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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7689515" data-attributes="member: 37579">We still don't know how the Force Awakens. That title was particularly meaningless compared to the others. Not very Star Wars at all.During the credits I thought to myself, how was the Starkiller Base needed at all. They were going after Rey anyway. All the major character stuff would have happened anyway, even if it was on a spaceship like the star destroyer we saw. That whole bit was superflous. Then I started thinking about all the similar unneeded bits. Like the big CGI chase in Han's ship that feels just as pointless as the big alien chase in Star Trek or the giant fish scene in Phantom Menace. Or completely and totally wasting Gwendoline Christie. She could have been giving the speech or fighting Finn with the electro-club thing. I really didn't like how so much of the movie was a retread, a mishmash of old bits from Episodes 4-6. The orphan on the desert planet. The rescue while dressed as a stormtrooper. A droid carrying secret data. An untrained kid just handed a lightsaber kept in a chest. Deactivating a shield generator on a planet. A trench run to blow up a base. The older mentor figure dying. Going off to train on a remote planet with the last Jedi. Small homages are one things (shots, lines, etc) but this was large segments of the plot. Much of the original content also didn't feel original either. Never read any EU books or comics, but I was familiar enough from the RPG and video games to know Luke has a kid named Ben and Han and Leia have two, one of which goes to the dark side. And Chewie dies, being the token major character to snuff it. But the novel authors purposely avoided having Ben Skywalker go dark side because that'd just be retelling the story of Anakin, the obvious tale this movie runs headlong into. It really felt like they removed the entire EU just so they could retread some of the same narrative ground from a slightly different perspective, but in a more obvious route.The movie is also unclear how the First Order, Resistance, and Republic interact. Is the Resistance a branch of the army of the republic? Is the First Order the actual empire rebranded, a side nation, or a terrorist organization? Did the Republic take over the empire? Having just watched the movie and read none of the books, it really looked like the Rebels lost after Endor and the Empire is still around. Everyone is afraid of the First Order but dismissive of the Republic. The original Star Wars was also light on the backstory, but this was unneeded. Everyone knows the archetype of the evil, corrupt government and the rebels fighting. I liked a lot of the film. Rey was good and Finn's character arc was interesting and I want to know where it goes. The movie was at its best when it wasn't copying an established structure and going off in its own direction. There was a lot of potential, but so much was squandered. Much like the prequels. I'm excited for Episode VIII and the possibility of something new and original.Not sure where I would put this on the Star Wars scale. While they had some horrible moments, Episodes 1-3 had a lot of redeeming qualities. If you watch a fan edit it's surprising how enjoyable they are. They weren't poor movies, just poorly edited movies. And having better dialogue and editing doesn't make a movie more original, and being endlessly inventive was always something Star Wars had done well. I'd put Force Awakens above Episode 1 and 2 but below Revenge of the Sith.</blockquote>

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