SPOILER THREAD: Discuss "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

That's where my mind went automatically.

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Letterboxd

If there is one film that cannot and will not live up to the hype that surrounds it, it is this one right here. Much like Episode I: The Phantom Menace, there is simply too much riding on it and people will tear it down regardless and there are some people out there doing that right now. Some of their complaints are warranted, others are simply fan boys being idiots.

30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi things haven't been all peachy for our heroes. Luke Skywalker is currently in hiding, being the last remaining Jedi. Everyone is searching for him, the Resistance, led by his sister Leia and the First Order who have a powerful Sith on their side. With word that there is a clue on the planet Jakku leading to his whereabouts, everyone scrambles to find it.

Some of the biggest complaints about this film is how it closely resembles A New Hope. The similarities can be off putting at times and this is no doubt, Abrams and co simply giving us some fan service, but the film holds its own and it one entertaining thrill ride from start to finish. How closely does this film feel? We have secret information being stored in droids, who must find others to relay the information. We have an orphaned junk trader who lives on a desert planet being thrust into something she cannot handle, yet seems destined for greater things. A giant planet destroying death ray that has weaknesses that X-wing fighter pilots try to exploit and destroy. A villain who covers his face with a black mask while using a lightsaber and the force. A plan is set in motion to rescue someone being held on a ship and a few more little things here and there. Some people can chalk this up to an admirable homage to what started this whole thing, others will cry foul about unoriginal writing and rehashed plot points. Me? It didn't bother me too much. A few times I sat there thinking that I've seen this all before, but that did not stop my enjoyment of it.

Abrams has successfully rebooted two sci/fi franchises, some would say duelling franchises, but can't we all just have some fun? As a fan of the films growing up, he put on the screen what he thought we would want to see. For the most part, he succeeds. This is a film for the fans of the series. It sets up new characters well enough to want us to continue this adventure with them. Daisy Ridley's Rey, is a welcomed strong female addition to a series that lacked one. John Boyega plays Finn, a conflicted stormtrooper that just wants to do what is right. Oscar Isaac is the Resistance best pilot and he enjoys nothing more than being up in the sky. Those are our new faces of heroes. Joining them are the familiar faces of Ford's Solo and Fischer's Leia. Ford has the most screen time out of the returning cast members and his sharp tongue hasn't left him. He may be older, but he's still fighting the good fight, even if he doesn't want to. Fischer on the other hand seems stale. Her performance is one note and phoned in. Was she not happy with her lack of screen time? It didn't really feel like the same character to me.

Driver's villainous Kylo Ren is not like Vader. He's younger, more prone to violent mood swings and still hasn't grappled the full powers of the force. Yet he is a dangerous weapon and one to fear. Driver does well enough behind the mask, yet there are moments when I had a hard time taking him seriously when it was removed. I guess it's because I've seen him in too many comedies to fear the likes of his ugly mug.

Yes, the effects are great, this we all know. The story, while familiar is still engaging enough for us to care. I enjoyed the new characters and want to see their arcs progress. I want to know what is going to happen next and they do a good job of leaving us wanting more. The film isn't perfect, but it's a spectacle to see on the big screen for sure. Don't go in expecting the second coming of Chirst, go in being a kid again. See old friends and believing in the magic of movies again.

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Suspect's Reviews

I was thinking that for awhile. Long before I saw the movie. Then with little bits here and there in the movie that happened, I am convinced of it. I would, honestly, be very surprised if this wouldn't be true.

I am going to be honest and say that Han's death really crushed me yesterday (even though I had a feeling it was going to happen - still would've preferred it, even early on, in the next movie and not this one - not yet). I swear I am not going to be able to look at the other films now without thinking "Oh, you poor thing. Look how you died".

Anyway, I don't know how much of a spoiler thread this is, but I guess I should add this in as a spoiler because I just want to say this. It is kind of a crazy, nit-picky thing that went through my mind during that scene:

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Yeah. I keep thinking that, too -- Kylo Ren looks nothing like Han and Leia.

A lot of reveals in the film I was able to uncover beforehand. The film follows so closely to A New Hope it's hard NOT to see it.

I saw it with my mother. And I made mention of this fact afterwards. She agreed. She thought it was actually going a bit too far to have cast him in that role because as she said it "He has a head as long as a yardstick". Neither look like that. For me, I was trying to put bits of the one's face, and then the other's, in my mind to try to picture a combination of them. I even tried with Luke, Padme and Anakin. I just couldn't see it. I didn't mind him in there at all. It is only looks wise where I think that was a poor casting choice. His performance was fine. The look just wasn't.

Like I said in the other thread, I didn't even really realize how similar it was until I started to read what people were writing about it. I wasn't looking that deeply at the movie. But I did think things about a desert planet and stuff like that when I first saw the trailers. I just didn't really think enough to coincide something like his death to the one in Episode IV.

I enjoyed this a great deal. Not perfect and it has some faults (several of them quite serious), but all in all the pros far outweigh the cons. A very good movie and a strong comeback for Star Wars. Well-paced with some spectacular action scenes and I enjoyed the new characters very much. Seeing Han Solo back was awesome and Harrison Ford seemed like he a great time being him for the first time in so long. There's a lot to process from just the first viewing but I'm overall very pleased from the initial viewing.

I didn't know but had a feeling that Han's death was coming. First off, he had wanted it to happen bad enough in Return of the Jedi and the fact that Lucas vetoed it, in my opinion, was what made Ford not want to return to the franchise. But it looked like Abrams gave him what he wanted this time around. I know killing a major character in a franchise is risky and I didn't want his character to die. But, it felt well done to me. I don't know how the scene is being shown on YouTube, but it wasn't "stab, immediate reaction shot of Chewie, Rey, and Finn." There was a pause after he did it, Ren says, "thank you," Han reaches out and strokes his son's face, then falls into the machinery, vat, or whatever it was. THEN you have the reaction from the trio. Ren is even looking to where his father fell and he's unaware that all of a sudden he's being shot at. But if Ford really wanted to die this time around, I felt he earned it. In RotJ, he wanted to die aboard the Millennium Falcon blowing up the 2nd Death Star, but I think that would have been not as good a death scene as this one (if you can call death scenes in general, "good"). This, for me, gives the series a dramatic heft. Kylo thinks killing his father on purpose will bring him closer to the Dark Side, Leia is shown as if she feels it (she is Force -sensitive), Chewie, Rey, and Finn witness it and are horrified.

Plus, it gives the light saber battle between Rey and Kylo Ren much more of a "Kill him, Rey! Chop his freakin' head off!" type of urgency for me. But I guess he's going to be the main villain besides Big Old Hologram Guy. It works better having a bad guy you have some connection to. Whoever eventually faces Kylo, be it Rey or Luke, it will be very personal. But, and this a big BUT for me, I hope they're not foolish enough in the next two pictures to have Kylo kill off Luke. For me, that would be a big mistake. Please, only one major good death per trilogy (I'm thinking of the original films here). And I'm thinking of Ben Kenobi biting the big one. I know Vader's redemption was big, but he was a bad guy for the better part of three films, so I didn't feel bad at all that he finally died even after his redemption. I did feel bad that his Force Ghost or whatever you call it came back as a young Anakin, instead of old Humpty-Dumpty-under-the-mask as played by Sebastian Shaw. Poor guy. Lucas waits until the actor dies, then replaces his Force Ghost with Hayden Christensen! What? Why?

Anyway, way off-target here. I'm happy with the movie, shadows of "A New Hope" or not. And I feel they did cop some stuff here and there, but it didn't bother me. What is very interesting for me is that they have to do something different for the next film instead of having a giant planet-killing machine (I hope). I hope they go the way of The Empire Strikes Back and have flat-out adventure all the way through without necessarily having to blow up a big bad guy fortress in space.

I'm very intrigued by the last scene in the film, where Rey meets Luke and he presents a very anguished looking face. First of all, his trainees were killed by Kylo Ren, supposedly. But that was years ago. He had to know that his friend was killed, as he felt them in danger in TESB and left his training. Plus, his Force-sensitive sister felt the hurt, so therefore Luke would feel her pain. And if Rey IS his daughter, he would really feel her pain. Any number of reasons for him to have that tormented look on his face. As for me, I'm hoping Rey is not his daughter---can't people be strong in the Force without being kin to each other. The new character Maz Kanata reinforces Yoda's words from TESB that everyone in the galaxy has the Force around them, but some are not sensitive and attuned to it like others. Rey is very attuned to it, but I hope they don't just say that she's Luke's daughter because...well, I just don't. If they go for it, so be it, but Jedi are not supposed to have children (I know, I know, I'm sure some broke that rule like Anakin) due to attachments leading to trouble. Then we'd probably have a story of Luke having been married, then his wife is killed by the bad guys, so he's forced to leave his daughter on a desert planet for her safety. I thought I heard her hollering, "Mama!" in her flashback scene. Hmm.

Lastly, (I promise!) there was that early trailer that had Mark Hamill's voice reciting the lines from RotJ, where he says that his family is strong with the Force. He says he has it, his father has it...then they skip the part where he says his sister has it and the sound clip is altered to say "and you have it." Insinuating that someone in "The Force Awakens" from his family is strong in the Force. Well, only one person in the movie, Rey, was strong with the Force. Unless the clip was a misdirect. I don't know. Okay, sorry. Out of gas here.

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Spoilers Ahead



Thanks Too JJ though Rian has to use Mark Hamill in a scene where he has to explain who she is and who her parents are. If Luke is her father which most Assume is hinted at then who was Her mother. I mean if Luke had a wife she would have to be very unique person.

Went to see it last night. Good film

The final scene with Rey finding Luke and giving him his lightsaber looks phenomenal. Now I think I really want to see it.

Why do you read and watch 90% of the movie before watching the movie?

I've seen you pre and post release talk about all tons of heavy spoilers and scenes. Why do you want to ruin a movie experience for yourself like that? Just asking.

Han's death was one of my favorite things about the movie. There was way too much main character status being the only reason for people's survival, so one of them had to die to put the fear of death into the rest of them. I also really liked Driver as the villain. I liked his impetuous nature. I think one of my favorite lines was, "You're afraid you'll never be as strong as Darth Vader."

One of my biggest fears going into the movie was that Rey would get trained like Luke was by Ben Kenobi and with less than a year's experience already be able to defeat the antagonist who presumably had years of training. It was even worse. She beat him with no training whatsoever. That was lame. I've been training at Super Smash Bros. Melee for a year, and I'm a faster learner, and I still get 4 stocked by the pros. That would be like some noob winning a national tournament.

Well, realism and plausibility were thrown out the window. But the movie had good atmosphere and was very entertaining. I had fun. Now I can't wait to watch it again, this time I won't accidentally go to the 3D version.

Here's my review: Here

I agree...to a degree. Remember he was injured from Chewie, so his fighting skills are not the best right now. Plus he hasn't finished his own training, this was made abundantly clear multiple times throughout the film. He has anger issues, which makes him sloppy as well.

We find out that he is not as powerful with the force as he thinks. Which is why she was able to resist his ability to try and read her mind.

Maybe being Luke's daughter gives her this unlocked ability, but I did find that they relied on it way too much. To get free, to resist Kylo Ren, to grab the lightsaber. They should have toned it down a bit and not rely on that to get out of sticky situations.

Those explanations are a bit weak though. Remember Luke was gone a long time, and he was trained by Luke, killed other Jedi, and was trained by that other Sith. And remember when he force pushed her and sent her flying into a tree knocking her out. I also don't think that Melee staff she uses would make her any good at sword fighting. I just think that they could have at least toned it down a notch and made her struggle a bit more desperate. I mean that without laying any expectations on Abrams or the "entertainment" nature of the film that they couldn't easily have done. Even Finn was way better at sword fighting than he should have been.

I thought the scene where she resisted his torture was actually really awesome.

I agree somewhat as well but it is not any different than the action in any of these types of films and certainly not any different than the original trilogy. The good guys are always way more skilled than they should be. Out running Tie Fighter spray bothers me way more. I have to turn that stuff off or I wouldn't enjoy any of these types of films. Go for the characters and their story arcs not for the realistic action sequences.

At least Luke trained with Obi-wan and Yoda for 2-3 years before loosing to Vader.

It's just never been my nature to not wanna know. I like hearing about it before I see it for some reason.

Isn't delayed gratification so much better though?

I don't think we need to warn people about spoilers in this thread, considering it's called "Spoiler thread".

Who is Snoke? Do you think he might be Darth Plagueis? It looked like he had a lightsaber scar on his head. Perhaps his "apprentice" (as described by Palpatine in Ep. 3) only thought he killed him in his sleep. Perhaps Plagueis's ability to "manipulate the Force" actually saved him. Perhaps he went into a long coma, which he recovered from sometime between ep. 6 and 7.