I just saw it at the Cinema, I really liked the first half hour or so, but then it just gets bogged down in trying to be Episode 4 and fan service. The story made no sense, I don't get why the story is about a map to Luke, why would there be one any ways? It'a not something I can get invested in, I just couldn't care about most of the characters really, I also find it crazy that Han and Leia apparently haven't changed. I don't get why the universe has to feel so small since all the major plot points revolve around these characters. I don't get how you have this giant Death Star and yet a bit of C4 is enough to make the whole thing go boom... how the hell did the female Stormtrooper have permission to turn off all the defenses? wtf? No way would anything be designed like that... how are they even sneaking around on that thing and not being spotted by cameras?
There is so much wrong with the film, ultimately I started picking so many holes in it because I was bored throughout. My friends were bored as well, at one point we talked about just going and hearing everyone talk as they left the film, most comments were about how disappointing it was. I even heard one person say they enjoyed The Phantom Menace more...
I think it's every bit a disaster for Star Wars as Episode One, it's more offensive to me because it does nothing new, it just tries to retell Episode 4, so it feels like it dilutes it a bit. Now if I ever want to watch Star Wars in order in the future, I'll find it painful to watch both Episode 4 and 7.
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Alcanan
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90% of the viewing audience liked it, based on 166K votes.
What did everyone expect to happen now that disney owns star wars?
Instead of making a great movie they'd rather try to make some leftist feminist propaganda film.
Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.
"At one point technology meant making tech that could get to the moon, now it means making tech that could get you a taxi."
I also felt like they were just playing the fan-service game about half way in - although I did enjoy some of that fan service since Empire Strikes Back was my first movie theater experience in my life. I still felt kind of... guilty to some degree? Like Abrams was saying "here, you want to see this! And if you like that, have some more of this! And top it off with some great, THIS!"
I feel the decision to focus on a Storm Trooper was a mistake. I get it; focus on the life of an underdog, etc. Problem is, Storm Troopers have become sort of a meme. If you say Storm Trooper, everyone pictures an incompetent, slow-minded, weak willed, cannon fodder grunt. This isn't exactly the type of character that deserves a plot, they deserve to be mowed down in massive numbers!
The acting was also... bad. The villain, who's name I didn't find important enough to remember, was just... terrible. It's like they picked a random guy up off the street and decided to give him a lead role the same day they started shooting. Seriously, I had to IMDB him just to figure out who the hell he was! It was Hayden Christensen all over again. To have him try to pass as Han's son was just nauseating.
And Luke... WTF!? He apparently pulled a Yoda and just secluded himself instead of trying to do anything of value to prevent the whole mess in the first place. That's not the character we saw in Return of the Jedi and to connect the dots this far apart leaves a lot, and I mean A LOT to the imagination.
I agree about some of the plot holes. I can understand why the movie was about finding luke, after all, he's the last remaining Jedi and he successfully took on Vader / the Emperor and played a massive part in taking down the Empire. Propaganda value alone makes the search for him worth it. Its not as if the resistance even spent much effort on the search: they sent a single pilot to a backwards planet to speak to an old guy.
But, why a map? Who created the map? Why was it split up? Who was the old guy who had the final piece?
I'm guessing some of this stuff will get explaining in the next movie. After all, Luke is a Jedi, Yoda taught him to see into the future so I'm assuming Luke decided to create the map himself and leave it with the right people so that he'd only be found at the right time.
My main issues with the new film were mainly surrounding poor dialogue and reliance on old characters. Fynn was just too bland to start with and too "nice" in general. Rey took a while before she fit with her character. Han has lost all his swagger / attitude from the originals so didn't make a good lead. Kylo, considering he'd been initially trained by Luke (Jedi Master) then by Snoke (Sith), was just pathetic. Dodgy temper tantrums, crap with a light saber and just a whiney little bitch. Leia now looks like an ewok too.
I did enjoy the main story line. I liked a lot of the characters and the film overall (Im a big SW fan so always going to love it) but I can see why the average person would have an issue with it. For some reason, the Star Wars universe just seems to inspire shit dialogue. Actors can get round it if they are really good and are willing to assert themselves on set, but as SW often uses young, untested actors, that doesn't happen enough. I was hoping JJ wouldn't make those sorts of rookie mistakes but he still did.
My hope is that the next movie will be more of a "proper" star wars movie: we've just had the introduction movie, where we learn the setting for the universe and get to know some of the key players, next up is proper good vs bad storyline, jedi vs sith, and some epic fights.
There is so many things wrong with the movie.
Overall i thought the acting was meidocre at best, Perhaps my biggest disappointment was the lack of star warzy music.. I feel like JJ abrahams nailed the star wars ffeel when it came to cinematics but there was such a lack of that iconic star wars music in so many scenes, I feel like he really dropped the ball when it came to that climatic music we all gre to love, simply was not enough of it.
With that said i did enjoy the movie, it really captured the essence of the 80's movies while disregarding anything to do with those prequal bombs... Im looking foward to the next episode and really learning luke's story.
Aloha Mr Hand !
Like you said, it was all over the place.
Most of the complaints I have about it have already been covered, so I won't write a list.
Overall, I think it was a pretty poorly designed movie/script. I guess the best thing I'd say for it is that the acting wasn't too bad, given the lousy script they had to work with.
The story was lazy, poorly told, and badly paced with dozens of glaring plot holes. Rey is the most over the top Mary Sue in the history of bad fanfiction and trivializes pretty much everyone else in the story. Oh you sent a rescue mission to save her? She already escaped using jedi powers she wouldn't even knew existed much less be able to use without decades of training.
The worst part was Kylo Ren though. Holy shit that little kid is the worst villain in the history of cinema. He was closer to Dark Helmet than Darth Vader. Every scene he was in, he ruined.
Overall the only redeeming qualities were the scenes with Finn and BB8, and their stories are so horribly written and nonsensical that even their interesting interactions can't save the characters.
3/10