*** STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Spoiler Discussion/Reactions ***

371,388 Views | 2952 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by Philip J Fry
BMX Bandit
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quote:
Does it make me a snob that i"ve got a ton of theories, but I don't want to post them until the general thread is spoiler-inclusive in a couple of days?


Not a snob.

Just a weirdo.
Bruce Almighty
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Telco, you're going to ruin people's childhood.
TelcoAg
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Just saw this article - it's a compilation of deleted scene descriptions, sourced from various people close to the movie, actor interviews, etc. http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awkens-deleted-scenes/

Seems like either JJ or Disney opted to cut a lot of this out to keep the pace of the film moving quickly.
Fat Bib Fortuna
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quote:
Just saw this article - it's a compilation of deleted scene descriptions, sourced from various people close to the movie, actor interviews, etc. http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awkens-deleted-scenes/

Seems like either JJ or Disney opted to cut a lot of this out to keep the pace of the film moving quickly.
Whoa!

Maz Uses Force Powers to Stop Stormtroopers

In the original script, Maz Kanata had Force powers. After the First Order begins their attack on the castle, Maz used her Force powers to cause the ceiling to cave in on a group of stormtroopers that had them cornered. In the sequence, Han Solo was forced to stall the stormtroopers to allow Maz to concentrate. There was a funny back and forth between him and the trooper. Han runs out of things to say so he rats out Finn, revealing that he recognized Finn's stormtrooper boots this is how he knew he wasn't Resistance.

and Snoke from the novelization

"Kylo Ren, I watched the Galactic Empire rise, and then fall. The gullible prattle on about the triumph of truth and justice, of individualism and free will. As if such things were solid and real instead of simple subjective judgments. The historians have it all wrong. It was neither poor strategy nor arrogance that brought down the Empire. You know too well what did." Ren nodded once. "Sentiment." "Yes. Such a simple thing. Such a foolish error of judgment. A momentary lapse in an otherwise exemplary life. Had Lord Vader not succumbed to emotion at the crucial momenthad the father killed the sonthe Empire would have prevailed. And there would be no threat of Skywalker's return today."
Brian Earl Spilner
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Also this:
quote:
Rey Sees Visions of Empire Strikes Back

Rey's original Force vision used to feature a shot where she sees Vader cutting off Luke's hand on Bespin from a different angle than we've seen in The Empire Strikes Back. This is why Hasbro produced Empire Strike Back-era Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker action figures for The Force Awakens toy line. In the final film, we do see Rey stumble through a corridor on Bespin, and if you listen carefully in the background you can hear Luke yell "Noooooooo!!!!"

Also, there was a sequence in Rey's vision that explained how the saber got from Bespin, landed on a planet, got discovered, and was passed along over the years. This sequence revealed that the lightsaber opening was actually a flashback and that the planet was not Jakku.
All of this stuff sounds great. Here's hoping some of this is on the Blu ray.
redline248
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So, am I going to have to read the novelization?
Brian Earl Spilner
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I don't know about the novelization but I'm definitely getting the Art of book.
jabberwalkie09
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The snow speeder chase and the extended vision sequence are things I think would have been nice to see added to the film. Some of the other things change the fundamental flow of events in the film itself. Like Maz going to the Resistance base in which she would have handed off the lightsaber to Leia and not Finn, creating a problem of how Finn would have had the lightsaber on Starkiller Base towards the end of the film.
TelcoAg
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I'm just truly amazed at people who write off this movie because of it's parallels to ANH, yet don't realize that JJ actually created a story where those plot lines he stole actually make way more sense.

Example: Death Star vs. Star Killer.

-Death Star is destroyed because of an exhaust vent that is magically the perfect conduit for torpedoes to travel into some unknown reactor component.
-Star Killer is destroyed because of a direct attack on a component that harnesses it's weapons power source - and it took a ground + air assault to make it happen.

-The Death Star was a giant sphere for no known reason, and a waste of resources given how much of it was weapon and how much was space station, and it was mobile because....? I mean, why travel at the speed of light to destroy a target when you can just shoot light at it from wherever you were to begin with.
- Star Killer was a weapon built into the surface of a planet, and didn't used a naturally occurring source of energy for its weapon. It also took its shots from a totally different solar system from it's target, and was able to hit multiple targets at once. It was efficient, and it told us the First Order wasn't here to fly around a giant deterrence - it's here to **** **** up.

- The Death Star was destroyed because they gave the rebellion a 30 minute window to attack them - a window provided by the fact that a planet was between them and their target. A PLANET DESTROYING MACHINE WAS DESTROYED BECAUSE OF A PLANET IN IT'S WAY. They blow up the planet, the moon base is going with it.
- The time the Star Killer gave to the resistance was only due to not having the intelligence on what system to blow up yet, something that makes more sense in terms of war than some asinine window of opportunity created via plot hole.

Hate the rehash all you want, but as these people lay their hater-filled heads to bed at night, I want them to be haunted by the new galactic truth - JJ did it better.
snowdog90
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Don't be dense.

Vader is one of the most popular and iconic villains of all time, nobody is saying otherwise.

But watch ANH and then watch TFA and you tell me which villain was more fleshed out as a character.

In the climax of ANH, Vader is flying a TIE fighter and trying to shoot down Luke before he blows up the Death Star. One of the greatest, most exciting climaxes in film history, no doubt, but Vader's role was basically that of a good enemy pilot after killing Obi-Wan.

Kylo played a far more important role in the final act of his movie.


Dense? Look, all I said was that Vader from ANH is better than Kylo Ren. I'm not talking about their character development, I'm talking about which character worked the best for me. There's no question it was Vader He was mezmerizing in every scene in ANH. Kylo Ren was good, but not as good as Vader.

That shouldn't be such a co.troversial statement, but i guess it is.
redline248
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quote:
The time the Star Killer gave to the resistance was only due to not having the intelligence on what system to blow up yet


Technically they needed the time to finish charging the weapon
TelcoAg
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It's not controversial. It's just that, if you're really critiquing based on depth of the characters in the films, then it doesn't make sense to say Ren < Vader. (To most people, anyway)

Vader was a generic bad guy - evil to the core - and the only depth he was given in ANH was that he was once a light-side pupil under Obi-Wan.

Ren, however, is a character that is being molded on the screen in front of us. An apprentice that is emotionally unstable, still torn between light and dark, whose path to dark side is rooted in a clear idolization of his family's history - yet we still don't know why. You leave TFA knowing that his story is yet to be told, even after we witnessed what will surely be one of his developmental milestones.

You can like Vader more than Ren, but to say Vader was a better character is a real stretch.
Philip J Fry
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I can say that Vader was a better character than Ren without batting an eye.
jabberwalkie09
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quote:
I can say that Vader was a better character than Ren without batting an eye.
Based on ANH alone? I find that hard to believe..... If you consider the entire OT, I'd say their character depth was equal at this point.
AggieSouth06
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Ultimately, you won't be able to judge this movie fully against the original trilogy until you've seen the whole trilogy.

ANH was a fun, shallow movie that had a TON of meaning and significance retconned into it. A lot of throwaway stuff ultimately became important through the process of figuring out where the hell the story was supposed to go next.

So sit back and relax until 2019 then we'll talk.
Philip J Fry
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Yes, based on ANH alone. His very presence on the screen was forbidding. I never took Ren all that serious.
hunter2012
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You can like Vader more than Ren, but to say Vader was a better character is a real stretch.
Especially when Ren has had one movie while vader has 6.

I agree, during TFA there is simply no darkside user that has the power of Sidious(the Emperor of the galaxy) or Vader(the chosen one to bring balance to the force). Anybody expecting that would have criticized Ren of being overpowered just for the sake of outdoing the past movies.

I like Ren, he's a very believable bad guy. A kid that idolizes his dead grandfather and wants to break from his family's Jedi legacy. In turn it makes him both powerful in the force, yet undisciplined and inexperienced due to lack of training and arrogance. This also means that they can develop him without resorting to prequels like they did with Anakin.
Brian Earl Spilner
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Look, all I said was that Vader from ANH is better than Kylo Ren. I'm not talking about their character development,
And I was. So why are we even discussing it if what I said has nothing to do with what you're talking about?

We're on two completely separate pages.
redline248
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It's a matter of opinion. If you like depth of character you might like Kylo more. If you hate whiny emo shht you probably think Vader is better. Even in one movie.
hunter2012
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If you hate whiny emo shht you probably think Vader is better.

Not exactly the antithesis...

YokelRidesAgain
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It's not controversial. It's just that, if you're really critiquing based on depth of the characters in the films, then it doesn't make sense to say Ren < Vader. (To most people, anyway)
Neither is a good character in the sense that, say, Daniel Plainview is a good character in There Will Be Blood. Arguing about which characterization is better in a Star Wars movie is like arguing whether Adam Sandler is more intellectual than Pauly Shore. I mean, I guess that he is, but that has nothing to do with why people liked his movies. It's just irrelevant.

So I'll grant you that Kylo Ren is "deeper" than Vader (particularly the Vader of A New Hope), but it's a matter of a four inch puddle versus a two inch puddle.
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YokelRidesAgain
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Not exactly the antithesis...

Even if that crappy scene in that crappy movie had ever happened--which it didn't--George Lucas' craptacular prequels should never distract anyone from how cool Vader was in the originals. Particularly the first two.
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hunter2012
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So you're saying it's just a certain point of view...

redline248
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That's not Darth Vader
jabberwalkie09
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Yes, based on ANH alone. His very presence on the screen was forbidding. I never took Ren all that serious.
That kind of went out the window when Leia mouthed off to him and obviously wasn't afraid IMO.
Brian Earl Spilner
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And speaking purely on the "badass" factor, outside of the following --


Vader doesn't do a whole hell of a lot in ANH. He kills Obi-Wan after he lets himself be killed, and he is shot out of the trench by Han before Luke blows up the Death Star.

What else does he do besides generally looking/sounding menacing in the background?

As has been mentioned, Vader didn't really become Vader until Empire. It could even be argued that Tarkin is the main bad guy in ANH.
redline248
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He lifted a dude smooth off his feet with one arm. That was pretty badass.
redline248
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He also was the only one who "could be so bold" to attack a senator's ship. He also basically called Tarkin a dumbass for believing Leia sold out the rebel base.
Brian Earl Spilner
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Yes but that's not nearly as cool as force pulling a dude towards your hand and then choking him.
redline248
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No hissy fits trumps all
Zombie Jon Snow
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2nd viewing today.....paid close attention to Rey/Han/Leia/Maz interactions.

ok here are some interesting things. some might mean something, or not.....


when they jump to light speed out of the other ship on the MF presumably they've already set their course cuz you have to do that or you run into asteroids and planets, etc....that means Han already set a course for the planet where Maz was.....

thats before they have the discussion about the Force and it all being true, etc.but AFTER they said they had a map in BB8 showing where Luke was located...so Han already had decided to go there before telling them.

when they land there but before they meet Maz Han asks Rey "what do you call yourself?"...he doesn't ask her name..I find that odd perhaps in the same way his son calls himself Kylo Ren but his name is Ben.....perhaps he does know who she is and figured what she calls herself is not her given name.

Han then hands her a blaster and says "You might need this,". Rey says "I think I can handle myself," she says. Han replies back: "That's why I'm giving it to you."....could be some implied knowledge there too...like i know you can handle it thats why i'm giving it to you.

ok so then the whole scene with Maz happens and just as Rey is about to go into the basement or whatever Maz asks Han something like "so who's the girl?" and the scene cuts away to her going into the basement....later after her vision from the lightsaber Maz says to her something about returning to Jakku and she says "I know, Han told me"...well what did Han tell her. It could be as simple as that she is from Jakku or it could be much much more and she apparently knows about waiting for her family to return. But she could not know that from Han unless her already knew because Rey didn't tell Han much except turning his job offer down to go back there.

Maz also says the light saber belonged to Obi Wan and then Luke and now calls to her. And later gives it to Finn and says he needs to get it to his friend.

And finally in the finale it seems it is just assumed (by Leia apparently) that Rey is the one who needs to go to the location of Luke.....not Poe who had the map, not BB-8 who had the map, not Leia his sister and someone he would trust implicitly....and Chewie doesn't climb up there....but Rey a complete stranger (or is she).


there is a lot there in what is NOT said and also how things are said and who does what.

this could go a lot of ways still....

i was convinced on first viewing she was Luke's kid...now not so much.....but she definitely is someone and could be someone Han knows or knows of at least and possibly Leia too.

AggieSouth06
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Somebody please confirm that Lando "Colt .45 Works Every Time" Dee Calrission-Williams is going to be in the next one.
jeffk
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Is Starkiller Base a good, clean-energy weapon because it uses solar power, or is it bad because it's energy source becomes non-renewable once it's harnessed.

Inquiring minds want to know.
AliasMan02
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I don't think we know for sure.
redline248
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quote:
Is Starkiller Base a good, clean-energy weapon because it uses solar power, or is it bad because it's energy source becomes non-renewable once it's harnessed.

Inquiring minds want to know.


Haha, well done.
 
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