Let's Review "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (SPOILERS!)

[Cottontail]

So I saw it yesterday and loved it.

I'd do a spoiler alert, but I don't think its necessary. I read every post in this thread before seeing the movie, and it didn't hurt my enjoyment at all.

I took a lot of the New Hope parallels and references as self-deprecating campiness. C'mon folks, its been almost 40 years of Star Wars, and the original wasn't exactly a serious a piece of art, other than the revolutionary special effects. Everyone across 2, maybe 3 generations is in on the joke. Assuming there's a next episode, bring on the costumes and the audience shouting out the lines ala Rocky Horror.

Characters? Loved Kylo, Finn and Rey.

Kylo, dark lord wannabe, dropped out of jedi school too soon, getting heavy competition for assistant chief bad guy from the Hitler wannabe. Why doesn't Voldemort squash the both of them like bugs? Is there perhaps a fumblimg, bumbling, balding Wizard of Oz sort behind the Voldemort curtain? Might he step out from behind the hologram and be an itty bitty yoda-looking sort of creature? Maybe a corrupted yoda-wraith? Or maybe its just a scarred, lonely Luke doing astral projection from his island?

Finn - I wanted to shout "Holy crap, there's a black guy in the white suit!" and it gets better from there. From cowardly stormtrooper to lion rescuing the girl. What's not to like?

Rey - A dead ringer for my baby sister (who was a serious gymnast back in the day). I had no trouble buying the wall-climbing and girl crushing various villains hand to hand or stick to body. Baby sis could bench more than most of her boyfriends...

Han Solo got all the best lines. You have to wonder if Harrison negotiated that into his contract.

"The women always know."

"That's not how the Force works"

"Take off the mask. You don't need it" - Haven't we all been thinking that for 38 years? The only way it could have been better is if somebody tripped over a cape, too. Maybe in the next one.

So it wasn't Spaceballs, but it wasn't Schindler's List either. A good, fun, well-executed sequel in a much beloved series. You'd like to think the biggest grossing movie of all time would be a little more serious, but hey, movies ARE entertainment after all, and this one was entertaining end to end.

Ha-haa. Well... I suppose I wanted something a little closer to Schindler's List than Spaceballs, but I can see the humor in it, and I enjoy your take on things. I do hope that the next films aren't so directly aligned with the plots of Empire and Jedi, though, 'cause that would be too much (for me). As for Volde-- Snoke being merely the over-sized 3D avatar of some gnarled midget, I don't know if I could take that. I would laugh out loud and be forced out of the theater.

 

[Deleted member 29386]

Jeez, now that you mention it, isn't THAT just a little racist? Or is it just more of the tongue-in-cheek? Like some of the stuff in "Blazing Saddles"?

No I don't think it was meant to be racist. The first thing that came to mind was the trash compactor scene in Episode IV. My thinking was that by being in sanitation he could crush some guys in a compactor if needed. That didn't turn out to be the case. But he did know his way around the death star. Well, he did need a map. Kind of a comical character when you think about it.

 

[SpottedLion]

I've been a bit torn on it. I enjoyed it from a technical and enjoyment standpoint, and I like some of the characters, but it just seemed kinda fast, almost as if they squished two movies into one. I wouldn't have minded if they did the basic plot to A New Hope spread across multiple movies. Give the characters time to grow instead of handwaving it away like they did, especially with Kylo losing to Rey so badly.

I liked Kylo. He made sense. He wants to follow in his grandfather's footsteps, but probably didn't get trained enough before axe-murdering everyone and he's still not in control of his emotions enough now to gain the respect he wants from Emperor Binks or whatever his name is. It's almost pitiable. Interestingly, that was Anikin's problem and cause to turn to the Dark Side originally. I hope the writers play with that.

Rey was probably my least favorite character. She just doesn't feel fleshed-out enough, even though she's a good concept going for her. We know less about our hero than we do the bad guy, even if he is just a puppet in training. She's piloting ability. She's practical experience in melee combat. She's probably related to Kylo Ren somehow. But I just don't know enough about her to care.

Now, hopefully they take advantage of being a Big Name Actor down and spend their budget on some better screenwriting. Leia's parts were abysmal.

The first thing that came to mind was the trash compactor scene in Episode IV. My thinking was that by being in sanitation he could crush some guys in a compactor if needed. That didn't turn out to be the case. But he did know his way around the death star. Well, he did need a map. Kind of a comical character when you think about it.

"Got any trash compactors?" or something like that. I was expecting one for the lady Storm Trooper, but they didn't.

I guess Fin worked in the sector the rebels attacked, since he knew so much about it. Dad thinks he was a stupid character, but it makes sense for a foot soldier to be assigned janitorial duty when not shooting stuff. I liked his character. A green foot soldier that freaks out on his first real combat mission and uses his training and knowledge of the enemy base to help counterattack.

 

[Deleted member 29386]

******************************Spoiler Alert?*****************************

I read an article today that speculated that Rey is Anakin reincarnated. Made me think. It said that Kylo couldn't control her and the look between Rey and Luke was a deep, meaningful look beyond what you might think otherwise. Hmmm.

 

[Cottontail]

I read an article today that speculated that Rey is Anakin reincarnated. Made me think. It said that Kylo couldn't control her and the look between Rey and Luke was a deep, meaningful look beyond what you might think otherwise. Hmmm.

Does it have to be Anakin reincarnated? Or is Rey merely another case of immaculate force-conception like Anakin? Maybe by some newly identified law of the Star Wars Universe, there must always be exactly one force-child running around. And since Anakin died...

Although I kind of hope the Prophecy and Midichlorian stuff vanishes and is never seen/heard of again.

Imagine Luke taking care of manly needs with his artificial hand, some how the mechanical parts get fertilized.... voila... part machine, part human, Force capable.

Dear Lord, I apologize for that right there.

Actually, I think you're onto something there, but maybe it wasn't his mechanical hand. They don't tell you this in Empire, but Cloud City was actually floating above the Genesis Planet from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. When Darth Vader cut off Luke's hand, it probably fell to the planet's surface where the Genesis Effect caused it to grow a new body, just like how kid-Spock is born out of his former incarnation's corpse. The gender thing could be explained by SRS.