Yay, now I've seen the movie I can go back and read this thread from page 9 onward. I'm not sure I'll have much to add now, as I just recorded an almost 2 hour podcast about it with Juliane:
I liked it. The movie flowed, there weren't any bits that made my brain come to a complete stop. I came away wanting to see more of the story. Definitely want to go back to the theater and see it again.
One thing that worries me is the slavish adherence to Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art. (This is a problem with Star Wars Rebels also) I've always enjoyed his art (it contributes a lot to my being a Star Wars fan), but it feels like a crutch. I see the need to reboot the series back to the original, but I do hope to see them experiment a little.
From a visual standpoint, this made the Prequels look like a FMV game from the PSOne era. The backgrounds have depth and aren't just shallow green screens.
I don't care about spoilers. I have made no effort whatsoever to avoid them. I have made no changes to my Internet reading pattern, which is more extensive than most people's
Despite the fact that I'm not seeing it until Christmas, like a good Jew, I have not been spoiled yet.
You know what I have seen in every single place on the Internet? Meta-talk about avoiding spoilers. This is the number one reason I want people to stop giving a fuck about so-called spoilers. We can not allow the majority of media discourse to be people talking about the idea of being spoiled and not about media itself.
Again, there was literally no stress for me in avoiding "spoilers" for this movie. All I did was not read this thread, not watch any trailers and just not look too closely at Facebook last night and this morning. That's it. My life carried on as normal.
It was actually fun to watch the trailers just now, after the movie. I'm really glad I watched the movie totally fresh.
So, as far as I'm concerned, avoiding spoilers was a stress-free non-activity that required me to do literally nothing more than close my eyes twice in the theatre before other movies, and let me enjoy this movie more than otherwise, though I know others don't feel it makes a difference. To them, that might be true, and I'll believe them if they say so.
I personally don't foresee any trouble avoiding spoilers from now until Wed when I see it. At this point I still know zero about the movie outside of a couple character names. I honestly feel like people who are afraid of getting things spoiled go out of their way to engage with people who will spoil it for them. It seems really counter-intuitive, but there has to be some truth to it. The only people who are truly ignorant to something are those who are apathetic towards that thing.
So if you don't want to get something spoiled, just don't care about it. *shots fired*
Someone on reddit PM'ed me a huge spoiler on purpose for the grave sin of posting my completed Chewbacca costume in the /r/StarWars sub.
Still, in the end, I considered the validity of the spoiler to be about 50/50 and didn't take it too seriously, and when it did in fact turn out to be true: it had been so beautifully framed, so perfectly bookended by the story and the scene where it happened, that it's the only thing that could have happened in that moment.
Impact on my enjoyment of the movie: zero.
I cried a little when the opening crawl started. My childhood joy was tweaked.
I agree that the over-representation of the original McQuarrie art was too pandering. I mean, his stuff was good, but concept art is meant to inform and inspire the creative staff on a movie, not to be a bible. In the end, though, the only thing that really irked me was the "restoration" of the McQuarrie lettering on some storm trooper's uniforms. It's not Aurabesh, it's not whatever is on Darth's chest plate (I've been told Hebrew?), it's just out of place.
I still don't know who could possibly have thought Snoke was in any way a good name for anything this side of an Ewok.
And the whole but in Hams buffer freighter seemed more Guardians of the Galaxy than Star Wars to me. There were never any good establishing shots I remember of what or where this thing was so it felt like just a bunch of hallways... Star Destroyers are a bunch of hallways, but you know they are in a star destroyer or a death star so it's contextualized. Plus the Empire's hallways are awesome.
But seriously tho, the movie is a blast and kicks the ass off of most things I've seen.
The freighter bit felt exactly the same way to me. I didn't like the name for Snoke either. And the whole thing seemed too fast paced. Plot point plot point plot point staccato style. It could have been two movies or at least 3 hours.
Literally rolled my eyes at the cliffside helicopter pan at the end.
The helicopter shot is literally the worst shot in the movie. Because it's the final shot! The exchange of looks just before it, with the cameras so close, so intimate, so meaningful... any of those shots would have been the perfect place to end. But no. Throw away all that good stuff with a dizzying, confusing, distracting helicopter swooping abomination.
I mentioned it in my podcast, and a listener tweeted:
I believe it. Several shots in the trailer weren't in the final cut, and also the movie was very fast-paced in spite of its length. Definitely needed some more time for a few moments to breathe.
If cutting that much is true, it seems like pressure from above; from people who wanted to cut time so they could cram an extra showing per day into the schedule? Is thst even how it works?
Other problem I had, they resolved the death star thing so fast I couldn't keep up. They were literally like "oh crap a massive battleststion that dwarfs the death star... ok boys saddle up we gon' blow this pop stand!"
At least in ANH you had some time to dwell on the enormity of this thing before going back with some ships to make an epic battle that seemed like it had been planned for some time. From a plot point I get that this was urgent, but, from a story pacing point it ought to have been given some time to breathe life and be intimidating. At no time did the Snokéball feel immense or intimidating.
The references were a little overdone. Finn's mode of speech was often too contemporary and not in universe. The Kylo Ren character seems implausibly in charge of... anything.
Most of my gripes are minor though. I really enjoyed it.
"Finn's mode of speech was often too contemporary and not in universe. " What does this even mean
Once in awhile his lines sound like something from a modern sitcom and just seem culturally and tonally out of place in the SW universe. I think Han has one or two like that, too. Not major, but noticeable and out of place.
The acting and the jokes landed because the characters talked like real people.
I had a friend complain that there was too much comedy in Episode 7. Personally, I didn't feel that at all for the exact reason you said. They felt like real people and real people, even in a stressful situation, will still make jokes to relieve tension.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd easily say it's 3rd, beating Return of the Jedi. Action was incredible and most of it felt on location or a convincing seamless mix. Matt said it best, it's a great stealth reboot of A New Hope. Gives enough tribute to the movie with many of the same plot points, but stands on it owns thanks to the duo of Boyega and Ridley. There was enough character development to be passable, but I was hoping for more. (They taunt you a few times with it)
Biggest gripe was a plot contrivance in the middle. Ridley has a big speech about not running away, but then she encounters her own scene and is given a similar motivation speech...and then promptly runs away. Kind of weak. And I forgot how goofy Adam Driver actually looks, so when he's revealed his intimidation ranking kind of fell down.
Comments
http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/1087
One thing that worries me is the slavish adherence to Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art. (This is a problem with Star Wars Rebels also) I've always enjoyed his art (it contributes a lot to my being a Star Wars fan), but it feels like a crutch. I see the need to reboot the series back to the original, but I do hope to see them experiment a little.
From a visual standpoint, this made the Prequels look like a FMV game from the PSOne era. The backgrounds have depth and aren't just shallow green screens.
I don't care about spoilers. I have made no effort whatsoever to avoid them. I have made no changes to my Internet reading pattern, which is more extensive than most people's
Despite the fact that I'm not seeing it until Christmas, like a good Jew, I have not been spoiled yet.
You know what I have seen in every single place on the Internet? Meta-talk about avoiding spoilers. This is the number one reason I want people to stop giving a fuck about so-called spoilers. We can not allow the majority of media discourse to be people talking about the idea of being spoiled and not about media itself.
I looked his character's name up, he's a kid from the "Aftermath" novel.
It was actually fun to watch the trailers just now, after the movie. I'm really glad I watched the movie totally fresh.
So, as far as I'm concerned, avoiding spoilers was a stress-free non-activity that required me to do literally nothing more than close my eyes twice in the theatre before other movies, and let me enjoy this movie more than otherwise, though I know others don't feel it makes a difference. To them, that might be true, and I'll believe them if they say so.
Topic of spoilers closed. Thanks.
So if you don't want to get something spoiled, just don't care about it. *shots fired*
Still, in the end, I considered the validity of the spoiler to be about 50/50 and didn't take it too seriously, and when it did in fact turn out to be true: it had been so beautifully framed, so perfectly bookended by the story and the scene where it happened, that it's the only thing that could have happened in that moment.
Impact on my enjoyment of the movie: zero.
I cried a little when the opening crawl started. My childhood joy was tweaked.
I agree that the over-representation of the original McQuarrie art was too pandering. I mean, his stuff was good, but concept art is meant to inform and inspire the creative staff on a movie, not to be a bible. In the end, though, the only thing that really irked me was the "restoration" of the McQuarrie lettering on some storm trooper's uniforms. It's not Aurabesh, it's not whatever is on Darth's chest plate (I've been told Hebrew?), it's just out of place.
It didn't really affect my enjoyment of the movie. Still had a great time.
And the whole but in Hams buffer freighter seemed more Guardians of the Galaxy than Star Wars to me. There were never any good establishing shots I remember of what or where this thing was so it felt like just a bunch of hallways... Star Destroyers are a bunch of hallways, but you know they are in a star destroyer or a death star so it's contextualized. Plus the Empire's hallways are awesome.
But seriously tho, the movie is a blast and kicks the ass off of most things I've seen.
Literally rolled my eyes at the cliffside helicopter pan at the end.
Altogether though I loved it.
I mentioned it in my podcast, and a listener tweeted:
It's so bad because the moment before was so good, and then it's the last thing in your brain before it cuts to "Directed by J J Abrams".
Sigh.
Other problem I had, they resolved the death star thing so fast I couldn't keep up. They were literally like "oh crap a massive battleststion that dwarfs the death star... ok boys saddle up we gon' blow this pop stand!"
At least in ANH you had some time to dwell on the enormity of this thing before going back with some ships to make an epic battle that seemed like it had been planned for some time. From a plot point I get that this was urgent, but, from a story pacing point it ought to have been given some time to breathe life and be intimidating. At no time did the Snokéball feel immense or intimidating.
Most of my gripes are minor though. I really enjoyed it.
Can't wait to talk about this for ATW9K!
And now who's the new Han.
Biggest gripe was a plot contrivance in the middle. Ridley has a big speech about not running away, but then she encounters her own scene and is given a similar motivation speech...and then promptly runs away. Kind of weak. And I forgot how goofy Adam Driver actually looks, so when he's revealed his intimidation ranking kind of fell down.
Would give it a solid 8/10.