Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Baby Brian]

On 12/22/2015 at 5:19 PM, DailyDi said:

No, they had to destroy the extra-giant death sphere, and this time they didn't even leave a hole open for them!

What happened to no spoilers?

[spark]

On 1/1/2016 at 6:25 AM, Baby Brian said:

What happened to no spoilers?

[PetahPetah]

Sorry

[Dirty Diaper/Maxipad Lover]

All right, I'm going to try to avoid too many spoilers, but seriously, your spoiler space has expired for this one. If you haven't gotten to the theater yet and are upset by being spoiled, you have no one to blame but yourself at this point. Having said that, some spoilers may follow.

Okay, so I actually liked this movie quite a lot. The post-conversion IMAX 3D didn't suck like it usually does for films that aren't shot digitally, (this was shot on film unlike episodes II & III that were shot in 1080p,) the standard 2D version was equally awesome, and the film as a whole just felt like "Star Wars" again. Yes, it was basically a remake of "A New Hope," but I'm fine with that since "A New Hope" is what launched "Star Wars" as a Force to be reckoned with to begin with. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Actually "The Phantom Menace" was also a remake of "A New Hope," it was just a really crappy remake of "A New Hope" that did a terrible job of telling a story about blowing up a giant round thing. This is where "The Force Awakens" separates itself from "The Phantom Menace" in how it remakes "A New Hope." Unlike the first prequel, the first sequel is actually fun to watch has an aesthetic that feels like "Star Wars," and actually makes me want to see the next film without adding "because I hope it'll be better" as a qualifier. This is definitely the most humorous of all seven "Star Wars" films to date, but the way the humor is handled is significantly better than in previous films, and there's plenty of serious moments to counterbalance the humor.

As for Kylo Ren, I actually read something elsewhere that sums up my feelings about him perfectly, but of course now that I want to link to it, I can't find it. Basically, Kylo Ren is really no different than Anakin/Vader was, but how he's portrayed definitely is. Anakin was always portrayed as a sympathetic villain who had a reason for doing what he did, even if his actions were severely misguided. The music, the dialogue, everything about Anakin made you believe that underneath all his hatred, he was a well-intentioned whiny Emo Kid who just couldn't keep his emotions in check. Kylo Ren is a whiny Emo kid whose portrayed as such. When he loses his temper, the music isn't sympathetic, nor is what we see on screen, especially when Stormtroopers just walk away from him while he throws a temper-tantrum like a baby. Anakin was a spoiled brat portrayed as someone you could related too while Kylo Ren is a spoiled brat whose portrayed as just that. For that reason, I actually find him more threatening and intimidating than Darth Vader, because Darth Vader is a spoiled brat who actually means well while Kylo Ren isn't. Oh, and there's that thing that he did, (and if you saw the movie you know what I'm talking about,) that was more reprehensible than anything Anakin would have ever dreamed of.

Now as much as I loved the film, and while it's probably my favorite "Star Wars" movie now, dethroning "Return of the Jedi" as my previous favorite, there are still a couple of things that I wasn't fond of. The first was mentioned already by PetahPetah, and that's the idea that the Lightsaber handed to Luke is one that belonged to Anakin. The only thing I can think of is that Luke somehow built a second lightsaber between "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back," but if that's the case, it should have been mentioned in the film. (I seem to recall the hilt being different between ANH and ESB, so this is certainly possible, although I don't know why they didn't just use the lightsaber from RotJ since Hasbro even reissued the toy of it and it would have made a lot more sense.) There is one other idea, and it's a little more contrived, and that's that the Lightsaber that Luke lost with his hand was somehow recovered by someone before eventually finding its way into the hands of Maz, and if that's the case, then there really should have been a line of dialogue in the film from Han to the effect of "I thought Luke lost that thing along with his hand!" At least then we know that the Lightsaber somehow indeed managed to survive. The second is that we never really got much information about the New Republic, and that it was just there for the giant sphere of doom to destroy, which completely defeats the purpose of showing off the big deadly round thing to begin with. (We get it, it blows shit up, you didn't have to fire it to prove that, but if you're going to fire it, give us a reason to care.) It was far more intimidating to see Starkiller Base nearly wiping out characters we've known for ages than it was to see them wipe out a the New Republic. Still, if that Lightsaber issue is explained in a future film, I'll be happy, and can even overlook wiping out the Galactic Republic for the sake of blowing up some planets. I just hope that the Blu

[spark]

Do you mean Darth Vader as he became, or emo bastard that he was in prequels?

[Dirty Diaper/Maxipad Lover]

I mean Darth Vader taken as a whole, but mostly the newly minted Darth Vader from RotS for comparison purposes. Once you factor in the fact that he was an Emo bastard in the prequels, his actions in the original trilogy make it clear that while he's definitely dangerous he's dangerous because he's calculating, but his ultimate goal is to capture Luke and turn him to the dark side, not to kill him. (He had the chance to do so multiple times between ESB and ROTJ, and it's only through his grace that Luke survives the Emperor's lightning in ROTJ.) Kylo-Ren is definitely less focused and more bratty, but that's what makes him so more dangerous than Darth Vader. Vader is calculating, to beat him you have to be intelligent and able to outwit him. Kylo-Ren is far less predictable and far more impulsive, that makes it a lot more difficult to outwit him using rational thought, because of how unstable he is. The movie didn't mention this, but Kylo-Ren's lightsaber has those "guards" because his crystal is cracked and unstable, a reflection of its owner. (A shame this was omitted, as it would have been a nice little allegory to include.) However, that one thing he did that I won't spoil is something that Vader never would have done, (it goes against everything that made Anakin become Vader to begin with,) and proves that Kylo-Ren at the very least has the potential to be even more ruthless than Vader. If you look at Kylo-Ren in this film as being comparable to the newly minted Darth Vader in RotS, they are very much on par with each other, with Kylo-Ren being a bit more dangerous because of his instability. We haven't seen enough of Kylo-Ren yet though to compare him fairly to the older Vader that killed Obi-Wan in ANH. I have a feeling the next movie will show a more calculated Kylo-Ren whose learned from his mistakes based on what's being said about it already, particularly about it being much darker than previous "Star Wars" films. While I agree that it would have been better if Lucas had gone with more of a Walter White route for Anakin, it sounds like Abrams is going to make Kylo-Ren about as redeemable as the characters in "The H8ful Eight" if there's any truth to what's been said publicly so far.

I wasn't expecting too much to be said about the New Republic, but it wouldn't have hurt to have some information about why The First Order had overpowered them, and what left them so toothless that it could happen to begin with. If nothing else, it would have made losing them a bit more meaningful instead of feeling like a scene that existed for the sole purpose of showing off the big scary round thing's big scary weapon. Starkiller base didn't even have to fire a shot to be intimidating which is why this scene seemed like such a waste to me.

I agree with you that someone could have salvaged the lightsaber within the context of the Star Wars Universe, but as you've said, it could have (and probably should have) been explained a bit better, as it was one of the few things that left me scratching my head in the film.

Oh, and I'm surprised you say that you didn't understand what was going on for the first 40 minutes of the film, because I picked up on it right away. It was obvious that Poe was a Resistance pilot, (outright stated that he was the best,) and that he was with BB-8. The crawl at the beginning of the film explained (enough of) what happened to Luke for the first few scenes to make sense without completely giving everything away. As for Finn, it's obvious that details about his motivations are being kept under wraps for future films, beyond the fact that he doesn't want to kill for The First Order. Rey I picked up on as being important from the get-go, even if I couldn't tell if she was going to be someone like Han or someone like Luke until later in the movie. As for Kylo-Ren, I have a feeling you'll get your wish about him being forced to grow a pair, and that he's probably not going to die until the end of the trilogy. He's made himself irredeemable already, so I say when the time comes, kill him in the most satisfying way possible.

As far as the Sith go, my understanding is that there aren't just two of them at any given time, but that they always work in pairs, so if you find one, a second one won't be far behind. Palpatine killing off Dooku seemed like it was the result of Dooku being a threat to Palpatine's plans more than a surplus of Sith, but I could be wrong about that.