Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[loomer]

I saw it.

It wasn't the same Star Wars I fell in love with.

It was, however, very good anyway. Only a few minor quibbles and irritations. It's definitely more on the fantasy side of SW's fantasy/sci-fi continuum, but I don't mind that.

[Borgholio]

So without giving away spoilers, how does it rank in comparison to the existing movies? Will people who grew up with the OT like it or dislike it?

[loomer]

I grew up with the OT and I really liked it. I'd rank it as about equal or slightly better to ANH, inferior to ROTJ and ESB, and superior to the prequels. So did my mate, who likewise grew up on the OT.

[Mange]

Just got back home after watching The Force Awakens. It was pretty good, but I think Harrison Ford carried the movie.

As the spoiler tags doesn't work, I won't write anything spoilerific, but even as the movie followed the structure of ANH, I think the it lacked somewhat in cohesion and also when explaining the setting. It was also pretty darn minimalist (worse than the old EU and anything seen in the previous movies) and I can't wrap my head around that Starkiller... One nice touch was that the Millennium Falcon was mentioned as being a "YT-freighter".

[fgalkin]

Ok, quick and spoiler-free observations. It has gotten rid of Lucas's crap, but replaced it with JJ's crap.

JJ is a better director than Lucas, and this is his best movie, but his minimalism is jarring. I fear we might miss the days of Travis as a kind of golden age.

Despite that, it captures the feel of the old trilogy, but it does so by, ahem, "borrowing" quite heavily from it. Overall, the film feels like a remake of ANH with better special effects and a bigger budget. It starts on a desert planet, there is a cantina scene, and lots of other stuff that you will be able to guess pretty easily.

The First Order is somehow even more incompetent than the Empire. It's impressive, really. Because of that, the heroes seemed a bit overpowered to the point that it looked like watching a leveled-up KOTOR character at times. But, like, the Force is strong with that lot, so I guess it's ok.

Kylo Ren......I'm not particularly happy about, but he's had his moments.

Lots of Han and Chewie, lots of Millennium Falcon action.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Batman]

Worse than the OT, but not by much. Definitely better than the Prequels. It was structured a lot like ANH but not to the point that it looked like a rehash. Somebody really liked to see ships fly over water
The First Order employs the same contractors the Empire did-bottomless pits everywhere and hardly a railing in sight.
The minimalism was a bit jarring but maybe the supwerweapon and the gazillion Stormtroopers broke the budget?
The best Star Wars movie ever? Hardly. Worth watching? HELL YES!

[Lord Revan]

in the First Order's defense I dout we've yet to see a railing on a walkway above a bottomless pit.

[Xisiqomelir]

Overall, I enjoyed this filming would give it a 7.5/10.

I have 2 serious qualms.

1) Kylo bin Jacen is not scary, not intriguing and not a worthy SW villain. I hold out hope for Snokemort

2) The score was bland and perfectly forgettable, a distressing first for the franchise.

[Scottish Ninja]

in the First Order's defense I dout we've yet to see a railing on a walkway above a bottomless pit.

We saw one on the Death Star, in ANH, in the scene when they're taking Chewie to the turbolift.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

I think it was a bit underwhelming for me for some reason. I know everyone basically says it's better than the Prequel trilogy. And while I think it was superior to my least favorite film, Attack of the Clones, I thought it was subpar compared to one of my favorites, Revenge of the Sith, which was a Prequel trilogy film.

[Q99]

Loved the leads, the First Order had good visuals.

One thing that kinda bugged me- why still so few aliens among the rebels/resistance?? There were tons of aliens in the film, but the Resistance was human central.


Oh yea, I'm unclear on whether Snoke is huge, or simply has a huge hologram. I kinda hope he's huge ^^

[Patroklos]

I didn't get that vibe. For the foot traffic its probably practical, its much easier to build sets and costumes for human forms and makeup costs money. But where they didn't have to worry about that like in the X-wing cockpits you see a lot more.

We actually don't know what the human/alien demographics of the galaxy is. Or what the values and frame of reference are for these alien intelligence that matter. Some seem analogs to humans in most relevant ways. Quite a few do not. Some are quite out there.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

William's work wasn't that notable this time around either. I can't point to a particular unique melody that encapsulates the film. He was much better at it in the Prequel trilogy, particularly with Duel of the Fates and Battle of Heroes.

[Q99]

I didn't get that vibe. For the foot traffic its probably practical, its much easier to build sets and costumes for human forms and makeup costs money. But where they didn't have to worry about that like in the X-wing cockpits you see a lot more.

I can get that, but some odd-shaped helmets or just different color skin would be cool. A weird outfit or two concealing an implied-human form... heck, just a twi'lek or few would be really nice.

I mean, we *just* saw the bar full of aliens!

[Borgholio]

So here's a question...in what order do you watch the movies now? Ever since the PT was released, the argument was whether to watch it in real-life chronological order (4,5,6,1,2,3) in order to get the maximum impact of the storytelling...or watch it in in-universe chronological order (1,2,3,4,5,6). I've always preferred watching the OT first as the story flows better that way, but now I wonder...will Episodes 7 on up be best watched after the PT or in numerical order?

[Xisiqomelir]

Borg, for the run up to this premiere I used numero order watching 2 movies a day. RotS and ANH back-to-back is a great experience.

[Q99]

Normally I hear you want to do 4-5-*then* the parts of the PT you want-6.

4 and 5 first so you get the Vader reveal. Then the Prequel trilogy fills you in more on the Emperor and such. Finish with Jedi. And then now stick 7 onto the end of that.

[Borgholio]

That's an interesting idea...never thought of that before. I might have to try it next week.

[Adam Reynolds]

One thing that kinda bugged me- why still so few aliens among the rebels/resistance?? There were tons of aliens in the film, but the Resistance was human central.

When you are designing a military, it makes sense to standardize. If a dozen alien races each require different uniforms, it would make little sense to have a military that threw all dozen together.

Oh yea, I'm unclear on whether Snoke is huge, or simply has a huge hologram. I kinda hope he's huge ^^

Pretty sure that was just a hologram. Though it was an interesting means of making himself appear larger.

[Adam Reynolds]

That's an interesting idea...never thought of that before. I might have to try it next week.

I believe it is called the Machete order. It originally intended to entirely skip TPM. Which I don't see the point of, it still leaves AOTC, which I consider far weaker than TPM.

[Q99]

When you are designing a military, it makes sense to standardize. If a dozen alien races each require different uniforms, it would make little sense to have a military that threw all dozen together.

Sure, but there's a lot of aliens who can use basically human gear, maybe need a different helmet or something, etc..

Pretty sure that was just a hologram. Though it was an interesting means of making himself appear larger.

I'm just curious on what size he is on the other end of the hologram ^^

[Borgholio]

I believe it is called the Machete order. It originally intended to entirely skip TPM. Which I don't see the point of, it still leaves AOTC, which I consider far weaker than TPM.

I really don't hate TPM all that much. Sure it's the weakest of the series IMO, but it's not a bad movie. AOTC has some milk-curdling dialogue in it but again IMO, the ground engagement between the Clones and the droids makes up for everything.

[Adam Reynolds]

Sure, but there's a lot of aliens who can use basically human gear, maybe need a different helmet or something, etc..

And how much would a dozen different helmet designs cost in comparison to one?

Out of universe, this is the problem with going back to a reliance on "practical effects." When you use more CGI, it far easier to add a diverse group of aliens in the background rather than mostly humans. For an extreme version, Mass Effect does this to a great deal because it is entirely animated. When you walk around the Citadel or Omega you see far more aliens than humans. In Star Wars it is always the opposite.

I'm just curious on what size he is on the other end of the hologram ^^

Until next movie, who knows.

[Havok]

Anyone that ranks this movie higher than ANH or TESB is quite frankly a moron and knows nothing about movies. It is at best, on par with ROTJ.

[Adam Reynolds]

Anyone that ranks this movie higher than ANH or TESB is quite frankly a moron and knows nothing about movies. It is at best, on par with ROTJ.

Agreed. I would personally rank it just below ROTJ. ROTJ had stronger emotional payoff, and while it was easy to criticize the Empire for their overconfidence at Endor, that paled in comparison to the issue we saw in this movie that I won't reveal for those who haven't saw it yet.