A few of these have been covered already, one or two to rehash and one or two I don't quite agree with.
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- Finally, hours later (for them), when Rey randomly-and-out-of-no-where finds Luke's long lost lightsaber in a random treasure chest in the basement of a random castle, Abrams doesn't even have a reason why, and actually had a character basically say, "We'll explain it in the next movie!" That one was the icing on the cake for me, and maybe the most egregious. I still cannot believe that is how Luke's lightsaber was inserted into the plot of this movie. After all the speculation, that element is such a let down.
This isn't an unfair criticism, but I think it's also pretty intentional on Han's part that he brings Rey to Maz. We don't know why yet, and it did feel a bit random, but I can sort of buy that it Rey was there for a reason. I don't recall all the dialogue with Han and Maz there, definitely want to pay more attention to those sequences in a rewatch.
As per Maz, as a VFX guy I'm generally very critical and I actually thought she looked really good, though again I'll need to pay more attention in a second viewing. I can see the argument of her being a CG character either way, but considering it was a Yoda-esque character I get why they chose the direction they did.
(Random note: in the "Art of" book they said that when Lupita visited ILM and got to see the character, she said Maz reminded her of her grandmother. Interesting connection to the character there.)
Totally agreed on Snoke as well as the general power struggle/relationship between the First Order/Empire/Rebellion/Resistance, and that was probably my biggest issue in the film. I didn't really understand who or what Snoke was and his relationship to the other characters, you don't have to bluntly spell it out but some more exposition on him and the First Order would've been nice and not tough to insert.
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I touched on this earlier, but just to reiterate; the many, many homages to A New Hope (along with bits of Empire andJedi) just didn't work for me. There's a difference between cute, self-referential one-liners here and there (which I thought became overkill, but were ultimately fine), and just straight up redoing the plot to A New Hope for no apparent reason. Again, give me explanation in-movie as to why, and I'll most likely buy in. But as is, I just can't understand why they chose to go the remake route, almost beat for beat. Hardly anything felt new. Hardly anything felt fresh. It was just the OT on steroids, except with different characters. By the end of movie, watching yet another X-Wing squadron take out an evil, planet-size weapon - after Han and co. disabled yet another shield on the ground - the remake nature of the whole ordeal had just wore me down so much. Do some of you really think that seeing that scenario again, for the THIRD time in FOUR movies, was invigorating? Sure, the action and dynamic between Rey, Kylo, Han and Finn being spliced in between that sequence was intriguing, but I felt absolutely nothing as Poe blasted his way through Starkiller Base, in what felt like a shot-for-shot amalgamation of the third acts of both A New Hope andReturn of the Jedi.
Interesting, because for me it did feel fresh despite rehashing some of those sequences. I did totally recognize a lot of the same elements from
A New Hope, and I feel that may have been intentional to some extent to make it feel familiar against after the very foreign feeling prequels.
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- I needed another line or two of context as to who Max von Sydow was playing. More importantly, why and how did he have a map to Luke Skywalker? And please, don't tell me, yet again, "They're saving that for Episode VIII!" A). Why did a map to Luke Skywalker even exist? Couldn't Sydow's Lor San Tekka have just written the name of the planet/system down on a piece of paper? B). Still, let's say it was in uncharted territory, requiring elaborate navigation... had Tekka been in contact with Luke? Did Luke share his own whereabouts? Or was Tekka backstabbing Luke by giving up his location? Honestly, I wanted to see that movie... one in which Tekka (or preferably Poe) personally discovered Luke's whereabouts, then had to desperately maneuver his way across the galaxy to tell the Resistance. I guess the argument could be made that Tekka knew the whereabouts of theJedi Temple Luke was seeking, and the Resistance hoped Luke would be there, but I don't think that was ever made clear (though I could be wrong).
Again, totally agree. At least some callback to him later on, talk about his sacrifice/importance/etc. Same goes for the Knights of Ren.
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Again, that's not a scientific gripe on my part, it's a narrative, storytelling gripe. There's a line one shouldn't cross with some of this stuff, or else you risk going so big that the stakes simply don't matter any more. Abrams has yet to figure that out, hence Justin Lin publicly stating that they've basically had to completely disregard the events of Into Darkness for Star Trek Beyond, something Rian Johnson may end up having to do here.
Just a note, but I personally wouldn't use Justin Lin's thoughts to support my storytelling points
Like you, I'm a Rian Johnson fan (
Brick is one of my favorite movies) and have high hopes for Episode VIII. This one wasn't perfect, but I had a blast and I'm totally bought back into the Star Wars universe.