STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Official Thread v.6

[Jermei]

Got tix for Dec.28... just hoping nobody spoils it for me.

 

[RedFoxOne]

I did get a chance to preview John Williams' score, and its hella weak.

The weakest Star Wars score I've ever listened to. No ambition, no fun, way too safe and boring. The London Symphony Orchestra was sorely missed on this score as well. And the playing lacks the "punch" the LSO bring to Star Wars.

 

[Shoemaker]

I'm so glad this thread came alone. I was really pumped to see it, but everyone in here complaining about it is probably bringing the hype down to a manageable level. It will probably be relatively better after reading all of the disappointment.

 

[Supereem]

I went in with high expectations. I was willing to ignore crap for the sake of the movie. I think it would be a lot better if you are expecting a Phantom of the Menace type of deal.

 

[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

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

 

[Kneepocalypse]

First half of the movie was an 8/10. Second half was a 6/10. Completely lost its steam and had a bunch of stupid shit happen (which can be rationalized but is still stupid).

 

[sheddy]

I went to the midnight screening on the opening day in England and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Growing up with the originals I couldn't help comparing it and hoping that it would be a nice follow up to those and ROTJ in particular.
Basically, I think it achieved it.
Mind you, there are a few issues, and some characters are underused, but they involve spoilers so I won't post them at this moment.
As a Sci-Fi action piece it's great.
9/10.

 

[jazza]

loved every bit of it

 

[Tyrannosaurus rex]

I thought it was absolutely horrible! I wrote down some thoughts when I got home, ill post it in a spoiler tag. WARNING IT CONTAINS MEGA SPOILERS! But it also explains in detail why it was so horrible. If this was a stand a lone non Starwars movie people wouldnt like it. It really is a movie for stupid people.

Spoiler: Why The Force Awakens Sucks

OKay let me start of my saying Star Wars is rather important to me. I watched the originals before I could even speak. They are myth to me, similar to religion. My moral compass is probably influenced by it substantially. I have been quite successful in life and I owe inspiration to those movies. So let's review this new piece of shit.


A good thing about the movie first. The CGI didn’t look TOO bad. Of course I prefer models, and I am a bit upset they didn’t use models more for the space scenes. Because of the CGI and JJ Abrams still a lot of it is a confusing mess, but it is nowhere near as bad as say AOTC. This is a positive.


Another positive is all the nerd references to the originals. Those are cool most of the time.


There are some aspects of the movie that I think relied too much on shitty CGI. The weird Asian women who runs the Canteena should have been a puppet or a human with make up. She looked extremely fake and George Lucasy ( in a bad way). The Supreme Leader Snoke looked like shit as well. I know he was a hologram but it didn’t look realistic at all. His overall design sucks as well. His name also sucks.Not at all sinister like ‘Vader” or “Palpatine”.


Let me talk about names a bit more. Why is the army that supports the Republic and Senate be called the “Resistance”? SHouldn't they be called the First Order since they are maintaining order in the galaxy whilst the bad guys are resisting control? Usually I would overlook this but because the rest of the movie is so bad I felt I had to point it out because this movie felt like getting kicked in the balls over and over. This was just one kick in the balls.


The new deathstar thing symbolises why the movie sucks quite well. First of all it is a Death Star ripoff. There is always a DS ripoff. Whether it be a second DS, the Droid Battleship or the Starforge thing in the games. I understand why they brought back a “super weapon”.


Secondly the thing isn't really introduced well at all. First we see it from outer space. We can tell it is probably a big cannon planet or something. Not suspenseful at all. The complete opposite of how the Death Star was introduced originally (Thats no moon). We then get told it is going to be fired. This isn't an epic scene like the firing of the Death Star with Tarkin and Leia. That was a legendary scene. This thing just shoots its lame canon and destroys 5 planets like it's nothing After a really cringe worthy speech.. We don't know what planets are destroyed (was it Coruscent?) and we don’t really care. In a New Hope Alderaan destruction was suspensful and a tragedy. We feel for Leia and we hate Tarkin for being a lying bastard. This was like “oh we have this cannon. Lets use it”. The good guys are like “shit that sucked, what if they use it on us? Oh wait they are, lets go blow it up”.

The plan to destroy it is laughable. First of all they only find out this thing exists after it destroys 5 planet, yet they can instantly bring up a map of it and compare it to the original Death Star. They then find out it's going to fire again and at them (which is funny since this thing has to eat a sun every time it shoots, which they make seem like the biggest walk in the park ever and not a big deal. Youd think such technology would be more awe inspiring to the characters?). After brainstorming for exactly 5 seconds Han, Leia and Fin think of a way to destroy it. That's how vulnerable this thing is.

The destruction of this new DS is dumb as well. First of all the party that has to land on it consists of 75 year old han, chewy and Fin. That's it. The fighters sent to blow it up are a couple X wings. No Y Wings, no Calamari Cruisers (despite Admiral Ackbar being present). I am not even sure how it is destroyed, but if you consider Luke's destruction of the death star a 10 (because of the suspense and amazing dialogue) then this is a 1. It is just horrible. it is so horrible I cannot describe it. There is no suspenseful trench scene with Luke trying to use the force (“Use the Force Luke!”), Vader on his tail (“The Force is strong in this one!”) and Han saving the day at the last second in a very suspenseful scene. This was just plain rubbish. Garbage. Not worthy of cinema. I believe the thing was destroyed by Chewy and a few grenades.


Han is predictably killed by his son Emo Ren (who is the worst villain ever by the way) but it was so predictable and unemotional it didn't even feel bad. It was actually welcoming because you just wanted the movie to ooze some emotion. Before that it's literally Ford carrying the rest of the cast because of his wit and humour. The other characters are dry and boring. Ford’s dialogue is full of one liners and is kinda cheesy, especially his interaction with Leia. It was just like “lol we broke up because our son became evil, but we didn't hate each other that much”. When he dies Leia doesn't even seem to rattled. Chewy goes into a short rage but seems to have recovered when they get back to the base, not even consoling Leia but walking right past her.


I think the movie was paced horribly. There are too many locations just for the sake of it (they travel to a jungle planet to visit one canteena just so they could have a green planet). No decent memorable lines other than the ones in the trailer.


Emo Ren is the complete opposite of Vader. At the start I was hoping he was cool but he loses his lightsaber fight to a girl who had her force powers ‘awoken’ a few hours earlier. He is luckily saved when the stupid DS planet starts falling apart and separates his unconscious body with the newly overpowered Rey girl (who has to either be Lukes daughter or Emo’s Sister). They try to make Emo Ren deep and 3 dimensional by making him at one point ask Vader for strength because he ‘feels the light’ inside of him. Making someone say they are conflicted does not mean the character has depth or is interesting! Also he is HIDEOUSLY ugly. How did Han spawn such a creature? Also why did he keep punching himself were Chewy shot him?


Minor characters sucked. The General who commands the bad guy armies is like a 28 year old wimp. He is NO Tarkin. Not even comparable. I think they made him purposely suck but he was a filler character at best. Sadly he survives for the next movie. The GOT girl who plays the silver stormtrooper is set up to be some badass but is likely killed offscreen and is no threat to anyone at any point. Useless filler character (wouldn't be surprised if she returns actually). The Grand Leader Snoke or whatever is a weird hologram. Not sure what to think of him just yet, he seems to be a Sith of some description.


If they wanted to really make the movie good the stupid DS should have destroyed the planet with Leia, C3PO and Akcbar on it, and then Han, Chewy and the boring twins could go and find Luke, who is their ‘only hope’. THAT would have been decent. This was a movie for dumb people.


Overall the movie lacked soul and memorable moments. Idiots who cannot think will like the lightsabre battle. That is who this movie appeals to. I know this sounds fucked up, but in many ways I prefer The Phantom Menace, which was paced better and had some decent scenes (like with Darth Maul. BTW the death of Qui Gon was a lot more intense and emotional than Han, despite Han being everyone's favourite childhood hero).

Damn, absolutely brutal review. I haven´t seen the movie yet, but I just can´t help myself from clicking spoilers. Some of the things you mention do sound really lame, and would probably make the movie les enjoyable for me as well. Shame, as I had high expectations.

 

[SaucyJack]

Tomorrow night. I can't wait.

 

[EvilDDS]

For the woman in your life

 

[highkicknomore]

First half of the movie was an 8/10. Second half was a 6/10. Completely lost its steam and had a bunch of stupid shit happen (which can be rationalized but is still stupid).

This is what I predicted couple of months ago as I'm the 2nd coming of Nostradamus.

That's how Abrams movies are, first half is awesome. 2nd half, not so much. Still watching it.

 

[Videer]

5/10 First half was good and second one got me yawning with some very stupid crap. Felt very much like I watched a movie that I had already seen. I assume this is all because Disney and JJ wanted to play it safe and played very much too safe.

 

[Irenaeus]

I managed to enjoy The Phantom Menace the first time. I'm going to enjoy this, even if I have to do all the work myself.

I can be critical later. But not now.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

8/10

So....when can we talk about spoilers? Haha

 

[Kneepocalypse]

This is what I predicted couple of months ago as I'm the 2nd coming of Nostradamus.

That's how Abrams movies are, first half is awesome. 2nd half, not so much. Still watching it.

You can basically set your watch to it. As soon as I started to question certain things and get a little bored 1 hour had gone by.

 

[liljoe]

No disrespect to any of you gents, but this puppy is sitting at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and some critics who I highly respect are giving it 9's and 10's. I'll stick with their advice thank you.

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

8/10

So....when can we talk about spoilers? Haha

Sure, just put it in a spoiler box for the meantime.

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

lol, two have already voted 1/10 in the poll.

At least Supereem explained his reasoning. Hopefully Sansara will do the same.

 

[FutureMod]

It was ok. I grew up on the original trilogy and it did feel like a continuation of that but also like I missed a few films inbetween. The story was good but I felt out the loop a fair bit.

Ridley was great in her role, her character was too strong though, after proper Jedi training she will murk everyone in the universe with ease.
Almost every other character was weak in every aspect. I wouldn't criticize the acting as they were not given much to work with and most likely directed to deliver lines and act in the way they did. It was almost as if everyone was made to look weak intentionally in order to boost Ridley's character and performance.

I really just wanted to watch a Star Wars film. There were def agendas pushed in this film but I tried to ignore them.
There were a lot of weak points about the movie and overall it felt like a Star Wars film, just not as we know it.