Malakriss
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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I can't imagine a single way an active lightsaber being dropped on the floor of a base or a ship would turn out favorably. I'm sure the Jedi have mastered a safety auto turn off.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
- Thread starter Aaron
- Start date
- 10,552
- 54,401
Just saw this last night. Compared to the prequels, this is fucking Citizen Kane. Compared to most other movies, it's very good, but just short of great. It is a great Star Wars movie though, which is all it had to be.
Tone/Feel: This is what they got right the most. It criticallyfeelslike Star Wars, where the prequels just... didn't. The look of everything, how things are used and scarred, there's dirt on people's clothes, Finn gets blood on his helmet, the way creatures look, it's all done right. Nothing feels particularly out of place. Even the new stuff like aliens and what-not.
Characters/acting: The new characters are all well done and likable. None of the woodenness from the prequels is here, whether it's in the dialogue, or the performances. Daisy Ridley is particularly good, I had my doubts with the now stereotypical "strong, independent female lead" but she really does do a good job here. Driver is also good, he comes off much different in the movie than in any of the interviews I've seen with him. Getting rid of that wispy mustache I've seen him in really makes him look younger. Special mention to Harrison Ford as well, I don't know if it was the dialogue, or the direction, or giving him some say in things creatively, but he had a light in his eyes that hasn't been there since.... The Fugitive maybe? Only thing I didn't like was C3P0, seeing him gave me prequel flashbacks to AoTC. Please have him talk less. Carrie Fisher was ok, considering what they had to work with. She's veered into self parody IRL a long time ago, so getting anything out of her is a win IMO. Oh, and did anyone else notice the guys from The Raid movies? They were the second set of guys who confronted Han right before the pastafarian demons got loose. I thought to myself, "Are they going to go Star Wars martial arts movie here?!"
Plot: As everyone has noted, it's basically A New Hope remade. Somehow, I'm pretty much OK with that though. My concern is, where do they go from here in episode 8? What's the threat? Abraham Snoke? The First Order Fleet? Some new super weapon? (please no, do something else) Finding some Sith artifact? I was also thinking, pre-release, that the first order was going to be kind of like a remnant of the empire that was tasked with tracking rare occult artifacts, similar to the Nazi's Thule Society/Ahnenerbe. I'd actually have been ok with this, when in doubt, use the war
Score/music: Sooo important in any movie, but especially Star Wars. It was just ok. Nothing offensive of course, being John Williams, but nothing great either. Dual of the Fates, divorced from the Phantom Menace, is a great piece of music on its own. There's nothing like that here. Also, the lack of the 20th Century Fox fanfare at the beginning was a little jarring. Not much to be done about that though, unless you come up with a Lucasfilm equivalent.
VFX/etc: Really well done. Everything looks fantastic. The way tie fighters still look and sound menacing, lightsabers lighting things up around them, the aliens at the forest base, A+. I particularly liked the look of Starkiller base. The way there was cloud systems above the laser opening, the shots of it draining the nearby star, all of that looks fantastic. Only thing is, I kind of wish they would have handled its destruction differently, like instead of it just blowing up, maybe all the energy is violently expelled out, kind of like an ignited high pressure gas leak, and the only thing left of the planet is like a round on one side chunk, that's basically a third of it. But that's just me
Random stuff: It seemed Rey was force sensitive almost off the bat. The way they handled the sound, I believe right when she found BB8, it sounded like she was hearing/feeling something, and then bam there it was over the dune. It happened a couple other times too.... I picked it up in the theater, but it was definitely Van Sydow's voice in her flashback.... when Han died, the dialogue there was interesting "I have to do something hard, but I'm not sure I can. Can you help me?" Then Han grabs the light saber, this shows aggression which is Dark Side. Boom, Han impaled, falls, then Kylo thanks him, presumably for showing him aggression rather than peace. That nuance is speculation on my part of course.... the fight with Kylo and Finn, I honestly didn't have a problem with. He's already wounded, presumably having to use a large amount of force to keep from bleeding to death. This is why he can't just freeze him and own him. He's also overconfident, so plays with his food a bit. He's visibly limping through that bit of the fight (I thought, need to see it again). And, he owns Finn pretty quickly in spite of all that. It was fucking awesome when Rey pulled the saber, bunch of jaded cocksuckers around here. What should have happened? Rey gets killed/mortally wounded? Cool guys, thanks for coming! We're only stopping at this movie, and the bad guy won. Later! Ground quakes and splits them apart before the fight? BORING. Luke comes in? WOW CONVENIENT, plus he kills/turns/resolves the plot of Kylo Ren and we're out of bad guys for the next movies.... there are some nits to pick: too many callbacks, too similar in plot to ANH, Poe Dameron doesn't have enough to do, lack of clarity in certain things, but they're all minor IMO.
TL;DR I really liked the movie. To me, it did the one thing that movies are supposed to do: forge an emotional connection and response in the audience. The Original Trilogy did this more than any other movies in history, arguably, and this one succeeded in that regard as well.
Tone/Feel: This is what they got right the most. It criticallyfeelslike Star Wars, where the prequels just... didn't. The look of everything, how things are used and scarred, there's dirt on people's clothes, Finn gets blood on his helmet, the way creatures look, it's all done right. Nothing feels particularly out of place. Even the new stuff like aliens and what-not.
Characters/acting: The new characters are all well done and likable. None of the woodenness from the prequels is here, whether it's in the dialogue, or the performances. Daisy Ridley is particularly good, I had my doubts with the now stereotypical "strong, independent female lead" but she really does do a good job here. Driver is also good, he comes off much different in the movie than in any of the interviews I've seen with him. Getting rid of that wispy mustache I've seen him in really makes him look younger. Special mention to Harrison Ford as well, I don't know if it was the dialogue, or the direction, or giving him some say in things creatively, but he had a light in his eyes that hasn't been there since.... The Fugitive maybe? Only thing I didn't like was C3P0, seeing him gave me prequel flashbacks to AoTC. Please have him talk less. Carrie Fisher was ok, considering what they had to work with. She's veered into self parody IRL a long time ago, so getting anything out of her is a win IMO. Oh, and did anyone else notice the guys from The Raid movies? They were the second set of guys who confronted Han right before the pastafarian demons got loose. I thought to myself, "Are they going to go Star Wars martial arts movie here?!"
Plot: As everyone has noted, it's basically A New Hope remade. Somehow, I'm pretty much OK with that though. My concern is, where do they go from here in episode 8? What's the threat? Abraham Snoke? The First Order Fleet? Some new super weapon? (please no, do something else) Finding some Sith artifact? I was also thinking, pre-release, that the first order was going to be kind of like a remnant of the empire that was tasked with tracking rare occult artifacts, similar to the Nazi's Thule Society/Ahnenerbe. I'd actually have been ok with this, when in doubt, use the war
Score/music: Sooo important in any movie, but especially Star Wars. It was just ok. Nothing offensive of course, being John Williams, but nothing great either. Dual of the Fates, divorced from the Phantom Menace, is a great piece of music on its own. There's nothing like that here. Also, the lack of the 20th Century Fox fanfare at the beginning was a little jarring. Not much to be done about that though, unless you come up with a Lucasfilm equivalent.
VFX/etc: Really well done. Everything looks fantastic. The way tie fighters still look and sound menacing, lightsabers lighting things up around them, the aliens at the forest base, A+. I particularly liked the look of Starkiller base. The way there was cloud systems above the laser opening, the shots of it draining the nearby star, all of that looks fantastic. Only thing is, I kind of wish they would have handled its destruction differently, like instead of it just blowing up, maybe all the energy is violently expelled out, kind of like an ignited high pressure gas leak, and the only thing left of the planet is like a round on one side chunk, that's basically a third of it. But that's just me
Random stuff: It seemed Rey was force sensitive almost off the bat. The way they handled the sound, I believe right when she found BB8, it sounded like she was hearing/feeling something, and then bam there it was over the dune. It happened a couple other times too.... I picked it up in the theater, but it was definitely Van Sydow's voice in her flashback.... when Han died, the dialogue there was interesting "I have to do something hard, but I'm not sure I can. Can you help me?" Then Han grabs the light saber, this shows aggression which is Dark Side. Boom, Han impaled, falls, then Kylo thanks him, presumably for showing him aggression rather than peace. That nuance is speculation on my part of course.... the fight with Kylo and Finn, I honestly didn't have a problem with. He's already wounded, presumably having to use a large amount of force to keep from bleeding to death. This is why he can't just freeze him and own him. He's also overconfident, so plays with his food a bit. He's visibly limping through that bit of the fight (I thought, need to see it again). And, he owns Finn pretty quickly in spite of all that. It was fucking awesome when Rey pulled the saber, bunch of jaded cocksuckers around here. What should have happened? Rey gets killed/mortally wounded? Cool guys, thanks for coming! We're only stopping at this movie, and the bad guy won. Later! Ground quakes and splits them apart before the fight? BORING. Luke comes in? WOW CONVENIENT, plus he kills/turns/resolves the plot of Kylo Ren and we're out of bad guys for the next movies.... there are some nits to pick: too many callbacks, too similar in plot to ANH, Poe Dameron doesn't have enough to do, lack of clarity in certain things, but they're all minor IMO.
TL;DR I really liked the movie. To me, it did the one thing that movies are supposed to do: forge an emotional connection and response in the audience. The Original Trilogy did this more than any other movies in history, arguably, and this one succeeded in that regard as well.
Azrayne
Irenicus did nothing wrong
- 2,161
- 786
Could easily have some mechanism where it turns off if there's nobody holding it - measure for hand pressure on the hilt or something.
What's odd about a quiet movie audience?
Siddar
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 6,356
- 5,898
Luke on Death Star Obi wan gets killed by Vadar Luke runs away. Luke in fight to destroy the Death Star Vadar is seconds away from killing Luke but Han saves Luke so Luke can make his one in a million shot. Empire Luke gets his ass beat by a ice monster and would have ended up a Jedi Popsicle except for Han saving him again. Next is Vadar completely owning him in Cloud city. RotJ finally we see Luke emerge as a badass Jedi beating the crap out of Jabba's gangsters and saving Han for once. Rematch between Vadar and Luke where Luke only wins versus Vadar because Vadar is conflicted and Luke gets mad in order to protect Leia. Emperor then precedes to own Luke. Han once again jumps in to save Luke, no wait Vadar is the one that saves Luke this time.
Luke was never the a cardboard Chosen one type character destined to win every fight we have been given with Rey.
kegkilla
The Big Mod
- 11,320
- 14,738
I'm arguing science & physics it makes no sense. I don't give a shit about cannon.
The show people standing on a planet and seeing others explode.
The beam isn't moving faster than light, people see it coming, this requires that the weapon be in the same system yet no one saw it? Draining the sun for power also makes no sense, even if it did why bother with a weapon just drain the sun and those planets are effectively dead, anyone who doesn't have a ride out will die in short order.
Its the size of a planet, he wouldn't even know where all the broom closets were.
Even if she is head of the storm troopers, she's still a grunt (further why would the head of the troopers be running that little raid?). Consider can the head of the marines single-handedly turn off the pentagon's defenses? No, because that would befucking stupid.
Another dumb thing, when Rey shoots the first Trooper. He only takes one shot w/ a repeater weapon, misses (despite being trained from childhood) and stands there while she fumbles with the safety to and takes two shots.
Why's it unreasonable they don't have sensors indicating its being held? Consider it can cut through virtually anything, now imagine a jedi accidentally drops it in a spaceship. (Hell, it being knocked out of your hands would be insanely dangerous to the wielder and everyone else around them)
kegkilla
The Big Mod
- 11,320
- 14,738
it's not unreasonable, i'd just like to know exactly how the fuck it works since the jedi throw them as weapons too
Cybsled
Avatar of War Slayer
- 16,535
- 12,043
Force users can toss a lightsaber because they can use the force to keep it ignited and make it fly around. They're using frickin magic force powers, do we really need to question it? lol
And JFC Siddar, there are 2 more movies yet to come. No one can complain about coincidences/Mary Sue/win rate shit until the next 2 come out.
"Omg, so this movie a New Hope comes out. So like these droids land near Luke and he finds them, and it just happens that they know an old guy Lukes knows, who is actually Obi Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master! Then they happen to get lucky and find the best smuggler in the galaxy. So then they get on the Death Star and sneak around and find the Princess within walking distance of where they landed, even though the station is the size of a moon! So they escape and Obi Wan dies, which just so happens to be what needed to happen in order for Luke to blow up the Death Star! Good thing he died, or else they would have lost! Then somehow Vader lives even though all the Tie Fighters blow up in 1 shot...they're totally setting up a sequel with that crap. Then there is a lame "we win!" ending. What a bunch of shit. This Luke kid won it all! So unrealistic!"
And JFC Siddar, there are 2 more movies yet to come. No one can complain about coincidences/Mary Sue/win rate shit until the next 2 come out.
"Omg, so this movie a New Hope comes out. So like these droids land near Luke and he finds them, and it just happens that they know an old guy Lukes knows, who is actually Obi Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master! Then they happen to get lucky and find the best smuggler in the galaxy. So then they get on the Death Star and sneak around and find the Princess within walking distance of where they landed, even though the station is the size of a moon! So they escape and Obi Wan dies, which just so happens to be what needed to happen in order for Luke to blow up the Death Star! Good thing he died, or else they would have lost! Then somehow Vader lives even though all the Tie Fighters blow up in 1 shot...they're totally setting up a sequel with that crap. Then there is a lame "we win!" ending. What a bunch of shit. This Luke kid won it all! So unrealistic!"
Feel free to try and refute something, until then you're just sticking your fingers in your ears shoutingI can't hear you lalalalalalala.
Calling it now. that vision is from the future, Kylo saves Ren from the knights of Ren and becomes her love interest.
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you fucks need to go grab a flash light, switch it to the "dont stay on on button press" mode. on a 3 position switch it's generally "Off" - "Press and hold to turn on" - "On". As long as your finger is holding the button down the light stays on. as soon as you release the button it turns off. If you are a space wizard you can throw the fucker and keep the button pressed using the force (or you know, maybe it has the same "On" feature that flashlights have?)
this is literally the dumbest conversation i've seen on these forums.
this is literally the dumbest conversation i've seen on these forums.
I was wondering about this also when they fought, sabers don't need any force to cut through someone so unless the Jedi is attempting to knock the blade out of someones hand why use it like a lumberjack chopping trees. Seemed like fencing and poking holes in someone would be the way to go.
Going back to the force & saber topic, I think the main reason only jedi's use them is the normal people wouldn't be able to reliably block projectiles. So enemies will just zap you before you walk up to them and hit them.
Its been ages since I went to them regularly but opening weekend / night crowds tend to be more into the movie, thus loud laughter and some cheering.
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we talked about it way earlier in this thread.
They are swords. Space swords, but just swords. The blaster (ie guns) have obsoleted them in almost all scenarios. Jedi's still use them, almost ceremoniously rather than for function, but they can get by with only using saber's because they have the force.
Weak jedi can funnel the force into their swordsmanship skills to deflect blaster bolts, and fall back on using a blaster as well when needed (like luke did with his bare minimal training,and like all the jedi did in the prequels because lucas is terrible). Stronger Jedi like Vader or Kylo can just deflect blaster shots (or fucking freeze them in space like Kylo) using the force alone. Masters of the force like Yoda or Emperor don't even need sabers at all, they are strong enough in the force to not need weapons.
They are swords. Space swords, but just swords. The blaster (ie guns) have obsoleted them in almost all scenarios. Jedi's still use them, almost ceremoniously rather than for function, but they can get by with only using saber's because they have the force.
Weak jedi can funnel the force into their swordsmanship skills to deflect blaster bolts, and fall back on using a blaster as well when needed (like luke did with his bare minimal training,and like all the jedi did in the prequels because lucas is terrible). Stronger Jedi like Vader or Kylo can just deflect blaster shots (or fucking freeze them in space like Kylo) using the force alone. Masters of the force like Yoda or Emperor don't even need sabers at all, they are strong enough in the force to not need weapons.
