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…
Jim C. Hines
December 24, 2015 @ 7:57 pm
We’ll see. Fun as it would be, right now that sort of thing has to take a back seat to the book-in-process and a few other projects.
Caryn
December 25, 2015 @ 6:34 pm
Exactly! In 1977 (before VHS) I saw it 25 times and have it pretty well memorized still. There were so many nearly identical shots that it went way beyond homage into predictable. And the direction imho turned the OMG scene from heart-grabbing tragedy into just another plot beat. Loved Rey. Liked Finn but his character isn’t yet as established as Rey’s.
And if Kylo (emo boy) is the best the Big Bad can find, well, Snope is no Palpatine. Maybe Snope is a Jawa who went to the dark side but has no Force power to speak of, so he needs Kylo pathetic and childish and stupid as he is, and appears huge and looming, because, well, Jawa.
A Voyage Round The Kerfuffle Sea While Watching Star Wars 7 | Camestros Felapton
December 27, 2015 @ 3:43 pm
[…] http://www.jimchines.com/2015/12/the-force-awakens-spoilers/ […]
sistercoyote
December 28, 2015 @ 10:22 pm
Totally understood. 🙂
Gaby Alonso
December 30, 2015 @ 8:25 am
I decided I liked his character the moment I heard that line. I hope we will be seeing more of him in the next films.
Jeff K
December 30, 2015 @ 12:33 pm
Hey, that supports my theory that Finn is really Leia and Lando’s kid.
mjkl
January 1, 2016 @ 3:56 am
Intervention doesn’t always work.
Leslie R.
January 5, 2016 @ 4:38 pm
That’s how I felt about it, too, Ulrike. There was a lot that echoed the original films, but it felt like Star Wars again, which the prequels really failed to do.
Lallarona
January 5, 2016 @ 4:40 pm
I’d like to pseudonymously comment on this point.
I, with my ex wife, am raising a 16 year old boy who has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and clinical depression. This summer, after an attempted suicide, he spent time in our state’s (lousy) mental health system.
We are, I’d like to think, good parents. He has never been abused. He has not experienced trauma. We have done our best. And he is a good kid. Who has raged, has self-harmed, has blatantly disobeyed us and treated us and others with disrespect. All because he hates himself so much, he wants everyone else to feel the same way.
I don’t say this to air dirty laundry. I say this as someone who is going though this: Kylo Ren is perfect, the way Leia and Han behave in the film is perfect, and Han touching Kylo’s face in absolute forgiveness is perfect, and I pretty much lost my shit at that moment. I don’t know if it was Abrams or Kasdan that constructed the emotional beats of that particular plot element, but I suspect that, whoever it was, knew just what that feels like.
Leslie R.
January 5, 2016 @ 4:41 pm
I do hope we get some more back story on how this all came about in the future. I wondered about that, too and would definitely like to understand how this “reset” occurred.
Leslie R.
January 5, 2016 @ 5:00 pm
I didn’t really notice the timing issue with starship travel – I guess I just assumed nothing exciting happened during the journey so they just cut to the end. But that WAS the longest 15 minutes ever with the starkiller – kind of like football time, except that there weren’t any actual time outs.
Leslie R.
January 5, 2016 @ 5:06 pm
True. And since Luke was training him, he undoubtedly did notice his nephew’s dark side tendencies and tried to get him back on the path to the light. Just because we haven’t actually seen that yet doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Perhaps we’ll see more of that history in the next movie.
Leslie R.
January 5, 2016 @ 5:07 pm
That would have been awesome!
Leslie R.
January 5, 2016 @ 5:10 pm
I noticed that as well. I just figured that stormtroopers must also have some training with bladed weapons.
Carv
January 12, 2016 @ 5:35 pm
True, but why was the entire destroyer in shadow, when only a fraction of the planet was?