Star Wars The Force Awakens (2015)

[#ED]

Discuss.

 

 

TROLLING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. Please put in a review if you vote in the poll.

[CoolioD1]

not great. gotta say I loved this for the first act (What a waste of von sydow tho) but it got less and less for me from there. draggy in the middle and the dogfight in the climax never held my interest in the way they did in the originals. in fact aside from that last lightsaber fight a lot of the action felt uninspired. of the new characters I liked rey and kylo ren. finn and poe dameron coast more on charisma of the actors rather than anything interesting on the page but they're fine. would've liked to see the relationship of han and kylo explored more so han's death could've felt BIGGER. but whatever. Snoke design did nothing for me. felt like a template of a gross cgi dude.

 

Overall felt like a table setting movie and now that we've gotten that and all the "HOW ABOUT THOSE OLD MOVIES HUH?" business out of the way hopefully Johnson can give us something real special for 8. I'm bummed I didn't like it more. It's like a C+

[Phil in the Blank]

JJ did it folks. We finally have a worthwhile film in the franchise for the first time since 1983. 

[Avatree]

I don't want to just sound like an echo for Coolio but I share his thoughts almost exactly. The first act is great, but it goes downhill fast, laying waste to actors, characters and relationships in favour of rehashing scenes from the original movie and doing little else. John Boyega is fun, Oscar Isaac is a magnetic gem, Ridley though is pretty poor. All three of them are unexplored, as is the disappointing relationship between Han and Kylo (in fact, this is the most disappointing thing about the movie). There were a couple of great action setpieces, although the final air assault at Starkiller Base was underwhelming. Music was dull. The film was very funny though.

 

I do agree that with this one finished and with new characters introduced, the next film has plenty of room to do something interesting.

 

But ultimately, it ain't very good.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Salacious Tree Crumb

[bapi]

Basically it's just one big fan-service and I don't really know what the story actually was about? 7-8/10 right now but have a feeling after few more months I'll be more negative towards this movie.

[The Stingray]

Loved it!
 
It's fun, it's exciting, it has heart and a warmth to it that was sorely missing in the prequels, it has the tone and the physical look and feel of old Star Wars, as opposed to the shitty artificial videogame visuals of the prequels, with their boring overwhelming plastic CG. The cinematography is beautiful (there are some gorgeous shots in there). The action scenes are top-notch and don't feel over-the-top like in the prequels. The new characters are mostly great, although, in my opinion, none of them, with the possible exception of Rey (who steals the show), will become as iconic as, say, a Han Solo or Darth Vader. Kylo Ren is pretty cool tho. Also, there's real chemistry between the characters.

 

I think one of JJ's biggest accomplishments, however, which I didn't think he would be able to pull off, is recapturing the spirit of Star Wars. Some of my favorite moments are the ones early on with Rey () alone on Jakku, scavenging and just trying to get by. It is in those moments that I feel the movie truly captures that sense of adventure and wonder being just over the horizon, of longing to matter and be someone.

 

On the negative side, story-wise it's not very original (the plot is too similar to A New Hope), and there are a few too many winks to the past. The movie also feels a bit rushed.
 
At the end of the day it's great entertainment, it brings Star Wars back with a bang and wipes away the bad taste left by the prequels. I'd say it's on par with Jedi, perhaps even better.
 
Pending between 8.5 and 9/10.
 

[ShouldIBeHere]

I think this one is shaped by the franchise's past more than its future. For some that is a win, for some it is a bit underwhelming.

 

B-

[The Dark Samurai]

It's so ridiculously hypocritical the critics gave Singer such a hard time for basically living in the past for Superman Returns but turn a blind eye at J.J for freakin remaking A New Hope. This film is nothing but shameless Nostalgia manipulative money grab...as a sequel or even worse, as a stand alone film, it's a complete void.

 

As soon as the film started with the R2D2 copy being the vessel for an important information, my heart sank and i knew the derivative master J.J has done the same thing he did with STID and the only thing he excess at, copying other films in an attempt to recreate the past. He did it with Super 8, he did it with STID and now with TFA.

 

So disappointing to finally have a continuation of the original films when in fact nothing makes logical sense from a continuation stand point and the original trilogy is made a useless, vain attempt that hasn't resulted in anything. 

 

The Empire-First Order

The Emperor/Vader-Snoke/Ren

The Rebellion/The Resistance

Pilot Luke left by on a desert planet/Pilot Rei left on a desert planet

Old mentor gets killed by Darth Vader/Old mentor gets killed by Darth Vader-lite

Newborn Jedi Luke goes to Joda/Newborn Jedi Rei goes to Luke

 

Shame on Disney, shame on J.J and shame on me for actually thinking this will be original and good.

[Amadeus]

Alright I guess. But I truly miss George Lucas now. He took the time to establish his different worlds. You could see a descent last for like 30 seconds. In this one? 5 seconds. Maybe less. Remember when the x-wings attacked the death star in A New Hope or when Obi-Wan landed on Kamino? It took those fighters a good minute before the attack really began? In this one? -- "The Rebels are comin!"/Bang!
No tension.

And I miss all that jumbo-dumbo about the force and dysfunctional families. The time they took to sit and straight things out about what happened between the films. Yes, more films will be coming -- and lots of them! Answers there will be. But this, unlike the other six, doesn't quite work on its own terms. It is like Disney has turned Star Wars into a stupid TV-show.

What else? Yeah... Remember how smoothly characters were presented in the old films (yes, even those from 1999, 2002, and 2005)? You know 3PO and R2 seeing Darth Vader enter the scene and meeting Luke Skywalker before the film changes its perspective from 3PO's and R2's point of view to be seen from Luke's perspective in the Cantina scene? Or how the galaxy evolved in TPM? In this one? Here the characters are so randomly presented that the movie becomes such an inconsistent mess.

 

But whats good then?

 

Han Solo delivers!

D+

Edited December 17, 2015 by Amadeus

[hasanahmad]

The movie was ridiculously good. I don't know what you all above are smoking or are being purposely contrarian or just trolling, looking at the critics reviews, reviews from users on Twitter and Facebook and non Star Wars forums and IMDb and RT user reviews and metacritic . All are overwhelmingly positive and I come here and it starts overwhelmingly negative.

 

A+

Edited December 17, 2015 by hasanahmad

[CJohn]

One of the best of the year. I loved it. 9.5/10

[ddddeeee]

B-/C+ on a first viewing. Coolio pretty much nailed it.

 

The whole climax was astonishingly unexciting and the whole 'this isn't another Death Star because we say so' part made me laugh out loud.

 

Williams really could have tugged at the heartstrings with a more stirring rendition of the Han/Leia love theme after Han died, missed opportunity.

Edited December 17, 2015 by ddddeeee

[CoolioD1]

1 hour ago, hasanahmad said:

The movie was ridiculously good. I don't know what you all above are smoking or are being purposely contrarian or just trolling, looking at the critics reviews, reviews from users on Twitter and Facebook and non Star Wars forums and IMDb and RT user reviews and metacritic . All are overwhelmingly positive and I come here and it starts overwhelmingly negative.

 

A+

it's gotta be such a bummer when you've gotta make your entire star wars review about what other people thought of the movie.

[hasanahmad]

7 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

it's gotta be such a bummer when you've gotta make your entire star wars review about what other people thought of the movie.

 

Nah just pointing out the twilight zone effect I got .

[Deep Wang]

It's a B for me.  

 

To me the worst offenders are the awful nods to the originals.  Like Han asking if there's a garbage chute or a trash compactor on Starkiller?    Star Wars should NEVER do meta.  It was bad in the prequels, and it's bad here.  

 

It was brisk and I didn't feel like we got too short-changed on the new characters.  Rey and Finn are the two most important ones and I'm fine with how they were presented.  We don't need to know everything about them or their past for them to be good characters.  They worked very well with each other and had great chemistry, and I can't wait to see how their relationship progresses. 

 

Kylo was great.  Hux has some potential.  Phasma got the shaft.  Jury is still out on Snoke.  

 

I'll watch it again or a few more times to see how it holds up, but right now, I'm content with it and I'm very excited to see what Johnson does with it.  

 

 

 

[redfirebird2008]

6 hours ago, Amadeus said:

Alright I guess. But I truly miss George Lucas now. He took the time to establish his different worlds. You could see a descent last for like 30 seconds. In this one? 5 seconds. Maybe less. Remember when the x-wings attacked the death star in A New Hope or when Obi-Wan landed on Kamino? It took those fighters a good minute before the attack really began? In this one? -- "The Rebels are comin!"/Bang!
No tension.

And I miss all that jumbo-dumbo about the force and dysfunctional families. The time they took to sit and straight things out about what happened between the films. Yes, more films will be coming -- and lots of them! Answers there will be. But this, unlike the other six, doesn't quite work on its own terms. It is like Disney has turned Star Wars into a stupid TV-show.

What else? Yeah... Remember how smoothly characters were presented in the old films (yes, even those from 1999, 2002, and 2005)? You know 3PO and R2 seeing Darth Vader enter the scene and meeting Luke Skywalker before the film changes its perspective from 3PO's and R2's point of view to be seen from Luke's perspective in the Cantina scene? Or how the galaxy evolved in TPM? In this one? Here the characters are so randomly presented that the movie becomes such an inconsistent mess.

 

But whats good then?

 

Han Solo delivers!

D+

 

Is Lucas going to have the last laugh after the fans bashed him for the last 15 years? "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." Box office should be fun to track at least even if it's just Disney cashing in on the enormous popularity of the original films (and yes, the prequels).

[Goffe]

Underwhelmed as hell, and I'm not even an SW fan.

 

the good: I thought the first act, the whole Jakku section, was incredible (it goes downhill fast after Han Solo first appears), I was really into it and the humor was perfect. Some scenes such as Death Star 3.0 in action, the forest lightsaber fight, and Solo death were amazingly done. Fin and Rey were also pretty entertaining characters.

 

the bad: my biggest problem with it was the script, too much bad dialogue; poor and thin character arcs; overstuffed and little substance; the fast pace never lets the character breathe and most disappointing aspect of all, it feel like a rehash of the previous movies, almost like an ANH remake, with entire plot points lifted from it. The old cast was sleepwalking through the whole movie.

Definitely the worst film JJ, one of my favorite modern filmmakers, has done so far. 65/100

Edited December 19, 2015 by Goffe

[redfirebird2008]

7 minutes ago, BKB IS CAPTAIN AMERICA said:

 

It's called the Butthurt Syndrome knowing your beloved future franchise movie, whether that's TA3 or BvsS or even JL will not even come close to what this movie is going to generate and it pisses people off deep down to the point where the 1st viewing of this, they're determined to tear it apart piece by piece in an effort to quell the hype and unfortunately, it's not going to work and people just won't buy into this shit.. The movie is THAT good and as for all the complaining about too many nods to the Old Trilogy, that's too Damn bad cause there was no other way to go.. YES, The Prequels made $$$, but they were not what the fans wanted.. They just weren't... When people think of STAR WARS, they think of the Classic characters folks.. It's just that simple..

 

Why are you attacking other people when you haven't seen the film? Maybe they are right, maybe it is a total rehash of A New Hope. I'm curious to see how it plays myself.

[redfirebird2008]

1 minute ago, BKB IS CAPTAIN AMERICA said:

 

Because this was so predictable you would be getting people ripping into this for as much hype as it's receiving and it's natural Red.. It happens with every major blockbuster including JURASSIC WORLD and it will happen with BvsS and TA3 when both come out.. It's just the nature of the beast when it comes to shit like this...

 

I know Coolio was very hyped up for this movie. I've never seen ddddeeee give a review that wasn't genuine. I think they are honestly just disappointed with it and there is nothing wrong with that. I'm personally thinking I shouldn't even bother re-watching the original trilogy before seeing this new film because it will just make the "rehash" aspects more noticeable. Maybe if I don't rewatch the old movies right before watching this one, it will be a more enjoyable experience.

[redfirebird2008]

1 minute ago, BKB IS CAPTAIN AMERICA said:

 

Or, perhaps you can watch the OT again, then see this and cry at how Beautiful a job they did here making you forget the Prequels??? You never know Red..

 

I can always go back to the original trilogy. I'm going to try to give TFA as much of a chance to stand on its own.