Star Wars: The Force Awakens [** SPOILERS FROM POST 4472 ONWARD **]

Wedwood

Re Rey's ability with a lightsaber. Luke Skywalker was able to deflect laser beams from a robot - blindfolded no less- with only his second time to switch one on and nobody bats an eyelid.

It's a fairy tale folks, stop taking the magic away !!

Roar

david75 wrote: »

Pretty great footage of reys flashback/flash forward force trip
http://sendvid.com/i0q9ybuc

Apparently there's a line from Yoda in this but I can't make it out, anyone else grab it?

Mr Freeze

Sad Professor wrote: »

I don’t really see any evidence in the film for Rey being a Skywalker or a Solo. Caring parents generally don’t abandon their children on distant planets and never come back. Luke and Leia were effectively orphaned and left in the hands of capable caretakers. Rey had nobody. She’s almost certainly connected to Luke’s academy in some way, but that doesn’t make her his daughter.

I hope she is neither a Skywalker or a Solo and just someone who the Force called to.

robinph

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

That scene with the Stormtrooper fighting Finn when he has the lightsaber is basically just to show they're trained in close combat.

Even the sanitation department Stormtroopers?

From the chat with Han on the way to blow up the planet it seemed like he was saying the trip to annihilate the village was his first time out of the sewers, well since the last time he was re-programmed anyway, and he didn't know anything actually of use militarily about the planet they were trying to destroy.

eeguy

robinph wrote: »

Even the sanitation department Stormtroopers?
.

Army guys who clean latrines are still combat trained.

You don't think they'd send a janitor in as front line troops.

robinph

eeguy wrote: »

Army guys who clean latrines are still combat trained.

You don't think they'd send a janitor in as front line troops.

You wouldn't expect him to be top of the class though in use of a blaster or sword. Although he could have been practising his lightsabre moves with a mop on the late shift.

He was a n00b to being in actual combat and froze on his first time out, they had never trusted him to use a ship mounted gun previously and didn't know where the on button was for the gun on the Tie, then he forgets that all again a couple of hours later on the Falcon but thankfully Rey can fly the ship and deal with his aiming all at the same time, then second attempt at face to face combat he suddenly remembers his training and takes down a few of the more experienced StormTroopers.

All part of the ridiculousness of the StarWars universe, which is great.

Giruilla

Max Landis has a good review of the new characters in force awakens. Totally agree.

Its completely obvious JJ was trying to make a strong female character in Rey, but think he misjudged it.. making her so 'strong' as to border on unrelatable and boring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpS6TlqgLIQ

Mr Freeze

david75 wrote: »

Pretty great footage of reys flashback/flash forward force trip
http://sendvid.com/i0q9ybuc

I do not think young Rey had a padawan braid in that clip.

I never heard Alec Guinness saying Rey when watching it yesterday, that is a nice touch. Couldn't make out McGregors lines tho.

Back to Rey, I do hope she is not related to the Skywalkers or Solo's and the force just awakened in her.

And I thought Kylo Ren was great as other people have stated, so flawed, so lost.
I know redemption was a theme in the OT, but I do not want to see Kylo Ren turn back to the light, there is no forgiving him for you know what. I struggled to keep it together yesterday when that happened.

johnny_ultimate

I'm pretty sure I've never heard the complaint that there was too little exposition in a film until the last day or two :pac:

Can't say I'm particularly envious of the writers who have been tasked to take the baton from Abrams and Kasdan, regardless of the level of forward-planning that has been done. In this age of hyper-speculation and cultural saturation, is there anything they could reveal that would be genuinely shocking or revelatory, especially while staying true to the sort of themes, tone and identity that have defined the Star Wars franchise (don't think we can expect a Red Wedding equivalent...)? 'I am your father' made its impact and then some, but in a sense has placed anything that comes next in a less than favourable position, with an audience primed for any possible familial connections or 'shock' relationships with other characters. While I certainly wouldn't be one to discourage originality, I reckon it would almost be in their best interests to play any 'big reveals' not necessarily as 'unexpected twists', but instead simply embrace them as knowingly overdramatic beats in what excels, at its heart, as a swashbuckling family melodrama. As long as said beats are narratively coherent and thematically appropriate, I wouldn't begrudge it for not being as 'surprising' as earlier twists in the series have been. And it's not like the earlier films didn't display evidence of the writers sort of making it up as they went along

All that said, I'm definitely curious to see how Rian Johnson handles it all. His three films have all played like very fresh and often subversive takes on their respective genres - film noir/teen drama, heist movie and sci-fi/time travel respectively. This is the first time he's made a full-fledged big budget studio film, and certainly under the auspices of the Disney corporation I'm sure there'll be something of a limit with how far he can push things (and I still think I'd prefer to see him doing his own thing). But he has a knack for making the old seem new, and is one of the few director/screenwriters who has displayed a passion and capacity for bringing a fresh perspective to fundamentally familiar tales.

niallon

Mr Freeze wrote: »

I do not think young Rey had a padawan braid in that clip.

I never heard Alec Guinness saying Rey when watching it yesterday, that is a nice touch. Couldn't make out McGregors lines tho.

Guinness saying Rey was apparently taken from him saying "afraid" in the Original Trilogy. The next Obi Wan dialogue you hear - "These are your first steps" - is McGregor.

e_e

The Simpsons predicted the box office weekend of 18/12/2015 back in 2009!

Mr Freeze

niallon wrote: »

Guinness saying Rey was apparently taken from him saying "afraid" in the Original Trilogy. The next Obi Wan dialogue you hear - "These are your first steps" - is McGregor.

Guinness saying it sounds great.

I am kinda hoping Rey is a relation of Obi Wan's now if he is the one calling to her in the vision.

googled eyes

Now what I say next could be complete rubbish.

But what if Rey was like a reincarnation of Obi Wan's force spirit? He was Vadar's friend until he fell, then he was Luke's mentor and in this trilogy could be Kylo's advisory.

All three of the trilogies would be about the Skywalker family but would feature Obi Wan in some way

Remember the line about seeing people's eyes over and over if you live long enough

Nerdlingr

One thing I never got is why did Leia never use/learn to use the force ?

Sad Professor

Best theory I've heard so far is that Rey is Luke's virgin birth.

Radiosonde

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I'm pretty sure I've never heard the complaint that there was too little exposition in a film until the last day or two :pac:

I think people are asking for coherent world-building, rather than complaining there is "too little exposition." In Star Wars we had a fairly clear idea of the setup: the galaxy is ruled by an evil empire, which replaced an apparently democratic old republic. The Empire's power seems near absolute, but not quite; a vestige of the Old Republic remains in the form of the Senate - seemingly the Empire has to make some concessions. However, with the planet-destroying power of the Death Star, no star system will dare question Imperial authority again. Military opposition to the Empire exists in the form of a clandestine rebel group, whose members include influential figures such as Princess Leia.

In TFA, we know the Emperor was overthrown and the Republic reestablished, but we now learn that an organisation with Imperial pretensions controls part of the galaxy, and is resisted by a plucky band of resistance fighters called the Resistance, a conflict in which the Republic is officially neutral for some reason, even though you'd imagine they would be opposed to the whole Dark Side cult with stormtroopers thing. It all just feels like lazy setup to ensure we get a small rebel band on the light side, echoing the first Star Wars.

Turtyturd

Nerdlingr wrote: »

One thing I never got is why did Leia never use/learn to use the force ?

Too busy living it up by the sound of her voice.

bradolf pittler

One thing that has me a bit p1ssed off is how well Chewie took Hans death.I was expecting him to go full blown Wookie rage monster and tear the arms off 100 storm troopers but apart from looking a bit sad on the Falcon that was it.
Strange......

robinph

bradolf pittler wrote: »

One thing that has me a bit p1ssed off is how well Chewie took Hans death.I was expecting him to go full blown Wookie rage monster and tear the arms off 100 storm troopers but apart from looking a bit sad on the Falcon that was it.
Strange......

I guess he was hanging out with baby Ben as well so is also a bit conflicted emotionally after witnessing his best mate being killed by the kid. Might be why he only wounded Ren with the crossbow bolt.

Does this not now break Chewies oath to follow Han around to save his life, which he failed at? Or is he now wedded to the Falcon so will just follow Rey around as she now "owns" it?

Varik

bradolf pittler wrote: »

One thing that has me a bit p1ssed off is how well Chewie took Hans death.I was expecting him to go full blown Wookie rage monster and tear the arms off 100 storm troopers but apart from looking a bit sad on the Falcon that was it.
Strange......

He shot a heap of stormtroopers and then detonated all the bombs.

robinph wrote: »

I guess he was hanging out with baby Ben as well so is also a bit conflicted emotionally after witnessing his best mate being killed by the kid. Might be why he only wounded Ren with the crossbow bolt.

Does this not now break Chewies oath to follow Han around to save his life, which he failed at? Or is he now wedded to the Falcon so will just follow Rey around as she now "owns" it?

From how hard the chewies' bowcaster was hitting the stormtroppers for the lenght of the film I don't think wounding is a setting on it, and you don't generally go for a body shot to injure.

bradolf pittler

Varik wrote: »

He shot a heap of stormtroopers and then detonated all the bombs.

That was just to escape from the base.
Be very cool if Chewie had the final hand in avenging Han.

Mr Freeze

bradolf pittler wrote: »

That was just to escape from the base.
Be very cool if Chewie had the final hand in avenging Han.

Will he be avenged? ( I hope so too).

I fear they will go the route of bring Kylo Ren back to the light.

faceman

bradolf pittler wrote: »

One thing that has me a bit p1ssed off is how well Chewie took Hans death.I was expecting him to go full blown Wookie rage monster and tear the arms off 100 storm troopers but apart from looking a bit sad on the Falcon that was it.
Strange......

As I mentioned earlier, those scenes were unfortunately cut. (Leia and Chewie consoling each other. And a scene where Chewie rips someone's arms off).

bradolf pittler

faceman wrote: »

As I mentioned earlier, those scenes were unfortunately cut. (Leia and Chewie consoling each other. And a scene where Chewie rips someone's arms off).

Ah right,Sorry. i didnt see that,
Cheers

josephryan1989

How come none of the other stormtroopers ever took off their helmets?
Finn presumably had friends in his platoon?
Couldn't they have a subplot where a bunch of stormtroopers recognize Finn and help him out to take down the base from the inside?
Maybe a female rival for his love who sacrifices herself to save him?
I thought they were all robots in the first movies rather than just flesh and blood people?

eviltimeban

googled eyes wrote: »

Now what I say next could be complete rubbish.

But what if Rey was like a reincarnation of Obi Wan's force spirit? He was Vadar's friend until he fell, then he was Luke's mentor and in this trilogy could be Kylo's advisory.

All three of the trilogies would be about the Skywalker family but would feature Obi Wan in some way

Remember the line about seeing people's eyes over and over if you live long enough

Does that mean we're going to get a cgi Alec Guinness in the next movie? After all, we're getting a CGI Peter Cushing in Rogue One... :pac:

robinph

robinph wrote: »

I guess he was hanging out with baby Ben as well so is also a bit conflicted emotionally after witnessing his best mate being killed by the kid. Might be why he only wounded Ren with the crossbow bolt.

Does this not now break Chewies oath to follow Han around to save his life, which he failed at? Or is he now wedded to the Falcon so will just follow Rey around as she now "owns" it?

What oath?

eviltimeban

josephryan1989 wrote: »

How come none of the other stormtroopers ever took off their helmets?
Finn presumably had friends in his platoon?
Couldn't they have a subplot where a bunch of stormtroopers recognize Finn and help him out to take down the base from the inside?
Maybe a female rival for his love who sacrifices herself to save him?
I thought they were all robots in the first movies rather than just flesh and blood people?

No, they weren't robots. Remember the two storm troopers "chatting" when Obi Wan was disabling the tractor beam in Episode IV.

I can't imagine that Storm Troopers had "friends" but it's an interesting point. Perhaps there might be more 'converts' in the next episode, to join up with the Resistance.

What I'd like to see is for Finn / Rey / Po to band together for an adventure - perhaps there's some kind of eventual tension between Finn and Po (unlikely) or Rey and Po don't hit it off too well (like Solo and Leia).

Judging by fan and critical reaction, there will most likely be more Oscar Isaac in the next one.

robinph

Deleted User wrote: »

What oath?

I'm sure there was something in their pre ANH past where Han saved Chewie from something, so then Chewie had to follow Han around due to some Wookie life debt custom. Not sure they ever covered what it was that Han did though.

josephryan1989

josephryan1989 wrote: »

How come none of the other stormtroopers ever took off their helmets?
Finn presumably had friends in his platoon?
Couldn't they have a subplot where a bunch of stormtroopers recognize Finn and help him out to take down the base from the inside?
Maybe a female rival for his love who sacrifices herself to save him?
I thought they were all robots in the first movies rather than just flesh and blood people?

I recall Captain Phasma saying that Fin was scheduled for some kind of rehabilitation. There must be some protocol in place where they're personalities are adjusted if they stray from the crowd, so they are effectively high performing robots.