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

"Abram's bigger is better mindset"?

Is that why he had Han roll his eyes and pour scorn on the importance of its scale?

Is that why he and Kasdan wrote it that the flaw in these weapons be exposed once again and have it as symbolic of the FO's flawed adoration of Imperial ideology?

 

First post in this thread for a long time, and first actual complaint. I think it's probably fair to say on reflection that perhaps the film was just a shade too open ended, and hasn't really given the filmmakers afterwards much in way of limitations within which to work. It still works great as perhaps the best pilot episode of something ever, but as a third of a trilogy, maybe its a bit lacking.

 

Starmocker Base (to Hosnian Prime): I fart in your general direction!

*Galactic chaos ensues*

 

Comms between Han on the Falcon and Hux on the Finalizer:

Han: Tell Kylo, if he gives us spare parts and supplies, he can join us on our quest for Luke Skywalker.
Hux: Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he'll be very keen, he already knows where Luke is, you see.
Han: What?
Finn: He says they already know where Luke is.
Han: Are you sure he knows where Luke is?
Hux: Oh yes, it's a very nice planet, we've already been there.
*Hux whispers to his men just off screen*
Hux: I told them we've already found Luke.
*Hux's men snicker*

 

You know, now that TFA is over a year and a half since release, and now that I've seen it many times since, I must say that I now strongly believe that whatever grievances I have aired previously about this installment in the saga, I am quite sure that once we see TLJ (and especially by episode IX) we will come to to see this one in a whole new light. I always love when things come full circle like that and cause you to see things in a different way. I really feel that this episode will ultimately work better as a part of a whole trilogy arc, rather than as a film on it's own – so I'm quite excited for the possibility.

 

Set 30 years after ROTJ, TFA was supposed to be that movie that sets the ST and introduces us to a new era. Regressing back to ANH and setting TLJ right after TFA is, to me, not a good way to go forward. When you're going back, you're going back. I mean, Rian is stuck to TIEs, X-wings, identical stormtroopers, villain in black armor, underdog vs. the overdog story, stardestroyers, AT-ATs, Jedi training on some remote location...

 

RJ isn't stuck with any of those things. He can blow up most of the remaining X-wings if he wants to. He can decide that Luke has waited for Rey to show up before embarking on a journey somewhere. He can have Kylo ditch the mask and begin a transition into a different kind of villain, or an antihero. He can introduce as many new vehicles and outfits as he wants to, because TFA clearly showed us mere glimpses of what the GFFA looks like thirty years after ROTJ.

 

What?! Are they going to force me to buy a whole new line of different toys every couple of years each time they significantly change the aesthetics of the GFFA? That is just putting marketing and merchandising before storytelling.

 

Who do you think you're fooling? We all know you'd buy an identical line of toys just for the new packaging

 

Perhaps.

But, as of now, the Rebels Resistance use X-Wings, the FO uses one (in TFA underused) stardestroyer, TIEs from ANH and stormtroopers while the Republic and it's (I guess) entire fleet is gone. All familiar designs from 30 years ago and now, in a movie set immediately after TFA, that could all change? That's not very logical.

The point is, I find SW a very precious set of movies and to waste one entry not to, as JJ said, remind us to the older films, but to copy the first one with bits and pieces of the second and third film, is a huge missed opportunity. I have some faith to Rian, but if I find myself quoting TESB while watching TLJ... That won't be good.

 

Honestly they could have still drawn from the past, but completely made renditions in their own way. Rather the TIE'S be the same, make it bulkier...Maybe faster and oddly designed. I love the concept of them still trying to stick to the past. But what was done was limiting..

 

That's the type of thing I said about it right from the start. It felt very TV which is not surprising when you consider that JJ was coming off of the Trek movies.

It's in this weird betwixt and between they created by wanting to both be and not be ANH. The past happened but it didn't. The future (and past) from the point of ANH was open. The future and past of TFA is open kinda sorta if they want it to be in a certain way but maybe not.

Now to actually be fair it's not like a huge ton of direct story happens in either TPM or ANH either.There is set-up and introduction but II and V could have gone any number of ways even though we knew as a prequel that III would contain the most direct story and character elements that set up IV-VI.

TFA does even less than either of them while at the same time more than nodding to both and taking advantage of our knowledge.

That was my "hope" from the start. TFA is the least "stand alone" of the saga movie:

So the overall feeling of the story itself I would say this. Episodes I,II,III and IV are movies that while part of a greater whole still have their own beginnings, middles and ends. They are like a book series. Each movie is a book. Episodes V and VI are almost but not quite that. They are like one book split into two parts. Now of course I am accentuating this to make a point which is this. TFA is more like V and VI. It's not a whole book in itself but more like The Lord of the Rings. One MASSIVE book split into 3 parts. Part one of the book by itself is the beginning of the book not a book in itself. The answers for so much of what is actually going on will be revealed like a mystery novel.

 

Only if it's proper, 1980's OT era nostalgic packaging.

 

My perspective on TFA still won't change. The movie is far too open and has too many gaps. I don't doubt that there will be some expansion but there cannot be a whole lot from TFA. I feel that TLJ might be on the isolated side. 9 and TLJ seem to be the real kickers

 

Dan2626, I pretty much agree with all of your 15 complaints about TFA. Although it is fairly entertaining to watch, the more I think about TFA, the more problems I have with it. My two biggest complaints are: 1. It was so derivative of the OT films and didn't move the story forward; instead, it pushed everything back to the way it was at the beginning of ANH. There was no forward movement at all. As you said, the possibilities were limitless. They could have gone in so many new and different directions. Yet, all they did was retell the story we already got in the OT, just with new characters and new names for everything.

2. The way the OT characters were handled. They were given lousy backstories and all of their accomplishments were made null and void. They were left with no legacies.

I also very much agree with your point about having no important events take place offscreen with the other Star Wars movies, but between RotJ and TFA many, many important events took place. In fact, it seems to me that those events were so important, that those events should have been the ones that we saw in this sequel trilogy.

 

Yeah, the backstory to TFA sounds like something I'd actually be interested in watching. A rough outline of TFA, much less so, so it's not too surprising that appreciating this movie was always going to be an uphill climb for me personally.

 

The first 30 min of TFA are pure magic. Some of the best SW I've ever seen.

Then Rey and Finn find the falcon .................. out of nowhere. Then Han Solo and Chewie find the falcon 10 seconds after Rey and Finn leave Jakku + way too much fan service.

 

The opposite will happen, if TLJ is as good as people are saying it will only diminish this film even more as a very safe/pandering and lame remake of ANH that it was. JJ's trek films have pretty much died at the vine and it's no coincidence. I feel like if Rian and Trevorrow can redeem the sequel trilogy than people will complain about JJ even more.

 

I remember when fans thought the Falcon + LST was in Jakku for some reason but now probably there's no deep explanation for that

 

it is good for 30 minutes , but then it quickly becomes apparent that there isn't any great story to be told , just copycat characters riffing on things we've seen before .
for me this is a decent spin-off movie but really shouldn't be an Episode title , it just isn't in the same league as the other 6 for story / scope / imagination etc. .
I say that even tho I enjoy watching TFA more than TPM , but TPM does have great vision and epic story set-up

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