Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens *SPOILERS*

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens *SPOILERS*

Unread postby doc.exe » December 27th, 2015, 3:52 pm

Looking to reinject a bit of vitality here (and hopefully, given it’s more than a week since the premiere, most of the forumites might have already seen it, but SPOILERS! In any case).

I liked The Force Awakens, although for me it wasn’t exactly “The second coming/revival of the franchise” that it was for other people. Then again, I did like Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, even in spite of all their flaws (The Phantom Menace, on the other hand, can remain sealed in the Disney Vault for the rest of eternity, as far as I’m concerned).

Looking at reviews, the most common complaint seems that it repeats too many story beats from the original trilogy, especially from A New Hope. That ultimately didn’t bother me though. Considering that even the most positive reviews pointed out that, in some respects, it was almost a remake of A New Hope, I went to the theater with my expectations in check.

What did bother me was that some things felt... off. The Starkiller Base in particular. Despite being a weapon that dwarfed the Death Star in terms of size and destructive power, it just didn’t have the same dramatic impact. From the revelation of the weapon, to the scene when the First Order launches the attack against the New Republic, to the infiltration and destruction of the base by the heroes, it just lacked the punch that similar scenes in A New Hope had. It just felt… well, “there”.

The ending also felt too abrupt, and after waiting the entire movie for Luke to finally show up, the fact that he was only on screen 30 seconds and didn’t even talk was frustrating.

Those complaints aside, I did enjoy the movie, especially because of the characters. All of the actors gave strong performances and the movie did a fine job establishing the story arcs for the new characters, while paying respect to the returning ones. Indeed, I think the character beats were the strongest part of the movie and what ultimately elevated it.

The dead of Han Solo is a good example. Despite the fact that I pretty much predicted how the scene was going to play out given Han’s turn as the Obi Wan of the movie, it still came as a genuinely heart wrenching moment. Rather than turn out like a cliché, the strong performances of both Harrison Ford and Adam Diver elevated the scene and gave it the necessary gravitas. Even more, the scene comes as an appropriate coda to Han and a turning point for Kylo Ren.

This is interesting, given it’s generally accepted that the major weak point of the prequels on the whole was the stilted performances and the way some characters were handled.

In that sense, I’m willing to forgive the lack of originality of the movie, although now that the stage is set and the pieces are in place, I hope incoming Episodes of this new trilogy dare to take a few more risks.
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Re: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens *SPOILERS*

Unread postby Wraith5 » December 27th, 2015, 8:56 pm

Honestly, I enjoyed the movie, but not as a Star Wars movie. I was not a fan of a lot of the details, or how closely it mirrored Ep4. As far as the details, there are some (okay... several...) minor details I don't think work at all, especially to anyone who's ever been a decent fan of the series:
  1. Poe's X-Wing had a mechanism to pick up BB8 and connect him to the X-Wing's systems from the ground. There have only been 4 (technically 5) fighter classes that have held astromech units (Naboo N-1 starfighter, the (two versions of) Jedi Starfighters (episodes 2 and 3), the X-Wing, and the Y-Wing), and the only one to have a built-in droid-loading mechanism was the N-1 starfighter, probably for design aesthetics. (They never properly show how the droids board the Jedi starfighters, but IIRC, the one in Ep2 is actually a part of the ship itself...)
  2. BB8 himself. Seriously, the droid is just designed to look cute. It's physically impossible for his head to be anchored to the body by anything other than magnetism. One or two things breaks, and he falls apart and becomes useless.
  3. Poe's X-Wing was destroyed by a barrage of BLASTER RIFLE FIRE. Bear with me here. X-Wings are starfighters. Their hulls are intended to be able to withstand to pressure of space and the heat of atmospheric reentry, and probably some degree of small-scale ship-based weapons. I could see a properly angled blaster shot disabling an engine, but I would imagine that's like shooting at an aircraft with something smaller than an assault rifle...
  4. They treated and showed EVERY energy weapon as if it were made of frozen lightning. Poe's one blaster shot at the beginning. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they made it look like it was 3 interwoven lightning bolts, right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but EVERYTHING Star Wars (hell, even the visual dictionaries) says blasters shoot plasma blasts, right? (Similar thing for the lightsabers, but that's less noticeable.)
  5. Regarding the lightsabers: the 'button' they keep pressing to activate them is an adjustment knob... The activation switch is the long rectangular block in the middle of the handle.
  6. The 'Resistance' base is storing all their spacecraft in the open air. Unless those fighters are designed to be fine in that kind of climate (which looks very similar to Yavin IV, I might add), they're going to be taking some pretty fair abuse from the environment. Sensitive electronics and equipment usually doesn't mesh too well with a humid environment...
  7. The Starkiller base weapon and it's split, curving beams. Seriously? It only had one 'barrel'/emitter. If the beam split and angled as it was coming out, I could deal with that, since it would be kind of like a CRT... but it didn't. Also, unless the base was in the same system as it's targets, that thing is going to take a LONG time to reach it's targets. I mean, it can only travel at the speed of light. The Falcon could go what, 0.5 past lightspeed (I'm assuming that's analogous to Mach 1.5)? Things line up right and they could've had PLENTY of warning (meaning a nearby ship saw the attack initiating and immediately contacted someone, I mean it's been proven there's faster-than-light communication, much less travel...).
  8. One last thing about the X-Wings, this time from the last fight. All of the X-Wings fire their 6 proton torpedoes during the initial strafing runs. The detonators placed inside blow open the giant hole in the side of the facility, then Poe goes inside and launches 4 more pairs of torpedoes. Hello? The original X-Wings can only carry SIX torpedoes (not per launch tube, TOTAL). Either they'd have to have SIGNIFICANTLY changed the interior of the X-Wing (unlikely, for something a full squadron of fighters can use to destroy capital-class ships in two or three synchronized volleys), used a different version of torpedoes (I doubt it...), or used some other method to increase the storage capacity. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the 'new' X-Wings are slightly smaller than the 'old' ones, and not just in engine size.
BTW, it's been a while since I've properly studied up on non-EU Star Wars stuff, so feel free to correct me on things.

Also, anyone else take a close look at Rey's staff and notice something about it?
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