And...

Why STAR WARS The Force Awakens is Worse than the Prequels

Pretty good criticism.

All the films, despite my being a fan overall, had flaws that frustrated me as a film and story buff.

Apparently, there are a variety of definitions of what constitutes plot holes for people. To me, it's anything where I'm left scratching my head, or worse, where I stop being able to remain "in the film," so to speak.

Things that are okay to do to me, include establishing a universe where things which are impossible here, are everyday occurrences. FTL travel. Fine. Remote "seeing" or "feeling," by some people and not by others. Fine.

Things NOT okay to do to me as a viewer, include contradicting what you told me as a part of the same storyline. DON'T decide to explain something to me in an incredibly stupid or illogical manner, relative to character development.

I remember waaaay back there now, when Star Trek decided to let me down big time, during the last season it was originally on. They had a series of episodes, where in order to solve a plot problem in the allotted time, they had to give Spock yet ANOTHER magic power that he never had before, and lost immediately after. Star Wars did similar things, in an even more careless way, under Lucas' direction, adding new elements, seemingly for the sake of movie production convenience, rather than to advance and remain loyal to the planned story line.

Jedi can read minds. Sometimes. Sometimes not. They can sense the presence of other powerful users of the force. Sometimes. Other times they can walk right past them in obliviousness. The Force is present and a part of all things. Sort of. Sometimes. Other times, it doesn't matter. Destroying planet Basketball, causes Obiwan to feel faint. Blowing up the death star packed with real people, doesn't even make him flinch.

Lots of plot holes don't matter at all.

To be fair, the Death Star occured after Kenobi died.
Luke was around, but the first time wasn't very trained and the second time knew it was going to happen.

KeenIdiot wrote:To be fair, the Death Star occured after Kenobi died.
Luke was around, but the first time wasn't very trained and the second time knew it was going to happen.

Yes, he get's the chronology of several events in the original film(s) wrong, but that's only to point out that tFA is basically Episode 4 with bits of 5 and 6 mixed in. Only in a slightly different order.

The white armor is never explained. It doesn't seem to protect anyone from anything, even including being punched. Why bother with it?

It is supposed to be reflective or ablative armour/armor. I think it does get a mention in part 7; but yes, fucking useless.

Mike_L wrote:And...

Why STAR WARS The Force Awakens is Worse than the Prequels

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Yes, but my hate has made me strong!

I'll finish watching that vid later. I agreed with the first few minutes of it.

I started watching that video and almost had to turn it off immediately when he said he was "really hurt" by it. LOL. I think that's where a lot of the harsh criticism of the movie comes from, people who have a deep emotional connection with the franchise and had a very specific vision of what the movie should be. I think the prequels had the same problem.

Personally I'm not a huge Star Wars fan. I've seen them all and like them but that's about it. I took my son to the movie and he'd never seen a single of the films before. We both thought it was great. I think it works great as a reboot of the franchise while still being connected directly to the previous films.

It works great for new and casual fans and I think if you put it side by side with any of the others for somebody who's never seen them or has always been just a casual fan this movie holds up well if not outright the best. That probably pisses off the hardcore fans who grew up with the movies though.

I agree, looks like a lot of complaining to me. It's clear they were making very close connections to the first movie on purpose, I'm not even a Star Wars fan and I could see that. They could've played it less safe -- I do agree with the video that the destruction of the Death Star didn't have the weight of the original at all because of no personal connection to the pilots. I think the pacing was too frenzied with no real down-time to relax. We could have done with more details. But "hurt" by it? Come on guys, we're talking about Star Wars, not Seven Samurai.

Oh I wasn't hurt, my expectations were at floor level anyway. I'm agreeing about the video I quoted so far. I didn't notice him saying he was hurt by it yet. I loved the original trilogy, but I don't take the movies very seriously. Ewoks and the prequels saw to that.

I was thinking that my opinion of this one might improve after the next one comes out. Not because it will be worse, but because some of what looks like distracting crap in this one, might turn out to have been foundational plot elements.

From a pure Film Appreciators point of view, a film Historians point of view if you will, the first six films, were all created and then later modified, under the influence of shifting pressures. SOME of what appear to later viewers as flaws, were really a result either of the limitation of the technology (or budget) of the time they were made, or intriguingly, by the forces driving and controlling movie making in general at the time, at war with the evolving mind of their central creator. Fans have heard the story that many of the problems in what became Episode Four, were there because Lucas feared there would be no other episodes, and had to make the film stand on it's own.

In the same way, the films which were made with the certainty that others would follow, had seeming gaps or otherwise mysterious elements which were there to set up the next film, or to explain items from the previous one. Maybe this one shows that characteristic.

But then, the apparent capricious nature of Lucas as a creator is a part of it all as well. Lots of artists who become famous, get challenged to explain details which were not at all important to them at the time of creation, and due to their human sensitivity, they invent an explanation in the moment, designed not to accurately answer the questions, so much as to provide the artist with emotional relief from the stress of being questioned. That, or they simply change their minds, and don't want to admit it.

This one is obviously the first in a new sequence. How much of the references to the past, or odd asides of the present were really necessary wont be known until the second or third installment is released, if ever.

There are lots of things wrong with the original trilogy. The fact people had such high expectations of this one when it's predecessors were perfectly flawed films is just silly.

I feel like I'm watching YouTubers posting videos of themselves weeping after Steve Jobs died when I read some of these reviews talking about how heartbroken people are and how Disney and Lucas have messed with people's childhoods through this film....

Pulsar wrote:How Palpatine rose to power, deceived the senate and the Jedi counsel, and turned Anakin to the dark side. The execution was piss poor, but its scope was much grander than "oh, there's this evil empire and they have a super weapon that we need to destroy".

Well yeah, but ideas are ten a penny. The execution is the only thing that matters. You could say that there was a compelling and original idea, but not a compelling and original story.

Mike_L wrote:Heh!

10:20 on that video. Lmao!

Kylo Ren removes his helmet for the first time.

THE KID: Is that a woman?





THE KID: Why does everyone look different.
ME: Because they're old now.
THE KID: They're probably going to be dead in the next film. Look how old they are.

Teach your children not to talk in the cinema

Not my child.

Another thing; they kept the beautiful island Luke is found on very quiet didn't they? I've lived here 37 years and thats the first I've seen of it.