New Star Wars Movie = 7/10. *SPOILER ALERT*

[RustedFox]

My philistine ass saw the new Star Wars movie tonight. (Its my birthday).

7/10 at best.

+ Kylo Ren is legit scary behind the mask.
+ Harrison Ford is still an awesome scoundrel.
+ Rei and Finn are generally great.

- Finn's defection is rather contrived.
- Carrie Fisher looks baaaaaad.
- Physics. I get that you're supposed to suspend disbelief, but you can't destroy celestial bodies without gravity doing terrible things. No, you can't "charge a sun-weapon" like that. STFD.

FAIR WARNING:

Everything beyond this point contains spoilers. Don't read on if you haven't seen it, and don't want to know.

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[DO2016EM]

Negative: Kylo Ren is not scary without the mask.


But I did enjoy the rest of the movie. I have it a 8/10

 

[e30ftw]

I thought it was poorly acted and at best, marginally better than Episodes 1,2 and 3. No where near the originals.

The CGI was top notch but most areas that required artistic talent were lacking.

(all jmo of course).

6/10.

 

[LostinLift]

Overall 5/10, this article covers all of my grievances - http://www.latimes.com/business/hil...the-force-awakens-stinks-20151226-column.html

"Modern blockbusters are not enjoyable the way the original "Star Wars" was, because they come at you as artifacts of high finance. Sitting in the theater at "Avatar," I felt like I was being pounded into submission by a giant hedge fund. Watching "The Force Awakens," I felt as though I was being shown a trailer for the next four movies in the series. Except that trailers aren't normally two hours long and you don't have to pay $12.50 to see them. "

 

[HoosierdaddyO]

Monetarily speaking it was a successful remake of episode 4, that's about it. I do recognize that they are trying to set up the series but found many parts to be long, drawn out and boring...while other parts just don't connect the dots (like when the new Death Star was destroyed, that **** was wayyyy to easy). I'm a fan of the light saber fights and say what you will about the first 3 episodes...the light saber fights were absolutely amazing. The darth maul, obi wan and qui gon ginn scene at the end was hands down one of the best scenes of Star Wars.

 

[Hook_EM]

I thought it was kinda funny that Ren threw hissy fits and smashed computers and stuff when he got angry. Otherwise I thought it was great.

 

[Brigade4Radiant]

I loved it and it was far better than the prequel trilolgy. Kylo Ren is what Anakin should have been. Also this movie was just plain enjoyable. I also don't get it when people say "TFA is nowhere near the original triliogy!" TFA is practically ANH also ROTJ was pretty mediocre

 

[Doctor Bob]

Maybe I missed the explanation, or somehow overlooked something...
But where did StarKillerBase get the energy for the first salvo? Charging it destroyed the sun, so can the whole planet move to a new system? Or was it a binary star system to begin with?
Seems like a big waste of resources to make a weapon that can only fire once (or twice) and then drifts off into the void of space.

 

[Daiphon]

Maybe I missed the explanation, or somehow overlooked something...
But where did StarKillerBase get the energy for the first salvo? Charging it destroyed the sun, so can the whole planet move to a new system? Or was it a binary star system to begin with?
Seems like a big waste of resources to make a weapon that can only fire once (or twice) and then drifts off into the void of space.

I kinda got the sense it sucked off the corona, leaving the core (astrophysics be damned) to regenerate... like a massive electromagnetically engineered coronal mass ejection.

 

[Doctor Bob]

I kinda got the sense it sucked off the corona, leaving the core (astrophysics be damned) to regenerate... like a massive electromagnetically engineered coronal mass ejection.

But the second time didn't the star go dark? So the thermonuclear reaction was extinguished...

I demand that all movies be 100% factual and realistic!

 

[Perrin]

I kinda got the sense it sucked off the corona, leaving the core (astrophysics be damned) to regenerate... like a massive electromagnetically engineered coronal mass ejection.

Maybe it was a condensed gamma ray burst. Seems a little more plausible that it may remain a coherent beam over its trajectory, though I don't think it would rip a planet apart.

I was watching it with my brother and when it started sucking mass off the star, I kept saying under my breath that they'll reach a threshold where nuclear fusion is going to stop and the star will go supernova.

 

[Mad Jack]

Negative: Kylo Ren is not scary without the mask.


But I did enjoy the rest of the movie. I have it a 8/10

Kylo Ren looks like babby behind mask.

Thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but if it weren't a Star Wars movie and were just some random thing dropped on the earth with no prior context, I'd rate it 6/10. It was fun and watchable, but a lot of that fun came from lore and nostalgia that had to be acquired beforehand. As a Star Wars fan, I give it 8.5/10, however.

 

[Mad Jack]

Maybe I missed the explanation, or somehow overlooked something...
But where did StarKillerBase get the energy for the first salvo? Charging it destroyed the sun, so can the whole planet move to a new system? Or was it a binary star system to begin with?
Seems like a big waste of resources to make a weapon that can only fire once (or twice) and then drifts off into the void of space.

People are thinking way too much about it. Star Wars is a fantasy film, not sci fi. That's the big difference between it and Star Trek. Explaining Star Wars is like explaining the physics of Harry Potter's wand or Sauron's ring.

 

[RustedFox]

But the second time didn't the star go dark? So the thermonuclear reaction was extinguished...

I demand that all movies be 100% factual and realistic!

I "got" that *the weapon* was only able to reach a full charge when the sun was shining on the planet.

And yes, Kylo Ren without mask = crybaby millennial, or Severus Snape. Take your pick.

 

[Doctor Bob]

People are thinking way too much about it. Star Wars is a fantasy film, not sci fi.

If Star Wars is fantasy, then how do you explain these photos from WWII?

 

[Bojack Horseman]

I was a little bit disappointed in the plot. All they did was recycle the major themes from the original series with lazy explanations of the events following episode VI.

--Luke: alienated Jedi who will come back to fight for good after years of isolation after losing a pupil to the dark side... Hmm sounds familiar

--Han and Kylo: Father/son duo who clash because one is driven to the dark side. Yawn. Who didn't see this development coming from a mile away?

--giant weapon that destroys planets. Too bad they can't get us to care about any of the people on the destroyed planet. Then it might actually mean something.

Etc.

The recycled themes were excessive in my opinion and made the film seem cheap. This is supposed to be a sequel, not a remake.

 

[Anonymous M4]

I "got" that *the weapon* was only able to reach a full charge when the sun was shining on the planet.

And yes, Kylo Ren without mask = crybaby millennial, or Severus Snape. Take your pick.

Crybaby millennial. Barf. You would think they raised him better. Hated that. Otherwise loved the movie.

 

[GeneralVeers]

I wasn't thrilled with it. I think J.J. Abrams is highly overrated, and in fact mediocre. What he did to the Star Trek franchise was a travesty in my opinion (basically turning them into any other generic over-SFX action movie).

I thought the plotting was extremely lazy in Star Wars. Han Solo loses the falcon on a planet (which is TOTALLY different from Tattooine), has no idea where it is. Then coincidentally Finn and Rey happen to escape on the falcon, figure out how to work it, then get immediately picked up randomly by Han Solo in space. Stupid and lazy plotting beyond belief.

Also there was very little in the way of "starship porn" in the movie. I want to see huge star cruisers shooting at each other.

Here is my ranking of all the movies:

Episode I: 3/10 - almost painfully bad in parts. Should be erased as far as I'm concerned
Episode II: 4/10 - Slightly better, and at least some good action
Episode III: 2/10 - Queen Amidala "loses the will to live" WTF???? ******ed, lazy writing beyond all belief.

Episode IV: 8/10 (when viewed in context of 1970's, 6/10 in modern context. Still very enjoyable despite some stilted dialogue
Episode V: 9.5/10.....still a great movie with credible special effects and story. Good amount of starship porn (Super Star Destroyer), plus it had the best Star Wars character of all time.
Episode VI: 6/10 - the Ewoks ruined a potentially great movie. Beyond that, the starship porn is spectacular, and the space battle scenes hold up even today.

Episode VII: A 5/10. Let's hope the next two films are better.

 

[GeneralVeers]

Watching the movie, my impression of the Star Killer was that it was built around a star, and would "suck" the plasma/hydrogen/energy out of the star. It was build on an existing Class M planet. Every time it was fired it would suck a little bit of the sun's energy, hence why it was Winter on the planet. Presumably it had been tested already, and the energy from the sun was weak from being drained. When it was about to fire the final time in the movie, it was using up the last bit of the sun's energy.

Still seems like a pretty stupid design, considering the Death Star could use hyperspace and go system to system.

 

[Mad Jack]

Watching the movie, my impression of the Star Killer was that it was built around a star, and would "suck" the plasma/hydrogen/energy out of the star. It was build on an existing Class M planet. Every time it was fired it would suck a little bit of the sun's energy, hence why it was Winter on the planet. Presumably it had been tested already, and the energy from the sun was weak from being drained. When it was about to fire the final time in the movie, it was using up the last bit of the sun's energy.

Still seems like a pretty stupid design, considering the Death Star could use hyperspace and go system to system.

It's entirely likely that Starkiller base could reach hyperspace- hell, it could fire beams of death through sub-hyperspace. I'd assume it wasn't a one-shot deal.

 

[GeneralVeers]

It's entirely likely that Starkiller base could reach hyperspace- hell, it could fire beams of death through sub-hyperspace. I'd assume it wasn't a one-shot deal.

As I said I don't think it was one shot. It was multiple-shot, (until the star was exhausted). It was probably built with the sole purpose of destroying the Republic government, as it's alluded to that the Republic fleet is stronger than what the First Order has. I would guess that once it fulfilled its purpose and destroyed the government, then they wouldn't have need of it.

 

[Mad Jack]

As I said I don't think it was one shot. It was multiple-shot, (until the star was exhausted). It was probably built with the sole purpose of destroying the Republic government, as it's alluded to that the Republic fleet is stronger than what the First Order has. I would guess that once it fulfilled its purpose and destroyed the government, then they wouldn't have need of it.

Supposedly some of the non-movie stuff addresses this- they released an official map that shows where Starkiller base was originally from, and it's in a far-off planetary system. Much like the death star, it seems it was quite mobile.

 

[GeneralVeers]

Supposedly some of the non-movie stuff addresses this- they released an official map that shows where Starkiller base was originally from, and it's in a far-off planetary system. Much like the death star, it seems it was quite mobile.

Another way this movie failed, as it didn't even flesh out a lot of key details. It left so many unanswered questions. More info about the Starkiller base would have helped. I also would have liked more detail as to why the Republic seemed non-concerned about the First Order and their StarKiller weapon.

 

[Mad Jack]

Another way this movie failed, as it didn't even flesh out a lot of key details. It left so many unanswered questions. More info about the Starkiller base would have helped. I also would have liked more detail as to why the Republic seemed non-concerned about the First Order and their StarKiller weapon.

It's other stuff that's explained in the novels that they released prior to the movie. Basically, they were so afraid of what happened with the prequels (the rep of walking and talking, movies about politics, etc) that they just threw everything people hated about the prequels out the window, even if it could have been done better.

 

[NontradCA]

@GeneralVeers

Here's a movie you would love:

 

[RustedFox]

Another way this movie failed, as it didn't even flesh out a lot of key details. It left so many unanswered questions. More info about the Starkiller base would have helped. I also would have liked more detail as to why the Republic seemed non-concerned about the First Order and their StarKiller weapon.

And if the "First Order" is less powerful than the Republic, then who the hell are the "Resistance" resisting against, exactly?

 

[deltamed]

I was disappointed. I agree with whoever said that despite the flaws of 1, 2 and 3 the lightsaber battles were great. And how are we supposed to believe that Rey can beat Kylo Ren with no training, having never picked up a lightsaber before? At least luke got his ass whooped by Darth vader multiple times before beating him.

 

[chichi52]

I was disappointed. I agree with whoever said that despite the flaws of 1, 2 and 3 the lightsaber battles were great. And how are we supposed to believe that Rey can beat Kylo Ren with no training, having never picked up a lightsaber before? At least luke got his ass whooped by Darth vader multiple times before beating him.

One of the popular theories is that Rey and kylo trained with Luke, but Luke wiped Rey's memory when kylo went nuts.

 

[WilcoWorld]

I saw it with my 5 year old and we both had a blast.

I'd place it way ahead of Episodes I-III, a bit ahead of VI, but behind IV and V.

 

[WernickeDO]

Here is my ranking of all the movies:

Episode I: 3/10 - almost painfully bad in parts. Should be erased as far as I'm concerned
Episode II: 4/10 - Slightly better, and at least some good action
Episode III: 2/10 - Queen Amidala "loses the will to live" WTF???? ******ed, lazy writing beyond all belief.

Episode IV: 8/10 (when viewed in context of 1970's, 6/10 in modern context. Still very enjoyable despite some stilted dialogue
Episode V: 9.5/10.....still a great movie with credible special effects and story. Good amount of starship porn (Super Star Destroyer), plus it had the best Star Wars character of all time.
Episode VI: 6/10 - the Ewoks ruined a potentially great movie. Beyond that, the starship porn is spectacular, and the space battle scenes hold up even today.

Episode VII: A 5/10. Let's hope the next two films are better.

Is no one going to touch this? General Veers clearly has a conflict of interest here. He ranks the movie in which he destroys the Rebel power generators on Hoth as the best? Please.

On the other hand, he's right about the space battle in Episode VI holding up. That puppy was shot over THIRTY YEARS AGO and it's still the best space battle to date.