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 #142775  by Frog
 
Something you have to understand is that J.J Abrams and Disney needed us to know that they are the future of Star wars, and they know what they are doing. When the prequels came out, fans were immensely disappointed and were bitter about it for a long time. If your friend is injured on the ground, he needs to let you know he is fine before he gets up. And thus, we get a similar but at the same time fresh version of Episode 4, and in this case, J.J provided everyone a new hope to the franchise.

Am I bothered that it is similar? well... No, with Star wars, having a complicated plot can be a little strange ( though I do like complicated plots ), you should never have a hard time following a story. So, we get new characters, new setups, throwbacks to the old, etc. I am proud to call it a Star wars movie, and in my opinon, it's the best movie of 2015. :) Just my own 2 cents however.
 #142814  by MasterM
 
Shink wrote:@masterm ooo please explain (if u want)!
The thing about episode 4 is that it works as a standalone movie. The different plot threads are all wrapped up nicely and there's a nice sense of conclusion at the end. Episode 7 on the other hand, I guess feels the need to set up sequels (did they think people wouldn't go see the next ones? as if we haven't been craving these movies for over a decade?) and left a lot unresolved. This isn't really a huge deal, but that was the main issue I had with it as I walked out of the theater.

Speaking of potential sequels, if you want to set up a new story arc, why did you open with the same story as the last trilogy? A lot of people are saying that Abrams wanted to stay within familiar territory while establishing the setup for the sequels, but again, we've waited 15 years. Now you have a chance to revive the franchise and basically you just tell fans to wait longer??

Even while watching 7, you could tell it was basically a reboot of episode 4. Which for some people is ok I guess, but that's not what I wanted to see. There isn't any reason to care about the story or the characters, (because we have literally already seen the movie) and I think it's somewhat absurd that the best enemy they could come up with after 15 years was stormtroopers with different helmets and a death star that shoots multiple lasers at once (bringing the death star count up to 3, all of which had the same vulnerability and were destroyed in the same way).

From a storytelling standpoint, we're given no background on the empire first order or the new republic. We have no reason to care when the republic is blown up (on a side note, did the republic not have a military? an intelligence agency? how did they not realize a massive sun-draining superweapon was being constructed by the only other major political power in the galaxy?) and I, at least, have no idea where the 'resistance' fits into the galactic picture. The whole plot seems like a setup to just get back to imperials vs rebels, because hey, it was so good the last time.

Related to this, most of the crises(crisises?) brought up in the movie are resolved by some deus ex machina type occurrence. Rey is supposed to be a scavenger living on a remote planet, yet she speaks the language of a sophisticated astromech droid, can fly a starship with no experience on a chase with (presumably veteran) tie fighter pilots, randomly rips parts out of the dashboard to get the hyperdrive to work, learns how to invade someone's mind with the force, and use a lightsaber well enough to defeat (defeat!!!! wtf!) a trained force and saber user. (I've heard the arguments that he was wounded and not at his best. I don't buy it; chewie's bowcaster looks powerful against stormtroopers because it's a comedic relief machine).

Other random things that irked me: Some characters (Captain Phasma or whoever the trooper captain was, also the old guy at the beginning) are introduced and killed with no backstory or reason at all. Phasma even dies off-screen for cryin' out loud, it's like the character was only there so they could squeeze in a garbage disposal joke.
Luke is totally wasted in this movie. He might as well not have been in it. Why would you bother bringing back a beloved character for one shot and no lines? Setting up sequels again...
Some of the acting is terrible. The ones that stick out are the first order officers with their weird, overwrought accents
Kylo Ren isn't a great villain. He's decent enough, and that scene where he shows up in the forest and freezes Rey was pretty good. You actually felt intimidated by him. He has the tough job of following Vader, one of the best movie villains in history, but he still just isn't very good.


This is probably more than you wanted/were expecting. Anyway, I hope it answers your question.
 #142815  by Frog
 
Rey was able to speak a droid's language, as Jakku and Tatooine demand a ettiqute in alot of languages. Also, a YT-1300 is a common Coreillian design; It should come as to no surprise that most of the inhabitants of the harsh lands would know a thing or two about it. Also, that is under the assumption that she never flew it ONSCREEN, that's around 20 years of assuming she did absolutely nothing. Also, BB8's langauge has not be specified as a unique design, it just has a different tone to it. It's like morse code, almost.

As for the First Order, and the Resistance, the Resistance is actually a branch from the New Republic, General Leia Organa ( Solo? ) divided a chunk of the Republic into the Resistance, due to corrupt government officials. Now, they are fighting off the Republic itself, the Empire, and the First Order.
The First Order is similar to the Resistance, in the exception that they are funded by the Empire, and have the complete freedom to create unique designs. Such is the advanced Tie Fighter, being able to run on small amounts of fuel to accommodate two people at once, and the other stuff you saw, as well as Starkiller Base.

Now, Starkiller Base IS similar to the Death Star, and the Death Star has two carbon copies of itself. Why? Because the Imperials and the Emperor ( rest his soul ) are fools. They believe that fear is farmost in their utility and will abuse that as much as possible. What can they do with their resources? build a device that can destroy a entire planet. Fear isn't larger than that. But with that comes design issues, as the first Death Star needed a exhaust port, the second wasn't even finished, however the third and superior Starkiller base merely had that shield fractionally refresh rate, which would be stupid to try and pass through, except for Captain Solo himself!

Rey is a extremely powerful Force User. Unlike Luke, her abilities have been slowly in exercise ever since her arrival to Jakku. Kylo Ren is also REALLY rusty, he hasn't fought a saber opponent in a long, long, time. Add that to the fact that he was injured, and is young as well with not too much knowledge on saber forms. Rey, however, had a staff to train with her whole life. It's not hard to believe she could beat him with her immense potential and practice.

Also people assume FAR too much that the Force Awakens is a complete plot copy of 4. First off, Luke didn't need to be found in Episode 4, did he? Han's son wasn't Kylo, was he? There wasn't a stormtrooper that defected in 4, was there? There wasn't as much significance in Anakin's lightsaber, such as showing Rey a vision, was there? Han wasn't smuggling aliens in 4, was he?
The characters completely new. The movies are mostly about the Skywalkers, so it's best to keep to the tradition of Anakin, Luke, and Rey and so-forth being on a sand planet. There is a interpretative connection as well to it.

See, Luke was ready for adventure. He was craving it, he obsessed over it, his friends left for the military, leaving him. That was his story. Rey and Finn are both reluctant. Rey was sad in her hollow life, but she never grew lazy. Finn is a hesitant hero, a coward. None of these are carbon copies, it's just the planet that tips everyone off.

Just my 2 cents again, however.
 #142816  by MasterM
 
Frog Redstar wrote:Rey was able to speak a droid's language, as Jakku and Tatooine demand a ettiqute in alot of languages. Also, a YT-1300 is a common Coreillian design; It should come as to no surprise that most of the inhabitants of the harsh lands would know a thing or two about it. Also, that is under the assumption that she never flew it ONSCREEN, that's around 20 years of assuming she did absolutely nothing. Also, BB8's langauge has not be specified as a unique design, it just has a different tone to it. It's like morse code, almost.
Why did Jakku demand a lot of languages? Rey lived alone and worked alone and only had to deal with that one boss guy. Supposing that she had been in, understood the internal workings of, and flown the falcon or a similar ship, why didn't she just leave the planet? It's made very clear that her life there isn't a good one.
Frog Redstar wrote:As for the First Order, and the Resistance, the Resistance is actually a branch from the New Republic, General Leia Organa ( Solo? ) divided a chunk of the Republic into the Resistance, due to corrupt government officials. Now, they are fighting off the Republic itself, the Empire, and the First Order.
The First Order is similar to the Resistance, in the exception that they are funded by the Empire, and have the complete freedom to create unique designs. Such is the advanced Tie Fighter, being able to run on small amounts of fuel to accommodate two people at once, and the other stuff you saw, as well as Starkiller Base.
If the resistance is against the republic too, then why are we clearly meant to care so much when the republic gets blown up? This goes back to my point about not having any sort of establishment or backstory for either of the two sides.
Frog Redstar wrote:Now, Starkiller Base IS similar to the Death Star, and the Death Star has two carbon copies of itself. Why? Because the Imperials and the Emperor ( rest his soul ) are fools.
No, no, no. The one thing in the OT that the empire almost never is is stupid. They are undone by an unconventional, last-ditch attack in episode 4 and by darth vader turning in episode 6. In episode 5, they kick the rebels' tails for the entire movie. The prequels show palpatine to be a master manipulator and extremely powerful. I'm willing to give them a pass on the death star 2.0 because it was a trap, but the death star 3.0 (aka starkiller base [sheesh, pick a better name at least]) is inexcusable.
Frog Redstar wrote:Rey is a extremely powerful Force User. Unlike Luke, her abilities have been slowly in exercise ever since her arrival to Jakku. Kylo Ren is also REALLY rusty, he hasn't fought a saber opponent in a long, long, time. Add that to the fact that he was injured, and is young as well with not too much knowledge on saber forms. Rey, however, had a staff to train with her whole life. It's not hard to believe she could beat him with her immense potential and practice.
Rey has no training, found out she was force sensitive like a week ago, and just watched her companion get cut down by the time she fights Kylo. Luke had a movie's worth of training when he went up against Vader in 5 and got destroyed. There's no way that Rey should be competent enough to pull off the stuff that she does. Also, Kylo is rusty? He looks like he's in his 20's (Adam Driver is 32) and he's clearly had saber training given how easily he dispatches Finn and manages to not cut an arm off while in one of his fits. He can't be that far removed from his jedi training.
Frog Redstar wrote:Also people assume FAR too much that the Force Awakens is a complete plot copy of 4. First off, Luke didn't need to be found in Episode 4, did he? Han's son wasn't Kylo, was he? There wasn't a stormtrooper that defected in 4, was there? There wasn't as much significance in Anakin's lightsaber, such as showing Rey a vision, was there? Han wasn't smuggling aliens in 4, was he?
Just because they threw in like 3 plot points from episode 5 doesn't make it not a rehash of 4. Yoda needed to be found; Vader's son was Luke; Lando defected (once from each side); Luke is ceremonially handed his father's lightsaber as he learns about his destiny; Han smuggled people (and aliens, ie Chewie) into the death star 1.0.
Frog Redstar wrote:The characters completely new. The movies are mostly about the Skywalkers, so it's best to keep to the tradition of Anakin, Luke, and Rey and so-forth being on a sand planet. There is a interpretative connection as well to it.
In the main party of heroes, there's what, 3 new characters? Rey, Finn, and Poe. That's it. We Kylo as a discount Vader, and BB-8 is basically R2 (even though R2 is in the movie and provides another convenient dues ex machina) so I don't count him.
 #142819  by Frog
 
Concerning the intelligence of the Empire, yes, they are incredibly intelligent and cold and calculating. But Emperor Palpatine was a gasbag of ego, and also he was arrogant and put far too much confidence into super weapons. It's unconventional, it's impractical, it may do it's JOB but in the long run, it would never hold out for long. A Device that expensive, using SO many focusing lens, super conducts, unbelievable energy, it's a gamble, and gamboling billions, upon billions, upon billions of credits, is not a wise thing to do. The Empire and somewhat First Order is foolish, but not dumb. There's a difference, I think. You can find Sociopaths of all kinds, and you will notice they are very cold and calculating and extremely, extremely intelligent, but devoid of wisdom and emotion.

And yes, Kylo is very, very rusty. He is a very very young and brash man. He hasn't fought people with swords for a long time. He also wasn't completely trained, as Snoke informs us. He dispatched Finn cleanly, but even so, a more experienced Force user would have disabled him with the Force, even mindtrick him. Kylo had to face him in melee combat, for lack of knowledge. Rey, HAS, been training. She is a very competent fighter, add that to the fact that the movie is telling us she is extremely powerful with the Force. When you are by yourself, for around 20 + years, and all you have is a staff.. You better dang well use that and use it well. With that survival instinct, and to the fact that she is undoubtedly been forced to defend herself from Jakku natives and spacers, she has had significant more practice than Kylo Ren. All young Kylo had is basic marines to kill, and the First Order usually does it for him. He rests in the arrogance that he is above everyone, as proven wrong by young Rey.

As for Jakku natives forced to learn languages, it is almost common for Outer Rim passerbys or natives to learn it. If they don't, they don't survive, simple. Luke knew binary language, some others but not all as seen before. Owen Lars, a experienced moisture farmer, knew the Jawa language, and a number of others. Jakku is aruguably more harsh and has more danger than Tatooine, as Tatooine at least has friendly Spacers or Smugglers to lend a hand if they are nearby; It's a kind of ettiqute to assist each other on that planet. Jakku, from what I saw, studied, heard, is extremely harsh. If you don't learn to defend yourself, survive, and learn languages and tricks of the trade, not only do you not belong in the Outer Rim, but you will die very, very fast.

I really cannot argue with plot similarities, but they have elements that make the movie fresh. I already said in response to Sifo, the Prequels made alot of fans bitter, and if your friend is on the ground from a injury, he needs to let you know he is okay. So, we get a movie that is similar to the Original Trilogy. Refer to The Nostalgia Critic and his review of the Force Awakens and he will shed more light.

forg, I need a life.
 #142828  by MasterM
 
Frog Redstar wrote:Concerning the intelligence of the Empire, yes, they are incredibly intelligent and cold and calculating. But Emperor Palpatine was a gasbag of ego, and also he was arrogant and put far too much confidence into super weapons. It's unconventional, it's impractical, it may do it's JOB but in the long run, it would never hold out for long. A Device that expensive, using SO many focusing lens, super conducts, unbelievable energy, it's a gamble, and gamboling billions, upon billions, upon billions of credits, is not a wise thing to do. The Empire and somewhat First Order is foolish, but not dumb. There's a difference, I think. You can find Sociopaths of all kinds, and you will notice they are very cold and calculating and extremely, extremely intelligent, but devoid of wisdom and emotion.

Arrogance does not imply unintelligence. They had the credits to spare and they built a mobile operations base that was about 2 seconds from wiping out the rebellion.
Frog Redstar wrote:And yes, Kylo is very, very rusty. He is a very very young and brash man. He hasn't fought people with swords for a long time. He also wasn't completely trained, as Snoke informs us. He dispatched Finn cleanly, but even so, a more experienced Force user would have disabled him with the Force, even mindtrick him. Kylo had to face him in melee combat, for lack of knowledge. Rey, HAS, been training. She is a very competent fighter, add that to the fact that the movie is telling us she is extremely powerful with the Force. When you are by yourself, for around 20 + years, and all you have is a staff.. You better dang well use that and use it well. With that survival instinct, and to the fact that she is undoubtedly been forced to defend herself from Jakku natives and spacers, she has had significant more practice than Kylo Ren. All young Kylo had is basic marines to kill, and the First Order usually does it for him. He rests in the arrogance that he is above everyone, as proven wrong by young Rey.
This reminds me of another problem with the movie. First of all, the stick thing that Rey uses and a lightsaber are completely different weapons and would have much different fighting styles. (This is somewhat obvious, just look at the difference between single and staff in jka...plus you don't have to worry about hitting yourself with a stick). Rey has been fighting some random smuggler types while Kylo has been killing trained military professionals? And this makes Kylo worse how? Throughout the movie we are told that Rey is some badass juggernaut of force wielding power. But that's the problem, we're just told. We never see her learn anything or see any examples of this until suddenly she's invading people's minds and defeating Kylo Ren. In the OT, we see Luke fail, often, throughout the first 2 movies. Then when he's a badass jedi in episode 6 there's an actual payoff because we have seen him train and grow. We don't get any of that with Rey (presumably because they didn't want to take the time to write a story with any consequences behind it).
Frog Redstar wrote:As for Jakku natives forced to learn languages, it is almost common for Outer Rim passerbys or natives to learn it. If they don't, they don't survive, simple. Luke knew binary language, some others but not all as seen before. Owen Lars, a experienced moisture farmer, knew the Jawa language, and a number of others. Jakku is aruguably more harsh and has more danger than Tatooine, as Tatooine at least has friendly Spacers or Smugglers to lend a hand if they are nearby; It's a kind of ettiqute to assist each other on that planet. Jakku, from what I saw, studied, heard, is extremely harsh. If you don't learn to defend yourself, survive, and learn languages and tricks of the trade, not only do you not belong in the Outer Rim, but you will die very, very fast.
Luke didn't know binary language; either c3po or his xwing translated for him. Again, if Rey was only concerned with survival, she only needed to deal with her one boss. She might pick up a variety of languages from other people, but she shouldn't be fluent in them and she would have no reason to be perfectly fluent in the droid language.
Frog Redstar wrote:I really cannot argue with plot similarities, but they have elements that make the movie fresh. I already said in response to Sifo, the Prequels made alot of fans bitter, and if your friend is on the ground from a injury, he needs to let you know he is okay. So, we get a movie that is similar to the Original Trilogy.
Say what you will about the prequels, at least they gave us something different. We didn't hate them because they were different, we hated them because of the terrible acting and poor execution. So to say this movie is so great because it's exactly the same as the OT is sort of silly. Also it's debatable that one of the most popular and universe-rich franchises of all time was 'lying on the ground injured'.
 #142829  by John
 
Hollywood is stuck in the formula of reusing old plot lines, probably due to lack of creativity and knowing they can be cheap and throw stamps like MARVEL or STAR WARS on anything and people will throw down the Benjamins for it. Plus "reboot" is the theme of this century, didn't you know? TNT, Star Wars, Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Tarzan, X-men, Jungle Book, Star Trek, etc.

It is simply that the movie industry is no longer capable of releasing original movies anymore.
Frog Redstar wrote:But Emperor Palpatine was a gasbag of ego, and also he was arrogant and put far too much confidence into super weapons. It's unconventional, it's impractical, it may do it's JOB but in the long run, it would never hold out for long.
Palpatine had good reason for his ego. He pretty much manipulated the entire galaxy into giving itself to him on a silver platter, even the jedi.

And as far as super weapons go, the first death star was just that-the first death star. I don't think the empire ever planned to stop making and improving them. Not sure how things are now in the star wars universe but in the books, the Emperor was aware of all sorts of dangers lurking in the unknown regions and outside galaxies and the superweapons were the ultimate long-term deal-with-all solution. Not only that but with several super lasers in circulation, the emperor could have ensured his reign forever.
Frog Redstar wrote: And yes, Kylo is very, very rusty. He is a very very young and brash man. He hasn't fought people with swords for a long time. He also wasn't completely trained, as Snoke informs us.
I find this highly unlikely. First, the kid is not that old for such skills to have degenerated that fast, especially since he was Luke's best/most powerful students. Second, he is looking for LUKE SKYWALKER, and I'm sure it's not to give him a hug. Any idiot planning to take aggressive action against Jedi Master is going to be preparing themselves with at least a minimal amount of training/practice.
Frog Redstar wrote: Jakku is aruguably more harsh and has more danger than Tatooine, as Tatooine at least has friendly Spacers or Smugglers to lend a hand if they are nearby; It's a kind of ettiqute to assist each other on that planet.
Which Totooine is this? Surely not the one with slaves with explosives implanted in them, murderous tusken raiders, bounty hunters, and ruled by Hutts who throw slaves down Rancor feeding chutes for not dancing right.

As a great Jedi Master once said about Tatooine's largest spaceport:
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
Frog Redstar wrote: Rey, HAS, been training. She is a very competent fighter, add that to the fact that the movie is telling us she is extremely powerful with the Force. When you are by yourself, for around 20 + years, and all you have is a staff.. You better dang well use that and use it well. With that survival instinct, and to the fact that she is undoubtedly been forced to defend herself from Jakku natives and spacers, she has had significant more practice than Kylo Ren.
Pretty sure swinging a metal club around at unarmed thugs doesn't translate into lightsaber proficiency.
 #142841  by Frog
 
Something to note, however, is that I am rather easy to please. The visuals in both The Force Awakens and in Battlefront both COMPLETELY swayed me. There will always be flaws in a movie, however it is the job of the flim to make the audience see past those things, and believe in the illusion that it is a real world. With that said, I believed and cared for the characters, and I really didn't care for plot similarites. I still don't believe they rehashed the forth, I just thought to let you know if you get a massive scaled, well structured roster of characters, visuals, I easily get into it. So, to recap, that movie and the game both made me see past the mistakes and believe I am in the land of timeless adventure and fun. So I can say with pride that Star wars is back with a raging passion, but it may be different for you. Either way, at least we can all agree it's CGI was phenomenal and action was great, right? I'm only assuming this because even the haters of the movie at LEAST say that as well. ( I know Maz Kanada wasn't very good, and yeah I mostly agree. )
 #142844  by Frog
 
Double post. I am posting a link to the Nostalgia Critic-- Whom I was only granted to watch after my birthday, so bear in mind he uses alot of course language at times. However, he tackles both sides of the argument, and reaches a satisfying conclusion. Enjoy! http://channelawesome.com/star-wars-epi ... ia-critic/ :)