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

Yeah, at least the first six SW films never prompted lots of questions and discussions about the plots, themes, etc. of the film.

 

I think TFA is a better made film that any of the prequels myself BUT with the prequels I think easier to pick out individual weaknesses because there did seem to be a good deal of ambition on display. TFA on the other hand to be is just a very average film at the most fundamental level, no real ambition to create anything more than the standard Abram's formula with a different nostalgia focus. If I didn't love SW so much and just held it as more modest nostalgia I'd doubtless have enjoyed it but it still wouldn't have stuck in my mind and I don't think TFA generally has shown much staying power culturally just a few months after release.

 

Yes.....Too much mystery. Too many questions.

 

It's one of the cool things about SW, really.

 

We've got two more movies. I can wait until E9 is out to judge the mysteries.

 

Well Vader did reach out to Luke on the Executor & Luke responded Father.....

 

Questions are fine. But to me, it never felt like we were on stable ground. "A good question... For another time." felt more like the storytellers didn't know how to justify it as opposed to having a master plan. It might as well be the mantra for the entire movie. Empire only ended with the burning questions of is Vader really Luke's father, and who is the Other. Everything else was a cliffhanger of what will happen next.

I think it needed a little bit more of a solid foundation, and then I would be more fine with the mystery of Rey.

 

Did anyone know what the probe and the whales were saying to each other after seeing Star Trek IV? Did not knowing mean the movie suffered?

What about 2001 : A Space Odyssey?

 

those seem more like the eternal mysteries of life. Force Awakens seemed more like everyone was playing poker and no one was revealing their hand to the audience. Why does Leia need Luke back so badly for being their only hope? etc.

 

I've said it before but the "too much mystery!!!" complaint seems to be to come entirely as a result of the fact that ever since Return of the Jedi finished, there was a simple way of looking at Star Wars knowledge, and it was this:

"The more time you spend reading, watching and researching aspects of Star Wars, the more you know about the direction of future films"

But now, that's not the case - Star Wars knowledge doesn't neccesarily mean that your guesses about what's going to happen will be correct. And it seems to frustrate people a lot.

 

Well for me having lingering mysteries about the plot is completely fine and good. Cliffhangers are great for speculation and they add to the fun of the waiting. However, as much as I did enjoy TFA one thing always stuck out was a lack of depth to the universe. I know many people in the fandom do not think politics and SW mix however, War is in the title of the franchise and War is just politics by other means.

We don't know why the First Order admires the Empire, why the New Republic hasn't gone out and just confronted the First Order even though the First Order obviously had a huge military buildup. Those are things that should be addressed to setup the setting of the film. ANH sets up the Empire as being murderous through the death of the Lars and the Death Star not to mention their silencing of any opposition and closing down the Imperial Senate. The empire wants to continue to control through authoritarian power and brainwashing obviously a lot of people aren't going to be okay with that. TPM sets up that the CW happened due to corruption in the senate. CIS believes Republic is corrupt and needs a new government to better represent the people and the Republic sees them as Separatists who started a war and left without any right to. The movie TFA does not set this up in any way the First Order fights why? Why doesn't the New Republic stop them and why leave it to resistance fighters. To my knowledge TFA doesn't cover this in the movie.

Secondly also I think its been stated before but Rey herself being overpowered is fine but there is no reasoning why she is. Is it due to this awakening did she have Jedi parents ect.

Now to be fair I do realize that this may all be done just to setup the plot and there is a good chance that EP VIII will cover it. However, if Rey is just given super force powers and its not explained through the force or lineage I think it denigrates the achievements of Luke and Anakin as well as the difficulty of being a force user in general.

 

Depth doesn't neccesarily mean lots of exposition. A lot of people see plenty of depth in the film in terms of character dynamics, motivations, things like subversions of happy endings and going into what happens in the "ever after"

 

Probably warning each other about Star Trek V.

 

Why don't you compare it to a Lynch movie while you are at it?

 

You may as well commit and compare it to an Ingmar Bergman movie.

 

Have I misunderstood the definition of "movie" in this context?

Oh and.. That boy was our last hope..... No. There is another. No questions left unanswered for three years there?

What gives with the reductive arguments? Since when was Star Wars not big enough to carry a bit of an enigma from movie to movie, only fully illuminated at the point in the story when it is most effective?

 

Does anyone else think this scene's sloppily directed? I mean, you can clearly tell by the look on Rey's face that she thinks he's full of **** but (for some reason), she believes him anyway. This could have been handled far better considering that this is the first time they actually speak to each other.

 

Well, Leia believes Luke in ANH as soon as he shows up and mentions Ben Kenobi. That's the style of these movies.

 

Yeah, at least Luke actually mentioned someone who had a connection to Leia previously. Finn, on the other hand, is nothing but suspicious. I just think that's a false equivalency on your part.

 

Rey is acting on behalf of BB-8, who tells Rey that Finn stole his master's jacket. Finn mentions Poe by name and BB-8 immediately responds. In both cases, Rey follows BB-8's lead. So maybe Leia maps better to BB-8, but in any case, it's about strangers becoming fast friends instantly because that's part of the genre.

FTR, Shmi hands her 9 year old son over to a guy she knew for a whole day. Maybe he was part of a pedophile ring or who knows what else. The reason we don't ask those kinds of questions is because that's not the type of movie we're watching.

 

Directed better to do what? Finn's big dilemma in this movie is that he has become self aware as well as awakening to iniquities of the regime he had been serving up till that point and trying to distance himself, spatially as well as morally. He's a fish out of water trying his best to ingratiate himself with Rey using his whits as best he can (surely not a requirement or a common quality for a nameless, subservient trooper). The scene for me allows the audience to perceive Rey's skepticism and amusement, but that she also intuits Finn's conscience and is prepared to humour his shaggy dog tale about being a resistance fighter.

This kind of business often pops up when both characters are not what they say they are.

 

I thought that scene made Rey look kinda bad. She just suddenly starts chasing this guy with this maniacal rage face, literally baring her teeth, and smashes his face with her large stick. She comes off as a bit of a psycho. It's a really jarring scene.

 

I took that scene as BB8 assumed Finn had done something horrible to Poe, so he told Rey about it, hence her rage.

 

That's quite a stretch for a scene that is pretty much played for laughs as an awkward meeting between Rey and Finn, who just can't quite seem to get a break at that point