Star Wars VII (film) - December 18th 2015

[EvilNed]

^   i read somewhere that the planet that was blown up was not actually coruscant, but some other similar planet in a different galaxy   What? why? Just blow up Coruscant, everyone knows where that's the republic is. Man, after sitting all through three prequels that's uttered in every other line. Coruscant this, Coruscant that, see you on Coruscant, hey is that a Coruscant in your Senator robes or are you just happy to see me?

[bassman]

Still reflecting on TFA, I think it sharing certain plots and similarities with the original film was actually their intention. Sure, they could have gone on a more original path, but TFA was mainly to serve the purpose of getting fans comfortable in the universe again and kind of erase the prequels from their minds. That's probably the very reason Abrams was brought on board: he was the safest choice. They knew he'd keep it very close to the original films and set them up for more risky director choices in the future. Even Abrams' Trek Reboot is essentially a remake of the original Star Wars and hr openly admits that he planned it that way. So make a similar film that gains back the hardcore fan trust, then take them on more original adventures in the next entries. Even the ending to TFA backs this up. So enter Rian Johnson, a young director with a clear and distinct vision on his films, and Episode VIII will be something unique. Probably even a jump in quality like we saw between Lucas' original film and Kirshner's Empire. It's actually not a bad plan and seems to make sense...

[Neil]

Enjoyed it. One or two sections worked very well, but a couple of others felt a little clunky, and one or two scenes they were so paint-by-numbers I actually laughed I cringed so much. IMHO not as solid as the original trilogy, but certainly a good effort. Fingers cross the coming films step up from this one...

[shootemindehead]

Agree completely Neil. I have a bit to say but I'll wait until we've all seen it.

[rongravy]

Guess I haven't weighed in on this yet, so here goes. I came into it really wanting it to work. I left with this uneasy feeling about it all. While it wasn't the worst I've seen, it was better than the prequels, I just didn't care much for many of the new folks other than the chick. The guy picked to play Ren was a piss poor choice. I'm not sure what I hate more: his face, his Andre the Giant voice, or that horrible getup with the shitty mouthpiece... Captain Phasma was a pretty big letdown, as well. The Poe and Finn bro-fest...? Wasn't feeling it. Spoiler tag time?   Han was such a disappointment. WTF, he turned out to be kind of a tail turning douche? His death was so cornball, I just... Wanted too much? Expected more? Not sure. I felt early unease about Indy 4, but fully warmed to it. The disturbance over this I feel seems to be too much to overcome. I definitely cancelled my plans to see it in IMAX. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want wall to wall action. I did want a little more backstory to understand what/why people were doing what they were doing... I also can't believe Han would let Leia go. Was she already starting to chub out when he bugged out? Will we ever find out?!? Also, I felt they were trying to pass the torch from R2 to BB-8, and not very smoothly. I would like to see some of the scripts that got passed up, because this one lacked severely. When you get the old gang back for one more go, you don't squander that shit. There are wayyyyyy more worthy ways of passing the baton. I guess I realize that there are going to be things to hold back for further filmage, I just wish I cared more about these n00bs to blither and pontificate upon it as I is... Not a horrible movie, especially visually. Deserving of the high dollar rubdown its getting worldwide? Not really. I hope future entries give it a better treatment. Better than the prequels, but not close to par with the originals, I give it a C+.

[Neil]

^ Agree will all your points... Abrams did a reasonable job, but the bar needs to be lifted IMHO!   As you say, "General" Han Solo was basically almost a douche bag now and his death scene was as predictable as it was cornball... Such a waste Even little annoying scenes where they couldn't resist the CGI call of more=better. ie: Poe wiping out dozens of troops on the ground, and half the enemy fleet in a CGI overloaded 15 seconds... Could have been more, with less IMHO. And the idea of X-Wings taking out individual troops? Really? More shields to drop again? Let's just overcome all that by a some new handwavium of jumping inside it? Lucky that where you crash land on the entire planet is within walking distance of where you need to get to though! Do I detect JJ Abrams magic touch all over again? Eject Kirk out in a life pod in a random place in the galaxy, landing on a random nearby planet, chased by a random monster, in a random direction, and runs into a random cave... to find Spock there purely by chance! The ground splitting Rey and Kylo apart? I chuckled there! And indeed Rey somehow become a master with a light sabre within minutes? Huh? Kylo steeling the only Tie Figher ever seen with rear guns? And the final scene of Rey walking all the way up those stairs to find Luke, who rather than simply meeting her at the top, instead felt it would be better to walk to a cliff edge and turn his back to produce a more moody meeting... In the film's defense, in the trailers when I saw the Falcon flying into the Star Destroyer wreck I thought, how on earth do they know they're not just a dead end in there? But obviousy Rey knew it inside out... So that was nice!

[AcesandEights]

Very happy...A-, maybe a B+, and very awesome to be able to say that about a Star Wars film released this millennium. I felt early unease about Indy 4, but fully warmed to it.

[Trin]

I thought it was awful. I don't know how anyone can think it was anything BUT awful. It was exactly what JJ did to Star Trek. Phantom Menace... the most hated SW movie of them all... was twice the movie this one was.

[Neil]

I thought it was awful. I don't know how anyone can think it was anything BUT awful. It was exactly what JJ did to Star Trek. Phantom Menace... the most hated SW movie of them all... was twice the movie this one was. Oh come on... It had some good moments/elements... That said, it did seem to drop the ball in many areas for seemingly no reason other than poor writing. [see #171 above] I'd rate it between the originals and the prequels.

[EvilNed]

I'd rate it between the originals and the prequels. I'd actually rate it a step higher than Return of the Jedi, which I never thought was that cracking of a finale to begin with. After all, Return of the Jedi marks two things: A rehash of most of the locales of A New Hope and the beginning of George Lucas' affinity for selling toys rather than films. I'm looking at you, Ewoks... Don't get me wrong, I like the film, but I don't like the Ewoks and the Battle of Endor is kinda ridiculous since it's just teddybears vs Stormtroopers and somehow the teddybears come out on top. This is intercut with the much darker finale between Luke and the Emperor - which is very good by the way - but the contrast is really out there. In that same respect, TFA is also a rehash of A New Hope, but at least there are't any Gungans/Ewoks around. I think both are solid films but neither holds a candle to the simplicity of ANH or the thunderous Empire Strikes Back.

[Neil]

I'd actually rate it a step higher than Return of the Jedi, which I never thought was that cracking of a finale to begin with. After all, Return of the Jedi marks two things: A rehash of most of the locales of A New Hope and the beginning of George Lucas' affinity for selling toys rather than films. I'm looking at you, Ewoks... Don't get me wrong, I like the film, but I don't like the Ewoks and the Battle of Endor is kinda ridiculous since it's just teddybears vs Stormtroopers and somehow the teddybears come out on top. This is intercut with the much darker finale between Luke and the Emperor - which is very good by the way - but the contrast is really out there. In that same respect, TFA is also a rehash of A New Hope, but at least there are't any Gungans/Ewoks around. I think both are solid films but neither holds a candle to the simplicity of ANH or the thunderous Empire Strikes Back. For me, the plot steps in Return Of The Jedi, and character depiction, is far stronger than in Awakens, Ewoks or not! My friend who works at Pinewood who watched the film recently realised a number of things he saw were not in the film he watched. It may well be the 30-40minutes of extra footage rumoured to be in the Awakens bluray might add some much needed depth!

[Trin]

Oh come on... It had some good moments/elements... That said, it did seem to drop the ball in many areas for seemingly no reason other than poor writing. [see #171 above] I'd rate it between the originals and the prequels. It did have some good moments. It was ... in places... a nostalgic romp of Star Wars Vignettes. It wasn't just BAD writing. There was NO WRITING. It was typical JJ moving the plot along with no discourse from action scene to action scene. The only plot development is to add dramatic shock moments, which themselves failed. Phantom Menace had a very good backstory. I know everyone hates it but I rate it the best of the prequels and FAR better than Force Awakens.

[EvilNed]

My friend who works at Pinewood who watched the film recently realised a number of things he saw were not in the film he watched. It may well be the 30-40minutes of extra footage rumoured to be in the Awakens bluray might add some much needed depth! F*ck you Disney.

[Trin]

In that same respect, TFA is also a rehash of A New Hope, but at least there are't any Gungans/Ewoks around. I think both are solid films but neither holds a candle to the simplicity of ANH or the thunderous Empire Strikes Back. Except...   Fin was Donkey from Shrek.

[MinionZombie]

Just saw it. That particular moment - the spoilery one mentioned earlier here - that was spoiled for me yesterday in a random comment on a totally-unrelated-to-Star-Wars website, which was annoying as fook ... although when you get to that scene it does seem pretty obvious what's going to happen. Either everyone in the cinema knew it was going to happen (e.g. had it spoiled for them), or it just wasn't that shocking. It's a shame though as I thought Han Solo was pretty cool in this movie - but then again you do need a death to rile up the protagonists ... sure though, it could have been handled slightly different so it was a bit more surprising. An extended cut on home video, perchance? I wonder if that'll release nearer to Christmas a la Rings/Hobbit extended editions in advance of the next movie in the franchise. Anyway - my thoughts - I dug it. Yes, it absolutely does cherry pick numerous moments/ideas from A New Hope, but I didn't mind at all. This one resets the franchise after the clumsy balls up that was 1-3, while at the same time acting as a sort of reboot/remake/restart that gets a new chapter of the saga going. I dug the new characters - e.g. Finn, Poe Dameron - and I really dug Daisy Ridley as Rey. She was awesome! Also, I'm glad that BB-8 worked well - he provided comic relief that was actually fun and well-placed, but he/it also had a bit of attitude (and was surprisingly emotive). Plenty of room to grow and breath with the likes of Kylo Ren, General Hux, Captain Phasma etc as well. Yes, Skywalker's reveal was rather "dramatic" up on the top of that big ass hill, but if he'd just been scruffed about down by the sea washing his pants it would have been stupid ... or any other kind of thing it would have been rather anti-climactic. He's far removed from the world, and in many ways having her climb this mountain on her own chimes with a lot of classic storytelling (something that was at the core of the original film). The CGI worked quite well - and I loved the return of considerable practical effects. The balance of practical/CGI was good over all, I think (gone are the days of Lucas' piss-poor sore thumb CG silliness). In some ways it might feel a little sparse - but then they've known from the get-go it's a trilogy, and if there really is a lot of footage that wasn't included (in anticipation of an extended release later on) then that makes sense. We don't need to know everything right this minute. So yeah ... 4/5.