Star Wars Spoilers Thread [Spoilers]

So here's my review: 100% a Star Wars film which belongs with the original trilogy.

It's a transitional film, but it does it well. The new generation is really good.

I think the major death was kinda signposted a bit. You knew it was coming long before it happened. I felt worse for Chewie, but he, Rey, and BB8 make a great team.

Is this the first Star Wars film where nobody gets their hand cut off?

Luke lives in Ireland, eh?

Question: WHY was there a map to Luke, and why was it split into two? I feel like I missed something. For that matter, why a map and not just some coordinates? Seems like a random puzzle set up for the sake of it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Nah, the best explanation for the "12 parsecs" thing is that Han is spinning a line to the newbs. Obi-wan doesn't call him on it because it's not a good idea to embarrass someone when you need their help, and Luke doesn't know any better.

Nah. No way Luke the amatuer pilot, obsessed for years with all becoming a real space pilot, doesn't know what a parsec is. In a deleted scene with Biggs (who looks like Freddy Mercury, btw. never noticed till the other day), Biggs calls Luke something like the best pilot in the sector, or somesuch.

But the navigation=speed explanation works just fine. It makes perfect sense, it's only weak because we all know the real situation is that Lucas didn't know what a parsec was when he wrote it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

And can you rely on a Nav computer that has not been updated in the last decade?

Odd assumption. How do we know the navcom doesn't auto update when it's fired up? Or that Han didn't send coordinates remotely when he pulled it into his hangar bay? Or that the guy who had it hadn't updated the computer and charts recently?

There are enough plausible explanations, it just isn't a real plot hole. The movie does a lot of not showing the details, which IMO is a good thing. This isn't Asamov, we don't need full detailed explanations of every little thing in a Space Opera.

 

[delericho]

Nah. No way Luke the amatuer pilot, obsessed for years with all becoming a real space pilot, doesn't know what a parsec is.

He might know what a parsec is but not why it's relevant, or not, to the Kessel Run.

Perhaps more to the point, from the Internet Movie Script Database:

HAN: It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!

Ben reacts to Solo's stupid attempt to impress them with obvious misinformation.

 

[Leatherhead]

There was a bit too much nostalgia bait. And Kylo Ren did not end the movie as a credible threat.

He started off great, what with being able to mind-read better than anyone else in the movies. Which would have been enough, an enemy that knows what you are doing is terrifying as hell, especially if they used to be your friend/family.

But then the Stormtroopers comically avoiding his tantrums, untrained Ray overpowering his mind-hax, and all that screaming to Finn about him being a traitor after stabbing his old man, just totally ruined the character for me.

I feel the character would have been more interesting if he had actually "fell" to the light side and he spent the 2nd movie dealing with the guilt of killing all those people while they looked for Luke. It would make a nice contrast to Finn, who ran away from the order presumably before he killed anyone. They could even throw in a scene about Finn not taking orders from him anymore.

 

[Bagpuss]

There was a bit too much nostalgia bait. And Kylo Ren did not end the movie as a credible threat.

I think a much better ending would have been if Rey was losing the fight and the only thing that saved her was the ground separating the two of them.

It would make the Kylo Ren appear to be a more credible threat,
It would make Rey less of a Mary Sue character.
It would mean she could get some training from Luke in the next film, harking back to Empire.

I think that was one of the few wrong steps they took with this film.

 

[delericho]

I think a much better ending would have been if Rey was losing the fight and the only thing that saved her was the ground separating the two of them.

It would make the Kylo Ren appear to be a more credible threat,
It would make Rey less of a Mary Sue character.
It would mean she could get some training from Luke in the next film, harking back to Empire.

I think that was one of the few wrong steps they took with this film.

The way things are, when they come face to face in the next movie she'll be over-confident, having beaten him once. Of course, in the interim he'll have been trained as well, he'll no longer be wounded, and he'll have resolved his internal conflicts.

Rey is probably in for a nasty shock.

 

[AriochQ]

I was 10 when the original SW came out, so I was old enough to appreciate it and young enough to buy all the toys! Needless to say, I am a big fan of SW and I loved the new movie. That being said...

It is pretty clear they essentially changed direction at some point during filming. The first half of the movie is all about the mystery of Rey and finding Luke. Then they switch gears and it becomes about Starkiller base. I have only seen it once so far, but I am pretty sure there is very little mention of the Starkiller base until about halfway.

I think what happened was the movie was originally going to focus on the search for Luke, but for some reason they decided that wasn't going to be enough, so they bolted on the Starkiller thing. Even the planets they exploded were just sort of random. You can actually remove all the Starkiller stuff from the movie and barely notice, except for the final action scene.

 

[Kramodlog]

The Resistance and the First Order explained.

Here's the situation: After the events of Return of the Jedi, the decapitated Empire collapses into a fragmented series of successor regimes lead by various Moffs. The Alliance to Restore the Republic announces the formation of a New Republic, absorbs a number of star systems, and signs a peace treaty delineating borders with remaining Imperial leftovers.

Over time, at least some part of the former Empire becomes the First Order, which the Republic decides it wants to topple. Republic stateswoman Leia Organa establishes the Resistance inside First Order borders, which operates as a nominally independent insurgent group rather than an official branch of the Republic military. The Republic is supporting the insurgency — specifically, General Hux suggests in the film, with money and weapons. However, there's no in-text evidence that uniformed Republic military forces are directly engaging the First Order.

http://www.vox.com/2015/12/21/10634568/star-wars-the-force-awakens-spoilers-republic-first-order

Yeah, I didn't get any of that from the film.

 

[Umbran]

Either that, or JJA just went for "cool visuals" rather than "makes sense, per the established lore of the setting". But surely that can't be right...?

Given that most of that lore was set in the EU, which they're largely ignoring, yeah....

Much of working with a science fiction show is finding ways *around* the science errors and inconsistencies. It is not plausible that a person part of a galactic empire doesn't know what a parsec is, any more than it is not plausible that we don't know what a time zone is. So, fleecing the newbs really isn't an good explanation.

The better explanation is that the Kessel Run is a pretty twisty thing, and that Han's ship managed a more straight course. Being "fast" in hyperspace may be part outright speed, and part ability to steer closer to things that other ships have to avoid. Like the fastest cars in racing aren't only faster because of their engine, but because of their very precise handling.

 

[delericho]

Given that most of that lore was set in the EU, which they're largely ignoring, yeah....

In this instance, the lore they're ignoring (or working around) comes direct from the first film - "Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"

(The Kessel Run thing is a slightly different conversation - dealt with here.)