Star Wars News Thread

[Dr Kain]

That was the point though.

[tbeasley]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Henry88]

$610,776,417
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars7.htm

could it hit a billlion before the end of December?

[Dr Kain]

[Rody]

[Henry88]

$890,295,329
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars7.htm

in seven days,most likely will hit a billion before the end of the year.

[Rodanex]

I'm still torn about this film. In a lot of ways, it's very enjoyable. It nails the tone and the feel of the original trilogy, albeit to a fault. I'd like it a lot better if it didn't repeat so many of the same story beats as ANH. I know the Star Wars series has that rhyming nature to it but it felt like too much. It just seemed like they were trying to play everything too safe.

On the plus side, I really liked the characters. It's nice to see a female protagonist, and I'm excited to see where Fin will go in the future films. The dialogue was well written, the humor landed on point. If the story had just been a little more original, this would be a near perfect Star Wars sequel.

[Gwangi]

No on this. It lacked the gravitas that only Hayden Christensen can bring to the screen!

In all seriousness, while this film had it's flaws, it was a VERY good start to what will hopefully give credence back to this saga, what the prequels took away. Han, Rey and BB8 were the characters that came of the best, I thought. Movie ranks right there, or just below "Return of the Jedi" but far superior than the last films Lucas gave us (though, truth be told, I can actually live with "Revenge of the Sith").

[Henry88]

$1,090,573,329
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars7.htm

and there it is

[TerranigmaFreak]

I saw this on facebook. I figured you guys here would get it.

[Dr Kain]

[DannyBeane]

I finally watched this film and here is my spoiler free review

Ok, just finished watching this film and I enjoyed it immensely. There was only one thing that really kept taking me out of the film and that was the character of Rey. In order to try and make her a strong female character, they totally turned her into an untouchable Mary Sue that knew how to do everything, mastered skills instantly and could do no wrong. This grated on me immensely. If you want to see how to do a strong female character well, look at Furiosa from Mad Max Fury road. She was a strong character, that did not come off and poorly written fan fiction and wish fulfillment. Other than Rey, everything else was just about perfect.

[XvGojira]

I feel like Rey is a character that a "THAT PLAYER" would create in a Star Wars DnD game.

[lhb412]

I didn't find fault with Rey in that way, but that may be just because I found the actress so charming it compensated for any deficiency in that regard. She had to be tough as nails to survive in her environment, and her Force use seemed to hinge on copying things Kylo Ren was doing, so the only real 'unrealistic' expertise (if you could call something that in a fantasy like Star Wars) is her piloting skills. Her arc for the film was to accept the call to heroism, so the story dictates she have a big victory at the end. I'm sure we'll see her struggles and limitations more in the next film if she's going to begin Jedi training in earnest.

Anyway, I've seen this movie twice now, and my thoughts have crystalized into coherence:

The Force Awakens is indeed largely a retread. It's a reformulation of events from the original trilogy reformatted and rejiggered into a new story, but I don't think that's a bad thing. This movie had a lot it had to pull off. It had to be a realignment, proving to audiences that this is indeed Star Wars, which is this thing that an enormous amount of people are invested in very deeply. It had to look, sound, feel like Star Wars in order to pull off the trick. If every single new SW movie Disney makes is like this than we have a problem, but for the first one? I'm not sure this could have been done any other way.

So it had to be this nostalgic, but it also had to introduce a new cast of characters and new mysteries and storylines for audiences to obsess over. It's here, I'd argue, that the film succeeds even more than in its successful venture in nostalgia. This new cast is excellent, and it takes barely any imagination at all to see that these new characters will be as beloved by a new generation as Luke/Han/Leia were to us. Speaking of the 'legacy characters:' how smart was it to have Leia in a supporting role and Luke M.I.A. with Han and Chewbacca the only returning characters to actually be main characters? It allowed for continuity, it kept the returners from choking out the new cast, and it allowed for those two to shine. Ford hasn't been this lively onscreen in ages and this may be the single strongest film for Chewbacca yet!

But the biggest thing is that this movie is fun. Each time at the theater you felt the excitement and enjoyment from the multiple generations of filmgoers there to watch this thing. I have to admit it warmed my heart to hear little kids gasping at reveals of the Falcon, Han and Chewie, and R2D2. I enjoyed it. It's fun to be excited about Star Wars again.

Also: give Carrie Fisher more jokes in the next movie. Her sense of humor is her superpower.

[canofhumdingers]

I disagree with people who claim Rey is a Mary Sue. As lhb points out, she has to be tough as nails to survive in her environment. There's no reason she can't be a good pilot, there's plenty of starships on Jakku and she doesn't leave because she doesn't want to - not because she can't.

And as for her learning to use the force so quickly with no training... First, she talks about the "legends" of the Jedi and Han and Luke and all that, and she's seems pretty well versed in the details so she probably has some cursory knowledge of at least some of the things that can be done with the Force. Second, it's pretty clearly implied that she had some training as a child and has repressed those memories and is rediscovering her powers - we'll have to wait for the sequels to see exactly if and how this pans out but for now it seems pretty obvious. Third, in the falcon piloting scene in particular, it's clear that she's using the force without realizing it (much like Luke and Anakin before her). I mean, seriously, they hit that one pretty square on the nose with the excited conversation she has with Finn after they escape.

[DannyBeane]

[XvGojira]

[canofhumdingers]

Below I've cut and pasted my feelings on the film that I posted on originaltrilogy.com. I feel like I need to preface it a bit. Despite trying to keep my expectations and excitement in check, this film was a big deal for me. I am a huge HUGE Star Wars fan. But I am a diehard fan of the original theatrical trilogy and very very passionate about their restoration, preservation, and the need for them to be available to the general public in a form that truly represents how they were seen in theaters at their release (did you know there are people who actually think the faded 4:3 letterbox laserdisc master with roughly 200-some-odd lines of resolution is what the films always looked like until Lucas "graciously" remastered them for the 97 special editions? I'm not making this up. These films were shot on high quality 35mm and even 70mm film and people claim the originals "weren't HD and so can't be put on bluray"). So anyway, it's something I feel very strongly about. So strongly that several years ago I actually traveled to the Library of Congress film preservation facility and cold storage vaults outside of DC as an amateur researcher to inspect what materials they actually possessed of the original cuts and what condition they were in (a story for another time perhaps...). I was supremely disappointed by the prequels and choose to completely ignore them now. I have been depressed and disgusted by George Lucas's and Lucasfilm's treatment and systematic suppression of the original films and their constant revisionism of history regarding them. I was cautiously optimistic about Disney buying Lucasfilm thinking that maybe this decades long battle might finally be put to rest. Not that Disney has the best track record of historically preserving their films (far from it actually), but at least they were out of George Lucas's control. He has constantly lied and intentionally misconstrued information about the original films, their creation, history, and current status and the ability to restore and preserve them to the point that nothing he's said over the last two decades can be remotely trusted.

So I was also cautiously optimistic about the new film. I stayed away from any spoilers or plot details but I did follow the marketing campaign and watched the trailers. And Disney slowly won me over. They clearly tried very hard to distance themselves from the crap Star Wars had descended into over the years and focused very heavily on the spirit of the original trilogy. So I went in to the film quite excited for what was hopefully to come but still trying very hard to keep my expectations in check just in case we were in for the prequels round two.

Sorry for the long winded introduction, but I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now. Anyway, the following is my review for anyone who cares:

I’ve been hesitant to post my opinion of the film until it had plenty of time to settle. I’ve seen it twice now and feel like my opinion is pretty well formed. My first viewing was 70mm IMAX at the Indiana State Museum and it was spectacular and incredibly immersive. My second was just a standard 2d digital projection at an Alamo Drafthouse (snagged a couple of those cool Millennium Falcon menus too!).

I had a blast watching the film the first time. It made Star Wars fun again, which was a big deal. But it wasn’t perfect. The thing that stood out the most while watching it was the cgi characters (yellow yoda, Snoke, whatever digital trickery they did to Carrie Fisher’s face) all stood out prominently as looking fake on such a large format with such striking clarity. But some other things felt off too - Death Star 3 in particular left a sour taste to me. But I walked out of the theater happy and with a gut reaction that it was as least as good as ROTJ… Maybe better.

Then as days went by and I thought about it more and read others’ thoughts the problems in the film started to irk me more. Did they REALLY have to ape the plot of the original film SO MUCH? Did they really have to make Starkiller Base yet another Death Star? That and many of the other complaints/issues that have been brought up ad nauseam began to take their toll on my opinion of the movie, but I knew I needed to see it again before I could make up my mind.

When I saw it the second time, I had the same reaction I’ve seen others on here mention. All those problems melted away and I just had a really fun time. The cgi was much more palatable (i even though maz kanata actually looked good and I couldn’t see anything weird about Leia’s face - though I have a feeling the much smaller screen and lower resolution helped that tremendously). The plot structure was fine and even Starkiller Base didn’t bother me despite how lazy it was. The characters are so good, fun, and likable that the films problems fade into the background. Han and Chewie really steal the show for me, but the new characters are all great too. I especially like Kylo Ren. He’s so different from the villains we’ve seen in the previous movies. I really like the idea of him wanting to be dark but struggling with the pull of the light. Can’t wait to see how that pans out in future films.

So overall, my initial gut reaction has held fast. I like it just as much as Return of the Jedi which is a huge step in the right direction for the franchise as a whole. It will take some time and several more viewings before I can really sort out exactly where TFA stands in relation to ROTJ (SW and ESB are on such a high pedestal that I seriously doubt anything else will ever come close), but for now I’m just happy to steal a line from someone else around here: there is finally a fourth Star Wars film!

REPLY

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The Humdinger Glitch, the new exciting novel from Robert Ludlum

[tbeasley]

[klen7]

Snoke had more fingers than Maz

[Henry88]

$1,510,765,583
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars7.htm

is two billion possible?

[O.Supreme]

We'll see. The film opens in China in about a week. By end of day tomorrow, it should be #1 all time US Domestic Gross, and #4 all time World Wide. I can see it easily surpassing Jurassic World to take #3. But Surpassing 2 billion.... It's mostly up to the World Wide market at that point. I don't know what made most countries in the world so insane for Titanic or Avatar, but I guess we'll see if Episode VII has that appeal or not soon enough.

[tbeasley]

[Henry88]