Star Wars Episode VIII: The Force Rolls out of Bed and Stretches [Ep VII Spoilers]

[The BlackBear]

37 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Surprising they did not add subtitles  

Ah he toned it down.

Hoping Han doesn't appear as a force ghost, you kind of need you know the force. Having him show up would devalue it. What's the time limit on a force ghost sticking around? ObiWan's voice was in the film at the end of the dream sequence, so he's presumably still faintly around.

The 'Rey' bit is Alec Guinness (cut down from Af-rai-d) and 'these are your first steps' is McGregor.

[ab aeterno]

Not sure how convinced I am of the veracity of the purported script leak, but I actually kinda like the story it outlines. Even if I did cringe at first.

I could live with that being the story.

[Kalbear]

Veracity is probably inaccurate given it leaves out at least one major character that we know about (Laura Dern). That said...

Spoiler

I kind of love the idea that Rey is a reincarnation of the chosen one. I like Finn getting punked. I like Luke and Rey running off to save Finn. 

 

[ab aeterno]

2 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Veracity is probably inaccurate given it leaves out at least one major character that we know about (Laura Dern). That said...

  Reveal hidden contents

I kind of love the idea that Rey is a reincarnation of the chosen one. I like Finn getting punked. I like Luke and Rey running off to save Finn. 

 

Yeah, I thought the plot beats seemed pretty good. A lot of it fit with bits and pieces I've heard before, but that could be causational. 

I suppose it depends on how major a character Dern plays, because we heard lots about Max von Sydow before TFA, and he had, by my count, about 90 seconds of screen time.

The rumour on this link about Dern's character might fit with the purported leak, but like you say, I'm not betting on it being accurate. Obviously potential spoilers on the link, guys.

[Astromech]

That is similar to an article I read stating

Spoiler

Leia is injured and in a coma and Dern takes command of the resistance. Dern's character is supposedly quite gray and at odds with Poe, who seizes control of the resistance from her.

Here's the article: http://www.latino-review.com/news/star-wars-laura-dern-and-leia-in-episode-viii  I'm skeptical of all rumors circulating at this point, but also love speculating. That article also has some photos from Dubrovnik. Not a fan of some of those costumes if they are genuine.

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Astromech said:

That is similar to an article I read stating

  Hide contents

Leia is injured and in a coma and Dern takes command of the resistance. Dern's character is supposedly quite gray and at odds with Poe, who seizes control of the resistance from her.

Here's the article: http://www.latino-review.com/news/star-wars-laura-dern-and-leia-in-episode-viii  I'm skeptical of all rumors circulating at this point, but also love speculating. That article also has some photos from Dubrovnik. Not a fan of some of those costumes if they are genuine.

Hmmm... I dunno.  Seems a lot more CGI heavy than what we had with TFA.  That would be a major step backwards IMHO.

[Astromech]

Yeah, those pics give me a bad prequel vibe. I hope they are fakes.

[AndrewJ]

No no no no no no. Will.. not... look...

 

[The Mother of The Others]

So I finally saw it, and now I'm gonna try to be as scathing as that sun-killer laser weapon:

Really, as soon as they showed the bad jedi's helmet, the movie was over.    Right there, you knew.   That guy looked dumber than me.

Nobody with a storytelling vision worth a damn would choose that headwear as the defining visual for the movie.   The justification seemed to be, "He's just an ordinary guy sith, a smuggler's son, not an ego-driven snappy dresser with a claim to greatness like Vader & Maul & Sideous were, so he uses a regular Joe helmet," ..... then the movie shouldn't have been made.  I don't want to see a Joe Sith movie.   I want to see the ritzy grandeur of the Darkness.  And was hoping to see the Awakening of something Bright as well.  Yet the force did nothing.   Some woman realized she's a Jedi.  That's not really anything, because.... every movie has force-feeling pervs feeling that force.   I wanted new content, not simply Abrams hiding behind a re-staging of "safe" things we've already seen from the series.  This was a regurgitation of all things Star Wars that passed itself off as a new chapter.

Even the jedi-girl's phrasing when she used mind tricks mimicked Obi-Wan & Luke's words so much that I thought she was being remotely controlled by Luke at one point in the torture room.  That would have been BETTER, actually, than having her suddenly know how to do mind control in the exact way trained jedi do it.  Same with the sword-fighting.  It would have been better if she didn't have journeyman level "skills" during the fight but rather "lucked" her way through it until it became obvious to the sith that fate had spoken, that the force had chosen her and was guiding her hand, and that he should bow out of the fight and reconsider his life choices.   If he had thrown down his weapon in awe and now wanted to mold her as a sith because she was suddenly a precious commodity in the universe, that would have been a refreshing way to go.  Fight broken up by reverence.  "Do you know what you are!?!?!"   Etc.

It would have been better if the supreme commander actually was as big as he appeared, but then they revealed it was just a size-boosting hologram, turning that into a zero.  It's like the Sith have been watered down and diluted and turned into something mundane like Old World Chicago Land Lords Of The Galaxy.   Ewww.   No appeal.  That guy who had like 20 lines about, "Prepare to fire the weapon!"  could have been used to reveal all sorts of more interesting things about the Order.  .... Planet killers again.  Yuck.  NO  SOUL,  ABRAMS.   And if the Republic is blown up with finality then the Resistance is doubly pointless (as is the movie), both for being a repeat of Leia's earlier role (a LONG wait to see.... Redundance!), and also the resistance is pointless now because there's nothing to fight for.   That's a dumb movie.   If the justification for blowing up the Senate world is so some new planets & species can assert themselves and be a breath of fresh air.... then show some hint of that!!!!!   Breathe some of that fresh air!!!!  But we saw no hint of that.   (Movie shouldn't have been made).   

Did you notice how odd it was that the neo-sith used Light to destroy worlds and yet the Force didn't step in at all to say, "Oh no you don't, bee-otches!  The Light is Mine!"   A better Star Wars concept would have brought in Luke to "turn" the Light back to his side of the force, CAPITALIZING ON HOW WE WERE SHOWN THAT FORCE POWER OF STOPPING A LASER BLAST AT THE START OF THE FILM!!!!!!

See, J.J.?    I've spent 10 minutes brainstorming, and I've got a better product.   Damn you.

The sunkiller weapon was so big and powerful that it killed Star Wars.

The victimization of Star Trek has been repeated in a galaxy far far away.

 

[The BlackBear]

I don't agree.

[The Mother of The Others]

that's fine.    people obviously enjoyed it in droves.

the hungry aliens aboard Han's ship were fun.

some of the Fin banter was funny.  

[felice]

1 hour ago, The Mother of The Others said:

A better Star Wars concept would have brought in Luke to "turn" the Light back to his side of the force, CAPITALIZING ON HOW WE WERE SHOWN THAT FORCE POWER OF STOPPING A LASER BLAST AT THE START OF THE FILM!!!!!!

Ooh... now that would have been interesting. Size matters not. Instead of watching some random planet get blown up (mysteriously visible from the surface of another planet light years away), have the Star Killer target the Resistance's planet, and have the blast stopped and dissipated at the last second. Then they need to take out the Star Killer before it finishes charging up to fire again, because Luke will be too exhausted to pull that trick again any time soon. Dump the map nonsense; once Luke has revealed himself this way, Leia and Rey will be able to sense where they need to go to find him. And we now have some idea of why a lone Jedi hermit is such a big deal.

[DunderMifflin]

Finally watched this.

So many geekboy questions.

What government is running the galaxy?

There's the First Order.

Then there's still the Republic and the Resistence, which I guess are the same thing?

What's going on in Coruscant?  Is that First Order or Republic or what?

 

 

 

[Davrum]

On 4/22/2016 at 0:42 PM, The Mother of The Others said:

the hungry aliens aboard Han's ship were fun.

Ooof, I though that was the most mindless scene in a film that's not exactly overflowing with genius.

[felice]

42 minutes ago, DunderMifflin said:

What government is running the galaxy? What's going on in Coruscant?  Is that First Order or Republic or what?

The galaxy is split between the Republic and the First Order. The Resistance is operating in First Order territory with unofficial support from some factions within the Republic. Coruscant doesn't feature at all; the planet that gets blown up is an entirely different heavily built-up planet where the senate meets. None of this is actually made clear in the film.

[DunderMifflin]

So Coruscant is First Order territory?

Or nobody knows or what?

[The BlackBear]

It's not stated I don't think, but I think there are other factions, they just weren't pertinent to the story in 7. With the main planets of the Rebublic doing their best impression of asteroid belts, they'll likely fragment further. We know for instance Benicio Del Toro is playing a dictator who takes over the remnants of the Republic.

[Argonath Diver]

I thought the rolly-polly aliens were by far, by far, the worst part of the movie. And I'd say I have more beefs with the film than the average Star Wars fan. Too bad, since the scene featured a Scottish space pirate and the Raid guys. 

[DunderMifflin]

It was only slightly worse than I expected. 

I didn't expect it to be almost a scene by scene remake of A New Hope. That was a little much.

[Howdyphillip]

47 minutes ago, DunderMifflin said:

It was only slightly worse than I expected. 

I didn't expect it to be almost a scene by scene remake of A New Hope. That was a little much.

You watched the wrong movie then, because TFA was most certainly not what you are describing. It was however, a Star Wars movie, in essence a hero's journey. It is a really, really old tale. It happens to be told exceptionally well here by JJ Abrams.