the wrong direction.
Rey, the orphan, lives on a desert planet the twin of Tatooine. She becomes a master using the Force in just a few hours. A feat that took Luke years. She's never been in a battle but is a master with a staff. Amazingly she speaks Wookie which no one has ever done and no one is surprised, also how did she get that X-wing pilot helmet, and why doesn't she sell it for food? And why does Teedo just give Rey BB-8 after capturing the droid, given that as an experienced trader Teedo would already know that BB-8 is worth 100 times more than any random pile of junk either he or Rey could ever offer Plutt?
For more than 12 years Han looses track of his most prized possession the Millennium Falcon
Kylo Ren is the head of the Knights of Ren but somehow there are no other Knights in the entire movie
Why are all stormtroopers human, or at least humanoid? Nd why in the world do they use giant tasers and WWII style flamethrowers (couldn't be for the toy market could it?)

Sadly Mike, I couldn't agree with you more... Still and all it wasn't a bad movie. Just wished they showed Chewbacca ripping a stormtroopers arm off after he sees his best friend killed.
 
This is what you get with the Disneyization of a movie. A dogfight in a star cruiser. The girl gets the force in a fraction of the time as Luke. And that stupid BB8 being like an old side kick to the sheriff in town.

I think the movie was OK.
 
I think you all need to read the actual story and books before you judge...
I have and the opportunities for movies is limitless.

However, the Force Awakens sort of "cherry picked" through the storyline and focused a little too much on marketable items and not enough on events and such, as they were presented in the story's timeline.

Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of action and stuff going on in the movie, but they rushed to cram as much as possible into the movie and left big holes in the plot.

One of the things I disagree with, is Ren suddenly having more power than Kylo...even Annekin took years to develop his skills and he was exceptionally endowed by the force. Same can be said for Luke, who had to undergo training (by Master Yoda, of all people) to be able to use his powers.

Then all of a sudden, Ren's powers "awaken" within a few minutes and she is able to use the force to counter and overwhelm Kylo like that? Nope...that's B.S. and should have not happened in that manner.
 
Chris, books and movies seldom jibe but in this case the book is a "written" movie in effect. I do have a number of books by various authors expanding the Star Wars universe. But the movie script writers have no requirement to blend in or even use those elements in the new movie. As I said before I think my personal problem with the movie is my HIGH going-in expectations.
I've seen it 3 times now and the first time the advanced CGI blows you away but as the movie progressed a feeling of deja vu got stronger as: "I've seen this movie before". Second and third times I began to note more and more the blatant gaps and inconsistencies.
I can distinctly recall IV A New Hope. Lucas had no thought that the movie would have the impact it ended up having or that V and VI would ever be made. Suddenly new scripts for new movies had to be generated. "I'm your father Luke" had never been even considered in IV nor that Leia was Lukes sister and Vader's daughter , for example.
Consider that Darth Vader, a Force adept, is clueless about the existence of his own children, while less powerful members of the family just sense their relationships. When given a clue from the Emperor, all of a sudden Vader can telepathically communicate with Luke, sense Luke's presence even through the vacuum of space, and pry the existence of his own daughter from Luke's thoughts. He could not, however, previously sense that Leia was his daughter despite several scenes of interaction, including implied torture.
On the topic of the Skywalker family tree, wasn't the existence and identity of Vader's children supposed to be a secret? Why, then, was Luke allowed to retain the surname Skywalker, and why did everyone know that Leia was a Princess (a title she must have inherited from her mother, or else it is the most conspicuous cover identity imaginable)?
I've also wondered about that first planet-killer Death Star. It arrives in the Yavin system to destroy the rebel base on Yavin's moon YET this planet-killer waits 10 minutes before it fires because the planet Yavin is in the way!! Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot. I guess it's tough to reach a beer can in the refrigerator when a beer can is in the way!
Initially two main characters being robots/androids seemed unique then as the movie progresses the pervasiveness of robots/androids becomes apparent They can convey information, fight in battles, i.e. androids formed the rank and file military forces before the clone stormtroopers were developed. Vader himself is mostly cybernetic at this point. So why on God's green Alderaan did an Imperial idiot let an escape pod go because there were "no life signs" on it, and why did a second Imperial idiot find that order even the slightest bit reasonable? Was a quick Laser blast so costly he didn't want to waste one??
So if previous history holds true some of these "inconsistencies" will be covered/answered in future movies or in Lucas fashion create more non sequiturs.
Remember good old Obi-wan, everything he tells Luke initially about his father is a flat out lie, but OK, he had only known Luke for a day and perhaps wanted to ease him into the truth. It's a lot harder to accept the notion, presented in The Empire Strikes Back, that Obi-Wan Kenobi had no idea that there were two Skywalker children… even though he was present for both of their births at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
"That boy is our last hope," Obi-Wan tells Yoda as Luke flies away to rescue Han, Leia, and Chewbacca from Darth Vader. "No," Yoda responds, dramatic as hell. "There is another." Now, This wasn't a situation in which Obi-Wan needed to lie, either. He was alone with Yoda, and they could speak freely about all the secrets of the Star Wars universe. And he actually forgot there was a second Skywalker. Maybe he's just senile after all he does tell Luke that he never owned a 'droid technically true, but he and R2-D2 had rescued Emperor Palpatine in the midst of the Clone Wars yet he does not recognise the little 'droid in IV. And the there is C-3PO.
Anakin built C-3P0 before leaving Tatooine and left the droid in the care of his mother. When Shmi Skywalker married a farmer named Lars, C-3P0 spent years working with her stepson Owen Lars, who would one day adopt Luke Skywalker and one day buy back C-3P0 to work at the exact same farm. Bear in mind, this isn't a toaster we're talking about. This is a sentient being with a distinctive personality and the exact same name he had while he was working with Owen Lars for several years and yet… nothing from Owen Lars. He doesn't even bat an eye when C-3P0 introduces himself.
 
I have and the opportunities for movies is limitless.

However, the Force Awakens sort of "cherry picked" through the storyline and focused a little too much on marketable items and not enough on events and such, as they were presented in the story's timeline.

Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of action and stuff going on in the movie, but they rushed to cram as much as possible into the movie and left big holes in the plot.

One of the things I disagree with, is Ren suddenly having more power than Kylo...even Annekin took years to develop his skills and he was exceptionally endowed by the force. Same can be said for Luke, who had to undergo training (by Master Yoda, of all people) to be able to use his powers.

Then all of a sudden, Ren's powers "awaken" within a few minutes and she is able to use the force to counter and overwhelm Kylo like that? Nope...that's B.S. and should have not happened in that manner.

Of course they did. All books are cherry picked when turned into a movie.

Some here are acting like it's something new.
 
Agree with what has been said already. Even if it was a rehash of previous films and was a little bit of a disappointment it certainly did one thing well and that is to set up the universe well for the next films. That I think was the key thing this film had to do, bring back the old feeling and setup the next films which can deviate and develop the story...
 
I just can't get past the point that these writers, producers, directors, etc. are making $Megabucks$ on these films not to mention the product tie-ins, toys, clothing, etc. If little old me can spot these red-flag waving, sore thumb, non sequiturs why can't they and fix them before release?
I can allow Lucas leeway on IV. At the time he fully expected it to be a one and only but the rest of the movies have little or no excuse for such errors.
Much like (and I am an inveterate Treckie) Star Trek the Movie (1979) which once again I went into with Great Expectations. I/we got a slow-paced, cerebral, talky film with little in terms of action. It is not a great film and never will be. It's flawed as science fiction and flawed as Trek and essentially has only 3 characters, Kirk, Spock, and Decker. That being said there are several memorable scenes. For example:
Even by today's standards, the special-effects shots of the Enterprise in drydock have rarely been matched in their pure scale, simplicity, and beauty. You have to admire the views of something as truly awesome as a nearly 1,000-foot-long starship being launched into space. With today's CGI we simply take it for granted.
 
Took my 6 yo to see it, he loved it. good enough for me.

we play star wars at home together, I even have our dog and our chooks in the story line. Darth doggy or Yodog. Chooks have a secret laboratory under the coop and produce egg bombs for us.

Not quite the story line faithfully, but we both love the stories we get to make up.

My sone loves the dark side, so I get lumbered with the rebels. we spend hours dreaming up new weapons with the lego.

I got my money's worth from the flick
 
Oddly enough, I remember hearing, back in the late 70's, that George wanted to do 9 Star Wars movies/ stories. The first 3 were suppose to be of the clone wars, the second three would have been the distruction of the Empire, and the final three to be about the recreation of the republic or some new galactic order and reinstatement of the Jedi. Then I watched as Anikin did bring balance to the force... ie. He wiped out all the Jedi but his son both good and bad. What better balance than zero Jedi and setting up his family as the only Jedi? Its like the midiclorians said, " Hey we've had enough and we're going to go on holiday, you guys can just manage without us for awhile. " Now it seems the Jedi are rebuilding again and wouldn't you know it, they are building up equally. Just an observation. :)
 
Color me a Star Wars Nerd as well, which is why I walked in with such HIGH expectations a bad thing to do for anything. So I admit I loved the film. Seriously, I did. I admit that BB-8 is cute but an oh-so-obvious toy tie-in, Finn is hilarious, Rey is badass, seeing Han and Chewie again was awesome, the special effects were tremendous, Poe is Soloesque, Kylo Ren is intriguing, and this movie makes absolutely no sense whatsoever?

Absolutely, very much agree. I think the thing is to sit back and enjoy the ride - and don't over analyse too much. Just thankful George Lucas didn't do it. Apparently when he sold the rights to Disney, he wanted the new films to be shiny and new, but Disney wanted the retro thing, which Lucas objected to. They told him not to interfere. JJ was his choice, though.

I wonder if this is as relevant now...


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJlbPXZEpRE
 
I thought one big weak spot was when Kylo Ren pulls off his mask wile interrogating Rey. I think it would have been a much better revel when he faced Han Solo. Other that that I really enjoyed the movie although I think they could have come up with a better plot by using information from the many many novels written in the official Star Wars Universe instead of ignoring them and writing a plot that is compleatly compatible with that huge continuing story line that has been carried on for the last 20 years or so in all those books.
 
Loved Rogue One
No love for Force Awakens.
In many ways Force Awakens don't do nothing for me. Not a fan.
 
the force awakens to me is like a rehash of the first 3 star wars....but with different characters doing the original tasks. why would they keep building death stars.... distant relatives of Westmoreland and McNamara may be to blame..
 

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