Tony Danza Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Anyone think that Han's death scene might have been better if we hadn't already known Kylo Ren's identity and seen his face? When Han confronts Ren and Ren asks "What do you expect to see under this mask?" And Han answers "My son". That scene would have been much more powerful if we didn't already know. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Shorts Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 ^ I would have loved that. But I guess they had to explain why Han left to go back to smuggling. Btw, when's the Empire/First Order going to realize building a Death Star/Planet is cool and all, but it's going to eventually be destroyed by little X-wings? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyneOh1040 Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 What an absolute blast. Really think this is one of the those rare films where there's something for everyone. I also don't know that I've ever seen audience reaction the way I did at this, not even with Potter. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatebox Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 My friends on Facebook seem to be eating the movie up. 'It made me feel like a kid again' is the general consensus. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Futurist Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 If Tele was able to feel like a kid again and you couldn't, some of you here have to address serious questions about yourselves. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyGossamer Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Expansion of mythos storytelling, filmmaking this year: Fargo - A Creed - A- Fury Road - B+ Force Awakens - C+ Jurassic World - C- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayhawk the Hutt Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Read through the whole thread. I get the criticism, and much of it is completely warranted, but I don't care. Outside of Hux, Phasma, Maz (really thought she didn't work, like at all) , and Snoke, every new character was fantastic. I completely forgive it's flaws and pace-killing middle act because of how invested I was in the characters. There hasn't been a blockbuster in a long time where I cared about the characters this much. It's the perfect setup for the next films. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smerfy01 Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 I saw this, the most anticipated movie in a long time, last night at 8:30 in a packed theater. There was this logistics company that rented out 2 entire screenings for their company, and I guess they did it nationwide so that was really cool. The atmosphere of an opening night like this is hard to beat and, IMO, adds a ton to the experience. As for the film? Sure there were a few problems. Do the problems drag the film down? IMO, no. This was a very well directed, shot, acted film with a brisk pace that wasn't afraid to let certain scenes play longer. Every performance aside from maybe Maz was absolutely top notch. Something I really didn't expect was how funny it was. I laughed several times and just...really enjoyed myself. If the movie was another hour, I wouldn't have minded at all. Sitting here and typing, I almost wish that VIII started immediately after. This isn't like the prequels. This movie made me want MORE of the universe. Hell I almost didn't want to get out of my seat and sneak a 2nd screening, but alas I had to get up at 4 am for work and the follow-up was sold out. 9/10. I'm seeing this again. And probably again after that. I don't care how many nostalgia beats there were, it was never a real detriment to my personal enjoyment. I'd recommend this film to anyone. GOD it's so GOOD that STAR WARS is back! Thanks for selling your franchise George!!! <3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayhawk the Hutt Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Going into the SW subreddit. Pray for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haha Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 14 minutes ago, Jayhawk the Hutt said: Read through the whole thread. I get the criticism, and much of it is completely warranted, but I don't care. Outside of Hux, Phasma, Maz (really thought she didn't work, like at all) , and Snoke, every new character was fantastic. I completely forgive it's flaws and pace-killing middle act because of how invested I was in the characters. There hasn't been a blockbuster in a long time where I cared about the characters this much. It's the perfect setup for the next films. That like half of the new characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayhawk the Hutt Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Haha said: That like half of the new characters. The main ones worked for me. Rey, Finn, Kylo, Poe, BB8. Those were the main new ones and they all clicked for me. I don't have a problem with people not liking the movie, but I loved it. BB8 is my spirit animal. Edited December 18, 2015 by Jayhawk the Hutt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamblinRed Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 I really liked the movie, it is hardly perfect, but it was very enjoyable. I counted 6 times (excluding the opening crawl and end credits) where the audience cheered. The new characters have alot of potential in them. They gave some backstory - but not too much on each - giving them alot of room to explore in future films. Loved the early bit of Rey and Finn running on Jakku getting to a ship and passing the first one (which we don't see) because she says its a piece of junk. I thought the new actors were excellent, especially Daisy Ridley (she really had to carry a fair bit of the movie) and to a slightly lesser extent Driver. I liked him taking his mask off and just having a normal face. it was sort of the anti-Vader. His light saber clearly shows he hasn't really mastered the Force yet. They left ambiguity to Rey's character - is she a Solo, a Skywalker, or even something else (how insane would it be if she was a Kenobi - though she looks too young for that). The scene where she starts to understand the Force as Ren tries to take the map reminded me of Clara in the Doctor Who episode Invasion of the Zygons. Han did call Ren, Ben correct? My son and i argued about that. Like I said, not a perfect film, but a highly enjoyable one. The comedic relief in this one was the best of all the SW movies. My son's reaction was 'best movie ever, even better than the Lego Movie'. If you knew my son, or saw our house, you would understand what high praise that is. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75Live Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 In the theater to see it a second time in about a 13 hour span I liked all the new characters . They all have good chemistry which helps a lot. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMan7 Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 I guess I'm the only one who wants an updated Spaceballs movie based on the new SW series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuart360 Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 12 hours ago, The Futurist said: They are exceptions to everything and generalizations are simplification of reality but a cinephile/critic that likes Todd Hynes, some korean filmmaker, Innaritu, Haneke, Fincher and have hard ons at night about Force awakens & BvS & Civil War must be pretty rare. Your tastes in art often define who you are, for better or worse. Between being a fanboy & being an austere film critic there are many shades of grey obviously. After reading Baumers reactions (and a few others) i'm starting to think i must be going off movies or something, not realizing it but maybe my movie passion is dying because this film is right up my alley, i grew up with the films, but this film just wasn't great imo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haha Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Another problem I have is the pacing of the "epic" scenes. In ANH they had scenes like the "that's no moon, is a space station". The death star slowly grows bigger and bigger, building the tension (the great score helps). In TFA all those is too short. Abrams cuts and moves on too fast. His direction works in the comic bits but not in the large than life moments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayhawk the Hutt Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) 8 minutes ago, stuart360 said: After reading Baumers reactions (and a few others) i'm starting to think i must be going off movies or something, not realizing it but maybe my movie passion is dying because this film is right up my alley, i grew up with the films, but this film just wasn't great imo. It's ok you didn't like it. There will be something that you really like in the future, it may even sneak up on you. I honestly was having a tough time getting into films lately. Just felt I hadn't seen a new film that I loved in a long time. Hopefully this holds up on multiple viewings, because I haven't had that feeling walking out of a theater in forever. Edited December 18, 2015 by Jayhawk the Hutt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuart360 Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Haha said: Another problem I have is the pacing of the "epic" scenes. In ANH they had scenes like the "that's no moon, is a space station". The death star slowly grows bigger and bigger, building the tension (the great score helps). In TFA all those is too short. Abrams cuts and moves on too fast. His direction works in the comic bits but not in the large than life moments. To be fair, thats just movies these days. I have talked about this before and used Clash of the Titans as an example where in the orig film you had Medusa slowly moving through the shadows, with menacing music playing and a very tension building brooding atmosphere as Medusa slowly creeps through the collums towards our hero. In the Clash sequel, we get a terrible looking cgi creature shooting all over the place like she's on acid. Zero atmosphere. Its like a lot of film makers today don't understand what atmosphere is. Edited December 18, 2015 by stuart360 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabrecmc Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Saw the 7pm show last night and really loved it. Our crowd was into it, and a mostly male audience. I was with my daughter and mom and remarked that there was a rarely seen sight outside the theater: a line for the men's room! We all walked out thinking Rey is Luke's daughter, so each of us independently was left with that impression for what it is worth. I thought it was an interesting parallel to the Jedi taking children as infants to raise in their now defunct Order and the First Order sort of doing the same thing. Really loved Rey, but thought they all did well. It was great to see Han and Harrison seemed to be really enjoying himself. Honestly, Chewie was one of the best parts of the whole thing for me. I love them together, and almost ended up feeling worse for Chewie losing Han than Leia. I hated to see Han die, but as a parent, I totally understood that he had to try. Of course, he did. And for Kilo Ren, that was the thing that kept holding back from the dark side that he had to destroy. I look forward to seeing how this whole arc plays out because it isn't like the audience is ever going to love KR or let him off the hook for that, so I'm not sure what kind of redemption could be on the table for him. I thought Han and Leia's relationship was handled realistically. They love each other, but find it hard to be together in any kind of traditional way. I wonder how much that played into handing Ben off to Luke and what went wrong there. Clearly, the dude has some Daddy issues. The "Nope" Stormtroopers turning around and walking away from his little tantrum were perfect. The best part was that on the ride home my 9-year old daughter said that she was surprised that Rey was the hero because she thought Finn would be the big hero since "boys are usually the heroes." So, thank you Disney and Lucasfilm for giving her someone like Rey. I hope she means as much to my daughter as Leia always meant to me. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrath Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 20 minutes ago, DMan7 said: I guess I'm the only one who wants an updated Spaceballs movie based on the new SW series. Well, I wouldn't object, but I'm afraid you're the only one who's really fired up about making it happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...