Star Wars Episode VII THE SPOILERS AWAKEN

[ab aeterno]

I thought it was funny how Kylo can take a hit from Chewie's blaster (that they seemed to stress earlier in the film was quite powerful) and still be able to walk and fight. Meanwile an armored stormtrooper gets hit and they're done. Why do they even wear the armor? It's been established it can't even protect them from Ewok thrown rocks.

I guess it's for appearance's sake. They look uniform, unfeeling, unrelenting, etc. And you have to admit, those uniforms look awesome.

[Kalbear]

Saw it again. It was just as good. I kept happily waiting for the fun lines and the great looks.

Carrie fisher remains the most unfortunate part of the movie. I love that she's a general. I love that she's still trying to get her son and her brother back. But Carrie is just messed up somehow, and I don't know how. She seemed like she was barely there. It didn't help that most of her scenes are with ford, who had his best performance in 30 years.

The vision sequence is going to be amazing come DVD time. There are a ton of sound clips being played through it. Some Yoda and luke quotes from tesb, some quotes from obi wan, some possible quotes from someone else I've never heard. There's a lot to freeze frame and replay.

Also I didn't notice the first time that during the rey/kylo interrogation scene he pulls out an image of an island in the middle of the ocean...which is where luke is, but not anything rey has actually seen up to this point.

[A True Kaniggit]

So was the republic planet they destroyed supposed to be Coruscant? I don't think it is, but they really could've done better with the scale of the Galaxy. 

Like why would a republic spanning thousands of systems only have one fleet? And once again the resistance only had 20 fighters. And then after losing the super weapon the first order didn't go ahead and use their star destroyers to end the resistance since you now know where their base is  

I really enjoyed the movie. But I can't help but let these things bother me.

 

 

[dooog]

Carrie fisher remains the most unfortunate part of the movie. I love that she's a general. I love that she's still trying to get her son and her brother back. But Carrie is just messed up somehow, and I don't know how. She seemed like she was barely there. It didn't help that most of her scenes are with ford, who had his best performance in 30 years.

Her inability to move her face was unfortunate. This will sound harsh but... she was so caked in makeup she looked artificial, it reminded me of how undertakers present the recently deceased at an open casket wake.

[ab aeterno]

So was the republic planet they destroyed supposed to be Coruscant?

No, off the top of my head I can't remember the name of the sector they said was destroyed, but it wasn't that one.

[felice]

My other main complaint is that alien lady having Luke's lightsaber and then handwaving it away with basically "you'll have to wait for that anthology film." I mean he dropped it into a gas giant right?

He dropped it into a shaft in the middle of Cloud City; I don't think there was any indication that it was open at the bottom. So his hand might have been sucked into a tube in the wall like he was himself not long after, and ended up who knows where, or it might have landed at the bottom of the shaft. Either way, somebody found it, and Maz eventually acquired it. Not something that the movie really needed to spend any more time on.

For a second or so, I genuinely thought Rey was going to decapitate Kylo Ren. 

Me too.

Why do they even wear the armor? It's been established it can't even protect them from Ewok thrown rocks.

And now we know it doesn't even protect them against gas weapons.

The other big problem was the level of coincidence. BB-8 just happens to run into the only known potential Jedi in the galaxy, who just happens to live next to the Falcon, and Han and Chewie just happen to run into it within hours after being separated from it for years, just as some of Han's angry business associates turn up, and Han just happens to take them to where Rey can acquire a lightsaber, just as the new superweapon comes online... Compare to A New Hope, where R2 is actively sent to find Ben, and picks up Luke (essentially his neighbour, for non-coincidental reasons) on the way, they hire some strangers to transport them to Alderaan, but get there too late, because their journey was set in motion by the same events that lead to the planet's destruction...

This wasn't as bad as JJ's Star Trek films, but it was bad in similar ways.

[Relic]

 

The other big problem was the level of coincidence. BB-8 just happens to run into the only known potential Jedi in the galaxy, who just happens to live next to the Falcon, and Han and Chewie just happen to run into it within hours after being separated from it for years, just as some of Han's angry business associates turn up, and Han just happens to take them to where Rey can acquire a lightsaber, just as the new superweapon comes online... Compare to A New Hope, where R2 is actively sent to find Ben, and picks up Luke (essentially his neighbour, for non-coincidental reasons) on the way, they hire some strangers to transport them to Alderaan, but get there too late, because their journey was set in motion by the same events that lead to the planet's destruction...

This wasn't as bad as JJ's Star Trek films, but it was bad in similar ways.

The only way to look at it without thinking it's all totally contrived is to believe the Force guided the sequence of events. 

[Werthead]

So was the republic planet they destroyed supposed to be Coruscant? I don't think it is, but they really could've done better with the scale of the Galaxy. 

 No.

This is, by far, the biggest failing of the film. It's some random nearby Republic system, but not Coruscant.

[ab aeterno]

The only way to look at it without thinking it's all totally contrived is to believe the Force guided the sequence of events. 

Yeah, pretty sure this is the answer they'd give. There is no such thing as luck/coincidence. There is only the will of The Force. 

[Kalbear]

Dunno. The star wars stories have always been pretty contrivance laden. How would r2 end up getting to ben? And why do the Droids end up with anakins son in the first place? Hell, if that r2 unit didn't have a bad motivator r2 wouldn't be any where near anyone.

Or in tesb, where the hoth system has a massive asteroid field right near it and then cloud city near that?

I agree it's pretty insane, and if I think about it too much it bugs. But not that badly.

[Werthead]

Dunno. The star wars stories have always been pretty contrivance laden. How would r2 end up getting to ben?

Leia is heading to Obi-Wan to recruit him and gets intercepted at the last minute. This is pretty well-explained in the film.

And why do the Droids end up with anakins son in the first place? Hell, if that r2 unit didn't have a bad motivator r2 wouldn't be any where near anyone.

True, but that's a failing of the prequels more than TOT.

Or in tesb, where the hoth system has a massive asteroid field right near it and then cloud city near that?

 The Bespin system is actually far off from the Hoth system. The Falcon (allegedly) has a backup, much slower hyperspace system compared to the main one.

[Relic]

Yeah, pretty sure this is the answer they'd give. There is no such thing as luck/coincidence. There is only the will of The Force. 

And I'm fine with that. It's a fairy tale, after all. 

[The King in Black]

 

The other big problem was the level of coincidence. BB-8 just happens to run into the only known potential Jedi in the galaxy, who just happens to live next to the Falcon, and Han and Chewie just happen to run into it within hours after being separated from it for years, just as some of Han's angry business associates turn up, and Han just happens to take them to where Rey can acquire a lightsaber, just as the new superweapon comes online... Compare to A New Hope, where R2 is actively sent to find Ben, and picks up Luke (essentially his neighbour, for non-coincidental reasons) on the way, they hire some strangers to transport them to Alderaan, but get there too late, because their journey was set in motion by the same events that lead to the planet's destruction...

This wasn't as bad as JJ's Star Trek films, but it was bad in similar ways.

Internet's favorite theory for now is Luke was shaping things indirectly. This, frankly, seems more like wanting to fulfill the desire of having Luke play a bigger part in the movie. I mean if he is really so powerful now, why not do something more, like prevent Han's death ? Or the destruction of those planets ? I accept that there are logical explanations for this too (he is powerful, not THAT powerful ) but I really doubt that's the case. More likely it will be explained away as 'THE FORCE !!!' or not at all

[A True Kaniggit]

No, off the top of my head I can't remember the name of the sector they said was destroyed, but it wasn't that one.

 

 No.

This is, by far, the biggest failing of the film. It's some random nearby Republic system, but not Coruscant.

yeah. I didn't think so. The fact that the republic only has one fleet that is for some reason stationed at this out of the way planet is really sad.

Also I think they would've been a lot better off making the super weapon the sun crusher. 

[ab aeterno]

And I'm fine with that. It's a fairy tale, after all. 

Yeah, that's my feeling really. Same with things like the sun popping back out of Starkiller Base (with no consequences,) and the Falcon managing to go from lightspeed to not crashing in the space of a few hundred feet. Star Wars has always been as much fantasy as sci-fi.

[Kalbear]

Wert, I understand that the plan was to have r2 get to ben - but how would you expect to actually get there? He crashes in the middle of the desert, gets taken by jawas, gets sold and almost doesn't. It's hugely lucky that r2 even survives, much less gets the restraining bolt off him.

And even if the prequels make it more implausible, the Droids ending up with anakins son is insane.

[Ramsay B.]

The only way to look at it without thinking it's all totally contrived is to believe the Force guided the sequence of events. 

That's pretty much what I chose to believe the whole time.

Anyways, it was good but I wasn't blown away like I wanted to be.  I didn't mind most of the nitpicks I've read here or the fact that it was incredibly similar to ANH, but it just seemed to be missing something. Not having a Vader-type bad guy hurts and I'm not too impressed with Kylo Ren, or Driver, like most seem to be. I definitely have to watch it again because my expectations were obviously ridiculous, even know I tried to fight it.

[the Greenleif Stark]

Carrie Fisher.....she's got some city miles on her, that voice, sounding like a pack a day. That was a big disappointment

[felice]

And even if the prequels make it more implausible, the Droids ending up with anakins son is insane.

They're trying to get to Ben, and Ben is there because he's keeping an eye on Anakin's son. Assuming R2 was able to direct the escape pod to the right general area (not a random crash), the Lars farm would be the closest potential buyer for the Jawas to visit. They're lucky the Jawas were heading towards the farm rather than away from it, but that's 50/50 odds, not finding a needle in a haystack lightyears wide. And R2 and Threepio were probably in better condition than any of the other merchandise; under normal circumstances, quality robots are unlikely to be abandoned for scavengers to pick up, so it's not that strange for the Lars family to pick them. And if they hadn't been sold there, they'd likely be sold somewhere else nearby, and R2 would still run off to find Ben at the earliest opportunity, and Ben would visit the Lars homestead to ask for a lift to Mos Eisley. By this point the news of Alderaan's destruction would have gotten out, making it likely Luke and his aunt and uncle would see that helping the rebellion is more important than moisture farming. Events would proceed somewhat differently - Leia's already been terminated, Han isn't around so they hire a different ship, they don't visit the Death Star and the Empire doesn't know where to find the rebel base - but it's not an inherently disastrous change. Whereas any break in the chain of coincidence in Force Awakens means the Resistance have no info on the Starkiller and their planet gets blown up.

[Kalbear]

But the star killer wasn't going to be used on the resistance. The only reason it was was so that they could stop the resistance from finding Skywalker.

And how would r2 know where to go? He doesn't have the location of the rebel base. Only leia has that. If leia dies the rebels are fucked. If r2 doesn't get picked by Owen he's likely fucked too.

Han and chewie and the Falcon don't need to show up at all actually. If rey and Finn don't get caught by han, they go right to the rebel base. Bb8 is known and poe survived. If anything han screws things up more. The first order wouldn't know where they were heading, they wouldn't know the base, rey would be able to wake up r2 and they'd be able to find luke without the b order being any wiser.