Star Wars VII Discussion Thread (was: Star Wars new trailer)

[Gibby]

Not so keen on the new Stormie look myself.
Those helmets keep making me think of an old fashioned and exaggerated moustache,  Poirot-style.
 

Well thanks, Paul, now I'll never unsee that! 

[Momotaro]

I like that Nien Nunb was there AND survived the attack on the Starkiller base.  But I'm an old softie that way

[Elk101]

Should we get a "spoiler alert" message in the thread title now?

[Pijlie]

I thought it was a charming remake of part IV. That is also my main point of critique.

Rey looks better than Luke. Images were great. BB8 out-acted everyone.

My expectations were rather low and I guess that helped. But seeing it once will probably suffice for now. 

[NurgleHH]

1. The story was too much of a re-hash of the originals. I agree with Chris, the Admiral Thrawn book trilogy would have been a good way forward instead.

I like the books, good translation for us in germany. Even good material for the SWRPG. But years ago Lucas said, this won't be the next parts. So, not unexpected, but sad. 

[nullBolt]

Just rewatched it and some things were really glaring.

• Bastila Shan, I mean, Rey was a horrible Mary Sue. I mean, really, come on. At least have some sort of a character flaw.
• Speaking of the KotOR references, the reason Kylo Ren's design was the best was probably because he's almost completely Revan.
• Also, did you know who Kylo's Dad is? Because every other character seems to be need to mention it every five minutes. Did you know who Kylo Ren's Dad is?
• Why does Finn not speak with an Imperial (ie British) accent? Literally every other person in the First Order does and we can see he was raised by the First Order from birth.
• Why does Rey speak with an Imperial accent? Probably because she's Snoke's daughter.
• As others have mentioned, the fact Finn seems like he was press ganged rather than raised as an indoctrinated member of the First Order is a huge plot hole. He could've just been a guy from Tattooine Jakku and not had the whole inconsistency and moral problems associated with the fact they blew up a PLANET with god knows how many innocents on it. I mean, Christ, they probably killed more people than the First Order did in their bombardment of several planets.
• Basically, Finn is the new trilogy's Jar Jar.

Other than that, it was a pretty good film.

[Hupp n at em]

Basically, Finn is the new trilogy's Jar Jar.

Hmm, he had me fooled.  If he's the new Jar Jar, I think that really shows how nitpicky this all is.    Didn't really dislike any characters in this film, aside from smokers-cough Leia, who didn't really say or do anything of note. 

I would say that for Rey being a Mary Sue, I get where that is coming from, it just personally didn't bother me that much.  Her weakness is her trust/abandonment issues with her family backstory, and while I would agree with the argument that these were not utilized/employed enough in the film, I imagine this will be examined more in the sequel.  Although if they make her somebody's daughter, I give up. Enough is enough with the callbacks. I get that this was basically the makeup sex with the fanbase, but okay, we're all good again, now do something original.

[Gailbraithe]

• As others have mentioned, the fact Finn seems like he was press ganged rather than raised as an indoctrinated member of the First Order is a huge plot hole. He could've just been a guy from Tattooine Jakku and not had the whole inconsistency and moral problems associated with the fact they blew up a PLANET with god knows how many innocents on it.

You know, the more I have time to think about it, the more this really, really bothers me.  JJ Abrams has basically stripped the entire Good Vs Evil dynamic out of Star Wars, and turned it into a moral quagmire.

If we taken Finn's origins as given, then the First Order Stormtroopers are essentially child soldiers.  And given that the Starkiller appears to be the base of operations for the First Order, its seems likely that recruits still in training would be found somewhere on the planet.  That means when the Starkiller blew up, there is a very real chance that hundreds, possibly thousands of innocent children were also killed.  Never mind all of the adult Stormtroopers who, like Finn, had never seen combat and had never been given an opportunity to think and decide for themselves.

It's one thing when the Empire uses clones or recruits the scum of the universe to serve as its thugs (they know what they are signing up for), but when your enemy is using press-ganged children to fill the ranks of its army, that requires the heroes to take a different tack that wholesale slaughter.

And let's not even get into the horrific racial implications of the First Order officers, who seem to be entirely white, kidnapping black children to use slave soldiers...

[wolfie907]

Vader is a voice over so I'm not sure how he acted better it's two separate people. Is Vader more bad ass yes if you don't want to consider what they did to the character in the prequels I think it was brilliant to make a young dark side user throw tantrums, his parents are galactic leaders and heroes so of course he is a spoilt brat that makes sense to the character he has too much power and doesn't want to live in others shadow him turning to the dark side is hardy a surprise in these circumstances 

[Mason]

I did like the music in the new mos eisley cantina. I also accept it was better music for a hive of the galaxies scum and villainy than 'do da do da do dado...' which is not exactly dead hard in any ones language.

I liked the music too, but I dont get that music has to be in any particular style to be 'hard'.
Hannibal Lecter had a thing for chamber music and I dont think anyone could accuse him of being 'soft'.
Maybe the cantina patrons were just 'chilling out'...?
 

[Elk101]

I liked the music too, but I dont get that music has to be in any particular style to be 'hard'.
Hannibal Lecter had a thing for chamber music and I dont think anyone could accuse him of being 'soft'.
Maybe the cantina patrons were just 'chilling out'...?
 

Maybe it was jazz night?

[Elbows]

Saw it yesterday and put me decidedly in the middle of the argument.

On the whole I would say I was a bit disappointed.  It's a "good" movie and I won't hesitate to own a DVD copy at some point, but I doubt I'll be seeing again in the theater, nor was it "great" nor did I leave the theater smiling and in awe.  I think it severely under-delivered.

That being said, my expectations were pretty high.  The movie was not offensive to me, just very weak in a number of areas which killed the buzz for me.  Still, I at least enjoyed the initial blast of the Star Wars theme and the scrolling text.  Always makes me happy.

[shandy]

Ok, I've now watched it twice - wasn't planned, but who am I to skip such an opportunity?  

I really liked it. I liked Rey and Finn, and I don't think Rey is any more Mary-Sueish than, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger in most of his movies - that's how action movie heroes are! I also liked how the old stuff was introduced, how we first saw the Falcon and Han and Chewie. I agree that Kylo Ren was a bit of a wuss.

I generally liked the humour and most of the dialogues. I saw it in 3D and liked the visuals. Memorable scenes: Rey climbing around the wreck of the star destroyer, the X-Wing attack over the lake - generally the tiny starfighters zipping around made me want to play X-Wing again!

My 12-years old nephew, who grew up on the prequels (and found the old movies the boring grown-ups loved so much rather, well boring) said it was the best Star Wars movie - us old hands may mourn the EU (I wouldn't have minded to see a Thrawn movie), but I guess it's time a new generation gets its Star Wars…

[FramFramson]

I think Kylo Ren was an interesting character - having the Dark Side villain remind you of twits who ragepost on the internet was a pretty neat idea. He was acted competently - Adam Driver's acting didn't ruin the character concept, but he didn't really add anything either.

The real problem was that he was ineffectual and silly as the actual villain. He was beaten by two rank untrained amateurs, and even played for laughs by his own minions.

Snokes has a silly name and even looks rather silly. The one cool thing about him was when you thought he was an actual giant (which would have been a cool Star Wars alien-y twist), but then it turns out that no, he's just regular human-sized.

Hux was alright but seems like a small boy trying to wear big boy pants. They needed someone with more gravitas for that role, a Tarkin to scowl disapprovingly about his younger charge's infantile tantrums.

[nullBolt]

Hux was alright but seems like a small boy trying to wear big boy pants. They needed someone with more gravitas for that role, a Tarkin to scowl disapprovingly about his younger charge's infantile tantrums.