Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Crazedwraith]

Well, there's a comical sideplot where he kills all of Firmus Piett's superiors throughout the movie so Piett can work his way up the chain of command to admiral.

You mean he kills Admiral Ozzel. The one person above Piett?

[Galvatron]

Well, there's a comical sideplot where he kills all of Firmus Piett's superiors throughout the movie so Piett can work his way up the chain of command to admiral.

When was this? I always thought it would make an interesting backstory, especially if Piett was a loyal subordinate to Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars.

Although he's twisted and evil, Vader does show glimmers of virtue in that he still seems to value and reward both competence and loyalty.

[Isolder74]

Well, there's a comical sideplot where he kills all of Firmus Piett's superiors throughout the movie so Piett can work his way up the chain of command to admiral.

What are you talking about? There was only one guy above him in the movie and his name was Ozzell. The only other guy killed was Needa.

[Knife]

Indeed, I believe in the book, Piett was the Captain/Commander of the ship while Ozzel was Admiral of the fleet. Needa was just a ship captain, though he was in the ROTS novel as a Lt. in the fleet above Coruscant during the battle.

[APlayerHater]

For some reason I though piett ranked up when needa died, even though ozzel was killed first. The directors commentary just mentioned a gag where you thought piett was dead meat at the end of the movie, but vader was too bummed/distracted with luke to bother offing the good admiral.

So can vader choke you from anywhere so long as he can see you on tv? I assume he at least needs to know where you are. Was he making super precise calculations in his head, regarding the movements of the ship he was on and also Ozzel's ship? Maybe he did the math on a whiteboard in preparation. And he just needed to see where exactly ozzel was on the screen.

[Terralthra]

There is an amazing take at the end of ESB where Vader does a slow double-take at the spot whence the Millenium Falcon went to hyperspace, as if to say, "...really?", then drudges away down the hall past the bridge crew, including Admiral Piett, all following him with their gazes and hoping none of them are about to be murdered.

[Vympel]

There is an amazing take at the end of ESB where Vader does a slow double-take at the spot whence the Millenium Falcon went to hyperspace, as if to say, "...really?", then drudges away down the hall past the bridge crew, including Admiral Piett, all following him with their gazes and hoping none of them are about to be murdered.

IIRC, in Kershner's commentary, he says that in that scene Vader is so upset, he won't even kill anyone.

[Galvatron]

There is an amazing take at the end of ESB where Vader does a slow double-take at the spot whence the Millenium Falcon went to hyperspace, as if to say, "...really?", then drudges away down the hall past the bridge crew, including Admiral Piett, all following him with their gazes and hoping none of them are about to be murdered.

I'm surprised that scene was never revised with a howling "Nnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooo!!!!!!" after the Falcon made the jump to hyperspace.

[APlayerHater]

Admiral Ozzel should have tried to choke Darth Vader first. And they should really edit in some rocks to hide the Millennium Falcon when it's attached to the back of that star destroyer.

[Batman]

Yeah. Some rocks decide to cuddle with your bridge tower for no reason. That's not suspicious at all.

[APlayerHater]

"It's a bit weird when Obi points at two storm troopers on the deathstar and they look away. You might say he used a Jedi mind trick to sneak by- but I really think we should edit in a krate dragon scream from down the hallway to distract them."
- in george's tiny voice

[Vympel]

So I found a blooper:

"That lightsaber - it belongs to me!" Ren says as he sees Finn ignite Anakin/Luke's lightsaber.

Except he's already got the wound that Finn gave him in their duel.



I figure he was originally meant to say it to Rey.

Also, I thought that Rey destroys Kylo Ren's lightsaber - but no, she knocks it out of his grip:

[Mange]

Pablo has posted a pic showing more Star Destroyers in TFA (we only got to see one up close):
+https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status ... 3910681600

[The Romulan Republic]

I hope we get a proper fleet battle in the next film.

However, I kind of suspect they'll follow the pattern/tradition and save the big fleet battle for the last film of the trilogy.

[biostem]

I hope we get a proper fleet battle in the next film.

However, I kind of suspect they'll follow the pattern/tradition and save the big fleet battle for the last film of the trilogy.

Non no... the next film is the one where they land walkers on a planet and stomp their way to the enemy base...

[Vympel]

Nine SDs visible here:



(Eight silhouetted against the planet, one in space)

[Batman]

For a very generous definition of 'visible'.

[NecronLord]

I noticed them in the cinema. I think it depends if you see it in IMAX. In IMAX 3D they're quite noticeable, simply because you can see the movement in 3D. I didn't see them when I saw it first time in regular 2D though.

[APlayerHater]

I'm not an air scientist, but I feel like most of the planet's atmosphere would fall into that big giant trench there with the gun in it.
I guess you could just say force fields.

Also I watched the sequence where starkiller base explodes and we don't see the camera pull back, so it looks like that planet was the same size as the star in its solar system. So I can only assume star that small wouldn't be yellow? Whatever. Guess them adjusting for scale would have made that shot look awkward, so maybe we can just 'assume' they're two different shots at 2 different distances.

I also remember the planet being very close to the star when it was absorbing the star, but I can't find the sequence online so I'm not sure how close it was. But I feel like a planet that was that close wouldn't be so snowy, or capable of even hosting living trees.

And if starkiller base can move in hyperspace, well... I guess the first order has the technology to move planets through hyperspace? Either that or they built a whole planet into a base just for a few shots. They were effective shots, taking out the new republic without a fight (via x-treme plot convenience) but it still seems like a bit much.

[Alkaloid]

So I watched it again out of a cinema, and I still really like the things I liked about the file and the things that bug me still really bug me.

Finn and Rey are excellent, really well cast and almost all the best scenes in the film are scenes with the two of them in. The actors play off each other really well and their comic timing is great. I liked they way the switched up the Luke, Leia and Han dynamic, with Rey taking over Lukes 'farm boy chosen one' role, Poe taking Leis 'political operative who knows how the galaxy works' and Finn taking Hans 'con artist who is just looking out for himself but had the misfortune of making friends'. (I kind of agree with people making the 'Rey displays remarkable competence in an unlikely range of skills' argument, but frankly I always thought that about Luke in ANH so I'm not being critical of it)

Visually the movie is fantastic, and I like the progression of the ship designs, I think you can draw very clear parallels between jets from the 60's and 70s to the classic X-Wings and modern jets and the newer X-Wing models.

Kylo Ren is a joke, a brilliant joke. A+ for having the balls to go in that direction with the villains and commit to it.

Chewy is still Chewy, and going into a berserk rage, killing everyone and blowing everything up is absolutely what I expected of him, good work.


The things that bugged me were little things that tended to add up. Most of them centred around not paying attention to what you are implying or Poe Dameron, really. Poe is just completely pointless character. He doesn't do anything after the TIE fighter crash that couldn't be done by random X-Wing pilot number 8 and he movie seems to go out of its way to keep him involved, which is never a good sign. I honestly think the final battle dragged on too long in no small part because it wanted to keep cutting back to him and his brilliant tactical insights, like "hit it with everything you've got!"

The pilots generally seemed to be a bunch of chatty Cathys compared to the really clipped, professional pilot dialogue from ANH. Actually the Rebellion seemed to be a much more professional institution compared to the Resistance, despite the Resistance at least nominally being drawn from the military as opposed to anyone who turned up.

The biggest issue I have though is with Finn and whether or not he is force sensitive. The first 4/5ths of the movie screams that he is. Baulking at the massacre of the village, being able to convince almost anyone of anything, the whole speech Maz gives about seeing the same eyes in different people and her then forcing the lightsabre on him and insisting it's a weapon. That and having the first person in the new trilogy to fire up a blue lightsabre (the fucking lightsabre Luke takes up in ANH, no less) not be (or become) a Jedi is just a weird decision. But I can't shake the feeling it was just the patented "JJ Abrams doing stuff because he thinks is cool and accidentally making a huge tangle of the plot he doesn't know how to fix" method of film making.

[APlayerHater]

Maybe finn is a clone of mace windu.

The film certainly was not perfect- and I'm not inclined to ever defend a disney product (other than return to oz ) but it wasn't terrible. Just had some major flaws.

[NecronLord]

Maybe finn is a clone of mace windu.

So... all black guys look the same to you?

[Thanas]

Vympel, that shot once more reinforces how utterly stupid the new Empire is for investing that many resources in that platform. They most likely could have built a fleet strong enough to take on the entire NR navy with that much wasted on there.

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't know. Having a weapons platform that can effectively refuel itself (by draining stars) and hit anywhere in the galaxy with near-impunity seems like a useful thing to have. It is kind of putting all your eggs in one basket, though, if you sink most of your resources into that, and I doubt the First Order has the resources Palpatine's Empire did.

Of course, you could make the same damn criticism of the old Empire too- they could have built a ridiculous SD fleet for what they blew on Death Stars.

[Thanas]

I don't know. Having a weapons platform that can effectively refuel itself (by draining stars) and hit anywhere in the galaxy with near-impunity seems like a useful thing to have. It is kind of putting all your eggs in one basket, though, if you sink most of your resources into that, and I doubt the First Order has the resources Palpatine's Empire did.

Of course, you could make the same damn criticism of the old Empire too- they could have built a ridiculous SD fleet for what they blew on Death Stars.

Yeah but the Death Star was actually a battlestation. The planet is however immobile, only has a few shots (once it drains a star, where does it go?) and offers only an insignificant advantage. Would you not rather build a DS instead of this?