Star Wars Episode VII THE SPOILERS AWAKEN

[Rockroi]

I thought this article about Harrison Ford and the Han Solo role was interesting.  It seems like he was pretty invested in it at least through ESB and then turned on it as he got more successful.

Ford was always the "problem child" of the original cast.  

After the success of ANH, both Fisher and Hamil signed on for two more movies.  Not Ford. He signed on just for one.  People opine that this was largely the reason for Solo getting frozen in carbonite; that it was a safe "out" in case Ford didn't sign on for a third movie and they could simply kill off Han.  .  

There were also rumors that Ford wanted to be killed in the third installment.

There is no question that by the time Jedi took off, Ford was 1) sick of SW and 2) knew he could transcend the movies (something Fisher, Hamil and most of the other cast members could not do)   Ford knew he could get bigger roles on my diverse projects.  IIRC, he is the only member of the cast to get an Oscar nod (for Witness.  Guinness had a nomination, but it preceded the saga).  

Although I have NO proof of this, I bet that Ford only agreed to do the movie IF 1) he got top billing, 2) he got the bulk of screen time and 3) he died (mostly so they would stop asking him).  He went three-for-three.  

[Spring Bass]

I don't think you need much proof. Ford's shown in the interviews he's done on the Force Awakens that he cares very little about the character or the series. 

I can't entirely blame him, either. He did a cheesy space movie* back in the 1970s and two more in the 1980s, and then it's shaped how people look at and treat him for the rest of his life despite a gigantic film career since then. 

* I've heard the apocryphal story that Hamill asked Lucas after the garbage compactor scene in ANH "Wait, shouldn't I still be wet and covered by garbage?" and Ford said, "Relax, it's not that kind of movie". 

[Spring Bass]

Did anyone else have no  trailers before seeing the film come on? That happened at the theater I went to. Literally the theater went dark, and it went straight to the premier feature with no trailers or "turn off your cell phone" warnings. 

[Rockroi]

Did anyone else have no  trailers before seeing the film come on? That happened at the theater I went to. Literally the theater went dark, and it went straight to the premier feature with no trailers or "turn off your cell phone" warnings. 

My theater had about a half-hour of trailers.  Had there been any more trailers I was afraid ne of them was going to be for the next star wars movie.  

[Slurktan]

There is no question that by the time Jedi took off, Ford was 1) sick of SW and 2) knew he could transcend the movies (something Fisher, Hamil and most of the other cast members tedcould not do)   Ford knew he could get bigger roles on my diverse projects.  IIRC, he is the only member of the cast to get an Oscar nod (for Witness.  Guinness had a nomination, but it preceded the saga).  

So you know Guiness got nominated FOR Star Wars right? Plus he had a nomination after Star Wars and of course he actually won the Best Actor award and wasnt just nominated for Bridge over the River Kwai.  It seriously takes 5 seconds to google that genius.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

Eh. Walter Matthau would've been a better fit.

 http://tidbot.com/link/31791

[alguien]

I agree that's why they're funding the Resistance, but I'm not sure how covertly you can blow up a planet and four moons.  Y

Hah! Very true. I should have clarified that I meant before blowing up all those planets.

[HexMachina]

Did anyone else have no  trailers before seeing the film come on? That happened at the theater I went to. Literally the theater went dark, and it went straight to the premier feature with no trailers or "turn off your cell phone" warnings. 

We got a fair few trailers, but they were all very disappointing. Batman v Superman trailer was particularly atrocious on the big screen

[Arataniello]

I only noticed one small case of lens flare during the entire movie - I think it was when Ren sent the stormtrooper into the ?reactor to fin Han and Chewie, who were setting the charges.  We got a shot of Kylo Ren from behind with some lens flare at the top of the screen.

There was have been more of course, but I was probably enjoying the movie so much that I missed them.

[DaveSumm]

 

Well  Rey has to be someones daughter she was born after all, and the whole random gifted person thing has been done, in fact you seem to want to replace one trope with an even bigger trope. I'm the mocking Jay, I am Divergent, I am Bella from Twilight welcome to the scorch trials Harry Potter because this is the Enders Game. Yeah can't get enough of that none lazy totally original formula. I would take Rey as the legacy of Solo and Skywalker any day how does it even matter if she is this Hollywood formula or that. Neither are original, At least Rey can continue on the name of the greatest Scruffy Scoundrel that ever lived which actually adds depth rather than Hi I am Bella Potter and I am the special, again. I have no problem with her continuing the legacy of those characters and continuing their names. How exactly does the totally random hero really change or make anything better? It's Original how exactly? Instead of Star Wars we can call it the Hunger Wars trials The Emo Awakens, because it is just so horrible having to be the child of Princess Leia and Han Solo? The Star Wars family legacy thing goes all the way back to the beginning, that is pretty much the main theme of the story. But the random special done in every other Hollywood teen movie is not lazy at all somehow to you? I got it how about we name Rey, Bella and we can call Kylo, Edward, he has Emo covered and she can be the oh so original random special. Then she can spend the next three movies being a mope while all the other characters talk about how great she is for basically being a selfish emo brat who thinks the universe revolves around her but she is also the key because of the random special which has not been beaten to death and is totally not lazy writing.

Rey is special, it's okay if it happens to run in her family. At least she is fun with a good personality, unlike some of the random heroes I know and you can see what she got from mom and dad and what she is doing that is all her. Yeah I have no problem with it, the fact you want to replace one trope with a far more common and over used trope and somehow think that it would be not lazy seems a bit strange to me. But hey don't worry you will probably get a random hero movie soon enough. Kung Fu Panda three is out in like a month. Fifty shades of Black, oh boy random S&M hero, and probably any teen emo action drama that is in the works.

Plus you got Finn who is a random hero and special in his own way. Han was not gifted but no less special to the series than Luke and far more loved.

Wow, long post for such a small point. So you're giving us no choice between reusing the 'I'm secretly a relative' trope for the third time (fourth if you count Leia), or the one you described? Look, I'm not saying she has to be The Prophecied Greatest Jedi Ever or anything, just that there were other Jedi's back in the day who weren't related to Anakin. Can't she just be someone who would make a good Jedi, like any of the other people throughout history who got picked to be trained as a Jedi? And if you still think that's unoriginal, then you're essentially saying there's no original way for there to ever be Jedi's again. Either people occasionally are born strong with the force, or they're offspring, or we don't have Jedi's ever again.

 

I'm hoping for half of the mind-wipe theory that people have explained: perhaps she was discovered by Luke, trained, and became embroiled with the whole Ren-turns-to-dark-side thing and needed to be mind wiped (which by the way, I'm assuming there's some previous example of in SW lore? We haven't just invented that power have we?) but isn't descended from any of our characters.

 

Unrelated; I can't believe people are saying Ren wasn't successful, I think he's the best villain in the franchise. He showed more conflict in the single scene on the walkway than Lucas managed to muster out of Christenson in three entire films that were supposed to be about exactly that conflict.