The Force Awakens discussion - POST RELEASE

[Fairtex]

Me and my family are still buzzing from the midnight launch. Great timing that my kids started their school holidays yesterday

Loved the movie. Going to watch it a few more times. Will watch the next one in 3D.

The movie does well to set up the foundation of what's to come. It makes you ask a lot of questions. The next one looks like it will feature Luke more. I wonder if that's what they are doing. Han gets featured in the first one and dies, then Luke, Leia and the rest of the classic characters fading out. I haven't read any SW books or comics so I don't know the stories outside of the movies and games.

I thought the 3 new main characters (Rey, Finn, Poe) did a great job. Rey was exceptional. Overall humour in the movie was well done.

But for me going into this movie was all about seeing the classic characters on screen together again along with the Millennium Falcon. The introduction of the classic characters was well timed and very nostalgic. Stirred some emotions and brought back the inner child in me when they first appeared on screen.

Nice to see some scenes of the old vehicles from the Original Trilogy like the AT-AT, the Jedi training ball thing Luke used in EP4, the chess game on the Falcon etc.

My favourite moment was seeing my favourite space ship in all of sci-fi movie history the Millennium Falcon under the covers and pretty much every scene from then on with it. The dog fight with the Tie's was jaw dropping. Han and Chewie coming on board for the first time was one of the best scenes for me.

Traumatic moment for me - my favourite character Han joining the force. Had a feeling it was going to happen as soon as he hugged Leia and she told him to bring their son back. But when he stepped on the walkway to face Kylo Ren, that pretty much confirmed he was about to join the force.

I would place it equal to the death of Optimus Prime in Transformers the Movie cartoon back in the 80's. It was one of those NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! moments.

I'm still in denial about that. I would like to think that Han is still alive some how.

Overall, TFA ranks right up there with the Original Trilogy for me. But in saying that, I love all 6, even the prequels. I'm easy to please

[fredstar]

Interesting that we got to see Kylo Ren's face straight off the the bat but not Phasma's.

Unlike Vader where we had to wait til the 3rd installment to see the disfigured awesomeness.

Although after that last light saber battle I suspect he's gonna need a new face/mask anyway

[HanSagan]

I just realised this morning that the film was basically very similar to Gary Kurtzs original vision for Jedi....Han Solo dies, Luke Vanishes and Leia becomes the leader of her people.

[Reverend Strone]

Still processing this experience myself, but overall I really liked it, even if there was a heavy reliance or rewinding and repeating the original films. I can't fault them for that - it's a first step back into a world that the prequels never quite revisited the same way.

Some great points brought up in your post Kylo, so I'm going to use it to scaffold my own replies ...

LOVED:

-BB8's thumbs up

-Poe Dameron was funny & cool

I thought the humour was note perfect in this film.

-Kylo asking for his dad's "help"

Wow, yeah. How did you guys read his intentions? I felt like the moment he confessed being torn apart inside was an honest one, and even if he might not have felt like he could come home, I don't think he knew quite what he was going to do next when he held out his saber to Han. I feel like in that moment it could just as easily have been him asking his father to kill him as it going the other way. but then the dark side won in his internal debate, and there was no going back.

Go, Chewie. I'm so glad he got a shot in on the young punk, even if it was just a graze.

Man, was Ren's saber awesome or what? So angry and violent in visual, sound and the way he ignited and wielded that thing - it was a beautifully executed weapon in every way.

-Daisy R.'s acting was so "real." Loved her expressive eyes.

I thought all the main cast were fabulous. Daisy is wonderful, Finn is so relatable, and Ren was dimensional and conflicted. I wish Poe had more to do, but it was a full enough movie already.

-trash compactor reference

Hilarious. I think we can assume Phasma didn't get mashed.

NEED TO THINK ABOUT:

-very limited Captain Phasma

Yeah, that was disappointing. I expected a character with more of a threatening presence in the film as Kylo Ren's fist, but he got in and did most of what had to be done himself. I had hoped we'd get to see her kick some ass. She kinda just got to strut around, act officious and then get captured. I hope we see much more of her next time round.

-did I blink and miss Zuvio??

Oh yeah! He had a crew of similarly garbed depuites too, but I don't recall seeing him or any of the others. For that matter, while there were plenty of similarly robed and masked backgrounders, I never spotted Sarco Plank, either. Anyone else see him?

-the guy with the heavy Scottish accent

I don't recall any Scottish accented characters. Who did you mean?

-did I miss Hassk thug too??

Nah, he was there, though he didn't do anything except walk by. The camera tracked with him as he sauntered in Maz Kanata's place.

-space octopus

Can't say I liked them much either, though going to hyperspace with one wrapped around the cockpit was hilarious.

I'm going to say the only featured character I wasn't impressed by was Hux. I felt like he was over-acted.

Not sure how I feel about the design of Snoke. His design was a bit generic.

The digital cosmetic work on Leia was heavy-handed and at times she almost looks computer-generated. I wish they'd done less. Han and Luke were allowed to look craggy. Let Leia look 60 already.


While I have quibbles, I think what I love most is that this film struck the tone of the classic trilogy in terms of pace, humour, charisma, action, spectacle and danger. It was corny for sure, but then they were as well. JJ was a good choice for the directing chair. Now I am keen to go deeper and let the story take us to new places the other films haven't gone (figuratively, not geographically).

[kyloren]

I don't recall any Scottish accented characters. Who did you mean?

When Han and Chewie had the Guavian enforcers on one side and the Asian guy on the other, the guy doing most of the talking was Scottish.

I mean, it could have been Billy Connolly speaking.

[kyloren]

Ello Asty didn't last long, did he?

[Fairtex]

Forgot to mention, for those of you who have seen an Indonesian movie series called The Raid, you will see the main actor and the villain from those movies in the Asian group. Nice cameo from them

[Disparity]

Stella Performance from Constable Zuvio.

[BGR]

Saw it in IMAX 3D 3:00am this morning. Absolutely loved it, at this point my only issue would be Snoke, like someone mentioned above his design felt incredibly generic and uninspired, nothing particularly star-warsy about his look, could have come off any crappy second-rate sci-fi flick. So yeah, they best find a way to improve him for the next chapter.

The film was brilliantly paced, absolutely beautiful to look at and a perfect mix of the classic and modern. No better way to start off this new trilogy.

[Neova]

Was it my imagination, or was the X-Wing helmet that Rey put on just before meeting BB8 actually Lukes one??