PT Anyone prefer The Force Awakens?

Yeah, I know, most people in Lit seemed to enjoy TFA, with very few exceptions, which makes me feel like there is something wrong with me for not liking it at all.

 

Of course not. Nothing wrong with having a different opinion to the majority. There are plenty of acclaimed movies I'm not keen on.

 

Some arguments posted here are just, somehow, ridiculous and very useless... Both from PT fans, PT detractors and TFA fans: someone complaining that the worlds showed in the PT are not "real", someone else complaining about the CGI in the PT, another complaining about too much "pandering" in TFA, etc...

This is the main reason why I left many of the discussions on theforce.net forum, even if I come back sometimes to take a quick pick, because it's just tiresome and pointless and isn't worth my time...


But if anyone here is interested, I'll give my two cents.

From what I see, ever since the release of TFA, there's an important part of the Star Wars fans which doesn't tolerate at all the criticisms against TFA and the new trilogy produced by Walt Disney. But this important part of the fandom is also the most virulent part which doesn't tolerate at all the prequel trilogy and continues, despite the release of Episode VII nearly 5 months ago, to attack it and bash it, both the PT and George Lucas. Even when George Lucas, a couple of month ago, called Walt Disney "White Slavers" after the release of TFA, people jumped out of their chairs and went to insult and denigrate George Lucas, even if he apologized publicly later. While on the other side, ***cough*** Simon ***cough**** Pegg never apologized to Lucas after accusing him of "infanticide".

The reverse is also true: those who harshly defend the PT are the ones who criticizes heavily the new movie...

But all of this clearly does not prevent fans to openly declaring themselves as the legitimate heirs of a saga and yell loudly: "Star Wars doesn't belong to George Lucas, it belongs to the fans".

I mean, seriously?

Fans do really believe that they can run the course of the franchise by themselves, after all the absurd arguments I've seen and mentioned above?

Do you know understand why I've decided to leave conversations here?



And how about trying to discuss intelligently what Lucas wanted to leave to the community, the story he created in the first 6 movies, before asking from Lucasfilm and Disney to produce more and more Star Wars movies which are going to be released each year now?



After the release of TFA, I think that there are much more things to tell, discuss and think about regarding Lucas' first 6 Star Wars movies than any future project from Disney.

The Original Trilogy was a revolution back in the 1970's and 1980's, it did what very few films, back in the days, did, not just in terms of cinematography and special effects, but also in terms of story: who would combine the Arthurian legends, stories about the struggle of good against evil and the hero's journey in a science-fiction and fantasy universe? Nobody wanted to do this kind of movie series back then.

The Prequel Trilogy had the merit to show us the Classic Trilogy from another angle, to change and evolve our views regarding the questions of good and evil. It also had an important social and political message regarding the world we live in: liberty and freedom don't stand forever and they can fall easily at any moment. It helped the younger audience, as myself back then during their release, to be more aware regarding the world we live in, even if, ironically, we are now living in a strange and serious time period in which the peoples must relearn how give themselves institutions and governments that reflects who they are and respect them. If the time period to which the prequels were referencing to was a time during which our world was switching to violence, radicalism, intolerance, hatred and dictatorship, our world is now plagued with terrorism, introversion, but also by the influence of an ultra-liberal economy where the human, crushed in the middle of it, no longer holds the key role.

Regarding The Force Awakens, as I said previously, I think it's too early to judge this movie by itself. That is why I'm hoping that Episode VIII would provide a more interesting story to this point than TFA did. Each movies in each trilogy, but also the whole of the previous 6 movies in the saga, supported each other very well in terms of the structure of the story.

Despite a growing disappointment inside of me regarding the story told in TFA, I'm still hoping that the Sequel Trilogy won't be just a sequel for the sake of making of sequels as the majority of big blockbusters nowadays are. Sure TFA is a very likable and enjoyable movie and I liked its main characters. But still, I'm wondering what's the purpose or the idea behind the movie: what the makers want the audience to carry on except a nostalgia trip and having a good time? The marketing campaign and promotion of the movie was a big problem in all of this and it didn't prevent some people, as some here, to have the perception that Disney and Lucasfilm was giving to the embittered fans, who have been yelling against Lucas and the prequels for years, what they always wanted: the Original Trilogy 2.0.

Of course, as I described it in one of my review, I didn't have the impression that TFA was a remake of ANH. But more recently, when I rethink about it, there are still many indications here and there that the Sequel Trilogy is about to retell the same story as the OT instead of expanding further the universe of Star Wars. I'm sorry, but if it ends up really being like this, I prefer watching the OT instead of watching the copy of its story...

You see, the reason why I'm more eager regarding season 3 of Star Wars Rebels than Episode VIII currently is because this TV series did what TFA didn't: exploring and expanding further the story told in Episodes I - VI. The final episode of season 2 of Rebels was mind-blowing and it left me with the same feeling I had after watching ROTS the first time, which was the first SW I ever saw: a sense that there's a very important story to tell and something important to learn and understand about it when we are going to watch the other episodes or the live-action movies.

That, to me, is the primary weakness of TFA. But at the same time, it was almost predictable for me since ROTJ always felt and was designed to be the ever last chapter of the saga since it had a very satisfying conclusion, completing the entire circle drawn in the previous 6 movies. Continuing a story which already felt like completed was going to be a hard task and that is why I've kept my expectations low regarding this movie, because I could never figure out what could be told after a conclusion and happy ending as ROTJ was...

 

Interesting thoughts. But Lucas himself chose to continue the story post RotJ. In his version you can bet that the galaxy would be put into upheaval in some way. That's the only way to have drama & Star Wars.

 

Please stop comparing the feats of young Anakin and Luke in ANH to what Rey did as they are not equivalent.

Both young Anakin's piloting and Luke's precision torpedoing are outflows from the Force Sensing ability. Force Sensing is a basic ability that any sufficiently force strong person can do subconsciously. The problem with young Anakin as stated by Qui-Gon is that he hadn't quite honed the ability which is why he failed to even finish the race before TPM. Luke was able to pin point blaster bolts from the training droid plus he had been bulls-eyeing womp-rats for years in his T-16 Skyhopper. The younglings who were like kindergartners were doing this in AOTC. This all shows that Force Sensing is basic surface or beginner level ability that just needs a bit of practice to perfect, but can be performed by novices or even people unaware of their own force sensitivity. Furthermore, in connection to Luke and Anakin it shows that without guidance both of them were sub-par even in this most basic of abilities that younglings can do.

Rey on the other hand is capable of many Force abilities with a high degree of competency. She showed everything except for acrobatic ability and Force lightning. She does use Force Sensing, but also Force enhanced dueling(this is how she won as her basic dueling nearly got her tossed off a cliff), Jedi mind trick, and telekinesis. All the other abilities aren't basics and are things that take further study and practice to bring about. Only Luke has shown the ability to use telekinesis without training and that was still after contact with Obi-Wan in ANH.

Now this might be excusable if the whole Rey amnesia/memory wipe theory is correct. However, in her flashback she was still very young when she was dropped off on Jakku. This would still put her as learning advanced Force abilities incredibly quickly.

 

I just don't see how so many people could apparently see TFA as worthy sequel to RotJ, when all I see is the start of the OT 2.0, where the state of the galaxy reminds me of everything that repelled me from the post-NJO Denningverse.

 

Point is he had Jedi reflexes & could "see things before they happen" at 9 years old & without any training. You have to extrapolate that out to when he's 20, giving him another 11 years of development. He'd be extremely formidable. I think even moreso than Rey.

Luke with virtually no training could pull off a one in a million shot - without a targeting computer. In making the shot he "used the Force".

& we saw what Luke's tiny brief amount of training in ANH was able to have him do. Take out space stations with a single shot & Force-grab lightsabers.

Fact is we've seen that anything a powerful Force sensitive grows up doing alot of they become amazing at. Even without training. That goes for flying Skyhoppers, racing pods, or building droids & podracers at 9 years old. So that also must apply to Rey. She grew up leaping around & climbing through ships to scavenge. Flying ships for Plutt around Jakku. Repairing & fixing things. Fighting off the riffraff of Jakku with a staff. She does all of this with "Jedi reflexes & an ability to see things before they happen", as Qui-Gon would say. So just as Anakin & Luke had (without training) virtually a super-human ability at the things they spent their time on, Rey should be virtually super-human in terms of athleticism, flying ships, mechanical repair & fighting with a melee weapon. All skills that she displays in the movie.
There's also clearly something going on with Rey & her origins that we're yet to find out. We're trying to evaluate her & her abilities when the story is only 1/3 of the way through.

 

First of all I don't need to tell Lucas anything. He has nothing to do with SW anymore. That is Disney's problem now. Man these Mary Sue defenses are making me laugh. Oh and when did light sabers start giving visions to people? That's right...NEVER!


And the KISS method is what Disney uses to attract the lowest common denominator to make them think that the rehash they are watching is something kewl and original.

The crystals only call out to each individual to tell them which one to use for them to build their light saber with. Anakin/Luke's light saber was already constructed. So the crystals weren't calling out to Rey. Since the light saber was built and she didn't construct one.