The Glade 4.0

My main reaction walking out of the theater was, "Oh well. At least it was better than the Prequels. Hopefully the second one will be better." The more I think about it now, the more I realize that my main issue with the movie was really just that nothing felt "earned". Han's "Chewie, we're home" line should have come after Han had been on-screen for a while and had commented wistfully about the Falcon being lost, not as the first time we encounter Han and he just happens to bump into the Falcon. Rey rescues and immediately adopts BB-8 on her first encounter with him. Finn went from being a Stormtrooper to cheering about killing his former comrades and rushing over to help some random scavenger on Jakku in about 30 seconds. Finn and Rey just happen to bump into Han Solo and thus get a direct line to the Resistance the instant they leave Jakku. Rey is just immediately good at everything. Finn and Han just waltz into the shield generator and Phasma promptly drops the shields for them. Everyone is immediately best buddies, hugging up a storm every time they reunite. Artoo suddenly wakes up and happens to have the rest of the map to Luke in his memory banks, and after a quick hop in the Falcon, they pop over and say hello. And so on.

Basically, it seemed like the creative team really wanted to hurry up and skip ahead to the middle of the story, wherein Rey is powerful, Finn is reformed, everyone is a tight-knit group, etc.

See, I don't disagree with anything you're saying there, but none of it really bugged me. I think I can explain why, by minor editing of your post.



Okay, i got nothing for the sudden revival of R2...I haven't figured out what that was about. It did strike me as odd in the theatre.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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According to Abrams, that was BB-8's earlier question to R2 rattling around in his head, and finally triggered something to wake him up. Take it as you will.

Edit for a linky: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/20/jj ... ce-awakens

I'm sure that will be made clear in the novelization I'm attempting to read at work if these jackasses didn't keep interupting me expecting me to do a job or something.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I found this, that may help explain things a little better.

http://www.therobotspajamas.com/the-pol ... explained/

Image spoilered for size


The key quote here being, "The New Republic tolerates the Resistance, though it is wary of risking war with the First Order."

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"I Live, I Love, I Slay, and I Am Content."
- Conan the Barbarian

/sigh


The only good space nazi is a dead space nazi.

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Holy shitsnacks!

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Raell Kromwell

Finally saw it, I liked it, although I felt as a movie overall it felt very rushed from end to end. I'm really hoping for a longer cut when it hits blu-ray (or hell, it's Disney, they can do a full re-release in the theater of a 4 hour cut and I'd go see it). While they may be saving her for ep VIII or IX, I really feel like there was probably a lot more phasma that got left on the cutting room floor, as of now, totally wasted character. I had the same criticisms as a lot in this thread, Rey was good at everything much too fast (which could be partially fixed with more connective scenes), but I didn't feel Kylo was "too whiny". I enjoyed the scenes of him losing his **** (smashing the console in front of a subordinate, destroying the interrogation chair), as I thought the subordinate's reactions still communicated that this is a powerful character, just kind of unhinged. Definitely getting too much power without having control of it.

Another complaint was that while they were trying to draw parallels to episode IV, I felt it might have been too close to IV. It's understandable, they want to re-start the series on solid footing, but

-droid has crazy map that has to get to the rebellion
-new character that doesn't know anything about the force
-gets picked up by veteran
-taken to crazy alien bar
-Leia/vader Rey/Kylo torture scene
-prep scene where they all stand around and talk about how to attack the death star Starkiller base
-Hell, they even threw in a death star trench run
-New force user watches their first mentor get murdered right in front of them
-Base destroyed
-And Vader Kylo lives to fight another day!

It's almost like they literally pulled all the main beats of the IV script and just wrote a 30 years updated film over them. Still, Star Wars episode IV is one of the greatest films ever made, so I guess if you're going to remake one that's not a bad choice. It was still way better than JJ's shitty remake of the Wrath of Khan.

Overall, still ten thousand percent better than the prequels, it actually FEELS like star wars (they did a great job nailing the camera feel and wipes of the originals), and got me excited for the series to continue, which was it's purpose. I'm looking forward to the series finding it's OWN footing and maybe experimenting a little bit more. Perhaps in the Spin-offs (rogue one, Boba Fett)?

So far it's Rogue One, and "Unnamed Han Solo origin story."

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Ah, that's right, I had forgotten about Mr. Trank's gigantic meltdown and subsequent firing.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Hux was Bill Weasley.

Space Nazi Weasley... Molly would be so disappointed in him.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Who is also Mad-Eye Moody's kid in real life. Scandalous!

Wow, I didn't know this. Thanks, also, Müs, for pointing out why I thought I recognized Hux; I kept forgetting to check IMDB.

DR, you're mixing a few things up. Rey isn't ever a Leia substitute. Poe is Leia -- the major character who's a member of the Resistance/Rebellion from the start, whose mission to secure the MacGuffin secret is disrupted by the masked, black Force villain arriving and storming the place with his stormtroopers, capturing Poe/Leia but only after the data is entrusted to BB-8/R2-D2. Once captured, Poe/Leia is tortured with limited success, leading up to the justification to use the superweapon to destroy a planet. A rescue attempt is secured by Luke/Finn*, who mans the gunnery seat on the daring escape.

Given that Poe was originally supposed to die in the crash, that explains why the very clear, beat-by-beat Leia parallel ends there in favor of sliding into Wedge's shoes in the third act, where he leads the fighter assault on the superweapon once the shields are down, eventually daring to fly his X-Wing *inside* the target to destroy it from within.

* Finn and Rey, for what it's worth, are the derivative siblings of a marriage of the Luke and Han roles. They're a mishmash of half the memetic traits of each of their parents: Rey is the poor orphan (likely with significant parentage) from the desert planet that gets sucked into a cause larger than her when she befriends a droid on secret mission and discovers she can use the Force, but she also becomes Chewie's sidekick by the end of the movie, inherits the Falcon, didn't believe the Jedi were legit, gets tortured by the masked black-clad Force villain (in a mirror to the Bespin scene, not the Death Star one), and is a gifted mechanic.

Meanwhile, Finn is both the First Order deserter who overcomes his second-act instinct for self-preservation and certainty that the Resistance is picking a fight it can't win in order to get caught up in the noble resistance when he returns to save the young Force user heroine from the attentions of the masked, black-clad Force villain in the third act and also the idealist who rescues the Resistance operative, guns for their escape, gets introduced, wide-eyed, to the teeming diversity of the galaxy in a shock to his previously sheltered life, is snatched by the tentacle of a frightening monster (and rescued by his opposite number), and is critically injured in a lightsaber fight with the big bad.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Also, Space Nazi Weasley and Poe Dameron worked together earlier this year in Ex Machina, which is excellent and should immediately be checked out. It is not, however, an adaptation of the Vaughn comic of the same name (an impression under which Psifonian labored, to his utter confusion).

Ah, I'm guessing you took that from the "Leia/Rey" torture scene switch, but I wasn't intending to say she was Leia, just that it was a very similar scene. Honestly, I immediately saw her as a Luke/Han mashup, and that only got stronger as the film went on. However, I didn't pick up on the Poe/Leia parallels, nice, and you're also correct, the bespin torture is much more similar. I fully expect Rey to be revealed to be part of the Skywalker line (the force visions when touching luke/anakin's lightsaber being a pretty obvious line to this, or a huge red herring, as well as the mysterious missing parents). I'm thinking the future films will retcon her force training/etc, perhaps she was part of the group that trained with Kylo and then was saved and had her mind wiped/memory replaced. It would explain her immediate force sensitivity, as well as her proficiency with a lightsaber.

Holy crap, I loved that movie and never got close to realizing he was a Weasley. Somehow, that makes the movie even better.

Yeesh. Is this the Glade, or did I wander into the slashfic end of the Tumblr pool? But hey, speaking of slashfic, I'm guessing Rey is the daughter of Luke and Leia...you know, from when they hooked up before finding out they were related.

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Holy shitsnacks!

I can't argue with Kaffis' essays on whats wrong with things like the X-wing turbines but as someone that watches Star Wars without emotion/caring about detail I thought this was easily one of the top 3.

yes this

I will say that Rae was so good at doing everything that she better be a Wrecker of **** (TM) come the next movie. Seriously, I want her to run through fools so quickly the Sith will be calling her Saitama.

Disagree, but I've had neither the time nor energy to focus my argument into words. This'll do, though: http://io9.gizmodo.com/kylo-ren-is-ever ... 1749606647


Probably the latter. I know I didn't.

Looks like Wedge turned it down, a shame.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/12/5711780/star-wars-episode-7-wont-feature-wedge-antilles-actor

My thoughts:

- Proton Torpedoes were always pink, see any screenshot of Luke's going into the Death Star.

- I didn't mind Rey being fairly competent with a lightsaber for several reasons.
1. Luke got pretty competent pretty fast with minimal saber training from Obi-Wan and zero training from Yoda.
2. (and this is the important one) "You mean (The Force) controls your actions?" "Partially. But it also obeys your command." Having a raw, undisciplined, strong link to the Force could absolutely assist in a lightsaber fight. She may not be fighting like we saw in the prequels. And that was the point. We didn't see any fighting like we did in the prequels. I believe there is some potential in Finn as well. Possibly not, but even so that leads me to...
3. The Force has a will of its own. Hence the control your actions part. If it's attempting to seek balance, I could absolutely see it assisting someone like Finn if it turns out Finn isn't force sensitive. He wasn't doing super great, just barely surviving. Which is impressive. Should also be noted that he was doing well when he was angry and emotional, which could also be quite telling.

- I wasn't as emotional as others when Han died. I definitely saw it coming when Ren was revealed as his son and knowing that Harrison Ford wanted out of the movies even after ESB. When Ren walked onto the bridge, it was extremely apparent what was going to happen. I'm glad they had the balls to do it. Something major like that needed to happen.

- Luke appearing at the end was not a surprise either. I unfortunately knew he was playing a big part in EP8. I will say I was far more emotional when Rey was ascending the steps and realizing I was going to see Luke Skywalker on screen again for the first time in 30 years. But, I also was more a fan of Luke as a kid than Han.

- I was disappointed Phasma wasn't utilized more. I was expecting to see some major and ruthless scenes and an epic fight with her. I am hoping she makes a return.

- I felt having another "death star" was unnecessary, especially getting rid of it in the same episode it's introduced. There was enough going on in the episode that it could have stood alone just fine without it. I'm not upset about its inclusion, just didn't feel like they needed it.

- My biggest worry was that I wouldn't care about some (or all) of the new characters. That the actor(s) would bug me, or.... something. Or that Kylo Ren wouldn't be imposing or intimidating enough. I am glad that I had nothing to worry about. I enjoyed all the new characters. Kylo Ren looking like a big-nosed Josh Groban when unmasked was only mildly distracting. Nowhere near the levels of some scenes in the prequels though. I got over the distraction quickly.

- I can see why some mega-fans (my brother-in-law included) came away slightly disappointed. And it's one reason why the geekshowpodcast downplayed their excitement and hype. I've always known there can be no "perfect" Star Wars movie. Ever. It's an impossibility. It's the nature of having some solid movies come out well over 30 years ago that have had massive post-layers of content, dissection, and nostalgia piled and piled upon them. I went into this movie with no expectations other than it contained the tone of the trailers I saw. I got exactly what I wanted, and I am glad for it. The prequels promised me similar experiences, but didn't quite live up to them. I still enjoyed them, but I enjoyed this movie more.

My ranking for favorite Star Wars movies (and much of it is based on my age and which were favorites for me as a child at the time): 6, 5, 7, 4, 3, 2, 1


Edit: (which I may be making a lot of these) As for The X-Wings and their redesign? I didn't mind them for the same reason I didn't mind the original Clone Trooper design: They went back to Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art and lifted directly from it

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!