[Sandwich]

This thread is for those of us who have seen it.

Nevertheless, I'll try to keep my remarks spoiler-free... or at least spoiler-lite.

1. Who made that map... and FFS why??
2. I wonder how long it took Mark Hamil to learn his lines.
3. Ben, huh? I was hoping against hope for something more in line with the EU... ah well.
4. Carrie Fisher doesn't resemble Leia anymore.
5. Last, but not least.....     :'(

EDIT: Oh yeah, my rating... 9/10. Would watch again. Thank you, JJ et al!

[Ghostavo]

The final fight scene irked me so much.

"Every time I battled someone in the movie I used force paralysis. But for the final battle against those two, even thought I did the force push on her at the very beginning, I think I'll restrain myself.

Also, even though I probably have more training than both of them combined using a light saber, I think I'll get wounded against both of them and lose against the one with probably no combat training."

Gah...

[Bryan See]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens today here in Malaysia, my country, have anyone there seen it?

[Sandwich]

Having slept on it, here are some of the cinematic parts I liked most:

- Frozen blaster bolt (and eventual release)
- X-wing cockpit views, both from right outside looking in, and especially from the pilot's POV during crazy maneuvering
- Shots that convey the planetary scale of Star Killer base
- Millennium Falcon maneuvering

Was it just me, or were there no downed SSDs shown on Jakku, only ISDs? I know there is definitely a promo shot of the Falcon being chased by a TIE Fighter into the engines of an SSD, but I never saw that in the movie.

[Veers]

I'm the opposite. While I agree it is well done, looks sharp, sounds even better. I can't stomach watching it again, not for a few weeks until the family wants to see it, and even then I'm pushing it.

Spoiler:

- New Hope Clone
- Storyline felt obvious. Rey walks into a room and there is a chest there. (I think, Lightsaber) boom. Done. Han walks out, he'll die. Boom, he dies. (I would not have expected them both to walk off, not converted to the light-side though, still in conflict. But that would have been a twist)
- Surely the Galactic Economy can't keep churning out superweapons a dime a dozen, it would be nice to see a weapon actually survive more than one movie. That entire attack sequence is more unbelievable than the original DS. Not to mention it is basically carried out in the same fashion.
- Either lightsabers have become incredibly easy for anybody to use or Kylo Ren is completely and utterly incompetent. I would imagine some sword/melee skills translate a little, but not to being that decent with them in respect to Rey and Finn.
- FO Officers appear more human, more emotion within them. A friend said weak as characters but you can take that as good or bad. They appear more human to me by being 'weak' and showing 'emotion'
- Superweapon firing. Unlike a New Hope, we aren't given any reason to care about these 'Republic' planets blowing up. The Resistance doesn't have much connection for us to care. Alderaan was a 'peaceful' world with no 'weapons', the home to Leia. It was in the story, this is just. We have power and shot at the 'enemy'. Yea, cool. No investment to us as viewers.

I'll shut up now..

What I did like?

- FO Pilots appear to have been given solid training. Overall they seem more level-headed and capable in the cockpit.
- TIE variants. Interesting that they have a gunner position and the overall craft performance seems vastly enhanced.
- Alternate story options. Why was the Falcon there? (briefly touched upon), why are there so many remains of Imperial Equipment on Jakku (Star Destroyers, AT-ATs etc)?, are there other worlds and locations with such abandoned/destroyed equipment as well?, Why?

Edit: That Frozen blaster bolt was cool.

[Bryan See]

But Mat Kaplan of The Planetary Society have yet to air a significant audio treat of Star Wars The Force Awakens on Planetary Radio, possibly its aspect of Star Wars science, which has become plausible thanks to circumbinary exoplanets and the viewing of likeness of Star Wars in space by NASA. If he doesn't really air next week, then I bet I could let it be and hope that Mat Kaplan would try another next year.

BTW, in the future, Mat will likely interview one of our own at HLP, as one of them may have a unique perspective on humanity's quest of knowledge about the Solar System and Beyond.

[Scotty]

The (what is arguably a retcon) change from flashy, jumpy, acrobatic, superbeing bull**** Jedi lightsaber battles in the prequels to the broadsword slugging matches in this movie is a very good change, thematically speaking.  Not only does it give each swing meaningful weight, it also opens up the door to allowing things to threaten main characters.  A Jedi character who actually got a name in the prequels was functionally immune to anything that didn't also have a lightsaber.  They couldn't be surprised, they couldn't be outfought, they could deflect or block absolutely anything and respond with immediately lethal or neutralizing force (heh) with minimal effort.

Contrast with Kylo Ren, Finn, and Rey.  Finn has some martial training, but has handled a lightsaber in exactly one fight before (that he lost).  He manages to hold his own against Kylo Ren for a few minutes, and though he eventually loses he actually inflicts a hit, while the tension is still at a high level.  Rey has never handled a lightsaber before, but with the (inferred, but obvious) guidance of the force, she defeats Ren after a fairly lengthy and weighty battle.  What does that mean?  It means that normal characters can threaten force users now.  It means that Jedi are not all majestic, flawless gymnasts capable of reaching low orbit with a light hop.

It shifts the focus of a Jedi or other force user's strength from literal physical strength and agility, and turns it toward the mystical aspects of the force.  Kylo Ren is at his most powerful, most intimidating, and most interesting when he's using the power of the force, not when he's swinging a lightsaber.

He's also pretty obviously and deliberately set up as a wanna-be Darth Vader, both in and out of setting.  It'll be interesting to see him get some genuine character development as he, Finn, and Rey all come into their own as the up and coming major players of the setting.

[Sandwich]

Did anyone else expect Luke to gently Force-pull (perhaps more like a Force-float) the lightsaber from Rey at the end there?

EDIT: Also, I kept on seeing Denzel Washington facial expressions in Boyega.

[Klaustrophobia]

I give it a solid MEH.   It didn't feel like a Star Wars movie to me at all.  More like a poor attempt at a gritty reboot, or a 2 hour character introduction for the following movies.  Predictable plot and shoehorning of old elements to tie it together.

[StarSlayer]

I haven't seen the movie yet but something to keep in mind is the best swordsman isn't afraid of the second best, he's afraid of a complete amateur.  When you face someone who is trained in a system you can expect certain behavior, all the pattern recognition and experience you have accrued can be leveraged against them.  You can't do that with a rookie, heck they don't even know what they are doing. 

We had a young lady in historic weapons class who had zero athletic ability and could not retain techniques as fast as you explained them.  Still she could catch folks out sometimes because you could not predict what she would attempt and she often would do things that were not even ergonomically sound.

[Sushi]

Liked it. It's probably not very good, though.

Liked the primary characters and their interactions. Rolled my eyes at the plot elements shoehorned in just to tick a "star wars" box (oh look, another Bigger Badder death star, sigh). Annoyed at all the lazy convenient plot handwavium throughout (and the more you think about the movie, the more you see).

Death star aside, I like that the scope was kept relatively small and contained, and that we at least we were spared the "Epic super fleet battle of all time" drudgery. They're probably saving it for a sequel or two down the line though.

Still better than Episode 1 by a mile, though. And I don't remember any facepalm "now this is podracing!" or "I hate sand" dialogue.

[EatThePath]

I'd basically second everything Scotty said about the fighting, and add that while Rey may not have any formal training, she obviously is athletic and knows how to fight. That's established earlier when two random thugs try to steal BB-8, and possibly elsewhere. Kylo Ren on the other hand is rapidly racking up wounds by that point in the movie.

My biggest irk is scale. The surface scenes on the starkiller were far too close together, and aside from a few pretty good CG enviroments the whole interior felt small and underpopulated. Due to the intercutting with the ticking clock of doom, three people manage to land outside of view, sneak into the interior, capture a high ranking officer, shut down the planet's shields, get to the weak point, plant a bunch of bombs, have an emotional moment and then the better part of a lightsaber duel in... twenty minutes? It's a freaking planet that eats stars. And I know it'll be called nitpicking nerdery but I can't help the fact that I know that a planet that eats whole stars and then turns into a stable star the same size as it when exploded is freaking insane talk, to say nothing of multiple places in the galaxy seeing the hyperspace deathray shot and hits at the same time. I can only suspend my disbelief so far here. Blowing up a bunch of planets we know nothing about and have no connection to is pretty gratuitous for sure, though some of the shots there were quite pretty.

Not a great movie, but one I thoroughly enjoyed. All the good guy characters are people I want to see more of, and all the returning cast seemed to nail their roles. Hamil perhaps the least for me, hopefully his role in the next movie will carry it through though.

Edit: Oh yeah, and Phasma was disappointingly pointless. Doesn't really live up to having a name and special armor. And getting her to shut down the shields was at least double stupid.

[Scotty]

My current working theory is that the galaxy as presented in Episode VII is significantly smaller than anything presented in the former EU.  Down to a couple orders of magnitude smaller.

At least that would solve my legacy complaint about how few Star Destroyers the Empire has for something that's supposed to rule the galaxy, and also solve my complaint about how blowing up one system decapitated the entire Republic.

[Swifty]

Finn's fight against that stormtrooper was a pretty effective way of explaining why Finn could fight naturally with a lightsaber. Finn, being a former stormtrooper himself, was trained to fight with that same standard issue electrostaff his opponent used.

[Sandwich]

Oh yeah, the electrostaffs - the one thing from the prequels they appear to have borrowed, and actually one of the only things from the prequels that didn't annoy everyone.

[CT27]

I'm not sure I understood the galactic political situation.

If the Republic won the war in the OT and this First Order is supposed to be some uppity Imperial remnant...shouldn't the Republic fleet (Mon Cal cruisers, etc.) have sent some capital ships to be in the final attack?

[SirCumference]

Was fun to watch and I liked the new characters (except Kylo Ren, who was completely not intimidating), but good grief, was there a single original thought anywhere in this entire movie? The whole thing was campy fan-service and rehashed plot. And why the heck, after the first two death stars were easily destroyed, would anyone think it was a good idea to build a third one (one that could, again, be easily destroyed from the surface by small craft)?

[Scotty]

I'm not sure I understood the galactic political situation.

If the Republic won the war in the OT and this First Order is supposed to be some uppity Imperial remnant...shouldn't the Republic fleet (Mon Cal cruisers, etc.) have sent some capital ships to be in the final attack?

There's a fleet that visibly explodes when Starkiller Base is used to destroy those planets.  That's where a good chunk of it wen.t

[NGTM-1R]

I'm not sure I understood the galactic political situation.

If the Republic won the war in the OT and this First Order is supposed to be some uppity Imperial remnant...shouldn't the Republic fleet (Mon Cal cruisers, etc.) have sent some capital ships to be in the final attack?

Part of the background is also that there was a major military drawdown after the Empire's last offensive failed at Jakku. After that people and planets just couldn't defect fast enough for awhile leaving the Imperial military with almost nothing, and the military the new owners of the galaxy chose to maintain was barely a tenth of the size the one the Empire kept at its height.

[Klaustrophobia]

How is the movie goer supposed to know any of that?  The explanation of the galactic government consisted of the scrolling text mentioning that oh yeah, there's a republic again, and then later a silly scene of the apparently one system that makes it up getting exploded.  If there's actually a government, why the hell does there need to be a resistance to the leftover imperials (which are themselves a resistance if there's a new government).