Joel and I give our thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Wakes Up Slightly but then Falls Back Asleep.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Rant
Joel and I give our thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Wakes Up Slightly but then Falls Back Asleep.
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I was able to see it opening day at the Uptown Theater in Washington DC, which is just 1 theater with a huge screen. the whole entire place was packed since 8:00 AM from what I was told, and by the time we finished eating dinner, we had to stand in line freezing our asses off. but damn it was worth it.
from watching it, I started to notice more than just throwbacks to the original films. a lot of the elements in this film were inspired by sources from the Expanded Universe without directly using them. Ben Solo turning to the dark side is based on Jacen Solo’s story (in which Luke’s son was named Ben instead of Han’s), the New Republic, the Starkiller (which is not only the name of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice from TFU but also the original name of Luke Skywalker during ANH’s pre-production), the Starkiller using other resources (in this case a star) as it’s fuel is very similar to the World Devastators from Dark Empire (which is also the final level in Rogue Squadron), Luke’s long beard is very similar to his old man look in later EU stories, Kylo Ren’s helmet is similar to Darth Revan, and so on.
overall, I really liked this new Star Wars film. for me, it’s easily a contender for my most favorite movie of the year along with Mad Max Fury Road, The Martian, & Bridge Of Spies.
Spoiler Alert: Did anyone else think that the movie was poking fun at prequel Anakin a bit when Kylo Ren was having his hissy fits and/or crying during the film? Don’t get me wrong, prequel Anakin deserves it, but still. 😛 And did they put prequel Padme’s Charm in the same box as the lightsaber? I thought I saw it, but I wasn’t sure. End Spoiler.
no, I didn’t. I just assumed that Kylo Ren’s story was mostly identical to the fall of Jacen Solo just with a few tweaks here & there. I never found any connections between Kylo Ren & Anakin Skywalker mainly because Kylo Ren is just an unstable brat while Anakin Skywalker was a psycho who was just a bad apple from the start. most people seem to be trying to find similarities to the older films, but I’m the only one who drawing inspired connections to traces from the Expanded Universe. and instead of Luke & Mara Jade’s son Ben Skywalker training Jacen and falling to the dark side, we have Luke Skywalker training Ben Solo who fell to the dark side. however, if they reveal in the sequel that Rey is Kylo Ren’s sister than I’m done with Star Wars. why? because it will eventually make the new canon meaningless if they pull off that kind of laziness with plot recycling, making the original EU canon relevant and everything else they tried to change utterly pointless. whether or not this new film draws any comparisons to the older films is, I can’t say nor do I care. I enjoyed this new film just fine as it is, and the fact that we actually have character development and new characters that we as an audience actually care about, that’s already worth it. all I can say is that I hope they will get smarter & remain original by the next film in order for these new Star Wars films to stay relevant.
I think the problem is, you assume anyone apart from hardcore SW fanboys even knows the many contradictory books, comics, games and all that is the expanded universe. I knew Han and Leia had kids, and they became Jedi, but that’s all.
Heck, this movie was so predictable I bet Rey is Luke’s daughter, too.
Btw, who was the old guy Kylo kills at the beginning? Were we supposed to know him from somewhere?
the old man at the beginning was Max Von Sydow. as of his character, I have no idea who he was. even if everyone doesn’t automatically everything about the EU, I just think comparing the new film to the older films is getting old really fast & it just comes across as pure nitpicking. does it ruin the film for me? of course not. let’s face it, the entire series is built upon repetition. hell, you can even make a drinking game for every single time someone does something in all 7 films. none of the films are perfect, is this news to everyone? we kind of knew what we were expecting when we bought our ticket. and you know what? it’s still a good movie even with it’s obvious plot twists because it not only had actual character development, but it manages to respect it’s original source material in a way where most movies that came out this year that tried to bank of nostalgia & failed. most nostalgia based sequels in 2015 were either a throw back to the original film but with bland characters (take that Jurassic World), trying to be different in the worst way possible (take that Terminator Genisys), or in a rare exception was one of the best action films in recent history which btw was made by a grandpa (god bless you Mad Max Fury Road). Star Wars is nostalgia done right.
as far as Ray possibly being Luke’s daughter, I’d rather accept that than having yet another ESB reveal of Ray being Ren’s sister. whether or not it uses the original films or small traces of the EU to tell it’s story is rather insignificant because I enjoyed it even with those connections. a lot of my worries has thankfully been debunked. it gave the fans exactly what they wanted, and at the end of the day, that’s all that it needed to be. the only thing that concerns me at this point is if they will manage to keep the future films on the right track. because let’s really be honest here folks, this is already a very tough act to follow.
at this point, I’m perfectly fine with Disney & Lucasfilm using the original films & the EU as a template for telling their story. as long as they don’t over do it by lazily copy & pasting certain vehicles, stories, & characters that already exist, renaming them, calling it their own, and call it a day. if they avoid doing stupid crap like that, then I have no problems with it whatsoever.
JOHNNY CAGE! Good to see Joel Adams again.
Coming from someone who watched only the spoiler-less portion of the video as of this posting, I’m glad to know this isn’t a rant as in the movie is bad or disappointing, or anything. Even if I wouldn’t see the movie very soon that would still be bad news for me. I quite like Star Wars…
I liked the movie, but it felt like a re-thread of episode IV. Same story elements, we have a new Vader, a bigger Death Star, Finn is Han Solo and even has his “I will go away and then change my mind” moment, while Rey is our Luke and Leia mixed into one. Heck, when Han told the others they needed to separate, I knew what was coming, hell Kylo Ren uses the same words Vader used when meeting Ben. Oh and Poe was basically Biggs.
This, and the maddening way the movie never explains anything. HOW did this First Order get this powerful, when the Empire was defeated? Wouldn’t all planets suddenly unite and destroy and up-and-coming new Emperors? Why doesn’t the republic have an armada of battleships to send, instead of a bunch of old model X-wings? Oh, because the first movie only had fighters, I see…
Speaking of which, the hilariously named Leader Snoke is so badly trying to be Palpatine 2.0… even has a deformed face. And Kylo Ren is Anakin 2.0, being even more whiny. Hell, hard to take this guy seriously considering how he looks, he is just… emo-looking.
All in all had a lot of humour and was fun to watch, but I feel JJ Abrams was going through the motions in recreating episode IV, same thing he did with Star Trek.
Yeah, the villains and their backstory were really not well fleshed out here. I think Abrams was trying to make the anti-prequels in a lot of ways, and heard all the complaints about the lengthy speeches and exposition dumps and was determined to avoid that at the cost of maybe a little needed character development for the villains…
Yeah, Snoke is a stupid name, and he looked that fakey CG white Orc from the Hobbit movies…extremely unconvincing CG…which sucked because the CG for most of the film was actually pretty good and unobtrusive. (yes I know he was a hologram, but it looked like a hologram of an obvious CG creature)
If the prequels are excommunicated from continuity, Episode IV is now Episode I. 😛
I agree with the rant, and some posters that the biggest flaw was that the Force Awakens played it way too safe by retreading many plot elements from the original Star Wars trilogy.
One other big complaint was that Ray(sp?) was a bit of a Mary Sue. I have no problem with strong female characters, but this girl was tough and independent, a good mechanic, a natural with a blaster once she turned off the safety, an excellent pilot, clever and quick thinking…and oh yeah…she’s an awesome Jedi with almost no training.
Final complaint: The villains just weren’t that interesting or well fleshed out.
Otherwise I really liked the film. Great pacing, good supporting cast, and a much more gritty feel akin to Empire Strikes back that very much put aside the clean, overly CG reliant, bland deco look of the prequels. I want to see what comes next, though while the prequels explained everything until you stopped caring, I would like a little more back-story on the Order and how they came to be.
Let’s see if the next one suffers Disney Sequelitis. Disney Sequels are pretty much on par with bootlegs in quality. & since Disney threatened to stale the series by releasing a new movie every year like Ubisoft does with Assassin’s Creed, well…….
I’m not seeing this movie until it’s just about to get booted from theaters…I catch a cold every single time I got to a packed theater. Anyway, from what I’m hearing sofar, this movie is aimed at pleasing fans of the original (why couldn’t JEM do that? WHY?) & the #1 criticism is that it’s a complete plot recycle of A New Hope? Speaking of pleasing the fans….I know you’re going to have a hard time believing this, but Bay’s TMNT 2 trailer looks like it’s actually aiming to please fans of the 80s cartoon.
Do yourself a favor, and see The Force Awakens with an open mind.
There is way more “good stuff” then “bad stuff” and sadly, they really did have to play it safe for this entry to “reboot” everything after the prequels.
For all the criticisms, it feels like Star Wars, it’s got good new characters, and it moves along at a nice pace. I’d go see it again, and I am not a huge Star Wars fanboy by any means (though I love sci-fi and fantasy in general)
For a so-called “Rant” you guys seem very unenthusiastic and half asleep your selves.
I thought the movie was great. Left us with a lot of questions and answered some as well. It felt like a Star Wars movie and I’m glad that we have Star Wars movies for a new generation.
It’s been over a month now since The Force Awakens came out and what I find funny is that Phelous is the only person I’ve seen actually point out the plot hole of Poe not looking for Finn or BB-8, not just abandoning them but his mission too, though I heard Poe was suppose to die in the movie so maybe that’s why the plot hole is there. What’s makes it worse, I read an article about “40 unforgiveable plot holes”(out of the 40 only about 3 were actual plot holes) and guess what no mention of the Poe plot hole.