So... The Force Awakens. Did you like it? I did. I didn't need a new Star Wars movie in my life and, even up to seeing it, didn't buy into the hype and yet I really enjoyed it.

Not a perfect film of course and had some of JJ's unwanted hallmarks (remember in Trek when Kirk was dumped on a planet, by pure coincidence, exactly where old Spock was - that) but they movie worked for me because it had heart. In what was a complete surprise, I liked the new characters as much as any classic characters and thought Rey and Kylo Ren were both fantastic in particular.

So yep, a pleasant surprise for me. What did you think?

I'd say it's about on par with the original 3 movies.  Guess that means you could say I liked it too.  Abrams did an excellent job.

I loved it. I was cautiously optimistic after the first trailer (and intentionally avoided watching the ones after) but really wasn't expecting to be so completely satisfied. Aside from the obvious generational gap in the characters it's almost as if the prequels never happened and they picked up right after the original trilogy.

It does have a few issues (which I won't even mention until everyone has had a chance to see it) but for a large part they are ones shared by the original, so it's hard to fault the movie too much for that.

Can't wait to see it again -- to say nothing of the next episode.

I haven't seen it yet. However, I don't see any way it could be on par with the original trilogy. The original trilogy was groundbreaking. This is a continuation, and it has been hyped to godhood by people so it can be marketed like crazy (which it has been). While I will obviously wait before critiquing it, I can easily say there is no way this will match the first three films. You can only be a groundbreaking series the first time around.

Indeed, save your critique until you see it.  Cultural significance isn't the only deciding factor on whether a movie is good, although the significance is strong with this one.

Haven't seen it yet, but I've heard pretty much nothing but good things. Looking forward to it.
It seems I'm the only person on the planet who liked episodes 2 and 3 (NOBODY likes Ep. 1) because, you know what? The original trilogy had dumb dialogue and horrible acting as well. Yeah, I said it.
Eps 2 and 3 at least had enough eye-candy to keep me happy.

But the original trilogy was groundbreaking, absolutely, and it's hard to break new ground nowadays.
Then again, as has been said, you don't NEED to break new ground to make a good movie.

My friend had extra tickets to the opening but I had to work.

I'll probably see it after the holiday/next paycheck as I still have a few gifts to nab.

I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan or to the same level as some of my friends but I can appreciate things the original trilogy.

Dumb dialogue? Maybe, but if your barometer for horrible acting is the original trilogy, then you clearly have no idea what bad acting is.

It's not my barometer, no. It's not my "go-to example" of bad acting, but it still has bad acting, mostly in the form of Hamill and Fisher. There's a reason only Ford went on to become big in movies.

There's no need to disparage the originals as if you need to justify your enjoyment of the prequels. You don't. I like the Fast and Furious movies and even love 2 Fast 2 Furious. We like the movies we like, that's okay. But we don't need to make out like other movies are worse to justify that and, in this case, it wouldn't be warranted. Just stand by your likes, dude.

Not true. Fisher was in these "classic" movies:

The Blues Brothers,
Hannah and Her Sisters
The 'Burbs
When Harry Met Sally

She's been in many other films and TV appearances. I believe she has also written 4 novels. Also, keep in mind that Fisher has had drug problems and bipolar disorder.

As for Hamill, it's true, he has been as prolific as other actors such as Ford. However, he has been successful in many ways. By the way, Hamill won two Saturn awards for best actor in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. When people say "Hamill was such a bad actor..." I want you to tell me exactly how was he a bad actor? Sure, some of the lines in the original trilogy were corny, but so what? It's a fantasy movie not a drama or documentary. It's not supposed to be gritty. Also, the fact that Hamill won awards by critics for his acting in the original trilogy points to the fact he is a good actor, despite what I consider unsubstantiated comments to the contrary.

Hamill was great. His growth from whingy farmboy to Jedi was fantastic. His character in Return of the Jedi is a world away from where he started. If he hadn't been a decent actor, he simply couldn't have pulled that off.

http://www.vox.com/2015/12/21/10445616/ … ia-problem

"The Force Awakens is practically a beat-by-beat reworking of the original...George Lucas drew upon his personal nostalgia to create something that, in its particular combination of references and allusions, felt thrillingly, excitingly new. J.J. Abrams, by contrast, drew upon Star Wars fans' collective nostalgia to produce a film that is expressly designed to feel like something we’ve all seen before."

Even without seeing the film, I agree with this.

*ahem*

Actually, Episode 1 is my favorite.

Thoroughly enjoyed Episode 7 pitfalls and all. There were a few moments where I felt myself getting nitpicky but admittedly with the amount of fun and warm fuzzies I got from watching I decided that I'll let myself enjoy it. Truly A New Hope 2.0 but I think its kind of worth it to call back to the originals, especially when introducing it to a new audience. Its good for nostalgia and as someone's first movie.

Now all I want is the 2 disc soundtrack not planned. Star Wars music releases really rub just about everyone the wrong way.

At this point, why bother watching the movie?  You're already convinced yourself you'll be disappointed.

Just because a movie is not nearly as good as another, does not mean it won't be fun to watch. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, so I won't be disappointed because I never had high expectations for the movie to begin with.

Give him some credit. At least he's not like Jodo who said he wasn't going to watch it just because the EU isn't canon anymore.

40 Unforgivable Plot Holes in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-abra … 50324.html

Well, it is a JJ Abrams production. Only 40 plot holes is not bad considering his other work!!

Guessing they never figured that someone might actually read all 40 because that descends into random questions rather than plot holes, let alone unforgivable ones.

Along the same lines, some of those "plot holes" may be explained in the future movies.

Seriously, avatar, could you at least see the movie before continuing to post reviews you claim to agree with despite the fact that, oh yeah, you haven't actually seen the movie?

You've had your chance in the other thread (AND another thread) to lament Disney and JJ Abrams' involvement. I specifically branched Jay's post into a new thread for people who care to judge a movie on its actual merits to do so.

So, I shouldn't post anything that can be construed as negative?  First, I haven't directly posted any spoilers. Secondly, the links I posted are exactly what you said, reviewers that judged a movie on its "actual merits". I see no foul here. All that said, I do also see your point. I honestly wasn't going to say more until I saw the movie, but since you brought up all my lamentations I wanted to clarify

Finally had the time to watch this yesterday, and I came away satisfied.
It's what anyone could reasonably want from a new Star Wars flick, and it manages to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the original trilogy, even if it lacks the groundbreaking factor.
Ren shows a lot of promise as a villain, and I'm curious to see where the new trilogy is going to go from here (especially considering that The Force Awakens is pretty much the entire original trilogy compressed into one movie).

I read all of them AND the other article that adds another 20.
He makes a bunch of really good points, some of which also stood out to me while watching the movie, but some of them are properly explained (and others may be in the future), and some of them are just whiny.
There's plenty of things that don't make sense about this movie, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless.

Saw this again last night and enjoyed it even more. The characters are really excellent and the movie has so much heart. It's a warm movie and I love that. It's like the anti-prequels.

But Chewie not getting a hug is the new Chewie not getting a medal.

Same here Jay, I enjoyed it even more the second time. It was alot to take in the first time, and I was also carsick, thanks to my cousin's Honda Civic and his fast driving.

I watched it on the opening day at 9am with my wife. It was a small 20-seat house, 2D version with Atmos sound. I was very disappointed with the Atmos thing. I didn't notice anything special at all, and I don't have hearing problems huhu.

I enjoyed it because it's hard not to enjoy it being a fan, but throughout the movie I realised there was nothing new or original, apart from an almost all-new cast, which was to be expected given the age of the actors who played the original trilogy. Several concepts are not just borrowed or adapted, they are literally copy-pasted. Even worse, actual scenes are copy-pasted. Even my wife, who has only a vague memory of the old movies, noticed that some scenes were incredibly similar and they made her recall the old movies, like a flash-back.

I work with the Star Wars licence at the office. I can understand why Disney want to "play if safe". They didn't buy the licence for fun, and they didn't buy it only for the movies they are making. They bought it for everything they are doing/licensing, tons of products, movies, cartoons, more spin-off movies coming up, licensing with shops, restaurants, toilet papers, anything you can possibly think of. It's sad and you can clearly see their vision with this movie. Easy, cheap plot. Copy paste of the concepts, scenes and characters that made Star Wars what it is. Take no risks, just make the thing a money maker. It must appeal to all age ranges and sexes in order to cash in with as many people and products as possible.

In the end, I enjoyed the movie mostly until Finn and Rey left Jakku, after which it got boring, with unending references to what all fans have already seen. And with a villain that looks as menacing as my red-eared slider.

I was super excited by Finn and Rey, even Poe, as they were new, fresh, they brought something unique to Star Wars - especially Finn. And then Han showed up, with Chewbacca, and then well you know the rest. The movie ended there for me.

That was the entire point. It's supposed to be a love letter of sorts to the original trilogy (and judging by the overwhelmingly positive response from fans, I'd say they were successful).

Like I said, it was the entire original trilogy wrapped up into one movie so that they could establish the new characters and their motives, and I'm sure it'll go in new directions from here on out.

I still have not seen the movie so I won't directly respond to it. However, a love letter is NOT the same thing as copy-and-paste. it appears that quite a lot of people are complaining in the same vein as LuxKiller. I probably will go see the movie, but not for a few weeks.

True, but I think whether it's the former or the latter pretty much depends on the viewer.

I saw it and I really enjoyed it as a movie which I guess is the point, but as a Star Wars fan, it's kind of disappointing that this is basically just a remake of A New Hope. There's way too many callbacks/references/homages/etc. I wish they spent less time saying "remember how much you used to love the original Star Wars movies?" and more time saying "check out all this awesome new stuff that makes you feel like you did when you first saw Star Wars!" To put it in gaming terms, I want Shovel Knight, not DuckTales Remastered. That's a little bit of an exaggeration since DuckTales Remastered was kind of shit and I think The Force Awakens is very good, but I wish it was its own movie, and I hope Episode VIII forges new ground.

Also, the villains in TFA were super lame and almost laughably incompetent. I realize this accurately mirrors the original trilogy, but one thing the prequels had going for them were the cool villains that actually accomplished things, and I hope this isn't lost in the new trilogy.

Yes. Darth Maul was a bad guy that gave off some truly ominous vibes. There was a book about his exploits on Coruscant before the movies.

The only thing I remember about the book was how Darth Maul terrified everything, even the most horrible creatures deep under the cities on Coruscant; he fucked up anything that got in his way. It'd be neat to see a movie that shows what Darth Maul can really do.

Sorry, have to laugh at this. Really?

But then I think the prequels are junk... so.

Darth Maul was a f---ing joke. He's the most laughably uninteresting villain in the entire movie series.

Maybe he kicked ass in the books, but I'm guessing most people who saw Phantom Menace didn't read the books, so he was just a weird-looking dude who didn't talk and had no background story or motive whatsoever.

I didn't mind not knowing much about Maul at all. Not sure that always contributes. He was like an animal and I did like that. But my big problem is that they then got rid of him so quickly. Any potential for continued threat with him was wiped away. And then they did the same with Christopher Lee until we ended up with a coughing CG robot. And then looking wider, the prequels really had no sense of good versus evil, right versus wrong or even (in absence of that) conflicts where we could believe strongly on all sides.

The Force Awakens has that. Maybe to a fault (the speech I felt was unnecessary) but at least it was nicely clear.

Yeah, that's what I meant.
He just shows up, only gets like one fight, then disappears.
Every other villain in the series has at least had SOME semblance of a personality.