Left the theatre quite angry

I loved the sound design. The music was not as prominent as it had been in the OT, but these little moments when the sounds simply stopped.. and you could hear a snowflake falling. My heart just stopped right with it. So great.

 

I left the theater angry that it was over but not really. I don't know what else to say other than I loved it and for 2 hours I felt like the little kid again who saw ANH for the first time.

 

Personly i loved the film, dont think it was as good as a New Hope or Empire... but would have it on par with Return of the Jedi, which had a lot of floors with it.

I agree the Rey defeating Kylo was stupid, also another Death Star was a bit of a an eye rolling moment.... But I loved Finn think he was one of the best things about the movie, also i kind of liked that they saved Luke for Episode 8 we didnt need everything crammed into one episode, and thought the pacing was fine. Jury is out on Snoke i agree the cgi wasnt the best, but think they got away with it because he was a hologram.

All in all i loved it though can't wait to watch it again.

 

Me too...I would rate it definatley in the Top 3 Star Wars Films.

 

I love how a lot of people complain about J.J trying to put too much into one movie, and then at the same time complain about Luke just having one scene.

I thought it was great that they kept Luke for EP8.

 

I really do wonder sometimes if I'm watching the same film as other people.

It was fantastic.

Yes, it has flaws. But you know what else has loads of flaws? The OT.

It was superb, and once the trilogy is done, it will be even better as the circle will be complete.

 

I thought so too...but then I was reminded we saw Zuvio get a light saber stabbed through him...I believe in a flashback. I just remember the headgear. It was real quick...as was Bubbajo.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 18, 2015, Original Post Date: Dec 18, 2015 ---

Yeah after I got into the film I kind of forgot about him for awhile...

 

I always feel a little disappointed when star wars fans didn't enjoy the movie as much as I did, but I always knew this was going to be a movie that no matter what, was going to bring a lot of hate. This being said, I went to see it with my daughter, she is 4, and as she pumped her fists in the air, laughed, cried and jumped in her seat I felt like she was having the same experience I had when I first watched A New Hope. I'm saying this because maybe the problem it's not the movie itself but all the expectations that one creates and what one expects from the movie. Personally, I loved every bit of it, it's not a perfect movie, it has it's flaws, but in the end it's got the heart and soul of a star wars movie, even if it takes to much from elements we have already seen at SW, and leaves a ton of questions unanswered.

 

Fantastic post! Well done sir

 

Yeah I totally remember that, that's what made me think ...wait did I miss him in the film earlier??? It is odd because there are toy figurines of someone who was in the film for like a split second haha

 

Problem is... most people don't have the $200 million (or even 1% of that) to make a better film...

Yes, they introduce things that aren't fully explained or explored... but they also explain things that are pertinent to making that particular story work.

You don't get to the end of ANH wondering where the death star plans came from (at least, not at a basic level), or why the Empire were pursuing Leia in the beginning of the film, or why Leia was trying to reach Tatooine.

You certainly don't get to the end of TESB wondering why the Empire were deploying probes around the Galaxy.
There's never a question about why the Jedi show up on the Federation ship, or why the Federation blockade took place at all, when you reach the end of TPM, and Padme Amidala's reasons for arriving on Coruscant are fully explained in the crawl of AOTC.

With TFA, there are plenty of questions about the opening crawl itself, which are never explained.

Actually, the two most irritating logic gaps for me are:
- the set up of the opening scene.

Spoiler

i.e. How did Lor San Tekka obtain the map piece? Why is it happening now? How did the First order know about it?

- Han's introduction

Spoiler

What brought him to Jakku?

And the main reason why they are going to bug me, is that I do not feel they will ever be resolved on-screen... because the main characters who could explain things are

Spoiler

both dead

I fear that they're just going to explain it in some other medium, whether it be a book, comic, or tv series.

I loved that Luke barely had any screentime... but I do think there was too much happening in the movie. Just look at the major action sequences
(village raid, star destroyer escape, Jakku escape, giant freighter, takodana battle, rescue mission/starkiller assault/lightsaber duel)
compare that to:
- ANH (blockade runner, tatooine escape, death star escape, death star assault)
- TESB (battle of hoth, asteroid field, dagobah training?, cloud city escape/duel)
- ROTJ (rancor, sarlaac pit, battle of Endor/shield generator/saber duel),
- TPM (trade federation ship, planet core, Naboo escape, podrace, Tatooine duel, battle for Naboo/saber duel)
- AOTC (Coruscant chase, Kamino duel, asteroid field, droid factory, arena battle, battle of Geonosis/Dooku duel)
- ROTS (battle of Coruscant/Dooku duel, Utapau/Grievous duel, Palpatine arrest/order 66, Mustafar duel)

The problem is only compounded when the movie was also introducing several new characters, both heroes and villains, as well as reintroducing characters from the past. That's why the pacing is one of the best and worst things about the film.

 

I don't know which reaction to the film is worse: the reaction of the thread starter or mine (I felt somewhat indifferent).

I think it proves that each and everyone of us has a different understanding of what the essence of Star Wars is or should be about. I'm happy for all those that waited so long and felt so rewarded.

 

Take a deep breath. We're going to get through this.

 

1. TESB
2. ANH
3/4. ROTS/ROTJ
5. AOTC
6. TFA
7. TPM

That should say it all.

 

I knew there will be some super-fans who will leave the cinema outraged - outraged, because the movie was not like they expected! That's so awful of you, JJ Abrams!

 

This was the old comparison used frequently with all the PT films. "It wasn't as good as ANH or TESB but was equal or better than ROTJ."

Anyone who makes this statement is basically admitting, in an roundabout way, that "The film sucked" and didn't live up to their expectations.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 18, 2015, Original Post Date: Dec 18, 2015 ---

 

Put me solidly in the former.
I expected a lot, specifically 1977with an infusion of 1980... and i got exactly what I expected.
Very pleased.

 

I kind of agree with you. It's pretty messy this movie. They need to re-edit it. Ha... I'm so bummed out. I might be over Star Wars now.

 

For those of you who didn't like the film, I want to sincerely recommend a second viewing, if you haven't already had one. I've noticed that most of us who felt negatively about the film after the first viewing really enjoyed it on the second.

That being said, I absolutely loved this film. From start to finish, I was sucked in to the world of Star Wars. I was immediately invested in the characters, whose performances were well beyond Oscar-worthy, to say the least. To compare Star Wars to the Academy Awards and the Hollywood system is incongruent, but this film really has a shot, in my opinion, at winning Oscars for acting, direction, story/screenplay, sound effects, visual effects, and best picture.

The movie starts with, to my ears, a slightly reworked title theme, which felt even more pulpy/space operatic than the previous films. Maybe it was just new and fresh to me, getting to see it in the theater, but it immediately felt like the fun action-adventure that is Star Wars. In medias res is executed better in this film than it has since A New Hope, and the fact that (aside from some helpful dialogue and the opening crawl) the film doesn't baby the viewer is fantastic.

Thirty years have gone by, and we just got thrust into a new time and place in the Galaxy. The sense of wonder the film elicited in me was as wonderful as the performances. Having followed every spoiler and every leak since day one (aside from the illegal videos in the past few days), I knew what to expect, but the film still blew those expectations away. The execution was perfect. As I said on 1030, JJ was the man for the job, and he knocked it out of the park. He nailed it. The emotions were powerful, and genuine, and the propulsive action and fast pacing were just right.

I wouldn't have changed a thing, and I had quite a few isses with that leaked shot list. But, as I suspected back then, when seen in the context of the film, it all came together to make a great film. This is Star Wars, and I don't just mean that in the sense that it copied Star Wars, but in the sense that the tone, the action, the pacing, the story, the themes, the performances, the emotion, and the originality all came together to create the exact film that needed to be made to usher in this new era.

On Originality:
I'm serious when I say "originality". While, out of the context of the film, or taken too critically, the plot may come off as derivative, it really isn't. I kept my mind sharp, looking out for anything ripped from A New Hope, but I never found it. In the context of The Force Awakens, everything feels fresh and new. While clear elements of the Hero's Journey are used again here, it is in a natural way. Yes, Rey comes from a desert planet, and is essentially a nobody. But that's basically how most of the film adaptions of the Hero's Journey begin. And the similarities to A New Hope, character-wise, basically stop there. Rey doesn't live with her aunt and uncle, or an adoptive family, but in a downed AT-AT. She isn't a farmer, but a scavenger. She has no family, and has even less a future than Luke did. At least Luke had plans to enter the Academy once his uncle let him go.

And as for the Starkiller, while it seems on paper to be another Death Star... it is and it isn't. This is discussed in the film. But it's far larger, far more destructive, and has very different strengths and weaknesses in comparison. But the similarity is on purpose. The First Order, and Kylo Ren, and Empire fanboys, and as such, a natural progression/evolution in superweapons is natural; it's exactly what the First Order would do, and for that, it doesn't feel derivative in a negative sense. It feels more like the First Order is derivative, than the story/directing. And I enjoyed that.

Overall, while some may disagree with me (which is totally fine), I found this to be fresh, exciting, emotionally-gripping, and new. And I loved it. For me personally, it's a very worthy successor and sequel to the Original Trilogy, and while there are A New Hope similarities and rhymes/echoes, that is for an important reason, thematically and story-wise, and it sets a strong foundation on which the next two films can build upon. I believe Rian Johnson, and Colin Trevorrow, are now able to take the new established characters and plotlines from The Force Awakens and craft something even more original and new on its foundation. And I can't wait to see these characters again. I can't wait to see Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, Luke, and Leia again in the next chapter. And I hope my joy proves contagious, because this was the film I've been waiting for for decades. And it was everything I hoped it to be, and more. More importantly, it was what Star Wars needed for the next generation to succeed. A strong foundation going forward, and a new beginning.

 

I'm going again for a second viewing. So much happened I think I missed some things. The movie probably needs to be longer