Devin Faraci Calls TFA fan fiction and calls JJ Hollywood's greatest Mimic

Even though your entire post is subjective opinion, you seem to state it like objective fact. However, I can agree that as a whole, the prequels were received very much in the way you stated. I remember those promises as well. But in regards to TFA, I can't see where anything you said is either objective fact or at least popular opinion, based on box office numbers, rotten tomatoes scores, and every other kind of rating system we have out there. It all seems to be your subjective opinion, in agreement with some internet click bait articles here and there and some upset forum posters here and there. Majority opinion on TFA seems to be incredibly positive, even moreso from what we've heard and seen among repeat viewers, which was the eventual demise of the prequels and will be a true test of TFA's legacy in the next few years. In short, the more people have gone back to see TFA, the more I have heard and seen online and in person that a majority like it even more, not less. Same for me.

 

If he were providing mo-cap performance for Tarkin, why not get someone who at least sounds like Tarkin?
Mendelsohn has a rather prominent lisp.

 

I see it!

 

I wasn't being serious .

 

Practical effects my *rse

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Mendelsohn as Tarkin, is he not too young?

 

They could always use some make up .

 

The special effect in this are amazing

 

As long as it makes money it will not implode and it makes alot of money right now.

seriously?

I could ask the same question if nay-sayers annoys you, but I don't.
People with different opinions are needed for a fair guided discussion. (without name-calling and flak of course)
It would be a bland and boring board without different opinions. (variety is the best)

MVS was wasted, no doubt.
A great actor, who did many good movies, I'am asking myself why is he in the movie?
He is 85, I guess he has enough money.

 

But he's supposed to be inVIII...

 

Every single nitpick listed here about TFA, aside from the obvious throwbacks, can be found somewhere in the OT. It's your nostalgia that is blinding you to them.

 

MVS in VIII holy moly, but I don't see it happen.
A short textless cameo in a force vision/flashback scene?
Nonetheless it would be a waste "again" (if it's handled this way)

For a better understanding about my viewpoint:
Back then in early 2015 as I read about the cast list and saw MVS name on it, I was WoW.
I really thought that Disney tried to put some glance and seriousness in this movie, like ANH hope did with Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing.
I'am honest here, MVS short role was disappointing in TFA, every old actor could have played this role without a noticeable difference in my opinion.

Edit: I got a clouded Rating from @Veradun sorry for the finger-pointing, but I had to in this case.
Sure Max von Sydow was not wasted and he did his best performance in his long acting career.
If a actor was ever wasted in a movie, then it was him in TFA - NO DOUBT and NOT DEBATABLE -
To be honest he deserves a clouded himself for giving me clouded, it's hilarious.

 

Apparently KK said it...

 

Correct me if I'am wrong, according to her, Han Solo is coming back also and if we get lucky maybe Mark Hamill too.
I will take a rest now, sarcasm starts to overcome me.
Just take a look above and you will understand why.
Sometimes the board is getting tiresome.

 

Mostly serious.
Rey is a better hero character than Luke and Obi-Wan/Anakin, and Daisy Ridley gave an exceptional performance
Kylo Ren is the most complicated character in the entire series, and Adam Driver also delivered spectacularly. J.J. and team managed to do with him in one movie, what George managed to do with Vader in about 4 (AOTC->TESB).
Snoke is far more interesting than Palpatine ever was.

J.J. Abrams provided better direction than Lucas, Marquand, and possibly even Kershner.

 

I'am shocked. (thanks for the informative post)

My serious take:

Luke's character has flaws and makes him more likeable and human. (I agree on Ridley's acting, she did a good job, but I don't like Rey's character)
Kylo Ren, is a whiney character and not complicated.
He wants to be more powerful as his grandfather - that's it.
Where is a good explanation for his actions in TFA?
Leia and Han must be bad parents and Luke a bad mentor then if Ben/Kylo is a failure. (It makes no sense, because they are good people with influence)
TFA makes them look like incompetent idiots and hurts the ending of ROTJ.
At first I liked Kylo, but as soon as he took the mask off the magic was gone for me, it felt flat and his tantrums too.
I prefer Darth Vader killing his officers in cold blood when they fail.
Darth Vader is iconic and a benchmark, he can't be replaced so easily. (I guess time will tell, but I'am pretty sure about it)
Snoke is far more interesting as the Emperor? Snoke is bad CGI and a bland character so far to me.
The Emperor had some of the best lines in ROTJ and Palpatine was the best part of ROTS.
The better direction this is very debatable, maybe I would pick Irvin Kerschner, but I would not determine it.
It was Lucas mentor, so this guy must have some kind of talent or not?

We have a different viewpoint about this. (I reckon you rated my post too early, I was not finished yet)

 

Luke Skywalker is coming back guaranteed .

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I think that JJ Abrams is a good director with great concepts but I don't think he's better than most directors...he just has the ability to back up his concepts .

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.

 

I've heard that a lot in all of those videos you told me to watch. I'm not sure what can really be done about it, though. When you think of the 3 PT villians.. Maul, Dooku, and Greivous, they were all incomplete variants of Darth Vader. Kylo Ren is a bit more 3D than his PT counterparts. But maybe about as 3D as Vader was in RotJ. And lets face it, he too is an incomplete Vader. So the big question is what do you do other than literally clone Darth Vader. Especially when no one seems willing to budge on keeping Star Wars a very straightforward "light vs dark" matrix.

Ironically the most unique and 3 dimensional villian in the current canon is probably Asajj Ventress. And of course. LFL in their brilliance decided to kill her off. In a book.

I'm gonna be blunt, I was really hoping that they would do something Ventress like with Gwendoline Christie. Hell, just put #%#$@$% Asajj Ventress in the movie! Have Kylo Ren be an apprentice to Ventress. Let his hate be more toward his mother. We'll retcon her race as some long lived bunch of aliens. But.. JJ wanted nothing to do with the prequels so.. the baby went with the bathwater. As much as I love this movie they did not effectively utilize the talent on hand. And that's what a lot of people really knew about this movie going in. Casting hires and the promos.

My own opinion on Kylo Ren at this point is still rather neutral. He reminds me a lot of something from a shoujo manga. Tall, dark, handsome. But his mentality is very similar to an active shooter, even his "30 lbs wet" gauntness reminds me of them. I don't think Leia and Han were bad parents. I think the "too much Vader" comment is key to Ren's past.. Ben Solo was born evil.I'll make my verdict on Ren 17 months from now when I see where he's going.

I like the temper tantrums, though. We never really got to see a bad guy just get pissed off and go apeshit until Ren

 

Except his whining, the whining is so bad.
The great thing about Rey, is that unlike Luke who had a pretty easy life growing up on a moisture farm, or even Anakin who

He's far more complicated than that. Leia tells us in the movie that Snoke seduced him to the dark side, and in the film you can see how much Kylo is still being manipulated by him. When Kylo talks to the Vader helmet, he expresses his concern that "Supreme Leader senses" his being pulled to the light. Kylo doesn't want to look weak before his master. When Kylo fails to obtain information from Rey and is asked by Snoke about the droid, he hesitates to answer, and becomes visibly ashamed when Hux reminds him of his failure, especially when Hux manages to deliver results.

With Kylo Ren, we have someone who is still trying to distance himself from his past. He feels himself being torn apart by the light and dark side, but actively seeks to "block out the light", for lack of a better phrase, by doing things that even he struggles to do. All the while, he is afraid of failure; failure of not being able to be as great as his grandfather, and failure in the eyes of Snoke.


The motivation is all right there in the movie if you know where to look. The novel, script and VD all help to make them more apparent.

The problem isn't that they were necessarily bad (although, why anyone thinks a pirate and a politician would make great parents is a bit of a mystery). It's not like they were abusive, careless, or anything else like that. The problem was always Snoke.

Although there's not a lot of detail in the film, there is in the novel.
Leia knew that Han lacked patience and understanding, particularly in matters of the Force, so when Leia finally realised that Snoke was manipulating Ben, she kept the truth from Han and took the it upon herself to try and solve the problem, fearing that Han would only make matters worse. Snoke was too powerful for Leia, so she ended up sending Ben to Luke, with the hope that he would have better success, but ultimately Snoke's power and influence proved more than even Luke could handle.

Snoke is more interesting because he's already had more screentime and reference in one film than Palpatine had in ANH and TESB, and already has a far more important part in the story.

Snoke is a guy with backstory and the scars to prove it. The entire left half of his face is messed up, with an almost non-existent cheekbone, a sunken and contorted eye, and exposed muscles and tendons that make The Dark Knight Harvey Dent's inuries look like a scratch. An ordinary person would not be able to survive with the injuries that Snoke has sustained. The novel tells us that Snoke has been around long enough to witness the rise of the Galactic Empire. He's been waiting a long time to put his plan into motion.

Palpatine was fine in the prequels, until he started using his lightsaber. The character went completely down hill after that...
"No, no, no. You will die!" for example, was a particularly awful moment.

I can understand the preference to Kershner, but you do run into a problem comparing directors when the stories themselves are different.
Kershner was able to build off of what George Lucas had started with ANH.

I don't necessarily think he's better than most either, but he's certainly more competent at directing actors that George Lucas ever was. He's also very collaborative and actively seeks input from cast and crew, which is probably why K.K. wanted him.

I disagree. I believe that's just Han trying to justify something he doesn't understand.

No he wasn't.
"Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish, like his father. So I destroyed him." - Kylo Ren, the Force Awakens.
"Ren has taken pains to bury his past... Kylo Ren aspires to build immunity to the light" - The Force Awakens: Visual Dictionary

This isn't describing someone who was born evil.

 

It's a hard task to create a new and proper Villain, no doubt.

I agree, she should have been better used, a wasted opportunity, I have he same opinion about Max von Sydow.
I would have liked, if Christie would have played Kylo Ren or his mentor, like you stated. (a female hero versus a female villain, why not)

Yes there is some kind of a specific similarity to emo like manga characters, I noticed it too.
But I have to admit that I'am no manga expert, so I could not tell from which one they borrowed the most.

I'am not a PT fan or defender, in retrospect, Palpatine is the most entertaining part in ROTS for me.
Let him use a lightsaber was a bad idea, but they did the same with Yoda in AOTC.
They screwed up the characters, at the point where Yoda is facing Darth Sidous it really doesn't matter anymore to me.
I watched in disbelief and tried to enjoy the ridiculous fighting scene.

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And that is the problem many people have with this movie, extra material "books" are needed to explain characters and other stuff.
It's all about making money, they do it on purpose to sell books.
I don't want to put the OT on a pedestal, but this stuff was not needed back then.
Movies should be self-explanatory.
In the case of TFA we got action scenes after action scenes and the unnecessary Rathar scene. This was the worst part of the movie in my opinion, a little more explanation would have not hurt the movie.
I know they wanted to keep the pace, but they created an unoriginal shallow dumbed down rehash of ANH "in my opinion".

 

Umm, no one should have to read the novel or the dictionary to enjoy the film, characters,etc.

You are also speculating a lot to fill in gaps.

TFA just doesn't stand on it's own.

JJ does fast action and cool moments...but he really lacks when it comes to character motivations, important down moments, and 3rd acts.

TFA is fun reboot with a great new cast.

But it simply isn't seeing ANH or ESB.

It is filled with flaws and holes. The OT characters are lazily reset.

The "depth" you are attributing to kylo etc is from your own speculation and other sources.

In the film, he's a whiny guy with too much Vader in him. That's it.

Oh and he hates his dad. Based on the film - Han gave up and went smuggling- you kind of don't blame him. Han was a loser in the flick.

TFA lovers keep saying read the novel, read the dictionary, check Pablo's twitter, wait for 8, etc.

A great movie shouldn't need the novelization or other media.