ST Impact of TFA on your life

Either way, the rule at the top of the page states that outright bashing is not allowed, nor are "vs" battles between the movies or trilogies. This thread is not for just listing criticisms, it's for talking about TFA's impact on your life. Everyone please stay on topic.

 

I love the TFA score, I'm surprised anyone wouldn't. My first viewing of TFA, I was so tired from being up forever, I wasn't as into it as I expected. I liked it but didn't love it yet, then saw it a second time the next day and was like wow I must have been tired this movie was amazing!! But even on my first viewing, I loved the score! I think it has 3 of the best tracks of the saga with the Resistance Theme, Rey's theme, and the Jedi Steps is just amazing.

PS: TFA did become the highest grossing movie of all time. And at no point did anyone think it would top Avatar worldwide. The vast majority of box office analysts focus on the domestic market for making comparisons because of currency fluctuations and cultural differences. TFA was #1 by far where it matters - North American box office receipts. And for good measure the UK too, so the English speaking world which is what counts for an English speaking English made movie franchise. Not to mention the studios make way more money from the domestic cut.

 

It's been interesting to read people's varied responses here. TFA has had a huge impact on my life (generally for the good), and I look forward to writing more about it when I am at a proper keyboard. I am an old OT fan, and TFA brought a beloved fairy tale from my childhood roaring back to life in my imagination in ways I never would have thought possible a year ago.

 

Same. John has never failed me, I can watch laundry with his music and it would be heartbreaking and blood pumping. He never failed me, beautiful music, absolute genius of a composer. Definitely the heart of the saga

 

That is utter trite. Must be fun in the fantasy land you live in. It's VERY ******* debatable.

 

Oh hi!

Let's try this. People can expect bans if they keep ignoring these warnings in this thread.

 

For me there are four main impressions,

I feel now the way I suspect a receptive 30-40 something year old felt when Star Wars was new.

The Force Awakens does for Star Wars what Nic Meyer's Wrath Of Khan did for Star Trek.

The movie has provided a context for apsects of the force to be seen as wondrous again.

III's allusions to Yoda feeling forced to reconsider his relationship with the force and Jedi dogma was tantalising and frustrating in the knowledge that the OT had not really presented anything that appeared to be expressly linked to that idea. Now though, with Luke's stillborn new order, the pretender Kylo and Rey's unheralded collision with the force, those ideas seem to be pertinent.

 

So, I was a huge childhood fan of the OT (my bona fides: I was ten in 1977, saw ANH 57 times in the theater, and Empire 81 times. RotJ 14 times). Saw the prequels when they came out but wasn't captivated by them.
I came into TFA utterly cold - I was vaguely aware that a new Star Wars movie was being made, but had heard nothing about it because Star Wars was not a part of my life. Saw The Force Awakens on Christmas day and was back two days later to see it again, and managed to get to ten screenings during its theatrical release (not bad for a grownup with a job, I figure, lol).

By the third time seeing the movie, I was a fully committed "Save Ben Solo" partisan, and here I will remain for as long as it takes.

Impact on my life? I didn't realize how important the GFFA was in my imagination as a child, and I didn't expect to ever fall headlong into a fictional universe again like I have, so that's been an absolute joy. I have a daughter who is 13 now, and being along for the ride as she turns into a Star Wars fan has also been wonderful.

The larger impact comes from the way I have chosen to interpret the themes of the new saga, and the exploration I've been doing as a result of the questions the new story has raised in my mind.

I've had a very strong emotional response to the character of Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. Partly because Han and Leia were the ur-romance of mychildhood. I LOVED those characters, and in years of imagining their 'happily ever after,' I guess I'd hoped they would have a family. I also have three young adult sons of my own, close in age to the character Ben Solo. The idea that Han and Leia's child would fall to the dark (and the chance that he could die there), struck me like a blow to the heart; like it was happening to one of my own boys.

As if there were any way that understanding the nature of human evil or exploring destructive trauma could influence the fate of a fictional character, I started reading everything I could get my hands on about these topics. What makes a person turn bad? Why does it happen? How do people turn back from terrible choices they've made? What does redemption look like? What are the real mechanics, the on the ground practicalities of forgiveness? I know this isn't logical - this concern over the fate of a fictional character in an imaginary universe, but my heart was full of love and worry, and I needed to put the energy somewhere.

I also spent a lot of time looking at the story from outside the universe. Who were the people involved in creating the new saga? What kind of story were they going to tell us? Why would they decide to tell this particular story? I'd never had any awareness of Adam Driver until Kylo Ren took off his mask in TFA and revealed the face of Ben Solo, but the more I learned about the real person behind the fictional character, the stronger my conviction became that the new saga is telling us a story about war and homecoming. My reading over the past 8 months has been a lot about war, moral injury, trauma, PTSD, and ancient Greek tragedy. I've been learning a lot about the power of storytelling to help us make sense of the indescribable (including the work Adam Driver and his wife Joanne Tucker have been doing for more than ten years now through their nonprofit, Arts in the Armed Forces).

I know this is a weird minority opinion, and it could prove to be utterly off base; but I believe that the new saga is being constructed as an allegory for the real, endless wars of our current time, and that Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is a character who will prove to be more a soldier than a school shooter; more a figure drawn from Greek tragedy than from a catalog of throwaway villains. I'm pretty invested in the idea that Ben Solo will make it home by the end of IX, and that he'll survive the process. Many things lead me to think this, but the core of my belief comes from Mr. Driver himself: his most important audience is the one closest to his heart; members of the military. Kylo Ren is a character in a fairy tale, and within that context he is a soldier who has done terrible things. Would Driver sign on to a story in which the final message will be: "The things you have done render you irredeemable. There is no homecoming for you, no compassion, no forgiveness." No. He would not.

Anyway. Along the way with all this reading (and writing and writing, egads, I've written more in the past 8 months than I have in the past twenty years), somewhere along the way I became curious about the lives of real people in my community who seemed like they might have something in common with the people Adam Driver feels are important; members of the military and veterans. I've been talking with young local veterans in my community and am working on putting together an oral history project to share their stories with those of us for whom their experience of war is unknown and invisible. It's a crazy, unexpected outcome emerging directly from my experience of The Force Awakens.

So there you go. Impact of TFA on my life.
I've also been revealed as a huge, unapologetic Star Wars dork to all my friends and family.
Also Adam Driver's portrayal of Adam Sackler on Girls inspired me to quit drinking five months ago. All good. Thanks, Star Wars!

 

When The Force Awakens was announced, I was filled with a combination of many different feelings. I'm old enough that I only lived the first two years of my life without Star Wars, and it's always been a huge part of my life. It's one of the very few things I ever shared with my father. I'm the type of guy that doesn't have a Lord's Prayer hanging in my house, but there is a Jedi Code poster on the wall. I was dismayed to learn that the Expanded Universe I spent over 20 years and tons of dollars to live in was going to washed away, but, at the same time, hey, we get Chewbacca back! That's worth something right? I was the guy annoying people in the office. I was the guy spreading the news that The Big Three had signed on. I was the guy who told people Our Heroes Have Returned!

　

During the first preview in the theater, my heart soared at the sight of the Millennium Falcon clawing for altitude to escape TIE fighters on a sandy planet. Given that my beloved, tore up, slightly-illegal and faster-than-she-has-a-right-to-be old Camaro means as much to me as the Falcon does to Han, it was a big deal.

　

During the second preview, I broke down into tears, particularly the brief moment we saw of Han and Leia. I found a dialogue-less version of the trailer's music on youtube, and listened to it on repeat for hours a day, and I was filled with that same feeling of when I was a kid and this was The Most Important Thing Ever.

　

Then, I saw the movie. I saw it at the end of an in-theater marathon that consisted of all 7 movies. And you know what? The Force Awakens didn't rape my childhood. It didn't spit on it. It didn't waste it.

　

It ended it.

It betrayed and murdered it. It took the myths that I had grown up with, and [Redacted and self-edited by poster realizing he's still irrationally emotional months later and has read the rules at the top regarding bashing.] All from a certain point of view, as Obi-wan would say.

　

But do not get me started about Han Solo. Do not. The people in my life all felt similarly to the way I do about this film, and this franchise. They called my girlfriend to check on me after they had seen the movie, asking "Is Dave okay?"

　
Then, here, on these very boards, I learned a powerful lesson. That Star Wars fans are not united.

And I learned by reading what other people wrote, that I must be enjoying Star Wars wrong. And that I needed to "get over it." And that I didn't like Star Wars the right way. I liked the Special Editions, even though I was there when Han Shot First. I liked the Prequels. I liked Droids. And Ewoks. And The Clone Wars (both iterations.) I liked the expanded universe. I liked it all, all of it because...because it was Star Wars!

　

But I walked away from it. I put over five grand worth of Star Wars merch, books, toys, and games into a big box, and intended to donate it. Or set it on fire. In the end, I couldn't do it. In my own words, it's just too big a part of my life. It's all still in the box though. No, you can't have it.

　

Today, next to my TV, is an unopened copy of TFA on DVD. It was given to me as a gift from someone who wasn't into Star Wars like I was, but knew I was into it. She wanted to be the one to give me my own copy. It's special, in kind of a jacked-up way. I've been asking for forgiveness for being the opposite of excited to receive it for a while now. Maybe one day I'll watch it. Maybe. I read rumors on the web about the possibility of Han's (admittedly) unlikely survival, which was really my breaking point. I'd forgive it all for a reversal of that particular action. I try not to read into it, or cling to hope. And I know that one day, when my estranged father is cremated, I'll probably be standing there listening to "Light of the Force" on my ipod when it happens. I see previews for Rogue One, which has been presented to me by my friends as watchable because it takes place in a time where the galaxy doesn't seem to have lost it's freaking mind. Although, to be honest, I can't seem to get into Rebels yet either. I'm still too raw.

　

But I've tentatively stuck my toe back in the pool. We'll see how long I stay.

　

And that's how The Force Awakens impacted my life.

 

Your post made me cry. I'm so sorry. :-(

 

I see you are really heartbroken by this... as we all were to some extent.

But Han had to die, or the saga would become weak with no real sense of danger for the characters.

It is like watching a Disney fairy-tale movie, we know that everything will end up with "and they lived hapilly ever after". There is no real danger. It is not like real life.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/J-J-Abrams-Says-Why-Star-Wars-Shocking-Death-Had-Happen-101597.html

I will tell you even more: Luke and Leia will die too. And Chewie. Maybe R2 will be saved, but I am almost sure C3PO will also become spare parts.

And please let's avoid this "TFA murdered by childhood" thing. Harrison Ford wants to kill Han since ESB:

 

Think I'll quote myself:

I guess TFA affected you by...by the way it affected me?

Is...is this what it sounds like when doves cry?

Thanks for piping up, you sure showed me.

 

Being united is different from having the same point of views. Yes, this is a powerful lesson.

While most of us managed to overcome Han's death and are excited by the consequences this will have for Kylo/Leia/Luke, some may need more time to absorb this. Which is perfectly fine.

Yoda died, Vader died, Obi-Wan died, and Han died. He is not the first major character to bite the dust in this franchise, and will not be the last.

 

TFA fundamentally re-energized my interest in the GFFA. Pretty amazing, in that regard.

 

Impact on my life? None, really, beyond being an enjoyable movie. And the buildup to it was kinda fun. But that’s about it. It’s not like the original film, which caused me to become an obsessive movie nut.

 

Lets me see... Absolutely no "impact" on my life whatsoever...

Edit: I haven't even bothered spending money on the DVD yet!

 

Your response to the story is perfectly legitimate, and no one should tell you how to feel about it. In my own household, my youngest son has only seen TFA once, because he found Han's death so distressing and sad. I understand; I cried for a couple days after my first screening, and that grief was real. For me, the eventual response was to lean further in to the story. For others, it's too painful, and they turned away.

I'm on board now, but in the early days, I felt plenty of anger towards the storytellers (mostly versions of how dare they destroy Han and Leia's family in this way?), and a lot of my obsessive picking apart of the story, its construction, and the characters has been nothing more than a process of trying to reassure myself that the makers aren't doing this lightly or making it up as they go along. The more I've looked, the more confident I've become that the saga is in good hands, but I understand that this is an act of faith on my part (and of course, I could be wrong).

tl;dr: Your feelings are valid.

 

Wow, you're pretty pleased with yourself. Good for you.

 

The "impact on your life" can be good or bad (if bad, you just can't use this as a reason to break forum rules about bashing). But posting in this thread is optional. If the premise of it does not apply to you...

 

Want the honest answer now?

When I was a boy, I hoped that I would grow up to be like Han Solo in Star Wars when I got to his age (i.e. thirties).

Now I've gotten that age, I am sitting in a cinema watching Star Wars VII and the movie is about to end and all I can think about is, I look more like Luke Skywalker in his fifties.

 

I can relate. I like to imagine I could be Rey, but I know I'm a heckuva lot closer to being Leia, and the character I most resemble is probably Maz.
Ah, well.

 

TFA has generated great excitement among my family, friends, and I. It has broughten us even closer together and SW is often our topic of conversation. The movie has provided us with confidence that the story can continue in a positive way.

 

I 2nd this view, only seen this movie once and it has no impact on my regular life. Regardless I look forward to see what they do with VIII and IX and maybe those movies will change my opinion on VII.

and no need to buy the DVD, the superior version of this movie is called ANH.