Star Wars 7 - Warning - SPOILERS inside!

[Shennifer]

someone go do it (doesn't it have to be a mod, or whoever started the thread? I'm old I forget these things)

[Jehoshaphat]

My thoughts

Movie was fantastic overall and I was so moved just by being in a theater watching a Star Wars moving. The opening sequence with the soundtrack and everything just struck me really deeply. I found the movie very similar to a New Hope almost too similar but I see the reasons for making it so. All the needed references and throwbacks to the originals were there and I appreciated them. Even certain lines such as the problem being with the motivator was such a throwback.

Kylo, just yuck. I was intimidated by him until he took off his mask and then I was like "REALLY!? Couldn't you be at least a little attractive?" He was just so ugly that I couldn't take him seriously has a villain. I was so sad when Han died. I was talking to a friend before we saw it and we totally predicted that it would happen but it still was sad when it did. An interesting twist with Kylo being Han and Leah's son I am excited to see where it goes from here.

Some theories, Obi Wan had a daughter and she married Luke, their daughter is Rey. Also Finn is force sensitive if not a future Jedi himself, how else could he avoid the brainwashing of the New Order. Lastly Snoke is Darth Pelagious.

Also did anyone else see how they totally blew up 5 planets and no one even batted an eye!

[The Top Crusader]

The popular opinion is Rey is Luke's daughter and it makes sense in a lot of ways... but I'm really curious about why Luke would've dumped her on a crummy planet and never come back for her... since he basically is THE GREATEST JEDI IN THE UNIVERSE he should sense that she is there or whatever, so it's not like he could assume she died or something. I like the idea of her being a female clone of Luke but I doubt they'll go that route. >_>

[Catspaw]

I added a spoiler warning to the thread title.

Top's post is also my biggest issue with that theory. If that's really the way they want to go, I'm sure they'll come up with some (mostly) plausible explanation.

[The Top Crusader]

PLOT TWIST! She is Jabba's daughter.

[Catspaw]

Leia immediately figures this out, of course, and is nice to her out of the extreme guilt she feels at removing such a positive family influence from Rey's life at such a young age.

The pieces are all falling into place now!

[Termite]

My thoughts

Kylo, just yuck. I was intimidated by him until he took off his mask and then I was like "REALLY!? Couldn't you be at least a little attractive?" He was just so ugly that I couldn't take him seriously has a villain. I was so sad when Han died. I was talking to a friend before we saw it and we totally predicted that it would happen but it still was sad when it did. An interesting twist with Kylo being Han and Leah's son I am excited to see where it goes from here.

Kylo Ren is gorgeous. I can't get over him, or how they've set up the parallel between Kylo and Rey to Anakin and Padme- except, hopefully, with a bit of a reverse twist...

[Shennifer]

My thoughts

Kylo, just yuck. I was intimidated by him until he took off his mask and then I was like "REALLY!? Couldn't you be at least a little attractive?" He was just so ugly that I couldn't take him seriously has a villain. I was so sad when Han died. I was talking to a friend before we saw it and we totally predicted that it would happen but it still was sad when it did. An interesting twist with Kylo being Han and Leah's son I am excited to see where it goes from here.

Kylo Ren is gorgeous. I can't get over him, or how they've set up the parallel between Kylo and Rey to Anakin and Padme- except, hopefully, with a bit of a reverse twist...

I'm with you, Termite. Just like the force

[The Top Crusader]

I watched this when it first aired a couple days ago, and I don't recall it being particularly inappropriate, but it was SNL and this is the ToO so I'll give a mild "Well, there could be something you may find offensive in here" warning.

[Catspaw]

I think there's a little language. I watched it a few days ago too and can't remember for sure. Very funny, though!

I went to see Star Wars with a friend yesterday, so now I've seen it twice. It was a lot of fun watching it again and looking for the little things that I didn't know to look for the first time around. I was busy analyzing every look. It was a lot of fun! It was well worth rewatching. I also got a great deal on the tickets, so that didn't hurt either.

[Pianoman]

I'm a little behind, but...

So, Top, you are somewhat correct. Ahsoka loses her lightsaber in the Clone Wars episode (oddly enough ) "Lightsaber Lost". (A great episode! ^_^) In it, a Jango Jumper uses Ahsoka's lightsaber. Not only does she slice through several objects, she also deflects another lightsaber three times before she loses control. This may be difficult, but we may have to accept that lightsaber use by laymen is cannon.

Bookworm: I never knew much about Greivous' past, so you may be correct. However, I don't see how a mechanical hand could handle a lightsaber better than a real one... 0_o

I just kinda realized how Han's death is expected if you know your Star Wars movies... Episode 1: Qui-Gon, a famous Jedi during the time, dies. Episode 4: Obi-Wan, a famous Jedi and famous from Episodes 1-3, dies. Episode 7: Han Solo, a famous layman and famous from Episodes 4-6, dies. It just seems very similar. Maybe Luke'll die in Episode 10. =O

[bookworm]

Bookworm: I never knew much about Greivous' past, so you may be correct. However, I don't see how a mechanical hand could handle a lightsaber better than a real one... 0_o

I was thinking along the lines of being mechanical makes it possible to move with exact precision. If I want to move my hand to rotate a saber I'm holding by 32.7 degrees, I'm just going to be estimating how much to move and hoping it's close. If a robot wants to do that, it just does it. I related that to saber wielding by recalling that as I mentioned previously the main issue with it for the unprepared is the lack of resistance as you move it around. So it requires even more precision in knowing how to compensate for what you would be expecting if using a regular sword or something else. So my point was while a human would have a disadvantage already with just any weapon in less precise control, for a lightsaber you have to add not immediately knowing how to properly adjust to the saber's properties on top of that. Yes it was being way too analytical, I was just thinking it through.

Condensed version: A human would have to learn to fine tune their movement as they went along, while a robot would theoretically be able to instantly and automatically adjust for proper compensation once it understood the properties (which it would learn either the first time it tried to fight, or could have been taught beforehand by someone already skilled with it as in Grevious' case).

[Shennifer]

I saw this again today, and loved it even more. It gives me all the feels

[bookworm]

[The Top Crusader]

I, eh... acquired the film a few weeks before it was officially out, AND the bluray arrived at my door on release day, but I still haven't actually watched it again yet. >_>

[Shennifer]

you fake geek boy, Top. Fake.

[The Top Crusader]

I'm saving all my nerd hype for Civil War.

I'm old, I only have so much to go around.

[Woody]

Well, folks, I finally watched it about two months ago. After expertly dodging spoilers for 7 months, I finally managed to organize a movie night with a few friends, and here's my thoughts:

I will say, I do think it's the best of the Star Wars movies in the plot department. That said, I had a rather major problem in the character development arena. Han's death. In my opinion, the only reasons to kill off a character, especially one of Han's importance, are A. For the purpose of significant character development. or B. For absolutely no purpose at all, constituting a meaningless tragedy which actually has meaning due to its lack of meaning. Han's death fulfilled neither of these. It provided little character development for Kylo Ren beyond the fact that he's a bad dude. I understand the purpose they were trying to accomplish through Han's death, but I don't think they accomplished it. I would have much preferred that they save Han's death for Episode VIII, when there's time to have a more complete pre-death dialogue, expanding upon the reasons Ben turned to the dark side and why he feels Han was not a good father to him. This would have added a lot more meaning to Han's death, and given Kylo a chance to explain himself, adding reason and meaning to his character. As things stand, Ben has absolutely no reason to have turned to the dark side and killed his father, and there absolutely must be a reason for such extreme actions. A bad guy who's bad for the sake of being bad is bad at being a bad guy. Okay /endrant.

I enjoyed the new protagonists, both were well acted and I look forward to seeing them developed more in Episode VIII. I am especially curious about Finn's backstory, as it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a stormtrooper to change sides. (Also, his conversion reminds me a lot of Teal'c from Stargate SG-1). Rey's past is also interesting, I look forward to seeing what's up there.

[bookworm]

-- 06 Sep 2016 10:21 am --

I am especially curious about Finn's backstory, as it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a stormtrooper to change sides.

It made sense to me. They aren't using clones anymore, the stormtroopers are just regular people that are recruited now like a real life army. They could change their minds about what they're doing once they see the reality of what they're in for. That was Finn's first time in cobat.

-- 18 Dec 2017 01:15 pm --

The day before going to see The Last Jedi I rewatched this for the first time since the theater. Wasn't as crazy about it as I was the first time, I was definitely caught up in 'I can't believe I'm seeing a new Star Wars movie' back then and it made everything seem awesome, but I still really like it.

I maintain that it works just fine in Star Wars lore, the primary concerns people have brought up about it are easily disuaded in my opinion.

Rey learning to use the Force so fast is convenient for the plot yes, but it's not an unreasonable development. She is clearly very strong with the Force, possibly the strongest individual yet, it makes sense once she began to tap into it she was able to get a basic handle on it quickly. It's not like she snapped her fingers and suddenly she's a master now, she clearly still needs training, she's just starting out. I don't have any problem with her being at the level she seems to be at here.

I'm still not completely on board with Finn using the lightsaber against Kylo, assuming he isn't Force sensitive (which he could turn out to be and if that's the case it's all good) for the reason I've explained previously that it doesn't mesh with my understanding of how lightsaber combat works, but it's not as big an issue to me now as it was at first. Watching the fight closely here, he's clearly not proficient with the lightsaber, he's just getting by. Since it appears stormtroopers get training with that electrostaff thing, I'm willing to consider it reasonable he could use what he learned from that to wield the lightsaber well enough to do what he did here.

The one thing that does still really bother me is how on earth Luke's lightsaber was ever recovered after it fell out the bottom of Bespin, and that had better be explained at some point in one of the next two movies.

So yeah, I don't think there's really any strong criticism to throw at this movie from the lore side. From the movie side, sure. There are some issues. I certainly grant that it is a valid criticism to raise that this movie leans heavily on repeating beats from the old ones, specifically New Hope. There is a lot of retreading here, no question. Aside from agreeing that it is unfortunate the climax is a third Death Star the parallels don't bother me personally, but I definitely see them and understand if it bothers others. Another one I noticed that isn't in that video is Finn initially doesn't want to be involved in the battle and leaves, but has a change of heart and comes back to save the main character, just like Han at the end of A New Hope. And the parts of the movie that aren't repetitive have some issues of their own too, like why does R2 suddenly wake up and give them the rest of the map for one. I'm not arguing this is a perfect movie, but I still like it a lot.