Star Wars: The Force Awakens Discussion - SPOILERS INSIDE

[Swishiest]

Personally, I really hope Rey isn't related to anyone. Kylo Ren also has some anger issues and gets mad when anything doesn't go according to plan... Him reacting with "What girl?!" is more just him having issues to me.

Also Luke would be a dick just abandoning his kid like that. "Oh it's to protect her!" Yeah 'cause that went so well with him and Leia the first time!

[Kayllek Veran]

SwishiestBog wrote:

Personally, I really hope Rey isn't related to anyone. Kylo Ren also has some anger issues and gets mad when anything doesn't go according to plan... Him reacting with "What girl?!" is more just him having issues to me. Also Luke would be a dick just abandoning his kid like that. "Oh it's to protect her!" Yeah 'cause that went so well with him and Leia the first time!

 I love his tantrums.  It shows his childish self and the Anakin side of control over his anger/ actions.

To me, it was a great addition to his character as he is descended from Anakin

[Selrac]

SwishiestBog wrote:

Personally, I really hope Rey isn't related to anyone. Kylo Ren also has some anger issues and gets mad when anything doesn't go according to plan... Him reacting with "What girl?!" is more just him having issues to me. Also Luke would be a dick just abandoning his kid like that. "Oh it's to protect her!" Yeah 'cause that went so well with him and Leia the first time!

 Yes, it did go well. They were safe from Vader until it was time: Leia by political prominence; Luke by the absolute uselessness of his planet and Vader's PTSD.

My personal theory is, regardless of parentage, Rey was a promising young student at Jedi Temple V. 2.0 (In part responsible for her relatively extreme force affinity) and, when the poodoo went down in the rain, was spared by Kylo for some reason, Bourne Identity/Revan-style mind-wiped, and dropped on Jakku because, again, unimportant planet. The lightsaber vision brings up some of these memories, but not in a way that makes sense.

 

I also loved the hell out of the movie and may end up ranking it among my favorites.

[Frost290]

I'm wondering if Finn is force sensitive? They alluded to it in the trailer and the poster has him with a lightsaber. So he has got to be as well?

[Kimia]

I don't know if Finn is force sensitive or not, I assumed that he was based on the fact that he was so intuitively good with the blaster cannons in the space combat, but nothing else after that pointed to it to me.  If he is I would be very suspicious he seems to have a lot of anger/fear...  

As far as aiming the giant weapon, there is some physics going on there that is out of this world. There were a lot of super powerful guided energy weapons in this movie that weren't in previous, I'm not sure how they are directing those, but based on how much they were able to spread out they just have to be pointing in the general direction of what they want to hit.

I really didn't think about all of that too much though during the movie,  I just flat out loved it.  I don't know if I have just been smashed down so low by the prequels that deep down I was bracing for the worst and it caught me off guard or what.  I don't really have a favorite among the originals, I really liked the whole trilogy together, and I think, to me, this one falls right in there with those.  It had all the emotion I wanted, the acting was good, I laughed at the jokes, even the dust that seemed to fill the theater towards the end of the movie causing my eyes to annoyingly water ;-) didn't put a damper on my enjoyment.  IT WAS GREAT!!!

[Jacen]

Meesa loveda movie! Meesa want more!

 

Loved the movie. The sequel trilogy already has as many "meaningful" lightsaber fights as the entire prequels. I loved all the characters. The Supreme Leader interests me and I can't wait until more is revealed about him. It just left me wanting to know more. 

The fact they were able to tie in whiny Anakin into a character like Kylo is beautiful to me. For once whiny psycho actually works and he made you hate him but still love him as a character.

[Nwahs]

Kayllek Veran wrote:

PolishRifle wrote: I saw some easter eggs I think SCORPIO was in the cantina. Finn pulled the training remote out of a bag when he was trying to patch up Chewie  Noticed these too!  I immediately recognized the remote! In regards to Rey's powers:  I think she's Luke's daughter.  Shawn and I both agree on this point.  There's plenty of evidence that points to it.   - Luke's lightsaber call out to HER - Kylo knows her, hence why he keeps asking "What Girl?!" in such a rage and wants her found.  He may feel her through the Force, but there's something more there. - She's a great pilot (Luke being #1 in the Alliance) - Parents left her on Jakku (Mother?  And Luke leaves to go into exile) While it's not a lot, it definitely stands out.  If she was related to Han and Leia, I'm sure that they would've said something.  It would be very out-of-character of them to leave her on Jakku. ALSO, this all points to the meaning of the title, "The Force Awakens!"  The Force is carried through the Skywalker family.  It lives on, and it "awakens" through their offspring, Kylo and (Rey?).   I'm going on a trip tonight, but I will add to even more stuff tomorrow.

 

For the record after much thought I think that there is a possibility that she's Luke's daughter but I also think that would suck as far as over-using the idea that everyone cool in the galaxy is related to one another.

 

I have so many more thoughts but I'll start with this:  Definitely an amazing movie, I left at first with a bad taste in my mouth due to the awkwardness of the ending but that is warming on me, and the fact that so much was left unexplained, and then I realized oh shit they want to keep making more movies lol.  It was Ep4 in the way they just set up this universe, they didn't waste time with too much exposition which is good.  It kept the flow of the movie steady and gave us some mystery.

 

Han definitely said "Ben", which I think is an AMAZING way to give a nod to the EU but spin it... however I will say I kind of don't like it because it doesn't make a ton of sense for Han and Leia to name their son Ben on paper, unless Luke gave them the suggestion, because Han nor Leia were close to Obi-Wan or called him Ben.  I mean, it's entirely doable, Leia would owe a LOT to "Ben" Kenobi and maybe didn't like the name Obi-Wan, plus wouldn't want to use the name Obi-Wan since it may raise questions to First Order people.

 

My take on the galactic scene is that the New Republic has reached some kind of Treaty or ceasefire with the First Order... they seemed to have drawn a line in the sand on planets to control, but there is the "Resistance" which is operating independently to fight the First Order, protect weak planets that the New Republic can't afford to openly protect and start another full scale war.

[Nwahs]

PolishRifle wrote:

I have the movie poster as my desktop background and as I was looking at it I realized the super weapon was a horrible design.  Its built into the planet which I assume rotates daily and orbits the star in the system HOW DO YOU AIM THAT?  Could they only target planets when they were in direct LOS?

 Ok, that is my biggest problem with the movie.  That super weapon was too awkward, the scene where they explain their battle plan was too cheeky.  I know what they were going for, but it killed the sense of tension we should have had.

[Nwahs]

Nokinoki_SW wrote:

I don't know if Finn is force sensitive or not, I assumed that he was based on the fact that he was so intuitively good with the blaster cannons in the space combat, but nothing else after that pointed to it to me.  If he is I would be very suspicious he seems to have a lot of anger/fear...   As far as aiming the gian...

 I personally thing Finn is just a damn good warrior.  Remember, he's been raised as one of these new epic stormtroopers from a young age, where they are better trained in combat etc. I think that's why he has a cursory knowledge of how to handle a lightsaber and any vehicle he found himself in, though I guess pilot training isn't a common course for all stormtroopers, which makes sense.  Hard to be good at everything and commit the time/resources for that to make sense.

 

PS I Fucking loved this movie... I felt a personal connection to it.  When the lady told Rey to close her eyes... I closed mine in theater and got the most intense goosebumps I've had in a long time.

[Nwahs]

The dog fighting and comedy were perrrrrfect.  C3PO was amazing, as was R2D2... ahh so much I want to say but gotta go lol.

[Iceroid]

It looks like I will be the first person with the dissenting opinion. I found the movie to be far too predictable with far too many nasty plot holes and extreme coincidences.

 

Things that were way too predictable:

I called the Rey being a force user thing after the very first fight defending herself from the dirtbags in the village. The way she handled her staff in combat translates perfectly to lightsaber usage, and of course far be it from Star Wars to waste a good coincidence.

The instant Han called out to Kylo on the bridge, I immediately thought to myself “my what a lovely shaft of death this bridge is hovering over, perfect for removing the most popular character in the movie, who’s plot armor is far too strong to be defeated by anything other than his own son.”

As soon as the plot turned to destroying Starkiller base, rather than completing the map puzzle, I knew Luke wouldn’t be showing his face much/at all. I was actually guessing that they just brought him in as a trick to throw fans off the trail and that he wouldn’t actually show up until the next movie. I was sooooo close to being 100% right on this one…

Speaking of the map puzzle…

 

Things I just plain didn’t like:

Any society that has the technology to build a telescope can map out a layout of their galaxy pretty accurately. Do you mean to tell me that nobody could take a few dozen stars from BB-8’s map and extrapolate the map’s location in the galaxy? I call shenanigans.

How many times did the Millennium Falcon crash? How does she still fly? I call shenanigans.

Why does the galaxy need a “resistance” to fight the First Order? Is the Republic just turning a blind eye to the events of the galaxy? Do they not remember what happened a mere 50 years ago? I call shenanigans.

Kylo Ren force pushed the crap out of Rey and threw her into a tree, he force choked people, froze blaster bolts in midair, etc… Why not do that again once he realized she was more than a match for him in melee dueling? I call shenanigans.

Captain Phasma is a pretty big pushover for being in charge of the galaxy’s most elite generation of Stormtroopers. She knew Finn and Han didn’t know how to deactivate the shield, therefore she should have known they couldn’t have carried out their death threats. I call shenanigans.

Starkiller base shot a dozen planets all within visual range of the whatchamacallit planet where they got Luke’s lightsaber, and yet didn’t attempt to destroy that planet. Also, just the fact that there were a dozen planets within visual range of that planet in the first place. I call shenanigans.

R2 magically decided to wake up and the end of the movie and magically had the other 90% of the puzzle. There was no reason or stimulus shown to convince him to wake up. I call shenanigans.

 

Things that bothered me but were fine:

Poe magically reappearing at the resistance base. 

Chewie being a baby after getting shot.

Another super evil death machine destroyed in the first attempt.

 

Things I liked:

comedy?

special effects?

 

I really really really wanted to like this movie, but I couldn’t seem to get past the massive ridiculousness in the aforementioned parts of the plot. Of course I really shouldn’t complain since the previous 6 movies have quite a lot of similar plot holes. Maybe I’m just being overly analytical.

 

TL;DR:

 

WTB more character development and less pew pew and silly plot holes.

[Kénpachi-zaraki]

Brandonjinn wrote:

I did very much enjoy it. Liked the Depth of the characters and the over all pace of the film. The one major thing that may end up bugging me is that I felt Rey's powers developed so quickly/conveniently but I am wondering if this is meant to be a statement as to how strong with the force she is. I feel like it Left me wanting more which is awesome! I wonder if people will complain about the ending but I would imagine Empire did the same thing back in the day. I wish for fun I could just see how much Mark Hamill made for his performance in this movie... Also saber fighting in the snowy forest was fantastic!

 I completely agree. I loved it. It had great character development and pace. I agree that Rey's growth in the force during that final battle seemed excessive considering even Luke Skywalker was just beginning to scratch the surface of the force in ep 4. However maybe she got into more fights than Luke did on Tatooine and had been honing her battling skills with the force for longer. She did kick the asses of those street punks in that earlier fight, which I'm sure Luke couldn't do in ep 4 either. They did edit out even the line of Luke talking in the previews. I am assuming Rey is the one related to Luke that he references in the previews, but there are questions left unanswered in this movie. I'm hungry for more already. And Mark Hamill probably made the easiest $5 million in history for that one scene of him turning around and taking off his hood. lol But I still loved probably every minute of it. Great movie!

[Iceroid]

Oh yeah, I forgot about mentioning how much Rey's progression bothered me. Even several years later in ESB, Luke really had to concentrate to use the force to grab his lightsaber that was 2 feet away. Rey somehow managed to overwhelm Kylo's force pull and draw the saber to herself instead? Also who taught her that force persuasion was even a thing? Much less how to use it on that poor stormtrooper. I call shenanigans.

[P-Rife]

Yeah her progression was really fast.  I'm wondering if she had begun training and maybe they did the Jedi memory wipe on her like they did on Revan.  It seemed like things triggered in her that caused the powers to manifest.  I've only seen it once so I can't get too specific but I feel like things might lean that way.  Maybe her visions when she got the saber were the implanted memories and actual memories trying to sort themselves out.

[Nwahs]

 The Force is mysterious, why do we think we know how it works, especially in a landscape where balance to the Force was restored?

 

I don't think you're overly critical Ice, I also left the theater feeling the same as you... really I did, plus more. But, all that said, it was so star wars. Things will be slowly explained over the next two films and through literature like Complete Guide to the Galaxy.