One other thing that bothered me:
Quote:
Bowcasters were much more powerful than standard blaster rifles, but few humans were capable of carrying one around, let alone hold it level and steady for a precise shot.
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One other thing that bothered me:
Quote:
Bowcasters were much more powerful than standard blaster rifles, but few humans were capable of carrying one around, let alone hold it level and steady for a precise shot.
and facebook has officially started to spoil the movie.
I'm not seeing the movie until New Year's eve, I went ahead and inoculated. "The play's the thing", fuck it. I'm more interested in how the things happen than the specific facts playing out.
There's a massive spoiler you kind of don't want ruined.
Eh, I wouldn't say as much, it's pretty damned obvious earlierish in the movie where that's going.
That assbag that commented on Andi's post about fake spoilers has two big spoilers in it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mzo
BB8 steals the show. I need one.
It was decent. It neither angered me nor blew me away. It was just okay, although there were elements I did enjoy a lot.
The production design was beyond amazing, and the acting was very good across the board. However, the writing was very sloppy and lazy and I felt the story could have been so much better; as Berringer said, it was basically a carbon copy remake of A New Hope, something that pissed everyone off to no end when J.J. did it with Star Trek and Wrath of Kahn. Odd that no one minds it here, but I think Star Wars fans are just so happy to finally have a new movie that they're overlooking all the flaws. As time goes on I think people will be more critical, but overall it's still better than the prequels were.
And these flaws (well, most of them, anyway) I'm talking about are in no way Star Wars fanboy-isms (as I'm not a huge SW fanboy). They're just fundamental script/storytelling issues that would stand out in any film in any genre.
One of my long-winded mix of good and bad observations:
Bad:
Almost a 100% retread of A New Hope: "Teen living on a desert planet acquires droid with vital plans for the Rebels Resistance, gets a mentor who is later killed, while the resistance discovers the weak point of the Empire's First Order's new superweapon and destroys it in a last-ditch effort seconds before it opens fire on the Resistance base which is located in an old structure on a lush, green world."
Exactly what does the Resistance need Luke for, anyway? Rey managed to teach herself force skills like the Jedi Mind Trick with no help or even understanding of what the force was, and even nearly slaughtered Kylo Ren with ease once she (I guess) read his mind to learn how to use a lightsaber. Hell, she would have killed the main bad guy of the movie if that fissure hadn't opened up in the ground beneath them and saved his ass. If someone who had never even touched a lightsaber before can beat Kylo Ren, that kinda takes the piss out of your main villain for any future installments. After all, in Empire Luke was toyed with and easily beaten by Vader, and that was after Yoda was schooling him for a while. Rey is already kicking ass; it makes you wonder what the hell anyone needs with Jedi training.
Little was explained, making the movie not even remotely self-contained. I know, it's Star Wars and all and some of this stuff (maybe) will be addressed in sequels and anyone watching it will know everything anyway, but the script was still lazy even by that standard. Even basic shit like the significance of the Resistance and the First Order wasn't explained. I mean, they stated that the FO "rose from the ashes of the Empire." The Empire was obviously defeated, so wtf did the rebels do afterwards? Why is there a Resistance when the First Order appears to be the upstart now? A Republic is mentioned almost in passing but it did nothing and was destroyed by the Starkiller Base, so whatever. Still doesn't explain why there's a Resistance, unless they're sort of like a vigilante force or something since the Republic wasn't taking care of business?
And why was Rey left on Jakku? Who left her? Why did they leave? Anyone want to put money on Luke being her dad?
Captain Phasma was completely wasted. I was all set for her to be this bad-ass chick and she ended up doing so little that she made Boba Fett seem like the star of RotJ. I thought that when Chewbacca tackled her they would have a great throw-down since she's 6'3" but nope, instant capture. A really cool character and they totally dropped the ball.
R2 has been in low-power mode since Luke left. :rolleyes: From the trailer I assumed R2 went away with Luke and the two of them were living a sad, lonely existence together on some weird alien planet. Instead that shot was a dream sequence and R2's just hanging out under a tarp.
You have the guys from The Raid in your movie and instead of giving them a fight scene they just get eaten by a monster. Okay. But at least Mad Dog got some lines.
Han's death was pointless from a storyline standpoint and felt extremely forced; the whole thing with Ren being his son felt so tacked on and devoid of feeling. Plus, it's a bummer knowing that we'll never get a Han/Luke scene in the sequels.
R2-D2 and C-3PO have been around forever...what, 40 or 50 years by this point? Meanwhile smartphones are obsolete six months after you get them. :shrugs:
I loved how poor Chewbacca's moment of mourning for his dead best friend was instantly cut off for a comedy scene with the three droids.
"Supreme Leader Snoke." :lol: Plus, he looked like Voldermort with Down Syndrome. And I seriously LOL'ed when Mzo called him "The Lincoln Memorial."
How did the Stormtroopers keep recognizing Finn? There are thousands of them and they all wear helmets. "YOU! Traitor!" Wha?
Rey and Finn randomly steal the Millennium Falcon, and Han manages to scan, track, find, and board it in what seems like minutes? Wha?
Why wouldn't Leia go with them to find Luke at the end?
Luke appears at the last scene, for a minute, and doesn't say anything. I understand why they did this, but it would have been much better to have had him show up earlier and maybe save the day during the Rey/Kylo Ren fight. It would have allowed Ren to save face to lose to his legendary uncle instead of an untrained teenager, and it would have shown that Rey needed training, which she apparently doesn't.
Carrie Fisher's voice. Ugh.
Why does the alien version of the midget costume maker from The Incredibles have Luke's lightsaber? Even Han asked that, and I loved the cop-out "Oh, I/the scriptwriters will (maybe, probably not) tell you some other time" answer.
Good:
The new characters were all great. Rey, BB8, Poe, and Finn are extremely likable and I have nothing bad to say about them, other than for a Stormtrooper that was trained and programmed from birth Finn seemed to shake all that off pretty fast. You'd expect the guy to be a little stiff in his mannerisms/speech at first and perhaps become more humanized as time went on instead of instantly being all like, "YEAH THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN BOUT." Not a big deal, but just something I noticed.
The designers really captured look/feel/sound of the grimy original trilogy while expanding upon and updating it. I loved the sleek, high-tech look of the First Order, especially the new Stormtroopers and Captain Phasma. Odd that they went to the trouble of designing Snowtroopers when they only had a blink-and-you'll-miss them cameo, but whatever.
I liked Kylo Ren until he took off his helmet and revealed himself as a weird-looking crybaby emo steampunk Sith wanna-be, and then I liked him even less when Rey sliced him up like a kielbasa. But before that he was really cool. I dug his voice, attitude, and they way his force powers were portrayed (the frozen blaster bolt was sweet).
Harrison Ford was more animated and alive than he's been in the last 20 years. It was a joy seeing him as Han again, and I was legit upset when Ren killed him, even though that kill was telegraphed from light years away (hell, the second they revealed he was Solo's son). Harrison can still move when he has to as well.
There were some very funny moments, like when Ren was having one of his hissy-fits and the two Stormtroopers on patrol just turned around and split.
John William's score was right on-point, as usual.
No lens flares!
A Weasley was second-in-command of the First Order. :)
I liked the fact that they made the lightsaber battles a bit more realistic than the overblown affair they had become in the prequels.
Lots of fun Easter eggs/callbacks to the original trilogy.
Overall, a decent movie but kinda disappointing, IMO, although that could be from the build-up and the fact that I managed to avoid all spoilers going in...expectations were running way high. Perhaps a second viewing would soften my stance? However, it nonetheless laid the groundwork for a (potentially) interesting sequel. Maybe. Looking forward to seeing Luke tear some ass up, at least.
Man, did he ever. My gf has one of the Sphero BB8's and it's just bopping all over the apartment and being so damn cute. And I almost squealed in the movie when BB gave Finn that little thumbs-up with his torch thingy. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilMog
I actually like the movie MORE the longer I think about it. A lot of your gripes are easily explained or not really big issues for me. But I get what you mean.
I want to talk a bit more about it but I'm too lazy to spoiler tag everything.
I just had a burst of energy before. I probably would never type that much out again about the movie if I did it over.
And if none of that stuff really bugs you, then good. I'm glad you enjoyed the movie. Again, I went in with super high expectations, and some of that shit is just nitpicking.