AndyLL's "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue" Top Ten of 2015

[K1stpierre]

2 hours ago, Telemachos said:

Well, I guess @K1stpierre will be happy.

 

Huh? 

[K1stpierre]

2 hours ago, AndyLL said:

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I did not see the Hunger Games in the theater.  My wife read the books and badly wanted to see it.  I refused.  She went alone.

I did not see Catching Fire in the theater.  My wife took a neighborhood 13 year old girl to see it with her.

However... Catching Fires run happened during Frozens run.  This is when I began to really participate on the forums.  I keep reading about how good the series was from members I respected.

So late one night with nothing better to do I plopped in the HG blu-ray.  I was hooked.  I finished HG and immediately watched Catching Fire.

I loved the world and the story.  I loved Jennifer Lawrence.  

The only thing I didn't love was the seemingly forced love triangle but I could live with it.

So MockingJay Part 1 was my 1st Hunger Games movie in the theater.

I loved it.  

I didn't like the series because of the games... I liked it because of the world.  The idea that a society would use managed violence to keep the population under control.  Yes I know it's been done many times before but the HG series did it extremely well.

Katniss drives the movie.  A conflicted, unwilling hero.  She has a lot of conflicts.  Symbol vs participate.  Home vs duty to all.  Family  vs the people in the districts.

JLaw played her so well.

My disappointment in MJ1 was the same as everyone else.  They needed to either find a way to make MJ1 a more complete movie or combine MJ1 and MJ2.

So it's obvious I consider MJ2 just a continuation of MJ1 and my rating of MJ2 would likely not be the same if I considered as a standalone movie.

I was excited for MJ2.  I'll admit that excitement was tempered by my excitement for TFA.  I do think that hurt MJ2s box office. 

The MJ2 plot was pretty predictable.  That was a result of the year difference between MJ1 & MJ2.

It didn't matter to me.  MJ2 was an awesome end to the series.

I've bought the books and look forward to reading them this year.

I hope they do a prequel and explore the initial uprising and the forming of the games.

 

 

2 hours ago, Telemachos said:

Well, I guess @K1stpierre will be happy.

 

 

Nevermind, I get it  

 

 

MJ2 overall was satisfying and good but it's definitely not flawless.

[Plain Old Tele]

9 minutes ago, AndyLL said:

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So... do I even bother writing up why?

 

Let's  start with what I feel is wrong with the film.

 

1) I didn't like the Casey and Frank narration to start the movie - I felt it set the wrong tone.

 

2) I felt the 1st act was too long.  I think you could have gotten the point across that the world was a mess and that Casey was an intelligent, concerned, future thinking person that wanted to do something about it.  I think this forced the rushed ending.

 

3) More Tommowland somewhere...  The creation of it,... the destruction of it,  the rebuilding of it... anything.

 

#3 combined with the realization that the poor reception of the film means that the story will remain incomplete.  I'll never be able to explore this world anymore than this movie.

 

Bird addressed this very point:

 

"People will argue about whether we told the proper story or not. People ask, 'Why did you spend so much time in a car when you could have been in Tomorrowland?' But the movie was always intended to be a road movie and its title seemed to suggest, to some people, that the whole movie was going to take place in Tomorrowland. We had a lot of ideas for Tomorrowland but just running around Tomorrowland is not a movie. There has to be a conflict. It has to be somewhat interesting. We set out to make a fable or a fairy tale about what happened to the positive view of the future and how can we get it back and pursue that idea. For better or worse, we did."

 

I understand his point but I think they took it to far.  There was a compromise in there somewhere.  And if the GA expected this to take place in Tommorland ( I didn't ) then that is their fault.

 

So why did this movie make my top 3?

 

It's hard to explain but I'll give it a shot.

 

The easy things...

 

1) I thought the characters and the actors that played them were outstanding.

 

Cassidy as Athena I thought was outstanding
Robertson as Casey was wonderful
I've never been a Clooney fan but I thought he nailed is portrayal of Frank

 

2) I thought the pacing was good.  Certainly there were 5 minutes I would have removed here... 10 minutes there... but in general the movie did a great job of building up to the end.

 

3) The message.  I won't lie.  I also feel we are doing a lot to ruin our world and refuse to even do the easy things to try to fix it.

 

4) Combining the above 2... as Bird said... it was a road trip film.  Casey knows something is wrong. She knows there is something better.  She knows she needs to find that path.  The movie showed that trip.

 

A I mentioned in the Cinderella post above I'm not just a Disney fan like many here... I'm a bit of a Disney fanatic.  Us Disney freaks do not only enjoy what Disney has to offer... we buy in to Walt Disney's vision.

 

Yes... I know... Walt Disney is not that altruistic visionary that could never do wrong.  He was flawed in many ways.

 

However he was a visionary in storytelling and his ability to bring to life his visions outside of the theater to me over shadows many of his flaws.

 

With the original Disneyland Park Walt Disney attempted to take people outside of their current world and immerse them into other worlds.  One of those worlds of course was a Fantasy world filled with princesses and talking animals. 

 

However one of Walt's goals was to also create a 'Tommowland' a vision of the future, of innovation and of learning.

 

Unfortunately Walt's vision is dying in the Disney Parks.  Innovations, along with most of the educational attractions, are shells of their formal selves.  EPCOT has become nothing more than another theme park compared to being a vision of the future as it was originally envisioned to be.

 

Imagineers have be replaced with bean counters.

 

This is why the movie Tomorrowland had a much more positive reception on the Disney forums than it did with the GA.  It was an attempt to tell the story of Walt's vision.  We are more willing to overlook the flaws.

 

I commend Disney for attempting it.

 

I condemn Disney for fucking it up.

 

What we got is all we'll get and I feel the surface was only scratched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

9 minutes ago, AndyLL said:

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So... do I even bother writing up why?

 

Let's  start with what I feel is wrong with the film.

 

1) I didn't like the Casey and Frank narration to start the movie - I felt it set the wrong tone.

 

2) I felt the 1st act was too long.  I think you could have gotten the point across that the world was a mess and that Casey was an intelligent, concerned, future thinking person that wanted to do something about it.  I think this forced the rushed ending.

 

3) More Tommowland somewhere...  The creation of it,... the destruction of it,  the rebuilding of it... anything.

 

#3 combined with the realization that the poor reception of the film means that the story will remain incomplete.  I'll never be able to explore this world anymore than this movie.

 

Bird addressed this very point:

 

"People will argue about whether we told the proper story or not. People ask, 'Why did you spend so much time in a car when you could have been in Tomorrowland?' But the movie was always intended to be a road movie and its title seemed to suggest, to some people, that the whole movie was going to take place in Tomorrowland. We had a lot of ideas for Tomorrowland but just running around Tomorrowland is not a movie. There has to be a conflict. It has to be somewhat interesting. We set out to make a fable or a fairy tale about what happened to the positive view of the future and how can we get it back and pursue that idea. For better or worse, we did."

 

I understand his point but I think they took it to far.  There was a compromise in there somewhere.  And if the GA expected this to take place in Tommorland ( I didn't ) then that is their fault.

 

So why did this movie make my top 3?

 

It's hard to explain but I'll give it a shot.

 

The easy things...

 

1) I thought the characters and the actors that played them were outstanding.

 

Cassidy as Athena I thought was outstanding
Robertson as Casey was wonderful
I've never been a Clooney fan but I thought he nailed is portrayal of Frank

 

2) I thought the pacing was good.  Certainly there were 5 minutes I would have removed here... 10 minutes there... but in general the movie did a great job of building up to the end.

 

3) The message.  I won't lie.  I also feel we are doing a lot to ruin our world and refuse to even do the easy things to try to fix it.

 

4) Combining the above 2... as Bird said... it was a road trip film.  Casey knows something is wrong. She knows there is something better.  She knows she needs to find that path.  The movie showed that trip.

 

A I mentioned in the Cinderella post above I'm not just a Disney fan like many here... I'm a bit of a Disney fanatic.  Us Disney freaks do not only enjoy what Disney has to offer... we buy in to Walt Disney's vision.

 

Yes... I know... Walt Disney is not that altruistic visionary that could never do wrong.  He was flawed in many ways.

 

However he was a visionary in storytelling and his ability to bring to life his visions outside of the theater to me over shadows many of his flaws.

 

With the original Disneyland Park Walt Disney attempted to take people outside of their current world and immerse them into other worlds.  One of those worlds of course was a Fantasy world filled with princesses and talking animals. 

 

However one of Walt's goals was to also create a 'Tommowland' a vision of the future, of innovation and of learning.

 

Unfortunately Walt's vision is dying in the Disney Parks.  Innovations, along with most of the educational attractions, are shells of their formal selves.  EPCOT has become nothing more than another theme park compared to being a vision of the future as it was originally envisioned to be.

 

Imagineers have be replaced with bean counters.

 

This is why the movie Tomorrowland had a much more positive reception on the Disney forums than it did with the GA.  It was an attempt to tell the story of Walt's vision.  We are more willing to overlook the flaws.

 

I commend Disney for attempting it.

 

I condemn Disney for fucking it up.

 

What we got is all we'll get and I feel the surface was only scratched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[4815162342]

16 minutes ago, AndyLL said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

So... do I even bother writing up why?

 

Let's  start with what I feel is wrong with the film.

 

1) I didn't like the Casey and Frank narration to start the movie - I felt it set the wrong tone.

 

2) I felt the 1st act was too long.  I think you could have gotten the point across that the world was a mess and that Casey was an intelligent, concerned, future thinking person that wanted to do something about it.  I think this forced the rushed ending.

 

3) More Tommowland somewhere...  The creation of it,... the destruction of it,  the rebuilding of it... anything.

 

#3 combined with the realization that the poor reception of the film means that the story will remain incomplete.  I'll never be able to explore this world anymore than this movie.

 

Bird addressed this very point:

 

"People will argue about whether we told the proper story or not. People ask, 'Why did you spend so much time in a car when you could have been in Tomorrowland?' But the movie was always intended to be a road movie and its title seemed to suggest, to some people, that the whole movie was going to take place in Tomorrowland. We had a lot of ideas for Tomorrowland but just running around Tomorrowland is not a movie. There has to be a conflict. It has to be somewhat interesting. We set out to make a fable or a fairy tale about what happened to the positive view of the future and how can we get it back and pursue that idea. For better or worse, we did."

 

I understand his point but I think they took it to far.  There was a compromise in there somewhere.  And if the GA expected this to take place in Tommorland ( I didn't ) then that is their fault.

 

So why did this movie make my top 3?

 

It's hard to explain but I'll give it a shot.

 

The easy things...

 

1) I thought the characters and the actors that played them were outstanding.

 

Cassidy as Athena I thought was outstanding
Robertson as Casey was wonderful
I've never been a Clooney fan but I thought he nailed is portrayal of Frank

 

2) I thought the pacing was good.  Certainly there were 5 minutes I would have removed here... 10 minutes there... but in general the movie did a great job of building up to the end.

 

3) The message.  I won't lie.  I also feel we are doing a lot to ruin our world and refuse to even do the easy things to try to fix it.

 

4) Combining the above 2... as Bird said... it was a road trip film.  Casey knows something is wrong. She knows there is something better.  She knows she needs to find that path.  The movie showed that trip.

 

A I mentioned in the Cinderella post above I'm not just a Disney fan like many here... I'm a bit of a Disney fanatic.  Us Disney freaks do not only enjoy what Disney has to offer... we buy in to Walt Disney's vision.

 

Yes... I know... Walt Disney is not that altruistic visionary that could never do wrong.  He was flawed in many ways.

 

However he was a visionary in storytelling and his ability to bring to life his visions outside of the theater to me over shadows many of his flaws.

 

With the original Disneyland Park Walt Disney attempted to take people outside of their current world and immerse them into other worlds.  One of those worlds of course was a Fantasy world filled with princesses and talking animals. 

 

However one of Walt's goals was to also create a 'Tommowland' a vision of the future, of innovation and of learning.

 

Unfortunately Walt's vision is dying in the Disney Parks.  Innovations, along with most of the educational attractions, are shells of their formal selves.  EPCOT has become nothing more than another theme park compared to being a vision of the future as it was originally envisioned to be.

 

Imagineers have be replaced with bean counters.

 

This is why the movie Tomorrowland had a much more positive reception on the Disney forums than it did with the GA.  It was an attempt to tell the story of Walt's vision.  We are more willing to overlook the flaws.

 

I commend Disney for attempting it.

 

I condemn Disney for fucking it up.

 

What we got is all we'll get and I feel the surface was only scratched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[incognitoo]

3 hours ago, In the Heart of the Tree said:

 

Do you mean the sequel to one of the greatest blockbusters of all time?

 

My sincerest apologies but... no. I meant it the way I wrote it. But... well... please take into account that I did not wrote THE greatest Blockbuster of all time but ONE of them. Despite of its flaws, I really liked Jurassic World a lot. What can I say... I guess we all have our guilty pleasures. Personally, I have a whole lot of them. ;o)

[CJohn]

Tomorrowland and MJ2? This top is dead to me. Tomorrowland is fucking garbage. The last 20 minutes are unreal. 

[K1stpierre]

1 minute ago, CJohn said:

Tomorrowland and MJ2? This top is dead to me. Tomorrowland is fucking garbage. The last 20 minutes are unreal. 

 

The whole movie of Tomorrowland was like a nightmare I didn't want to pretend ever happened........I wanted to vomit in that theater.

[incognitoo]

56 minutes ago, AndyLL said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

So... do I even bother writing up why?

 

Let's  start with what I feel is wrong with the film.

 

1) I didn't like the Casey and Frank narration to start the movie - I felt it set the wrong tone.

 

2) I felt the 1st act was too long.  I think you could have gotten the point across that the world was a mess and that Casey was an intelligent, concerned, future thinking person that wanted to do something about it.  I think this forced the rushed ending.

 

3) More Tommowland somewhere...  The creation of it,... the destruction of it,  the rebuilding of it... anything.

 

#3 combined with the realization that the poor reception of the film means that the story will remain incomplete.  I'll never be able to explore this world anymore than this movie.

 

Bird addressed this very point:

 

"People will argue about whether we told the proper story or not. People ask, 'Why did you spend so much time in a car when you could have been in Tomorrowland?' But the movie was always intended to be a road movie and its title seemed to suggest, to some people, that the whole movie was going to take place in Tomorrowland. We had a lot of ideas for Tomorrowland but just running around Tomorrowland is not a movie. There has to be a conflict. It has to be somewhat interesting. We set out to make a fable or a fairy tale about what happened to the positive view of the future and how can we get it back and pursue that idea. For better or worse, we did."

 

I understand his point but I think they took it to far.  There was a compromise in there somewhere.  And if the GA expected this to take place in Tommorland ( I didn't ) then that is their fault.

 

So why did this movie make my top 3?

 

It's hard to explain but I'll give it a shot.

 

The easy things...

 

1) I thought the characters and the actors that played them were outstanding.

 

Cassidy as Athena I thought was outstanding
Robertson as Casey was wonderful
I've never been a Clooney fan but I thought he nailed is portrayal of Frank

 

2) I thought the pacing was good.  Certainly there were 5 minutes I would have removed here... 10 minutes there... but in general the movie did a great job of building up to the end.

 

3) The message.  I won't lie.  I also feel we are doing a lot to ruin our world and refuse to even do the easy things to try to fix it.

 

4) Combining the above 2... as Bird said... it was a road trip film.  Casey knows something is wrong. She knows there is something better.  She knows she needs to find that path.  The movie showed that trip.

 

A I mentioned in the Cinderella post above I'm not just a Disney fan like many here... I'm a bit of a Disney fanatic.  Us Disney freaks do not only enjoy what Disney has to offer... we buy in to Walt Disney's vision.

 

Yes... I know... Walt Disney is not that altruistic visionary that could never do wrong.  He was flawed in many ways.

 

However he was a visionary in storytelling and his ability to bring to life his visions outside of the theater to me over shadows many of his flaws.

 

With the original Disneyland Park Walt Disney attempted to take people outside of their current world and immerse them into other worlds.  One of those worlds of course was a Fantasy world filled with princesses and talking animals. 

 

However one of Walt's goals was to also create a 'Tommowland' a vision of the future, of innovation and of learning.

 

Unfortunately Walt's vision is dying in the Disney Parks.  Innovations, along with most of the educational attractions, are shells of their formal selves.  EPCOT has become nothing more than another theme park compared to being a vision of the future as it was originally envisioned to be.

 

Imagineers have be replaced with bean counters.

 

This is why the movie Tomorrowland had a much more positive reception on the Disney forums than it did with the GA.  It was an attempt to tell the story of Walt's vision.  We are more willing to overlook the flaws.

 

I commend Disney for attempting it.

 

I condemn Disney for fucking it up.

 

What we got is all we'll get and I feel the surface was only scratched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you. Simply thank you for sharing your thoughts on this one. Everyone I know in my circle who has seen it simply loathed that movie. Apparantly because they found its message being too much "in your face".

 

I loved it. I didn't overanalysed it. Just did go with the flow. Yes, Casey was a bit too lighthearted/naive/goodnatured for my taste but that's just me being cynic in a cynic world. Yes, the end sequence was (even to me) too much in your face and hippyesk (if that is even a word in english). BUT I respect Disney/Bird to try and go and release a movie full of... well, hope and positivity (if that's even a word in english) in this often dark, cynic and frightening day and age. Especially being german and having to deal with last years (and actual) circumstances/happenings, every now and then, you need a movie to escape the harsh reality showing you what the world could be if we all weren't such a big bunch of a....les. And because of that I simply love Tomorrowland.

[Blankments]

guhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[chasmmi]

Another list almost completed and my current top 10 still has about 3-4 films yet to be chosen by anybody else

[Ethan Hunt]

I feel like I definitely knk what the top 2 are

[Kalo]

On 1/7/2016 at 0:42 PM, In the Heart of the Tree said:

STRANGE MAGIC is one of the best films of the year.

 

The more I see your opinion on movies, the more difficult it becomes to take your input seriously, but at least you aren't ashamed of it, so kudos 

[Fancyarcher]

Tomorrowland is a risky choice for #3, especially on this forum, but I like appreciate the choice a lot, since I actually enjoyed the film quite a bit. You also bring up some good points about it, Andy. Well-done!

Edited January 9, 2016 by Daniel Dylan Davis

[AndyLL]

Spoiler

 

Who's your friend who likes to play?
Bing Bong, Bing Bong
His rocket makes you yell "Hooray!"
Bing Bong, Bing Bong
Who's the best in every way, and wants to sing this song to say
Bing Bong, Bing Bong!

 

 

What can I say that hasn't already been said about this movie?  I Lava it.

 

Pixar is not afraid to take chances.   They also are not afraid to make an intelligent movie that appeals to kids as well as adults.  And yes... while young kids will not understand it at the same level that adults will certainly pre-teens and teens will get a lot out of it.  This movie is gives parent a great opportunity to talk to their kids about depression and other emotional issues.

 

I was pretty hyped from the previews... unfortunately it opened while we were on vacation.  We decided we couldn't wait until we go back so a few weeks before it opened we decided it was worth devoting a night of our vacation to see it.  No regrets.

 

Loved it.  Loved it enough we saw it again the day after we got back from vacation.  I saw it every chance I got on our fall Disney Cruise.  Seen it several times on Blu_ray since.

 

Inside-Out... along with Wall-E... is Pixar's best movies.  That is not the same as most enjoyable Pixar movie.  Those 2, all the Toy Stories, The Incredibiles, Monsters Inc... all A+ movies that on any given day could be my favorite. 

 

IO & Wall-E are different to me.  In my opinion they took big chances with them.  I still remember my amazement sitting in the theater during Wall'e's 1st act.  A theater full of kids and you could hear a pin drop during the 20 minutes of no dialogue.  I felt IO took a chance making a movie that explored  mature issues in a family movie.

 

Inside-Out is no doubt emotional.  I can't remember ever crying in a movie but I certainly teared up several times in IO.

 

Joy cradling the memories.

Joy finalizing realizing that all emotions are required.

Bing Bong of course

Riley returning home after running away.

 

There was plenty of humor also.  

 

Lewis Black was fantastic as Anger.  The newspaper headlines were so clever.

Fear was fantastic.

The running Gum commercial joke was great.

The Dream studio was fun.

Abstract land/zone was clever.

"Forget it, Jake. It's Cloud Town"

 

No villain...  No action... No problem.  My 13 year old boy was not bored... even on his 4th viewing.

 

I don't care how many Braves, sequels, Cars or Dino movies they make as long as Pixar occasionally puts out a movie like Inside-Out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[baumer]

On 1/8/2016 at 1:56 PM, AndyLL said:

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I did not see the Hunger Games in the theater.  My wife read the books and badly wanted to see it.  I refused.  She went alone.

I did not see Catching Fire in the theater.  My wife took a neighborhood 13 year old girl to see it with her.

However... Catching Fires run happened during Frozens run.  This is when I began to really participate on the forums.  I keep reading about how good the series was from members I respected.

So late one night with nothing better to do I plopped in the HG blu-ray.  I was hooked.  I finished HG and immediately watched Catching Fire.

I loved the world and the story.  I loved Jennifer Lawrence.  

The only thing I didn't love was the seemingly forced love triangle but I could live with it.

So MockingJay Part 1 was my 1st Hunger Games movie in the theater.

I loved it.  

I didn't like the series because of the games... I liked it because of the world.  The idea that a society would use managed violence to keep the population under control.  Yes I know it's been done many times before but the HG series did it extremely well.

Katniss drives the movie.  A conflicted, unwilling hero.  She has a lot of conflicts.  Symbol vs participate.  Home vs duty to all.  Family  vs the people in the districts.

JLaw played her so well.

My disappointment in MJ1 was the same as everyone else.  They needed to either find a way to make MJ1 a more complete movie or combine MJ1 and MJ2.

So it's obvious I consider MJ2 just a continuation of MJ1 and my rating of MJ2 would likely not be the same if I considered as a standalone movie.

I was excited for MJ2.  I'll admit that excitement was tempered by my excitement for TFA.  I do think that hurt MJ2s box office. 

The MJ2 plot was pretty predictable.  That was a result of the year difference between MJ1 & MJ2.

It didn't matter to me.  MJ2 was an awesome end to the series.

I've bought the books and look forward to reading them this year.

I hope they do a prequel and explore the initial uprising and the forming of the games.

 

 

Sorry, I can't "like" this post....will like every other post your write because I love lists....but this is one of the worst movies of all time.....imo. 

[baumer]

Terrific write-ups Andy.  I love some of the films you have chosen here, not necessarily because they would make my list too ( although JW will) but because you are passionate about your love for the films.  Well done.

[AndyLL]

 

Spoiler

 

I'm sure this choice will surprise no one that has paid attention these last few months.

 

Star Wars is my favorite franchise.  ANH is my all time favorite movie event.  I was 14 years old when ANH came out and it is impossible to describe what it was like to see it in then theater.  We were seeing things on the screen that had never been seen before.  I was an avid science fiction reader at the time and to see the types of things I was reading about appear on the big screen was amazing.

 

I was worried TFA would not live up to my expectations.  I was hoping for something on par with ROTJ that had the feel of the original trilogy.  TFA far far far exceeded my expectations.

 

ANH - Allowed us to see the Star Wars universe and introduced us to the characters.  However... the plot was simplistic, the characters, at times,  one dimensional, the dialogue at time painful.  It had a lot of great moments but also had some pacing challenges.

 

ESB - An all time great movie.  This was a road trip story. It dealt with Luke's journey of discovering Force & Family.  That characters were so much better than in ANH and the story so much more mature.

 

ROTJ - Kind of a rehash of ANH with the Death Star again threatening to wipe out the rebels and the main plot seemingly revolving around the destruction of it  However the 3rd act of Luke, Vader and the emperor redeem the plot.  It was a fun movie and a fitting ending to the trilogy.

 

Prequels - Complicated, convoluted stories.  Unlikable characters.  Poor acting.  Too much (bad) romance. So much world building it's overwhelming.  Anakin is a likable character in the TV Clone Wars series.  Why not do that for the 1st 2 movies so there is an emotional payoff when he turns into Vader.  I was hoping Lucas had forgotten about the OT and was just gonna kill off Anakin.

 

TFA, in my opinion tops all of them.

 

1st I'll briefly address the complaints I've heard.

 

It's just a rehash of ANH - That's like claiming T2 is just a rehash of The Terminator because a terminator was sent back to kill Conner.

 

The plot between AHN and TFA are completely different.  In AHN it was all about destroying the death star.  In TFA... it was more of a plot device to give a location and urgent tension to the final battle.  The battle of Hoth, battle against the Hut, the 2nd death... all had similar plot devices.

 

If anything... it was more of a rehash of ESB.  While the plot might have been to find Luke... the story was about Rey's journey and the awakening of the Force.

 

Yes there were many familiar scenes.  

 

Some obviously took popular elements from the OT.  BB-8 is a great example of that.

 

Some come from being a continuation of Episode IV.  Ren wearing a mask is not a rehash of the OT... it's a continuation of the story of Vader's family and Ren wanting to fallow in grand dad's footsteps.  

 

Some are just ridiculous.  A cantina with aliens in it is too much of a rehash of ANH?  I'll bet $100 right now that if there is life in the universe... plenty of them are sitting in a bar right now getting smashed and listening to music.

 

And the best one of all I've heard:  Han Solo in TFA was too much like Han Solo in the OT.

 

JJ addressed the similarities:

 

“What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new — to go backwards to go forwards,”

 

It is obvious the goal was to wipe out the memory of the prequels and get back to the feel of the original trilogy.

 

So yes... many familiar things in TFA... just like ESB and ROFJ all had familiar things.

 

Rey was too powerful - I'll be brief here.  Star Wars is the story of the Skywalker family and their exceptional ability to use the Force.  Every story had untrained Skywalkers doing things in the Force they shouldn't have been able to.

 

The great things about The Force Awakens

 

The characters:

 

Rey was fantastic.  He attitude, her physical skills, her beauty... her interaction with everyone else... just a perfect character played perfectly.  People like to compare her to Luke or even Solo.  A better comparison would be to a young Anakin.  She already had a nice character arc in TFA and you can sense there is plenty more to come.

 

Finn - People keep trying to compare him to former star wars characters.  None of them fit.  He is his own character.  And in some ways he is the opposite of Rey.  So insecure and wanting to do the right thing but not knowing how.  He is best when on screen with Rey or Poe because they bring out the best in him.

 

Kylo Ren - People complain he is a weak and easily beaten villain.  I hope they realize that this was on purpose.  Vader was the same full-fledged villain through out the OT.  There was no real growth in him until the final scene.  Palpatine was basically they same villain throughout the PT.  With Ren they have left a lot of room for growth... in many different ways.

 

BB-8 - Yes... I'm sure marketing played a role here.  But I never thought they'd come up with a droid that would be as likable as R2D2.  What I really liked was that they didn't always explain what BB-8 was saying... they left it up to the audience to interpret it themselves based on the context. With R2D2 you typically had C3PO or someone else making sure you know what he said.

 

Poe - Loved the 'best pilot in the resistance' but we didn't see enough of him.  I have a feeling that'll change in future movies.  I believe we'll find the reason he is so skilled is that he is force sensitive.

 

Han Solo - Solo is not only one of my favorable characters of all time but Harrison Ford is one of my favorite actors.  I thought his Han Solo in TFA was exactly what Sol would be like 30 years after ROTJ.

 

The other OT characters - I though they did not try to throw all of them at us with major roles in the 1st movie.  They all were there just as much as they needed to be for the movie.

 

What was so great is how well all the characters interacted with each other:  Finn - Rey, Rey - BB-8, BB-8 - Poe, Poe - Finn, Rey -Solo, Rey - Leia, Solo - Leia

 

It just all seemed natural.  You can Ship them all.

 

The Story

 

The main plot was obviously the search for Luke.  However the story is the Force Awakening in Rey.  I sure this story will continue over all 3 of the movies.

 

I loved the pace of the movie.  There were higher paced sequences and slower paced sequences.  But the slower parts never took me out of the movie or bored me.

 

So many emotional scenes... I teared up a couple times:

 

Spoiler

The opening scroll and the pan down to the Star Destroyer

Maz telling Rey her family is not coming back for her

Han dying and Leia feeling it

BB8-greeting Poe

Leia & Rey

Rey & Finn meeting up on the star killer

Rey leaving Finn at the end

Rey & Luke

 

 

So many exceptional scenes

Spoiler

All of the above plus

The lightsaber going to Rey instead of Ren.  

Leia & Han

The 1st act on Jakku is the best act in any Star Wars movie... including Vader, Luke and the Emperor in ROTJ.  The score was the best there also.

Rey exiting the Falcon on Takodana 

Ren watching the Star Killer fire from the Star Destroyer

The Tie fighters coming out of the sun on Takodana

R2D2 coming alive

 

 

And countless others.

 

Right now I rank The Force Awakens as the best Star Wars movie.  That puts it in my top ten of all time long with ESB.  That might change 6 months from now when I watch all of the OT + TFA on Blu-Ray in 4 months or so.  But I doubt it.

 

I am already so freaken' excited for SW VIII.  I hope they don't screw it up.

 

 

 

[AndyLL]

And that is my Top Ten best movies of 2015.

 

It's True... all of it.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read it.

 

Andy

[CJohn]

The number 1 redeemed this list.