STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Official Thread v.6

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 16, 2015

Dragonlord's Review of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (No Spoilers)

Entertaining and a nostalgic blast from the past to see old characters, references and iconic spaceships from the original Star Wars trilogy but it's not the masterpiece we were all hoping for.

J.J. Abrams was criticized from Trekkies for making Star Trek into Star Wars. But the most ironic thing is that he is making The Force Awakens like his first Star Trek film. The first half of The Force Awakens is a spiritual carbon copy of the 2009 Star Trek where the pacing is very rushed and frenetic with lots of people running around, and key characters meeting conveniently for the first time and bonding instantaneously. There's even a space monster chasing our heroes during the middle.

When others copy something from another movie, it can be considered either a homage or a ripoff. But The Force Awakens copying specific plot points from its own library, down to its narrative structure, is just lazy. Almost everything from A New Hope is getting a polished makeover - from a young protagonist in a desert planet being chased by an evil empire led by a mysterious, powerful figure, down to the heroes trying to destroy a planet killer base by exploiting a key structural weakness.

Newcomer Daisy Ridley as Rey was fantastic and arguably the best part about the film.. Rey's spunk, beauty and resourcefulness immediately endears her to the audience. Oscar Isaac's dashing Poe Cameron was great but wished he had more screen time. Adam Driver, looking the best he has ever been in his adult life thanks to movie magic, was pretty decent as the film's big bad Kylo Ren but his pivotal scenes with ______ lacks any emotional weight. John Boyega as Finn was okay but he had some embarrassing lines, an overacting "Nooooooo" scene, and the subtle romance angle seemed forced.

The FX was top-notch and beautifully blended with the practical effects. The CGI on Maz Kanata (played by Lupita Nyong'o) was incredible, felt like it was played by an actor in heavy makeup. If I didn't know Lupita was playing Maz Kanata, I would have sworn it was Linda Hunt. The scenery and landscape were stunning, as well as some striking images like the crashed Star Destroyer.

The first half of the film we got some exciting space escape sequence, a goosebump-inducing Millennium Falon dogfight and some fun, chaotic action involving a monster and bounty hunters (played by The Raid cast). The 3rd act seems uninspired and a blatant rehash of A New Hope. Kinda makes me appreciate some of the action from the panned second Star Wars trilogy. Hopefully, the creative team can come up with something more bolder and original for the next two sequels.

Preliminary Rating: 7/10 or 7.5/10

The Star Trek comparison that I stated was not a negative reaction, just an observation. I enjoyed the first half of The Force Awaken. It's when they went with the Death Star route in the 3rd act that my rating dropped from 8 to a 7+. And it's not only the retread Death Star plot line, it's just that it wasn't well executed. There wasn't anything memorable with the scenes with the heroes sneaking into the base or the X-Wings' assault on the base. Not terrible, mind you, just felt like a run-of-the-mill action sequences.

Note: I'll add more later when I have some time to think about it.

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 21, 2015

THE FORCE AWAKENS Opens to Record $248M for $529M Global Launch

The Force is back, and it's stronger than ever. J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens shattered numerous box-office records over the weekend, grossing $248 million in North America — the biggest opening of all time, not accounting for inflation — for a global launch of $529 million.

The previous best was this summer's Jurassic World with $208.8 million domestically. Overseas, it scored $281 million for a $529 million global launch, besting Jurassic World ($524.9 million), which had the advantage of opening day and date in China. Force Awakens doesn't debut in the world's second-largest moviegoing market until Jan. 9.

Force Awakens' stunning performance sets a new standard for how much the North American box office can expand when the right movie comes along, and puts even more pressure on Hollywood studios to eventize their tentpoles. It's also a critical victory for Disney, which paid George Lucas $4 billion for Lucasfilm in order to get its hands on the Star Wars franchise.

Abrams' movie, buoyed by nostalgia, glowing reviews and an A CinemaScore, obliterated the previous December record set by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which debuted to $84.6 million in 2012. Moreover, overall revenue hit an all-time high, crossing $300 million for the first time ever. Mid-December isn't known for big opening numbers, since many consumers are distracted by pre-Christmas preparations.

At this rate, there's no telling how high Force Awakens will ultimately fly in terms of box-office revenue, since films over the year-end holidays can see huge multiples. James Cameron's Avatar opened to $77 million on the same weekend in 2009 on its way to becoming the top-grossing film of all time with $2.79 in global ticket sales, including $760.5 million domestically. And on the weekend before Christmas in 1996, Cameron's Titanic took in a mere $28.6 million on its way to grossing $2.19 billion worldwide.

Other records broken by Force Awakens include widest December release of all time (4,134 theaters), biggest Thursday-night previews ($57 million), biggest single day and biggest opening day ($120.5 million) and biggest Imax opening. And Force Awakens came close to taking the record for biggest Saturday from Jurassic World ($69.2 million).


'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Opens to Record $248M for $529M Cosmic Global Launch

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 21, 2015

J.J. Abrams Explains Shocking Kylo Ren Scene from THE FORCE AWAKENS (Spoilers)

To create someone new that Star Wars fans would hate and fear, J.J. Abrams says they made the hard choice to kill off someone who definitely made that type of mark, someone we love: a particular scoundrel who also proved he was more heroic than anyone might have guessed back when we first met him.

“Star Wars had the greatest villain in cinema history. So, how you bring a new villain into that world is a very tricky thing,” Abrams told the crowd. “We knew we needed to do something f—king bold. The only reason why Kylo Ren has any hope of being a worthy successor is because we lose one of the most beloved characters.”

The act was intended to be proof — to Ren himself, if no one else — that there was no light left in him.

“Long before we had this title, the idea of The Force Awakens was that this would become the evolution of not just a hero, but a villain,” Abrams said. “And not a villain who was the finished, ready-made villain, but someone who was in process.”

“It’s this massive tradeoff,” Abrams said of Han Solo’s death. “How can we possibly do that!? But… if we hadn’t done that, the movie wouldn’t have any guts at all. It felt very dangerous.”

“J.J. rightly asked, ‘What is Han doing in this movie?’" co-writer Michael Arndt said. "If we’re not going to have something important and irreversible happen to him, then he kind of feels like luggage. He feels like this great, sexy piece of luggage you have in your movie. But he’s not really evolving. He’s not really pushing the story forward.”


J.J. Abrams on the most 'dangerous' and shocking act in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 21, 2015

Which THE FORCE AWAKENS Character Was Originally Supposed to Die? (Spoilers)

When Oscar Isaac was first approached to play Poe Dameron in the film, his character was supposed to die. Speaking with GQ, Isaac recounted the conversation:

“He’s amazing!” said Abrams. “Sounds good!” thought Isaac, whose first experience in a movie theater had been seeing The Empire Strikes Back. “He opens the whole movie!” said Abrams. “Sounds great!” thought Isaac. “And then,” Abrams went on. “He dies.” “Oh,” thought Isaac.

In Abrams’ mind, it was a chance to “create a role that could live on in all corners of the Star Wars universe—novels and comic books and video games and so on.” Isaac was still hesitant, but he reluctantly agreed, only to have Abrams change his mind about the character’s fate:

“I went back home [to New York], and I thought about it,” he says. “Then I wrote him and said, ‘Okay. I’ll do it!’ I figured it would be a cameo: I’ll come in, do my thing, and maybe it’s actually better not to have to sign myself up for three movies.” By that time, though, things had changed and Abrams soon wrote back: “Never mind. I’ve figured it out. You’re in the whole movie now.”


Which ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Character Was Originally Supposed to Die?

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 21, 2015

R2-D2's Closing Scene in THE FORCE AWAKENS Explained (Spoilers)

At a post-screening Q&A for the movie on Saturday, director J.J. Abrams and co-writers Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt explained why they sidelined R2 – and why he finally had his own “awakening.”

When they find R2 beneath that dust cloth, the heroes already have a piece of a holographic map, but they lack the larger section of this uncharted region of space that will allow them to track down Luke. That’s where R2 became a useful storytelling device: he could be the missing framework.

The story group’s thinking went back to the 1977 original movie, when R2-D2 accessed the Empire’s mainframe as the heroes searched for the captured Princess Leia. “We had the idea about R2 plugging into the information base of the Death Star, and that’s how he was able to get the full map and find where the Jedi temples are,” Arndt said.

Abrams says he chose to spell this out indirectly in the movie because he didn’t want the story to get bogged down in “how s–t happened 30 years ago.”

“But the idea was that in that scene where R2 plugged in, he downloaded the archives of the Empire, which was referenced by Kylo Ren,” Abrams said. Thirty-eight years later, in both our own and galactic time, that data becomes useful in The Force Awakens when a new droid approaches the dormant R2.

“BB-8 comes up and says something to him, which is basically, ‘I’ve got this piece of a map, do you happen to have the rest?’” Abrams said. “The idea was, R2 who has been all over the galaxy, is still in his coma, but he hears this. And it triggers something that would ultimately wake him up.”

The director acknowledges that R2’s sudden “awakening” at the end was designed to be an emotional storytelling utility: “While it may seem, you know, completely lucky and an easy way out, at that point in the movie, when you’ve lost a person, desperately, and somebody you hopefully care about is unconscious, you want someone to return.”

So for those let wondering: BB-8’s earlier question rattles around inside R2’s dome for a while. Those old astromechs must just take a while to boot up again. Then as the movie draws to a close, our old friend finally comes back – and leads us to another one.


J.J. Abrams explains R2-D2's closing scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 21, 2015

Writers Reveal Previous Versions of THE FORCE AWAKENS Script (Spoilers)

At a post-screening Q&A for the movie on Saturday, J.J. Abrams and co-writers Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt explained how they grappled with the question of how to present Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker – who, as those who’ve seen The Force Awakens already know, was also held back as a climactic reveal in the final minutes of the movie.

“Early on I tried to write versions of the story where [Rey] is at home, her home is destroyed, and then she goes on the road and meets Luke. And then she goes and kicks the bad guy’s ass,” Arndt said. “It just never worked and I struggled with this. This was back in 2012.”

The trouble was a simple case of upstaging. “It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over,” Arndt said. “Suddenly you didn’t care about your main character anymore because, ‘Oh f–k, Luke Skywalker’s here. I want to see what he’sgoing to do.’”

The good news for Abrams was, he got to make a Star Wars movie. The bad news was, his toybox wouldn’t include a real-life Luke Skywalker action figure. Some of the early MacGuffins of the movie – the thing that drives a movie’s plot – were a search for Darth Vader’s remains, or a quest to the underwater wreckage of the second Death Star to recover a key piece of history about sacred Jedi sites in the galaxy.

Ultimately, the writers decided to make Luke himself the MacGuffin – the thing Rey, Han, Finn and Chewie are trying to find. And they figured that if a horrific past trauma forced Luke to retreat from the world.


Writers Reveal Previous Versions of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Script

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 19, 2015

Geopolitical Situation in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Explained

After watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a lot of fans were perplexed on why the political landscape hasn't changed after Return of the Jedi. In The Force Awakens, the Rebels are still a rag-tag group but now called the Resistance and the Empire, now called the First Order, remains to be the dominant power in the galaxy. JadeOwl has provided answers to those questions:

"After the Battle of Endor, when the Second Death Star was destroyed and the Emperor killed, the Empire went into disarray, but it still was the strongest power in the galaxy. But the Rebellion had the initiative and went on the offensive.

They let everyone know about what happened at Endor and uprisings took place all over the galaxy, while the Empire fractured into multiple squabbling factions, and an ever increasing numbers of Moffs and admirals defecting to the rebellion in exchange for pardons and/or bribes, taking their Star Destroyers to swell the numbers of the Rebel fleet.

The Rebellion proclaimed the New Republic on Chandrilla (Mon Mothma’s homeworld). The new Senate was composed by Senators elected directly by the people instead of the way they were appointed in the Old Republic. As a sign that the corruption of the Old Republic will not return, the capital is not returned to Coruscant after it is liberated, but instead rotates to different planets every few years through election. The Senate and the Republic Fleet are headquartered at whatever world is chosen. (At the time TFA takes place, the seat is at the planet Hosnian Prime)

The war went on for a year until what was left of the Empire got its act together and tried to launch an offensive, believing that if it won a major victory against the New Republic, it would change the momentum of the war. The biggest battle since Endor was fought on the space near Jakku and the Empire suffered a crushing defeat. That’s where all those wrecked Star Destroyers in the surface came from.

A little while after the Battle of Jakku the New Republic and the imperial remnants signed a peace treaty called the Galactic Concordance, which imposed heavy reparations on the imperials and forced them to certain borders.

After the war was over, Mon Mothma drastically reduced the size of the Republic’s fleet to show that is wasn’t like the Empire and didn’t intend to rule through force. The reduced Republic Fleet would serve as a peacekeeping force while the newly available resources would be used to train and equip the planetary security forces of the Republic’s member worlds.

A bunch of imperials retreated into the Unknown Regions to lick their wounds and build up their forces. They hooked up with Snoke and the Knights of Ren and became the First Order, which eventually took over the imperial remnants.

As of approx. 30 years after Endor, the New Republic is the preeminent superpower in the galaxy, and even though nowhere near the size of the Republic Navy of the Clone Wars or the Imperial Navy, the New Republic Defense Force is still the most powerful military force in the Galaxy, so the New Republic doesn’t see the First Order as a threat, so long as they abide by their treaty obligations as per the Galactic Concordance. The best analogy I’ve come across in other boards is that the First Order is Space North Korea on super-steroids crossed with Nazi Germany.

Leia of course thinks this is a load of bull and that an Imperial successor state led by a powerful adept of the Dark Side cannot be trusted, so she forms the Resistance as a private military to covertly fight the First Order and keep it in check, staffing it with old veterans of the Rebellion and young idealists who resigned their commissions from the New Republic Defense Force.

Officially, the New Republic doesn’t support the Resistance, and the general opinion in the Senate is that Leia is a crazy old paranoid reactionary still fighting a war that is long over, but several Senators share her concerns and covertly funnel credits, armaments and ships to the Resistance."

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 21, 2015

J.J. Abrams Reveals More Secret Cameos for THE FORCE AWAKENS (Spoilers)

When Daisy Ridley‘s Rey first touches Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, there are a series of flashing images, including two well-known images of Skywalker patting R2D2 and Kylo Ren with his acolytes on a planet with torrential rain, Abrams was more revealing about the audio and who they involved in the clips of dialogue that are heard in this sequence. Here’s what Abrams had to say:

“The idea of the voices was, we wanted the audience to feel – but not necessarily be presented right in your face — this idea that familiar, Force-strong voices were connecting with her. At least as well as they could…You do hear a little bit of Yoda. You hear Luke yelling out, ‘Nooo!’ from that moment in Empire. And you hear Obi-Wan at the end say, ‘Rey, these are your first steps.’…"

"Here’s the cool part. We asked Ewan McGregor to come in and do the line. And he was awesome and we were very grateful. He was incredibly sweet and handsome, and all that stuff. Then he rode off on his motorcycle. Literally the coolest voice over actor ever.”

Abrams also opened up about the use of the late Alec Guinness and Frank Oz‘s voices in Rey’s waking dream sequence. Here’s what he had to say about cutting audio to have Guinness say “Rey…” during the scene:

“I said, ‘That’s cool, is that the thing from Ewan McGregor?’…He said ‘No, we took a line from Alec Guinness saying ‘Afraid.’…They cut it, and you hear the performance – he’s saying it the way I would have begged Alec Guinness to have said it. It is so crazy perfect. So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”

“He [Frank Oz] was incredibly generous and came in to Bad Robot, where we had a recording area, and he was doing Yoda, saying a number of lines we gave to him…This whole experience has been one outrageous moment after another. Just watching Frank Oz, you look at him and talk to him and his voice is very deep. I don’t know why I would have thought he sounded like Miss Piggy!…He was very generous to say, ‘Whatever makes the movie better, I’m happy to help out.”


More Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cameos Revealed by J.J. Abrams

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 18, 2015

Daniel Craig's STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Cameo Revealed

During an interview last summer, EW asked Daniel Craig about a certain rumor that had been ricocheting across the web (thanks to Simon Pegg’s loose lips) since May: that Craig delivers a cameo as a stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Not only did the star vehemently deny it at that time, he responded to EW's query with barely suppressed rage. “Why would I ever bother doing something like that?” Craig sputtered. “F—ing hell! Pffft. Play an extra in another movie.”

Starting last year, the Spectre production took place across various soundstages in the venerable studio facility, just yards away from where The Force Awakens was being concurrently filmed. So if Craig had wanted to make a cameo, it would have likely been as simple as cozying up to Star Wars director JJ Abrams, slipping out of his Tom Ford suit and donning the white plastic helmet.

According to multiple sources close to The Force Awakens who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly, that is precisely what happened.

Craig does make a cameo in Star Wars VII as a stormtrooper, turning up in one of the movie’s most memorably nostalgic scenes. “He did it for s—ts and grins,” says one of the people with knowledge of the actor’s performance.

For anyone who has not seen The Force Awakens, the below description of Craig’s cameo contains Spoilers. So stop reading now if you don’t want to know what happens.

Spoiler

At one point in the movie, Daisy Ridley’s character Rey has been captured, and makes her maiden attempt at a Jedi mind trick.

“You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open,” Rey tells the stormtrooper played by Craig.

It is, of course, an implicit shout-out to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for” scene in Star Wars IV: A New Hope. And the sequence prompted shouts of joyful recognition in the pre-release screening I attended earlier this week.

“I’ll tighten those restraints, scavenger scum,” Craig’s character responds, although few in the audience can be expected to register that it’s him. We only hear the actor’s clipped British diction and never see his face.

Daniel Craig's Cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens Revealed - Entertainment Weekly

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: December 16, 2015

Critics' Reviews for STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Approval Rating (125 out of 129 critics like it)

Consensus: Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series' former glory while injecting it with renewed energy.

Entertainment Weekly - B+
The wait is over. You, or that special someone you love, can stop panting into that brown paper bag and finally relax because there are about to be a lot of very happy Star Wars fans out there. J.J. Abrams’The Force Awakens delivers exactly what you want it to: rollicking adventure wrapped in epic mythology, a perfect amount of fan service that fires your geekiest synapses, and a just-right cliffhanger ending that paves the way for future installments. In a way, Abrams has accomplished exactly what he did with 2009’s Star Trek. He took a worshiped pop-culture franchise with a rabid legion of disciples, treated it with respect, and made it matter again.

Empire Magazine - 4/5
If you were to make a list of the essential ingredients of a Star Wars film, you would find almost all in J.J. Abrams’ wake-up call to this sleeping giant of a franchise. From the biggest — dark versus light side, dogfights, mystical powers — to the smallest — mouse robots, turbo lasers, absurd alien Cantina music — this glories in reminding us what we all loved about this universe. By the end, it’s given us a reason to be excited about Star Wars’ future as well. It packs a planet-sized punch, launching a new generation of characters who – by the end – take a place next to Han, Leia and the rest. Star Wars is back, and this is just the beginning.

Richard Roeper - 4/4
What a beautiful, thrilling, joyous, surprising and heart-thumping adventure this is. “The Force Awakens” pops with memorable battle sequences, gives us chills with encore appearances by stars from the original trilogy and introduces more than a half-dozen terrific Next Generation characters. If the U.S. presidential election were held this weekend, director-producer-co-writer J.J. Abrams might carry the day based on geek support alone.

USA Today - 4/4
While each of the prior Star Wars movies had a definite ending, The Force Awakens finishes with an excellent and emotional cliffhanger that will leave fans, casual and hardcore alike, breathless for Episode VIII. The Force Awakens reveals surprising connections, begins a few bromances, solves mysteries while digging up others, and sets a strong tone for what comes next in Star Wars lore. Best of all? It’ll make you feel like a kid being introduced to something truly special once again.

Arizona Republic - 4.5/5
Go see this movie. Because what Abrams has done is find and return the ingredient crucial to the original three films in the franchise that was sorely lacking in the second round: fun. Abrams shows an expert understanding of what makes the best of these movies so great — even more so than George Lucas himself showed with the unfortunate “The Phantom Menace.” With that film, Lucas lost touch with the magic he created. Abrams finds it and puts it to excellent use. “The Force Awakens” indeed — and it awakened the kid in me.





Note: The previous Star Wars thread right now is a mess due to the migration as posts are suddenly not arranged chronologically and very hard to read. Until it's fixed, let's continue the discussion here.

 

[Stargazer Rex]

hella pumped to see this

 

[erhnamdjinn]

oh yeah cant wait to watch this tomorrow, should have watched today but had work.

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

I have seen it

Ask me anything

also 6/10

 

[Fatt Hughes]

ATTN: Dragolord. There's currently a story breaking today about Q.T. movie Hateful 8 being screwed out of a theater because of Disney strong arming Archlight Theaters to show TFA instead of H8. I'd like all that shit, but all this new forum formatting is giving me aids.

 

[Tyrannosaurus rex]

I have seen it

Ask me anything

also 6/10

I'll put it in spoilertags just to be sure

Spoiler

is it true that Rey beat Kylo Ren in a duel while she had no training?

 

[EvilDDS]

Damn, these new spoiler tags are weird. Looks like there is no message until you click drag the mouse over it

Spoiler

weird, but cool

Or change the colour of the text I guess

Spoiler

BAM!

 

[Deleted member 457759]

I saw it. Good but that chainsaw lightsaber at the end was weird. Also I didn't like the Yoda love seen.

 

[liljoe]

ATTN: Dragolord. There's currently a story breaking today about Q.T. movie Hateful 8 being screwed out of a theater because of Disney strong arming Archlight Theaters to show TFA instead of H8. I'd like all that shit, but all this new forum formatting is giving me aids.

What do you want him to do about it?

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

I'll put it in spoilertags just to be sure

Spoiler

is it true that Rey beat Kylo Ren in a duel while she had no training?

Spoiler

Yes she even trash talks him afterwards

 

[Thai Otoshi]

I can't wait to see this.