Abrams is a hack pass it on. Felt same way after his Trek do-over.

I've loved Abrams' work on Stars Trek and Wars.
SW is all about cyclical familial issues, so makes sense to me that historic themes repeat.

On the level of nostalgic, throwaway entertainment it functioned decently. Enjoyed it enough. Some things worked, some didn't. The Death Star 3 was a damp squib, it's like they were embarrassed that they've still only got that to offer to round a film off. You can make a joke of it, or you can do it better than it's ever be done but really they just dashed through it because there was just nothing new to do with that. Too much of the New Hope template. It was almost Spaceballs spoof territory the way it was so clearly riffing on another film. Or a Bond style formula regurgitation.

New characters good, Poe is bestest. The look of the film was great, and there's still something about seeing those iconic vehicles and spaceships fly about shooting lasers at each other. Liked all the fx apart from the Maz Eye Lady who was poorly done and just poorly conceived in every way. Snoke doesn't exactly inspire much intrigue, hopefully there's more to him than Poor Mans Palpatine.

The Kylo as Hans son was a fan theory Id come across a month or so ago. As soon as the village elder makes reference to not escaping his family it was pretty clear he was a Skywalker of some sort, so that was no big shock. And I'd forecast the death of Han as soon as I saw one of the trailers that sort of gave the impression of the New Hope Redux template they were going for, and that Solo was the Obi-Wan figure, bringing the noobs in before dying and giving them the added motivation to be heroes or whatever. And Ford would probably have wanted mega bucks for three films and may have expected the starring status he got here which probably wouldn't have been best for the films themselves.

Spectacles are great. Creeps are also fine as a white, hetero male.

Brooks didn't love it.  Big fucking surprise.

And I mean this had potential. The new characters were fine proposals, I didn't even mind the beachball but everything else was so dickless and convenient. Like Adam Driver's immaculate post-helmet hair.

Oh yeah. Crystal Skull probably explains why this is as safe and familiar as it is.

Vela wrote:

Just saw it. I was in primary school the last time a good star wars film came out.  Quite shocked just how good it was.  Rey is obviously the other dudes sister yeah?

Funkstain wrote:

Nah Luke's daughter.

pantyfire wrote:

Yeh. Luke's daughter, spirited away when Kylo went bonkers.

I'm not convinced. The symmetry of Luke/Leia and Ren/Rey leads me to believe that unless it is explicitly said in the film that it cannot be, then it must be.

Hell, my brother was massive into the SW mythology back in the late 90s and I remember quite clearly him saying that Episode 7 if it ever existed would start a new trilogy with the son and daughter of Leia and Han Solo playing central roles.

Anyway, happy to be proven wrong, its not like there's heaps to go on but the similarities.

Also, a note on originality: we all know Star Wars was heavily inspired by The Hidden Fortress. It's an enjoyable yet familiar walk along the Hero's Journey. I don't dismiss the desire for originality, but in blockbusters of SW calibre its hard not to expect it.

Actually I'm convinced now Rey is not the sister of Ren as otherwise Han and Leia would have mentioned her as well as their son. Duh me.

I never for a second thought they were sith. I see them as people aligned to the dark side and trying to follow the sith but without having any of their knowledge.

Good find. I like this idea better than there being another Sith hiding in the background. It gives greater scope for the expanded universe and being able to take the next movies in different directions. JJ did the same thing obviously with Star Trek, so I'm guessing this is a big part in Disney's long term strategy.

Oh look. Not Sith.

Also, I saw the film on imax laser projection. The only such cinema outside of America to have the tech. Which helped make the film look the sex but it also made me notice some juddering and wobbling in the opening scroll that made me wonder if JJ did the text the old fashioned way. Like they did with the originals.

Also also!
How good was it that the light saber stuff lost all of that ridiculous pizzazz. Just two people having an old fashioned sword fight.

I agree that the final fight between Ren and Rei/Ray was potentially a stretch considering one is quite a strong force user but I was willing to let the blaster hit be the factor that threw him off.

I liked that Ren was a completely unhinged not-quite-respected antagonist. His temper was his undoing, and this trait no doubt led to him losing to a relative nub (who had already proven in early scenes that she could handle combat anyway). Ren was no sword master, not even close. 

That loss was his humiliation, which will inspire him to greater prowess later on.