Star Wars Episode VII: A New Hope, Part II

And I'm going to go see it again.

Going tonight again

Got tickets for 3:50 this afternoon!

Rey did mention earlier to the droid that there were areas where the sand was like quicksand.

Did you all see that the Storm Trooper that Rey used the Jedi mind trick on was Daniel Craig (James Bond)?

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/daniel-craigs-secret-cameo-in-star-wars-the-182747377.html

I really enjoyed the humor. There was a lot of it, but I didn't think it was too much. I laughed when 3po said, "you might not recognize me because my arm is red" WTF?

I really enjoyed it... was pleasantly surprised. The new leads carried the whole movie... Daisy Ridley was incredible. I normally don't say that for a new actor. If there was any slight weakness was too many similarities to new hope. Need to see it again soon....

I really enjoyed the movie. The big complaints I hear are about how it is too much like A New Hope with some Empire thrown in. So? That is a bad thing? Those were the two best movies and this captured the spirit of them.

OMG! A death (planet) star! A hero who lived on a sandy planet! An older gentleman dies! A father reveal!

I saw the three originals in the theater when they came out and this movie did take me back to 1977 again and has me waiting for the next one.

I think all those who say it's A New Hope II wouldn't be happy no matter what. If it was different then they would say it strays too much from the originals or that it really doesn't fit in with what has been established in the past.

Movie was well done!

I'm surprised no one has re-iterated the questions:
How was Luke's lightsaber found and better yet, was his severed hand with it? The movie has shown Luke's mechanical hand so is that a bit of foreshadowing?

Will cloning be a part of the remaining films? There was a minor mention of clones in TFA and it got brushed over.

Is Klo Ren's name a play of Clone Ben? He is very emotionally unstable. Also, Luke's severed hand could be used for cloning.......just throwing it out there.

Looking forward to remaining movies, great things to come.

I remember reading "leaked" screen plays like 10 years ago that kinda followed what you are saying. A group of Vader worshipers (like the Knifhts of Ren) found Vaders hand and used it to create a new new Vader. Maybe the Knights of Ren found Lukes hand and created Rey? Maybe Luke found out and hid her away? I found it. Worth a look.

http://starwarsuniverse2.tripod.com/id6.html

Just saw it...kinda mixed.

It's far better than the last three films, but felt too rushed, too similar to ANH, Han dies and Luke doesn't even have a line in the film. Fisher's damage to her body is too much to ignore.

Plus I realized that 3 out of the last 4 SW films (4, 6, 7) had a death star/weapon to be destroyed by shutting down some sort of shield and blowing it up. Is that really the only plot they can think up?

Just saw it yesterday. Impressions after sleeping on it....

THE GOOD

- By far the star of the movie for me was BB-8. Loved the design, loved the characterization, loved the fact that he was a real functioning machine and not CGI BS. Two torches up!
- Found myself really enjoying the new characters of Rey and Finn. They seem ready to carry the torch going forward.
- Loved seeing some of that old Han Solo snark..... "Escape now, hug later!"
- Really enjoyed the Poe Dameron character, especially the way he acted towards BB-8. To me, Luke always saw R2D2 as a minion. Poe treated BB as a true friend and companion.

THE BAD

- Another spheroid planet-killing weapon? Aren't you guys (Empire/First Order) running out of money to keep building and losing these things?
- 30 years later, and you're still rocking TIE fighters and X-Wings? Where are the new ships? We got A-wings and B-wings in ROTJ after a 6-year span...
- Didn't like the casting of Adam Driver. Mind you, he seemed to do a good acting job, but he doesn't look a thing like Solo or Leia. Looked more like Severus Snape Jr. than anything else.
- Also didn't like the reveal that Han was Ren's father. Could have been an emotional scene, but nah, let's just drop it in off-handedly.
- Oooh Carrie Fisher's looking rough. Seemed like too much plastic surgery around her mouth kept her from speaking clearly.
- This movie created far more questions than answers. Who were the Knights of Ren? What's the scoop with this whole Jedi Academy that Luke set up and failed at? Where'd this Snoke guy come from? I've waited 32 years to find out what officially happened after ROTJ, and now I'm still waiting? Bah!

THE VERDICT (7 out of 10 stars)

- Though not without some flaws, a worthy successor to the Star Wars legacy. Can't wait for Episode 8!

Later,
EV

P.S. The new book "Aftermath" doesn't really tell you squat either. All ancillary or new characters.....

"This movie created far more questions than answers. Who were the Knights of Ren? What's the scoop with this whole Jedi Academy that Luke set up and failed at? Where'd this Snoke guy come from? I've waited 32 years to find out what officially happened after ROTJ, and now I'm still waiting? Bah!"

Episode 6.5, here we come!

Disney spent $4 billion on this franchise. They are going to milk EVERY LAST PENNY from us.

*Episode VIII spoiler alert*

The New Order builds another Death Star.

Some great points. I actually said out loud, "what no Y-Wings, no A-Wings, no B-Wings"?

Take down some shields, X-Wings go in and boom, large Empire structure is destroyed.

Would have rather they adhered to the books and had Han and Leia together with the Republics fleet taking down pockets of Empire resistance as a new threat emerges. Han and Leia have twins and one turns to the dark side. Luke has a prominent role as he trains new Jedi in his academy.

I don't know. I just wasn't impressed. It honestly makes me just want to go watch Episodes 4-6 again

I've read a few theories regarding this. It sounds like the Knights of Ren are possibly intended to be an entirely new form of a Dark Side order. ie - the Sith and their "rule of two" are gone and Kylo is not trained in their mysticism or behaviour.

So with that said I assumed the Knights of Ren were named after Kylo Ren, but I'm now wondering if 'Ren' as a surname is going to be the equivalent of 'Darth' for the Sith. Kylo Ren seems to be a leader and probably the most powerful for the time being, but maybe he isn't the only up and coming 'Ren' name we will see.

An entire group of dark side knights would be pretty cool imo - frankly it would essentially be something like the Nazgul and the Witch King which I'm all for.

I kind of want them to put Poe with Rey in the next movie and have a little love triangle going forward like with Han, Lando, Leia or Han, Luke, Leia.

I think if they would have had a different threat than a Death Star or just a disabling of the new Death Star, it would have been a lot better.

I read that J.J. had said that R2 woke up after recognizing that BB-8 had the missing piece to the plans.

I always felt R2 was special to Luke and it showed in the old movies as well as the new with R2 jumping up and down when they get to the island Luke's on.

I think you can note the blatant similarities between the two movies and still be "happy." I think this movie is gonna make more money than England at the height of the industrial revolution, and it's getting good reviews from the public and critics, but some people won't be happy no matter what if there are ANY criticisms of the movie.

Saw it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am only holding it up against 4-6 as that is all I think is required. All the spinoff books and series seem a bit like fan art to me.
Some dramatic time was lost to longer action scenes, but those action scenes were well done and it's what JJ does best. A bunch of the plot seemed to happen a little fast, but that's better than too slow like Ep 1-3.
Daytime photography of all the ships was spectacular.
Hopefully that's the last ever planet-killing-planet. I'm pretty sure it will be.
I think they had to move fast to reintroduce all the components they needed to. Ep 8 will be paced much more deftly. I predict it will be longer and feel "fuller". They have everyone's attention and will now deliver the knock out with Ep 8.

REN is the name of the group. All the members are "REN" not named after Kylo. So your assumption I correct.

Rey is the ultimate Mary Sue.

She is expert at EVERYTHING - she's a skilled pilot, mechanic (who seems to know more about the MF than Han Solo) and fighter, plus she's practically an expert at the Force after hearing about it a few hours earlier. She apparently can do anything. So, that was a little much.

Also, I really wish JJ would respect that space is vast and stop with the crappy shortcuts. First was beaming across the galaxy in Star Trek, essentially eliminating the need for starships with a throwaway plot device, now he has a Death Star that shoots across the galaxy and can destroy 5 planets at once, instantly. Also they only seemed to spend two seconds in hyperspace to get across the galaxy. Overall seriously weak writing.

I'm also a bit confused about the timing of everything. Has 30 years past? How long had the MF been missing? How long ago did Luke disappear? How did the "Rebellion" go from hundreds of ships including a dozen capital ships to a ragtag bunch of X-Wings? Why is Leia with that ragtag bunch instead of running shit? Why is there even a rebellion when the Republic is the recognized government?

This film left me with a lot of questions and some really dangly threads and scenes that lead nowhere and offered no resolution.

I did actually like both Rey and Finn, and the movie clearly had the "Star Wars" feel the prequels lacked. It wasn't "bad" like the prequels and it did have some kick-ass scenes. I really enjoyed the raw lightsaber battles that were less ballet and more two novices bashing on each other. There's some quality in there but I think it could have used more editing and pacing work.

So, 7/10. I really hope the follow-up films fill in some of these giant gaps.

Yea def a 7/10. I agree with a lot of what you said. Writing was weak but it was still enjoyable.

People want to like it so badly they will overlook all these glaring holes and questions this movie created.

Hah yeah this afternoon I literally stumbled on exactly this concept on Wookiepedia. I think it's a pretty cool change to a familiar concept personally.

I thought Kylo Ren was a pretty neat name - interested to see if we get any cool names out of it.

I think this criticism that keeps coming up is stemming from the fact this movie needs a sequel. I think we are intended to wonder why this ability exists, and it will likely come full circle next episode - she frankly seemed surprised every time the Force worked so easy for her. I don't for a second think she just magically came upon her ability in this movie, but setting up sequels does hurt a film in terms of plot sense within the context of a single film.

Disagree for myself at least - those holes and threads exist, and the movie isn't perfect even if you ignore them, but it doesn't compromise the film that much imo - at least not yet.

I think most of the criticism is stemming from comparing ep 7 (one movie) to ep 4-6 (three movies). If you just pick ESB and watch it and try to understand it with no context to the other two movies, it makes no sense and doesn't resolve on itself, but it was developed with a trilogy in mind. TFA suffers from this somewhat where all these questions about the Republic/Resistance, Reys Force ability, new/missing ships, etc... simply can't be addressed in a single film. Ironcially if you HAVEN'T seen ep 4-6, none of these issues are even on your radar really.

I am perfectly fine not worrying about these dangling plot threads for now - in another 2 films if we get no closure on a chunk of these items, I will be pretty annoyed and will certainly be retroactively criticising the film in the context of the series. For now, the movie and experience at face value is exactly what I wanted to see (even my mom liked it?!), but it is not a self contained story like ANH so I don't quite understand piling criticism on things (yet!) that logically can and should be answered in the next films.

Not to mention a common criticism was that the film moved a bit quick (it did in certain areas), so how do you cram in any more ships/politics/backstory/midichloreans? See Ep 1-3 for your answer on how that can be done.

24 hours later...and I think it's a good film, but not great. They needed to give the film a chance to settle in and breathe a bit. Everything was too rushed, too many nods to decades ago.

The one area that should have been taken out was when the Falcon first gets caught by Han and Cheewie's frighter, and then BAM! Two other gangs show up and we have big monsters and a rushed exit. That whole 15 minutes were horrible. Would have been nice for Ren and Rey to catch their breath, try and relax, meet and talk to Han and get some backstory.

Too much was jammed in a tight container. A little more exposition would have gone a long way.

And 3PO was wasted again. He has only been in two movies were he got some resect, ANH and ESB.

This was the worst/most pointless part of the movie imo. It added nothing to the plot and was the one glaring thing in the film that reminded me of the prequels. Didn't need another Attack of the Clones CGI monster fest imo.

I think the idea of the gangs showing up was ok, but it should have simply been used as a quick plot device to evacuate the ship and jump to hyperspace on the falcon (like the stormtroopers showing up in ANH before the falcon takes off) and allow some travel/talk time or maybe arrive at the cantina 10 minutes sooner to add more exposition and breathing room before the next First Order attack.

We were leaving the theater(already outside) and our friend asks my wife how she liked the movie. She yells out "I can't believe they killed Han!". Holy shit... I looked around and thank god nobody was around for that one besides a few people leaving the theater. Close call.

I totally agree. A 7 out of 10 seems overly harsh. That's a C.....no way this movie was a C. If it was what the heck do you people give episodes 1-3? An E-? Even I'm not that harsh.

AS I've said many times I think this movie did exactly what it set out to do. Maybe some wanted more but then again maybe more was simply not possible until you get the train back on the tracks. I think it accomplished that and I'm excited to see the direction this train takes.

Now that Disney owns this license they will NEVER stop making new movies (Unless they manage to outright kill it). I seriously expect Disney to crank out literally dozens of Star Wars films including primary story line and "one of" offshoots.

It just relies too heavily on the fact that it's part of a trilogy and leaves too many things unexplored or unexplained. If it was a matter of time, they could have cut that whole CGI monster scene.

There were some genuinely great parts - the chemistry between Rey and Finn was excellent, lots of decent humour without going over the top, some amazing action. The pacing was just off - there's been over 30 years since the originals and clearly lots of stuff happened off-screen. Just leaves me confused.

I was reading way back that Rey's character's name is Kira (my wife's name) and that Kylo Ren (4 and 3 letters) is symmetrical to Kira Rey also similar to 4 letters in Luke and 4 letters in Leia?? IDK food for thought maybe they are twins separated at birth?

My friend saw movie for a 2nd time and this time noticed that Young Rey in the vision is being taken by that fat alien junk dealer for what that is worth.

I kinda agree, even though I really enjoyed and enjoyed listening through the Audio book, but I see your point.

Gone are the old days. This was made for as a Global release not just made to satisfy the USA. Also being Disney alot of it is going to have to do with Tie-ins. Like the New Disney Escape the Rathgar ride! Ect Ect. Its not perfect but Ill take it. Hopefully 8 makes 7 better.

I mean look at the Last Avengers. it felt very similar to this lots of plot crammed into 2 1/2 hours.

Also I hear there was 12 deleted scenes and over 35 minutes of cut film that may be added back into the "Directors cut" being released this Spring.

Nah 7/10 is totally fair. Prequels are like 3-5 depending on how much jar jar is in them. Originals 8-10.

It's just opinions and stupid numbers. It felt very rushed and think about it. Literally three days or so at max passed between Flynn escaping and them blowing up yet another Empire installation. Rushed.....

Oh there's tons of ennuendos that Rey is Han and Leia's daughter: Rey and Han's immediate kinship and knowledge of things electronic (Millenium Falcon), Kylo talking to Rey while trying to extract information and commenting on Han being the father she never had, the loving embrace that Leia and Rey had upon returning after their mission. It's possible Han and Leia are trying to protect Rey from her destiny because of the dark sides temptations

Well I saw it five times this weekend so I had plenty of chances to let everything sink in THIS was the Star Wars movie that I was waiting 30 years for. They really hit it out of the park IMO. Intriguing likeable new characters, plenty of nods to the past films, limited CGI & real sets, and a well fleshed out story that answered some questions, but also left plenty unanswered.

I was able to stay away from ALL spoilers over the last year (just watched the trailers), so my first viewing experience was completely untainted, and turned out to be completely different from what I had predicted (believed Rey was going to be Han's daughter) . The twists & big reveals were really pleasant surprise

I will say that the film was MUCH better on repeat viewings, after my mind had to stopped trying to guess what was going to happen & I could just sit back and take it all in. The film was a far more emotional experience on later viewings.

My only "complaint" is that I wish Max Von Sydow had more screen time (Ming the Merciless!!!), and that the Captain Phasma character turned out to be a dud. I guess they all can't be explored in a 2+ hr movie. Minor disappointments tho.

I loved it, and will most likely see it once again next weekend.

PURPLEDRILLMONKEY has made the most insightful, well thought out comments in this thread so far, and really got me thinking. Thanks for that!

They've left such a deep backstory to explore between Episodes 6 & 7 (Luke's Academy downfall, the corruption of Ben Solo, the origins of Supreme Leader Snoke & the First Order, more Han & Chewie smuggling adventures, establishing the new republic, exploring the past of Max Von Sydow's character, etc.) This could really be represented well in another new animated series like Rebels or The Clone Wars, which are all considered official cannon as well. Mark Hamill has a long history of animated voice work (the definitive voice of The Joker), so how cool would that be???

When did Han or Leia say that they didn't have a girl? Nothing was said one way or the other.

Also I personally don't think they are twins, I just thought it interesting.

I am thinking Luke took the girl away at age 5 when the 14 or 15 year old Ben Solo was hacking down the younglings.

Good point. If GL was still in charge, he would just be starting the script. Luckly Disney's project management will keep this production machine firing. VIII is only 1 1/2 years away.

Jar Jar was NOT the reason the sequels failed. I got to thinking about all of the CGI/Cartoon crap in 2 and 3 (3PO getting body/arms detached and reattached, and Obi Wan and that Dinosaur chase), and maybe TFA is a 4 star film.

Yes I agree the total over use of CGI, pod racing, lizard back riding, Naboo, Jar Jar, etc all hurt the prequels

OK I will start out that I am a fan of Star Wars but not a die hard fan.

Saw the movie and in my opinion it was A New Hope 2.0

Seriously

A likeable droid carrying important information, stuck on a desert planet full of scavengers, rescued by a teenager who happens to be the second coming of the Jedi.

The teenager who seems to be the galaxy's best mechanic, pilot and fighter, lives the life of a lowly scavenger who eeks out a living being paid in food? WTF. She could be running the planet of Jukku whilst waiting for her family to come back.

How the hell did lukes light saber end up in un locked case below a bar?? With all those drunk alien lifeforms floating around I'm guessing statistically something would have walked in and grabbed it in the 10 years or so it was there. At least have it behind a loose brick or hidden in a wall etc.

Meets the rebellion. (I thought the rebel alliance won in Return of the Jedi, wouldn't it have made more sense that they were the Republic's army?? Who are they rebelling against??)

Once again they have found a weak point in the star killer and manage to destroy it again. Why wouldn't you attack the death star planet whilst in construction??? Funnily they had no idea how to defeat it without Finns help, but later on knew exactly to the minute how much time they had before it was going to fire. ???

On the Killerstar base thing, I think there are more security cameras in my local 7 eleven than the entire base!! There were cameras on Han Solos freighter so fair to say this technology exists in the star wars universe. Is Rey invisible as well??

Kylo Ren is the son of a hero , reverse of Vader being the father of the hero. He was worshipping Vaders helmet/skull, if I remember correctly Darth Vader was hanging out with Obi Wan kenobi in the sky at the end of Return of the Jedi, so wouldn't Vaders life force be pushing him to the light side???

How the hell did Finn get even remotely close to defeating Kylo, he was a shit stormtrooper who was a garbage man, whilst kylo can stop a laser blast mid air and was trained by Luke Skywalker.

Likewise Rey effectively went from bartering for food to defeating the baddest dude in the galaxy in 3 days???

To be honest, disappointing.

Snoke will be Yodas brother or son, heard it here first.

I can keep going on but i won't.

It wasn't unlocked. It was sealed, the seal opened through the force~Per the Book.

This movie is supposed to be a mirror or looking glass. Almost all of it is recycled.

I didnt notice that but even then why wouldn't someone steal the entire case??

Too much coincidence for me o grab onto

Star Wars Episode 7:

image.jpeg

Tough crowd

Well it's been 30 years since that happend. The assumption is that over that time frame with no Jedi and the Dark side once again gaining strength that will they may have won the battle in episode 6 but are once again losing the war

It's Star freaking Wars man. It's a part of our culture. It shouldnt get passes or excuses. I don't want to make assumptions or guesses about these characters because Hollywood writers were lazy or because scenes were omitted.

I hope more is explained in episode 8 but I doubt they'll do much looking back as they prob have some new alien armada from the outer rims to battle which will unite both the republic and the empire in a fight for their very survival or something predictable and cliche like that.