Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Page 112

You have to kill Kylo Ren or nuke Boston

I think Rey will discover that Luke is not the knight in shiny armor everyone believes him to be. He won't be a light side purist. His experience with Vader/Anakin and choice to see the good in him(and be proven right) along will feeling the dark side within himself probably led him to take a stance that both are necessary in a person, and neither should be ignored. He tried to restart the jedi order and train his students with this in mind, but it backfired quickly with Kylo Ren. This led to his realisation that the force is too dangerous to teach without full understanding of it, leading to his withdrawal.

Luke will tell Rey his point of view, and also the backstory of Kylo Ren, making Rey more sympathetic towards him. She will no longer see him as a monster, but a victim of the force and try to reach through to him. Then there will be some back and forth between with a lot of grey areas and uncertain allegiances between them but ultimately Rey will have to kill Ren.

Kylo's saber burns a hole in Finn with the side part

It occurs to me that there's people noting or in some cases complaining that the movie copies Episode 4 a lot. And I can't say this is that surprising with JJ's sort of fan-service approach to the Star Trek movies. But it's also true that Episode 4 itself also copies/pays homage to a lot of earlier films, it's just that our generation has no memory of those movies so we wouldn't really see the context of A New Hope being unoriginal; instead, we see it as classic.

Honestly, Just think a second : They basically could have made the same movie, with 2-3 changes, it would have been ok :

1. Remove the superweapon. Find something else as a battle for the final of the film, some skirmish That escalade with renforcements from both sides, for some kind of objective. Do the same lightsaber duel, same han solo's death, but for a complete other reason than destroying DS 3.

2. Explain a little the galactic situation, adding some scenes on coruscant, with some explanation about why a Resistance during the NR, which systems are with FO, ...

3. OP a little bit less Rey and a little bit more Ren, do some actual funerals for Han, get a little more screentime for chewie/Leia's grief at the end.


And as the nail in the coffin, Just take a little care of the biggest inconsistencies.

The movie will not be perfect either. It will have some ressemblance with ep4. BUT, it would have actually been a Great SW movie. Like, really Great. Better than ROTJ, even mb better than ANH.

But they didnt do That. They played it overly safe, and I think they lost.

Well the first scene in which we see him burst is not the one used for comedy relieve. It's the second one that is, when we exactly know what's happening because we saw it before.
Also tbh I think you are a bit overly critical.
Most of your points are minor things that you can say about every single star wars movie. The story tells us what the characters know, which is usually a good thing. I believe a lot of the bits information is foreshadowing for later episodes, like Ren's knights which will probably make an appearance.
-The old triology tells us nothing at all about the empire, except that they have a strict military and are lead by the sith. -Ford played, maybe overplayed Han Solo from episode 4, no doubt about that, but we see here and there that he has grown (the reunification dialogue with Leia f.e.). The character was also created as a stepping stone for the young cast, so there's no need to give him a more extended plotline than loosing his son to the dark side actually is.
Kylo Ren and Han Solo aren't the main characters, so their development is essentially side plot. The emotional impact from the scene is supposed to come from the main cast, which it did. I found the hug scene with Rey and Leia touching. Yes it was predictable. Death of a mentor always is predictable, because it's a necessity for the characters to grow and as a result always happens except for cheesy "surprise I'm still alive"-moments which nobody wants.
-Again Kylo Ren had his fight against the two mcs with one leg in the grave. The bowcaster hit severely crippled him to the point where your average nobody could run around in circles and just let him bleed out. Since it's star wars we don't see a large wound, but from the way the bowcaster behaved before and how it was emphasized to have lots of firepower, we know that the wound is serious. We see Ren multiple times itching in pain and stop entirely. Tbh I saw the scene as Ren running on willpower mostly and quickly running out of steam. It wasn't pathetic at all imo.
-I fail to see the logical error in the first order starting the war against the republic because they feel like their time is running out until another serious threat appears.
-Yeah Finn might be overacting a bit, but he klicked for most people, which is imo what a main character actor has to do. He also did that while providing comedy on the side all the time, which is hard, because people tend to see a character who creates lots of comic relief not as a character. I also didn't get the impression that Finn was out of shape in any way.
-his friendship with Poe for me was mainly because Poe was looking for the friendship, as a "thanks for saving me!". Luke has a deep friendship with Wedge as well, without any reason for it whatsoever except for flying in the same battalion twice.
-I don't really get what you are expecting. Star wars never was the place where the world's best actors gathered and you can always find scenes which are badly played, overacted, or underacted. Most people I've talked to about the movie thought that the two mcs worked out and played great.
-I didn't like the final scene with Hammil either, thought that it felt forced. The danger was over and we don't get anything of worth. Might be so J.J. Abrams can begin with a time skip for the next episode. But I agree that it felt out of place.
-minor point.
-I never listen to anything c3po ever says, so I missed that.
-I agree to your points about the soundtrack. I don't remember a single theme outside of the usual star wars themes.
-... you don't like a side character with 3 scenes because in one scene he's portrayed as op. Minor point, no offense. Doesn't kill any tension, because he's never backup in any scene after this.
-I agree that the interaction of the monsters with Finn was extremely clunky. I liked the rest of the scene, it's one of the scenes with no roots in any star wars movie.
-minor detail, and it doesn't matter at all who hugs whom. Rey needs a hug (I remember her actually going for the hug not the other way round) and hugs the person who was in love with the man she started to see as a friendly uncle/father replacement (who needs a hug as well). Chewbacca also isn't human, so hugging him is kinda weird.
-I'm pretty sure we are going to get an explanation about Ren's fall sooner or later. I don't mind that it isn't part of this movie at all, because it's Luke's who is supposed to tell that story.
-Too much Vader was said in the same discussion in which they talked about loosing their son because he became a Jedi. Yeah it's an excuse, but to be fair once he joined the order they probably didn't have much influence anymore. Also wtf, is it now bad storywriting that parents make excuses? In which world are you living?
-I agree that the chasm was bad storywriting, but star wars never was free from cheese.
-Don't agree at all. Carrie Fisher played a grown Leia really well imo in the ~5 scenes she had.
-No idea why the map is split up, or why there even is a map in the first place instead of a holo message to a person of trust. The main cast has no idea either. Again something that only Luke can explain and to be frank I wouldn't care much if he didn't.
-I agree that we know next to nothing about what was shot, except for the assumption that it was the planet of the senate. I don't think it plays that much of a role, because the republic doesn't play a role in the movie.
It's more questionable imo that the resistance doesn't have any fleet at all.
Yeah the first shot of the super weapon doesn't make sense in terms of physics. Laser guns and swords don't either. Oh and neither does the force. Also maybe shooting is more convenient than moving the entire station for sun absorption, especially because we only know that the sun absorption is part of the weapon, not if the station can get rid of the energy in any other way.
-Rey develops mind trick after seeing an ability that lets you see into other's thoughts and very rough force meditation/entering the zone. Again we have seen Sith have similar powers without training, for example Anakin having an extreme version of foresight.
-This Luke isn't the eu-Luke. This Luke tried to rebuild the Jedi order and a rogue student who was his nephew killed his other padawan. We'll probably see more of this in episode 8, but I wouldn't be surprised if Luke gave up on training Jedis.
-I don't see what relevance that info has except for the last fight.

So overall the only valid points I see are the lack of an interesting soundtrack outside of the known pieces and the re-appearance of the death star as final obstacle.

(did you, at any point, seriously think the third death star would actually destroy the resistance's base? the tension was much more palpable in Episode IV).

the new Republic, on the place of the FO in the galaxy, and in how the Resistance came to be what it is.

the Republic worlds which were destroyed by the first shot (as opposed to the destruction of Alderaan in Ep. IV, which we lived through Leia's distress and helplessness).

The blaster shot shows us what Ren is capable of when he is focused. He's staring at the person shooting him, and is able to use his full Force potential to stop him. When distracted (by killing his father, injured by Finn, the planet under attack by the Rebellion), his potential is high but his actual Force ability drops.