Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015)

[bearcuborg]

I got into a press screening on Monday, and yes - it is a good movie, not just good for Star Wars. I would say this though, there's nothing that made my jaw drop in terms of - oh my GOD, REALLY?! But, to see it without knowing what happens is ideal of course, if you're a fan anyway.

Some of the humor was a bit off, one scene in particular - and some characters who we've only gotten glimpses of in trailers (or not at all) are short changed - so to wait 2 years for more revelations is gonna be a drag. Kylo is not a one note Maul type, and one has to think that's due in great part to Kasdan. And for a movie that prides itself on practical effects, NO movie will have more CGI in it than Star Wars for the next few months - that said, the CGI was fantastic.

There's also nothing that made me upset with Star Wars cannon like Lucas's goofs in the prequels, but plot wise I had issues with a few things. I'd love to spoiler talk this movie with you guys after this weekend and find out what other SW fans think...

Be safe out there...who knows nowadays.

[Trees]

Fantastic film. I was very surprised, and literally can't wait to see it again. Gone is the nonsense of the prequels. The story is epic in scale, and the action and adventure are on par with the original series. I'm not a fan of Abrams or Disney, but they basically knocked this clear out of the park. There are big emotions here, which was the best surprise of all. "Avatar" is going down for sure. This will make truckloads of money. "Star Wars" fans, you are in for a treat.

[domino harvey]

From what I understand, 4Chan figured out a way to post and upvote covert spoilers to the main page of Reddit, so you may need to get actual work done today and avoid the site til you've seen the film.

And a friendly reminder that any specific posts revealing details best discovered first-hand should of course be spoiler tagged in this thread

[Trees]

Basically if you are reading this post and you are excited about the film and you have not seen any spoilers, I would stay off the internet until you see it. Trolls have managed to drop spoilers all over the internet like landmines.

[TMDaines]

It's actually frustrating to read some of the threads on here when posts and entire discussions have been spoiler tagged to oblivion. You should have free reign in a thread of the film to talk about that film. If you don't want to know anything about it why are you in it? Spoiler tags in my view should be used in order to not spoil off-topic stuff, i.e. Key plot details in other works pertinent to the discussion.

Maybe me being one of the rare football fans who watches the entirety of every single game of his team, and quite often not live, means I'm more used to these types of things.

[jindianajonz]

If you don't want to know anything about it why are you in it?

Aside from the fact that this thread is devoted to the franchise, not just the most recent film, people may want to come here for discussion about the production, interviews with film makers, or spoiler free reviews.

[domino harvey]

Just to be clear, the official Mod position is to spoiler your posts about the new film in this thread, regardless of if it goes against your personal beliefs. The annoyance of having to click a black box to instantly see text is far outweighed by having a film ruined for you.

[swo17]

And if you ruin the movie for a mod, that mod may choose to ruin you.

[Jeff]

It's just about everything that I could have asked for it to be. I think I'd rank it as the third best of the seven films. It's light years ahead of the prequels and is at least as good as Return of the Jedi. The new cast are all very good, and the returning heroes carry the gravitas of 40 years in this story and all of the emotional weight that comes with that. I think that this is probably the best written dialogue of all of the Star Wars films, with more humor than we've come to expect. It suffers a bit in the structure with lots of the character development feeling rushed and too many action and story beats repeated from the original trilogy. None of that bothered me too much though. The movie does its job of creating a compelling new universe that is rooted in all the things we loved about the original trilogy, and that's no small task.

[swo17]

third best of the seven films

Wasn't it pretty much a given that that would be the case?

[Luke M]

Agree with a lot of the praise here. It's a fantastic film. I wasn't sold on Abrams, Star Trek was fun, but its sequel was forgettable. This was light years ahead of anything he's done.

Everything just sorta clicked and worked. There were some issues with pace and plotting that didn't seem to gel with the OT but not too distracting. The new actors, Daisey Ridley and Jon Boyega are damn good.

I recently watched the OT the past couple days and I'm not ready to put this on the same level as Jedi. 4th best Star Wars film and one of the greater films of the year.

[hanshotfirst1138]

third best of the seven films

Wasn't it pretty much a given that that would be the case?

You said it, not me .

[movielocke]

I loved it!

I even loved a lot of the thinks the kiljoys are going to whinge about for two years (I imagine the backlash narrative will center on

Spoiler

too much fan service and references to prior films) but I would argue that it's the foreknowledge and familiarity of those original trilogy things that makes them resonate so much in this film. It's good payoffs, not bad fan service.

I'd ask the mods to watch for spoilers in the first line, as tapatalk just displays the plaintext formatting.

I would also put this in the top three. Jedi is wonderful, mostly, but crippled in parts and poorly written, it's a preview of all the things that went magnificently wrong in the prequels.

I also love that this seems to have reclaimed the flash gorden sense and structure of the serial origins, it felt like a continuation at all times.

God it just works so well!

Daisy ridley is ridiculously great as a lead,

Spoiler

she's like a competent version of ANH Luke! Speaking of, note the wagnerian motifs Daisy gets modified for some of her scenes, and played, should remove all doubts about her parentage.

Loved the earnest and intense sincerity John Boyega brought to the role of Finn, great character.

Spoiler

this film did a lot of plot advancement, two films worth really, should open up the middle film nicely to carry the weight of character development.

[Altair]

Can't wait for Armond's review.

You get what you wish for

Some real gems in there:

Rey’s [Daisy Ridley] competence with weaponry contradicts liberals’ convenient attitudes toward gun control

The Force Awakens is a bread-and-circuses carnival... that is intended to keep millennial audiences docile.

[Finch]

Daisy Ridley was sensational. She was the best thing about the film, along with the BB-8 druid. On the other end of the spectrum, I'm sick to death of Andy Serkis and Anthony Daniels (retire C-3PO already, the character is obnoxious); the Snoke/Snoak character really made my heart sink.

Spoiler

A giant, old version of Gollum, really?

Banter between Han and Chewie was excellent ("You're cold?!") but I was so thrilled by Rey's arc that when the old characters arrived, the film lost me a little for a while (I'd agree there was a bit too much fan service). Kylo Ren was a good villain. I groaned at a twist in the second half but they mostly made up for it with later developments.

Now that they have established the new characters, they can really get the ball rolling in Episode 8 and given that it's scripted and directed by Rian Johnson, who did Ozymandias, the best episode of Breaking Bad, I'm actually very excited for Episode 8, especially if it has no C-3PO and as little as possible of Snoke/Snoak? in it.

Easily better than Jedi which was not necessarily a given, and only slightly inferior to A New Hope. Nothing tops Empire (yet).

By the way, is it just me or does Mark Hamill look a lot like Oliver Reed?

[sir_luke]

She was the best thing about the film, along with the BB-8 druid.

Funny, it doesn't look Druish.

[jojo]

You get what you wish for

Some real gems in there:

Rey’s [Daisy Ridley] competence with weaponry contradicts liberals’ convenient attitudes toward gun control

The Force Awakens is a bread-and-circuses carnival... that is intended to keep millennial audiences docile.

Some good lines, but overall it's more coherent than his very best ones.

I really like this part though:

The Star Wars Generation — that unfortunate rabble primed to see these films at the precise moment they were becoming culturally responsive — are not necessarily the audience the movie brats deserved; they’re spawn of Baby Boomer affluence and narcissism. Star Wars turned their natural curiosity and wonder into self-satisfaction, artificially dependent on media and merchandising (a tragedy also evident in Apple and Pixar evangelism).

[domino harvey]

As a casual viewer of the series, I thought this was fantastic, easily my favorite of the ones I've seen. I agree with Finch and movielocke, Daisy Ridley is a great find and I look forward to the inevitable stardom this role will afford her. The film wisely spends a third of the film giving us some likable and interesting protagonists before shoehorning in all the "Let's Get the Band Back Together Again" moments. I was thankful for seeing this with a packed audience of superfans (the young woman sitting next to me was dressed as Luke and her boyfriend was Yoda, which was pretty cute), because their energy was infectious and helped cue me to certain references I was a step behind on by their vocal responses. But this film is what I thought the original Star Wars was advertised as but never delivered: two and a quarter hours of non-stop serial movie action in the best spirit of Indiana Jones or the Die Hard films. I can't remember the last movie I saw where I immediately wanted to go back and see it again, so I agree, this movie will probably be playing first run theaters until at least Spring Break if not longer. And yes, there are significant, franchise-impacting events which will be spoilered almost immediately in the public consciousness because they're impossible not to talk about, so best to get to this one as soon as you can if you're even a little interested. Search my post history, I don't usually have a lot of praise for these movies, but believe this: Star Wars: the Force Awakens is one of the best films of the year.

[hearthesilence]

Nick Pinkerton published a remark that was echoed independently by several other friends:

Audience applause when familiar characters first showed up in The Force Awakens reminded me of later seasons of Married... with Children.

[hearthesilence]

Also saw this being posted around the web. Kind of crazy that Disney is now in control of 99% of mainstream pop culture:

[domino harvey]

Wake up, sheeple!

[lacritfan]

Saw the first one in 1977 when I was ten. Waiting for Empire and Jedi three years in between was absolute torture (1,000 times worse than new releases not being announced on the 15th). Then the prequels (and the marketing saturation for this one) soured me to the point I was planning on waiting until next year sometime. With all the spoiler danger cropping up decided to brave the crowds and see the first show. Haven't felt that ten year-old in me in a long time. Refreshing to have such a well written and acted strong female lead. My biggest complaint is Adam Driver, damn I wish they could've found someone better.

[domino harvey]

My biggest complaint is Adam Driver, damn I wish they could've found someone better.

Spoiler

I dunno, I can't think of any actor better suited to play a petulant, shame-inducing son! Driver's usual persona here and elsewhere makes him a pretty easy guy to hate, but he seems well-suited for this role. He's not menacing in a vague yet direct way like Vader, he's a twerp with deadly powers and poor social skills, a volatile mix!

[flyonthewall2983]

Haven't seen it yet but I found this funny.

[domino harvey]

Mark Kermode echoes my own feelings as a non-fan of the series in his effusive on-air review. As a fellow "skeptic," I agree that it was nice to finally get what others saw in the previous films in this one. Utterly spoiler free, at least in the video itself. Don't scroll down to read the comments, just in case.