Oh wow. 9 years ago The Force Awakens came out? I will say the general reaction to it was so absolutely not what I expected that I stopped trying to predict what people might think.
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It was great seeing the old gang, particularly Han and Chewie, but the story didn’t even try to hide how derivative it was of ANH. Was expecting so much more.
I liked it. And I thought the moment when Rey uses the force to pull the light saber past Kylo Ren and then turns it on for the first time was a top 5 moment in the whole franchise
It seems like a miracle now that looking back, TFA is more of a reboot than a true sequel but nobody noticed because they hit a homerun with the new cast. Also, at the time, making Luke the maguffin felt clever but now feels like a huge blunder. Still dig the movie tho.
It's fun! Just wish someone asked the question "Are we sure we want to kill off Han before we have even one scene with Luke/Han/Leia/Chewie/R2/Threepio all together again?"
I wouldn't have minded that, it would have been interesting. My thing was, going from never thinking there would be another SW movie, then getting new ones, with the OG cast, and not getting a single scene of them together, felt like a bummer.
Ford's relationship with Star Wars films since 1980 has been scrambling to escape and then being bludgeoned into submission with giant wads of cash so they can drag him back in front of the camera.
As someone whose life and career were shaped by seeing the first Star Wars movie in a theatre as an 11-year old child, I truly enjoyed The Force Awakens. Rey remains one of my favorite characters across all of cinema and Han Solo's line "it's true, all of it" is one of the best in the franchise.
As a hobby model builder who has done the Falcon more times than I can count, I only ever wanted one thing from a new Star War and I got exactly it. This reference shot.
Hey that's one of my shots! That image is seared into my brain forever. One of the most fun sequences to work on, it was such a joy to see the Falcon again. I had model kit of this one and a few X-Wings growing up, they were so much fun.
The beginning was fun but my problem was the plot, very similar to the original, and you’re trying to tell me that the empire was destroyed yet somehow had the resources to turn an entire planet into a weapon.
TFA was very well made, but it was a shame it turned out to be little more than a remake of the original Star Wars film. In the end it was the best of the terrible sequels, but at least we got the fantastic Bad Lip Reading Force Awakens... https://youtu.be/Sv_hGITmNuo?si=hKRN8W_-FbOF5oYn
You're masking a "good opinion" as a rip on the sequels. Your rhetoric is the classic chud statement "The best smelling shit of the pile is this piece of shit."
But, it's alright, your post shows that you didn't get the point of the ST. Maybe when you're older, you will.
The point of the ST was to trade on a beloved established franchise Disney paid billions to own in order to make money. That's why they didn't much care to establish any framework for story and characters. Stick the Star Wars brand on a turd and it will sell. They proved that point at least.
Disney came in like Han Solo and helped Lucasfilm destroy the Death Star of confusing, obsolete, and extremely campy "Legends" canon. Dont get me wrong, big fan of Kyle Katarn over here. But seriously, this was far better than any other legends series.
Definitely a bit derivative but I’ll never forget wearing my homemade Rey costume to opening night and a nine year old girl losing it with excitement so maybe the real Star Wars was the kids inside us all along
rewatching all trilogies for xmas, was 8 when original came out
1. meh
2. ugh.
3. best prequel
4. still a classic
5. still the best
6. did what it had to do
7. another death star, c'mon man
8. least fav again, ff thru some stuff
9. attempt to put a bow on it, felt more like star wars again
after complete rewatch, still feel Rian Johnson tried to break the circle, Rise of Skywalker closed the circle as best it could. Johnson can create his own non-skywalker SW adventures if he wishes, still don't understand his mocking tone in LJ. and it was a weak film too.
I remember having mixed feelings about it. Was bummed that Luke was nowhere to be seen (effectively).
But I thought the visuals were cool and everyone else seemed to like it, so I came to terms with it and enjoyed it for what it was despite it not being the Thrawn trilogy I wished it was
Really my biggest problem with it came in hindsight, in that TFA wrote TLJ into a corner by forcing the need for a reason for Luke to not be a hero anymore. That (and the execution of the casino subplot) were the biggest problems with TLJ.
Realizing TFA forced that plot point made me like it less
The 'handing over a batton' approach between the 3 films rather than first establishing an overall framework for the entire Star Wars sequel saga was the fatal flaw of the whole project. Money driven rather than having a focus on good storytelling. A masterclass in how not to make a trilogy.
The framework was the entire saga. The sequel was the generational reprise in which the characters start to fall into the same cycles their mentors/relatives did. It was about breaking that cycle. It couldn't have been done better.
Story 'framework' doesn't exist in retrospect and should have been established before the project. Resulted in a lack of cohesion and overreliance on macguffins to drive plot. Character arcs were awful. Finn's charcter in particular was good in TFA then woefully underdeveloped in the 2 follow-ups.
R2 was a mcguffin in ANH as a tangible object. Intangibly, Luke and Han's fate was the mcguffin in ESB. And going back to tangible mcguffins, the 2nd DS was the Mcguffin of ROTJ.
Amidala & Naboo for TPM, Obiwan's investigation to Kamino for AotC, and Anakin's Loyalty for RotS.
I enjoyed it when it first came out. I still do but I also think it was the result of Lucasfilm’s massive overreaction to the fan reception of the prequels the decade before. It relied way too much on OT nostalgia and felt like a retelling of ANH rather than something new.
My son and I went to Rome for Christmas to escape toxic family. I surprised him with tickets to The Force Awakens. I thought I had purchased English tickets, but no! They were quit kind and got us into the last 2 seats into the next showing. It was great. I still like it. But, I don't over analyze.
My memory of this movie was how excited my kids were about it and the characters. They were talking about Rey, Finn, Poe and Kylo the same way I'd talked about Luke, Leia, Han, and Vader when I was their age. It made me so happy to experience Star Wars with them and through their eyes.
It's a retelling of The Phantom Menace, which is a retelling of Return of the Jedi, which is a retelling of A New Hope, which is a retelling of every other hero's journey ever told
Phantom Menace has a similar problem but managed to disguise it slightly better. Or just distract people with complaints about Jar Jar Binks rather than complaints about the derivative storyline
The similarities to ANH are visual. The structure has way more in common with TPM.
But they're all part of a larger 3-act story, made up of 3 groups of 3-act stories; the final trilogy was *always* going to be 'the cycle begins one more time but with the benefit of knowledge that comes before'
2- I will say though that this trilogy didn't stick that landing because it didn't make it clear from the start what was being resolved in the first place.
You're right! I really didn't notice at the time. The issues with the story they set up didn't become really blatant for me until the next movie came out
I'm currently reading the original thrawn novels and I think the new movies were a huge waste of such a rich amount of lore Disney could have pulled from. Even if they still de cannonedized everything, there was still so much they COULD have pulled from but chose not too.
Yeah the major issue with the sequels is that they took literally 40 years to make so no way could you do New Republic with the og cast and recasting them does feel wrong. But still, such a waste of interesting lore for.... What we got.
You could set it in the Legends era but I think you would still have the issue of "Disney write/directs by commitee" and refuses to let people actually cook and get creative and interesting.
While I don’t think it was the best of the new movies (that’s TLJ) I do think it was the most fun.
Also, Rey’s introduction is still one of my favourite SW moments of all time. You learn everything you need to know without any dialog. And that score is just *chef’s kiss*
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(I explained the concept of magazines to a child last week and my emotions are still tender)
I left the theater cold after TFA, but the opening had me hopeful
Ok, through grumbling now. 😀
But, it's alright, your post shows that you didn't get the point of the ST. Maybe when you're older, you will.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM5F770yJ8r_7nQj9hzzMd8299PGzdrqF&feature=shared
1. meh
2. ugh.
3. best prequel
4. still a classic
5. still the best
6. did what it had to do
7. another death star, c'mon man
8. least fav again, ff thru some stuff
9. attempt to put a bow on it, felt more like star wars again
VII: Rehash of ANH, give us new!
VIII: This is too different! We want something we recognize!
IX: Hey! This is all fan service!
But I thought the visuals were cool and everyone else seemed to like it, so I came to terms with it and enjoyed it for what it was despite it not being the Thrawn trilogy I wished it was
Realizing TFA forced that plot point made me like it less
Amidala & Naboo for TPM, Obiwan's investigation to Kamino for AotC, and Anakin's Loyalty for RotS.
And:
"It's like a really competent cover band doing the old hits".
It's a retelling of The Phantom Menace, which is a retelling of Return of the Jedi, which is a retelling of A New Hope, which is a retelling of every other hero's journey ever told
But they're all part of a larger 3-act story, made up of 3 groups of 3-act stories; the final trilogy was *always* going to be 'the cycle begins one more time but with the benefit of knowledge that comes before'
Also, Rey’s introduction is still one of my favourite SW moments of all time. You learn everything you need to know without any dialog. And that score is just *chef’s kiss*
Rose deserved way better too.
The “side quest” that happened there was… not well done.
And I thought it was fun.
Luke’s arc was good.
The Rey-Ben (sunglasses?) part of it is solid.
The Poe part of it is annoying because they really shouldn’t need to explain opsec to a military pilot but the audience clearly didn’t get it.
The porgs looked tasty.