Review—Star Wars: The Force Awakens (SPOILERS!)

The “Lannister Option…”

Now, that’s scary.

3 Likes

Leia comforted Rey because she’s her niece, and they’re both strong enough with the force to know that (or that they’re at least connected somehow). Assuming the Rey is Luke’s daughter (and she HAS to be), then Rey’s loss of her uncle (Han) parallel’s Luke’s loss of his aunt and uncle on Tatooine. It’s what will drive her to be the most powerful Jedi - more powerful than her father, just like her father was more powerful than his father,

1 Like

Dude,
I considered replying with a clever gif, or with an advice animal saying “srsly, just stop” but it was too snarky and strangely enough (and for what I’m about to say) felt too insulting for someone who doesn’t seem to be a troll. I’ll risk your ire by just flat out saying it:

You’re sorta, kinda, almost beginning to act a little bit like a dick.

Your contributions have been interesting, your responses when someone doesn’t agree with you haven’t

6 Likes

It is the same movie as 1 and 3. You have to constantly suspend your disbelief. It was pretty, I’ll give you that. Characters were great but it did not live up to the hype. And that horrible helecopter\ drone shot at the end…wtf?

That was the switch to make the tea.

2 Likes

May the Schwartz be with you.

6 Likes

As soon as that ending sequence started I thought I was watching the ending of Fellowship of the Ring all over again. It was just so cheesy. I felt it could have ended just as effectively with the Falcon going into hyperspace.

Overall I liked it - and yes it was full of flaws but it’s not like the other 6 films weren’t full of flaws and gaping plot holes either. It was fun and entertaining. I’m seeing it a second time today.

4 Likes

Thank you. So did I.

5 Likes

I dunno, the movies themselves define hyperspace so loosely that it’s hard to say exactly how it does or doesn’t work. It’s both treated as a separate dimension and referred to as “light speed” - as if to imply that you’re just going really, really fast through normal space. Material from the EU implies that the latter is true, and that while you’re in hyperspace, the gravity wells / “mass shadows” of stellar objects like planets and stars (as opposed to their physical presence) are what’s dangerous to travel. If that concept is still canon, I think it makes sense that you could drop from hyperspace - where stuff like shields and space debris have no impact on travel - into normal space at extreme proximity to a planet’s “mass shadow” and slip inside a planetary shield in the process. It’s just a completely insane idea that nobody who hasn’t spent the past 50 years being a hotshot smart-ass would try to pull off. Alternatively, taking the “faster than light” angle into account, it could be that while in hyperspace you can punch through a shield during its refresh cycle if you know the frequency at which it’s operating (which they would, thanks to Finn). It’s just, again, completely ludicrous to attempt, which is why nobody builds anything to defend against that possibility - it’s usually reasonable to assume that nobody is stupid enough to try. If the EU’s extra-dimensional travel interpretation of hyperspace is itself no longer canon, then the way hyperspace behaves based on what’s been shown in the films and TV shows is so poorly defined as to not inherently contradict this plan either, IMO.

As for dropping out of hyperspace manually, I’m gonna go with Rule of Cool on that one - having the computer do it would be more accurate, but less visually satisfying.

I could be mis-remembering (since I’ve only seen the movie once so far), but wasn’t the shield just over the oscillator? Alternatively, the shield could have excluded the region around the collector side of the planet, which would be naturally protected by the fact that there’s a column of freaking solar plasma pouring into the area. Alternatively alternatively, shields in Star Wars canon behave in a manner consistent with the requirements of the plot, since (for example) capital ships can launch and recall fleets of fighters from their hangars without having to cycle their shields to do so ;).

2 Likes

If only!

1 Like

That would be me as well. EU is shit.

2 Likes

You’re going to be very disappointed in a movie or two.

3 Likes

i would be cool with either of those, especially Mon Mothma. old fans would be blown away. arguments would ensue.

2 Likes

Well, it’s not like we have a plethora of female characters in the OT to choose from. I’d say Ahsoka Tano but for the lack of little lekku. Maybe Luke and Maz Kanata had a thing…?

1 Like

Weeeellllll, that cave was full of life. The tree itself, the lizards and snakes, whatever it was that squawked when Luke stepped on it. Seemed to be an evil place in part because it was filled with evil life. And yet it couldn’t really harm Luke, just affect his mind. And if he went in there with the confidence and calm he should have had, the implication is that his vision would have been quite different, if he’d had one at all. (“Remember your failure at the cave.”) And of course the cave-vision is a metaphor for Luke’s possible future, not that he’d literally turn into Darth Vader, but rather some Dark-Side-fallen equivalent. And all because of his fear and uncertainty.

But again, that cave was almost a living, pulsing entity of Dark Side Force, full of twisted life and malignant purpose. The lightsaber is, for the most part, just a tool. I could see it being used to communicate a message on purpose, but unless Luke himself left it with Maz after all the events shown in the vision, I don’t buy that Rey could have received those visions through it. But of course, we don’t know when it was left in that chest, and we never be explicitly told. So as long as nobody tries to claim otherwise, I’m content to believe that Luke left it there. Weird (and why there?), but at least logically consistent.

I still don’t see how we have more than a couple. Her unknown last name is one; there are only a small handful of names that would have any reason for being hidden from us: Skywalker, Solo, Kenobi… hell, maybe Calrissian. :wink: So we have her uncanny flying skills and… what? Holding a parent’s left hand? That’s no hint; it’s the way a shot is staged. I’m right-handed, and I’ve held my kids’ hands with both of mine equally (particularly with the left if I’m carrying something awkward). The X-Wing helmet? Well, no surprise that that might have been found near the crashed X-Wing. I suspect these are all just as likely to be red herrings as actual clues, which is no doubt by design. Sure, she could be Luke’s kid. But she just as easily might not.

Well, to be fair, nobody mentions bringing balance to the Force at that point. It’s all about defeating the Emperor. But it’s funny seeing those two old farts at a loss, when they honestly don’t know if destiny is on their side or not, especially seeing how complacent the Jedi Council was about destiny in the Crappy Trilogy.

It was, in fact, Luke’s destiny, according to Vader just before Luke plunged into the Cloud City abyss. Whenever anyone in SW talks about destiny, they end up being proved mistaken, and generally by a Skywalker.

I tellya, that really looks like an Abrams decision to me. Last time I worked for Disney was in 1992, and even then they had a strong and longstanding reputation as being extremely involved in all creative decisions, and that reputation has not lessened, certainly not when it comes to their newest and most expensive property, so I have no doubt that the Force Awakens script was one of the most heavily stage-managed and analyzed and annotated scripts to ever wend its way through the Team Disney building, and we may never know whose bright idea it was to build a third Death Star, though we can safely assume that that was the consensus decision in the end.

But Abrams has pulled that kind of shit before. Remember this?

6 Likes

They can fix that in the special edition(s).

3 Likes

Capsule review:OK…but just OK.

Predictable in too many places, bombastic in too many others. The storylines are tired and, in a few segments, rather banal. Like the best chapters in the “franchise” (ugh), this edition of Star Wars lives up to expectations as entertainment, thanks largely to exceptional use of special effects and settings. It’s a cool cinematic amusement ride…but it is not science fiction.

My grandson liked it, though.

2 Likes

The Force is strong in this one.

UNNATURALLY strong.

3 Likes

It never has been. It was always grand space opera inspired by the movie serials of the 30s and 40s and you know what, I think that even with the awfulness of the prequels they do a good job of it.

6 Likes

The first movie was about a SPACE WIZARD convincing a SPACE PEASANT to train as a SPACE KNIGHT to save the SPACE PRINCESS.

The Star Wars universe was firmly in the “fantasy” genre from the get-go.

9 Likes