Star Wars Episode VII THE SPOILERS Strike Back

[Ser Creighton]

I would have liked him to be menacing here, after which he evolved into supermenacing over the course of the next (two) film(s)  

Well maybe he goes from Emo to Super Emo, I did just find a video that was cut from the new Star Wars movie. It's Ren and he is working on his music and posting it on YouTube for all to enjoy, and I think he probably got rejected and this is where things went south for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6rtyTMB8AI

Lets be honest it is Adam Driver, he can crank Emo and funny to 20 without even trying.

Early signs of Ren's outbursts and love for music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKw-Pgu0SRM

Darth Ren on the cast of Girls, yep you guessed it, violent outburst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEcI0rD_SyM

Darth Ren at his best

See if you ever wondered what Ren was like before he went all Sith, here you go and really not that different, he just has a Lightsaber now.

 

[Jaxom 1974]

Regardless of JJ's motives, I think killing Han was the right move from a Star Wars point of view. Primarily because it's good for a Dark Sider to have that "point of no return" moment that Vader had when he killed Mace Windu, but also because I'm not 100% confident that Harrison Ford could have sustained such a brilliant performance over two more movies as he gets older. (To be clear, I love Ford, but he's only human.)

I can't say I disagree with killing Han off. I, like some others I think, have issues with the impact of the act being lessened by the subsequent fight in the woods.

[ab aeterno]

I can't say I disagree with killing Han off. I, like some others I think, have issues with the impact of the act being lessened by the subsequent fight in the woods.

Yeah, it would have been quite cool if he'd been battling Rey, and was finally on the verge of overcoming her, when "Ben!". And then that scene. IMO, of course.

[DaveSumm]

I'm really surprised there's so much discussion of Kylo Ren, I thought he was incredible. Hands down the most interesting villain Star Wars has had. 

 

A good 'unanswered questions' here:

 

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awakens-questions/

 

....goes into a lot of detail from Aftermath and the Visial Dictionary about what happened between VI and VII.

[Relic]

See, I think he was conflicted, but in the opposite way to usual. Normally, we'd expect to see the person being conflicted by the temptation of the Dark Side, whereas Ren sees himself as being conflicted by the temptation of the Light. He's struggling to purge all influence of the Light Side and return to the Darkness, the opposite of say, Vader, who had to purge the influence of the Dark to return to the light. 

Fully agree. 

 

Red Snow -  It may be as you say.  On first watch I saw it the way you described above. On second I began to see that Kylo was a lot more committed to over coming the L.S. than I realized,  and I think his mind was made up when he stepped on the bridge. I think he toys with the temptation he assumed the L.S. was going to present like a cruel boy toys with a moth he's caught in a jar. That's my take,  I'm going to go see it for a final time on an Imax, might feel differently after a third viewing. 

[Ser Creighton]

Yeah, it would have been quite cool if he'd been battling Rey, and was finally on the verge of overcoming her, when "Ben!". And then that scene. IMO, of course.

Yeah but the scene where he kills Han does have some great imagery. You know the whole thing with Ren was that he was battling his light side, it gets repeated over and over from the beginning to the end of the movie. Lor says it to him, Ren talks about it, Leia says it, it's all about his inner light side. But when he kills Han we see the light go out and the Darkness takes over, literally the sun goes out in that moment and the light leaves the room. It's why JJ left that door open behind Rey and Finn so you could see light die and the sun go out. It's a good shot.

[Marcus Agrippa]

See, I think he was conflicted, but in the opposite way to usual. Normally, we'd expect to see the person being conflicted by the temptation of the Dark Side, whereas Ren sees himself as being conflicted by the temptation of the Light. He's struggling to purge all influence of the Light Side and return to the Darkness, the opposite of say, Vader, who had to purge the influence of the Dark to return to the light.

Wouldn't that make him the hero from the Vatican's point of view?

 

that's the joke.gif

[Castel]

Regardless of JJ's motives, I think killing Han was the right move from a Star Wars point of view. Primarily because it's good for a Dark Sider to have that "point of no return" moment that Vader had when he killed Mace Windu, but also because I'm not 100% confident that Harrison Ford could have sustained such a brilliant performance over two more movies as he gets older. (To be clear, I love Ford, but he's only human.)

Ford's problem is not age, it's whether he actually gives a shit. If the rumors of him asking to be killed off are true...then no. He probably scraped together all the fucks he had for this one film.

 

[Veltigar]

Yeah but the scene where he kills Han does have some great imagery. You know the whole thing with Ren was that he was battling his light side, it gets repeated over and over from the beginning to the end of the movie. Lor says it to him, Ren talks about it, Leia says it, it's all about his inner light side. But when he kills Han we see the light go out and the Darkness takes over, literally the sun goes out in that moment and the light leaves the room. It's why JJ left that door open behind Rey and Finn so you could see light die and the sun go out. It's a good shot.

They could have kept the sun dying and all that, only have it happen later no?

Although by Urban Dictionary's definition, Kylo Ren is as much a Goth as he is Emo, and everyone knows Gothic = cool. Just look how well the latest Frankenstein movies have done!

Good one  

Ford's problem is not age, it's whether he actually gives a shit. If the rumors of him asking to be killed off are true...then no. He probably scraped together all the fucks he had for this one film.

 

Still a pretty epic amount  I think most of us would have never guessed him to turn in such a fine performance as Han  

[ab aeterno]

Ford's problem is not age, it's whether he actually gives a shit. If the rumors of him asking to be killed off are true...then no. He probably scraped together all the fucks he had for this one film.

 

Agree that that's the bigger issue, but he'll still be 77 by the time that Episode IX comes out, and his age was showing at times in TFA (especially when he was running with Chewie during the fight with the two space gangs.)

[Werthead]

Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Jojen) was in this? I missed him.

There are seven Game of Thrones actors in the film:

Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Jojen) is in the air traffic control tower on the Star Destroyer. He gets fried by Poe and Finn.

Gwendoline Christie (Brienne) is Captain Phasma, natch.

Max von Sydow (Season 6 character) is Lor San Tekka, the old geezer at the start of the movie.

Miltos Yeromelou (Syrio Forel) is a character in Maz Kanata's bar.

Emun Elliot (Marillion) is an officer in the Resistance base.

Jessica Henwick (Nymeria Sand) is Jessika Pava, an X-wing pilot in Poe Dameron's squadron.

Mark Stanley (Grenn) was one of the Knights of Ren.

 

Also, Last Kingdom fans may have spotted Odda the Younger (Brian Vernel) as the dude who boards Han and Chewie's ship. Several of his henchmen are actors from The Raid and The Raid 2, who apparently filmed some kick-ass martial arts stuff that was dumped for time.

[Fez]

Ford did far better than I expected him to, and had far more screen time than I expected. For the most part the movie was a great send-off for him and the character. I just wish it had been a better death, maybe some sort of sacrificing himself thing, and not getting killed off by that punk.

I thought Kylo Ren was fine as a character and I don't get all the hatred he seems to be causing among people. As I said before though, I just didn't feel the emotional weight of him killing his father when I barely even know him yet and have known Han Solo for decades. If that's the death they wanted Han to have, I think it should've been in VIII; since by that point we'd have gotten to know Kylo Ren better and it would've felt bigger.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I have to admit I was a bit taken aback at how easily they captured Phasma. When she got grabbed by Chewie, I expected a good fight! So I agree with the people who think Phasma was a "Take That!" to all the Boba Fett fanboys who worship him despite the fact he never did anything cool onscreen.

What are you talking about Albert?

Did you miss that scene where Boba told the lacky to put Captain Solo in the cargo hold.....LIKE A BOSS?

Or that scene where he approvingly nodded at Leia.....LIKE A BOSS?

Or that scene where Vader said, "No disintegrations!" to Boba because Vader fears how BOSS Boba is?

Silly Albert. Silly, silly Albert.

[Arkash]

Well, Phasma and the Starkiller station are the two biggest let-down of the movie ! 

Glad the latter is destroyed, hope the first will get more screen-time next time ! (except if she's, as stated, been flushed through the toilet).

[The Reckoner]

Saw it, have to say it was better made than the prequels. Downside is, JJ didn't do anything new with it. This was a rehash of the original Star Wars.

[HexMachina]

Ford's problem is not age, it's whether he actually gives a shit. If the rumors of him asking to be killed off are true...then no. He probably scraped together all the fucks he had for this one film.

 

He was certainly offered plenty of incentive  

[ab aeterno]

He was certainly offered plenty of incentive  

Robert Downer Jr.: "That's cute."

This one sounds less plausible, but: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/avengers--infinity-war-part-1/robert-downey-jr-200-million-salary/

[AndrewJ]

Damn, these threads move fast. I've been traveling the past 4 days and trying to keep up has been a huge undertaking. I've seen the movie two more times now (for a total of 4) and it's still fantastic. So fuck the haters. They saw a movie they didn't like and want to dump shit on. I saw a great movie that's going to kick off an awesome 5-10 years. So... sucks to be them. 

(And to be clear, I'm not referring to those who really liked the movie but had some nit picks. There were a few real haters earlier on - but not too many, thankfully. Haters gonna hate.)

A couple of point I want to mention...

There was a lot of disappointment in the past year or so, that the novels etc didn't really fill us in on what's been happening in the past 30 years. Well, now we know why. This movie was largely driven by those questions and that information clearly had to be left for the movie. Now we'll need to have a lot of the blanks filled in - maybe some of it will be the source of future novels and comics and maybe some/much of it will be left for Episode 8. 

Oh... and remember the pictures that went online following the trailers, contrasting Han 30 years ago talking about "hokey religions are no match for a good blaster at your side" with now saying "It's true. All of it. Jewish, the force... Everything."  Well, people weren't being as clever as they thought - he specifically referenced how he thought it was all a bunch of jumbo previously in the movie.

[Castel]

Agree that that's the bigger issue, but he'll still be 77 by the time that Episode IX comes out, and his age was showing at times in TFA (especially when he was running with Chewie during the fight with the two space gangs.)

Yeah, he could have moved into the role Leia was supposed to occupy (I saw supposed to because she was kinda like ROTS Padme- hoping that things were fixed but not actually doing anything to fix them) but his character is more suited to shenanigans than she is. She can just still be a badass in a boardroom, without Chewie or the ship.

[DaveSumm]

It seems I'm entirely alone, but I was always of the opinion that Gwendoline Christie really can't act and I sincerely hope the helmet stays on for the rest of the trilogy.

ETA: Sorry, it just occurred to me that comes across as derogatory about her looks which wasn't my intent. I just hope the character doesn't have a huge role to play, Phasma doesn't seem to provide much for me.