Star Wars The Force Awakens **SPOILERS**

[BlaqueKatt]

3. One issue I had was it seemed that Rey started learning to use the Force a little too quickly. Even after she thought it was made up, and after Han told her "It's true, all of it". She learned to channel the Force rather quickly, though not at the level of a Jedi, without Jedi assistance. Remember that she used the Jedi Mind Trick on the stormtrooper. In the original trilogy, Luke had Obi-Wan and Yoda's help in his training to be a Jedi/use the Force. Obi-Wan had at least told Luke about the Force, and had started training him with that ball thing on the Millennium Falcon. Vader had Darth Sidious as a master.

and Rey had Kylo Ren, every time she used the force it was mimicking a way Kylo had just used it on her. She used the mind trick right after successfully keeping Kylo Ren from *mindtricking* out of her the map section BB8 had shown her. The ship that abandoned her was quite similar to the one Han was in, it's quite possible she had some training from Luke and was spared and hidden when Kylo Ren killed the other students. Kylo Ren seemed overly interested every time a *girl* was mentioned.

4. Kylo Ren. If they were going for a Vader "clone" here, they missed the boat in my opinion. Unless it's something they're building up to. He's more of a "loose cannon", and seemingly more temperamental than Vader was. Vader was much more cold, calculating, and manipulative. Kylo Ren also didn't seem to be quite as strong in the Dark Side than Vader. Of course, we all know the history of Vader, with the "off scale" midichlorians. Ren just seemed like a weaker figure than Vader. Especially with his "tantrums" where he'd destroy stuff with his light saber.

He's the same age Anakin was when he slaughtered a tusken raider camp during a tantrum, the vader from a new hope had nearly 20 years to calm down from the highly volitile Anakin.

8. Kylo Ren's light saber. I don't know that he got that far in the training before he turned on Luke (which is basically what happened). So he had to build his own, with old, antiquated technology. And he apparently wasn't that good at it. That explains why the "blade" looks different. The hilt is actually more of an "energy exhaust", at least that's the story.

the crystal powering it is cracked.

13. The unanswered questions about how/why R2 powered down, and then all of a sudden powered up.

deleted scene explained this, BB8 pleaded with R2, JJ Abrams actually explained it because so many people thought it was the arrival of Rey that did it.

[Kara]

Spoiler: In one of the Video games, Kylo Ren tells Rey, "Face Me, cousin!", or something that sounds like it.

See it here (the phrase is at 20:32): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNXRZd5vkdo

Which, if true, would mean that Rey is the daughter of Luke.

What they actually found was that it was two vocal tracks playing. While saying "Face me," Kylo was hit by Rey's Force throw and it triggered another track to play, where he said "Curses!" Angry Joe posted the original video, and then later said they heard it wrong. But I still think Rey is Luke's daughter. Han and Leia were so devastated about Ben abandoning them and everything they taught him to join the First Order, they loved him so much that Han knew he was putting his life at risk to confront him, yet they'd just dump their daughter on some backwater planet for most of her life and not even acknowledge her when she finds them as an adult? I don't think so. Leia hugged Rey because they shared the pain of Han's loss, because she knew that Rey had started to idolize him. She's definitely family though, because as soon as she became aware of the Force within her, she was able to do things that no novice could do, and we know how powerful the Force is in Anakin's family.

As for the film itself, I enjoyed it greatly. It wasn't perfect, it had its flaws, but it felt like Star Wars again. I don't hate the prequels, though I hate some of the directions the prequels went. But Force Awakens was breath of fresh air. I love what they did with Kylo in making him a Sith who is still wet behind the ears rather than being an already-established Sith Lord from the start. He still has a long way to go, and the idea that he is being pulled by the Light rather than having a Jedi tempted by the Dark Side is brilliant. As for all the criticisms of him being a whiny emo, it seems to run in the family so I wasn't at all surprised. I liked the new characters, enjoyed seeing the old characters, and I don't really have much I can complain about. I knew Han was going to die, he hated Star Wars and wanted to die in Jedi, and he was the last original cast member to sign on for this one. It was clear his condition for coming back at all was that it would be for the last time. Plus, the mentor figure always dies in the first part of the trilogy. But it still broke my heart to see, and I sobbed in a crowded theater and was still wiping away tears when we were walking to our car after the film. I loved the lightsaber fight at the end, it was more visceral and aggressive, more like actual swordplay. No more choreographed dance routines, huzzah!

And yes, they followed the blueprint of Episode 4. I didn't see a problem with it. The Nostalgia Critic's review pointed this out and he talked about how it was about revisiting an old idea to show first of all to show respect for that idea, and also showing that it is in capable hands because it was done well and promises to continue doing well from this point on. I agree with that, and I'm excited to see the new direction of Episodes 8 and 9. Not to mention that George Lucas intended to revisit many of the same themes and ideas in the prequels to show that history repeats itself, but he got lost in his own head and that didn't get conveyed at all. And I find it ironic that many of the people complaining that Episode 7 is too much like the original were the same people who hated the prequels because they were too different from the original. And yes, there are a lot of questions that weren't addressed in the film, but the series will answer those questions as they move forward.

[jedimaster91]

I'm still bitter about them gutting the EU cannon. Especially since I can see what they're pulling from it. A son of Han and Leia that turns evil? That was Jacen/Darth Caedus. And while I hated that arc, there was enough backstory to have a bigger impact than this impudent whelp from the movie. And Ben is Luke's son. A character I was starting to really enjoy, dangit. *grumble*

With that out of the way, I did enjoy the movie. I would guess Rey is Luke's daughter and possibly had some training before the academy was attacked and she got dumped on Jakku. Which would explain how she was able to use the Force as well as she did: she's remembering training from her childhood. Still leaves the question of who her mother could be. There's also a theory she's related to Obi-Wan, but I don't buy that one.

[Rapscallion]

Just seen this thread. I have my own opinion.

It's a reboot.

There are some differences, but it's a reboot.

Taking it from the top:

There's an antagonist comprising an industrial/military complex overseen by a shadowy figures who is only seen in hologram form. His frontline lieutenants are a sith and a military admiral who don't get on as well as they might. They're chasing a droid that contains information that they and the other side would really like to have.

Said droid ends up on a sandy planet where it has the good fortune to meet up with a kind-hearted youth who has dreams, but is held back by circumstance. The industrial/military complex destroy the only home said youth has known, but droid and youth get away from the sandy planet in the Millennium Falcon.

After a bit, there's some improbable monster sequences and some very, very unnecessary scenes of danger to add tension, but said wide-eyed youth really, really wants to join with the ephemeral good guys.

They go into a bar run by an Asuran (anyone play Guild Wars 2? You'll know what I mean), and various members of the bar want to kill them, or transport them for labour or money.

One antagonist has been hyped up by the film's hype machine to be really hypey. Cool armour, astounding abilities if you believe the hints, and very distinctive - just doesn't actually do much.

The bad guys turn out to have a huge, planet-destroying weapon that's the size of a planet or bigger - bigger than anything else done before. However, it has a vulnerability around the heating system that involves going via a trench run a bit after a plucky group of good guys has to wander around the inside of the ball-shaped weapon.

There's a confrontation between a father/son combination on a walkway, and one of them ends up plummeting to certain doom. Fortunately, after the trench run by a pilot of astounding ability, the shooty ball decides it's a good idea to go pop. Along the way the wide-eyed youth (the droid rescuer) discovers their force powers and develops them. Said wide-eyed youth has to hunt down a jedi master for training, but since said jedi master had his jedi organisation destroyed by one of his own he buggered off to hide on a wet planet on the arse end of beyond.

Yes, there are some differences, and some story elements are split amongst more characters than before, but it's essentially the same as at least the first two real films, if not elements of the third.

Does this mean it's bad? No. It's not as good as I wanted, but it's still very much a decent film, but rebooted with younger actors who have enough time to take the franchise forward and keep the funds rolling in. Also, to entertain me. I'll take it.

Was it good? The main character didn't whine as much and there were no murder bears. The X-wings thundering across the lake made what's left of my fur stand on end, and the fight scenes between X-wings and TIE fighters had obviously had many, many hours of work put into them. Darth Severus Snape was different to Vader, but that's not so bad - it's a case of whether or not he develops and matures as we'd hope. Whereas Lucas's fan films (the three of which we do not speak openly) explained too much about the background and were boring, this one explained too little of the background, but hey, X-wings thundering along the lake.

4/5.

Rapscallion

[Akasa]

In the novelization of TFA it explains how Rey comes to use the force so quickly.

When Kylo goes into her mind to try to force her to give up the key she's basically mining knowledge from his mind at the same time.

[mjr]

In the novelization of TFA it explains how Rey comes to use the force so quickly.

When Kylo goes into her mind to try to force her to give up the key she's basically mining knowledge from his mind at the same time.

Some of us don't read the novelizations.

Only Star Wars stuff I'm really familiar with is the "main" movies, and what I've looked up online.

So if it wasn't in one of the "main" movies (original trilogy, pre-trilogy, TFA), I probably don't know much about it.

[Akasa]

I only know because of discussion of the movie and it's "holes" on another message board.

[depechemodefan]

I liked it. The actors really fleshed out their characters (the characters in the Prequels were on the most part flat). I didn't like Han Solo's hair. Maybe old men don't comb their hair? Or maybe I have to read the novelization where Han gets his hair messed up from rounding up those creatures that look the langoliers. And hopefully the novelization will let us know that the crew with Han (that was hinted at was eaten by those monsters) were really bad guys, so it's not bad they got eaten by those monsters.


Before I went to see the movie, I came up with some theories. 1) Luke will be in it and die, in a way like Obi-Wan. 2) Han and Leia's son will be Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren was flying the Millennium Falcon on Jakku when he was caught by the First Order and brainwashed into being evil. That's why no one knew the Millennium Falcon was on Jakku.

In general, I had low expectations, but I was really happy the movie didn't suck. Yes, a lot of repetition. Why not just have the Resistance try to get the First Order off a planet they took over? We really don't need so many big explosions of planets blowing up just to up the peril factor. I also didn't like Maz Kanata. Why not have Lupita Nyong'o as a human be this wise character? Actors can act, you don't need CGI to make a character that any actor can easily replace.

Ugh, I'm complaining. Ok, let's say I enjoyed this movie, it was Star Wars to me.

[CorneliaMarieRocks]

ok I found this link while I was poking around the 'net today & thought maybe ya'll would like to take a gander


http://organasrey.tumblr.com/post/13...dnt-make-sense


I haven't read through all of it yet, but hey, someone here might like to check it out

[Akasa]

ok I found this link while I was poking around the 'net today & thought maybe ya'll would like to take a gander


http://organasrey.tumblr.com/post/13...dnt-make-sense


I haven't read through all of it yet, but hey, someone here might like to check it out

That was worth a read.

[BlaqueKatt]

I'm still bitter about them gutting the EU cannon.

they had to, when disney bought starwars from Lucas, they bought *his* characters, which he had graciously allowed others to write fan fiction and make money from, he didn't own those stories, he owned the sandbox that others played in. Disney is not going to negotiate separate contracts for 50+ authors. I do find it interesting how many people are throwing near tantrums(entitlement much?) over that, instead of being happy Lucas allowed it for so long when he really didn't have to. Seriously, you see any other writers allowing this? Gene Roddenberry? JK Rowling? Suzanne Collins? Terry Prachett? Orson Scott Card? Peter Benchley? Stephen King? Douglas Adams?

And "pulling from the EU" because two main characters had a son named after another main character(a VERY COMMON literary theme), may as well say they pulled that from Harry potter(Harry and Ginny had a son named after Dumbledore and Snape), or Twilight(Bella and Edward had a daughter named after their mothers).

[Racket_Man]

Seriously, you see any other writers allowing this? Gene Roddenberry? JK Rowling? Suzanne Collins? Terry Prachett? Orson Scott Card? Peter Benchley? Stephen King? Douglas Adams?

Paramount did the same thing with the original Star Trek. ALL published works had to be approved though there was one book (IF memory serves me correctly) that got through that process that contained some kind of explicit stuff (not sure what it was). It was actually published and later pulled off the shelves and the offending stuff edited out. The original book used to be a valued collector item in the Trek community.

As for JK Rowling, she only allowed unpublished non money making fan fiction. the story goes is that she did NOT really know how much HP fan fiction was out there (even the very very naughty and nasty stuff like the Draco Harry shipping). Her publisher wanted to shut it all down but she said as long as they made no money she did not care (obviously more to it than that but still).