It's a Trap! -- Official Star Wars spoiler space

Abrams reportedly found it pretty exhausting, @matt1 - so walk away he did (wouldn't be surprised if they originally wanted him for the trilogy.) Ultimately the head honcho here is really Kathleen Kennedy, the Kevin Feige of the Star Wars universe; and the one who fought to while Abrams away from his Star Trek series.

Oh wow, so Rian Johnson wrote and directed Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper...and also directed three episodes of Breaking Bad? I'm pretty optimistic about the future SW films now.

WOOHOO! My wife got me IMAX 3D tickets for myself and my friend to see TFA on Saturday!

WOO!

Okay random thoughts after I have calmed my 8-year-old squealing shit down and had some fun reading the internet's reactions (not necessarily aimed at anyone on this board, just general reactions to other people's reactions):

IMO Rey is obviously Luke's child, if for no other reason than they played Luke's music behind her when she activated the light saber.  (My alternate theory, though, is that she's actually a Skywalker clone, and no-one has any idea)

Kylo Ren isn't a Sith, because if he were, he would be a Darth. Darth is a Sith title.

I really don't understand the problem with him being named "Ben". Come on, y'all. He's the one who literally brought Han, Luke, and Leia together, and they never referred to him as "Obi-wan".  Also "Jacen" is not a good space name.

Rey is as cute as a goddamn button. Also I'm 98% certain that she was 100% based on Kaylee from Firefly, especially as there was one bit that was a direct lift from one of Kaylee's lines.

Finn was also cute as a goddamn button. I really do like how he was pretty much constantly off-balance while still managing to dredge up his courage.  And I desperately Do Not Want a romance with him and Rey. Just keep them as dorky bros! 

There wasn't a whole lot to Poe Dameron, but I liked what we saw, and I'm sure we'll get more information on him in upcoming episodes.  Also that's an attractive man, just sayin'.

LEIA! LEIA! LEIA! LEIA! MOAR LEIA

Leia is not a Jedi, people of the internet, because she doesn't want to be. She has other shit to do that is FAR more important to her. How hard is that to understand?

Dude, if we had droids like Star Wars droids, spies would be hiding shit in them and sending them off to their destinations all the damn time. It doesn't really bother me that it's a retread of hiding Death Star plans in R2.

Obviously I was permanently traumatised by Han dying, but it actually makes perfect sense in terms of the Star Wars narrative pattern. BUT I DON'T LIKE IT. I DON'T LIKE IT.

Ah, yeah, that didn't look like Coruscant, so I was curious as to what planet it was.  So, this information makes me even more baffled as to how blowing up this planet somehow puts an end to the New Republic and the Senate. I could understand how blowing up Coruscant would have a strong psychological impact. The history, institutional memory, Jedi temple, libraries, Senate building, other assorted historical buildings.... But, if it is just some random planet that happens to be hosting the Senate this week, then who really cares? I mean, in terms of taking down the Republic. Just elect new people and convene somewhere else. Maybe don't publicize where you are meeting next time, eh? Or don't even meet all in one physical place. Technology is your friend!

Even if it had been Coruscant, I feel like they should be strongly motivated to regroup and reconvene. But, definitely, if the point was for the First order to strike a devastating blow, then the producers probably should have just let JJ blow up Coruscant.



Yeah, that is the one with the connection to Anakin Skywalker. That is why Kylo Ren wanted it. I wonder if she'd have heard Obi-Wan Kenobi speaking to her if she'd picked up the green saber?

While I always hesitate to link to anything Devin Faraci writes, because he is a doofus, this summary of the relationship between the Republic, the Empire, the First Order, and the Resistance seems like it makes sense.

The comments, on the other hand, are a wretched hive of "I think the story should have been [750 words of fan-fiction]!"

I'm definitely not reading the comments.

I mean, that explanation makes sense, sort of. But.... doesn't the Republic even have a military? And by this point, it seems like the First Order is a pretty big deal. The New Republic STILL isn't dealing with it? It seems like Kylo Ren was corrupted a while ago. Long enough for Han and Leia to have apparently not seen each other for a while. Just.... really? They don't believe Leia that this is a problem and she goes off to form a Resistance group?

So, after what happens in this movie, wouldn't everyone residing on all the rest of the Republic planets want to be in The Resistance?

I guess this is bothering me more than I originally thought.

Edited to add: And also, Faraci, that planet that was blown up did not look anything like Coruscant. Come on, it has been since the Episode III theatrical run that I have seen any of the prequels, and I didn't watch Clone Wars. And that planet was very clearly not Coruscant.

Oh! And my final thought generated from this thread tonight: I really hope Snoke is not Darth Plagueis. I love the scene in Episode III where Palpatine tells that story. Moreso, I love McDiarmid's delivery and the implication that he is confessing to be a Sith who murdered his legendary Sith Lord master. This is really the only scene I completely love in the entire prequel trilogy. Please, new movies, don't take that away from me. It is way cooler if Palpatine is confessing to murdering a Sith Lord in this scene.

The ENTIRE military was stationed at one planet. And they had been doing nothing while this massive army was built up right next to them?

So, what you're saying is that everything associated with the New Republic was moronic and deserved to be blown up.

Are we blaming this on Luke, too?

I have returned, and largely enjoyed myself.

What I liked:
-Fun Characters with charisma! Actual jokes that made me laugh or at least smile! A general sense of adventure and discovery!

-Kylo Ren worked for me, when the trailers initially showed up I was concerned that this movie was going to fall into the prequel trap of making Darth Vader the be all, end all of the universe even though in the original movies he was an important character but not the top dog within the Empire, but it makes sense for Ren individually to idolize him. Further, he's simply one villain among several and he and Domhall Gleeson's Hux jockeying for favor and tactical decisions was a nice dynamic. Ren is still a potent villain but also a little pathetic with the obvious distrust shown towards him by his supposed mentor and his frequent outbursts.

-The most effective action scene of the movie was for me the climactic Finn/Rey/Kylo lightsaber fight. It's also one of the film's most simple sequences in a lot of ways, the snowy forest was aesthetically pleasing but also not imbued with any wild and superfluous shit going on, and the fight itself displayed a nice sense of physicality and the nature of action reflected the character's mentality and background.

-It was visually pleasing movie. Particularly after the cinematic beige of the prequels where it felt like every damn shot was the same thing over and over, here there was actual attention paid to the cinematography, some shots like many of those of Jakku were both atmospheric and simply looked great, others like the shot with Leia and Rey separated from the crowd at the end were nice visual illustrations of character moments. Film is visual medium, it actually takes advantage of that again.

-Used the old characters the right way by giving them an actual role to play in the story, everything with Han and Leia was handled with tact and a proper degree of restraint. Han's death scene was excellently done, both visually and in terms of the character dynamics at play. I thought about Crystal Skull a bit while watching this, which roped Marion back into Indy for little to no reason and promptly gave her nothing to do.

What I was less keen on:

-Did we really need to do another death star? When I first found out about this plot element I was rather less than enthused and it continued to not work for me while watching the movie. I understand wanting the raise the stakes of the story, but those stakes were high enough for our characters without having to kill a bajillion people and wipe out like five planets, and weirdly no one seems that fazed that the Republic that everyone spent a decade fighting to create just got totally obliterated. When Alderan got destroyed in A New Hope, it was treated with the proper gravity for destruction on such a scale.

I understand the Republic is having its own issues but you'd think the Republic Army/Navy or whatever would be like "hey that giant fucking doom laser that makes the previous death stars look like child's play might be bad news". I appreciated that said doom laser was at least built into a planet, which made its existence more palatable to me since it at least seemed within the capabilities of the First Order, whereas some sort of "super-giant death star" would have set off all my stupid plotting alarms. Still I think the movie would be better if ol' doom laser of destruction was axed.

-Given that all the Order stormtroopers were basically child soldiers raised into a rigidly conformist, militaristic society it seemed odd to me that Captain Phasma, who one would presume must be pretty badass to get chrome armor, an actual name and a cape, promptly agreed to shut down the shields which totally doomed the base rather than just killing herself or something.

-There was something slightly intangible in the first half of the movie that made some of the action sequences feel a little weightless to me, I can't put my finger quite on what it was and it didn't really have to do with CGI usage or anything of that nature but maybe more pacing and framing. I think this feeling was slightly exacerbated by being seated near the very rear of the theater however, as it tends to pull me out somewhat as I've experienced with other movies and is not unique to this one.

My problem with it being Plagueis is that it means it's just the goddamn Sith again. The idea of a functionally unrelated Sith was a lot more appealing to me.

I think it would be amusing if we find out in Episode 8 she actually was crushed to death in that trash compactor. Sorry everyone who dressed as Phasma for Halloween, your hero died inside a dumpster.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone has made this observation yet, but I thought Kylo Ren was basically the personification of the whole movie: he's a reiteration of an original product that's neurotically obsessed with whether he's as good as the example he's copied from. He's good enough, which is kind of my feeling on the movie as a whole. I thought it was decently entertaining, though its kind of interesting to see the Marvel blockbuster formula being used for something with no superheroes.

Wait...... what? The New Republic is stupid as fuck if they couldn't bribe whatever judge got that case. "So the empire that has committed many atrocities, including blowing up an entire PLANET wants to lay claim to a huge chunk of the galaxy, even while no longer having a fleet?" ...... "Yes".

Deal.

I wish films were better about time constraints like that. I'm kinda counting down a clock in my head whenever they say stuff like that. It isn't a big deal because usually there is cool action, but it is a very lazy way of writing in tension. Not to mention like you said, it was about 10 to 15 minutes that passed. There was no fucking way it was remotely close to two minutes, this was one of the worst examples of this trope.

Lifemate and I were up until 2 in the damn morning discussing what I noted above, as well as other points. Why is this inviting so much analysis from me, who was enthusiastic but not crazy gung-ho in advance? I don't do this with other movies.

I don't blame J.J. Abrams for wanting to get away from this. I even have some George Lucas sympathy.