La Times: Admit it, The Force Awakens stinks

Well, obviously they don't REALLY have the Republic on their side, or else they'd be the Republic military rather than an independent resistance group. That's where I wish there had been a couple of lines about this in the movie. I got that the Resistance existed because the Republic wouldn't fight the First Order, but I never got exactly why it was that the Republic wasn't taking care of this themselves. It wouldn't have needed much explanation (certainly nothing like the endless "discuss it in committee" exposition scenes we got in the PT.)

Remember though, Leia knows that the First Order has dark side Force users, because her own son is one of them. That right there is enough for her to need Luke at her side, IMHO.

 

There's a real wall. Real people walking about. A ladder. Ewan had pretty tactile environment...

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 30, 2015, Original Post Date: Dec 30, 2015 ---

Fair point. OK, I will give it 7.1/10 now.

 

In that particular scene, yes. For a few feet on either side of him, anyway.

 

POS clickbate nonsense.

The film is absolutely brilliant. I've always been a prequel fanboy and even I admit this new one is by far the best Star wars since 1980.

So many people and organisations are trying to get something for themselves out of the widespread critical and commercial success of TFA with clickbate contrarian literary diarrhea like this. I read the TFA is just fanfiction article from Devin Faraci earlier as well.

The plot structure of ANH was hardly original in 1977, it's been copied by loads of films since then and always will be. It's the classic hero's journey. It's just nitpicking nonsense.

I watched the Dark Knight a few nights ago. It's another amazing film, but it has a few scenes (particualy with extras's like the guy with the bomb in his chest) that look unreal, a few 20 minute or so segmants that are boring after you've seen it the first time, no world building (It, like TFA is a character driven story) etc But people don't pick those film apart because they don't watch them to death within a few days of release like they do with SW.

I still think people would really like the PT if they'd only seen each episode 2 or 3 times (like people do with most films)

 

Its

43rd now. Will pass #8 All time at 922 and that's Exorcist. ITS ON THAT PACE....TU

 

I agree with you.
If I don't like a opinion, I skip it/ignore it and move along.
I feel no need to push the dislike button. (I use the force called mind to withstand)

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 30, 2015, Original Post Date: Dec 30, 2015 ---

I agree, he was not bad looking for 1999.

 

Hey guys, just signed up here. I have been a star wars fan along time since I saw the original box set my dad bought at Hollywood video in 2000 (woop woop for those who know what I'm talking about, 5 Movies for $20) Anyways...

I've looked high and low for a place to express my own outlookstuff on this newly redesigned series, so bear with me on this if you disagree with me.

Over the past 2 weeks I've seen fans furiously split into 3 groups
1: Fans who have seen the Originals and liked Ep: VII. AND defend it's shortcommings.

2: Fans who have seen the Originals and Dislike the new movie and claim it was a 2015 Rehash of 1977's ANH.

And 3: New fans who have not seen the Originals but liked the Movie, and claim themselves part of Group 1. This groups is mostly younger and accustomed to popular, but empty movies like Transformers, Mission Impossible, Superman, and Avengers. They know not of good storytelling apart from some director, giving his own spinoff of a previously written Book or Comic. Their point of view is bias in my opinion because any movie that has cool effects and shocking death twists is a good movie on their account.

But here's where I stand.

I am not a Professional movie watcher, or a politcal/social analyst. But I do know Star Wars. I fit into group 2, Because of course you could call this a good movie, how could you not? It is like what I would image what 1977 was, all over agian. An unlikely savior is born, a planet (or planets) are destroyed, fueling our want for massive destruction and violence. And there is a giant killer weapon controlled by an evil villain to beat. Sounds like a recipe for success. And that's exactly was the excecs @ Disney knew. Go with what works, and don't step to far out of line. I admire the prequels because as bad as they were, they gave us insight, into a new universe and told a great and deep storyline. Sure some actors were unessessary and there were some cheesy moments, but they were new and unique. I think alot of people will start to like the prequels more and more, just to get a look into the story, because its one of the best stories ever written, but plagued with bad scriptwriting, the latter being the only downside. The problem I have with this movie and I'm sure there are some who will agree, is that Finn is the new Jar Jar Binks of old. His annoying screaming and yelling of what should be cool, serious action scene dumbs down the moment. Just like how we always hated Jar Jar chiming in on every good part of the older films... I Feel as though J.J. really wanted to cast Kevin Heart, but he wanted too much money so they settled for John Boy to take care of the "OH! DID YOU SEE THAT!!!???!!!" and "OMG!!!" scenes. Also...they completely mishandled Kylo Ren as a heartless Evil character and instead made him look like
Joffrey Baratheon from game of thrones, Actually that's probably exactly where he got the personality of this character.... An annoying little Brat who got everything he wanted but wanted more...
I feel like this movie was a missed opportunity to make a truly deep and entertaining movie like how he revived ....wait for it....Star Trek. But it wasnt. It was a movie we have seen (for me at least) Over 100 times! And that is a travisty. The new Empire has apparently no military experience, because they over react to every problem, and yell every order they give...it just seems like they are dealing with a kooky band of bad guys, and not an organized Military Machine like the Generals, Admerals, and Commanders of the Empire, who were much cooler, colder, more calm and calculating than their kooky First Order counterparts. Don't get me wrong I'm not trolling, VII was a good movie. But only because it had an even better movies IV, V, VI to copy and paste from to prop it up.(The scene of the light sabre in the snow, with the exact music playing) I mean c'mon I think Han's line "Ok, so we go in there, deactivate the shield and blow it up" Says it all. Also...when I was in the theatres they mention "the fleet" Like it's some grand band of old ships and cruisers, maybe some old Droid command ships or captured star destroyers.... that would band together to destroy that planet weapon with giant Lazers and ion cannons...but nope, "the fleet" was a small squadron of star fighters, what a letdown that was...but now I'm just nitpicking lol.

End of rant. Stay classy fellas.

 

What I truly like from your post (By the way, Welcome to The Cantina), is that you introduce all of this as your opinion, and not only that, but you elaborate cleverly on the matter.

I respect your opinion, and you are right on many points.

I will say it again, for me, TFA was the best Star Wars I've seen on screen but it is highly reliable on what comes next in the trilogy.

For me the target that was missed is Snoke....and again, it depends on what's coming next... let me explain:

The highlight of the movie is that we see Anakin Skywalker's heir incapable of coming back to the light because of something....something Snoke.

If Snoke is an all powerful Sith lord and rules by fear and intimidation, he would have been introduced as a scary, cold monster. Instead, what it looked like to me is that Snoke is promising SOMETHING to both HUX and KYLO (Like a brand new Playstation 4), something they really want very very badly... so much that they are doing terrible things (Kylo killing his father, Hux destroying a planetary system)...

I could go and take a beer with Snoke, tell him how much I failed my mission without having the fear of being choked to death or disintegrated.

So depending on how the character grows in 8 and 9, and what exactly Hux and Ren are fighting for to get the attention of the Supreme Leader.... for me, that could become a weak spot in TFA.

But BOTH the Resistance and the First Order looked to be like in total reconstruction, unstable... lacking true and firm management.

But maybe all of this is part of the story and the evolution of the two factions...

Again, welcome to The Cantina, and May the Force be with you.

 

I saw it three times too. But even with the first watching I wasn't feeling it. My friends and I were convinced after one viewing that it was pretty good, but that our expectations were to blame for our initial disappointment. So we went back to see if we could force ourselves to feel the magic. By the third viewing, I was completely bored by everything except the pod race and the lightsaber battle.

It's different this time. The magic was just there, and it only got stronger the second viewing. When I go see it for the third time (on an Imax screen this go around) I won't be hoping for anything other than what I've already seen.

Critics may have cut TPM too much slack, but even with that reviews weren't anywhere near as good for it as they are for TFA. Ticket sales were huge, but they're bigger for TFA - even adjusting for inflation TFA will pass TPM. But the biggest indicator, to me, is that the reaction from general audiences has been so much better - the people that aren't as likely to get carried away just because of the words "Star Wars" in the title.

 

I agree this superweapon is literally like the DS 2 from ROTJ. Except there is no cool trap or feeling of *they may not destroy it* And just disable it temporarily to return in VIII. But nope, it took like 10mins to blow it up. Plus you would think they would see this giant weapon being built and wonder "hey maybe we should ask what they are building?" But nope they just let theme destroy the Coruscant system (I think). You would think they would have learned how to watch out for planet destroying weapons after the whole Adleran incident, lol.

 

Again, my opinion on that:

- I still have problem with Phasma just turning down the shield. Unless, again, we learn in the next episodes that Phasma just didn't care or Finn is a Force user.

- Starkiller base is NOT central to the story IMO, like it was for ANH... and cleverly removed from ROTJ (again, the 2nd Death Star was NOT central to the story).

- Starkiller was NEEDED to get rid of the senate in a simple (too simple?) scene in TFA and threatens the Resistance.

If you look closely to ALL Star Wars movie, there is always a huge threat to a group of people that is destroyed/deactivated by a single individual (the Hero)...
Deus Ex Machina

Episode I - Anakin destroys the mothership, all droids are deactivated on the ground battle.
Episode II - Jedi are about to be destroyed in the arena, but Yoda arrives with the Clones.
Episode III - Actually, this time, the weapon worked for the Empire, Order 66.
Episode IV - Luke Destroys the Death Star to save the Rebellion.
Episode V - *** That one is different
Episode VI - Cutscene, The Death Star II was targeting the Rebellion, Lando saves the day.
Episode VII - Starkiller targets the Rebellion, Poe saves the day.

I predict that the next movie will not be about super weapons and all... but people may AGAIN draw parallels with ESB...

Kylo's hunt for Luke and Rey.

As simple as that.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 31, 2015, Original Post Date: Dec 30, 2015 ---

I agree, this is a 3rd Death Star... and Rebels on the base even make a little fun about it, so that made me think... it's of no importance or very little to what is central to TFA... Kylo vs Rey and.... The Force Awakening.

I really think this trilogy will focus on The Force more than anything.... and something that was kind of secondary in the whole Star Wars Saga IMO.

The Prequels, it was a lot of politics, the destruction of democracy.
The OT was a little mixed, but The Force was all but almost extinct by then.
I see the ST putting The Force at the center of the story... TFA put some interesting elements to build upon.

 

You said it, Ep: VIII will be much like V:ESB. And how it expands the story and reveals more about the characters.

I look forward to seeing how Kylo Ren betrayed Luke and Killed most of his trainees, much like how Vader killed all the kids in the Jedi Temple as Order 66 was carried out. Also I would like to see how the old original Temple looks. And maybe find a way to connect with Yoda for help.

 

And be prepared boys and girl...

What we WILL see in Episode VIII is one of these two things:

Leia dying trying to redeem Kylo Ren.
Luke dying, trying to protect Rey.

I think Luke is the one that will die at the end of Episode VIII.
And Leia will succeed in turning Kylo back to the light at the end of IX.

Maybe I am wrong.

 

Based on the foreshadowing symbol of the ground breaking up between Rey and Kylo I suspect that Luke and Leia will find themselves in conflict as Leia tries to save her son with motherly love and protection and Luke sides with Rey.

The third act/movie will be interesting as we've never had what we have now; both the Light and Dark side protagonist and antagonist growing together.
We've had the Light side growing to overpower the Dark side and failing (Luke/Vader), and we've had the Dark side growing to overthrow the Light side and failing (Anakin/Obi Wan), but we've never had both of equal, nor have we had both Light and Dark of the same generation as each other.
This is an American franchise so I'm not expecting, but it would be rather interesting if the third and final act finishes with Rey and Kylo killing each other and the cycle, thusly, finally being broken in a Hamlet-style ending.

 

Admit it, this thread stinks.

 

The posts recently were decent in my opinion, it's shaping up to get better.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 31, 2015, Original Post Date: Dec 31, 2015 ---

People should watch this review at least once to understand the folks who don't like TFA.
This review sums it up really well.

Like or dislike @DFF opinion, he is not alone out there and the list of people who disliked the movie is growing really fast.
We should accept and respect theirs opinion.

 

7/10 is about what it's getting, so you are not off the mark with your assessment.

The way the Tomatometer works at Rotten Tomatoes is very misleading- it's just a percentage of how many people rate the film better than a 50%. If a film is just okay, as long as most of the critics think it's okay, it will have a rating of over 90%. It definitely skews a score to the high end.

So when I look at the at the individual ratings for TFA I get a very different impression than its score of 94% would suggest. Few critics give it a perfect score, most are in the 6-8/10 range. But since they're positive, they drive up the Tomatometer equally whether they are a 6 8, or 10. It's a whacky way to score an evaluation- when I look at it, I think "Only in the movies." If I tried to use stats like that in my field, I'd get skewered!

 

Welcome to the Cantina!!
Thanks for your reviews and opinions and I agree with some and disagree with some. Also thank you for stating these as just opinions and not as facts PS...I hope you stay with us through the Rogue One leaks and film and episode VIII and on ...
MTFBWY.

 

Begun the Sequel Trilogy Bashing has....

btw, please respect new members....ty