Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Reviews & Discussion *Pew Pew*

[Johnny Textface]

In the screening I was in they fucked it all up by navigating people to the wrong screens when the computer thing was broken.  So there's two people arguing over one seat as one of them is on the wrong screen.  Somebody CALLED THE POLICE (had to be shouted as I couldn't believe my ears).

Anyway, I missed the fanfare, liked the action, hated ford, liked attack the block but distracted by head. 7 on 10. To much fanny service, not enough horny bull.

[greenman]

I guess there past bothering with mild spoilers now so I'll leave them uncovered.

Honestly if the film had just been a remake of A New Hope it would have been a lot better than it was. It takes a few elements of that but really its much more of an Abrams Trek style overstuffed and undercooked plot but unlike that film doesn't have a compete cast of well known characters to fall back on. Again the actual climax is much more inline with The Phatom Menace, a "task" that appears after very limited buildup involving a load of piolets we have little connection to.

Nobody really gets any decent buildup, Daisy Ridley looks like she could be good in that role but gets very limited amounts of screen time relative to Luke that fail to buildup the characters loneliness or hint at all are her forces abilities. Finn gets one quick scene showing rather over the top confusion as a storm dropper and almost zero focus on being a scared child solider that has somehow left him a wisecracking smartass. Han's and Leias's life post ROTJ barely touché don with some basic exposition when it seems much more interesting than the rest of the film, etc.

Kylo ren as a threatening badguy was vastly less effective than Vader however many similar lingering shots Abrams gave us of him and his conflict as a stroppy teen was poorly realised bar perhaps the scene with Han which didn't have anything like the weight it should have. Again like the climax and a lot of the cartoon aliens you have to say this was a lot more prequalish than it was original trilogy.

Honestly at points I felt Ford was supprizingly good acting wise relative to a lot of his recent career. The problem was that these moments just made the cheapness of a lot of the rest of the film with the wisecracks and lack of gravitas stand out a lot more.

[BritishHobo]

Spoiler alert

His name is Ben Solo. He took the name Kylo Ren as one of the Knights of Ren.

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Max von Sydow

Spoiler alert

didn't get much to do. Utterly wasted.

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IT'S

Spoiler alert

BEN REN

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MATE

[colacentral]

Does anyone say "this is no planet, it's a space station!" in it? Because if they did it's a shit thing to say plus I just predicted it.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

No, but they may as well have done.

[greenman]

I was waiting for president Snoke to proclaim "why didn't anyone tell me my holographic ass was this big?"

[phantom_power]

According to IMDB Nigel Godrich plays a stormtrooper and Judah Freidlander from 30 Rock is in it as well.

Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz had something to do with the voice of BB-8 as well

I thought it was great. I don't understand how anyone can say that it isn't a proper Star Wars film. The directorial style might be different but the world it is capturing is Star Wars through and through.

I thought the new characters were excellent and well acted. Kylo Ren was a proper baddie and I am glad they didn't Darth Maul him at the end. The old characters felt true to the originals as well and, has been said elsewhere, Harrison Ford looks more engaged than he has been in about 20 years.

There was plenty of fan service but I thought it was done in a good way and not too obtrusive. It mirrors A New Hope a lot but that is the way with Star Wars in general so don't see that as too much of a problem. The only bit I wasn't sure about was Snoke. The CGI was pretty crap and I hope they tweak it before the next one.

In all it kept me enthralled throughout, it looked great, had emotional heft and had my grinning like an idiot in several places. The humour was spot on as well. Again I am surprised (though not really as I was expecting a more negative reaction on here) that people didn't like the funny stuff. The stormtroopers turning round and awkwardly walking away when Ren got angry and was destroying stuff with his light saber is maybe the funniest bit in any Star Wars film

[greenman]

I thought it was great. I don't understand how anyone can say that it isn't a proper Star Wars film. The directorial style might be different but the world it is capturing is Star Wars through and through.

You answer your own question, it didn't feel like a Starwars film because dispite all the references Abrams style really isn't very similar to classic Starwars. Those films had a style both down to earth at points and stately at others with a dash of wit, Abrams is classic modern "ah hell no" Hollywood with more cartoonish characters with endless forced wit plus a much more rapid pace.

You look at ANH for example and after the opening scene how long is it before the action really kicks off? I would say not really until the cell block shootout, prior to that you have a very extended build up of Lukes character and situation then Han turning up and getting a good deal of build up as a cocky cynic as well.

A classic Starwars film would probably have focused on Rey heavily for a good 30+ mins, as it is we got about 5 mins of setup for her that really didn't touch on her character much at all, little reference to her lonely wait, no hints at her possible force powers. Even less for Finn, no hints at his life as a storm trooper, little hints at the emotional baggage of this.

Again one potential advantage of this is that Abrams has left Rian Johnson a reasonable blank slate(with the obvious exception) with these new characters and indeed the state of the on-going plot in general so I'v not given up hope that something of higher quality might still be possible.

[phantom_power]

Oh, and apparently Daniel Craig is the stormtrooper that Rey Jedi mind tricks

[Gulftastic]

Oh, and apparently Daniel Craig is the stormtrooper that Rey Jedi mind tricks

The scrap metal dealer that Rey is selling shit to is Simon Pegg.

[phantom_power]

One thing I liked that made it feel a lot more like the original trilogy than the prequels is that you are getting the view from the ground. There is a sense of the New Order and Republic without any real idea about how they are made up. You had the same sense with the Empire and Rebel Alliance in the first 3 films. The prequels took away all of the mystery and just showed you the boring inner workings of the senate. I have seen this lack of information as a criticism in some reviews but I liked it

[greenman]

Oh, and apparently Daniel Craig is the stormtrooper that Rey Jedi mind tricks

Sounds more like a celebrity jolly than a film.

One thing I liked that made it feel a lot more like the original trilogy than the prequels is that you are getting the view from the ground. There is a sense of the New Order and Republic without any real idea about how they are made up. You had the same sense with the Empire and Rebel Alliance in the first 3 films. The prequels took away all of the mystery and just showed you the boring inner workings of the senate. I have seen this lack of information as a criticism in some reviews but I liked it

I would agree with this to come degree BUT the original films still put a lot of time making the wider situation understandable even if it was vague. I was left wondering what the hell was going on during this film, why was there still a Rebellion if the Republic had been restored? why was the Republic backing the rebels in secret against the neo Empire? I would guess the answer is there was still a Rebellion because the Rebellion is something people remember from the original films and so is cool.

[alan nagsworth]

Surely given the frenzy people have been working themselves into over it, we're not going to get a properly honest review for a few weeks at least.  I mean, imagine if you busted your arse to get pre-sale tickets, took two days off work to go and sit outside a theatre in a stupid costume with a bunch of other dorks for the best part of 24 hours, then finally got to watch the thing in a cinema packed to the brim with cunts applauding every time they see anything they vaguely recognise ... you're not going to come out and say "yeah, not really worth it" after all that, are you?  Especially not when you take into account the internet hyping you've been up to for the past two and a half years.

That wasn't my experience: my friend offered me a spare VIP ticket the day before and I'm the sort of person who almost never gets excited about films any more (it's my problem, I know, but I don't watch enough films in general, and my overall impression of mainstream Hollywood cinema is that it is by and large a load of fucking shit, an opinion which was reinforced by every single abysmal, hideous trailer shown at this screening) so I went in with a blank canvas and ready to watch it with total impartiality.

If anything, I feel like it has sunk in more now to the point where I think I would enjoy it a lot more the second time around. I've been revisiting the scenes in my head and how utterly gorgeous the whole thing looked (except the CGI aliens and especially fucking Snoke, fuck off), and despite still having some reservations about the dialogue and the short time spent establishing the main characters, deep down this really does feel like a Star Wars film to me, and about as good a fitting sequel as we're likely to get, especially from someone like Abrams.

There were a good number of moments when I was genuinely touched, either by revisiting classic characters or learning about the new ones: Seeing C3P0 and R2D2 again; When Han hugged Leia in grievance after the Resistance strike as everyone else was celebrating; When the stupid fucking orange rasta alien in the cantina confronted Rei about her family never coming back (and Rei's lightsabre flashback to Luke and R2); and when Han speaks to Kylo and pleads with him to come home, despite the subsequent murder scene being totally unnecessary.

I think it would have been more effective to have Kylo walk away from Han, and for us to learn more about what has happened in the intervening years, even if Han's death comes at some point during the next film. Of course, Kylo not going the extra mile to the dark side would have screwed the plot up for whatever we have in store in the next film, so it isn't as easy as that, but that for me was by far the "rushed" plot arc that I most had a problem with. I just wasn't emotionally invested enough in the "Han has a son/Han sees Leia for the first time in years/Leia pleads with Han to bring son home/Han is kill" thing, all in the space of one film, when so much else is already happening.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Rylo Ken's lightsabre. I get that we have this First Order which has risen from the ashes and it a bit knackered and Kylo's mask has some dents in it and his sabre is a bit crackly, but the two extra side bits on it... why do they have to keep titting about with the lightsabre? It's not something I feel annoyed about, but I don't really see the point.

[Blinder Data]

The scrap metal dealer that Rey is selling shit to is Simon Pegg.

Yeah. The CGI and voice stunk those scenes up.

I enjoyed it. Daisy Ridley's delivery was pretty wooden and one-note, but she got better as the film went on and convinced physically. Boyega was good fun.

Surprised they relied on Ford for so much but then

Spoiler alert

I guess they needed to to increase the significance of his death

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. I don't know Adam Driver from Girls but I thought he was pretty effective as a villain. Much better with the mask on though, had a good physical presence. CGI giant was no good and some the names were crap - Snoke ffs?

The climax was a bit of disappointment. Just way too easy. I could overlook the lack of CCTV in the big Death Star if Rey hadn't used it earlier to get Fin out of the tentacle situation.

Spoiler alert

Why did chrome-topped Storm Trooper just give in and lower the shields? Surely she could have just as easily locked the door and called her troops in to capture Han and co? The fact the whole thing was so similar to A New Hope shows you that JJ Abrams is pretty limited at moving things forward.

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The scenes at the Resistance base were pretty duff as well. How did they choose the casting for the auxiliary characters? How the hell did chubby bloke from Heroes/LA Noire get this gig? I agree that the context of where the Republic/First Order stood was not clear enough.

Po seems like a good character though - in general, a bit more depth is needed. Humour was pretty spot on for me. JJ has set it up well for future directors to move off in a more exciting direction.

One niggly point: I always felt the Star Wars films are Episodes and not sequels, so logically the next film will skip ahead a few years.

Spoiler alert

Will we miss Luke coming in from the cold, training up Rey and meeting everyone? That would be interesting and not something I'd want them to skip. Perhaps it could be told in flash back.

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8/10, downgraded to 7.5 when I saw George Osborne's name in the fucking credits. A 'special thanks' to that cunt. He's inescapable.

[greenman]

The scenes at the Resistance base were pretty duff as well. How did they choose the casting for the auxiliary characters? How the hell did chubby bloke from Heroes/LA Noire get this gig? I agree that the context of where the Republic/First Order stood was not clear enough

Grinning like a 10 year old playing a toy x-wing as his wingmen were killed, again just added to the sense of celeb self satisfaction that seems to rise out of every pore of Abrams films. Again that whole sequence was much closer to the space battle at the end of the Phantom Menance than it was A new Hope, one character we saw for about 10 mins in total involved with no depth at all.

Abrams casting seems to be pretty much entirely "who's hot and who's not" Gleeson as been great elsewhere in stuff like ex Machina but was totally miscast here lacking any sense of gravitas, Mr Bronson would have given him an after school detention in his imperial years for that foaming space Nazi performance.

[mobias]

A fair amount of the criticism of it on here I've read is from people seriously wanting to pick holes in it. I really enjoyed it. The monster in the corridor scene when we first meet Han and Chewie is pure Star Wars I think. Jedi had the Sarlacc Pit, Empire had the ridiculous giant worm that the Millennium Falcon landed inside and A New Hope had the trash compactor beast. The monster in the corridor was perfectly in keeping with that lot.

The over all construction of the film, the editing and all the rest of it I didn't really have a problem with. Its a JJ Abrahams film so why shouldn't he stylistically stamp his mark on the franchise and why shouldn't it be made with modern film making sensibilities but with a firm nod to the look and feel of the original trilogy? I thought it succeeded fairly well there.

I'd need to see it again a few times but I wasn't massively blown away by John Williams score on first watch. It sounded tired and I can't say I really noticed it, which for a Star Wars film isn't a good thing. I'd need to see it again though.

Taking into consideration what a big deal it was getting the original cast back together I actually thought with the exception of Han Solo they seemed fairly superfluous to the whole thing. I thought the new cast and characters really stole the show. The film tries to cram an awful lot into just over two hours of running time and sad though it would perhaps have seemed to not have Han and Chewie in it they could have explored the newer characters more had they been given more screen time. They could have easily made this film without having any of the original cast and removing the focus on Han Solo. Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill must have been on the film set about a day each their parts are so small. Getting the old gang back together sounds great but they're really not all back together in the film. All that being said I did enjoy seeing Han Solo again and I thought Harrison Ford played an older Han Solo better than he played an older Indiana Jones a few years back.

Spoiler alert

The death of Solo was a fairly old leak from the set so I knew that was coming. I think it had also become clear recently that Ford had only agreed to come back for one film

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Its clear that this new trilogy is just going to kind of be a narrative remix of the original one.

Spoiler alert

Its totally predictable at this point there is going to be another 'I am your father' moment between Luke and Rey in the next film and then Kylo Ren will be redeemed in the third movie.

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My only real complaint with the film is I really didn't like any of the ending.

Spoiler alert

I thought R2 suddenly springing back into life with the crucial whereabouts of Luke just seemed really clunky and unexplained and then the big reveal of Luke himself standing on top of a cliff with his back turned seemed utterly contrived. It was a really unsatisfying ending after an otherwise enjoyable Star Wars romp.

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I also wasn't a fan of Supreme Leader Snoke. He just looked like yet another CGI bad guy, pretty much like something out of the dreaded prequels. My partner's 11 year old son made me laugh after we came out of the cinema. He said that he reckons when we finally get to see him for real in one of the future movies he's only actually about 3 feet tall.

[greenman]

A lot of my criticism is really though the prism of both my love for the original films and the degree of hype this film as gotten as being both there equal and very similar to them.

As a JJ Abrams blockbuster I think it meets expectations just fine, the problem is those expectations are for a couple of hours of reasonable entertaining but ultimately forgettable(again minus playing on attachment to existing characters) viewing. Seeing one of my favourite film series rescued from Lucas's incompetence and then put to that purpose is rather disappointing even if its not at all unexpected.

Again I don't see it as being fatal to the series Ridley and Boyega were both fine and the fact Abrams spent most of the screen time on his nostalgia thrill ride means the series isn't carrying anything too awful in baggage.

[phantom_power]

I took it that R2D2 sprang to life once Rey was "activated" as a Jedi.

[greenman]

I took it that R2D2 sprang to life once Rey was "activated" as a Jedi.

He should have made a sound like a pining puppy when he woke up and nuzzled a picture of Luke.

On another "what the fuck was going on" issues, why was there a treasure map to Luke SKywalker? I spose it was oddly appreciate as he was reduced to the level of an object of nostalgia, little mention of why anyone would actually want to find him beyond the fact he was cool in the original films. The same way Kirk and Spock becoming friends and Kirk becoming Captain was enough of a cause for celebration to forget billions had been killed, it was important because it was cool in the old TV series and films.

[phantom_power]

I love R2's pining noise. BB-8 had some great anthropomorphic noises and actions as well. His confused looks between Rey and Finn followed by his thumbs up to the latter was the funniest bit in this or any other Star Wars film

[BlodwynPig]

He should have made a sound like a pining puppy when he woke up and nuzzled a picture of Luke.

On another "what the fuck was going on" issues, why was there a treasure map to Luke SKywalker? I spose it was oddly appreciate as he was reduced to the level of an object of nostalgia, little mention of why anyone would actually want to find him beyond the fact he was cool in the original films.

Will they find him in a swamp all shrivelled and green?

[greenman]

Will they find him in a swamp all shrivelled and green?

The shrivelled part certainly although on the west coast of Ireland seemingly, maybe he'll inhale helium to detract credibility from his statements?

[idunnosomename]

I also wasn't a fan of Supreme Leader Snoke. He just looked like yet another CGI bad guy, pretty much like something out of the dreaded prequels. My partner's 11 year old son made me laugh after we came out of the cinema. He said that he reckons when we finally get to see him for real in one of the future movies he's only actually about 3 feet tall.

You can also let him know that made me laugh. Especially if he used imperial measurements. "Three feet" is a lot funnier than "a metre".

[alan nagsworth]

Heh, funnily enough on the way home I similarly remarked that it'd be great if there was a confrontation scene in which a bumbling Chewie got his crossbow snagged on a big curtain to reveal Snoke as a "Wizard of Oz"-type character.

[mobias]

Definitely going to go and see it a second time once its all quietened down, though not in 3D IMAX. Various people are saying they enjoyed it more on a second viewing as they were less oddly stressed out by the prospect of it disappointing them.

A lot of my criticism is really though the prism of both my love for the original films and the degree of hype this film as gotten as being both there equal and very similar to them.

I'm much more sober in my appreciation of the original films. I love them as much as anyone but I'm realistic in seeing them for what they are. There are a lot of flaws in them. The one important area I thought TFA easily equaled if not actually surpassed the original trilogy is in the performances of all the main characters. Both Rey and Finn made the film their own very early on, something which really impressed me.

[greenman]

Abrams can definitely direct actors vastly better than Lucas did in the prequels and the leads are pretty good I'd agree although there given scraps to work with, superior to the original films though? not close for me.

Ford is brilliant in the first couple especially, him and Fisher they have much more of a sense of edge to them with the caustic banter and then the romance being very well done indeed. Hamil by the nature of the character is a bit blander at first but I think he plays it excellently and really steps up giving an excellent performance in the latter stages of ESB and ROTJ.

Abrams film is perhaps slightly less juvenile than his Treks was but really the comparison between those films and Wrath of Khan and this film and the original Starwars is rather similar for me. That does become VERY obvious when you move beyond the leads, the original films support are a black hole of gravitas compared to this one.

For all the comparisons to the original film one massive difference for me is that Abrams film is vastly more cutsy, one of the main strengths of A new Hope for me is the mix of innocence and a pissed off caustic atmosphere, even R2 and 3P0 are constantly having a go at each other like an old married couple.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

What's surprising is that Abrams did a pretty good job of emulating Spielberg with Super 8 and yet he seems to have missed the mark here. For all the hype about practical effects and sets, I wonder if he was really trying to capture the feel of the originals.

Edit: Super 8, not 8mm.

[greenman]

What's surprising is that Abrams did a pretty good job of emulating Spielberg with 8mm and yet he seems to have missed the mark here. For all the hype about practical effects and sets, I wonder if he was really trying to capture the feel of the originals.

8mm was the main hope I had for this being more of a retred of Abrams Trek formula but I spose the latter is really why Disney hired him in the first place. Even then though he was mining cutsey ET Spielberg rather than the earlier more pissed off Spielberg of Jaws or Raiders of the Lost Ark that I would say is much closer to the original Starwars films(sans Ewoks).

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm just back from seeing it now, was at the 12.30pm screening and only about 20 other people were in the cinema, which is how I like it! Really enjoyed it overall, thought it felt like a proper Star Wars movie (and is easily better than Return of the Jedi) with all of the new characters working for me, and it was pleasing to see the old ones too. Several moments made me do an inner fanboy squeal thing, and there were some superb action sequences too.

Now the bad stuff: Like others have said, Snoke is a big ball of rubbishness, the cgi looked terrible and like others I can only hope this is deliberate and they'll be a big reveal as to who he really is;

Spoiler alert

Han Solo's death needed more gravitas. More dialogue between father and son to build up to the inevitable tragedy, perhaps, but something was definitely missing; Another fucking easily defeated Death Star ending. In fact this was the easiest one yet to destroy, the fucking Empire really needs to up their game on this front.

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Still, minor complaints overall, I had low expectations going in and for the most part really enjoyed it, and can't wait for the next entry in the series.

Misc: As the lights came up the kids (probably about 12 or 13 at a guess) in front of me expressed dismay with the ending, with one calling it "fucking rubbish", the foul mouthed little turd.

[mobias]

I think the ending as it is was a last thought. I'm fairly certain Luke Skywalker originally had dialogue with the script they went into filming with. I follow Mark Hamill on Twitter and he was certainly in the UK for filming in 2014 for a fairly long period of time and it was definitely known he was back in the UK for follow up filming after the main production wrapped up. I reckon they rejigged the story late on to suit what was happening with the writing of episode XIII