Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

[dprival78]

I liked the three main actors, but I'm struggling to think of anything else I liked. umm... nope I got nothin'

I have you on record as being a big fan of the Starkilker base attack plan.

"it's just like the death star, only bigger"

"ok how do we beat it?"

"shoot a lot at one very exposed spot"

"ok. but wait, are there shields?"

"not really"

"cool!"

[BurtReynolds]

I liked how bored Harrison Ford sounded when talking about that stupid thing. He just didn't give a shit. He was the perfect stand-in for the audience.


Han: There's always some super easy thing to shoot that will blow the whole thing up, right?

other dude: yeah it's right here.

Han: Holy shit I was joking. Sigh. I hope someone kills me off soon.

[Anders]

Starkiller Base might be worse than anything in the prequels. Worst part of TFA by far.

[stip]

I liked how bored Harrison Ford sounded when talking about that stupid thing. He just didn't give a shit. He was the perfect stand-in for the audience.


Han: There's always some super easy thing to shoot that will blow the whole thing up, right?

other dude: yeah it's right here.

Han: Holy shit I was joking. Sigh. I hope someone kills me off soon.

That line was written and played for a laugh, a nod and wink to the audience in a movie that knows it is supposed to be fun. And the audience loved it each time I saw it in theaters.

[BurtReynolds]

I liked how bored Harrison Ford sounded when talking about that stupid thing. He just didn't give a shit. He was the perfect stand-in for the audience.


Han: There's always some super easy thing to shoot that will blow the whole thing up, right?

other dude: yeah it's right here.

Han: Holy shit I was joking. Sigh. I hope someone kills me off soon.

That line was written and played for a laugh, a nod and wink to the audience in a movie that knows it is supposed to be fun. And the audience loved it each time I saw it in theaters.

That doesn't forgive it of it's awfulness. It was a line played for a laugh and points out how completely stupid starkiller base and the rest of the movie is. Long way to go for a laugh.

[stip]

I liked the three main actors, but I'm struggling to think of anything else I liked. umm... nope I got nothin'

I have you on record as being a big fan of the Starkilker base attack plan.

"it's just like the death star, only bigger"

"ok how do we beat it?"

"shoot a lot at one very exposed spot"

"ok. but wait, are there shields?"

"not really"

"cool!"

You got a pretty good aeriel battle and a reallly enjoyable ground assault/light saber sequence out of it, so at a certain point who cares.


The finale of R1 is basically this:

"lets steal the Death Star plans"
"The plans that the designer let us know about in a carefully smuggled message"
"Yes"
"The plans he could have smuggled out instead of the message"
"Yes"
"Oh no, we have the plans but can't email them to the alliance"
"Did you reset the router"
"Okay its working now"
"Email them to the giant intergalactic spaceship right above you"
"Done"
"Giant intergalactic spaceship, email them to your base"
"We can't do that for some reason"
"Okay, jump to light speed"
"We can't do that for some reason"


But who cares because it's Star Wars and it was awesome to watch

[stip]

I liked how bored Harrison Ford sounded when talking about that stupid thing. He just didn't give a shit. He was the perfect stand-in for the audience.


Han: There's always some super easy thing to shoot that will blow the whole thing up, right?

other dude: yeah it's right here.

Han: Holy shit I was joking. Sigh. I hope someone kills me off soon.

That line was written and played for a laugh, a nod and wink to the audience in a movie that knows it is supposed to be fun. And the audience loved it each time I saw it in theaters.

That doesn't forgive it of it's awfulness. It was a line played for a laugh and points out how completely stupid starkiller base and the rest of the movie is. Long way to go for a laugh.

Starkiller base was a lazy plot device to reset the balance of power and provide the backdrop for an exciting third act. You roll your eyes at it and enjoy the ride. Five out of seven Star Wars movies have a Death Star in them

[BurtReynolds]

Something more forgivable:

Han: There's always some super easy thing to shoot that will blow the whole thing up, right?

other dude: not this time. Looks like the Empire has finally learned its lesson. We'll have to come up with another plan.

Han: Wait, that isn't in the first movie! This reeks of original thought! what the fuck do we do now!?

that way you get the stupid joke and can still have a movie that isn't an cynical piece of trash.

[stip]

Yeah, that would have been better, but in the end what mattered was recapturing the tone and feel of Star Wars. A soft reboot/sequel of a franchise that had utterly destroyed its credibility. Since they did that so effectively this is easy to forgive. Had they failed this would have been a much bigger problem

[BurtReynolds]

Yeah, that would have been better, but in the end what mattered was recapturing the tone and feel of Star Wars. A soft reboot/sequel of a franchise that had utterly destroyed its credibility. Since they did that so effectively this is easy to forgive. Had they failed this would have been a much bigger problem

Except it doesn't. The tone and feel are off. All that is copied is the surface details and plot. It's utterly soulless.

What's even more absurd is that the ride is somehow worse than the originals. Wasn't it basically x-wings vs. Tie fighters? whizzing around randomly. I don't remember seeing anything else (I may be wrong. can't remember). No real interest to the shots or action, no variety to the ship design, nothing interesting at all.

It somehow delivered less than the stuff it slavishly copied from. That's shocking.

Even the paltry character building of the pilots in the originals and R1 worked better. I feel bad when Biggs dies, even though I had no idea who he was. It was cool seeing Red Leader again in R1 and the General guy was kinda cool. Maybe I just like mustaches. I couldn't pick any of those TFA guys out of a lineup. They're just extras.

[stip]

The Star Wars pilot deaths were better, but I suspect your ability to pick them out of a lineup has something to do with seeing a movie a dozen times as opposed to, say, once.


And you're right, the A New Hope space battle was much more exciting, though there were plenty of good looking shots in TFA. But the finale of a new hope is one of the most exciting sequences ever, and the finale of TFA was really what was happening on the planet, rather than in the sky above it,. In that respect the end of TFA owes much more to return of the Jedi than a new hope.


And if you didn't like it fair enough, but at least recognize that your concern about the tone and feel being off is clearly a minority opinion on this. For the vast majority of people who saw this movie it did recapture what they loved about Star Wars.

[stip]

Why are we up so early having this conversation?

[BurtReynolds]

Why are we up so early having this conversation?

I'm up late

[stip]

We have a lot of family over and I'm sleeping on the couch in the same room as my father in law, who snores like a drowning truck

[BurtReynolds]

My neighbors are having a dance party in their living room.

[BurtReynolds]

a jedi dance party

[epilogue]

The Star Wars pilot deaths were better, but I suspect your ability to pick them out of a lineup has something to do with seeing a movie a dozen times as opposed to, say, once.


And you're right, the A New Hope space battle was much more exciting, though there were plenty of good looking shots in TFA. But the finale of a new hope is one of the most exciting sequences ever, and the finale of TFA was really what was happening on the planet, rather than in the sky above it,. In that respect the end of TFA owes much more to return of the Jedi than a new hope.


And if you didn't like it fair enough, but at least recognize that your concern about the tone and feel being off is clearly a minority opinion on this. For the vast majority of people who saw this movie it did recapture what they loved about Star Wars.

A friend of mine who HATED TFA when he saw it in theaters came over for dinner last night. He told me he'd rewatched TFA and didn't have anywhere near the number of issues with the sort of retread nature of the thing. I asked him if it's because he went back and watched Jedi with all his problems with TFA in mind and realized that Jedi was the first remake of A New Hope. He laughed. But we didn't talk about it further.

[Monkey_Driven]

Watched this again for the first time since last December. It's a good thing that Kylo Ren and Rey are such dynamic, multidimensional characters because this movie would not work if they weren't. Fin is like a human Jar Jar in terms of overacting and trying too hard.

That being said, it is still quite enjoyable and has many lovely moments.

[dimejinky99]

Had never seen this. Wow they had left it in.

[@SkitchP]

Im pretty sure the gravestone on Luke's island is for Carrie Fisher.