ST The Official "List Your Complaints About TFA" Discussion Thread

I think the Rathtar scene is the weakest in the movie, but I love the gangs in the corridor scene that precedes it, with Han talking to the gangs. I think the scene would have worked better if he had talked his way out of it. But then the plot needs to establish through some other means that the droid in is in the hands of Han Solo.

 

True. But you just can't beat the Jar Jar Lolly. It wins every time.

It beats all arguments about Disney/ Lucasfilm consumerism into submission with its big, hideous tongue. Thwack!

 

I thought this was a statement on the poor distribution of Hasbro toys for The Force Awakens, compared to how easy it was to get Star Wars toys in the 80s and 90s.

 

Wait, what?

I thought Star Wars toys came to a complete halt in 1985, and didn't return until 1995.

I know, because that was basically my entire childhood. By the time Star Wars returned to stores, I had mostly forgotten about Star Wars, and was "getting too old for that sort of thing".

The old Kenner line was very difficult to get. I know, my brother and I spent a lot of time hunting for them. You could only find them used, obviously, because they were no longer being made. They weren't in stores, at all. Oh, and if you wanted one in mint condition, still in the box...good luck, because that was very rare, and insanely expensive. The vehicles could cost hundreds of dollars in mint condition, even when not in the original packaging.

Or was that sarcasm?

 

The Jedi dule was okay but it was annoying when Sta Killer Base stared collapsing and the duel was cut short

 

I performed a mercy mission last night, providing succor and support to a fan who has spent months thinking he was the only person in the world who thought TFA was crap.

He had likened it to being like living in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Poor guy.

 

I love the scene between han and the gangs, it shows he is and was always a scoundrel at heart, but when push comes to shove and the galaxy is on the line he steps up and bats a 1000. As far as the rathtar scenes, I still hate them, but then again I hated the trash compactor scene in a new hope, thought the falcon spent way too long on the asteroid in empire, with the sock puppet attack oh I mean the worm that almost swallows the falcon at the end of that scene, and I thought the sand creature was a step too far after already having the rancoree scene as well in return of the jedi. So it is a star wars tradition to me to have a creature feature mid movie lol.

 

Some things that I didn't like:

1. It was too similar to episode 4
2. Rey being too powerful in the force without any training
3. Kylo Ren didn't appear menacing without the mask, he was OK with it on
4. It had too little of Luke

 

The toyline really exploded in 97 when the SE's came out. I remember. When did Star Wars LEGO's become a thing? When TPM came out?

 

It wasn't sarcasm. I didn't think that I needed to specify that I wasn't talking about the 10 year period where there were no Kenner/Hasbro Star Wars toys being made.

I was talking about the sorry state of distribution and availability of the "The Force Awakens" Hasbro line, not to mention the lack of depth of said product line. The "Force Friday" event was a gong show, with stores being ridiculously understocked. Most of the toys were gone within 3 minutes of the store opening for the midnight madness events, and the toys didn't last a day on the shelves at stores that opened at regular hours. More product didn't arrive at many stores for several more weeks. Availability was still a huge issue over the Christmas season, especially if you wanted a figure of the film's main character. Stores are still drowning in Constable Zuvios and Resistance Soldiers, but it's still not that easy to find a Rey or Han Solo (TFA) figure (in either 3.75" or 6" scales) at retail. Still don't have a TFA Luke figure in any format, and the only TFA Leia figure is a ridiculously overpriced and poorly sculpted/painted Walmart exclusive (and of the outfit that she wore for 1 minute at the end of the film).

The original Kenner toys were for the most part easy to find at retail from 1979 through 1984; the first set of figures didn't arrive until 1978 and it took a while for Kenner to catch up with demand. By the time ESB arrived, it certainly wasn't difficult to find Kenner Star Wars toys. They were everywhere, and toy stores (and toy departments back then) carried a LOT of stock. So when the movies were current, parents could easily find Star Wars toys for their kids (and not just obscure background aliens).

When Kenner/Hasbro started producing Star Wars figures again in 1995, they were a bit hard to find at first, but by the following year Star Wars figures had a very strong presence at retail. When the Special Editions hit in early 1997, toy stores had huge Star Wars sections, and there were more than enough toys to go around. And when The Phantom Menace arrived, there were enough toys for everyone. I didn't go to any midnight madness events for the TPM toys, but I didn't hear any stories of people walking out completely empty-handed. I had no trouble getting a full set of figures on the first day of release, and I wasn't even at the store when it opened. Granted, Hasbro (and every other licensee) dramatically over-produced and stores got burned with the amount of unsold product they got stuck with.

But my point was simply that during the initial peak of Star Wars' popularity (the first half of the 80s) and during its resurgence in the last half of the 90s, it was fairly easy for non-collectors to walk into a toy store and get the Star Wars toys that their kids wanted. It was rare to walk into a toy store in the early 80s and for weeks find nothing on the pegs other than a row of Snaggletooth figures. It didn't take you 3 months of checking the local stores once a week to find a Luke Skywalker figure for your kid (I bought my 6" Rey on Force Friday; it took me until February to find another one for my daughter).

Also, it was just supposed to be a joke that didn't require 5 paragraphs of explanation and a clarification on what I meant by "80s" and "90s."

EDIT: So that's my primary complaint about TFA: how the toy line has been handled. And with a new movie every year, I don't see that situation improving, unfortunately.

 

One complaint: I'll only ever be able to see it for the first time just once! This movie was so much fun, my very minor quibbles about it in no way harmed the enjoyment of watching it.

 

Okay. Legit thanks for the info. I didn't/haven't paid any attention to the TFA toy line, I didn't pay any attention to TFA itself when it was released, so I honestly had no idea. Didn't know any of that, at all.

I don't think I've ever purchased a Star Wars toy from a store. I do remember the huge explosion of toys leading to the release of TPM, but I didn't care about toys at that point and didn't buy any. I do remember thinking the lightsabers were cool. I always wanted one when I was a kid. We actually had a "The Force" lightsaber toy when I was like four years old, but it was a piece of junk that never worked. Never got another after that.

I guess I still kinda want one for nostalgia's sake, to fulfill an unfulfilled childhood desire...but nah.

 

I have this on DVD and Blu Ray, but have really have only seen about fifteen to twenty minutes of it repeatedly... Since that is what accounts for Fird and Fisher's screen time. But now it's on about four or five Starz channels simultaniously, so watching more of it as a whole.

I am old and cranky because I keep shouting at Rey and Finn to get off my screen, go get your own movie franchise. Congrats, Daisy and John, you sweet, sweet kids. But I really, really want Rey and Finn to exit stage right. Even when I'm anxiously awaiting my Han and Leia reunion it is proceeded by Finn's constant yelling. I like Ford's telling him to basically quiet down now because Leia is coming and it is more important.

I wish so much this could have been Han, Leia and Luke fighting the bad guys and showing us all it doesn't matter how old you are.

 

^^ That's similar to how I felt about the movie. To be fair it was always going to be harder for the writers to come up with an original plot and interesting characters than to use the existing, now presumably scrapped extended timeline. You have to give them a little credit for trying I suppose but it really didn't work, with a subpar, rehashed plot and hugely stereotypical characters.

For me, there is no reason the movie couldn't have been great using the story from the extended timeline that already existed with Darth Krayt etc. This is what happens though, the rights were sold and people are paid to come up with 'fresh' ideas even when they probably weren't required in the first place. This is why I believe a movie from an existing period in the timeline could be great, because the so called writers would have less freedom to mess with it.

That being said, I am quite excited by the new movie. TFA done nothing for me but hopefully it will.

 

The issue for me really is that I don't think TFA is a potentially great film brought down by a few small issues, I think its fundamentally a so so modern blockbuster that depends on references and lifting from the originals(that are all greatly superior) for most of its greater appeal.

 

The more I see TFA the more I think that we shoud not have seen Luke at all, and also, that we should not have seen Snoke.

 

Snoke was the worst part of the film....Why not just Andy Serkis in a hood ?

You should never leave a movie with questions about the plot . . . . "Who is Snoke?"...."Who is Rey parents?"...."How did Maz get the lightsaber?"....."Why did Ben Solo turn to dark side?"......

You SHOULD leave the movie with only one question..."What will happen next?"

 

Then it would be one step closer to ANH rehash.

 

Looking back now, I regret not savoring the build-up to it. I really like the film itself, but nothing will ever come close to the hype. 100% made up for the worst semester I ever had.

 

cerealbox - The movie already is a rehash of ANH anyway.

On the issue of hype, for once it didn't affect anything for me, I was sure the movie would be the worst of any Star Wars movie (in my opinion) and it was, by a mile. Although as I have said before, I was already bitterly disappointed at the sale of the rights and subsequent scrapping of the very interesting, Darth Krayt/Luke Skywalker story. I felt that story was good enough to make a movie and that Disney would come up with an unoriginal rehash aimed at pleasing everyone. Sadly I was correct. So if anything it wasn't a case of the movie being overhyped and then me being disappointed. It was that I was already pretty sure I would be disappointed and hoped that I would be surprised but then ended up even more disappointed than I thought I would be.

It's like a lot of franchises though, most of the time the most impressive thing is the world and lore that has been created, with the movies never really doing the lore justice. This is what has happened with Star Wars, with each movie being weaker than the last since the OT. What makes the TFA and the movies in general particularly frustrating is that there are stories elsewhere in the lore that are far more interesting than the narratives used for the movies.

 

Snoke is the supreme leader of the FO. We know as much about him as we did about the Emperor in ANH.

Who are Luke's parents?

How did Ben get Luke's father's lightsaber?

Why did Darth Vader turn to the dark side? What is the dark side anyway?

ANH certainly did not leave us withe the question "What will happen next?" in 1977, IIRC.

 

All the movies leave us with questions, but some are expected and welcome, along the lines of 'what will happen next?'. Which is the category I would place all the ANH questions you listed other than the lightsaber one. They aren't things you would expect to find out in part 1 of a trilogy, but things you want to as the trilogy moves on.

It gets frustrating with Star Wars with other questions after movies that will either never be answered because the writers don't care about it, or will never be answered simply because there isn't a sensible reason for the aspect that provoked the question ever to be in the movie in the first place. Questions like 'why the hell hasn't Padme aged at all?' AOTC, or one of the biggest/daftest moments in any of the movies - 'why didn't Anakin just jump onto the ledge further along instead of over Obi-Wan's head?' ROTS, or even 'how was the Emeperor able to defeat 3 Jedi in under 2 seconds?' - sometimes Star Wars just makes no sense. Most of the time it's incompetent writers unable to appreciate the amazing world they are writing about, or do it justice.

TFA provoked those kind of questions from me but also some of the welcome ; 'what will happen next?' variety especially in regards to both Snoke and Ren. Unfortunately most were of a kind questioning the very fabric of the movie itself, such was my disappointment. Like 'why was Rey so predictable and stereotypical?', 'why was Rey able to wield a lightsaber so effectively with no training, contrary to everything else in the SW universe?' 'why is Finn so mind numbingly stupid?' or 'why did Disney not just use the continued story that was already there?'.

 

kenobisdeed

If your wondering why Padme hasn't aged at all is.....


Because, good genes!

 

True, she does have damn good genes. And it's actually one of the more minute inconsistencies/plot holes in SW.

 

have you seen a sw movie? lol.