Just came back from watching with my son on iMax 3D and decent seats .
Both of us were marginal.....some things we liked....others felt warmed over.

New lead Rey is a keeper..including the new form R2D2




.politically correct partner not

Harrison Ford does a terrific job - period ...Princess Leia no fire left.
Chewbacca back and effective.



Humour not bad but could use more of it and edgier....Maybe Disney influence
Heavy handed and predictable.
Excellent R2D2 and the general transition of the droids was okay tho C3PO noticeably "thicker"

As a transition film from old to new it does a not bad job of tieing things together.

The visuals got heavy handed at times - bit much of Leni Riefenstahl and even, I thought some ISIS feel that was misplaced.

I realllllly want to know where the final scene was shot.....stunning.

Not a Star Tek fan but thought The Next Generation a better transition and remarkable channeling by the cast and remarkable casting of the main players in particular Kirk....plus better writing.

As kid said...he felt the same way as I did overall.

Reasonable set up for new episodes but for all our sakes....hire Ridley Scott to do them.

As I posted in the film thread, I saw it on a small screen from seated far away at a tiny theater. It looked to me like Kylo Ren fell into the fire, presumably dead, but my friend with much better eyesight said he lived. Did he died?

By politically correct partner do you mean Finn? I assume so, but why would you say that?
I liked Finn more than Rey. Rey talks too fast, for one. I couldn't understand everything she was saying. The venue is mostly at fault for that too. Plus her accent.

By politically correct partner do you mean Finn? I assume so, but why would you say that?

recall what happened with JarJar ...there was way too much of the bumbler for cheap laugh - "maintenance" ....

Yeah Rey is "noisy" at times but the high energy works with her in my view. Her accent kept channeling Kiera Knighlty who might have been fine for the role but I think Rey the better choice.
More physical presence....

Best new character was the old alien running the bar or whatever that was....remarkle bit of movie making and decent dialogue tho again a bit Disney sappy. Maz Kanata does a great job of it.



These two comments got it right I think...

Ryan Gilbey of the New Statesman said: "[Abrams] hasn't made a terrible picture – just a safe one, where the farthest reaches of fantasy feel merely routine. Every crisis or moment of drama turns out to be a rehash of one that has gone before."

Michael Sragow of Film Comment struck a related chord, complaining that "Abrams is too busy trying to roll the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back into one two-hour-and-15-minute movie".

The result, writes Sragow, is that the "dramaturgy becomes stilted and the dialogue bland, not powerfully archetypal".

http://www.theweek.co.uk/star-wars/5732 ... rs-thought

Coming off The Martian....the contrast is stark....

anyone know when the Blade Runner sequel is due. Gosling as lead with Harrison Ford as support should be decent

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/se ... dley-scott

The_Piper wrote:As I posted in the film thread, I saw it on a small screen from seated far away at a tiny theater. It looked to me like Kylo Ren fell into the fire, presumably dead, but my friend with much better eyesight said he lived. Did he died?

I think we're supposed to be left asking that question, hah.

There's too much going on with his character for him to actually be dead already. I think it's more likely this event that could have killed him just fucked him up and next time we see him he's going to be significantly more badass for it. That was kind of the point. He's strong but he's just an insecure kid trying to emulate Granddad.

Adam Driver's a great performer so I was really pleased to see him in the role (which i didn't know was the case until Ren took his mask off! That was a surprise.) With the mask on and his voice distorted, this, big tall dude with long limbs is pretty menacing. When the mask comes off though he's just a funny looking (I say that as someone who finds Adam Driver very attractive, just unconventionally so) kid.

It was back to what Star Wars is supposed to be. The story outline was obviously pretty familiar, although despite that, there were still times where I was surprised and wondering what would happen next.

The strongest part is the new characters and the casting. The villain is the best one so far, precisely because he's not just some all-powerful, evil overlord. He's vulnerable, conflicted and not as powerful as he wants to be. In fact, he's exactly what Anakin Skywalker should have been in the prequels. His rival colleagues aren't afraid to stand up to him, just like they weren't with Vader (although the Hitler scene was a bit much). We're actually shown how bad he can be. Compare that to Darth Maul in Episode 1, where the only reason we know he's a bad guy is because he's wearing black, has scary makeup on and says he's a Sith.

The dialogue is back to original Star Wars best, rather than the po-faced sitting on a sofa/walking down a CGI corridor conversations of the prequels. There's actually some banter between the characters. They're actually doing something when they're talking. And the dialogue isn't what's driving the plot along.

Thought he was miscast .....Leia and Harrison are on the fair side...Ren just the wrong physiology to my eye.
Having a dark pimply countenance is too heavy handed....having a fairer countenance would provide an effective "surprise" when the the mask came off.

I agree the "tall menacing" dude morphing to an unsure adolescent was effective as was the wavering back and forth of the power balance with Rey was well done.
I also think he was not killed.

•••

IWS - some good insight. I agree it fits in with the original and introduces enough new to carry on the franchise. I did not think the space CGi was up to snuff but that may have been on purpose.
The local fights and battles were pretty good tho.....

Chewbacci and Rey....hey that's the best transition when they boogie off in Millenum Falcon. She's a strong and fitting lead in my view.

She's got fire and passion...


and that i a cool weapon Chewbacca picked up....

He's not pimply at all. He's just not conventionally attractive and very young looking. Typical handsome bad guy is exactly what I expected so I was happy to see something else.

The girl who played Rey did nothing for me. Not that there was anything wrong with her. There wasn't. She was just very white bread tough girl. She did a good job though.

Just what screen did you watch it on?



Was particularly noticeable on the close ups between he and Rey when they are battling wills in the room where she learns her use of The Force and in the light sabre battle.

I suspect it's purposeful to indicate uncertainty and immaturity.

•••
Far review in the Economist

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero ... m-review-0

Macdoc wrote:and that i a cool weapon Chewbacca picked up....

That's always been Chewbacca's weapon, hasn't it?

Mostly enjoyed it. There was a lot of retreads, and I thought Leia was underused.
On the other hand, saw it with my dad and he loved it.
Let out a woop when Solo walked into theFalcon, and clapped at some of the scenes.
It was worth the price of admission for that.

Ah yes, Chewbacca's "bowcaster". He's always had it, but it never really featured prominently in the earlier movies.
As a "playable", it was probably my favourite weapon in the 1997 game Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.

On a super shallow note and by no means to belittle the actual work of those involved in the film's creation, goddamn is Oscar Isaac (plays Poe Dameron) ever good looking. Like, stupidly good looking. Distractingly good looking. I asked my friend if he thought the character was actually dead or not because, "I was really enjoying looking at him!"

Macdoc wrote:Thought he was miscast .....Leia and Harrison are on the fair side...Ren just the wrong physiology to my eye.
Having a dark pimply countenance is too heavy handed....having a fairer countenance would provide an effective "surprise" when the the mask came off.

He reminded me in part of a young David Prowse, but lacking the muscle. He worked for me, having the right sort of gawky appearance, to come across as someone not wholly comfortable with themselves and prone to overreacting with their power to compensate.

As for the movie itself, it was a triumph for special effects I think. The reliance on models and more traditional effects making, really helped bring the world to life. I watched ROTS last night for the first time since I saw it at the cinema and was shocked as to how much of the film was CGI, it was really jarring. Force Awakens is a long, long way from that, to my great relief.

The film sets up an awful lot of material in its run time, which makes it feel very crowded. The plus side to that is that you don't have to have any prior Star Wars knowledge to enjoy it. It is nicely self contained. There are still huge elements of the plot which could've been excised without effecting the plot and giving more time for the characters to develop and have a slower pace in places. The whole "planetary super weapon" could've been dropped for a start.

There are a lot of Deus Ex moments in the film, but thinking back to the earlier films, I'm more inclined to shrug those off. I pressed I'll accept that "the force made it happen" because that's as good as any explanation as any. The only one that really, really jarred with me was R2D2 waking up at the end. Why then? Why not earlier when they got the first map piece back? I hope this is explained at some point, because it really bugged me.

I still can't decide if what happened to Han was a cheap stunt by Abrahms to motivate us all to keep watching and demonstrate how "bad" Kylo Ren is, or whether he wanted Han to be the movie's "Ben Kenobi" and give us that moment. Arguably as the latter it works far better than Ben's death in Star Wars because, dammit, we like Han, we know Han, we grew up with Han. As charming as Ben is, we've only known him for an hour or so in Star Wars before he karks it to motivate Luke. I get the impression Harrison was happy about that moment, but he's wanted Han killed off since ESB.

I just want to BB8 toy

I got the feeling it wasn't just Ben Kenobi moment, but also Vader's moment in Return of the Jedi. Vader took his son's hand and came back to the light, Kylo denied his father and sealed himself off from the light.

Macdoc wrote:Just what screen did you watch it on?

Those are moles.

Even in a heavily photoshoped magazine cover they're there. They're not acne:

Yup - they looked like moles to me rather than pimples.

I need to learn from him how to keep my hair looking so beautiful under a helmet.

Could be...didn't leave that impression in the theatre tho ....stiil think the look was wrong Hans/Leia progeny.....unless Leia had an assignment or perhaps assignation and picked up some new genes in the process

That hair almost looks AmeriIndian ....ya just have to watch Longmire for lots of examples - Lou Diamond Philips included.

and Depp has some AmerIndian background so he claims


http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/w0012381.html