Anyone Going to See the New Star Wars Movie

[Ladskater]

My husband and I are going to see the new Star War movie this Saturday. We both remember seeing the first Star Wars movie almost 40 years ago(1977) ! Wow, where did the time go? I hope this one lives up to the hype. I hear it is good.

 

[HanDomi]

I was, I saw, I was hyped for it, and I left dissapointedhwell:

Phantom Manace and Clone Wars were bad movies, but Sith Revange for me was much better than this one

 

[dna5019]

I'll be seeing it in a few days once the theaters become a little less crowded. I saw Star Wars for the first time during the re-release back in the mid 90s--it was the first thing I ever geeked out on. I can't wait to relive the experience.

 

[heyang]

Since I take off Monday's from Thanksgiving to Christmas to get my shopping done and I'm done with shopping, I'm going Monday morning to watch in IMAX 3D before lunch and an afternoon massage!

 

[StitchMonkey]

I thought that Sean Rabbit and Keegan Messing both had doppelganger in the film.

 

[dna5019]

Just came back from seeing it! I loved it! I felt like I was 7 again! :hap93:

 

[invisiblespiral]

I just saw it. It was awesome. :hap93:

 

[solani]

I was, I saw, I was hyped for it, and I left dissapointedhwell:

Phantom Manace and Clone Wars were bad movies, but Sith Revange for me was much better than this one

Hmm, I disagree. Only the last 30 minutes of Revenge of the Sith were better (and those 30 minutes are maybe my favourite minutes of all Star Wars movies . Vader being defeated, getting his helmet and taking his first breath is really what we were waiting for. ).
That said - I liked the new movie a lot. Technically brilliant, all the new actors were great and the "old" actors had their moments. One could ask: how often can you retell the same story again? The answer is simple - as often as you want to and the audience is paying attention. It's a good story and it wasn't new either when Lucas made the first movie in 1977. So I'm in for the next one!

 

[heyang]

I gotta say that I enjoyed it in IMAX 3D. Loved the humor. Enjoyed the new characters and thought their portrayers were wonderful - no Jar-jar's. Just as JJ Abrams changed Star Trek just a little to make it feel like a solid re-boot, he did the same to this episode of Star Wars. I thought it was a good setup for future episodes.

I've been watching Boyega on various talk shows and he seems like a fun guy. He said that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone about his role. So, his friends thought he was just an extra and didn't realize he was one of the stars until after watching the movie. LOL.

 

[heyang]

I'll be seeing it in a few days once the theaters become a little less crowded. I saw Star Wars for the first time during the re-release back in the mid 90s--it was the first thing I ever geeked out on. I can't wait to relive the experience.

If you go during THIS WEEK during the day, the theater might not be crowded. I went to the 9:45 Monday AM Imax 3D and there were lots of empty seats - probably 1/3 to 1/2 the seats filled. I wrote 'this week' because a lot of people are doing their last minute shopping and Christmas prep. After Christmas, the shows are more likely to be crowded due to kids being out of school and adults taking off from work.

 

[Abraxis12345]

Definitely better than the prequels. The fun was back, and the new worlds,looked real instead of CGI messes.

That said, I agree with those who said Kylo Ren was kind of lame. It doesn't help that the actor plays Lena Dunham's whiny boyfriend on Girls, but even before he took off the mask, he didn't have the presence and, ahem, force of Vader. You were scared of Vader. Everyone was. But Ren was,simply a higher up wearing a mask. Then again, that might be the point. He is trying to be Vader but isn't there yet.

 

[karne]

I loved it! I mean, except for that scene on the bridge, because, you know - YOU CAN'T....!

The new characters are all amazing, especially Rey and I also really liked the way Finn's character was fleshed out. His struggles with what he should do felt really real. And BB8 is totally adorable!

I saw the first "plot twist" coming because I read a lot of the Young Jedi Knights series when I was a teen, but that second plot twist on the bridge I never saw coming. I may have burst into tears...

 

[heyang]

I loved it! I mean, except for that scene on the bridge, because, you know - YOU CAN'T....!

The new characters are all amazing, especially Rey and I also really liked the way Finn's character was fleshed out. His struggles with what he should do felt really real. And BB8 is totally adorable!

I saw the first "plot twist" coming because I read a lot of the Young Jedi Knights series when I was a teen, but that second plot twist on the bridge I never saw coming. I may have burst into tears...

LOL - I admit I peaked at some spoilers before I watched and I still shed some tears when Leia hugged Rey after the bridge scene.
Once Kylo Ren's original id was established, it wasn't too hard to predict. JJ Abrams does a good job at honoring the original (i.e. as he did with Star Trek), but didn't really bring anything new storywise ... However, it was a good intro episode to link the 'past' with the 'present' and introduce the new characters. WRiters did a great job at injecting the feel of New Hope and the humor. I look forward to the next episode.

 

[heyang]

Definitely better than the prequels. The fun was back, and the new worlds,looked real instead of CGI messes.

That said, I agree with those who said Kylo Ren was kind of lame. It doesn't help that the actor plays Lena Dunham's whiny boyfriend on Girls, but even before he took off the mask, he didn't have the presence and, ahem, force of Vader. You were scared of Vader. Everyone was. But Ren was,simply a higher up wearing a mask. Then again, that might be the point. He is trying to be Vader but isn't there yet.

Interviews suggest that this was the 'awakening' of both Ren and Rey. Ren wants to be DV and definitely moves closer to that by the end of the movie. At the beginning, he was still struggling.

I think the actors who portray the new characters portrayed their characters well, in some ways they were more nuanced than the original cast of episodes 4-6 and they were certainly less stiff than the key characters in episodes 1-3.

 

[Winnie_20]

I saw the movie for the first time on Wednesday December 16 (that's right, two days before the US premiere, for some reason a bunch of western European countries got it early), at 10 am, in 3D. It wasn't even sold out, maybe 1/3 of the seats occupied, but then, I imagine most die-hard fans who bothered to take the time off work that morning would be going to the IMAX version.
Saw it a second time the next day, Thursday 17, also 3D, at 3 pm, and there were maybe 30 people in the audience. I have to say, at that point in time I started to feel a bit worried about the popularity of the movie.

Thankfully, the next Sunday I saw it in the UK in 2D, and the theater was about 90% full, and last week (i.e. during the holidays) in the IMAX it really was sold out, so I guess a lot of people did indeed wait until the holidays to go see it.

I'm going to see it for a fifth time tomorrow, again in 2D. I must say, all three version have their advantages and disadvantages. For some reason, I thought some of the details were clearest in 2D, and I didn't really feel like the IMAX added much to the movie, because the movie just wasn't made for it.

And yes, I'm a die-hard Star Wars fan. Been a happy addict since 1994 or so, when I discovered the original trilogy, and soon afterwards, the Expanded Universe novels, and dare say I read all the books set after A New Hope. Didn't bother with the whole prequels novels era, mainly because I'm a Luke fan.

As for my thoughts on the movie: (text in white, I cannot seem to find a spoiler tag)

Really wish we knew more about Rey, about her backstory. One day I think she is Luke's daughter, the next day I'm leaning towards Rey Random (either a ex-student of his "academy" or else really just random person in whom the Force awakens, although it's clear that she's been developing her survival skills for years on Jakku.
And of course, being such a Luke fan, sure, I wish there was more of him in the movie. He had better have a BIG and important role in VIII, and not be killed off right away, because seriously, that would have defeated the whole purpose of VII. They go out of their way to make the viewer understand he is needed, if they then proceed to kill him off so they can give Rey the spotlight, I will be seriously bummed, no matter how much I like Rey.

 

[Dee4707]

As for my thoughts on the movie: (text in white, I cannot seem to find a spoiler tag)

Very, very smart, and.......... I figured it out. For Spoilers....what a great idea!!!!

 

[Rissa]

I saw it yesterday, it was pretty good.

Before going, I rewatched the original series because I saw it only oce years ago and only partially, and to be honest, i was quite bored by it, so I was afraid it'd be the same at the cinema (I already had the tickets, lol). Fortunately, the new version is more engaging. Lots of tropes are a straight-up repetition, which I think is deliberate, but I think they're done better. The female equivalent of Luke is much more interesting than Luke, the main supporting character's story is interesting. The fighting scenes aren't as long and tedious in the original series, thankfully, I hope they aren't going to go all "Hobbit: the Battle of Five Armies" on us in the third installment and make 3/4 if the movie a battle scene. Great scenery, cool interiors on starships. Not the most brilliant movie ever made, but solid fantasy entertainment.

That said, I agree with those who said Kylo Ren was kind of lame. It doesn't help that the actor plays Lena Dunham's whiny boyfriend on Girls, but even before he took off the mask, he didn't have the presence and, ahem, force of Vader. You were scared of Vader. Everyone was. But Ren was,simply a higher up wearing a mask. Then again, that might be the point. He is trying to be Vader but isn't there yet.

I'm pretty sure this is the point. They cant repeat the original movies exactly, I don't think they were going for a second Vader. As you said, Kylo is trying to be Vader but he's not there yet, and it's even commented on in the movie by Kylo himself. I thought the actir was more than fine but the I never saw him before. The friend I was with straightup loved choice of actor, said he had the right half-psychopathic half-doubting vibe which makes you unsure whether his story will be one of redemption or one of downfall since they seem both equally likely. (He loved Hayden Christensen as Anakin as well.) I was pretty sure they were going for a redemption story until he chose to kill Han Solo. It surprised me but in a positive way: there's a nice paralel/contrast, Vader was unable to kill his son, Kylo was able to kill his father. This more than anything makes unclear how his story will unfold.

 

[Winnie_20]

The female equivalent of Luke is much more interesting than Luke

I like Rey, but she did come across as bit too Mary Sue for my taste at times. She seems to be excellent at everything, and if she isn't, she learns to be excellent at it within a few seconds (e.g. shooting a blaster in such a way that she can kill stormtroopers with it, even using the Force to influence someone's mind... she wasn't ever even apparently taught that it was possible, but suddenly out of nowhere she *knows* how to do it, and actually pulls it off, just like that? There is the Force awakening in someone, and then there is Rey, and I'm just not sure if it's all entirely believable, or just too much. Heck, why does she even need Luke to teach her anything anymore, she seems to pick everything up perfectly well without him. In fanfic we would call her a Mary Sue. I'm just a little careful, because maybe this is the whole point of the story, that she is something extremely special who can actually do all that intuitively, and/or maybe she *did* receive training as a young kid... only time will tell, I guess.

And of course as a Luke fan, I could never think of her as more interesting than Luke, but I'm not exactly claiming objectivity here.

 

[Meoima]

Fun fact: when Kylo Ren took of his mask/ helmet, the whole cinema (that I sit in) was like "omg please put it back on!"
:furious::curse::reye::scard7:

His whinny attitude doesn't help lol.

 

[Winnie_20]

Very, very smart, and.......... I figured it out. For Spoilers....what a great idea!!!!

I wish there were a better way for it, I cannot believe this forum doesn't have a tag for it? I tried but it doesn't do anything. :-(