some of the dialogue was really poorly written. I don;t have any examples onhand but there were a lot of sentences that were twice as long as they needed to be, especially in action sequences where they really should have been being quick with their language. Maybe it was disney trying to make things more spelled out for children watching.
I liked the lightsaber battles. The prequels lightsaber battles were carefully choreographed dances, these were more like the original trilogy’s battles, they reflected the emotion of the characters better. Special effects were nice, otherwise wasn’t to impressed.
i dont like how easy it was to kill the third death star. I think they should have dragged it out accros all 3 movies this time. They should have attacked it this time and failed, for once.
I’m sure I missed a lot and I’m looking forward to a second viewing at home (first time watching a 3D film, at an IMAX no less, and it was almost more distracting than immersive), but didn’t the dialogue go a bit like this:
Han: And don’t stare.
Finn: At what?
Han: Anything.
Sounds like it was more referring to the same situation as Luke in the cantina rather than anything particular about Maz.
There were some details I absolutely loved about this movie.
The Crossguard. Remember all that fuss about Ren’s lightsaber,
whether it’s being impractical or having a solid tri-beam inside?
The movie’s answer appeared to be… elegant: “that’s no crossguard”.
Kylo was using his lightsaber like a regular one, and the sidebeams
were just for poking the enemy during a clinch (which was probably
secured by a wobbly form of the blade; basically, the villain was
fencing with a saw).
Physics. As you all probably know, it’s the New Hope we have to
blame for the misrepresentation of space dogfighting that has been
haunting movies and games 'till the recent Elite: Dangerous (God,
the flight model there was dissapointing), and the Episode VII
looks… promising, actually. There were no space battles in it, so
what I say is a pure speculation, but have you noticed that
manoeuvre Rey pulled out in the Jakku chase scene? No aerodynamics
involved, just a raw impulse of an overpowered interstellar engine.
The introduction of Finn. His turncloaking was rushed and shallow,
but touching nevertheless. The way authors used to depict his trauma
and doubts while distingushing him from samey stormtroopers looked
brilliant.
Captain Phasma. With all the hype around this new outstanding masked
henchman (some assumed, by overanalysing early posters, she had
Luke’s lightsaber as a bayonet for her rifle), what actually
happened in the movie seems like a hillarious meta joke to me. She
did exactly what an outstanding masked henchman was supposed to do
in Star Wars: bloody nothing! And was thrown into a dumpster. Like,
“what had you been expecting, bying those figurines and stuff?”
Weren’t the sidebeams essentially there to stabilize the raw energy from the crystal? You can see the beam is very unstable compared to other sabers, it’s practically a contained lightning bolt, symbolizing Kylo’s emotional state. So the blade is constructed with a mechanism to diffuse some of the energy outward, which just happens to produce two mini sabers, I don’t think it was built specifically for the purpose of having something to hurt an opponent’s shoulder when the sabers are locked.
Sure, as the rest of the good Star Wars movies, it’s all about characters. But from a standpoint of the fanbase’s Dark Side, i.e. constant attempts to take the series as a sci-fi, not the fantasy it is, and break every quasi-tech shenanigan down for analisys, the tri-saber still holds up, no matter what’s inside of it.
Like the film very very much. As some might call it a remake or whatsoever, I dont agree. For me the right components of the old films were being used to make it a Star Wars movie and not an XYZ (you name it) scifi-movie. Most important for me was that they get to built up new characters for the whole triology in that 7th, while keeping a connection to the old films. Which they mastered perfectly IMHO with Rey, of course it wouldnt have worked without Harrison.
Too bad Abrams wont do the remaining two movies, I hope they can keep the mood of the 7th for the two next ones.
First of all: i liked the movie! Overall I’d give it a 8.7/10
What I didn’t like
Similarities with Episode IV: another Death Star? Really? C’mon. There is so much room for good, smart ideas but where on earth should the imperial group create (unnoticed by the resistance) a planetary weapon like this? Also the weapon is stupid: there are only 2 suns in the system. As a result, the weapon could possibly shoot at maximum 2 times, right? And then? All planets destroyed, no more suns in the system. Nice!
main villain “Snoke” reveal: why showing a (in my opinion) bad CGI figure? It would have been much cooler if they just had some kind of dark room or shadow of him.
the music: am I wrong or didn’t had the bad guys any theme? No imperial march. Nothing. Dumb.
What I liked
The overall look&feel
Kylo, initially a badass villain but as it turned out: he is more like Drako Malfoy (what I like)
Rey, I’m in love with her
the dramatic scene between Kylo and his father
The light saber catch scene by Rey <3
The level of detail: light sabers melt snow and leave a black trail behind
It’s not that bad. I think they left us in the dark with too many characters, which made it hard to connect to them.
At least with Luke we have the sense of what his life and past are like, believing that his father was a Jedi who was killed by Vader, so we relate to him as a human with a life.
Rey’s past is mysterious to the audience, so, it’s hard to project into her, since she knows something that we don’t.
8/10 JJ has some issues with having dialog in his movies and has a lot of unneeded action scenes.
The characters are a bit more solid, I do like Kylo he seems like draco malfoy which I find amusing. The other characters are fairly one dimensional but its starwars so I can’t really complain.
I wonder if they are going to do some kind of directors cut or extended edition once it comes out on Bluray, lets say in the tradition of lord of the rings. Would be nice if there’d be additional material that polishes the new characters (although I find them already good, well done, esp. Rey) or that describes a bit more what happened in the meantime in the last years before part VII.
Guess that would be untypical in the tradition of Lucasfilm or Disney, but I’d appreciate it nevertheless.
Sure, if I was being picky, I could highlight things that could have been different, but I judge films on how they make me feel.
After a short settling in period (I think it had quite a different feel to any of the other films), I found myself swept along nicely and was generally delighted to see such a crisp and fresh visual experience of the Star Wars universe. I’m growing to like the new characters and enjoyed the surprising amount of light humour (also the self-referencing done by Han Solo during the planning session).
And Kylo Ren’s temper tantrums were entertaining at the same time as being appropriate.
Also… the Millennium Falcon got a lot of screen time. Good stuff!
It must have been so hard trying to decide on the balance between nostalgia and new. I have no problem with the echoes of Episode 4. It helped me feel like I had something familiar to hold onto while easing me in to the new universe. I do hope the next films begin to move away and tell something newer though.
Oddly, the one thing that I will pick out that annoyed me was C-3PO. Can’t put my finger on why yet until I’ve digested the film some more…
Most probably because he wasn’t relevant in any way. In all previous series he always helped in some way, be it awkwardly or genuinely. Here, he was just… here, and that’s it. A wink to the fans, that’s all he is in this new trilogy.
It was predictable. Too much of it was over used story lines. Ford looked too old to be doing what he couldn’t really do. I blame the script.
The dialog ( Spellchecker gave me two options…) was at a junior high level for Fin and not much better for every one else. That death star looked hokey and like something I saw in a cartoon twenty or so years ago.
The good points were that Fin wasn’t a clone.
I liked Ray. Although her fighting with the lightsaber was pushing it.
I did see it in 3D, I had to have that Imperial Star Destroyer removed in the ER. I have to ware glasses now. (they didn’t over do the 3D )
Han had to die on that bridge. He was written into a corner and the other option would be just too Dr. Who ish. (or have a merical [spelling] of good writing)
I do hope the next films begin to move away and tell something newer though.