We’re home. Those are the words of Han Solo, early into the 136-minute run-time of The Force Awakens.
Those two words line up precisely with how we, as fans, feel about the long-awaited return of one of cinema’s most-loved science fiction franchises, with a huge new story arc, new characters, and a more fleshed-out world. Now it’s here, and we’ve seen it, and we have some feelings to share with you.
BEWARE: There are major spoilers inside!
As well as our review of the movie itself, we wanted to share the thoughts of some of our friends around the office who saw the movie at its premiere and at midnight screenings around the country. Read on for our comments, and please feel free to share your own experience or discussion in the comments section.
Campbell Simpson: Editor, Gizmodo
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the seventh Star Wars film, and it has been a long time coming. Following the events of Return of the Jedi by around 30 years, it’s a starkly different universe to the one that we all remember from the original trilogy. The Empire is still around in the form of the First Order, the Rebellion is now the Republic (but also the Resistance, depending on which side of the conflict you’re on), and good versus evil continues in pretty much the same fashion as every other Star Wars movie or novel or TV show in existence.
The First Order is a military junta that is basically an offshoot of the Galactic Empire, formed in the wake of Darth Vader’s and the Emperor’s (apparent) death, engaged in ongoing battle with the Resistance. Both are searching for Luke Skywalker, long since disappeared, and central to finding him is a star map carried by lovable droid BB-8. Therein is The Force Awakens’ over-arching plot, and along the way we meet the new guard who we’ll be guided through the entire three-movie series with — stormtrooper turned Resistance fighter Finn, fighter pilot extraordinaire Poe, scavenger Rey.
The plot of Awakens closely mirrors A New Hope, and it’s no surprise that it’s half homage and half convenient setup for the next two movies. When events force Finn and Rae together on the desert scrap world of Jakku, and they are united by BB-8, there’s a strong sense of the Han, Luke and R2-D2 of the original Star Wars. We re-meet the Millenium Falcon, and Han Solo, and Leia, and C-3PO and R2-D2 and a host of other familiar faces. I really think that the movie’s main plot — the First Order’s Starkiller Base, a star-sucking planetoid which can destroy entire solar systems, must be destroyed to preserve the fledgling Republic — pales in comparison to the character story of Rey and of Kylo Ren.
Kylo Ren’s character, I thought, was simultaneously the weakest and most interesting new addition to the universe. I couldn’t help but compare him in my mind to Hayden Christensen’s comically brooding Anakin Skywalker when he took off his mask, but his fits of dark, evil rage and his clearly played-out internal conflict between the light and dark sides of the Force, his back-story as the child of Han and Leia, trained by Luke and then seduced by the dark side and by shadowy Supreme Leader Snoke, was evocative and fascinating. I want to see him more and to learn more about what happened in the three decades since the last movie.
Han’s death at the hands of his estranged son — the most gut-wrenching point in the movie — is going to polarise viewers. I still haven’t decided whether it was the right thing to do for the movie, not for Harrison Ford nor viewers nor the plot of the series, but the fact remains that it happened. I’m going to miss Han; he was one of the most loveable and enduring characters of the original movies. I genuinely hope that Chewbacca gets more screen time in the as-yet-unnamed Episode VIII, to explore his emotions after his partner and friend’s death.
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Talking of new characters in the series — Rey was so good. She was such a well rounded character. She wasn’t lame or fainting or forced, she didn’t have plot armour, her back-story had just the right amount of explanation, she wasn’t a damsel. I actually thought one of the (extremely minor) weaknesses with the film was that the movie didn’t explain the roles of women in the First Order enough, though; in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the Empire uses women in positions of power once it has to lower its (ridiculous misogynist) standards after constant warfare with the Republic. But clearly Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma was a badass — you just didn’t get to see enough of it.
The element of comedy, of modern “you did what?” comedy, feels utterly appropriate in The Force Awakens. Scenes where Kylo Ren is raging and rank-and-file stormtroopers know to avoid him; scenes where Finn edges towards breaking the fourth wall; these made our viewing audience laugh but without it being the mocking laughter that accompanied Jar-Jar. This is just one way in that this movie feels like 1978’s original flick brought forward 37 years.
The Force Awakens is absolutely a movie in the original Star Wars spirit, which I’m so happy about. It felt like a Star Wars movie; it looked and sounded utterly beautiful — the costuming was spot on, the sound effects were electrifying, the cinematic score was perfect. It’s a progression in narrative from the original trilogy, but isn’t bogged down in its history — it stood head and shoulders above the plot of Return of the Jedi and used it as a leg-up.
There are plot holes, and weaknesses in story, and deus ex machina that detracted slightly from my enjoyment as a Star Wars nerd. The Millenium Falcon jumping to lightspeed from within another ship? Improbable. Dropping from lightspeed within a planet’s gravity well? Not possible. But these are small complaints, and they’re forgotten in seconds around the rest of the movie and the canon and lore and joy of it all. The Force Awakens brought all those memories and feelings back to the surface, for one of the first times since I finished watching Return of the Jedi a long time ago.
(By the way: it’s telling that The Force Awakens doesn’t really reference any of the prequel trilogy — it’s convenient that enough time has passed in the universe for the events not to matter, but it’s also clear that director J.J. Abrams didn’t want viewers to remember just how boring those movies ended up being. C’est la vie.)
Rae Johnston: Journalist, Gizmodo
(Hello my thoughts are going to be about Rey because woah. And yes, there are spoilers.)
It’s difficult to understate the importance of this film to me. The representation of women throughout the film was really good. They were everywhere, in all kinds of roles. In positions of authority. It made my heart sing. As someone who grew up having lightsaber battles (with sticks, but whatever) emulating what I saw the men in Star Wars do, Rey feels like she was created just for me. Her name is even pronounced the same. Do you understand what incredible soundbites I can get from this film?
I watched it last night, but I’m still teary thinking about how every word she said was perfect. She’s capable, intelligent, strong, resilient but without simply having her be a carbon copy of what a man in her role would be. She has depth. She is baffled by anyone thinking she should be lesser because she is a woman.
I cried from the moment she picked up the lightsaber in the forest until the credits rolled. There she was, the character from my mind I created for myself, but real this time. She wields the force like no one before her (without training, at least) AND pilots the Millennium Falcon. Above and beyond. I loved her interactions with Finn. We are supposed to believe that these two have formed the kind of friendship that would normally take years, and somehow they make it work. And just when I was worried their connection may be solely for love-interest purposes, it was cemented as being platonic.
The Force Awakens is the perfect vehicle for the ‘passing of the guard’, so to speak. Enough nostalgia to make you cheer out loud in the cinema, but a fantastic platform for the introduction of a new generation of heroes and villains.
Hayley Williams: Journalist, Gizmodo/Lifehacker/Kotaku
I’m a pretty big Star Wars fan, though I never got into the Expanded Universe in a huge way. I’ve dabbled, of course, but I can’t say I have exhaustive knowledge of much past the original films. I grew up with the prequel trilogy, so I maybe have a bit of a soft spot for podracing and Padme’s amazing outfits, but as an adult I know that nothing beats the original series.
The Force Awakens felt like a huge love letter to the original movies. The humour, the practical effects aliens, the way the movie was filmed, even the plot structure mirrored the original trilogy. There was space dogfighting, lightsaber battles and Force-sensitive kids being thrown in the deep end. There were familial ties and themes of lineage. There were also plenty of goofy throwbacks that attempted to cash in on the nostalgia of the originals — and some were far more successful than others.
While this movie seemed to lean pretty heavily on Han and Chewie, the new characters were pretty awesome, and they were given a good deal of the spotlight. Finn was by far my favourite, and the stormtrooper backstory is something we haven’t seen at all in any of the films, or in any of the other related material that I’ve encountered. Humanising them in the way they did was one of the best decisions of this film. Poe was a fun, likeable character, and his dynamic with both Finn and BB8 made up some of my favourite character interactions in the film.
My unpopular opinion here was that I didn’t really feel Rey’s character. She seemed too serious, too competent at a number of different skills for reasons that were conveniently explained away by ‘the Force’. She was a Padme in a world populated by Hans, Leias and Lukes. Her motivations throughout the entire film were really unclear, and I didn’t feel like she had as much chemistry with the other characters as they did with each other.
Captain Phasma is the series’ first movie canon female villain and I was incredibly excited to see her in the film — but in the end I feel like she might as well have not been there at all. Her role could have been done entirely by a nameless stormtrooper and it would have felt the same. Orange female Yoda, on the other hand, was amazing. It’s nice to see someone other than a wise old man offering force-based wisdom.
As far as returning characters, the film really shoved Harrison Ford in your face. Considering it’s going to be his only film in the trilogy, this might have been why. I would have liked to have seen more Leia and less Han — she’s supposed to be a leader, but all we ever see her do is swap snark with her ex-boyfriend and talk about her son. That being said, I liked the fact that Han and Leia’s relationship was a little bit broken. Their romance in the original trilogy ended like a fairytale, but you can tell that the intervening years have been hard.
I really liked Kylo Ren. He was the petulant teenaged Sith done well, and I can’t say I didn’t get a little bit of glee from watching his little temper tantrums. I feel like in the next movies his character could either become amazing or awful, so we’ll have to wait and see. I wasn’t a fan of Snoke. He looked like a Dr Who villain, or something from Prometheus. He seemed very CGI’d in a movie that intentionally went away from CGI in most places. He wasn’t really set up as a threat — we don’t know who or what he is and frankly they haven’t made me want to know, either. He just doesn’t feel like he fits into the film.
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I guess I saw the major event of the movie coming. The rumour’s been going round for ages that Harrison Ford has been asking to be killed off for a while, so it seemed like a good moment for it. Where they go from there will definitely be interesting, I think. The other characters’ reactions made that moment work for me, with a throwback to Leia’s Force sensitivity, and Chewie’s angry rampage.
Some things in the plot didn’t quite make sense. The First Order wasn’t really established as to who they were, how much power they held and what they wanted. If the Republic was in power, why did there still need to be a resistance of good guys? Was the resistance the Republic? A lot of these points were quite unclear. There were also a lot of characters swinging lightsabers around with zero training and being really good at it. That being said, I really enjoyed the saber fighting in the film — it sat somewhere between the prequels’ flashy choreography and the originals’ slower, more character focussed fights.
I don’t think anyone liked the stormtrooper with the electric saber thing, though — that entire scene seemed entirely unnecessary and almost spoiled the point of actually having lightsabers to begin with. The end scene also seemed weak. I feel like it could have ended a little earlier, and instead started the next film with finding Luke. I guess they want something to make sure everyone comes back, however.
I’ll definitely be coming back, though. Hell, I’m even looking forward to seeing The Force Awakens again. I think the trilogy still has space to become either amazing or awful, but I feel like it’s in good hands. While I’ve mentioned a lot of the things that didn’t quite gel with me, my overall impression of the film was amazing. It managed to capture the originals’ sense of humor while still modernising it, and introduced a number of characters that really worked in the world. I can’t wait to see what they do with Episode 8.
Harry Tucker: Journalist, Business Insider
So, because I am still basically a child, my first Star Wars experience was actually my first cinema experience when The Phantom Menace came out. So I have an unusual love for the prequels, with Episode 3 possibly my favourite of all 6…….. until now.
I genuinely loved The Force Awakens, and while it certainly had a slightly different feel to it than all the older movies, the way the story was told, the characters and the romance of adventure that the originals featured was right through it.
The new characters were perfect too. Rey was strong and had a great sense of adventure in her, while still having insecurities about loneliness. Finn was surprisingly really funny, but just I wanted to see a tiny bit more about his background as a Storm Trooper.
Kylo Ren, or Ben Solo (UH OH, SPOILER), was also one of — if not the most — complex villain of the franchise ever. He was clearly battling something internally and the new evil big boss dude was taking advantage of his confusion and using that to control him. Poe was super fun too. But still, nothing made me grin like seeing Chewy and Han come on screen when they boarded the Millennium Falcon.
It was a complete play on nostalgia and one of the things that made the movie great. The whole movie is full of nostalgia inducing aspects, whether it be lines that reference previous movies or the glorious soundtrack – but it never goes over the top. It’s all done just right.
When Han was killed by his son, Kylo Ren though, shit my heart broke. Even more when you saw Chewy react to it and you could tell he was absolutely destroyed.
The plot as a whole was solid, follow similar plot ideas to A New Hope. I think the Dark Side and The First Order as a group could do with some work, and perhaps their motivations could be explained more in the next one. Also why do the bad guys keep hiring engineers that leave vulnerabilities in their huge space stations?!
But bring on Episode VIII. I want to know what made Ben turn to the dark side, I want to know who Rey’s parents are and what the hell is going on with Luke?
Tiffany Roma: Office Manager, Allure Media
I’ve never been interested in Star Wars, never understood the hype. When I was younger, I attempted to watch all 6 films but fell asleep halfway through all of them! I’ve always been exposed to it, my brother would watch it all the time so the films and the animated series were always kind of just on in the background. However my boyfriend is a major Star Wars fan and made me watch episode 4, 5 and 6 in the week leading up to the episode 7 release. I actually stayed awake for these three films though and loved them!
As a Star Wars newbie I enjoyed having new characters to get to know with everyone else. I love love love Fin’s story and the fact that they explored the humanity in the storm troopers. I think his character was well developed throughout the film and his strength was shown in his courage and desperation to do the right thing- especially when he saves Paul and goes back for Rey. However, I liked how his weakness was shown in the way that he was totally incompetent at most things he tried and in the way he walked away from Rey when he had the opportunity. That internal struggle- so relatable!
I love BB-8 he was so cute! I hated when R2 just conveniently came to life though. It was so cathartic to see the original characters, although I feel like they are just being used as a bridge to make way for the new generation of characters. It was a respectful way to transition into the new generation- at least in the next films, the plot and characters won’t seem so drastic.
I have a love/hate relationship with the cheesiness of the film though and all the puns on light. Overall, I liked it, I thought it was much funnier than the previous films! I loved that they had a female lead who was actually competent. I love that a storm trooper was humanised, and shown to be imperfect. I think you’d be able to break open so many thematic concerns within the film too.
Comments
110 responses to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Australian Review”
CaptainPhasma is the new Fett and Maul.
Phasmas coming back for episode 8 though, so not the new Maul in the sense of ‘one and done’ lol
Maul was revisited in The Clone Wars Animated show so not really One and Done and he got 4 comic mini series .
I mentioned that two comments down 😉
But in terms of movies, one and done.
For Maul Ithink you mean
“One and…. survives being cut in half and falling god knows how far by becoming half man half mechanical spider”
Only been in one movie so far 🙂 Sure there’s the clone wars cartoon but that was such fan wankery.
Meh.
I liked it.
Canon nonetheless 😉
The movie was good, but it was not amazing. I would say that it felt like it was made up of two very distinctive parts: The first two acts were well thought out, very agreeable and some of the best action I’ve seen on the big screen. The third act was a jumbled, rushed mess connected by some very obvious exposition. JJ Abrams relied too heavily on familiarity in places, literally ripping off other characters and sequences of events from the OT. Han Solo featured heavily with his own motivations but Chewie just felt… pointless. He lacked his own motivations in the film, he lacked depth as a character and seemed to just be there because Han was also there.
There were several Deus Ex Machina, plot conveniences abound and several characters felt infallible ( I’m looking at you, Poe). There is a single shot where he takes out five TIE Fighters while on screen for about 10 seconds. Sure, I get that he is supposed to be a great pilot, but it relies on his X Wing pulling an insane loop and the TIE fighters to just fly into his lasers. He pinpoints the chest of stormtroopers on the ground standing next to captive rebel forces. Just, no.
Orange Yoda was a thing, and that disappoints me. The First Order felt like a very forced bad guy. They literally do the nazi salute while waiting to blow up multiple worlds. What was the actual point of Captain Phasma’s character? I’m hoping that she didn’t die and returns in the next movie so she can have some actual character development.
I felt that the Han owing multiple people large sums of money who get eaten by the Rancor/Malboro cross-breeds in comical fashion did a large disservice to the OT and Han’s overarching story in those movies.
A lot of the plot conveniences involved Finn’s character. I understood that the film was going to have characters who would be a token replacement for OT characters or scenes, but the sheer amount of them is incredible. There’s a token scoundrel/pilot type, a token good-hearted force user coming to grips with their powers, a token evil force user with a connection to our protagonists, a token yoda, a token shadowy Evil leader, a token Death Star-lite, a token Trench Run, a token Jabba (or two) a token Greedo-type, a token rescue the damsel subplot, a completely POINTLESS token appearance by Artoo and Threepio. Hell, there’s even a token Desert planet.
And having said ALL of this against the movie, it’s still far better than the prequel trilogy.
Poe needed more fleshing out, he just seemed too ‘good’ at what he does.
Im sure he’ll be plenty fleshed out in next years ‘Rogue One’ movie.
He’s not part of Rogue One. That’s set prior to Episode IV and tells the story of how the plans were stolen. However Donnie Yen IS part of it, that gets me pumped 😀
Umm isn’t rogue one about getting the plans for the death star (its set inbetween ep3 and ep4).
Could he be part of the Awakening theme though? Perhaps the force is sharing the love?
Perhaps, indeed he could be. The EU (no longer canon I know) had it so the force presented itself in multiple ways in different people. Maybe they’re adopting that idea.
In the Shattered Empire Comic Book that leads up to Force Awakens, Poe’s mother helps Luke Skywalker steal back a Special Force Sensitive Tree that the jedi would have growing around their temples form the empire. Luke asks her to plant it outside her home so poe being brought up around the Tree might be force sensitive…
Could be what the ‘force awakens’ implies, that it’s not coming back say, in one person, but starting to show up to some degree in everyone or a larger number of people?
I feel a lot of your arguments could be applied to every Star Wars movie to be honest.
Everyone is so god damn critical now and don’t realise the flaws they find with ep 7 are apparent in the others, but most people just can’t see them through their nostalgia goggles.
I don’t see how that could possibly be true. Can you give examples of things that I’ve said that could be applied to the original trilogy?
Many of my complaints were about things as compared to the OT. The others? Infallible characters, nazi-saluting baddies, plot conveniences and deus ex machina.
Agreed
JJ Abrams relied too heavily on familiar themes… welcome to Star Wars
Chewie had no motivation… What was his motivation in 4/5/6, Han’s friend… cool… he’s his friend in 7 too.
So poe is a great pilot and that annoys you…. ok. He aimed at stromtroopers on the ground and hit a super lucky shot, not completely unreasonable…. not like he’s legolas doing it all movie long.
Captain Phasma, 99.99999% didn’t die. More movies, wait for context.
Han owing people money was probably the worst bit, they addressed that but yeah I agree… like as if he’s going to spend 4/5/6 saving the galaxy and go back to swindling some idiots for cash… bit weird. Could have been a comedy of errors leading upto that point though… was a bit weird but not completely unreasonable.
Plot conveniences and Finn… have you ever seen a SW movie before dude, luke in ep4, annakin in ALL OF EP1 haha, Finn was just as subtle as Luke in a new hope.
Yes the themes repeat themselves, again… it’s star wars.
Overall it smashed my expectations, I’d heard good and bad reviews… I’m still gobsmacked that people didn’t like it and love hearing every petty complaint people have about it. It’s a great movie, but like everything it has it’s flaws. It does SO much right that it feels jerky to sit there and nitpick, also we don’t have context for the next 2 movies so what you might think is short-sightedness might be something else altogether.
Chewie in the OT showed that he had feelings, fears, a dislike for being locked up, an interest in fixing things, and shared a real sense of camaraderie with Han. In the new movie, he got shot, he nodded once and he got angry when Han died. He didn’t even interact with Leia at the end after Han died. Like, WTF? Surely he wants a hug.
Poe isn’t a great pilot. He’s “the best pilot in the resistance” (mentioned at least twice in the movie, including the opening scroll). Poe doesn’t get a super lucky shot. No pilot in their right mind would take that shot unless they knew they could do it. 50/50 chance of killing a friend or an enemy? Don’t do it. He is as bad as a Legolas, in that he does it in every scene where he is in the cockpit. Both are infallible in their role, but the worst part is that Legolas is at least believable in the role as an artifact of his race. Only Anakin, who was a ‘great pilot’ is seen to do anything remotely as ‘amazing’ while piloting in any Star Wars film. That’s not a good thing.
Absolutely happy to wait for more Captain Phasma. Hopefully they build on her because the idea is great.
Here is a scenario from TFA:
Finn: I need to go to Starkiller Base.
Leia: No.
Some guy: We need someone to go to Starkiller Base.
Finn: I’ve been there before, I’ll do it.
Everyone: OK.
There are no plot conveniences in the OT even CLOSE to that one.
Themes repeating themselves are slightly different to themes being used to bash your head in with nostalgia.
Look, the movie was a good movie, but it’s not even close to perfect and it’s disingenuous for people to act like it is, purely because it has Star Wars in the name. People ARE doing that.
People need to appreciate the criticism for what it is: genuine love for a great series that we dearly want to help be better. This isn’t the prequel trilogy, there aren’t millions of voices crying out in terror. I can both have my cake (enjoy the movie) and eat it too (point out the flaws) in the hopes that mistakes aren’t repeated. Hopefully they don’t fall as deaf on the ears of Disney as they did on George Lucas during the prequels.
Agreed with most of your points.
Noone is saying the movie is even close to perfect (read reddit and here, it’s full of film “experts”).
From my POV this is a good movie, a better star wars movie and an absolute godsend compare to the prequels. There’s a bunch of things I found annoying and those things you pointed out weren’t on my list. I’ll acknowledge them but pretty low in the grand scheme of things so doesn’t bother me.
Hopefully some of the annoying stuff will be acknowledged and taken on board for future films. I’m still very happy this exists.
SPOILERS HERE
This movie was average, at best.
Once all he nostalgia wears off and people start really picking apart this movie, it will be shown up as a movie that fails on a fundamental level. If this wasn’t a Star Wars, this movie would be getting eaten alive right now.
Campbell touched on it when he said :
There are so many of them, that by the time Han died I wasn’t emotionally engaged at all. That moment felt like nothing to me, which, coming from someone who has watched the original trilogy hundreds of times and considers Empire and Star Wars to almost be perfect movies, was very disappointing.
Major issues, for me, lie in the fact that multiple moments in the story, which should have been monumental, were delivered with all the excitement of a wet fart. For example, the Millenium Falcon that was just conveniently sitting there, ready to go. It was just handed to us with no excitement or build up. Same goes for Han Solo and Chewie. They just randomly arrive on board, at the exact right time, after presumably looking for it for years!
Same goes for the Supreme Leader Snoke(how did that name get through a single draft?). He’s mentioned, it’s barely given time to register and, oh, look…there he is. Portrayed complete with bad CGI and no mystery or malice at all. Massive fail.
Luke’s lightsaber, just sitting in a box in the basement of some bar that they just happened to show up at? Come on! How many coincidences are we supposed to just explain away with, “It was just The Force”? Once again. No mention, tease, suspense or build up on that major macguffin. It’s just there to randomly be found by our heroine who then inexplicably doesn’t want it?
StarKiller Base…a planet sized gun that nobody seems to know about which destroyed some planets, which I still can’t figure out if it was Coruscant or not, with no mention or suspense to build up the most dangerous thing in the galaxy? Also, where the hell are the Republic when all of this is going on?
Not to mention the fact that this huge planet-sized base appears to be vulnerable to a bag of thermal detonators?!!? Would anybody want to be on that thing if one guy could ‘rupture the fuel cells’ and cause the complete destruction of it with readily accessible explosives?! Or, would the entire First Order invest so heavily in something that is so vulnerable that even a regular grunt, on sanitation duty no less, is aware of these vulnerabilities and who didn’t even really have a plan, but was actually there to rescue Rey, and destroying said planet sized gun was something si casual that he could simply ‘think of something’?
Why are entire planets being destroyed with barely even a mention? Why should we care if nobody else seems to care?
The entire battle at the end was a rehash of New Hope/Jedi, but with almost no heart or tension. You can go back and watch Star Wars now, even after watching it a hundred times, and the end battle is still exciting. Not even the first showing of The Force Awakens’ end battle instilled any anxiety in me at all.
Don’t even get me started on the freighter scene, which was essentially an episode of a B grade Scy-Fy tv show, complete with bad cgi and really dodgy and forced dialogue.
The good :
The final 15 minutes, once Han dies, got interesting. The moment Chewie roars after seeing his long time friend get killed was cool, although it wasn’t nearly as cool as it should have been. Chewie should have been on a rampage, killing storm troopers with his bare hands and deciding to die there but being talked out of it by one of the ‘new breed’, convincing him that he can do more good by staying alive to win the war.
The end fight was also cool, although I think it should have been done much differently. It seems this entire movie was all about the pay off of that one shot of Rey force pulling the lightsaber. It was great, but it was obvious, like Han’s death, which severely lessened the impact for me.
In my mind, Kylo Ren should have defeated them both quite easily, making him look like a badass who’s sacrifices (destroying the Jedi order, turning against his family and apparently killing a bunch of people), were actually worthwhile. If he is unable to defeat a storm trooper with a lightsaber and an untrained Jedi who has NEVER held a lightsaber before, then why did he make those sacrifices and turn to the dark side? Ideally, he would have been about to deal the killing blow to Rey and a green lightsaber blocks it, revealing Luke, or the lightsaber flies past Kylo, past Rey, into the robotic hand of Luke.
This is my biggest criticism of the entire movie. It was full of rehashed ideas and missed opportunities. This movie could have had so many crazy moments and epic reveals that it could easily have been the best of all the Star Wars movies. However, it was very uninspired, safe and lazy. Will you be watching this movie hundreds of times? In twenty years? If so, I’d be interested to know why. The movie is largely forgettable, which is why I’m so disappointed by it.
I read a critic’s review which perfectly summed up how I felt about it when he said :
Wow, where to begin!
What a contrived load of insipid nonsense and complete ignorance.
– Pre-empted by “Not that one, its a piece of junk”, Almost exactly how Luke described it in A New Hope
– Yes they were, and while it was convenient that they stumbled across it, it was nonetheless believeable, and perfectly timed.
Yes, you just knew who it was boarding, but it was that very knowing that added to the excitement of the scene
– Are you for real? As soon as she touched it, Ray had horrific visions, culminating with her abandonment on a strange planet, arguably the most traumatic time of her entire life so far, of course she wouldn’t want something that causes so much pain!
– As vulnerable as the Death Star was to a torpedo up the pipe
– Of course it was, that was a theme running through the whole damn movie. The homage to the originals was executed with artful understatement and style. A passing of the “torch” so to speak
– Yes it was, as it was clearly designed to be. It solidified Ray as the new force to be reckoned with in the battle of Light vs Dark
– He did defeat Finn quite easily, who only managed to land 1 lucky, flailing shot, and the coutnter proposal of how the scene “should” have played out? After this massive post complaining about rehashes and cliche’s, you propose the biggest cliche of them all, completely missing the core point, Ray is NOT a damsel in distress needing her (Jedi) Knight with a shiny sabre to save her. She is well capable of that herself, untrained! Ray needs a mentor, not a saviour!
– Because it was intended to be so
JJ took this universe and treated how it deserved to be treated, with honour and respect. Each of the revisiting characters were used to perfection, except perhaps Leia, could have done a lot more with her. The next generation were introduced with a style that suits the overall feel of the originals and melds the stories together magnificently.
Ray is an awesome character and I can’t wait to see how she develops and grows through the next films as she attempts to convince Luke to return from his self-imposed exile and train her in the ways of the force.
Luke, as the broken saviour, suffering the same self-doubt as his mentor, and Darth Vader’s, Obi Wan, brings the story full circle, and chock-full of potential.
I am glad you were happy with it.
I don’t have time to go through each point with you, but if you’re willing to let basic story elements to this movie slide because it’s a Star Wars film, and have them just rehash the old movies then that’s great. I wish I was so easily satisfied.
“Look at me, I dislike a popular thing and if you’re impressed you must be an easily amused idiot.”
Just wanted to mention that Chewie did land a shot with his crossbow on Kylo, so essentially Kylo took on Finn and Rey with a shot to the gut, and adding to that, there were a handful of times where comments were made about how powerful Chewie’s crossbow is. So to me it is understandable that Finn and Rey could hold there own since Kylo was substantially wounded.
Added to that, it is clear that Kylo is struggling with his internal conflict and he just freakin killed his dad!
It would be completely off if he behaved, and performed, as though that meant nothing
Good point. Kind of explains how Finn (a non-force user) could stand up against Ren who can literally stop laser fire with his mind.
Thankyou for taking the time to address each lame potshot.
There’s probably a list of 10-20 gripes people have with the movie…. if I was to be that cynical then I could poke a bunch of holes in 1/2/3/4/5/6…. I don’t understand how anyone who genuinely like 4/5/6 would think this is a bad movie, it hits all similar elements whilst kickstarting a new lineage. If you’re petty enough to sift through Ep7 and poke holes into everything then maybe they should take previous star wars off the pedestal and do the same there.
For realistic fans who adored 4/5/6… waited 16 years and got served up 1/2/3… this is a 5 star dining experience compared to that, so thankyou team JJ.
Yeah, I’m happy with the film, warts and all. I don’t disagree with a lot of the points being made here but I think the film as a whole is really well done. I look forward to watching it at home a few more times and coming to know it as I know the other films.
I hate that you like star wars, do you remember what it’s like to have fun and enjoy things in this world.
I thought it was honesetly. The Republic exists at Coruscant and the center of the galaxy. The Rebellion exists on the outer rim where the First Order exists, as it’s the remnants of the Empire. The Outer Rim is the wild west area, and the First Order has been dominating this area. The New Republic doesn’t want to spark a new galactic war, so secretly aids this new ‘Resistance’ against this oppressive force.
We don’t know anything of Rey’s past yet. There’s more than meets the eye there, the current thought is she’s either Han and Leia’s other child (although never said, it does cut off at times when people ask about Rey, rewatch and see). It’s entirely possible she received *some* sort of training. Or what if, she’s Lukes daughter? Surely not a jedi but he would’ve taught her one way or another, something.
None of the characters bar Kylo Ren were particularly ‘good’ at using the lightsabers, Finn swung it like an amateur and Rey was only effective when she channeled the force through herself. Even Ren himself was blunt, forceful and brash with his fighting as opposed to say, Vaders more thoughtful style from ROTJ.
There’s people out there with laser swords, burning hot plasma running through them, they can cut through most things. You think they’re not going to try to create and deploy some sort of weaponry to counter the effects of a lightsaber???? To be honest, it’s a bit disappointing it wasn’t in the OT. I found this to be a great scene, portraying the First Order as a more prepared, more furious, more intimidating force than the Empire.
We are shown that Rey has a staff, and Fin is a child soldier. It’s not too hard to believe that they can somewhat hold their own.
Precisely!
and Grievous’s Magnaguard had weapons that could block lightsabers.
Bingo!
Honestly i’ll be a little disappointed if its hans/leia daughter. To me it makes absolutely no sense that they wouldn’t have moved heaven and earth to get her back after what happened with Ben. Luke’s daughter would make a lot more logical sense, but they really need to flesh out why luke was idling at some planet with thumb firmly up ass. Kinda hopeful they resurrect Mara Jade and that she left him just after falling pregnant possibly failing at an assassination attempt (which pushed luke into hiding) – makes it possible that Luke didn’t even know he had a kid.
I also felt that Rey was simply to powerful with absolutely no clue as to what was going on. I guess it kinda makes her a savant but wtf is she gonna be capable of with training?
Im hoping that she is somehow a descendant of Obi Wan
Not in any favor of for/against but there are some solid theories about it. One is that Luke force wiped han/leia/rey’s memory once Ren turned so that she can grow up in complete peace and rise when the time is needed (sound familiar?).
……… obviously this wall unfold in the next movies.
If you’d just seen EP5, you’d be saying the same thing about Yoda. You need to wait for context.
I thought it was interesting that the sound that led Rey to Luke’s lightsaber sounded a bit like a child crying. Perhaps she was seeing echoes of what led up to her being abandoned on Jakku by Luke? I really believe that Rey must be Luke’s child since she is extremely strong in the Force, untrained, similar to Anakin when he was a child. She’s a great pilot, similar to Anakin and Luke, and she seems to have shades of Padme’s personality in her. If she turns out to be Luke’s daughter, I wonder who her mother was.
Her mother?dunno byt lukes so lonely he wore the skin off his hand 😉 lol
I was pleased that the lead is a female… and I thought the film overall was a whole lot more inclusive than the other 2 trilogies. The Rebels had women, asians, blacks, and hispanics… which is a huge step forward for the series.
I thought the humor went over really well… I particularly liked Hans incredulous “That’s not how the force works!”.
But I thought that Rey was a total Mary/Gary Sue.
She’s great at melee combat (taking down Fin, whom we’re told has been training as a stormtrooper since childhood), & understands droid and wookie, & is excellent with tech, & is an amazing pilot… despite never having flown before, & turns out to be an amazing shot, & Han offers her a job on the Falcons crew.
Then we find out, oh… she’s also force sensitive, & then she can dominate minds despite never practicing it, & she can use force pull despite never knowing that was a thing, & she can totally beat down Kylo… whom we’re told killed all the other jedi students.
I liked the end with Luke… I thought you could feel the conflict at her offering him the lightsaber. Though how anyone knows that’s his given that he lost it at Bespin and had been using a different saber since.
The Rebels had women, asians, blacks, and hispanics… which is a huge step forward for the series.
Uhhhh…
So you never saw the OT, where there were blacks, asians, hispanics and in ROTJ, a few more women (really, the women thing is the only one that was actually left out, a whole female squadron had their scenes cut)…
https://youtu.be/vHnhxHMJcJ4
The female squadron… they were terrible! Good they were cut. They couldn’t do their lines or act for shit.
Pretty much why they were.
Aside from Lando, I don’t remember any other black cast members.
Mon Mothma, Leia, aunt Beru, the twilek that Jaba feeds to his Rancor, and the female console operator on the Hoth base are the only women I remember from the the original series.
And I don’t remember seeing any asians in the first trilogy.
I don’t doubt that this was improved in the second trilogy.
There was an Xwing pilot who was african american, an asian pilot who was in an A-Wing (MAY have been the one who crashed into the executor?) while Ep 4 was indeed more or less whitewashed, by the time ROTJ came out there was far more diversity (though that still angled more towards white admittedly).
and, technically, in Star Wars, black, asians, hispanics, etc. all don’t exist.
That is True the Canon says that Humans are just one race that comes in different colours including Orange if you live near certain moons or suns. so they’re just different humans not Asians, Blacks, Hispanics or Whites.
What?
The hell you think Lando is?
Socorrian.
Touché
Rey being a tech whiz would be a side effect of her surviving as a junk scavenger for a slaver most her life. Her force ability is clearly, to me, something she was trained in and forced to forget. It wouldn’t surprise me that she was being trained in the Force (presuming she’s Luke’s child) and was hidden for her safety when Ben Solo/Kylo Ren turned to the dark side. Luke needed to go search for guidance so it makes sense he’d hide Rey somewhere.
That supposes that Luke would dump her on a desert planet with no real guardian… when his sister, and her husband, are a completely viable alternative. And that he would do that after wiping her memories.
I don’t see Luke, having grown up not knowing his parents, doing either of those things.
Luke, if she was his child, would know she had force potential… he wouldn’t put her in a position where she could succumb to the dark side without some one to guide her.
I’m assuming Leia was keeping an eye on her. Alternatively, the old man Poe was meeting with in the opening scene was – he had an older Obi-Wan vibe about him, and I’m guessing he was a friend of Luke’s.
She wasn’t abandoned, but knowledge of her true identity had to be hidden from her.
I guess we’ll see, but I just don’t buy it.
Two things I didn’t like. 1) it seemed like it finished too quickly, last part felt a bit rushed. 2) The fact that Fin and Rey could hold their own in a lightsaber dual against Kylo. He’s supposed to be the next big bad guy but he can barely beat an ex storm trooper who has no lightsaber experience and gets beaten by Rey…IMO he should’ve fucked them up with ease to build him up a bit more. When the ground splitsand opens up it should be Fin and Rey that survive due to that, not a subpar bad guy.
Fantastic film otherwise though.
I put all that down to Ren being arrogant and toying with them since after fin lands a blow he pretty much gets serious and cuts him down instantly. Plus Chewie wounded him pretty badly and hes still in training and still conflicted between light and dark. But the way i see it, if you really want to like it you will theorize how things work as a opposed to seeing them as they are shown.
don’t forget Kylo was injured when he faced them, chewie shot him. You could say that would have had some affect on his ability to fight
He was only clipped. We’re shown several times that the bowcaster is extremely powerful, yet he has no visible wound (just bleeding) like the hole punched in the stormtrooper armour, nor is he sent flying off the bridge. Secondly don’t forget that Rey has recently been picked up and smashed into a tree, then dropped 25 feet onto rocky, frozen ground. She is at least hurt enough to render her temporarily unconscious, so she’s not going into the fight at 100% either.
where i can watch full movie ??
A cinema? Like everyone else?
Don’t watch it at Event Cinemas though. I don’t know about other cinemas but Event showed 30 minutes of ads before the film. I was almost too angry to enjoy the film when it finally started. I don’t go to the cinema very often but when I last did the ads were 10-15 mins max.
Hoyts too.
And only 3 of those ads were trailers.
ID4-2, BvS:DoJ, & Point Break.
That Point Break film looks so bad…
yeah, patience is too hard to have in a time when we can basically get everything instantaneously, right?
I think it’s more akin to micro-transactions in full-price games. You pay money and turn up at 12.00pm because they say that is when the movie starts, but then they have you trapped and can get delicious ad revenue for 30 minutes because they know you will not walk out and demand a refund.
Cinemas need to make money. They get bugger all for the ticket cost (like something like 90% goes to the film makers) so they have to sell ads + over priced popcorn and drinks. If you enjoy going to the cinema then you just have to accept this as a practice they use to make a profit. If you expected there to be no ads at the start of the biggest movie of the year then you’re dreaming.
All I want is transparency. If cinemas want to show ads then that’s fine, but don’t tell me the film commences at 10.30am when it commences at 11.00am. The overpriced popcorn and other stuff is clearly priced so you can decide whether or not to buy it. To sneakily show extra advertising at the start of a film merely because you are a captive audience, I’d say that is borderline deceptive. Why not tell me that the film starts at 11.00am? Because then I’d turn up at 11.00am, because I don’t feel like showing up half-an-hour early to watch ads. If cinemas need advertising to cover costs or need to bump up ticket prices or whatever, I don’t mind – just do it in good faith and with transparency.
If people did that then what would be the point of people paying them for the advertising? You sound like someone who doesn’t go to the movies very much. Personally I enjoy previews on the off chance I catch something I wasn’t aware was coming out. I don’t really have time for the 5 car ads that come before hand (especially when there are repeats..) but at the same time I respect the cinema needs to make money somehow.
If it really bothers you, You could always ring ahead and ask how many previews they have. I’m pretty sure they’ll give you the amount if you ask. It just wouldn’t make sense for them business wise to go – HEY ADS START AT 12:00, MOVIE AT 12:15 – exactly for the reason you’ve posted. Advertisers then wouldn’t bother, cinemas wouldn’t make enough money and they would close. Then people like you would whinge that you didn’t have a cinema anymore and how much it sucks…
@ruddaga If cinemas die out something else will replace them. Good idea about ringing ahead. I found out that for Star Wars, it is likely that all ticket money goes to Disney (more or less) during the first couple of weeks (see: http://themovieblog.com/2007/economics-of-the-movie-theater-where-the-money-goes-and-why-it-costs-us-so-much/) so the cinema needs to make money as best they can (ads, food, drink etc). So yes, I understand why the cinema shows the ads, but when it came to doing a deal between Disney/the cinema/the consumer, the cinema was greedy enough to agree to Disney’s 100% because it knew it could screw consumers by increasing the ads shown without telling them. The Cinema would be getting extra cash from advertisers as well because it’s Star Wars. The advertisers even had special themed ads running.
All movies r like this now,i just get there 20 mins past screening time, after booking a ticket of course.
Rey’s parentage is perplexing. Surely not Leia’s or Luke’s, it would be too predictable, especially after Kylo Ren. Surely Leia and Luke weren’t the only force sensitive people able to reproduce, but I believe that we might see something like what happened with Anakin: One born of the force, without Jedi parentage. It would go a long to explain her raw power without the slightest hint of training. Perhaps another prophecy could emerge in VIII? Just please don’t make her Luke’s daughter!
No no no no no, no more Jesus metaphors thank you very much.
Its the only thing that makes sense tho especially with all the lineage stuff they went through (Lightsaber chose her, the vision she had of luke etc). Sure its predictable but damn sight better than immaculate conception (Or was anakin just a test tube baby engineered by sidious?).
I think there’s a Skywalker connection, but it’s through Leia. There’s just too much Han in Rey for that to be a coincidence.
Plus a brother v sister showdown would be pretty epic!
You see Han in Rey but I see Anakin, what with the scavenging, droid friendship, piloting, sticking up for people they just met, etc.
I believe that Han did have multiple children in the extended universe, but not sure about Leia. It’d also be pretty hard for Leia and Rey to hug each other and not have some Force connection/realisation. Leia being Rey’s aunt would be a little more believable I think.
Luke and Leia, both force-sensitive people, did more than hug without realising! #twincest
Edgy! 😉
Saw it at the midnight premiere + I’ve seen it again since then. Haven’t enjoyed a star wars movie like this in nearly a life time. Is it a perfect film? Of course not. The mirroring of episode IV is extreme and it was slightly niggling that both Rey and Finn could wield a light saber without slicing their own arms off.
That being said, that is just me nit picking. I enjoyed every second of it and was filled with a satisfaction that had been a gaping hole from episodes 1 – 3. I keep seeing people on FB whinge that the prequels were better and these movies aren’t star wars…Those people are entitled to their own opinion of course, but are wrong.
There was something extremely special about being at the first screening here and people cheering at the falcon, Solo, and the applause at the end of the movie. The movie was also enjoyable and not boring a second time around.
1) Are people batshit insane
2) Do they just remember the movies being good in their head or something?
3) Maybe they saw 1/2/3 first and think thats the tone of the SW movies
4) Are people batshit insane !!!!!!!
“The Millenium Falcon jumping to lightspeed from within another ship? Improbable. Dropping from lightspeed within a planet’s gravity well?” how is that a plot hole? Seriously some people should really learn what a plot hole is, not something you just dont like. If you are going to complain about that you should also complain about how ships explode with flames in space. You arent watching science fact here, but science fiction.
Nor was it a deus ex machina (second most overused and little understood buzz words of recent years). Now if Yoda appeared and force pushed the ship out of the hanger you MIGHT have a point.
Star Wars is Science Fiction Fantasy Space opera so technically anything impossible for the laws of our universe don’t apply to the Star Wars Universe.
Star Wars is a fantasy movie in space, anything that doesn’t make sense could and should be handwaved as “magic”.
“In fiction, a plot hole or plothole is a logical inconsistency within a story. Such inconsistencies include such things as illogical or impossible events, and statements or events that contradict earlier events in the storyline.”
Its a plot hole because the core ideas of how hyperspace works is established in New Hope and later writings/interviews by Lucas (which is still canon). Otherwise the Falcon couldve just hyper-spaced out of the Death star in New Hope rather than obi-wan having to disable the tractor beam to allow them to escape. In doing what he does in Force Awakens JJ contradicts the established logic by previous films thus its a plot hole that isnt explained.
that was 30 years ago, as stating in the movie the Falcon had many owners since then, its not inconceivable that any of the owners including Han and Chewie could have added this feature and others we havent seen yet.
Han could have thought after they (well Lando and co) blew up Death Star 2, now we have saved the universe and got some downtime maybe what this ship needs is a new hyperdrive system, one it should have had and could have been useful
A plot hole is NOT something you dont like or that isnt explained explicitly. you point only stands if it takes place in the same time frame. not when there are 30 years of unknown history.
Also the characters seem unsure that would even work but they’re in a “have no choice” situation so they tried it. Rey goes “Will that work?” and Han replies “Never ask me that till I’ve done it” Or something like that. The bit where he pulls out of hyperdrive right before the planet was supposed to be a “WOAHH HE’S SUCH A MAD PILOT” moment…
I also cried but it was when I realised they didnt bother to write a new story for this film. WTF !
Loved it. Rubbish physics and all.
Was that Coruscant that was destroyed?
I bloody hope so
My theory is Jar Jar still lived there as part of the republic and he got blown up with it.
YES!!!
I thought it was the best movie of them all.
Aye!
I absolutely loved it.
Saw it twice on release day!
I also enjoyed it Zzzzzzonked. Although i don’t know if I’d say it was the best overall…. But it’s def the best one I’ve seen in 25 or so years.
It was enjoyable. To be honest, it felt like a compressed version of the OT. Did we really need the Kylo Ren reveal in the first act? Not really. I felt like the impact of Han’s scene with him was lessened because we knew the relationship by then. Removing the mask was a mistake too, could have been left till later. As a villain, Kylo Ren has already lost his aura of evil. He now see him as a conflicted child who had Daddy issues (A more whiny version of Luke).
Finn is a great sidekick character. I hope he’s given some development in later films as I want to know more about him and why he decided to run from the First Order. Though how he’ll survive a lightsaber slice right up his back I’ll never know.
Rey is a good main character, a combination of Leia and Luke. She kicks ass and has all the qualities that “those groups” have been screaming about wanting to see in movies for a while now… Oh wait, “those groups” have moved on to complaining about Captain Phasma not getting enough screen time. Guess it goes to show that getting the LEAD ROLE in this new trilogy isn’t enough to shut some groups up.
Final thing: In the Rey/Kylo Ren dual at the end, did Rey cut off Kylo’s left hand and scar the right side of his face? It was such a quick knockout before the land cracked apart that I couldn’t tell.
People say its exactly the same as IV, but then there’s statements like “should have left the mask on til later”. I think those smaller details are what makes it different. The flow of the movies will probably follow each other but the devils in the details. I like the fact that pacing/reveal was quicker in that area.
I have my gripes but the reveal was good and quick.
Yeah, a lightsaber can cut through a tree with almost no resistance, but I’m sure Finn’s spine is made of sterner stuff! 😉
(it’s called plot armour)
Conspiracy theory time. What if when rey held lukes saber, it brought back her own memories not his and she was a padwann of lukes and witnessed Ren’s massacre. Then luke and her parents dropped her on Jakku to hide her as she was the only one left. Otherwise why was the memory of her being left on Jakku thrown into that vision. It would also explain why she grew so quickly and had knowledge of the Jedi mind trick. She could have voluntarily or forcibly repressed her memories from her time training with Luke.
I also sensed some familiarity between Rey and Ren but that could just be because i want there to be to support my theory. The same goes for Rey and Luke at the end scene, like he expected her to find him.
Ooh, I like it.
That seems a little too like the Dark Side to me, forcefully repressing a child’s memories of being Force trained or even Force sensitive, before abandoning her on a planet (effectively selling her into slavery) with only a compulsion not to leave the planet. I think Luke would have taken her with him rather than do that.
Luke was ashamed that he failed the students. To me he would feel as though he couldnt keep her safe as he would feel responsible for the death of the others and he knows that kylo ren will be searching for him. But as i said, its just a theory. There will be more to rey in the coming films, she is too strong to be unrelated to everything. Theres also the possibility that she will be related to a surviver of order 66 or disney may introduce mara jade and her be lukes daughter
Just got back from seeing it. Having seen the original in cinemas when I was 10 I had high expectations for this film and it eclipsed every single one of them. Absolutely amazing stuff!
I loved how elements of the plot echoed the original while still letting it tell its own story. I loved seeing the old guard return and enjoyed the introduction to the new. BB-8 was especially adorable and I loved his initial interaction with R2!
I was absolutely gutted at what happened with Han, one of my childhood heroes. Chewie’s reaction was especially heartbreaking!
Yeah, poor Chewie. Hopefully he will feature in the next movie so we can see what happens to him next.
I also thought the film was awesome 🙂
After Snoke’s line to retrieve Rylo to “complete his training”, I could only think of Kung Pow’s “We trained him wrong, as a joke!” line. Not a bad thing, mind you.
Some of the whinging on here is an absolute joke! Sit back and enjoy it. If you think you could have done better, give the studio a call and drop them your CV covered in your fan boy tears!
as a long time fan i was so excited about #7 busting at the seams in fact. I walked out so disapointed. I wasnt looking for flaws, they just kept hitting me, hard. the acting was the worst so far, there was no decent villain and it didnt have that epic feel of the originals. it just felt rushed with no real dramatic moments or suspense. didnt feel like star wars. effects were great pupperteering great but movie weak overall. sigh. The first half was ok but i lost interest very quickly and found it to be very lazy story telling ,even though it was better than the prequals (thats not really saying much is it)
This is the dumbest response to legitimate criticism.
I think it’s a fair response. Did I think it was perfect? No. I could sit here and rattle off the things that irked me for a good 20 minutes… Did I think it was extremely enjoyable and is the right step for the next trilogy being an actual amazing experience? Heck yes. I have seen it twice and will def see it again. For the first time in nearly 3 decades we’ve had actual Star Wars movies released (the prequels were shocking).
Yep, it was definitely a star wars movie. Which is awesome, because a whole new generation are going to love it to bits! I personally know an 8yr old girl who already worships Rey and even wears her hair the same way. It’s adorable and I can imagine hordes of little girls in their Rey cosplays at birthday parties everywhere in the near future (Disney is already selling her costume).
Elsa is SOOOO 2014!