Star Wars Force Awakens

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Winnow
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Star Wars Force Awakens

Post by Winnow »

Image

Image

No comment about the movie yet but cool toy.

http://toyland.gizmodo.com/sphero-bb-8- ... 1727067215

R2D2 has some competition!
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

Post by Winnow »

As I was downloading my movies and TV shows this weekend, I came across THREE new Star Wars documentaries:

Star Wars: A Definitive History

The Secret of Star Wars

How Star Wars Changed the World

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Yep! Less than a week until Force Awakens! Time to get pumped. Might be time to watch 4, 5 and 6 again (1, 2 and 3 never happened in my mind)

I have confidence this will be a good movie. J J Abrams's reboot of Star Trek is one of my favorite movies. He gets what it takes to make a good movie. He also now knows not to use too much lens flare!

This movie will honor the original three movies from the 70's and 80's.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Winnow wrote:I have confidence this will be a good movie. J J Abrams's reboot of Star Trek is one of my favorite movies. He gets what it takes to make a good movie.
Sometimes. The last Star Trek movie was terrible. I'm glad he's not doing the next one.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Aslanna wrote:
Winnow wrote:I have confidence this will be a good movie. J J Abrams's reboot of Star Trek is one of my favorite movies. He gets what it takes to make a good movie.
Sometimes. The last Star Trek movie was terrible. I'm glad he's not doing the next one.
Yeah but the first one was good and this is the first Star Wars (new) movie! I think they'll be having several directors in the future for the solo movies in between the main movies, etc.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Richard Lawson from Vanity Fair wrote, "'The Force Awakens' finds just the right path through reverence and respect to find invention, ushering a new generation into its galaxy of iconic visuals and reliable heroes by raising the epic stakes, while keeping the narrative, for the most part, focused and propulsive."

Matt Singer from ScreenCrush was a fan of the new cast. "The film is at its best in its first forty minutes, before the classic cast returns" and that "It’s nice to see Ford, Fisher, and Hamill, but 'The Force Awakens' really belongs to Ridley, Boyega, Isaac, and Driver," he wrote. Singer rated the film a 7 out of 10.

Finally, Manohla Dargis of The Times exclaimed, "The big news about 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' is — spoiler alert — that it’s good!"

"Mr. Abrams’s smart idea — an overarching ethos, really — in 'The Force Awakens' is to have returned to basics, largely by dispensing with a lot of clutter," Dargis wrote.

To be fair, Andrew O’Hehir of Salon wasn’t sold and didn’t think “The Force Awakens” advanced the franchise.

“They rewind it and repeat it, with new characters substituting for old ones but many of the same action set-pieces, narrative dilemmas and hidden connections,” he wrote.
7/10!
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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First reviews that come out are always click bait written by douchebags/sites. Give it a low score = get people to click.

Same thing happened with Fallout 4.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Aslanna wrote:
Winnow wrote:I have confidence this will be a good movie. J J Abrams's reboot of Star Trek is one of my favorite movies. He gets what it takes to make a good movie.
Sometimes. The last Star Trek movie was terrible. I'm glad he's not doing the next one.

He took responsibility for the second movie sucking:
J.J. Abrams takes responsibility for this in a recent interview with Buzzfeed saying, “ I was encouraging the writers in certain directions, and we were working on the script and putting it together. But by the time we started shooting, and this was literally at the very beginning of the shoot, there were certain things I was unsure of. Any movie, any story has a fundamental conversation happening during it…and I didn’t have it.”
There are a few other articles about Abrams researching and getting together with his team to see what happened with the second movie. Third one coming out soon should be more like the first one.

Overall opinions of the new Star Wars say it's the best one since Empire Strikes Back. Sounds good to me since that was the best Star Wars.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

Post by Boogahz »

I put off spamming for tickets when they were first available, but I was able to get tickets to the Alamo Drafthouse next Tuesday....now to avoid all of the spoilers!
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Its got its flaws like any movie, but as far as star wars goes, thanks to the prequels, this move was exceptionally well done. Only saw it once so far, but I only noticed that patently annoying JJ abrams lens flare shit like in 3 scenes in a row, then I didn't notice it again. So that was good.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Lens flare makes everything better.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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People are saying it's the same story as Episode 4. First he remakes Wrath of Khan and now this. Can't that dude come up with original ideas?!
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Aslanna wrote:People are saying it's the same story as Episode 4. First he remakes Wrath of Khan and now this. Can't that dude come up with original ideas?!
The movie was better than episodes 1-3 but it was basically episode 4 again. It looks like Disney didn't want to take any risks with the formula of the original Star Wars.

There are a bazillion parallels to the original movie. I'll break it down in a spoiler tag at a later date. I had just rewatched Episode 4 a few days back so it was fresh in my mind but it didn't need to be to see what they were doing.

Rey and Finn are solid entries into the series. Rey in particular is a very good character.
[Show]
I know Harrison Ford wanted to die in Return of the Jedi (or Empire). He got his wish 30+ years later! I thought the whole Leia/Solo Kylo Ren is their son thing wasn't developed enough before the big scene at the end. I think they could have made Solo's death a little more dramatic.
If I had to rank it, I'd place it in between the original three and the prequels although much closer in rank to the original movies.

I wouldn't be surprised if it followed the first trilogy with the second episode being the best now that they've settled in with some new characters that are under 60.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Another 'Vader'.. Another 'R2-D2'.. Another 'Death Star'. Another 'Emperor'.

/yawn

And people need to stop ranking shit in regards to the prequels. A turd out drying in the sun is better than Episodes 1-3.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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When asked about his opinion about the new movie, Mr Lucas said he was not a fan of the "retro" approach.

"They wanted to do a retro movie. I don't like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different. I made them completely different - different planets, different spaceships to make it new," he said.
Retro!
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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In that same interview:
All those Star Wars films ... I loved them, I created them, I'm very intimately involved in them, and I sold them to the white slavers that take these things and uh, and ... [laughs]

-Rose never pushes Lucas on this last comment, but it's clear that Lucas still feels conflicted about selling the films.
wtf White slavers? The reason they didn't want Lucas involved was because 1-3 sucked hard. Going back to the original style was the right decision.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Disney Postpones Star Wars: Episode VIII To December 2017
Maybe that will give them time to actually come up with a story instead of recycling Empire Strikes Back.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

Post by Boogahz »

Think the Rogue One movie is still going to come out earlier
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

Post by Kluden »

Bah, sucks to delay things, I liked the 18 month release cycle idea. Oh well, now they are like everyone else, 2 years.

At least there are so many scifi movies nowadays...with all the super heroes and space dramas that are released.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them flying down a trench again.
It was fine as a movie as long as you just accept it for what it is.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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It's a reboot as much as an advancement of the story. 1977 was a long time ago. Only a handful of us on this forum saw Star Wars in the theater back then.

They did a fine job of wiping the slate clean from the horrible second trio of movies that younger generations were introduced to.

I'm sure Disney didn't want to rock the boat on their 4 billion dollar investment too much. They made the right decision based off of the record crushing box office numbers. I expect the second movie to be darker and the third not to have Ewoks.

I like Rey, Finn and even Poe seems ok. Now that we have the original (1977) character appearances out of the way, they can focus more on the new characters moving forward except for Luke which deserves some screen time.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Winnow wrote: They made the right decision
Nope. It was just lazy.
Winnow wrote:based off of the record crushing box office numbers
Not relevant.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Extremely relevant. People don't go to sucky movies multiple times or after crappy reviews.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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I didn't say it was sucky. I said it was lazy.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Aslanna wrote:I didn't say it was sucky. I said it was lazy.
I disagree with that. It was intentional not due to special effects or inability to come up with a completely new story.

New phones that come out have some new features but for the most part look the same. If iPhone switched to a triangular shape next year, that would be different but not necessarily good. A brand new story would have pleased some old people but the majority, which includes old people looking for some nostalgia and younger people that need to be reminded how great Star Wars was before the second trio, were the target market, and the biggest market. That, combined with a winning formula from the original series as well as saying goodbye (although they'll probably be back) to the old cast makes sense. Moving forward, we'll see more change. If we open on an ice planet in the second movie, you'll have a point.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Watched it again.. My opinion stands: It's just not a good movie. It's by-the-numbers and lazy.

6/10

(Would have been a 5 without BB-8)
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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I'd rate it 7.5/10. It wasn't spectacular but was entertaining.

I've watched it several times. (have 12GB Blu Ray rip of it) and listened to the audio book (which doesn't offer much more details than the movie)

I like most of the new characters. Rey and Finn are solid. Poe is ok, but there's more good than bad to him so far. Kylo Ren isn't that great.

I think Rey is a fine choice as the central character. She's young but has some acting chops and energy.

If anything, it would have been nice to leave out the old cast. I don't need to be reminded of how old I am. I've said this before but it doesn't matter how old or young I am, for the most part, I want to see people in their 20's and 30's on screen. Harrison Ford did ok but he's ancient. Carrie Fisher is a recovering alcoholic that bad mouthed Star Wars for years. Luke, on the other hand, I want to see in the next movie. He's had an interesting career in voicing characters and has been the most reachable to fans.

They didn't try to hide that they were following the same template as Episode IV. That was almost 40 YEARS ago. It's safe to assume most people watching this movie didn't see the first one in the theaters like some of did. Those people are close to 50 years old and up now. I expect the second movie to start to create it's own unique flow now that the re-introduction has happened to wipe away fears that it would be as bad as the second trio of movies.
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Re: Star Wars Force Awakens

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Winnow wrote: Carrie Fisher is a recovering alcoholic that bad mouthed Star Wars for years.
I guess you wont have her to worry about anymore.

2016. Make it stop!
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