SPOILER: Star Wars Thread

I wanna talk Star Wars. Lets talk Star Wars.

I'll start, I really like the way the First Order was presented and I thought Kylo Ren was a fine character.

The First Order was pretty much even more Nazi than the original Empire. Which is fine. I also don't entirely get the backdraft towards the way Kylo Ren was presented because it's obvious he's not reached his full power yet.

If Rey isn't Luke's daughter, I'll eat my hat. I'm also not convinced Han is really dead, if only because Harrison Ford is confirmed to be appearing in Episode VIII and I'm not sure they'll make him a Force ghost (he isn't a Force user) or use flashbacks (would you really get an actor as important as Harrison Ford just for a flashback?).

The interesting thing about First Order is that everyone was, like, 35 at most, yeah? All the old nerds were Republic/Resistance, pretty much a strict 180 from A New Hope where the empire where the brass was all middle aged or older while being affably evil rather than young and fascist.

I mean, Ren also took a boltcaster shot to the stomach, killed his dad and still beats ass.

I think it's also interesting that he's the first dark side force user we've seen that isn't already a full-on Sith/Dark Jedi, aside from Anakin in episode 3. I mean, Anakin was butt-tarded nuts at that point in the movie. He's still a Jedi with some control over his emotions, seen later as Darth Vader.

Ren got trained by... Luke. Who aside from the 2 week crash-course with Yoda has no fucking idea what any of this Jedi control your emotions bullshit actually means, so when he gets told "yo, give into your hatred and your emotions are the source of greater power" it ends up being always on white-knuckle rage 24/7.

The Force Awakens was really solid in some respects, but completely fell flat in others.

I couldn't take Kylo seriously. At all. The character came across as an annoying, petulant whiner. Certainly he was a few steps above the way Anakin was portrayed in the prequels, but not by much. He's going to need some very serious character expansion in the next two villains or I'll going to write him off as a joke.

The Starkiller was also a ridiculous concept, even within the confines of the Star Wars universe. It was over-the-top for the sake of being over the top.

Aesthetically, it was on point, and felt like it was set in the Star Wars universe in the way it should have. It couldn't possibly have gotten the look down any more perfectly. Stellar work in that respect.

Unfortunately, this is is probably due in part to the movie's greatest flaw - its reliance on nostalgia. On the must fundamental level, it's practically a complete rethread of A New Hope... and I fear the next two films will be the rethreads of the respective sequels as well. I want a proper continuation of the universe. Not the same story told twice is some lazy attempt to cash in on nostalgia.

Thankfully, the new characters was fresh enough to still make the story fun to watch, as uninspired and formulaic as it may have been. I was genuinely interested in seeing what happened to these people, and I want to know what happens next. And I won't lie, BB8 totally won me over.

I loved it, I've seen it a bunch already. I don't know why Kylo Ren is receiving such backlash, I thought the part was well-written and Adam Driver fucking nailed it. People always want to complain about villains that have an emotional arc or are younger, and immediately just say "emo faget lolcatz". Without his emotional turmoil, the scene on the bridge with him and Han would have absolutely zero emotional impact. I'm not sure what people want, a faceless murderbot? Didn't we basically have that with Darth Vader? He's a kid with issues with his father figures who is put into the position he's in because he's as powerful as he is based on genetics, not emotional maturity. I feel like everyone wants the same characters over and over, but then complain that they're getting the same characters over and over. You can maaaaaybe make the case that he's a retread of Anakin in the prequels, but that character was such an unprecedented disaster that I would never want to compare a character to him, aside from on richter-level disaster scale.

I didn't really have a problem with Kylo Ren since it's pretty clearly established that he's yet to complete his training. Presumably being a stoic badass isn't the first thing a Sith (or whatever he is) learns. And yeah, Adam Driver was great in the part.

I liked his voice when he was wearing the helmet quite a lot. In fact, I liked the whole movie. I thought it was a fucking blast, it felt like Star Wars, it was well acted, well shot, well written, very exciting and got my emotional gears turning. There really is NO WAY to make another Star Wars movie that pleases everyone because the originals are such elemental touchstones of modern blockbuster filmmaking that they're basically encased in cultural crystal with a forcefield of nostalgia surrounding them and roots growing out in all directions with the tree trunk being the modern film industry, and the various branches being the marvel franchise, the harry potter franchise, etc. These results will never be perfectly duplicated in lab conditions, but this is about as close as we're going to get.

Agreed. It felt like Star Wars, and there's not much more I could have asked from it.

Idea for child reaction video: show some kid the original trilogy, then tell them that it only took the Rebels 30 years to lose every single thing they accomplished. In fact they messed up so bad their own children joined The Empire. Also we are all going to die one day.

"New governments established through violent coup d'etat are always well received. Especially when they come at the cost of what must be a massive intergalactic recession resulting in trillions of deaths and absurd levels of debt in a galaxy where indentured servitude, if not outright slavery, is ostensibly tolerated. Good night, Billy."

The Soviet Union outlasted these guys by like 40 years.

Also 7 year old me does not give a shit about those things.

The Soviets took power at the absolute rock bottom of the previous regime and generally made for a nicer place, aside from the ethnic and political murder sprees under Stalin.

Think French political history between 1789 and 1890.

Good movie.

Goatboy! Welcome back.

I saw it four times, but then again I saw The Phantom Menace like eight times

tfa should not bear the title of "episode vii". No "Star Wars" that is produced by a Lucasfilm with a vision perverted by Disney should ever be considered an "episode" or Star Wars canon.

Who talks first? You talk first? People have a unified hatred of George Lucas, despite there being a newfound universal love of Star Wars whenever his creation is presented and marketed to the public.

Lucas was a terrible Director? Then why do his films look like classic Hollywood photography compared to JJ's (what a stupid fucking name) helicopter shots?
Here's the most symbolic aspects of the new, fake star wars which represent how third-rate, amateur, lazy, fan-fic tier the series has become, and it will only get worse:

bb8. What the fuck kind of name is bb8. Disney must have gone thru thousands of names trying to brainstorm anything that would compare to "R2-D2" or C-3P0". The name alone is garbage, but the design is worse. "How do we make a new, iconic droid like r2?" Slapping his head on a ball and swapping his color palette seemed to suffice. Whenever you hear R2, it is a joy to the ears. Bb8 sounds like shit. When I read an article as to how JJ decided on the sounds after fucking around on his ipad with a friend, it only confirmed my suspicions.

Finn (another dumbass name). Destroying the mythos behind Stormtroopers. Bloody hand smeared on the helmet: further proof that these people don't know what they're doing to SW. His story sucks and is anti-Star Wars, in that it's undoing what was established in the past 30 years of original storytelling. He is pure comic relief, but his referencing older films his character took no part of is further evidence of a hack at work. Also, he is a buffoon character and idk how that gets a pass in this day.

Kylo Ren (why are all these names such garbage?). Wears a shitty cosplay mask for no reason other than to sell him as a Vader character. Has a shitty voice filter for no reason other than to sell him as a Vader character. Kylo and Rey make SW feel like some Naruto shit.

Rei. I mean Rey (lowkey weeb pandering). Mary Sue. But that's a story for another day.

The music. It's as if even John Williams knew this wasn't a real Star Wars film. And regardless of the quality of the new score, it was not even implemented correctly. The music was a driving force of Lucas' vision. It seems like JJ (lol) forgot that entirely, or simply doesn't know how to use music as a tool in filmmaking.

That final shot. Just compare it to every other final shot. Star Wars would always end in a gorgeous picture frame. Not in 2015. Not without Mr. Lucas, I guess.

Luke Skywalker, and every other iconic Star Wars property. It's as if they are used for the sake of selling Disney's product as "Star Wars". All the original costume, character, creature, machine designs...they are indeed simply props now. Placed in the hands of fans who want Stars Wars to be their way, instead of accepting that it's someone else's creation. It's no longer about creating the latest, greatest cinema spectacle with new worlds, creatures, ships, and futurist vision to shock the senses. No, SW will never again be the highest quality, most original science fiction series of films again.

Every aspect of tfa's story has already been seen in every other, real Star Wars film.

tfa is a souless cashgrab. A rehash of everything Lucas worked for to create, only to undo it for the sake of a profitable machine, or what's called a "cinematic universe" these days.

Part of Lucas' agreement to sell his life's work, was that Disney would utilize his outlines for the next three episodes. He had already begun his new project. Michael Arndt was hired to write. He had contacted the old actors. Everything was thrown out so that Star Wars could become fan fiction. Fuck this gay earth.

Believe what you want, but George Lucas is an auteur. He was responsible for the most successful, most profitable film property. And he had absolutely nothing to do with Hollywood. He was the world's greatest independent filmmaker (or most successful if you'd rather not respect him). Despite being independent from the rest of the industry, he is perhaps most responsible for some of the most significant advancements of the past few decades in film. I honestly believe that it's because of this that his works were never praised or critically acclaimed by the...media. Now that it's finally out of his hands, the...folks at Disney are going crazy. Nothing they produce will ever be as good as even a scene from, let's say, Attack of the Clones.

Star Wars was never very good.

I really can’t comprehend caring enough about a film to write a rant that vitriolic and lengthy.

How did everyone, including all of you, underestimate George Lucas?

Did the world really think that simply hiring directors such as JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson, as well as passing writing duties between such amateurs, would fill the shoes of an auteur like George Lucas?

Regardless of your opinion, Lucas was indeed an auteur, and perhaps the most important one in the last few decades, however misfortunate some may find that.

Remember that this man's peers and close friends have names like Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, Zemeckis, De Palma....and you pass on his legacy to whichever hack happens to land the job next.

Anyone who's basically not ignorant can see that Stars Wars is done now, or at least that the Force Awakens is a farce and terrible start to what hopefully might be an OK era of new, Disney-made Star Wars. The shit writing has already done permanent damage, but that's a story for another day.

The only way for Star Wars to be good again is to use the old and traditional filmmaking formulas seen throughout Episodes I-VI and in Lucas' generation of Directors, or auteurs. In other words, hire people who are actually talented to write and direct to fix this mess left behind by JJ.

George Lucas hasn't made a good movie.

Revenge of the Sith was decent, maybe about a 7/10, but Lucas hasn’t made a truly great film in decades. Attack of the Clones is like a 5/10 and The Phantom Menace is a 1/10 at best. It adds nothing whatsoever to the Star Wars continuity and maybe even detracts from it (fuck you, midichlorians). Apparently the fact that Palpatine is Darth Sidious was supposed to be a surprise in that film. The fact that the fact that it was supposed to be a surprise is what came as a surprise to audiences tells you just how much Lucas failed at fulfilling any of his intentions in making the film.

If someone wants to say The Force Awakens is about as good as Revenge or even that Revenge is better I can live with that but I can’t accept that anyone genuinely believes that Phantom Menace is actually a better film. That’s just some straight up trolling right there.

I like The Last Jedi.

I thought it was good too. Flawed, but its strengths outweigh those flaws for me. In particular, I felt it tells a story that needs to be told a lot more often in American society, though I’m not confident I can elaborate adequately on that right now as I am figuratively dead.

Last Jedi was a-ok.

I was getting ready to take a swing at you but then I saw the a.