The Force Awakens – Spoilers in the Comments
We saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens over the weekend. I won’t put spoilers in this blog post, but will be talking about and spoiling things in the comments at http://www.jimchines.com/2015/12/the-force-awakens-spoilers/
Nonspoilery thoughts? We enjoyed it. Definitely better than the prequels. Finn & Rey are great — both the characters and the actors. My son loved it and immediately wanted to watch it again when it was over
If you’ve seen the film, or if you don’t care about spoilers, feel free to jump into the discussion. I’ve got much more to say…
Sally
December 20, 2015 @ 5:43 pm
This is the most involved and present I’ve seen Harrison Ford in a movie in ages! He was acting instead of just phoning it in. And he remembered how to bring the funny.
Sally
December 20, 2015 @ 5:45 pm
My BFF and I thought the same thing. Pay no attention to the Snoke behind the curtain.
Andrew Betts
December 20, 2015 @ 5:46 pm
Finn I think merely had some blade weapon training (since the other trooper he fought obviously had some). I think if you go with the idea that Rey is Luke’s daughter, I think he may have used the force to block her memories to keep her safe. Kinda like Leia was safe until Luke knew she was his sister. If Rey remember Luke was her father, then the first order couldn’t outright try to use her to get to him.
So with that, I think she had previously been trained at least as a youngling. And the force echos she saw/heard from the saber awoke some of her hidden memories. Plus she’s obviously very skilled in staff combat, which while not exactly the same class of weapon as a sword, there is quite a bit that can translate.
Sally
December 20, 2015 @ 5:46 pm
That’s exactly how the run on the first Death Star went. I saw it as homage. (Seriously, go back to the original and time that sequence)
maddbookish
December 20, 2015 @ 5:55 pm
Ben Solo is is some ways like Jacen Solo from the books, so I’m going to guess he was about the same age when he was sent to Luke for training, which was 13. Since he probably didn’t train up and turn in that first year, it’s a safe guess that Luke was around for at least 15 years, assuming Ben was conceived right after the events of Return of The Jedi. For some reason, I feel like he was maybe 16 or 17 when he turned.
roger tang
December 20, 2015 @ 5:59 pm
Well, even sanitation engineers who get sent into the battlefield get some combat training….
But what gets me is that Finn has some humungous courage going on. Takes planetary sized guts to do what he did (first breaking away from the First Order, then returning with Solo, and then finally facing Ren when he KNEW he was gonna get sliced to ribbons by him)
Malovich
December 20, 2015 @ 6:01 pm
I’m actually taking that as proof that training under pressure is a way to release talents that may have been built up over time. My current theory is that Rey, living on a hostile world as a scavenger, learned to use the Force is subtle ways to her advantage, picking up a lot of ‘talents’ that allowed her to get by. Her need, desperation and exposure to Kylo and Maz opened her up full throttle and she never looked back – and she had enough under her belt and wasn’t anywhere as insecure as Kylo Ren.
Brian Williams
December 20, 2015 @ 6:09 pm
For me, that very familiarity was part of why it worked well, so different tastes, I guess. Repetition of the same basic story never has bothered me, as long as the characters are interesting enough, and these were.
Brian Williams
December 20, 2015 @ 6:15 pm
Yeah, that was annoying. The only reason it didn’t seriously bother me is because I don’t expect any better of Hollywood, having seen that in every action movie I can recall. It’s a trope I hate, but basically expect to see.
Michael Phillips
December 20, 2015 @ 6:23 pm
But they got him a new puppy to replace the old one.. And this one uses the force (Wookies live about 400 years. Making human life spans similar in proportion to a dog’s…) I think Cheque keeps pet humans.
MistressWeatherwax
December 20, 2015 @ 6:33 pm
But WAS the Empire defeated? Its top two leaders had been killed and its scariest weapon destroyed, but most of its infrastructure was still intact and it wouldn’t have been hard for someone else to step into the power vacuum left by Palpatine’s and Vader’s deaths. Obviously some systems, emboldened by the rebels’ successes, were able to liberate themselves and form a democratic government again, but they were still fighting against a better-organized and better-armed regime (which might be why they were still a “resistance” after all this time).
[there’s actually a lot on Wookieepedia about what happened in the intervening years, but while it’s all very interesting, it doesn’t matter much to the viewer if it’s not in the films themselves. I’m hoping they’ll dig into the history a bit more in the next two films]
MistressWeatherwax
December 20, 2015 @ 6:47 pm
If she is Luke’s daughter then her great-grandfather is The Force, so you’d expect her to have a decent amount of innate ability. Of course, if she is Luke’s daughter then you’d assume he’d train her – which makes the memory-wipe theory look more and more plausible. What if Luke has been training kids, wiping their memories (to hide them from the bad guys), and seeding them around the galaxy like sleeper agents, set to awaken and come to him when the need is great enough or when he’s ready to enact his grand plan? /randomtheory
Jeremy
December 20, 2015 @ 6:53 pm
I greatly enjoyed the movie, but everything about Starkiller base was slightly too silly for me.
“Hokay, so we built a sphere this big () and it did not work. Then we built a sphere this big (()) and it did not work. Clearly we need a sphere this big (((((()))))) to finally defeat them! Noooo! It’s not working. Flee! Admiral Dyson, begin building your plan for the next movie.”
Marshall Ryan Maresca
December 20, 2015 @ 7:02 pm
I do have a bit of a theory about that… but it’s pure theory.
OK, so, in the beginning, we see Finn when he’s still FN-whatever, and Phasma tells him to report to her office. The next time we see him, he’s breaking Poe out.
On the Starkiller, he finds Phasma and holds her at gunpoint to lower the shields, which she does with relative ease.
So… what if Finn is a sleeper agent for Phasma?
Chrysoula
December 20, 2015 @ 7:06 pm
I didn’t have any problem with Ben going Dark Side because, well… we have supposedly well-adjusted young people losing it and going on rampages too often in the real world….
…but that aside, Kylo Ren was clearly familiar with the concept of ‘a girl’ (he reacted very strongly when she was first mentioned). So I suspect that he was Luke’s favored student until Rey was born and became her father’s favorie (and a more gifted Jedi trainee) so jealously kicked in and drove Kylo Ren to the Dark Side. So he knows there’s ‘a girl’ out there who has been ruining his life since forever.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 7:12 pm
I … kind of wanna see Admiral Dyson’s ultimate weapon in the next film.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 7:14 pm
Interesting. I’m doubtful they’d go in that direction with the story, but it’s not inconceivable.
Hayley
December 20, 2015 @ 7:57 pm
Yes!
rayvyn2k
December 20, 2015 @ 8:05 pm
As soon as I read that Harrison Ford had agreed to be in this film, I knew Han was doomed. Ford famously wanted the character killed off in Empire Strikes Back, so I had the feeling that his agreeing to be in this film was contingent on Han’s death by the end, As a result, even though there was an audible gasp in the theatre when he was shish kabobbed, I was sad but not surprised. I wish Han hadn’t been killed, but I sort of expected it.
Klimpaloon
December 20, 2015 @ 8:14 pm
I did think it was weird that when the Falcon returned to base after Han’s death, Chewie kinda walks past Leia and she doesn’t think of giving HIM a hug, only Rey. Was that supposed to be like his medal snub in Episode 4?
Marshall Ryan Maresca
December 20, 2015 @ 8:14 pm
Part of my idea is based on the fact that Phasma seems oddly upcasted and promoted given how little she actually does in the movie. Which makes me think there would be a payoff in VIII.
Kathryn Sullivan
December 20, 2015 @ 8:30 pm
JJ Adams mentioned in an interview why Ren turned to the Dark Side. Sounds like he will have a grudge against Luke if they ever meet again.
http://paper.li/michaellorg/1319245279?edition_id=b7b10de0-a77e-11e5-a600-002590a5ba2d
Kathryn Sullivan
December 20, 2015 @ 8:31 pm
Apologies. Wrong link.
http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2015/12/19/j-j-abrams-explains-why-the-force-awakens-kylo-ren-turned-to-the-dark-side/
K`shandra
December 20, 2015 @ 8:32 pm
Han’s exchange with Leia about going back to smuggling – “I went back to what I did best.” “We all did.” – rang very true for me; I’m sorry it didn’t have the same effect for you.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 8:41 pm
I didn’t say it felt untrue, or unrealistic. But from a storytelling perspective, so much of what happened after the original trilogy feels like it was undercut and reset.
Erik de Bie
December 20, 2015 @ 8:44 pm
My personal theory? Rey is the daughter of Luke and Phasma.
No particular evidence to the link between Rey and Phasma, other than them both being mysterious characters in a SW movie. It’s just what *I* would do–assuming Mara Jade isn’t an option.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 8:50 pm
I have no idea how you’d make it work, storywise, but I like it!
Laura J Mixon
December 20, 2015 @ 8:51 pm
Hey! Don’t blame his mom! We do the best we can! Kids can choose to be assholes… 😉
Laura J Mixon
December 20, 2015 @ 8:56 pm
You mailed my two main objections, Jim. The good news (hope springing eternal into my heart) is that now they are freed up to go whither they will. Let’s hope they show us the true potential of the franchise, by heading into uncharted waters that explore some of those deeper resonances we were all hoping for.
Steven Silver
December 20, 2015 @ 9:03 pm
Poe’s comment when he first meets Kylo Ren seemed like it wasn’t the same sense of humor I associate with Star Wars. It would have been more in keeping with Galaxy Quest than Star Wars.
Steven Silver
December 20, 2015 @ 9:06 pm
Yeah, I couldn’t figure out who the Resistance was resisting.
Steven Silver
December 20, 2015 @ 9:14 pm
I loved that every time Kylo Ren had a scene with Rey, I loved how she was in control, even in the interrogation scene.
Erik de Bie
December 20, 2015 @ 9:21 pm
She could be a light side plant watching over Ren to come up with ways to turn him back (perhaps explaining why she let Finn off the hook), or she could have turned evil just as he did.
Perhaps she was always on the dark side or was a bounty hunter or something, but she and Luke had a hero/villain romance way back when, and he doesn’t know Rey exists. Phasma was the one who abandoned her on Jakku.
Anyway. It’s a fun theory.
Erik de Bie
December 20, 2015 @ 9:24 pm
This is pretty much my thinking, too.
We really don’t know why Kylo Ren became evil. It could be any number of reasons. Just because we can’t *see* the internal logic doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
More back story will be revealed, I’m sure.
Erik de Bie
December 20, 2015 @ 9:29 pm
To me, Finn’s lightsabering seemed to be mostly wild swings and putting the blade between incoming attacks and himself. He might have trained with a vaguely similar (melee) weapon before, but this was obviously new to him. There was no elegance or finesse–raw power and “pointy end goes in the other man” sort of fighting.
If Han picked up a lightsaber, he’d probably fight the same way.
Anyway, just my impression.
Steven Silver
December 20, 2015 @ 9:30 pm
I was looking for her to hold the light saber out to Luke and just saying “Dad” as he turned around.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 9:40 pm
I thought it worked. That level of bravado seemed consistent with his character, from what little we’d seen of him. But I could see how you might bounce off of it, too…
Crystal
December 20, 2015 @ 11:02 pm
I haven’t gone through all of the conversations above, but JIm – have you read the EU books? And are you reading the novelization of TFA now?
Crystal
December 20, 2015 @ 11:04 pm
I don’t buy him thinking she’s been dead for the past several years. I do think that he felt as though he failed after Ben’s betrayal, and thought that Rey would be better served being kept away from him, Jedi, and anything else. I also think that Han & Leia knew this and think he was an idiot, but didn’t know where Rey was…and now they feel that Luke should be the one to tell her the truth, which is why Leia sent Rey after him instead of going herself.
S.KS. Perry
December 20, 2015 @ 11:34 pm
I thought I left a comment here, and Facebook says you replied to it, but…nothing?
Jani
December 21, 2015 @ 12:31 am
I disagree. I think there are plenty of well-loved children who turned out to be psychopaths and/or generally awful humans. I think it’s too easy to blame all evil on childhood trauma. There must be some people who CHOOSE evil as well as some people who are driven to it.
Ken Marable
December 21, 2015 @ 12:31 am
Have to watch it again, but I wonder how much of her thrusty-stabby style matched how she fought with her staff? I seem to recall her fight with the 2 guys trying to nab BB-8 that she tended to thrust the end into them.
Ken Marable
December 21, 2015 @ 12:36 am
At least this time I got the impression that they clued in to the fact that rather than building a massive moon or planet-sized metal structure from scratch, it’s much easier to just take one of the gazillion planet-sized actual *planets* and shape it to fit your needs.
Glen
December 21, 2015 @ 1:43 am
I was getting a little tired of Ren throwing temper-tantrums – even if Leia and Han’s parenting was supposed to be so bad, I really can’t imagine either of them putting up with it. (Maybe that’s why he turned – too much “knock it off, I’ve got a republic to run.” )
Overall, I liked it, even if the dark side is now run by Voldemort, a nazi wanna-be, and a two-year old. I’ll forgive the lapses as it was definitely more fun than the prequels.
Harry Connolly
December 21, 2015 @ 2:04 am
Mark Waid was on Twitter saying that, as a person who has rebooted several properties in his career, the first thing you do is return to what works. So, he thought it was smart to bring back a death star/holographic master baddie/not-so-ordinary person on a desert planet/etc.
I don’t know that I agree, but there you go.
saluk
December 21, 2015 @ 5:24 am
Did not catch that detail of Ren freaking out every time the “girl” was mentioned. Nice!
saluk
December 21, 2015 @ 5:30 am
I mean, they have stormtroopers who fight with electroblades now, I can’t imagine he would have been taking part in operation “find the map” without training in them. He didn’t do anything very fancy with the lightsaber, so it seems consistent with a trooper “basic training” regiment.
Emily White
December 21, 2015 @ 8:57 am
Actually, it’s an artistic style called parallelism that they’ve used throughout the entire saga (including Episodes I-III). They aren’t failing to be original. They’re doing it for effect.
Torrey
December 21, 2015 @ 9:37 am
Could they have done the “split up the twins” trick again?
Mark Bernstein
December 21, 2015 @ 10:00 am
I can’t argue this one too hard, but I did love the moment of the Falcon taking off while the Rancor was chewing on the windshield. 🙂
Mark Bernstein
December 21, 2015 @ 10:01 am
I am deeply grateful that the word “midichlorian” was never uttered.
Mark Bernstein
December 21, 2015 @ 10:06 am
All I want to add is that, as much as I enjoyed everyone else, Daisy Ridley had the standout performance of this movie, and she’s the biggest reason I want to see what happens next.
Ken Marable
December 21, 2015 @ 10:09 am
Another possibility beyond it just being a temper tantrum is that since the Dark Side arises from anger and hate – he’s actively trying to embrace that anger. Of course, all of us feel that way at times, but usually move on. Ren, however, might feel that and actually think “I *need* to act this out, it’s what a Sith *should* do.”
So given his internal conflict and need to live up to Vader’s myth, there might be a healthy dose of trying too hard thrown in there.
sistercoyote
December 21, 2015 @ 11:22 am
Well, that and clearly Snoke had something to do with his going Dark Side.
sistercoyote
December 21, 2015 @ 11:23 am
“You’re cold?”
sistercoyote
December 21, 2015 @ 11:25 am
I have a question, too, because how on earth did the First Order manage to AFFORD the planet(s)-killer? ANd what were they planning to do once they’d killed the planet’s sun? And how were they affording the baby-kidnapping scheme? I mean, seriously.
Uh. That’s more than one question, I guess.
sistercoyote
December 21, 2015 @ 11:28 am
Yes, this. They were badasses, but they were also frightened badasses.
sistercoyote
December 21, 2015 @ 11:30 am
Add me to the list of people who IMMEDIATELY thought Pay No Attention to the Man Behind The Curtain…
sistercoyote
December 21, 2015 @ 11:35 am
I think it could go either way: I’m actually leaning toward some Force sensitivity (Han wasn’t that graceful with Luke’s lightsaber when HE picked it up) but not because of the lightsaber — because of the “awakening”. Two people were awakened in this movie: Finn and Rey, and Finn.
And I question how much someone raised as a stormtrooper from birth would know about “the right thing to do,” inherently.
Becca Stareyes
December 21, 2015 @ 12:08 pm
That’s what I figured. Even the EU/Legends had Imperial-held territories persist for some time (IIRC, they moderated and eventually signed a treaty with the Republic stabilizing their borders). There were a lot of Imperial military not at Endor, and governors and so on that kept things stable. A lot would either preserve the Empire or set up their own little fiefdoms. And the Resistance was separate from the Republic because it was operating in First-Order held space, and presumably needed a more flexible structure than the Republic military. Especially given the enemy’s tendency for planet-destroying superweapons.
(Granted, I’m not sure why the Republic needed to separate itself from a guerilla organization, when everyone seemed to assume the Resistance was funded by the Republic, and the Republic and the First Order seem to be the two major powers, so it’s not like they needed deniability. It could be an organizational thing or it could be to draw in people who might not be too thrilled by the Republic, but are anti-First Order, and hope they can set up something else after the First Order is gone. )
Becca Stareyes
December 21, 2015 @ 12:13 pm
I recall that was suggested for Anankin’s own affinity. He was a slave rather than a scavenger, but similar talents would keep him and his mother safe. Being indispensable to Watto was probably the best bet for a stable life until random Jedi came around.
Becca Stareyes
December 21, 2015 @ 12:18 pm
See, I might say that after Kylo Ren, Luke would be worried that any students of his wouldn’t survive long enough against the First Order, so it was more ‘I can’t protect them, so they need to hide so well that no one will think they are Jedi apprentices’. By that sense, he never intended Rey to wake up on her own (unless he assumed that any contact with Kylo Ren or another Force-user would do it, and at that point, she’d need it).
Also might explain why Luke is looking for this McGuffin: he needs somewhere to bring students that would be Safe in addition to stopping the First Order directly.
MT
December 21, 2015 @ 12:22 pm
Not seen the movie yet. Will soon… but wanted to see what people were saying. In response to your point and others, Jim, I’ll say this. You’re all overlooking the central point of all the Star Wars movies. It’s a space opera, for sure, but with a long meandering conversation about the nature of mankind.
Are we born demons and angels or do we become them? Up until this point the series has pretty much leaned almost exclusively on the idea that we’re born the way we end up.
Anakin is the simplest example. Born and raised in slavery, in a time of war, he eventually gets to the Jedis and the first thing that happens is Yoda sits there and says “nope, bad seed. punt him out. or at least, you know, keep him under surveillance”. I never once felt an emotional investment by any of the characters to fix that. Mitigate, sure. Suppress, maybe. But fix? No.
Because the central thought seems to be you are what you are born to be.
For heroes it’s dicy right up until the point they do the right thing the right time. But once they do… man, you’re Luke and you can’t do any wrong. That he blew the hell up a station with potentially how many people on it? Spearheaded a war that killed millions?
I love the movies but it’s why the prequels never worked for me. The inevitability of them, the fatalism of them seeped into the characters. They knew there was no option but where they would end up. It is there in the original three, but to a lesser degree.
Fate. Destiny. Who’s your daddy.
No. Really. Fathers are really big in this. 😛
Tiffany
December 21, 2015 @ 12:48 pm
I dunno, I have met some terrible terrible people with good people for parents, and some good people who were somehow raised by awful people. Sometimes raising a person just goes wrong.
Tiffany
December 21, 2015 @ 12:53 pm
It all made sense to me that the First Order would be specifically training troopers to respond and fight against Jedi Weapons. Especially a group who is actively seeking a Jedi.
judith mortimore
December 21, 2015 @ 1:10 pm
I hope so, too. It wouldn’t have been difficult to put a line or two of explanation into the opening rolling ‘story so far’, though!
judith mortimore
December 21, 2015 @ 1:12 pm
And the planet killer was straight out of EE ‘Doc’ Smith
Jim C. Hines
December 21, 2015 @ 1:29 pm
I’m thinking the bad guys have run up some SERIOUS credit card debt by now. Either that, or imagine Snoke having to go to the bank of evil for another loan, like Gru in Despicable Me.
Actually, that conversation might make an interesting and fun bit of fanfic…
Jim C. Hines
December 21, 2015 @ 1:30 pm
That’s a fair point. Though I still wonder how it would have gotten so bad without someone noticing and stepping in to intervene.
Jim C. Hines
December 21, 2015 @ 1:31 pm
You commented over on Facebook, but since I’m trying to keep all spoilers and conversation here in one spot, I replied and deleted that thread on Facebook. Just trying to keep the spoilers corralled in one place so nobody stumbles into them unintentionally.
Jim C. Hines
December 21, 2015 @ 1:33 pm
I read a lot of the early EU books. Not as many of the later ones.
Haven’t read the TFA novelization yet, but I may need to check it out 🙂
Susan
December 21, 2015 @ 1:53 pm
Biggest complaints:
Why is Leia not a Jedi?
Where is Lando Calrissian?
Andrew Betts
December 21, 2015 @ 1:59 pm
I really hope not.
Ken Marable
December 21, 2015 @ 2:28 pm
Before the movie I joked with my wife that Leia would wind up being a total buff, badass Jedi. With Luke training her, imagine having to run and do flips through the swamp with Luke on your back. Or a 1 handed handstand with Luke balanced on one of your feet!
Luke had it easy with a 2 foot tall, lightweight instructor.
Ken Marable
December 21, 2015 @ 2:49 pm
Was just reading up on some of the minor characters today (only saw the movie last night and wanted to avoid ALL info until I saw it). I’m sure most or all of you have rewad this already, but, just in case, there’s some interesting tie-ins with the movie and some of the new fiction.
The Shattered Empire comic book series is about Poe Dameron’s parents (only read 1st issue so far, now have to go back and read them all).
Greg Grunberg’s character was listed in the credits as Snap Wexley, but apparently his full name according to StarWars.com is Temmin “Snap” Wexley for those who read Aftermath.
Plus I guess Jakku was one of the locations featured in the little interludes in Aftermath (the refugee trying to get as far from everything as possible, I think?). Also, haven’t read it, but apparently the YA novel Lost Stars has Jakku figure rather prominently.
So I will say this for the the new movie – it does have me geeked again to track down all sorts of this kind of trivia and learn the names of every character and creature that appears in the movie. Takes me back to when I could name every action figure out there and which scene they were in and what their entire backstory was. Fun stuff!
Lostshadows
December 21, 2015 @ 2:57 pm
Yeah, that was one of the things that bugged me too. You have a whole frigging government on your side, why is this not closer to what was happening in RotS?
I’m also bugged by how easy it, apparently, is to duel with lightsabers. Either that or Ben wasn’t very good at it.
Overall, I thought it was better in a lot of aspects than the prequels, but it didn’t quite work for me as a Star Wars movie. I’m not sure why though.
Alan
December 21, 2015 @ 4:56 pm
I kind of got the impression that Kylo Ren was somehow convinced that he *needed* to embrace the dark side, like he believed there was some purpose behind it. I am very curious to find out what exactly Snope did and said to turn him.
Adrian
December 21, 2015 @ 7:13 pm
There were a couple of really beautiful, meaningful shots for me.
One, when Finn is walking on Jakku and shedding his stormtrooper armor piece by piece, then shielding himself with the jacket of the resistance (which he later dons).
The other was the battle between Rey and Ren, when the two clashing lightsabers are reflected in Kylo Ren’s eyes – symbolizing the conflict between light and dark within him.
I love well done silent storytelling.
Dan Santos
December 21, 2015 @ 9:23 pm
Loved the movie in spite of the many things pointed out here. The things that nearly dropped me out of the movie haven’t been mentioned here yet, though.
One: space is apparently “small” in that there was exactly zero sense of time passed in any of the situations where travel has to have happened. How long to travel from Jakku to the planet that had Luke’s lightsaber? Blink of an eye. The spies sent their messages, and within ten minutes both the First Order *and* the Resistance show up. What? Did the spies at a random bar have direct lines to both Darth Whine and Leia? And they were able to scramble fighters, collect trips and transports, fly through hyperspace, and attack within ten minutes (at most)?
Two: the Red Beam of Doom was visible from multiple planets, slowly traveling across their skies, apparently simultaneously traveling across the galaxy at hyper-lightspeed, and then split up at the very end and oh-so-slowly hit multiple targets? This is the most funky-assed beam I can imagine.
Three: they sucked a star into a planet? Really? Multi-millions of times larger than the planet, but the still fit it inside the planet? Ok, fine – super science handwavium. But how do they tow the planet to another star? And how do they test something like that? And how did they move it so quickly after their first firing?
Those things hit me like a handful of sand thrown into my eyes. I had to consciously suppress my disbelief and try to re-immerse myself in the movie.
The last two items were stupid writers not thinking about the ‘realities’ of what they were making up.
The first item was MUCH more serious. Star Wars is not small. It is a universe that is supposed to be full of wonder with wild and barely-explored exotics worlds. Instead, they made it a tiny little place where you can hop into a space ship and cross the galaxy like you are going out to the store for a gallon of milk.
I’m trying to remember how wonderful Rey, Finn, and Han were, and ignore how small they made the universe.
Nojh
December 21, 2015 @ 9:33 pm
I agree the scene alone doesn’t do much. It does 2 big things:
1. It gives us some classic Han Solo (more on that later)
2. It gives us a reason to run away on the Millennium Falcon rather than using whatever ship Han had. Fulfilling a story beat as it were.
Otherwise it adds some humor and action which, in Abrams land is the brick between the glue but I digress.
I think 1 was actually far more important upon reflection because of (BIG SPOILER) what happens to Han later. Han was a large part of this film compared to the other “old” trio” (and chewy) and I think it all leads back to that scene on the bridge. We see the birth of a villain and the death of a (would be) mentor. If Han had just entered the movie, hung around with the new cast, passed the “baton”, and then died, it would have been unsatisfying. Instead we get to see him do all his old character beats (smuggling, leia, being a reluctant hero), except this time he doesn’t get away scott free because he wasn’t the main character.
So yeah there was backstory building there, but it was of a fan favorite character we already knew that we were going to be deprived of. I would have prefered having a few more tidbits of Kylo’s backstory but that’s obviously either going to be a “what backstory?” or a big reveal later.
Gordon
December 21, 2015 @ 9:41 pm
JJ Abrams apparently had the first Star Trek movie in mind (not his, the very first with Decker and Ilia). He felt there had to be significant linkage to / echoes of the original. Either that or he recently read the two David Eddings pentalogies, the Belgariad and the Malloreon.
Shane Ede
December 21, 2015 @ 11:20 pm
Dare I say a New Hope?
roger tang
December 21, 2015 @ 11:50 pm
From what I hear from other weapons fighters, quite a bit. Adapted from her staff fighting…which is only natural. You fall back to familiar techniques.
It might also explain why Ren had some trouble with her. Her style might be inferior, but it was definitely unfamiliar to him. He’s being cautious in two ways, a) he wants to capture her, and b) he’s dealing with a Force touched combatant with an unfamiliar fighting style. Need to be somewhat cautious there.
roger tang
December 21, 2015 @ 11:54 pm
Oh, the planet doesn’t move. AT ALL. It just taps all the energy of the sun (not suck it into the planet) and throws it into hyperspace. The sun goes back to what it was, ready to be tapped again.
See E. E. “Doc” Smith’s sunbeam in Second Stage Lensman.
Ulrike
December 22, 2015 @ 12:17 am
And then Chewie made sure Han had a coat before they went back outside. *sob*
Ulrike
December 22, 2015 @ 12:23 am
I do agree, at least in this case. Because so many fans were so disenchanted by the prequels, the references to the original trilogy helped to earn back trust. “I understand what you loved about Star Wars. I loved it too. Remember all those things you loved? Here are more of them.”
I expect more originality in the future, but for the first act in a three-act story, the nostalgia factor worked for me.
John Kusters
December 22, 2015 @ 3:49 am
I think that’s just a JJ Abrams problem. In the Star Trek movies they had much the same issue, Vulcan and Quo’nos suddenly being mere minutes away by warp speed, and Vulcan’s destruction clearly visible from the surface of a planet in a different solar system. It’s a bit more excusable in the “fairy tale” like genre of Star Wars, but not *that* excusable.
John Kusters
December 22, 2015 @ 3:55 am
Finn’s “passable” skills may be partly due to Ren’s rather untrained skills. Ren’s saber looked crudely made, and I just didn’t get the feeling his fighting skills were up to Sith standards. No-where as good as Maul or other full-fledged Sith. Maybe Finn didn’t *need* to be that good to face Ren, just good enough not to chop off his own leg?
Dan Santos
December 22, 2015 @ 9:47 am
They very specifically showed a big stream of gas funneling from the star to the planet. It would have worked better for me if they had made it as a force field sort of thing funneling in light or something, but like I said, “handwavium super science”.
Dana
December 22, 2015 @ 10:56 am
I wish to subscribe to this newsletter.
joe
December 22, 2015 @ 7:58 pm
My biggest complaint is they had tons and tons of awesome star wars books from the expanded universe to pull from and they had to scrap 30 years of expanded universe and do something mediocre (don’t get me wrong i still liked it, but pretty my for nostalgic purposes, i just feel they could have done better). Maybe 8 will vindicate it.
Kathryn Sullivan
December 22, 2015 @ 8:41 pm
The previews had Leia being given the lightsaber. Here’s the link to why that was changed. Still waiting to see who retrieved that particular lightsaber from Cloud City and why.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/j-j-abrams-explains-why-that-lightsaber-shot-from-the-1749335664
Alice Davies
December 22, 2015 @ 11:11 pm
The book series “Star Wars: Aftermath” by Chuck Wendig is, I think, supposed explain what happened between Episode VI & Episode VII, but only the first book of the trilogy has been published. Honestly, I’m currently trying to read it, but there are so many incomplete sentences that it reads more like a movie script than a well-written book. I’m surprised they even published it because of that.
Alice Davies
December 22, 2015 @ 11:18 pm
That was how I saw it, too. It seemed to me Kyle Ren has too much of a habit of throwing a temper tantrum. You can kind of tell by everyone else’s reactions that it probably happens a lot. And obviously no one wants to be the guy to tell him to knock it off & act his age.
Crystal
December 23, 2015 @ 12:31 am
I highly recommend it, as it fills in a few “deleted” scenes, as well as some of the characters’ thought processes, which doesn’t come across as well in the movie.. Afterwards, you should read “Before the Awakening,” which contains for three different characters, Finn, Rey, and Poe.
Crystal
December 23, 2015 @ 12:34 am
Regarding the first point, read the book. It’ll explain a lot of that, though a few events do still happen too quickly.
It also explains the second point; the oscillator on the planet drew in the sun and converted it into dark matter, and the weapon itself tore a literal hole through subspace/hyperspace and pretty much sent an instantaneous blast out across the galaxy that targeted the Senate’s main planet. My memory of the science is very poor even though I read it yesterday, so please take this with a grain of salt and read the book for a better explanation. Enjoy!
MistressWeatherwax
December 23, 2015 @ 10:35 am
I’ve been reading Wookieepedia and I can’t remember which info comes from which source, but apparently in some of the supplemental materials Jakku was the site of a major battle between the Empire and the new baby Republic, about a year after Endor. That crashed Star Destroyer was a remnant of said battle.
LongStrider
December 23, 2015 @ 2:24 pm
It may be even more than that. In various EU bits (I know, non-canon now, but relevant from ‘how the world may work’ point of view) the Dark Side uses any strong emotions, so what he’s doing in his property destruction temper tantrums and beating his own wounds until they bleed is psyching himself up to pull more strongly on the Dark Side. Slamming his fist repeatedly against his wound in the light saber duel is the Dark Side equivalent of Qui-gon sitting down to mediate behind the locking wall during the fight with Maul.
sistercoyote
December 23, 2015 @ 8:03 pm
Jim.
Jim.
I will LOVE YOU FOREVER (in a non creepy stalkery way) if you write Gru & Snoke talking to each other in line at the Bank of Evil. ESPECIALLY if it regards their respective children (because Gru’s three, even the one who’s the right age for tantrums, are better behaved than Ren ye fishes and little gods…)
Kathryn Sullivan
December 23, 2015 @ 8:25 pm
I was really impressed by this review and summary of why Rey is so important to viewers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/12/21/how-rey-and-the-force-awakens-could-change-star-wars-forever/