ST Post your own personal REVIEW of The Force Awakens here!

Nah, man. Needs more epic. u_u

 

When did "social engineering" become such a bad word? Nearly every development in history is social engineering of some kind. The Magna Carta. The U.S. Constitution. Civil Rights legislation. If it makes society more just, I'm all for it.

That said, Rey's actions are explicable within the film's context, so she's not a polemic. She's simply a strong character. We've had a ton like it from the male side, so there's nothing out of place about a female character of that kind.

 

I don't judge themes or scores by how "epic" they sound.

 

I believe TPM is the best looking of the prequels. The reason? A perfect combination of location shooting, natural lighting, sets and CGI. AOTC and ROTS, for the most part, get that balance wrong (except for the Tatooine scenes). And TPM gets it wrong when there's too much CG, IMO (pod race obstacle course and Gunga city).

I also dislike the Dagobah set from ESB, though.

What's the consistent thread, then, for me? Artificial lighting when it should be natural. Hugely CGI environments, or outdoor landscapes recreated on sets, need to be perfectly lit in order to work for me.

The OT and the ST simply did a much better job of that, in general, than the PT. I especially can detect digital lighting from a mile away.

ILM's gotten a lot better since then, but they're still not there.

 

"What Abrams left out is twofold: first, the sense that these are skills that have to be trained and developed, not simply inborn traits one has, like blue eyes. Second, and more important, he’s omitted the weaknesses that made the original characters so appealing: the genuine streak of nasty self-interest in Han Solo, Leia’s bullheaded arrogance, Kenobi’s wistful sense of being past his prime, Luke’s needy, whining sense of entitlement to greater things than he has gotten from the universe so true to actual teenage boys"

 

Having seen it four times now, I can say it does hold up nicely to multiple viewings. In fact, the fourth viewing had the most emotional impact for me.

*REVIEW*
+ Loved the opening scene with the Star Destroyer and Stormtrooper attack.
+ Love BB-8
+ Loved Finn and Poe flying in a TIE fighter. I'm sure most everyone has wanted to see what it's like to fly those.
+ Entire action scene on Jakku with Rey piloting Millennium Falcon was one of the best sequences.
= Snook could be interesting but looks a tad too Gollumy in this movie. Hope they reduce that in next episode.
+ Loved the entrance of Han Solo and Chewbacca.
- The Scottish accent (Bala-Tik) was jarring. Not sure why. Maybe because of how thick the accent is.
- Rathtars and the whole sequence of them killing the "baddies" was too contrived.
- Look and feel of Maz Kanata just doesn't have the same gravitas as Yoda. (Lupita's voice and facial capture was good though.)
+ LOVED the Force flashbacks that Rey recieves upon touching the lightsaber. So intriguing!
+ Leia's introduction was well done.
+ LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the interrogation scene with Rey and Kylo Ren. Especially when he takes off his helmet. We see there's no specific or distinct "face of evil". He's just a man who's being corrupted by the lust for power.
- StarKiller base is just another Death Star. One of the weakest points of the movie in how it hearkens back to A New Hope. It severely limits the story-telling potential because what are they going to do for ep.9? An even larger, more powerful StarKiller base to mirror RotJ? Stop now before it gets too ridiculous.
- General Hux is a bit too fanatical and over-the-top in his rally speech.
- The command center scene of the Resistance is SO SIMILAR to that of the command center scene in A New Hope that I actually cringed. That was the only cringeworthy moment I had watching the movie.
= Han's death was too telegraphed and obvious for it to really affect me. That being said, I did feel more emotion watching for the 4th time. Odd....
+ Poe's lightsaber battle with Kylo was very well done.
++ LOVED the lightsaber battle between Rey and Kylo. Best moment of the entire movie!
+ Ending scene was good, but surprised that Luke had no dialogue whatsoever; although perhaps it's stronger with no dialogue.... Just surprised.
+ Cast performance was beyond expectations.

Act I was solid, Act II and III were rushed. Surely JJ and co. had more leeway on the length of the movie.

In all - a solid A movie. 9/10.
Daisy Ridley's performance was absolutely stunning and stole the movie outright. Cannot wait to see Ep. 8.

 

Before I begin, let me say this. I love Star Wars. All of it. This movie is far and away better than the prequels and I rate it much better than ROTJ. I have a hard time deciding which is 2nd between TFA and ANH. I still rate ESB the best by a tad. I was full of emotion this entire movie. When the music began, and that familiar crawl started, there were tears in my eyes. I laughed, I welled-up, my jaw dropped. I saw the OT as a kid. First-gen fan. No other movies have ever captured my heart, soul, an imagination like Star Wars has. I loved the prequels, but they left me wanting more. This movie filled that void. I was a kid again. Daisy Ridley was superb. Harrison Ford brought Han Solo back. John Boyega was amazing as Finn. The combination of practical and digital effects were on point. My favorite part of the movie - Kylo Ren. I thought he was the best Star Wars villain since Vader himself. I loved BB-8 and Maz too. I could go on and on. This was what I was waiting for. Are there flaws? I guess, but this is Star Wars! Am I a fan-boy? Sure, but I'll wear that title like a badge of honor. For me this is as good as it gets.

 

(This is all only my opinion)
I live for everything Star Wars and I'm a fanatic. After I watched TFA the first time I was blown away at what (I thought at the time) to be the best Star Wars film ever made. But now after I've seen it a few more times & I've been able to analyzed it better. Don't get me wrong, I still loved the movie & all the characters (Because its still Star Wars). But It deffinatley has some very basic story flaws that could have been mopped up easily with an extra few lines. However, I know that people are gonna be like ''You'll find out things in the next movie'' or ''They'll make it up in comic books or novels''. But you gotta take into account that its been 30 years since after ROTJ and we almost hardly got any insight as to what everyone had been up to in those three decades. Then, people are going to say they'll make it up in comics or novels. This doesn't effect me because I read all the novels & comics of Star Wars anyway. But to the general audience, it probably won't work.
Although, I can see reason if they are planning on making it up by creating a new TV Show similar to The Clone Wars & Rebels. Only this time have it set between episodes 6 & 7. I hope this comes to be & its probably the best way to tell the stories better to the general audience, because not everyone wants to go read comics and novels to have to get this information, I understand that.
A lot of things didn't quite make sense in the film because of those factors & I'm sorry but no one can deny that the story basically mirror's the plot of A New Hope. It kinda felt I was almost watching EP4 again only this time with new faces & prettier effects. I'm a fairly easy to please person, but when it comes to Star Wars, I wanna see new, exciting & better things. Not the same type of things over & over again, something new, something fresh. When George Lucas stated in his interview with Charlie Rose he said "They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that. Every movie I work very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships, make it new." To me, he's exactly right & that's what I wanted to see. But again, to me it just seems like Disney just wanted to play it safe & not take any risks by making this 'Retro' Star Wars film to help please the (very hard to please) OT fans more than anything else. I love the Trilogy as a whole & I know I have to accept what TFA brought us. I just wish they took a different approach. Ima rate it 7/10

 

It seems even amongst a lot of us who liked/loved the movie DeathStar 3.0 really does get on our nerves! It's particularly annoying as they did so much right but just repeated Lucas' mistake in Jedi. It would almost be one of the first things lots of people would have said DON'T DO if they had asked an opinion on what should not be in VII.

 

I just saw it for the third time. It gets more emotional every time I see it.

Such a good movie!

 

I liked it, I could say that I grew up between the classical movies and the prequels, when I saw TFA I felt the nostalgia, I loved the beginning intro, I really liked how JJ Abrams used this star wars classical film format but in the other hand thats made the movie a little predictable. I didn't like the scenes without music I think that it's very unusual in a star wars film. the new characters mmmm lets start with Rey's character, I really liked the acting performance of Daisy Ridley she did a good job Rey looks like a very natural Star Wars character, I really liked the acting performance of Daisy Ridley she did a good job Rey looks like a very natural Star Wars character, but at some point she was so perfect that it was too much, I liked Finn's character he was good and funny but I feel that he was trying to make a lot of jokes, with Kylo mmm I didn't like this character he looks like he was a spoiled child playing to be Darth Vader very, immature from my point of view, (actually I think that Anakin looks more mature than Kylo for me) I thought I was going to see more about Leia specially with costumes like Padme's. I only really I really cried when Han is killed by Kylo. I missed seeing more about Luke,C3PO,R2D2, Yoda, Anakin, the Jedi order (Prequels info) but I know I have to wait, but everything was good, this is my opinion about TFA movie.

Enviado desde mi SM-A500M mediante Tapatalk

 

Yep Dagobah gave a much better sense of scale, IMO, not only in establishing shots... but how it was used within story as an actual environment. Scenes are allowed to breathe. It also gave 'scale' to a GFFA because it was a different environment to what we'd previously seen. Takodana is a similar environment to what we've seen before and, as a location, it feels like it's just being passed through. The problem I think comes from the script, in that there's too many destinations... we get Jakku, Han's freighter, Takodana, D'Qar and Starkiller. The pacing of the Jakku scenes seem more natural and even... where as everything else is kind of crammed. If you look at the OT model, which I think is the best example, you get Tatooine, Death Star and Yavin IV in ANH... and in TESB you get Hoth, Dagobah and Cloud City. Everything after Jakku feels squeezed to me... everything from story to location usage.

 

Entertaining film.

Needed Luke.

 

Yep, after my last viewing... the bits I like, I like just as much... the bits I don't still really undermine the film for me. I've also just read the 'Art of' book, which does heavily indicate that the story/plot was written on the fly. Apart from the films designs/concepts (which is a shame because there are many designs in the book that look great IMO), I find the story to be the most disappointing.

 

Honestly, the more I hear this score, the more impressed I am. It is more subtle than most of his other Star Wars work, but it somehow feels a tad more mature and complex as well. Rey's theme is a new classic.

 

I loved it. I really did. I'm in the camp of people who enjoy every single Star Wars movie, from both trilogies. I hold all six of them very close to my heart and truly believe the prequels are to be acknowledged as true entries in the Star Wars saga. As for The Force Awakens, I loved almost all of it. The new characters (Rey, Finn, Poe and Kylo) were a really entertaining group of characters for me, and I happened to love every single one of them. I think Poe is a super cool character, and I would love to see him shown more in episodes VIII and IX. The one thing I didn't like about Episode VIII was Supreme Leader Snoke. For me, he seemed like a character pulled straight out of World of Warcraft, and his entire appearance (large epic creature sitting on a large throne) seemed very un-Star Wars, and almost all scenes that he was involved in took me out of a Star Wars mindset, and into a God of War mindset. I know that we will probably learn more about him, and his origins as a Sith Lord in the next two films, but for now, he seemed really out of place in Episode VII. Not sure if I'm the only one who doesn't like him as a character, but to me he seemed very out of place. I will however, continue to ponder the many possible back stories for Snoke, and, like many people, believe that he is Plagueis (hope I spelled that right!). Long story short, I loved the movie and it's new characters, and cannot express how excited I was to see Han, Chewie and Threepio when they came on the screen. I will continue to ponder the many theories about Rey and Snoke's origins, and will continue to enjoy the Force Awakens as one of the best movies in the Star Wars saga.

 

I like Rey's theme too. It's a good addition to SW... however, I still think the overall score isn't one of Williams' strongest. It's still reasonable enough though.

 

I suspect that individual reaction to the score tracks reasonable with recption lf the film, and there may be a feedback loop happening both directions (that is, not liking the score as much affects liking the moie, and the othe way around). For me, the movie really works, and he ore is plaing thfeough m head as I think about it, so the film makes me happy, and the score reinforces that feeling.

You didn't like the film as much, so I suspect the score may recall your dissatisfaction, or your lack of wow at the score may reinforce being generally unimpressed with the movie.

 

Well I think I have the ability to differentiate the two... Saying that, I've seen many people, who like the film, stating that they are disappointed with the score. I also listened to the score prior to seeing the film...

 

The Scavenger and Rey's Theme are among the best pieces that John Williams ever made for Star Wars imo.

 

I think the movie is pretty good , considering the story line , and the new characters , the new villain and the new hero , I consider it good

 

I agree that we rush through planets too quickly in TFA. It's partly why I hope, against hope, that there will be an Extended Edition.

 

As I mentioned, I think it's a script thing more than anything... even if they add scenes back in, there's still too much hopping about IMO. Personally speaking I would have made them (Rey and Finn) meet up with Solo on Jakku (and scrap the freighter section altogether... as there doesn't seem to be any plot benefit of Han having lost the Falcon), or have Han be on Takadona and have Rey and Finn go straight there with the Falcon, and then meet up with him etc. etc.

 

Can't really disagree. Though I still think it would have felt a lot less like "hopping" if there were an extra 20 or so minutes to the film, while keeping all the locations.

 

I really liked it. I posted a personal review on youtube with a bit of soundtrack music from the trailers and it was hit with copyright notices from brazil and some UK morning show (say what?) so it's stuck in the dispute process until I can get that resolved.

I got my two friends to review the movie with me. We all liked it, gave it high 8's out of 10.