Seen anything in TFA that disappointed you?

Maz ending up with the lightsaber isn't actually something that bothers me. What bothers me is she seems to go missing after the Battle of Takodana even though, according to Teaser 2, she initially had a larger role.

But everything else you said I completely agree with. Not only those, but the oh so casual namedropping of both the Knights of Ren by Snoke (I thought we were supposed to find out about them JJ? What happened to that huh?) and Snoke in Han and Leia's conversation-both of which with no explanation.

Add to that the flashback that was ultimately more confusing and frustrating than teasing, the humour overkill, the ambiguous fates of Hux and Kylo/Ben and R2 Ex Machina after Starkiller Base was blown up and I was far more disappointed than I thought I'd be.

Going to see it a second time tomorrow though. Hopefully it'll appreciate in value.

 

There are things in every movie that turn out different from the way one wanted it, and my "grips" with TFA are very slight. I was, however, disapointed that Phasma was in it as more or less a cameo - that was unexpected, and I didn't particularly care for the Rathtar (?) creatures. Other than that, I found TFA to be rather swell

 

I was both happy and a bit dissapointed after the movie ended.. I think it was a solid movie overall. But there were things i didnt like.. Like the fact that Luke Skywalker was only in the movie for like ten seconds and had zero lines! That kind of pisses me off a little. Now i have to wait for ever for the next movie. I mean come on, he could have had a line or two at least! And also I wasnt very impressed with Snoke. I hoped to have seen more of him. But guess i have to wait for that to. And as much as i expected Han Solo to die I didnt like it.. But i can imagine that it was one of Fords demands to make another movie. That Han Solo must die.. And there was very little emotion after his death i tought! Leia looked sad but i would have thought she would be totally crushed! And chewie got angry at first a bit then we didnt see much of his greif. And another thing was that alltrough the movie i kept waiting for an awesome lightsaber duel. But all we got was rookies and a villain who kinda sucked at lightsaber dueling.. I thought Kylo Ren would be a badass but he came across as kind of a dork to me. A dork with some tantrums. I dont really feel that the movie could live up to the massive hype. But that amount of hype seems impossible to live up to.. Well.. otherwise i liked the movie haha

 

I agree that there's some vital information lacking, but bear in mind that this is precisely how the original trilogy managed to build such interest - by leaving things sketchy ("Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars", spice mines of Kessel, the Emperor has disbanded the Senate etc.). It creates a desire to know more, right? That's one of the many reasons the prequels failed because they were so full of exposition. So consider it a good thing, even if some of the unanswered things do indeed drag down the overall impression of quality of the film, in particular the missing closure on a number of characters/arcs, and the weird in-of-movie-out-of-movie feel of Poe Dameron.

Of the unexplained things that I feel the film should absolutely have answered, there is one above all for me:
What the hell is up with Luke Skywalker?

 

This was the film's garbage compactor scene. Although, a lot more bearable!

 

I'd definitely put myself in the "I enjoyed it" camp.
I can think of three things off the top of my head that I'd class as negatives.

1) Kylo Ren freezes a laser blast, and leaves it hanging in mid-air.
Now, I'm sure this will be debated back and forth for decades to come. The physics. The science. Atoms, photons, electrons - what telekinesis is, what the implications of it are on paper... Ultimately - I don't care. It just seemed wrong. It just seemed like - in the language of cinema - freezing time. I'm not saying it was, I'm saying it seemed like. It just seemed like too good a talent to have in one's arsenal.
There were other moments when Kylo Ren's telekinetic ability seemed above and beyond what we have seen previously; yet this didn't jive with (what I felt) was the character they were trying to portray.

2) The music.
The music was great, as you would expect. But it is buried. Not by a bad mix, just by the fact it isn't really given chance to breathe. Modern movies move fast; faster than they did in 1977. This movie flies by, and there is a lot crammed in. A lot of dialogue. There are too few moments where the music is allowed to tell the story, in the same way it was in the original trilogy.

3) The aerial battles.
The spacecraft looked great nipping about. There is one nice little extended panning shot where we watch Poe weave behind the Takodana ruins taking out TIEs as Finn watches on in awe. In isolation, the dogfights and so on are competent. If you stand back and look at the bigger picture, however, you begin to appreciate just how clever the editing and structure of the battles in ANH and ROTJ really are. All the ingredients are there - the movements, the explosions, the cockpit chatter. But there is no progression. There is no narrative. Look at how the Battle of Endor has different stages; different little stories that play out among the craft; how the progression can be charted from outer space, to the surface, then into the superstructure with a different aesthetic to each level as our heroes get closer to the centre of the Death Star. When you cut back to the surface of Endor, or to Luke's situation in the throne room, the edits are easy to follow, and it is easy to pick up the battle again when we rejoin it.
In the Force Awakens, I felt that narrative focus was missing from the battles at times. It, ultimately, is *just a lot of spacecraft firing at each other*. As impressive as it all looks, and as easy as it is to follow the overall narrative - it is hard to engage with who is where, when and what exactly they are doing from moment to moment.


Don't get me wrong though - TFA is still easily my fourth favourite Star Wars movie...

 

+1

I enjoyed parts of TFA, but at times it really seemed a bit strung together.
I really didn't care for the plot, especially the setup for Starkiller Base attack on the Resistance base. (At one point Finn explained that Starkiller 'reloads' by absorbing "the Sun". The Sun? Don't you mean a star?)
Also, I don't know if it's just me, but this movie made the galaxy seem really, really small. I can't explain why exactly, but in the originals and even prequels, I got a sense of vastness in the galaxy, that travelling through hyperspace to a new planet was a big deal. In TFA, they just hop around planets and in/out of hyperspace every few minutes. Maybe it's because the film moves so fast, it never stops to take a breath.

Oh, and why did R2 suddenly wake up? Made no sense to me.

Anyway, rant over. Will have to let everything sink in, maybe another viewing will change things.

Overall I thought it was a good movie, (in some respects, loads better than all three prequels) but I can't shake off that it was a facsimile of what we've seen before.

 

Yeah, I entirely agree with this. I think people have bizarrely gotten to the stage where they need an answers for everything, but that was never what was done in the OT....plus we have two further episodes to go, where there will certainly be more answers.

 

I love the movie, but this is true and how I felt.

- CGi done very poorly
- Captain Phasma should of been the Trooper fighting Finn at Maz's castle
- Not a fan of Leia's band of soldiers called 'The Resistance' not very Star Wars/Original name ( Needed to maybe establish the political balance of the galaxy)
- Not sure if the 'Raptors' on that smuggler ship was a good scene, maybe there should of just been a shoot off, maybe introduce Poe to save the day, give him more screen time.

However, it's nitpicking we are good at.. however mild they are, it's still stopping TFA to reaching it's full potential.

 

Yeah, I'm surprised/not surprised by people looking for things to be spelled out. That would have totally ruined the movie. Like, if Rey's parentage, who is snoke etc aren't wrapped up by the end of 9 that would be poor form, but it's the first episode people!

R2 suddenly waking up was the only thing that jarred with me, and the hyperspace from inside a ship. If that is possible why didn't he do it in the Death Star in Episode 4.

Overall, I loved it.

 

I wonder if R2 waking up suddenly will remain a deus ex machina or if it will be explained somehow. I hope it's explained. For example, what if R2 was programmed to wake up if he ever encounters Rey? I know, this is a stretch: she's nowhere to be seen in that scene.

Then again, there are plenty of dei ex machina in the OT. R2 happens to find himself in the hands of Anakin's son, just when the Rebellion is at the moment of its greatest need? Of all the places in Dagobah to crash, Luke happens to crash right next to the hut of the Jedi master he's looking for? Such plot contrivances can be really fun, when they're pulled off in a way that makes us not care that they're contrived. So here's hoping that R2 waking up looking cool after a few more viewings, just like these plot developments from the OT do to most of us now.

 

I always kind of assumed that the Dagobah landing was Yoda's doing. That's off topic though

 

Not to quite the same extent.
ANH at least explains what you need to know for the plot to work. The questions that ANH prompted were about things beyond the scope of the plot. They didn't need to be understood for the plot to make sense. I'm completely okay with those sorts of things...

Han just randomly showing up near Jakku and finding the Falcon? It just doesn't work very well.
And what about meeting an old friend of Han's who had also coincidentally come into possesion of a lightsaber that was last seen falling into the depths of Cloud City... which happens to be the weapon belonging to the Jedi who you are trying to find.

The Force can only be used as a crutch so much before it breaks all resemblance of a meaningful story.


Looking back at the beginning of the movie, TFA tells us that a guy on Jakku has information about Luke Skywalker, and that the Resistance and the First Order are after it. For unkown reasons, the information only appears to have recently surfaced, and somehow, both factions know about it. We are never told (from what I remember) how Lor San Tekka even came into posession of this piece of the map, or how the Resistance or and First Order found out about it. They go through the majority of the movie, trying to find out where Luke is... but for what purpose? Luke is not important to the plot of TFA in the slightest.


Now compare that with ANH. In the crawl of the film, we are told that the Empire have built a huge space station able to destroy entire planets, and that during a successful operation, Rebel spies had managed to steal the plans. We also learn that Imperial agents were in pursuit, which is where the movie opens. We may not know the specifics of the Rebel operation that uncovered the secret plans, or even how they managed to come to Leia, but there's still enough information to give the audience a sound level of understanding of the motivations beyond the plot, which provides the story a sense of weight.

The problem is the questions which I fear will never be answered. I'm sure at some point we'll learn all about Rey, Snoke, Luke's academy, how Maz Kanata found Luke's lightsaber, and other questions going forward...

Yeah. That part was a bit weak.
I get that they were trying to set up that Han has returned to his smuggling life, but surely they could have done that with Maz Kanata... she is a pirate afterall.

Agreed.
I think they've tried to just fit too much into this movie... which is a problem I've found in a lot of movies these days.

Given the situation, with needing to try and create something to bridge the 30 year gap while still creating something that stands on it's own, it wasn't particularly easy for them to do. I can respect their effort, but in the end, it still hurts my opinion of the film.

 

Why is it important that we learn how LST came about the information? We don't find out in the OT how Luke improved his force skills between 4 and 5. We know that Han has been taken to Jabba after Bespin but it takes them a year to get there and rescue him, we don't find out why that is.

On Han happening to be where he was, meh, they went from the Hoth system to Bespin via Anoat in TESB with the hyperdrive out of commission. That to me is far more unrealistic.

 

Captain Phasma deactivating the shield too easy. She should given her life to protect the super weapon, if that was even necessary in the first place.

 

I've seen the movie twice now and would like to share my concerns.

I think this movie is a great film for JJ Abrams fans but for SW fans I think it has greatness in there which has been overpowered by some pretty awful scenes. Scenes which should not have been approved by these people who claim to understand Star Wars and what it means to so many.

Scene 1: Tasu Leech/Kangiklub and the Gauvian Death gang.

This entire scene was painful to watch to be honest because of the awful acting from the Scottish bloke playing the leader. Man, that guy was awful to watch and I hated how truncated it was. It should have just been Tasu Leech ( brilliant idea to subtitle the guy). There was no need for the other gang. The Rathtars were OK if very generic tentacle based creations.

Scene 2: Captain Phasma capture by the heroes.

This was abysmal. I'm sorry, it was. It was shameful and should have been deleted. I hated how Phasma was reduced to a cartoon scooby-doo villain minus the unmasking in this scene. Phasma is a character that looks cool but adds absolutely nothing to the film. I hated Finn with all the "I'm in charge now!!!" Repetitive crap. The trash compactor joke wasn't funny, it was incredibly forced and stupid. The problem with Phasma was hype. She was wasted. Boba fett did more with less. I wanted to feel afraid of her but dhe did nothing to suggest this will happen. Even if she returns in ep8 I won't care if she is more intimidating or a threat as they blew the opportunity in TFA.

Scene 3.
The humour in this movie is not good. There are parts which were funny but I hated the bit where BB8 essentially gives the middle finger to Finn. Seriously?? They did that using a little lighter? It was bad.

Final thoughts:

I really wish I walked away loving this but the flaws are there and they taint the movie in an almost prequal way. Sure it looks great and feels like Star Wars but for me, right now, it is an impersonation, a cover version. Somewhere in TFA is a great version of episode 7 trying to show its face but it is held back by all the comedy. Way too much.

 

The only thing that was disappointing for me was the lack of a new stand-out theme, like Duel of Fates in TPM or Imperial March in ESB. But it's a only minor disappointment, so it's inconsequential. The score was otherwise excellent.

 

The score was quite weak in places but I guess that's because there wasn't a lot of room to breath

 

I wasn't too keen on the sequence in Han's freighter. Partially because I thought the creatures looked a bit out of place and partially because it was a bit too silly. I can't say I liked Snoke either (wonder if he's really that big?) although I didn't mind Maz strangely.