Topic: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Cause fuck it, we'll need it in 4 days anyways.

In the meantime here's Paint doing a thing....

In the meantime meantime, who all's seeing it opening night or opening nightish?

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

4 days? It starts the 16th in most of Europe wink

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Have I ever mentioned how much I truly, deeply and honestly loathe you?

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

More than twice.

But I'm watching it on Friday, chill out wink

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

The spice must flow...no wait, wrong film.

I wish I wasn't working 50 hours right now. Probably won't see the film until 2016 sad

God loves you!

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Saw it at midnight and then immediately after. This film is like meeting up with some old friends who you haven't seen in a long time and finding out that you get on amazingly with their new friends.

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Sounds like the movie version of this forum...

Last edited by fireproof78 (2015-12-17 16:05:16)

God loves you!

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

7 hours 30minutes and counting down...

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

I'm on a social media blackout.

Does wonders for my phone's battery.

I'll be watching it in 21 hours.

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

I also saw this at midnight last night and again today. I liked it more the second time actually, being less distracted by recognising trailer shots and oh yeah, the sound going out for several minutes at the beginning of a very significant Han scene.

All the actors are fantastic. There's not one dodgy person in the entire thing. The 4 young leads are amazing. I'm reminded a lot of Mad Max in terms of its relentless pace, marriage of old and new special effects techniques, and return to what worked best in establishing the franchise.

Also, fucking Luke Skywalker!

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Dudes. I have seen it.

Ryan and Brandon share the screen again.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29628015/20151217_220256.jpg

Last edited by drewjmore (2015-12-18 04:56:52)

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Nice, it was going by so fast I only had time to search out Weebs.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much of a main character BB-8 was. More than Poe was, definitely. I expected him to take up R2's sidekick status, but he definitely made a trio with Finn and Rey much the same as Han, Luke and Leia in ANH.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

13

Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

I adored it. My chief gripe was the casting choice they made with respect to the big bad -- Driver's not the face that comes to mind when I think of who that character's supposed to be -- but other than that, I loved it up down and sideways.

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Really enjoyed it, but I'm not at all sure how I feel about the climax. I didn't feel Starkiller Base had enough buildup, and the tension of the third act suffers as a result--the final duel is intense as all hell, but the dogfight feels almost like an afterthought.

Also not sure how to feel about Han's death, I love what they've done with Kylo but I don't think they gave us enough of his and Han's relationship for it to truly feel meaningful.

That said, I absolutely loved a lot of the rest of it and will be enumerating how as we discuss, I'm sure. Just wanted to get my only big complaints out of the way up front.

Last edited by Abbie (2015-12-18 09:39:47)

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Yeah the confrontation between Han and his boy was well written in spots, but overall there were some missed opportunities there, dialog-wise. Wouldn't be surprised if earlier versions of the script had way more of that relationship.

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

One thing that the film absolutely nailed is exactly what Dorkman told Abrams to nail in his open letter--the characters. Finn and Poe are each such damn fun, and Rey is completely badass and endearing without being a Mary Sue. Kylo is such a compelling villain, he's completely different from a Vader clone and is in a lot of ways what Anakin should have been. That's true of all the new leads, none of them is a copy of an OT character, they're all completely new people. Even if I'd had a middling response to the film rather than the mostly-love that I did, I would still go back to VIII without hesitation for these characters.

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Hey guys, let's discuss Rey's character flaws.

http://philadams.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/tumbleweed.jpg

Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Rey's got abandonment issues: the tally marks on her wall, the vision after touching the lightsaber, and so much hugs when Fin actually came back for her.

I may be way out of line here, but didn't the dialog mostly concern Fin and Rey introducing themselves to  people? Especially early in the thing, every word felt like an exposition dump. "The Falcon was stolen from whoever and sold to that other guy and then borrowed by Whathisnuts." I get it, there is a history here.

Apart from that, the visual story and action won me over when the kids blasted that second TIE fighter on Jakku, and the tentacle creatures are my favorite monsters yet. I did not retain their species name, in spite of the triple repetition... started with an R did it?

Fight choreo was superb, IMO. Untrained in style, even down to a few unnecessary twirl-flourished from Kylo Ren...just like we all do when there's nothing better to do while holding a lightsaber/stick. Lots of brutal non-lethal touches, even a chopped off hand!

Last edited by drewjmore (2015-12-18 15:15:22)

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

I didn't get the feeling of overly expositiony lines; in fact I wanted just a tad more from the setting. Characters themselves were well fleshed out though, which is the primary concern.

Regarding the setting: How big is the First Order? The Republic? Why the separation between Republic and Resistance? I figure we'll get more details on that in three years. For now I'm happy the focused on the characters because, as Praxus said, they're making me want to stick around for the next one.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

drewjmore wrote:

Apart from that, the visual story and action won me over when the kids blasted that second TIE fighter on Jakku, and the tentacle creatures are my favorite monsters yet. I did not retain their species name, in spite of the triple repetition... started with an R did it?

Rathtars. smile

Boter wrote:

Regarding the setting: How big is the First Order? The Republic? Why the separation between Republic and Resistance? I figure we'll get more details on that in three years. For now I'm happy the focused on the characters because, as Praxus said, they're making me want to stick around for the next one.

Going off some of what has been said in offshoot material and my own speculation. After ROTJ, nobody in the Empire really knew who was in control and it was all a bit of a mess. Some Imperials went in to hiding, like Nazis heading to Argentina. I believe that the First Order is mostly comprised of the children who grew up around those who would say how great the Empire was. They're frustrated that the older generation seem unwilling to fight for what they believe is right and rise up.

On the other side, the full name for the Resistance is The Resistance Against The First Order. The Republic does not want to be seen as highly militarised as the Empire was, so the Resistance is formed as a splinter group, funded secretly by The Republic, to combat the rising threat of The First Order.

Last edited by Owen_Ward (2015-12-18 16:17:12)

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Good stuff up there Owen, thanks!

How many callbacks to the other movies can we list?

Fin has a brief moment with the ANH training drone while trying to fix the Falcon.
Han quips to Fin (the former Starkiller Station janitor) about trash compactors.
Kylo Ren was originally named "Ben," presumably after Kenobi (pretty sure this was an EU fact as well, and callback might not be the right term...)
Maz' <fixed> bungalow looks like Jabba's Palace and the Cantina begat a Disney-themed love-child.

I know I'm forgetting a bunch.

Last edited by drewjmore (2015-12-18 23:08:19)

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Maybe I need to watch the movie again, or maybe I'm just an ashole, I honestly don't know. The movie just didn't hit for me as well as it did for other people. I loved about 75% of it but there were things that bugged me and didn't allow me to fully enjoy the movie.

One of the lesser talked about things (as far as I can tell) was Finn's motivation for leaving the First Order. Visually it looks like its the loss of life, which we see when the fallen storm stroopers blood is splattered on his armor. He seems remorseful at any loss of life. When he escapes with Poe he has no issue killing countless storm troopers though. Later he mentions he was a sanitation worker, so what was he even doing on Jakku as a front line soldier anyway?

Then we have the final battle with Kylo Ren... sure he's shot in the side by Chewie, but he held a blaster bolt in the air with the force. That was teh first time we've seen anyone hold a blaster bolt, surely that elevates him to bad ass of the month no? Yet he gets cut by Finn with a lightsaber. If Finn has the force he's still untrained hell, he picked up that light saber yesterday.

Besides those two things and the rehash of the old plot and the glut of characters I did like movie. There was a lot of stuff to like as well but everyone everywhere has talked about the pluses. The fight for one felt real, not overly choreographed. Daisy Ridley was a gem. BB-8 was hilarious and fit in well as a trio with Boyega and Ridley. The Luke reveal worked for me. The movie was again about an actual War among the stars and not just about the Jedi.

In any case I'm going to try to rewatch again this coming tuesday to see if I'm simply being harsh.

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

Keep in mind that bowcaster is insanely powerful--it's shown as knocking people off their feet when they get shot. And Finn has most likely had melee combat training as a stormtrooper (they do have that riot gear, after all). Add to that the fact that Kylo is pretty volatile and inexperienced and I think it's an even enough match up. Viewing Kylo as a badass is the wrong approach to take, I think--they're very clearly presenting him as a childish, confused figure who *wants* to be Vader but is in no way capable of it. The trick with the blaster bolt is cool, but largely flash, not a lot of substance, compared to Vader just absorbing the bolts with his palm.

Last edited by Abbie (2015-12-18 22:14:43)

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

So the teddy bears victory in VI was rather modest. Not much really changed.

Yeah I also thought the untrained toilet cleaner matching it with a Major-League Sith Dude was a bit far fetched.

Any Chewie's gun can wipe out 3-4 armored storm troopers in one shot (which bizarrely surprises Han after all these years) and yet it only scratches Kylo.

Can't believe JJ tripled-down on Death Star 3.0 after people were complaining that VI was merely rehashing IV.

And a teenage scavenger who's never flown the Falcon before can suddenly manoeuvre it everywhere, dodging trained pilots. And the Falcon, even more of a rust-bucket, can warp, I mean, jump, so accurately now, it materializes right on the tree tops. It's basically become a teleportation device, not a transport.

Loved the crashed destroyer shots.

Yes, and all the call backs. Must have been dozens of them. I had a bad feeling about fan-service. We panned lazy nostalgia with Terminator Genisys (no new ideas!), don't know why it gets a free pass here.

In all, 95% is generous. I'd dial that down a few notches. It's hampered by having to be faithful to the old 1970s pantomine style which is itself a call-back to earlier movies. We're used to a more contemporary style (tone, scoring, editing, humour, etc).

Actors were fine. The round Wall-E-like robot was cute, but that left R2 with not much to do except mourn. Why did he wake up at the end again?

What do you guys think about the movie not being very self-contained? Han's son's backstory, Snoke, and the ending left you asking more questions.

Will see it again in 3D IMAX for a second look. Right now, I'm still leaning towards Fury Road as movie of the year.

not long to go now...

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Re: The Star Wars 7 Thread (SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. ALL THE SPOILERS.)

I kind of hated the Nazi salute thing. Overkill. We get it. Storm troopers, Third Reich::First Order, it looks like a Nuremberg rally. We get it.

Also I thought we'd get a scene in which Leia and Chewie console each other about Han (did we?). Was disappointed when I didn't see it.

I loved the ending pretty hard. I was hoping for a post-credits scene in which Luke messes with Rey, maybe speaks in Yoda syntax, eats her granola. Chewie's inconsiderate for not dropping her off on top of the damn mountain.

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