Red Mosquito

Rangi Guy wrote:

stip wrote:God I hate everywhere that isn't the US right now.

I guess Ireland is ok. It's hard to get mad at Dime

U wat m8?

The Force Awakens offers a “greatest hits” approach to Star Wars - take all the “expected” elements and check them off. It’s not quite a remake of the 1977 original but the influences and homages are so strong that at times it seems like one. I guess the salient question is whether Star Wars fans want something unique or whether they want to see variations on a theme. The degree to which The Force Awakens is derivative is at times surprising. Apparently, writer/director J.J. Abrams is so frightened of “messing up” Star Wars that he does the safest (and laziest) thing imaginable: tosses new characters and old ones into the mix and has them do pretty much the same things we saw in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi

Ironically, the few innovative things Abrams and co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan attempt are among those that work best, leaving open the tantalizing prospect of what The Force Awakens might have been had the filmmakers not been beholden to incorporating as many Star Wars tropes as the 135-minute running length would accommodate. For the most part, however, this is a fusion of moments, ideas, and plot points from A New Hope, Return of the Jedi, and Revenge of the Sith..

So what’s the final verdict? A mixed bag. It’s a good start to a new trilogy but hardly the hoped-for masterpiece. It’s a solid space opera spectacle with enough nostalgia to overpower even the most hard-hearted child of the ‘70s and ‘80s but it relies a little too much on recycling old plot elements

tommymtcom wrote:Alex is seeing this right now

dimejinky99 wrote:Cynical take. You found one. Good work.

McParadigm wrote:That's not the word either dime .

Third times a charm.

Rangi Guy wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:Cynical take. You found one. Good work.

This was from the one movie reviewer that I generally trust. This is the only review I've read

stip wrote:

Rangi Guy wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:Cynical take. You found one. Good work.

This was from the one movie reviewer that I generally trust. This is the only review I've read

I think what a review like that misses (from my perspective) is that the first star wars movie NEEDED to do this in order to rehabilitate the franchise and recapture the original magic. From all accounts this was completely successful in that respect, and once people care about the product again (in that classic way) you can start to play with what it means. But I don't think you can start from that perspective--especially after the prequels.

For what it's worth, here's my current ranking of the films, best to worst:
1. TESB (V)
2. ANH (IV)
3. ROTS (III)
4. AOTC (II) & TFA (VI) [TIE]
6. TPM (I)
7. ROTJ (VI)

Kaius wrote:That ranking sucks.