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.

 

[dd.stevenson]

You don't actually do anything other than state that her motivations aren't clear

Sorry, I'm not understanding the question. How do you feel complaints about missing motivation should be formulated?

Plus the small matter of Chewie's freak-out, leading to Kylo Ren being wounded (and so Finn and Rey surviving), and the shield generator being destroyed (leading to the Starkiller being destroyed, and thus the Resistance surviving).

Eh, chewie's always moaning and shooting at bad guys. And they had planned to blow the explosives anyway, whether Han died or not.

Look, I'll freely admit that I might have missed something, as I saw this in 4DX with a full bladder, and my seat came to life just as the shooting started. But from memory, I'm just not seeing these as plot consequences of Han's death.

 

[PurpleDragonKnight]

I was always in the belief that you either had to learn the droid beeps or be lucky enough to be a Jedi and pretty much understand everything through the force. That is what I thought was the first tip to Rey being a force adept. She understood both the droid and the Chewy.

if i remember well from my old d20 star wars games you had to spend a rank to learn that language (understand but can't speak unless you're a droid; same goes for Wookie language...)

it's fair to assume that any junkers like Anakin or Rey would understand droid binary...

 

[trappedslider]

The reactions i have seen here and elsewhere made me go look for this old article Star Wars fans hate Star Wars

 

[PurpleDragonKnight]

I have a theory about Phasma. We know she was originally a male part before Christie got it. I bet that original character didn't have a cool chrome costume either.

Imagine that part. Same lines, same events. But instead of Gwendolyn Christie in shiny armour, it's an officious officer in uniform.

They changed the appearance, but not the actual role.

My theory - and it's probably a horrible one - is that she's one of the first stormtrooper to have broken from her conditioning, and she's now secretly on the lookout for other "awakened" soldiers (The Force Awakens actually having an effect on other things than Jedis or Force Users? plus we later see Finn wielding a lightsaber pretty good...) Could explain why she was so quick to pick up on Finn's 'helmet off' break... has she been tailing him? has she been on his case for a while? his quick response seemed to indicate a certain 'I'm used to this crap' attitude, like a soldier who always gets picked on for badly shined shoes and has grown complacent in the getting caught and follow up punishment routines...

That could explain why she doesn't put much of a fight dropping down the Star Killer's shields. I can see her in SW VIII, helmet off, leading a bunched of Awakened Stormtroopers and kicking some random general bootey....

 

[MoonSong]

The reactions i have seen here and elsewhere made me go look for this old article Star Wars fans hate Star Wars

Ohh, that explains a lot. I'm not a Star Wars fan so I'm free to love it.

 

[Umbran]

My theory - and it's probably a horrible one - is that she's one of the first stormtrooper to have broken from her conditioning, and she's now secretly on the lookout for other "awakened" soldiers (The Force Awakens actually having an effect on other things than Jedis or Force Users? plus we later see Finn wielding a lightsaber pretty good...)

Another theory (repeated from another thread) - like Rey, Finn is actually one of Luke's prior students, left behind when the First Order really started gunning for Luke. Phasma found him and put him into training rather than turn him over to Snoke. This has a certain Soap Opera feel which is appropriate for the series.

Having both Rey and Finn be left behind in obscurity, only to come back to be a threat to the BBEG would be a callback to the original - as Luke and Leia were hidden from Vader...

 

[Umbran]

T
Thankfully the movie has actual substance to make up for the cheap pandering to the original trilogy die-hards.

Hey! I'll have you know that's *very expensive* pandering! The movie took some $200 million to make - so every minute of pandering is about $1.5 million!

 

[Staffan]

Hey! I'll have you know that's *very expensive* pandering! The movie took some $200 million to make - so every minute of pandering is about $1.5 million!

I wonder how much of that went to pay Mark Hamill for all the time he spent on-screen. That has to be the highest "credit position" to screen time in decades.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Sorry, I'm not understanding the question. How do you feel complaints about missing motivation should be formulated?

OK, let's try this a different way? What wasn't clear about her motivation? Without recapping the whole movie, I'm not sure how else to proceed here.
But her motivations were crystal clear at all points.

Do you perhaps require explicit verbal statements from characters? Body language and facial expressions that coincide with external stimulus not enough for you?

 

[Water Bob]

One of the big differences in the original trilogy and the new film, compared to the prequel trilogy, is the focus of the films. The originals and the new films are about key moments in time--key incidents that happen. In A New Hope, it was a story about how the Death Star was destroyed. The Empire Strikes Back was about how the Rebels lost their base on Hoth and about the meeting between Vader and Luke for the first time. Return of the Jedi is about how the Rebels won with the death of Vader and the Emperor.

So much of the Big Picture stuff happened off screen. The dismantling of the Galactic Senate and the Rebels gaining the Death Star plans in A New Hope. All the stuff that was going on with the Empire and the Rebels everywhere--as the film focused just on a couple of events--in The Empire Strikes Back. How the Bothans gained the plans to the Second Death star, and how the Emperor really weaved a web to destroy the Rebels at Endor.

All of this stuff happened off screen.

Yet, in the prequels, we live through most of the major events. We see how Palpatine becomes Chancellor of the Republic. We see how the Republic gets an Army. We see how the Jedi Knights are pressured into becoming soldiers--because the Republic previously had no officers to lead the clones. We see, over all three movies, what it took for a good man to fall to the Dark Side. We see how the Republic became an Empire.

In the originals, all of this type of stuff--this type of plot--would be delivered off-screen with dialogue like, "Vader tracked down and murdered your father."



The new movie is much more like the originals--lots of questions, things happening off camera, and holes in history to fill.