“Worst…Cosmic Wars…Ever! I will only see it three more times. Today.”
[Warning: Major Force Awakens spoilers below! If you haven’t seen the new movie yet, run away!]
By all accounts, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a pretty rad movie. It has likable and engaging new characters, brilliantly choreographed action sequences and plenty of knowing winks to lifelong fans. Plus, it actually felt fun — an element that was sorely lacking from the prequels.
However, this Jabba-sized success story is not without its warts. We have a few issues with the movie and some of them are fairly significant.
We think its important to talk about this stuff. By calling out the flaws now, there’s a chance we can make the next chapter in the trilogy even better. After all, nobody told Lucas that Jedi kind of sucked, and look what happened next.
So without further ado, here are ten things that Star Wars: The Force Awakens completely fumbled.
A New Hope 2.0
Episode VII’s “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to screenwriting often bordered on derivative. We basically got a xerox of the first movie with a few character rearrangements. From the cute droid on a secret recon mission to the destruction of the Star Killer/Death Star, most of the key plot points felt incredibly familiar. I was half-expecting Han Solo to whisper “Use the Force, Rey!” during her climactic battle with Kylo Ren.
Hopefully, the next chapter will move in a fresher direction. What we don’t want is a tired retread of Empire. If Kylo drops an “I am your brother” bombshell on Rey, I’m totally going to walk out of the cinema.
Plot holes a-go go!
Yeah, yeah, we get that you’re supposed to leave your brain at the door with these kinds of movies. Nevertheless, some of the story inconsistencies and leaps of logic are difficult to ignore. Here are some examples off the top of our head:
How does Rey understand Wookie and why does nobody else comment on this? Why does everyone in the First Order seem to instantly recognise Finn, a lowly janitor who always wore a helmet in battle? Why was Rey guarded by a single M19 agent/Stormtrooper? Why did the bad guys build another super weapon with an easily exploitable flaw? How did Phasma and Kylo escape the exploding planet after being tossed in a trash compactor and disappearing into the woods, respectively? Why does R2-D2 suddenly wake up at the end? Why did the good guys send some random girl to give Luke his lightsaber rather than, say, his sister or any notable member of the Resistance?
Also, if you want to get really nerdy, it’s not possible to suck all of a star’s energy into a terrestrial weapon. As Neil Degrasse Tyson explains, this would vaporize the planet.
Too much trilogy setup
Like most other modern movie franchises, The Force Awakens was too preoccupied with setting up the next installment when it should have been telling a standalone story. Too many plot points were left unexplained or were alluded to via a sprinkling of obnoxious breadcrumbs. It’s okay to do this in sequels, but the first movie in your trilogy should be all about the here and now.
Take A New Hope, for example — there were no cameos from the Emperor, no vague magical foretellings and no allusions to future events. Instead, it just got on with the present adventure. The only nod to a sequel it made was the escape of Darth Vader: otherwise, you could happily just watch that one movie and feel like you’d seen a complete story.
Way too many in-jokes
We’re all for “fan service” when it serves the story — the Millennium Falcon reveal was a great fist-pumping moment, for example. However, we can’t help but feel that the movie went way overboard in this department. From Finn messing around with the Holochess board to “I have a bad feeling about this”, the constant barrage of in-jokes and OT references felt cheesy and unnecessary. If a first-time Star Wars viewer is confused or distracted by something, it’s probably too on the nose.
Captain Phasma
The Force Awakens had some fascinating villains – we particularly liked the mercurial Kylo Ren and acerbic General Hux. But the highly-touted Captain Phasma was a complete waste. It makes zero sense to hire a phenomenal actress with major “geek cred” like Gwendoline Christie and then barely use her. She also failed to do anything remotely menacing and capitulated at the first sign of trouble.
Her general uselessness in all things has been compared to Boba Fett, but at least that character had some central bearing to Empire‘s plot (he captured Han Solo, after all.) By contrast, you could remove all of Phasma’s scenes without affecting the story in the slightest. Cool armour, rubbish character.
Confusing politics
At the end of Return Of The Jedi, the Empire was defeated and a new age of peace was ushered in by the Republic. In The Force Awakens, the political climate is never properly explained. Is the First Order in control of the galaxy or are they just a newly emerged threat? Why are the Resistance called “the Resistance” if the Republic is still in power? What is the First Order actually trying to achieve?
The Star Wars prequels were roundly criticised for being overly preoccupied with political maneuvering, but The Force Awakens went too far in the other direction. It’s hard to care about the stakes when the playing field is a mystery.
Casting the guys from The Raid and then never using them
This one is just annoying to chop-socky fans. For those who don’t prescribe to martial arts movies, the Kanjiklub mercenaries who hijack Han Solo’s ship included Yayan Ruhian and Iko Uwais; two of the principle ass-kickers from Gareth Evans’ The Raid and its sequel. In addition to starring in those movies, they also coordinated the astonishing fight scenes. And yet all they did here was run away from a CGI squid monster. Tch.
Harrison was ancient
There’s no getting around the fact that Harrison Ford is getting too old for this shit. He looked comically decrepit for an action hero in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — and that was seven years ago. In every action sequence there were moments where his advanced age was painfully obvious. The filmmakers should have CGI’d his noggin onto a stunt double for all the running scenes. (Given the budget, this easily could have been pulled off convincingly.) Presumably, J.J was too scared/respectful to broach the topic with Ford. A shame.
Rey was too perfect
Whoa, put down the pitch forks, people! I like Rey as much as the next person. The Star Wars universe was in sore need of a capable, proactive and take-no-shit heroine. I just think they overdid it a bit. She can speak “droid” and Wookie. She’s a bad ass with a staff. She is a mechanic prodigy. She even teaches herself the Force and beats Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel. Plus, she is physically, morally and intellectually flawless.
Granted, we don’t know her full backstory yet, but as a standalone movie character, Rey is too damn perfect. By contrast, Han, Luke, Leia and even Obi-Wan had notable flaws. Rey feels like she was designed by committee to have as much mass appeal as possible. Along the way, she lost some of her believability.
They killed off my childhood hero
The heartless bastards. *Sniff*
Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts about the movie in the comments section below.
Comments
270 responses to “Ten Things That Sucked About Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
Not sure about the point about Harrison Ford’s age. Yeah, he’s old, the character is also old. He’s SUPPOSED to be old – it’s 30-whatever years later. I thought he was great.
Almost literally if you take the ROTJ release date (Oct 27, 1983) to now. 32 years between it.
I have no issue with him being the “right” age. The problem is that they wanted us to believe he was still a swashbuckling smuggler. Harrison moves like an old rich guy.
That’s why he’s still got chewie around
They wanted us to believe he was an OLD swashbuckling smuggler. And like he said, once the thing with Leia didn’t work out, swashbuckling smuggler was all he knew, so it’s all he had to go back to.
I got the feeling that he was old and couldn’t keep up with the swashbuckling. I.E. exactly what you are describing as a negative, I think served what they were trying to do with the character. He is old and washed up and should either retire or die fighting. He did exactly that… I think him being younger would have contradicted the things that lead to his death.
Did I miss something? Solo didn’t retire or die fighting, he just stood there while his emo brat plunged a light saber into him. Most pointless death for a fav character ever.
He was old but didn’t retire, which was my point. He died on the job, even though he was clearly struggling to keep up.
Yeah, it was a little meh, but that worked for ‘why’ he died and the circumstances around his death. (And TBH, I would blame the film making for not portraying the emotional gravitas that the scene needed, not the narrative).
Having him go the way he did was more meaningful than him getting shafted in a blaze of glory like Porkins and co.
Lucas waited way too long to do 7, 8, 9 because of the prequel backlash. 2001 would have been a perfect year instead of the prequels.
But anyways, there are 10 million things wrong with this movie instead of 10. They totally Disney-fied it–TFA belongs on Disney XD after Power Rangers, not on the silver screen.
It was so bad it would have been better if Lucas remade Howard the Duck starring Jar Jar–literally. I came out of the theatre wishing the movie had starred/dir. by Kevin Smith and was called The Revenge of Cockknocker.
This will go down as the worst Stars Wars until 8 and 9 come out. I remember when TPM came out people were crying–literally full-on tear-streaming–and that had Liam Neeson, Ewan Mcgregor, and Darth Maul. This movie stars random unknowns confused about whether they are on stage doing a play or a Nickelodeon comedy-skit.
Star Wars is DEAD.
So sad, but you are right! Star Wars is dead?
Totally agree with you! 110%!
This is so true!!!!
Mickey Mouse has killed Star Wars!
Should have been an animated show on Disney channel.
I never felt so empty and cheated leaving a movie.
When Solo died I was actually glad, putting a almost dead animal down is humane.
CRAP movie!
I would go on but the force has left me…
Thank God I only spent $2 on it at Redbox..@ I dnt have to go to the damn theater and spending 10 $15 on this shit!!
Agreed, Before VII, any Star Wars movies was a must see in the theatre. VII for the first time made me question this and makes me want to hear reviews after VII comes out before I’ll decide whether or not to see it in the theatre.
I thought Harrison was great and it was good to see young and old protagonists fighting together. Plot holes aside it was the Ford and Princess Leia scenes that briefly pulled me out of the movie plus the resistance fighter pilots who couldn’t deliver their one liners. Still overall it’s a lot of fun.
I didn’ t like the bad guys. The son of Han Solo doesn’t have personality. The new “emperor” sucks. The new ( and absurd) death star sucks. Han solo is the best character of starwars, but the force awakens is a crap. Can a bad remake like the force awakens win prizes? I don’ know. Can a bad movie like the force awakenst make 1000 million of dolars in the box office? Of course. AVATAR is a better movie than the force awakens. No doubt.
I almost cried when I saw Han Solo’s son. Really? He is soooo ugly. He looks nothing like Han. Who the heck is the pilot what? He also has no personality and Finn? We don’t need a comedian he was way too funny. Aren’t the storm troopers supposed to be clones, we are not supposed to know what they look like.
Apparently they also recruited for Storm Troopers at some point. Hell of a lot cheaper to hire someone than build them I would think.
Finn isnt a clone trooper. plus we know what the clone troopers look like. since the main source was Jango Fett. Finn was taken from his family when he was very young.
They are soldiers trained since infancy. Which would mean he wouldn’t have much of a personality.
Yea i thought he was great too ….especially when he gets skewered with a lightsaber
nail, head, etc.
Also – that had to be the easiest million bucks (or however much he got) that Mark Hammill ever made.
You just know he has been practicing that scene for the last 30 years.
Hoping the big day to show us how good he is to stand still in silence.
What an amazing time to be alive.
Why didn’t then have him slowly force grab his sabre at the end. Why!!!
Do you mean the blue sabre? Becuase that is Anakin’s which was left to, Luke but his sabre is the one he built on his own in ROTJ the green one.
oh. Still would of been cool.
Also I think in the next movie he will show his reluctance to teach Rey the force. He failed with Kylo Ren/Ben so it’d make sense for them to add a “I don’t teach anymore” plotline. Hence his disappearance.
Ray is going to be Luke’s daughter what’s why she was able to use the Force Like she did. But big problem is the name hon and Leah’s son is Jacen solo and not Ben solo. Plus Jacen had a twin sister that according to the books is to kill him.
Nope, Lord Methos. The EU isn’t connected to TFA.
Every character has a history that is either hinted at or explained. Finn is the only character we do not currently understand on some level. We understand him as he is now – but who is he? Why did he break the conditioning?? Why is he always either running from danger or to it??? Regardless of all this I’m most interested in hearing more of his story and most fearful that his will be the most wasted of all.
inb4 he’s force sensitive and inexplicably drawn to rey because she’s a wound in the force that force users are attracted to and now he has a lifebond with her and when one gets hurt the other will.
pls don’t let that come true.
I bet Poe is force sensitive too. There were several mentions of how great a pilot he is, and I suspect that will be the reason why.
Wedge Antilles survived the Battle of Yavin, Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Endor in the OT and was clearly the best fighter pilot (apart from Luke) and was not force sensitive. You don’t have to be force sensitive to be a great pilot.
But why rub our face in it? There will be a reason his status as the best is made known to us repeatedly.
Because they want us to know he’s the bestest fighterer pilotter dude ever, I guess?
Yeah, but for someone with so little screen time? Smells like future Jedi to me too.
I don’t know… Han Solo was the best pilot in the galaxy back in the day. It was never explained why – he never seemed particularly Force-sensitive, nor did he ever become Jedified.
Sometimes people are just good pilots without needing assistance from the Force. Like Maverick in Top Gun, for example.
But not so much Goose…
He was good at co-piloting, bad at ejecting.
don’t forget karaoke singing too…wonder if those two things are related?
They rub our face in it for the same reason they rub ‘all the nostalgia’ in our faces, too. They want to be like the OT, but better in every way.
It’s all one-upmanship. They need to have Rey be a better Luke, Poe be a better Wedge, Finn be a better Han (this is absolutely true, don’t doubt me), Starkiller be a better Death Star.
Well, there was that tiny bit about Finn (And the other troopers) being taken from his family when he was young, unless I’m mistaken. Other than that, yeah not much.
Here’s my beef: 30 years later and they are still flying TIE fighters, X-Wings and (modified) Star Destroyers. The prequels had vastly different tech, why the shit aren’t the sequels towing the line? If there is war, there is R&D in weapons and vehicles guaranteed.
“Hey, let’s build another awesome planet based killer weapon, but defend it with the same unshielded pieces of shit that couldn’t even defend the last two properly! Brilliant!”
I want my vast fleets of cheap TIE Defenders goddamit!!
To be fair, the whole thing was shielded, it was only Han’s idea to come out of light-speed within the shield that was the downfall.
30 years isn’t a huge amount of time for military hardware, we are still flying F-18 hornets that we purchased in 1981.
Sure tech moves fast during a war, but war had already been waging, the Empire left in tatters, and the rebellion was just a small group and the government had been taken out by the Death Star, along with the planet, so resources, manufacturing and organisation would have been at a pretty low level.
For the rebels maybe, but the Imperials had existing and widely spread construction capabilities, not to mention other fleets. I can’t help but think it was all for the sake of fan service, nothing more.
It’s hard to argue the point, not knowing how the 30 year gap played out. I can only base my assumptions on the EU, which has largely been wiped off the map by Disborg.
They may have had widely spread construction, but with the head cut off the empire, and rebellion everywhere it could easily have quickly been over-run by locals, local warlords springing up etc. and fighting amongst themselves etc. Looking at world history that sort of thing can happen pretty quickly.
Tie Defenders or Tie Advanced(s) would be great. But I think they just kept the core Tie Fighter and X wing designs because this is effectively a reboot for a new generation of viewers. Get them to fall in love with the designs so they can go back to watch 4, 5 and 6 and cheer at those designs as well.
I’m not sure why the Empire/First Order chose to have two seated Tie Fighters though. Seems kind of a weird decision. Especially when they had the Tie Interceptors from ROTJ and Tie Bombers from Empire.
At least the X wing has a small change in their intakes(even though it was the initial concept art from the original Star Wars), but at least we can see a little progression. I’d rather see X wings then B Wings though(sorry to the B Wing fans out there. :P)
X-Wings are a pretty fucking perfect fighter though? Missile capabilities, hyperdrive, shields, manoeuvrability.
And the Ties are just super cheap number fodder.
Just need a rear facing gun ;^)
This is pretty much the point I was making. It’s just a design decision for the fans. Who knows, perhaps the “new” ships pack all the features from their upgraded counterparts? Maybe these TIE’s do have shields? Only Disney knows…
According to the stats TIE/FOs have in the X-Wing miniature game, they do have shields.
That never used to be the case. Original model TIE’s had no combat shields as a trade off for more speed.
That’s true, but later on in the EU, when the Empire realised that increasing the survivability of their veteran fighter pilots was actually a good thing, they started developing TIEs with shields like the TIE Defender and the TIE Phantom.
It was also more of a cost factor to not have shields on the original TIEs. It ties a bit into the Remnant mentality; since you don’t have an effectively infinite manpower pool to draw pilots and crew from, you would want to take steps to allow them to survive engagements better. Heck, the TIE/FO had ejection seats, and that’s something else the original TIEs didn’t either.
There are two new Tie models present in TFA, you have the Tie/FO which is essentially a modernized take on the old tie fighters (Some shielding, improved speed ect), and the Tie/SF which is what Finn and Poe stole at the start, two seater Tie model, shields and rear facing turret.
As for the X-wings, the model in the film is the T-70, it actually sacrifices armour and payload for improved speed over the Original Trilogy’s T-65 X-wings.
It’s not seen in the movie, but there is supposedly a T-80 X-wing variant in use by the Republic.
To clear up any confusion regarding the Republic and the Resistance. The Republic and First Order have a treaty that enforces heavy restrictions on both sides in regards to the size and types of ships they can build and the size of their fleets (The star destroyer you see in TFA is litterally one of a bare few the first order own, hence why they built starkiller in secret to take out the republic).
It’s due to this treaty that Leia has started a Private military force called “The Resistance” to keep *both* factions in check (to prevent another Palpatine-like tyrant rising to power), though they obviously have a closer eye on the First Order.
The Resistance is pretty much broke during TFA and only survives due to the secret backing of several Republic senators and wealthy individuals.
NEEEEERRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDd!
you noticed manifold and intake differences?! lol love it
You must have had Puzz3d Xwing!
What if, the way that tech advances, the designs from Jedi were already pretty advanced or refined and so there is’t as much left for improving to make the ships better?
Or the fact that they went back to the original movies concept art to where the X-wings had engines that separate when the wings open.
I’d believe a bit of both lol 😉
Edit: Don’t know too much about the ties, but my gut feel is that the strait wings are easier to mass produce on site (I.E like the Deathstar or Starkiller base) and construct, like Lego. Could be why we see more tie fighters and less of the more complex interceptors, which did look more incrementally improved from memory than the standard tie’s.
Yeah… with a design like that, those TIE fighters could practically come flat-packed like Ikea furniture. They seem flimsy enough for it, too 😛
Well I remember seeing them in parts in the Force Unleashed. Yeah. As you say, pretty Swedish looking.
But the new TIE fighter were more advanced.
They had atmosphere generators and radiation shielding unlike the originals that required space flight suits and oxygen tanks.
Pretty sure the new ones are also faster than the originals and more capable in planetary environment.
They might of even had shields and hyperdrive actually come to think of it…
Little off topic, but you reminded me: I wasn’t a massive fan of how they did certain things more than once (And too heavy handily IMO for it to count as foreshadowing in some cases).
Certain characters fell into tropes, Finn unfortunately fell into a comedy trope IMO, which is OK. But he was used for the same type of comedic relief, much like *shudders* C3PO, which got old fast. And they used lite-speed to do something against incredible odds twice. Once to escape the pirate dudes and once to enter the Starkiller. (The Starkiller? Starkiller Base?)
Still, hard to linger on the negatives though when it was still so much ore enjoyable (IMO) than the prequels.
18 years? Pfft.
B-52 type bombers have been in service since 1955. They aren’t going away any time soon. The design has changed a little over the years, but still recognizable.
They spent all their R&D money on the awesome planet based killer weapon. Nothing left to spend on new TIE fighters, and since the other side are still flying the same old X-Wings then there wasn’t really an arms race to motivate them to improve the TIE fighters.
Or something.
The TIES and X-Wings are newer models though.
Well, yeah, but you know… it’s like when Toyota release a new Camry or whatever. Yeah, it looks a bit different, maybe has a few minor improvements around the place, but it’s still a Camry.
They can’t improve them much more because they are nearly perfect…………….ly like the original movies concept art. (The X-wings anyway)
Let us not forget the MASSIVE dent in human resources when most of the Engineering / Construction contractors and talent were killed during destruction of Death Star 2.0
That’s a good point, actually.
And where did they find the construction workers? You’d think every labour union in the galaxy would have blacklisted them after the 2nd Death Star incident.
Unions having a field day!
Slaves and robots don’t have unions.
If they didn’t have a union then that second Death Star would have been finished well before the rebels got there 😛
When you use slave labour, like Wookies, it’s hard for the union to say no to any employer demands, you know.
Thanks for that original though that is totally not from Clerks or anything.
Different versions of Tie Fighters that now seated 2 people, a pilot and a gunner instead of the single seater version, making them superior to the older ones as they had rotating turrets on them now. The XWings were newer versions as well.
The Star Desroyers were different too, not to mention the shuttles.
Where is the kickstarter to design, and build a tie fighter? What’s so hard about a Soyuz capsule, a pair of hexagonal solar panels, and a NASA ion drive? We could dock it at the iss, and now elon musk has reduced the price of a trip to the space station to six hundred thousand dollars, enjoy blowing the kids college tuition on something meaningful: tie fighter racing around the moon.
Agree! I want TIE defenders! Are the life of Imperial Navy cheap??
Give more budgets to CGI team, cut the payment for Ford!
Save the Imperial Pilots’ life! Their families are crying~
Probably because the war ended after rotj. The republic wanted peace so didn’t invest in weaponry and the remnants of the empire are too small and don’t have the treasure.
Phasma is fine, not every character has to have a big story right away, it would have detracted from the time left to tell the rest of the story, and sets up a grudge between Finn and Phasma. I really liked the restraint shown here.
As for the fan-service, I flt it was just about the right amount, my daughter never was into the original movies (she is 15) and she wasn’t confused by any of the references to the old movies, there was nothing in them that detracted/confused for a first time viewer.
Harrison is old, so is the character, I don’t see a problem there.
Rey speaking Wookie and Droid is okay, she is on a trading hub surrounded by a large range of creatures and droids, I can buy that. Yeah she is kinda over-skilled, but then again, she looks strong with the Force, so that probably helps. I liked that Finn struggled to get as good at things as quickly, like his trouble with the defense of the Millenium Falcon, whereas Luke had no problem getting to grips with it more quickly – fits the existing SW universe where people that are strong with the Force get good at stuff quickly.
The ANH 2.0 is a fair complaint, but I like that they chose to effectively make it a soft reboot, I think any other choice would have been more problematic.
I didn’t realise it was the guys from The Raid, that does seem a waste, I get the feeling there may have been more here that ended up on the editing room floor.
As for the confusing politics, it made sense to me, the end of Jedi (the 1983 version) just had them celebrating the end of the Emporer, Darth and the new Death Star, the Empire still would have weilded a shitload of power, so I thought it seemed realistic that the galaxy was how it was.
I’m glad they didn’t get bogged down explaining too much, the original movies didn’t explain everything either, which made it seem far more real, as people don’t go around explaining the world/universe and how it works. It also leaves plenty of space for the new movies to reveal it as part of the story instead of boggy exposition.
Setting up the trilogy? Again, I thought they were pretty restrained, it was a self contained story, sure it wasn’t tied up in a neat bow, but apart from the bit at the very end, it really was a complete story, but one that made you really want to come back to the universe and find out more of the story and what happens to everyone.
The movie had a ton of flaws, just like the original trilogy, I reckon there were worse flaws than the ones mentioned here, but I’m not going to dwell on them much, I enjoyed the movie like we used to when we were kids, it made me believe it was all real for a few hours, and I want to go back there again soon!
Your last paragraph would be on point were it not for the 30 year time gap; we’ve got too large a gap where the New Republic was (should have been?) cleaning up Empire Remnants to not throw us a bone.
Though, I’m presuming the First Order are the empire remnant attempting to mount a comeback; except for a single scene that looked liked Coruscant (one of the planets blowing up), it looked like a lot of the action took place in the Outer Rim – the Resistance could be an unofficial off-shoot of the New Republic as the New Republic may not believe the First Order to be a credible threat, at least until after the Star Killer was used.
But even that sounds lifted from EU (NJO/Yuuzhan Vong war). Every outcome I think through for this new trilogy leads back to points used in the EU or Empire :/
I see your point, I think the 30 year gap though needs to unfold slowly as the films progress, having the characters expound the history of the last 30 years may have felt forced or dull or both.
I’d prefer the films to be primarily about the now, the history in between can be hinted at, and for the audience and amongst my friends anyway, it is a great area of discussion and supposition, which is something missing from movies for the last decade. I remember talking about movies for *months* after they were out, discussing and arguing with my friends, it is a joy to be doing that again.
It did feel like there was a lot of history there, from the crashed ships, to the main characters thinking that perhaps Luke, the Jedi etc. were just myths and the world seemed a logical progression. I’m sure once the official history is revealed, either in the movies or in other works, that some of it will be somewhat reworked from the EU, there was so much material that there would be no way to not end up with some similar stories, even if the new writers were unaware of them.
It would have helped if the opening crawl had given the new factions more depth beyond just listing their names, while rambling about Luke for 3 paragraphs.
Fair enough.
There was a point I saw earlier which I found really fair, in using Phasma to be the trooper Finn uses the lightsaber against, rather than just an average trooper who just happened to have this huge, saber resistant mace hanging off his belt. If nothing else, it could have given her a little more.
Pretty much. I really hope that the whole trilogy isn’t a retread of the original trilogy but I can see it coming. Rey is totally going to be Kylo’s brother (at the worst, cousin). Luke is going to be the Yoda style mentor to Rey. There’s going to be the whole family revelation between Rey and whoever decides to pipe up. The big hologram dude is more than like the Emperor in a clone body. Luke’s not actually going to do anything (like Yoda). I really don’t want any of this to be the case but I have a strong feeling that it will be.
I want to see Luke go crazy nuts and actually be a badass. I want to see Phasma actually do SOMETHING. I want to see Rey being pegged down a bit because, yes, they overdid the whole strong heroine thing. Yes Luke quickly learned how to use the force, but he had loads of flaws in his character. Rey has…none? That’s why I didn’t find her likable.
And yeah, I also had no idea what the political stage was for the film. The rebels won. But they’re still rebels. Some form of history over the last 30 years would be good. There also wasn’t any buildup that I saw of the starkiller. All of a sudden some random Imperial, sorry, First Order general (Bill Weasley stepped up from training dragons btw) was in control of a planet sized weapon. Where did that come from? The Deathstar had a decent buildup to it in IV. This was just shoehorned in to blow up planets and, again, build a bridge to the original trilogy.
Abrams is great at action. Brilliant. Someone else needs to take control over the plot direction and screenplay though.
I still enjoyed it loads. Go figure
Well they’ve got different writers/directors for episodes 8 and 9, similar to how the original trilogy also had a different director for each episode.
I’ve got very high hopes for Rian Johnson’s episode 7 – I loved Brick and Looper, and enjoyed The Brothers Bloom. Those are much more plot/dialogue driven movies rather than action / special-effects extravaganzas.
Colin Trevorrow doing episode 9… he’s done a big effects movie (Jurassic World) and a good smaller-scale drama/comedy (Safety Not Guaranteed). Whether he can actually combine those two aspects into a single, great Star Wars movie remains to be seen.
The one thing that was really evident though was the lack of George Lucas and I think that helped a lot. I don’t want to think about what he was intending to put into the films before Disney loaded up his wallet and showed him the nearest exit
The orange Yoda stand-in who ran the smuggler’s cantina probably would have been Jar-Jar.
‘Meesa gotten Luke’s lightsaber’
*First Order arrive to bomb the building’
‘WEESA IN TROUBLE FINNY’
*Jar-Jar falls over but somehow kills an entire legion of Stormtroopers to great comedic effect*
‘Uh oh. Sowee’
*The whole cinema collapses from split sides from laughing so much*
*dustwind yells “Stop laughing, you imbeciles!” and then does the full Frank ‘Grimey’ Grimes routine, including self-electrocution to escape the madness.
I’m also a fan of Rian Johnson, and think he’ll do a better job with dialogue and characters. I think his is Episode 8 not 7 though. I’ll have to check out The Brothers Bloom, I haven’t seen it.
Apparently, Disney released some kind of material about the intervening 30 years, but I cannot find it. Perhaps it was released to the press only to help with the reviews.
As an example, this blog http://thewertzone.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/star-wars-force-awakens-questions-and.html which focuses on scriptwriting gives details that weren’t in the film.
1) Too many stars and not enough war.
2) Maz “That’s a story for another time” Kanta. GO FUCK YOURSELF.
3) Emperor Palp.. Supreme Leader Snoke.
4) What does this universe have against railings?
5) The movie lacked comedy. It needed a character who steps in shit and gets electrocuted.
Comedy is one thing I think Force Awakens nailed — Finn had a bunch of very funny moments, Chewie brought the house down and BB-8 managed to be Scrappy Doo without it becoming annoying. The “Nope!” stormtrooper moment during Kylo’s tanty was also hilarious.
that Thumbs Up by BB-8 was on point. i lost my shit way more than i should have.
Completely agree. The comedy was not the over-the-top physical caperings and associated racist stereotyping of Jar Jar, which I greatly appreciated. Watching episode I again recently was painful because of Jar Jar’s antics.
I have often pondered this myself. Clearly OH&S is not a priority for anybody. Nor is convenience. Like that bit where Rey had to climb down the side of that more-or-less bottomless chasm in order to pull that lever to open the little door to squeeze through – why in gods name would anybody put a lever or a door there?!?!
There were railings that prevented anyone from falling down off the side down that hole. Funnily enough there were none on the bridge though.
I want to know the story behind Luke’s lightsaber. Last time we saw that, it was tumbling down that giant abyss along with Luke’s severed hand at the end of Empire. So who found it? How? Was it a janitor sweeping up down at the bottom there or something?
If they found the lightsaber, is Luke’s hand also laying around somewhere? All dried out and shrivelled up and granting wishes like the monkey’s paw?
And why is it (speculated to be) in the box Old Ben had it in from A New Hope?
That might have just been JJ Abrams fan service using the same / similar prop rather than being intended to be the exact same box.
Maybe, maybe not. I meant it comically either way.
The lightsaber would have also been broken into pieces since it fell that far… far beyond repair… Haha… nice mention on his hand… I can imagine his hand being some sacred good luck monkey paw to some neo-Jedi occultists of some kind… 😛
Im hoping rei has been memory wiped and is rediscovering her old powers. Kotor style. Other wise it is stipid how quick she picks things up
big theory at the moment is that she is Luke’s daughter or ren’s sister
If they do that it is way too obvious and just makes star wars feel even more odd how everything is one family
Well, I believe she’s Luke’s family from the kinda obvious (if true) line about the light saber being Luke’s, and his fathers before him. Why include the line unless you want it to be an heirloom?
I’m hoping she is related to Obi Wan, but then that kind of defeats the whole R2D2 waking up when her presence is felt scene. At least, that was my take on it.
Definitely a Skywalker, not a Solo. Why would Han and Leia abandon their daughter? Luke on the other hand abandoned the entire galaxy.
yes! How much does she remind you of Bastila?
i hope thats who they based her on. even though technically Bastila turned to the dark side in the end. oh shit, i hope they dont do that to Rey, i like her too much…
funny thing is the end of jedi at one point was luke turning to the darkside and the assault on the Second Deathstar being a massive Failure
I think its more in the case she had partial training as a Jedi during Luke’s New Jedi Order before Kylo tore it down. She just kept it hidden since there was this whole group called the First Order who were hunting down the supposed ‘Last Jedi’ and given that you really couldn’t trust anyone on the planet, she never used it. She only actively started using it when she had no other choice (ie fighting Kylo’s interrogation, the Jedi Mind Trick on Bond which she’d only really know if she had been taught it or seen it before, and finding tranquility in the force for the curbstomp part of the duel)
So, not forgotten but more her hiding it. My prevailing theory is that she is Luke’s daughter, and she met up with Dad at Mum’s grave. And she’d been waiting for dad (and mum if she was still alive at the time) to come home after leaving her on Jakku but he never did.
Not a bad theory, I do agree that the location luke was found will be of some significance, didn’t consider it could be a grave site.
I felt it was too concerned about political correctness at every turn, and in doing so felt more like medicine than cake. It also made it entirely predictable and makes you predict every scenario to their politically correct conclusion. I’ve seen Disney movies be more controversial.
After the first act I was (having not seen any spoilers) actually successfully predicting the fights, death(s) and jokes on the first viewing.
every joke was predictable (and predictably) cringe(y).
I enjoyed them, thought the humour was well done.
How was the movie “too concerned with political correctness at every turn”? At most, you could say that Rey telling Finn not to hold her hand twice was a bit much (though I’d disagree), but how throughout the rest of the movie are there any gratuitous or unnecessary plot developments, conversations or references to gender, race, etc?
Ding, ding, fucking ding.
He’s just pissed it’s not two white dudes, rather than a woman and black dude.
Please, lets not go as far as to presume he’s a xenophobic misogynist. That can be pretty insulting.
That said, I agree that (other than the, IMO, true to character hand holding thing) it wasn’t trying to be politically correct. Yes, they were more inclusive with this one, but they did it in the best possible way: By not hitting you over the head with it or unnecessarily squeezing a characters race or gender into the narrative.
It was diverse because it could be, not because it ‘had’ to be. The character’s didn’t walk around telling off racist/ misogynistic characters (Rey told off Finn because she doesn’t need help from anyone, not because he’s a man) or broadcasting their politically correct beliefs to make a point or seem inclusive, like sometimes happens in TV/ Film/ Games.
I enjoyed seeing a star wars with more variety because it makes sense that there is diversity in a galaxy that big. It looked ‘right’ IMO.
So bringing earth stuff into something set along time ago in a galaxy far, far away isn’t pissing anyone off? I think all the humans needed skin and hair colour that matched their eye colour. Luke could have had blue hair and skin to go with his eye colour.
Not at all. I see no problem with a Female protagonist nor Finn. When you make all the characters so ideal, you loose personality. I think this applies regardless of race or sex. The Villain was even a stereotypical/perfect (perfectly bad) villain.
The flaws and imperfections are what creates character and uncertainty. To illustrate, I would like to ask weather you thought K Ren had any chance at beating anyone in that last fight going in?
A desperate protagonist that starts off small, struggles and beats an unbeatable Villain under overwhelming circumstances, will have a different outlook.
These characters have nothing on charcters such as Ellen Ripley.
How so? Right from the get go we saw Kylo was young, rash, foolish, uncertain and had anger issues. Hardly the stoic cookie cutter villain that was Darth Vader.
I see a lot of people describing the film as derivative. To be honest, I think that’s its strength. I wanted a simple Star Wars story with good characters. That’s what I got.
I agree. It’s practically the point of the movie: “the new generation is going to be going through adventures, just like the heroes you remember.”
I doubt the new generation (kids growing up now, who haven’t seen any of the others) will have any respect for this property having only seen this.
If you take Star Wars IP out of this movie, it’s an after school special. You know how much kids love those.
But it does have the YA thing going for it, so I may be wrong. Hunger Games seems to be doing well with the younger generations.
I’m 27 and went to the midnight screening for the last Hunger Games. “Younger generation” is just you railing at a couple of kids and their snapchats/instagrams/myspaces.
How was it an “afterschool special”? Seriously?
And if you take all the Star Wars IP out of the movie, you’re left with nothing?
Yup, I agree. “After-school special” is incredibly harsh, especially when you compare it to other modern Hollywood or Disney movies. Sure it’s not ground breaking, but it wasn’t ever going to be. It was still competent and entertaining.
And, also I’m 22 and liked the Hunger Games as well. I’m not a super fan, but I found them all relatively enjoyable, enough so to go see them all when they released. Didn’t really enjoy the last one unfortunately.
It’s not a bad thing. Maybe it’s not even a generational thing. But I find Hunger Games and that entire genre despicable (another strong word, sue me!), and replaceable by one good movie. I only saw the first one.
As I said before “I may be wrong”. I wasn’t talking about 20 year olds, I was talking about 13 to 16 year olds. That was where the original made a big impact on a lot of kids.
It’s down to personal taste, but I think you are using yours to stereotype.
I concede. You are (politically) correct.
Yes, but you can also have a simple Star Wars story with good characters that also wasn’t a rehash of A New Hope…
Borrowing from what’s came before isn’t a sin, especially not for a franchise. Especially when the movie is aiming to be a ‘reboot-reboot’ that also gets the fans nostalgic.
Hey, totally agree, taking elements for nostalgic purposes is great. But this could have been exceptional if they had just been a bit more creative.
Maybe it would have, but I think the thing to take away from it is just how much better it was than the prequels. The next movie will either be more creative or, being Disney, even safer.
True, as much as I didnt like this movie it was a step up from the Prequels. The action was great and it actually had some Star based Wars in it so I guess thats a plus.
Yeah. I liked it in general but it definitely wasn’t perfect. I’m still on the fence about some elements, but it’s still a step in the right direction.
You’re right. Its totally a rehash, I remember the Jedi Padawan waiting for her family on a desert planet with absolutely no desire to leave that. And who can forget the sequence where the Clone Trooper defected from the empire? Or the Ice planet in a New Hope, or the time they were running around a forest?
There are some minor elements which are in both, and nods, but a rehash it is not. People grasp at straws to make tenuous links to validate their criticisms.
Ok then:
1. Key member of the resistance gets captured, has information that is required by the bad guys to find the location of another key resistance figure
2. He escapes with the help of a stormtrooper
3. They crash land on a desert planet which happens to be where we meet our amazing pilot/mechanic/secretly Jedi hero
4. Hero manages to meet up with a droid who has been captured by alien scavenger
5. Droid has secret message that must be shown to the resistance which is of vital importance
6. Hero and former stormtrooper escape from desert planet in Millenium Falcon
7. There is a Millenium Falcon turret battle against small tie fighter squadron
8. They meet up with Han and Chewie, who agree to help them by taking them to a location friendly to the resistance
9. There is a cantina with random smattering of alien creatures
10. The party goes to a secret resistance base in the forest (Think Yavin in the first movie)
11. There is a giant battle station capable of destroying planets with a giant circular canon
12. They devise a plan to destroy said battle station with an X-Wing squadron attacking a stupidly exposed section of the station that is vital to the integrity of the station
13. Finn meets up again with hotshot pilot buddy
14. X-wing battle sequence
15. Side note: shield removal plan and execution ripped from ROTJ
16. Father figure dies which motivates one of our heroes to start blasting stormtroopers all over the place
Need I go on? Really mate, this is all key shit to the plot of the movie. Not to mention that when we met her Rey wasnt a Jedi Padawan, she was just a girl on a planet, much like Luke wasnt a Jedi Padawan when we met him either. She lost her family, Luke lost his too. Yes there are some new plot elements, but they are actually few and far between by comparison.
I also have problems with the movie other than this, but wont go into them right now because a) they are listed in the actual article, and b) I’ve spend too long on this comment already.
I understand wanting a simple SW story but did we have to get the SAME, exact one from before?? It wasn’t derivative, it was Abrams leaning over Lucas’s shoulder during a test and copying down his essay answer word for word. Honestly any 1000 people could’ve come up with something original and better. This is Abrams/Disney just polishing their old car a bit and telling you it’s brand new.
I did not like Ren. General Hux was great, even though he did chew the scenery a bit, But Ren, after the excellent introduction turns out to be nothing but a spoil 30 year old man child
Your an idiot.
You do not need to talk about these things as they will have no bearing on the next movie. Why would a director in charge of Star Wars listen to you. The execs who make the big decisions certainly wont.
And where you get off submitting a subjective list as a definitive list of things that are wrong with the movie. Keep your opinions to yourself and write some actual news for a change.
Sheesh!
chill out bruh, hes entitled to his opinions as a form of generating discussion. hence why at the end of the article it says ‘agree or disagree?’
I said it’s important that *we* talk about these things, meaning the audience at large.
Of course the people in charge don’t give two shits what I have to say — but if millions of people have similar complaints it will absolutely factor into their planning for the sequels.
Exactly. I didn’t particularly agree (or disagree) with you, but I’ve been relatively engaged in the discussion that followed. So thank you for that.
I actually agree with most of the arguments you put up. I personally hated (well actually I was more frustrated with it than straight up hated it) the movie, and it was pretty much everything you listed here that did it for me. It just seemed like everywhere there was this torrent of praise for something that wasn’t actually that amazing and there was no one to actually put up an argument as to why it wasn’t…
*You’re
First time on the internet mate?
Poe, who promised to come back for BB… who deliberately flew back to Jakku instead of making an escape…
He crashes, ejects, doesn’t bother looking for either Fin or BB, and just hops on the next shuttle back to the rebellion?
Yeah how does it get off Jakku?
I can get that he doesn’t look for Fin, he could assume Fin is dead after the crash. Maybe bb could communicate with command and let them know he’s on his way?
I’ve got to disagree with this point, too. They didn’t just send the girl – they sent Chewbacca and R2-D2 with her. R2-D2 is still part of the resistance, and I suspect Chewie is basically back in now. Those guys have enough history that even if they weren’t official, card-carrying members of the resistance, they’d certainly be completely trusted by Leia to do the job – certainly as much as she’d trust anybody else.
After what happened with Han I wouldn’t doubt Chewie getting back in the fight. Also two more sequels haha.
Plus, Peter Mayhew seems by all measures to be ecstatic to be back into it.
I want them to show how Boba Fett flew out and saved Han and sold him to another Hutt.
What really would shock viewers and round out the rehash, would be Luke telling Kylo: “I am your Father.”
“I am your uncle” doesn’t really have the same impact, does it? You’d expect the next line to be “Pull my finger” or something.
How is it not possible to suck all the energy in to use for the weapon ? they have that big ass vunerable stabliser doohicky to deal with that, and we see just what happens when THAT fails
That ‘scientist’ that the author quoted is pretty flaky. More of a celebrity voodoo merchant.
They’ve already successfully contained nuclear fusion in a magnetic field. One would assume that in the Star Wars universe this has been advanced considerably. I’m more interested in how they managed to suck an entire star into the planet. I’m thinking they would have used an incredibly powerful focused gravity field, like a tractor beam.
In this universe, they have mastered hyperspace travel as well as a tractor beam. By that logic, it might be possible to shunt energy out of phase in a similar manner… although that’s a LOT of energy… if you took even 1% of a star, I’m sure it would be enough to destroy multiple planets.
They didn’t suck in the entire star. They were drawing energy from it. That’s why they shot once at the Republic planet (whatever it was) and were charging it up again to shoot at the Resistance base planet.
It’s a freaking planet, it wasn’t travelling around the galaxy and stopping near stars to suck up ALL their energy for one shot. I’m not saying I know all the science stuff that goes on, but sucking up some of a star’s energy into a planet is more believable than sucking up a whole star, at least.
And that’s why they had time until the Sun disappeared? Because the sun was still there, but once the cannons charged it becomes invisible? Nope, they took the whole sun bruh
DeGrasse Tyson has written over 10 books, lead 5 astrophysics papers, hell, he established the Astrophysics department of the American Museum of Natural History. This guy is “a celebrity voodoo merchant” of the same order as Sagan. Sagan even PERSONALLY requested to recruit him as an understudy. The fact that you’re more interested in how a fictional star was sucked into a fictional death cannon using a fictional laser beam, and then trying to apply SCIENCE to it (herrr derrr gravity field, cause you can shoot gravity fields like a laser, thanks Star Wars…) rather than an astrophysicist talking about ACTUAL SCIENCE shows me that you don’t actually know a thing about what your talking about.
What the hell, man? That “celebrity voodoo merchant”, as you call him in such a dumb way, is one of the biggest minds of our time. Star Wars is science fiction… FICTION. Get it? Neil gives you SCIENCE, facts, the real ones that govern our universe.
You’re just butthurt, offended by anything out of your fantasy bubble. You can’t stand a scientist talking real deal about facts that would never happen in real life as you see them on the big screen. Grow up, come on.
Wow, I had to up-vote your comment purely for the fact that you made it 18 months after I posted mine. Awesome!
It is never too late to be taught, my boy.
Supreme Leader Snoke: Clone of Palpatine? He did this in the Expanded Universe comic series.
Luke to Rey: ‘I am your father.’ The setup was just a bit too mysterious (the flashback to younger Rey) for it not to pay off later.
Kylo Ren was awesome…until he took off his mask, then he was like a gangly teen.
Rey was a little too good with a lightsaber and Ren was not quite good enough, especially at the end. Remember he’d basically been trained since birth to wield this thing. He should be like an olympic-level fencer. The only time we see anyone fighting with anything near proficiency in the films is the Obi-Wan/Vader fight at the end of Revenge of the Sith, but better yet are the cinematics for The Old Republic. Take the lifetime of training and the force into it, it should look like magic. They’re the only place it does.
Really enjoyed the film overall 🙂
I didn’t mind that, though. He’s Han and Leia’s son, so born sometime in the last 30 years… let’s say he’s mid-20s, so still very young. He’s still in training himself, he’s not the fully-developed arse-kicker that Vader was in the original – he still very much has his P-plates on as far as evil Sith lords go. Which also explains the lack of self control resulting in the temper tantrums where he smashes shit up when things don’t go his way – Vader would have just force choked someone to death and moved on.
Like you say, I think the problem is that Rey was too good for somebody with no training, not that Kylo Ren wasn’t good enough.
Anikan was way more mencing thank Ren was though. Ren just didnt have the presence and gravitas that Vader and Anikan had, despite how wooden Hayden was in the movies, he still had the ability to make thing twice about wanting to meet him in dark alley.
Simply Put, Sheldon Cooper doing Vader cosplay would be much more imposing and scary than Ren
Yeah, Hayden as Vader was far more menacing than Ren – as soon as Ren took his mask off..
Good points, my friend. I loved the temper tantrums btw–lightsaber hacking and the best force choke ever. And, of course, those stormtroopers. 🙂
Kotaku: where no one knows what a plot hole ACTUALLY is
You’re right. In reality they were talking about plot conveniences, which feature so heavily in this film that it’s actually like the entire plot is one big convenience at points.
There are certainly flaws but none I feel I need to really dig too deep into so that I can justify anything. Not sure if any of the above “sucked” so to speak, but I know what Chris is getting at.
I loved the movie for what it was and am really looking forward to the next one where I’m sure a few more questions will be answered. Happy with what they did as it could have been a whole lot worse with Disney taking the reins.
None of these are plot holes, these are things that are not explained, (and the movie doesn’t need to) they are just questions you have. (which is fine) There are dozens of simple in universe explanations that would make sense for all of these, but the movie doesn’t need to spend time on a mundane training montage of Rey learning to speak wookie.
A plot hole is when the internal consistency of the movie is broken. One might be if instead Maz said, this is “Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, only he can wield it” and then Finn went toe to toe with his old Stormtrooper buddy. As they establish a rule (only Luke can use this) and then they break it (Finn ignores the rule)
The Phasma escape thing especially is not a plot hole, considering that the movie never shows her surviving. People just assume she does because a producer said she’d be back for the sequel. There are arguments over what exactly constitutes a plot hole in a movie, but falling outside any of those definitions is “information gleaned from casting announcement of future film implies offscreen event in existing film”.
In reference to the ‘confusing politics’ section, you must have been quite confused if you were watching something with a group called ‘The New Order’ (they’re called’The First Order’).
Touché.
From Chris.
(This incredibly lame joke works better when you know that my name is Shay).
Nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking. It earns the clicks in any case.
Well, most of these I feel were pretty much par for the course. My biggest gripes were with the modern movie tropes. Like how they just jump around from plot point to plot point and character to character instead of naturally leading onto each other, resulting in less over all natural flow. But that’s just modern Hollywood pacing. I’m sure some people may actually prefer it to more classic or ‘old fashioned’ story telling as they would see it. And that’s fine.
It’s the equivalent of telling a story like:
And then they were here, and then they were were…
Instead of:
The characters were here, did that, which lead them to be here.
Oh. And why do practically all the New Order guys look like snobby rich kids? Grand Moff Tarkin looked like he was an old general. These look like angry young people trying to rule the galaxy because their parents didn’t get them the speeder they wanted for ‘life day’.
But I guess that was for the generic ‘the young are overthrowing the old and obsolete’ under tone. A reverse of a New Hope.
Anyway, those are my two major gripes and they are relatively small ones IMO. Loved it. Can’t wait for the next one.
Edit: Holly balls my spelling.
I’d explain the New Order guys looking like snobby rich kids because they probably are.
Consider this, if you were going to launch a fully operational Death Star for the first (and second) time there’s a good chance you’re going to have your senior generals and staff all around the place to watch the giant death laser obliterate a planet or two.
Unfortunately for them both of the Death Stars were obliterated while still populated, I daresay that in the 30 years or so since the last Death Star was destroyed that there would have been a whole bunch of pissed off kids who grew up with no parents (well no father because all of the women are out of shot doing whatever it is that they were all doing for the past 6 movies) and have a bone to pick with the resistance.
Besides that though it did kind of just jump from plot point to plot point with no real exploration or flow, but you get that when you have such a huge amount of content to boil down to standard running time, still loved every second of it.
Yeah, like I say, I don’t really blame them for it. Just some things that I did notice. And TBH, I say the flow thing about nearly all modern movies these days and, to be fair, the new Star Wars flows better than a lot of other modern movies IMO.
And the youth thing was probably to set the stage to phase out the older case etc, but it didn’t really bother me, it just stood out as a little fishy that’s all.
Yeah it did strike me as a bit odd at just how clean cut and young just about everyone in the First Order seemed to be, but I guess that is just the visualization of the passing of the baton theme that is in pretty much every aspect of TFA (with the most obvious being the Millennium Falcon *avoids spoilers*)
And man I’m glad that it isn’t just me noticing that most modern movies seem to be adopting that certain kind of story telling that is more about the major plot points and epic set pieces than about the actual journey and world building in between, you are right though, even though it felt a bit formulaic it was so well put together that it’s immediately forgivable.
Plus Starwars (or episode 4 specifically) really stuck to the classic heroes journey story telling model which TFA does as well, I think that contributes to how similar the two movies end up feeling as the major plot beats have a very similar vibe, some people might not like that but I guess it was the safest way to make a new star wars movie without alienating the old fans while still telling a story that will feel familiar to new fans.
Something something Star Wars something something Tropes.
Haha. Well I’m glad that others agree with the modern movies thing. I didn’t want to seem like a weird film snob.
TBH, I think that it comes from the way they integrate the cookie cutter formula into movies these days (including the heroes journey etc). It used to be that a script was made and then shaped towards a formula to help achieve a better flow/ pacing etc. But these days I strongly feel that a script is made around the formula, leading to movies feeling more generic and like cookie cutter stories. That’s just my theory though. And yeah, as I say, I really don’t think that Star Wars was that bad in that regard.
Then again, I was expecting Disney/ Marvel levels of cookie cutter and I was glad that it wasn’t as obvious as some of their latest movies have been.
The force awakens is BAD MOVIE because it has no heart. Prequels were better. I”m not a vegan.
I enjoyed the film overall but think the wasting of Gwendoline Christie’s acting chops was criminal. I assume the character is going to show up in later films and that this was merely an introduction?
Otherwise, what was the point in casting her?
Well… Daniel Craig was the Stormtrooper who got mind tricked…
But yes, her character was underutilized. And, although it may be a bit of a crutch, it is somewhat fair too say: so was Boba Fett.
I believe that she is supposed to have a bigger role in future iterations, I think her inclusion was purely to plant some conflict seeds between her and Finn, revenge and all that.
Rumor is alot of stuff including a few of her scenes were cut out to get the runtime down. They probably further explore her backstory in the next movie so thought they would skip over it this time around.
Supposedly Captain Phasma is this amazing leader of the stormtroopers but after having 30 years to improve their training regime they still can’t shoot!
Finn removes his stormtrooper gear and all of a sudden can take out ten guys who have equal training as him and are wearing body armour while doing a dive roll.
“Hey guys, I’ve got an awesome idea, lets put all of our scarce resources into a giant planet destroying spaceship because we would have gotten away with it the last two times we tried it if it weren’t for those pesky Skywalker kids. What’s that? We can afford it, ok we’ll have to cancel the Stormtrooper’s marksmanship training, fire those expensive new architects and re-hire the old ones, and cut down on the defences placed around our extremely explosive energy storage facility.”
Why don’t the leaders of the Empire/First Order ever seem to be accountable for their terrible strategic leadership? Snoke should be subject to some internal political manueverings over his massive fail in building and losing yet another Death Star.
I wanted to see the storm troopers pose some kind of threat this time around but they are a damp squib.
On a more serious note, yeah, you wanna kill off Han Solo, fair enough, but having Kylo Ren do it was so extreme. Vader was able to reach a kind of redemption at the end of the original trilogy but I can’t see that happening for Ren now. Is there any way that a Hollywood movie could realistically portray any kind of redemption for Ren later in the trilogy when the character brutally murdered his own father on screen?
“Snoke should be subject to some internal political manoeuvrings over his massive fail in building and losing yet another Death Star.” Political manoeuvrings? I don’t want to see that kind of stuff, he’s a master of the dark force, he wouldn’t give two hoots about political moves.
Not sure what you’d have them do, kill shot the heroes at the start of the movie? They still wiped out a village pretty well and Chewie did get hit. Also there was hints of Finn being able to use the force, so that explains his kickarse moves 😉
Chewie didn’t get hit by a stormtrooper though 😉
Having said that, I agree that stormtroopers have improved. They did manage to hit Poe’s X-Wing at the start, disabling it so he couldn’t fly off Jakku. I also understand that they never hit Rey because she’s strong in the Force (best example is when she slightly leans back as the stormtrooper shoots her in the forest, causing the laser fire to miss).
Scientific ‘errors’ aren’t plot holes in Science Fiction movies.
This is some nit-picking nit-pickery. No Star Wars movie – no movie at all – would be able to survive this kind of shallow criticism. And a lot of it doesn’t even make sense:
– How does Rey understand Chewbacca? The same way Yoda or Obi-Wan or Han understand him – by meeting wookiees previously. Just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
– Why does everyone recognise Finn? Prior to his defection, he’s only recognised by Phasma (his commanding officer) and Kylo Ren (who can use the Force). After that, he’s the most wanted fugitive in the galaxy. People are gonna know what he looks like.
– Why was Rey guarded by a single stormtrooper? Considering that Leia was guarded on the Death Star by a total of zero troopers, Rey’s security is actually more than a 1000000000% improvement. And I guess they probably weren’t expecting her to be able to get out of a chair which she was tied to?
– Why build another superweapon? I guess cos it’s Star Wars, although this one seemed a lot harder to take down than the others, requiring an unlikely shield evasion, shield shutdown, land bombing and air bombing.
– How did Phasma and Ren escape? Well, we don’t know for sure that Phasma did. Hux presumably picks up Ren as per Snoke’s instructions. But maybe this is just stuff that we’ll find out? It’s not like this is really a plot hole – the plot lines for those characters in the movie end with the destruction of the planet. Just because we don’t revisit them doesn’t make it a plot hole.
– Why does Rey go to meet Luke? Because it makes narrative sense, and because she can use the Force? Leia seems to like her, and maybe knows something that we don’t?
– Starkiller doesn’t work in real life? You know what else doesn’t work in real life? All of Star Wars.
And to be fair, there wasn’t any trilogy set-up in Star Wars because it was a pretty marginal motion picture. No one was thinking sequels in 1977 – most of 20th Century Fox expected it to flop. Lucas didn’t even really know what he would do with it. He didn’t even decide Vader would be Luke’s father until well into scripting ‘Empire’. That’s not the approach that modern films take, and it’s not the approach that audiences want films to take: we want to know that there’s a set arc, that this will all make sense in the end. We can’t have it both ways.
Also, criticism of Ford for being too old and Rey for being too good is dumb. Luke Skywalker went from shooting little critters on Tatooine to bombing the freakin’ Death Star, which I guess is like taking someone who is good at ‘Ace Combat’ and putting them in the cockpit of an F-16. Rey’s background makes it perfectly sensible that she’d be multilingiual and good in a fight. And she only really manages to beat Kylo Ren after he’s been shot in the gut.
P.S. A New Hope was originally titled only “Star Wars”. And Obi Wan refers to Vader as Darth during their duel because at that moment, that was his first name and not his title.
Haha, yeah. At least the Darth thing could be seen, plausibly, as Obi being a little ‘witty’ now IMO.
All of these holes can be filled with the following:-
“Coz Luke was using the force on the other side of the galaxy”
The dude was capable of throwing around Star Destroyers in the EU, so it’s not too hard to imagine. Especially after seeing Vader choke out a dude on a whole other ship in Empire.
Being one of the 2 people on the planet who didnt actually enjoy this movie, it is refreshing to see someone point out some things that are actually wrong with it, rather than simply saying it was amazing and people should ignore this sort of thing because it doesn’t matter. I wanted to see something new and fresh with a bit of nostalgia thrown in, not New Hope 2. Plus Rey was too amazing, too fast and too easily.
Its good that lots of people enjoyed the movie because this is one of my favourite franchises and seeing it get praised is good. I just hope they dont just continue to play it safe and just rehash the entire OT again.
I echo all your sentiments
I’ve never encountered so many people desperate to make excuses for a movie so badly.
It’s bizarre and I don’t understand why people are giving this movie a free pass. I honestly expected people to be even harder on it because it’s Star Wars, but it appears the exact opposite has occurred.
If a movie requires us to go off on ridiculous tangents in order to explain why things happen, then said film has failed to achieve it’s most basic role and that is to tell a good story.
This is why I couldn’t get into the movie and left the theatre disappointed.
Opinions. Also, there are different types of movies. Some are more serious than others and you enjoy them in different ways. Perhaps your expectations were just a little different to everyone else’s?
It’s cool that you didn’t like it, but you not liking it doesn’t mean that everyone else is giving it a ‘free pass’ just because they did like it.
Personally I think very critically of films and I’ve spent the better part of the week discussing the things that I liked and didn’t like about it with my brother. For a film to be that engaging for me is rare and I consider that to be a good thing. Add that it is, IMO, better than any of the prequels by a long shot and I’d say the film has hence achieved what it set out to do.
There does get a point in your life when something does ridiculously well, breaks records and 99% of people enjoy; that you may need to turn around and think, hmm maybe it’s just me and this movie is actually quite good generally speaking.
This is a common and weak response.
Which actually reinforces my opinion. If the most common response is, you’re wrong or you’re just bitter, then I’d really like to hear some things which might actually sway my opinion.
Nobody can debate the facts within this movie. Many key moments were delivered with no build up or tension. Many things didn’t make sense and it was almost a carbon copy of A New Hope despite the fact that an entire universe was already built 30+ years ago and they could have gone anywhere with it.
This is my favourite review quote :
Sums it up perfectly. Lazy and uninspired.
it’s a remake of episode 4.
wasn’t too impressed.
Agree with everything there. It was a weird cameo film.
The huge shocker for me was the New Hope recycle story line. I didnt get it & I couldnt get over it. The trailer filled me with nostalgia but the film itself was just another sci-fi film. I didnt get excited and there were not any wow moments. WHY ? because I was trying to work out why they would copy the exact story line from an old film and not give any reason for it. I would have been happy with an explanation in the film or even the director later on in an interview.
Given this is the relaunch of Star Wars after the mess of prequels why would you go with that story line ???????
I guess cause it’s a re-launch. A re-boot of the re-boot that was the prequels. I guess retreading common ground was the safest bet.
They aren’t, though – they are sequels. They are not “reboots” yet so many keep saying this.
Nolan’s Batman was a reboot of Burton’s; as Toby Maguire to Garfield.
This is a direct sequel to where we left off, and recreating the same story that started it all reeks of intentional nostalgia bait and lazy writing.
It’s a reboot in the sense that there is a tonal shift and it’s an attempt to go in another, or in this case the old, direction. So yeah, it’s a sequel but with many aspects of a reboot. Perhaps not the best term for it, but pretty simple reasoning I think. Jurassic world is a more noticeable example of this because it was more of a reboot with references to past films than a direct sequel, hence all the throwbacks as well.
dude. this is a sequel. it’s not a reboot. re-using the new hope story is lazy. why are people defending this.
Like I say, reboot is perhaps not the ‘right’ name for it because it does continue on the narrative. But it is still a tonal shift with new management/ creative influence and looking to gain a new audience while still holding onto the old one. Pretty much like reboots do, hence why I say reboot even though it isn’t one in EVERY sense.
There are certain elements that were unnecessarily re-used for the sake of drawing parallels. My personal dislikes are the ‘it’s in a droid!?!’ and another fking deathstar. But it’s not JUST a rehash.
Star Wars has always been pretty cliche, a basic fantasy storyline in a fantastical setting. George Lucas spoke of it once saying Star Wars works because it is a basic fantasy story with pretty cookie cutter characters. The whole “chosen one” and all that.
The whole ‘chosen one’ thing never appeared in the OT. This is a bigger issue than just reusing cliches. It’s more like someone decided to take a really good Star Trek plot, like Wrath of Khan, and totally rip it off in an okay but not terribly clever fashion. Someone did do that, I’m pretty sure. What was his name?
Isn’t Finn just a force sensitive Clone Trooper? Ren had made a snippy comment early about the Clone army, the ‘programming’ that Finn is said to have gone through was similar to what 5s, Echo and the others did in The Clone Wars, even the identification numbers used for the First Order troopers are similar to batch numbers of clones. FN could have designated information about the source material that was used for the Clones. Captain Phasma gave strict ‘No helmets off’ orders, so that we wouldn’t have the issue of all the FN batch troopers looking identical. How would a random First Order trooper recognize Finn at a glance when Finn isn’t wearing any identifying gear that would even remotely show he was First Order?
Simple. You’re on a mission to a Resistance base and you run into a guy with your face, while all the others with your face are on your side? Traitor!
In the movie the First Order wasn’t using clones, but recruits. If you recall there was a scene where Kylo Ren was chastised for the treason of one of his recruits and something along the lines of “A clone would never do this” was mentioned. Also his face had become most wanted all over after the escape with Rey. Not sure how you missed all that.
I agree with most of the criticisms but one of them is that Han Solo is too old and one is that he died. Isn’t it maybe not a bad thing he died if he’s too old to be a hero anyway
The storm troopers are NOT clones. Watch it again.
Seems like just an excuse to startup fanboy fights to be honest. No movie is without the unexplained. You can tell alot had to be cutout to keep the runtime down. That’s why I look forward to the Extended BluRay release 🙂
A couple of points in reply to the article:
– The First Order baddies knew who Fin was due to the fact that he was busted breaking out with Poe. I thought it was obvious. They would have put out the Star Wars equivalent of an APB, likely with his photo. You don’t think he was born with that helmet on did you? 🙂
– I’m sure we’ll see much, much more of the guys from The Raid, and Captain Phasma in the sequels. Unless those amazing tentacle monsters at them. The action was fast and furious at that point, I couldn’t tell.
I pretty much agree with all these points, plus a few of my own:
– The movie moved at break neck speed, particularly in the second half. I wouldn’t have minded an extra 10-20 minutes runtime to flesh out certain story elements, and let the weight of the heavier plot points sink in a little.
– While the movie had some good humor, overall there was too much for my liking. It really pulls me out a film when someone in a dire situation starts cracking jokes.
– Everyone was always in the right place at the right time. In a galaxy where people can literally be light years apart, everyone always just happens to be in the right place at the right time. Han Solo and Chewie ‘tracking’ the Falcon just minutes after it takes off is probably the best example.
Here’s my take on the article…. I mean I agree on some points more than others… but if were to poke holes into movies then the list would be never ending for ep1/2/3.
This movie is far from “perfect”, still an awesome SW film. I feel like people just like to justify “how clever they are” by pointing things out… good on you… as a SW fan I picked up on all of this and more that’s annoying, but it’s so minor in the grand scheme of things…. I just wanna see the film again.
1) We basically got a xerox of the first movie with a few character rearrangements.
I feel that while the themes of ep IV were there… calling it a “xerox” is dumbing it down to the point where you missed out on what SW has to offer.
2) How does Rey understand Wookie, Maybe we should have had some cheap scene where we specifically showed her learning the language?
Why does everyone in the First Order seem to instantly recognise Finn, Maybe we should have seen the “wanted” posters that they were putting up everywhere…..
Why did the bad guys build another super weapon with an easily exploitable flaw? Noobs (legit a pretty dumb thing to build)
Why does R2-D2 suddenly wake up at the end? Context, wait for further movies and it will probably be explained… more than likely it was “the right time”.
Why did the good guys send some random girl to give Luke his lightsaber? You mean why did Leia who obviously feels things going on in the force, send the spiritual successor to meet the last active Jedi in seclusion just like Luke went to see Yoda….. yeah… heaps hard to envision…..
3)
I didn’t feel it was bad, pretty standard unfolding of a trilogy. Felt like a good standalone with some further questions to be asked (like this article).
4)
They were a bit OTT but if you didnt get the references it was still apt dialogue.
5)
Captain Phasma, cool armour, rubbish character. Agreed… she was underused, but im just hoping its to setup her character… have to wait and see I guess.
6)
It was a bit weird how everything kind of reset itself, but when I thought about it… whilst the win of blowing up deathstar 2.0 was huge… there would have been a power vacuum in the galaxy and with someone like Snoke pulling strings, things are bound to reset within 30 years.
7)
Ok, instead of nodding to the cast they could have just used randoms… seems a bit odd to complain about.
8)
He was pretty old, no getting around this. I’m overall happy he was in the film and happy with… you know… what happens…. but “The filmmakers should have CGI’d his noggin”…. no thanks, would have been SO cheap.
9)
She was a bit OP, I feel like she may have been trained as a child. Whilst it’s minorly distracting I’m willing to chalk it up to “lets wait and see”.
10)
See point #8
All the “plot holes” can be answered with… because Star Wars.
Why was Snoke a 30+ft tall hologram? Out of all the failures, that was by far the cheesiest thing.
Just remembered something that irritated me to no end: Rey hugging Leia.
Sure, Rey was upset, but Chewbacca was distraught. But instead of showing Chewie crying on Leia’s shoulder as it should’ve been for the two characters most closely tied to Han, instead we see Chewie wander off in the background of the shot while the Mary Sue hugs the widow.
Such a missed opportunity to show Chewie & Leia’s relationship.
Uh Finn explains where he came from and who he is…Even how he got his name lol.
WTF are you talking about? The Empire wasn’t “defeated” at the end of Jedi, it was just crippled. It makes perfect sense that a new entity would rise from the remnants. This list is so pedantic it’s ridiculous. Just enjoy the fucking movie and stop over-analyzing.
“How does Rey understand Wookie and why does nobody else comment on this? ”
The same way she can understand BB-8 and any of the other alien languages she speaks/understands in the movie.
“Why does everyone in the First Order seem to instantly recognise Finn, a lowly janitor who always wore a helmet in battle? ”
Firstly, “always wore a helmet in battle” you mean the literal only battle he was ever in?
Considering they literally have a photo up of him when he was “enlisted” when they’re telling Hux and Ren about how Poe escaped, I’d suggest they sent his photo out to everyone.
“Why was Rey guarded by a single M19 agent/Stormtrooper? ”
You’re right, how would they know she could use the force when she didn’t even know yet? C’mon son.
“Why did the bad guys build another super weapon with an easily exploitable flaw? ”
The planet is shielded. The “vulnerability” took multiple bombing runs that cost the lives of almost all of the Resistance X-Wing squadron and then a ridiculously good pilot to get inside and then destroy it from inside. Hardly an easily exploitable flaw. But w/evs
“How did Phasma and Kylo escape the exploding planet after being tossed in a trash compactor and disappearing into the woods, respectively? ”
Hux picked them up per Snokes order
“Why does R2-D2 suddenly wake up at the end? ”
Was in low power, discussion of the map sparked him to search his databanks following downloading all of the empire’s information.
“Why did the good guys send some random girl to give Luke his lightsaber rather than, say, his sister or any notable member of the Resistance? ”
Leia is force sensitive and could sense Rey is also force sensitive and Leia could sense how powerful Rey is/to start her on her journey to become a Jedi. (or she’s Luke’s kid and Leia is aware of this fact.)
I stopped reading after this list because they were pretty easily explained and if you missed these did you even watch the movie?
The prequels are criminally underrated. They’re way better than any JJ Abrams movie, let alone The Force Awakens.
Killing off Solo was so dumb. Not because he is a fan favorite, but simply because the way it was done was so hackish.
They knew they needed a big dramatic moment, so they manufactured one out of the blue. It’s such hacky Hollywood writing to try to add drama and gravitas by killing an important character. But there was no real dramatic build up to that moment.
It didn’t really add anything to the overall story. I get that JJ wanted to shock everyone, but it would have been far more compelling and dramatic to have Kylo kill Chewie in some cold hearted way, and then have Solo confront Kylo in the second or third movie.
I think killing Han had more to do with Harrison Ford not wanting to do more movies than anything. He had been public about wanting Han to die in the OT.
Sadly, I agree nearly 100%
i think the main reason they used the old models and ships was to sell toys made off of old assembly line models, they made stupid subtle changes to some ships and c3po just got his arm painted red? the toy market of this franchise and Disney know what they are doing for sure.
I’m not the biggest fan of Star Wars but I have seen every movie at least once.
While back stumbled upon Ring Theory and found it bit interesting but didn’t know enough/care enough about the films to go further.
However watching Force awakens I think they are continuing the “Ring” (maybe).
I know the comparisons to Hope Awakens are obvious especially in reference to The Han/Ren scene, but I think people are missing that it’s also a copy/”retelling” of episode 1’s fight with Qui-Gon Jinn being stabbed compared to sliced and Maul falling into the pit AND episode 5’s Vader/Luke confrontation with the obvious comparison between Vader/Luke and Han/Ren.
I enjoyed the film but it really did seem like “Star Wars: The Greatest Hits”.
This is easy…. Rey is Luke’s daughter…. When she grabbed Luke’s lightsabre she had a flashback of being taken away from her parents on Jakku the weird creature lady Han brought Rey to said whomever you’re waiting for back home will never return or something along those lines, why do you think she was so naturally gifted with the force,defeated the main protaginist and was the one to find Luke I am clueless to who her mother could be tho.
Process leia xd, cause if you watched the original ,how she kissed him and he was like ooooo yeaaaaahhhh baby
Majority of the people talking about the rogue storm trooper being able to shoot don’t know Jack about starwars, he was able to shoot because he wasn’t a clone of a guy who can’t shoot…. Smh none of the storm troopers are clones after the fall of the empire…joke bandwagoners.
Well then how did the clone troopers shoot awesome,even better than Jedi, and were 90% like jango, but they were loyal unlike him,weird thing when they joined the empire they automatically started to suck
I disagree with most of your points and would like to point out that Rey grew up working in a scrap yard with many different aliens which would explain why she could understand everyone. In the phantom menace anakin could speak many of the languages as well. I would also like to point out that by Rey working in the scrap yard wouldve been the reason why she was good at rixing the melenium falcon.
So you mean if I worked in a scrap yard I would understand German, Russian,English,American,French,Italian,Spanish,etc. and know how to fly a spaceship,run hecka fast,teach myself magic without knowing it in and beat a hecka strong guy,wield electro sticks , and all of this in one day, even if more , same thing would happen :none of the above
The story was aweful for all the points you made and more. It was a giant mess. It was going somewhere for the first half then it became a different film.
This story line would have been way better:
Star Wars Episode VII
-We open with a Large Republic Carillion Cruiser in Orbit over a desert planet
-Below on the planet a New Republic senator is meeting secretly with a ex-storm trooper who identifies himself as Finn. Finn has a disk of stolen information he doesn’t fully understand whats on it but its something bad the empire is planning something big he cant read the disk its encrypted. Finn is scared. The senator doesn’t believe him and can’t understand why they needed to go through all this trouble to meet out here why couldn’t they meet on Coruscant? The empire is not a threat they have been only small pockets of trouble like terrorists (Modern day parallel).
-In orbit a small number of beat up imperial shuttles evades the a large Republic cruiser. The Imperial commander (a young officer ideolog nazi type) makes a transmission to a very intimidating senior officer the commander tells him that they have tracked the traitor to a planet but the Republic cruiser will mean that the probability of return may be zero. The Senior commander says he doesn’t care about the losses the disk must be destroyed and the traitor killed at all costs!
-The commander launches a small raid against the village the storm troopers are worn and dirty their armor looks like they have been in heavy battles. The village is destroyed many are killed the Senator is killed but just before he dies he puts the disk into his BB8 droid and the droid takes off. Republic x=wings and troops come to the rescue but its to late. The republic troops find Finn searching the dead senator and suspect him and an escape occurs he heads off into the desert escaping the republic troops.
-We meet Rey she is working for the corrupt alien serving food portions she fixes and test flies his ships, speeders, pods for food and shelter, she was abandoned as a child she has no memory of her parents and as Luke did, she feels lost and looks to something more.
-Rey meets BB8 then Finn. They are introduced and then they are pursued by Republic troops and escape in the millennium falcon. Its her bosses ship they are pursued by Republic fighters and escape she is a great pilot and the same chase through old crashed star destroyers etc… They escape by going to hyper space.
– Rey and Finn are at odds Finn is not being honest with her they find out that the ships registry has the owner as Han Solo and Finn convinces Rey to fly him to Coruscant (The Capital of the new Republic).
– They arrive at Coruscant through some difficult maneuvering they get in front of President Leia. They get the plans to her the encryption is broken and they discover its construction blue prints of star destroyers. Other information of the disk is corrupted and not recoverable.
– Rey and Finn find out that everything they had ever heard the Legends are true the Jedi the battle between he empire and republic, Leia confides in Rey that Han and his companion Chewie went missing many years ago trying to find her brother Luke. Rey and Finn also meet Leia’s deformed and scarred son (James). He is struggling and angry James is having dreams of a dark figure calling out to him. Leia explains that her brother couldn’t control himself and he felt he was a danger to everyone around him, (we get the idea that he may have tried to train Leia’s son and he was hurt and Luke left but its implied not on the nose).
– Leia just wants her family back she is lost herself. She has spent years trying to rebuild the republic. Terrorism is becoming worse across the New Republic. Leia is strangely drawn to Rey and there is a moment were Leia senses the force is Rey, Rey confides that since she was a little girl she has been able to see things before they happened.
– Leia is assassinated along with many senators in a bombing. As she is dying she instructs a box be brought to her she gives to Rey Luke’s light saber, she is worried about the future tells Rey to find Luke and then she dies.
-Rey, Finn and James leave looking for Luke. James joins them saying he wants to find his father (Han). A voice tells James to go with them. Finn doesn’t trust him there seems to be something suspicious in his motives.
-They decide that if they can find Han and Chewie that would give them some kind of clue as to Luke’s location.
-They trace the Falcon back to Rey’s boss and under duress of the force James makes him tell them where he got the ship. He tells them from a smuggler named Fant. Rey and Finn are increasing uncomfortable with whats going one with Hames behavior. On the trip to find Fant James senses the force in Rey and offers to train her. She is confused and cautious.
-The gang trace Fant on a planet of pirates and smugglers. Fant is cold and distant. James attempts to use the force on Fant but Rey and Finn stop him at gun point Finn rises to the occasion and threats his life. They find out that he betrayed Han and Chewie to the empire for the Falcon which he then sold to Rey’s boss, he says Han and Chewie and have been in an imperial prison for years. James kills Fant and they escape by the skin of their teeth.
-They track the location of the prison on a far away planet on the edge of the galaxy hidden away. James talks to the dark figure via a vission about betraying his friends and his training being completed. James leaves his friends. Rey and Finn break Han and Chewie out of prison.
-Han and Chewie lead the group through a hidden facility attached to the prison. They need help Han is old and crippled up. Han and Chewie overheard talk about what was going on here from prison guards for years while in prison. The group see from a hidden position a large ship yard where dozens of Star destroyers are being constructed. A hooded figure walks a platform inspecting the construction activity in the distance with a bunch of Imperial commanders.
Just as they try and make their way out a large group of storm troopers surround them. James is with them he approaches Han with distain. “Father”.
-CLOSING WE TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE TO A DISTANT PLANET. Luke is in a dark cave, a group of primitive natives bring food and leave it at the entrance of the cave like serving a god and depart with reverence. There are rocks floating around Luke and other things he is holding his head in anguish. Sweat comes down his face and he is shaking.
The End…..
I am in my fifties – The Force Awakens is a galaxy far far away from the standard of and not worthy of Spielberg’s Star Wars, where I am concerned. The absence of the Spielberg magic and subtle but significant story telling genius is as clear as daylight, including:
– the shifting between scenes enhancing the suspense, the clever exploitation of the Han Solo character which is one of the keys to the success of SW – which is why killing off Han Solo is simply stupid;
– seriously menacing villains who will kill without hesitation and of whom no jokes are made, who commands fear and respect, which is the other key to the success of SW;
– the subtle triangle romance involving Leia, Han Solo and Luke;
– the constant tensions in the relationship and communication between R2D2 and C3PO, and Han Solo and Chewbacca which creates the comic relief appreciated by both children and adults;
– story and plot diversity, and artistic creativity of scene after scene, spilling over with both unpredictable art and science – as opposed to the TFA which is just one fight scene after another … and even then, are hardly creative;
– much more creative characters especially alien characters made to look common;
– the ten reasons given in the above article.
JJ Abrams is an action Director, a pale shadow from Spielberg, a creative Director.
Kylo Ren gets beat by a girl with no knowledge of the Force or Lightsabers & can’t control his emotions I’d say he is not Great
Where do I begin. None of those “plot holes” are even plot holes. You could go for a walk downtown anywhere and say “why this?” Why that?” to a lot of things happening around you, in reality.
A lot of non-coincidental and very likely things happen in that universe, but they didn’t make a movie about *those things. So ray can understand a couple of wookie phrases? That’s a plot hole? Jeez why not?
The only “plot holes” are the ones in this viewer’s imagination. Don’t you think maybe the deserting stormtrooper who caused that much trouble is a “wanted man” in the First Order and maybe, his f$%ing picture is on every holotube all the time and maybe there’s a oh I don’t know REWARD FOR HIS DEATH… or something? Or did you figure they just went “oh well” and forgot all about him? How could they NOT instantly recognize him? It would be a plot hole if they didn’t.
And honestly when Neil Degrasse Tyson can’t tell us how they travel thousands of times the speed of light or have anti-gravity or make androids that would pass any turing test no problem… he can tell us whether or not the super weapon would “vaporize the planet.” it’s on.
Who’s child is Rey? The similarities to Anikan are like rehashing the same story. Did the midiclorians somehow provide an immaculate conception…again? While I don’t mind most of it, those of us that love these movies can see the obvious similarities. Let’s hope the next rendition gives us a “new hope” and a storyline that takes it to the next level. #maytheforcebewithyou
The Sardaukar could beat the Stormtroopers any day.
This movie was sincerely disappointing. I know Disney was not following the Expanded Universe but they completely alienated those of us who have been emerged in it. We now have 2 Star Wars Universes and I cannot get on board with this new story. Han doesn’t die Chewbacca does. Han and Leia were not separated except after Chewie’s death when Han went AWOL. Ben is Luke and Mara’s son not a Solo. Han and Leia had 3 children and Jacen became Darth Cadeus who did not wear a mask. Luke created a whole new bread of Jedi in this time line. The Galactic Alliance was in power and the Empire was a small faction that in some instances worked with the GA. Especially when Jaina Solo marries Jagged Fel.
There are so many stories Disney could have based this movie on instead of re creating episode 4 and changing a lore that has been around for years.
I’m not sure if any other commenter brought this up before, but… I do have a huge problem with the attack on the third Death… Star…Destroyer, uhm, thingy. More precisely, with the shields they had to take out.
Why exactly did they have to mount a haphazard attack by a handful of people who had to penetrate a shield at lightspeed, survive the deacceleration within the atmosphere, land undetected, enter undetected and unopposed, find someone with the security clearance to turn off the shields (and who doesn’t make much of a fuzz about it) without anyone else being able to simply turn them on again…
When the shields do ZIP to stop anything capable of FTL flight? Like, say, an attack squad of X-Wings? What, none of the other pilots are able to do such a high risk maneuver? Not even the “best pilot of the resistance”? And even if, wouldn’t this very stationary stabilizer gizmo be a prime target for an FTL torpedo? And if that is not available or just not Star Wars canon, why not load a ship full of Nukes and program it to fly right into the stabilizer, FTL style? Or better yet, just use a ship of 100 measly metric tons, bring it to light speed, program it to crash into the target. It has roughly 10 Zetta Joule of kinetic energy at that point. That is ten billion Terajoule, or about 100 million Hiroshima bombs. That would have been enough for half the planet. Or, another crazy idea, since apparently a couple of dudes with pistols and time bombs are more efficient than any coordinated military attack, why isn’t the Falcon packed full of heavily armed troops? If you penetrate the shield with only one ship, at least send in some asskickers with it, if only as a diversion.
But still: why bother taking out a shield that cannot stop those that want to take it out in the first place??
To sum it up: A shield that is functional only up to light speed objects is TOTALLY USELESS for defending a stationary object. FTL attackers is PRECISELY the number one thing it has to stop. How comes no one seems to see that? Opinions?
Saw movie and was disappointed. Wish they’d use Timothy Zahns version in the Thrawn trilogy. Han didn’t die/ shouldn’t of. Should been about Leia’s twins. None of this Death Star stuff again. The Thrawn Trilogy was a good read and believable. That’s just my opinion. Just disappointed..
Don’t want to seem too negative either. But i saw original in late 70s at age 8 or so. it, of course at that time, was phenomenal. For the long awaited time, coming of technology in computers, movies and the development of better and better movies that leave your jaw hanging . . . this was total turd for what it should have been. Particularly for the 1.25 billion that was spent on making it alone?? C’mon, i saw 2 other movies on xmas day the same day as this and both were better. good thing this was an earlybird for $6.50. For the amount of money spent on this, it should have left you awe struck for years to come. Won’t be going back to any spinoffs. Massive letdown. Sorry younger generation, you’ve been had.
The black guy was a terrible actor.
I agree with all that, also where the fck did they get a black stormtrooper who doesn’t even know who the heck he even is,sht,he doesn’t even know his own name, and how did he become Jedi
The new movie sucks, also mostly same as the original trilogy, just edited , like Han Solo saying: I’ll pay it soon, and they not agreeing and starting to shoot, I won’t be surprised if Luke face kylo and dies,and becomes force ghost to save the others when rescuing Poe from the starkiller,they forgot one thing in the movie : an annoying protocol droid that knows all languages and is best friends with an astromech.
I bet Poe will say he’s a son of senator dameron ,who’s hecka rich but dies when starkiller destroys his planet,and later kiss up with Finn xd.
The rebels and stormtrooper a changed roles the stormtrooper now know how to shoot but the rebels don’t, and where the heck is Mrs. Solo,I mean she gave Han a son and now she ditched, who the heck is the emperor, I mean Palpatine was explained , but that bald, blue ,giant , emperor Palpatine appeared from nowhere.
Also, does kylo have access to burning bodies’ helmets?if yes, that explains how he got the burned helm of Darth Vader, why did he even need it?
I have many more questions but I don’t want you guys reading my list for an hour, I was a long Star Wars fan,watched all movies multiple times,read many books and comics , finished Star Wars The Old Republic 2 times,finishing Knight of the old republic, etc. and all were awesome until this : Star Wars Episode VII The Total Ripoff And Anoying Movie.
Oh and this is the same as Star Wars original, just worse, save your money people, you’d rather watch a new hope, the empire strikes back and a new hope just to see the same thing, but better, also I can’t believe what I will say but, the phantom menace ,attack of the clones , and revenge of the sith are even better than the new movie.
Ps. Approve this comment please, because I put a lot of effort into it, and thinking.
Star Wars episode 8 , Rey comes to Luke who idk why has a mask and says Rey,I’m am your father , and then he’s as he killed her mother in anger , and then Rey, with the voice of lord Vader from revenge of the sith yelling :Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I gtg cause for me it’s really 6:00 AM and my family soon gonna wake up!
It is possible that Harrison Ford was a tad old for “The Force Awakens”. But he and John Boyega made the movie bearable for me. Otherwise, I found your assessment of the movie pretty accurate. This movie was a paint-by-the numbers rehash of “A New Hope”, with minor elements from other STAR WARS movies thrown in . . . including a rehash of a Prequel Trilogy Anakin Skywalker. I have always suspected that J.J. Abrams was an unoriginal filmmaker, but he took this aspect of his skills as a director a bit too far.
By the way, the Kylo Ren aka Ben Solo character was born a year or two after the Battle of Endor, which means he was probably in his late 20s.
It is distressing to no end to see the hoops the fanboys are going to defend this steaming pile of crud. Jar Jar Abrams has AGAIN ruined a franchise. He is pissing on the fans and using his corporate machine to call it rain and they are eating it up!
The points raised in this article are just the tip of the Berg. I can’t remember when I have seen such a complete lack of originality coupled with inept writing. Vader was imposing, scary. Ren is inept, childish. Seriously can anyone picture this dweeb running anything? Too many 21st century redos of things Abrams THOUGHT he could improve on– R2 but better! The trench run, but better! Creature Cantina but better! And on and on about 50 more times. The sad fact is that NONE were better. Lucas broke ground and introduced a leap forward in filmmaking. Abrams just plagiarized and brought nothing new.
Please people, stop subsidizing Abrams abominations. Don’t pay to see any more of it. I am boycotting all further ventures of the Trek/Star Wars universe till it is completely removed from these corporate stooges.
This review is invalid. It is not logically coherent to have so much negative bullcrap to say about the almighty Star Wars. Kotaku sucks. I’m not going to ever go on this website ever again after they have committed this unforgivable fallacy of pointing out problems in Star Wars. Cheers and happy new year!
This movie will not age gracefully. Abrams isn’t a good director, his films are designed like amusement park rides, a twist here, a dive there, but when it’s over there’s nothing to take with you. He makes you think you’re witnessing something but it’s just him with a carrot on a stick, he has no ideas.
Abrams is a hack, so many other directors could have done much better. The PC crap hits you so hard on the head it takes away from an already poorly composed retelling of a ANH.
I could careless if thier is a black stormtrooper or black lead or the whole girl power aspect, however doing so just to show how evolved you are as director is mind numbingliy obvoius in this movie. The female “stormtrooper” was horrible, the voice did not fit the character nor the body motions, I kept waiting for the helmet to come off and see a cameo by Bruce Jenner. Plus the poorly acted female X-Wing pilot.
Ren was the worst villian character ever, looked like he should be in a corner playing D&D.Not threatening at all.
Very dissapointing movie. Many mistakes and things that make zero sense, but many already been discussed.
It seems to me Rey already knows the force all she has to do is pull a concentration face and use what ever force power she wants with no training or very little training its hinted she might have been trained as avery small child but i think the ease of her assention to power detracts from the hard training and discipline the force requires to master .I just found it all too easy.
According to Abrams, he wanted to keep the story as simple as possible for those younger viewers that may not be all that familiar with the earlier movies. Keep in mind that this is now a Disney production and for them its all about the $$. There is so much material in the star wars universe that could be used to make movies, its a shame that they chose to just rehash “a new hope”. The clone wars cartoon series had some particular “movie” worthy story lines, that could have been used to make several movies – while keeping everything fresh. You could even do a whole movie around the young Han Solo’s smuggling days. As a star wars fan, I felt I didnt see anything new in this movie – Sure New characters, new villains but same basic plot. In the next movie, Ren will be trained by Master Skywalker on the small island in the ways of the force in order to battle Kylo Ren, While the First order builds a new supper weapon using a bigger planet. I can only hope that the next few movies takes the story in some new fresh directly and are not just stale remakes of the earlier series. If so I’m going to throw myself into the Sarlacc pitt.
Two things bugged really me while I was watching the film – which is a bad place to be bugged.
Firstly, Finn’s character arc – he flips from stormtrooper-with-a-moral-dilemma, to frightened-rebel-in-the-making without any intervening scenes, except a not-very-scary dressing down by the high-vis silver trooper. Whoever she is. Where’s the scene that gets him really scared of the silver chick, to the point he’s going to risk helping a rebel escape, walking him past security checkpoints and stealing a fighter. THAT seems pretty scary. And what prompted his particular anger toward Phasma in the shield-room? It looked pretty personal. Now, I don’t follow all the fan fiction, but she looked like a bit of a wuss – hell she committed high-treason at the first sign of personal danger. I’m guessing the janitor was kept busy sweeping up the cutting room floor, that night.
The second point might just be a personal gripe: Why the ‘stealing kids to train them’ line, rather than ‘build adult clones and program them’. It seems an unnecessary plotline. The clones seemed to do a pretty good job up till now. Why fix what ain’t broke. Why diverge from the established film canon. At least they didn’t mention mitachloridians. Are we allowed to forget them?
http://stereoembersmagazine.com/star-wars-episode-vii-force-disney-corporate-greed-awakens/
I have to agreed with you my man. May the Force BB with us…always. 🙂 It
These are completely legitimate issues with the film though, and since everyone circlejerks how great it is, there has to be some counter balance.
This was truly a terrible movie that made no sense and was humiliating. Some the new characters were intriguing, should have just run with them and left out all the idiotic homages.
Ok Harrison Ford/Han Solo is old, their is no getting around that or any reason to hide it. As far as his death, it was going to happen eventually people are sooooo focused on that , they totaly miss the fact we see his death from behind, and the fact he is set to be in episode 9 (possibly in a force vision? or a recording?) Did it dawn on anyone that he promised Leia he would get their son back & maybe he realized the only way to set that into motion was to prevent him from doing the one thing he knew would need to be done … maybe he actually ignited the light saber himself?This could easily set Kylo Ren up to look good in Snoke’s eyes, allow his continued training & yet still allow him to be redeemed later. As far as Rey being too perfect, she was no stranger to the lore of Jedi. Heck she grew up on the same planet as Lor San Tekka who was pretty much spreading the gospel of the Jedi to anyone open to hear it. He even had the missing pieceof the map to Luke…. would it surprise anyone if he had actually obtain said map from Luke after being told to watch over Rey (no matter who she actually turns out to be Obi wan’s grand daughter, Luke’s daughter or a random former youngling student who’s memories were force blocked to protect her). It seems her journey set things in motion, Han seemed to know more then he let on, as did Leia, once Rey showed up with BB8 & the map R2 woke up to complete the map, there is much more here then meets the eye. Also everyone seems oblivious to the fact that as the force is awoken in her (she even has a moment in battle with Ren “Oh..the force” where she suddenly snaps awake as if something unlocked) At this point Kylo could of killed her but offered to teach her instead,it in the novel he says “It is you!” , there is much more at play here. In fact from the moment Rey arrives Kylo starts to falter as if he is losing control of his own powers (he even punches his blaster wound several times to ignite his anger to full his dark side powers) as her’s seemingly awaken…. has the balance of the force somehow not only awoken but changed? Maybe between them the force must me shared in some measure? The set up is intense, instead of focusing on finding negatives is anyone looking forward to the future & revelations?
How is it that the bad guys have a spectacular new major weapon, but both sides are still flying TIE and X-wing fighter after more than 30 years? Surely their first-lime fighters would have been replaced by now.
What sucked most in this film imo was that the little girl with no training in force or swordfighting (lightsaber) beat Darth Caedus. Its like when you would go to a karate dojo first time ever without any experience on martial arts and beat their 7dan blackbelt master.
This movie sucked so hard, how is there anybody, anywhere who thought otherwise? It. Sucked. So. Hard.
Hmmmmm…….Didn’t I see this movie already? I was expecting so much much much more from this movie! This is nothing more than a rehash of the very first one that came out way back in 1977. It wasn’t even that good of a rehash for that matter! After watching it for only about 20 minutes, I turned it off. I am so glad that I pirated this movie off the internet instead of wasting my hard-earned money to see it at the theater. How very disappointing!
This is the worst Star Wars ever I don’t know what happened..bu they snarfed this one up BAD …the last two we’re incredible!! and on this one they just took a big poopy on it.. I’m very disappointed..
How was Finn not severed in half ?!!! And Ren?…. He was hit in the face with a fully functioning light saber !!.. I would expect to see his skull opened at the least!.. But only a flesh wound !!… Total crap
Among many things that have bothered me. The one thing that bothered me most was Finn. He was fake as all hell. I mean if he was conditioned from childhood he would have been undoubtedly brainwashed. So he just one day decides to change for no reason at all? I don’t buy it, yea to normal people it would be traumatizing. He’s supposed to be conditioned though I mean wtf is that. Yea I just decided to desert because I didn’t like shooting alien scavengers. Dude you’ve been raised from birth to kill, die, and hate aliens.
Then he faces Kylo Ren a supposed badass in a light saber duel. So essentially the villain is not even a force to be reckoned with, which makes the film lack luster. Stop focusing on planet destroying technology, and actually make it so you worry when the villain faces off with a protagonist. If Kylo Ren was a good villain, than finn would’ve been dead in seconds, and Rey scarred by her encounter with him.
Rey was way to perfect, yes indeed. Not really edge off your seat material when bad guys have no way to compete. She essentially knew everything when it was meeded. Don’t get me wrong I love the character, but that whole Jedi Mind Trick, lightsaber skill, and other skills. You might as well just give her the ability toI explode heads with her mind, and hell why not invincibility?
All in all the movie suffered in my opinion from being to much in the favor of good. Captain Phasma was entirely unnecessary and pretty much there to look cool.
Disney Milking a Cash Cow till its tits run dry. That sums this movie up.
They killed Han solo the jerks and Rey is either Luke or han solos kid
The SW universe is not “in sore need of a capable, proactive and take-no-shit heroine”, not even close. Like seriously? Never heard of Leia or Padme or all the female Jedi?
With Phasma you never mentioned that she gave the enemy the codes to lower the planetary shields, not even that but she did so after one threat from the enemy, one threat! She’s a Captain for crying out loud and has trained since infancy to be a loyal soldier; also, she would know that the Rebels did not have time on their side, all she had to do was stall for a few minutes.
Really? “Plus, it actually felt fun — an element that was sorely lacking from the prequels.” You’re seriously stating a subjective thought as fact? I thought the prequels were immensely fun, much more than all other SW movies, and superior than all the others in many ways as well. Don’t get me wrong though, I acknowledge their faults, which are superficial at best (and blown out of proportion by most of the fans that were upset the Prequels actually had a deep storyline rather than “Good guys fight evil guys, good guys win).
“Why does everyone in the First Order seem to instantly recognise Finn, a lowly janitor who always wore a helmet in battle?” All the First Order Stormtroopers have heads up displays right? So they would identify Finn as a traitor; even if they don’t they would still all be shown Finn’s face because he’s a traitor and therefore a high threat, so they would know him by sight either way.
“Why was Rey guarded by a single M19 agent/Stormtrooper?” They thought she was just a scavenger that got into bed with the Rebellion, Kylo discovered she was strong in the Force but didn’t expect she would be an expert at the Jedi mind trick considering she had never trained her abilities before (once again going back to her stupid Mary Sue character).
“She can speak “droid” and Wookie.” She may have picked it up on Jabbim, after all she was a scavenger all her life so spent a fair amount of time in the markets. Still hard to believe.
“She’s a bad ass with a staff.” Force users tend to be better at these sorts of things, the stronger your connection the better you are (she’s Skywalker level strong); as well as her probably training with it her entire life.
“She is a mechanic prodigy.” She has had to tinker with technology all her life, so you would expect her to know her shit; plus Force users (and Skywalkers) tend to be pretty damn good, goes double for Skywalkers.
“Casting the guys from The Raid and then never using them” Doesn’t matter in the scheme of things when regarding the movie’s flaws, isn’t really relevant. It’s just a few people’s wishes, doesn’t count as a flaw.